Original article Total Telecom:Read More

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Edited by Harry Baldock, Total Telecom

The move reflects an accelerated response to the rapidly increasing demand for artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing, and hyperscaler services across the region.

This week, STC subsidiary center3 has unveiled a plans to expand its data centre infrastructure to reach a total capacity of 1 Gigawatt by 2030.

The company, which has already invested approximately $3 billion in its existing infrastructure, plans to inject an additional $10 billion into developing new, high-density, hyperscaler-ready data centres by the end of the decade. These facilities, designed to support AI workloads and high-performance computing (HPC), will be strategically located throughout Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and other international markets.

The expansion aligns closely with Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 digital transformation objectives, aiming to establish the Kingdom as a major digital hub that localizes digital content and services within the region.

“We are not just expanding data centers, we are enabling the future digital economy. With 1 Gigawatt as our target, we are laying the foundation for AI, cloud, and hyperscale workloads, ensuring that Saudi Arabia and the region have the world-class infrastructure to lead in the next wave of global innovation,” said Fahad AlHajeri, CEO of center3.

center3 aims to reach a significant milestone of 300 megawatts (MW) of installed capacity by 2027 with these next-generation facilities.

The expansion is also underscored by a strong commitment to sustainability. center3 is incorporating renewable energy sources, energy-efficient cooling technologies, and responsible resource management practices into its data center operations. Given the global push for sustainable digital infrastructure, this approach positions center3 as a frontrunner in marrying technological advancement with environmental stewardship.

This strategic expansion effort is situated within a broader growth context for the Saudi Arabian data center market, which is projected to rise from $1.33 billion in 2024 to $3.9 billion by 2030, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19.6%. This market surge is driven by substantial investments from global hyperscalers such as Google, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, and Oracle, alongside large-scale infrastructure projects like NEOM and LEAP Riyadh 2025.

center3, which was established as a subsidiary of the STC in late 2022, already operates more than 25 data centers across Saudi Arabia. Its recent expansion of the Khurais data center in Riyadh, adding 9.6 MW of capacity, is part of an ongoing strategy to quadruple its data center capacity within the region over the coming years. This expansion not only supports hyperscaler and cloud growth but also meets the increasing requirements of enterprise and governmental digital operations demanding ultra-low-latency and secure infrastructure.

This article was partially generated by AI and edited by a journalist

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Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Mobile network operator O2 (Virgin Media) has today continued to boost the provider’s 4G and 5G mobile (mobile broadband) capacity and coverage by deploying Freshwave’s small cells across 13 holiday resort locations in Cornwall (South West England). Most of these are being deployed across the towns of St Ives and Newquay.

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 and specific sites – 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.).

The latest batch of small cells have already been deployed at key points in both towns, including at the Porthminster and Porthmeor beaches in St Ives, and Tolcarne beach and the train station in Newquay, but more will shortly be added. O2 currently has the largest small cell deployment of any operator in the UK, recently installing its 2,000^th site, although EE have also deployed quite a few.

Dr Rob Joyce, Director of Mobile Access Engineering at O2, said:

“Cornwall is a beautiful part of the country and an extremely popular tourist destination in the summer. These new small cells serve some of the busiest areas in Cornwall and will ensure that O2 customers have a reliable mobile experience whether they’re streaming on the beach, having a pasty, or eating an ice cream.

Our Mobile Transformation Plan will see us invest around £700m into our mobile network this year to ensure our customers consistently receive an exceptional network experience wherever they are and even at the busiest times.”

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Mobile provider giffgaff, which is owned by Telefónica and harnesses O2’s virtual network operator (MVNO) platform in the UK, has today launched a new mobile plan specifically for students that offers them 100GB (GigaBytes) of mobile broadband data for just £10 per month on a 12-month term.

The new deal can be snapped up by any student with an .ac.uk email address. Plus everyone that activates their eSIM or SIM with an ac.uk email address will also gain the chance to win a £500 gift voucher in a prize draw, and will get a guaranteed £20 just for entering.

The student plan (giffgaff.com/students) also includes unlimited UK texts and minutes, as well as 5GB of inclusive data for EU roaming.

Original article Total Telecom:Read More

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Samsung and TSMC are notably exempt from the tariffs due to their US manufacturing investments

Edited by Harry Baldock, Total Telecom

Donald Trump’s announcement of a 100 percent tariffs on imported semiconductors has triggered a major shift across the Asian chip markets, with a distinct divide between firms punished by the measure and those benefiting from exemptions linked to U.S. investment.

The announcement underlines the intensifying global competition for high-end chips, crucial components underpinning artificial intelligence and advanced computing.

At a White House briefing, Trump declared that the tariffs would apply to all chip imports apart from those coming from companies that manufacture or commit to manufacturing semiconductors within the United States. Prominent players such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) and Samsung Electronics have emerged as key beneficiaries, buoyed by their strategic investments in U.S. facilities.

TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker and supplier to tech giants like Apple and Nvidia, surged nearly five percent on Taiwanese markets following confirmation from Taiwan’s National Development Council that it would be exempt due to its substantial U.S.-based factories. Similarly, Samsung Electronics, which plans billions of dollars in U.S. investment, saw its shares rise by around two percent in Seoul.

Non-exempt Asian tech companies, on the other hand, are facing a tough road ahead. In Japan, manufacturers heavily involved in chip production and related equipment saw share prices tumble: Tokyo Electron dropped 3.2 percent, Renesas sank 3.4 percent, and other chip component producers like Disco Corporation and Sumco also lost value. South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix too initially experienced a significant share decline of 3.1 percent before South Korea’s trade envoy clarified that SK Hynix and Samsung would be exempt due to their U.S. manufacturing plans, easing some market apprehension.

Industry experts view the tariff policy as a clear attempt to reorient global semiconductor supply chains toward America and reduce dependence on foreign imports. Alicia Garcia-Herrero, chief economist for Asia Pacific at Natixis, speaking to Agence France-Presse, noted that the move would leave many of the highest-end semiconductor producers unaffected, but would potentially cripple the producers of less advanced chips in Malaysia and China.

“This kills producers of low-end chips,” she said.

The tariffs mark yet another departure from Biden-era economic policy, which focussed on government subsidies to incentivise US investment. The CHIPS Act pledged $52.7 billion for semiconductor manufacturing, R&D, and workforce development in the US, sparking multi-billion dollar investment announcements from the likes of TSMC, Samsung, Intel, and GlobalFoundries.

Trump, however, has called CHIPS Act a “horrible, horrible thing”, preferring to pursue an aggresive economic policy based on tariffs over subsidies.

This article was partially generated by AI and edited by a journalist

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Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Network operator nexfibre, which shares some of its parentage with ISP partner Virgin Media (O2), has published their latest quarterly (Q2 2025) build update and confirmed that their new 10Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network now covers 2.3 million UK premises. But its future remains uncertain.

Just to recap. Back in 2022 Telefónica, Liberty Global and InfraVia Capital Partners setup nexfibre as a new £4.5bn joint venture (here), which aimed to deploy an open access (wholesale) full fibre network to reach “up to” 7m UK homes (starting with 5m by 2026) in areas NOT served by Virgin Media’s own network of 16m+ premises. The funding reflects £3.3bn of fully underwritten financing and up to £1.4bn in equity commitments.

However, as existing readers will already know, nexfibre’s roll-out plan recently suffered a significant blow after Telefonica launched a Strategic Review of their global business (here and here). The decision has since resulted in nexfibre scaling back their roll-out – now aiming to reach just 2.5m premises in 2025 (down from c.3m) – and Virgin Media scrapping their related NetCo plans for opening up their existing consumer broadband network to wholesale (here).

The latest Q2 2025 build update from nexfibre continues to reflect this change and confirms that their full fibre network has now reached 2.3 million premises as ready for service (up from 2.2m in Q1). Much uncertainty now exists in the build plans for 2026 and beyond, which will probably only be answered once Telefonica and Liberty Global have decided on the best way forward. Not that you’d know it from listening to the company’s boss, where the focus continues to hint at a switch toward consolidation (waters where CityFibre and possibly Netomnia are also playing).

Rajiv Datta, CEO of nexfibre, said:

“nexfibre continues to make substantial progress in bringing full-fibre broadband to underserved communities across the UK. With coverage now exceeding 2.3 million premises, we are among the country’s largest alternative fibre operators.

Our optimised build plan remains on track, driven by the agility and commitment of our unique ecosystem of dedicated team members and partners. Together, we are delivering a technologically-advanced, XGS-PON-only network designed to serve generations to come. This long-term focus informs our view of the need for sustainable, nationwide competition in the fibre access market, which today is fragmented and subscale, yielding constrained business models and substantial financial stress.

Backed by strong investors and significant financial resources, nexfibre remains committed to creating a wholesale fibre access platform that will play a key role as the market moves toward meaningful consolidation and a structure capable of unlocking the full potential of world-class digital infrastructure.”

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

A new survey of broadband ISPs by Telegraph readers has handed out awards across several categories to Sky Broadband, EE and Plusnet, with the latter scooping wins across three categories. But neither BT, Vodafone, Virgin Media nor TalkTalk were deemed good enough to win anything, which is despite Virgin technically being the fastest provider.

The survey itself, which was conducted between 6th June and 14th July 2025, was fairly small (i.e. take it with a pinch of salt) and only collected feedback from just 1,019 adult Telegraph readers. This explains why the results could only focus on the market’s largest seven broadband providers (smaller players don’t factor).

In addition, broadband providers that won awards needed to both excel in the relevant category and still score consistently well in others. This is why Sky Broadband was given the “Best Broadband Provider for Speed” award below, despite Virgin Media actually delivering faster speeds in the study (i.e. Virgin’s lowly scores for reliability and customer service dragged it down).

Similarly, Vodafone and TalkTalk actually scored reasonably well across all categories, but not well enough in any one category to warrant an award. But BT had a generally weak showing, coming in dead last for both speed and value, albeit while doing well for reliability.

2025 UK Best Broadband Survey Award Winners

Best Buy Broadband: Plusnet

Best Value Broadband: Plusnet

Best Broadband for Speed: Sky Broadband

Most Reliable Broadband: EE

Best Broadband for Customer Support: Plusnet

Full Satisfaction Survey Results

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Ofcom have today published their latest quarterly (Q1 2025) study of UK consumer telecoms complaints, which names TalkTalk as attracting the most negative feedback from customers for fixed broadband, while O2 took the most heat for Mobile and Virgin Media were put on the naughty step for Pay TV 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%).

Take note that 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

Debt troubled ISP TalkTalk attracted the most broadband complaints in Q1 2025, with 41% of them being driven by service faults and provisioning issues. On the flip side, Plusnet attracted the fewest complaints of all the listed providers, which makes a change from Sky Broadband almost consistently inhabiting the same spot.

Fixed Line Phone Complaints

Both EE and TalkTalk jointly attracted the most complaints for fixed line (landline) phone services, which were mainly driven by issues with service faults and provisioning. By comparison, Utility Warehouse continued to attract the fewest complaints for the fifth consecutive quarter, followed closely by Sky.

Mobile Complaints

Mobile operators enjoy lower complaint levels than fixed line providers, but somebody has to attract the most complaints and once again that turned out to be O2, where 28% of the quarterly problems were primarily driven by issues with complaints handling. By comparison, both Vodafone and Tesco Mobile attracted the fewest gripes.

Pay TV Complaints

Finally, Virgin Media attracted the most complaints for Pay TV services (closely followed by EE), while Sky TV received the fewest complaints.

Interestingly, Virgin Media sent in a comment to highlight how much they’ve improved since last year, although this reflects a comparison between Q1 2024 and Q1 2025, which overlooks that their broadband and TV complaints got worse over the last quarter. But O2 has at least continued to improve in mobile.

A Virgin Media O2 spokesperson said:

“Six months after we drew a line in the sand and committed to improving our customer service, this data from the regulator shows real green shoots with overall complaints in the first quarter of 2025 down by 42% year-on-year.

Our more recent figures paint an even stronger picture, giving us confidence that our strategy of increased investment, simplification, upskilling agents and removing persistent pain points, is making a genuine and tangible difference in improving our customers’ experience with us. We’ll continue to make progress and get this right for good.”

Ofcom’s Consumer Complaints Report Q1 2025
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/../telecoms-and-pay-tv-complaints

UPDATE 11:49am

We’ve added a comment from TalkTalk below.

A TalkTalk spokesperson said:

“We’re very disappointed with this latest report and are working hard to improve how we handle customer complaints as well as reducing the need for them in the first place. We continue to invest heavily in a range of projects focused on our customers, giving our frontline colleagues better tools to understand problems, and improving the way we communicate with our customers. We believe these efforts will be reflected in future reports.”

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

The former MD of street works firm Light Source, Steve Hill, this week announced that he’d established the Nottingham-based Allestra Group to serve the telecommunications (broadband etc.), renewable energy, multi-utilities, network design, and traffic management sectors with similar engineering solutions.

The core focus of the new company will initially be on telecommunications and multi utility services, where they already appear to be working with the likes of Openreach and Vodafone. But the group also plans to transition toward renewable energy with a focus on Electric Vehicles (e.g. building charging infrastructure) etc.

The announcement represents an interesting development for a market that has recently been placed under a lot of strain, not least due to many alternative network (altnet) operators opting to slow or pause their fibre broadband builds (fuelled by issues of high interest rates, rising build costs and competition etc.).

The current situation has had knock-on impacts for street works firms (contractors), some of which even fell into administration. But where some see only problems, others clearly sense an opportunity.

Steve Hill, CEO of Allestra Group, said:

“I’m thrilled to announce the launch of Allestra Group, where I’m delighted to step into the role of Group CEO.

Allestra isn’t just a business group — we’re a bold, future-focused collective dedicated to driving innovation across critical industries.

With a strong presence in telecommunications, renewable energy, multi-utilities, network design, and traffic management, Allestra is committed to delivering integrated solutions that connect people, power communities, and build smarter, more sustainable infrastructure.

Through our companies—Upscale Utilities, Trent VC, Upscale TM, and Upscale Managed Services—we’re expanding high-speed networks, developing smart utility systems, enhancing road safety, and advancing green technologies to shape the future.

I am looking forward to working with our partners, excited for what the future holds and proud to lead a team that’s going to shape it.”

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Rural network builder and ISP Fusion Fibre Group, which has deployed a few of its own FTTP broadband networks to various remote communities, has today entered into a new strategic partnership with alternative network operator F&W Networks (Fibre and Wireless) to “accelerate the rollout of ultrafast, reliable full-fibre broadband across Southern England“.

Just to recap. F&W claims to have so far managed to extend their gigabit-capable broadband network to cover 410,000 UK premises read-for-service (Feb 2024 data) across 30 locations in parts of South East of England, such as Greater London, Buckinghamshire, Hampshire, Hertfordshire, Oxfordshire, Surrey, and West Sussex. The operator is also home to a growing customer base of over 35,000.

However, under the new agreement, the Fusion Fibre Group will integrate access to F&W Network’s open access fibre infrastructure to help extend their coverage, although it doesn’t sound as if F&W will gain access to Fusion’s much smaller patchwork of FTTP networks in the North East of England (not mentioned in the PR).

José Luis San Martín, CEO at F&W Networks, said:

“Our mission is to deliver future-ready digital infrastructure to communities that need it most. We’re delighted to partner with Fusion Fibre Group, whose customer fist ethos and rapid growth make then and ideal collaborator in our ongoing network expansion. Together, we’ll bring high quality full fibre connectivity to thousands more homes and businesses.”

Adrian Marsham, MD of Fusion Fibre Group, said:

“We’re thrilled to partner with F&W Networks, whose commitment to building high quality fibre infrastructure aligns perfectly with our mission. This partnership enables us to extend out full fibre services to more communities across the South of England, ensuring that both rural and growing urban centres benefit from the kind of full fibre connectivity that transforms lives.”

We wouldn’t say that this announcement will directly “accelerate the rollout” of FTTP, but it does improve the availability for those looking to sign-up via Fusion Fibre and that may in turn boost take-up, which helps support the economic model for future expansion.

Original article Total Telecom:Read More

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The new joint venture will own 2,700 sites in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania

Today, Swedish telco group Tele2 has announced that it will spin off its Baltic tower assets, forming a joint venture with Global Communications Infrastructure (GCI).

The newly formed business will include own 2,700 telecoms towers and rooftop sites across Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

The business will be split 50:50 between the two owners, with Tele2 to serve as an anchor tenant for the tower company in all three markets under a 20-year service agreement.

“We want to develop our tower assets together with a partner who brings both capital and expertise. This is a way for us to create additional value from the assets we have, together with an experienced partner who knows this business well,” said Jean Marc Harion, President and CEO of Tele2.

The agreement values the new company at around €560 million on a debt-free basis, with Tele2 expecting cash proceeds of around €440 million from its creation.

The deal includes a 10-year investment plan for new sites across all three countries.

Assuming regulatory approvals, the deal is expected to be finalised in Q1 2026.

Until now, the Baltics has broadly remained untouched by Europe’s independent tower giants, like Cellnex, with most of the countries’ mobile operators preferring to own and operate their own tower assets. The only notable exception to this rule is Bitė Group’s subsidiary TeleTower, which was spun off in 2009 and operates a few hundred towers in both Latvia and Lithuania.

As such, the launch of the new JV will make the company the largest independent towerco in the region.

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