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Network access provider Openreach (BT) has today notified Communication Providers (broadband ISPs etc.) about a further extension on some of their existing offers for Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) lines and 10Gbps Cablelink products under their Equinox incentives, while also introducing three new FTTP offers (some of which target Virgin Media areas).

Firstly, Openreach have just extended a special offer for broadband ISPs, which discounts the charge on 10Gbps Cablelinks where it is used solely for FTTP lines (i.e. a Layer 2 Switch that is not supporting FTTC services). The discount was due to expire on 30th September 2026, but the price of £962.49 will now continue until 31st March 2027.

The second offer, which gave a rental discount on the 550Mbps product for New‑to‑Network (NTN) services (i.e. normally this is £247.35 ex. VAT per year but for 12 months it could be reduced to £215.32), was also originally due to expire on the same date but will now also run until 31st March 2027. Details of both extensions can be found here.

However, it is important to caveat that NTN means a property (house, flat etc.) where there has been no Openreach products and services on the relevant line at any point in the last 90 consecutive days prior to the date of an FTTP order – excluding any premises on ‘New Sites’, like new build homes.

Next, Openreach will also introduce two new nationwide FTTP offers – running from 1st July 2026 to 30th June 2027, which include a “free” 2.5G Optical Network Terminal (ONT) modem Box Swap offer for bandwidth regrades (upgrades) that apply to their current fastest tier of 1.8Gbps. In addition, there’s also a new nationwide “Frontbook ARPU share offer” for FTTP lines, which is a bit more technical (details here).

Take note that the industry term Frontbook usually refers to active sales, new connections, and ongoing provisioning via modern infrastructure (e.g. FTTP and Ethernet connections). The opposite to this is Backbook, which is more likely to reflect legacy services (e.g. analogue copper lines and ADSL).

Openreach’s Frontbook ARPU Share Offer

The introduction of a non-conditional, nationwide Frontbook ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) share offer for FTTP that provides CPs with 100% ARPU share on eligible Frontbook volumes once a defined Frontbook ARPU threshold is exceeded, to be run during an offer window

• Frontbook is defined as all completed provision orders (recognised in our systems as one of the following journeys – New To Openreach Network, Acquisitions, CP to CP migrations, Subsequent Provides and same CP migrations) and bandwidth modify orders (upgrades) completed during the offer period for applicable bandwidths as set out in the price list entry.
• Offer benefits would last a minimum 24 months per order until 30 June 2029 for those completions coming in at the tail end of the offer window.
• The defined Frontbook ARPU threshold will be adjusted by CPI-1.25% (with a floor of 0%) applied annually in line with annual price reviews on FTTP and Equinox.
• Frontbook ARPU is the average revenue per user of the Frontbook circuits.

…

This applies to FTTP circuits newly provided or bandwidth modified during the offer period. Where a CP’s Frontbook ARPU exceeds the defined Frontbook ARPU threshold during the offer benefit window, i.e. a minimum of 24 months from point of connection of each eligible circuit (with annual CPI-1.25% adjustment to the threshold), CP pays no more than this defined threshold. Existing circuits that do not change speed remain subject to the standard 50% Equinox ARPU Share where applicable.

Finally, the operator has also launch another offer from 1st October 2026 for an initial 6-month period, which will provide a £50 connection rebate for all incremental New to Openreach connections in VMO2 areas above a pre-defined baseline (applied only to bandwidth options included in their Equinox FTTP discounts). But the baseline applies only to ISPs with more than 1,000 FTTP orders nationwide in April 2026 – see details.

The overall move here is designed to encourage upgrades and new connections to faster FTTP lines, although it’s important to remember that the price ISPs pay for the service at wholesale is not the same as the price consumers (you) pay at retail; this is because ISPs have to add all sorts of extra costs on top (e.g. 20% VAT, profit margins, network services / features / capacity etc.). Consumer broadband is still a very low margins business.

UPDATE 3:03pm

We’ve just had an official comment from Openreach and some added descriptions come our way, as a few of the briefings are quite jargon heavy.

James Lowther, Managing Director for Commercial, said:

“The broadband market has changed fundamentally and competition is now stronger than ever. At the same time, we’ve built a nationwide Full Fibre network more efficiently than others, so these offers are about sharing that with customers and making upgrades more attractive – at a time when many households are watching every bill. We believe competition should deliver real value and benefits for customers, and that’s exactly what these offers are designed to support.”

More detail on the offers

Frontbook ARPU cap and 2.5G ONT Box Swap offer

From 1st July 2026 Openreach will put a ceiling on what a CP pays, on average, for eligible new and upgraded fibre lines. If the CP pushes the average revenue on new and upgraded lines above £19.32 a month, their effective charge will be capped at that level. The £90 fee to swap to a 2.5G ONT will also be removed for upgrades to speeds of 1.8Gbps.

Incremental New to Openreach customer offer

From 1st October 2026, Openreach will offer CPs extra discounts on new to Openreach FTTP customer connections that go above their baseline volume levels. There are three tiers which increase the incentives, with longer discounts for stronger performance at higher tiers.

Incremental New to Openreach customer offer in Virgin Media (O2) areas

From 1st October 2026, in addition to the national Incremental New to Openreach customer offer, Openreach will give providers an extra £50 rebate for winning incremental new FTTP customers in areas where it competes with Virgin Media O2. The offer only applies to customer wins above baseline levels, so it’s designed to drive genuinely incremental new end customer wins.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Rochdale-based UK broadband ISP Zen Internet has confirmed that MS3’s alternative full fibre (FTTP) network, which has so far covered 215,000 premises (Ready for Service) in the North of England (mostly in Hull and Lincolnshire), is now live on their service for business and consumers after being almost fully integrated following last year’s wholesale deal (here).

Just to recap. Zen sells their own broadband packages via multiple different full fibre networks (e.g. Openreach, CityFibre and many more) and also to other retail ISPs (partners) via their aggregated wholesale platform (The Fibre Hub). MS3 is now fully live on their Fibre Hub and we assume via Zen’s website too for their own consumers, but the latter is not completely clear.

The CEO of Zen Internet, Richard Tang, has also just done a brief video with Tom Edwards and Neil Isherwood from MS3 (see below), which among other things confirms that the network operator has just gone EBITDA positive (i.e. earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation).

Take note that while such a result, once achieved, would indicate that a company’s core operations are starting to become profitable (banks use this to help assess whether a company is able to pay off its debts), EBITDA itself doesn’t fully consider everything and there’s still a long road ahead.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Consultancy firm Cluttons and polling company YouGov have published the results from a new survey of 2,055 UK people and 108 MPs, which among other things found that 27% of consumers are frustrated with their home broadband (Wi-Fi) connection every week and 42% have difficulty accessing 4G or 5G mobile outside half the time or more.

At present around 90% of UK premises have access to a gigabit-capable broadband line (rising to 98% for 30Mbps+ speeds – here), while Ofcom reports that 4G mobile coverage (geographic) reaches a range of 89-93% across different operators, which falls to 73% when only looking at 5G coverage from one operator (here). Suffice to say that most people should be able to access a reasonable mobile or broadband connection, but gaps do remain.

The new report from Cluttons examines the situation from the perspective of consumer and MP experiences, which highlights how real experiences often differ from that of actual network availability. On the other hand, we do have to take the results from any opinion-based survey with a pinch of salt, particularly given the small sample sizes involved, as they may not always be a reliable reflection of reality (e.g. sometimes issues are caused by other factors, such as your hardware, rather than the network provider).

Overall, the report states that digital connectivity is now as “fundamental a utility as water, electricity and gas“, albeit one that is still “not treated as equally important“. The UK is thus said to be “failing to deliver” the reliable, high-quality connections that the economy and the public depend on to run successful businesses and lead full lives.

The human cost of this “underperformance” is said to be highlighted in the figures, some of which we’ve summarised below. All of this is despite 88% of 103 MPs surveyed in March by YouGov for Cluttons saying they agree that digital connectivity will be important in underpinning UK economic growth over the next two years.

Summary of Key Survey Findings

Consumers – Mobile

➤ 30% of consumers say they are frustrated with their 4G or 5G connection once a week.

➤ 42% of respondents said they have difficulties accessing 4G or 5G half the time (50%) or more when they are out and about, while 13% said it was problematic 75% of the time or more.

➤ When focusing on connections at home, a quarter of respondents said that accessing 4G or 5G was an issue at least 50% of the time.

➤ 46% agree (UK average) that new or upgraded digital infrastructure is needed locally to improve mobile coverage and capacity where they live.

➤ When asked if they would support a new mobile mast within 500 metres of their home if it improved mobile coverage and network capacity, 43% of respondents said they would support it (rising to 51% of 18-24 year olds).

Consumers – Broadband

➤ 26% of home respondents said they never felt frustrated (i.e. with slow or unreliable connection) with their WiFi, while 29% said they felt frustration less than once a month.

➤ 27% of respondents saying they felt frustration because of slow or unreliable connections once a week or more.

MPs

➤ 55% of MPs reported that local residents contacted them about slow or variable broadband connections once a month or more frequently.

➤ Only 9% of MPs said that digital connectivity had never been raised with them by people living in their constituency.

➤ 21% of MPs are contacted at least once a week by residents struggling with slow or variable broadband.

➤ 16% of MPs said that constituents talked to them about areas with no mobile phone coverage once a week or more, while 17% said they were having discussions about difficulty accessing 4G/5G connections at a similar frequency.

➤ 36% of MPs said that they heard details of challenges around people working from home or running a business due to poor connectivity once a month or more.

Trains

➤ 60% of respondents to their consumer survey who commute by train said they have a stable internet connection half the time or less on their journey. Only 5% said that they always had a reliable connection, rising to 7% for London and falling to 2% in the Midlands.

➤ 40% (38%) of respondents said they were more likely to work more during the journey if there was a more stable connection, rising to 45% for those aged between 18 and 24.

In addition, the report claims that improving digital connectivity on the UK’s train network could boost productivity by nearly £3 billion by 2035, according to new data. But it’s always wise to take any such economic claims with a sizeable pinch of salt.

Gráinne Gilmore, Head of Research at Cluttons, said:

“Connectivity is no longer optional infrastructure. Our data shows that millions of people across the UK are experiencing real, regular disruption to their work and personal lives because the infrastructure to support the connectivity requires upgrading, replacing or increasing.

The Government has good targets for standalone 5G which will improve capacity and reliability, but this technology requires additional infrastructure. Those parts of the UK that fall behind will be at a disadvantage. Every single Mayoral Combined Authority we interviewed said that good connectivity was essential for economic growth in their area, and MPs agree.”

Helen Morgan MP, Chair of the Digital Communities APPG, said:

“Digital connectivity is fundamental to the UK’s economic growth, acting as the backbone of a modern, productive economy. Reliable mobile and broadband services underpin business operations, enable remote working, and support innovation across sectors from healthcare to agriculture.

Poor connectivity directly constrains productivity, limits access to services and weakens competitiveness. This is particularly serious in rural areas where businesses report lost income, operational delays, and reduced efficiency. The roll-out of digital infrastructure is therefore critical. Investment in full fibre and mobile networks is not just about faster speeds but enabling wider economic transformation.”

Overall the report doesn’t say anything that’s terribly new or surprising, but it’s worth remembering that work is constantly ongoing to upgrade the country’s digital infrastructure. For example, the £5bn Project Gigabit scheme aims to help extend gigabit broadband (1Gbps+) networks to “nationwide” coverage (c.99% of UK premises) by 2032 and Ofcom are forecasting this could reach up to 95% by January 2029 (here).

Similarly, the government’s ambition on mobile connectivity is to go further and to have high quality, standalone 5G (5G+) in “all populated areas” of the UK by 2030, although we’d much rather they set a credible geographic coverage target for this than using the old ‘population metric’.

Lest we forget about the 10 Year Industrial Strategy, which also pledged a total of £41m to help introduce Low Earth Orbit (LEO) broadband satellite connectivity “on all mainline trains” in order to tackle the issue of poor onboard connectivity. Not to mention Project Reach, which reflects a public-private partnership that will deploy “ultra fast fibre optic cable” across 1,000 kilometres of major rail lines to help “eliminate mobile signal blackspots” in tunnels on “key rail routes” up and down the country (this could potentially be expanded to 5,000km in the future).

Suffice to say there’s a lot of work ongoing, although ensuring this is all delivered on time is another matter. Concerns have already been expressed over a potential funding shortfall in the Project Gigabit scheme (here), which has recently suffered a string of setbacks (e.g. contracted suppliers dropping out or scaling-back their deployment plans), often due to wider strains within the alternative network market (e.g. rising build costs, competition and high interest rates).

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

French benchmarking firm nPerf has today published the results from an unusual new study, which compared the fastest average mobile broadband download speeds (4G and 5G) of 20 countries with a similar size (land area) to Poland. The results saw the United Kingdom rank 3rd with an average speed of 105.8Mbps.

nPerf’s latest study was based on masses of tests carried out – between January and the end of April 2026 – by users of the speed testing tools on both nPerf’s website and via their dedicated mobile testing apps for Android and iOS. But we don’t get any hard stats on the sample sizes or structure.

Over the period studied, Poland stands out with an average mobile download speed of 109.9Mbps, the highest in the group. This result places it ahead of Germany (106.7 Mbps) and the United Kingdom (105.8 Mbps) in 2nd and 3rd place, respectively. At the other end of the table, Paraguay (16.8 Mbps) has a speed nearly 6.5 times slower than Poland and ranked slowest overall in 20th.

Analysis of the data also reveals some notable differences between continents. Europe dominates the top of the ranking with five countries in the top seven (Poland, Germany, United Kingdom, Spain, Italy), while Asia is represented by Vietnam, Thailand (86.7 Mbps), Cambodia, and Laos (30.7 Mbps). Africa, with Morocco, Madagascar, Tunisia, Senegal, Ivory Coast (22.6 Mbps), and Kenya (21.2 Mbps), generally shows performance below the group average (68.5Mbps), with Morocco as an exception.

Overall, this was a fairly narrow study and one that only examined average download speeds, which doesn’t really tell us all that much about the wider issues of mobile connectivity and coverage. Make of it what you will.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Mobile operator EE (BT) has today announced that 25 major events and more than 30 tourist destinations (seaside and market towns) will have been upgraded to support their latest 5G Standalone (5G+) mobile broadband technology this summer, bringing faster data speeds and better congestion management.

Just to recap. Early 5G deployments were Non-Standalone (NSA), which meant they were partly reliant upon older and slower 4G infrastructure. But SA (5G+) networks are pure end-to-end 5G that can deliver ultra-low latency times, greater energy efficiency, better mobile broadband speeds (particularly uploads), network slicing, improved support for Internet of Things (IoT) devices, support for Voice over 5G SA (Vo5G) calling, and increased reliability and security etc.

EE originally started deploying 5G+ across 15 major UK cities back in September 2024 (here) and they’ve since been rapidly expanding upon that coverage. The operator has previously informed ISPreview that they only announce 5GSA availability once a location has “at least 95% outdoor coverage“, which helps to ensure a good level of connectivity.

The operator’s 5G+ network is now available to 75% of the UK’s population and today’s upgrades mean the technology covers more than 44 million people in England, as well as over 2.1 million people in Wales, 3.3 million people in Scotland and nearly 1 million people in Northern Ireland.

Some of the 25 major events set to be given 5G+ capability this summer include BST Hyde Park, the Isle of Wight Festival, the Reading and Leeds Festival, the F1 British Grand Prix at Silverstone and the 2026 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. As for the 30+ tourist destinations, we’ve listed those below.

Over 30 Tourist Destinations EE’s 5G+ Upgrade

• Ballynahinch
• Blackpool
• Blackwood
• Bournemouth
• Canvey Island
• Chepstow
• Chester-le-Street
• Coleraine
• Dawlish
• Dumbarton
• East Kilbride
• Eastleigh
• Falkirk
• Flint
• Hebden Bridge
• Holywell
• Lisburn
• Monmouth
• Motherwell
• Newport (Isle of Wight)
• Pontypridd
• Porthcawl
• Rhyl
• Risca
• Roslin
• St Ives (Cambridgeshire)
• Stroud
• Tonypandy
• Torquay
• Weston-super-Mare
• Whitehaven
• Whitley Bay
• Winchester

Greg McCall, Chief Security and Networks Officer at BT, said:

“The summer has arrived and as our town centres and tourist hotspots get busier, staying connected with fast, secure and reliable mobile coverage has never been more important. 5G+ on EE has been designed to deliver exactly that, so whether you’re video-calling your friends from a packed festival crowd or just keeping in touch with your family while you’re shopping in the high street, switching to 5G+ means you can benefit from a more dependable connection.”

The latest upgrades are said to signal a shift into a more “practical phase” for 5G+ deployments, with EE planning around the places and moments where demand is needed most, rather than treating rollout as a simple coverage-map exercise. The operator also reported that customer usage of 5G+ increased by more than 11% between March and April 2026.

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Customers of Sky’s broadband-based Sky Glass and Sky Stream pay TV streaming devices and service are suffering from an annoying bug with the ITVX app, which causes any TV show or movie you may be watching to suddenly skip right to the end and then report the content as having been watched.

The issue, which usually happens at the beginning of a programme or straight after an advertising break, appears to have started around the beginning of last week and remains ongoing. A lot of the feedback on Sky’s Community Forum suggests that the bug occurs after customers attempt to skip past ads using Sky’s Ad Skipping add-on, but others report that it can still occur even without attempting to skip ads.

Just to recap. The paid Ad Skipping feature allows customer to skip or fast-forward through adverts with On Demand content and supporting apps, such as ITVX, STV Player and the All4 TV apps (using the ‘Skip Ads‘ button on the remote). But somehow this feature appears to be triggering the new ITVX bug too.

Sky’s support team initially suggested that customers try resetting their devices from the ‘Settings‘ menu, but in most cases, this only seemed to result in a temporary reprieve and the bug soon returned. In addition, this has the nasty habit of deleting your previously selected settings and play lists etc.

Sky Community Team Member Kev said (Friday 29th May):

“Thank you for making us aware of this problem.

We can understand how frustrating this must be and have escalated the problem to our support teams. They will work with ITV to fix the issue. As soon as I have more information, I’ll update everyone.

I’m going to mark this post as the current answer, so that everyone has the most up-to-date information.”

Experiences do seem to vary a bit with this issue, thus some people they may be able to avoid the problem by simply not skipping ads or resetting the device, yet for others it will still reoccur regardless. The safest temporary solution is simply to stomach the ads and access the ITVX app from a different device/platform, but that’s not exactly ideal for those who paid for Ad Skipping. We can only hope there’s a patch soon.

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Eastbourne-based ISP Lightning Fibre, which is deploying a full fibre broadband (FTTP) network across parts of Sussex and Kent in England (they also hold a partnership to harness CityFibre’s wider UK network – here), have partnered with Genexis to launch a new range of Wi-Fi 7 capable routers and mesh extenders for customers.

The first Wi-Fi 7 devices to be introduced are the Aura E750 gateway (router) and Home CX750 wireless mesh extender, although the brief announcement doesn’t mention any details of package availability. But we do note that, at present, the only packages on Lighting Fibre’s website to mention Wi-Fi 7 support are their top 1Gbps (£32 per month) and 2.5Gbps (£49 per month) tiers.

A number of other broadband providers, such as LilaConnect and nufibre to name a few, have also adopted consumer broadband kit from European network kit manufacturer Genexis.

Paul Thornton, CTO at Lightning Fibre, said:

“Our customers rely on us not only for an outstanding full fibre connection to the home, but also for the best possible experience inside the home. By launching Wi-Fi 7 products with Genexis, we’re taking a major step forward in performance and reliability, ensuring households and businesses can make the most of gigabit services today and be ready for what comes next.”

Simon Higgins, Country Manager UK and Ireland at Genexis, said:

“Lightning Fibre has a clear focus on delivering an exceptional customer experience, and we’re proud to support their Wi-Fi 7 launch. Together, we’re enabling a new generation of in-home connectivity, built for high performance, operational simplicity, and long-term scalability as service demands continue to grow.”

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Customers of Sky’s broadband-based Sky Glass and Sky Stream pay TV streaming devices and service are suffering from an annoying bug with the ITVX app, which causes any TV show or movie you may be watching to suddenly skip right to the end and then report the content as having been watched.

The issue, which usually happens at the beginning of a programme or straight after an advertising break, appears to have started around the beginning of last week and remains ongoing. A lot of the feedback on Sky’s Community Forum suggests that the bug occurs after customers attempt to skip past ads using Sky’s Ad Skipping add-on, but others report that it can still occur even without attempting to skip ads.

Just to recap. The paid Ad Skipping feature allows customer to skip or fast-forward through adverts with On Demand content and supporting apps, such as ITVX, STV Player and the All4 TV apps (using the ‘Skip Ads‘ button on the remote). But somehow this feature appears to be triggering the new ITVX bug too.

Sky’s support team initially suggested that customers try resetting their devices from the ‘Settings‘ menu, but in most cases, this only seemed to result in a temporary reprieve and the bug soon returned. In addition, this has the nasty habit of deleting your previously selected settings and play lists etc.

Sky Community Team Member Kev said (Friday 29th May):

“Thank you for making us aware of this problem.

We can understand how frustrating this must be and have escalated the problem to our support teams. They will work with ITV to fix the issue. As soon as I have more information, I’ll update everyone.

I’m going to mark this post as the current answer, so that everyone has the most up-to-date information.”

Experiences do seem to vary a bit with this issue, thus some people they may be able to avoid the problem by simply not skipping ads or resetting the device, yet for others it will still reoccur regardless. The safest temporary solution is simply to stomach the ads and access the ITVX app from a different device/platform, but that’s not exactly ideal for those who paid for Ad Skipping. We can only hope there’s a patch soon.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Customers of alternative rural full fibre broadband ISP County Broadband are to be migrated to the Truespeed brand over the next few months. The move follows last year’s merger of the two altnets (here), which at the time created a single operator covering 177,000 premises (RFS) and 40,000 customers. Since then Truespeed has also merged with Freedom Fibre (here), but that’s another story.

In case anybody has forgotten, the County Broadband side of the merged network had previously built their Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) infrastructure across rural parts of Cambridgeshire, Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk in England (c.250 villages). But until now it wasn’t clear precisely what would happen to CB’s base of retail customers post-merger, although they did initially pledge to continue trading under their own names for the “immediate future“.

Since then, new customers joining County Broadband in East Anglia have benefitted from a few improvements, such as a new WiFi 6 router, as well as further investment into their network and customer service quality. But Truespeed (officially known as the ‘Freedom Truespeed Group‘) has now decided to move on from County Broadband’s brand.

ISPreview understands that County Broadband customers will, over the next few months (June to August 2026), be gradually migrated to Truespeed’s systems, resulting in a combined customer base of over 43,000 Truespeed customers in the South West and East, operating under a single brand (this figure excludes Freedom Fibre’s base, which is split across multiple ISPs via a wholesale-only network).

The information indicates that the services, pricing, contract terms, and service conditions of these customers will remain unchanged, and customers need not take any action during this migration. But customers of CB can still expect the branding/logos on their invoices and account pages to change to Truespeed, starting on the next billing cycle after their migration date. Customers will be emailed once the migration has completed to confirm they’re now on Truespeed and provide additional details.

Otherwise, it doesn’t appear as if existing CB customers need to do anything and their service should not be interrupted during the change.

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The UK Government’s Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT / DCMS) has today proposed “tougher fines and prison sentences” for those who damage subsea infrastructure essential for UK broadband access and trade, with consultation planned to take place later this year.

Damage to submarine cables is sadly not all that uncommon. According to the United Nations ICPC (here), an average of 150 to 200 faults occur globally each year and require about three cable repairs per week (97% of such breaks are NOT malicious). In addition, it usually takes a few weeks to fix a break, but this depends upon the type of break, its depth, weather conditions and various other factors.

Most of the breaks that occur are caused by accidents due deep sea fishing trawlers, as well as ships accidentally dragging their anchor over them. Not to mention abrasion, equipment failure or marine life deciding to take a nibble (the latter is only really an issue for smaller / older cables that haven’t been buried). But over the past few years the act of deliberate sabotage has also become a real problem (example).

Unfortunately, the existing Submarine Telegraph Act 1885 is weak and can only impose a £1,000 fine, which isn’t a deterrent against costly cable damage accidents related to negligence or sabotage, particularly those that occur in the gray zone of conflict (e.g. the deliberate use of civilian vessels to cause damage). Not to mention the difficulty of extending any law beyond the UK’s own territorial waters and the lack of resources to protect so many cables.

However, improvements are being made in terms of monitoring (Distributed Fibre Optic Sensing) technologies and military measures, but today the focus is more on the side of supportive legal measures. Previous inquiries have found that the UK has “plenty of cable routes and good repair processes for business-as-usual breakages“, but that the rules need to be toughened to help cope with today’s heightened threat environment (here).

What is the government planning?

Speaking at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) today, the UK telecoms minister, Liz Lloyd MP, set out plans to consult on replacing 140-year-old legislation to make the law clearer, and much harder to evade – with tougher fines and prison sentences for vessel owners and operators that intentionally or recklessly damage cables.

She also highlighted that the Government is considering new security obligations on cable owners and operators, ensuring they take the “necessary steps to prevent, detect and respond to security compromises in a consistent and timely manner“.

New emergency powers to direct businesses to protect this infrastructure will also be included in the proposals, which would strengthen government’s ability to respond to major subsea cable incidents and minimise disruption to UK connectivity. The proposals will be set out in detail through a white paper later this year.

Take note that acts of sabotage clearly linked to a hostile state can already carry a risk of life imprisonment for the most serious cases, but proving that can be difficult.

Telecoms Minister, Liz Lloyd, said:

“The UK already has strong protections in place for our subsea cables, but in a more uncertain world we cannot stand still.

As hostile activity by Russia and others grows, protecting these cables matters more than ever for our economy, security and daily lives. That is why we plan to go further with tougher penalties for reckless damage, stronger security obligations and new powers to respond quickly when incidents happen.

True resilience depends on having a healthy thriving telecoms sector, and government must play an active role in creating the conditions for commercial success. By building a strong domestic industry we don’t just protect infrastructure, we strengthen the UK’s position as a global centre for digital trade.”

The Minister also pointed to existing plans to support further investment into cable upgrades through “common-sense regulation” that “supports growth rather than holds it back” – pointing to exemptions on environmental red tape for the laying, maintenance and removal of subsea cables in deep waters, where the impact on marine life is claimed to be “extremely limited“.

As we’ve said before, cutting lots of subsea cables within the same short period of time (i.e. to cause maximum disruption), while a risk, is something that would be both extremely difficult to completely prevent and to actually carry out. On the other hand, the more such attacks take place, the greater the strain on limited resources for repairs, which risks causing a build-up of cumulative delays and thus connectivity problems.

The catch for an aggressor is that the same sort of attacks and strategies could then also be used against them. The fact that so much international trade is carried over the internet also means that other countries will be harmed by such an activity, which in a conflict may end up including the attacking state or its allies to some extent (i.e. directly or indirectly).

Suffice to say that tougher laws are needed and will be welcomed, although it will take more than that to create a truly effective deterrent against deliberate sabotage. As an island nation we have good reason to be highly protective of our subsea links, not only for fibre but also energy etc.