Original article Total Telecom:Read More

Press Release

eCommunity™ Fiber, a leading open-access fiber network provider, today announced the deployment of Ciena’s (NYSE: CIEN) routing and multi-layer network control solutions as the high-capacity backbone connecting The District in Morrow, Georgia, directly to the Atlanta Internet Gateway. This continued collaboration with Ciena underscores the foundational technical infrastructure enabling Morrow’s ambitious smart city transformation.

Ciena, the global leader in high-speed connectivity, has been the central technology provider for eCommunity™ Fiber’s network over the last 3 years. It is now being expanded to provide Morrow with resilient, high-bandwidth connectivity essential for supporting a new era of municipal innovation—from sophisticated IoT integrations and advanced public safety applications to ubiquitous community Wi-Fi and citizen-centric digital services.

Ciena’s 5164 Routers ensure reliable and scalable transport, acting as the vital artery that links Morrow’s developing smart city network, including the recently activated services at The District, to the broader digital landscape via the Atlanta Internet Gateway. This core connectivity empowers eCommunity™ Fiber’s open-access model, allowing multiple service providers to deliver high-speed internet, voice, and video services over a shared, cutting-edge infrastructure.

“The City of Morrow very much understands the difference between internet access and connectivity and how to prepare themselves for the future of technology,” explains Jerrald Rector, COO of eCommunity™ Fiber

Building a future-ready smart city requires a network backbone that is not only high-performing and reliable but also inherently scalable to meet evolving demands. Ciena’s routing and multi-layer network control technologies provide the critical capacity and resilience needed to extend advanced digital capabilities throughout Morrow, ensuring seamless connectivity for residents, businesses, and crucial smart city applications.

“Ciena’s routers and multi-layer management provide the high-capacity, low-latency connectivity that’s essential for a successful smart city initiative. eCommunity™ Fiber’s backbone will give Morrow a reliable, future-ready foundation to support its diverse smart city applications,” said Kevin Sheehan, CTO of the Americas, Ciena.

The deployment of Ciena’s 5164 Routers and Navigator Network Control Suite is a significant step in Morrow’s multi-phased smart city initiative, supporting the activation of a fully integrated 4-tier private network featuring Fiber-to-the-Premise, Wi-Fi, LoRaWAN, and LTE 4G/5G technologies. This robust infrastructure is a blueprint for other municipalities aiming to leverage advanced connectivity to enhance public services and drive economic growth.

About eCommunity™ Fiber

eCommunity™ Fiber is the public-facing brand of A2D, Inc., a Georgia-based open-access network provider dedicated to closing the digital divide in underserved communities across the U.S. By investing in cutting-edge technology and strategic partnerships, eCommunity™ Fiber empowers communities with the digital infrastructure needed to thrive in the 21st century.

About the City of Morrow

The City of Morrow, located in Clayton County, Georgia, is committed to fostering innovation and enhancing the quality of life for its residents. Through strategic partnerships and forward-thinking initiatives, the city is building a digitally inclusive future, with developments like The District at Olde Town Morrow serving as a dynamic hub for community engagement and technological advancement.

Ciena are Bronze sponsors of the Broadband Communities Summit, taking place in Houston, TX from June 23-25th 2025. Book your ticket by visiting www.bbcmag.com/summit 

Original article Total Telecom:Read More

NEWS

A new report by the China Strategic Risks Institute (CSRI) reveals that the UK is unprepared for escalating threats from China and Russia targeting undersea internet cables.

The institute analysed 12 incidents between January 2021 and April 2025, and found that eight out of ten suspect vessels were directly linked to China or Russia. These nations are reportedly employing commercial “shadow fleet” vessels to conduct “grey zone” operations.

CSRI claim that the UK is a vital Euro-Atlantic cable hub, but increasingly exposed to threat. Despite this, they argue that:

• International law is outdated and ineffective
• Detection is difficult amid heavy maritime traffic
• The global cable repair industry is dangerously thin

The report is written by CSRI Executive Director Andrew Yeh emphasises the need for the UK to enhance its surveillance and collaborate with experienced partners like Taiwan. It makes three Policy Recommendations around enhancing monitoring and surveillance, strengthening mechanisms for accountability, and improving redundancy, repair and resilience.

Security of subsea infrastructure will be a major theme for Submarine Networks EMEA which returns to London in 2026. Find out more at www.totaltele.com/subnets

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Digital entertainment platform Netgem TV has today announced that their IPTV box and service, which is typically bundled by broadband ISPs like Brsk, TalkTalk, CommunityFibre, Wightfibre and others, will benefit from its new partnership with one of the world’s leading sports platforms, DAZN.

The collaboration complements Netgem’s existing access to 50+ free live sports channels in the UK, alongside access to a broad library of 250 other channels and sports apps (e.g. Amazon Prime Video, NOW Sports, and Discovery+ TNT). With DAZN on board, Netgem TV now says they “offer 100% of premium football in the UK, Ireland and Gibraltar“.

Since 14th June, all FIFA Club World Cup 2025 matches are streaming live and free on DAZN. But the service also covers the NFL Game Pass, National League TV, FIBA Courtside 1891, major boxing events, MMA, darts, golf, motorsports, and tennis etc.

Sylvain Thevenot, MD of Netgem Pleio, Streaming services for Operators, said:

“This is a game-changer for sports fans. Partnering with DAZN catapults our entertainment offering to a new level for both our customers and telecom operator partners across Europe. Access to world-class sporting events like this will undoubtedly drive massive customer engagement and satisfaction.”

The set-top-boxes Netgem provide – like the Netbox 4K (inc. HDR, bluetooth pairing, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, USB and Dolby Atmos sound) – tend to be similar to some of those supplied by rival video streaming companies and include an often familiar array of premium content, apps (iPlayer, itvx, 5, UKTV play, Amazon Prime Video etc.), live TV channels (Freeview) and catch-up content.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Openreach (BT) has marked “25 years of home broadband” by combining its own data with consumer research to map the UK cities by their online activity. The results found that the busiest hour of the day for internet usage in the UK is between 8-9pm, followed by 9-10pm and 7-8pm. And the highest peak of the year so far was on 14th January 2025 at 9pm.

The results go on to show that the city where the average family spends the most overall time online is Sheffield (32% spent 5 hours+ online per day). On the flip side, Brighton was named the city with the lowest overall time online (only 11% spent 5 hours+ online per day). But we don’t get a full summary of this, just a brief snapshot of two cities.

The survey also found that 64% of people spend time online between the so-called “Do Not Disturb” hours of 11pm and 6am – with YouTube (19%) emerging as the most common internet usage during these times, followed by internet shopping (17%). Only a third (34%) of UK adults don’t engage with any online activities during off-peak hours, meaning two thirds likely do.

The research is broadly intended to coincide with what Openreach describes as the 25th anniversary of the first UK home broadband connection, which they say was installed in Basildon, Essex in April 2000 (they don’t say it, but this was for an NTL based cable broadband service). BT’s first commercial 512Kbps based ADSL lines also began surfacing in the same year. Both cable and ADSL services had been tested in trials during the prior 1-2 years.

The rest of Openreach’s results are a bit of a scatter gun blast of random information, which makes it tedious to digest without more structure. The operator’s public press release also doesn’t seem to include much information about their survey methodology (i.e. take it with a pinch of salt). But you can find some of the key highlights below.

General Highlights from Openreach’s New Data

➤ Checking e-mails is the most common online activity for UK adults, with 66% placing this in their “top 5 most common online activities” outside of work. This was followed by general browsing (59%), using WhatsApp or other messaging apps (55%), and online shopping (49%).

➤ Only 4% of Brits say they now spend time on dating sites or apps, while 75% said they hadn’t used a dating app in the past 12 months. But 20% of adults that live with their partner or spouse admitted they have either used a dating app in the past year (18%) or are unsure if they have (2%).

➤ 43% of people feel they waste time online, and 37% are concerned about the amount of time they spend “doom-scrolling”.

➤ 26% say that faster internet speeds help in cutting down their time online – enabling them to ‘speed up to slow down’, with 34% saying if they spent less hours using devices and connected technology at home, they’d be able to communicate better with their families. And 33% said they’d feel more relaxed if they spent less time online.

City Specific Highlights

● LONDON is the capital city of online daters, with almost a quarter (24%) engaging with dating apps on at least three days per week.

● The streaming capital of Britain is CARDIFF – with 44% of residents saying they binge movies and TV shows for more than six hours a week. Cardiff also tops the list for the city with the most YouTubers (48%).

● SOUTHAMPTON is the capital of online shopping, with 65% scouring the internet for purchases while online.

● SHEFFIELD is home to the kings and queens of TikTok, with a third (32%) saying they spend most of their time online posting videos and scrolling through their feeds. And it is also the city with the most music streamers (30%).

● LIVERPOOL are the UK’s cryptocurrency connoisseurs – with one in 10 (13%) regularly investing and checking their online stocks

● MANCHESTER is the Instagram capital of the UK, with almost a third (27%) saying they are most likely to be posting videos and photos on the site while online.

● BELFAST chats the most online, with 70% saying their time online is mostly spent sending messages to friends and family on WhatsApp and iMessage.

● BRISTOL is home to gamers…with a third (33%) saying they relax by playing video games in their spare time.

● LEEDS are a city of Facebook fans, with almost half (43%) spending their time online using the social networking site.

● EDINBURGH are the most likely to be sending emails, with 72% listing this as their main use of the internet.

● NEWCASTLE are the most likely to be reading news articles or checking facts – with 71% saying research takes up most of their time online.

● PLYMOUTH is the ‘speed up to slow down’ capital of the UK, with almost half (45%) saying they intentionally spend time offline.

Katie Milligan, Deputy CEO of Openreach, said:

“It’s fascinating to see how different parts of the UK are embracing the online world and adapting to it in unique ways. At the same time, it’s encouraging that many recognise the importance of taking time away from devices and digital connectivity. With full fibre now available to nearly 19 million homes and businesses across the UK, thanks to the dedication of Openreach engineers, we’re proud to provide the nation’s most reliable broadband technology.”

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

The ITS Technology Group, which has built various open access full fibre broadband and Ethernet networks (“Faster Britain“) across urban parts of the UK for businesses and ISPs, has today announced a reciprocal partnership with retail provider Zen Internet and spoken of their ambition for future network expansion within the next 2 years.

Just to recap. The operator’s XGS-PON-enabled (10Gbps capable) full fibre network is currently said to “pass” almost 500,000 businesses (commercial premises – about 25% of the UK business market), and they often claim to “reach the rest” through their trusted operator partners’ infrastructure, which includes the likes of BTWholesale, Sky, PXC (TalkTalk), and Virgin Media Business etc.

Meanwhile, Zen Internet is typically a retail broadband ISP, but in recent months they’ve also launched the Fibre Hub (here), which essentially aggregates access to a number of major and smaller alternative full fibre broadband networks (Openreach, CityFibre, Trooli, Freedom Fibre etc.) and offers that access up to partners (e.g. other ISPs) at the wholesale level.

The new agreement means that Zen Internet will gain access to sell their products over ITS’ network, while ITS will also join Zen’s Fibre Hub and be able to sell their services to associated partners. For example, Zen and their partners will gain access to ITS’ Fibre Light and Fibre Bright solutions.

FibreLight delivers a leased line-type product (Ethernet over FTTP), offering speeds from 100Mbps right up to 5Gbps. FibreBright offers a fully uncontended and symmetrical Ethernet leased line service, from 100Mbps up to 10Gbps – built for data-intensive environments and cloud-first operations.

Richard Tang, CEO of Zen Internet, said:

“Our partnership with ITS allows us to extend our reach and provide unparalleled connectivity solutions to our channel partners as well as B2B clients, especially in areas where we previously did not have a footprint. We are excited about the opportunities this brings and are confident it will drive growth for both Zen and ITS. I’m particularly happy about this being a reciprocal partnership, with Zen selling services over ITS’s network, and ITS using Zen’s network to provide services where ITS has not yet built network footprint.”

Daren Baythorpe, CEO of ITS, said:

“This partnership shows two organisations working to deliver greater choice, value, and resilience to the UK business connectivity market. It also reflects the strategic alignment and mutual respect between two businesses committed to innovation, quality, and customer value.

We’re proud to support their expansion, just as Zen has supported ours. From pioneering network innovations like our 50G-PON trial, to this new wholesale agreement, we’re proving what’s possible when collaboration is underpinned by shared purpose and ambition.”

As part of this announcement, Richard Tang has also done another one of his famous altnet interviews with Daren, which you can see below. The interview itself is perhaps less interesting to those coming from more of a consumer perspective (most of our readership), but it does reveal a bit more detail about today’s deal, as well as ITS’ view of the wider market and their expansion plans.

For example, Daren reveals that they’re hoping to expand the reach of their own full fibre network from about 25% of UK businesses to 35% within the next 18-24 months, which he felt was a “reasonable target [to be] setting ourselves“.

In addition, Daren also hints that their recent 50G PON (50Gbps broadband) technology trial (here) could be followed by a commercial service launch of the new network and related services, which he said may occur during early 2026.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Network operator nexfibre, which is working alongside Virgin Media to deploy a new 10Gbps full fibre broadband (FTTP) network across millions of UK premises (c.2.2m have already been built), has told ISPreview that they “remain focused on enabling as many ISPs as possible“. This came after some of ISPreview’s sources indicated that their wholesale plans seem to have stalled.

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” 7 million UK homes (starting with 5m by 2026) in areas NOT served by Virgin Media’s own network of 16m+ premises (side note: Telefónica and Liberty Global also back Virgin).

However, as previously reported (here), the nexfibre build recently suffered a big hit after JV partner Telefonica launched a strategic review. Not only did this pause Virgin Media’s (O2) own plans for opening up their existing broadband network to wholesale via a new NetCo company (here), but it also caused nexfibre to scale-back its FTTP coverage target for 2025 to 2.5 million premises (here) – roughly 500k premises less than expected.

At the time nothing was specifically mentioned about nexfibre’s efforts to onboard more ISPs as part of their own semi-separate wholesale plans, although we have long assumed that it might be impacted too – given the close alignment of strategy with Virgin Media and shared parentage.

Over the past few weeks’ a number of industry sources have since informed ISPreview that nexfibre appears to have slowed or paused their engagement with other ISPs, with related account managers being moved to other parts of the business. Naturally, we asked nexfibre about the status of their wholesale offering to the wider market and whether they were still open to other ISPs outside the VMO2 / giffgaff group. The response was mixed.

A nexfibre spokesperson told ISPreview:

“nexfibre is creating a wholesale platform for all ISPs – nothing has changed in our mission or belief that a scaled sustainable competitor to Openreach is needed for long-term market health.

The strong interest we have received from ISPs, outside of our shareholder eco-system, has been encouraging and reaffirms our investment in future-ready XGS-PON infrastructure.

While ISP integration is progressing, it is a complex process, often with bespoke requirements. In light of such demand, we have naturally had to prioritise our efforts, but we remain focused on enabling as many ISPs as possible to use our high-quality, full fibre platform.”

The operator doesn’t spell out precisely what they mean by “prioritise our efforts” in this context, although it could suggest that they’re opting to focus more on larger ISP partners for now (at the cost of smaller players), or have decided to focus on getting giffgaff ready for launch before progressing third-party ISPs to market.

The fact is that Telefónica is involved with both nexfibre and Virgin Media, thus their strategic review will be placing pressure on both sides and Liberty Global is having to manage that as best they can. Speaking of which, the CEO of Liberty Global, Mike Fries, recently indicated that it could take 24 months for Telefónica to arrive at a decision about their future direction (here).

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

The annual King’s Birthday Honours (2025) have just been published, which includes a couple of people from the United Kingdom’s telecommunications sector, such as the founder of alternative rural broadband ISP Wessex Internet, James Gibson Fleming, who scooped an MBE for services to community, charity and businesses in Dorset.

The honours’ system is technically designed to recognise people who have made achievements in public life and or committed themselves to serving and benefiting Britain, such as by helping to make the lives of other people or communities better. Proposed awards are chosen by the honours committee and their decisions go to the Prime Minister and then to the King, who awards the honour.

In this case, James Gibson Fleming was awarded the Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) title for “services to Charitable Causes and to the community in Dorset”. This covers a lot more than just his work with Wessex Internet (i.e. various work with charities and the local community).

James Gibson Fleming, Founder of Wessex Internet, said:

“I am deeply honoured to receive this recognition which really belongs to the incredible teams at Wessex Internet, the volunteers at Weldmar and the Talbot Village Trust, and the communities who have supported us every step of the way. The approach has always been the same – take the long view, invest in your community, and build something sustainable that will serve people for decades to come.

Any success we have had – whether with the hospice work or building Wessex Internet – has been down to the dedication of local people who believe in serving their communities for the long term. I’ve simply been fortunate to work alongside such committed individuals who do the real work of connecting and caring for Dorset. This honour is theirs as much as it is mine.”

In addition, Professor Simon Reza Saunders (Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering) – Honorary Professor at the University of Bristol – was separately awarded an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for “services to Telecommunications“.

Simon has done a lot of work on antennas and wireless networks, he’s also the co-founder and Director of Technology for independent wireless strategy advisory firm Real Wireless.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Rochdale-based UK broadband ISP Zen Internet has revealed that Freedom Fibre’s alternative full fibre (FTTP) network, which at the last update covered 315,000 premises in parts of England and North Wales (4th Nov 2024), is now live on their service and being sold to consumers after being almost fully integrated following last year’s wholesale deal (here).

Until recently Zen Internet was only able to harness FTTP lines from Openreach, CityFibre and Trooli, although they’ve been gradually expanding through new agreements with alternative networks and Freedom Fibre is the latest to join that club. Zen’s partners will also be able to access the service via their aggregated wholesale platform (The Fibre Hub).

Freedom Fibre’s network can be found in a number of locations across parts of Cheshire, Greater Manchester and Shropshire in England, as well as North Wales. But the operator’s network expansion has taken a hit after they recently dropped out of the £43m (state aid) Project Gigabit broadband roll-out contract for Cheshire (here) and announced redundancies (here), although they still retain the £24m North Shropshire build contract (here).

Richard Tang, CEO of Zen Internet, said:

“Big milestone yesterday for Zen Internet’s partnership with Freedom Fibre. After great collaborative working, integration, and testing, we are now fully live with selling Zen’s award-winning full fibre broadband over Freedom Fibre’s network via our Consumer sales team. Over the coming weeks, we’ll launch in our Fibre Hub, so our channel partners can benefit from access to this new full fibre footprint at market-leading pricing. We’ll also launch shortly in our online order journey.

In addition to Consumer FTTP, we’ll also shortly launch Business FTTP, E/O FTTP, and EAD-equivalent over the Freedom Fibre network, giving us and our partners a full suite of B2B connectivity services.

Focus now is on ramping up volume!

Big thanks to the many people within both Zen and Freedom Fibre who have worked hard to get us to this point, on schedule.”

Just to translate this, it doesn’t yet appear as if those covered by Freedom Fibre’s network can order packages via Zen’s online availability checker and our own testing appears to confirm this (as above, this will change soon). But you should be able to phone them up to place an order.

As a result, we don’t know precisely what the packages and prices look like, but we have previously been told that it will be roughly the same as what they charge on the CityFibre side of their service.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

The ownership of alternative network operator and ISP Runfibre, which has built a small Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network across rural parts of South Gloucestershire in England, appears to have changed again after a relatively new provider called Nova Fibre took control of the business from the Fibreray Group.

In case anybody has forgotten. Runfibre is a small altnet that originally started life in 2020/21 by deploying their full fibre network into Hawkesbury Upton, Inglestone Common and surrounding areas – often with support from the government’s gigabit broadband voucher scheme. Some of their other locations included Falfield, Iron Acton, Sopworth and Little Badminton, Charfied West, Easter Compton and Over Lane.

However, the provider appeared to be suffering from some challenges toward the end of 2023 and ended up being acquired by the Fibreray Group for an undisclosed sum during August 2024 (here), which at the time indicated that the operator would continue to focus its future deployments on “smaller communities” (i.e. places where there are “fewer than 1,500 consumers and business premises” within an area of interest).

Since then we’ve not heard much from Runfibre, until the company’s listing on Companies House was updated on 8th June 2025 to state the “cessation of Fibreray Group Ltd as a person with significant control” and to note how Fibre Nova Ltd had now become the operator with “significant control” of the business.

In addition, Runfibre’s former CEO and Director, Daniel Herbert, seems to have been replaced by the appointment of Mr Lee Thomas Murphy. For those who may be unfamiliar, this appears to be the same Lee Murphy who originally helped to setup another altnet provider, FACTCO (since re-branded to the Fusion Fibre Group), which means the new owner has plenty of experience in the field of rural fibre provision.

Little is known about the Liverpool-based Nova Fibre, which itself was only incorporated on 7th November 2023, although their website – fibrenova.co.uk – shows them as selling broadband packages via Openreach’s FTTP network across the UK. But the provider also appears to work with new build home developments (i.e. “we provide all the infrastructure, billing, and support—while you deliver branded connectivity“) and related management companies.

ISPreview did attempt to contact the new owner yesterday morning to understand what the deal meant for the future of Runfibre, and we await their response.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

A month has passed since Vodafone first quietly introduced their new range of “Pro 3 Broadband” packages for homes (as spotted by ISPreview), which features their new WiFi 7 capable routers and wireless extenders. The good news today is that the provider has finally issued an official announcement, but it doesn’t add anything new vs our original report.

The provider’s new Pro 3 service is an optional paid add-on for most of their home broadband packages, which somewhat unusually costs between an extra £9 to £13 per month to add – depending on your choice of broadband speed (we’re still unsure why it isn’t set at the same price for all or why it costs the most to add to their entry-level tiers). The exception is their top 2.2Gbps package, which includes Pro 3 by default.

Pro 3 typically includes additional features, such as a Super Wi-Fi Booster for the “fastest WiFi in every room“, dedicated WiFi Xperts for daily support (i.e. proactively monitor and fix WiFi issues for the first 90 days after installation), automatic 4G back-up (dongle/modem) for if your fixed broadband service goes down and Secure Net Home for “hassle-free [internet] security and family controls“.

The add-on also includes their all-new Ultra Hub 7 (FG4278VF) router and Super Wi-Fi 7 Booster (RP761BVDF) – both with support for the latest WiFi 7 wireless networking standard, with two additional WiFi boosters available at no extra cost, delivering coverage to every room.

UltraHub 7 Specs

Dual Band Wi-Fi 7 (2.4 + 5 GHz bands)
Antennas 4×4, 4×4
2 GB RAM
4 GB Flash
1 x LAN (GE) – 2.5Gbps
1 x LAN/WAN (GE) -2.5Gbps
2 x LAN – 1 Gbps
1 x Fibre Optic Port
1 x FXS Port
1 x TAE&FXS Combo Ports
1 x WPS button
1 x Wi-Fi button

Maxspeed Fibre: 2.5Gbps
Max Speed Phy Rate om Wi-Fi: 7.2Gbps
Max Speed single device 2×2: 2Gbps
Access Technology: ZigBee + Thread radio + BLE radio

Chipset: “Top performance SoC”, but later says Broadcom BCM6726

The Ultra Hub 7 router, 4G back-up dongle and accompanying boosters are all made from 95% recycled plastic, while the Pro 3 packaging contains zero plastic, instead using soy ink printed on 95% recycled paper – the Pro 3 kit has thus received a Green Product Mark Certification for electrical products.

Rob Winterschladen, Consumer Director of Vodafone UK, said:

“Our latest home broadband launch, Pro 3, proves that customers don’t need to compromise on quality in order to cut costs. We’ve launched a package that gives customers fast connectivity through the latest WiFi technology, as well as security, parental controls, reliability and 4G back-up – all in one great value bundle.”

In the future, we also expect that Vodafone may upgrade their existing PowerHub (Wi-Fi 6) routers too, which they currently offer by default on standard broadband packages, to a slightly lower specced – but still Wi-Fi 7 capable – model (DG4278VF). We don’t know much about that one, yet.

Finally, it’s worth remembering that Vodafone mobile customers can save £4 a month with Vodafone Together (i.e. a bundle combining mobile and broadband plans for added discounts), and the provider will also cover your early termination charges from your previous ISP of an equivalent amount (up to a maximum of £100).