Zayo to open first data center in the London metro area

Zayo announced plans to open its first data center in the London metro area, will add 30,000 total square feet and 3.6 megawatts (MW) of critical power.

The new data center, which will be located in Feltham, UK, is driven by a commitment from a major anchor tenant. It will add 30,000 total square feet and 3.6 megawatts (MW) of critical power.

“This new data center strengthens our commitment to the UK, providing customers with an excellent option for colocation and high-capacity fiber connectivity,” said TJ Karklins, senior vice president of Zayo's zColo business segment. “This facility will offer low-latency connectivity to Slough, city center, and even around central London for connection directly to France and the rest of Europe. We look forward to delivering high-compliance, network-neutral solutions from our growing European platform.”

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Vodafone UK tests 3.4 GHz spectrum for 5G

Vodafone UK completed the first test of 3.4 Gigahertz (GHz) spectrum for 5G across an existing live network between Manchester and the company’s headquarters in Newbury, Berkshire.

The test used Massive MIMO combined with 3.4 GHz spectrum running over the core 4G network. Vodafone's site in Manchester was its contact centre, which houses around 1,000 customer service employees

The company described the test as a major milestone in UK telecommunications, as it is the first time that the 3.4 Gigahertz (GHz) radio frequency allocated for 5G has been used in the UK, and noted that is was carried out just a week after Vodafone secured the largest slice of 5G spectrum in Ofcom’s auction.

Vodafone UK Chief Executive Nick Jeffery said: “5G will improve the quality of our lives and transform how we work. This next generation technology will enable medical services that could save lives, from remote surgery to remote care for the elderly. It will enhance industrial applications, from automated systems to robotics, helping manufacturers across the UK boost their productivity. And it will enable families to share their experiences with loved ones wherever they are, thanks to innovations like augmented reality."

UK completes spectrum auction - EE and Vodafone gain 5G bands

Thursday, April 05, 2018  Auction, Ofcom, Spectrum, UK  No Comments

Ofcom, the official telecoms regulator in the U.K., completed the auction of 190 MHz of spectrum across two frequency bands: 40 MHz in the 2.3 GHz band, which will be used to increase 4G mobile broadband capacity; and 150 MHz in 3.4GHz, which has been earmarked for 5G.

Here are the results:

EE won 40 MHz of 3.4 GHz spectrum at a cost of £302,592,000.

Hutchison 3G UK won 20 MHz of 3.4 GHz spectrum at a cost of £151,296,000.

Telefónica UK won all 40 MHz of 2.3 GHz spectrum available, at a cost of £205,896,000; and 40 MHz of 3.4 GHz spectrum at a cost of £317,720,000.

Vodafone won 50 MHz of 3.4 GHz spectrum at a cost of £378,240,000.

Airspan Spectrum Holdings, which would have been a new entrant to the UK mobile market, failed to win spectrum in either band.

The total value of the winning bids amounts to £1,355,744,000.

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UK completes spectrum auction - EE and Vodafone gain 5G bands

Ofcom, the official telecoms regulator in the U.K., completed the auction of 190 MHz of spectrum across two frequency bands: 40 MHz in the 2.3 GHz band, which will be used to increase 4G mobile broadband capacity; and 150 MHz in 3.4GHz, which has been earmarked for 5G.

Here are the results:

EE won 40 MHz of 3.4 GHz spectrum at a cost of £302,592,000.

Hutchison 3G UK won 20 MHz of 3.4 GHz spectrum at a cost of £151,296,000.

Telefónica UK won all 40 MHz of 2.3 GHz spectrum available, at a cost of £205,896,000; and 40 MHz of 3.4 GHz spectrum at a cost of £317,720,000.

Vodafone won 50 MHz of 3.4 GHz spectrum at a cost of £378,240,000.

Airspan Spectrum Holdings, which would have been a new entrant to the UK mobile market, failed to win spectrum in either band.

The total value of the winning bids amounts to £1,355,744,000.

Philip Marnick, Spectrum Group Director at Ofcom: "This is good news for everyone who uses their mobile phone to access the internet. As a nation, we’re using ever more mobile data on smartphones and mobile devices. Releasing these airwaves will make it quicker and easier to get online on the move. It will also allow companies to prepare for 5G mobile, paving the way for a range of smart, connected devices."

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IAR Systems acquires Secure Thingz

IAR Systems Group AB, based in Uppsala, Sweden agreed to acquire Secure Thingz, a provider of advanced security solutions for embedded systems in the Internet of Things (IoT).

IAR Systems, which already owned approximately 20 percent of the shares in Secure Thingz, will pay approximately 230 MSEK (US$27.9 million) for the remaining 80%. IAR will finance the acquisition either with support from a credit facility or by a directed share issue.

Secure Thingz, which is based in Cambridge, UK and with an office in San Jose, California, was founded in 2016 by staff from ARM. The company develops and sells products and services for implementation of embedded security in connected devices. The company has provided security solutions for the Renesas Synergy Platform through its Secure Deploy platform offerings. Secure Thingz is headed by Haydn Povey, who previously led Arm's strategy for security across mobile, enterprise and IoT domains. Before that, Haydn Povey led the development and introduction of the Arm Cortex-M microprocessor family, which now dominates the embedded and IoT-markets and whose large market impact enabled the rapid adoption of 32-bit microcontroller technology around the globe. Haydn Povey will continue to operate Secure Thingz as CEO.

In February 2018, IAR Systems and Secure Thingz introduced a jointly developed product called Embedded Trust that enables companies to safeguard intellectual property against overproduction and counterfeiting, manage software updates in a robust way, and protect end users from malware intrusion and theft or loss of data.

"With the increasing number of connected devices, our customers are facing new challenges. One of the major challenges is how to deliver secure products in a world where even minor failures can lead to major consequences," comments Stefan Skarin, CEO, IAR Systems. "As a first step, our customers need help mainly protecting themselves against overproduction and IP theft, and we are responding to this need with a new offering that provides possibilities to create modern workflow where security is included from start. The acquisition of Secure Thingz is a step in our increased ambition for future growth through new technology, new markets, new business models, and new relationships. It also secures our position as a frontrunner in a changing industry."

"We are very excited to become a part of the highly competent IAR Systems team," says Haydn Povey, CEO, Secure Thingz. "We have already established a smooth collaboration with the development of Embedded Trust, and our combined resources within technology, sales and customer support will enable us to accelerate the development of the innovative security solutions that the digital products market so desperately needs."

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Matillion raises $20 million for cloud data warehousing software

Matillion, a start-up based in the UK, announced a $20 million Series B round of funding for its cloud data integration tools.

Matillion's software enables customers to extract, load and transform data into and on cloud-based data warehouses, quickly and at scale. Versions are avaialable for Amazon Redshift, Snowflake and Google BigQuery.

The funding round was led by Sapphire Ventures and included new investor Scale Venture Partners, and existing investor, UK-based venture capital trust, YFM Equity Partners.

"Cloud-based data warehouses, like Amazon Redshift, Snowflake and BigQuery, are changing the game in data analytics, reducing cost, time-to-value and increasing the power available to businesses to load, transform and analyse their data. The thousands of new projects and workloads this creates is in turn driving rapidly increasing demand for our built-for-the-Cloud, ELT architecture, data integration tools, as companies want and need to compete with data, quickly and at any scale," said Matthew Scullion, chief executive officer, Matillion. "This round of funding is an exciting opportunity for us to work with the fantastic teams at Sapphire Ventures and Scale Ventures Partners to meet the needs of our customers and partners as well as further accelerate the pace of innovation going into our products."

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UK kicks off 5G spectrum auction

Ofcom, the official telecoms regulator in the U.K., has commenced an auction to release more airwaves to improve mobile broadband capacity, and help prepare for future 5G services.

A total of 190 MHz of spectrum is being sold across two frequency bands: 40 MHz in the 2.3 GHz band, which will be used to increase mobile broadband capacity for today’s users; and 150 MHz in 3.4GHz, which has been earmarked for 5G.

Five companies have been approved to bid in the auction: Airspan Spectrum Holdings Ltd; EE Limited; Hutchison 3G UK Limited; Telefonica UK Limited and Vodafone Limited.

The length of the auction depends on the level of bidding activity. There is a £70m reserve price, with the value increasing round by round as bids are made.

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Netsparker raises $40 million for its web security software

Netsparker, a start-up based in the U.K., raised $40 million in venture funding for its web application security scanning software.

The funding round was led by Turn/River Capital, a San Francisco-based growth and private equity fund focused on enterprise software companies.

Netsparker says its solution can identify security flaws in any type of website, web application and web service. Netsparker’s Proof-Based Scanning Technology automatically verifies security flaws as they are discovered, enabling the scanners to have industry-leading vulnerability detection rates without reporting any false positives.

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Openreach commits to "Fibre First" for the UK

Openreach announced plans to accelerate its rollout of Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) across the UK.

The new "Fibre First Programme" represents a strategic shift in the way that Openreach thinks about last mile infrastructure. Going forward, the company will seek to deploy "fibre first" wherever possible, including in rural areas.

Openreach said its new goal is to reach three million homes and businesses by the end of 2020. The programme will start in a few months in an initial eight cities – Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Leeds, Liverpool, London, and Manchester.

Reaching an all-fibre network across the UK is a massive and Openreach said the full rollout may take decades.

"I believe Openreach can be at the heart of this digital revolution and has a critical role to play in ensuring the UK has a FTTP network, fit for the future. The prize for our wholesale customers, their customers and the UK as a whole is huge," stated Clive Selley, Openreach CEO.

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UK's National Research and Education Network to activate 400G with Ciena

Jisc, which operates Janet – the UK’s world-class National Research and Education Network (NREN), is deploying Ciena’s 6500 packet-optical platform to enable 400G wavelength connectivity -- a world first for an NREN.

“Our vision is for the UK to be at the forefront of scientific research. To make that happen, we must have a highly robust network powered with industry-leading technology that can scale to support bandwidth-intensive applications like genome editing and The Square Kilometre Array,” said Jeremy Sharp, Network Infrastructure Director, Jisc.

“Working with Ciena, the Janet Network was the first NREN to provide 100G for users and, as demand has grown, is now the first to provide 400G. WaveLogic Ai enables us to operate efficiently and accurately engineer the network for optimal capacity to manage massive flows from new data-intensive research activities,” Sharp added.

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BT adds direct connect to IBM Cloud services

BT launched a new service to provide global businesses with direct access to IBM Cloud via the BT network.

Within the UK, the BT Cloud Connect Direct now provides connectivity into IBM Cloud data centres in the UK.

This will be followed in the coming months with direct connectivity into IBM Cloud data centres in mainland Europe, the US, Australia and Asia, optimising performance and compliance for customers in those regions.

Cloud Connect Direct for IBM will be managed and supported from a single BT-managed service desk, providing proactive management and quality of service.

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Vodafone initiates 5G trial with Ericsson

Vodafone UK is conducting a trial of pre-standard 5G using 3.5 GHz spectrum in central London.

The testing is carried out in partnership with Ericsson and King’s College London. The trial includes both indoor and outdoor configurations using MIMO, beamforming, beam tracking, and other advanced technologies.

Vodafone UK Head of Networks Kye Prigg said: “We’re delighted to be the first provider to test standalone 5G in the field, however, building a 5G network will take time. Right now, we’re also modernising our network by making smarter use of our existing mobile technology to keep ahead of consumption demands and provide the mobile coverage our customers deserve.

“5G also needs fibre optic cables. Together with CityFibre, we will soon start work installing the advanced fibre networks providing high-capacity backhaul connections required for 5G mobile services.”

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China Mobile to enter UK as MVNO

China Mobile is entering the UK telephony market as a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) with leased capacity on the EE network.

The new service -- called CMLink -- will provide mobile voice and data services for Chinese immigrants, students and professionals living in and traveling to the UK. The company estimates the size of the Chinese community in the UK at 433,000. A further 82,000 Chinese nationals are studying in the UK on student visas. During the first half of 2017, there were 115,000 Chinese tourists visiting the UK, up 47% over last year.

Two key features of the service:

• CMLink promises no extra fees on data, minutes and texts across the UK, selected destinations in the EU, mainland China and Hong Kong SAR.
• CMLink subscribers can  make free calls to 880 million China Mobile users in China.

“China Mobile’s ‘Big Connectivity’ strategy affirms its vision of becoming a leading global operator with innovative digital services.” said Dr. Li Feng, Chairman and CEO at CMI. “While China Mobile serves 880 million domestic mobile subscribers, CMI – its operating subsidiary responsible for international business – is breaking new ground in overseas markets. With the growing business and cultural exchanges between China and the UK, the launch of CMI’s CMLink MVNO, enables Chinese communities to stay connected with family, friends and business partners anytime, anywhere. We expect the UK launch to be a new chapter in CMI delivering compelling digital services that break down barriers of communication for global consumers while fostering open exchange between Belt and Road companies.”

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BT awards 5-year contract renewal to Ciena

BT awarded a five-year contract renewal to Ciena to deploy its 6500 Converged Packet Optical Platform. Financial terms were not disclosed.

The UK-wide deployment, which commenced in summer 2017, will enable BT to grow its optical services business.

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EE flies a 4G mast in helium balloon

EE, which is now part of BT Group, deplyed a Helikite ‘air mast’ at a Red Bull Foxhunt downhill mountain biking event in Wales. Specifically, the EE air mast was flown 300 feet above Machynlleth, on the edge of Snowdonia National Park, to boost 4G coverage and capacity for the Red Bull mountain biking event.

EE claims this was the first time the balloon technology has been used to provide mobile connectivity to consumers.

EE also noted that it recently upgraded more than 900 sites across the UK to support the latest smartphones with Cat 12 and Cat 16 capabilities, increasing the maximum downlink rate from 50Mbps to up to 100Mbps.

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Iron Mountain to buy data centres in London and Singapore

Iron Mountain has agree to acquire two Credit Suisse data centers in London and Singapore for approximately $100 million. As part of the transaction, Credit Suisse will enter into a long-term lease with Iron Mountain to maintain their existing data center operations. The two facilities combined add 273,000 square feet and over 14 megawatts (MW) of capacity (including future expansion) to Iron Mountain’s growing portfolio – of which 4.2MW is leased to Credit Suisse. The London data center is 120,000 total square feet and located in the Slough Trading Estate, while the Singapore data center is 153,000 total square feet located in Serangoon.

The deal represents the first international expansion of Iron Mountain's data center business.

Iron Mountain plans to fund the purchase with proceeds from a new share issua.

• In September, Iron Mountain acquired the FORTRUST data center business.
• Also in September, Iron Mountain opened the first of four planned data centers at a new, 83-acre campus in Northern Virginia. The first is a Tier III, 165,000 square-foot, 10.5-megawatt multi-tenant and cloud facility located in Prince William County. The company invested over $80 million in the first phase of this data center and expects to invest $350 million to bring the full campus to completion. The first phase opens with more than half of its first phase capacity pre-leased, including customers like Virtustream, a Dell Technologies business. 
• Northern Virginia is Iron Mountain’s fifth U.S. data centre market. Additional locations include Boston, Denver, Kansas City and Western Pennsylvania.

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VIRTUS plans massive data center in West London

VIRTUS Data Centres announced plans two new buildings at its eight-acre campus near Stockley Park, West London.

The new two facilities, known as LONDON5 and LONDON6, measure 34,475m2 and are designed to deliver 40MW of IT load. LONDON5 is expected to be ready in early 2018.

The VIRTUS campus is 16 miles from central London on the main fibre routes from London to Slough, and 7 miles from Slough. The company said this expansion strengthens its position as the largest hybrid colocation provider in the London metro area.  These two new data centres will provide an additional 17,000NTM (net technical metres) of IT space and will increase VIRTUS’ portfolio in London to approximately 100MW across their six facilities in Slough, Hayes and Enfield, with the power to expand to circa 150MW on the various campuses.

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Toshiba's Cambridge Research Lab Sets Quantum Encryption record

Quantum cyptography is postulated to be unbreakable. However, the quantum key must be held by the receiving party for the encrypted message to be deciphered. Until now, the speed at which a quantum key can be distributed has been limited to 1.9 Mbps.

Toshiba Research Europe Limited’s Cambridge Research Laboratory in the UK has just announced a new data distribution speed record of 13.7 Mbps - seven times the previous record, which was also achieved by Toshiba last year. The transmission spanned 10km over an optical fiber.

The details of the new device will be announced at the QCrypt 2017 conference, which will be held at the University of Cambridge from September 18-22.

Toshiba says it is already applying quantum encrption to secure genomic data in Japan.

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BT unveils “Business Platform-as-a-Service”

BT unveiled its new “Business Platform-as-a-Service” for helping enterprise customers engage in digital transformation.

The service lets enterprises use the BT Personalised Compute Management System (PCMS) to enable them to sell, fulfil and monetise their own portfolio of digital services.

This is the same platform that BT uses for its own cloud portfolio.

BT said enterprises wanting rapid entry into the cloud market will be able to resell its existing digital ecosystem services, such as Cloud Compute, Compute Storage and Apps , or develop their own new services. BT's platform offers more than 45 fully digitalised business support processes, such as product management, customer management, user authentication, order management, service management and billing and collections.

Services are deliverd from 22 BT locations around the world.

“PCMS brings to life a vision of how businesses can innovate in the digital economy. It is a ready-made platform that allows new ways for companies to digitalise, manage and build profitable business models from their own vibrant ecosystem of consumers, producers and innovators," stated Neil Lock, vice president Compute, Global Services, BT.

http://www.btplc.com/News/#/pressreleases/bt-announces-business-platform-as-a-service-2129340
https://www.globalservices.bt.com/uk/en/products/personalised-cms

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UK's Jisc selects GTT to support national R&E network

GTT Communications, a major global cloud networking provider serving multinational clients, announced an agreement with Jisc, the provider of digital solutions for the UK research and education community and operator of the Janet network for the delivery of Internet services.

Under the agreement, GTT will provide high-speed Internet services for the Janet network to support the research and learning of its approximately 18 million UK college and university users.

GTT delivers Internet services over its Tier 1 global IP backbone, which features over 300 points of presence and enable the provision of flexible, high-capacity cloud networking services to major organisations worldwide.

GTT’s resilient Internet connectivity solution for Jisc is designed to guarantee high network availability, interconnecting via three geographically separated points of presence. The initial service agreement provides up to 120 Gbit/s of Internet capacity with the opportunity to further upgrade the service as Jisc's user demand increases. GTT noted that the Janet network is also the UK operator of Eduroam, the international roaming service for the education community with 70 million users.

Janet operates a network that includes over 5,000 km of optical fibre and a backbone that runs at 100 Gbit/s with interconnect capacity of around 40 Gbit/s.

https://www.gtt.net/press_release/jisc-selects-gtt-upgrade-internet-uk-research-education-networks/

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BT restructures, appoints EE CEO to lead new Consumer business

UK-based telco BT Group has announced organisational changes designed to simplify its operating model, strengthen accountabilities and accelerate its transformation.

The organisational changes are as follows:

1.         Marc Allera, currently CEO of the EE business acquired in 2016, is appointed to lead a newly created Consumer business, combining BT's Consumer and EE businesses, effective September 1, 2017. The new Consumer business will operate via three distinct brands - BT, EE and Plusnet – encompassing fixed and mobile networks, consumer products and services and content.

Marc Allen previously served in a number of roles with Three UK, including as chief commercial officer and sales and marketing director, and prior to that with its parent company Hutchison Whampoa.

2.         Cathryn Ross, currently chief executive of Ofwat, the water sector regulator in England and Wales, has been appointed as director of regulatory affairs, following the decision of Sean Williams, current chief strategy officer at BT Group, to leave the company. Cathryn Ross is expected to take up her new role in January 2018.

Prior to joining Ofwat, Cathryn Ross was executive director of markets and economics at the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) and also worked at the Competition Commission (now Competition and Markets Authority).

3.         John Petter, after nearly four years serving as CEO of BT Consumer, has announced he will step down to pursue roles outside BT Group.

http://www.btplc.com/news/index.htm#/pressreleases/organisation-and-senior-management-changes-at-bt-2086252

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