Virgin Media hits 2.2Gbps speeds in latest broadband innovation trial

Liberty Global-owned Virgin Media has successfully completed a broadband innovation trial in which it achieved multi-gigabit speeds.

In the trial, Virgin Media achieved speeds of 2,200Mbps in Manchester and Southampton—around 40 times faster than average local connections.

Jeanie York, Virgin Media’s Chief Technology and Information Officer, said:

“We invest more than £1 billion into our network every year to deliver leading connectivity today, but our...

20 April 2021 | Broadband

5G Future Forum calls for new members to advance 5G and MEC adoption

London-based global industry group 5G Future Forum (5GFF) is calling for new members to help drive the adoption of 5G and multi-access edge computing (MEC).

5GFF was founded in January 2020 by América Móvil, KT Corp, Rogers, Telstra, Verizon, and Vodafone.

Jae-ho Song, CDXO of KT Corporation, said:

“When uncertainties are rampant, a breakthrough can provide a beacon of opportunities previously untapped.

With a bolstered ecosystem of expanded...

7 April 2021 | IoT

5G will spark re-invention in a defining year for telecoms

The potential for 5G with its seemingly limitless list of use cases is something that service providers have teased for a number of years. 5G represents a significant network evolution and there is far greater contrast in the step up from 4G to 5G than was experienced during the rollout of LTE networks. Across the next 12-18 months, standalone 5G will be rolled out enabling service providers to start to see a return on 5G infrastructure and spectrum investments. This will be a year for...

19 March 2021 | Networks

Nok-picky: Nokia partners with Google Cloud, AWS, and Azure

Nokia has announced a flurry of new partnerships with all three of the major cloud providers—Google Cloud, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Microsoft Azure.

The Finnish telecom giant’s partnership with Google Cloud will see the companies develop 5G solutions together which combine Nokia’s Radio Access Network (RAN), Open RAN, and Cloud RAN, with Google’s edge computing platform to deliver additional 5G monetisation opportunities for CSPs.

Bikash Koley, VP, Google...

15 March 2021 | Networks

Samsung can now access Nokia’s video standards innovations

Samsung will be able to access Nokia’s video standards innovations after the pair reached a licensing agreement.

Nokia has invested more than $154 billion in R&D over the past two decades and built a portfolio of over 20,000 patent families (of which, around 3,500 patent families are considered essential to 5G.)

Jenni Lukander, President of Nokia Technologies, said:

“We are delighted to have reached an agreement with Samsung which further validates...

11 March 2021 | Telecoms

Featured: Telecoms’ list of innovative companies to watch in 2021

Wherever you are reading this, every country has rightly cheered its frontline healthcare workers over the past year amid the coronavirus pandemic. But just as vital have been another frontline group; those people and companies keeping us connected when we’ve needed it most.

In this feature, Telecoms will be looking at some of the vendors delivering the innovations that are enabling people to work, learn, and live, even in the midst of a global pandemic. In alphabetical...

5 March 2021 | IoT

Web 3.0 storage provider Filecoin reaches 2.5EiB capacity

Filecoin, the largest decentralised storage provider, has surpassed 2.5 exbibytes (2.5 billion gigabytes) of capacity.

The provider is aiming to be the storage backbone for Web 3.0, the next evolution of Tim Berners-Lee’s invention which returns to his original vision of a medium where “no permission is needed from a central authority to post anything ... there is no central controlling node, and so no single point of failure ... and no “kill...

17 February 2021 | Telecoms

SK Telecom uses blockchain to help people store national documents

SK Telecom is launching a blockchain-powered wallet for storing national documents in a government-led digitalisation push.

The largest wireless carrier in South Korea has been granted approval by the Ministry of Public Administration and Security to issue its first digital wallet for documentation.

Documents which can be stored in SK Telecom’s blockchain-powered wallet include resident registration cards, health insurance qualification certificates, immigration...

22 October 2020 | Legislation & Government

Orange and Google join forces on AI, edge computing

French telecoms giant Orange has partnered with Google to research and deploy technologies such as edge computing.

Both companies are heavyweights within their respective industries. Orange brings expertise in telecommunications, while Google brings its experience in fields like AI to the partnership.

Orange believes that the partnership will help the company to achieve its Engage 2025 plan which aims to drive transformation through widespread use of AI and data to...

29 July 2020 | Networks