How has the strength of the Electronic Communications Code been tested by the dispute between Virgin Media and Durham County Council? Brian Wake offers his view*
Virgin Media and Durham County Council have reached an amicable agreement on land access terms, allowing work to resume on the network expansion in the county.
The agreement was reached prior to the case being heard by the Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber), meaning that the UK provider will have to pay only £1 for land access to the areas which were under dispute.
More than 7,000 homes and businesses in Sunderland, the UK, will be next to access Virgin Media’s ultrafast broadband as the provider expands its network under the ‘Project Lightning’ programme, which aims to provide speeds up to 362Mb/s in the region.
Virgin Media is taking legal action against Durham County Council, for what the provider calls a ‘blockade’ on its delivery of ultrafast broadband by asking for increased payments to access the land upon which it hoped to increase its network by laying new fibre optic cable.
The partnership with Durham, which was announced at the end of last year, had been put in place with the aim of extending the provider’s high-speed network to around 16,000 properties in Durham by the end of 2019. Virgin Media said that this would benefit the area by increasing speeds to 350Mb/s.
ECOC is the largest conference on optical communications in Europe, and one of the most prestigious and long-standing events in this field globally. ECOC 2019 will be held in Dublin, Ireland.
Ed Forrest looks at the impact of primary and secondary contamination on fibre optic connection surfaces
Fibre Systems speaks to a lead design engineer and a fibre planner to find out about the day-to-day challenges they face on the front line
Keely Portway looks at the latest developments in submarine networks, and the issues and trends shaping the market
There are many challenges to overcome to provide quick and efficient characterisation of photonic integrated circuits, finds Andy Extance
Keely Portway takes a look at the next generation of bend-improved fibres, and how they can be best used to future-proof networks
Ray O’Connor argues that wireless and fibre should be considered complementary, rather than in competition
Mattias Fridström and Parthiban Kandappan put software-driven, real-time optical layer performance awareness to the test
The right combination of training and tools will help to future-proof fibre reliability, says Jay Tourigny
Creating an invisible network is the next step in connectivity, so it is important to put quality, rather than speed at the heart of broadband experience, says Robin Mersh
