UK incumbent BT Group has revealed what it is doing to keep businesses connected - and ensure the health and safety of its employees - during the Covid-19 crisis.
The UK’s opposition party, Labour has announced a pledge to deliver free full fibre-broadband for all.
Philip Jansen has announced plans for the company to increase its FTTP ambition to 15 million UK premises passed.
To support growing traffic demands of 5G and FTTP, BT has chosen to deploy Ciena’s Waveserver stackable data centre interconnect (DCI) platform to increase the capacity connecting its data centres to the UK’s main internet peering nodes.
BT’s has plans to deploy 5G in 16 cities in 2019, while forecasting residential broadband growth to remain at roughly 40 per cent annually. This means that significant new capacity is required in all areas of the network, and particularly on the main core links carrying this traffic.
Openreach, the access network division of BT Group, is trialling a new type of ribbon fibre cable to aid its roll out of fibre to the premises (FTTP) technology across the UK.
UK communications regulator, Ofcom has proposed to make BT and KCOM the UK’s broadband universal service providers, following submissions of interest from eight companies. Ofcom is also consulting on the obligations that should apply to them in delivering the universal service.
UK communications regulator, Ofcom has revealed new proposals, alongside a consultation on its Business Connectivity Market Review (BCMR), to revisit allowing companies laying high-speed fibre cables – used by large businesses, mobile operators and broadband providers – unrestricted access to Openreach’s ducts and poles.
Gavin Patterson, chief executive at BT Group is to step down from his role later this year. The board has begun to the recruitment process for Patterson’s successor, whom the company says is expected to be in place during the second half of 2018. Until then Patterson will remain in the role.
In a statement, chairman, Jan du Plessis said: ‘Gavin has been with BT for just over 14 years and I want to thank him for his contribution to our business during that time, in particular during the almost five years that he has served as chief executive.
As part of its re-launched consumer strategy, BT has revealed a number of proposed products and services across BT Consumer brands, including EE and Plusnet.
BT has set out its latest strategy update as part of the incumbent’s full year results for 2017-2018. Revealed in the update is the intention to increase its FTTP and mobile infrastructure investment within an annual capex allocation of around £3.7 billion.
The Winter edition of Fibre Systems dispelled some myths when it comes to multimode fibre, and looked at the opportunities it currently presents to the data centre market.
Keely Portway takes a look at the market for test and measurement equipment in the current climate, and some of the latest tools available
A look at how the kind of full-fibre infrastructure that will be essential to support 5G can be realised in line with roll-out targets
The Covid-19 pandemic has and continues to affect every-day life throughout the world. In the optical communications industry, the first obvious signs were when events began to postpone, cancel and reschedule.
After more than a decade’s work, the prospect of full quantum networks exploiting entangled photons is drawing closer. That’s thanks to the work of researchers like Hee Su Park from the Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science (KRISS).
Five industry experts from the Broadband Forum talk top broadband trends
Keely Portway on how the optical communications industry has come together to counteract fake 5G news
Niall Looney summarises his business experience to date in dealing with the current Covid-19 pandemic, from a network design consultancy’s point-of-view
