Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Broadband and mobile operator Vodafone has published their first combined Q1 FY26 financial results with Three UK. The figures show that the merged entity has 1.654 million fixed broadband customers (up by 44k in Q1 vs 61k in the previous quarter) and a huge combined mobile base of 28.765m – making them the “biggest mobile network operator in the UK“.

In terms of their fixed broadband services, Vodafone reported more growth, with a quarterly addition of 44,000 customers – thanks in part to being widely available across both Openreach’s and CityFibre’s national networks. The provider’s full fibre (FTTP) coverage can now reach a combined total of 20.3 million UK households (up from 19.4m last quarter).

As for their mobile base, the combined operator reported a quarterly fall of -46,000 in Pay Monthly customers (vs an increase of 41,000 in Q4) and there was another fall of -235,000 in Prepaid / PAYG customers (vs -166k in Q4). Finally, quarterly mobile broadband (data) usage across their UK network increased to 722,621 TeraBytes (up from 655,568 TB last quarter).

However, it’s important to remember that the prior quarter’s results reflect a pre-merger structure and so may not make for a useful apples-to-apples comparison this time around, since Vodafone now has to consider the impact of Three UK’s base. The results also include an update on some of their initial merger benefits:

“Within just two weeks, through sharing of combined spectrum, 7 million Three and SMARTY customers have benefitted from improving 4G speeds by up to 40%. Within a few months, 28.8 million Vodafone and Three UK customers will start to benefit from seamlessly using both networks. By the end of the year this will remove a total of 16,500 km2 of ‘not spot’ areas,” said Vodafone (future plans and extra detail).

Margherita Della Valle, Vodafone Group CEO, said:

“We have had a good start to the year with strong revenue and EBITDAaL growth. Germany has started its improvement trajectory and our emerging markets are delivering strong broad-based growth. In the UK, we have completed the merger with Three and are moving quickly to combine our networks to benefit customers.

Today, we reiterate our full year guidance of growth in profit and cash flow. After two years of transformation and change, Vodafone is now well positioned for multi-year growth across both Europe and Africa.”

Finally, the operator saw their quarterly UK service revenue reach €???m (up/down from €1,489m in the previous quarter). The full report is here (PDF).

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Rural UK broadband operator Voneus, which continues to deploy a gigabit-capable fixed wireless access (FWA) and full fibre (FTTP) networks across poorly served rural areas, has announced that they’ve deployed their wireless network across the small Carmarthenshire (Wales) town of St. Clears.

At present St. Clears is home to around 3,200 people and, in only 90 days since the first build, Voneus has managed to deploy a gigabit wireless network in the area. The new network appears to harness Cambium Networks’ 60GHz cnWave mesh technology, which is the same solution they’ve used in other areas too.

The rapid deployment is also said to have only been possible thanks to the operator’s close collaboration with Carmarthenshire County Council, which took a proactive approach. “Their support was instrumental from start to finish and the Council’s broadband engagement lead played a vital role in helping us navigate local processes and ensure a smooth, efficient rollout,” said a spokesperson for Voneus.

Residential customers of the service typically pay from £38.99 per month for a 250Mbps (symmetric) speed service on a 24-month term (first month free and free installation), which rises to £74.99 for their top 900Mbps package. But it should be said that Openreach’s rival full fibre (FTTP) network also reaches some properties in the town and is due to cover more of the area in the near future.

The company’s most recent accounts, which cover the year to 31st March 2024, reveal that turnover has increased by 34% to £4.417m, while gross profit shrank by -17% to £768.6k and total employees grew from 156 to 238. But the latter doesn’t take account of the recent redundancies and build slowdown (here).

The company’s loss before tax has also more than doubled to £36.65m (up from £14.83m), although their net assets have grown to be worth £93.43m (up from £23.32m).

Original article Total Telecom:Read More

News

Major investments planned by both the private and public sectors could see connectivity flourish

This week, a consortium of 61 German companies have announced the launch of the ‘Made for Germany’ initiative, aimed at streamlining private sector dialogue with government and roadblocks for investment.

According to a shared press release, the initiative aims to create “a key point of contact for the government, working to define priorities, develop targeted measures and implement reforms effectively”. This, the companies say, will help to boost Germany as an economic hub and create a stable and inviting investment landscape for investors.

The 61 private companies participating in the initiative include major players from a wide variety of industries, from banking and automotive to semiconductors and pharmaceuticals. The full list of initiative members can be found here.

The initiative is supported by a collective pledge to invest €631 billion by 2028, demonstrating the companies’ continual commitment to the growth of the national economy.

The investments reportedly includes a mix of both planned and new capital investments and R&D efforts, although exactly how much of the total comprises new commitments is unclear.

“Germany needs a new operating system – one focused on growth, technology, and competitiveness. The time for change is now. Government and business must forge a new kind of partnership and take joint responsibility for society,” said Roland Busch, the CEO of Siemens. “This initiative embodies that spirit of solidarity and stands for a fresh start: with less bureaucracy, and more innovation. Germany is home to world-class companies, has a strong industrial base, and exceptional talent. We have everything it takes to reclaim a leading economic role – especially in digitalization and artificial intelligence.”

Busch’s reference to ‘joint responsibility’ should not come as a surprise given the recent pressure on the German government to make its investment landscape more appealing. In fact, the initiative’s announcement follows major government reforms to debt handling announced earlier this year. These reforms focus primarily on revising the strict borrowing rules that were introduced after the 2008 global financial crisis, removing what has been described as a ‘fiscal straitjacket’ on Germany’s economic growth.

In parallel, the government also pledged to create a €500 billion infrastructure fund to modernise the nation’s infrastructure and bolster national defence. Industries targeted for this funding include energy, transport, R&D, education, and healthcare.

“We are facing one of the largest investment initiatives that we have seen in Germany in recent decades,” said German Chancellor Friedrich Merz at a news conference announcing the ‘Made for Germany’ initiative. “The investment tasks we are facing cannot be achieved by public budgets alone. On the contrary, the lion’s share must be provided by private investors.”

But what does this all mean for the German telecoms sector?

While Deutsche Telekom and United Internet (1&1) are the only explicitly telecoms companies directly listed as participating in the ‘Made for Germany’ initiative, the sector as a whole has much to gain from its creation. When combined with the newly created infrastructure fund, the German market can expect €1 trillion to be poured into infrastructure and industrial projects in the coming years, all of which will need to be backed by the provision of high quality connectivity. This opportunity will be particularly acute around heavy industries like the automotive sector, where digitalisation efforts to expand the use of robotics, IoT, and AI will rely on high capacity low-latency connectivity – at least, that is what the telcos will argue.

At the same time, the reduction in bureaucratic hurdles and closer public–private cooperation could allow for the further acceleration of fibre rollouts, an area where Germany still significantly lags behind the rest of Europe.

In short, as the German public and private sectors grow more closely aligned on investment, German telcos will strive to position themselves key enablers of national digital transformation, without whom economic growth will remain unattainable.

How is the German connectivity market changing in 2025? Join the discussion at Connected Germany live in Munich

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

Broadband and mobile provider Virgin Media and O2 (VMO2) has today signed a new partnership that will see them adopting Trustly’s “next-generation” Direct Debit account automation and one-off Pay by Bank solutions. The goal is to streamline payments and onboarding processes as part of the UK operator’s commitment to “making customers’ lives easier“.

Granted, this isn’t exactly one of the most exciting developments to cover, so we’ll keep it short. Trustly’s new payments technology is expected to be integrated over the “coming months“. The new Direct Debit account automation with Pay by Bank should make it faster to sign-up for VMO2’s services, while one-off Pay by Bank payments will simplify customer payment processes and deliver a seamless connection to their bank accounts via Open Banking services.

Christian Hindennach, Chief Commercial Officer at VMO2, said: “We’ve been making real progress with our plans to improve the service we offer our customers over recent months … This partnership with Trustly will do exactly that – providing our customers with quick and secure ways to sign up and even simpler payment options to access our services, and ensuring we remain at the forefront of digital innovation.”

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

The SIM-Only mobile provider spusu, which holds a virtual operator (MVNO) agreement via BTWholesale to harness EE’s national 4G and 5G network, has today announced “sweeping cuts” to their international data (mobile broadband) roaming charges across 150 countries and slashing rates by at least 50% in over 100 of those.

At present spusu already offers limited free EU roaming across 38 countries (a fair usage cap applies to these), but roaming outside of those countries is still charged at the assigned rate specified in the operator’s most recent price guide. The big change today is with respect to those additional (non-EU) countries.

In short, roaming with spusu has apparently “become cheaper in many popular tourist destinations“. This means it now costs £4 per GigaByte (GB) of data to roam in popular holiday hotspots such as Turkey, the United States, Australia, Thailand and Singapore, and £7 per GigaByte to roam in Brazil, Canada, China, Mexico and Philippines.

One key difference here is that spusu previously priced by the MegaByte, rather than GigaByte (1024MB = 1GB). For example, back in June somebody travelling to Turkey would have paid £0.010 per MegaByte, thus 1GB of data usage would have cost you £10.24, and today it’s £4. This is not the cheapest for 1GB and eSIM Travel providers can beat that (heck you can get 1GB for free from Airalo), but it’s a big improvement on the old charges.

Christian Banhans, UK MD of spusu, said:

“The revised roaming pricing structure significantly enhances value for UK customers travelling abroad. Since launching in the UK in 2023, we’ve been committed to breaking down barriers for our customers. And with these changes, we’re ensuring our customers can travel further, worry less and enjoy more of what matters.”

In addition, to protect users from surprise bills, spusu recommends using their in-app spending cap, which prevents customers from exceeding their plans data allowance and facing additional charges. Users can adjust their caps from £0-100 in the ‘my spusu’ app, which also tracks usage and spending in real time. Spusu tracks usage in KiloBytes, which they say offers “better value and making sure that customers are only charged for what they use“.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Mobile operator Three UK appears to have introduced one of the biggest discounts yet on their 4G and 5G powered unlimited Three Home Broadband packages, which have just been discounted to only £17 per month on a 24-month minimum contract term (or £28 if you take it as a rolling monthly plan).

As usual, Three’s Home Broadband packages all include a mobile router, while also promising “average download speeds of 150Mbps” (this will vary a lot between different locations) and a 30-day money-back guarantee (there’s no installation charge as it’s Plug & Play). But take note that Three UK’s pricing policy means that, each April, your Monthly Charge will increase by a fixed amount of £2 per month (doesn’t apply if you take their more expensive 30-day term).

The router being bundled with this, at least on their 5G variant of the package, is the MC888AD from ZTE (aka – ZTE MC888). This is based off the SDX62 (Snapdragon) + WCN6856 chipset and supports WiFi 6 at local network speeds of up to 3.8Gbps (2.4GHz and 5GHz 4×4 MIMO), as well as 2 x 1Gbps Ethernet (LAN) ports and 1 x RJ11 phone port.

At present there’s no indication of when the discounted pricing offer will expire.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Broadband ISP and network builder Exascale, which has also deployed their own gigabit speed Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network to a few thousands premises in part of Telford and Wrekin, has today signed a partnership to harness CityFibre’s network and thus deliver FTTP and Ethernet services to more UK homes and businesses.

CityFibre’s network currently covers around 4.5 million premises (inc. 550k customers) and they’ve long aspired to reach up to 8 million UK premises – representing c.30% of the UK. The new deal means that, with “immediate effect“, Exascale will be able to start offering gigabit-speed broadband and high-capacity Ethernet access via this network too.

One of the most powerful outcomes of this partnership is the ability for Exascale’s existing channel partners to gain overnight access to CityFibre’s extensive UK footprint, without delay or additional infrastructure investment. The move also comes shortly after CityFibre unveiled a major new funding agreement worth £2.3bn to help drive their expansion (here).

Thomas Bibb, CEO of Exascale, said:

“At Exascale, our mission has always been to provide fast and dependable connectivity across the UK. Partnering with CityFibre enables us to dramatically accelerate our full fibre rollout and bring world-class broadband to even more businesses and homes. We’re especially excited about the opportunity this brings to our channel community, who can now deliver services across CityFibre’s network instantly. This is a major leap forward for everyone involved.”

Ollie Moore, Account Manager at CityFibre, said:

“We’re excited to welcome Exascale to our partner ecosystem. Their deep technical expertise and commitment to customer satisfaction align strongly with our mission to transform the UK’s digital infrastructure. Together, we’re opening up new possibilities for partners and customers nationwide.”

Before pressing publish on this article we did attempt to test a couple of CityFibre postcodes via Exascale’s website, but both returned no positive results. So the effect may not be quite “immediate” for every part of Exascale’s platform.

We should add that this is a one-way agreement and CityFibre are not gaining any reciprocal access to Exascale’s own fibre.

Original article Total Telecom:Read More

Covington, La. (June 15, 2025)—Globalstar (NASDAQ: GSAT), a next-generation telecommunications infrastructure and technology provider, announces a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with the United States Army. Under the agreement, Globalstar will collaborate with Army research and development teams to evaluate the performance of its advanced satellite data solutions for the Department of Defense including low probability of intercept/low probability of detect (LPI/LPD) communications for covert sensing, unmanned systems, congested logistics tracking, and tagging/tracking/locating (TTL) applications across various mission-aligned use cases.

The primary focus of the CRADA is to assess Globalstar’s ultra low size, weight, power and cost (SWaP-C) devices, which are well-aligned for long-duration field deployment with zero maintenance. These compact, SWaP-C-optimized solutions are engineered to operate in austere and remote environments, where traditional communications infrastructure is limited, undesirable use, or unavailable. Featuring built-in support for satellite connectivity, Globalstar enables small form factor and low cost for real-time alerting for field activity, environmental anomalies, or unmanned system operations, helping to enhance situational awareness at the tactical edge.

Enabling the power of onboard processing at the edge, Globalstar’s user terminals make dynamic, intelligent decisions without user intervention. The dynamic nature of the OTA messaging structure enables our devices to function with inherent low-probability-of-intercept (LPI) and low-probability-of-detection (LPD) capabilities. Combining these features with a multipath diversity LEO constellation makes the platform ideally suited for defense applications requiring secure, autonomous operation in contested or communications-denied environments.

“This collaboration reflects our growing engagement with defense and federal partners,” said Globalstar CEO Dr. Paul E. Jacobs. “We’re proud to bring our decades of satellite expertise and emerging terrestrial innovation to support the Army’s evaluation of next-generation satellite capabilities.”   

About Globalstar, Inc.

Globalstar empowers its customers to connect, transmit, and communicate smarter – easily, quickly, securely, and affordably – offering reliable satellite and terrestrial connectivity services as an international telecom infrastructure provider. The Company’s low Earth orbit (“LEO”) satellite constellation ensures secure data transmission for connecting and protecting assets, transmitting critical operational data, and saving lives for consumers, businesses, and government agencies across the globe. Globalstar’s terrestrial spectrum, Band 53, and its 5G variant, n53, offer carriers, cable companies, and system integrators a versatile, fully licensed channel for private networks with a growing ecosystem to improve customer wireless connectivity, while Globalstar’s XCOM RAN product offers significant capacity gains in dense wireless deployments. In addition to SPOT GPS messengers, Globalstar offers next-generation Internet of Things (“IoT”) hardware and software products for efficiently tracking and monitoring assets, processing smart data at the edge, and managing analytics with cloud-based telematics solutions to drive safety, productivity, and profitability. For more information, visit www.globalstar.com.

Original article Total Telecom:Read More

Press Release

TIM is positioning itself as a leader in AI also for consumer customers, offering an innovative service that improves their daily lives. TIM is the first operator in Italy to offer its fixed and mobile consumer customers one year’s free access to Perplexity Pro, one of the world’s most advanced generative Artificial Intelligence platforms, based on conversational interaction, real-time updates and answers with verified sources. The agreement with Perplexity reaffirms TIM’s pioneering role in technological innovation, bringing artificial intelligence within everyone’s reach and taking a further step towards the completion of the “Customer Platform” development strategy.

An advanced AI assistant for everyday life

Perplexity Pro provides clear, reliable and up-to-date answers to any question, from practical everyday queries to the most complex requests: from planning a trip, to investigating a study topic or comparing sales offers. All this through a simple voice or text-based interface that combines access to state-of-the-art language models with real-time web search.

In particular, the platform allows unlimited searches, convenient interactive voice sessions, document analysis and synthesis, content creation, images, web pages, presentations, interactive data dashboards, and automatic management of the most suitable AI templates for each type of request, responding in seconds and always citing sources. In just a few minutes, Perplexity Pro can analyse hundreds of documents and websites, enabling an immediate critical analysis of the results – instead of spending days on personal research. Perplexity Pro can choose from the main Large Language Models (LLMs) according to the customer’s request. In addition to Perplexity’s own model, it can also use the main established LLMs such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and R1 1776 (the US version of Deepseek R1).

Only TIM customers can therefore access this highly innovative AI service via the Perplexity platform, worth around 20 euros a month to other customers.

“This initiative puts Artificial Intelligence at the service of people, making it truly accessible to all TIM customers,” comments Andrea Rossini, Chief Consumer, Small & Medium & Mobile Wholesale Market Officer at TIM. “We are proud to be the first operator in Italy to offer an advanced AI assistant like Perplexity Pro, which marks a tangible step towards a new model of the digital relationship. Innovation, for us, means simplifying and improving the everyday experience, with solutions that are useful, reliable and affordable for everyone.”

“We are excited to collaborate with TIM to bring Perplexity Pro to users in Italy”, said Ryan Foutty, VP of business at Perplexity. “Accurate, trustworthy answers are essential to millions of decisions that Italians make every day, and TIM’s strengths as a technical pioneer make it a natural partner to provide valuable technology that improves daily life for all customers.”

How to activate the service

TIM customers can activate Perplexity Pro in just a few steps: just log in to TIM Party – TIM’s loyalty programme – from the app or website to request a free code to use on the Perplexity platform, either from desktop or smartphone.

The initiative sees TIM consolidate its Customer Platform strategy through agreements with top-tier partners, in a spirit of Open Innovation, bringing real innovation into people’s lives and confirming its role as a pioneer in making AI an integral part of everyday life.

Keep up with all the latest telecoms news with the Total Telecom newsletter

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

Technology advances and growing demand for high-speed internet access are leading independent broadband firms to feel overwhelmingly positive about the future, according to a newly published survey measuring confidence in the sector.

Despite reports of their imminent demise, UK ‘altnet’ companies are expecting a boom in business over the next 12 months with 83 percent of decision makers expecting strong growth in the coming year, the first ever Altnet Confidence Index found.

Of the 300 surveyed decision makers from ISPs, network operators, and equipment and technology vendors, 23 percent of that number predict significant growth. When looking ahead to five years, 77 percent anticipate growth over that time.

“There has been a view for some time now that the UK’s alternative broadband sector was in decline,” said Proactive International PR CEO James Page. “With investors demanding to see returns on their investment and customers’ unwillingness to pay substantially higher prices for higher speed services, the future seemed to consist only of mergers, acquisitions and a sharply diminishing number of companies remaining in the market. As a B2B tech PR and marketing agency with deep experience in the fibre and broadband market, we wanted to gauge how the sector was feeling – and the results are surprising.”

The optimistic outlook means companies are ready to spend, with 77 percent of respondents planning to increase their investment over the next year, compared to the last 12 months. ‘Sustainability’ was the biggest priority for investment (39 percent), even above network build, on which 25 percent of respondents planned to spend.

Commissioned by Proactive International PR in partnership with Censuswide, the Altnet Confidence Index 2025 provides an in-depth look at the alternative broadband (altnet) sector, assessing its ability to grow, looking at where planned investment is focused and revealing the real view on consolidation in the industry.

For companies expecting growth, ‘Technological advancements’ were cited as the biggest driver by nearly half of respondents (45 percent), while ‘Private equity and investor interest’ and ‘Increased demand for high-speed internet’ each gave 35 per cent of professionals reason to be positive. Other reasons given included ‘Competitive differentiation and market gaps’ (33 percent), Fiber rollout and infrastructure expansion’ (33 percent) and Resilience of the industry’ (30 percent).

Despite the positivity, there are still causes for concern. ‘Rising operational costs’ worry 37 percent of respondents, as do ‘Increased regulatory pressures.’ A further 31 percent of respondents said ‘Consolidation of smaller players reducing opportunities’ was a concern.

However, the overall view on consolidation was favourable, with 70 percent of decision makers describing it as impacting their business very or somewhat positively.

“The brief for this survey was well suited to Censuswide as we can poll very specific audiences to achieve interesting narratives, as we see here,” said Censuswide’s Head of Client Services Lucy Stewart. “The findings were varied but overall, they followed some key themes. For example, when we looked at confidence and growth outlook there was a lot of optimism, both in the short and longer term. It’s really interesting to see that respondents are feeling so optimistic and we can dive into the data to look at some of the reasons for this.”

To read the full report, visit: Confidence Index 2025 | Proactive PR

ENDS

About Proactive International PR

Proactive International PR is a specialist B2B PR and marketing services agency for telecoms, data networking and technology brands. Its experienced core teams, based in Nottinghamshire, have a ‘proactive’ approach to communications and deliver world-class services, including the latest PR and digital marketing techniques. Founded in 2010, Proactive PR is one of the top 50 PR consultancies for technology in the UK, according to PR Week’s Top 150 2025.