Ofcom has fined BT £17.5 million for being ill-prepared to respond to a catastrophic failure of its emergency call handling service last summer after network disruption affected 14,000 emergency calls in June 2023 and lasted 10.5 hours  BT connects 999 and 112 calls in the UK and provides relay services for deaf and speech-impaired people.

Customers must be told upfront in pounds and pence about any price rises their provider includes in their contract, under new consumer protection rules announced today by Ofcom. UK phone, broadband, and pay TV companies will no longer be able to include price rises linked to future inflation rates in their contract terms. New Rules

Bllling systems provider Lifecycle Software, has appointed chief commercial officer Liz Parry as its new Chief Executive Officer. She takles over from Kelvin Chaffer, who is leaving the company after 23 years to become CEO of group company Neural Technologies specialising in revenue assurance. Lifecycle is an online charging system, billing and business support solution

Virgin Media O2 will be deploying temporary wheeled masts at 29 festivals and special events and at 12 holiday destinations this summer. The temporary masts, known as Cells on Wheels (COW), are powered by a hydrotreated vegetable oil solution expected to save 300 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent. The network says this is around the

Egypt is finally getting 5G, initially in Alexandria, Aswan, Cairo, Giza, and Luxor. Nokia will supply its AirScale equipment to Telecom Egypt’s network deploying Massive MIMO radios, baseband units, and remote radio heads, using the energy-efficient ReefShark System-on-Chip technology. The rollout is scheduled to commence later this year. Telecom Egypt is Egyp’ts main phone c0mpany,

Eurostar Global Electrnics’ logistics arm, Eurostar Logistics, has rebranded as Tech3PL to reflect its three-pronged strategy of being technology-driven and handling third-party logistics and fulfilment. The service covers logistics and supply chain management, including transportation, warehousing, freight forwarding. The rebrand comes a year after Eurostar commissioned a new 43,000 sq ft distribution and logistics centre

Three Becomes Chelsea Women’s Principal Partner Three is now the Chelsea Women’s football team’s main sponsor, becoming their first women’s-only Principal Partner. Three’s logo will feature on all women’s players’ training kits, matchday warm-up shirts, and travel apparel in the upcoming season. Fans will have the chance to purchase these items starting from the 2025/26

Vodafone and Virgin Media O2 have agreed to extend their network sharing agreement that has been operating for more than a decade. The agreement is subject to the approval of the merger between Vodafone and Three by the Competition and Markets Authority. The agreement will be an irresistible carrot for the Competition and Markets Authority

Virgin Media O2 and environmental charity Hubbub are running a PR campaign to urge people to hand in their unwanted phones to the Community Calling scheme so the devices can be redistributed to people in need. Community Calling was established in 2020 in response to the pandemic to provide smartphones to help people who couldn’t

Vodafone will be donating around 75,000 connections during the Wimbledon tennis tournament, which starts today (July 1). The ‘Connect Better’ promotion will challenge players to hit their fastest serves and increase the target number of 75,000 connections. It is part of Vodafone’s everyone.connected program, which aims to help four million people and businesses cross the

EE has opened its second Experience store in Manchester, a year after the launch of the first Experience store in Manchester’s Trafford Centre. EE reports that this new store has produced a 25 per cent boost in footfall compared to previous stores in the area. Manchester is now the first city to have two of

Vodafone Customer Marketing VP Frank Wiemann has joined Lyca Mobile as the Chief Marketing Officer. Wiemann will work on branding development across Lyca Mobile’s global footprint. He has around two decades of experience in the telecommunications industry and has held various senior leadership roles at E.ON, o.tel.o communications, and Vodafone in Germany, Spain, and the

Vodafone’s prepay team has given its 2024 Vodafone Prepay Campaign of the Year award to distributor GK Telecom  GK is a PAYG SIM distributor for all networks, and also distributes for MVNOs such as Giffgaff, Smarty, Voxi, and Lebara. The company handles all the tariff refreshes and summer and winter promotions for Vodafone and other

eSIM Go has signed Confused.com to its Breeze affiliate partner programme. The comparison web site will now offer travel insurance customers an eSIM Go eSIM of up to 2GB of free mobile data to use in selected countries around the world . eSIM Go recently signed uSwitch as an affiliate and says there is strong

Apple has suspended work on the second-generation Vision Pro spatial computing headset to focus resources on developing a cheaper model, The Information reports. Apple is launching the Vision Pro in Europe and the UK on July12 with pre-orders open Next Friday (June 18) The Information reports that an Apple indicated the company plans to divide its

Vodafone has added a ‘Good Grade’ option in its refurbished phone range which claims to offer customers savings of up to £216 over new. Good Grade is described as “excellent working order but some visible signs of use, such as small scratches, dents or marks on the case and screen”. Good Grade devices, include iPhone

Virgin Media O2 has used a helicopter to deliver three new 4G mobile phone masts to the remote Uist islands in the Outer Hebrides as part of the £1bn Shared Rural Network programme. Uist is a group of six islands that are part of the Outer Hebridean Archipelago, which is part of the Outer Hebrides

HONOR has brought out a new 200 Series line-up with an emphasis on photography and prices ranging from £279.99 to £699.99. The new line was developed with Studio Harcourt, a Parisian portrait photography house that helped develop AI capabilities to manipulate light and shadow based on analyzing thousands of photographs. The HONOR 200 Pro is

Comparison site Uswitch.com has teamed up with eSIM Go to launch data-only travel eSIMs, offering prices from 13p a day. Customers can sign up online and connect to local networks at their destination or before they travel for instant connection on an eSIM-compatible device. The travel eSIMs use mobile data onl and exclude regular network

Phoenix Cellular, the secondary market distributor founded in 2015 by brothers Marc and Paul Walters along with Andrew Dulla has gone into administration. Administrators Begbies Traynor were appointed yesterday (June 4) to handle the company’s affairs. The Walters brothers were previously involved in recycling at Mobile Phone Xchange (MPX), a company they ran with their

GSMA director general  Mats Granryd, Director General will depart the role after MWC Barcelona 2025 following nine years in the post, and having twice agreed a contract extension. A successor will be chosen in due course. Granryd has declined further extensions. He will remain as the DG until the end of March 2025 and then

Decreasing data plan costs and expanding mobile networks are allowing more people than ever to enjoy online gaming writes Mathew Ratty, CEO and founder of ad fraud prevention provider TrafficGuard. Mobile betting draws in the majority share of online gamblers, especially younger bettors. The Gambling Commission found that three quarters of 18–34 year-olds use a

The Evening Standard has blamed 4G coverage on London Underground for one of the reasons the newspaper has axed its daily print edition after 197 years and losses of £87.5 million since 2019. An email to staff from the newspaper’s chair Paul Kanareck on Wednesday said the proliferation of home working, and the availability of

Self-repair company iFixit has scrapped its two-year-old Samsung Repair Hub because it “consistently faced obstacles that made us doubt Samsung’s commitment to making repair more accessible”. The Samsung Repair Hub aimed to provide local independent repair businesses with tools and parts to repair Galaxy devices Samsung UK says iFixit’s announcement is specific to Samsung US.