Copper theft is a growing problem for the communication network in Northern Ireland, BT has said.
In recent weeks, stolen cables have caused disruption to phone lines in south Tyrone and in Banbridge copper cable was cut at 16 junction boxes.
Also in the last few days cabling has been stolen from poles along a number of roads in Londonderry.
BT’s head of security has travelled to NI to meet the PSNI to discuss the use of new technology to combat the crime.
“Copper is contained within our cables and has a value, however …

Industrial illness lawyers have called for communications companies to withdraw equipment which they say is leaving engineers deafened or with hearing damage.
Law firm Irwin Mitchell reports having received complaints from across the UK from engineers deafened after using British Telecom’s (BT) ‘green set’ and ‘yellow set’ oscillators, which are widely used in the communications industry. The devices transmit a constant high-pitched sound through a headset, allowing the user to listen for changes in tone to track faults in the cables.
Although BT has now accepted that the equipment is dangerous and …

A former News of the World journalist’s allegation the newspaper paid police to track mobile phones raises serious questions about the UK’s eavesdropping laws, according to experts.
Sean Hoare said it was possible to “ping” a handset’s location for £300.
While there is no firm evidence to support the accusation, if true it would undermine safeguards within the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act.
The law outlines a system of checks intended to prevent it being abused.
Police can ask mobile networks to determine the location of a phone, based on information from nearby radio …

Skype has moved quickly to fix problems that hit users around the world.
Many people started to report that they had problems making calls via the net-based phone system earlier today.
The problem did not seem confined to one group, with users on machines running Windows, OS X and Linux all reporting trouble.
Skype issued advice about how to get its service going, while it worked on a permanent fix.
Messages about problems getting Skype to start up began to be posted on social networking sites such as Twitter soon after it sent out …

BT has increased its full-year dividend by 7% and reported market-beating fourth-quarter results, saying it expects to continue to grow profit and free cash flow.
Profit for the quarter was up 97% to £495m compared with the same period the year before, but revenue fell 6% to £5.06bn.
“We expect to continue to grow our profits and free cash flow whilst investing to return BT to growth. These results show we are making progress, but we are well aware there remains a lot more to do,” said Ian Livingston, chief executive at BT.
For …

TalkTalk tops the league in terms of number of customer complaints, according to a new report from Ofcom.
The telco regulator has received the most complaints about service from customers of TalkTalk compared to other fix broadband providers.
Ofcom’s data indicates that across fixed broadband providers with a market share of five per cent or above, it received the most complaints about TalkTalk Group with 1.27 complaints per 1000 customers from October 2010 to February 2011. Ofcom saw a peak in complaints about TalkTalk Group in November 2010, following its investigation into the …

BT has defended itself against criticism of its proposed pricing for access to its poles and ducts, despite further industry support for the concerns raised by a number of its rivals this week.
Several network operators wrote to communications minister Ed Vaizey and BT CEO Ian Livingston (pictured) on 4 April warning of the risk of a boycott of the government’s rural broadband pilots unless BT’s prices for physical infrastructure access (PIA) by third-parties were lowered to better reflect actual costs.
A boycott could jeopardise the government’s plan for providing £830m of funding …

The cost of home telephone and broadband services could come down after telecoms regulator Ofcom moved to reduce the wholesale price.
It has revised the list of rates that Openreach, which manages BT’s network, can charge other providers for using its services.
In some cases, the wholesale price could fall by more than 10% per year.
The move will benefit companies such as TalkTalk and Sky, but not Virgin Media which uses its own cable network.
Under Ofcom’s proposals the prices of two of the ways that BT’s rivals get access to its network …

The telecoms regulator has launched a consultation on how best to sell off the rights to the next generation of mobile wireless networks.
The auction of the fourth generation, or 4G, spectrum will be the largest ever, equivalent to three quarters of the mobile spectrum in use today.
The last time an auction was held, for 3G in 2000, it raised a record £22.5bn for the Treasury.
The auction itself is expected to start in the first quarter of 2012.
The additional spectrum to be sold off should mean faster speeds for downloading data …

Aftershocks are still preventing Japan’s telecommunication companies from repairing undersea cables, damaged in the recent earthquake and tsunami.
To restore services, many providers have rerouted traffic to backup cables.
KDDI, Japan’s second-largest telecoms operator, said it will send out a ship equipped with remotely-controlled robots as soon as the ground is still.
The robots can dive to a depth of 2,500m to repair the damaged cables – a task that may take months to complete.
In the mean-time, there is enough redundancy in the telecommunications infrastructure linking Japan to the rest of the world …