KKR acquires majority stake in Hyperoptic, a broadband provider in UK

KKR, a leading global investment firm, has acquired a majority stake in Hyperoptic Ltd, a residential gigabit broadband provider in the UK, from funds managed by Newlight Partners LP (“Newlight”) and Mubadala Investment Company. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Hyperoptic was founded in 2011. Its fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) passes 400,000 homes and businesses. It delivers the nation’s fastest broadband speeds of up to 1Gbps (1,000 megabits per second), which is over 18x faster than the UK average.

Hyperoptic will continue to be led by Chief Executive Officer Dana Tobak, CBE and Executive Chairman Boris Ivanovic.

Dana Tobak stated, “We are incredibly grateful to Newlight and Mubadala for their unwavering support and significant contributions to the success of Hyperoptic. Currently, only 8% of the UK has access to full fibre and less than half of that to symmetrical gigabit services.

Vincent Policard, Member, and Cristina Gonzalez, Director in European Infrastructure at KKR, said, “Hyperoptic has a market-leading position and superior consumer product. The business is strongly positioned to meet the growing demand for full-fibre services in the UK through further investment and national roll-out, supporting housing development and renovation. Our investment in Hyperoptic builds on KKR’s strong track record in telecommunications infrastructure in Europe, investing in and deploying next-generation digital connectivity.”

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Juniper supplies Telefónica UK

Juniper Networks is serving as strategic IP network provider for Telefónica UK's Fusión Network. The first phase of Telefónica UK’s services migration to the new infrastructure is underway.

Juniper Networks and Telefónica said they designed the Fusión Network to transform the customer experience for mobile, residential and business services globally. This initiative has previously been implemented by the Telefónica Group in other regions around the world and has evolved over the years, including a recent upgrade in Spain to support the evolution to 5G.

Juniper is supplying the following for the Fusión Network:

• PTX Series Packet Transport Routers (PTX10008), MX Series 5G Universal Routing Platform (MX2008, MX2010 and MX2020)
• Junos Fusion Edge, Junos Node Slicing virtualization and Juniper’s Automation Framework
• Professional Services

“As we prepare for our 5G rollout from October 2019 with the end goal of building a 5G economy in coalition with British industry, we need a network infrastructure that benefits customers from the outset, with better speeds, intelligent security and improved user experience. This requires a network that is sophisticated, but also simpler to deploy, operate and maintain, which is why we chose Juniper as our strategic IP network provider. This overhaul of our network provides the flexibility, scalability and performance to meet those demands,” stated Brendan O’Reilly, Chief Technology Officer, Telefónica UK.

“As one of the major service providers in the UK, Telefónica UK is a true trailblazer of cutting-edge network technology. Juniper has a long and proud history of working with Telefónica globally, and being chosen as Telefónica’s strategic IP network provider in the UK to deliver a 5G-ready network reflects the depth of that partnership. This project is expected to help Telefónica UK transform its network, providing an automated and scalable network that is capable of meeting current and future demands of consumers and business customers alike. It will help to ensure that Telefónica UK will continue to deliver the robust performance its users expect and be sufficiently agile to lead the way on new service innovation,” said Manoj Leelanivas, Chief Product Officer, Juniper Networks.

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Openreach accelerates its nationwide build programme

Openreach announced 36 new locations where it will be deploying FTTP over the next 12 months, including Newcastle, Doncaster, Chelmsford and St Albans. Four new locations in Scotland (Kilmarnock in East Ayrshire and Bathgate, Broxburn and Whitburn in West Lothian) have been prioritised following the Scottish Government’s decision to extend rates relief on new fibre broadband networks.

Overall, 74 locations across the UK have now been included in Openreach’s multi-billion pound Fibre First programme.

Clive Selley, Chief Executive of Openreach, said: “We’re pressing ahead with our investment and Openreach engineers are now building in communities all over the country, keeping us on track to deliver against the bigger ambitions we set out in May.  The Government wants to see a nationwide full fibre network and we’re keen to lead the way in helping them achieve that. We know that if it’s going to happen, Openreach will need to be at the front doing the heavy lifting, so we’re working hard to build a commercially viable plan."

https://news.openreach.co.uk

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BT to sell London head office for £210M

BT has agreed to sell its London head office building to a private real estate developer for £210 million. BT will lease back the facility for a number of years. The company is expected to announce the location for a new headquarters in the coming months.

BT to consolidate 300 offices to 30

Wednesday, June 05, 2019  BT  

BT Group will consolidate its footprint of more than 300 locations across the UK to around 30. The first eight of these locations are
Belfast, Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Ipswich (Adastral Park), London and Manchester.

BT previously announced plans to exit its St Paul’s headquarters in London and is currently identifying a new home for the business in the capital.

“The Better Workplace Programme is about bringing our people together in brilliant spaces, and transforming the way we work,” BT Group chief executive Philip Jansen said. “Revealing these eight locations is just the first step; we have dedicated teams working on identifying the best buildings to move into and which ones to redesign for the future. As a result of this programme, BT people will be housed in inspiring offices that are better for our business and better for our customers.”

Celllnex acquires BT high towers across UK

Wednesday, June 05, 2019  BT, Sharing, Tower  

Celllnex has acquired the marketing and operation rights for 220 high towers from BT for the next 20 years. The deal was valued at £100 million.

Cellnex operates 45,000 wireless communications towers and sites in Spain, Italy, Netherlands, France, Switzerland and now the UK. The company closed the 2018 financial year with revenues of € 901 million (up 14%) and EBITDA of € 591 million (up 18%). Cellnex is based in Barcelona.

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NTT restructures as a new global technology services provider

Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT Corporation) is restructuring and integrating 28 of its subsidiary companies, including NTT Communications, Dimension Data and NTT Security, into one US $11 billion business to be called NTT Ltd.

NTT Ltd., which is headquartered in London, will be a global technology services provider employing around 40,000 people in offices across 70+ countries and regions. The new company's portfolio and mission include:

• Clients access to a more comprehensive range and greater depth of skills across multiple technologies and capabilities
• Global technology and managed services that are world leading in scale and depth
• Improved ability to deliver more in-depth industry solutions
• World-class managed services platforms with the ability to deliver local customizations to meet clients’ needs in each market.
• Increased investment in innovation and R&D.

President and CEO for NTT Corporation, Jun Sawada said, “I’m delighted to announce that we launched NTT Ltd. today. When we combine the new capabilities of NTT Ltd. along with NTT DATA, we create a top five global technology and business solutions provider with US$20 billion revenues outside of Japan. Going forward, we will accelerate our execution as one NTT in order to contribute to a smarter and better world through digital transformation.

“We are also excited to confirm that our global headquarters for NTT Ltd will be in London and that our commitment to the UK remains extremely strong. We considered several locations as the headquarters for NTT Ltd and made a deliberate decision to choose London. It has many benefits, including a stable economy, wealth of skills and talent, diversity in population and thinking, strong infrastructure, schools and housing for global talent moving to the city. In short, it’s a great city to live and work in, and we’re excited that we are making it the home for our new business”.

UK Prime Minister Theresa May said, “Britain has a long standing and proud reputation as a global tech leader and it’s fantastic that NTT Ltd. has chosen London for its global headquarters. A key part of our modern Industrial Strategy is to put the UK at the forefront of the tech and data revolution, and they will join many other world-leading companies who call Britain home”.

https://hello.global.ntt/en-us

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Axians UK to deliver NFV services using ADVA Ensemble

Axians UK, which provides ICT services to private-sector companies, public-sector entities, operators and service providers, has selected the ADVA Ensemble software suite to deliver network functions virtualization (NFV) services to its customers. Specifically, Axians UK is leveraging ADVA Ensemble software as part of an open managed hosting service that will support standard applications such as software-defined WAN (SD-WAN) and firewalls, as well as any other network functions or customer applications.

The Axians UK managed hosting service uses key elements of the Ensemble suite, including Ensemble Connector deployed at the customer site to provide advanced networking at Layer 2 and 3, including LTE access and Carrier Ethernet 2.0 functionality. Ensemble Connector also features zero-touch provisioning for ultimate simplicity and scale.

With the open and vendor-neutral Ensemble platform, Axians UK’s customers can mix and match their choice of hardware and software components. The service also offers access to a library of VNFs, including some of the most popular SD-WAN, firewall and WAN optimization products.

“The cloud is driving technology innovation for networking, and this means openness and choice. By harnessing our Ensemble software, Axians UK is offering businesses and CSPs a way to achieve the efficiency and flexibility benefits of NFV with only minimal investment and virtually zero risk,” commented James Buchanan, GM, Edge Cloud, ADVA.

“With this solution, we’re empowering our customers with a hosting platform that enables them to dynamically select and manage VNFs. No longer will they have to replace hardware at multiple sites when they change IT or network applications. Now they can access the Axians customer portal to control the customer-located managed hosting platform. This is especially important for our customers with an international footprint, especially the Tier 2 and 3 CSPs, financial institutions, logistics and retail verticals,” said Russell Crampin, managing director, Axians UK. “As a part of this offering we’ll start with at least two qualified suppliers for SD-WAN, two for firewall and two for the hosting servers, and grow all of those later. ADVA’s Ensemble technology perfectly supports our vision of customer choice.”

https://www.advaoptical.com

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Sharon White to step down as CEO of Ofcom

Sharon White is to step down as Chief Executive of Ofcom, the telecoms regulator for the UK, to become Chairman of The John Lewis Partnership.

White joined Ofcom in March 2015 from HM Treasury where she was Second Permanent Secretary.

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/about-ofcom/how-ofcom-is-run/ofcom-board

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EE confirms 5G launch, plans 5G fixed broadband

EE will launch commercial 5G in six cities across on 30th May 2019: London, Birmingham, Cardiff, Manchester, Edinburgh and Belfast.

EE says users should experience an increase in speeds of around 100-150Mbps even in the busiest areas. Some customers will break the one gigabit-per-second milestone on their 5G smartphones. The fastest speed possible when EE launched 4G in 2012 was just 50Mbps.

From today, EE customers can pre-order a 5G smartphone on EE’s new 5G Smart Plans. Plans start from 10GB (£54 per month) and extend up to 120GB (£74 per month). EE is also rolling out the UK’s first 5G SIM only plans, offering Swappable benefits, inclusive Service Pack benefits, and a range of great 5G data allowances starting at 20GB per month (£32 per month) and rising to 100GB (£52 per month). EE will offer a 5GEE WiFi plan with the HTC 5G Hub at an upfront cost of £100 and with 50GB of data per month for £50 per month, or for £75 per month with 100GB of data per month.

EE is offering several 5G smartphones including Samsung (Galaxy S10 5G) as well as UK exclusives with Oppo (Reno 5G), LG (V50 ThinQ) and One Plus (7 Pro 5G).

In addition to the six launch cities, in 2019 EE will also be introducing 5G across the busiest parts of Bristol, Coventry, Glasgow, Hull, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, Newcastle, Nottingham and Sheffield. And in 2020, even more towns and cities will get 5G sites including: Aberdeen, Cambridge, Derby, Gloucester, Peterborough, Plymouth, Portsmouth, Southampton, Worcester and Wolverhampton.

EE is also preparing to launch a 5GEE WiFi and 5GEE home broadband service month. Pricing has not been disclosed but the company says it will be beat fibre broadband.

Marc Allera, CEO of BT’s Consumer division, said: “This is the start of the UK’s 5G journey and great news for our customers that want and need the best connections. We’ve started with 5G in some of the busiest parts of the UK, the widest range of 5G devices in the UK, and plans that give customers the best mobile connection and great benefits.

EE is launching 5G in the busiest parts of the UK, where 5G can really make a difference by providing a more reliable data connection to businesses and consumers. EE is upgrading more than 100 sites to 5G every month whole continuing to expand 4G coverage into rural areas.

EE 5G rollout

• Phase 1: a ‘non-standalone’ deployment focused on using the combined power of 4G and 5G to give customers the fastest, most reliable mobile broadband experience they’ve ever had.
• Phase 2: from 2022, will introduce the full next generation 5G core network, enhanced device chipset capabilities, and increased availability of 5G-ready spectrum. Higher bandwidth and lower latency, coupled with expansive and growing 5G coverage, will enable a more responsive network, enabling truly immersive mobile augmented reality, real-time health monitoring, and mobile cloud gaming. Phase 2 is also a vital step on the journey to the convergence of network technologies.
• Phase 3: from 2023, will introduce Ultra-Reliable Low Latency Communications (URLLC), Network Slicing and multi-gigabit-per-second speeds. This phase of 5G will enable critical applications like real-time traffic management of fleets of autonomous vehicles, massive sensor networks with millions of devices measuring air quality across the entire country, and the ‘tactile internet’, where a sense of touch can be added to remote real-time interactions.

http://www.ee.co.uk/5G

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Vodafone UK to launch 5G on 3 July 2019

Vodafone announced plans to activate its commercial 5G network for both consumers and business customers in seven cities across the UK on 3 July 2019. Launch cities are Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Glasgow, Manchester, Liverpool and London.

Vodafone's 5G pricing will be the same as 4G for both consumers and business customers.

Vodafone expects to launch 5G roaming in the UK, Germany, Italy and Spain over the summer.
Vodafone UK CEO Nick Jeffery said: “We started our 5G journey more than three years ago. We led the way in setting 5G standards to ensure phones and networks work well together. We upgraded our masts to be able to take 5G without disruption. And we were the first UK company to test 5G over our all-fibre core fixed and mobile network.

UK operators: Huawei ban would bring heavy cost

Saturday, April 06, 2019  UK  

A restriction placed on Huawei in the telecom supply chain could delay a full 5G launch by between 18 and 24 months and cost the UK economy between £4.5bn and £6.8bn, according to a study published by Mobile UK, which is the trade association for the UK’s mobile network operators -  EE, O2, Three and Vodafone. The study argues that a delay to 5G rollout while operators make alternative procurement arrangements with other suppliers may seriously...

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Huawei hosts partner summit in London

Huawei is willing to sign a "no spying" agreement with the government of the UK to appease critics as major carriers continue their 5G rollouts.

Speaking at the Huawei UK Partner Summit 2019 in London, Dr. Liang Hua, Chairman of Huawei Board, said his company is increasing its investments in the nation, including opening a new training centre in Birmingham to train engineers on the use of 5G technology and solutions. The centre will have the capacity to train more than 500 engineers a year and is due to open in June.

"We are in a leading position for 5G. We participated in the UK government's 5G trials and are ready to support our customers' commercial 5G launches in the UK. We are supporting the national rollout of Fibre-To-The-Premises (FTTP) technology in the country. We also have competitive and innovative solutions for connecting hard-to-reach areas," stated Dr. Liang.

https://www.huawei.com/en/press-events/news/2019/5/uk-partners-18years-success-working-huawei

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ECI partners with UK-based Cherry & White

ECI announced a partnership with Cherry & White, an IT and telecommunications solutions provider, located in Cheltenham, England, supporing major utility network operators, government organizations and incumbent telecom network operators in the UK.

With this partnership, Cherry & White can leverage the complete set of products and systems from across the ECI portfolio.

“The market for ICT modernization has seen considerable growth in the past few years as more companies look for adaptive, flexible solutions to meet their needs, which is why we’re very excited about working alongside industry veterans like Cherry & White,” said Christian Erbe, VP Sales EMEA at ECI. “Critical infrastructure is an important market for ECI, and with more than 50 years of experience servicing hundreds of customers around the world, this partnership is an opportunity for both our companies to help others make the transition. This is yet another indication of our considerable positive momentum, particularly in the United Kingdom, and we’re looking forward to a bright future ahead.”

https://www.ecitele.com/elastigrid

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Intel acquires Omnitek for FPGA expertise

Intel has acquired Omnitek, a provider of optimized video and vision FPGA IP solutions based in Basingstoke, England. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Omnitek was founded in 1998 and has developed over 220 FPGA IP cores and accompanying software including performance-leading solutions for WARP, ISP processing and video connectivity. Omnitek enables customized high-performance vision and artificial intelligence (AI) inferencing capabilities on FPGAs for customers across a range of end markets.

“Omnitek’s technology is a great complement to our FPGA business. Their deep, system-level FPGA expertise and high-performance video and vision-related technology have made them a trusted partner for many of our most important customers. Together, we will deliver leading FPGA solutions for video, vision and AI inferencing applications on Intel FPGAs and speed time-to-market for our existing customers while winning new ones,” Dan McNamara, Intel senior vice president and general manager of the Programmable Solutions Group.

“From data centers to devices, compute-intensive applications like 8K video and artificial intelligence require a multitude of innovative compute engines. FPGA devices play an increasingly critical role, often complementing other processing architectures, and Intel is at the center of this revolution,” said Roger Fawcett, CEO of Omnitek. “Omnitek is excited and extremely proud to bring our intellectual property and engineers to join the talented team in Intel’s Programmable Solutions Group.”

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UK operators: Huawei ban would bring heavy cost

A restriction placed on Huawei in the telecom supply chain could delay a full 5G launch by between 18 and 24 months and cost the UK economy between £4.5bn and £6.8bn, according to a study published by Mobile UK, which is the trade association for the UK’s mobile network operators -  EE, O2, Three and Vodafone.

The study argues that a delay to 5G rollout while operators make alternative procurement arrangements with other suppliers may seriously threaten the UK’s aspiration to be a world leader in 5G, something that has been central to the UK government’s industrial strategy since 2016.

http://www.mobileuk.org/potential-risk-to-uk-economy-if-use-of-huawei-for-5g-rollout-is-restricted.html

The report also provides the following summary of 5G plans

EE

EE plans to activate 5G sites in 16 UK cities in 2019. The first launch cities will be the UK’s four capital cities – London, Cardiff, Edinburgh and Belfast – and Birmingham and Manchester. As well as the six launch cities, through 2019 EE will also be introducing 5G across the busiest parts of ten more UK cities: Glasgow, Newcastle, Liverpool, Leeds, Hull, Sheffield, Nottingham, Leicester, Coventry and Bristol. The first 1,500 sites that EE is upgrading to 5G in 2019 carry 25% of all data across the whole network, covering 15% of the UK population. EE will launch with multiple smartphone partners, as well as an EE 5G home router with external antenna, to showcase the power of 5G for broadband. 

O2 

O2 will begin the roll-out of its 5G network in 2019 in Belfast, Cardiff, Edinburgh and London. Other areas of the UK will see roll-out from 2020 to coincide with the wider availability of 5G handsets.

Three 

Three will launch 5G in H2 2019 with a data-only Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) product as part of a £2bn network investment. The initial launch will be in London and other major cities where they see value to be greatest. This forms part of Three’s tiering strategy – to upgrade the busiest sites on its network. 

Vodafone 

Vodafone are already trialling 5G in Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Glasgow, Liverpool, London and Manchester and will be delivering 5G to Birkenhead, Blackpool, Bournemouth, Guildford, Newbury, Portsmouth, Plymouth, Reading, Southampton, Stoke-on-Trent, Warrington and Wolverhampton later in 2019.

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UK raises software engineering concerns in security evaluation of Huawei

The Huawei Cyber Security Evaluation Centre (HCSEC) Oversight Board published a 46-page report in which it discusses significant technical issues "in Huawei’s engineering processes, leading to new risks in the UK telecommunications networks." The report also states that although Huawei continues to engage in the security review process, "no material progress has been made by Huawei in the remediation of the issues reported last year."

HCSEC, whose mission is to evaluate the security risks posed by using Huawei’s equipment in critical national infrastructure, is a facility in Banbury, Oxfordshire, belonging to Huawei Technologies and administered by the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre.

Regarding the software engineering issues with potential impact on network security, the report states that the issue "is with Huawei’s underlying build process which provides no end-to-end integrity, no good configuration management, no lifecycle management of software components across versions, use of deprecated and out of support tool chains (some of which are non-deterministic) and poor hygiene in the build environments."

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/790270/HCSEC_OversightBoardReport-2019.pdf

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Quantum Network Link goes live in UK

The world’s first commercial-grade quantum test network link is now operational between the BT Labs in Suffolk and the Cambridge node of the UK’s new Quantum Network, which is being built by the Quantum Communications Hub, a collaboration between research and industry, supported by the UK’s National Quantum Technologies Programme. The new connection stretches from BT’s Adastral Park research campus near Ipswich in the East of England, to Cambridge. The wider UKQN network then extends onward over the National Dark Fibre Infrastructure Service to Bristol in the South-West.

The link uses over 125km of standard BT optical fibre between Cambridge and Adastral Park, with BT Exchanges acting as ‘trusted nodes’ along the route. The link will carry both quantum and non-quantum traffic; the QKD technique shares data encryption keys via an ultra-secure quantum channel over the same fibre that carries the encrypted data itself.

ADVA confirmed that its FSP 3000 is playing a key role in the new UKQNtel transport network secured by quantum key distribution (QKD). As part of an initiative led by QComm Hub, and with partners BT, ID Quantique and the universities of Cambridge and York, ADVA has constructed a QKD link capable of carrying classical and quantum channels on the same standard, installed fiber.

“Today’s launch is a significant step for network security. As well as being the UK’s longest QKD-protected link able to transmit both classical and quantum applications, this solution breaks new ground by showcasing the readiness of quantum cryptography for real-world transport,” said Professor Tim Whitley, MD, research and innovation, BT. “Our team has been at the forefront of developing quantum-secure telecoms infrastructure from day one. We’ve succeeded in taking the technology from PoCs in the lab to real-world demonstrations. Now we’re closing in on enabling customer trials and plans for full-scale deployments. Soon mission-critical networks will be protected even from cybercriminals intent on harvesting information today in order to decode and exploit it tomorrow.”

https://www.btplc.com/News/#/pressreleases/testing-begins-on-uks-ultra-secure-quantum-network-link-ukqntel-between-research-and-industry-2851900

https://www.advaoptical.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/20190326-adva-plays-key-role-in-development-of-uks-quantum-secured-transport-network

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BT proposes Open Access to street furniture

BT, which currently operates street furniture concessions across nine local authorities (Glasgow, Cardiff, Brighton, Plymouth, Carlisle, Newcastle/Gateshead, Nottingham, Gloucester and Leicester), is proposing to end its exclusive agreements to encourage other local authorities and the wider industry to adopt an alternative ‘open access’ model.

BT says the current concession model favoured by many local authorities, which grant a single mobile operator or infrastructure provider exclusive access to council-owned street furniture such as lamp posts and CCTV columns, discourages investments from other operators and will stymie the rollout of 5G small cells.

Paul Ceely, Director of Network Strategy, BT Group, said: “While the concessions model made sense in the early 2010’s when it first came into common use, the market and regulatory landscape have changed and it’s become clear that exclusivity agreements act as a barrier to further 4G and 5G investments. Government initiatives such as the DCMS Barrier Busting taskforce are showing the way, but we believe that industry needs to act. We are leading the way by handing back exclusivity in nine key areas.

“The UK needs an alternative approach which sees industry and local authorities working together to share these street sites in an open and collaborative way. This will create the right environment for long-term investment and innovation in future mobile networks. We believe Open Access will be critical in ensuring the UK has the best mobile infrastructure in place to maintain its position as one of the world’s leading digital economies.”

BT’s mobile arm, EE, has already revealed the first 16 cities to benefit from the launch of 5G services later this year. London, Cardiff, Belfast, Edinburgh, Birmingham and Manchester will be the first flagship cities for 5G deployment this year, with parts of Glasgow, Newcastle, Liverpool, Leeds, Hull, Sheffield, Nottingham, Leicester, Coventry and Bristol also set to benefit.

https://www.btplc.com/News/#/pressreleases/bt-calls-for-open-equivalent-access-to-street-furniture-to-boost-4g-and-5g-coverage-2850529

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CBRE acquires Romonet for data center analytics

CBRE Group, the global data center real estate firm, has acquired the assets of Romonet, which develops analytics software for data center operators.  Financial terms were not disclosed.

Romonet's software helps increase capacity at data centers. The company was founded in 2008 by data center technology pioneers Zahl Limbuwala and Liam Newcombe. Romonet is based in the UK and serves clients across the globe. Romonet and its team of professionals will be integrated into CBRE’s global Data Center Solutions offering.

John Dunstan, president, Data Center Solutions at CBRE, said: “Romonet adds complementary market-leading solutions to our existing platform and will help us to deliver highly differentiated outcomes for our clients across the globe.”

Mr. Limbuwala, co-founder of Romonet, said: “The data center market continues to rapidly evolve and scale, and automation is increasingly critical. Joining CBRE’s leading global data centers team will allow us to provide worldwide support and capability for our clients.”

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VIRTUS Data Centres begins major expansion in London

VIRTUS Data Centres is embarking on the simultaneous construction of five additional data centres across its London sites.

VIRTUS, which is backed by ST Telemedia Global Data Centres (STT GDC), is committing over £500m to the launch of the five new data centres in the London market, and the completion of its existing four live sites in Slough, Hayes and Enfield. The five new sites, which go live in 2019 and 2020, will add 76MW to VIRTUS’ London portfolio, doubling the total portfolio size to 145MW. Construction is expected over the next two years.

• Slough campus: VIRTUS is launching LONDON3, LONDON9 and LONDON10, delivering 36MW between them to add to its LONDON4 data centre. This will bring the total VIRTUS Slough Campus to 63MW, the largest on the Slough Estate. LONDON3, which completed its fit out in December 2018, is already more than 70 per cent contracted. LONDON9 and LONDON10 will go live in 2019 and 2020 and have anchor tenants already contracted. 
• Stockley Park campus: the accelerated delivery programme of LONDON6 and LONDON7 follows the successful launch of LONDON5, hich went live in July 2018, offers 24MW of IT load, of which over 75 percent is now sold.  LONDON6 and LONDON7 will deliver an additional 40MW of data centre space.  When complete, the Stockley Park campus will deliver 80MW of power across four data centres which total 32,000 sqm of IT space connected by high-count fibre cables from all of the leading fibre owners and operators. 

Neil Cresswell, CEO of VIRTUS Data Centres commented: “VIRTUS and our global platform partners, ST Telemedia Global Data Centres and GDS are leading the market in providing our customers flexible, high quality colocation at scale. Our enterprise and cloud customers have capacity and speed to market challenges in key markets like London. Our ability to deliver large amounts of capacity, faster and at a lower cost than other operators is solving these issues for them. We believe this scale and speed are two key factors which led VIRTUS to achieve over 50 per cent market share in London in 2018."

https://virtusdatacentres.com/press-releases/virtus-embarks-on-one-of-the-european-data-centre-industry-s-biggest-construction-programmes

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Boeing invests in Isotropic Systems for satellite terminals

Isotropic Systems Ltd., a start-up developing next-generation integrated satellite terminals, announced a $14 million Series A round of funding led by Boeing HorizonX Ventures, with participation from WML, Space Angels and Space Capital.

Isotropic Systems, which is based in London, is developing the world's first multi-service, high-bandwidth, low power, fully integrated high throughput terminal designed to support the satellite industry to 'reach beyond' traditional markets and acquire new customers with a full suite of high throughput services.

"The Series A financing builds on an exceptional year for Isotropic which saw a rapidly growing roster of strategic partners and customers who are poised to unlock the full potential of high-throughput satellites and mega-constellations across all orbits," said John Finney, founder and chief executive officer of Isotropic Systems. "Boeing's investment provides our team access to Boeing experts, testing labs, and other valuable resources to fast-track the deployment of our terminal solutions and to leverage our intellectual property across other space-based and wireless connectivity applications."

https://www.isotropicsystems.com

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Openreach extends its G.fast network to 81 more locations across UK

Openreach announced the planned extension of its Gfast network in a further 81 locations across the UK, including London, Leicester, Manchester, Worth, Birmingham, and Blackpool.

The multimillion pound investment will extend the service to just over a million homes and businesses.  This latest announcement complements a wider investment programme in FTTP networks, which is on track to reach three million homes and businesses by the end of 2020. By the mid-2020s, Openreach aims to reach a total of 5.7 million properties using Gfast, and also wants to extend its FTTP rollout to 10 million premises.

Openreach said its new Gfast network builds on existing infrastructure and changes the way broadband signals are transmitted from existing street cabinets to boost speeds up to 330 Mbps (seven times today’s UK average), without the need to dig up roads and install new cabling.

Kim Mears, MD for Strategic Infrastructure Development, said: “Currently, the UK is a world leader in digital infrastructure and services, but as the digital revolution rushes forwards and the demand for data continues to grow, we need to sure we stay ahead of the curve. That’s why we’re investing in faster, more reliable network infrastructure to facilitate all the activities we want to do now, and also those we haven’t even dreamt of doing in ten years’ time.”

https://news.openreach.co.uk/pressreleases/openreach-builds-ultrafast-broadband-network-to-81-new-locations-2803422

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