Upgrade | Common News Update

May182023 by adminNo Comments

Sewage spills: Water bills set to rise to pay for £10bn upgrade

Science

FayBy Esme StallardClimate and Science Reporter, BBC NewsBills could rise after water suppliers in England said they were ready to spend £10bn on tackling sewage spills. The privately owned companies have apologised for the amount of contaminated water being discharged into rivers and seas, amid mounting public anger over the practice.Some campaigners have cautiously welcomed the move, but others say firms are shifting the cost on to billpayers.The industry paid out £1.4bn to shareholders in 2022.Musician and environmental campaigner Feargal Sharkey called it a "half apology" that was another attempt to extract more money from customers."What I am actually hearing is no apology for the fact we have paid them for a service we haven't got, they are now suggesting we pay them a second time fo...

Oct192020 by adminNo Comments

Wake Island Airfield undergoes $87M upgrade

Business

Oct. 19 (UPI) -- The Wake Island Airfield, regarded as among the most isolated installations in the U.S. military, is undergoing an $ 87 million upgrade, the Air Force said. The infrastructure modernizations include improvements to the deteriorating runway, new lighting, and grounding and pavement markings to support mission readiness and global air mobility, the Air Force Civil Engineering Center at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Texas, announced. Advertisement California-based contractor AECOM won the contract for the improvements in 2019, and is expected to complete the project in early 2021. "The remote location of the Wake atoll required extensive logistics planning to ship construction equipment, material, parts and supplies which we successfully accomplished in November 2019," Ca...

Aug252020 by adminNo Comments

Vistara launches scheme allowing passengers to upgrade seats through bidding system

Finance

New Delhi: Vistara said on Tuesday that it had collaborated with a Canada-based firm to launch a new scheme that allows passengers to put in bids to upgrade their seats to superior classes in flights. The new scheme is a way "to offset revenue losses experienced in 2020" and "leverage the higher capacity in superior cabins", the airline said in a statement. Once a passenger has purchased an economy or a premium economy class ticket, all he or she has to do is make an offer for a seat in the higher cabin class seven days prior to the flight's departure, Vistara told its passengers through an email on Monday. "If your offer is accepted, you will be informed before your departure," it stated. "With support from Plusgrade, more passengers will have access to the personal space, comfort, pri...

Aug82020 by adminNo Comments

Gigabit broadband: Rural households urged to claim upgrade cash

Technology

The government is urging struggling rural broadband customers to apply for cash it has set aside to pay for ultra high-speed connections.Digital Minister Matt Warman said £70m is "still there for the taking".The gigabit voucher scheme is part of the government's election pledge to bring broadband speeds of up to 1,000Mbps to the whole country by 2025.It says nearly half a million homes have been connected with the help of government subsidies.The average UK broadband speed is around 64Mbps (megabits per second), according to the latest Ofcom figures.Mr Warman said the 2025 target was ambitious and he could commit only to "getting as close as we can"."We're talking about a target that's five years away. We are absolutely confident...

Mar302020 by adminNo Comments

State Dept. approves $194M upgrade deal for South Korea’s F-16s

Business

March 30 (UPI) -- The State Department approved a sale of upgrades to South Korea's F-16 fighter planes, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said on Monday. The $ 194 million sale, expected to be approved by Congress, calls for South Korea to obtain Mode 5 Identification Friend or Foe equipment, known as IFF, and Link 16 Technical Datalink equipment for its F-16 Block 32 fleet. IFF, in use since the 1940s and improved regularly, identifies and tracks military aircraft, and Mode 5 is the most recent implementation of the system. It uses waveform modulation, coding, and cryptographic techniques to quickly determine the identity and heading of an aircraft. Link 16 is a military data link network allowing military ships and aircraft to share tactical picture of a situation in real time, ...