Written by Katyanna Quach

Very low Earth orbit birds could sip the outer atmosphere on their way up.

Electric propulsion systems that generate power from the scant air in the outer edges of the atmosphere could drive satellites in very low Earth orbit (VLEO), without the need for conventional propellants – at least in theory.

Armed with $400,000 in funding from DARPA, boffins at the US Department of Energy's Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) and academics at the George Washington University (GWU) are building prototypes for the technology.

New phase of the strategic partnership to support GSMA Mobile for Development’s focus on digital and gender inclusion, climate change mitigation, adaptation and resilience, and digital innovation in low- and middle-income countries.  

Hello, I’m Graham Reed and I am the Director of the Optoelectronics Research Centre at the University of Southampton. The university recruited my entire group in 2012: in those days, it was 13 people but now it's 56. Our team has grown a lot, largely on the back of grant success and the incredible facilities. Interacting daily with people with a photonics mindset has been incredibly rewarding and a lot of fun.

The GSMA’s 2024 Mobile Net Zero report spotlights regional leaders in cutting carbon emissions since 2019, led by a 50% reduction in Europe. Operator emissions have fallen despite surging demand for connectivity and data, thanks to progress on energy efficiency and renewables.

The GSMA Equipment Marketplace cloud-based platform will help telecommunication providers around the world reuse, redeploy and recycle their network assets

27 February, Barcelona: The GSMA today unveiled a network equipment commerce platform to help the telecoms industry achieve its financial and environmental sustainability goals, in partnership with solutions provider Shields Environmental Group (Shields).

Open RAN Energy Efficiency Challenge

SONIC Labs Technology Access Programme (TAP) is an 8-month structured programme developed by Digital Catapult in collaboration with Ofcom, running from June 2024 to January 2025. This programme is funded by the UK Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), and aims to facilitate experimentation, unlock innovation and help accelerate the adoption of Open RAN technology in the UK industry. 

TOP Conference 2024 took place from the 21st to the 22nd of February, returning for its third year to 133 Houndsditch, London. The comprehensive two-day programme covered eight topic areas across the two days, featuring experts from across the industry and academia.

The Governments of the United States, Australia, Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Sweden, and the United Kingdom concur on these shared principles for the research and development of 6G wireless communication systems; and recognize that by working together we can support open, free, global, interoperable, reliable, resilient, and secure connectivity.

The end of the 3G era is inching closer in the UK, after Vodafone and EE switched off their final remaining sites.

That just leaves Three – which aims to complete its shutdown by the end of this year – and Virgin Media O2 (VMO2), which isn't due to start retiring its 3G network until 2025.

For Vodafone, it marks the end of a project that kicked off more than two years ago.

It is essentially a consensus-building exercise that provides the US and its allies with some handy reference material to use when the time inevitably comes to block telcos from using Huawei and ZTE kit in their 6G networks.

In addition to the US and UK, the backers are Australia, Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Japan, South Korea, and Sweden. This lot were never likely to give Chinese vendors the green light, but it may persuade any regional neighbours that might be on the fence to side with them.