Infrastructure

Hello, my name is Megan Lawless, and I work for the Manchester Digital Strategy at Manchester City Council. I am also involved in the Greater Manchester 5G Smart Decarbonisation Network project. 

Nokia has been selected to lead PROACTIF, an EU project involving 42 European tech firms from 13 countries with the aim of boosting drone and robotics autonomy on the continent.

Following Three’s installation of 18 Open RAN small cell sites in Glasgow City Centre, the project will now expand that to 34, says Mavenir.

EE and Ontix have installed 80 small cells across the City of Westminster, which support both 4G and 5G traffic for EE customers in central London.

Nokia and Blackned signed an MoU to provide deployable mobile communication systems for military battlefield operation, designed for Germany’s defence requirements.

According to a recently published report from Dell’Oro Group, the trusted source for market information about the telecommunications, security, networks, and data center industries, the Optical Transport equipment market declined 1 percent year-over-year in 1Q 2025.

Netomnia leverages Adtran’s next-generation SDX 6400 Series to deliver ultra-high-speed service. 

The  project marks UK’s first commercial deployment of 50G PON over existing infrastructure.

The FCC has voted to look at the possibility of opening up more than 20,000 MHz of underused spectrum for satellite, a move that could prove something of a boon for companies operating from space.

Three UK has successfully completed the first stage of a landmark trial – the UK’s first deployment of Open RAN technology in a dense urban environment. The trial was designed to test the viability of deploying Open RAN in a complex city setting.

New criteria to give certainty to world-class research organisations, helping to attract greater private investment and grow the UK economy.

• The major hyperscalers have reported their first-quarter 2025 financials
• Synergy Research Group has collected all the data
• AI workloads have fuelled a 23% year-on-year increase in the value of the global cloud infrastructure services sector to almost $94bn

While

Vodafone’s pioneering ‘Network as a Sensor’ technology is being used to forecast rainfall and other weather conditions at a micro-climate level to alert people and first responders of flooding, and other natural and man-made dangers.

Commercial space infrastructure firm Axiom Space will launch its first two Orbital Data Centre (ODC) nodes to low-Earth orbit (LEO) by the end of this year.

• CityFibre has grown to become a major fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) wholesale network operator in the UK
• It has long been expected to play a major role in the consolidation of the UK’s still over-crowded FTTP sector
• It has announced the acquisition of the infrastructure assets of regi

DSIT and UKTIN hosted Connected Reflections Live at The Minster Building on Wednesday the 19th of March. The exclusive showcase celebrated groundbreaking innovations, ecosystems, and market-shaping insights from the Future Network Programmes.

• Ofcom plans to maintain pro-competition regulation to bring faster, more reliable connections to businesses and communities across the UK to boost economic growth
• Full-fibre broadband projected to reach almost all homes and businesses by 2027 with right support

Full-fibre broadband is on

• A new action plan will cast a wide net to keep malicious actors at bay
• An enhanced fund will help to pay for increased protection of Europe’s “vital interests”
• A fish-eye lens to focus on prevention, detection, deterrence, repair and sanctions
• Cable diplomacy

Swedish police investigate suspected sabotage of undersea telecom cables operated by Finnish cable operator Cinia at the Baltic Sea.

• Meta is to invest billions in a new submarine network that will span the globe
• It has been dubbed Project Waterworth 
• It will connect the Americas, Africa and Asia – but not Europe

In a bid to guarantee access to vital international data networking capacity

As the Future Network Programmes conclude, UKTIN is working with DSIT to reflect on the government-funded projects, outlining the key outcomes and the lessons learned to help improve future telecoms initiatives.

• Telefónica Tech to integrate IBM quantum safe technology into its cybersecurity services to create specific use cases aimed at addressing new and future risks associated with the advancement of cryptographically relevant quantum computers.
• The agreement includes deployment of IBM’s quantum-safe technology infrastructure at Telefónic

FarrPoint consultancy has released the latest update to its Digital Connectivity Readiness Index (DCRI), providing critical insights into the UK’s progress in digital connectivity. 

Amazon is investigating the possibility of creating a transatlantic subsea fibre optic cable that would stretch from Ireland to the US East Coast.

Vantage Towers, TOTEM, Orange, O2 Telefónica and the Saarland University of Applied Sciences (htw saar), announce a pioneering collaboration to create one of Europe's first cross-border 5G highway corridors.