Vodafone has launched its Pro 4 broadband range in the UK, with tiers reaching up to 8Gbps over CityFibre's network. The package pairs a tri-band WiFi 7 router with mesh boosters and controls that prioritise work, gaming or streaming devices. Automatic 4G backup is included, but Vodafone's product page specifies a 100GB monthly backup allowance. Availability and speed depend on the address.
SA Connect has established more than 18,500 public Wi-Fi hotspots and connected 8,215 government facilities, communications minister Solly Malatsi says in a parliamentary reply reported by MyBroadband. The facilities figure is 55.7% of the programme's 14,742-site target, leaving 6,527 still to connect. The reply was signed on 30 October, so these aren't installations completed overnight. Further connections depend on funding.
Toshiba Europe has won an Innovate UK contract to develop equipment for longer-distance quantum links and networks serving multiple users. BT and Colt will help validate prototype subsystems under realistic conditions. Toshiba says the work aims to make quantum networks easier and cheaper to expand over existing fibre, including more efficient use of network resources. This is a research and development project supporting Britain's longer-term quantum networking plans.
Four months after BrainSAT's government-endorsed South African launch, MyBroadband reports no major rollout announcements and little response to questions about its progress. The email address listed on its website bounced, while BrainSAT, Space42 and the Presidency hadn't supplied answers by publication. BrainSAT resells satellite connectivity through Space42, whose services were already available locally through other providers. The launch promised always-on internet. A working email address would be a start. The report leaves customers without a clear picture of what's actually been delivered.
ICASA's proposed numbering rules would cap individuals at five mobile numbers per network, with companies exempt. The same draft calls for biometric identity checks against Home Affairs records when numbers are activated or reactivated, and real-time identity verification for SIM swaps. These are consultation proposals, not rules already in force. Fraud prevention deserves attention (not that it gets any at all), but so do families sharing one account holder's ID and the security of the biometric information.
South Africa could be ready to retire 3G in 12 to 24 months, Vodacom group technology chief Dejan Kastelic told TechCentral. He wants operators to coordinate a date, give a year's notice and help customers replace old handsets. Fewer than 10% of devices on Vodacom's local network are now 3G handsets, he says; 2G would remain longer. This is an executive's proposed timetable, not an announced shutdown. Freeing spectrum for 4G makes sense, provided customers aren't expected to upgrade their wallets first (as is usually the case...).
Vodacom topped MyBroadband Insights' Centurion voice tests with a 97.77 score, no dropped calls and 100% call-setup success in the sample. MTN placed second overall but recorded slightly better average speech quality. Telkom and Cell C met the cited regulatory thresholds, while Rain's 87.3% setup success hurt its result. These are controlled one-minute test calls, not a promise about every conversation or suburb. Still, successfully connecting a call remains a refreshingly practical network feature to measure.
Small ISPs face a difficult choice when licences begin expiring in 2028. ICASA chair Mothibi Ramusi told MyBroadband that active operators without 30% ownership by historically disadvantaged groups would need qualifying partners or would have to stop operating. He also acknowledged that how ownership should be calculated remains disputed. This is a warning about compliance at renewal, and keeping smaller competitors alive in a market that could use more of them will now become far more onerous. Compliments of the absolute clown show.
ICASA officials told MyBroadband they expect to publish a discussion document on new national network and service licences before October ends. That would open a 45-day consultation, rather than immediately let new operators in. ISPA says buying an existing licence generally costs more than R1 million, followed by months of transfer paperwork. Lowering that barrier could help smaller networks compete. For now, would-be rivals remain in the distinctly South African business of waiting for permission to compete.
SpaceX is reportedly discussing access to as many as 80,000 US mobile towers, with Crown Castle among the companies named in Bloomberg reporting covered by Fierce Network. That could give Starlink Mobile a substantial ground network alongside its satellites. Analysts caution that the talks might also help SpaceX negotiate wholesale access from an existing operator. No completed tower deal is established by these reports. Apparently, even a business famous for escaping Earth's gravity may find the mobile industry's most useful assets firmly bolted to it.
Portsmouth Water plans to use Openreach fibre and Lightsonic sensing technology to locate underground water leaks, with deployment due in December. The system measures vibrations along existing cables and identifies patterns associated with escaping water, potentially narrowing the search to around 10 metres. Lightsonic says the approach can improve leak-finding productivity, although Portsmouth's results still lie ahead. It's an appealing extra job for infrastructure already in the ground: helping fix the pipes instead of merely carrying complaints about them.
