According to the project leaders, a new museum being built as a showcase for Dorset’s Jurassic Coast – a World Heritage site – and its abundant fossil record of Earth’s ancient past will be lumbered with internet connectivity with speeds slower than a nerve signal transmitted from the end of a brontosaurus’ tail to its […]
The University of Bristol reports today that two of its staff have been named as finalists for the World Technology Award by the World Technology Network (WTN). The WTN is a global community comprising the most innovative people and organisations at the forefront of science and technology and related fields. The first of the Bristol […]
The good burghers of the Buckinghamshire market town of Chesham have good reason to rejoice, not just for living in the beautiful Chiltern Hills, but because they have the first smart pavement (highway engineers would call it a ‘footway’. Ed.) that provides superfast wifi to passers-by. Engineering and Technology Magazine reports that the wifi pavement, […]
In the middle of last week, the Shropshire Star reported that the Shropshire and Marches Campaign for Better Broadband in Rural Areas, which has been campaigning for the last 3 years for better internet speeds in isolated communities, might be wound up. The campaign has been endorsed by 50 rural town and parish councils in […]
Today’s Bristol Post features a report entitled “Bristol best in UK for superfast broadband coverage“. To quote from the Post piece: You might think the capital would have the best superfast broadband coverage in the country. But it is Bristol which tops the UK instead. Figures from thinkbroadband.com, complied [sic] by the Computer Business Review, […]
Bristol University is currently involved in two projects that will put Bristol at the leading edge of the smart city movement.
Following closely on the announcement that the University of Bristol in a consortium to research 5G mobile wireless systems within the European 5G-XHaul project (news passim), the university reported yesterday that its 5G research has been given a boost thanks to a grant of £540,000 from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) for […]
The next generation of mobile wireless systems, known as “5G”, will ensure that the internet is always accessible and if a new European project, 5G-XHaul, achieves its ambitious goals then so-called “notspots” with no coverage will be a thing of the past. The aim of the 5G-XHaul project is to find effective solutions to the […]
The small village of Adderley sits just inside north Shropshire, barely a mile from the Cheshire border. Nothing has really changed there for years (the chief scribe grew up nearby. Ed.). And for the last 6 years, residents have been frustrated by slow local broadband speeds. However, there’s now been one major change. Saturday’s Shropshire […]
Luxembourg-based satellite operator SES has announced that its Astra Connect for Communities solution will be used in a UK government-funded market test pilot (MTP) project to assess which technologies and commercial models are best suited to provide superfast broadband (download speeds of at least 24 Mbps. Ed.) to the final 5% of UK households that […]
At Prime Minister’s questions today, David Cameron (he’s a prime minister impersonator, isn’t he? Ed. 😉 ) informed MPs that the ability to access wifi was vital for rail travellers and promised investment of £50mn. to provide more wifi on the railway from 2017, today’s Western Daily Press reports. The investment in wifi the PM […]
Bristol Is Open, the collaborative high-performance, high-speed networking project between Bristol City Council and the University of Bristol (news passim), received unanimous approval from the council’s cabinet earlier this week, the University reports. Bristol Is Open will manage the Open Programmable City project, a city-scale research infrastructure using fibre optic and wireless connectivity and high […]
Libération reports that the entire French railway network will be connected to the internet between now and the end of 2016, according to French train operator SNCF, alluding to forthcoming works to be conducted with mobile operators and Arcep, the French telecommunications regulator. “We shall work in full cooperation with the operators and what we […]
Today’s Stoke Sentinel reports that faster internet speeds can be expected today in parts of Staffordshire. However, the Sentinel’s piece does not mention any expected connection speeds. 🙁 The localities concerned are parts of Kidsgrove, Werrington, Stone and Blackshaw Moor, which have been connected to the fibre network following a link-up between Staffordshire County Council […]
The first joint venture between Bristol City Council and the University of Bristol has been announced (press release). In a move to combine University research and advanced technology with council owned infrastructure, the company will develop an innovative high-performance, high-speed network in Bristol. The company, known as Bristol Is Open, will be established by the […]
In December 2010, 7 months after it assumed power, the UK’s coalition government issued a document (PDF) entitled Britain’s Superfast Broadband Future. In that document’s introduction, the then Culture Minister Jeremy Hunt and Minister for Culture Communications & the Creative Industries Ed Vaizey stated: Broadband is one of our top priorities. We took office earlier […]
After years testing, the French state railway operator SNCF is going to launch an invitation to tender to equip its TGV (high-speed train) rolling stock with WiFi, Le Monde Informatique reports. There’s light at the end of the tunnel for the French travelling public. On Friday’s France Inter breakfast programme, Axelle Lemaire, the French Secretary […]
Yesterday’s Daily Telegraph reports that Ofcom is to make more frequencies available for mobile broadband. This will result in faster and cheaper mobile data services and will benefit those in rural areas in particular. The 700 MHz frequency band that is currently used by digital terrestrial TV services and wireless microphones will be opened up […]
Ada Lovelace Day, that annual celebration of women in science, technology, engineering and medicine, may be gone for another year (news passim), but that doesn’t mean it’s forgotten. Earlier today local news site Bristol 24/7 carried a comment piece by Ujima Radio presenter Cheryl Morgan entitled “Women deserve to be part of the IT crowd“. […]
Crowdfunding site Kickstarter has announced that August Germar is currently raising funds for anonabox, a Tor hardware router that will re-route data through the Tor network for security and anonymity. The anonabox is an open source internet networking device designed to run alongside a current home router or modem. Small enough to fit in a […]