The Government’s Building Digital UK (BDUK) agency recently revealed that their £114m (state aid) Project Gigabit broadband roll-out contract for Norfolk (Lot 7), which was won by CityFibre in July 2023 (here), has seen its scope expanded. As a result the public funding has been boosted to £128.8m and the targeted premises for intervention has risen from 62,282 to 75,587.

The first homes under CityFibre’s state aid supported build contract for Norfolk started to go live on their new 10Gbps capable full fibre (FTTP) network, in the rural communities of Newton St Faith and Horsham St Faith, a few short months ago (here). The connections marked an important milestone for CityFibre’s contract, which originally looked like this:

CityFibre’s Norfolk contract (Lot 7) – Original

• £114m Project Gigabit investment (state aid)
• £43m CityFibre investment (commercial)
• Connections for 62,200 rural homes and businesses (state aid supported part)
• Locations including Buxton, Castle Acre and Horning will be among those to benefit.
• A further 8,000 premises in the north west of the county are being reviewed for inclusion subject to survey in the next six months.
• Survey work completed anticipated December 2023
• Build commences anticipated January 2024
• Build completion anticipated December 2028

The reference to a further 8,000 premises being reviewed for possible future inclusion into the project is relevant, although if confirmed this would have only taken them to slightly over 70k premises. The good news is that BDUK have now identified even more eligible premises that could be added to the Norfolk Intervention Area, increasing the total contract scope to 75,587 premises (i.e. greater coverage than planned). The additional postcodes can be found here.

The changes seem to reflect, at least in part, reductions to the plans of commercial operators, which have led to an increased need for intervention in the areas of Hemsby, Winterton, Ormsby St Margaret, Loddon and Harleston. At the same time, there have also been increases in commercial operator coverage plans, which has led to a smaller reduction of public investment requirement in the areas of Poringland and Framlingham Earl.

Neil Madle, Partnership Manager at CityFibre, told ISPreview:

“Our Project Gigabit rollout of full fibre broadband to hard-to-reach communities in Norfolk is ongoing, having already connected the first customers to our network earlier this year. We welcome the increased scope from BDUK which will allow us to extend our reach across Norfolk, bringing the benefits of enhanced digital connectivity to even more residents.”

Changes to existing contracts can occur due to various reasons, such as operators finding certain areas to be more expensive (or possibly cheaper) to build than originally expected, as well as greater than expected coverage of commercial networks (i.e. reducing the need for state aid builds) or knock-on impacts from neighbouring build contracts in other LOTS etc. Suffice to say that such changes are not unusual, and contracts often need to adapt.

The Government’s £5bn Project Gigabit broadband roll-out scheme ultimately aims to help extend 1Gbps (download) capable networks to reach “nationwide” coverage (c. 99%of the UK) by 2030. This is focused on upgrading the final 10-20% of hardest to reach premises (usually those in rural areas), with the other 80-90% being largely done by commercial deployments (current UK coverage is already over 85%).

Infracapital-backed network provider Fibrus, which is busy rolling out their gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP network across rural parts of Cumbria (England) and Northern Ireland, has published a limited preview of their latest financial results for 2024 – showing a 58% increase in revenues and a 143% increase in connected customers.

The operator, which has already built their full fibre network to cover 400,000 UK premises (up from 375k on 26th Aug 2024), has previously claimed to be “fully funded to complete” their roll-out plan for 500,000 premises in the near future (here) and last month passed the 100,000th customer mark (here).

At the time of writing we couldn’t find a full copy of Fibrus’ latest 2024 accounts on Companies House (here or here) and the provider didn’t include one alongside today’s announcement. But they have provided a summary that covers some selected highlights from their upcoming release.

Fibrus’ 2024 Accounts

• 58% increase in revenues to £17.6m from £11.1m; the company experienced a record breaking year for customer growth reporting a 143% increase in connected customers, which grew by 46k during the year from 32k to 78k and have passed the 100k milestone subsequent to year end.  Customer penetration now exceeds 25%.
• 64% increase in gross profit to £6.1m from £3.8m as revenue growth exceeded the increase in direct costs.
• EBITDA loss increased to £7.2m from £3.2m due to the increased investment in customer acquisition and maintaining our growing customer base.  The company expects to be at EBITDA breakeven during the current financial year.
• Capital invested in infrastructure for the year was £153m from £142m, the number of premises which can connect to the Fibrus network increased by 100k during the year to 353k at 31 March 2024 and have subsequently passed the 400k milestone.  Our total investment in fixed assets stood at £412m at 31 March 2024.
• The investment in infrastructure has been financed by an increase of £70m in third party debt and £41m in funding from shareholders.
• Subsequent to the end of the financial year the Company secured a £100m extension to its senior debt facility which means it is now fully funded to complete its planned build programme.

The provider was also ranked as the fastest growing company in Northern Ireland earlier this month in the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 leaderboard. The company was elsewhere placed as second-fastest growing company on the island of Ireland.

Colin Hutchinson, Chief Financial Officer at Fibrus, said:

“Our financial results reflect the significant growth in our customer base driven by the quality of the service we are delivering to our customers, evidenced by our Trustpilot score.”

This year we passed the milestone of connecting 100K customers, and we’re nearing the end of our first Government funded project, Project Stratum, which is being delivered on time and within budget.”

The Fibrus network has made a significant contribution to regional connectivity, more so than ever over the past year, and this set of financial results are a marker of that.”

Transforming the digital infrastructure and changing the lives of the people in our communities is our number one priority and we are proud to play such a key role in democratizing broadband access for thousands of people living and working in the areas we serve.

We have big ambitions for the year ahead and are looking forward to continuing this positive trajectory for the company, our employees and our shareholders and investors, on our journey to reach half a million homes.”

However, while Fibrus have been making good progress, it’s worth remembering that they did also suffer a slowdown in build earlier this year and pulled out of the state aid supported Project Gigabit contract for the North East of England (here and here). Like all network operators, they’ve had to adapt to a difficult and highly competitive environment, where build costs and interest rates have both been on the rise.

Network operator Openreach (BT) has today updated the build plan for the ongoing roll-out of their 1.8Gbps Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP technology, which is the first update since May 2024 when they added 517 new UK locations to their deployment. But this update mostly just reflects changes and progress with their existing locations.

Just to recap. Openreach are currently investing up to £15bn to expand the coverage of their new full fibre network to reach 25 million UK premises by December 2026 (here), which includes around 6.2m premises in rural or semi-rural areas. On top of that, they’ve also expressed an ambition to reach up to 30m by 2030, which will partly depend upon a favourable outcome from Ofcom’s next Telecoms Access Review 2026 (TAR).

The last update to Openreach’s build plan, which occurred in May 2024 (here), was particularly significant because the locations it introduced effectively completed their roll-out plan to 2026 (i.e. the 25 million premises target). Overall, this meant that around 3,500 towns, cities, boroughs, villages and hamlets were now included in the build programme, and we aren’t likely to see any major additions until the direction of Ofcom’s TAR becomes clearer.

Suffice to say that today’s December 2024 Build Plan (and map) seem to largely represent a progress update for the locations they’ve already announced. Unfortunately, the format adopted by the operator makes it difficult to identify any new additions to the tentative list, or even removals, although we have asked Openreach if they can clarify such changes and will report back when they respond.

However, ISPreview has previously been told that this update might include locations for their recent Project Gigabit contract wins (here), which we’ll recap below. Both contracts – worth £288 million (state aid) – aim to connect approximately 96,600 extra homes and businesses in hard-to-reach parts of England and Wales. 

Openreach’s August 2024 Project Gigabit Contract Awards

Type C (Call Off 1): Lancashire (Lot 9C), North Wiltshire and South Gloucestershire (Lot 30C) , West and Mid -Surrey (Lot 22C), Staffordshire (Lot 19C), West Berkshire (Lot 13C) and Hertfordshire (Lot 26C)
Premises: 54,300
Value: £149.7m

Type C (Call Off 2): West and North Devon (Lot 6C) , North West Wales, Mid Wales (Lot 43C) and South East Wales (Lot 44C)
Premises: 42,200
Value: £139.1m

The new service, once live, can be ordered via various ISPs, such as BT, Sky Broadband, TalkTalk, Vodafone and many more (Openreach FTTP ISP Choices) – it is not currently an automatic upgrade, although some ISPs have started to do free automatic upgrades as older copper-based services and lines are slowly withdrawn.

Network operator Openreach (BT) has today updated the build plan for the ongoing roll-out of their 1.8Gbps Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP technology, which is the first update since May 2024 when they added 517 new UK locations to their deployment. But this update mostly just reflects changes and progress with their existing locations.

Just to recap. Openreach are currently investing up to £15bn to expand the coverage of their new full fibre network to reach 25 million UK premises by December 2026 (here), which includes around 6.2m premises in rural or semi-rural areas. On top of that, they’ve also expressed an ambition to reach up to 30m by 2030, which will partly depend upon a favourable outcome from Ofcom’s next Telecoms Access Review 2026 (TAR).

The last update to Openreach’s build plan, which occurred in May 2024 (here), was particularly significant because the locations it introduced effectively completed their roll-out plan to 2026 (i.e. the 25 million premises target). Overall, this meant that around 3,500 towns, cities, boroughs, villages and hamlets were now included in the build programme, and we aren’t likely to see any major additions until the direction of Ofcom’s TAR becomes clearer.

Suffice to say that today’s December 2024 Build Plan (and map) seem to largely represent a progress update for the locations they’ve already announced. Unfortunately, the format adopted by the operator makes it difficult to identify any new additions to the tentative list, or even removals, although we have asked Openreach if they can clarify such changes and will report back when they respond.

However, ISPreview has previously been told that this update might include locations for their recent Project Gigabit contract wins (here), which we’ll recap below. Both contracts – worth £288 million (state aid) – aim to connect approximately 96,600 extra homes and businesses in hard-to-reach parts of England and Wales. 

Openreach’s August 2024 Project Gigabit Contract Awards

Type C (Call Off 1): Lancashire (Lot 9C), North Wiltshire and South Gloucestershire (Lot 30C) , West and Mid -Surrey (Lot 22C), Staffordshire (Lot 19C), West Berkshire (Lot 13C) and Hertfordshire (Lot 26C)
Premises: 54,300
Value: £149.7m

Type C (Call Off 2): West and North Devon (Lot 6C) , North West Wales, Mid Wales (Lot 43C) and South East Wales (Lot 44C)
Premises: 42,200
Value: £139.1m

The new service, once live, can be ordered via various ISPs, such as BT, Sky Broadband, TalkTalk, Vodafone and many more (Openreach FTTP ISP Choices) – it is not currently an automatic upgrade, although some ISPs have started to do free automatic upgrades as older copper-based services and lines are slowly withdrawn.

The Publishers Association (PA) has convinced the High Court to force most of the major broadband ISPs in the United Kingdom (BT, Sky Broadband, Virgin Media, TalkTalk, EE and Plusnet) to extend and expand their existing block of websites, focusing on those that were found to facilitate internet copyright infringement (piracy) of books and journals.

At present such blocking orders, which in the UK flow from Section 97A of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act (CDPA), aren’t cheap to bring but have over the past 15 years or so become very common. Hundreds of websites have been blocked through this approach (thousands if you include their many proxies and mirrors), which usually include file sharing (P2P / Torrent), streaming sites, Sci-Hub and those that sell counterfeit goods etc.

In this case the new order will continue the blocking of sites first blocked in 2015, but the main change this time is that it will also be extended to ‘copycat’ (mirror) domains (i.e. sites linked to the original targets and a number of newly added domains) and some new domains (e.g. Library Genesis, Z-Library and Anna’s Archive). Some previous blocking orders for different sites / industries have already introduced similar extensions.

The PA claims that the sites and networks, which are the subject of this order, infringe copyright on a “massive scale“. For example, the Publishers Association has identified through its Copyright Infringement Portal over 1 million copyright infringing book and journal URLs on Anna’s Archive domains. In addition, rights holders have requested delisting from Google search results of over 280 million URLs which link to “copyright-protected content made available without permission” on Anna’s Archive domains.

A Publishers Association spokesperson said:

“Expanding digital markets and technological advancement inevitably result in growth in levels of online infringement. Our members need to be able to protect authors’ works from such illegal activity. Authors need to be compensated for their work and publishers and booksellers need to be able to continue to innovate and invest in new talent and material.

We are pleased that the High Court has granted this extended order and, in doing so, recognised the damage inflicted on UK authors, publishers and booksellers by online piracy. This could not be more important than at a time when the internet is being scraped and books and journals used at scale unlawfully in the training of LLMs without compensation or acknowledgment.”

Blocking orders like this do not come cheap and some years ago Wiggin LLP revealed that an unopposed application tends to cost around £14,000 per site. On top of that the additional admin required to maintain the block and keep ISPs up-to-date with related IP changes and new URLs (Proxy Servers) comes to around £3,600 per site per year. But those figures will have changed a lot since then.

Meanwhile ISPs also incur on-going costs as part of their work to introduce the blocks. Some years ago EE suggested that a “near four figure sum” was involved with each update, while Sky Broadband hinted at a “mid three figure sum” and then roughly half that for future updates. Similarly Virgin Media pegged their own annual costs at a “low five figure sum“.

On the flip side such blocks don’t always stop the targeted websites and indeed they may even help to advertise their existence. Naturally, those who actively engage in internet piracy will easily be able to circumvent the restrictions by using all sorts of different approaches. Otherwise, the ISPs now have 10 working days from the notification to block customer from accessing the sites. The ISPs are not themselves accused of any wrongdoing.

News 

Orange Cyberdefense, cybersecurity arm of Orange Group, has published its Security Navigator 2025 report, a strategic guide to understanding changes in the cyber threat landscape 

Now in its sixth year of publication, this year’s report reveals a stark increase in politically motivated cyberattacks across Europe since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.  

At a launch event this month in London, Char van der Walt, Head of Security Research at Orange Cyberdefence, and Sara Puigvert, EVP of Global Operations, discussed one of the report’s themes: the geopolitical hacktivist threat to Europe.  

A hacktivist is defined as a hacker who engages in attacks on computer systems based on political motivations but is not state sponsored. 

The report focuses on one (unnamed) pro-Russian hacktivist group, which has conducted over 6,600 attacks since 2022. A staggering 96% of these incidents were directed at European countries such as Ukraine, Czech Republic, Spain, Poland, and Italy. 

These groups have shifted focus to “cognitive warfare,” aiming to manipulate public trust and perception rather than solely causing technical disruptions. Whilst not directed by the Russian government, the groups are often what van der Walt described as ‘government tolerated’, using the Russian state playbook of societal disruption to portray the West, NATO, an those supporting Ukraine as morally degenerate.  

By attacking election systems and other symbolic institutions, these hackers seek to spread disharmony and discontent, undermining the fabric of trust that our societies are built on. A lot is unknown about such groups, but typically their activities are triggered by geopolitical events, such as European elections, protests, or the Russian Invasion of Ukraine.  

Hacktivist activity is also extending to operational technology (OT) systems, which are critical for infrastructure in sectors like energy, manufacturing, and healthcare. Nearly 23% of OT-targeted attacks in 2024 were linked to hacktivists, and 46% of these incidents resulted in the manipulation of control processes. The utilities sector has been particularly affected, underscoring the vulnerabilities of essential infrastructure. 

AI continues to play a key role in the ongoing transformation of the cybersecurity sector, being used both defensively and offensively. Threat actors are using GenAI to produce realistic phishing attacks and deepfakes, while cybersecurity teams are deploying AI-driven tools to detect advanced threats faster. However, vulnerabilities within GenAI systems pose additional risks, the report warns. 

In addition to the report, Orange Cyberdefense has also released its Cybercrime Now tool, a free to use interactive platform to provide education on the criminal ecosystem of hacktivists. Find it here. 

Join us to discuss the topic of Cybersecurity at next year’s Submarine Networks EMEA, 18-19 February in London. Get discounted tickets here! 

Also in the news:
TalkTalk to cut hundreds more jobs in effort to save £120m
Heavily delayed ADC submarine cable system finally goes live in East Asia
World Communication Awards shine a light on AI Excellence

The Welsh Government (WG) and a consortium of partners have today kicked off the StarBws project, which will trial a mix of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite and 4G mobile (wireless) technologies from Starlink, Peplink and wavemobile in order to improve broadband for passengers travelling on public transportation in rural parts of the Swansea Bay area.

Getting good internet connectivity on public transport in rural areas can be a challenge, not least due to obstructions such as tree canopies and valleys, which would normally block the signal. But it’s hoped that the combination of Starlink’s LEO satellites, with Peplink’s network bonding and failover capabilities, and wavemobile’s LTE (4G) Band 46 Cell technology for onboard “in motion” coverage may be able to overcome this. Dragon WiFi is also involved.

The trial itself will initially focus on the rural 460 Carmarthen to Cardigan bus service, which operates four times daily and takes 1 hour and 26 minutes to complete one way. Having begun in Autumn 2024, the project will run for one year, providing valuable insights into the needs of passengers as well as the potential of advanced connectivity solutions in rural settings.

Simon Richards, Director at Richards Bros (bus company), said:

“The StarBws project exemplifies our commitment to pioneering new connectivity solutions, ensuring our rural routes are not only reliable but also equipped with the latest in modern communication services. This initiative highlights our dedication to improving public transport for the communities we serve, showcasing the benefits of being an agile and forward-thinking operator.”

Rob Stewart, Leader of Swansea Council, said:

“This project represents significant progress in innovation, tackling a well-known challenge in rural transportation. The application of this technology not only benefits rural areas but also has the potential to enhance connectivity and efficiency across all forms of public transport, especially on longer journeys where commuters need to be able to continue working.”

Ken Skates, Cabinet Secretary for Transport and North Wales, said:

“I am pleased Welsh Government has been able to support this innovative and really worthwhile project. WiFi connectivity on public transport, particularly in rural areas can be challenging. The StarBws project will provide a solution for that, allowing people to use their devices for work and leisure, keeping them connected even when they are travelling through remote countryside.”

The £1.3bn Swansea Bay City Deal project is said to fully support this initiative and looks forward to tracking the trial, which provides an opportunity to explore how various technologies can be leveraged to address real-time challenges faced by passengers using public transport in rural areas.

Contributed Article

The need for speed – high-speed internet – along with greater bandwidth capacity will continue to be critical for communities everywhere in 2025 and beyond

By: Tony Thakur, Chief Technology Officer of Great Plains Communications

Network operators should anticipate demand for more and more bandwidth, as network traffic growth shows no sign of slowing down.

What’s driving all the bandwidth consumption? We rely on the internet for products, services, and applications we use continuously more and more. Smartphones, smart watches, other wearables, smart TVs, streaming services, real-time events (e.g. concert, sports), online gaming, along with virtual and augmented reality are some of the products and applications growing network traffic and consuming bandwidth.

As a fiber optic network provider, Great Plains Communications sees a continued rise in network traffic as an ongoing trend. Knowing there is a critical need for increasing bandwidth, network operators must implement best network practices in key areas to meet demand, improve productivity, and minimize disruption of customers’ everyday lives.

Here are key factors to support the demand.

AI plus good data = best customer experience

AI means different things to different groups. Transferring information between data centers for AI applications consumes high bandwidth. Yet, AI is now part of the pit crew that keeps the network running. For network operators, AI means automation to drive greater efficiency across organizations and supply bandwidth on demand.

We view AI evolving as an enabler to enhancing the customer experience. In the past, operators were reactive: a customer alerted the operator when something broke and they fixed it. Currently, most are more proactive, deploying technologies in a ring topology with redundant equipment to mitigate downtime. With AI, events can be more predictive: for example, a problem is detected and fixed before the issue can be customer affecting.

Thanks to AI’s prediction ability, potential network disruptions can be averted. It stands to reason that a network will need more bandwidth during a live Thursday night football game. AI can calculate if the network has the necessary capacity and redundancy to ensure the audience never misses a play through buffering or other hiccups.

Network operators must leverage AI to create a better experience for their customers. However, along with the right tools and systems, AI must leverage reliable data to make the right decisions.

Timely network services

We’ve come to expect real-time services like Amazon Web Services model, which is available 24/7/365. We shop online, press a button, and our purchase arrives the next day. That has become consumers’ standard. So, they expect other products and services to be simpler and faster to obtain as well.

People rely on cell phones to do almost everything, and when we pull up all the applications we’re using, we’re consuming more bandwidth than we realize. Hyperscalers that want more and higher bandwidth to connect their data centers are another driver of increased network traffic. At Great Plains Communications (GPC), we see more demand for 400 Gig services, especially between key markets.

As a result, network providers must become more agile, monitor services more effectively, and add more products and services that work in tandem to meet current and future customer needs. One of the biggest challenges network operators face is predicting demand and growth trends and then planning and updating networks accordingly to be ready. To accomplish this, it is vital to have flexible architecture to scale the network capacity to meet changing bandwidth requirements in metro and rural areas.

Data to the cloud

Over the past decade, most businesses have either already done so or are planning to migrate most of their data from their own private onsite servers to cloud storage, such as AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, and others. It’s a big shift from how data used to be stored in private clouds to public clouds and a multi-cloud environment.

It is critical for businesses (and all of us) to have real-time access to data. We don’t want to wait or have the data lag. The cloud data warehouses offer virtually unlimited space with the ability to compute capacity and storage to scale up and down at greater cost savings. This is a tremendous advantage, which does require more bandwidth.

As consumers, we also rely on cloud storage. After all, we can’t store all our videos in our phone. We want to view a video and interact immediately. This requires reliable connectivity to the cloud, so we have immediate access to our data, wherever it’s stored. Reliable connectivity — to the internet and to cloud providers — is essential.

Future runs on higher bandwidth

From my point of view, both as a telecom network operator and as a consumer, having bandwidth infrastructure optimized to support current and future rising network traffic is a must-have. There are many considerations, but here are factors I consider essential.

First, the network infrastructure has to deliver adequate speeds. Speed alone is not enough. We also need reliable connectivity we can trust day in and day out. This calls for careful planning and best-in-class architecture when designing the network. And, most important, we need to provide the best possible customer experience in our digital age. We should take advantage of AI and other technologies to anticipate network demands, automate processes to drive efficiencies, and provide the best possible solutions for our customers.

Join the conversation about connectivity in North America. Click here to learn more about Broadband Communities Summit 2025.

In an unexpected development, the Government’s Building Digital UK (BDUK) agency has just announced that rural broadband ISP Voneus has “mutually agreed to terminate” the £17m (state aid) Project Gigabit broadband roll-out contract for Mid West Shropshire (Lot 25.01), which would have expanded a full fibre (FTTP) network to 6,000 premises in hard to reach areas.

Breaking news.. more to follow..

Broadband operator nexfibre, which shares some of their UK parentage with retail ISP partner Virgin Media (O2), has today announced that they’ve made their 2Gbps speed Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP / XGS-PON) broadband network available to more than 13,000 additional homes in the city of Stoke-on-Trent (Staffordshire, England).

The city already had a significant level of coverage from Virgin Media’s own gigabit broadband network, although the nexfibre build – most of which has taken place around the edges of the city – means they’re now able to reach the vast majority of local premises. Both Openreach and Freedom Fibre (Lila Connect) also have a significant level of FTTP coverage in the city, as well as the usual smattering of smaller builds from Hyperoptic and others.

Nexfibre itself has already covered around 1.6 million premises across the UK with their new full fibre network, and they’re currently in the process of investing another £1bn this year, which should enable them to cover an additional 1 million UK premises by the end of 2024 (reaching a total footprint of c.2m).

Just for some context. Telefónica, Liberty Global and InfraVia Capital Partners originally set up the new £4.5bn nexfibre joint venture in 2022 (here), which aims to deploy an open access fibre network to reach “up to” 7 million UK homes (starting with 5m by 2026) in areas NOT currently served by Virgin Media’s network of 16m+ premises. The funding reflects £3.3bn of fully underwritten financing and up to £1.4bn in equity commitments.