News  Three out of the UK’s four MNOs requested the deadline extension back in October  The UK government has denied a request from three of the UK’s mobile operators (Three, Vodafone and Virgin Media O2) pleading for a deadline extension of the first phase of the Shared Rural Network (SRN).  Dean Creamer, the head of Building Digital UK (the government body overseeing the project) confirmed this week that the authority has denied a request by the three MNOs to delay the first phase deadline by 18 months.  “That wasn’t accepted and we haven’t agreed that and we’ve said tha ..read more

News Verizon is gearing up for the NFL Draft in Detroit Verizon has ramped up its connectivity capacity in Detroit in anticipation of the NFL Draft. Mayor Mike Duggan predicted at least 300,000 visitors will descend on the city for draft events from 25 – 27 April. To handle the increased network demand, Verizon has spent approximately $25 million on upgrading infrastructure in the city. Scott Hubble, manager of business development and strategic planning with Verizon, told Detroit Free Press that the company “started this preparation roughly two years ago” and that 98% of the deployed street f ..read more

Insight In the 21st century, access to connectivity is not a luxury, it’s a basic essential service. However, to be a world-class digital economy we need more than the basics; we need digital infrastructure that provides higher speeds, greater resilience and better quality, right across the UK. Demands on our digital infrastructure are rapidly increasing as future technologies, such as multimodal AI and cloud gaming, require ever greater data capacity. The market must be able to adapt to support the needs of today’s digital economy, while also ensuring there is a platform in place to help meet ..read more

News  The trial is set to begin later this year  The National Physical Laboratory (NPL), the UK’s National Metrology Institute, has partnered with Measurement Standards Laboratory (MSL) in New Zealand to carry out earthquake detection tests through subsea cables in the Pacific Ocean.   The duo will carry out the tests in a 3,876km-long section of the Southern Cross NEXT cable (a subsea cable that connects Aukland, Sydney and Los Angeles), that sits on the floor of the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand. The area has been chosen as it is highly seismically active –mean ..read more

News The parent company of Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp is increasing spending to become a global AI leader  This week, Meta released its Q1 earnings report, in which the company announced a heavy increase on AI spending, and confirmed its plan to turn the group into “the leading AI company in the world”.    Revenue for the quarter totalled $36.5 billion, a year-on-year increase of 27% and just above analyst expectations ($36.2 billion). Total expenses reached $22.6 billion, a 6% increase.  “It’s been a good start to the year — both in terms of product momentum and busi ..read more

Press Release Nokia today announced a landmark 5G deal with Perfectum in Uzbekistan. This greenfield deal marks a significant step towards the deployment of cutting-edge 5G technology in the country, revolutionizing connectivity and paving the way for future innovation. As sole supplier, Nokia will provide a full end-to-end 5G standalone (SA) solution to Perfectum – including radio access, transport, core networks, and applications of network automation, service orchestration, mediation and charging – and streamline the implementation process and maximize operational efficiency. The core netwo ..read more

News The app is currently used by over 170 million users in the US  The US Senate has voted 79-18 to pass a landmark bill to force TikTok’s Chinese owner ByteDance to sell the company or face a ban in the US. The bill gives ByteDance nine months to sell its 60% stake in TikTok, or the app will be blocked for use in the US.   President Biden has already said that he will sign the bill into law as soon as it reaches his desk.  The bill stems from US concern that TikTok’s algorithm is powered by ByteDance, a Chinese company that could theoretically be forced to share US citizen’s d ..read more

News  Regulators fear that that deal could diminish competition in the wholesale market  The European Union’s antitrust regulators have begun asking rivals and customers if the acquisition of Telecom Italia (TIM)’s fixed-line network by US investment firm KKR would negatively affect wholesale competition in Italy, according to a Reuters report, citing people familiar with the matter.   Rivals have reportedly been sent a 49-page document with 79 questions, which they have until the end of the month to respond to.  Probing from the EU has been prompted by KKR having sought a ..read more

News The investment follows the company spending JPY20 billion ($129.2 million) on computing infrastructure last year    Japanese tech giant SoftBank has announced that it will invest JPY 150 billion $960 billion to upgrade its computing infrastructure to deliver a Generative AI (gen AI) platform in the Japanese language, according to a report from Nikkei, which cited anonymous sources.  Over the next two years, SoftBank will reportedly purchase GPUs (graphics processing units) from US based chip company Nvidia, using them to train and power its own large language models (LLMs ..read more

Insight Using her experience working in Venture Capital, Angel Investment and with startup businesses, Charlotte Scott, Senior Investor Relations Manager at Innovation SuperNetwork, works to improve the relationship between investors and businesses.  Through her work in the Northern Investor Hub and on the Pathways to Funding North of Tyne and Tees Valley Securing Investment programmes, she builds bridges between businesses and investors, helping investors expand their portfolio, reach new opportunities, and connect with exciting businesses.   Hear from Charlotte as she shares h ..read more