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News

The deal will see Corning expand its manufacturing capacity in North Carolina to meet demand

This week, Meta has announced an up to $6 billion multi-year agreement with glass specialist Corning to build the fibre optic cables used to connect AI data centres.

The deal, which will run until 2030 according to CNBC, will see fibre and optical solutions supplied to support Meta’s data centre projects across the US. This includes Meta’s flagship project, Hyperion, a five-gigawatt site in Richland Parish, Louisiana, as well as Prometheus, a one-gigawatt site in New Albany, Ohio.

“Building the most advanced data centers in the US requires world-class partners and American manufacturing,” said Joel Kaplan, Chief Global Affairs Officer at Meta. “We’re proud to partner with Corning — a company with deep expertise in optical connectivity and commitment to domestic manufacturing — for the high-performance fiber optic cables our AI infrastructure needs. This collaboration will help create good-paying, skilled US jobs, strengthen local economies, and help secure the US lead in the global AI race.”

Building large-scale AI data centres to support future demand is a cornerstone of Meta’s $600 billion AI infrastructure investment strategy.

The company currently has 26 data centres operational or under construction in the US, expecting to reach up to 20GW of capacity by 2030.

In turn, this investment will allow Corning to significantly expand its US facilities to meet demand, with Meta serving as an anchor tenant for the new expansion.

“The investment will expand our manufacturing footprint in North Carolina, support an increase in Corning’s employment levels in the state by 15 to 20 percent, and help sustain a highly skilled workforce of more than 5,000, including the scientists, engineers, and production teams at two of the world’s largest optical fiber and cable manufacturing facilities,” said Corning’s chairman and CEO Wendell P. Weeks.

Corning’s shares rose 15.6% following the news.

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Original article Total Telecom:Read More

Press Release

Vodafone IoT has announced a new partnership with Skylo Technologies, Inc. to bring customers Non-Terrestrial Network (NTN) Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) satellite connectivity services.

In the initial phase, the two companies will work together to trial the technology with a view to offering a full commercial service in the near future. Skylo runs a global Non-Terrestrial Network spanning 36 countries across 70 million square kilometres of coverage.

Together, the companies will provide even greater coverage for Vodafone IoT’s customers and unlock new opportunities for businesses by providing an overlay solution to existing cellular connectivity for IoT devices. This collaboration underscores customers’ growing demand for seamless, scalable and secure connectivity.

Skylo and Vodafone IoT’s network cores will integrate – enabling customers to seamlessly switch between cellular and NTN connectivity from a single Vodafone SIM. With sectors such as asset tracking and energy services to environmental monitoring and fleet management set to benefit, this new hybrid connectivity model will supply industries with seamless multi-national connectivity. Furthermore, customers will be able to continue managing their IoT estates using Vodafone IoT’s Managed Connectivity Platform – for both their cellular and NTN connectivity needs.

Skylo’s network orchestrates across multiple constellations of satellites, and integrates directly into existing chipsets, modules, and operating systems. Skylo has certified modules from a robust global chipset and module ecosystem – serving as the foundation for a wide range of use cases.

Erik Brenneis, CEO of Vodafone IoT, said: “As we continue our mission to provide our customers with truly global IoT connectivity, today marks another significant step forwards. Our new partnership with Skylo will help us deliver ubiquitous connectivity for our customers and make a step-change in network access, reliability and resilience which together with enable the next wave of innovative IoT solutions.”

Parthsarathi Trivedi, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Skylo, said: “This trial is a critical step in bringing our 3GPP-compliant satellite connectivity to Vodafone’s IoT ecosystem. We are demonstrating how Skylo’s network can seamlessly extend Vodafone IoT’s reach into the most remote areas, adding millions of square kilometers of coverage. It’s about proving that ‘anywhere connectivity’ is no longer a future concept – it’s here, it’s standards-based, and it’s ready for global scale.”

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The post Vodafone taps Skylo’s satellite tech for IoT connectivity appeared first on Total Telecom.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

The endlessly vexed question of TV licence fee evasion has come up in the press again after it was today reported that the BBC were considering a change to the iPlayer video streaming service. The change would essentially involve linking people’s online BBC accounts to their home addresses for the first time (i.e. to see if anybody is using the service without a licence).

At present the iPlayer service uses somewhat of a soft approach to licence fee verification, which involves a basic check-box exercise (i.e. merely asking if you’ve got a TV licence or not) and passive checks via the use of UK-registered IP addresses (geo-checking), user-provided postcodes, and account data. But it doesn’t really do much to enforce this, and hasn’t previously linked online accounts to full UK home addresses.

According to Sky News, the BBC are now working on ways to use iPlayer to find households that haven’t paid for a TV licence, such as by linking BBC online accounts to home addresses. A TV Licensing spokesperson said: “We always look at ways to improve how we collect the licence fee. This includes using the data available to us to get a better understanding of viewing habits and use of BBC services.”

The issue has never stopped being a hot topic, although it’s currently much more relevant as the government continue to debate the future of the BBC’s funding and more people turn to other streaming platforms. Not to mention the issue of how TV services will be delivered in the future.

The UK Government have already committed to the future of Digital Terrestrial TV (DTT) until 2034, which is in keeping with how some broadcasters have warned that existing DTT infrastructure is “unlikely to be commercially attractive after the mid-2030s“ (here); this is because they can’t afford to distribute their content both online and via traditional infrastructures like DTT with costs rising (i.e. the less time people spend on DTT, the less cost-effective per viewer it is).

In the future we may all end up getting our TV and video content via broadband connections, which has its pros and cons (here and here).

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

British device manufacturer Manhattan TV has just become the latest such firm to announce the imminent launch of their next generation IPTV box – the Manhattan Aero, which is another one that includes support for the new broadband-based live TV streaming service – Freely. Best of all, it’ll only set you back £69.99 (RRP).

Until recently there weren’t any streaming set-top-boxes with support for Freely, but over the past few months we’ve seen new hardware enter the market, such as the Humax FHR-6000T (Aura EZ 4K Freely Recorder) and Netgem TV’s extremely popular PLEIO box and service (here).

The new Manhattan Aero 4K TV box appears to complement the above two through a simplified and cheaper solution. The box costs just £69.99 (RRP) but doesn’t support recording (PVR), although you can pause live TV for up to 15 minutes. You can also restart programmes from the beginning on supported channels, and scroll back through the TV guide to access catch-up content from the past seven days (like a lot of other STBs).

The Aero’s software is based off TiVo OS and also includes TiVo-powered voice search on the included remote, which also means you’ll get access to the usual apps (Netflix, Disney+, Prime Video, YouTube etc.) and another 400+ completely free streaming channels and a huge library of free on-demand movies and shows. This is on top of the 60+ live TV channels via Freely, with 35+ in HD.

On top of that, you get access to more than 75,000 hours of on demand content through integrated apps like BBC iPlayer, ITVX, Channel 4, My5, and UKTV Play. The device also supports WiFi 6 and Wired (LAN) for connectivity to your broadband router and is powered by an unspecified quad-core CPU, plus there’s the usual Power and HDMI ports (a 1.2m HDMI cable that supports resolutions up to 4K/60Hz is included). But there’s no port for a TV aerial, so this is very much a streaming only device.

The Aero box isn’t available to buy just yet, although it is due to go on sale during “Early February” and will come with a 2-year warranty and in-house UK technical support.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

New research from Point Topic has revealed that global fixed broadband lines grew by 1.46% or 22.42 million in Q3 2025 (up from 1.12% in Q2 2025) to total 1.56 billion connections. The subscriber growth rate of “full fibre” (FTTP/B) networks also remained strong in the UK at almost 7%, but this is down from 11.7% in Q4 2024.

Once again South and East Asia has continued to claim the largest share of global fixed broadband subscribers, having increased from 51.04% to 51.28% over the past quarter (they also accounted for 67.89% of all new lines added in the quarter), which is mainly due to China’s huge size. By comparison, the whole of Europe (inc. UK) only accounted for 17.13% of overall subscribers and 6.67% of quarterly net adds.

The data also confirms that, overall, both cable (hybrid fibre coax) and copper (ADSL, SDSL) based broadband connections continued to lose market share as full fibre lines cannibalised their customers. Between Q2 2025 and Q3 2025, copper-based broadband lines fell from 4.03% to 3.82% in Q3, while cable fell from 11.07% to 10.83% and hybrid fibre (FTTC etc.) fell from 8.45% to 8.21% over the same period.

On the flip side, full fibre FTTP/H/B lines saw their global market share increase from 72.61% to 73.09%, and it was a similar story for satellite (0.50% to 0.52%) and wireless networks (2.98% to 3.15%). “While the decline in legacy copper and part copper is not surprising, cable/HFC also appears to be on the way out in some markets,” said Point Topic.

The good news is that the United Kingdom continues to appear in the top table for country-specific quarterly growth of FTTP/B subscribers in Q3 2025, although our growth rate has slowed to nearly 7%. By comparison, the highest FTTH/B growth rates were found in Egypt (23.8%), Algeria (15.4%), Belgium (10.9%), South Africa (10.8%), and Greece (10.7%).

Top 10 markets by FTTH/B growth rates

The small market share of satellite solutions is also masking the fact that new services, such as Starlink from SpaceX, have actually delivered significant growth. Satellite broadband subscribers saw a boost of 38.2% year-on-year. The largest markets remain the US (2.4m), Canada (0.6m), Brazil (0.4m) and Argentina (0.4m); estimated.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Infracapital-backed alternative broadband ISP Fibrus, which is building a full fibre network across parts of Cumbria (England) and Northern Ireland, recently revealed that their Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) infrastructure had now achieved a customer take-up of 30% (up from 28% in March 2025) – we make that roughly 135,000+ subscribers.

The operator’s full fibre infrastructure currently covers over 450,000 UK premises (up from 440k in Sept 2025), mostly in Northern Ireland where their roll-out has largely completed. But their most active build is currently focused on rural parts of Cumbria (they’ve already reached well over 100k premises in that county), which reflects a mix of both commercial build and publicly funded work via their Project Gigabit contract in the same region (Lot 28).

“We’re delighted to reach 30% customer take-up across our Full Fibre network – one of the highest rates among alt nets – a clear sign that more people are choosing faster, more reliable broadband built for modern life in the areas we serve,” said Fibrus in a brief statement earlier this month.

New customers to the service currently pay from £22.99 per month for an unlimited 159Mbps (34Mbps upload) package with an included router and free installation, which rises to just £34.99 per month for their top 982Mbps (310Mbps upload) tier on a 24-month contract term. Fibrus are currently offering the first 3 months of service for free, although service discounts may vary between different parts of their build.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Broadband ISP Virgin Media (O2) has confirmed to ISPreview that they’ve finally started to make their new XGS-PON powered full fibre (FTTP) network upgrade (aka – Project Mustang or Fibre Up), which is being deployed alongside their existing coaxial cable (HFC / DOCSIS 3.1) areas, available to existing customers too.

Just to be clear. The change being referenced above is NOT to be confused with nexfibre’s separate roll-out of Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) lines into new UK areas, which has already covered 2.5 million premises (access to this is being sold to consumers via Virgin Media and giffgaff). The nexfibre build is entirely focused upon areas that weren’t previously reached by Virgin Media.

By comparison, this article is talking about Virgin Media’s own efforts to upgrade their legacy HFC (DOCSIS 3.1) and Radio Frequency over Glass (RFoG FTTP) powered areas – covering 16 million premises – to add support for XGS-PON technology. The goal of this programme is to complete that upgrade by 2028, although migrating customers will take much longer as it requires an engineer visit (i.e. replacing old kit with new ONT / optical modem).

At present, we still don’t know precisely how many HFC areas have been upgraded to support XGS-PON lines (costing c.£100 per premises), although several million premises are known to have been completed. But until recently the only ones able to access these new FTTP upgrade areas were new customers (here), which meant that if an existing customer wanted to upgrade from HFC to FTTP/XGS-PON then they had to cancel and re-subscribe.

However, some of ISPreview’s readers in HFC areas (i.e. those that Virgin have upgraded to support XGS-PON) have recently informed us that they’re now able to order up to Gig1 over HFC and Gig2 over FTTP, without needing to go through the tedious (early termination chargers and downtime etc.) hassle of cancelling and re-subscribing as a new customer first.

A spokesperson for Virgin Media has now confirmed to ISPreview that they have “begun offering existing customers in some areas the opportunity to upgrade their services to symmetrical and gigabit packages delivered on the XGS-PON network“. The key word in that response is “some“, since this is part of a phased roll-out as they continue to upgrade their network, so not everybody in a Project Mustang (Fibre Up) area may be able to benefit.. yet.

This is a positive development as Virgin Media really needs the XGS-PON upgrade to do more than just sit there, doing absolutely nothing (i.e. not generating revenue). After building, it’s important to make it as easy as possible for both new and existing customers to benefit from the newest network.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Apple’s next major iOS software update for iPhones – v26.3 – looks set to include an interesting new feature, which aims to improve user privacy by limiting the amount of location data available to mobile network operators. The move is apparently set to be supported by EE (BT) in the United Kingdom, although no other UK operators are currently named.

The issue of location data on mobile networks is one we’ve touched on before in a very different context (here). Otherwise, mobile operators usually collect such data to support key functionality, such as for call routing and messaging, analytics, network management, ensuring you are connected to the best mast (cell site) and not to mention lawful use by the emergency services etc.

Apple’s new Limit Precise Location setting will reduce how much information mobile operators can access to determine your precise location. But this will only be available on compatible iPhone and iPad models (e.g. iPhone Air, iPhone 16e, or iPad Pro (M5) Wi-Fi + Cellular) with supported carriers (e.g. BT / EE in the UK).

The related information page on Apple’s website (here) explains this in more detail, which also confirms that it won’t impact the data available to the emergency services, which is good.

Apple’s Statement

With this setting turned on, some information made available to cellular networks is limited. As a result, they might be able to determine only a less precise location — for example, the neighbourhood where your device is located, rather than a more precise location (such as a street address). The setting doesn’t impact signal quality or user experience.

The limit precise location setting doesn’t impact the precision of the location data that is shared with emergency responders during an emergency call.

This setting affects only the location data available to cellular networks. It doesn’t impact the location data that you share with apps through Location Services. For example, it has no impact on sharing your location with friends and family with Find My.

Turn limit precise location on or off

1. Open Settings, then tap Cellular.

2. Tap Cellular Data Options. If you have more than one phone number under SIMs, tap one of your lines.

3. Scroll down to Limit Precise Location.

4. Turn the setting on or off. You might be prompted to restart your device.

Sadly, we aren’t told precisely what part of the data won’t be shared and obviously customers on O2 and VodafoneThree (Vodafone and Three UK) won’t see any benefit, until they introduce support for the feature, assuming they plan to do so (we’ve asked and will report back). Credits to one of our readers (Harrison) for the tip.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

One of the UK’s largest alternative broadband networks, Netomnia (Substantial Group), has today reported their latest Q4 2025 results. The figures reveal that revenues on their full fibre (FTTP) network increased to £104m (up 168% year-on-year) and take-up reached 15% (up 28% YoY). Some 3 million premises are now covered (up by 245k in Q4 vs 241k in Q3).

The provider also ended the quarter with a total of 445,000 customers (up by 49k in Q4 and 207k YoY). The results confirm that Netomnia are continuing to build out their network after hitting their 3 million premises target for 2025 and appear to retain their existing coverage goals (see below), although they have recently been linked to talk of a possible c.£2bn merger with bigger rivals CityFibre or Virgin Media (here).

The brief results also reveal that the operator delivered positive adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) of £5m (up from £0.3m in Q3) – excluding exceptional items. This marks positive progress, particularly given how only a couple of quarters back (Q2) they delivered a loss of -£4.9m (the company previously saw a total EBITDA loss of £29m during 2024).

However, the company’s ongoing network builds inevitably mean that their Net Debt has also grown by 69% in the year to total £905m (debt drawn to date including accrued interest less cash), which is up from £801m in Q3.

Jeremy Chelot, Group CEO of Netomnia (YouFibre, brsk), said:

“FY25 marked a breakout year for the Group. We delivered the fastest network build among Alt-Nets, alongside a strong and accelerating customer acquisition rate, while surpassing three million premises serviceable, a milestone that underscores the scale, momentum and resilience of our platform.

This progress firmly positions us as the UK’s second-largest Alt-Net provider and validates our strategy of building a uniquely scaled, capital-efficient retail and wholesale model. With strong operational delivery and a clear line of sight on growth, we are now focused on extending our footprint.”

On the retail service front, we should point out that last quarter was quite chaotic for group ISP brand Brsk, which suffered a data breach (here) and is now in the process of being merged into the YouFibre brand (here).

Otherwise, the next big focus for the group during early 2026, aside from ongoing network build and all that media talk of consolidation, will be on YouFibre’s plan to launch a new VodafoneThree powered mobile service (YouMobile). But we understand this has now been put back from Q1 to Q2 due to the brand merger between YouFibre and Brsk taking precedence.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

The Government appears to have responded to recent concerns over the Building Safety Regulator’s (BSR) approval processes, which are known to have been causing delays and increased costs for broadband and mobile operators trying to deploy new digital infrastructure into large buildings (MDUs etc.). But a new consultation is proposing changes that may address some of the issues.

Just to recap. The cross-party House of Lords Industry and Regulators Committee recently highlighted how delays in the BSR’s updated processes for minor works had been, among other things, causing problems for network operators and pushing up costs, often unpredictably (here). In short, putting a lot of red tape in front of even fairly routine work and thus slowing network deployments down (the government describes this as an “unintended consequence” of earlier changes in 2023).

The government today appears to have responded to that, at least in part, by launching a new consultation on ‘Improving proportionality and safety outcomes in building control‘ for “telecommunications work“, which specifically aims to introduce changes to the processes for the “installation of fibre optic cabling” (fixed broadband) and “building work related to mobile masts“.

The key proposal is to “dispense with procedural requirements of building regulations” for certain types of work on existing buildings, such as work related to “the drilling of holes through internal fire-resisting walls for fibre optic cabling and work related to the installation and repair of mobile communications masts“.

The consultation finds that the current rules for these areas of work “may be unreasonable and disproportionate“, which is said to be taking direct regulatory resources away from the types of building work that carry higher risk (e.g. new builds and remediation projects).

Summary of the Proposals

This consultation seeks views on proposals to streamline the building control procedural requirements for the following types of building work within the higher-risk building regime: fibre optic cabling and mobile masts.

In the case of building work to fibre optic infrastructure, the consultation also seeks views on building control approval routes for non-higher-risk buildings.

These proposals aim to ensure that regulatory processes remain proportionate, effective, and focused on maintaining building safety.

Specifically, the consultation considers proposals to dispense with procedural requirements of building regulations for the following types of building work to existing buildings: building work related to the drilling of holes through internal fire-resisting walls for fibre optic cabling and work related to the installation and repair of mobile communications masts.

For these activities, the current building control procedural requirements may be unreasonable and disproportionate and can direct regulatory resources away from the types of building work that carry higher risk, such as new builds and remediation projects.

The proposed changes would streamline procedural steps at building control approval, construction or completion certificate stage for these defined works, while retaining safeguards where they matter most. For all the proposed changes, dutyholders, defined as individuals or organisations that are assigned specific responsibilities at particular phases of the building life cycle, would still be required to ensure that building work complies with technical/functional requirements of the Building Regulations 2010.

The consultation invites evidence and views on these proposals, with detailed reasoning provided in the referenced sections.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) states that their consultation will be open for feedback until 11:59pm on 24th March 2026. The changes, if adopted, do not appear to require any changes in existing legislation (so far as we can tell) and so could be introduced fairly swiftly into the existing process. At present, this only affects England.