Telecom news

• Iran war blamed as Camden Highline railway project stalls

  13-05-2026 13:15 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Plans for a walking “highline” along a section of disused railway in Camden have been put on hold due to ongoing issues, which the organisers say have only been made worse by the Iran war.
  The disused railway in Camden (c) Camden Highline
  Camden Highline ground level view visualisation (c) Hayes Davidson
  Although the organisers of the Camden Highline project said that most of the issues had been factored into its project, they said that the emerging 2026 energy shock represents a fur
  
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• UK would block Indian billionaire raising BT stake

  28-05-2026 06:00 via ft.com
  Officials cite need to maintain sovereign control over critical national infrastructure
  
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• Biggest UK mobile groups suffer worst year of customer losses

  24-05-2026 06:00 via ft.com
  Incumbents are increasingly ceding ground to virtual rivals who pay to access their network
  
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• BT is finally getting on top of its altnet threat

  21-05-2026 19:26 via ft.com
  UK telecom has put up a fight as its rivals slow their rate of sprawl
  
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• Application made for 882 new homes next to Sudbury Hill tube station

  21-05-2026 16:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  A planning application has been filed for an 882 housing development on a brownfield site next to Sudbury Hill tube station in west London.
  View of the development site – source: planning documents
  The plot of land sits between the tube station and a former ten-storey office building, which has been converted into housing. The new housing development would sit on the former office car park.
  Site outline over Google maps
  The development would see seven new blocks constructed around the exis
  
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• Government cuts VAT on family attraction tickets for the summer holidays

  21-05-2026 14:30 via ianvisits.co.uk
  It’s going to be a bit cheaper for families to visit paid-for venues this summer, as the government has announced a temporary cut in VAT on ticket prices.The cut in VAT, from 20% to 5%, will run from 25th June through to 1st September and applies across the UK. The cut will apply to admission tickets for families to a range of attractions, including the cost of children’s meals at the venues, but only applies to venues and events where children are included in the tickets.
  So parents
  
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• Touch ancient poo at the Natural History Museum’s Jurassic sea monsters exhibition

  21-05-2026 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  The Natural History Museum is inviting people to touch some poo in a new exhibition about the monsters of the Jurassic Oceans. It’s hundreds of millions old though, so you’re touching a stone. A pooy stone which will still make children (and some adults) go a bit ick at the thought.The exhibition proper opens with a cast of an Ichthyosaur found by Joseph Anning in 1811 – a discovery that would spur his sister, Mary to become one of the leading early fossil hunters.
  And naturall
  
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• Forgotten medieval pie recipe revived in the City of London

  21-05-2026 11:30 via ianvisits.co.uk
  A long-forgotten medieval dairy pie is set to be tasted again in the City of London for the first time in centuries – although thankfully it’s only the recipe that’s ancient, not the pie itself.
  London’s Floden may originate from Fladen. Photo by Christian Michelides CC BY-SA 4.0
  The dish, known as floden, will be cooked up from an ancient recipe during Milk, Memory and Cheesecake – organised by the Jewish Square Mile Foundation and Shoreditch Trust, running at The
  
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• BT chief warns AI boom will push up mobile phone prices

  21-05-2026 10:47 via ft.com
  Allison Kirkby expects the likes of Apple and Samsung to react to chip shortages by raising handset prices
  
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• One of the UK’s biggest steel pan gatherings is coming to the South Bank

  21-05-2026 10:30 via ianvisits.co.uk
  The Southbank Centre will pulse with the sound of Caribbean steel pan music as more than 500 musicians and over 25 steel bands take over the venue for a weekend-long celebration.
  The weekend marks 75 years since the Trinidad All Steel Percussion Orchestra (TASPO) performed live on the South Bank during the Festival of Britain in 1951 – widely regarded as the first steel band performance in the UK.
  A steelband in Trinidad and Tobago by Kip1234 CC BY-SA 4.0
  Across 25th and 26th July 2026, th
  
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• Southern train becomes the first to use Great British Railways colours

  21-05-2026 09:15 via ianvisits.co.uk
  The first train in Great British Railways colours has been unveiled — and passengers could soon start spotting the red, white and blue livery at stations in the south east of England.
  (c) Department for Transport (DfT)
  The rebranded Class 387 train is operated by Southern and was officially unveiled at Brighton ahead of Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) joining the growing publicly owned rail network on 31st May.
  For the spotters – it’s number 387172, which you can track on RealTi
  
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• HS2’s original plan relied on a railway signalling system that didn’t exist

  21-05-2026 08:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  On Tuesday, it was confirmed that HS2 railway will use the European Train Control System (ETCS) signalling system, which seemed like a small administrative announcement. ETCS is the future of railway signalling and is already being rolled out in the UK, so it’s unlikely the announcement surprised anyone.
  That was until this morning, when the Rail Minister, Lord Hendy, revealed that the original plan was for HS2 to effectively invent a brand-new automatic train-operating signalling system t
  
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• The benefits of an investment bubble

  21-05-2026 06:00 via ft.com
  UK telecoms sector shows how splurge of money can destroy shareholder value but deliver consumer gains
  
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• Go-Ahead introduces electric buses on London bus route 322

  20-05-2026 17:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  More electric buses are arriving on London’s streets, with 13 new zero-emission buses now operating between Crystal Palace and Clapham Common.
  (c) Alexander Dennis
  Alexander Dennis has supplied 13 electric Enviro100EV buses to Go-Ahead London for Transport for London’s Route 322, which switched to the new operator on 25th April. The buses are now running every 15 minutes from Go-Ahead London’s Sydenham Garage on the route linking Crystal Palace with Clapham Common.
  The new arri
  
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• Peckham Rye station upgrade works to start next month

  20-05-2026 15:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Work to upgrade Peckham Rye station is due to start next month, although it won’t be the transformational change originally planned.
  Recently restored station frontage (c) ianVisits
  A major £ 40 million upgrade of the station was put on hold last year, so £5 million of interim upgrades have been agreed instead.
  A ‘hidden’ corner of Peckham Rye station’s booking hall will be revealed for the first time in 30 years as part of the works, creating more space for c
  
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• Dean Martin’s shoe size: The City of London’s curious American connections

  20-05-2026 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  It can’t have escaped many people’s notice that it’s 250 years since our colonial cousins got a bit irate over the cost of tea and declared their independence from the mother country. To mark the semiquincentennial, a small exhibition in the City of London is showing off the, at times, rather surprising relationship between the City and the newly independent Thirteen Colonies.Some of the relationships that cross the Atlantic are not surprising, as after all, many American settl
  
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• Euston station rail strike warning as London Northwestern Railway cuts services for two days

  17-05-2026 11:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  London Northwestern Railway (LNR), which runs services into Euston station, is asking passengers to plan their travel in advance ahead of two days of strike action later this week.
  (c) London Northwestern Railway
  On Friday 22nd May and Saturday 23rd May a very limited service will be in operation on the LNR network due to strike action by members of the TSSA union. Passengers are advised to only travel if necessary as trains will only run on a small number of routes.
  Services on both dates will
  
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• Giant mud doughnut lands at the Barbican — and yes, it’s art

  15-05-2026 16:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  A giant muddy doughnut has arrived in the middle of the Barbican, and of course, it’s art.It’s been created by the Colombian artist Delcy Morelos, and in addition to walking around it, entrances allow you into the middle, and in one place, to walk inside the wall itself as well.
  According to the blurb, the artist creates “multisensory immersive environments that invite us to convene with the earth and reorient our relationship to land” and we’re told that visitors &
  
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• Tickets Alert: Visit Mortlake’s WWII air raid shelter

  15-05-2026 15:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  On a side street not far from Mortlake station is a set of 1930s residential flats, and in front a curious brick building – the entrance to an underground air-raid shelter.
  St. Leonards Court air raid shelter (c) ianVisits
  To build the shelter, the lawn in front of the flats was excavated, and it seems likely that the excavated soil was then piled on top to create additional protection, as there’s a wall and a deep hedge running around the site today.
  While usually locked, the local
  
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• Stratford tipped for huge new sports and esports arena

  15-05-2026 10:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  The UK’s largest indoor arena with capacity for 25,000 people could be built next to the former Olympic Park, if plans by a consortium get the go-ahead.
  London Colosseum concept (c) Chybik + Kristof Architects
  If built, the arena will serve as the permanent European home for a new National Basketball Association (NBA) franchise and will also be positioned as a destination for boxing, international esports, and gaming competitions.
  With the NBA planning a new Europe-based league expected to
  
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• New funding scheme aims to help Londoners retrain without quitting work

  15-05-2026 01:01 via ianvisits.co.uk
  London universities are among the first institutions approved to offer a new adult education funding scheme that will let people access student finance for shorter courses and retraining later in life.From this autumn, adults will be able to use student finance for the first time for flexible “bite-sized” university and college modules, rather than traditional full-length degree courses. The courses also won’t have a set deadline for completion, allowing adult students more tim
  
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• National Gallery’s virtual tour grows from eight rooms to the entire museum

  14-05-2026 17:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  The National Gallery is inviting art lovers to take a virtual wander through its galleries from home, having expanded its online tour in partnership with Google Arts & Culture.
  Screenshot of the National Gallery Google Arts and Culture Virtual Tour
  Previous online tours on the gallery’s website only covered eight rooms, but now every picture room in the gallery can be explored online, offering a Vicarious Visit through the museum’s bicentenary redisplay.
  The virtual experience of
  
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• Sadiq Khan approves extra £6m for Oxford Street pedestrianisation plans

  14-05-2026 15:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  The Mayor of London has approved just over £6 million in additional funding to plan for the proposed pedestrianisation of Oxford Street.
  A very empty Oxford Street – Christmas Day 2008 (c) ianVisits
  As part of plans to create a Mayoral Development Area (MDA) around Oxford Street, in September 2025, the Mayor approved the designation of Oxford Street and several side streets as GLA Roads – and hence managed by Transport for London (TfL) rather than Westminster Council.
  The Mayor
  
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• First steels installed for Leyton tube station’s step-free upgrade

  14-05-2026 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Work on upgrading Leyton tube station to provide step-free access and a new station entrance is progressing, with steelwork now being installed.At the moment, Leyton station’s entrance is little more than a shed above tracks, a type of tube station in need of refurbishment, but it is also overcrowded during the rush hours.  The upgrade is building an entirely new ticket hall next to the old one, along with two lifts down to the platforms, wider staircases and a new footbridge.
  Work on
  
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• Great British Railways takes shape as East of England rail operators merge management

  14-05-2026 01:01 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Train services across the East of England are being brought under a single leadership team ahead of the creation of Great British Railways.
  c2c and Greater Anglia trains at Liverpool Street (c) ianVisits
  The new structure sees the management of the two train companies, c2c and Greater Anglia, combined with Network Rail Anglia, bringing track and train operations closer together under one management team for the first time in the region.
  Railway managers say the unified structure should allow fas
  
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• Chelsea pub responds to rising living costs with £5 after-work drinks deal

  13-05-2026 17:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  At a time when central London pubs recently broke the £10 for a pint barrier, a new pub on Chelsea’s King’s Road is offering a range of drinks priced at £5.
  The Trafalgar pub (c) Three Cheers Pub Co
  The Trafalgar, described as the first new pub to open on King’s Road in more than 100 years, is launching a weekday “£5 Pour” promotion aimed at attracting after-work customers during a period of rising living costs.
  The pub says the offer will run Mond
  
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• Clucking good volunteers wanted for rescued hen scheme near Redbridge

  13-05-2026 15:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Fancy giving a tiny modern dinosaur a new home? Well, a hen at least — one of the closest living relatives to the dinosaurs.
  Eleanor Saum – Atilla the Hen, Dolly, Billie, Matilda
  The British Hen Welfare Trust, founded by Jane Howorth, rehomes ex-commercial laying hens at the end of their laying cycle, usually when they are about 18 months old. Instead of ending up as chicken nuggets, the hens get the chance to enjoy a more peaceful retirement, scratching around in people’s gard
  
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• Plague warnings, miracle cures and political panic on display in free London exhibition

  13-05-2026 13:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Walking through London today, it can feel impossible to escape advertising. Every wall, screen and bus shelter is trying to sell you something. But 500 years ago, the streets were just as noisy — only then the walls were layered with cheap printed sheets known as “broadsides”.These single-page publications carried everything from royal proclamations and political warnings to miracle cures, crime reports, local gossip and popular songs. And a new exhibition at the Guildhall Libr
  
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• Charing Cross station to shut for three weeks this summer in £20m rail upgrade

  13-05-2026 10:45 via ianvisits.co.uk
  Rail passengers are being warned that Charing Cross station will close for three weeks this summer as Network Rail and Southeastern carry out a £20 million programme of track and bridge repairs.
  The shutdown will affect both London Charing Cross and Waterloo East stations from Sunday 26th July to Sunday 16th August 2026, along with some additional weekend closures either side of the main works.
  Charing Cross station (c) ianVisits
  During the closure, no trains will serve either station whil
  
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• One Leadenhall: London’s new free roof terrace overlooking Leadenhall Market

  13-05-2026 08:00 via ianvisits.co.uk
  A free roof terrace has just opened in the City of London, and instead of the usual distant skyline views from the top of a skyscraper, this one brings you much closer to the streets below with some good views over Leadenhall Market and the surrounding towers.The terrace sits inside One Leadenhall, the recently completed skyscraper that replaced a 1980s office block. Rather than yet another rooftop viewing gallery, the developers have tucked the public space onto the fourth floor, which turns ou
  
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