TalkTalk has agreed to a £1.1bn takeover from Toscafund, its second-largest existing shareholder after company founder Sir Charles Dunstone and private equity fund Penta Capital.

The terms of the deal are unchanged from the original bid , valuing each share at 97p. This represents a 16.4 per cent premium on the pre-offer closing price of 83.3p in October, but still a slight discount on the 52-week high of 124.84p.

Shareholders unwilling to take the cash buyout will be able to exchange their stake for shares in the acquired company, which will not be listed on any exchanges.

Philip Carse, chief

Over the weekend, Republican and Democrat lawmakers in the US reached consensus on a new $900bn coronavirus stimulus bill.

In addition to $600 direct payments to individuals, support for small businesses, and enhanced unemployment insurance, the package includes $1.9bn earmarked to support rural carriers in removing equipment made by ZTE and Huawei.

This funding is the latest in a series of measures designed to wean rural carriers off so-called "high-risk" kit. In November 2019, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) formally prohibited carriers from using federal subsidies to acquire new gear from ZTE and Huawei. This was codified in law in

Australia has declared its national broadband network (NBN) is “built and fully operational”, ending a saga that stretches back to the mid-2000s.

Minister for communications, cyber safety and the arts Paul Fletcher declared the build complete in a Wednesday statement that admitted 35,000 premises remain unable to connect to the network. But seeing as that number was over 100,000 in August 2020 and over 11.86 million premises have been wired, he’s happy to say the job’s been done.

However Australian outlet itnews points out that over 230,000 premises can't connect at 25Mbps, the speed deemed to represent "broadband" in Australia.

The UK's cross-party Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee has warned that the government risks missing its target to deliver gigabit-capable broadband to 85 per cent of the country by 2025, citing "considerable challenges" to the infrastructure rollout.

The news comes after government had already slashed previous targets for total nationwide gigabit coverage by 2025 to 85 per cent in November. It also hacked away at the level of state subsidy available for wiring up rural areas that would otherwise be written off by commercial providers, which decreased from £5n to £1.2bn in the Autumn Spending review.

The opinion that

What’s the point of smart home automation? To make every day tasks easier, of course! According to [Tomasz Cybulski], that wasn’t the case when he installed IKEA smart lights in his closet. It’s handy to have them in a common switch, in this case a remote control, but having to …read more