Original article Total Telecom:Read More

Press Release

Government, industry and education unite to inspire the next generation of professionals who will build, maintain and protect critical digital & energy infrastructure  

While recent headlines have focused on the importance of protecting submarine cables, government and industry leaders gathered at London’s BT Tower this week to highlight another vital part of the story: the people who build, install, maintain, repair and protect the infrastructure that keeps the world connected. 

The UK’s Minister for Digital Economy, Baroness Lloyd, joined representatives from government, industry and academia to discuss how the UK can attract and develop the skilled workforce needed to support one of the world’s most important yet least visible industries. 

Subsea telecommunications cables carry more than 99% of intercontinental digital communications, enabling everything from financial transactions and cloud computing to international communications and global trade. Behind this infrastructure is a highly skilled workforce working both offshore and onshore, requiring a diverse skillset including mariners, engineers, technicians, environmental specialists, manufacturers, and project managers. 

Hosted by BT and delivered in partnership with the European Subsea Cables Association (ESCA), the International Cable Protection Committee (ICPC) and the SubOptic Foundation, the Subsea Cables Summer Reception brought together government, industry and education to explore how awareness of these careers can be increased and how the skills pipeline can be strengthened for the future.   

Opening the event, Baroness Lloyd, Minister for Digital Economy, and Gus Jaspert, Managing Director – Marine at The Crown Estate, highlighted the importance of developing the workforce that will support the UK’s future digital infrastructure. The Minister also met engineers, cable specialists and offshore professionals responsible for laying, repairing and protecting submarine cables, alongside members of ESCA’s NextGen Subgroup—a network of around 120 students and early-career professionals committed to encouraging the next generation into the sector.   

The event showcased the wide variety of careers available across the industry, demonstrating that there is no single route into the sector. Alongside graduate opportunities, speakers highlighted the importance of apprenticeships, vocational training and technical education in developing the workforce needed to support future digital connectivity.   

Baroness Lloyd, Minister for Digital Economy said: 

“Subsea cables are the hidden backbone of our economy and everyday lives, carrying the data that keeps people, businesses and public services connected. Building a resilient future for this critical infrastructure means investing not just in technology, but in the skilled people who install, maintain and protect it - and events like this are vital to inspiring the next generation to take up those opportunities.”

Gus Jaspert, Managing Director – Marine at The Crown Estate said:

“Subsea cables are a critical part of our national life and complex marine ecosystem. However, the infrastructure itself is only part of the story. Our resilience as a nation depends just as much on the people who operate, maintain, and restore these systems – sometimes in very difficult conditions. It is great to come together with partners from across this vital sector to champion their work, and underline the importance of encouraging young people to consider careers that will underpin our resilience and security for future generations.”

John Wrottesley, Executive Director of the European Subsea Cables Association, said:

“Subsea cables often make the headlines, but far less attention is given to the people who build, maintain, repair and protect them. If we want resilient digital infrastructure in the future, we need to invest in the workforce that makes it possible. That starts by inspiring more people to see this as an exciting, rewarding and globally important career.”

As demand for digital connectivity continues to grow, organisations across the subsea cable sector are working together with governments and education providers to raise awareness of the industry and encourage more people to pursue careers that will help underpin the resilience of the global digital economy.

The submarine cable industry is evolving rapidly. Join the industry in discussion at Submarine Networks EMEA 2027

The post Minister joins industry to champion the people behind the world’s critical subsea cables appeared first on Total Telecom.

Original article Total Telecom:Read More

News

The regulator is exploring whether the £2 billion merger between the fibre network players will harm competition

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has announced it will move directly to the more in-depth Phase 2 of its competition review into the of nexfibre–Netomnia merger.

The decision follows requests from both nexfibre and Netomnia, both of whom are keen to see the process progress as quickly as possible.

“We requested a fast-track to Phase 2 to get to the right answer faster; ensuring due process, while recognising urgency. We look forward to continuing our constructive engagement with the CMA,” said Rajiv Datta, CEO of nexfibre. “This deal would create the scaled, sustainable alternative to the BT Openreach monopoly, something the UK market still lacks. Every day of delay reinforces the incumbent’s advantage and slows the progress of genuine competition.”

The £2 billion merger, announced in February, would see InfraVia, Liberty Global, and Telefónica – owners of Virgin Media O2 (VMO2) – acquire Substantial Group, the owners of fibre wholesaler Netomnia and ISP brand You Fibre.

Netomnia would be merged with the parties’ existing joint venture, nexfibre, bringing together two fibre networks planned to span a combined 8 million premises by the end of 2027.

This new entity – when considered alongside VMO2’s roughly 5.7 million premises passed with fibre and 10.5 million with legacy hybrid fibre coaxial technology – would create a ‘scaled, financially secure challenger’ to BT (Openreach) and unlock £3.5 billion of investment in the UK market, the companies claim.

The tie up immediately triggered a review from the CMA, with preliminary stages inviting the industry to comment on the deal beginning in April. This was expected to be followed by a Phase 1 review, a process typically taking around 40 days and designed to identify any obvious risks to competition.

Given that the tie-up in question combines two of the biggest players in the market, it seems highly unlikely that the deal would have passed this stage, hence it makes sense for the network operators to ask for an acceleration to the more detailed Phase 2.

The largest point of criticism of the deal comes from the not-insignificant overlap of Netomnia’s fibre footprint and that of nexfibre. According to a report from PointTopic, around 832,000 premises could overlap, leading to “reduced infrastructure-level competition, less aggressive pricing or promotional activity over time, lower pressure for network upgrades and service innovation, and reduced long-term competitive tension between independent fibre builders.”

CityFibre, which had been attempting to acquire Netomnia itself, has argued that the deal will “significantly reduce competition and the choice available to consumers, as well as force hundreds of thousands of Netomnia customers back to VMO2”.

These concerns are unlikely to sink the deal entirely but could prompt remedies from the CMA, including stronger wholesale pricing requirements that will ensure prices are controlled for customers.

“A timely resolution is likely to be important given risks of finance deals dissipating, and even sellers’ heads being turned by alternative offers from CityFibre, although securing the finance to beat the nexfibre offer won’t be an easy feat,” Karen Egan of Enders Analysis noted in a LinkedIn post.

The deadline for the Phase 2 review is mid-December, though discussions about potential remedies could prolong the process.

How is the UK telecoms landscape evolving in 2026? Join the discussion at Connected Britain 2026

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The post CMA skips to Phase 2 of nexfibre–Netomnia review appeared first on Total Telecom.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

The latest annual ORESA Growth Index 2026 has just been published and this year’s edition includes five alternative full fibre broadband networks – Toob, Netomnia, Grain Connect, CommunityFibre and Fibrus. The full list ranks the UK’s 100 fastest-growing private companies by compound annual growth rate (CAGR) – those with at least £5m in recent sales.

One caveat to consider here is that being one of Britain’s fastest-growing private technology companies doesn’t always equate to overall success, particularly when some of those operators are still in the rapid build phase and so may be racking up debts faster than they can grow customers. Nevertheless, it’s still good to be placed in lists like this, even if it doesn’t always reflect the full picture.

Orlando Martins, CEO at ORESA, said: “What’s striking is that many of these companies are succeeding despite significant obstacles. We’re seeing founders embrace new technologies, women build high-growth businesses against the odds, and ambitious firms scale internationally. The results suggest Britain is still leaving a great deal of economic potential untapped.”

Overall, the highest ranked alternative broadband network was Southampton based toob (11th) with a CAGR of 154.86% and sales of £14m (Dec 2024), but they have fallen by 11 places since last year’s report.

Top Ranked Altnets in the ORESA Growth Index 2026

1. Toob (11th) with a CAGR of 154.86% and sales of £14m (Dec 2024)

2. Netomnia (20th) with a CAGR of 147.91% and sales of £24m

3. Grain Connect (25th) with a CAGR of 141% and sales of £9m

4. CommunityFibre (55th) with a CAGR of 94.94% and sales of £76m

5. Fibrus (100th) with a CAGR of 63% and sales of £29.5m

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

UK ISP Quickline has announced that they’ve covered “almost” 11,000 premises across North Yorkshire (England) via their gigabit-speed full fibre (FTTP) broadband network, which has occurred two months ahead of schedule as part of their £70m+ publicly subsidised contract under the government’s Project Gigabit scheme.

The North Yorkshire (Lot 31 – £73.5m) contract was first signed back in mid-2024 and originally contracted the operator to expand their existing fibre network in the county to cover a further 36,300 premises in hard-to-reach rural areas. According to the latest June 2026 data from the Building Digital UK (BDUK) agency, Quickline is currently contracted to reach 34,490 premises (it’s been modified a little since the original award).

Quickline has now reached almost 55,000 subsidised Project Gigabit premises across its four contracts, alongside significant additional commercial deployment throughout Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. But sadly the latest update doesn’t summarise their current build locations.

Imran Amir, Quickline’s Local Project Manager, said:

“Reaching 10,000 funded premises in North Yorkshire ahead of schedule is a fantastic achievement and reflects the incredible work of our teams and build partners.

North Yorkshire is a vast and complex area to build across, so hitting this milestone early demonstrates both the strength of our delivery model and our commitment to ensuring rural communities are not left behind digitally.

Fast, reliable broadband has become essential infrastructure for homes, businesses and communities, and we’re proud to be helping transform connectivity across the region.”

At the end of 2025 Quickline’s full fibre broadband network covered 200,000 premises (excluding fixed wireless coverage, which also covers c.200,000 premises – not all gigabit-capable) – mostly across rural parts of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. The operator currently aims to extend gigabit-capable broadband to a further 360,000 UK premises.

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Customers of UK broadband ISP Virgin Media (VMO2), such as those who take their pay TV service via one of the operator’s TV 360 or STREAM box platforms, may like to know that the provider has today added “up to” 14 new “premium” Asian Mela TV channels at no extra cost.

The channels included, which are intended to help celebrate South Asian Heritage Month, are normally part of Virgin Media’s Asian Mela bundle – this usually costs £12 per month and offers customers access to the latest dramas, comedy, reality and films plus much more in “glorious HD” (Virgin are still calling HD “glorious” in 2026, apparently).

The channels will be automatically added to customers’ set-top boxes, but will only be available (free to watch) until 31st July 2026.

List of Asian Mela TV channels available to all VMTV customers

801: Utsav Gold HD

802: Utsav Bharat

803: Utsav Plus HD

805: Sony TV HD

806: Sony Max HD

808: Sony Max 2

809: Zee TV HD

810: Zee Cinema HD

811: Zee Punjabi HD

815: B4U Movies

825: Colors Gujarati

826: Colors HD

827: Colors Rishtey

828: Colors Cineplex

A spokesperson at VMO2 said: “South Asian Heritage Month is a meaningful time for families and communities to come together, and we’re proud to help our customers celebrate by offering access to 14 premium Asian TV channels at no extra cost. With a fantastic mix of much-loved dramas, entertainment shows and blockbuster films, there’s something for everyone to enjoy throughout the month.”

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Mobile operator VodafoneThree (Vodafone and Three UK) have today become the latest telecoms operator to adopt Vyntelligence’s AI technology (Agentic Video Intelligence) to help speed up the roll-out of thousands of new masts for their 4G and 5G (mobile broadband) network, as well as to cut costs via efficiency improvements.

Over the past year or so we’ve seen a number of UK mobile and broadband operators adopt the same technology, such as Gigaclear and Cornerstone (CTIL). In the case of Gigaclear it was used to help them improve customer installation journeys by reducing unnecessary work (here).

VodafoneThree notes that a key part of their network roll-out is working with multiple delivery partners and subcontractors. Traditionally, the transition from build to activation has relied on detailed paperwork and manual audits, which can slow progress and lead to delays, or require additional site visits. But this can be improved by using Vyntelligence’s AI driven Vyn® app.

The app enables their field teams to capture short, guided videos of their work. The technology then reviews the build quality in near real-time, helping to identify any risks or safety concerns and confirm when the site is ready. “This creates a more streamlined and consistent way to evidence activity on site, while helping to reduce administrative burden for engineers,” said the announcement.

Iain Milligan, Director of Network Development & Infrastructure at VodafoneThree, said:

“Upgrading a network at this scale requires close collaboration across delivery partners and teams on the ground. By working with Vyntelligence, we’re giving our engineers a more streamlined way to capture and share their work, reducing the need for manual, time intensive processes while helping to maintain consistent standards across sites.

Using this technology, we can improve the efficiency, enhance safety and support engineers to progress the network rollout at greater speed and with more confidence – enabling us to deliver better connectivity for our customers.”

In theory this should result in new mobile sites going live “weeks earlier” than usual and partners will also benefit from faster payments, although it naturally won’t be able to overcome external delays from the planning (approvals) process etc.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Struggling Fife-based alternative broadband operator Gigaloch, which back in 2020 started building their own full fibre (FTTP) network across a few remote rural communities in West Cheshire (England) and parts of Scotland, has finally published their annual accounts to 30th Sept 2025 and revealed that they had to write off £1,575,090 due to a creditors’ agreement (CVA).

The operator, which primarily seems to be focused upon building across remote rural parts of Scotland (Perth and Strathearn, Highland Perthshire and Inverness-shire), originally aspired to cover 200,000 premises. But it’s unclear how far they got with that aspiration before running into difficulties.

ISPreview first started hearing that Gigaloch was struggling last year and their records on Companies House showed that the company was nearly struck off in May 2025. But Gigaloch eventually published their annual accounts for 2024 to reveal a growing problem with losses (not uncommon in this market). Not long after this we learnt that the provider was attempting to reach a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) with their creditors. We attempted to contact the provider around this time via their website, but received no response.

Just for some context. A CVA allows a company with debt problems or that is insolvent to reach a voluntary deal with its business creditors (i.e. paying them back over a fixed period), which usually means that the company can continue trading while slowly paying back what they owe. Such an agreement is often preferable to failure, especially if the business is deemed to have a viable foundation, but only time will tell whether this works.

The latest development is that Gigaloch have now published their latest annual accounts to 30th September 2025, which reveals that they have net liabilities of -£3.946m (vs -£2.735m in 2024) and the average monthly number of employees (inc. directors) during the period was 20, which is up from 19 a year earlier.

However, the most interesting detail can be found on page 9 of their accounts, where it states that the “liabilities written off following CVA” amounted to £1,575,090 on 24th July 2025. Quite what the future holds for Gigaloch is currently unclear, but then nobody ever said that rolling out FTTP into remote rural areas was either easy or cheap.

The past few years have seen many network operators come under pressure from competition, rising build costs and high interest rates.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Mobile operator O2 (Virgin Media) has today revealed that yesterday afternoon’s FIFA World Cup 2026 match between England and DR Congo (2 – 1) fuelled the “biggest mobile traffic event ever recorded” on their mobile network, which saw mobile data (broadband) traffic peak 20.38% higher than the prior peak (during the Arsenal vs PSG UEFA Champions League Final) and 27.67% above a comparable pre-tournament week.

The 5pm kick-off naturally coincided with the journey home from work for many, while BBC iPlayer saw traffic surge up 380% compared to a typical weekday afternoon as supporters streamed the match on their phones. O2’s network data also revealed an interesting behavioural shift during the match. After DR Congo took the early lead, activity across apps including TikTok, WhatsApp and Tinder increased, as fans turned to their phones for a distraction. But once the second half got underway and England grabbed an equaliser, usage across all three apps fell as supporters locked back into the action.

However, it’s worth putting that “biggest mobile traffic event ever recorded” claim in the correct context, because demand for data is of course constantly rising and internet connections are forever getting faster, thus new peaks of usage are being set all the time by every provider.

Just for some added context, Ofcom revealed toward the end of 2025 that the average monthly data usage per connection is now 583GB (GigaBytes) across all fixed broadband technologies (up from 531GB in 2024), which rises to an average of 738GB for full-fibre connections (actually down a bit from 766GB).

Breaking news.. more to follow..

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Mobile network operator giffgaff, which is owned by Telefónica and harnesses O2’s national UK virtual operator (mvno) platform, has published their 2025 Impact Report and revealed that eSIM adoption grew by 71% last year – helping more people get connected without the extra plastic – and they’re now home to a total of 4.26 million members (up from 4.11m in 2024).

Some of the report’s other highlights reveal that 66% of the phones giffgaff sold during 2025 via their website were refurbished (down from 67%) and around 17,000 members each month moved to a cheaper plan after opening the operator’s Best Plan Advice email, which is typically sent every month (this shows customers a summary of their recent mobile usage and suggests more cost-effective 4G/5G mobile plans).

The report also notes that 4,310 devices were taken in through the giffgaff recycle scheme (up from 2,649) and they donated 687 phones to help those most in need. You can find plenty more details in the full report below, including giffgaff’s progress on their emissions targets etc.

Giffgaff’s 2025 Impact Report
https://static1.squarespace.com/../Impact_Report_25_v0.8.pdf

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Communications and broadband provider BT Business (via EE) has today announced what they’re calling a “telco-world first“, which sees the operator join with IT and security software company, Ivanti, to unveil a new eSIM capability that enables businesses to turn-on mobile connectivity at scale without having to physically set up a device.

The new capability essentially hands organisations the ability to install eSIMs (embedded SIMs) directly from their Mobile Device Management platform and activate on a device without physical handling or manual steps, which can save time and money when managing thousands of workers at scale.

“Using a single route, devices will either install eSIMs automatically or via a short installation process cutting the time to deliver from days to minutes. The partnership brings together Android’s ecosystem, Ivanti’s management capability and BT’s mobile expertise to offer business customers a consistent method of deployment across their estates,” said the announcement.

The move is said to pave the way for future services built around secure, remotely managed connectivity, giving businesses more flexibility as their workforces, devices and security needs evolve.

Sally Fuller, Mobile and Unified Mobility Director at BT, said:

“Customers want devices that are ready when their people need them. Working with Android and Ivanti has allowed us to create a simple and reliable way to switch on connectivity across Android devices. It removes processes which can slow organisations down and replaces it with a single digital process that works sustainably and at scale.”

The obvious catch here is that this feature currently only works with Android based Smartphones and devices, so hard luck if you’ve setup your business using Apple iOS-based iPhones etc. The announcement doesn’t mention if there are any plans for that.