Virgin Media O2 has saved “millions of pounds” in costs by enhancing data center efficiency through the introduction of flash storage drives, according to a senior company official. 

Ajit Sharma, business optimization manager at the telecoms giant, told attendees at Pure Accelerate 2023 that the integration of the devices in data center operations followed a deal with Pure Storage to adopt its FlashArray//X drives. 

This move, Sharma said, delivered significant operational and financial benefits, including a 98% reduction in its data center footprint. 

The integration of flash drives also resulted in a 96% reduction in power consumption, Sharma said while hailing the improvements made to the company’s data architecture. This has enabled the firm to reduce the impact of rising energy costs amid the cost-of-living crisis. 

“In the UK we’ve seen our power costs increase by nearly five to ten times depending on who you’re co-locating with in the data center space,” he explained.

“We don’t have our own property, but most of our own data centers are co-located with Equinix and other companies. Unfortunately, we’re at their mercy due to what’s going on across the sector as well as what’s going on across the world as well.”

A survey of data center professionals from Aggreko last year found that 60% reported energy bill increases of up to 40%. 

Given the rise in energy costs over the last year, Sharma said that by reducing power consumption, the company has experienced a “huge reduction in costs”. 

Maximizing data center space

As part of the transformation program, Virgin Media O2 reduced its storage racks from 42 to three, and runs its storage on a select number of flash arrays which are able to handle over four petabytes of data. 

A key factor in the firm’s ability to reduce its footprint lies in the compact nature of flash storage drives compared to traditional storage devices, such as hard disks, Sharma said. 

Reducing this footprint represents a long-term strategy and was more than about delivering immediate cost savings. Looking ahead, this will cut the need to invest in additional data centers across the country. 

“The UK is a much smaller country in terms of size,” he said. “So by being able to re-use and improve sustainability, we don’t need to go and build new data centers.”

“So we’re helping the UK and the community to ensure that we’re not using more space than is required. We’re saving millions of pounds by not building new data centers.”

Re-investing cost savings

The cost savings from this data center transformation strategy means that Virgin Media O2 has also been able to reduce e-waste levels and re-invest in other areas of the business, creating a positive cyclical process of optimization, cost savings, and re-investment. 

This has been especially critical for the firm as it prepares for the eventual roll-out of 6G technologies, Sharma added. 

“In the last year alone we got rid of over 48,000 tons of e-waste,” he said. “What we’re seeing from the money that’s being saved in e-waste and the ability to reduce our data center costs, is that it’s been refunded into other parts of the business.”

“We’ve seen 4G and 5G, and 6G is going to be out soon as well. So we need to invest our money in the right places - this helps us on that journey.”

Many organisations are adopting varying forms of hybrid working post-pandemic, with one of the main considerations being how to keep distributed workforces connected, and continue successful collaboration.

This study looks at the increase in the digital delivery of services across industries, and how this is benefiting businesses - not only from a productivity perspective, but also for employee wellbeing. It also discusses how those organisations that don’t embrace a hybrid working future could miss out on attracting the best talent.

Download now for tips and guidance on how to plan for a hybrid workplace, how to empower distributed staff, and how to keep them productive and secure.

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A popular phrase usually found alongside "big data" is "smart city". This is because a large conurbation with hundreds of thousands or millions of inhabitants will be a significant source of data, and could also greatly benefit from the effective analysis of that data. Traffic information from city dwellers' use of personal vehicles and public transport is just the beginning. The sheer volume of people habitually found in a given location can help city planners manage resources, assist retailers to know where they can most effectively place outlets, when to open them, and much more.

One of the most significant sources of this information is the smartphone. In figures cited by Consultancy.uk, Deloitte has claimed that, in 2017, 85% of the UK population owned smartphones, and this figure has been increasing every year. A smartphone is packed with sensors and connects to external ones as well. It knows our location, is increasingly the conduit for our travel and retail transactions, and forms the hub of our social interaction. This makes it the perfect device to supply the big data for a smart city.

But smartphone users are becoming increasingly uncomfortable with the amount of data their devices collect about them, and who it is being shared with. Even when we are sure where our data is being sent, we still worry that big corporations know too much about where we are going and what we're doing when we get there.

Although it's very easy to see these kinds of news stories as a valid impetus to restrict all our data from being shared with anyone, this will be preventing some of the most significant advancements afforded by contemporary technology. The benefits for our lifestyles and work needs can be very real. The data collected doesn't have to be directly linked to specific individuals, and in fact some of the greatest potential can be available from looking at the trends found in large aggregations with no need to drill down to individual records.

The key word here is "anonymous". Your data can be separated from your identity, so you become merely one sample amongst millions that are grouped under categories such as demographics. For example, O2's Smart Steps uses anonymised, aggregated smartphone geolocation data from over 24.5 million O2 mobile network customers to track the number of people who visit a location. All of the data collected by Smart Steps is secure, anonymous and aggregated so no personal information can be extracted. Whilst anonymous, if its customers have recorded their preferences, it can be referenced by time, gender and age. It can also track where its users have come from and where they are going, using data that spans back to 2013.

Without needing to know who individuals are, this kind of information can pay huge dividends. O2's Smart Steps has been harnessed to tap into real-time and historical data on over 100 daily journeys to help one company to advise clients much more accurately and quickly than when they were using their previous data collection methods. This helps clients decide whether to go ahead with airport, building, road or high-speed rail schemes, saving four months of work on a typical 16-month project. Thus the planning of city infrastructure can be much smarter and faster than before, with adjustments according to where people actually go in their daily lives.

A lot of information is available without needing to identify individuals. Records may be tagged with an ID, but this will still be securely separated from which user it is referring to. There are benefits from this, as it can provide details about whether visitors to a location are newcomers or returning, and when they come. Shops can work out whether their marketing is working to bring in new customers, and at what times to employ more retail staff to cope with demand. This is likely to be of benefit to the customers as much as the retailer, since the former won't find themselves stuck in check-out queues or unable to find an assistant to help them because the shop is too busy, and the latter will be able to better manage their people.

However, there are also potential benefits that are more directly targeted at the individual, without specifically requiring them to part with their anonymity. Where historical mass travel data can make public development schemes smarter and more finely targeted, retailers can use similar generalised real-time data to plan the best times and places to offer discounts either to attract customers to an underutilised outlet, or reach them where and when they are gathering in large numbers, such as a shopping mall or venue with associated restaurants. They can then track the effectiveness of these endeavours.

This concept gains particular power when end users don't have to wade through a massive list of offers, many of which aren't relevant to their tastes or current location. O2 Priority, for example, uses geo-location to present offers and savings that are tailored to where the customer currently is, making them more relevant and likely to be of benefit. Especially if the customer has also registered what's important to them.

The offers are essentially tailored to your lifestyle as you travel. For example, you might be attending a concert at the O2 Arena, so Priority presents a selection of restaurants near the venue that are currently offering discount deals. This isn't an intrusive system like the personalised advertising shown in science fiction movies such as Minority Report. People choose to be alerted, and can also access the service purely on demand.

This really is just the tip of the iceberg of what is possible when you allow your smartphone to share information with aggregators that apply the necessary, regulatory safeguards to anonymise your data. Real-time traffic details derived from smartphone locations can help route drivers away from congestion. Dynamic variable speed limits can react to smooth out flow ahead of a bottleneck. Environmental controls in enclosed public spaces can be adjusted to suit the volume of people visiting. So long as customers can be assured that their data will not be abused, and will remain anonymous when requested, the power available to manage city life more smartly can be huge.

Discover how O2's technology is helping businesses empower their workforce.

Organisations both large and small are striving to understand their people better so they can give them more opportunity to be productive and put into their hands the technology that they need, and are familiar with in their daily lives. That kind of tech is good morale and productivity, and is great for a company's bottom line.

There's an ulterior motive, too. If your business fails to keep pace with innovation, you'll ultimately be left behind.

It was in last year's, rather than 2019's O2 Future Trends' report, that the futurist Graeme Codrington said: "Within two years, if you are not mobile-first (which naturally implies cloud-first) you might be too far behind the curve to catch up We can expect that tomorrow's employees will expect to be able to use the same level of technology at their workplace as they do at home. That means mobile-first, AI, natural language processing and staying always connected.

"We joke about how Wi-Fi should now be the foundation layer for Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. But the time is coming when transport, work, medical treatment and civil liberties are all so reliant on the internet that connectivity will be as much a human right as running water and electricity. Now is the time to seriously question the legacy IT investments that are holding you and your people back, because waiting is a costly game. Implementation cycles are being shortened from five years to five months, because of the risk of obsolescence over time."

A landscape of growing threat

Sadly, as companies empower their people more and unlock the good that the cloud and mobile advancements have to offer, there are those out there using the self-same technologies for their own ill gains.

"In 2017 hackers made a lot of easy money and caused huge disruption as a result of UK business missing the basics when it comes to securing data. Most of the breaches I read about in the press could have been easily prevented by taking a more proactive approach to cyber security and following the government's guidelines," wrote Dean Thomson, cyber security specialist at O2.

Whether it's ransomware, malware, cyber crime, physical theft or something else it feels like a new threat emerges every day. The media is littered with horror stories about data breaches, security blunders and tech tales of woe, so how can you avoid being next and keep your people happy?

Follow the money

Security is big business. Analyst firm IDC predicts spending on security software, hardware and services will reach $120 billion by 2020. That's a lot of money going towards fighting a real and growing problem.

"Three overarching trends are driving security spending: a dynamic threat landscape, increasing regulatory pressures, and architectural changes spurred by digital transformation initiatives," said Sean Pike, IDC's Security Products and Legal, Risk, and Compliance programme vice president.

Ultimately, the more we adopt mobile technology in our personal lives, the more we've come to expect these same technologies to make our lives easier when we're at work. Implement technology in the right way and businesses should see a positive outcome across the board.

"Digital workplaces are good for employees, good for customers and good for profits." said Emma Thompson, Head of Technology and Telecoms Business Partnership Team, UK Government Cabinet Office in O2's Futures summary 2019.

Of course, there is no one-size-fits-all solution for digital transformation. It means different things to different businesses, but one aspect that's fundamentally important is security. For instance, an organisation that becomes mobile first will need an agile infrastructure to allow its people to work and collaborate from anywhere.

This also requires end-to-end security, with each part of a company secure whether that's a server at head office or a member of staff using a work smartphone on an overseas business trip.

A big problem for business of all sizes

Whether you're a large or small business or any size in between security has to be front of mind. Like taking out an insurance policy you hope you never need, it's a must.

It's a dilemma. Ultimately, we need technology. Its benefits far outweigh any negatives and it makes a very real difference to businesses and individuals alike.

However, in order to reap the rewards rather than be exposed to the risks, we have to tread carefully. To help, here is our guide to what you really need to consider when it comes to workplace security.

Click above to view the workplace security guide infographic in full size

Do the following...

Do: Utilise two-factor authentication

Many employees actually like two-factor authentication as it helps if they forget their passwords as well as protecting what the company holds dear. By ensuring two verification steps need to be followed before granting access, you are reducing the chances of unauthorised access.

"Two-factor authentication may not be quite the security silver bullet it was once thought to be, but it's still an important area of security and access control to keep in mind when obtaining and setting up services for your business or personal life," according to an IT Pro article on the subject.

"The more hurdles you can put in the hackers' way, the less likely they are to target you."

Do: Look at both WAN and LAN

Devices that have connectivity can become dangerous in the wrong hands. That's why it's so important to focus on all network security elements from LAN to WAN and beyond.

O2 was the first mobile operator to achieve CAS(T) certification (the government standard for secure communications), to validate the financial and human resource effort placed into security to protect the businesses that rely on it.

Do: Embrace behavioural analytics

By taking advantage of Big Data platforms and sophisticated technologies such as Machine Learning, behavioural analytics looks at user activity to try and identify and stop insider threats. For example, employees who are able to interpret behavioural analytics can spot potential security breaches by looking at who is accessing various network assets, how often and what devices they are using to communicate with.

Do: Focus on endpoint protection

The majority (around 70%) of businesses in the UK still rely on signature-based detection to fend off malware and ransomware attacks, according to O2's Dean Thomson. This, simply, isn't good enough, he says.

"It's time to deploy next generation endpoint protection that uses behavioural analysis to detect and stop malicious activity. This technology will also go a long way in helping to protect against chip based exploits such as Meltdown and Spectre," Thomson added.

Do: Ensure you focus on the knowns and unknowns

Hindsight is a wonderful thing and it's easy to try and learn from what's happened in the past to try and affect what may happen in the future. But, while it's good to learn from experience, organisations must remember that the threats that expose our weak spots need the same amount, if not more, attention.

Do: Embrace evolving behaviours

With new threats emerging all the time, it's important not to stand still when it comes to security. Be prepared for every possible eventuality and respond accordingly.

The most dangerous threats to your business are the ones lying dormant waiting to activate. There's no place for complacency when it comes to workplace security. And, while people are your biggest and best asset, where security is concerned, they are also your biggest allies.

Don't do the following

Don't: Shut people out

People need to feel valued and listened to. And there's no greater way of showing you've been listening than answering their needs. So when you're implementing any new technology, don't do it without first talking to those who will end up using it. Get your people on board early on to help educate them on being security aware.

Don't: Get the balance wrong

When it comes to accessibility boundaries and rules, there needs to be the right balance between tech security and tech freedom. Use it in the right way, tailored to how people work with the right security in place and technology can help unlock employees' potential.

Don't: Allow unauthorised devices on the company network

In the same way you wouldn't allow any uninvited guests into your house, the same goes for your business. Many larger organisations may have this covered, but if a smaller business is keeping an eye on costs then unauthorised devices could slip through the net. In this case, ensure you maintain an audit of company issued devices as well as making sure employees understand the responsibility they hold every time they connect their personal devices to your corporate network.

Don't: Think you can do it alone

No one really understands your business as well as you do, but you're not expected to have all the answers. That's why it's important to work with your trusted partners to reinforce your defences. When it comes to security management, a third-party engagement can make a great deal of sense.

"Don't waste money on trying to build and tool your own Security Operations Centre, instead outsource the problem to the experts," according to Thomson.

"The costs for managed security services have come down considerably in the last year and it is far more secure to use a SOC that can see threats that are not just targeting your own business. There's strength in numbers. We're here to help if you need us."

In conclusion

Technology is only one part of the puzzle when it comes to effective security; but ultimately, your people are the best defence. That's why it's important not only to educate employees on all the dangers, but also get them onside with your security strategy.

"Don't let's talk about the technology as if it's the technology's fault that we'vegotten better or worse at anything. It's about how we choose to use the tools we've got," Codrington added.

A business's biggest asset is its people, and equipping them with the right technology to unlock their productivity is key. If an organisation and its people are always going to be connected, they need to be able to work on any device, collaborate with colleagues and access data and apps securely wherever they are.

When it comes to security, it's often said, that you're only as strong as your weakest link. So, make sure you strengthen those defences and continue to invest in them as the threats evolve. Together, it's far easier to stand up to the many against threats and stop them rather than taking them on alone.

Discover how O2's technology is helping businesses empower their workforce.

The phrase "big data" itself unnerved some of us a few years ago. And in light of recent worries concerning improper use of personal data, it's taken on a sinister note for some. But the increasingly huge wealth of data about every aspect of life now available is one of the miracles of the connected computing era. We create 2.5 quintillion bytes of data every day, and that figure is also increasing daily. Despite the valid concerns about the misuse of personal data, all this information has the potential to revolutionise every area of our lives in beautifully beneficial ways.

The key ingredient is how you interpret and use all that data and we're only just scratching the surface of what can be achieved with all the information. This is because big data is by definition beyond what traditional data-processing application software is designed to cope with. Research group Gartner's Doug Laney coined the "3 Vs" to define big data back in 2001, standing for volume, velocity and variety. More recently variability, veracity and complexity have been suggested as additions.

What all these parameters are intended to illustrate is that it's not just the amount of information that defines "big data", but the speed at which it is arriving and the many different categories involved. Both the number of cases and the attributes for each one are orders of magnitude larger than previous data repositories. For example, wearables such as sports watches are collecting a wealth of information about people's exercise habits and this often includes details like heart rates, location throughout a routine, cadences for cycling and running, and even blood oxygen levels.

Businesses now rely on the data they collect about their customers, so how this is used effectively by employees is paramount. The modern era of "digital" companies like Google, Facebook, Uber and Airbnb are more about how they use the data they collect than what they actually trade in or produce. There is a huge debate about the relationship between these kinds of companies and their users. In the case of pure data companies like Facebook, there is a more complex value exchange than traditional commerce. With the latter, the customer parts with money and receives a product or service in return.

But with a company like Facebook or Google, the end user doesn't part with any money for the service they receive such as social network media sharing or internet search results, email and cloud-based applications. Instead, what they exchange is their personal information. Data is the currency that users spend to receive the services provided. Regulatory frameworks like GDPR have arisen in recognition of the value of the data users part with when they access these services. However, many users don't realise (or care) how much personal data they are giving away. The entertainment and social interaction they receive in return is sufficient to make them feel that they get more back than they spend.

All businesses collect data about their users, and whether or not users feel uncomfortable about this depends on how this information is used, as well as what they get in return. At one end of the scale, passing on personal details for third-party marketing purposes is not usually appreciated. However, the ability to use a system like Apple Pay to order a food delivery using just a thumbprint to verify identity and transfer the necessary funds is much more convenient than digging in your pocket for a credit card. Handing over your credit card details to Apple is necessary for this convenience. When this process also passes on your address details to the delivery company automatically, it's an even more seamless experience.

This is just the smallest tip of the iceberg. Big data promises to make emerging services like car sharing meet end user needs more seamlessly. Putting aside those who own cars for enthusiast reasons, the biggest barrier preventing people from switching to car sharing from personal ownership is the fear of not having their vehicle available exactly when they need it. But accurate predictive analysis of behaviour, bringing in factors like weather, current events and even personal habits, could mean that there is always a car nearby when required, because the data analysis calculated that you would. Perhaps a little spooky, but undeniably convenient. The ability of services like Uber and Airbnb to match provision with need is already showing the potential from well-honed analysis of behavioural data. Similarly, Amazon's grasp of supply-chain flow allows it to deliver many products the next day, or even the same day.

Over the next few years, the amount of information we share and is amassed about the world around us is set to increase exponentially. Virtually all companies can potentially benefit from collecting the right data and analysing it appropriately. Internet of Things devices, like per-room home thermostats, per-socket power consumption monitoring, health monitoring patches and connected cars with real-time tracking, are set to proliferate. These will be providing huge volumes of data and new possibilities of analysis. The relationship between health and lifestyle, for example, can be explored continually to find improvements.

The bandwidth available to wireless devices will be an order of magnitude higher, too, with 5G already being tested in the UK, for example O2's trial at the O2 Arena in North Greenwich, London. When 5G is eventually introduced it will allow wireless data speeds up to 1,000 times faster than 4G, and promises much lower latency too. In combination with the Internet of Things revolution, 5G will further enable the exponential growth of data accumulation, particularly real-time supply from intensive sources like video surveillance.

Big data also has the power to make jobs easier for workers in critical areas such as emergency services. Police in the UK, for instance, are already using predictive crime mapping', where huge amounts of data on crime types, locations and times are processed to generate hotspot maps showing officers where crime is most likely to occur. The NHS, too, has a rich pool of patient data on which to draw. This can aid doctors in everything from recognising the warning signs of diabetes to effectively managing patient flow and ward demand during busy winter months.

As we mentioned at the beginning of this feature, there are potential dangers from all this data. But with the right safeguards and observance of regulations, the fears people have can be allayed, allowing the benefits to shine through. O2, in its business blog post "What does the future of big data look like?", highlights how regulations like GDPR can be viewed as an opportunity for companies, rather than a threat. Testing your data for compliance should be seen as a chance to review what is being collected and how it is used, with the aim of finding untapped potential. Rather than just being an unwanted extra cost, this process can truly uncover the beautiful future possibilities of big data.

Discover how O2's technology is helping businesses empower their workforce.

In many films and TV shows, smart cities are depicted through a somewhat dystopian filter, dubbed the Minority Report effect, in which you are always online, always visible and being bombarded with information. Yet the reality is set to be very different.

Having a truly connected smart city promises a time in which you never get stuck in traffic, you never experience a train delay, you can get GP appointments when you want them, the weekly shop is done automatically and you could save a fortune on energy bills. Here, we take a look into the near-future to show what life in a smart city could look like...

A day in the life of a smart city dweller

You wake to the sound of songbirds and a gentle "sunrise" as you enter a light sleep. Your fitness tracker knows when to rouse you for the day by tracking your heart rate and sends an alert to your smart lights and speaker to bring you around as gently as possible. As you enter the bathroom, your connected mirror greets you and gives you a flash news briefing with a summary of your day's meetings. It warns you it might rain, but traffic on your usual route is clear fewer people need to drive into town now because of remote working and more reliable public transport. You brush your teeth with your smart toothbrush, which advises you to see your dentist as you might need a filling, before your smart wardrobe recommends the blue suit.

By the time you get downstairs, your coffee machine has made you the perfect skinny cappuccino and has automatically ordered more coffee beans as the levels are getting low.

As you eat your breakfast, your electric car knows it's almost time to leave so it de-ices your windscreen and warms your seat. As it runs a diagnostic test, it notices you have a slow puncture. It checks your calendar and schedules in an appointment with your local garage using its online booking system. You don't need to worry about the car's battery being low as it was charged to full capacity overnight when energy usage was at its cheapest.

Just as you leave your house, the bin men come to collect your connected bin. The bin sent an alert to your local council to say it was getting full without you having to worry about putting it out on the correct day. You shut the door and ask your voice-controlled smart home system to switch off the heating and set the security alarm.

Driving to the train station, you don't have to worry about traffic jams caused by roadworks because your local council used 5G-enabled sensors to prioritise maintenance and manage flow. En route, your car hits a pothole and sends an alert to the local authority. You don't get stuck at traffic lights, either, because the lights now respond and adapt to traffic patterns rather than running on a set system. As the roads are quiet, the lights stay green all the way. This doesn't give you a huge amount of time to stream the latest episode of your favourite podcast, but at least you're not using mobile data to do so thanks to Wi-Fi hotspots and 5G antennas lining your route.

Approaching the station, the location of empty spaces in the car park is sent to your phone and lights on the ground guide you to the best spot. Built-in charging plates in each space recharge your vehicle ready for your drive home later.

As you wait for the train to pull into the station, you are shown how many empty seats are in each carriage and each seat has plug sockets to go with the free 5G network on the train meaning you can check your emails before you get to the office, boosting your productivity. Once at the other end, you use your phone to check which walking routes have the cleanest air, monitored by 5G-enabled sensors fitted to lampposts and buildings. Your fitness tracker sends a log of this exercise, as well as how much you slept, to your GP who schedules a digital appointment for later that week.

In the office, the light above your desk and the ambient temperature has been pre-programmed based on the weather forecast, and to your personal preference. You don't need to worry about forgetting your work pass, either, because facial recognition scans you and gives you automatic access.

At the end of the day, you pop into the supermarket to grab some food for dinner. Using your phone, you "open" your smart fridge at home to view its contents. The fridge app offers suggestions for recipes you can make with the food you already have and advises what else you need to buy. As you take the items off the shelves, their value is automatically added to an online checkout and when you leave the store, your account is charged. The store's employees are sent a notification that you've removed an onion and some peppers and replenish the shelf for the next customer. Because you didn't have to queue for your shopping, you're right on time for your train, which leaves bang on schedule. There were some leaves on the line earlier in the day, but smart sensors and AI have ensured they're cleared and make sure all the trains continue to run on time.

Click to view the above smart cities infographic full size

Before you get to your front door, which also uses facial recognition to let you in, proximity sensors have been alerted to your presence and signal for your smart home to put the kettle on. Your heating is already warming up, you'd put the washing on remotely from the office before you left, and your smart lights come on as you pass through the doorway. As you enter the kitchen, your podcast from the car carries on playing on your smart speaker and you sit down with a cup of tea.

You've not had to pay for mobile data all day, you've saved energy on your heating bills thanks to the smart grid and your train ticket is cheaper because the more cost-efficient operator has passed down its savings to its customers. You also only had to work five hours to get everything done because your productivity has been boosted by such a frictionless day. As you settle into bed later that night, your smart lights mimic the setting sun and you drift off naturally.

Discover how O2's technology is helping businesses empower their workforce.

As a society, we are on the verge of a further tech revolution. A defining moment in the history of connectivity, business and everyday life that has the potential to be as momentous as the rise of manufacturing. It's the rise of 5G.

Since the launch of 2G in 1991, mobile data speeds have accelerated faster than many could have predicted, and today, more than 187 million emails are sent, 480,000 tweets are posted, and 266,000 hours of Netflix is watched every second. Demand for data is growing by 60% a year. That's the equivalent of building O2's entire mobile network again, from scratch, in 18 months.

But while 4G is about connecting us to the people and things we love, 5G takes this a step further. Instead of being a replacement for 4G, it promises to create a truly connected society, one in which everything from your toothbrush to your bin, your car and entire motorways "talk" to each other and share data to make our lives as frictionless as possible. Where 4G is ten times faster than its predecessor, 5G is set to double that again, promising home broadband speeds on the go. It's not all about speed, though. 5G is more secure and more stable than what's come before.

In its Path to 5G post, O2 explains how 5G will tackle some of society's biggest issues from improving our health and social care, reducing traffic, cutting train delays and overcrowding, to helping combat fuel poverty and powering the rise of electric vehicles.

"5G represents an important chapter in the story of the evolution of mobile technology," explains Derek McManus, Chief Operating Officer of O2. "It's about building connectivity into the fabric of our society, creating an integrated infrastructure that will connect buildings, transport and utilities. It provides a substantial opportunity to develop and improve the way our energy, transport, healthcare and retail sectors operate."

"5G represents an important chapter in the story of the evolution of mobile technology," explains Derek McManus, Chief Operating Officer of O2. "It's about building connectivity into the fabric of our society, creating an integrated infrastructure that will connect buildings, transport and utilities. It provides a substantial opportunity to develop and improve the way our energy, transport, healthcare and retail sectors operate."

In particular, a world supported by such a ubiquitous, hyper-fast network connection, is a world in which business owners can think bigger, and workers can be more agile, flexible and productive.

The huge bandwidth and low latency of 5G will mean such remote working and conference calls will never be hit with buffering issues, either. You will be able to meet and collaborate with colleagues in the cloud as if you were in the same room. And when you get to work, 5G-enabled sensors and cameras will automatically adjust the lighting and temperature of an office to make the working environment more comfortable, and save businesses vast sums on energy costs.

Beyond the office, the benefits to business and the wider economy extend to smart roads and smart energy grids. 5G-enabled sensors built along the UK's roads and motorways can more accurately monitor and manage traffic flow, promising to reduce traffic congestion by 10%. O2's The value of 5G for cities and communities report estimates this will save businesses 880 million a year in lost productivity, help the average commuter reclaim 3.2 hours a year and cut CO2 emissions by 370,000 metric tonnes. A recent trial of such technology, by Transport for London, reduced delays by 20%. 5G-enabled billboards on highways will also be able to provide real-time traffic, parking and road condition information to commuters.

Plus, as cars become better connected, the data they and their drivers' phones collect via vast 5G networks can be shared anonymously with transport planners and councils to help them further develop infrastructure. The insight helps to prioritise which parts of the transport network needed to be improved first. In addition to cutting congestion, this helped encourage people to use local businesses.

The report conducted by O2 continues that in a 5G society, every household will be 450 better off a year. On average, 145 will be shaved off their energy bills thanks to super-smart grids that charge devices at the cheapest, optimum time. These advanced grids will help power smart street lighting and will come into their own if estimates about 1.3 million extra electric cars joining the roads prove to be true. Having a 5G-proofed grid that can withstand mass electric car charging will cut emissions further and save each owner 1,600 in annual fuel costs. Thanks to 5G, council bills will be 66 cheaper, too, as a result of connected bins that are only collected when they are full, and smart fridges will help people cut food waste by 236 a year. This is because they will either automatically order items before they run out, or show shoppers what's on their shelves to avoid doubling up.

Societally, 5G also has the potential to save lives. Being able to monitor the elderly or vulnerable using 5G-enabled sensors and devices will not only empower these people, it will save local councils 2.8 billion in reduced social care costs. Moreover, 5G will help doctors, nurses and healthcare professionals deliver better care to patients. Waiting times for GP appointments will fall, as 5G enables GPs to offer more reliable telehealth services helping them to reclaim 1.1 million hours a year. This will have a knock-on effect to productivity through reduced workplace absence, it will relieve pressure on the NHS, and adds up to a total of 6 billion in savings, in both time and cost, for cities.

Unfortunately, such a revolution won't happen overnight. "5G works a bit like a patchwork quilt. It needs a high level of collaboration to hardwire the technology into our cities' infrastructure," explains Telefonica's CEO Mark Evans. "The danger is we treat it as an afterthought, when in fact it needs to be planned in now." This is why O2 is continuing to invest heavily in 4G to lay the groundwork, both technologically and societally, for the rise of smart cities. By the end of 2018, O2 will have invested in enhanced 4G connectivity in more than 330 rural communities, from Drumoak to Lizard to get 250,000 more people online. It follows the installation of a permanent 4G mobile mast last year in remote hamlet, Staylittle, in Powys, Wales, marking the first time the previously cut-off community could get online. According to the report, O2's rollout is expected to create an extra 57.7 million a year as rural businesses take advantage of new opportunities.

By working with other network operators, government, manufacturers and local councils, O2 is helping pave the way towards a brighter future. A more connected future. One in which technology unlocks creativity and opportunity and brings benefits at every level to business, cities, and most importantly, people.

Discover how O2's technology is helping businesses empower their workforce.

Ask many IT professionals what the greatest threat to their organisation is, and you may be surprised by what you hear. Often it's not malicious hackers, or unscrupulous competitors, or even corrupt individuals within the business that IT departments point the finger at. Instead, it's two words: "user error".

Even well-meaning employees can inadvertently cause problems for IT staff, and there's a tendency for tech workers to greet every new story of breaches caused by password reuse or bogus phishing emails with a roll of the eyes and worrying lack of surprise.

Instead of lamenting users who aren't as familiar with the ins and outs of technology as we are, and lamenting the security risk they represent, the IT community can embrace the value of its people and educate them, turning a potential security weakness into a strength. Technology empowers people to carry out their jobs effectively, but to achieve that benefit, an organisation must train its people on security and mobile device management to protect them and itself.

After all, the unfortunate fact is that security slip-ups can happen to anyone, regardless of how tech-savvy they are. All it takes is one lapse in concentration, and you can be unwittingly handing over your credentials or data to an attacker. Just ask O2's Head of Digital Specialists, Lee Hargadon, who documented an instance of having his debit card cloned for O2's Business Blog.

"The human factor will always be a weak element of your cyber protection strategy, and given the ease of use of mobile, it's the next threat vector to be dealt with," Hargadon wrote. "

If you need more proof, just look at the amount of organisations that have suffered data breaches thanks to IT staff failing to password-protect their cloud storage services.

It's not all doom and gloom, though. A properly educated and empowered workforce can be a business's strongest asset, and using technology in the right way can help them deliver more effectively. A business that understands how its people work is better placed to improve its overall security posture across the board and make itself more resilient. Spam and phishing emails are a great example; you can ignore employee training in favour of firewalls and enterprise anti-spam defences if you want, but that means that when a malicious email slips through the net and it really is a matter of when', not if' your people may be unable to spot the warning signs and be unaware of the risk opening that email poses to the business.

This also applies to other phishing methods, such as over text or social media. Can your anti-spam software guard against a bogus Facebook message targeted at the team member who runs your social media, or a malware-laden text purporting to be Domino's offering a free pizza, sent to a corporate device?

If, on the other hand, you give your people proper training on phishing including what it is, how it works, what the techniques are and how to spot them you can harden every department in your business, empowering them to fight off anything that gets through the firewall, without having to rely on IT. As an added bonus, it'll also make them more generally tech-savvy, as well as making them better at sniffing out scammers in general.

Of course, when it comes to empowerment, technology has other vital roles to fulfill outside of security. For example, the right technology can do a lot to boost employees' productivity, allowing them to get more done, faster. You should make sure that you're giving employees the right devices for the right jobs, which means looking at the needs of individual workers.

If they spend a lot of time outside of an office environment, they won't need a desktop machine but a smartphone or tablet device may be better-suited to their needs than a laptop, if all they need to do is respond to emails or fill out a few forms. Making sure that your people have the right tools will ensure that they have all the capabilities they need, without them having to drag around an unnecessarily large device. A secure smartphone is just as effective as having a PC but sits in your pocket.

Technology can be used to support remote workers too, and it can be really important in making sure that they don't feel isolated and left out. It's easy for individual field workers to feel like they're on their own, and can quickly lead to them feeling undervalued and overwhelmed. Using collaboration tools can help remote workers keep in touch with colleagues at head office who can offer support and assistance, and can also connect field workers across the country. As an example, a domiciliary care organisation has issued mobile devices to its team of care workers, who spend most of their time visiting patients and rarely checking into the company's offices. By using mobile devices and cloud apps, their carers were still supported and connected when they were out on the road.

Similarly, when one online retailer began expanding globally it brought people together with a cloud-based storage solution that integrated with the business's existing technology and working methods. This allowed its global workforce to stay connected, whether they're stationed at the UK office or working remotely."

Technology can have a huge impact on the processes and procedures that help you run your business, but it's important not to forget that technology should serve people, not the other way around. IT can empower and connect individuals, making them more secure and efficient at work, but also helping them be happier and more fulfilled in their work life generally.

Discover how O2's technology is helping businesses empower their workforce.

Think back over your working life, and whether you've been employed for five years or 50, the chances are you'll be able to point to some massive changes over your career. Slack the workplace chat software that has all but killed off internal emails for many companies has only just celebrated its fifth birthday. Going back further, the iPhone is now 11 and we didn't even have our first BlackBerries until the turn of the century, let alone the cloud, video conferencing or 4G.

The one constant in all of this, of course, is people. The companies doing the most impressive things from meditech to media, are the ones that really understand the simple truth, that without their employees, they couldn't create a thing. For all its benefit, technology is at its best when it enables people to be creative, happy and more productive whether that's in a startup, small business or multinational corporation.

The best innovations and innovators have always understood this, and nowhere is this more obvious than in communications. From the first electric telegraph in the 1830s, via Alexander Graham Bell patenting the telephone in 1876 to the first mobile phone 97 years later, the aim was never to replace humans, but to make them as efficient as possible, cutting out vast periods of downtime while people waited to meet in person. Of course, efficiency is hard to maintain if you don't also have comfortable working environments, and for that reason we can be eternally thankful to Thomas Edison (the electric lamp, 1880), Willis Carrier (the air conditioner, 1906) and the accidental invention of the microwave oven (Percy Spencer, 1945).

But it's not until you get into the last quarter of the 20th century that things really kick up a notch for the workplace. In 1976, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak created the Apple I computer a device so influential that it now sells for around 560 times its original RRP. IBM followed with its own personal computer five years later the same year that the first patent for flash memory was filed. This advance, which allowed computers to store information when switched off, would prove transformational.

Though not quite as transformational as what followed in 1989: the World Wide Web. Over the next three decades, innovation via the web and internet would duly kill off the fax machine and Ceefax while leaving record shops, letters, libraries and newspapers looking mortally wounded. The smartphone revolution that accelerated with the iPhone (2007) has cemented this. We are always connected, all the time, letting us be more productive than ever.

Power to the pocket

The fact that we're all carrying around pocket-sized devices that are millions of times more powerful than the computer that got humans on the moon has led to a revolution in the way we do work. Take the police force: not only has technology helped streamline the apprehension of criminals (you try setting off on a high-speed car chase without the internal combustion engine), but in terms of efficiency and collaboration.

Recently leading digital service provider O2 undertook a trial with two police forces where 3,000 officers were equipped with handheld devices preloaded with apps that let officers consolidate information from 35 different systems, allowing easier collaboration, faster reporting and a reduction of errors. The force estimates that the scheme resulted in approximately two hours' less admin per officer per shift, giving them more time to focus on the communities that need them. And for another police force O2 Gateway provides redundancy and resilience through secure networks with CAS(T) certification, and coverage where it is needed. This means the force can coordinate work, provide and retrieve information and organise their resources efficiently, while maintaining the highest possible levels of security and personal safety.

Whilst these two stories from separate police forces show innovation, people from any walk of life benefit from improvements to technology of course. For a top clothing retailer growing rapidly around the world, O2 provided a fast, agile communications infrastructure that could keep all its people connected, anywhere, any time. But what drove the success of the chosen solution was O2's focus on how people worked, and integration with existing technology and working methods.

What the future holds

The kind of improvements people are seeing would have been unimaginable just five years ago, so what sort of thing might be around the corner? There are plenty of possible scenarios: think of a world where every single LED lightbulb can connect you securely to the internet. The technology powering this smart lighting which could sit in your home, your office, the city streets you walk down already exists. O2 has installed Li-Fi' for tests and trials at its Explore Room in Slough, turning LED lights into high-speed wireless access points. Given that the IoT is expected to have 20 billion devices by the year 2020, outgrowing existing networks' ability to connect them, Li-Fi may prove to be part of the solution to meeting this surge in demand. Worrying about losing your connection while working on the move could soon be a thing of the past.

Given the amount of progress we've seen in the last 30 years, it wouldn't be surprising if the world of work was unrecognisable in another 30, but for now it's worth focusing on where we are right now: the sweet spot where people are using technology to achieve significant productivity gains and collaboration has never been easier.

Discover how O2's technology is helping businesses empower their workforce.

It's no secret that the concept of work' has changed dramatically just compare the workplace of 20 years ago with the workplace of today. Gone are the rows upon rows of identical cubicles containing one desktop PC and one desk phone, replaced by large open-plan offices which often don't feature any permanent workstations at all.

Mobile devices, cloud-based apps and near-universal connectivity have enabled fundamental shifts in how we work, allowing people, to work from home, their favourite coffee shop, or another country without sacrificing efficiency or productivity. The use of these tools is now expected by many workers and according to studies, younger hires in particular would consider turning down a job if they thought the technology wasn't up to standard.

It's all about understanding who people are, and giving them the freedom to work, think, express themselves, share and generally be more like humans, not automatons.

Look at it this way; how would you feel if you only had a desktop PC, an email account and a spreadsheet to do your job? No mobile devices, no messaging apps, no video calling facilities Younger workers demand access to these new tech tools as a basic requirement and they're willing to vote with their feet if they don't get them.

People want flexibility too they expect to be able to work remotely when they need to. As employees, they want to be provided with the right tools to support that decision, like real-time collaboration software, seamless file-sharing and work devices that are light and portable enough to keep up with them.

This massive change in the way we look at employment is only accelerating; AI is the engine driving a new and even more drastic shift in how we approach the concept of work. As AI technology becomes more sophisticated, more and more tasks will be automated, with deep learning algorithms able to perform certain tasks with human levels of skill if not greater. And this applies to office-based, white-collar duties as well as typical manufacturing and construction functions.

Don't panic just yet, however; the rise of AI isn't going to end up with large portions of the workforce becoming obsolete. Rather than taking over whole job roles such as data analyst' or sales operative' the machines will instead most likely take over all of the tedious, repetitive parts of those roles that humans don't like doing, such as data entry, reporting and other information-based tasks. Instead, humans will focus more on the creative, collaborative areas of the business that machines can't do.

For example, AI can take care of the number-crunching associated with tracking sales figures, leaving your salespeople free to do what they do best - meeting people, making connections and bringing more revenue into your business. Similarly, data analysts can take the output data produced by analytics algorithms, then apply the uniquely out-the-box thinking that only humans can offer, to interpret it in creative ways that may not have been thought of by an AI.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is another area which will improve the lives of employees in subtle but no less important ways. There are numerous cost savings and efficiencies to be gained from the use of IoT (in areas such as logistics, transport, manufacturing and more) but there's also big potential benefits for employee happiness and wellbeing.

Micro-targeted climate control, for example; thermostat wars are a common sight in offices (even within connected heating company Hive Home, an engineer tells us), but imagine an office where an employee could go and sit at any desk, and the air conditioning system would automatically adjust to make that spot the ideal temperature based on the person's preferences, along with the lighting and other elements.

IoT can make that a reality; although it will generally require either an office that is being constructed from scratch or entirely gutted and rebuilt. Take, for example, The Edge: not the U2 guitarist, but the smart office' built in Amsterdam to house Deloitte employees in "the world's greenest building". This uses a network of more than 28,000 sensors to measure things like temperature and humidity, and can then advise staff where the best desks to sit are based on their own preferences.

5G will also allow employees to do more and better remote work; the increased bandwidth capabilities of 5G open up new possibilities like using cloud processing to power tasks that would usually require a powerful desktop machine on a tablet or mobile device.

Not only that, but it's also the bedrock that will allow driverless cars to become a feasible reality a development which will have huge implications for businesses in many sectors, as well as on commuters who will be able to take advantage of faster and simpler transport options. Writing on O2's Business Blog, the company's Head of Digital Innovation, Alyson Edmunds, highlighted how O2 is helping to pave the way for the driverless car.

"Transport operations are benefitting from IoT technology as well," says Edmunds. "For example, our own O2 Smart Vehicle is a simple device that transmits vehicle and driver information, in real time, making industry-leading vehicle telematics easily accessible for fleet managers and vehicle leasing companies. In the future IoT and 5G connectivity will be key enablers to driverless cars."

In such a rapidly-changing business environment, the most important thing for any business to do is to ensure that it remains flexible and open-minded when it comes to new technologies, attitudes and ways of working. Your people are the lifeblood of your business, and by making sure that you're giving them the best available tools, you can make sure that they stay loyal, committed and productive.

Discover how O2's technology is helping businesses empower their workforce.

4G has been up and running for over eight years now, and it's since become the industry standard as consumers and businesses users alike need a high-speed connection to power their streaming, social media and remote working. While next-generation 5G connectivity is also now available, coverage remains limited and prices remain high.

All of the UK's mobile networks offer competitive 4G services and many have invested a lot of money to boost coverage to beat their rivals, how can you choose which is the best 4G mobile network for you?

There are lots of things to consider, beyond cost. Although all of the UK's major networks offer 4G services, some are more reliable and offer faster speeds than others. The other consideration is which device you want to go for as different networks also offer different phone models.

We've rounded up the best deals and benefits for each of the four major networks in the UK to see which suits your lifestyle and usage best.

(NB: these are the costs for an individual, SIM-only, 12-month contract. Business contracts and contracts with a phone can and likely will vary. Average speed results taken from www.opensignal.com. All data correct as of September 2020).

See also: What is 4G?

EE: 4G cost and reliability

EE was the first mobile operator to launch 4G services in the UK, and has long been hailed as the best network when it comes to speed, coverage and reliability. According to OpenSignal's latest Mobile Networks report, released in April 2020, this remains unchanged: EE comes out on top when it comes to download speeds, latency and 4G coverage.

According to the report, EE's 4G customers currently enjoy average download speeds of 35.9Mbps, more than 10Mbps faster than its nearest rival Vodafone. Average upload speeds come in at 9.7Mbps.

In terms of coverage, OpenSignal shows that EE's 4G serves 94.8% of the country's population, just shy of the operator's target to reach 95% coverage by the end of 2020.

EE's cheapest 4G plan starts at £20 per month, which comes with 100GB of data, unlimited minutes and texts, and guaranteed speeds of 60Mbps. The operator also offers a £23 plan that comes with 200GB of monthly data.

O2: 4G cost and reliability

O2's 4G offering has vastly improved in recent years, though it still falls behind its rivals when it comes to speeds and coverage.

According to OpenSignal data, the network currently has an average 4G download speed of 18Mbps, an improvement of less than 3Mbps since 2017, and almost half the average speeds offered by EE. It's upload speeds are also lacking, coming in at an average of 6.4Mbps. In terms of coverage, O2 currently reaches 89.2% of the UK population.

However, O2's 4G plans are cheaper than some. It's cheapest 4G SIM-only plan comes in at £10 per month, although this comes with only 5GB data. For £20 a month, this can be increased to 100GB.

Three: 4G cost and reliability

Three has long been seen as the smallest of the UK's 4G networks, and although it's services are improvement, it still falls short of rival networks.

OpenSignal's report shows that the network's average 4G speeds come in at 22.4Mbps, while customers see average upload speeds of 8.2Mbps on the company's 4G network. In terms of its availability, the network currently reaches 80% of the UK's population.

While it's struggling to compete on speeds and coverage, Three is known for offering a huge range of different packages. The company's cheapest plan costs £5 per month and comes with 1GB data, while paying £5, £10, or £18 per month increases this to 4GB, 8GB and 100GB of data, respectively. Three is also one of the only networks to offer unlimited data plans.

Vodafone: 4G cost and reliability

Vodafone's 4G network began life as a London-only service when it launched in 2013, but efforts to upgrade the network has helped position the provider as one of the UK's leading providers.

The networks offers the UK's second-fastest 4G speeds, according to OpenSignal, with average download speeds of 25.4Mbps. It also offers the second-fastest upload speeds, which come in at 9.1Mbps.

In terms of coverage, Vodafone's 4G network reaches 88% of the UK population, just 1.2% lower than rival O2.

At the time of writing, Vodafone is offering a 50% discount on its 4G SIM-only plans. That means you can pick up unlimited data for just £11 per month - although speeds will top out at 2Mbps. The network's bumper £37 plan also offers unlimited data but promises the "fastest speeds available".

Mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs)

Although the companies above control their own network infrastructures, they are by no means the only choice when it comes to 4G. There are a number of companies that make use of these infrastructures to provide their own services, although 4G coverage is still tied to the controlling company.

GiffGaff

Infrastructure: O2

GiffGaff has been voted best MVNO for multiple years thanks to its flexible contracts and reward schemes for community members. Unlike traditional operators, it does not have a high-street presence and relies on its community for customer support. As it uses O2's network, users can expect average speeds of 18Mbps.

Virgin Mobile

Infrastructure: EE

Virgin Mobile is known for its incredibly low starting prices, with rollover data that allows you to carry over any unused allowance from month to month. WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger are also free to use on this service, so they don't eat into your monthly data. The best part is that Virgin Mobile uses EE's infrastructure, which means customers get access to the fastest 4G speeds and the best coverage.

Sky Mobile

Infrastructure: O2

Sky Mobile is the newest MVNO on the list. Its biggest selling point is the idea of 'rollover' data, where customers are able to make use of unused data from one month and add it to the next. Sky Mobile will also let you switch between tariffs each month, even if you are locked into a contract. Sky Mobile also uses O2 infrastructure, so expect average 4G speeds of 18Mbps.

Tesco Mobile

Infrastructure: O2

One of the first supermarkets to dive into the mobile provider market, Tesco Mobile offers capped services, so you don't go over your allowance, and free roaming in 31 countries. You can even earn points as you use the service, which can be linked to your Tesco Clubcard. Tesco Mobile also uses O2 infrastructure, so expect 4G speeds to reach an average of 18Mbps.

Image: Shutterstock

The UK's four main mobile networks are battling over control of the country's major regions, according to new research, with no one provider achieving total dominance.

Rootmetrics has revealed the four main UK networks all have hold over a country in the UK, with EE claiming top performance in England, Vodafone occupying the top spot in Northern Ireland and Three winning in Scotalnd and Wales.

EE is still the overall leader in market penetration, with its customers able to access 4G services across 90% of the UK. Vodafone's 4G network seems to be improving, with it having coverage across 82% of the UK, closely followed by Three with 81%. Trailing behind was O2 with only 67% of the UK covered by its 4G network.

"These latest results have really shaken things up and show the increasing competitiveness in the UK, particularly over the last six months," said Scott Stonham, general manager of Europe for RootMetrics.

"EE continues to lead the way, but Three and Vodafone are close behind. What is clear is that each operator showed strong performance in at least one particular country, while nobody was able to sweep the board at the four-nations level. UK consumers have strong mobile options depending on how and where they use their devices most."

However, performance of the four networks varies across the UK. Vodafone was the strongest competitor in Northern Ireland, winning the call performance award for most reliable service in the country, while O2 also showed promise, although it was only the best-in-class for text messaging in the region. As well as being the top overall provider in Scotland and wales, Three also won the award for most reliable network in England.

However, Rootmetrics' research also shows that some improvements are needed before everyone in the UK can take advantage of high-performing networks.

"To succeed, mobile operators must secure sufficient radio spectrum and invest in the necessary equipment, sites and operational teams to ensure consumers enjoy fast reliable mobile broadband," added Ian Fogg, senior research director for mobile and telecom at IHS Markit.

"With new UK spectrum allocations soon to be auctioned in the run up to 5G, these performance results provide a snapshot on the competitive balance between the UK mobile operators now, and highlight which operators most need to acquire new spectrum capacity if they are to be a future mobile performance winner."

Autotask is dipping a toe into the backup and recovery space with its own product, Autotask Endpoint Backup (AEB), it officially revealed at its Autotask Community Live conference this week.

The firm, which provides IT service management software, argues that as AEB sits on top of Autotask's existing professional services automation (PSA) platform, it is easier for MSPs to provision, deploy, manage, and bill their customers for the service, compared to selling alternative backup and recovery vendors.

"With Autotask Endpoint Backup, we've leveraged our core platform to streamline the operational and business process of an endpoint backup practice," said Pat Burns, Autotask's VP of product management. "AEB is fully unified with Autotask Endpoint Management and PSA using automation and analytics to bring managed services to market with greater effectiveness and profitability."

Mark Banfield, SVP and GM of Autotask's International business, added that AEB has triggered the fastest customer take-up of any Autotask product to date.

He said a significant portion of the company's growth this year - it is now billing $6bn in annual IT services and sales - has come from expanding its portfolio, effectively layering additional services like AEB or its file sync and share (FSS) solution, Autotask Workplace (AWP), on top of its PSA platform.

"The average share of revenue per MSP per customer has gone up; there's a lot of value having products all integrated on the platform," he told Channel Pro. "The PSA is still the [MSP's] bread and butter, what they run their business on. The other products are revenue generating products."

A survey by the vendor in January revealed 55 percent of IT service providers questioned had seen a steady or significant increase in the number of endpoints they manage. As a result, they listed endpoint management as the top IT service driving revenue for them.

In the UK, Autotask has announced it plans to open an office in Manchester by the end of the year with around 15 sales, service and support staff.

Until you use Office 365, you might not understand what it can do. Some see it as an online version of Microsoft Office, others as the Microsoft Office suite that you subscribe to rather than buy, but it's actually so much more. Make the most of it, and it becomes the core platform for all your business IT needs, covering productivity, email, communications, cloud-based storage and online collaboration.

Office 365 can also transform the way you handle IT, taking away much of the expense and burden of providing servers and infrastructure by moving it to the cloud. In doing so, it also enables more flexible ways of working. More than just the online Office suite, Office 365 is a total game changer.

Office 365 Explained

As far as small businesses are concerned, Office 365 comes down to three products. The Business Essentials package gives you streamlined, online-only versions of the core Office apps, including Word, Excel and PowerPoint, plus Microsoft OneDrive with 1TB of cloud-based storage per user. On top of this it adds a cloud-based version of Microsoft Exchange, with email, calendar and contacts plus a 50GB inbox, with the ability to use your own Internet domain name. On top of all that it throws in Skype for Business instant text messaging, voice calls and video conferencing, Yammer business social networking and a SharePoint Intranet site for your team. Finally, Office Graph gives you customisable, personalised search across all this content, making it easier for teams to find the business content they need quickly, whatever that might be.

The Office 365 Business Package drops Exchange Online, Skype for Business, SharePoint and Yammer, but includes the full desktop versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Publisher, OneNote and Outlook on up to five PCs or Macs. It also covers the mobile versions of the Office apps, which can be installed on up to five tablets and five smartphones. As that's per user, it means you can have Office running across every PC, tablet and phone in the business. What's more, it's a rolling subscription, so when new versions of Office come out, you'll automatically upgrade to them straight away without any additional costs and you can quit anytime by simply cancelling your subscription for the next month.

Finally, the Office 365 Business Premium package gives you everything from both of the other packages; the full desktop Office experience plus the full suite of online services. It's basically a one-stop business IT solution in a box or at least in the cloud.

Transforming Business

They key thing isn't so much what Office 365 includes, but what it can do for you. For a start, it can help you cut costs. Go for the Business Essentials or Business Premium options and you don't need to replace or upgrade your email server, invest in more storage or buy more licences for new employees. You pay one subscription per user with more mailbox and cloud-based storage space than they're likely to ever need. You also lose the burden of managing all this stuff. Microsoft handles all the configuration, backup and updating of the hardware and software, while you can tackle administration tasks like adding and managing users through a simple web-based interface. For anything you can't handle, there's support on-hand from Microsoft or from third-party Office 365 providers like O2 Business. With a single point of contact, it's a lot easier than dealing with individual email, storage and software providers.

Office 365 also powers more flexible ways of working. You can have access to the same apps, services, emails and documents across the whole range of devices, including Windows and Mac OS PCs plus Windows, iOS and Android tablets and smartphones. You don't have to be at your desk to get the information you need or stay productive. Pull out your phone and you can still get the latest figures, change the bullet points on your presentation or share an important file. Whether you're at work, at home or on the move, you can get things done.

Security is another key advantage. Your data is stored on Microsoft's European servers, where it should be safe from government snooping, while its encrypted and password-protected, with two-factor authentication for more control. If someone wants to sign in, you can have further authentication via smartphone or email before the gates unlock. You can track who has viewed and edited what, and everything is backed up, with different versions of a file stored so that a catastrophic mistake can be fixed in minutes. Even were your business premises ruined by flood, fire or theft, you could keep working with Office 365 as long as you had a laptop, phone or tablet to hand.

Keeping up to date with the latest applications and features is a definite plus point; there's no need to justify an upgrade when it's part of the package. Best of all, though, Office 365 is a real enabler for collaboration, keeping teams working together even when they can't be in the same space. You can work in real-time with a colleague on a document in Word, Excel or PowerPoint while chatting about it through Skype or Yammer. You can share files with colleagues in an instant using OneDrive, or open up a meeting to discuss your work in Skype for Business. Find out who's available, schedule it in Outlook, and you're away. Now add SharePoint Intranet sites for document-storage, sharing and project management, and you have all the tools you need to collaborate on complex projects. All these features scale up easily if you add more staff, or up and down if you're bringing in temporary workers. It's a leaner, more efficient way to work.

If you're just starting a small business, using Office 365 is usually a faster, more cost-effective way to set up shop than purchasing and configuring your own IT infrastructure. And if you're an established company, it can help you trim overheads and become more agile. Either way, making the switch is good for business.

Is your business still running its own email server? If so, it might be time to stop. Ten years ago, the email server was one of the cornerstones of any company's IT strategy, taking incoming email from the Web and serving it up to mailboxes for every user, while taking the emails being sent from across the business and sending them out to recipients around the world.

Now, however, there's a smarter way to handle it, using cloud-based email services to store and manage your mail. Instead of running your own email server, you let the likes of Microsoft and Google do it for you, much like they do if you use their Outlook.com or Gmail email services. Rather than have an Outlook or Gmail address, however, you can still use a company domain name. You still have a professional point of contact, but one with fewer downsides than conventional email and a whole load of upsides.

Why move to the cloud?

There are plenty of good reasons to move to cloud-based email, but the big drivers for most small businesses will be:

• Lower costs: Perhaps you think the old server sitting in the corner doesn't cost you anything, but it will cost you money to maintain and money to replace, with further costs for software updates or client access licences, not to mention network infrastructure. Then there's the cost of powering it, which can mount up with an older, less-efficient box. With cloud-based email, those ongoing costs and any upfront capital expenditure in new hardware can be replaced by predictable operating costs, with a simple monthly fee per user. In the vast majority of cases this results in lower costs overall.
• Improved reliability, less hassle: Email servers are, to put it mildly, not always reliable. When they fall over, they hit productivity hard. Even when they are reliable, they still require a lot of time to manage, patch and secure, and in small businesses with no permanent IT staff, that time is hard to come by. With cloud-based email, most of this burden simply goes away. You might have to spend some time and effort adding or managing mailboxes and users, but thanks to streamlined Web-based control panels even this is easier than you'd think. What's more, go with a provider like O2 and you get initialisation and support as part of the package in most cases. That has to be easier than running your old server.
• Accessibility: Generally speaking, on-premises email servers are designed to work with an email client on a single PC, and getting them to do more takes a certain amount of work. What's more, as the mail in each mailbox is either stored on the server or passed on to PC clients, it may only be available where and when the server can be accessed, which might not be everywhere or at every time. Cloud-based email services are designed to work across a wide range of devices. Desktops, laptops, tablets and phones will all connect, and you can often use practically anything that will run a browser to view and send mail. And while 100% uptime can't be guaranteed, the best cloud email services come incredibly close.
• Security: Provided your users follow good basic security practice, looking after their devices and using strong passwords for access, cloud-based email services are impressively secure. In fact, it's fair to say that Microsoft or Google's servers have better physical security, run on more secure networks and are updated more frequently than the mail servers you'd find in most corporate environments, let alone small businesses. With data encrypted while in transit between you and them, you couldn't ask for more secure email.
• Backup and disaster recovery: Most of us have some experience of an email we didn't want deleted getting sent to the recycle bin, while the loss of email due to hardware failure, fire, flood or theft can be disastrous. With a good cloud-based service, your mailboxes will be backed up across multiple physical servers and locations, while even deleted emails aren't junked from the servers straight away. Combine this with the accessibility of cloud-based services, and a problem with your email no longer means a larger problem for your business.
• Scalability: In-house email servers can scale upwards as your company grows, provided you've built them with the overhead to do so. If not, or if they reach their limits, you could be looking at expensive new investments. With cloud-based services, however, your email provision can grow as the company grows; all it takes is adding another user. This isn't just good news when a business is growing, but also when it needs to be flexible. If you take on staff temporarily or need to make cuts later, you will only pay for what you use.

Why Office 365?

Microsoft isn't the only big name in cloud-based email, but it's arguably the best. Office 365 gives you a market-leading 50GB of email, calendar and contacts storage per user, with prices from 3.10 per user per month. You can configure it to work with your own domain name, and Microsoft's Web-based management panels make it easier to add users, manage mailboxes and keep a watchful eye on your company email. And while Office 365 works brilliantly with Windows 10 PCs, laptops and tablets, plus Windows 10 Mobile phones, it'll also work hand-in-hand with Mac OS computers, iPhones, iPads and Android mobile devices, with next to no configuration required.

Yet the best part of using Office 365 is that you're investing in a superb value all-round package. With a choice of online or full desktop Office apps, 1TB of OneDrive cloud storage and Skype for Business and Yammer communication tools, you can start with email and steadily move towards a more cloud-based approach to IT. Moving to Office 365 could change the way you handle email, but that's just the start of how it might transform your business.

Today's technology is a huge boon for small businesses, giving them the tools they need to compete in competitive markets. Together, computers, mobile devices, software and online services can enhance productivity, empower teams and have a strong positive impact on a company's bottom line. Yet all these benefits come with one big downside: the threat of cyber-crime.

Viruses can bring systems down, causing hours or days of lost productivity. Data breaches are disastrous for businesses, making valuable business information available to outsiders and putting confidential customer data at risk. Beyond disruption, lost sales and the cost of fines and compensation, there are the hidden costs that come with damage to reputation and the loss of existing business. This is no laughing matter for large companies, as we saw with British Gas, Marks & Spencer and TalkTalk last year, but it's not something smaller businesses can ignore, either.

The most recent Information Security Breaches Survey for the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills found that 74% of small businesses had suffered a security breach during 2015, up from 60% the year before. The number affected by malware attacks had risen by 36% over the last year's figures. On average, the worst security breaches cost small businesses between 75,000 and 311,000 when you took all the different costs into account. That's not something that many small businesses can afford.

To make things worse, the threat landscape isn't getting any easier. Intel's security division, McAfee, found 42 million new malicious malware samples in its last threat report; the second highest growth on record. Newer threats like macro malware and ransomware are on the rise, phishing attacks are growing more sophisticated, while mobile malware is undergoing an explosion, the numbers growing by 72% between Q3 and Q4 2015. Cyber-criminals are finding new ways to gather information that could be misused, then new ways to misuse it, including CEO fraud a business spin on identity theft where the fraudsters claim to represent your company. In short, it's not a good time to take risks.

Yet take risks is what a lot of small businesses are doing, particularly when it comes to their mobile devices. According to the Information Security Breaches Survey, 15% of all organisations had a security or data breach involving smartphones or tablets a doubling of the figures from 2014 yet few small businesses have any policy in place to secure the same devices. In fact, 18% have no policy at all.

Essential Steps

There are some essential measures that every business should take. The UK government, for example, advises:

• Downloading and installing software updates as quickly as possible
• Using strong passwords to protect your data
• Deleting suspicious emails as soon as they arrive
• Using anti-virus software
• Training your staff to recognise security threats and deal with them

These are all good fundamental steps, but in an era where businesses are exploring the potential of mobile devices and accepting employee-owned devices, they may not be enough. Desktop computers and servers remain a target for criminal activity, and both they and the company network need as much protection as ever. Yet laptops, tablets and smartphones have needs above and beyond basic practices and anti-virus software, not just because they're more vulnerable to physical loss and theft, but because the way they may be used outside of the business opens them up to further threats.

Some will tell you that smartphone and tablet security shouldn't worry you; that an iPhone can't get viruses and that Apple and Google already do everything that needs to be done to secure your mobile devices. Sadly, they're wrong. Last year the Stagefright' exploit showed how vulnerable Android phones could be, while the AceDeceiver virus proves that cyber-criminals can get around the protection in iOS. Earlier this year, McAfee found that over 60 Android games hosted on the Google Play store were infected with an Android virus. How can you be sure what employees might install on a phone that has access to your business data?

A Holistic Approach

The trick is to look in-depth at the threats that face your business, then take measures to guard against them. If you store data on a PC, laptop or tablet, ensure that it's encrypted. If you have teams working from home or on the road, make sure that they use business-grade, secure cloud services to store and transfer any data, and provide them with secure channels, like a VPN (virtual private network) link with which to communicate with the office. Give them advice on how to spot and avoid malicious emails, software or websites.

Yet the most effective measure may be to have software in place that works across all their devices, including desktop and laptop PCs, tablets and smartphones. McAfee Multi Access, for example, offers robust protection from viruses, botnets, spyware, spam and identity theft across five devices. It has features that prevent users from visiting risky websites or entering details into phishing websites, plus secure password management tools that support a proper password policy. It blocks spam and phishing emails across PCs and mobile devices. It also includes features that can guard a device remotely, so that it can be encrypted, locked or even wiped if it's lost or stolen, before criminals even get a chance to find out what it contains. You can even take a picture and track the location of a thief with the CaptureCam feature, or sound an alarm with Remote Scream.

At 3 per user per month, this kind of protection doesn't have to be expensive, and with automated installation and updating, it's not complex to manage either. Maintaining strong security policies and installing anti-malware software on PCs is a great start for better security, but if you want real, all-round protection, products like McAfee Multi Access are the smarter way to go.

The way we do business has changed. Gone are the days when working together as a team meant everyone sitting in the office at the same time. Now we're working from our home office, from the client's office, on the road or in the spaces in-between. We're able to collaborate from different buildings, different cities and even different countries. What's more, this more flexible approach to teamwork isn't just the preserve of large corporations with megabucks budgets to spend, but an approach that's both within reach of smaller businesses and an ideal way for them to work.

The last few years have seen all the technological building blocks fall into place. Mobile technology has never been so affordable or so good. Cloud-based services are making it easier to work almost anywhere, at any time and with almost anyone. Business applications like Microsoft Office have evolved for a connected world, while 3G and 4G connectivity gives you access to all these services and your business-critical data from almost anywhere. With the right tools in place, it doesn't matter where the different members of your team are; you still make an effective unit. Best of all, many of these tools can be found rolled up in one affordable service: Microsoft Office 365.

Flexible Hardware

Let's start with the hardware. The days of the one-size-fits-all approach are over, with the old desktop PC best reserved for those who need raw performance in an office environment. Most of us would now be better served by laptops, tablets or convertible devices, using WiFi and 4G connectivity to stay in touch with the people and resources we need to get things done.

With laptops running the gamut from slim-and-light 11-inch devices to 17-inch models with desktop-class performance, there's something for every need, while you'll be surprised how little there is that you can't do with a 12 to 13.3-inch convertible, working as a laptop when you need one and a tablet when convenience rules.

Even affordable iOS, Windows and Android tablets can be transformed into business machines by installing mobile versions of core Office applications like Outlook, Word, PowerPoint and Excel, giving all the power to view and edit documents that you can get from a desktop within a streamlined set of features.

Yet there's another device in your arsenal that could be even more important: the smartphone. You can now get smartphones with big, high-definition screens and enough horsepower to handle business tasks at budget prices, with 5-inch handsets like the Microsoft Lumia 650 or the Motorola Moto G. Push the budget up a little, and even larger, full HD screens and better specifications come within reach. True, mobile devices bring new security challenges to a smaller business, but mobile and multi-access security apps deliver enterprise-grade security for a low monthly cost.

Running mobile versions of the Microsoft Office apps, designed to enable smartphone use, you can still get to the information you need, make quick edits to documents, and feed info back into the team. Meanwhile, with Office 365's cloud-based email and instant messaging, you're still in touch while you're out of the office. There's often no need to get the laptop from your bag when you can just pull the phone out of your pocket.

A Platform for Collaboration

Smaller businesses wishing to embrace online collaboration always used to face two huge barriers: cost and complexity. Without a corporate budget and an IT team behind you, the platforms were too expensive and too challenging to implement. The growth of cloud-based services has now turned that sorry situation around. With Office 365, you have a full collaboration platform packaged up, and you don't need to be an IT whizkid to get it and keep it running.

What does this mean? Well, with Office 365 you already have email and either online or full desktop versions of Microsoft Office 2016 sewn up. You also have up to 1TB of Microsoft OneDrive cloud-storage space per user easily enough to handle any documents, email and even photos they might need. By saving Office documents to OneDrive, you don't just ensure that they're accessible from all your devices, you also make them easier to share. Two or more people can access documents or edit them simultaneously, making it a more effective way to share information and work in teams.

Yet Office 365 goes further. Through Office 365 and Outlook, setting up shared calendars, mailboxes and contacts lists is easy. With Microsoft SharePoint, you can create a team intranet site and share and archive all your key documents, with features that can help you track and manage projects. What's more, SharePoint is now focusing on supporting mobile apps, giving teams full access to all the business content they need through tablets or smartphones as well as their PCs. Combine SharePoint and OneDrive together, and viewing, editing or sharing documents becomes as easy as sending an email, whether you're sitting at your desk or pulling out a smartphone between meetings.

Team Talk

Office 365 isn't just about documents and collaboration, though; it's also about communication. Wherever you are and whatever you're doing, you can stay in touch with the office and the team, with quick and easy ways to switch from, say, instant messaging to voice and video calls when you need to talk.

That starts with company-branded Outlook email to give you a professional email presence, but extends to Office 365 Groups, to give you threaded conversations, file-sharing, notes and scheduling to promote team work. Need answers faster? Switch to Yammer for business social networking, or Skype for Business for instant-messaging, voice and video calls and virtual meetings. These services work hand-in-hand with next-gen mobile services like O2 TU Go, which gives you calls, texts and voicemail over WiFi, or O2 Just Call Me, for mobile conference calling. You're part of the team even when you're not in the same postcode or even the same country.

None of this stuff has to be difficult or expensive. Office 365 scales from the online-only Business Essentials product at 3.10 per user per month up to the Premium service at 7.80 per month, while help is at hand from providers, like O2 Business, who can help set the service up and provide all the support and advice your business needs. There's no good reason to keep your best people chained to their desks: set them free and watch your business grow.

Times have moved on since the office telephone was the mainstay of business communication. Paper memos are all but extinct, and even email is beginning to look long in the tooth. These days, there are smarter ways to talk. Voice calls over WiFi cut the costs of conversation, instant messaging apps are now enterprise-ready and video conferencing is removing geographic barriers. None of this stuff is expensive or hard to implement, and all of it can help your teams become more productive.

Large corporates have been enjoying the benefits of video conferencing and Voice over IP telephony for years, but it's the growth of consumer smartphone apps that has accelerated development and put the same tools in the hands of smaller businesses. Many of us already use apps like Skype, Facebook Messenger, Viber and WhatsApp for instant messaging and voice or video chat, but now the same technologies are powering business communications. Every laptop now has a webcam and all but the most basic smartphones or tablets have a front-facing camera. With Wi-Fi and 4G networks providing infrastructure, just add the right apps and services and you have everything you need to change the way your business communicates.

The Key Tools

The new way for business communications is centred on a handful of basic tools.

• Instant messaging services give you rapid, text-based communications that are both more instantaneous and more conversational than email, making them perfect for quick discussions or collaborative projects. Simply put, you can collaborate and get things settled faster, or respond more effectively when the situation demands it. What's more, business grade options are threaded, making it easier to keep track of multiple discussions, not to mention archive-able and searchable, ensuring that businesses can audit communications later for commercial, legal or compliance reasons.
• Voice calls over Wi-Fi can replace traditional telephony systems for internal use or for working with key clients or partners. With a range of different services and little interoperability there's a need to settle on a specific service. However, once you do, lower costs and the ability to make and take calls from different locations across different devices makes them more flexible a real boon if you have teams working from home or out on the road. What's more, it's easy to escalate calls into multi-person conference calls, putting big business capabilities within reach of smaller companies.
• Video calls augment voice-only conversations with a live video feed; ideal for situations where a face to face meeting isn't so practical. As with voice calls, it's easy to bring in more people. Set up a meeting in advance or call them in on an ad-hoc basis using instant messaging and you can have a virtual team meeting going in minutes, or have in-depth discussions with clients or partners without any travel involved. Sometimes face-to-face is the only way to go, but when it's not there can be serious cost savings to be made.
• Screen sharing tools take video calls one step further, enabling you to give a presentation, share a Web page or look at plans. File sharing tools do the same thing for files, but with the benefit that participants can not just view the files, but comment on them too.

Separate apps or all-in-one?

Sounds good? Well, there are two ways to get these tools working for you. One is to adopt individual apps or services. Skype, for example, can be harnessed for small businesses, with PC, tablet and smartphone apps, instant messaging, voice and video calls over Wi-Fi and live video chat for up to 25 users. It's even been integrated into Microsoft Office, so that you can collaborate on documents and chat in real-time without leaving the document. Slack is a popular choice for enterprise text chat, file sharing and instant messaging, while apps like O2 TU Go and O2 Just Call Me provide voice calls and video conferencing using your smartphone or your laptop over Wi-Fi for a low monthly cost.

Alternatively, you'll find all these tools and more bundled within Microsoft Office 365. Yammer provides integrated messaging and business social networking features to match Slack's. Skype for Business takes Skype's voice and video calling features to a different league, with scope for larger virtual meetings, enterprise-grade security features and the ability to make and take calls on one number, whether you're at your desk, on the road or working from home.

What's more, you benefit from the way these features are integrated into Office itself. You can kick off Skype for Business conversations from within Word or PowerPoint, and use contacts direct from your Outlook email and calendar apps. You can see, within Outlook, whether a contact is available and online, meaning you can switch from sending an email to instant messaging or a voice call. You can even schedule and start Skype for Business meetings without leaving Outlook. Picking Office 365 also gives you flexibility. You can use Skype and Yammer across your PCs, tablets and smartphones, so that wherever you are and whatever you're doing, you remain in touch.

Perhaps most importantly, picking Office 365 from O2 Business gets you service and support. If you have trouble configuring a feature, adding users or getting video conferencing up and running, there's a point of contact you can go to and get things fixed or even when you just need advice and information.

Whatever approach you take and whichever services you use, you'll be glad you made the shift. If you want an agile, streamlined and efficient organisation, embracing the new forms of business communication will help you get there.

Three has asked Ofcom to stop Vodafone and BT buying too much spectrum when the auction happens later this year.

The company's smallest mobile provider thinks it would be unfair if the two companies bought more than their fair share. After all, BT and EE together (now just one massive BT network) own almost half of the available spectrum, Vodafone owns around a third more, while Three and O2 own comparably less. Three feels it would put the company in a bad position if Ofcom allows both operators to buy up more.

"The combination of BT and EE is incredibly strong financially. It has got the financial ability to outcompete everyone in the market in how much they are willing to pay," Three chief David Dyson told the Financial Times.

"Potentially, given how much spectrum they are already sitting on, BT is incentivised to strategically bid in the next auction to restrict the other operators in the market from increasing their spectrum portfolio...That could make life difficult."

The European Commission didn't allow Three and O2 to complete its merger earlier in the year, so it could be that Three has a bee in its bonnet about that and the impact it will have on its market share.

"Three and O2 are important and effective competitors in the UK, helping to deliver innovation, investment and competitive prices over many years," the European Commission wrote in its decision.

"Competition must be sustainable, and regulation should support it. We will aim to do so through tools such as market reviews or auctions of mobile airwaves."

Telecom regulator Ofcom has called for Three's acquisition of O2 to be blocked, warning that it could lead to higher mobile bills for UK consumers and businesses.

The watchdog's chief executive, Sharon White, wrote in a column for the Financial Times that she was concerned the UK's smallest mobile network will become the biggest by acquiring its rival.

Three's proposed 10.5 billion acquisition of O2 would reduce the UK's mobile carrier market to three companies the others being EE, which was recently bought by BT, and Vodafone.

The new Three-O2 group would command more than four in 10 mobile connections, White claimed.

She added that Three owned by Hong Kong's Hutchison Whampoa group has often acted as a "disruptive" operator, challenging its competitors through innovation and low prices, an advantage she argued would be lost through consolidation.

"We are analysing mobile prices over recent years in 25 countries," she wrote. "Our findings show that average prices are around 10-20 per cent lower in markets with four operators and a disruptive player than in those with only three established networks."

The merger bid is due to be assessed by the European Commission, and White said Ofcom has put this argument, along with others about the disruption of network infrastructure and retail competition, to the body.

Ofcom's letter comes after Three ended its 17 per month unlimited mobile data and mobile calls plan last week, forcing existing customers onto a 30 tariff if they do not opt out within 30 days.

The European Commission is expected to issue Three with a list of objections to the merger tomorrow, according to the Telegraph, which also quoted Sky's chief strategy officer, Mai Fyfield, as in support of the deal.

She said: "under Three's ownership we would me more confident that the direction of O2 would be clear. If it's blocked there is going to be a question over what happened to Telefonica. They don't look like they are interested in being a long term owner."

However, BT's recent merger with EE led TalkTalk to warn the move could lead to price rises of 25 per cent, particularly if the Three-O2 deal goes ahead.

Mobile users may end up paying more for calls to certain premium rate numbers after mobile phone operators increased access charges to these numbers.

The call increases have come after Ofcom moved to make call prices more transparent by separating service and access charges in July this year. While the move was supposed to make things clearer for mobile users, it has had the consequence of mobile operators raising charges.

These service numbers are used by organisations for business purposes, especially for popular TV shows, such as Strictly and X Factor.

While businesses set the service charge, mobile operators set the access charge. This November sees mobile operator Three increase access charges by as much as 80 per cent with an access charge of 45p per minute for each call to a service number. This figure was previously 25p per minute.

Calls to Strictly Come Dancing currently cost 40p but will rise to 80p in November.

In August, O2 and Vodafone increased their access charges following Ofcom's new policy. At the time, the regulator said the separation of charges would benefit consumers.

An Ofcom spokeswoman said that as some prices have changed, people should "shop around for a tariff that's right for them."

"Phone providers are now offering a range of pricing options for these numbers, including per-minute access charges as low as 1p per minute," she said.

"Ofcom actively encourages organisations to use 03 numbers, which we set up to cost no more than a normal 01 or 02 number. They must also be included in a customer's inclusive minutes and discount schemes in the same way."

Ernest Doku, telecoms expert at uSwitch.com, said that since the new system was introduced by Ofcom in July, some charges have increased by 96 per cent.

"Ofcom's new system relies on people keeping an eagle eye on what they will be charged before they pick up the phone.

"The charges are meant to be more transparent than before, but with significant price hikes since the new system was introduced, consumers need to be savvy to make sure they are not left out of pocket."

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) will assess the impact of O2 and Three's merger when deciding whether to allow that of BT and EE, it has announced.

The CMA has released a document that looks further into the issues that could arise as a result of BT's 12.5 billion acquisition of EE and a major part of this will look into how the 9.5 billion purchase of Telefnica (O2) by Hutchison Whampoa (Three) has changed the market.

There are fears that allowing both mergers to go ahead could have a big impact on competition in the UK's mobile telecoms landscape, so an assessment is necessary, the CMA said.

"O2 and H3G are major players in the UK telecoms market, [so] we will consider the potential implications of the proposed merger and the European Commission's investigation for the competitive conditions in the UK," the CMA stated in its document.

"The inquiry group of CMA panel members must decide whether if the acquisition is completed a relevant merger situation will be created and, if so, whether the creation of that situation may be expected to result in a substantial lessening of competition in any market or markets in the UK for goods or services."

The CMA will also look into how mobile services are sold to consumers, how wholesale mobile services are sold to mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) such as Virgin and Tesco Mobile and how both deals will change mobile backhaul services that BT currently provides to all UK mobile networks.

Fixed broadband services will additionally come under scrutiny because BT currently offers services to EE and other telecoms companies via its copper and fibre offshoot Openreach.

For many businesses, communication is the lifeblood of the organisation. Without a means to connect with colleagues, things can quickly grind to a halt.

Mobile communication is key, especially when needed to contact salespeople on the road. Two of the main mobile network operators, EE and O2, have services geared up for business. We breakdown what's on offer.

4G coverage

One of the key focuses of EE is its 4G service. It had a head start on rivals when Ofcom allowed it to use 2G spectrum for 4G services. EE covers 81 per cent of the UK with its LTE service, compared with 66 per cent for O2. (Source: Ofcom)

Data Speeds

EE, like its rivals has undergone a series of tests to determine the average speed of its 4G service. According to this Ofcom report, EE managed average speeds of 18.6Mbps while O2 managed 13.9Mbps. For 3G the tables are turned with EE managing 4Mbps for 3G downloads compared with 6.6Mbps for O2.

Data Allowances

Both EE and O2 offer data allowances of up to 20GB. Neither offer unlimited data plans. The lowest allowance between the two comes from O2 with a plan that offers a paltry 100MB, EE offers 250MB at its minimum.

Reach

EE covers around 200 towns and cities in the UK with its 4G network since its launch in the UK in October 2012. O2 launched its 4G network in the summer of 2013 and now covers 191 towns. Despite this near parity in the number of urban areas covered, O2 clearly covers a low proportion of the British population than EE at 66 per cent of the UK versus 81 per cent respectively.

Plans

If you want a new phone from EE, you will have to commit to a 24-month contract, while SIM-only deals can be bagged for 12-months or a 30-day rolling contract.

O2 also stipulates 24-month contracts for those wanting new phones. However, its O2 Refresh gimmick allows users to upgrade early by splitting the tariff into an Airtime Plan and a Phone Plan. To upgrade, you pay off what's left of the Phone Plan and select a new mobile with a new Phone Plan. O2 also offers SIM-only plans on a 12-month or 30-day rolling basis.

Customer Service

According to Ofcom's Customer Satisfaction Survey, EE achieved an overall score of 69 per cent, while O2 managed a score of 78 per cent. The average mark was 73 per cent.

Other features

EE has a Film Store that offers movies available to watch on demand. It offers customers the chance to buy tickets for England football matches and live music events before the rest of the general public.

O2 has Priority Moments that features exclusive deals for its customers. These include discounts for shops and restaurants. The app also offers access to popular Channel 4 shows 48 hours before they air on TV. It also offers tickets to gigs 48 hours before the general public.

Verdict

While EE arguably has the most extensive 4G network in terms of speed and coverage, O2 has more budget-friendly deals.

Over the last few years, as mobile users and businesses have slowly started to demand more and more from their devices at work and for their own personal use, there's been a shift from the previously ubiquitous 3G connectivity to the faster, more reliable, 4G.

Thus far, the UK has been slow off the mark in terms of rolling out the service to everyone, with those Kevin Bacon-fronted adverts our only clue that things were changing for a long while. Now EE has had its sole licence for 4G prised from its hands and all the major networks get to have a go.

This comes after a period of time in which, after having to bid in the government's 4G wireless spectrum auctions for a licence, only EE was given permission to provide 4G services using spare 3G spectrum. Competitors were left lagging behind for almost a year while EE carved out its place in the market with the aforementioned Kevin Bacon ads.

Now, licensees include EE, Hutchinson 3G (Three), Telefonica (O2) and Vodafone. EE, however, still has the largest 4G network due to its head start, but other operators are catching up.

Towards the end of 2014, it was reported that 4G speeds in the UK have halved as more people have signed up for the service. This puts the benefits of 4G into question should the previously significant gap between it and 3G speeds start to close.

Additional studies have, however, also claimed that average speeds for 4G are still around double those provided by 3G. In November, it was revealed that Ofcom was planning to sell-off spectrum used by the Ministry of Defence to boost available bandwidth for 4G networks.

In May 2015, Ofcom released details on plans to auction more spectrum for 4G services. However, availablility would be limited in order to future-proof networks against impending mergers. The regulator has asked potential bidders how they think it should release the 2.3 GHz and 3.4 GHz spectrum bands.

4G is primed and ready to take over, changing the way we use our devices at work, on the go and at home, so here is our guide to everything you need to know.

How does 4G differ from 3G?

3G, launched back in 2003, has served us well and brought widespread connectivity to everyone and made it possible to be truly mobile as long as you had a phone or tablet at your disposal.

No technology is fault-free, however. The problem with 3G lay in the range of service one could expect from the third generation mobile technology. This could range from around 400Kbps to somewhere near to 4,000Kbps. 3G also has a reputation for being unreliable, with sudden drops in speed and complete outages all too common an occurrence.

There was less consistency than might have been expected and slow data speeds just aren't something most people can accept these days. The tide is changing, with 4G promising to overcome all of the issues we've had with mobile data speeds and coverage.

4G promises internet speeds that are five times faster than was possible with 3G, as well as a significantly reduced likelihood of losing your connection. To put it all into perspective, downloads take just seconds, web pages load instantly and streaming either live TV or services such as Netflix can be done without endless buffering time.

But then there is also more than one kind of 4G available to customers, with standard 4G promising speeds two and a half times faster than Ultrafast 3G and double-speed 4G speeds up to five times faster. Like with 3G before it, there's no particular standard, with what you get seemingly differing from network to network.

Throughout 2014, talk surrounding national roaming plans sparked fears that a 4G rollout would be delayed by up to two years as a result.

Why should businesses be interested?

3G has been increasingly showing its age since businesses began to rely more heavily on phones and tablets for work, whether remotely, in the office or out-of-hours. Employees no longer need to leave their work behind when they exit the door everything is at their fingertips at all times and this increased usage demands high-speed, reliable coverage wherever they go.

4G promises to be the solution, good enough to offer either primary or secondary internet connections for employees not always able to be plugged in at their desks. It would be nice if fast, reliable Wi-Fi was available to us everywhere we go, but that's just not the world we live in. Not right now, anyway.

The rise of BYOD and tablets powerful enough to potentially replace laptops has meant that we're less chained to our desks than ever. 4G wireless broadband keeps businesses connected, with more flexibility and the chance to take advantage of remote working or collaboration between teams spread across different parts of the country or even the world.

The truth is that mobile data usage has been rapidly rising for over a decade, and 4G can be seen as a necessary evolution that finally catches up to the demands of an ever-changing world. Companies in the UK are experimenting not just with the adoption of smartphones and tablets for work use, but also with cloud storage and flexible working, and this requires a boost in connectivity.

Adopting 4G is basically a way to both catch up with current technological advances and future-proof your business at the same time. As 4G becomes more widespread across the UK, firms can switch to more remote working for employees, cloud storage for backing-up documents and files and, as a result, increased productivity.

Are there any downsides to 4G?

While other networks are admittedly catching up quickly, there's still a clear leader in the 4G game EE. With a 10-month lead on the technology, the company has been able to build up its offering to include a range of advantages not even on the others' radar, but it also means that connectivity is still limited. Devices ready for 4G aren't much use if your area does not yet have coverage.

There's also a big issue with security, which is reportedly the main concern amongst consumers still considering whether or not to switch. In February 2014, the MailOnline reported from the Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona that, while the majority of phones at the event were being sold with 4G in mind, the improved data speeds come at the price of greater vulnerability.

Leonid Burakovsky, senior director of strategic solutions at F5, says: "What the industry has done with 4G/LTE is taken a self-contained telephone network, secured primarily by virtue of being separate from the internet, and then bolted-on internet capabilities which were never designed to prevent eavesdropping."

The less secure protocol used for 4G means that all manner of sensitive information is essentially left more vulnerable, from passwords to bank details, and this poses a huge problem for businesses interested in utilising the technology.

"The main security problem with 4G networks is that user information can become easily available to hackers via, for instance, man-in-the-middle' attacks, and hackers can compromise new services like mobile health or mobile commerce," Burakovsky continues.

With the technology still relatively young, especially in the UK, networks are under pressure to reassure consumers of 4Gs' safety, especially in a business environment in which the sharing of potentially sensitive information is a part of day-to-day life.

EE

When Orange and T-Mobile merged to create EE (or Everything Everywhere) in October 2010, this heralded the start of the company's plans to make 4G accessible for all, and its rollout of the technology began in earnest in September 2012.

The head start has meant that EE's 4G connectivity is currently available in more than 100 towns and cities across the UK, making it the most widespread and thus the most attractive to early adopters. It also has the most 4G spectrum, with access to 800MHz, 1800MHz and 2.6GHz. This makes it seem like not just the best option for now, but also for the future as the technology evolves.

4G with EE gives users consistently great speeds and good indoor and long-range coverage. It is also the only company offering double-speed 4G LTE, with LTE-A 20 times faster than standard 3G being trialed in London's Tech City.

EE has also promised that 300Mbps 4G could be available in early 2015, with the service first being tested in Tech City and Wembley Stadium.

As of the beginning of January 2015, EE's 4G customer base had reached 7.7 million subscribers in the UK, adding 5.7 million in 2014.

The company has also continued to offer 4G to more areas of the country, investing in rural coverage and dedicating 1.5 billion in the expansion between now and 2017, for which EE has set itself the target of bringing connectivity to more than 99 per cent of the population across 90 per cent of the UK.

In February, BT made a bid to acquire EE for 12.5 billion. The combined group plans to sell a full range of services to its customer base. This could mean better 4G deals for BT Broadband customers.

The acquisition has seen calls by rival operators on BT/EE to give up some of its spectrum as part of the deal. The deal is currently being looked at by the Competition and Markets Authority.

Vodafone

Vodafone and O2 are both hot on the heels of market leaders EE, launching their 4G networks on the same day differing significantly from each other in terms of spectrum and coverage.

Vodafone has the edge, with 2.6GHz offered as well as 800MHz as well as coverage that's almost in line with EE's. Vodafone has also been careful to keep its pricing competitive, with lots of extras such as entry-level tariffs and additional data allowance included in various deals.

The company has also launched Sure Signal Premium for business use, which gives users access to its 4G network to ensure high-speed, reliable connections at all times. This is designed to boost internet in places where Wi-Fi isn't up to scratch, helping businesses to maintain productivity.

As of May 2015, Vodafone had three million 4G users in the UK and covered 71 per cent of the population.

O2

O2's 4G offering is currently quite limited. It has coverage in the majority of big UK cities, but that leaves the rest of the country with huge blind spots, but the relatively low price range keeps it in the game against its competitors.

In order to entice customers away from the presently-superior alternatives, O2 offered seductive deals such as a 27 per month O2 Refresh airtime contract with 5GB of data instead of 3GB if they signed up before the end of February 2014.

There was also the issue of the iPhone 5 having not been compatible with O2's 4G network a significant spanner in the works only overcome by the offer of an early upgrade deal for customers who purchased theirs within a certain time frame.

Last November, it was announced that TalkTalk had signed a deal with O2 to use its network over Vodafone's, expanding its 4G offering to customers.

Currently, more than five million customers of O2 have signed up to a 4G tariff. Around 68 per cent of the country has outdoor 4G coverage from O2, with the network reaching almost 500 UK towns and cities.

Three

Three was the second network to be licensed for 4G after purchasing leftover 3G bandwidth from EE, but the catch was that part of the deal meant they were actually the last of the four to actually launch a 4G service.

Launching with coverage for only four cities, it added 42 more in 2014 and has confirmed another 16 for 2015, carving out a place for its 4G network despite its absence at the start of the race. The biggest draw for consumers, however, is the offer of free 4G for customers - the only network to do so.

In December 2014, the mobile provider announced that a third of its UK customers (3.1 million) were using its 4G service, despite the late start and relatively limited availability (48 per cent of UK).

"The addition of low frequency spectrum is just one part of our plans to expand Three's coverage and bring our network to more people in more places in 2015," said Three's CEO Dave Dyson.

Where is 4G headed next?

Now that all four networks are offering 4G services to their customers, the burning question is where do we go from here?

The first things to happen, as history tells us, is that consumer confidence will rise, prices will drop and the technology will grow over the next couple of years. Previous predictions suggested 4G coverage in the UK would reach 98 per cent by the end of 2014 but, with data usage rising all of the time, will what the networks are offering be enough?

Whether it's streaming a movie from home or taking advantage of 4G at work, the demand is already threatening to overtake the reality. As such, it's easy to imagine a time when users are demanding even faster, more reliable and ever-present internet speeds.

So how long until 5G is introduced? It's taken the better part of a decade for 3G to get an upgrade, but will it take as long for the life-span of 4G to run its course?

When discussing the development of mobile data offerings for the future, Ofcom chief executive Ed Richards said: "The demands for mobile data will only increase as millions more wireless devices connect to the internet and each other.

"We're looking at ways to use spectrum more efficiently and consider future releases of prime spectrum. By doing so, we can help to meet the significant demands placed on our wireless infrastructure and develop one of the world's leading digital economies."

The regulator also claimed the new spectrum could raise mobile data capacity by 25 times before 2030. This will likely help to support M2M communications and the development of the Internet of Things.

Several monumental things are happening at once right now, with the shift towards ubiquitous data coverage, the Internet of Things and wearable technology all paving the way for a future that has us more connected to each other and our surroundings than ever before.

Right now, 4G appears to be the answer, giving us much faster data speeds and a widespread internet connection that far outstrips the capabilities of 3G.

EE's head start also gives us a reliable picture of where the other three major mobile companies are headed, while also alerting us to some concerns and limitations that may become much bigger issues down the road.

Security is a big one, with the increased vulnerability a sizeable stumbling block for an otherwise attractive option for businesses looking to improve efficiency and productivity. The rising use of phones and tablets for work, cloud storage and remote working have brought about many privacy concerns, and 4G's capacity to add more could provide a significant barrier to its success for enterprise customers.

Pricing is another factor that is consistently evolving to fit with what is out there, what competitors are offering and what customers are willing to pay. Though EE was in the unique position of being able to charge a premium, the increasingly competitive offerings of Vodafone, O2 and Three make this no longer the case.

Speaking about 4G data plans, research analyst at Parks Associates, Jennifer Kent, said: "Deciphering optimal mobile data pricing schemes is an important piece of operators' monetisation efforts, and many are experimenting with their mobile data pricing plans."

The potential for 4G business use is significant, however, and fits in with many other changes in the enterprise and beyond. 4G might have struggled to gain a foothold in the UK as of yet, but it has the next few years to really prove its worth.

This article was originally published in August 2014, and has been updated numerous times and most recently on 9 June 2015.

Mobile operator O2 was left red-faced after thousands of customers lost signal across the UK on bank holiday Monday.

The company was told to "sort it out" by Business Secretary Sajid Javid, who took to Twitter along with hundreds of others to criticise the service.

After several hours of downtime, the network for affected customers in London, Manchester, Glasgow and Northern Ireland was back online at 11.35pm yesterday.

O2 blamed phone mast issues around the UK for the problem, adding: "We apologise for any inconvenience caused to those customers affected and we will now begin a full investigation to identify the root cause."

While Cabinet minister Javid had tweeted "No signal @O2. Please sort it out", telecoms expert Dan Howdle said it was unlikely that angry customers venting on Twitter would actually switch providers.

The editor-in-chief of Cable.co.uk said: "As infuriating as it may be during the disruption, I would be very surprised if many jump ship from O2 as a result."

He pointed to his own research of 2,500 UK mobile users, which found 50 per cent are still with the same provider they signed up with years ago.

Howdle added that instead of just venting frustrations on social media, customers should be prepared to move for better service.

"If reliability is our number one consideration, as many O2 users affected by the outage now claim, we must be prepared to vote with our feet," he said.

O2 is in the process of being bought by Three owner Hutchinson for 10.25 billion.

Three itself suffered an outage in Ireland last month.

EE has topped mobile network data speeds at both Gatwick and Heathrow airports, also appearing in the number one spot for reliability, according to tests by RootMetrics.

At Gatwick, the network obtained an all-round score of 97.2 with an upload speed of 17.85Mbps and downloads at 20.40Mbps.

Vodafone came second with an overall score of 86.5, although its speeds were considerably slower - 0.94Mbps for upload and 5.68Mbps for download. Both Three and O2 achieved 1.57Mbps upload speeds, while downloads were measured as 3.2Mbps and 2.4Mbps respectively. However, Three's overall score was higher - 80.5 versus O2's 74.

At Heathrow, scores were more similar. EE's score was pretty consistent and far ahead of rivals, at 96.7 thanks to its 18.06Mbps upload and 31.22Mbps download speeds, but Vodafone's dropped to 84.6 with uploads at 2.05Mbps and download speeds of 3.30Mbps, while Three and O2's both increased to a just over 84 because they achieved faster upload and download speeds compared to the Gatwick Airport location.

The report said: "The core components are reliability and speed. These two factors have the greatest impact on your mobile experience. At each airport, we measure how reliably and quickly each network is able to download and upload data, perform email tasks, and handle files that represent elements of a webpage or app, among others."

RootMetrics' mobile performance tests have been carried out in 56 metropolitan areas in the US, seven metros in the UK, and 20 airports in the US this year already. By the second half of this year, it plans to have tested mobile networks at 125 US metros and 16 UK stations, 50 US airports and three UK airports, 50 US states and the whole of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

Three network owner Hutchinson Whampoa has today agreed "definitive terms" to purchase the O2 mobile network. The completed deal will, subject to approval, see Spanish owners Telefonica recieve around 10.25bn for the sale of their UK mobile arm.

The deal comes hot on the heels of a similar 12.5bn merger between BT and EE. This agreement is also undergoing review, as market watchdogs fear that giving BT such a large amount of resources would result in a lack of competition.

However, the announcement of Hutchinson Whampoa's purchase of O2 is likely to tip the scales in BT's favour, by ensuring that there will still be other providers on BT's scale if the purchase goes through. The result of both mergers being successful would be a total of three UK networks, with Vodafone being the only non-consolidated provider.

The deal follows the purchase of O2 assets by Three's parent company in Ireland, which now seems like a test-bed for further takeover. The companies' combined base of existing customers would total over 30m customers if approved, which dwarfs BT's projected 24.5m.

With two major telecom power blocs about to be formed, attention has now shifted to the Competition and Markets Authority. Responsible for preventing industry-wide monopolies, the CMA is now tasked with deciding whether these deals will still allow for fair and open trading.

Mark Collins, CityFibre's director of strategy and public affairs, thinks that Three's deal is a boon for the marketplace, saying that "consolidation is the only way to combat BT's ever-growing monopoly over both the retail and wholesale telecoms sectors".

According to Ovum analyst Matthew Howett, while it's currently unknown what Hutchinson and BT might sacrifice "in an attempt to get things through", there are some likely concessions. Currently tipped to be the focus of any trade-offs are "mobile backhaul, spectrum holdings, and the current network sharing agreements".

BT today returned to the mobile market, a decade after abandoning its first effort at dominating the space.

The telco giant is launching three different 4G subscriptions, with the cheapest service priced at just 5 a month for its broadband customers.

All three BT Mobile offerings are SIM-only, and the firm claims existing broadband customers can save 50 per cent on their mobile bills compared to others.

Each account holder can register up to five discounted SIMs, to a total of 10 per household.

The 5 per month offering provides users with 500MB of data and 200 minutes, a 12 subscription offers 2GB of data and 500 minutes, and a 20 contract gives customers 20GB of data and unlimited minutes.

The subscriptions all offer unlimited texts, and will piggyback on EE's 4G network after BT announced its intention to buy out the mobile operator for 12.5 billion.

John Petter, chief executive of BT Consumer, said: "Offering BT customers the UK's best value 4G data deal is a great way to start our journey towards re-establishing ourselves as a major player in consumer mobile."

Ovum analyst Steven Hartley said the BT Mobile subscriptions are "aggressively priced", but warned the SIM-only nature of the offerings, largely targeting existing customers, limits the available market.

"Given that most 4G handsets in circulation today are still under contract this reduces the pool of potential customers," he added.

"BT will offer handsets, but these are limited to just four options and do not include hero' devices such as the iPhone or Samsung S6."

However, Paolo Pescatore, director of multiplay and media at CCS Insight, claimed the subscriptions present a game-changing addition to the UK's mobile space.

He said: "BT has made the right decision to offer a range of simple and transparent packages as part of its return to the consumer mobile market.

"The tariffs are spot on and it lays down the gauntlet to other multiplay providers in the UK."

BT's return to the mobile space comes 30 years after it first created what is now known as O2 in a joint venture with Securicor back in 1985.

In 1999, it bought out Securicor'sshareand re-branded the service as BT Cellnet. Then, in 2002, the mobile arm of the business was spun-off and given the moniker mmO2.

Telefonica then acquired the network from BT in 2005, re-branding as O2.

Multiplay

The EE takeover deal is expected to be finalised by the end of this year, and a UK watchdoglast week requested BT's rivals to pipe up with any concerns they might have over the deal.

A letter to telcos and media firms from the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), seen by theFinancial Times, says it will take those concerns into account when examining the acquisition.

If BT's EE merger goes ahead, BT will take a 31 per cent share of mobile subscribers in the UK and 35 per cent of broadband subscribers. BT claimsboth firms' customers stand to benefit from the deal by gaining twin access to the UK's biggest fibre and 4Gnetworks.

BT Mobile can be seen as the first step the telco is taking to muscle in on the mobile market, and positions BT as a quad-player, offering pay-TV, broadband, landline and now mobile.

CCS Insight's Pescatore said: "It is important to note that this is the first of many steps for the company as BT looks to gain a stronger foothold in the consumer mobile and multiplay markets, including its proposed acquisition of EE."

He believes it will put pressure on other broadband providers like Sky to come up with a mobile offering, prompting more consolidation in the UK communications field.

By CCS Insight's estimates, eight in 10 UK households will sign up to a multiplay service bundle by 2019.

Ovum's Hartley agreed, adding: "The UK is moving to a quad-play market and rivals will need to respond."

But he said BT Mobile offerings could be undermined by the fact that existing broadband customers already have BT Sport access, making the inclusion of free BT Sport less valuable.

"Furthermore, the BT Sport content consumed on the mobile network is counted against the user's data allowance," he added.

"Therefore, much is made of BT's Wi-Fi network as an alternative, somewhat undermining the value of the content."

EE, Three, O2, Virgin Mobile and Vodafone have all entered into a voluntary agreement that will see bills capped for mobile phones that the owner has reported stolen.

Bills incurred while a phone is lost will be capped at 100 following the agreement, and will apply to around 27 million monthly subscribers who have reported their device missing within 24 hours.

Ed Vaizey, digital economy minister, said in a statement: "By working with the mobile operators, we have secured an agreement that will provide consumers with real benefits as well as offer peace of mind."

Around 300,000 mobile phones are reported stolen in the UK every year, according to the National Mobile Phone Crime Unit.

"This agreement demonstrates our continued commitment to deliver usage safeguards and advice to our customers... This new cap builds on the safety and security advice we already give to customers and should provide additional peace of mind if their phone goes missing," an O2 spokesperson added.

Details for individual carriers were revealed with a statement issued by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). While Three has already introduced the scheme, EE will follow in "the coming weeks", Virgin Mobile in July and O2 in September. Vodafone will be the last to introduce the cap, with plans to start offering it to customers sometime this summer.

Annie Brooks, director of Virgin Mobile, said: "This cross-industry agreement simplifies things for consumers by making the treatment of fraudulent use of lost or stolen phones consistent. It remains vital that people report their phone is lost or stolen as soon as possible.

The move is part of the new Code of Practice being introduced in an effort to protect consumers from huge bills incurred for reasons such as out of bundles charges, roaming, premium rate services and in-app purchases. Providers must therefore offer more clear and transparent information.

"This announcement is a major new protection for customer and is in line with the industry's longstanding commitment to help our customers protect their mobile and its contents," said Hamish MacLeod, chair of the Mobile Broadband Group.

BT is to acquire rival network operator EE for 12.5 billion, after several weeks of exclusive negotiations between the pair.

The British telco has signed a definitive agreement to acquire EE, which will see it take over control of its 31 million-strong customer base, and its 834,000 fixed broadband customers.

It will also pave the way for BT to establish itself as a major player in the quad-play market, as it will now be in a position to offer customers access to mobile, broadband, TV and landline packages.

This is a position more and more telcos are making moves to get in, as users prefer the convenience of dealing with one provider for these different utilities.

It's also proving a lucrative area for providers to get into, with TalkTalk recently citing its decision to offer quad-play packages as the driving force behind the firm chalking up its strongest ever quarter of growth.

The mooted 12.5 billion would be paid on a debt/cash-free basis as a mixture of cash and shares to EE's owners Deutsche Telekom and Orange.

Deutsche Telekom is set to acquire a 12 per cent share in BT as a result of the deal, and would be granted permission to appoint one member to the BT board of directors.

Orange, meanwhile, would be gifted a four per cent share in BT.

Gavin Patterson, chief executive of BT, said both firms' customers stand to benefit from the deal by gaining twin access to the UK's biggest fibre and 4G networks.

"Consumers and businesses will benefit from new products and services, as well as from increased investment and innovation.

"The deal provides an attractive opportunity for BT to generate considerable value for shareholders, with significant operating and capital investment efficiencies supported by our tried and tested cost transformation activities," she said.

"The enlarged BT will offer significant opportunities for employees as we lead the creation of a world-class digital infrastructure for Britain."

Olaf Swantee, chief executive of EE, said joining forces with BT should ensure the UK remains "at the forefront of the mobile revolution", and bring huge innovation benefits.

"Joining BT represents an exciting next stage for our company, customers, and people. In the last few years alone, we have built the UK's biggest, fastest and best 4G network, significantly advancing the digital communications infrastructure for people and businesses across Britain."

The deal is expected to close before the end of BT's 2015/2016 financial year.

BT to buy EE: The story so far

BT was given several weeks to perform the necessary due diligence before deciding whether or not to embark on a definitive acquisition agreement with EE in mid-December.

As reported by IT Pro at the time, BT was expected to confirm whether or not it will purchase O2 or EE on 15 December, as rumours emerged about its plans to take over one of the network operators for a rumoured 10 billion.

News of a possible deal between between Telefonica and BT, which would see the latter buy back the O2 mobile business from the Spanish firm, was first mooted at the end of November.

In a statement at the time, BT confirmed the two were in communication and said, "all discussions are at a highly preliminary stage and there can be no certainty that any transaction will occur".

"We have received expressions of interest from shareholders in two UK mobile network operators, of which one is O2, about a possible transaction in which BT would acquire their UK mobile business," the statement added.

It later emerged the second network operator referred to in the BT statement was EE, which was formed more than four years ago through the merger of Orange and T-Mobile.

Regulatory approval

However, before the deal can go ahead, it will need to be approved by regulators and BT's shareholders, but this isn't expected to cause too much of a hold-up.

Gartner research director Charlotte Patrick told IT Pro the "EU sound like they are coming around to the idea" of general consolidation in the global telecoms market, which would pave the way nicely for a merger.

She added that any possible deal between BT and EE "would mirror the sort of configuration that you have in other European countries already".

This story was originally published on 25 November, but has since been updated - most recently on 05/02/2015 - to reflect ongoing developments.

Sky has confirmed plans to work with Telefnica UK to provide customers with access to 2G, 3G and 4G services from 2016.

Through the partnership, Sky will benefit from wholesale access to Telefnica UK's mobile, voice and data offerings via the company's network.

News of the deal follows on from reports earlier this month, which suggested Sky might be in the running to snap up Telefnica-owned mobile network O2, which is now in exclusive talks with Three.

However, other reports suggested that Sky and O2 might have been interested in a commercial partnership, similar in nature to the one announced today with Telefnica UK, whereby Sky would white-label the firm's mobile services and offer them to customers.

The move positions Sky as a "quad-play" provider, offering customers access to mobile, TV, landline and broadband services.

This is quickly becoming a popular position for comms providers to put themselves in, as consumer preference for acquiring all their digital services from one provider grows.

Jeremy Darroch, group CEO at Sky, said the partnership with Telefnica UK should pave the way for the firm to build on its grounding in the broadcast and broadband markets.

"We know our 11.5 million customers trust Sky to offer them the best quality and choice and have an appetite to take more from us," he said.

"Through our partnership with Telefnica UK, we can build on our expertise in content, innovation and service to launch a range of exciting new services and exploit the opportunities for growth in the fast-changing mobile sector."

Ronan Dunne, CEO of Telefnica UK, added: "This will widen consumer choice still further and demonstrates the lively competitiveness of the UK market. We're looking forward to working with Sky."

Ewan Taylor-Gibson, telecoms expert at utilities comparison site uSwitch.com, said the deal is proof of how competitive the quad-play space is becoming.

"With Sky piggybacking off O2's network, which also provides services to Tesco Mobile, the tie-up could be bad news for Vodafone, which had been seen as a leading contender for a wholesale partnership with Sky," Taylor-Gibson said.

"Quad-play is proving all the rage amongst telecoms providers, but mobile often seems like the afterthought of these four-way bundles. Many customers are already tied into long contracts so aren't in the market for a new mobile deal."

"Sky hasn't specified if its mobile offering will be for existing customers or whether it will also offer standalone mobile contracts too, however it's likely that exclusive content via its Sky Go app could be offered as a draw," he added.

Three's owner looks set to buy O2 for 10.25bn,now BT has dropped plans to buy the firm in favour of rival network EE for the eye-watering sum of 12.5 billion

As IT Pro readers will undoubtedly know, BT spent a portion of December umming and ahhing about whether to buy EE or O2, as part of its quest to establish itself as a major force in the "quad-play" market. This would position the firm so that it could offer, mobile, TV, landline and broadband services to customers.

Despite emerging as the odds-on favourite to be snapped up by BT, the telco opted to buy EE instead, leaving O2 high and dry.

But not for long, as O2 has been linked to several other players in the mobile market since being jilted by BT last December, with numerous reports suggesting its owner - Telefonica - is keen to dispose of the business soon.

This is because, according to a report in The Financial Times, Telefonica fears being saddled with a pure-play mobile operator while its competitors build out their quad-play propositions.

Below, we run through the roll call of potential suitors for O2, as the race to acquire the UK's second biggest mobile operator really starts to heat up.

Three "in exclusive talks" to buy O2

The owner of Hutchinson Whampoa, the company responsible for running Three in the UK, has emerged as the most likely candidate to acquire O2, after confirming exclusive talks between the pair.

In a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange, the company confirmed that it has entered into "exclusive negotiations" with Telefonica that are expected to last around three weeks.

Reports about Hutchinson's interest in O2 began to circulate earlier this week, following a weekend report in The Sunday Times. This claimed Hong Kong-based typcoonLi Ka-Shing was considering shelling out9bn for O2, in an attempt to strengthen his hold on the UK mobile telco market.

"The transaction remains subject to, inter alia, satisfactory due diligence over O2 UK,agreement on terms and signing of definitive agreements, and the obtaining of all requiredcorporate and regulatory approvals," the statement read.

It also said the fact the talks were taking place does not mean a deal is guaranteed to take place.

"Shareholders and potential investors of the Company should note that such negotiationsmay or may not result in any transaction, and accordingly are advised to exercisecaution when dealing in the shares of the Company," the statement added.

Canning Fok, the managing director of Hutchison Whampoa, was reported to have said the previous week: "In Europe, we are doing telecommunications consolidation. This is a top priority for us."

He explained Three presently is a very small force in the scheme of things and through buying a growing network like O2, the company could have a much stronger hold on the market.

If Ka-Shing does purchase O2, the company will join his wide-ranging portfolio that currently includes the likes of Superdrug, the London electricity network and Northumbrian Water, trading as Essex & Suffolk Water.

Market impact

As the second biggest mobile network in the UK, O2 could certainly boost Three's UK presence, although there are concerns merging the two could raise some questions from the Competition Commission.

Kester Mann, principal analyst of operators at market watcher CCS Insight, said the deal is likely to come under closer scrutiny from regulators than EE and BT's potential tie-up because of the impact it will have on the mobile sector.

"Unlike the proposed acquisition of EE by BT, this deal would reduce the number of mobile operators from four to three. Ofcom has worked hard to maintain the UK as a four-player market and would have significant reservations," he explained.

"However, the European Commission would make the final judgement given the international footprints of both Hutchinson and Telefonica.

"Having agreed a similar deal in Germany last year, it may set a precedent that could see the deal receive the green light, albeit with significant concessions."

Additionally, there would be mast-sharing and spectrum issues to deal with if Three wants to grow its 3G and 4G network coverage, but it could also have some huge ramifications for Vodafone too.

"If approved, the deal would transform the UK mobile market. It would create a new leader with over 30 million customers and a market share of 41 per cent. It would also relegate Vodafone to last place in its home market," Mann explained.

"The agreement is a win-win for both companies which were looking increasingly vulnerable as pure-play mobile operators in a market rapidly transitioning towards multi-play."

Sky to buy O2?

Sky is said to have held talks with Telefonica about the possibility of snapping up O2, a move that could also see it enter the quad-play market, according to reports in the Spanish press.

The talks between Sky and Telefonica may also have centred on the opportunities for commercial partnerships between the broadcaster and O2, theFinancial Timesclaims.

It's thought this would involve Sky offering O2's network services to its customers under its own brand, while the network operator's customers would benefit from access to Sky's television offerings.

The same story also suggests Sky is unlikely to push ahead with purchasing O2 outright because of the outstanding debts it's accrued through its ambitious European expansion strategy.

TalkTalk mulls O2 buy

Spanish media reports have also linked TalkTalk to a possible buyout of O2, which would markedly firm-up its mobile proposition for customers.

The firm already uses Vodafone's network to deliver mobile services to customers, through a long-standing MVNO agreement, so buying O2 would make sense.

News of the merger talks caused the firm's share price to increase 3.1 per cent yesterday, reports The Financial Times.

This story was originally published on 19 January, before being updated (on 23/01/2015) to reflect Sky and TalkTalk's rumoured interest in acquiring O2.

The UK's mobile operators have agreed not to go forward with national roaming plans, investing 5 billion to improve coverage in rural areas across the country currently marred by weak signal.

The introduction of national roaming laws in the UK had been proposed by the government to help eradicate the mobile notspots' that reportedly affect a fifth of the country's population.

EE, O2, Vodafone and Three have all agreed to the plans, which will see them offer better coverage to 90 per cent of the country by 2017. This will effectively halve the number of UK residents who currently experience bad signal in their area.

Culture Secretary Sajid Javid had proposed four solutions to the issue. These included national roaming, in which phones would connect to any available network when out of range of their own, as well as infrastructure sharing, reforming virtual networks and coverage obligation.

Javid said in a statement: "Too many parts of the UK regularly suffer from poor mobile coverage leaving them unable to make calls or send texts.

"Government and businesses have been clear about the importance of mobile connectivity, and improved coverage, so this legally binding agreement will give the UK the world-class mobile phone coverage it needs and deserves."

Ofcom will reportedly monitor progress of the agreement and the communications regulator may take the extra money being invested into account when deciding future licence fees.

The government previously opened the matter up to response from the industry, businesses and the public until 26 November, when a final decision had to be made.

But the UK's biggest providers didn't greet the proposals enthusiastically, citing various issues the move could bring to both their businesses and their customers.

A spokesperson from O2, who claimed that the company is spending 1.5 million per day on improving 2G, 3G, 4G and Wi-Fi connectivity, told IT Pro: "We have made our concerns over the national roaming proposals very clear and have advised the government on a range of alternative solutions to achieve the same ambition, some of which we have already embarked upon."

"National roaming is a regulatory solution that will worsen the experience people have when using their phones and undermine future investment in mobile infrastructure in the UK," they added.

A report from OpenSignal into 3G and 4G connectivity around the UK found that, though London was best for both, 4G speeds had almost halved since more users signed up for the high-speed service from their network. Three was found to have the slowest 4G coverage, while EE had the best.

Dubbing national roaming a "flawed concept" that will "deteriorate network reliability for tens of millions across the UK," a spokesperson for EE told IT Pro: "We're keenly aware there are some parts of the UK where customers still can't get adequate signal levels and, while we're already working on some significant nationwide coverage improvement plans, we also need government to work more closely with the industry to remove the barriers to efficiently building more signal in more places."

Mobile operators and the government first entered talks on how to resolve the problem of notspots in the country's rural areas in June, though no formal agreement has been reached.

Vodafone is reported to have been opposed to the national roaming plans for some time.

"As Vodafone and the other UK mobile operators have told the government directly on a number of occasions, national roaming will not provide the people of the UK with better quality voice and mobile internet coverage," the company said in a statement.

"In fact, it would make coverage and quality significantly worse from the customers' perspective, with a much higher risk of dropped calls, lower battery life and negative impact on services such as voicemail."

There is concern among operators that a move towards national roaming could discourage general infrastructure improvements and drive up costs for users.

Ernest Doku, telecoms expert at uSwitch, said of the proposal: "It's encouraging that mobile blackspots are firmly on the political agenda. In this day and age, mobile signal or the lack of it really shouldn't be an issue, whether you live in the middle of the city or the middle of nowhere.

"Allowing networks to ride on the coat tails of others would remove any incentive for underperforming networks to invest in improving their existing infrastructure... Bills could rise yet again if some mobile networks try to recoup the losses through their customers."

Meanwhile, when asked for a statement regarding the national roaming plans, a spokesperson for Three simply said, "We're reviewing the consultation document."

Three has announced 3.1 million of its customers are using 4G, despite the service only launching ten months ago, making it the last UK network to roll out the super-fast service.

Three's 4G service is now available in almost half of the UK (48 per cent), but still lags behind EE's 70 per cent and O2 and Vodafone with 51 per cent coverage.

Three's CEO Dave Dyson said: "The rollout of new capacity is progressing well and, most importantly for me, customer satisfaction is higher than ever. With an advanced 3G network already in place all our customers are able to benefit from a reliable and high performing network.

"The addition of low frequency spectrum is just one part of our plans to expand Three's coverage and bring our network to more people in more places in 2015."

Three aims to cover 98 per cent of the UK with 4G by the end of 2015 by which time its 800MHz spectrum will be up and running around new cell sites to cover more of Britain.

Other strategies include buying a provider that has a stronger 4G network than itself and top of that list is O2. However, O2's chief executive, Ronan Dunne, said earlier in the week it's unlikely Three will acquire the network, with BT looking to be the forerunner.

Dunne said: "At the back end of last year some analysts told me that their main prediction for this year was that Three will buy O2. All I would say is I slept very soundly that night."

Three's parent company Hutchison Whampoa is more likely to buy market leader EE as the two companies already have a tie up, sharing 4G services.

The chief executive of O2, Ronan Dunne said it's unlikely that Hutchison Whampoa, parent company of Three, will buy the network.

O2 and EE have been the subject of acquisition talk with Hutchison and BT are emerging as the front runners.

However, Dunne put stops to rumours it would be bought by Hutchison, saying at a media dinner: "Of all the scenarios in the market I think it's the least likely.

"At the back end of last year some analysts told me that their main prediction for this year was that Three will buy O2. All I would say is I slept very soundly that night."

Dunne went on to say that only having three or four mobile networks operating in the UK is unlikely and it's preferred by mobile networks to have four so competition isn't as tight.

In other countries, such as Germany and Ireland, there are fewer mobile networks and special conditions apply to ensure no single network is dominating unfairly.

O2's parent company, Telefonica has been on the lookout to sell a number of its assets, including its UK operation, in a bid to cut its debt and improve its credit rating.

Last week, BT confirmed it was in talks with O2 to take the network over, saying in a statement: "We have received expressions of interest from shareholders in two UK mobile network operators, of which one is O2, about a possible transaction in which BT would acquire their UK mobile business," the statement added.

The other party is thought to be EE, although as Hutchison Whampoa already uses the leading 4G network for its 3G services, it's more likely the company will become part of Three in the UK.

TalkTalk has signed a deal with O2 that will see its MVNO use the operator's network in future instead of Vodafone's.

The move comes as TalkTalk prepares to embark on a 4G network rollout for its customers.

The firm said O2's network represented a "major step forward in our long term strategy to build a small cell and Fibre-To-The-Premise network".

The multi-year deal will allow TalkTalk to use O2's 2G, 3G and 4G services across the UK.

Furthermore, the company said the agreement means it could offer its four million customers a high-quality mobile service and enable it to build up its quad-play business over the medium term. Currently, TalkTalk has 350,000 customers using its MVNO or 9.5 per cent of its total base.

"We are pleased to be able to announce our commercial MVNO agreement with TalkTalk, which builds on our heritage of being the trusted provider for many notable MVNO, public and private sector organisations in the UK," said O2 chief executive Ronan Dunne.

"This recognition, as a leading source of essential connectivity, comes as a result of our continued and significant investment in our nationwide network. We welcome the start of what we hope will be a successful and prosperous relationship for both parties."

The move comes as rival firms bolster their quad-play efforts. Virgin Media is already well established in the field with mobile services offered through EE's network. BT and Sky are also separately thought to be in the advanced stages of rolling out mobile networks as part of a quad play deal.

Dido Harding, chief executive of TalkTalk said the deal was a "significant development for TalkTalk, building on our success in mobile to date".

"We are ideally placed to benefit from the market shift to quad-play, with a sizeable and growing number of customers already choosing to take mobile from us. We see real opportunities in both the near term and further out, to work with Telefnica UK to further accelerate our quad-play growth," she added.

4G speeds beat 3G speeds in the UK by more than double, an Ofcom report has found, despite previous reports indicating that performance of the high-speed data service had fallen.

The study, which looked at results from over 200,000 smartphone tests in five UK cities conducted between March and June, revealed an average 4G speed of 15.1Mbps compared to the average 3G speed of 6.1Mbps.

They said: "Our results show that, on average, UK 4G networks perform much better than 3G networks. These differences are consistent across all mobile operators, and we would expect consumers to notice material differences in the performance of mobile broadband when using any 4G network compared to a 3G network."

A recent report from OpenSignal and Which? claimed that 4G speeds in the UK had actually almost halved in the last year, owing to the increasing demand on networks from new users. The study recorded average download speeds of 19Mbps in August 2014, compared to 10.16 Mbps recorded in September 2013.

Both studies found disparity between the services offered by the various UK networks, with EE offering the best 4G speeds at 18.4Mbps, according to Ofcom. O2 followed with 15.6Mbps, and Vodafone averaged at 14.3Mbps. Three came last with average speeds of just 10.7Mbps.

"Our intention in this research was to help consumers understand the differences in performance between 4G and 3G mobile services," Ofcom said. "This kind of research is designed to support consumers in choosing a mobile service that best suits their needs."

CEO of O2 and Telefonica in the UK, Ronan Dunne, has explained how the next wave of digital will be controlled by mobile and cloud technologies converging, but it's our children who will need to drive this change forward.

Speaking at Microsoft's Future Decoded conference earlier today, he said the UK and European economy's future growth will be driven by a digital revolution.

"We may in fact look back in time when we went from BC before connectivity' to AD after digital' and that is being driven by innovation and social media."

He described connectivity as the oxygen of modern life for consumers, while telecommunications are a major part of the country's infrastructure in the economy.

"More people on the planet have access to a mobile phone than clean drinking water or a toothbrush," he explained, based on information taken from an Ofcom report.

"[Technology represents] the rise of individualism and growth of consumer power and access and accountability. Mobile is an accelerator of these for the future of our economy. This is the way businesses must change."

In the private sector, operational efficiency has increased 500 per cent since the ICT revolution started, Dunne said and it's expected to continue to be a growth driver with increases of 2.5 per cent a year.

Medium-sized businesses have the greatest reliance on mobile technologies and therefore they get the most productivity from it.

For companies to become more welcoming, though, infrastructure changes must be made and that is why O2 and other UK networks are investing 5bn in 4G.

"It isn't enough to expect the companies to rollout infrastructure for us to become a leader in the digital world. We need leadership, creativity and education to give us the innovation and provide us with the opportunities in a digital world."

He explained how our children may have the skills to use technology already, but we are not giving them the chance to use them creatively.

"Digital literacy is high but ambitions in education and parents is analogue. Parents would prefer their children to pursue traditional routes rather than modern."

In the future, millennials will make up 75 per cent of the workforce, but to make sure they're prepared, our generation needs to lobby for better education and foster entrepreneurism because data will fuel our economy, becoming the currency of the future, he added.

Average 4G speedshave almost halved over the last year, as more and more people sign up for the high-speed data service.

End users have rushed to sign up to 4G deals with their operators after being promised up to 10 times faster speeds, but the number of people now using the service has meant that speeds have significantly decreased.

According to a study by OpenSignal in association with Which?, whereby 39,294 phone users on EE, O2, Three and Vodafone were surveyed, the average download speed for 4G in August 2014 was 10.16 Mbps, which compares to 19 Mbps recorded in September of the previous year.

This suggests the gap between 4G and 3G speeds have started to close, despite customers paying premium prices for faster connections and widespread coverage.

Richard Lloyd, executive director of Which?, said: "We've looked at consumers' real-life experiences and found big differences in service between mobile phone providers, depending on where you live or work. We're calling providers to publish the reliability and speeds their networks actually achieve so people can make an informed choice before signing on the dotted line.

"We also support the Government's action on mobile roaming to rid the country of unnecessary notspots', so that a lost mobile phone signal becomes a thing of the past," he added.

Improvements to and theexpansion of 4G across the country hasn't been able to keep up with increasing demand, which has meant 4G hasn't maintained the high speeds original promised to customers.

There is also a disparity between 4G in different parts of the country, with London the strongest and Wales the weakest in terms of both 3G and 4G coverage. Vodafone customers have the best 4G speeds, while those on Three have the worst. Three also came last for coverage, with EE offering the most 4G across the UK.

Samuel Johnston, head of marketing at OpenSignal, said: "We hope this report can draw better attention to the current state of mobile network coverage in the UK, and help consumers better understand how the networks differ in terms of speed and real-world coverage."

Inside the enterprise: Businesses have long been frustrated by the sometimes patchy coverage of mobile phone networks.

For companies providing national services, being able to communicate wherever they are is vital. Over the last few years, workers operating away from the office have come to rely heavily on cellular technologies.

But gaps in mobile coverage or "notspots" persist, and not just in rural areas. One solution being put forward by the government is to allow domestic roaming between networks. If a phone can't find a signal on its own network, it will roam on to another. A further suggested solution is to encourage more sharing of transmitter sites, by the mobile companies.

National roaming is a facility that is already open to tourists and visitors to the UK, as Culture Secretary Sajid Javid told BBC Radio 5 Live this week. And it does seem strange that visitors, potentially, have access to a better signal than UK-based businesses or consumers.

It is also used in other markets, notably the US, where cellphone users can roam on to the country's smaller domestic networks. But the coverage map, and charging model, for the US cellphone networks is different to that of the European ones.

Here, though, the mobile networks are less than keen on national roaming, suggesting it will not solve the issue of coverage blackspots. It could, the operators say, even worsen the user experience, giving less reliable signals and reduce phones' battery life. The networks would prefer other solutions, such as making it easier to put up new masts.

Businesses are likely to grasp at any changes that will improve coverage. "On the face of it, it seems like a good idea, after all, why should an SMB care who connects its devices to the network?", says Rob Bamforth, an analyst at market watcher Quocirca.

In practice national roaming has some real limitations. As proposed, roaming will not cover data, just 2G voice calls. Whilst improving voice coverage will be welcomed, businesses increasingly depend on data services.

National roaming, according to Matthew Howett, practice leader for regulation at IT analyst house Ovum, could even make data services less reliable, or lock users out of them altogether. "What needs to happen is for the mobile operators to work with government to come up with an agreeable fix that addresses not only poor voice coverage, but also data too," he says.

Forcing networks to allow 2G voice roaming is at best a temporary solution, experts suggest. Instead, it might make more sense for the networks to focus on boosting their infrastructure, or adding more coverage in the 800MHz spectrum, which works well in more rural areas.

Or, as Quocirca's Bamforth suggests, operators, and business users, should be thinking more of "wireless extending the fixed network, rather than replacing it". Small cells and femto cells, some operated by networks, some by businesses and communities, could be part of the answer.

"A lot of the focus of mobile operators has been fixed mobile substitution to get you off a landline onto an independent mobile via its own network," he says.

Integrating fixed and mobile networks could well be the answer to coverage issues, and it could improve the business case of rural broadband connections too.

Stephen Pritchard is a contributing editor at IT Pro.

Mobile networks in the UK will be faced with new national roaming laws this week, as plans to allow end users to switch between networks in rural areas or notspots' will be announced.

The new legislation will be outlined by Culture Secretary Sajid Javid, reports The Sunday Times, with EE, O2, Three and Vodafone to be affected by the move. After the law is pushed through, the operators will have to share network resources in rural areas where coverage is notoriously hit and miss.

Customers will then automatically be able to connect to whichever network signal is the strongest where they are, effectively making notspots a thing of the past.

Networks, however, have opposed plans, citing that such a move would negatively impact their ability to improve infrastructure in rural areas as well as force them to increase prices when profits start to suffer.

Operators were given a chance to find an alternative solution to the UK's coverage problem, but their failure to do so has meant that Javid's plans may indeed come into effect.

The paper quotes an unknown source as saying: "We're keen on a national roaming plan. We've talked to the mobile phone networks and told them to come up with a plan. The secretary of state is pretty frustrated that they have failed to do so.

"We've given them numerous opportunities to find a solution. The lack of movement from the mobile phone operators means we now need a legislative option to deal with the issue of partial notspots."

IT Pro first reported on the story in June, when UK mobile operators and the government first entered talks on how to improve coverage across the nation. The initiative was outright rejected in September due to logistical reasons.

At the time a spokesperson for the Department of Culture, Media and Sport said: "The government has made clear it wants to ensure the UK has world-class mobile phone coverage as part of our investment in infrastructure for the long-term economic plan... of course we want to look at what more can be done in areas with poor coverage."

O2, EE and Vodafone have teamed up with mobile payments firm Boku to enable customers to pay for goods using their phones.

Boku's e-Money service could eventually extend to other operators. The service will allow customers to make purchases of any type of product or services. Users only need to enter their mobile number at a merchant's storefront to pay for physical goods.

Until now, the European Union's (EU's) Payment Services Directive (PSD) restricted what goods, including ringtones, music downloads and ebooks, could be bought and then billed to a mobile phone user's bill.

According to Boku chief executive Jon Prideaux, the framework was holding back the market for mobile operators and merchants.

"Up to now buying stuff and charging it to your phone bill has been restricted, limited to digital goods and operating in a regulatory framework designed years ago to handle ringtone downloads," he said.

"We are now entering a new era for carrier billing. Boku has re-invented carrier billing as a mainstream payment method.

"As an authorised e-money issuer, regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, Boku enables consumers to make purchases quickly and simply," he added.

"Merchants who allow their customers to charge things to their phone bill sell more. Mobile Network Operators can offer an improved experience to their subscribers, with Boku bearing responsibility for the entire compliance envelope."

Boku currently works with firms such as Facebook, EA and Spotify and partners selling magazines and bus tickets have already signed up to use the Boku e-Money service.

Dixons Carphone has thrown a lifeline to staff working at the beleaguered high street retailer Phones 4u by confirming that it hopes to offer jobs to the firm's concession workers within its Currys and PC World stores.

Phones 4u was plunged into administration yesterday in the wake of the news that EE would not be renewing its contract with the retailer when it expires on 30 September 2015. This would mean it could no longer sell devices or tariffs for the network operator beyond this date.

The news follows the announcement earlier this month by Vodafone about its plans to withdraw support for Phones 4u. The company accounted for 27 per cent of all sales at the retailer.

This latest development has cast doubt on the future of the company's 550 standalone stores and the 5,596 people currently employed by the business.

Stefano Quadrio Curzio, representative of BC Partners who bought the high street retailer three years ago, said: "EE's decision on Friday is surprising in the context of a contract that has more than a year to run and leaves the Board with no alternative but to seek the Administrator's protection in the interests of all its stakeholders."

Phones 4u stores were closed yesterday and its website taken offline as company managers discuss the knock-on effects with staff. Administrators PwC have been enlisted and will now start examining whether stakeholders can be protected should the company close.

David Kassler, chief executive of Phones 4u, said in a statement releaed on Sunday night: "Today is a very sad day for our customers and our staff. If the mobile network operators decline to supply us, we do not have a business. A good company making profits of over 100 million, employing thousands of decent people has been forced into administration."

He went on to say that Phones 4u closing its doors will lead to less competition, less choice and higher prices for mobile customers in the UK.

Curzio continued: "Vodafone has acted in exactly the opposite way to what they had consistently indicated to the management of Phones 4u over more than six months. Their behaviour appears to have been designed to inflict the maximum damage to their partner of 15 years, giving Phones 4u no time to develop commercial alternatives.

He said the company's main concern is to ensure the staff at Phones 4u are OK and that is why it has decided to close down stores while it consults with workers. It will then await the decision of PwC before re-opening doors.

Meanwhile, Dixons Carphone, which owns Phones 4u rival Carphone Warehouse, has pledged to help employees affected by the administration, who currently work for concession stands within PC World and Currys stores, to secure long-term employment.

Since Dixons acquired Carphone Warehouse last year, Phones 4u has been preparing to pull out of these outlets on competitive grounds.

However, in a series of tweets yesterday, the company said it was doing all it can to help.

This story was originally published yesterday, before being updated on 16/09/2014 to reflect Dixons Carphone news.

O2 has teamed up with Surrey-based Tony Fresko to launch the UK's first 4G fleet of smart, app-trackable ice-cream vans.

The downloadable app, dubbed Ice Cream Van Tracker, lets customers trace the vans on their smartphones using real-time GPS. If the initial, one-month trial proves successful, the app's availability will be expanded to cover fleets across the country.

"The ice cream van tracker is great for customers as they can now come to me rather than the other way around," said Andy Newland, managing director of Tony Fresko.

In addition to the app, O2 has installed all-new backing technology for the business including company finance and day-to-day operating, Newland added.

"O2 contacted me directly about upgrading our system. I showed them that the business we were operating was a completely paper-based system so they offered the chance to modernise and basically streamline the business," he said.

Each of the fleet's 19 vans have been installed with 4G enabled smartphones, tablets and cloud-based Microsoft Office 365 software.

The technology makeover enables drivers to digitally map routes, manage costs in the cloud and allows the company to plan weddings, ftes and other events outside the office.

This launch is part of an O2 initiative to prove how small businesses can benefit from a technology upgrade.

Paul Lawton, the general manager of SMB at O2 Business, said: "It's great to be able to give such an iconic British business like Tony Fresko a technology makeover so they can work smarter, faster and more efficiently."

"We're encouraging small businesses across the UK fulfil their potential by embracing the latest technology."

According to O2 Business, just over half (51 per cent) of small businesses have not upgraded their existing systems to take advantage of the benefits modern technologies can offer.

EE has come out on top of the 2014 Rootmetrics performance that measures mobile internet, call, and text performance across the main networks.

The mobile analytics company drove more than 25,000 miles across the UK testing the metrics of 920,000 test samples - accounting for one sample for every 100 mobile phone contracts in the country. It also tested more than 1,200 indoor locations, which is 20 per cent more than it has trialled in previous studies.

Scores in England for all tests across all networks were higher than those in Northern Ireland, Wales, and Scotland, showing there's some work to be done by all operators in rural areas.

Three matched EE's performance in both Northern Ireland and Scotland, while it also ranked first in network reliability in both Northern Ireland and Scotland. In Wales, EE and Three shared the top rank for network reliability, meaning you're less likely to lose signal if you're on one of those two networks in the countries.

Vodafone came last in all but one of Rootmetrics' tests, except call quality where Three took bottom place.

Rootmetrics also tested the networks in the biggest 16 metro areas in the UK, where Three and EE were top performers. However, both O2 and Vodafone also showed strong results in the cities, further demonstrating rural mobile networks is where the most mobile infrastructure improvements are needed.

RootMetrics CEO and President Bill Moore said: "Our mobile phones have become an essential part of our everyday lives, but determining which network performs best seems to have become more difficult.

"We conducted such a large-scale study on mobile network performance to provide depth and transparency around how the networks truly perform. We firmly believe consumers deserve clear, unbiased, and accurate information in order to make the most informed decisions to improve their everyday mobile experience."

National Parks England and the Mobile Operators Association have inked a deal that means people living in or visiting a National Park will get better mobile signal.

The Mobile Operators Association, which represents EE, O2, Three and Vodafone has pledged to improve the signal for communities in 10 National Parks of England without adversely affecting the environment.

To help meet these requirements, operators will be encouraged to share masts, preventing the need to erect new unsightly structures and ensuring the countryside remains as untouched as possible.

Where it is necessary to build new masts, the Mobile Operators Association will work with National Parks England to come up with less intrusive designs for the structures, helping them blend in with the landscape.

The initiative, announced by the Department for Culture, Media & Sport, the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs and the Department for Communities and Local Government will cover Broads Authority, Dartmoor, Exmoor, Lake District, New Forest, North York Moors, Northumberland, Peak District, South Downs and Yorkshire Dales National Park Authorities.

Communications Minister Ed Vaizey said: "Our National Parks are areas of incredible beauty but they are also places where people live and work.

"They need access to the modern communications that many of us have taken for granted for years. The new agreement could make a real difference to those who live, work or visit our glorious National Parks," he continued.

Environment Minister Lord de Mauley concluded that the need for better mobile signal in these areas is essential for business, claiming it was worth more than 4 billion to the UK economy.

"This spirit of cooperation is exactly what is needed to bring modern technology to remote areas so we can close the digital divide and help grow our rural economy," he said.

London Technology Week is taking place this week across in the capital. With over 200 events planned between 16 and 20 June expected to be attended by more than 30,000 entrepreneurs, investors and business leaders. The week will feature exhibitions, conferences, lectures, workshops and more.

Mayor of London Boris Johnson said: "London's first ever Technology Week will showcase London's role as the digital capital of Europe, with a range of innovative businesses now calling the city their home, attracting both significant investment and some of the best and brightest talent on the planet."

The events cover a range of subjects related to the technology sector, including Will Artificial Intelligence Put My Job at Risk' on 18 June, a series of conferences, exhibitions and networking events focusing on the Internet of Things from 17-19 June at the Grange Tower Bridge and the Cloud World Forum & Big Data World Congress exhibition on 17 and 18 June at Olympia London.

Gordon Innes, CEO of London & Partners, official promoters for London Technology Week, said: "This is just another milestone for London's tech business sector and cements London's status as a global hub for the tech industry. Our capital continues to play home to some of the most inspiring businesses and the best talent in the world.

"Like London Fashion Week is for the Fashion Industry, we hope this brand new event will be a global magnet for the world's tech sector."

The capital has been urged to support and nurture growth in the digital technology sector over the next decade, with it predicted to grow by 5.1 per cent a year, generating 46,000 new jobs by 2024, Reuters reports ahead of London Technology Week.

The city already employs more people in the tech sector than either New York City or San Francisco's Silicon Valley, it is claimed.

Ronan Dunne, CEO of O2, said: "It's crucial we use this inaugural celebration of London as a technology capital to attract more young people to the world of tech. With the digital economy now vital to the UK's long-term success, offering opportunities to those who have digital skills in abundance is of paramount importance.

"If the UK is to plug its growing digital sales gap, more businesses must play their part and this week is a great time to start."

Over the course of the next few days we will be bringing you all of the news from London Technology Week, so check for regular updates over the page.

Speaking on the campaign, Johnson added: "London is already the digital capital of Europe. But that is just the beginning. We want London to be the digital capital of the world.

"To do that we need to ensure that our young people have the skills that our digital firms need and that youngsters have access to all the opportunities our amazing digital economy has to offer," he concluded.

The Cloud World Forum, the industry's most comprehensive cloud event, is taking place at Olympia London and features input from companies such as Microsoft, HP, Google and more on Tuesdays 17 June and Wednesday 18 June, and forms part of the London Technology Week event listings.

Featuring over 300 speakers for brainstorming sessions, keynotes and live demos, this year's event has focused on changes for cloud computing in business and IT.

London School of Economics professor Will Venters commented: "What some businesses want from cloud and what cloud is truly offering are different things."

He warned of comparing it to current IT in light of history demonstrating that new technologies such as the cloud can often be years ahead of the curve.

IBM's CTO in Europe, John McLean, told journalists at the event of the "new breed" of business emerging that's set to take full advantage of cloud computing. He pointed specifically to the ability to automate complex processes and interact between businesses. He said:

"We are still at the beginning of a journey. Cloud is changing the way businesses interact with their users and business partners like never before."

The concept of office-bound work was also called into question, with the increasing popularity of BYOD and mobility rendering the idea of a fixed workplace obsolete. Speaking on the topic at the Cloud World Forum, Anand Krishnan, general manager of Microsoft UK's developer platform, said:

"The workplace used to be the place where you would have access to tools far more advanced than you would at home. Technology has become a lot cheaper and the form factor has changed. There is a logical desire to bring devices into the workplace."

EE customers were left fuming last night after a network outage left many unable to send messages and make calls.

According to a report on downtime tracker downdetector.co.uk, the problems began after 6pm last night and persisted until the early hours of this morning. Although, at the time of writing, some users were still reporting issues on social networking site Twitter.

To help rectify this, EE has been urging users still experiencing problems to restart their handsets.

In terms of how widespread last night's outage was, downdetector.co.uk claimed the majority of outage reports appear to have originated within the M25, with users in Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Nottingham, Sheffield, Leicester, Liverpool and Edinburgh also reporting problems.

In a statement to IT Pro, an EE spokesperson said the issue has now been resolved, but stopped short of revealing exactly what caused it.

"Last night's technical issue that caused a small proportion of our customers to experience problems with their signal has been resolved and all customers are now receiving a normal service," they said.

"We apologies for the inconvenience caused to those customers affected."

Even so the downtime has prompted calls from customers for compensation on EE's support forum, while others also took issue with the time it took the operator to update them about the issue.

"Poor customer service when I have to trawl round websites to find out about the problems. Then, as I read further, it appears that this is an ongoing problem," one poster wrote.

"This isn't what I signed up to when I moved across to EE. Your [EE] service needs to improve."

Networking outages are nothing new for mobile operators, as EE rivals O2 and Vodafone have all been hit with similar problems in the past.

The National Audit Office (NAO) has concluded the amount raised by last year's 4G spectrum auction was acceptable, but stopped short of declaring the process economically efficient.

The Government spending watchdog launched a probe into the Ofcom auction in April 2013, which saw O2, Vodafone, EE, Three and BT stump up hundreds of millions of pounds to secure 4G spectrum in either the 800 MHz and 2.6 GHz bands.

The auction raised 2.34 billion. This was lower than the 3.5 billion the Office for Budget Responsibility predicted it would raise.

As a result, industry watchers were quick to condemn Ofcom's handling of the auction, despite the mobile regulator declaring at the time that the primary aim of the initiative was not to raise money.

The NAO published its report into the process yesterday, and said the amount raised was acceptable and in keeping with what other European countries achieved at auction.

It also reiterated Ofcom's earlier point that the auction's proceeds were not expected to hit a particular level.

"We compared the proceeds achieved with those obtained in other European auctions. After adjusting for population sizes, proceeds were within the range achieved in other European auctions," the report states.

However, the report does acknowledge that 159 million more could have been raised if the spectrum purchased by Three had been sold for more than its reserve price.

The report's aim was to clarify whether the outcome of the 4G spectrum auction will encourage competition between mobile providers, and investigate if the overall process had been economically efficient.

The latter point is something the NAO admits it is unable to clarify at present, because it's too early to assess whether the providers who were allocated spectrum via the auction have made good use of it.

"Whether or not the auction succeeded in allocating spectrum to those who can make best use of its will only start to become apparent as the spectrum is brought into use by the winning bidders," the report reads.

"As one of the conditions of the licenses awarded in the auction, Ofcom can monitor operators' use of the spectrum and operators themselves can now buy and sell spectrum to match their business requirements."

The UK's economic and business growth is being held back by a continued failure to embrace and adopt productivity-boosting technologies.

So claims a joint report published by the Centre for Economic and Business Research (Cebr) and O2, which has put a figure on such luddite behaviour of 30 billion per year.

Average worker output per hour is down by five per cent when comparing statistics from the fourth quarter of 2013 and those pre-2007. This is because not all staff - in fact, 80 per cent don't - have the right levels of access to the right systems and tools they need, according to the report.

If technologies to facilitate remote working were more widely adopted, and earlier, the average worker would save 127 hours per year.

The report goes on to highlight other productivity benefits and suggests employees would be able to make better use of nine per cent of their working time if they were better connected through technology.

Larger firms need to get into the same, agile mindset as start-ups when it comes to the way they work and the technologies used to support that, according to Ben Dowd, O2's business director. However, some of the UK's largest organisations remain risk averse when it comes to early adoption of new technologies.

Dowd added the billion pounds of lost opportunities as a result of not thinking in this way should serve as a "wake up call" to UK employers.

"Too many pay lip service to technology. But the reality is that our businesses and public sector organisations are yet to get the best that technology has to bring," he said.

"Every employer should try to understand their own connectivity deficit. Even small improvements will help businesses grow and in turn provide more jobs and increased wages, as well as improve the lives for their hard-working employees."

The 30 billion figure can be broken down as follows:

• Enhanced external meeting efficiency - 9.3 billion
• Enhanced general working practices and on-the-spot data entry - 5.9 billion
• Working from home - 4.1 billion
• Remote working - 1.9 billion
• Better in-the-field access to apps and systems - 8.8 billion

Furthermore, by being better connected, organisations can increase customer satisfaction levels and boost sales by around 43 per cent, the report suggests.

The findings have been backed by Ed Vaizey, the UK's Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries, who reiterated what the Government is doing to boost superfast broadband coverage between now and 2017.

"This investment in connectivity across the country is providing opportunities for a more flexible and efficient business environment which this report highlights," he said.

"A better connected Britain is essential for driving growth and boosting local economies, ultimately helping us to win in the global race."