• UK government cracks down on people who annoy others with phone music
• Fines of up to £100 for those people
• It's cheaper to just buy these headphones

People who play music, TikTok videos or out-loud video calls on public transport probably aren't self-aware enough to know how annoying it is, but apparently the UK government does, because it's finally cracking down on so-called "headphone dodgers".

From next Monday, transport authorities will be allowed to fine rule-breakers by up to £100 if they're causing a nuisance. Prime Minister Andy Burnham is fronting the campaign, after previous governments toyed with the idea.

It's a good idea, but the success is dependent on enforcement, as transport safety officers and not drivers are expected to hand out the fines. Given how minimally-staffed most public transport services are, some (me) are dubious that the rules will make a difference.

However if you've been a 'headphone dodger' and you want to turn a new leaf (good on you), it'd make sense to buy a pair of headphones that cost much less than the £100 penalty fare.

And naturally, we've tested a few that we can recommend…

Sennheiser CX 80U

Starting with something nice and cheap, we've got some wired earbuds, which you can easily plug into the USB-C port on a phone and keep bundled up in your pocket the rest of the time. No Bluetooth dropouts, no losing a bud as you board the bus, no apps, none of that.

The Sennheiser CX 80U sound great, block surrounding noise quite well, and offer a nice simple design. We gave them 4.5 stars out of 5 in our review, only knocking them for some missing features of pricier buds.

Best of all, though, they're really cheap. They launched for $39.95 / £34.99 in January this year, but you can find them even a little cheaper than that on Amazon.

Sony WH-CH530 (or even the Sony WH-CH730N)

If you want great-value headphones, you can't go wrong with a pair from Sony, and its recently-released Sony WH-CH530N are really affordable at $69 / £50.

We haven't yet finished testing these on-ears, they're that new, but their predecessors the WH-CH520 got 4.5 stars in our review. We praised the balanced sound and long-lasting battery, and the newer pair will likely bring improvements.

As you can see in the picture, they come in a wide range of colors, and also have noise cancellation, which isn't something you can say about all options at this price point.

Prefer over-ears? Go for the just-reviewed, all-new Sony WH-CH730N: a solid four stars and they're just under that £99 (or equivalent, in your country of residence) fine line, if you'll pardon the pun…

JLab JBuds Mini ANC

Last, but not least, let's look at some standard wireless noise-cancelling earbuds, which we got to try earlier this year.

The JLab JBuds Mini ANC are tiny — you can even clip the case onto your keyring — so you've got no excuse for not having buds on the bus. At $49.99 / £49.99 they won't break the bank either.

We enjoyed the non-ANC JLab JBuds Mini too, when they came out three years ago, and they're ideal for people who want lightweight buds.

Have further thoughts? Drop us a comment — or better yet, fill out the poll below this text and then add your comment!

A new 4,300-mile (7,000-kilometer) undersea fiber cable will shuttle data between the U.S. and France at breakneck speeds of up to 1 million gigabits per second (Gbps) — enough to move around 125 terabytes of data every second, or roughly 25,000 HD movies, each 5 gigabytes large. The cable, called Petal, will be funded and operated by Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta.

When it comes online in 2029, the ocean-spanning cable will be the first to deliver petabit capacity — double the capacity of existing subsea cables of this length — across transoceanic distances, Meta representatives said in a statement. That's enough to allow 75% of the world's population to stream music at once.

Petal will also be the first commercial subsea cable system to use multi-core fiber technology, according to the statement. Whereas conventional fiber strands typically contain a single core, each of Petal's fiber strands will contain two cores that carry optical signals in opposite directions, allowing a single strand to provide the capacity that would conventionally require a pair of single-core fibers.

Each fiber strand is roughly as thick as a human hair, measuring just 125 micrometers in diameter. Petal will contain 24 pairs of dual-core fibers, giving it 96 individual fiber cores in total and enabling it to carry as much data as 48 conventional fiber pairs, Meta engineers said.

Japanese technology company NEC will be responsible for the overall design and construction of Petal, while Sumitomo Electric will provide the fiber itself.

"Achieving petabit-per-second capacity across a transoceanic submarine system represents a major technological milestone in the history of global telecommunications," Eduardo Mateo, chief strategy officer of the Submarine Networks Division at NEC, said in the statement.

Bedrock of the internet

Subsea cables are among the most critical layers of internet infrastructure, carrying around 99% of the world's internet traffic, according to the International Telecommunication Union, the United Nations ​agency for digital technologies.

Installing thousands of miles of fragile glass cable on the ocean floor is an engineering feat in itself. Equally challenging is ensuring that these cables can carry the tiny pulses of infrared light that transport fiber-optic data across such huge distances without impacting performance.

This is typically achieved through repeaters — amplifiers installed at regular intervals along the cable that use lasers to boost the optical signals.

A 4,300-mile subsea cable typically needs about 100 of these repeaters to amplify the signals along its length, Meta representatives said.

Petal will incorporate something called "fan-in/fan-out" technology. As each two-core fiber strand enters a repeater, an optical interface routes the signal from each core into a separate single-core fiber strand so that each can be amplified independently. The amplified signals are then routed back into the two cores of the dual-core fiber before continuing along the cable.

Combined with its dual-core fiber, this feat of signal engineering will enable Petal to double its data-carrying capacity without requiring a proportional increase in power, Meta representatives said.

Petal is one of many subsea cable investments by Meta in recent years, including Marea in 2018, Amitie in 2023 and Anjana in 2025. Marea, the company's first transatlantic fiber instalment, supports 192 Tbps, meaning Petal will offer more than five times that capacity.