Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

New research from Broadband Genie, which analysed the cost of 12-month and 24-month broadband deals from major UK providers during August 2025, claims to have found that 12-month broadband contracts “ideal for students” are on average 49% more expensive (costing £142.88 more a year) than two-year deals.

Virgin Media is said to have stood out as the “most extreme example“: its short-term option works out at £30.68 more every month, adding up to £368.12 extra per year. This is more than double the price of its two-year deal. But Virgin does provide student deals for shorter 9 month terms, but they were found to have “massive out-of-contract fees” – £29.99 in contract compared to £83.50 after the initial term (we’d of course assume that students cancel these at the end of their term).

Other big names also hit students hard. BT charges £185.99 more a year for a 12-month plan, Three UK adds £132 (albeit for a mobile broadband service), and Hyperoptic customers pay an extra £108.50. Even the ‘softer’ differences still sting: Plusnet tacks on £85.50, Cuckoo £72, and Onestream almost £46.

“Put simply, whichever way you look at it, students moving into new houses this September are almost guaranteed to be paying over the odds,” said the comparison site. But in fairness, the news that shorter contract terms cost more than longer ones won’t come as much of a surprise, as this is always how it’s worked (i.e. you take a risk on a longer term and, in exchange, the ISP gives you a lower price to reward that commitment).

Having said that, we’d broadly agree that it would still be nice to see ISPs offering more attractive student-specific packages. On the other hand, there is a massive amount of choice out there now and many students will be living in urban or semi-urban areas, which often also have access to cheaper and faster alternative networks. Suffice to say that the old advice to shop around before committing to something still rings true, but spread your net wider than the biggest ISPs.

However, if budget is a problem, then cheap mobile broadband (4G/5G) plans with “unlimited” usage are often a lot more effective today, although this may not suit if you expect to be a heavy internet user (highly plausible for students) or have others sharing the same connection with you. But it’s of course also worth checking out Virgin Media’s Student Deals and BT’s Student Deals, even if it’s just to help establish a useful base for comparison.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Broadband ISP and mobile operator Virgin Media and O2 (VMO2) have today announced that they’re working with both the Scottish Government and Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS) to help people get online. This involves donating 1,200 refurbished smartphones and mobile data SIMs to Citizens Advice Bureaux (CABs) across 12 Local Authorities throughout Scotland.

The move forms part of VMO2’s earlier commitment to donate “up to” 12,000 pre-owned Smartphones during 2025 (c.1,000 per month) to help people in need get online and reduce e-waste (here), which is also being conducted with support from other organisations like the Good Things Foundation and Hubbub.

According to the news, one in ten households in Scotland remain without internet access and VMO2 are trying to help close that digital divide, although this does sometimes overlook the fact that not everybody wants to go digital.

Nevertheless, VMO2 said the Smartphones, complete with a free 25GB (GigaByte) mobile 4G/5G data allowance via the National Databank, are being distributed to CABs via Community Calling, which was setup to help re-home smartphones to people who need them.

Dana Haidan, Chief Sustainability Officer at VMO2, said:

“Access to smartphones and data can transform lives, and that’s why we’re proud to work with Citizens Advice Scotland and the Scottish Government to provide these devices, helping local communities get online and thrive across the country.

With our circular economy strategy, we’re committed to reusing phones from our supply chain to give tech a second life, which is also connecting communities across Scotland, and preventing e-waste. It’s a win-win for people and the planet.”

CABs offering the devices include those in: Glasgow, South Lanarkshire, North Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire, East Renfrewshire, Scottish Borders, Dumfries and Galloway, Aberdeenshire, Highlands, Inverclyde, East Lothian and West Lothian. Recipients are expected to include disabled people, those experiencing homelessness or on low incomes, refugees and asylum seekers, people leaving prison and those fleeing domestic violence.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

A new study by comparison site Go.Compare, which used data gathered from the ONS, internal data and a YouGov survey of 2,000 UK adults in May 2025, has claimed that over 77% of broadband users don’t switch ISPs as regularly as would be ideal to maximise their savings. Plus, of those users, 6% don’t switch more often because they forget to look for a better deal.

The survey thus claims that many UK households could be missing out on an average saving of up to £58 on their yearly broadband bill, provided they switched to the cheapest deal available for the same speeds. This is very roughly said to equate to £76.6 million worth of savings being “up for grabs nationwide“.

The survey also noted that women were twice as likely to forget to look out for cheaper broadband deals (i.e. 8% of women who don’t switch regularly gave forgetfulness as a reason, compared to 4% of men). Age is another factor, with 1 in 10 of those aged under-35 who don’t switch regularly stating that forgetfulness was the reason why, which compares with 4% of over-54s.

Additional Survey Highlights

➤ 39% said convenience was the most common reason for not changing providers more often (i.e. it’s easier to keep their current ISP), despite Ofcom’s new One Touch Switching process making it a lot easier.

➤ 37% said they won’t switch if their current provider has been highly reliable.

➤ 16% admitted they didn’t think they’d be able to find a cheaper deal.

➤ 15% said their provider delivers good customer service or that their package includes a TV deal they want to keep.

➤ 22% said they usually switch when their provider increases prices, while 1 in 10 said they would do so if their service becomes too unreliable and 2% said they would switch if their provider starts slowing their speeds.

Naturally, it’s important to take opinion surveys like this with a big pinch of salt (i.e. small sample sizes and limited questioning), although it does on the flip side help to highlight that not all consumers are as focused on making savings as comparison sites like Go.Compare (with a big vested interest) would perhaps like us to believe.

Clearly a history of good reliability, service and convenience remain big factors in switching decisions too, which is fair enough. At the end of the day, if you’re happy with your current ISP then it may be better to trying haggling for a lower price (more likely to work with bigger ISPs than smaller ones) – Retentions Tips. The best time to haggle is usually around the end of your contract, or following a mid-contract price hike, but it never hurts to ask and the worse they can do is say no.

However, it’s important to underline that not all ISPs are the same. Some adopt fairly standard pricing and avoid discounts, which means that haggling won’t get you very far because both new and existing customers will already be paying the same or a similar amount. But most people tend to use larger ISPs, where first term discounts are much more common, and this can result in a wide cost difference between new and old subscribers.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Network access provider Openreach (BT) has once again tweaked their Proactive FTTP Upgrades process for ISPs, which will allow providers to optionally reduce the normal lead time down to just 15+ calendar days (vs the default 6 weeks). Normally it’s consumers that initiate an upgrade, but with proactive upgrades the initiator is your ISP (this may help with copper to full fibre migrations).

Proactive migrations thus arise where your ISP proposes an upgrade to their new Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) lines from your older broadband service (ADSL, FTTC etc.) and, at the same time, books an appointment for an Openreach engineer to carry out the upgrade (the end user is still able to confirm, reject or select a different appointment).

By default, this process has a 6-week lead time, but in July 2025 the operator introduced a new option for ISPs to opt into a shorter lead time of around 4-5 weeks (here). The latest briefing indicates that Openreach is now announcing a new option of just 15+ calendar days (subject, again, to ISPs opting in).

The updated Proactive FTTP Upgrade process, with this new option included, will go live on 1st October 2025. Openreach has also removed the exclusion of the Highlands & Islands and Isle of Wight regions “now that additional operational confidence in the process has been gained“.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Global network operator Netmore has today signed a 3-year deal with the UK’s second-largest water company, Severn Trent, to deploy and manage network services for 1 million smart meters across more than 20 counties. This will involve the deployment of a dual wireless Long Range Wide Area (LoRaWAN) and Narrowband-loT (NB-IoT) network.

Fixed wireless LoRa networks harness only a small slice of lower frequency radio spectrum (usually in one of the sub-1GHz bands) in order to support relatively slow, but extremely low power, data connections over a wide coverage area. Such networks tend to run at sub-Megabit speeds (often under 0.05Mbps, but some variants can handle several Megabits), which makes them ideal for linking Internet of Things (IoT) style sensors.

Last year we reported that Netmore had signed a contract with Yorkshire Water (here) to upgrade and connect 1.3 million water meters across the Yorkshire region of England (i.e. those that are reaching the end of their operation life) to their new LoRaWAN. The latest deal thus represents a major expansion to that.

The data this network will deliver, on a daily basis, to Severn Trent is expected to improve customer awareness of water usage, reduce leakage, and help accurately plan water supplies for the future. Severn Trent’s goals are to reduce household water leakage by 16%, household water use by 7% and business water use by 3.5% come 2030.

Anthony Hickinbottom, Smart Metering Networks Lead at Severn Trent, said:

“Following a rigorous evaluation process to advance our AMI initiatives, we are confident in our choice of Netmore and its metering partners for our program. Netmore’s experience in supplying carrier-grade network connectivity and reliably delivering smart meter data will help Severn Trent monitor water consumption more accurately, identify leaks faster, and reduce and operational carbon emissions in line with our stated goals.”

Itron and Diehl have been selected as LoRaWAN meter providers for this program and Vodafone IoT has been selected to provide connectivity services for NB-IoT meters. The Netmore Connect platform will be utilized for all network and device management and data delivery to Severn Trent’s Meter Data Management System. Under the management of Severn Trent, Network Plus Services will plan, schedule, and install the meters.

The deal means that Netmore now operates the UK’s largest LoRaWAN network, covering 43 of the UK’s 92 counties, reaching over 51 million people or nearly 77% of the population, and connecting more than 3 million smart water meters. We should add that Severn Trent also work with rival broadband and LoRaWAN operator Connexin to deliver smart water metering using their wireless network (here).

Severn Trent itself serves 4.4m homes and business customers in England and Wales.

Original article Total Telecom:Read More

Press Release

Vodafone IoT and Simetric have announced a new partnership, which combines both companies’ industry-leading IoT platforms to create a ‘Single-Pane-of-Glass’ overview for customers’ IoT estates. Vodafone‘s Managed Connectivity Platform (GDSP) will integrate with Simetric‘s ‘Single-Pane-of-Glass platform, which will deliver real-time visibility, control, and automation across customers’ IoT estates from a variety of network partners.

With analysts predicting that the number of cellular IoT connections will treble over the next 10 years, businesses are looking for a simpler way to oversee the breadth of their IoT connectivity service, whether it’s on a national or international scale. As customers expand their use of IoT and accumulate multiple agreements for a diverse range of products from various providers around the world, the collaboration means customers can have one unified view, bringing all these arrangements together into a single platform.

Vodafone IoT’s secure and reliable connectivity is available to customers in more than 180 countries worldwide, with over 760 networks to choose from. This partnership will give Vodafone IoT customers even more flexibility to tailor their specific IoT operations to suit their needs by bringing additional connectivity partners under one roof – whether they’re private or public sector, small or large business. Furthermore, the Single-Pane-of-Glass enables customers to see all of Vodafone IoT’s network technologies (i.e. 4G, 5G, LPWA, satellite) and SIM technology (i.e. classic SIM, iSIM, eSIM, as well as new GSMA SGP.32 standards) through the platform.

Simetric integrates its Single-Pane-of-Glass platform functionality for all device provisioning and orchestration – unifying a complete workflow control for all IoT and edge devices across networks.

Erik Brenneis, CEO of Vodafone IoT, said: “Many of our customers come to us with a legacy of connectivity agreements having been active within the IoT space for many years. Our partnership with Simetric simplifies managing their IoT estate, by bringing all their connectivity under a single pane of glass – making it even easier to access the benefits of our leading managed IoT connectivity service.”

Allen Boone, CEO of Simetric said: “We’re proud to partner with Vodafone IoT to accelerate how enterprises deploy and manage connected devices at scale. By combining Vodafone IoT’s global device reach with Simetric’s orchestration platform, we will be able to deliver a unified, intuitive solution to activate, monitor, and optimize distributed networking devices – across markets, carriers, and use cases. This partnership brings immediate, measurable impact through automation, control, and enterprise-grade efficiency.”

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Also in the news:
US judge rules Huawei must face charges of fraud and racketeering
Optus ditches football rights to focus on telecoms
Nokia launches digital twin platform Enscryb to digitalise energy sector

Original article Total Telecom:Read More

News

The operator has announced plans to expand the Djibouti Africa Regional Express 1 (DARE1) submarine cable system from Kenya to South Africa

This week, Djibouti’s incumbent telecoms operator Djibouti Telecom has announced plans to extend the reach of the DARE1 cable down Africa’s east coast.

The DARE1 cable system, which came into service in 2021, currently spans the Horn of Africa, connecting Djibouti to Somalia and Kenya. The system includes three-fibre-pairs, each of which is capable of delivering capacity of 120 channels at 100 Gbps.

Alongside Djibouti Telecom, the cable system is also partly owned by Somalia’s Hormuud Telecom, Somtel International, and Telkom Kenya.

The announced expansion will see this route extended 3,200–3,500km down the east coast of Africa, terminating in Mtunzini, South Africa. Landings are also planned for Tanzania, Mozambique, and Madagascar.

Planned route, including landing sites, for the DARE1 expansion

This initiative, Djibouti Telecom says, will increase route diversity and improve network resilience for regional operators.

Work on the expansion is set to begin next year, with the project expected to be ready for service in 2028.

Despite its small size, Djibouti is a major player in the international submarine cable ecosystem. Situated on the Bab-el-Mandeb (literally ‘the gate of tears’) strait in the Gulf of Aden, the country holds significant influence over both international maritime trade and data traffic; least 15 submarine cables lie beneath the surface of the Bab-el-Mandeb, making it a crucial gateway for data traffic travelling between the Mediterranean and Asia.

Over the past two years, this area has been heavily impacted by the hostile activities of Yemeni Houthis, with numerous subsea cable systems damaged, intentionally or otherwise. These cable cuts caused significant disruption to regional data traffic, highlighting the need for a greater diversity of transport routes.

How is the international submarine cable landscape evolving? Join the discussion at Submarine Networks EMEA, the world’s largest subsea cable event

Also in the news:
US judge rules Huawei must face charges of fraud and racketeering
Optus ditches football rights to focus on telecoms
Nokia launches digital twin platform Enscryb to digitalise energy sector

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

The financially troubled broadband provider TalkTalk has today attempted to start putting the recent past behind it by refreshing their brand identity a bit (inc. new website), while at the same time launching new digital platforms and a supporting marketing campaign. But it may yet take much more than this to help turn things around, although it’s a start.

The brand refresh, which is already live across TalkTalk’s newly designed website today, includes “electric green and shocking pink tones” and underlines how the provider is attempting to “reconnect with its challenger roots“. The accompanying marketing campaign for this will launch on 11th September 2025 across digital, video-on-demand, outdoor, and audio channels.

Expressed as being “aimed at delivering a better way to Wi-Fi for UK consumers“, the new website and customer platform is also being underpinned by their recently agreed long-term partnership with Kraken Technologies (here). The new customer management platform replaces a number of internal legacy platforms, and is Kraken’s first large scale foray into the telecoms market.

The first TalkTalk customers have already been migrated over to the platform, supported by a new customer service model, which is said to “empower customer service agents to solve any problem, rather than passing customers around different agents“. But only time will tell what sort of impact this actually has.

Susie Buckridge, CEO of TalkTalk, said:

“We’re returning to our challenger roots, delivering reliable Wi-Fi for all our customers at the right price, at the same time as challenging ourselves to find new ways of delighting our customers. Our new look website, strengthened by our brilliant new-look brand and engaging marketing campaign, are just the latest demonstration of that, and signal our intent to continue to shake up the industry on behalf of our customers.”

The announcement doesn’t mention anything about new or refreshed broadband packages, although we did find their website ordering systems to be a lot smoother. On the flip side, in areas where we used to get package prices and speeds for CityFibre’s FTTP network, we’re oddly now only getting results for Openreach’s slower FTTP options, which is hopefully just an initial bug with the new website.

As above, only time will tell whether this is enough to help improve TalkTalk’s take-up and stem the recently rapid customer bleed to rivals (420,000 lost in the last year) – all occurring amid their widely reported financial challenges, but it often takes more than this to turn such a situation around.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Wireless infrastructure provider Freshwave has today revealed that they’ve worked with UK mobile operator EE (BT) to deploy a further 50 new small cell based outdoor 4G and 5G mobile (mobile broadband) units across the City of London area, which are helping to expand the network operators coverage and performance.

Small cells are akin to small shoebox sized mobile (radio) base stations, which are designed to deliver limited coverage (usually up to around 100+ metres) and thus tend to be more focused on busy areas, specific sites or even indoor locations – it’s not uncommon to find these sitting on top of lampposts, CCTV poles or old payphone cubicles (i.e. this can be more cost-effective than building new street assets or trying to secure wayleaves on buildings etc.).

EE began trialling Freshwave’s new outdoor small cell mobile network in the central ‘Square Mile’ area of London during 2022 (here) and they’ve since expanded it several times (here). The latest sites will add to the previous delivery of 35 sites for the operator, with a further already 34 in-build.

The network is said to use a “first-of-its-kind design” by Freshwave, which is made to accommodate all the MNOs on 4G and 5G from day one, with no adjustments needed to the infrastructure. The latest expansion should boost mobile signals for EE customers outside iconic City landmarks, including St Paul’s Cathedral, the Old Bailey and Guildhall, extending to areas surrounding the Barbican as well as along Fleet Street.

Simon Frumkin, CEO at Freshwave, said:

“We’re proud to be working in close partnership with the City of London Corporation and EE on expanding this pioneering multi-operator network across the Square Mile. This project is a great example of how innovative engineering can deliver real-world impact in even the most complex urban environments. We’re excited to keep building on this momentum to support the UK’s digital economy.”

James Hope, Director of Mobile Radio Access Networks at EE, said:

“As demand for high-capacity, low-latency connectivity continues to grow, we’re proud to be expanding our mobile network in the heart of the City of London. These additional sites will further boost performance and resilience for residents and visitors alike, with robust mobile connectivity being key to supporting the City’s digital future. Working with trusted partners like Freshwave, we’re committed to delivering the best 4G and 5G experience, even in the most data-demanding environments.”

EE is already seeing an average of 125TB (TeraBytes) of data downloaded per week across all its Freshwave-deployed sites in the City (up from 7.5TB last year, in their initial pilot deployment). Freshwave added that more than 5,000,000 sq ft of commercial building space in the City of London also benefits from multi-operator mobile connectivity thanks to their indoor deployments.

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One of the UK’s largest alternative broadband networks, Netomnia (Substantial Group), has revealed that they’re in the process of joining Openreach’s (BT) network in order to harness their Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) products in areas where their network doesn’t yet reach or may be unlikely to reach in the future. But the initial reach will be limited.

The change of strategy, which on the surface seems to mirror Hyperoptic’s recent move (here), could help to give both a further boost to customer take-up and also solves the problem of what happens when existing customers on Netomnia’s own fibre (on-net) move house to a location outside their existing network area (off-net).

At present Netomnia’s own full fibre broadband network, which offers blistering speeds of up to 8000Mbps to consumers via ISPs like YouFibre, Brsk and others (and technically c.40Gbps to some businesses on-demand via 50G PON tech), already covers 2.7 million UK premises (375,000 customers). But as above, their on-net deployment will only take them to 5m by the end of 2027 and, even with consolidation, there will be gaps in their reach.

However, ISPreview has been told that their strategy is currently only planned to go as far as Netomnia’s existing reach allows within BT’s exchanges. Put another way, the operator has already connected their network to Openreach using CableLinks (Ethernet capacity), and they have a max presence within about 200 BT exchanges, so this will enable them to reach around 1.5 million extra incremental properties beyond their own fibre.

Just to be clear, this mixed on-net and off-net strategy will thus see Netomnia’s ISPs reaching 5 million premises with their own fibre and then the extra 1.5 million via Openreach (total reach of 6.5 million). Netomnia said they aren’t planning to wait for Openreach to launch their new XGS-PON based symmetric speed FTTP packages (speeds could go up to 3.3Gbps) and plan to launch their new approach around the end of 2025 or early 2026.

At present the operator doesn’t yet know whether they will go beyond 1.5m premises (c.200 BT exchanges) via Openreach’s network in the future, which may well depend upon how successful this strategy becomes. Netomnia also doesn’t seem worried about the fact that Openreach’s current FTTP products have much slower upload speeds and higher wholesale prices, so it will be interesting to see how they balance this for their consumer packages/prices.

Interestingly, Netomnia also hinted to ISPreview that Openreach may not be the only other third-party FTTP network they onboard with in the future, but it’s too early to talk about that with any certainty. Finally, Netomnia also confirmed via a related report on TheTimes (paywall) that their long-held plans for launching a UK Mobile service this year (here) will harness the combined Vodafone and Three UK (VodafoneThree) network.