Telecom news

• IoT Security Landscape Report

  01-06-2023 01:01
  The IoT Security Landscape Report is a Bitdefender annual report that identifies the most vulnerable home IoT devices in user homes and addresses the hidden threats posed by unregularized smart devices.
  The findings are based on threat intelligence collected from 2.6 million smart homes globally protected by NETGEAR Armor powered by Bitdefender, and they reveal an unsettling truth: the growing popularity of connected devices makes the home network more vulnerable to attacks than ever before. Eve
  
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• Half price entry to Dr Johnson’s House on Friday afternoons

  14-01-2026 17:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Bargain (noun): Something pleasingly inexpensive – especially when it involves one of London’s great literary landmarks.
  Dr Johnson’s House (c) ianVisits
  If you fancy a cultured detour just off Fleet Street, there’s a definition worth learning first: entry to Dr Johnson’s House is half price every Friday afternoon. It gives you an ideal excuse to step off the pavement and into the birthplace of the modern English dictionary.
  House (noun): A seventeenth-century townh
  
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• Tickets Alert: 2026 tours of privately owned Longford Castle

  14-01-2026 15:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  An unusual castle built on the banks of the River Avon 450 years ago, and still a private home, offers occasional tours through the summer, with tickets now available.
  Longford Castle (c) ianVisits
  This is Longford Castle, the private home of the Earl of Radnor, a 16th-century building whose strikingly unconventional exterior hints at what lies inside. Behind the walls is an art collection, rich enough in Old Master paintings to rival many major galleries, set within interiors that reflect centu
  
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• Urban Rewilding: Beavers could return to a south London park

  14-01-2026 14:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  London’s largest Beaver enclosure could be coming to South London soon as part of a rewilding plan for South Norwood Country Park.Croydon Council’s proposal would introduce a family of beavers to the park to help restore wildlife habitats, improve water quality, and create a healthier natural environment.
  The council is working with Citizen Zoo, specialists in urban rewilding, who are assessing the site’s potential. Citizen Zoo also helped deliver London’s first openly ac
  
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• Ticket checks ramped up on the DLR in fare evasion crackdown

  14-01-2026 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Fare evasion is set to get harder on the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) as the operator steps up ticket inspections on trains.As most of the DLR stations don’t have ticket barriers, there’s a certain level of trust that people tend to do the right thing and pay for transport, and the vast majority do pay to take a ride on the DLR.
  A trial in 2023 tested whether making the ticket machines more noticeable would help reduce incidents of people genuinely forgetting to tap in/out on t
  
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• Man arrested over £260,000 graffiti spree on Northern line trains

  14-01-2026 08:40 via ianvisits.co.uk
  A person suspected of causing nearly £260,000 of graffiti damage to tube trains has been arrested following a British Transport Police (BTP) investigation.
  Bakerloo line train at Lambeth North tube station (c) ianVisits
  Officers from the BTP’s Operational Support Unit forced entry to a property in Barnet, north London, during the early hours of Friday 9th January.
  A 48-year-old man was arrested at the address on suspicion of criminal damage and taken into custody for questioning. He
  
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• Wellington Arch at 200: The monument that lost a statue and gained a tunnel

  14-01-2026 08:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Today marks the 200th anniversary of Wellington Arch being approved to be built at Hyde Park Corner. Although today it’s in a different location, it has a different statue on top and is technically still unfinished.Originally called the Grand Triumphal Arch, it was built in part to commemorate Britain’s victories in the Napoleonic Wars and as part of King George IV’s remodelling of Hyde Park and Buckingham Palace.
  Announced in 1825, it would take a year of wrangling to settle o
  
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• TfL launches hunt for women who inspired Londoners to start cycling

  13-01-2026 17:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Transport for London (TfL) and Santander Cycles have launched a call for nominations to celebrate women who inspire others to get on two wheels.
  “I do not see why Ladies should not have a Lark as well as the Gentlemen.” – 1819 satirical print
  Members of the public are being invited to put forward the name of a professional women’s cycling star or an ‘unsung hero’ from their own community, along with a short explanation of how that person encouraged them to tak
  
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• Friends, foes and six-foot canvases: Turner and Constable face off at Tate Britain

  13-01-2026 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  There’s a bit of Kane and Abel in the Tate Britain at the moment, as they pitch two friends turned rivals – Constable and Turner – together in a single exhibition.
  Born within a year of each other, but to very different families, the two set out to become artists, but on different paths that eventually led to rivalry in the art galleries of London.
  Critics of the time pitted the two against each other, comparing Constable’s truth to Turner’s poetry. Despite their di
  
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• Distressed debt buyer applies to put UK broadband operator into administration

  13-01-2026 10:35 via ft.com
  FitzWalter Capital’s move at G.Network is set to mark the first insolvency in Britain’s ‘altnet’ sector for years
  
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• Distressed debt buyer applies to put UK broadband firm into administration

  13-01-2026 10:35 via ft.com
  FitzWalter Capital’s move at G.Network is set to mark the first insolvency in Britain’s ‘altnet’ sector in years
  
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• Tickets Alert: Tours of UK construction sites

  13-01-2026 10:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  The annual event, which showcases the construction industry by letting people go behind the hoardings onto building sites, returns in March, and booking is open now.Although aimed at potential future constructors, the curious public is also welcome to visit some of the venues.
  The event, Open Doors 2026, showcases the construction industry and aims to demonstrate the variety of careers in the trade. Open Doors aims to change perceptions around construction and encourage the next generation
  
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• Openreach needs to make full fibre broadband work

  13-01-2026 06:00 via ft.com
  BT’s infrastructure company cannot retreat on its plans for a national digital network
  
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• An Organ on the Run: The Hammersmith school organ with a hidden past

  12-01-2026 15:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  A pipe organ in a Hammersmith school has recently been identified as having a rare survivor that was smuggled out of France to prevent it from being seized by the French government.
  (c) Sacred Heart High School
  The organ at the Sacred Heart High School on Hammersmith Road was thought to date to around 1883, when the chapel was built. However, recent research has revealed that it was actually made by the Flemish organ builder Hippolyte Loret around 1861-2.
  It was built for Sacred Heart’s Pa
  
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• Eleven miles of costumes: Take a tour of the vast Angels Costumes warehouse

  12-01-2026 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  There’s an Indiana Jones-esque style warehouse in North London packed full of costumes from film and stage – and they offer occasional tours to have a look around.This is the Hendon headquarters of Angels Costumes, which has been providing clothes to actors since 1840, when Morris Angel started selling second-hand clothes in Covent Garden. At a time when actors were expected to provide their own costumes and were often judged more by their clothes than their acting skills, young Morr
  
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• The Ivy offering £19.17 two-course menu across its London restaurants

  12-01-2026 10:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  If you’ve ever fancied eating at The Ivy restaurant, they’re offering a special meal deal for under £20.
  (c) The Ivy
  The original Ivy opened in 1917, so to honour the year they first welcomed guests, they’re inviting you to try a specially curated menu, priced at just £19.17 at their Collection restaurants.
  For celeb spotters, disappointment as it’s not available at the Original Ivy – so you won’t be getting a dose of bargain celeb spotting, but th
  
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• London’s Alleys: Wesleyan Place, Kentish Town, NW5

  12-01-2026 08:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  This short L-shaped passage next to the London Overground at Gospel Oak is one of the oldest passages in the area, but was once about twice as long as it is today.Leading off Highgate Road, which was once Green Street, Wesleyan Place was a U-shaped road that ran around the backs of the houses facing onto the main street.
  OS map 1851
  As is so often the case in this part of London, the passage was sliced in half by the arrival of the railways, and then it got worse. Initially, the Tottenham &
  
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• Patrick Drahi revives sale of stake in German broadband network

  12-01-2026 06:00 via ft.com
  Franco-Israeli telecoms tycoon launches latest effort to reduce $50bn debt pile
  
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• Drahi revives sale of stake in German broadband network

  12-01-2026 06:00 via ft.com
  Franco-Israeli telecoms tycoon launches latest effort to reduce $50bn debt pile
  
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• Fans, Frigates and Flirtation: Jane Austen’s world in Greenwich exhibitions

  09-01-2026 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  We’re in the midst of Jane Austen’s 250th-anniversary celebrations, and Greenwich has put together two exhibitions that illuminate very different sides of life in her time – one social and decorative, the other naval and personal.
  Greenwich Fan Museum
  “It is a truth universally acknowledged…” that a Georgian lady was rarely seen without a fan — and the Fan Museum is filled with them.Part fashion accessory, part cooling device, part coded instrument of f
  
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• TfL signs Otis to keep the Tube’s escalators moving until the 2040s

  09-01-2026 12:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Transport for London (TfL) has awarded a 16-year contract to Otis to service and modernise 172 of its escalators across the London Underground network.
  Farringdon station (c) ianVisits
  The deal significantly expands Otis’s role underground. Once the contract begins, the company will maintain more than 300 of TfL’s roughly 570 escalators, making it the single largest escalator contractor on the network.
  Otis has a long history with the London Underground, as it was the firm that insta
  
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• Billiards without Beer: The time London tried to cure itself of the booze

  09-01-2026 07:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  At their peak, nearly a third of England’s temperance halls aimed at curbing the scourge of alcohol once stood in London — a statistic that says as much about Victorian drinking habits in the capital as it does about the scale of the movement that rose up to challenge them.
  And many of the survivors are “hidden in plain sight” with new names and functions.
  The Old Vic theatre — originally the Royal Victoria Coffee Music Hall (c) Historic England
  That concentration i
  
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• Barking railway footbridge reopens, ending three years of detours for local residents

  08-01-2026 17:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  A dangerous footbridge in east London that had to be closed after someone fell through the floor onto the railway below has been replaced, three years after it closed.In August 2022, a pedestrian crossing the Kennedy Road footbridge near Barking station had to be taken to hospital with minor injuries after he fell onto the railway.
  The old footbridge was demolished shortly afterwards, but in doing so, it severed the only crossing over the railway in this part of town. For people on the eastern s
  
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• London’s Butchers Hall confirms dates for next Carvery Lunches

  08-01-2026 15:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  If you fancy lunch in one of the City of London’s ancient livery halls, it’s possible. Livery Halls are usually only open to members or hired out for events, but the Livery Hall of the Worshipful Company of Butchers, near the Barbican, holds monthly(ish) public lunches.
  (c) Butchers’ Hall
  Guests are welcomed with a drink reception from 12:15pm on the Ground Floor, before ascending to the Great Hall, where lunch is served at 1pm.
  You probably want to bring a coat, if only to hav
  
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• Too hot to Handel: Pipe organs reveal the truth about warming churches

  08-01-2026 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Church archives are usually thought of as records of baptisms, marriages and burials stretching back centuries. But many churches also hold a second, largely overlooked archive: a record of temperature.
  That is, if the church has a pipe organ.
  St Giles without Cripplegate (c) ianVisits
  Most do, and pipe organs need periodic tuning as the seasons change. When organ tuners carry out that work, many will write down details of the ambient temperature and humidity at the time. Those observations are
  
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• London’s Pocket Parks: Katherine Buchan Meadow, Hanwell, W7

  08-01-2026 08:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  This is a recently revamped pocket park on a Hanwell side street on a plot of land that was once the site of almshouses.Back when this was still being turned from fields into homes, in 1876 local resident Katherine Buchan paid for four almshouses to be built next to St Mark’s Church in memory of her father. They continued providing accommodation for poor single ladies of the parish until the 1970s, by which time the four homes were in a state of disrepair and were demolished.
  OS map 1960 s
  
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• Tickets Alert: Sandhurst military academy’s tours for 2026

  07-01-2026 17:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Not far outside London is Sandhurst, the British Army’s military training centre for officers, and it holds occasional tours of the grand buildings hidden behind high walls.
  The tours are a mix of learning about the military heritage, exploring several grand and impressive buildings, and seeing grounds that are usually off-limits to the public.
  I visited in 2023 – review here.Tours take place at on select dates and must be booked in advance. Once a date is agreed upon, you will arran
  
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• South Bermondsey station reopens after its platform was replaced over Christmas

  07-01-2026 15:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  South Bermondsey station reopened earlier this week following a long closure to replace the ageing platform with something a tad less bouncy.The station, managed by Southern, can be politely described as the sort of station with a face fit for radio, with barely a shed of an entrance and a dank staircase up to the platforms. All this is accentuated by the station being a bit of a walk from the main road, along a long path that just happens to be a disused freight railway line.The original statio
  
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• Jubilee line embankment works to begin near Queensbury, lasting until summer 2027

  07-01-2026 14:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  There’s going to be around 18 months of work on the northern end of the Jubilee line, where it runs high up on raised embankments.
  Raised embankment passing over the road outside Queensbury station
  A letter sent to local residents and shared by the local Councillor, Jayanti Patel, informs them that the works will start in a couple of weeks time, on 16th January 2026 and last for around 18 months, completing in summer 2027.
  The affected area is the raised embankment around Queensbury tube s
  
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• Steel and rhyme, Still on time: 40 years of Poems on the Underground

  07-01-2026 11:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  The first Poems on the Underground appeared in tube trains in February 1986, with poems by Robert Burns and Percy Shelley dwelling on city life, and 40 years later, it’s still running, with a new set of poems about to go on display.
  (c) TfL
  The whole idea of using space on the tube adverts to display poems came from New York born, London resident writer and lecturer, Judith Chernaik, who had a “passion for London and a passion for English poetry”.
  She proposed the Poems on the
  
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