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Press Release

BubbleRAN and Telenor have successfully launched an NVIDIA AI-powered solution for the autonomous network operations and optimization on one of Color Line’s vessels, a passenger and cargo ship operating between Norway and international destinations. The outcome has been remarkable, delivering significant gains in performance and reliability, greater operational agility, and overall a better onboard connectivity experience for customers and crew.

Operating a mobile network on a vessel at sea presents a number of distinct challenges. The ship’s metallic structure, interference from other networks, and constantly shifting weather conditions are affecting the access and backhaul radio links making the traditional network management and optimization highly complex and challenging. This solution overcomes these challenges by creating a symbiosis between AI agents and algorithms. This system dynamically controls a suite of access and backhaul radio parameters in real-time, autonomously optimizing both uplink and downlink performance to adapt to the variable conditions at sea, ensuring stable service and strong user experience throughout the voyage.

Today, this solution ensures robust daily operations and an exceptional connectivity experience for both passengers and crew. Looking ahead, it paves the way for even greater efficiency through coordinated optimization with neighboring public and private networks, promising continuous improvement in both network and user performance.

Launch of Innovative Optimization System

The solution, Opti-Sphere, is a first-of-its-kind agentic network optimization system that helps public and private 5G operators to transit from isolated and manual tuning to coordinated and automated decision-making. It turns live network data into actionable insights, and when approved, can apply safe configuration changes, pre-validated through a real-time digital twin.

The system addresses a major operational challenge for maritime networks: sustaining stable performance and user experience in harsh radio environments. Opti-Sphere meets this challenge by continuously optimizing user equipment uplink power while adhering to operator-defined constraints and safety policies.

At MWC Barcelona, Opti-Sphere is demonstrated live at sea, optimizing Telenor Maritime Networks on top of an Ericsson private 5G deployment. Trained and validated on data from 33 ships worldwide, the system is currently applying adaptive power control across two shipboard cells, improving uplink performance by learning from historical data and safely evaluating a small set of candidate configurations through real-time digital-twin validation. The demo also features a small-scale replica of a private maritime 5G network, showcasing the same closed-loop optimization approach and pointing to autonomous private 5G networks of the future. Together, the demonstrations highlight how Opti-Sphere delivers operational and business value beyond
dashboards, accelerating troubleshooting and reducing maintenance through continuous observability and automated parameter tuning backed by measurable KPI improvements.

A Model of Ecosystem Co-Creation

Opti-Sphere represents a true model of ecosystem co-creation, designed from the ground up as a multi-partner and multi-vendor solution. It integrates leading components from across the telecommunications landscape: BubbleRAN provides the foundational automation and orchestration layer with its SMO-Sphere platform and Agentic Toolkit (BAT); Telenor’s Research & Innovation and Maritime units serve as co-developers and validation partners; NVIDIA platform with NVIDIA NeMo Agent Toolkit powers the AI frameworks and agentic workflows along with NVIDIA/BubbleRAN telco config blueprint built on MX-AI; while LITEON 5G small cells and Amarisoft supplies software-based 5G network and terminals comprising the critical infrastructure and real-time digital twin environment for testing and validation.

“Opti-Sphere shows what happens when AI becomes truly operational: it doesn’t just observe the network, it reasons, validates, and improves it. Successfully deploying this in the harsh maritime environment stands as a powerful proof point for ecosystem co-creation in mission-critical private 5G.” says Navid Nikaein, CEO, BubbleRAN.

“This shows what’s possible when innovators come together with a shared ambition. By combining BubbleRAN’s agility, NVIDIA’s accelerated computing, Telenor Maritime’s operational expertise, and Telenor R&I’s research capabilities, we’ve achieved results none of us could have achieved alone. These kinds of collaborations, built on trust, openness and a willingness to challenge each other, can contribute to innovations that move the industry forward”, highlights Dagfinn Myhre, SVP Research & Innovation at Telenor ASA.

“This collaboration demonstrates how agentic AI moves beyond generic tooling and becomes operational in real-world telco environments – bringing reasoning to resolve complex conflicts, accelerating decisions, and translating AI innovation into measurable operational outcomes.” says Chris Penrose, Global VP of business development for telco at NVIDIA.

“With integrated digital-twin capabilities, this solution changes how networks are optimized and evolved. Digital twins enable prediction and faster iteration while reducing operational risk and cost.” points out Emmanuel Puig, Senior VP of Engineering at Amarisoft.

“By showcasing a compact private 5G deployment at MWC, we’re demonstrating how intelligent closed-loop optimization can be brought to many industries beyond maritime.” says Richard Chiang, SLA SBU General Manager from LITEON.

Live demonstrations at MWC Barcelona The full demonstration will be live at MWC Barcelona March 2–5, 2026 at Telenor stand 2J20 and BubbleRAN stand 5D97.

The post Agentic AI optimising private 5G live at sea appeared first on Total Telecom.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Network testing firm Ookla, which collects data from consumers via their popular broadband Speedtest.net website and App, has teamed-up with communications technology developer Ericsson to demonstrate an “innovative solution allowing users to measure and validate 5G network slicing performance” via the same app.

Network slicing is a feature of the latest end-to-end 5G Standalone (aka – 5G+ / 5G Advanced) based mobile broadband networks. The feature essentially allows for multiple virtual network slices across the same physical network. Each slice is isolated from other network traffic to give dedicated performance, with the features of the slice typically being tailored to specific use case requirements (online gaming, enhanced mobile broadband, payment processing at big events etc.).

However, until now there hasn’t really been much in the way of independent solutions for validating the Quality of Experience (QoE) that users (consumers and service providers) see when harnessing Network Slicing, which is necessary given how Service Level Agreements (SLA) may apply to such services. Ookla and Ericsson have thus developed a methodology that enables their Speedtest app to identify and test specific network slices in real-time.

Tibor Rathonyi, Senior Advisor at Ookla, said:

“Network slicing is no longer a future concept; it is a commercial reality. However, you cannot manage what you cannot measure. Our work with Ericsson is a pivotal first step in providing the transparency needed to prove the value of these premium 5G services to both consumers and enterprises.”

The results of this collaboration will debut during Mobile World Congress (MWC) Barcelona 2026. Attendees will be able to visit the Ericsson pavilion, in Hall 2, to experience a live demonstration of a specialized test version of the Speedtest® app, featuring:

➤ Side-by-Side Comparison: Visualizing the performance gap between a standard 5G connection and a service-specific slice within Ericsson’s live 5G network at the venue.

➤ SLA Verification: Real-time reporting on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) within a dedicated slice to prove guaranteed quality of service.

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The One Touch Switching Company (TOTSCo), which is the industry-led company responsible for helping to deliver Ofcom’s solution for easier and quicker UK switching between fixed broadband and phone providers on different networks (One Touch Switching), has provided an update on their plans for 2026 (i.e. cheaper business switching and more performance data).

The OTS system, which went live on 12th September 2024, remains a Gaining Provider Led (GPL) process, where the customer contacts their new (“gaining“) ISP to start and manage the process on their behalf. But despite a bit of a bumpy start and some ongoing issues, which we won’t recap today, the new system is already helping around 1.8 million customers to switch provider every 12-months (here).

The latest update reveals that TOTSCo are now almost ready to extend beyond Consumer Switching and support Business Switching between ISPs too, which was previously said to be due for launch during “early 2026” (here). As part of that work they’ve now “revised” their price-list, “making it more affordable for smaller providers whether accessing the hub directly or through a Managed Access Provider (MAP) and passing on the benefits of cost reduction initiatives“.

The company said they would also “shortly formalise the Business Switching API” from its current beta version to version 2, which introduces no functional changes but is said to provide a “clearer, consolidated baseline as we continue to develop the service“.

Finally, TOTSCo has promised to deliver “clearer insight, stronger monitoring and practical improvements” to their central messaging Hub, which includes a plan to “expand the performance data we share, provide greater visibility of trends and variations, and develop more tailored reporting to support all providers“. But it’s unclear whether consumers will also be given access to the extra data via the public OTS stats page.

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Alternative broadband provider Wildanet, which has built a new full fibre (FTTP) network across rural parts of South West England, have today issued a full statement to better explain their reasoning for recently withdrawing from two of the Government’s publicly funded Project Gigabit broadband roll-out contracts in Cornwall.

Just to recap. On 12th February 2026 the government’s Building Digital UK (BDUK) agency confirmed (here) that Wildanet wished to “withdraw” from fully completing the build on two contracts for Cornwall Central (Lot 32.03) and South West Cornwall (Lot 32.02) – both originally awarded back in January 2023 (here).

The provider had already covered c.13,200 premises under these contracts, but the announcement meant they would no longer deliver to the remaining 7,700 contracted premises. But we should point out that Wildanet are continuing, at least for now, to deliver on the core Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly (Lot 32) contract – awarded in April 2024 (here), which was originally valued at £41m to connect 16,800 premises in hard-to-reach rural areas.

In the meantime, BDUK said they would now be “moving swiftly to put in place alternative plans with other suppliers to connect premises that were due to be covered by these contracts.” This could involve either running a new procurement for the remaining premises or, more likely, trying to find a way of rolling those premises into one of Openreach’s wider Type C (Cross-Regional) deployment contracts (here and here).

The main development today is that Wildanet has finally issued a full statement to better explain why they took the decision, which as expected reflects issues with the rising cost of building in such remote areas (a well known problem).

Wildanet Statement on Project Gigabit Contracts

It was announced on February 12th 2026 that Wildanet had informed Building Digital UK that it wished to withdraw from fully completing the build on two Project Gigabit contracts covering south west and central Cornwall.

Following a review of our Project Gigabit contracts to roll out gigabit-capable broadband to “hard-to-reach” premises in south west and central Cornwall, Wildanet has taken the difficult decision to scale back the build on these. Despite extensive efforts to deliver the programme in full, the cost of delivery in these areas has increased significantly beyond anticipated and it is unfortunately no longer commercially viable for Wildanet to complete these works.

Wildanet has successfully connected around 13,200 premises to date under these contracts, from an original target list of about 19,250, but will no longer deliver to the remaining premises.

Wildanet is only paid for completed and verified connections and will not receive any funding allocated for the build to premises that have not been completed.

Across Cornwall, Wildanet has delivered more than 50,000 new connections through a combination of private investment and publicly funded contracts and we remain a locally based company committed to delivering reliable and sustainable gigabit-capable broadband connectivity across the South West.

Build on Wildanet’s regional (type B) contract for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly continues. BDUK and Wildanet are in discussions to determine if any changes are needed.

The final sentence appears to hint that there may be some changes coming to their core LOT 32 contract too, which could potentially be scaled-back as it’s unlikely to be immune to the same problem of rising build costs. But we’ll have to wait and see.

A number of other alternative networks (e.g. Voneus, FullFibre Ltd. and Freedom Fibre) have also recently withdrawn or scaled-back their Project Gigabit contracts due to similar issues. But other altnets, such as GoFibre and Wessex Internet, have been more successful and recently completed some of their earlier contracts under the same scheme (albeit for different parts of the UK).

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Mobile operator Three UK (VodafoneThree) recently began notifying some of their existing customers that, from 1st April 2026, they will be updating their annual price increase terms to a “more transparent approach“, which moves away from % based price rises and uses amounts shown in pounds and pence. But it won’t impact everybody, yet.

The change, which is in line with Ofcom’s new policy (here), was first technically introduced by Three UK (and Vodafone) back in early November 2025 (here). But at the time that only applied to new customers, while the latest change extends the policy to some existing customer. The exact increase customers see will be dependent on when your current contract started (this may be when you joined Three or last upgraded your account) – details.

However, customers who joined or upgraded their phone, SIM Only, Mobile Broadband or Home Broadband plan between 1st November 2022 and 7th September 2024, and are still within the minimum term of your contract on 31^st March 2026, will still be subject to an increase each April by the preceding December CPI rate of 3.4% + 3.9% (total increase of 7.3%). Otherwise, it’ll be the pounds and pence method.

Three UK Statement

“From 1st April 2026, we’re updating your annual price increase terms to a more transparent approach, which moves away from % based price rises and uses amounts shown in pounds and pence, so that you can see more clearly what the change to your monthly charge will be from April each year.

…

Similar to many other mobile providers, our Pay Monthly plans are subject to an annual price change. The increases reflect inflationary pressures we are facing as a business including energy prices, supplier increases, and increased staffing costs. Despite this change, our prices remain some of the most competitive in the market and we have a range of support, including a social tariff via SMARTY, available for customers struggling with their finances.”

Three UK’s new mid-contract price rises (extra monthly charge):

Low (4GB and below): £1.80
Mid (5GB and above, below 100GB): £1.90
High (100GB+): £2.30
Home Broadband: £3.50
Smartwatch Pairing Plans: £1.80

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

ISPreview have spotted that mobile operator and broadband ISP EE (BT) has started sending out invites to those on their trials scheme who wish to help test Openreach’s new XGS-PON powered Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) lines, which for consumer services are capable of offering download speeds up to 8.5Gbps (850Mbps upload).

The news that EE plans to test the new network won’t come as much of a surprise because they confirmed as much back in December 2025 (here). Openreach has also previously informed ISPreview that their pilot would initially begin across an area of 40,000 premises in Guildford, although this seems likely to be expanded, and we’ve noted that the pilot may also catch some premises in neighbouring Woking.

Openreach currently plans to kick off the new XGS-PON broadband pilot from 23rd March 2026 (details). Anybody taking part will require another engineer visit to install one of the operator’s latest 10Gbps capable Optical Network Terminals (ONT) inside your home.

According to EE’s new trial invite, customers who agree to take part will “receive a free broadband trial line for 3 months, plus an Amazon.co.uk voucher when you complete the trial” (EE says they’ll either install this as an upgrade to your existing line or as a temporary new line). Existing BT or EE broadband customers will also receive a credit towards their existing account for the duration of the trial.

At this stage, it’s unclear whether everybody who takes part will receive the top 8.5Gbps tier or one of their slower tiers, although EE did previously mention the 8.5Gbps top speed when first announcing their plans. EE is currently still the only ISP to confirm their participation, and it may take time for others to fully adapt to the new capacity requirements of such a service.

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The Building Digital UK (BDUK) agency and Openreach (BT) have revised downward their £149.7m Call Off 1 Project Gigabit contract – covering parts of Lancashire, North Wiltshire, South Gloucestershire, West and Mid-Surrey, Staffordshire, West Berkshire and Hertfordshire. This originally aimed to extend full fibre (FTTP) to 54,336 premises in remote areas, but will now reach 51,821.

Just to recap. The original contract was agreed all the way back in August 2024 and formed part of Openreach’s Single Supplier Framework agreement with BDUK (here), which saw them being chosen to deliver all of Project Gigabit’s Cross-Regional (Type C) procurements.

However, it’s important to remember that such contracts are not static and their scope, as well as committed levels of public funding, can change over time for a number of different reasons – informed by regular ‘Open Market Reviews’ of existing UK deployment plans. For example, commercial operators may expand or reduce their roll-out plans in the same region(s), which can reduce or grow the scope for public investment within those same contracted areas.

The contracted operator could also find the deployment to be more expensive, or possibly even cheaper, than previously envisaged. Such adjustments may occur due to changes in build costs and interest rates / inflation, as well as any unexpected obstacles to street works or greater efficiencies of build than planned or expected.

Suffice to say, there can be various reasons why the contracted scope of related builds and the level of allocated public funding may change a bit over time. The recent modification to Call Off 1 is another example of this, albeit a relatively small change in the grander scheme of things.

The official modification notice doesn’t provide much context for the change (we have asked Openreach to clarify) and simply states: “The awarded contract value has decreased from the original value of £149,700,000 to £146,905,866 … This is a cost change of -£2,794,134. The awarded premises have decreased (descoped) from the original 54,336 to 51,821. This is a scope change of -2,515.”

In short, Project Gigabit’s contracts can go through a lot of changes on their way to completion, and the above is an expected part of that evolution. The catch is that there may be further changes in the future, which could go in a different direction, so it’s not always easy to tell what the final picture will be until you actually reach the end.

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Rural-focused UK ISP Quickline, which is busy deploying a new gigabit-capable full fibre (FTTP) and fixed wireless (FWA) network across parts of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire in England (3-Year Rollout Plan), has recently introduced a new 2.3Gbps (2,300Mbps) symmetric speed broadband package (their previous top tier was 1Gbps).

The new Full Fibre 2300 package is priced at just £59.99 per month on a 24-month minimum term contract (credits to one of ISPreview’s readers, Paul, for spotting it). All of their packages also continue to promote a commitment to “no mid-contract price rises“, free install, free router and offers up to £300 in switching credit if you need help to cover the cost of exiting your previous ISP contract early, during a switch.

Quickline currently aims to extend gigabit-capable broadband to a further 360,000 UK premises across thousands of rural communities (roughly 170k via publicly funded projects and almost 200k from commercial builds). The provider recently reported that they ended 2025 with 200,000 premises passed via full fibre (plus 200k more via wireless, although not all of those are gigabit-capable).

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Infracapital-backed alternative broadband ISP Fibrus, which is building a gigabit-speed full fibre (FTTP) network across rural parts of Cumbria (England) and Northern Ireland, has today launched a new campaign to help keep children in N.Ireland safe online. The ‘Surf Smart Stay Safe’ campaign is being delivered through a variety of workshops in Primary Schools across the country.

The first cohort of the campaign saw Fibrus deliver workshops to 350 P5-P7 pupils in Cookstown, Downpatrick and Randalstown, with the sessions designed to build children’s confidence in navigating the online world. Each workshop aims to empower children with age-appropriate resources to help tackle issues such as cyberbullying, password protection and fake news.

Created to work alongside a take home 12-page booklet, the programme also encourages parents to get involved in the activities with their children, helping spark constructive conversations at home about navigating the online world their children will encounter every day as they grow. This includes a series of puzzles, crosswords and practical advice to help build their understanding of what it means to stay safe online.

Colin Hutchinson, Group MD of Fibrus, said:

“Being a young person today means having more access than ever to the digital world, but there can be a serious side to it, including learning to stay safe online. We are very happy to work with community groups and schools across Northern Ireland in producing these very helpful booklets. Hopefully they will encourage hundreds of children to take a fresh look at staying safe online.

We’re committed to ensuring the communities we serve stay safe online and are proud to support young people with the knowledge and confidence they need to navigate the online world, which will be part of their lives for years to come.”

The operator’s new full fibre network, which recently passed a take-up rate of 30% (here), currently covers over 450,000 UK premises and around 332,700 of those are in N.Ireland.

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Buckingham-based alternative network provider Village Networks, which operates a number of Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) and Full Fibre (FTTP) gigabit broadband networks across rural parts of Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire, Hampshire and Oxfordshire in England, has requested new powers from the regulator to support its future expansion.

The plan was revealed as part of the company’s application for Code Powers from Ofcom, which are typically sought in order to help speed-up deployments of new fibre networks and cut costs, not least by reducing the number of licences needed for street works. The powers can also help with supporting access to run new fibre via Openreach’s (BT) existing cable ducts and poles (PIA).

The announcement doesn’t include much detail, although as one of the market’s smaller but longest running providers, we aren’t expecting this to result in a major acceleration of their rollout (i.e. it’s probably more about continuing to expand, albeit more efficiently). VN tends to adopt more of a gradual organic approach to network expansion (see their latest company accounts).

Extract from Village Networks Code Powers Application

The Applicant is a network operator and Internet Service Provider offering internet connectivity over Fixed Wireless Access, owned FTTP networks and FTTP wholesale agreements, and by the provision of leased lines.

Dependent on the location, the Applicant currently delivers connectivity either via fibre or ethernet to a point-to-point or point-to multi point fixed network link, which connects premises via rx/tx external aerials. In other cases, the Applicant currently uses optical fibre from points of presence (PoPs) to reach individual premises via drop fibres.

The Applicant seeks Code powers to facilitate the expansion of its network and deployment across rural areas in the UK, for example Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire, Hampshire and Oxfordshire, with 85% of customers of the Applicant’s network being in rural postcodes.