Fibre-optic

UK govt wants standalone 5G by 2030 but won't shell out to help hit target

Instead tech department working on 'range of measures' to foster investment

Networks12 Apr 2023 | 105

Rebel without a clause: ISP promises broadband with no contract

We don't need to trap customers to force loyalty, says boss

Networks13 Mar 2023 | 45

BT keeps the faith in 'like fury' fiber broadband buildout as revenues dip

Almost 10 million premises hooked up but cost-cutting campaign continues

Networks02 Feb 2023 | 44

Openreach offers more wholesale fiber discounts, rivals call foul

CityFibre seethes that move comes straight out of 'dominant operator ... playbook'

Networks19 Dec 2022 | 45

Why did Microsoft just buy fiber optic cable company Lumenisity?

When every nanosecond of latency counts, improvements in the physical layer matter

Networks13 Dec 2022 | 41

Lumen to double size of US network with six million extra miles of fiber

Big expansion of 400Gbps networking as it plays catch-up on speeds and feeds

Networks06 Dec 2022 | 7

Union meeting BT shareholders today to discuss strikes, pay rises

Exclusive CWU also planning to re-ballot entire workforce, claims stoppages are delaying fiber and network builds

Networks24 Oct 2022 | 9

Boffins shatter data transmission speed record

One laser + one optical chip = more than the traffic of the entire internet

Science21 Oct 2022 | 45

Lockheed Martin taps silicon photonics tech to build better weapons of war

Let the battle against latency begin

Systems13 Oct 2022 | 3

BT will back down in face of non-stop protests, says union

CWU: Just like UK government did a reverse-ferret on tax, so will national telecom titan on staff pay

Networks06 Oct 2022 | 8

Google challenges US ISPs with 100Gbps fiber broadband

An internet advertiser as your service provider – what could go wrong?

Networks29 Sep 2022 | 18

Japan's NTT claims it's built 1.2Tbit/s optical comms that sip power

Cloud and 5G mean the world needs beefier backbones and NTT thinks this could build them

Networks07 Sep 2022 | 5

Waferscale startup says it can stitch chips together with light

Hot Chips Interconnect tech promises 96TB/s die-to-die communications

Systems29 Aug 2022 | 5

How Google uses mirrors to dynamically reconfigure its networks

Tiny electromechanical units bounce traffic down different fibers

Networks24 Aug 2022 | 15

Tencent lines up to deploy Broadcom's co-packaged optical switches

A faster 51.2Tbit/sec co-packaged switch is also in the works

Networks22 Aug 2022 | 2

Interconnect innovation key to satiating soaring demand for fiber capacity

Traffic is growing 30 percent every year, there's no reason to believe that'll change, BT's Andrew Lord argues

Networks20 Aug 2022 | 24

BT union wants pay dispute talks with telco's largest shareholders

The game of corporate poker continues but CWU may find investors more interested in dividends

Networks10 Aug 2022 | 45

Strike days should serve as 'wake-up call' to BT's top brass, says union

We kept network running 'safely and effectively' on those days, nothing to see here, says Brit telco

Networks04 Aug 2022 | 115

BT accused of 'misinformation' campaign ahead of strikes

Union tells members to hold nerve on eve of first nationwide sit down in 35 years

Networks28 Jul 2022 | 55

Price, lead times and scarcity of fiber optics may derail projects

Cost of optical cable more than doubles in 16 months as demand goes through roof

Networks25 Jul 2022 | 9

BT strikes to start this month, 40,000 workers to down tools

Pay dispute rumbles on, industrial action scheduled for 29 July and 1 August

Off-Prem15 Jul 2022 | 88

Will optics ever replace copper interconnects? We asked this silicon photonics startup

Star Trek's glowing circuit boards may not be so crazy

Networks18 Jun 2022 | 42

South Yorkshire to test fiber broadband through water pipes

No actual users harmed yet as dept tests safety of pushing water, telecoms services in single pipeline

Networks07 Apr 2022 | 90

Fibre broadband uptake in UK lags behind OECD countries

Not very 'world-beating'

Networks11 Feb 2022 | 124

New submarine cable to link Japan, Europe, through famed Northwest Passage

Alternative route will skip the Suez Canal and other tricky spots

Off-Prem21 Dec 2021 | 58

Japanese boffins say they've created plastic optical fibres to reach places that might break glass

Polymers can transmit at 53Gbps without error correction overheads, and could be just the thing for electric cars

Networks24 Sep 2021 | 27

Imagine a fiber optic cable that can sense it's about to be dug up and send a warning

Forget wiring cities with IoT devices – this could be how wide-scale sensing gets done

Networks23 Sep 2021 | 45

BT Wholesale wants the channel to give SMBs a nudge before copper sunset in 2025

New products launched to help shift oblivious or straggler firms over ahead of PSTN switch-off

Networks15 Sep 2021 | 33

BT hails hollow-core fibre trials as 'critical advancement' for secure communications

Telco claims to have run Quantum Key Distribution over 6km of cable

Networks13 Sep 2021 | 7

319 terabits – great Scott! Boffins in Japan speed along information superhighway at new world record

System compatible with existing infra. No you can't eat it now, kids, it's for later, for upcoming 5G backbone

Networks19 Jul 2021 | 13

UK launches consultation on forcing landlords to allow gigabit broadband upgrades

We want to give your property better internets for free, pls respond

Networks09 Jun 2021 | 20

UK's BT starts trials of new hollow-core optical fibre networks

Promises lower latencies, higher power thresholds

Networks01 Jun 2021 | 41

Maybe high-speed internet is infrastructure after all, say US Republicans in proposal to spend $65bn over five years

Our plan is better than President Biden's, they claim, with few details

Networks23 Apr 2021 | 24

Grotesque soundbyte alert: UK government opens wallet to help rural areas get 'gigafit'

Tough luck if you're in Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales

Networks19 Mar 2021 | 46

Ofcom says no price controls on full-fibre broadband until 2031, giving BT's Openreach the kick to 'build like fury'

Analyst: 'Ultimate winner is BT as it's avoided cost-based regulation for next half decade'

Networks18 Mar 2021 | 38

The good optics of silicon photonics: Light sailing serenely down a fibre

Column 15 years in the making. Out of the labs and into the real world: The 100Gbps Internet connection

Science01 Feb 2021 | 26

Surprising everyone, spending watchdog says the UK's 2025 deadline for nationwide gigabit broadband is 'unreachable'

Regulatory hurdles, funding, pandemic, and Huawei have made this a big ask – but industry remains determined

Networks08 Jan 2021 | 20

Virginia voter registration website falls over hours before deadline. The Russians? No, a broken fiber line

Cable damaged during sewer installation? Now that's a sh** storm

Networks13 Oct 2020 | 22

Congratulations Peebles. Felicitations Queenzieburn. Openreach is bringing you FTTP (yes, they're real places)

Full-fibre connections coming to (some of) the UK's 'final third' by 2026

On-Prem30 Jul 2020 | 46

Community Fibre to splash £400m on FTTP connections as it races to cover a million London properties by 2023

10Gbps upgrade from challenger ISP backed by private equity

Networks30 Jul 2020 | 14

Customers of Brit ISP Virgin Media have downloaded an extra 325GB since March, though we can't think why

That's a lot of... Netflix. Yes, that's it

Networks18 Jun 2020 | 53

Oh crap: UK's digital overlords moot new rules to help telcos lay fibre in sewer pipes

That's the Department of Fun to you

Networks12 Jun 2020 | 49

TalkTalk keeps results under wraps citing 'advanced negotiations' over FibreNation biz

Has it found an investor in £1.5bn venture to build 3 million FTTP connections?

Networks13 Nov 2019 | 7

Openreach's cunning plan to 'turbocharge' the post-Brexit economy: Getting everyone on full-fibre broadband by 2025

£59bn boost – 'if we can get right conditions to invest'

Networks11 Oct 2019 | 56

You better get a wiggle on then: BT said to be mulling switching off UK's copper internets by 2027

Would that be the 'secret talks' Openreach is consulting on?

Networks19 Sep 2019 | 72

Not so G.fast: Hybrid fibre 'under review' as Openreach remembers it's all about FTTP now

BT clears throat, gestures wildly at its new full-fibre targets

Networks12 Sep 2019 | 47

Virgin Media's Project Lightning now at 1.8m connections. Just 2.2m to go before year's end, right?

And yes, broadband flinger appears to shift focus to hybrid

Networks08 Aug 2019 | 33

Virgin Media promises speeds of 1Gpbs to 15 million homes – all without full fibre

But industry is sceptical hybrid network tech will cut it

Networks25 Jul 2019 | 64

Boris Johnson's promise of full fibre in the UK by 2025 is pie in the sky

Analysis From the man who brought us the garden bridge and water cannons

Networks17 Jul 2019 | 219

UK's Openreach admits 50k premises on 'gigabit-capable' FTTP network can't get gigabit speeds

330Mbps will have to do. Boohoo

Networks05 Jul 2019 | 65

European fibre lobby calls for end to fake fibre broadband ads

If you think you have a full-fibre connection, you probably don't

Networks03 Dec 2018 | 58

Openreach names 81 lucky locations to be plugged into its super-zippy Gfast pipe

Take a look up the railtrack, from Barking to Faversham

Networks26 Nov 2018 | 47

TalkTalk's £1.5bn 3-million home fibre broadband hopes on ice for now

FibreNation might exist but the expected sack of cash is yet to be announced

Networks21 Nov 2018 | 13

British fixed broadband is cheap … and, er, fairly nasty – global survey

Though you get what you pay for, mostly

Networks06 Nov 2018 | 45

Openreach hacks full-fibre broadband prices for developers... Property developers, that is

Sorry, programmers. No bowel-moving discounts for you

Networks26 Oct 2018 | 25

BT, beware: Cityfibre reveals plan to shovel £2.5bn under Britain's rural streets

Full fibre deployment shifts up a gear

Networks24 Oct 2018 | 55