The report calls for UK Government to support accelerated mobile network deployment by reforming planning laws and significantly increasing the availability of spectrum to ensure consumers and businesses have access to the best possible mobile networks and to underpin UK economic growth and innovation.

BT’s “Driving Growth: The £230bn Opportunity of Improved Mobile Networks” report, developed in collaboration with Assembly Research, found that improved 5G standalone (5GSA) coverage could enable more than £88bn in economic growth through the industrial adoption of new technologies - such as AI and machine learning.

One of the key benefits that new 5GSA networks can deliver is a significant increase in network capacity available to UK society, enterprise and public sector users, particularly through the ability to provide dedicated bandwidth and advanced specifications to individual users. BT’s report estimates that this will bring positive impact to a broad range of areas in the UK, including:

• Road and Rail:  Investing to improve rail coverage could result in £12bn in additional productivity by 2035, while improving road connectivity to 100% coverage could result in a £45bn opportunity for the UK through enabling autonomous vehicles.
• Rural Economy: Investing in improved 4G and 5GSA coverage could add as much as £3bn into the UK’s rural economy by 2035.
• Built up areas: In addition to the potential £88bn in growth from new technologies, improved 5GSA coverage could enable as much as £26bn of added economic value from accelerated drone adoption by 2035. In the same timeframe, an added £9.5bn could be unlocked for the UK’s broadcast, digital advertising and consumer media sectors.

The findings also highlight that, if more reliable UK mobile networks were available, increased use of mobile backup options could become more attractive for some businesses. Doubling the take up of these options would result in recovery of c.£7.9bn in productivity as a result of reduced down time. The research also shows a further £37bn of benefits could be unlocked through supporting the modernisation of the energy grid.

Existing research about the potential benefits of improved mobile networks for health, education and workplace safety are also featured in the BT report.

Howard Watson, Chief Security and Networks Officer, BT Group said: "We’re proud to be the biggest investor in the UK’s networks, having spent billions in the last five years to deliver improved connectivity for communities in every corner of the UK. But the way we use mobile connectivity is evolving, and as the demands on network capacity increase and retail pricing remains comparatively low, greater support is needed to unlock more private sector investment.

“To deliver the networks the nation needs for the future, we need greater collaboration with the government and regulator, as well as support from local communities and councils – so that everyone in the UK can reap the life-changing benefits connectivity brings. Reforming planning laws and opening up spectrum access would help accelerate the deployment of these critical networks.

This report proves that delivering secure, reliable and powerful mobile networks brings enormous value to consumers and businesses, fuelling the UK economy.”

Matthew Howett, Founder & CEO, Assembly Research said: “Our modelling suggests the UK stands to gain as much as £230bn in economic benefit from more advanced, resilient and widely available mobile coverage. Improved mobile connectivity supports increased productivity on rail journeys, reduced downtime from outages and the adoption of a range of emerging technologies. As the Government continues to work on executing its agenda for economic growth, our modelling shows that investment in mobile connectivity delivers significant benefits across the whole of the UK.”

BT’s “Driving Growth: The £230bn Opportunity of Improved Mobile Networks” report can be downloaded here.

About this study

BT Group commissioned Assembly to model the economic and/or social benefits to the UK that could be delivered by addressing low mobile network quality through different investment options including improvements to road and rail coverage, improved network resilience, and improved coverage and capacity in rural areas.

About Assembly

Founded in 2017, Assembly is an independent, London-based analyst firm providing custom and subscription-based research on regulatory, policy and legislative developments that affect communications markets and the wider digital economy. For more information visit assemblyresearch.co.uk

It comes as our customers face unprecedented disruption across their markets driven by geopolitics, regulation and technology — with AI catalysing change faster than ever. We have designed BT International specifically to help our customers meet these challenges head on and anticipate future opportunities to thrive.

The way we do this centres on two highly scalable telco platforms designed for the age of multi-cloud and AI: Global Voice and Global Fabric, with security built in by design. We’ve channelled our investments into these cloud-centric global platforms and concentrated our expert teams where customers need them most.

From asset-light to platform-rich

We have evolved our ‘asset-light’ strategy for several years, designing our platforms to reflect the trends we see in customer traffic crossing our networks — from data flows to and between the big cloud providers to the emergence of hybrid cloud as a preferred model for many businesses. We see that AI has unpredictable impacts on our customers’ networks — from the lumpy, bulky training workloads of large language models (LLMs) powering GenAI to the low latency demands of conversational AI and augmented reality. These trends are set against the backdrop of a rapidly evolving cyber security threat landscape and a fast-moving regulatory environment.

Telecoms gets its voice back

Our Global Voice platform enables businesses, governments and the people they engage with to communicate with each other effortlessly. We’re already world leading in the global voice services market, managing over 16 billion calls to customer call centres in over 70 countries every year. We’ve migrated these services onto a new SIP-powered, cloud focussed platform enabling voice to be carried across data networks. SIP has been around for a while but the fact that Global Managed Voice is both SIP-powered and cloud-focused means that it’s perfectly poised to unlock the full potential of integrating voice with AI.  

Indeed, Gartner predicts that 30 per cent of Fortune 500 companies will offer customer service through only a single, AI-enabled channel by 2028. I believe our Global Voice platform is strongly positioned to enable this, backed by our experts who have delivered over 5,000 contact centres to over 2,000 customers around the world.

Wrapping the world in Global Fabric

Next, we have Global Fabric, our brand-new, AI-ready, cloud-centric network-as-a-service (NaaS) platform. This offers customers instant, secure and resilient connectivity to practically every app or digital service they want, including the world’s top cloud and software-as-a-service  (SaaS) providers. It launched to live customer traffic earlier this year and it is the platform that will help us achieve our goal to be the world’s number one provider of secure multi-cloud connectivity.

Global Fabric could have hardly arrived at a better time. We were one of the first telcos off the starting blocks with a truly greenfield international platform to eliminate the drag that the previous generation of networks had on customer innovation. With traditional networks, setting up or making changes to connectivity for a new or existing app, including AI, could take days or weeks. With Global Fabric, it happens in an instant.

Now think of the increasingly complex international regulatory environment. Technology and data have become geopolitical pawns. That means customers must double down on sovereignty, ensuring the right data stays within the right jurisdiction while enabling them to unlock its value to the business. With Global Fabric, customers can choose both the cloud destinations their data goes to and the route it takes along the way. This means regulated data never leaves the designated national borders and helps customers stay compliant.

Sharing a platform for success

Looking to the future of our industry, we believe international networks will gravitate towards fewer, larger, telco platforms able to manage the demand generated by increased cloud and AI services. We invite other service providers to work with BT International, as we build out our ecosystem of partners, including our recently announced partnership with Google Cloud, and scale fast so we can, as an industry, offer the best value to customers across the globe. 

We’re at a pivotal moment as an industry. It is an opportunity to move away from fragmented legacy international networks to a platform designed with the reality of AI, cyber and cloud at its core, reflecting customers’ expectations of speed, security, sustainability, sovereignty and naturally the skills to support future growth and prosperity.

During the two-week trial, a dedicated slice of the EE 5G network was partitioned for use in the renowned Lavery’s Beer Tent to support its eight mobile payment terminals, enabling superfast card and mobile payments for thousands of customers – even during the market’s busiest periods. It marks the first time that a business has benefitted from access to a partitioned slice from EE’s public network and live 5G Standalone core.

Network slicing uses 5G Standalone technology, which BT Group launched last September, to provide a customer with a protected ‘slice’ of the network for assured performance, boosting connectivity speeds and lowering latency by minimising congestion and unlocking bespoke capacity for businesses.

The trial successfully demonstrated the capability of network slicing to bypass congestion in busy locations and keep businesses connected through dedicated quality of service. 

It follows the availability of 5G standalone connectivity for BT's small business customers as part of the company’s investment in the networks of the future.

Belfast’s Christmas Market, which takes place at Belfast City Hall, sees up to 1.2 million visitors each year, with the Lavery’s beer tent proving among the most popular attractions. As Belfast’s oldest family-owned pub, Lavery’s has been at the heart of the city's social life for over 100 years, and the Christmas Market has been one of the most important dates in its diary for two decades.

Bernard Lavery, Director, Lavery’s, said: "With this being the 20^th year of our festive beer tent, Lavery’s is as synonymous with Belfast Christmas Market as it is with the city itself. In that time, the need to enable fast and reliable mobile payments has only grown thanks to the growing trend towards cashless. BT Group's network slicing capability therefore gives us so much peace of mind, not only in enabling transactions to be completed faster than ever, but also in delivering the dedicated mobile capacity needed to keep our customers happy and queues moving even at the busiest times.”

Paul Murnaghan, BT’s Northern Ireland Director, said: “Businesses increasingly rely on technology that’s able to cope with the demands of the ever-pervasive digital world, securely.  We have all visited a retailer and had the awkward ‘wait while we check’ to see if a payment has been completed correctly.  Network slicing helps tackle this problem by enabling consistently fast and smooth connectivity, critically giving certainty to both traders and customers even when the network is busy in specific locations like Belfast Christmas Market.”

Councillor Ryan Murphy, Chair of Belfast City Council’s Strategic, Policy and Resources Committee, said: “Having access to world-class advanced wireless connectivity is essential for our local businesses. It’s brilliant to see Belfast benefit from BT Group’s first ever real-world deployment of network slicing, helping local business Lavery’s to enhance its operations and provide an even better customer experience at the very popular Belfast Christmas Market.”

Belfast was one of fifteen launch cities to benefit from the arrival of EE’s 5G Standalone network in September 2024, paving the way for BT Group to roll out network slicing for business customers. The company has been investing heavily in futured-proofed network infrastructure across the region to ensure it is ready for the launch of such services.

The real-world deployment at Belfast Christmas Market comes after BT Group successfully demonstrated network slicing for consumer and enterprise use-cases last year at its pilot cluster in Adastral Park.

Other benefits of network slicing include improved security, the ability to quickly adapt the network to meet specific customer needs and the capacity to support IoT sensors. It can also help cut down on accidentally missed payments by removing the lag between a contactless swipe and the funding being accepted.

Notes for editors:

Photo credit: Brian Morrison

The trial was enabled by BT’s Division X

BT today announced it has expanded its Carbon Network Dashboard to give business customers visibility of electricity consumption and carbon emissions at an individual workload and application level. The insight will allow them to optimise their data-centre and network infrastructure to manage emissions as they adopt AI applications at scale.

AI can have significantly different impacts on networks and data-centres than other application types. It can cause sharp, unpredictable increases in bandwidth demand, which in turn cause spikes in power use by infrastructure traditionally designed for predictable workloads. If spikes in demand overload individual network devices or servers, this will not only impact performance but cause them to overheat, wasting electricity. This creates additional challenges for customers aiming to reduce emissions.

The Carbon Network Dashboard already offers a single, end-to-end, near real-time view of how much electricity a customer’s network and data-centre infrastructure is using. It can now tie this consumption to traffic patterns caused by individual applications, including AI.

As part of its sustainable network design and refresh service, BT can use this insight to help customers adapt, either by changing network design, capacity and management or optimising applications and AI workloads. BT can also help customers develop distributed architectures, which bring components of AI closer to users, devices and machines. 

The capabilities are part of the latest NetFlow plug-in for the Carbon Network Dashboard. In future, the Dashboard will be able to identify traffic going to colocation or public cloud services and prioritise what to focus on for optimisation, including re-designing for extra or flexible capacity. This will ensure network devices are running within their design limits, efficiently and with flexibility to accommodate growth of AI workloads.

In addition, the Dashboard now incorporates electricity consumption data from a wider range of world-leading network equipment vendors and types of devices. This includes SD-WAN equipment, servers and WAN and LAN devices.

The Dashboard’s energy optimisation tools have also been expanded. They now include: V-App IoT builder integration for energy management of wireless access points; zero-touch automation to enable/disable power over ethernet (PoE) ports when not in use for energy management and carbon savings; and sustainable device refresh recommendations for end-of-life devices.

“AI has incredible potential but if not deployed thoughtfully could place unpredictable demands on customers’ digital infrastructure causing surges in electricity use and carbon emissions,” said Sarwar Khan, sustainability director, Business, BT. “BT is committed to helping customers innovate to achieve sustainable growth. With our Carbon Network Dashboard, we can help them adopt AI at scale while optimising their infrastructure to achieve their decarbonisation goals. It’s a great example of how BT has their back.”

ENDS

BT Group’s Consumer division has re-started switching zero-use landline customers who have a broadband connection to its Digital Voice landline service. This follows an industry-wide pause and the introduction of the Government’s Charter to protect vulnerable customers, especially telecare users, while making the switch from analogue to digital landlines.

BT Consumer customers (except landline-only customers, those who use telecare or who have additional needs) will be contacted and offered the chance to switch to a digital landline provided over full fibre broadband, where available. This move aligns with BT Group’s wider strategy to build and connect customers to its future-proof, full fibre broadband, which will be available to 25 million premises by the end of 2026.  

BT Business is urging all of its customers to engage early and to partner with the company ahead of making the switch, especially where there may be a requirement to test existing or upgrade to new equipment to ensure compatibility with a digital line.

The revised approach will result in a single switch for the majority of customers (businesses and consumers) – from copper to fibre - with all customers now expected to have moved off the old analogue PSTN by the end of January 2027.

Howard Watson, Chief Security and Networks Officer, BT Group, said: “The urgency for switching customers onto digital services grows by the day because the 40-year-old analogue landline technology is increasingly fragile. Managing customer migrations from analogue to digital as quickly and smoothly as possible, while making the necessary provisions for those customers with additional needs, including telecare users, is critically important.

“Our priority remains doing this safely and the work we’re doing with our peers, local authorities, telecare providers and key Government organisations is key. But more needs to be done and we need all local authorities and telecare providers to share with us the phone lines where they know there’s a telecare user.”

The digital switch requires collaboration across a range of industries and organisations

During the voluntary pause, the company has continued to raise awareness of the UK’s digital switchover on a region-by-region basis, holding hundreds of events across the country and meeting thousands of its customers face to face.

In January BT Consumer led the formation of the Telecare Action Board (TAB), which has brought together around 30 organisations from Government, the telecoms and telecare sectors, industry bodies, local authorities and regulatory stakeholders to identify and protect telecare users and those with additional needs before they switch to digital.

Coming together was the first step, collaborating was the second. The whole industry must now step up to deliver for customers in the spirit of the Charter, providing the transparency which is critical to the success of this programme. So far, only around a quarter of local authorities and telecare providers have disclosed which phone lines have telecare devices on them; it's now imperative that every single one of these organisations do the same so that these customers receive the right support at the right time.

A gradual approach to switching

April 2024, BT Consumer resumed non-voluntary migrations for customers who have not used their landline in the last 12 months, who do not identify as vulnerable or have additional needs, have not contacted an Alarm Receiving Centre (ARC) in the last 24 months and live in an area where a data sharing agreement - which identifies vulnerable customers and detects alarm numbers is in place with the Local Authority or Telecare provider. Switching them to a digital landline provided over full fibre where available on an opt out basis initially.

From Summer 2024, BT Consumer will ramp-up non-voluntary migrations for customers who do not identify as vulnerable or have additional needs, in areas where data sharing agreements have been signed with the local authority or telecare provider.

For customers who don’t use broadband, which includes landline-only consumer customers and business customers with specialist connectivity requirements, including some alarms, lift and emergency lines, ATMs and payment terminals, the company is working on an interim, dedicated landline service¹ designed to keep these customers connected while moving them off the analogue PSTN.

New equipment will be installed in local telephone exchanges that will allow consumer and business customers who do not have broadband to use their landline in the same way as they do today until a digital solution becomes available or 2030, if that comes sooner. Trials have already begun with a nationwide rollout for eligible customers expected this Autumn.

BT Business is urging all of its business and public sector customers to register their interest to test this temporary ‘pre-digital phone line’ product, so it can work with them to understand specific business use cases.

From Spring 2025, BT Consumer will contact customers who identify as vulnerable or with additional needs about the switch in areas where data sharing agreements with Local Authorities or Telecare companies are in place and in-home support for telecare users is available.

All customers will be contacted at least four weeks in advance before making the switch, to ensure they are ready to move to a digital landline. Engineering appointments will be made ahead of the switch and additional support will be provided on the day to ensure that customers are left with a working telecare device.

Backing Businesses

The company is asking business customers, large and small to act now and move over to all-digital networks, to futureproof their operations and reap the rewards of being a digital business. 

Business customers are being encouraged to review their technology footprint and identify what’s still connected to the PSTN. BT Business has a team of experts to support, and any business can test their equipment for free at its R&D test centre at Adastral Park in Suffolk. Where possible, they should then proceed to switch any legacy equipment to an All-IP alternative. 

BT’s Business team is also working with Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) customers in sectors like energy, water, transport, health and national security – to guide them seamlessly away from the PSTN and onto more reliable, resilient and future-fit technology.

Towards the UK’s full fibre future

For both Consumer and Business customers, this once-in-a-generation, UK-wide upgrade will ensure that everyone stays reliably connected now and into the future. The UK’s full fibre future is a national mission, and BT Group is determined to support its customers through it every step of the way.

ENDS

Notes to editors

• Further information about the industry wide change can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/uk-transition-from-analogue-to-digital-landlines

Continued support for customers

The company will continue to maintain its strict policies to protect telecare users and vulnerable customers where they are made aware of their status and will continue to provide resilient solutions to customers who are dependent on their landline. These include:

• Providing free battery back-up units to customers with additional needs, such as those with health pendants, or who are over 70 or without mobile coverage. Battery back-up units enable calls in the event of a power outage and later this year, we will launch an advanced battery back-up unit outlasting most power cuts, with a battery life that far exceeds the minimum Ofcom requirements.
• Offering customers a hybrid phone with a battery back-up of eight hours and enabling calls over the mobile network in the event of a power outage.  
• Continued investment in our leading 4G network, which is on course to pass 90% of the UK’s geographic landmass by the mid-2020s, building additional resilience into our core network and providing reliable connectivity to rural communities through the Shared Rural Network programme. 
• Engineering appointments for all customers who identify as vulnerable and have additional needs, with the ability to nominate a family member, friend or carer to help them through the switch, who will receive all the information about switching on the customers behalf. Vulnerable customers will automatically receive the equipment they need and they won’t be switched until they have spoken to an advisor and booked an appointment.  
• In home support for telecare users, known as ‘Prove IP Telecare’, due to launch in Spring next year where an Openreach engineer will support a customer through the switch from an analogue to digital landline and will make sure that the telecare device is working before leaving the property. If the telecare device isn’t working, then the engineer will switch the customer back to an analogue landline.

BT Consumer will not move any of its customers who are known to be vulnerable or with additional needs until Spring 2025 at the earliest, once the necessary data sharing agreements with Local Authorities or Telecare companies are in place and in-home support for telecare users is available.

¹ The dedicated landline service is not compatible with broadband and will allow customers without broadband to stay connected.

The new network will provide secure and reliable connectivity for BGC sites across multiple locations (gas fields, processing plants and offices). It will also provide enhanced connectivity to hyperscalers and delivery of cloud-based applications such as Microsoft 365 and SAP.

This new high-performance, secure network will lay the foundation for BGC’s goal of a future proof, cloud-enabled secure infrastructure in the coming years.

Andrew Wiper, Managing Director of BGC said: “Collaborating with BT is an important milestone for BGC. In forging this alliance, we propel BGC towards global excellence. The bedrock of our operations lies in robust and efficient connectivity, and this contract reinforces our commitment to efficiency and safety.”

Eyad Shihabi, Managing Director, Global Industries and Government, Business, BT said: “We’re very proud of our relationship with JV BGC. This partnership represents a new chapter in this relationship by delivering the high standards of quality and reliability of services directly to BGC in Iraq.”

The global leaders in their respective fields will build on their extensive expertise in sustainable building management and global networking to make it easier for customers to reduce emissions from buildings around the world.

Sarwar Khan, global head of digital sustainability, Business, BT, said: “Our collaboration with Johnson Controls will help BT deliver on its pledge to help customers avoid 60 million tonnes of CO2 by the end of March 2030. Customers will benefit from better visibility and management of energy data from connected buildings, helping them reduce Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions, and reach Net Zero faster.”

According to the World Green Building Council, buildings are responsible for almost 40 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions and the IEA finds they consume at least 30 per cent of energy globally. Smart and sustainable buildings are on the rise as they represent a key opportunity in helping to meet climate targets. At the same time, the number of subsystems, IoT devices and data is increasing exponentially, driving demand for secure and reliable networks. Connectivity to the cloud is now needed in areas within buildings that may have been poorly served by legacy networking solutions. 

The two parties are offering solutions that leverage smart building technology and Johnson Controls’ OpenBlue digital platform connected by secure and resilient networks that can improve data capture, enhance security, and provide effective management of connected buildings at scale.

Katie McGinty, vice president and chief sustainability and external relations officer, Johnson Controls, said: “With the powerful combination of technology and partnerships, coupled with government incentives, there has never been a more opportune time to drive sustainability leadership and action. The collaboration between Johnson Controls and BT will unlock new potential for customers to further reduce emissions, cut costs and energize employees with their sustainability mission.”

Using the combined technologies BT and Johnson Controls will be running a live demo at BT’s research facilities in Adastral Park.

ENDS

About Johnson Controls

At Johnson Controls (NYSE:JCI), we transform the environments where people live, work, learn and play. As the global leader in smart, healthy and sustainable buildings, our mission is to reimagine the performance of buildings to serve people, places and the planet.

Building on a proud history of nearly 140 years of innovation, we deliver the blueprint of the future for industries such as healthcare, schools, data centers, airports, stadiums, manufacturing and beyond through OpenBlue, our comprehensive digital offering.

Today, with a global team of 100,000 experts in more than 150 countries, Johnson Controls offers the world`s largest portfolio of building technology and software as well as service solutions from some of the most trusted names in the industry.

Visit www.johnsoncontrols.com for more information and follow @Johnson Controls on social platforms.

BT today announced an expansion of its digital sustainability tools to help customers monitor and optimise energy use across their full IT estate, from the network to servers running their apps and workloads in data centres and elsewhere.

The company is integrating data on servers’ energy use into its AI-powered sustainability tools. It means BT’s digital dashboards can now offer a single, end-to-end picture of how much energy customers’ IT infrastructure is using and present actionable insights on what to do to optimise devices, apps and workloads to help meet their net zero goals. BT then offers to help deliver this as part of its sustainable network design and refresh service. 

For example, the dashboard can look at network traffic over a 24-hour period and processor telemetry to identify opportunities for server devices to be placed into deep sleep depending on the way the workloads and apps are run.

Globally, data centres and associated networks that underpin digitalisation account for 0.9 per cent of energy-related greenhouse gas emissions. The EU has already introduced new policies and regulations for reducing energy use and decarbonising data centres. Organisations will be required to demonstrate their data centres meet the EU’s Assessment Framework for Data Centres as part of the upcoming Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), which will impact up to 50,000 companies.

BT continues to evolve its digital sustainability tools to help organisations meet these challenges. The tools already help customers monitor and benchmark energy consumption of their network devices in internet of things (IoT) operational environments such as factories and ports; local area networks (LANs) that provide connectivity within offices; and wide area networks (WANs) that link sites globally.

They are the latest step in the delivery of a BT Group Manifesto pledge to help customers avoid 60 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions by 2030.

Sarwar Khan, head of digital sustainability, Business, BT Group, said: “More and more customers are setting science-based net zero targets and face increasing regulatory pressures to improve efficiency in their data centres. By integrating data from leading IT vendor partners such as Cisco and INTEL, we’re giving customers end-to-end visibility of energy use across their full IT estate as well as the insight and support needed to optimise devices and workloads.”

ENDS

About BT’s digital sustainability tools

BT’s Carbon Network Dashboard gives a real-time view of power consumption across the network and datacentres. It uses AI and machine learning to detect and predict anomalies based on historic usage. This includes which network devices are consuming the most power. Customers can also forecast total energy use based on their network inventory and historic utilisation.

To help understand how electricity consumption translates into carbon emissions, the Dashboard includes data from regional power grids showing their carbon intensity.

The Digital Carbon Calculator helps customers estimate their network and data centre’s carbon footprint. It scans the customer’s network and data centre inventory to estimate their carbon footprint and can track how this responds to changes and upgrades over time. It includes lifecycle management, highlighting devices at the end of service to prioritise for replacement. Customers can also choose to use the calculator by uploading an inventory of their IT infrastructure equipment for analysis.

BT today announced new digital tools to help multinational customers measure and optimise the carbon impact of running applications and cloud workloads across their network.

While the Carbon Network Dashboard gives a real-time view of power consumption, the Digital Carbon Calculator helps customers estimate their network’s carbon footprint.

The Dashboard uses machine learning to detect and predict anomalies based on historic usage. This includes which network devices are consuming the most power. Customers can also forecast total energy use based on their network inventory and historic utilisation.

To help understand how electricity consumption translates into carbon emissions, the Dashboard includes data from regional power grids showing their carbon intensity. In future, it will draw on wider real-time information sources such as renewable energy on national grids and in datacentres.

The Calculator scans the customer’s network inventory to estimate its carbon footprint and can track how this responds to changes and upgrades over time. It includes lifecycle management, highlighting devices at the end of service to prioritise for replacement. Customers can also choose to use the calculator by uploading an inventory of their network equipment for analysis.

The launch of the new tools will be extended to BT’s UK enterprise customers in the near future. It marks the latest step in the company’s delivery of its manifesto pledge to help customers avoid 60 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions by 2030. According to Gartner, Scope 3 emissions — those generated across an organisation from its supply chain through to product or service delivery — are the most challenging to measure yet can account for over 95 per cent of the total.

Sarwar Khan, head of digital sustainability, Global, BT said: “With customers hosting more of their applications across multiple clouds, networks are now increasingly vital for all elements of business performance, including carbon impact. Our new tools empower customers to reduce their Scope 3 emissions by optimising their network or scheduling digital workloads when renewable energy is available, helping them to achieve their net zero goals.”

December 2022

EE’s high-speed 4G mobile coverage is now available to customers across a new wave of London Underground stations for the first time, adding to the already-live eastern half of the Jubilee Line.

In partnership with BAI Communications, EE is delivering the UK’s best mobile network* to six new stations across the world’s oldest underground network, covering parts of both the Central and Northern lines.

This means customers can now stay in touch with friends, stream their favourite shows or catch-up on their social media feeds, completely uninterrupted. Meanwhile businesses will also benefit from expanded high-speed coverage below ground, ensuring less calls are dropped and helping give the city’s productivity a boost.

Initially coverage will be live at and between Holland Park, Notting Hill Gate and Queensway on the Central line, as well as Archway, Tufnell Park and Kentish Town on the Northern line. In the coming weeks, following further testing over the Christmas period, this will be extended to additional stations - including Camden Town, Tottenham Court Road and Oxford Circus in the new year.

The connectivity is achieved by taking advantage of BAI’s innovative multi-carrier network, which links the tunnels and stations of the London Underground both with each other and, crucially, with the outside world. EE’s mobile network immediately connects to BAI’s infrastructure, subsequently delivering continuous mobile coverage to customers whether they’re in the ticket hall, waiting on the platform, or travelling on a train midway between stations.

BAI’s infrastructure will also be 5G-ready, allowing for seamless ongoing upgrades in the future, and in many cases both 4G and 5G will be rolled out concurrently.

Working closely with BAI, EE intends to rollout to a host of additional stations throughout 2023 and, by the end of 2024, customers will be able to enjoy access to 4G across the entirety of the London Underground, as well as the Elizabeth line, with 5G at the vast majority of locations.

Greg McCall, Chief Networks Officer, BT, said: “We’re delighted to be at the forefront of such a transformative project, supporting BAI in delivering what will ultimately be the largest and most advanced network of its type anywhere in the world, and one which aligns with our ongoing mission to digitise the UK through major investment in, and enhancement of, our mobile and fibre networks. It’s also yet another milestone in our ambition to deliver high-speed 4G and 5G EE mobile connectivity to as much of the UK as possible, including previously unreachable locations.”

The Deputy Mayor for Transport, Seb Dance, said: “Today marks a great step forward in the delivery of mobile connectivity on the Tube, as Londoners will now have increased access to high-speed mobile coverage when travelling through more Tube stations. The Mayor pledged to Londoners that he would deliver 4G throughout the Tube network as part of his commitment to building a better London for everyone - and I have no doubt that this expansion of coverage will help transform journeys for millions of passengers."

Background:

BT Group is also playing a crucial role in enabling BAI to deliver its host multi-carrier infrastructure, with BT Wholesale providing the company with premium data centre space in London, along with high-bandwidth connectivity, while using 100 per cent renewable power for all sites. All UK mobile operators are able to co-locate their equipment within these data centres, with BT Wholesale operating and managing the sites as a neutral party on behalf of EE and all other UK mobile operators.

*Rankings based on RootMetrics UK and metro RootScore® reports: From H2 2013 to H1 2022. Tested with best commercially available smartphones on 4 national mobile networks across all available network types. Your experiences may vary. The RootMetrics award is not an endorsement of EE. Reports at RootMetrics.co.uk. Visit ee.co.uk/claims for more details.

15 December 2022, London, EE has built or upgraded over 500 4G sites across the UK since December 2021, as part of the Shared Rural Network (SRN) initiative to extend coverage in rural areas across the UK.

The investment constitutes the latest expansion of EE’s 4G coverage across remote parts of the UK. In total, EE has upgraded 1362 sites since the SRN deal was signed in March 2020, bringing improved connectivity to each UK nation.

EE plans to deliver around 900 more upgrades to rural areas of the UK by 2024, with each home nation receiving additional coverage.

Philip Jansen, Chief Executive of BT Group, said: “BT is committed to ensuring that even the most remote areas of the country are connected. Despite a challenging economic environment, we’re continuing to invest in rural infrastructure to achieve that. EE’s 4G has expanded by 500 square miles over the past year and we continue to be the sole provider of mobile services in many areas of the UK.”

Driving Home for Christmas

Many of the upgrades have helped improved coverage throughout the UK’s road network, a key benefit of the Shared Rural Network programme. Whether using the motorway network, or driving along key local roads, those travelling to see loved ones over Christmas will find the widest 4G coverage yet, helping to keep kids entertained with streaming movies and festive hits. Roads getting better coverage from EE under the programme include the M1, M4 and M6 in England, A487, A489 and A4212 in Wales, A838, A85 and A90 in Scotland and A1 and A24 in Northern Ireland.

About EE

EE runs the UK's biggest and fastest mobile network, offering superfast connections in more places than any other operator. EE brought the first 4G network to the UK in October 2012 and launched the UK’s first 5G network in May 2019.

EE has received extensive independent recognition, including being named the UK’s no.1 5G network by RootMetrics® in 2020 and being named the UK's best network every year since 2014 for the following awards: The Mobile Choice Awards, The Mobile Industry Awards and by RootMetrics®.

As well as offering mobile services to consumers and small and medium businesses, EE also provides home and business broadband using both 4G and fixed line connections.

EE is committed to being number one for service in the industry and has nearly 600 shops across the UK. EE remains the only mobile provider to answer 100% of customer calls in the UK and Ireland and was recognised as the UK’s Best Large Contact Centre by the UK Customer Experience Awards 2018 and Welsh Contact Centre Awards 2019. EE was awarded The Sunday Times’ Best 100 Companies to Work for in 2018 and 2019, as well as being named Best Employer 2018 by the European Contact Centre & Customer Service awards.

EE is part of BT’s Consumer business unit which provides products and services to all of BT’s consumer customers in the UK. Follow us on:

Facebook at: www.facebook.com/ee
Twitter at: www.twitter.com/ee
YouTube at: www.youtube.com/ee
LinkedIn at: www.linkedin.com/company/ee-uk

27 October 2022

EE, part of the BT Group, is deploying Ericsson’s latest ultra-lightweight radio technology to deliver improved 5G energy efficiency and network performance across the UK’s leading mobile network.

Massive MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) technology delivers 5G over more antennas from a single site, improving capacity and coverage. With up to 40 per cent less weight (14kg) and volume (25 litres) than the previous generation of radio equipment, Ericsson’s AIR 3268 is the lightest and smallest Massive MIMO radio equipment in the industry and is also the most energy efficient radio equipment of this type deployed in Europe. Field measurements in active deployment have shown a reduction of up to 40 per cent in energy usage, helping deliver immediate energy savings during a difficult time as well as contributing to BT Group’s wider sustainability goals.

Operating within EE’s 3.4GHz and 3.6GHz spectrum bands, the new radio kit will initially be deployed on more than 1,000 sites. It will not only offer substantial energy efficiencies, but also improve capacity, coverage and speed to deliver a better mobile experience for customers. The reduced size and weight of the equipment, initially developed in partnership between the companies last year, has additional benefits. Accelerated 5G upgrades will now be possible in some areas previously constrained by building regulations or planning law, because older technology would have required an increase in mast height or load bearing.

EE’s first deployments of the equipment are in London, with sites in Manchester, Leeds, Edinburgh, and Belfast to follow this year. The improved technology will be expanded to more urban and suburban areas in the future, where Ericsson is a key partner for EE.

Greg McCall, Chief Networks Officer, BT Group, said: “We’ve already made significant progress in making EE a more efficient network, delivering vast quantities of additional data without equivalent energy increases. Our partnership with Ericsson is a further milestone in this journey, enabling us not only to accelerate our 5G rollout in city centres, but to do so in a more sustainable way. That’s good for us, but also incredibly important to our customers and the planet.”

Björn Odenhammar, CTO, Networks and Managed Services, Ericsson UK and Ireland, said: “It is incredibly exciting to see our partnership with BT Group succeed with such fantastic results. This is a great step forward for the deployment of 5G in the UK and gives a much-needed boost in both 5G coverage and mid-band performance. Together we are not only leading the delivery of next-generation connectivity across the country, but also reducing energy consumption to build a more sustainable mobile network of the future.”

Background:

The deployment of AIR 3268 has been the result of a long-term development partnership between BT Group and Ericsson to address 5G deployment challenges. First announced in September last year, the ultra-lightweight radio equipment has been designed for 5G mid-band Massive MIMO performance to deliver the benefits of spectrum efficiency, deployment flexibility and improved energy efficiency.

As part of the collaboration with Ericsson, EE is also testing more advanced equipment in the future, including a new software feature called ‘deep sleep’ which can save energy by consuming up to 70 per cent less power per radio during low traffic hours. The two companies are committed to continually evolving the network in the most sustainable way possible

BT Group and Ericsson are both founding companies of the 1.5°C Supply Chain Leaders initiative. The 1.5°C Supply Chain Leaders work together to drive climate action throughout global supply chains and support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) through the SME Climate Hub, understanding the need to work with and support suppliers to halve emissions before 2030 and achieve net zero emissions before 2050.

-Ends-

About Ericsson

Ericsson enables communications service providers and enterprises to capture the full value of connectivity. The company’s portfolio spans the following business areas: Networks, Cloud Software and Services, Enterprise Wireless Solutions, Global Communications Platform, and Technologies and New Businesses. It is designed to help our customers go digital, increase efficiency and find new revenue streams. 

Ericsson’s innovation investments have delivered the benefits of mobility and mobile broadband to billions of people globally. Ericsson stock is listed on Nasdaq Stockholm and on Nasdaq New York. www.ericsson.com

BT and SEACOM today announced a strategic alliance which will help SEACOM further secure its own infrastructure and deliver new networking, security and communications solutions to enterprise customers in Africa.

As a leading Internet connectivity supplier that owns Africa’s most extensive ICT infrastructure, SEACOM will be leveraging BT’s services, vendor relationships and global expertise to expand its portfolio of services aimed at African businesses. Since the launch of its Business division, SEACOM has substantially grown its customer and partnership base to strengthen its offerings and serve customers beyond existing markets.

SEACOM’s customers will benefit from access to BT’s Cloud Security Incident Event Management (SIEM) platform. In today’s business environment data, business applications and users live beyond an organisation's traditional network. SIEM tools provide real-time visibility and monitoring across the organisation's entire IT environment, providing an ideal security overlay to SEACOM's existing ICT solutions.

BT protects some of the world's largest organisations from a myriad of fast-evolving cyber threats with a global network of dedicated 24/7 Security Operations Centres (SOCs). BT’s more than 3000 cyber security experts help customers detect, analyse and quickly respond to cybersecurity incidents as they happen.

“We’re excited to form this strategic alliance with BT and see the combined value of what we bring to our respective markets. With SEACOM’s global network and local presence, and BT’s global reach and expertise, we will be able to deliver a comprehensive portfolio of Cloud, security, and connectivity services that are reliable, scalable, and at the cutting-edge of industry,” says Oliver Fortuin, Group Chief Executive Officer of SEACOM.

Alessandro Adriani, director of system integrators and telecom service providers at BT’s Global unit, said: “We are thrilled to deliver BT’s world-class solutions to SEACOM and to their customers across the African continent. The areas of secure multi-cloud connectivity, next-generation networking solutions and collaboration services are the sweet spot where SEACOM and BT will combine their respective strengths.”

Working in collaboration with Nokia, BT’s Networks team have successfully combined four low-band and mid-band radio channels, (2.1, 2.6, 3.4, 3.6 GHz), using Nokia’s 5G Radio Access Network technology in EE’s live network spectrum.

The trial was conducted in two stages; it was first performed in BT’s Radio Lab in Bristol, and then moved outdoors, onto a radio mast at BT’s Adastral Park in Suffolk, where the team successfully achieved 4CC on 5G SA radiating in EE’s regular radio spectrum. Not only is it the first time in Europe that a network operator has achieved 4CC on 5G SA using commercial spectrum, but it is also the first time it has been achieved outside of a lab in Europe.

Most 5G networks today are Non-Standalone (“NSA”), meaning 5G is supported by existing 4G infrastructure. 5G Carrier Aggregation (“CA”) over a standalone network represents a major leap forward in the evolution of 5G infrastructure, effectively combining several transmission bands into one connection. Every new carrier added allows for higher capacity and speed directly to customer devices.

Greg McCall, Managing Director Service Platforms BT, commented: “Our trial with Nokia is another demonstration of building the most advanced network for our customers. 5G Standalone, coupled with edge compute, will unlock new opportunities for customers looking to develop new services. Furthermore, this technology showcases what’s possible for devices in the future in terms of supporting carrier aggregation, which is an important part of customer experience.”

Mark Atkinson, SVP, Radio Access Networks PLM, Nokia, commented: “We are once again delighted to be deepening our partnership with BT, supporting them with our industry-leading Carrier Aggregation technology for this trial. Nokia and BT have a long history in investing in cutting-edge technologies and this trial is another example of what our companies can achieve together.”

Notes to Editors
MediaTek’s M80 5G modem was used in the trial.

Resources:
Nokia AirScale
Nokia Radio Access Networks

About Nokia

We create technology that helps the world act together.

As a trusted partner for critical networks, we are committed to innovation and technology leadership across mobile, fixed and cloud networks. We create value with intellectual property and long-term research, led by the award-winning Nokia Bell Labs.

Adhering to the highest standards of integrity and security, we help build the capabilities needed for a more productive, sustainable and inclusive world.

Media Inquiries:
Nokia Communications
Phone: +358 10 448 4900
Email: press.services@nokia.com

In today’s business landscape, not only is data foundational to how organisations operate, it is a key differentiator that determines long-term success. As a result, all organisations have a pressing need for real-time data and the key insights which flow from that data in order to improve business outcomes and create real economic value.

Today, BT is demonstrating its capabilities through a disruptive managed service platform which delivers data collection, warehousing, processing, and analytics to public service bodies and enterprises across the UK. BT’s Data Exchange accelerates the exploitation of data assets and ‘time to insights’ by streamlining the process of gathering and sharing data from multiple sources in the form of data feeds. Built from hyperscaler components, it’s designed to deliver a shop-front paradigm for various organisations and their collaborators to discover, access, experiment with and exploit available data feeds. Data is presented in a uniform and consistent manner, abstracted from the wide variety of formats it originates in. Crucially, it eliminates much of the friction associated with providing, finding, acquiring, and integrating data, thereby allowing customers to obtain valuable data insights and business intelligence more quickly and efficiently. Data silos are removed to ensure that maximum value can be gleaned from multiple data sources, often in combination.

A core component of BT’s Data Exchange vision is to help customers unlock the economic value of data within and across organisations. BT is currently working with several local authorities, including Suffolk County Council and Milton Keynes Council, to empower them to deliver more efficient and cost-effective services by leveraging data assets.

In the case of Milton Keynes, city planners are making use of Data Exchange as a key enabler of some of the city’s most innovative smart initiatives. For instance, MK:5G – a programme focused on the deployment of 5G infrastructure in support of Milton Keynes’ Smart City ambitions. The programme has several use cases focused on mobility, robotics, and drones, and how 5G networks can support innovative services in and around the Stadium: MK complex. The mobility use case is concerned with supporting travel to, from, and around the stadium using a variety of transport means, including autonomous vehicles. Visitors can plan their trip via a special app and pre-arrange services such as parking to simplify their journey. In fact, the AI analytics generated by video from CCTV cameras is used to identify available parking spaces to improve the visitor experience.

In addition to supporting visitors, the stadium operators are responsible for planning and running services more effectively with the use of real-time information about the availability of services, people movements, and so on. With this insight, they can anticipate pressure points and potential areas of congestion allowing them to manage the environment more easily, improve safety and optimise the overall visitor experience.

Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CAV) are also a feature of the mobility use case with driverless passenger pods, a surveillance patrol vehicle, and the trial of a remotely driven vehicle transportation service. Four person pods are used to transport visitors around the stadium complex, while a 10-seater driverless shuttle serves as a transport link between the local train station and the stadium. The surveillance vehicle provides venue patrol, crowd control and remote site viewing.

The robotics use case sees a variety of robots interact with and deliver services to visitors and staff within the main stadium and at the on-site hotel. These range from customer facing services such a bag carrying and room service, to logistics services including the distribution of food and drink supplies to bars and restaurants throughout the stadium complex. Additionally, drones provide safety and security capabilities to the stadium operators such as surveillance and intrusion detection, while drone racing within the stadium has also been demonstrated as part of the use case.

Smarter Suffolk is a collaborative initiative with Suffolk County Council designed to inspire the adoption of innovative and digital technology across the countywide infrastructure network. The objective is to bring efficiencies to Suffolk County Council in the form of optimised resource allocation. For example, data from the Data Exchange platform is shared to improve winter gritting route planning to ensure the most economical use of grit and to prioritise the busiest roads. Similarly, data is also used to improve maintenance interventions such as gully cleaning, to adapt street light levels to ensure the right light is in the right place at the right time, to monitor air quality, and make use of smart sensors in refuse bins to detect when they are full and to optimise collection routes based on this intelligence.

Looking beyond existing projects, the Data Exchange platform has wider applicability when it comes to logistics hubs such as smart ports. For example, BT is working with Associated British Ports (ABP) on a number of smart port projects, where implementing drone automation with AI provides a breadth of opportunities to exploit data and provide accurate management of their sites, asset control and enhanced security.

Through its long-standing innovation partnership with ABP, BT has used drone technology to trial a fully automated process to identify, track and analyse the number of vehicles across the port at any given time. This is key for ABP’s business to allow for accurate billing, better management of operational costs and insight-led decision making for the port’s management team.

Data exchanges such as these are a crucial part of many new, ambitious smart city projects globally. A data exchange where the data can be aggregated, shared, and analysed is critical to making better decisions, leading to greater overall efficiency, better performance, and in the longer-term, has the potential to lower operating costs. Breaking down data silos facilitates the process of gleaning deep, actionable insights from organizational data, and reveals a path to an organisation or enterprise-wide view of unexplored or hidden opportunities.

Powered by AI technology within Foresight Optima^TM from QiO Technologies, it combines the latest in machine learning with BT Edge Compute devices. Customers can also benefit from BT’s wider digital industries capabilities, including IoT, cloud and secure connectivity, in a single managed solution.

The new solution brings together real-time data from IoT sensors, machinery control settings, databases, external data and energy sources to identify the variables that can be optimised to reduce energy consumption, and can also help improve quality, productivity, and other relevant factors.

The resulting energy efficiency index (EEI) looks at past configurations of the process and compares them to see which were most energy efficient and why. It can also compare sites and equipment to look for best practices.

The solution is hosted on a BT Edge Compute device, which ensures data can be securely processed by the AI close to where it is created. BT securely connects the device to all relevant systems, hardware and assets to give total visibility of the process being measured. Connectivity options include private 5G.

QiO’s AI has been successfully deployed across a wide range of industries, including glass, steel, cement, automotive and others, delivering energy savings between 5-15 per cent. For example, QIO’s deployment at a leading glass manufacturer reduced energy consumption by six per cent and carbon emissions by 21,600 tonnes.

“I believe we have a very important role to play in addressing the climate crisis. By partnering with customers, we can help them achieve net zero carbon emissions,” said Hriday Ravindranath, Chief Product & Digital Officer, Global, BT.

“Data is key,” he added. “Too many organisations still gather carbon data manually, making reporting difficult and limiting its usefulness in improving operations. Our solution collects data securely, and by using QiO’s AI, recommends steps to optimise processes. Moreover, customers can use this data to report on their performance in a standardised way. It’s a great example of how we’re delivering on our Manifesto commitments and connecting for good.”

“Our partnership with BT will deliver the benefit of QiO Foresight Optima^TM to asset heavy and energy intensive industry to help meet sustainability and net zero goals,” said Rick Haythornthwaite, Chairman & Co-Founder, QiO Technologies. “Combined with BT’s industry knowledge and connectivity expertise, we can accelerate delivery of energy efficiency, carbon emissions reduction and cost savings for organisations globally.”

ENDS

About QiO

QiO Technologies is a Gartner Magic Quadrant Industrial IoT AI Software products company delivering Sustainability and Industry4.0 solutions for the industrial sector.

Since 2015, QiO has built a global track record with leading industrial companies by optimising their operations, reducing their energy costs and carbon emissions, delivering 5-15 per cent efficiency improvement, and expediting their sustainability agenda.

QiO’s solutions are available across multiple industries, including aerospace, automotive, steel, glass, cement, oil and gas, healthcare, data centers and shipping

For more information, visit www.qio.io

BT today announced a pioneering trial of a new hyper-sensitive quantum antenna technology using excited atomic states that could boost the capability of next generation 5G and IoT networks.

Atomic Radio Frequency (RF) receiver technology represents a revolutionary new way of detecting radio waves that could find much weaker signals than conventional receivers. The receiver works by using a quantum effect called “electromagnetically induced transparency” to form a highly sensitive electric field detector. BT’s trial represents the first time a digitally-encoded message has been received on a 3.6GHz (5G) carrier frequency. Previously, simple audio has been received using much higher frequencies but this trial is the first industrial demonstration using digital modulation within one of EE’s main commercial 5G frequency ranges.

This new type of receiver may reduce mobile network energy consumption, enable Internet of Things (IoT) devices to become more cost efficient and longer lasting and support lower-cost smart cities and smart agriculture. Theoretically over 100x more sensitive than traditional receivers, the atomic RF Receiver can be positioned in a passive optical receiver in hard-to-reach locations, potentially bringing mobile networks closer to achieving one hundred percent coverage and helping to close the connectivity divide.

While the technology is still in the very early stages, it has the potential to provide greater sensitivity than conventional radio antennas, tuneable operation from very low frequencies, detection of analogue and digital modulation, and low energy consumption through reduced need for electronics. The new technology could in future form the basis of ultra-sensitive 5G receivers for use in very low power passive mobile networks.

Researchers at BT Labs in Martlesham are now working to miniaturise the equipment and find the optimum RF modulation and signal processing for potential use in future generations of radio networks.

Howard Watson, Chief Technology Officer of BT said: “BT’s investment in cutting edge R&D plays a central role in ensuring the UK remains a network technology leader. Our programme has huge potential to boost the performance of our next generation EE network and deliver an even better service to our customers. Although it’s early days for the technology, we’re proud to be playing an instrumental role in developing cutting edge science”.

BT has also secured a number of patents related to the implementation of the atomic RF receiver and is the first company to make use of the technology to send a message at 3.6GHz. Earlier this year, BT also had its first external publication on its atomic RF Receivers accepted for publication in the prestigious Journal of Lightwave Technology. 

At an event held at BT Tower on Tuesday 26th April, BT and Toshiba, along with EY launched the trial of a world first commercial quantum secured metro network. The infrastructure will be able to connect numerous customers across London, helping them to secure the transmission of valuable data and information between multiple physical locations over standard fibre optic links using quantum key distribution (QKD). QKD is an important technology, playing a fundamental role in protecting networks and data against the emerging threat of cyber-attack using quantum computing. The London network represents a critical step towards reaching the UK government’s strategy to become a quantum-enabled economy.

The network’s first commercial customer, EY, will use the network to connect two of its sites in London, one in Canary Wharf, and one near London Bridge. It will demonstrate how data secured using QKD can move between sites and will showcase the benefits this network brings to its own customers.

BT and Toshiba announced their commitment to creating a trial network in October 2021. BT will operate the network, providing a range of quantum-secured services including dedicated high bandwidth end-to-end encrypted links, delivered over Openreach’s private fibre networks, while Toshiba will provide quantum key distribution hardware and key management software. In the network, QKD keys will be combined with the in-built ethernet security, based on public-key based encryption, which will enable the resultant keys to be used to encrypt the data.

George Freeman, Minister for Science, Research and Innovation, HM Government, commented: “I am very pleased to see the first trial by BT and Toshiba of a commercial quantum secured metro network, which represents significant progress towards achieving our ambition to make the UK a quantum-enabled economy. This is the kind of innovation that helps cement the UK as a global innovation economy in the vanguard of discovering, developing and commercially adopting transformational technology with real societal benefits.”

Howard Watson, Chief Technology Officer, BT, commented: “Quantum-enabled technologies are expected to have a profound impact on how society and business operates in the future, but they are remarkably complex to understand, develop and build: in particular, ensuring that the end-to-end service designs meet the stringent security requirements of the market. I’m incredibly proud that BT and Toshiba have successfully united to deliver this unique network, and with EY as our first trial customer, we are paving the way for further commercial explorations for quantum technologies and their use in commercial, and societal applications in the future.”

Shunsuke Okada, Corporate Senior Vice President and Chief Digital Officer of Toshiba commented: “Both Toshiba and BT have demonstrated world-class technology development and leadership through decades of innovation and operation. Combining BT’s leadership in networks technologies and Toshiba’s leadership in quantum technologies has brought this network to life, allowing businesses across London to benefit from quantum secured communications for the first time.”

Preparation, technical deployment and testing for the network commenced in late 2021. This included equipment deployment in racks, adding security systems and resilience testing, and finally running and optimising the network. While Tuesday 26^th April marked the official launch of the network, it has been running since early April, and will operate for an initial period of up to three years.

Praveen Shankar, EY UK & Ireland Managing Partner for Technology, Media and Telecoms (TMT), commented: “Quantum technology creates new and significant opportunities for business, but presents potential risks. Quantum secure data transmission represents the next major leap forward in protecting data, an essential component of doing business in a digital economy. Our work with two of the world’s leading technology innovators will allow us to demonstrate the power of quantum to both EY and our clients.”

The UK Government’s “strategic intent” to develop a quantum-enabled economy was first published in 2020. It sets out a vision for the next 10 years in which quantum technologies will become an integral part of the UK’s digital backbone, unlock innovation to drive growth and help build a thriving and resilient economy, and contribute significant value to the UK’s prosperity and security.

The London network represents an important step to building a national network for quantum secured communications, which will stimulate the growth of a quantum ready economy in the UK.

Howard Watson continued: “This is a significant moment in the UK’s journey towards a quantum-enabled economy, but we’re not there yet. Further investment commitments will be required to broaden the study of quantum technologies that will contribute to this new economy, including quantum computing, quantum cryptography and quantum communications. We look forward to working with our government and industry partners to continue the momentum BT has started and shaping the UK’s quantum strategy.”

The technical collaboration for this network was conducted in BT’s Adastral Park labs in Suffolk, UK, and the Quantum technology Business Division of Toshiba, based in Tokyo, Japan and Cambridge, UK, where the quantum key distribution technology has been developed and is manufactured.

About Toshiba
Toshiba Corporation leads a global group of companies that combines knowledge and capabilities from over 140 years of experience in a wide range of businesses—from energy and social infrastructure to electronic devices—with world-class capabilities in information processing, digital and AI technologies. These distinctive strengths support Toshiba’s continued evolution toward becoming an Infrastructure Services Company that promotes data utilization and digitization, and one of the world’s leading cyber-physical-systems technology companies. Guided by the Basic Commitment of the Toshiba Group, “Committed to People, Committed to the Future,” Toshiba contributes to society’s positive development with services and solutions that lead to a better world. The Group and its 120,000 employees worldwide secured annual sales surpassing 3.1 trillion yen (US$27.5 billion) in fiscal year 2020. Find out more about Toshiba at https://www.global.toshiba/ww/outline/corporate.html

About EY
EY exists to build a better working world, helping to create long-term value for clients, people and society and build trust in the capital markets. Enabled by data and technology, diverse EY teams in over 150 countries provide trust through assurance and help clients grow, transform and operate. Working across assurance, consulting, law, strategy, tax and transactions, EY teams ask better questions to find new answers for the complex issues facing our world today. EY refers to the global organization, and may refer to one or more, of the member firms of Ernst & Young Global Limited, each of which is a separate legal entity. Ernst & Young Global Limited, a UK company limited by guarantee, does not provide services to clients. Information about how EY collects and uses personal data and a description of the rights individuals have under data protection legislation are available via ey.com/privacy. EY member firms do not practice law where prohibited by local laws. Find out more about EY at https://www.ey.com

BT today announced it is building a flexible, resilient and secure network for Deutsche Post DHL Group to support the global logistics powerhouse in its drive to digitalise supply chains in a sustainable way.

The new eight-year agreement continues the long-standing relationship between the firms. It will see BT deploy the latest technology to transform connectivity for DPDHL Group in 27 countries across Europe, including the UK.

Deutsche Post DHL Group is the world’s leading logistics company. It focuses on delivering exceptional customer service and innovative sustainable transport solutions for increasingly digitalised supply chains.

The new network will be a key enabler of Deutsche Post DHL Group’s strategy, helping the company digitalise and automate its business in a sustainable way.

It will be based on the latest technologies that combine the scale and flexibility of the internet with security and resilience to deliver trusted performance. It will be optimised for the cloud, where Deutsche Post DHL Group increasingly hosts its applications and digital services used by 350,000 employees at 1500 sites across the regions.

Sustainability is a fundamental part of the network transformation. BT will audit Deutsche Post DHL Group’s existing network to identify and remove copper cables wherever possible, replacing them with fibre connections to optimise energy consumption.

BT’s networks use 100 per cent renewable electricity and the company employs science-based emission reduction targets across its business.

Anna Spinelli, Chief Procurement Officer, Deutsche Post DHL Group, said: “Our relationship with BT builds on strong foundations and a common purpose to connecting people and improving lives. Thanks to this new long-term agreement, both companies have strategically committed to work closely together to enable the best performing, flexible and sustainable network, globally.” 

Bas Burger, CEO, Global, BT, said: “We are proud to work with Deutsche Post DHL Group, a globally respected logistic company driven by a purpose that mirrors our own. Like BT, it places customer service, the power of technology and sustainability at the heart of its corporate strategy. Our new partnership gives us the opportunity to achieve our respective growth ambitions and contribute towards common goals.”

BT is committed to sustained investment in all technologies that deliver the best possible customer experience, including using open architecture wherever network performance can be enhanced. BT is therefore developing Open RAN, with its vendor partners, to ensure it becomes a viable, mature, scale option for network optimisation as soon as possible. In addition to this trial, BT will also open a dedicated Open RAN Innovation Centre at its Adastral Park facility later this year. This will provide opportunities for large and small vendors to develop and prove their equipment and provide a platform for open architecture progress across all network elements. 

Neil McRae, Chief Architect, BT, commented: “Our Open RAN trial with Nokia is one of many investments we are making to boost the performance of our market-leading 4G and 5G EE network and deliver an even better service to our customers. Our high performance, high efficiency radio access equipment, provided by the major global vendors, has enabled us to roll-out 4G and now 5G at scale, with the confidence that our customers will get the best network experience possible.”

BT’s focus is always on providing the highest possible quality of experience. So far, it has launched 5G across hundreds of towns and cities via its EE mobile network, giving its customers faster speeds, a more reliable service and near instant connections to content. EE’s 5G network will cover more than half the UK population by 2023 (four years ahead of current Government ambitions), will deliver 5G connectivity solutions anywhere in the UK by 2028 and complete the country’s only fully converged network by the mid-2020s.

Mark Atkinson, SVP, Radio Access Networks PLM, Nokia, commented: “We are delighted to deepen our partnership with BT with this trial. Nokia is investing in Open RAN capabilities to enable a robust telecom ecosystem with strong network performance and security. An open and programmable RAN enables many new advanced capabilities to be introduced that can automatically optimize the 5G network. I look forward to seeing how this project develops.”

By John Davies, Chief Researcher, BT                                                                                                                                                                                        

While the concept of a digital twin is no longer new, the technology has been steadily generating growing interest over the last few years, particularly as it is increasingly being seen as a key enabler of Industry 4.0. For people unfamiliar with the technology, a digital twin is a digital representation of a product, process, service, or ecosystem – for instance, a network simulator can be the digital twin of an actual network, a virtual machine can be the digital twin of a server etc. The digital twin representation of a resource can be used to test changes to its configuration, behaviour, and use in business processes in ways that are less destructive or intrusive than their real-life physical equivalent. Digital twins can therefore be used to run stress tests that would be too complex or costly to run in real life – they allow us to see what might happen when certain adjustments are made to a resource or process. Essentially, it can execute simulation models to test and predict process changes when under different and varied ‘what if’ scenarios.

Of course, this ability to test hypotheses without the need to disrupt the real-world environment has made digital twin technology a very attractive proposition for a number of sectors, including manufacturing, healthcare, transport, energy, and infrastructure. For many enterprises, a digital twin is seen as the means to realize significant commercial benefits, including improved operations, product and service innovation, as well as faster time to market. Gartner predicts that by 2023, one-third of mid-to-large-size companies that implemented IoT will have implemented at least one digital twin that is active and delivering tangible business benefits. And with Industry 4.0 in its nascent stages, digital twins are an integral part of the ecosystem that also includes IoT, robotics, AI, and automation.

Today BT is exploring the potential advantages that this concept offers, particularly with a view to sustainability and tackling the climate emergency. Optimization is an essential driver of sustainability, and this is where digital twins can make a decisive difference. Currently there are a number of new and innovative use cases which illustrate the benefits of the technology. One example is BT’s partnership with major utilities providers to develop a utilities digital twin that aims to increase climate resilience in the face of changing and unpredictable weather patterns. With our partners Anglian Water and UK Power Networks, and with the help of the National Digital Twin programme, the collaboration is helping to build a digital twin across energy, water, and telecoms networks. Each vertical knows that flooding events affect their operations, and the ability to predict where and how severely those events will happen would allow them to plan accordingly and to be able to optimize service delivery. A digital twin can therefore be fed with weather data and flood event predictions. The digital twin environment will then provide a view of how the service network would respond to such disruption. The processes that are in place to maintain and restore service delivery can be tested and optimized with a view of how to respond to those incidents.

In a further example, BT took part in a project exploring the optimization of energy consumption patterns associated with the use of air conditioning in buildings.in the Middle East.  As temperatures frequently soar to 45 degrees, air conditioning represents a huge running cost to keep acceptable temperatures within buildings and office spaces. The ability to reduce energy consumption provides commercial and environmental benefits. The creation of a digital twin for the buildings, along with the deployment of in-building sensors connected to the digital twin augmented with weather data and simulations of space occupancy and utilization, allows for the minimisation of power consumption while achieving the required temperature and humidity through the optimal use of the air conditioning system.

In a digital twin application delivered to Hyperbat, one of the UK’s largest vehicle battery manufacturers, BT together with Ericsson and NVIDIA, enabled dispersed teams across design, engineering, and manufacturing to collaborate more efficiently using a virtual 3D engineering model showing how the technology is set to accelerate the pace of innovation in the UK manufacturing sector. This caters for greater energy efficiency by reducing the need for travel and its associated impacts.

There is no doubt that digital twins have the power to enable enterprises to improve innovation and performance, particularly when it comes to monitoring and identifying ways to become more efficient, prevent downtimes and plan for future events. This clearly has positive implications for environmental sustainability and is especially timely when seen against the backdrop of the recent COP26 summit which reinforced the urgent need to find more radical solutions to the threat of climate breakdown. That’s why BT – with the guidance of Tim Whitley, Research and Innovation MD and chair of the UK government’s UKRI advisory group on digital twins – are advising the government on policy and initiatives encouraging the adoption of digital twin technology across UK industries to help the UK meet its long-term sustainability targets.   

BT today announced that it has developed an epidemiology-based cybersecurity prototype, “Inflame”, which uses deep reinforcement learning to enable enterprises to automatically detect and respond to cyber-attacks before they compromise a network. Using the spread of viruses in human populations as a model to inform its AI, Inflame is a key component in BT’s recently-announced Eagle-i platform.

Epidemiological modelling is typically associated with the spread of viruses and diseases amongst human populations, and has been critical in analysing and managing the spread of COVID-19 over the past 20 months. Using the same principals of epidemiology, BT’s Inflame solution has been developed to understand how computer viruses and cyber-attacks spread across enterprise networks, and how to prevent them from happening.

To develop the technology, security researchers at the BT Labs in Suffolk, UK, built models of enterprise networks which were used to test numerous scenarios based on differing R rates[1] of cyber-infection. This testing enabled the research team to understand how these threats can penetrate and compromise a network, and develop optimal automated responses needed to contain and prevent the spread of viruses across them.

The deep reinforcement training and learning undertaken in the development of Inflame means the solution can automatically model and respond to a detected threat within an enterprise network. These responses are also underpinned by ‘attack lifecycle’ modelling, which assesses real-time security alerts against established patterns to understand the current stage of an ongoing cyber-attack. This insight is used to predict the next stages of an attack and rapidly identify the best response to prevent it from progressing any further.

BT recently announced its transformational cyber defence platform ‘Eagle-i', which uses AI to provide real-time detection of issues and intelligent automated responses. The platform has been designed to self-learn from the intelligence provided by each intervention, so that it constantly improves its threat knowledge and dynamically refines how it protects other users going forward.

“We know the risk of cyber-attack is higher than ever and has intensified significantly during the pandemic. Enterprises now need to look to new cybersecurity solutions that can understand the risk and consequence of an attack, and quickly respond before it’s too late,” said Howard Watson, Chief Technology Officer, BT. “Epidemiological testing has played a vital role in curbing the spread of infection during the pandemic, and Inflame uses the same principles to understand how current and future digital viruses spread through networks. Inflame will play a key role in how BT’s Eagle-i platform automatically predicts and identifies cyber-attacks before they impact, protecting customers’ operations and reputation.”

The lab is the first dedicated telecoms civil engineering robotics test facility in the UK, designed to help BT engage with the university sector and robotics startups as they develop robotic solutions to challenging civil engineering tasks. This includes addressing problems such as how to clear out blocked ducts, mend collapsed ducts and install new fibre network infrastructure without incurring the cost and delays that come with digging up roads and pavements.

New robotic locomotion and excavation techniques inspired by digging and burrowing mammals and insects, coupled with the latest technologies developed for space exploration, aerospace and medical applications are showing real promise for delivering so-called ‘trenchless’ infrastructure deployment. Magnetic, climbing and cable-traversing robotic techniques are also maturing, enabling proof-of-concept trials on wireless tower and overhead cable poles.

It is expected that the test lab will play an important role in supporting BT’s fibre programme, as well as facilitating collaboration with other utilities such as power and water companies as they roll out and update their underground and overhead networks.

The site is a unique indoor facility that will enable research teams to trial the latest innovations in robotics within a variety of test zones. The facility emulates three different types of environments in which testing can be carried out:

• Underground environment: The facility includes several test beds that can be filled with different soil and aggregate types to replicate the terrain that creates challenges for laying ducts and fibre across the country. The compaction, moisture content and stone content can all be controlled within these environments to test the ability of robots to dig pathways for ducts or direct-in-ground fibre. The test beds will also provide demanding environments for fibre sensing and robotics steering tests.

• In-duct environments: Pipe stands are used at the facility to construct duct runs, using specially manufactured transparent versions of BT ducts. This enables replication of the scenarios whereby a duct collapses or becomes blocked with silt build up.

• Overhead environments: The facility holds a full height telegraph pole, with platform access to allow different pole-top fixtures to be fitted. This creates opportunities to test robots that can lift tools, equipment or cable to the top of a pole. Cables can be run to another pole to provide a single 35m span for development of cable-car-like devices for pulling in new cables or dealing with tree canopies that could damage an existing cable. A series of shorter posts provides a ‘pole-transit’ testbed for developing other cable-travelling devices.

Professor Tim Whitley, BT’s MD of Research, said: “The UK is a hotbed of civil engineering innovation, with a thriving university ecosystem and an enviable robotics startup sector. Our aim is to bring those players together in a dedicated facility to develop solutions that make the UK a world leader in telecoms civil engineering robotics. The lab will provide a hub for the creation of solutions to real world challenges and pioneering applications of robots, reinforcing the UK’s position at the heart of research and innovation into advanced technologies.”

BT today announced a new capability to help multinational customers deliver improved experiences for users of their corporate applications and digital services. Cisco ThousandEyes Cloud and Internet Intelligence platform helps customers’ IT teams monitor end-to-end application performance across the entire digital delivery ecosystem, from users all the way to the cloud. It rapidly identifies faults and performance issues, wherever they are, so they can be fixed before they disrupt services and user experience.

The solution is powered by ThousandEyes globally distributed and local vantage points. These are natively embedded on customers’ Cisco network equipment* and can also run on virtual machines and other types of equipment. BT monitors and controls the solution using Cisco technology integrated into its own leading-edge service management platform to deliver always-on proactive monitoring and service assurance of digital experience.

Customers benefit from BT’s deep Cisco expertise and global availability of service teams offering around-the-clock, 365 days-a-year monitoring support across the network underlay, overlay and application layers as well as customer-dedicated technical consultants. Customers can choose from three services levels, from fully BT-managed and controlled to in-house operation by their own IT team.

Modern applications are more distributed and modular than ever before, powered by a hybrid underlying infrastructure combining public cloud, Internet and private networks. This hybrid approach helps organisations boost agility and reduce costs but introduces complexity and third-party dependencies. When something goes wrong, faults are difficult to find and can result in costly outages, sometimes with regulatory implications.

“Troubleshooting poor user experience is a huge pain for customers. The longer the outage, the bigger the consequences for the business,” said Scott Cowling, network solutions director, BT. “Working with our partner Cisco, we’ve launched a managed service based on ThousandEyes to cut through the complexity of modern connectivity, deliver digital resilience and enable customer success.”

“Major outages create headlines but routine technical outages and thousands upon thousands of other micro-outages happen on a daily basis and can present enterprises with significant brand and operational risks too,” said Craig Vario, global head of channels, Cisco ThousandEyes. “Now more than ever, the Internet dictates the experience of customers and employees alike. That’s why we’re building on our deep partnership with BT. Its ThousandEyes managed service will help enterprises enjoy the benefits of hybrid cloud networking while providing users with excellent and resilient digital experiences.”

*Cisco network equipment with ThousandEyes vantage points natively embedded include the Catalyst 9300 and 9400 series Switches, Catalyst 8300 and 8200 series Edge Platforms, and Cisco 4000 series Integrated Service Routers.

The tech firm is keen to build a thriving community of apprentices at its research and innovation centre at Martlesham Heath, near Ipswich, and is encouraging local people to apply for the new initiative.

It will take place between Wednesday, 21 August and Friday, 23 August, with candidates only required to attend on one day. Those who are successful will be offered paid, BT degree-apprenticeship positions with the cost of their degree also funded by the company.

Lisa Perkins, Adastral Park & research realisation director for BT, said: “This is a fantastic opportunity for local people to take the first steps towards an exciting and rewarding career in the technology world with BT.

“We have up to 50 paid apprenticeship roles available, ranging from working on the UK’s biggest and fastest mobile network, EE, to learning how to deliver brilliant software to provide an effortless experience for BT customers and people. What’s even more amazing about this opportunity is that we will also fund the full cost of studying towards a recognised degree qualification linked to the role.

“This event is taking place a week after students receive their A-level results so if you are no longer thinking about University this may be the perfect alternative.”

During the event, candidates will get the opportunity to complete their application, which includes an online test and assessment. The potential recruits will also meet current BT apprentices to hear their experiences as well as get a behind-the-scenes tour of BT’s global research and innovation facilities.

Ms Perkins added: “Even for those who aren’t successful, the assessment days will be a great experience and give people confidence and the opportunity to find out more about careers in this field.

“There is no age restriction on enrolling in the assessment week as we encourage people of all ages to apply for the roles on offer.”

Starting salaries for apprenticeship roles with BT are around £16,149 with potential average salary on completion of apprenticeship between £35,000 - £39,000 depending on level and performance.

To find out more and how to apply click here and select ‘Ipswich ONLY’ option.

Adastral Park is home to BT’s innovation labs and Innovation Martlesham – an established and growing cluster of over 100 high-tech ICT companies. BT employs around 3,500 people at the site and leads innovations and research in areas such as optical fibre and next-generation broadband, 5G mobile technologies, artificial intelligence, security and the future of TV. Last year BT spent around £510 million on research and development and over the last decade the company has been one of the largest investors in R&D both in the UK, and globally in the telecoms sector.

The two ‘value added licences’, China nationwide Domestic IP-VPN licence and China nationwide Internet Service Provider (ISP) licence, enable BT China Communications Limited to contract directly with its customers in the country and bill them in local currency.

The value added licences represent a major step for BT in China where many of its multinational customers require secure and reliable connectivity to expand within the country.

Bas Burger, CEO of Global Services, BT, said: “We are delighted with this major benefit for our customers. Thanks to cooperation between the governments of the PRC and the UK, we are now able to offer a nationwide service in China that can be scaled up to match the ambitions and needs of our customers. Being able to service and bill locally significantly simplifies the process of delivering connectivity and other communication services. It is what our customers expect from us and we are very grateful for the opportunity to do this as of today.”

International Trade Secretary, Dr Liam Fox MP said: “I am very pleased that close cooperation between the UK and Chinese governments has resulted in BT securing these licences which will enable it to operate across the country. This major milestone exemplifies the vital work of my international economic department to open up markets and ensure that UK firms are represented on the global stage.”