Original article Total Telecom:Read More

Leading engineering services specialist, Ipsum, has been appointed to a nationwide contract for the maintenance and repair of street furniture. This agreement extends a partnership with Openreach that has been in place for nearly 25 years.

Drawing on its extensive experience in infrastructure services, Ipsum will deliver maintenance services to ensure the safety, functionality, and aesthetic of street furniture across the UK. This includes critical components such as locks, hinges, doors and pillars.

Ipsum has a network of strategic locations across the UK, and is well-positioned to mobilise its teams quickly. This ensures timely maintenance of the assets, so that the work can be delivered at the right time, with reduced impact to the local community.

The collaboration underscores a shared commitment to service excellence and customer satisfaction. Ipsum has consistently delivered robust infrastructure solutions such as grounds maintenance, vegetation management, and site clearance.

Ipsum’s Operations Director, Daniel Alexander, commented, “We’re proud to have been awarded the nationwide contract for the maintenance and repair of street furniture by Openreach. This contract highlights our commitment to service excellence and customer satisfaction. Our proven model combines comprehensive maintenance services to ensure the safety, functionality, and resilience of street furniture, benefiting local communities nationwide.”

Openreach’s Director Partner Management, Sam Perrin, commented, “Ipsum is an important provider of specialist engineering services for Openreach, and they richly deserve this new award. Our strategic relationship goes from strength to strength.”

Original article Total Telecom:Read More

News 

Vodafone Qatar has signed a new deal with Nokia to overhaul its mobile network, aiming to deliver faster, more secure and more flexible 5G services across the country. 

Under the agreement, Nokia will provide end-to-end kit to boost network capacity, cut latency, and speed up the rollout of new features. The upgrade will also introduce more automation and improved security, Vodafone said. 

Qatar’s ICT sector is expected to grow 8.5% annually through to 2030, and Vodafone confirmed that the move will help it keep pace with rising demand for high-speed connectivity. 

The partnership will also pave the way for next-generation services such as 5G slicing for enterprise, and more intelligent broadband access, with a future-proof infrastructure built to support ongoing digital innovation. 

“Our work with Nokia will enable us to become more agile and responsive to the evolving needs of customers and businesses. By integrating advanced fibre, mobile, and cloud capabilities, we are shaping a smarter, more secure network that can support everything from customised home Wi-Fi to the latest enterprise technologies,” said Sheikh Hamad Abdulla Jassim Al-Thani, CEO of Vodafone Qatar, in a press release. 

“Through more flexible scaling, reliability, and near zero-touch automation that our advanced core and broadband solutions deliver, Nokia will provide greater network agility and service offerings, and provide our partner with all the tools it needs to efficiently manage its network assets,” echoed Raghav Sahgal, President of Cloud and Network Services at Nokia. 

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Also in the news:
FullFibre withdraws from Project Gigabit contracts
UK data centre expansion sparks net zero concerns
SWR deploys Europe’s first ’Rail-5G’ Wi-Fi

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

A little over a month has passed since internet provider Lit Fibre, which harnesses CityFibre’s UK full fibre (FTTP) network (they originally ran their own fibre network – here), introduced a range of new “specialised” packages. But they’ve now significantly cut the prices of those same plans “due to market demand“.

The packages concerned include ‘Lit Ultimate’, ‘Lit Homeworker’, ‘Lit Family’, ‘Lit Gamer’ and ‘Lit One’ (we couldn’t find any details for ‘Lit One’, but it was in the announcement), which complement their existing range of speed-based broadband plans. All of these packages include, by default, symmetric speeds, free installation, a wireless router (the models vary) and a pledge of “no mid-contract price hikes“.

However, on top of the above, the packages also add various extras, such as a superior router (Lit Hub or Lit Hub Pro), Wi-Fi extenders, an internet security service, parental controls and also “boost device control“ (we’re still not sure what this actually is). In addition, you also get a choice of 12, 18 or 24-month minimum term contracts (we’ve used the 24-month packages in our example below).

But the above extras do vary a bit between the packages. For example, LIT Homeworker and LIT Family are the same price and speed, but they differ in that Homeworker includes “boost device control“, Family swaps this for parental controls.

One slight oddity with this announcement is that the “Previous” pricing figures appear to be incorrect. For example, LIT Family launched in April at £34.49 pm per month (here) and not £44.95 as stated by the ISP below (it’s possible some pricing may vary by location), but otherwise the new pricing is still much more attractive and competitive.

Initially, we also noted that the top speed of Lit Fibre’s Ultimate package had seen its 1Gbps speed boosted to 2.4Gbps at the same price, although this change appeared to have been reversed just before we published the article. So don’t be surprised if that change returns in the near future, which probably reflects CityFibre’s new XGS-PON upgrade.

LitFibre’s 24-Month Usage Packages

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Network operator CityFibre, which have so far built their 2.5Gbps speed Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP network to cover 4.4 million UK premises (4.2m Ready for Service), has today confirmed the completion of their “primary” £58 million build across the large Berkshire (England) town of Reading – including some of its surrounding areas.

CityFibre originally started this deployment back in late 2020, supported by civil engineering contractor Instalcom. The operator’s new network has since laid 1,230km of dense full fibre and is now ready for service to over 97,000 homes, covering around 98% of homes and most businesses in the town and its surrounding areas.

While the primary-build is now complete, CityFibre said they would continue to explore opportunities to connect more homes and businesses, including flats, new-build homes, business parks and homes on private roads.

Neil Madle, Partnership Manager at CityFibre, said:

“Thriving towns like Reading stand to gain significantly from next-generation digital infrastructure, unlocking new growth and opportunities. Connectivity continues to play a vital role for residents, businesses and public services. With our full fibre network, Reading will enhance its resilience and futureproof its infrastructure, creating value for residents and businesses alike.”

The operator’s main gigabit-capable broadband rivals in the town are naturally Openreach and Virgin Media (inc. nexfibre), which both have good coverage of the area. But a number of alternative networks also have some modest to tiny levels of coverage across the town, including 4th Utility, OFNL (inc. Fibrenest), Glide, Grain and Hyperoptic etc.

CityFibre, which has so far attracted 550,000 (March 2025) live customers and expects to have upgraded their entire network to 10Gbps capable XGS-PON technology by mid-2025 (here), currently still aspires to cover up to 8 million UK premises with their new full fibre network (funded by c.£2.4bn in equity, c.£4.9bn debt and nearly £1bn of BDUK / public subsidy) – representing c.30% of the UK. But quite when they’ll reach that point is unclear.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Network analyst firm Streetwave has today shared the results from a recent survey they conducted, which examined the coverage and performance of 4G and 5G mobile (broadband) networks – including EE, Three UK, Vodafone and O2 – for people travelling on part of the Elizabeth Line (train) from Heathrow Airport (T 2/3) to Canary Wharf.

The rail route involved in this study has, over the past couple of years, benefitted from significant upgrades as part of Transport for London‘s (TfL) wider project to extend 4G and 5G mobile signals across the London Underground (i.e. stations, tube trains and tunnels etc.). In the past, the possibility of maintaining a mobile signal on this line would have been an exercise in frustration, but today things are very different.

Streetwave is understood to have taken their portable data collection equipment onboard for just one of these trips, thus the results below should be considered quite anecdotal, albeit still interesting. The test was also conducted during the morning rush hour period (i.e. the train was full for most of the journey), starting at 7:51am on 23rd May at Heathrow Airport.

The train itself was a British Rail Class 345 Aventra operated by MTR Elizabeth line. All four of the UK’s mobile operators were measured and their ‘Essential Coverage‘ scores across the journey were as follows. Streetwave defines Essential Coverage as being reflective of locations where the network provides users with speeds of above 1Mbps download, 0.5Mbps upload, and below 100ms (milliseconds) of latency (i.e. covering or allowing only the most basic of use cases / needs).

Essential Coverage Achieved on the Elizabeth Line
1. EE – 86%
2. Vodafone – 80%
3. O2 – 65%
4. Three UK – 49%

Put another way, the company’s simulated passenger on each network spent the following amount of time with a dependable internet connection on the 48-minute journey: EE – 41 minutes, Vodafone – 38 minutes, O2 – 31 minutes and Three UK – 24 minutes.

Clearly EE and Vodafone are doing well here, while there’s plenty of room for improvement with respect to Three UK (they probably haven’t activated their network on all the segments yet, as it’s shared infrastructure). The study also tracked the average (median) mobile broadband download speeds of each operator, which naturally showed a fairly positive result for three of the four major mobile networks.

Median Download Speeds by Mobile Operator
1. Vodafone – 35 Mbps
2. EE – 25 Mbps
3. O2 – 19 Mbps
4. Three UK – 11 Mbps

Once again, it’s important to stress that this is a very positive outcome, given how we’re talking about a line that runs mostly underground, and the tests were conducted during the morning rush hour (i.e. the highest network load). The fact this works at all is impressive and even Three UK’s speed is enough to do most basic tasks, even if their ability to maintain that connection still needs work.

The Elizabeth Line stretches over 100 km – connecting Reading, Heathrow, Canary Wharf and Essex to Central London. It carries over 4 million passengers a week, making it one of the busiest railways in the country.

Original article Total Telecom:Read More

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) has this morning revealed that a total of 50 government-funded rural 4G (mobile broadband) mast upgrades have now gone live across England (9 masts), Wales (28) and Scotland (13) as part of the industry-led £1bn Shared Rural Network (SRN) project. But 50 more will follow by March 2026.

The SRN – supported by £501m of public funding and £532m of private investment from operators – involves both the reciprocal sharing of existing masts in certain areas and the demand-led building and sharing of new masts in others between the operators. The target is to extend geographic 4G coverage (aggregate) to 95% of the UK by the end of 2025 (5G will also benefit from the new infrastructure).

Most of the early work on this project has typically involved private investment from the main mobile network operators, but over the past two years we’ve also seen government-funded mast upgrades and new site builds taking place in other parts of the country. A total of 50 mast upgrades have now gone live across the UK via government funding (up from 39 in late February 2025).

This phase of the work focuses on the part of the SRN that sees the government providing a total of £184m from their pot to the Home Office and mobile network operators, which is helping to upgrade Extended Area Service (EAS) masts being built as part of the 4G Emergency Services Network (ESN) – these masts previously only connected EE customers and anyone making 999 calls (i.e. all mobile operators can now use these sites).

The areas benefitting are:

England

• Bishop Auckland
• Carlisle
• Hexham
• Penrith and Solway
• South Shropshire
• Thirsk and Malton
• Whitehaven and Workington

Wales

• Bangor Aberconwy
• Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe
• Caerfyrddin
• Ceredigion Preseli
• Dwyfor Meirionnydd
• Monmouthshire
• Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr 

Scotland

• Argyll, Bute and South Lochaber
• Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock
• Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk
• Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale

Wales has thus far seen the biggest connectivity boost from all this work, with remote parts of the Berwyn Mountains, Brecon Beacons and the Clwydian Range and Dee Valley now covered by all four UK mobile networks (O2, Vodafone, Three UK and EE). It sometimes takes more than a single mast to properly cover each area.

Since the SRN began in March 2020, over 10,000 sq km have gained 4G coverage for the first time. Almost 35,000 sq km across the UK now have coverage from all four operators, including over 3,500 sq km in Wales, which is covering roughly 20% of the country.

Telecoms Minister, Sir Chris Bryant, said:

“The growth potential of our areas of outstanding natural beauty must not be stunted by patchy internet.

This milestone is a major step forward for better connectivity for all corners of the UK meaning everyone can reap the benefits of the digital age. From boosting tourism and business opportunities to providing safer outdoors experiences for visitors to our treasured countryside.”

Ben Roome, CEO of Mova, said:

“This is a big milestone for rural mobile coverage. Thanks to strong collaboration between government and industry, 50 publicly funded masts are now live — including this one in Upper Chapel — helping to close the mobile coverage gap for residents, businesses and visitors.

These masts build on the success of the mobile operators hitting their industry-funded targets a year early. Since the Shared Rural Network began, coverage from all four operators has grown from 66% to 81% of the UK — an increase the size of Wales and Northern Ireland combined.

With further sites being upgraded and built over the next two years, more people in rural areas will benefit from better mobile coverage.”

However, today’s announcement does cause some slight confusion, not least by failing to define some of its coverage figures. For example, Mova’s quote states that UK coverage from all four operators has grown to 81%, while the PR later says that the SRN is already “delivering to 95% of UK landmass a year ahead of schedule“. But that 95% figure only reflects 4G coverage from a single operator, not all mobile operators.

Ofcom’s licence obligations actually commit each individual operator to increase their 4G coverage to 90% of the UK’s landmass by January 2027 – with these individual obligations supporting the overall target. A further 50 more government funded sites in England, Wales and Scotland are thus now being targeted for upgrades by March 2026.

The programme has so far improved 4G mobile coverage for an extra 280,000 premises and 16,000km of roads, and 100 more government funded mast activations are planned until January 2027.

Shared Rural Network 4G Coverage Progress – Spring 2025

Original article Total Telecom:Read More

As part of the new contract, MLL will also continue to enhance Fife Council’s connections at 150 schools. An immediate focus is the provision of a secure and resilient cloud-based connectivity service to support the Council’s ‘Transforming Learning’ initiative which involves the roll out of around 36,000 iPad computers to schools from now through March 2026.

The iPads and school infrastructure represent a £50million commitment over the next 10 years from Fife Council’s capital and revenue budgets. The digital learning and inclusion initiative will ensure all primary and high school students from P6 through to S7 receive an iPad which can be used in school as well as remotely.    

Additionally, MLL will continue to cost-effectively upgrade Fife Council’s MPLS network with the implementation of fibre connections. Where possible, Fife will leverage the grants and funding for fibre connectivity available from Gigabit Scotland and the UK Government.      

Andrew Milne, Infrastructure Manager, Fife Council, said: “Over the years MLL has reliably provided network services to transition and transform our wide area network and we are confident they will continue to support its evolution and enable the services we wish to deliver in the future. Our Transforming Learning programme is a good example of our commitment to leveraging the network for delivering social value, ensuring school students from all backgrounds have access to secure digital devices when studying at school or at home.”   

Kirste Johnston, MLL’s Strategic Client Director for Scotland & Northern England, added: “We are proud to be continuing our long relationship with Fife Council and to be playing an important role in evolving the network to support digital learning and teaching in schools as well as future initiatives.” 

Fife Council’s WAN service is fully supported by MLL’s centralised Network Operations Centre based in Marlow, Buckinghamshire and regional team in Scotland, including Client Management, Technical Consultancy, Project Management, Service Management and local Field Engineers.

Original article Total Telecom:Read More

News 

A government backed push to expand the UK’s digital infrastructure is attracting criticism from environmental groups, following approval of a £10 billion data centre complex in Northumberland, The Telegraph has reported 

The £10 billion development announced last September, will see ten data centres built across a 133-acre site. Backed by US investment giant Blackstone and led by infrastructure firm QTS, the site is expected to emit around 184,000 tonnes of CO2 per year – a total higher than that produced by Birmingham Airport. 

Planning documents show the facility will double industrial emissions in Northumberland and contribute 12% of the county’s total emissions by 2030. 

The project is part of a broader government strategy to accelerate digital growth and support AI. Since September 2023, data centres have been classified as critical national infrastructure, with the government working to develop an “AI growth zones” strategy to encourage more deployments and eliminate restrictions. 

Earlier this year, a Ciena survey of global data centre leaders found that bandwidth demand is expected to grow sixfold over the next five years, largely driven by AI-related computing. While these facilities are becoming essential for digital infrastructure, their growing energy demands have sparked concerns about long-term sustainability and power consumption. 

Campaigners say the government’s approach could come at a serious environmental cost. The UK is legally bound to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050, and critics argue projects of this scale risk derailing local and national targets. 

“It is difficult to see how the Government plans to reach its manifesto commitment of hitting net zero by 2050 when it is approving construction projects that add the impact of a major regional airport to our annual emissions,” said Martha Dark, of the non-profit group Foxglove. 

Data centres consume huge amounts of electricity to power and cool thousands of servers. While renewable energy is the cleanest option, it’s not always reliable or available when needed. 

Sources such as wind and solar cannot produce power all the time, and the UK’s energy grid is not yet set up to store or deliver enough renewable power around the clock. Until that changes, there’s a risk that big developments like the Blyth site will still rely partly on fossil fuels, making it harder to cut emissions overall. Microsoft and Google, both of whom are investing heavily in data centres globally, reported higher carbon emissions in their latest annual reports, despite clean energy commitments. 

A Government spokesperson defended the decision, saying “Our Clean Power Action Plan  (the UK government’s strategy to achieve a mostly fossil fuel-free electricity system by 2030) will enable the development of new energy intensive industries such as data centres, helping to grow the economy. 

“Advanced modular reactors will play a particularly important role in growing energy-hungry sectors like AI and we’re shaking up the planning rules to make it easier to build nuclear power stations across the country.” 

Join us at Connected Britain, 24-25 September in London. Tickets available here  

Also in the news:
AT&T agrees $5.75 billion deal for Lumen’s consumer fibre assets
FullFibre withdraws from Project Gigabit contracts
SWR deploys Europe’s first ’Rail-5G’ Wi-Fi

Original article Total Telecom:Read More

News 

UK altnet FullFibre has withdrawn from two government-backed Project Gigabit contracts, impacting planned broadband rollout in some of England’s hardest-to-reach areas 

In two statements released this week, Building Digital UK (BDUK) confirmed that it had “mutually agreed” with FullFibre to end a pair of multi-million pound Project Gigabit contracts covering. 

The first deal aimed to cover 7,900 rural premises across West Herefordshire and the Forest of Dean, and was worth £23.4 million; the second, covering 4,400 rural premises in the Peak District, was worth £10.7 million.Project Gigabit is the UK government’s £5 billion programme to subsidise gigabit-capable broadband in areas that are categorised as unviable for commercial deployment. FullFibre was among several altnets awarded regional contracts through the scheme.  

“BDUK is now moving swiftly to put in place alternative plans with other suppliers to connect premises that were due to be covered by this contract,” the agency said. 

BDUK added that it remains committed to ensuring the affected premises are connected on schedule, with new suppliers expected to be appointed soon. 

The reasons for FullFibre’s withdrawal have not been disclosed, but it is likely linked to a combination of commercial pressures and delivery complexity.  

FullFibre was due to connect the first of its Project Gigabit premises by the end of 2024, but it is unclear if any homes have been built out. 

Connecting remote rural properties is often much more expensive than urban builds, and altnets across the UK are increasingly cautious, as investor funding tightens and rollout costs rise.  

In fact, FullFibre is not the first altnet forced to abandon its Project Gigabit ambitions, with both Voneus and Freedom Fibre having cancelled similar contracts in the past six months. 

Join us at Connected Britain, 24-25 September in London. Tickets available here  

Also in the news:
SWR deploys Europe’s first ’Rail-5G’ Wi-Fi  
BT accelerates fibre rollout amid cost cuts
AT&T agrees $5.75 billion deal for Lumen’s consumer fibre assets