News
Vodafone UK gives key partners Total Communications Status
Vodafone UK has raised the profile of its top partners by hand picking an elite group and giving them Total Communications Status, its first round of top draw accreditations under its new partner programme. The selected companies include Boosh 365, CCS MPW, Comm-Tech Voice & Data, Connected Telecom, DRC, Excalibur Communications, Pescado, PMGC Technology Group, Pure Business Services, Olive Communications, Onecom, Redsquid Communications, Trinsic and Vohkus. Phil Mottram, Enterprise Director of Vodafone UK, said: "Over 100 Partners have achieved new [...]
BT combats fraud with Tollring’s Credit and Fraud Management System
BT has gone live with Tollring's new real-time Credit and Fraud Management System (CFMS) on its Wholesale Hosted Centrex (WHC) platform. The cloud-based CFMS has been delivered in BT Wholesale's data centre to provide real-time fraud detection and protection of the hosted platform. The CFMS monitors call trends, implements rules and triggers alerts to protect resellers' and their customers from illegal usage and ‘bill shock'; and the credit management element of the solution constrains legitimate spend in order to manage [...]
Colt pledges to deliver €500m investment in three year expansion plan
Colt Technology Services has marked its 25th year in business with the delivery of a three year growth plan aimed at network expansion and a move to greater customer centricity. The company will invest more than €500m throughout the project, with a €200m spending plan set for 2017. Colt reported strong top line growth in 2016 and a new executive leadership team has pledged to continue this trend having implemented a strategic and cultural shift in the organisation. Colt's operations [...]
Ofcom Confirm NO Openreach Split from BT, But Big Change is Coming
The telecoms regulator has today published its preliminary proposals as part of a major Strategic Review of the United Kingdom’s Digital Communications market, but the big news is they’ve decided NOT to completely split BT from its national broadband and phone network (Openreach). Openreach was setup a decade ago after Ofcom’s original review in 2005, which among other things forced BT to open part of their network to competition (“functional separation“) and introduced Local Loop Unbundling (i.e. allowing rival ISPs [...]
BT Pledge Over GBP1bn to Boost UK Broadband, But is it New Money
The CEO of BT Group, Gavin Patterson, has made a final plea ahead of tomorrow’s Strategic Review outcome and informed the Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona (Spain) that he would “significantly” increase investment (£1bn+) in order to further improve national broadband connectivity. Reports at the weekend suggested that Ofcom would not move to separate BT (here) from control of their national UK phone and broadband network (Openreach), although they might keep that option on the table. Never the less [...]
BT Set to Avoid Openreach Split as Ofcom Opts for the Middle Ground
The UK telecoms regulatory will publish the outcome of their ‘Strategic Review of Digital Communications‘ on Thursday and unsurprisingly there have been some leaks, which appear to confirm our expectation that Ofcom will NOT move to split BT from control of its national phone and broadband network (Openreach). Instead Ofcom is expected to impose greater separation of Openreach from BT, which could involve giving rival ISPs more access to Openreach’s national network of cables and telephone exchanges (a highly likely [...]
Centre for Policy Studies Calls for Ofcom to Initiate BT Breakup
BT to be separated from control of their national UK broadband and phone (Openreach) network, which the group suggests could “provide a market with a level playing field between all players.” At present Ofcom’s on-going Strategic Review of Digital Communications is said to be “seriously” considering the option of breaking up BT, which if appropriate would require the regulator to refer the operator to the Competition and Markets Authority(CMA). Politicians seem to be divided on the topic, with many supporting [...]
BT Fighting Against Separation from OpenReach
Instead of going on a charm offensive BT’s CEO, Gavin Patterson, appears to have taken a more confrontational approach by privately writing to every (650) elected UK Member of Parliament and highlighting how he felt that many of their recent claims against the operator were “inaccurate and misleading“. The reaction, which according to The Telegraph also delivers a point-by-point rebuttal of the recent “Broadbad Report” that was signed by 121 cross-party MPs, comes at a time when Ofcom are said [...]
Leicester UK City Council to Deploy FREE WiFi Internet Connectivity
Residents, businesses and visitors to the most popular parts of central Leicester (e.g. the Clock Tower, Jubilee Square and outside the Richard III centre), which is a city in the East Midlands of England, will be pleased to learn that BT are planning to roll-out a free WiFi zone in the area. At present BT has only just begun their initial planning and survey work for the 10 year deal, with the new network expected to go live sometime during [...]
BT’s National UK Network Suffers Serious Broadband Outage
Reports are coming in of sporadic problems with gaining access to BT’s websites and also an apparent nationwide fault affecting broadband connectivity on their network, which at the present time does not appear to be hitting TalkTalk or Sky Broadband’s unbundled lines. According to a status update from AAISP, “BT have a major problem at the moment and lines which log off are unable to log back in again. Our TalkTalkservices are unaffected, and lines which stay online are unaffected. [...]