TalkTalk, the UK fixed-line operator that has seen its buyer numbers shrink vastly in the previous couple of years amid a litany of customer-service failings, is closing in on offers to promote the patron and wholesale components of its enterprise, in accordance with a Guardian report. The report says that TalkTalk is within the last phases of sealing a deal to promote its client division to Opus Broadband for £100 million (US$132.5 million) and its PXC wholesale operation to Octopus Investments for an undisclosed sum. If profitable, the offers may save 900 jobs, the report provides. 4 years in the past the enterprise press was filled with studies that Virgin Media O2 had provided £3 billion for TalkTalk, however nothing got here of the bid. (See VMO2 plus TalkTalk equals broadband big with dangerous repute and Eurobites: UK complaints down, nevertheless it’s nonetheless dangerous information for TalkTalk and Virgin.)
Ofcom probes cellphone quantity misuse
Ofcom, the UK communications regulator, has opened separate investigations into Vonage and Voxbone over a suspected lack of due diligence of their distribution of cellphone numbers. The regulator is anxious that cellphone numbers held by the businesses are being misused, not least by scammers. Ofcom allocates cellphone numbers, normally in massive blocks, to telcos; telcos can then switch these numbers to different companies or people.
Ofcom has additionally been conducting analysis that exhibits, amongst different issues, 8% of on-line adults within the UK use an AI device of their interactions with operators, 6% utilizing one to resolve a difficulty, 3% to make a worth comparability and a pair of% to make a criticism. The regulator additionally cited quotes from contributors that underline the contentiousness of AI and its use in on a regular basis life. One stated: “One thing like this [AI assistance] is my thought of heaven. I do not like speaking to individuals.” One other admitted: “I do not belief it [AI]. In the event you communicate to a traditional individual, you ask a query and so they know what you might be on about. With all these AI issues you’ll be able to undergo all these questions and you find yourself again the place you began.”
Finnish president has phrases with Musk
Finnish President Alexander Stubb says he has been pleading with Elon Musk to develop Starlink’s satellite tv for pc Web protection for Ukraine into Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory or into Russia itself in order that Ukrainian forces can hit Russian ballistic missile launchers inside Russian territory, in accordance with a YLE report citing a Reuters interview in New York on the sidelines of the UN Basic Meeting. (See Eurobites: Kyivstar’s D2D Starlink service takes off in Ukraine and Classes from a battle zone: how Ukraine’s Kyivstar harnesses Starlink to maintain customers on-line.)
Openreach’s last-resort service
Openreach, the semi-autonomous community entry arm of UK incumbent operator BT, has confirmed new safeguards for the ultimate closure of the copper-based public switched phone community (PSTN), promising to offer clients who have not moved to a digital service to be transferred to a restricted “last-resort” cellphone service and “the place technically doable” hold linked broadband companies working too. Nonetheless, this last-resort service does not come low-cost, costing communications suppliers a minimum of £35 ($46) a month wholesale. The deadline for the PSTN closure is January 31, 2027. (See Get off the PSTN! – Openreach set to tug plug on historical tech and BT’s PSTN shutdown palaver may very well be a number one reason for PTSD.)
Arcep tracks 2G, 3G switch-off
French communications watchdog Arcep has been monitoring the variety of gadgets nonetheless working on 2G and 3G SIM playing cards because the switch-off of each networks approaches. The lower within the variety of SIM playing cards put in on gadgets which are appropriate solely with 2G, belonging to Bouygues Telecom, Free Cell, Orange and SFR subscribers in metropolitan France, totalled 327,000 models within the second quarter of 2026, in comparison with a lower of 413,000 models in Q1. Yr-over-year, the variety of energetic 2G gadgets shrank by 41.4%, dropping from 2.9 million to 1.7 million by the tip of June 2026. As for what Arcep phrases 3G/2G gadgets, the quarterly lower totalled 283,000 models as of the tip of June 2026, in comparison with a lower of 275,000 models in Q1, or -11.2% in comparison with -9.8%. The bottom of 3G/2G M2M gadgets stands at 1.39 million models, whereas the bottom of 3G/2G voice/SMS/cell Web gadgets at 850,000 models.
Three years in the past in the present day…
Eurobites reported that Vodafone was demonstrating a brand new expertise that it stated would allow “cooperative platooning” – the place area and pace between remotely pushed automobiles is regulated to scale back collisions and visitors jams – to be managed by mobile communications.
