Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

The MP for North Shropshire in England, Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat), has called on the Government to take urgent action in its ongoing attempts to find a solution after network provider Freedom Fibre scaled back their £24m (public subsidy) Project Gigabit broadband roll-out contract for the region in June 2025.

Just to recap. The contract with Freedom Fibre originally aimed to cover “around” 12,000 hard-to-reach rural homes in North Shropshire with a Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network. But toward the end of June 2025 the operator (here), which had been under some financial strain, revealed that they’d already completed the build to 2,500 premises and would now only be able to reach 1,000 more (a total of 3,500 have since been completed).

The Government’s Building Digital UK (BDUK) agency then confirmed that they and Freedom Fibre had “mutually agreed to descope the remaining 8,500 premises from this contract“, which left affected premises stuck in limbo while efforts were made to find a solution. At the time BDUK said they were “moving swiftly to put in place alternative plans with other suppliers to connect premises that were due to be covered by this contract.”

According to the Border Counties Advertizer, a meeting was held this week with BDUK to update the local authority on their plans. The local MP said she was told that some as yet unserved properties in the previously contracted area may now have to wait until 2030 to receive full fibre. In addition, BDUK seems to have been unable to appoint a new provider to continue the work and is thus now considering “alternative delivery options“.

Helen Morgan (MP) said:

“The delay to the roll-out of high-speed broadband to North Shropshire is unacceptable. Families and businesses who were promised full fibre under Project Gigabit cannot afford to wait until 2030.

The Government must honour its commitment and deliver these connections as soon as possible. Once again rural areas are being left behind by a government that does not understand the reality of living with patchy mobile signal and snail-paced broadband.”

The update suggests that BDUK may be struggling to adopt the same approach as they did when a similar issue occurred with network operator Voneus in Mid West Shropshire (Lot 25.01), which resulted in the contract being scooped up by Openreach (BT) as part of their Cross-Regional (Type C) procurements (here). We had been expecting that this might work for North Shropshire (Lot 25.02) too, but that is now in doubt.

The above would have been the quickest solution to connecting such premises. But if the area is proving to be too challenging for such an approach (cost may be the big issue) and isn’t attracting interest from other suppliers, then that leaves few options. BDUK has already re-opened Shropshire to their Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme (GBVS), but that’s a very limited approach and is unlikely to deliver for the whole area.

In the meantime, locals impacted by this may need to consider more expensive alternatives, such as the Starlink service. Some of the related area may also be lucky enough to have access to a good 4G or 5G (mobile broadband) signal from one of the major mobile operators, but clearly that’s not going to be the case for everybody.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Ofcom has today published their latest quarterly Q2 2025 study of UK consumer telecoms and TV complaints, which names EE as attracting the most gripes from customers for fixed broadband and Pay TV services, while Three UK took the most flak for Mobile services.

Take note that the regulator’s report only covers complaints that Ofcom itself has received and not those sent directly to an ISP, the ISPA or an Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) complaints handler (i.e. Communications Ombudsman or CISAS). Ofcom does not deal with individual complaints, but they do monitor them and can take action if enough people raise a concern.

Otherwise, the results below reflect a proportion of residential subscribers (i.e. the total number of quarterly complaints per 100,000 customers per provider), which makes it easier to compare providers in a market where ISPs can vary significantly in size. But sadly, the study only covers feedback from the largest ISPs due to limited data (i.e. those with a market share of at least 1.5%).

Just for some extra context. Ofcom’s most recent May 2025 study of telecoms provider quality (here) revealed that the proportion of UK consumers who were satisfied with their communications services stood at 73% for landline services (down from 77% two years earlier), 84% for broadband (up from 82%) and 88% for mobile services (up from 87%).

Fixed Line Home Broadband Complaints

EE attracted the most broadband complaints in Q2 2025, with 38% of them being driven by faults, service and provisioning issues. On the flip side, Plusnet attracted the fewest complaints of all the listed providers. But it’s worth noting that Virgin Media has also continued to improve.

Rob Orr, VMO2’s Chief Operating Officer, said:

“Today’s Ofcom data is further proof that our laser focus on improving customer service is paying off, with complaints down by more than 50% year-on-year, and by almost a third compared with the previous quarter. This also follows our three award wins at the recent UK Customer Experience Awards – including for ‘Best Complaint Handling’ and ‘Best Change and Transformation’ – highlighting the progress we’re making.

We’re investing heavily across the business to simplify our systems and processes, upskill our agents and roll out new technology that helps them support our customers when they get in touch. We’ll continue to make improvements and ensure we consistently give our customers the best possible experience with us.”

Fixed Line Phone Complaints

EE also attracted the most complaints for fixed line (landline) phone services, which were once again mainly driven (35%) by faults, service and provisioning issues. By comparison, Utility Warehouse continued to attract the fewest complaints on a score of ZERO, followed Sky.

Mobile Complaints

Mobile operators still enjoy lower complaint levels than fixed line providers, but Three UK did still attract the most problems, while EE, Tesco Mobile and Vodafone all tied for the fewest complaints on a score of 1.

Pay TV Complaints

Finally, EE also attracted the most complaints for Pay TV services, while TalkTalk received the fewest complaints.

Ofcom’s Consumer Complaints Report Q2 2025
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/../telecoms-and-pay-tv-complaints

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

The UK telecoms regulator, Ofcom, has today said they’re “disappointed” by mobile operator O2’s (Virgin Media) recent decision (here) to increase their annual mid-contract price rises beyond what customers agreed when they signed-up (often above inflation too) and then forcing that upon existing customers. But so far an expression of disappointment is all they’ll do.

Just for some context. At the start of 2025 Ofcom began requiring UK telecoms providers to adopt a new approach to mid-contract price hikes, which did away with the old percentage and inflation-based model – replacing it with one that must now set out such price rises “clearly and up-front, in pounds and pence, when a customer signs up” (here). This made annual price hikes clearer and more transparent, but not necessarily cheaper.

In response, many broadband and mobile providers introduced flat annual price increases. For example, O2 originally said they’d increase mid-contract prices by £1.80 (monthly) every April for Pay Monthly (airtime) customers, but this suddenly changed last week after they increased the level of annual hikes from £1.80 to £2.50. On top of that, they also applied this to existing customers, albeit while giving them the option of a penalty free contract exit.

The move actually isn’t the first example of such a mid-flight pricing policy change, with both Virgin Media (here) and the BT Group providers (inc. EE and Plusnet) recently doing something similar for broadband (here). But for some reason, Ofcom’s response today only seems to single out O2’s change, and they completely fail to address the fact that the policies being adopted by most providers unfairly penalise those on cheaper packages (the same increase is applied, regardless of how much your monthly package costs).

Ofcom’s Statement

We want customers to have certainty about their monthly mobile bills so they can plan their household budgets. That’s why earlier this year we banned unpredictable price rises linked to inflation and instead required providers to tell customers upfront in pounds and pence about any increases in their contract. 

We are disappointed by O2’s decision. This goes against the spirit of our rules which are designed to ensure greater certainty and transparency for customers when they sign up.  

Today, we’ve written to the major mobile companies reminding them of their obligations to treat customers fairly. We encourage any customer who wants to avoid these price rises to exercise their right to exit without penalty and sign up to a new deal, following our five top tips: 

• Know your rights. Your provider must give 30 days’ notice and let you exit your contract penalty free if they increase prices beyond what you agreed when you signed up. That means you’re free to sign up to a new deal – either with your existing provider or with a new one. 

• Shop around. Use a price comparison site to check out the best alternative deals on offer. 

• Text to switch. You can switch to new mobile provider by sending a simple text message. Just text ‘INFO’ to 85075 for free to get the ball rolling and follow the easy instructions. 

• Consider a social tariff. These are cheaper packages for people claiming Universal Credit, Pension Credit or other benefits. They’re delivered in the same way as normal packages, and the price won’t go up mid-contract. 

• Use Ofcom’s ‘Map your Mobile’ tool. Head to Ofcom’s ‘Map Your Mobile’ tool, put in your postcode and instantly find out which provider offers the best coverage in your area.”  

Naturally, the network operators would argue that they have to increase prices each year due to costs rising in other areas, such as service provision, regulation, energy and the need to invest in new network upgrades. At the same time, the level of inflation has remained much higher than it was previously forecast to be, which changes the risk and cost assessment that each provider has to make.

As usual it’s worth remembering that not all providers play the mid-contract price hikes game and quite a few smaller players do still offer fixed price terms. But for now, Ofcom can only express being “disappointed” and seems unwilling to take any firmer action, which is itself a disappointment to consumers. The calls for mid-contract hikes to be banned will no doubt continue to grow, although doing so without wrecking the flexibility to offer competitive discounts would be tricky.

UPDATE 2:05pm

We’ve had a response from O2.

An O2 spokesperson said:

“As acknowledged by Ofcom in its letter to providers, its rules do not prevent companies from increasing annual price changes – for example, to invest in improving networks. The changes we have announced in no way breach any regulatory rules.

We appreciate that price changes are never welcome, but demand for mobile connectivity is greater than ever, and any price change customers see on their bills is greatly outweighed by the £700m we invest each year into our mobile network to meet this growing demand. We have written directly to customers about this change, and they are able to exit without penalty if they wish.”

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

The UK communications regulator, Ofcom, has today granted a new gateway licence for Amazon’s future Project Kuiper network. The move supports the retail giant’s effort to launch a global mega-constellation of satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), which will deliver affordable ultrafast broadband and mobile (4G, 5G) services to rival Starlink (SpaceX).

Amazon is already well into the early process of launching its global mega-constellation of 3,236 compact satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) – sitting at an altitude of between 590km and 630km – and they’ve already won several other related licences for this (here). The first commercial (beta) services are currently expected to get underway by around March 2026 (here).

The latest announcement grants the project an NGSO Earth Station Licence for a terrestrial gateway site in Bude (Cornwall), which is needed in order to help Kuiper provide “high-speed, low-latency broadband services” to households, businesses and other customers in the UK, as well as backhaul connectivity to telecommunications carriers.

Ofcom’s Decision

This decision will enable Kuiper to operate a satellite gateway to provide satellite connectivity services in the UK to households, businesses and other customers, as well as backhaul connectivity services, using Ka band frequencies between 27.5-27.9505 GHz, 28.4445-28.9585 GHz and 29.4525-30 GHz.

On coexistence, we consider that Kuiper has provided the necessary evidence to show that its NGSO gateway should be capable of coexisting with current and future NGSO systems and gateway earth stations in the Ka band in the UK, and are assured that its NGSO system is designed with sufficient flexibility to mitigate harmful interference should it arise. We are also satisfied that Kuiper has provided suitable evidence of coordination discussions with other NGSO licensees and that it intends to continue its efforts to cooperate with other licensees.

In addition, we assess that the competition risks from approving Kuiper’s application for an NGSO gateway licence are low, and that the proposed gateway site would benefit UK consumers, customers and citizens.

We will now proceed to issue Kuiper with an NGSO gateway licence to operate in Ka band frequencies 27.5-27.9505 GHz, 28.4445- 28.9585 GHz and 29.4525-30 GHz, subject to payment of the licence fee. A copy of the licence will also be available under the “Existing licences” section of our NGSO licensing webpage.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

The Swansea Bay City Deal’s Digital Infrastructure Programme, which includes various broadband and other digital infrastructure upgrades as part of the wider £1.3bn Swansea Bay City Region project, has received a green rating in its latest Gateway Review, which is said to reflect its progress in improving digital connectivity across the region.

Just to recap. The UK and Welsh Governments gave approval for a £55m digital infrastructure investment under the Swansea Bay City Region project back in 2021 (here), which among other things aimed to expand full fibre and 5G mobile connectivity to benefit homes and businesses across Carmarthenshire, Neath Port Talbot, Pembrokeshire and Swansea. Some of this investment also comes from the Local Broadband Fund (LBF) for Wales.

A number of related projects have since been awarded and made good progress, such as the £1.9m Full Fibre Infrastructure Build project with BT that helped to upgrade 69 key public sector sites (here). As a result, the Office for Project Delivery’s independent review team has now awarded the highest possible rating to the programme, stating that delivery to time, cost and quality is highly likely, with no major issues affecting progress.

Sadly, there isn’t yet a link to this review because it’s still due to be put through programme governance. But it is said to have “praised the programme’s agile delivery, strong stakeholder relationships, and the role of Digital Champions within each local authority“, who have been key in driving delivery, removing barriers and aligning public and private sector investment.

Simon Davies, Senior Responsible Owner for the programme, told ISPreview:

“I welcome the findings of this Gateway Review and am pleased that the Review Team has confirmed the programme is on track for successful delivery. Strong governance, stakeholder engagement and effective management have been key to our success. I’m especially proud of the impact our Broadband Engagement Officers and Digital Connectivity Relationship Managers have had in supporting communities and businesses across the region.”

Looking ahead, work is now said to be underway to explore the programme’s future beyond 2027, which may help to ensure the long-term sustainability of its projects and economic impact in the region.

Original article Total Telecom:Read More

News

The move would be the largest consolidation of the UK altnet market to date

According to a report from the Financial Times, Virgin Media O2 (VMO2) has entered into negotiations to acquire fibre altnet rival Netomnia for £2 billion.

The move would represent the start in earnest of long-awaited consolidation of the UK’s fibre broadband market.

Founded in 2019, Netomnia’s fibre network currently covers 2.8 million premises, with roughly 400,000 ISP customers. The operator is one of the fastest growing in the UK, targeting 3 million premises passed by the end of the year and 5 million by the end of 2027.

If acquired, anonymous sources suggest that Netomnia’s network would be folded into those of VMO2 and/or Nexfibre, the joint venture owned by VMO2’s shareholders Liberty Global/Telefonica and InfraVia Capital.

VMO2’s network has around 6.4 million premises covered by full fibre, while Nexfibre has roughly 2.3 million. Combining Netomnia with either of these players would make the resulting company the second-largest fibre network operator in the UK, overtaking rival CityFibre, which has around 4.3 million premises passed.

No official agreement has yet been reached. In fact, VMO2 may yet have some competition for Netomnia, with the report also noting that CityFibre is discussing a tie up with the company.

Netomnia has also been positioning itself more as an acquirer than an acquiree. Netomnia acquired smaller rival brsk last year, a deal which remains the largest M&A activity in the altnet market to date, and more smaller players could yet follow.

Speaking to Total Telecom at Connected Britain earlier this year, Netomnia CEO Jeremy Chelot spoke about the company’s rapid growth and his ambitions to make it the “largest altnet in the UK”. The company recently secured an additional £300 million in junior debt in order to fuel its expansion, both organic and inorganic. It also undertook a major rebrand, which Chelot said was more representative of the company’s scale and potential.

The altnet market has been primed for consolidation for some time, with smaller players largely struggling towards a positive cash flow in a highly competitive market. Despite this, M&A has been slow to materialise, largely due the networks’ ever-shifting borders and disparate valuations. If Netomnia is acquired by either of its major rivals, it could be a catalyst for a consolidation cascade.

In related news, VMO2’s latest earnings report coincides with the announcement of a new partnership with SpaceX’s Starlink. The deal will see the operator make use of the Starlink’s nascent direct-to-device (D2D) capabilities via a new product called ‘O2 Satellite’.

Starlink’s D2D capabilities, which are currently limited to data and messaging services, are intended to help fill in the UK’s various ‘not spots’, enhancing the network’s overall coverage in rural areas.

Commercial launch is expected in H1 2026.

Keep up to date with all of the latest telecoms news from around the world with the Total Telecom newsletter

Also in the news
Connected Britain Award winners 2025 announced!
Netomnia announces ‘powerful and ambitious’ rebrand ahead of Connected Britain
VodafoneThree drops Samsung, relies on Nokia and Ericsson for £2bn network upgrade

Original article Total Telecom:Read More

Interviews

At Connected Britain, we spoke with Aurelien Bergonzo, Director of Telecom Datacom, and Infrastructure Business Unit at ACOME, to discuss how to more deeply embed sustainability throughout the telecoms supply chain

Is sustainability truly a priority for telcos?

At Connected Britain 2025, the topic of carbon neutrality and sustainable networks was as prominent as ever, but evidence of true progress at scale was in short supply.

For ACOME’s Aurelien Bergonzo, a big part of this challenge has been the difficult macroeconomic environment, which has seen operators forced to focus more heavily on cost.

“Despite the ambition for carbon neutrality, the reality is that cost remains the main criteria for operators,” he said, noting that technical breakthroughs in greener network tech are being made frequently but implemented too slowly.

“You need to have a competitive physical layer and a competitive network, but at the same time you want to decarbonise. I think that’s impeding our adoption of breakthrough [sustainable] technology,” he explained.

The solution, Bergonzo argues, is taking a more holistic approach to the entire network supply chain, compounding on small sustainability gains throughout the networks life cycle.

“People are engaged and willing but right now we’re not working together as an ecosystem to make this a reality,” he said. “Everyone is the scope three of someone else. So, at the end of the day, its really about taking a holistic approach. If we move forward collectively, we can make some significant advances.”

Watch our full interview below!

Keep up to date with all of the latest telecoms news from around the world with the Total Telecom newsletter

Also in the news
Connected Britain Award winners 2025 announced!
Netomnia announces ‘powerful and ambitious’ rebrand ahead of Connected Britain
VodafoneThree drops Samsung, relies on Nokia and Ericsson for £2bn network upgrade

Original article Total Telecom:Read More

• Dry cooling, which will ensure water consumption at the site will be comparable with conventional office buildings

• Retaining 54% of the land as open space

• A commitment to create new ecological habitats which will deliver a biodiversity net gain of at least 10%

“The UK is a cornerstone of the global economy and is a natural home for our most substantial investment in Europe to date. This development brings a significant amount of data centre capacity to Britain, contributing to the government’s AI growth ambition. But this investment goes far beyond building the infrastructure needed to unlock the UK’s digital potential. It’s the evolution of an ongoing partnership with the local and national community,” said James Tyler, UK Managing Director, Equinix.

“This £3.9 billion investment is a huge win for Britain. It will give businesses – from life sciences to high street banks – the ability to connect to thousands of other businesses across the world in an instant, powering our AI ambitions, boosting growth and creating hundreds of well-paid jobs. This is about making sure the UK is at the forefront of the digital revolution and ensuring that every community benefits from the opportunities this new technology brings,” said Liz Kendall, Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology.

“This announcement reflects the scale of opportunity the UK has to strengthen its digital foundations. As highlighted in our Foundations for the Future report, data centres are the backbone of our economy – they enable innovation, productivity and growth across every sector. Continued investment in sustainable, resilient digital infrastructure will be critical to delivering on the UK’s ambitions for AI and long-term economic prosperity,” said Luisa Cardani, Head of Data Centres, techUK.

This announcement builds on Equinix’s established UK footprint, and existing investment which includes:

• 14 data centres located in the UK. Across these facilities, a large portion of the customer base is UK-based businesses. Equinix supports over 10,000 different customers globally

• Over 1,200 UK-based employees, contributing £145 million directly to household income in the UK

• All sites designed for heat to be exported, enabling future conservation of energy which also benefits local communities

Keep up to date with all of the latest telecoms news from around the world with the Total Telecom newsletter

Also in the news
Connected Britain Award winners 2025 announced!
Netomnia announces ‘powerful and ambitious’ rebrand ahead of Connected Britain
VodafoneThree drops Samsung, relies on Nokia and Ericsson for £2bn network upgrade

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Mobile operator Vodafone (VodafoneThree) has expanded the availability of their “Fix & Go” service for repairing various issues (battery and screen replacement etc.), which is now present across 14 UK stores and is available for Samsung, Apple or Google devices on any network, as well as those with out-of-warranty handsets.

The service, which typically costs from £49 for a battery replacement or £79 for a screen replacement (parts replaced will be covered by a new warranty), is now available at stores in White City, London Stratford, Oxford Street Experience, Cardiff, Edinburgh Princes Street and Belfast Cornmarket. New locations since October include: Glasgow Buchanan Street, Brent Cross, Plymouth, Burnley, Southampton, Swindon, Hanley and Sunderland stores.

Since launching the service earlier this year Vodafone has found that the most commonly requested repairs are screen and battery replacements, followed by more complex repairs like camera lens replacements. Jon Shaw, Consumer Operations Director, said: “We know how important having a working phone is to customers. We also know that, historically, repairs have been too expensive and time consuming, so Fix & Go looks to solve these issues.”

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

A major newspaper has this morning claimed that broadband giant Virgin Media (O2) have opened non-exclusive talks with alternative full fibre network operator Netomnia (Youfibre, Brsk), which could result in a £2bn deal that would expand VMO2’s network coverage and potentially remove a key competitor from the market. CityFibre are also said to be interested in the altnet.

At present Netomnia (Substantial Group) is one of the UK market’s largest altnets and has deployed their Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) based broadband service to cover 2.8 million UK premises RFS (inc. 400,000 customers) – available across parts of over 90 cities and towns. The group aims to cover 3 million UK premises by the end of 2025 and then 5m by the end of 2027 (inc. 1m customers by 2028).

According to the FT (paywall), two people “familiar with the matter” have claimed that VMO2 and Netomia are now in talks over the potential consolidation deal. Such an agreement, if it were made, may involve a combination between nexfibre and Netomnia rather than Virgin Media and Netomia, which we suspect might reduce the chances of regulatory scrutiny due to nexfibre being a semi-separate company, albeit with shared parentage.

Just to recap. Nexfibre is a £4.5bn joint venture between Telefónica, Liberty Global and InfraVia Capital Partners (here). The network has so far covered around 2.4 million UK premises with their new full fibre network, which is being built by Virgin Media’s engineers. But the operator’s original plan to cover “up to” 7 million UK homes (starting with 5m by 2026) in areas NOT currently served by Virgin’s network of 16m+ premises was recently dealt a blow by Telefonica’s strategic review (here) and currently has no clear plan for going beyond 2.5m premises.

However, we can’t help but feel that a consolidation between these two would be a tough sell, particularly due to there being quite a lot of overbuild between VMO2/nexfibre and Netomnia’s respective networks in urban areas. On top of that, Netomnia has positioned itself as being more of a cutting-edge but low cost broadband disruptor, which differs significantly from Virgin Media’s perhaps more historically premium (pricing) approach.

Suffice to say that such a deal may also be unlikely to go down well with customers of Netomnia’s retail ISPs, many of which will have previously chosen them to escape from major ISPs, like Virgin Media, and their cycle of inflation busting mid-contract price hikes and expensive post-contract pricing. On top of that, there’s the usual complexities over differences in network infrastructure and technology, which could be quite tricky to resolve.

On the other hand, it’s worth remembering that such talks aren’t unexpected in today’s market, particularly with so many altnets being under pressure from competition, rising build costs and high interest rates. Netomnia has been one of the few altnets to continue building through this phase of the market, seemingly with some success, but they’re not immune to the challenges.

Just to underline the above point, the same newspaper claims that CityFibre has also approached Netomnia for talks and that a deal “was still a possibility“. Such a deal would actually seem to make a lot more sense, given how there’s significantly less overbuild between this pair and consolidation would create serious competitive scale in the altnet space (CityFibre covers about 4.5m premises). But it would also create a group that carries a huge amount of debt, which might be an issue for an alternative deal with VMO2 too, depending upon the approach.

In the end, none of these talks should be considered as unexpected in today’s consolidation minded market, where everybody seems to be talking to everybody else. But whether any of this leads to a real agreement and even more serious talks is another matter entirely. Take with a pinch of salt.