Ericsson’s dual-mode core has gone stay at UK cellular operator VodafoneThree, offering what it hopes is a safe underpinning for the operator’s differentiated connectivity providers, in any other case often called community slicing. Ericsson was initially contracted by Three UK in January 2025 to bolster the operator’s community within the face of accelerating information demand. The core community undertaking is meant to ship a capability of 9 Tbit/s, creating what Ericsson claims is one in every of Europe’s largest cellular packet cores. (See VodafoneThree declares 5G community slicing struggle on BT.)
Agentic AI on the rise
The information could also be full of folks predicting AI armageddon on an virtually every day foundation, however Ericsson’s newest piece of ConsumerLab analysis is predicting a rosy future for one explicit taste of AI – the “agentic” one. Based on Ericsson, 38% of smartphone customers say they anticipate to be utilizing agentic AI tech on their units by 2030. Survey respondents anticipate to avoid wasting as much as an hour a day of looking time by the usage of the expertise, giving them extra time to learn a very good ebook or, alternatively, stare blank-eyed into the darkish abyss of a future run by our AI overlords. (See Google resists ‘doom and gloom’ imaginative and prescient of agentic AI.)
Copper migration within the UK
Ninety p.c of copper-based legacy strains throughout UK’s ten main cities have been upgraded to digital options, information from Openreach has revealed. Liverpool leads the best way on the migration entrance, with simply 6% of legacy strains left to improve, however London nonetheless has 13% of strains caught on copper. The copper-based community is because of be switched off on the finish of January 2027, so with greater than 600,000 strains nonetheless emigrate, the stress is on. (See Get off the PSTN! – Openreach set to drag plug on historic tech and BT’s PSTN shutdown palaver may very well be a number one reason behind PTSD.)
VodafoneThree slams London’s planning regs
VodafoneThree claims London may very well be dropping round £2.7 billion (US$3.6 billion) a yr in financial output due to planning guidelines that pressure community infrastructure to be taken offline with out an acceptable substitute. In a brand new report, Misplaced Websites, Misplaced Sign: The Affect of Notices to Give up on Londoners, the operator argues that Notices to Give up – authorized notices issued by landowners requiring the removing of cellular infrastructure when a constructing is renovated, redeveloped or demolished – are resulting in tens of hundreds of Londoners residing in areas with out dependable entry to cellular information. Andrea Dona, VodafoneThree’s chief networks officer, stated: “We welcome the rising recognition of NTQs as a difficulty and help efforts to make sure connectivity is taken into account from the earliest phases of the planning course of. With earlier discover and a extra joined-up strategy throughout the complete planning system, London can proceed to develop and redevelop whereas guaranteeing individuals keep linked.”
EU will get youngsters off social media
The European Fee is proposing a KIDS (Retaining Web Digital Areas Accountable and Reliable) Act to stop kids from having their very own social media accounts earlier than they attain the age of 15 and to maintain these below the age of 13 away from social media fully. For kids between the ages of 13 and below 15, the proposal requires formalized parental controls, enabling guardians to arrange “mini accounts” that kids can entry by the guardian’s account. This could, in concept, permit them to entry age-appropriate social media and video-sharing platforms however keep away from the inappropriate stuff.
Beneath the phrases of the proposed Act, social media firms would even be obliged to submit a compliance plan to the Fee and to an impartial auditor to make sure that they’re deemed “protected by design” for youngsters.
Tusk raises €15 million
Belgian chip firm Tusk IC has raised €15 million ($17.2 million) in a Collection A funding spherical supposed to help the event of its Ka-band satellite tv for pc communications expertise. The corporate stated it’s working with a number one satcom producer to combine its expertise into the event of a brand new electronically steered array antenna.
Tonbridge protection upgraded
UK converged operator Virgin Media O2 has upgraded cellular protection within the Kentish city of Tonbridge with 5 small cells from Freshwave. The deployment kinds a part of the operator’s wider Cell Transformation Plan throughout the UK.
Finland launches emergency alert system
Finland plans to launch a direct-to-phone emergency alert system utilizing cell broadcast expertise by finish of yr, Finnish information web site YLE reviews. Based on the report, the necessity for such a system has been understandably heightened by a rise within the variety of warhead-carrying drones which have strayed into Finnish airspace in latest months.
