Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Mobile operator O2 (Virgin Media) has today informed ISPreview that they’ve finally resolved a nasty security issue with their 4G based Voice-over-LTE service (VoLTE or 4G Calling), which effectively made it possible for customers of the operator’s network to have their location tracked by almost anybody with access to their mobile number.

Just for context. 4G Calling technology means that any regular calls you make or receive will stay on the 4G mobile network (signal allowing) using the internet-based IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) standard, rather than dropping back to 2G or 3G. But Daniel Williams, writing on the excellent Mast Database website, this weekend revealed that O2’s implementation had been leaking sensitive data.

In short, O2’s implementation of IMS appeared to be leaking too much information to end-users. This meant that those with only a little above basic knowledge of mobile networks could figure out the general (approximate) location of other users on the same network – particularly in dense urban areas with more cells present (i.e. this would be less effective in rural areas, where there’s often a lot of distance between masts).

The data being leaked by O2’s headers (e.g. ‘Cellular-Network-Info‘) would have allowed an attacker to identify that their target, whose number they had, was connected to the O2 network on an O2 SIM and what model of Smartphone they were using (i.e. the recipient’s IMEI code is also exposed, as is their IMSI code). But the real problem came when O2 also exposed the recipient’s location data (e.g. Location Area Code (LAC) and Cell ID).

At this point it becomes possible to use publicly available data, such as related mast information on cellmapper.net, to cross-reference the above information and thus work out a general location of the user. “I also tested the attack with another O2 customer who was roaming abroad, and the attack worked perfectly with me being able to pinpoint them to the city centre of Copenhagen, Denmark,” said Daniel.

Just to be clear, Daniel’s device is nothing special (regular Smartphone) and not doing anything odd to the network. “All it is doing is allowing me to see the information being sent to it. This effectively means that every O2 device that is making a phone call on IMS is receiving information that can be used to trivially geolocate the recipient of the call,” added Daniel.

Daniel Williams said:

“Any O2 customer can be trivially located by an attacker with even a basic understanding of mobile networking.

There is also no way to prevent this attack as an O2 customer. Disabling 4G Calling does not prevent these headers from being revealed, and if your device is ever unreachable these internal headers will still reveal the last cell you were connected to and how long ago this was.

Attempts were made to reach out to O2 via email (to both Lutz Schüler, CEO and securityincidents@virginmediao2.co.uk) on the 26 and 27 March 2025 reporting this behaviour and privacy risk, but I have yet to get any response or see any change in the behaviour.”

This is obviously very worrying, and it’s unclear how long O2’s network has been operating in this way. Many people often expose their mobile numbers in public or have had it exposed via past data breaches, which would no doubt further amplify the concerns for users of O2’s network around this issue. But O2 today informed ISPreview that they’ve now resolved this issue.

A VMO2 spokesperson told ISPreview:

“Our engineering teams have been working on and testing a fix for number of weeks – we can confirm this is now fully implemented and tests suggest the fix has worked and our customers do not need to take any action.”

Hopefully Daniel will be able to confirm this shortly. Credits to the many readers who dropped us an email about this on Saturday and Sunday, particularly the first one, Julian.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Several newspaper reports over the weekend have claimed that UK ISP POP Telecom has been adding a “sneaky hidden broadband charge” to customers’ bills for “Router Assurance“, which can add an extra cost of £2.50 per month to the bill. But that’s not the only extra charge to consider, so ISPreview decided to dig a bit deeper.

According to reports in The Sun and others (here and here), which quote several customer complaints from other sources (e.g. TrustPilot and Money Saving Expert), the seemingly unexpected charge(s) suddenly appeared after several months of using the service. Some customers also complained about a similar charge for something called “Hybrid Assurance” and some other things, but we’ll come back to those later.

The issue isn’t a new one for POP Telecom and has cropped up several times before over the years (they’ve been offering such services for a while). A quick look at the provider’s website shows that the ISP does list Router Assurance as a feature on their residential broadband packages, but you have to click the small (!) icon to read its description, which makes no mention of what happens after the first two months of free service are up.

However, for those who dig a bit deeper, the provider’s T&Cs do provide the details: “Router Assurance – POP telecom provides an optional service to protect your router from breakdown. The service is provided FREE for the first two months and is charged at £2.50 per month thereafter. In the situation that your router fails for any reason contact us and we will arrange a replacement unit to be sent only charging the delivery cost. This can be cancelled at anytime as long as you have not benefited from the service.”

In the UK, telecoms providers generally cannot just opt residential consumers into an extra service at a cost without your explicit consent (note: the rules for business services are different / more flexible). Doing so could potentially violate consumer protection laws, which specify that any additional charges must be clearly communicated and agreed upon by the customer.

If you find that you’ve been opted into a service without your consent, you have the right to dispute the charge and request a refund. Should the provider decline, then the case can be elevated to their Ofcom approved Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) provider (i.e. it’s CISAS for POP Telecom). Sending a complaint to Trading Standards is another option.

The catch here, which The Sun seems to have missed, is that POP Telecom do in fact reference Router Assurance during the order process (we checked) and on the final confirmation page it’s clearly listed as: “Router Assurance (Free for 2 months then £2.50 per month)“.

In addition, if you have enough presence of mind to click the + icon next to the information box on their order page, it gives you the option to opt-out (see below for an example). But we should caveat that this was our finding from today, and we don’t know if POP Telecom have always done exactly this.

Overall, POP Telecom does not appear to be breaking the rules, although at the same time they should ideally be including a clear mention of this charge on their product summary pages – before you even enter the order process (and without needing to click a small info. icon first to see a pop-up), particularly as it’s applied by default. Room for some improvement.

The eagle eyed among you will have also noticed that mention of Landline Assurance earlier (only relevant on certain packages), which gets a similar treatment. In the T&C’s this is described as follows: “Landline Assurance – POP telecom offers a service to protect you from any unexpected charges for faults on your line. This is provided for the period of 2 months for free and is then charged at £3.00 per month thereafter. If you have a fault and have completed the required diagnostic tests then you will be covered against all costs from Openreach. The service can be removed at anytime as long as you have not benefited from the service.”

POP’s full fibre (FTTP) packages similarly include mention of something called Full Fibre Assurance (confusingly also referenced as Ultrafast Fibre Assurance on the order page above). We could not find this feature mentioned in their T&Cs, but they do clearly mention the £5 per month charge on the final order page and its described on the public product page as follows: “FREE for 2 months – Full Fibre Assurance to protect you from repair charges from Openreach when it is not an issue with the Full Fibre network.”

However, there is a big caveat with this Fibre Assurance feature, because unlike the others you cannot remove it. In fact, if you try to do so on their order page, a pop-up displays as follows: “Product is mandatory hence cannot be removed.” This is much more contentious because any mandatory charge really must be reflected on their main public product prices and summaries too, outside the order system.

Finally, some customers also made reference to another add-on called Hybrid Assurance, but we struggled to find any descriptions of this (even doing a Google search of POP’s website didn’t help). The catch, which The Sun failed to spot, is that this feature, so far as we can tell, only gets seems to get added to their business broadband packages and the rules for businesses are very different (i.e. the user can either complain to the ISP to dispute it or take the issue to court, but hopefully no complaints go that far).

We have reached out to POP Telecom for a comment on their approach and await their response. But suffice to say, the issue is a bit more complex than The Sun reported.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Alternative network builder and UK ISP Grain (Grain Connect) has announced that their new gigabit speed Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network has gone live in the North Yorkshire (England) seaside town of Saltburn (Saltburn-by-the-Sea), which is home to around 6,000 people.

The operator’s broadband network currently covers over 250,000 premises (RFS) across the United Kingdom and is home to 43,000 customers (data from March 2025), which is up from 220,000 premises and 30,000 customers in May 2024. But despite the wider market pressures, Grain has managed to continue their roll-out and is still expanding into new locations.

Naturally, Grain will face some competition from gigabit-capable broadband rivals in the town, which is already well covered by Virgin Media (inc. nexfibre) and has strong coverage from Openreach too. But they won’t have to worry about any other altnets and their prices are low enough that they stand a good chance of being able to steal customers away from the established players.

At present the operator appears to reach over 30% of premises in the town (guesstimate), but this is currently still in the process of being actively expanded.

Grain’s Launch Deal
➤ Prices from just £19.99pm (150Mbps symmetric speeds)
➤ Up to 3 months free broadband for early sign-ups
➤ Free standard install
➤ Price freeze until 2027 – no sneaky in-contract price rises

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Telecoms and broadband giant BT is reportedly in “advanced talks” to sell its 50% stake in UK TV broadcaster TNT Sports, which was formerly known as BTSport before the operator retreated from pay TV. Existing partner Warner Bros Discovery would pick up the stake and use it to help support their plans for a new streaming service (yes.. another one, sigh).

Just to recap. BT officially rebranded BT Sport to TNT Sports throughout the UK and Republic of Ireland back in mid-2023. The move followed a 2022 deal between BT and Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), which resulted in a 50:50 Joint Venture (JV) company between BT Sport and Eurosport UK.

However, the above agreement also gave WBD an option to buy out BT before the end of next year, which the FT (paywall) reports is something that is now being pursued. The move would mark BT’s final exit from premium TV sports broadcasting, which wasn’t exactly a slam dunk for the operator (cash drain) and distracted them from their primary focus on broadband and digital networks.

Meanwhile, WBD itself is focused on preparing the way for their new streaming service – HBO Max – to launch in the UK during early 2026, which is expected to feature premium sports TV content and the usual foray of entertainment (related TV shows and movies etc.). But this will of course just add to the growing problem of content fragmentation, as yet another streaming service arrives to compete in an already crowded and increasingly expensive environment for consumers.

According to the newspaper, a deal could be announced as soon as this week, which would make sense as we’re expecting BT the release their next set of biannual financial results later in the week.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Alternative UK network operator FullFibre Limited (Fibre Heroes), which in early March 2025 completed its merger with Zzoomm (here), has in the past few weeks begun to notify staff of further redundancies. Most of the cuts appear to be coming from their internal fibre build and supporting teams, and this also extends to some senior leadership levels.

Just to recap. The newly combined full fibre (FTTP) broadband network currently reaches 600,000 premises (ready for service) and “over” 70,000 customers (up from 65k+ in January 2025) across England – serving parts of approximately 110 market towns, which makes it one of the UK’s largest altnets. This reflects both their open access wholesale fibre network alongside their in-house retail ISPs (BeFibre and Zzoomm).

Readers may recall that the merger announcement talked about delivering “funding for new builds“, albeit without providing any solid figures (they’re trying to secure it) or setting any new coverage targets, and at the same time spoke of achieving “greater operational and financial efficiencies through economies of scale“. But they’ll still need to spend time and money conducting the physical integration of both FTTP networks.

However, the reality is that such mergers often also result in job losses, which frequently occur as the larger company moves to remove duplicate roles and deliver on those “efficiencies“. On this front, ISPreview recently noted a sharp uptick in people expecting to be made redundant from the business. Most of this occurred around 2-3 weeks ago, and credible sources informed us that around 50 jobs are to be cut.

A spokesperson for both companies told ISPreview:

“Post the recent merger announcement between FullFibre and Zzoomm, we can confirm that we are now entering into an organisational review which delivers on our business strategy to combine the two companies into a single operating model.”

The reality is that, short of a major funding announcement, the newly combined group seems likely to focus more of its efforts upon commercialisation of their existing network – much as the wider market has done (due to pressures from rising build costs, stubbornly high interest rates and competition etc.). But the operator did also previously that they’re now “well-positioned to drive M&A across the fragmented sector“, although it remains to be seen whether they’ll continue to be consolidators or become one of the consolidated.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

The UK Government’s Department for Science, Innovation & Technology (DSIT) has this morning announced that it plans to introduce long-term, ten-year funding for certain R&D (Research and Development) activities, which could also deliver longer-term funding for infrastructure projects too.

The move, which is intended to help support the government’s upcoming Industrial Strategy and deliver economic growth as part of their “Plan for Change“, will see the introduction of new guidance to drive innovation and “provide long-term certainty to researchers and industry, deepening opportunities for partnerships in vital R&D work“.

The mention of infrastructure seems to be focused more on fostering the development of large-scale research facilities and equipment (e.g. quantum computers). But such things could potentially also benefit the development of future broadband networks and mobile technologies too (6G, 7G etc.).

In theory, this could be more productive than many existing programs, which tend to base their plans around the parliamentary terms of whichever party is in government at the time and are thus often reflective of 1-4 year projects.

Science Minister, Lord Vallance, said:

“Research and innovation, from computing and AI to health breakthroughs need stability of funding.

We are delivering on our manifesto commitment to support and encourage public bodies to deliver long-term ten-year funding streams where appropriate, while retaining the flexibility of shorter-term cycles to deal with emerging priorities.

This change will provide certainty to certain types of research organisations and unlock vital business investment into our world-class research sector to drive the growth at the heart of our Plan for Change.”

Specific funding commitments have yet to be determined, but this is apparently due to be set out in the “coming weeks“. The criteria which will be used by Departments and public bodies to identify and prioritise relevant ten-year funding proposals are centred around four areas, which we’ve listed below.

The Key Criteria

➤ Infrastructure and core capabilities – Where ten-year funding will allow recipients to develop or maintain core national infrastructure or support more impactful use of such infrastructure, which would not be possible under shorter funding cycles.

➤ Talent attraction and retention – Where the skills development in a particular area is demonstrably vital to the UK growth agenda and longer-term funding would enable development of a pipeline of skilled researchers, scientists or engineers that otherwise would be difficult.

➤ International collaboration – Where there are demonstrable, additional opportunities for international collaborations with wider strategic benefits.

➤ Partnerships and Business collaboration – Where there is demonstrable need for long term partnerships with industry – including charity and philanthropy – to tackle a significant challenge relevant to economic growth, and where shorter funding cycles would impede effective partnerships.

Further details on the initial recipients of ten-year budgets are due to be set out in the second phase of the Spending Review, and in due course following the allocation of the R&D budget. Departments will operate their own selection process, in line with the guidance.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Satellite operator Viasat and German car manufacturer BMW claim to have demonstrated the ability for vehicles to connect over satellite (non-terrestrial networks) for emergency messaging and hazard warnings. This is designed to complement modern terrestrial 4G and 5G mobile network connectivity solutions (many cars already have something akin to the latter).

The demo, which involved other members of the 5G Automotive Association (5GAA), took place in Paris (France) and also featured the first on-the-road, live-traffic demonstration of 5G-V2X Direct technology capabilities for detection of vulnerable road users (VRU) in real-traffic conditions. The same demo also showed the readily available capabilities of Vehicle-to-Network (V2N) services.

Getting all of this right, for seamless in-vehicle integration and seamlessly switching between NTN and terrestrial networks to enable voice communication, was no mean feat and is something that many new cars will have in the future. Car drivers in the future will not even realise that satellite connectivity is established, instead of using a terrestrial network, which could help to save their lives if a crash occurs.

Anritsu, Keysight Technologies, Rohde & Schwarz, and MediaTek complemented the NTN demonstrations with parallel test equipment measurements for performance verification. For the first time on the road, 5GAA member Valeo, in collaboration with Marben, demonstrated 5G-V2X Direct, in which two vehicles shared sensor data, triggering a warning of a pedestrian crossing at an obstructed intersection.

The above demonstration illustrated how 5G-V2X Direct (based on 3GPP Release 16) will enable vulnerable road users extra protection by leveraging sensors and camera feeds from other vehicles to alert drivers, paving the way for smarter mobility. As per the 5GAA Visionary 2030 Roadmap, 5G-V2X is expected to be mass-deployed in commercial vehicle models starting from the time horizon 2026-2029.

The public road demonstrations continued with the use of V2N technology for road users’ protection. 5GAA members, including Nokia, Orange, Stellantis, Valeo, and VEDECOM Institute, showcased interoperable V2X Platforms with vehicles, mobile applications and smart intersections (equipped with cameras and connected via the 5G networks) sharing collective perception to enhance road users’ safety.

Additionally, HARMAN and u-blox showcased Emergency Electronic Brake Light (EEBL) near-real-time alerts to prevent hard braking events, in line with the upcoming 2026 Euro NCAP local hazard requirements, and made use of precise positioning to prevent false alerts.

Finally, 5GAA members Rohde & Schwarz, S.E.A, Keysight and Orange also exhibited Next Generation Emergency Call (NG eCall) verification and network performance. The event, hosted by Telecom-Paris, highlighted how 5GAA is developing new standards for safety and innovation in automotive connectivity in Europe and globally.

According to the 5GAA 2030 Roadmap, the initial market deployment of satellite connectivity in vehicles is expected by 2027 (based on IoT NTN 3GPP Release 17). All of this sounds good, although no doubt some road users will be worried about the potential for such technologies to be used by governments and insurance companies to spy more closely on their driving, which raises various issues.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Network operator Openreach (BT) recently published the first edition of a new Suppliers Trial Information Note (STIN) for Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband using 10Gbps capable XGS-PON technology, which interestingly appeared to hint at a series of new speed tiers. This includes symmetric speeds of 2.5Gbps and 3.3Gbps (Gigabits per second).

Openreach’s full fibre broadband network currently still uses older Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON) technology, which places limitations on how fast they can go before capacity becomes an issue. For example, GPON supports a capacity on each trunk line of up to 2.5Gbps downstream and 1.24Gbps upstream, which needs to be shared between several premises.

As a result, Openreach’s fastest asymmetric consumer broadband product via FTTP currently maxes out at a download speed of 1.8Gbps, with uploads of 120Mbps. In addition, those rural areas covered by their Project Gigabit (Type C) roll-out contracts with the government can also access symmetric speeds, albeit only up to 1Gbps and this is more of a business product (expensive).

However, the operator’s network is currently adopting a ComboPON approach, which in the future will make it easier for them to upgrade premises to newer fibre technologies without needing to change all the existing optical modems (ONTs) inside homes (e.g. they’d be able to use either GPON or XGS-PON based ONTs, whatever the situation requires).

Back in February 2025 ISPreview reported that Openreach planned to trial XGS-PON sometime in 2026 (here), which is a significantly faster, more cost-effective and power efficient technology (the ‘X’ stands for 10, the ‘G’ for Gigabits’ and the ‘S’ for symmetric speed). But until now there have been no further updates, at least none that we were able to spot.

The good news is that some of our readers (here) have spotted a new STIN from Openreach – STIN 1007 (XGS-PON for FTTP), which quietly popped up sometime in April 2025. This is a technical document that sets out how the new XGS-PON technology will work within Openreach’s network, but it also gives us a pretty good idea of what product speeds they plan to offer in the future.

In particular, there are several speed tiers beyond the current top 1.8Gbps one, including 2.5Gbps and 3.3Gbps, with various different options for upload speed. Details on service pricing and product details for the trial will no doubt follow in the near future, but this offers a useful sneak peek of what we can expect. Getting the pricing and availability right will be key if Openreach are to compete with the altnets, many of which have been using XGS-PON for years.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

The High Court in London has rejected an application by mobile operator EE (BT) for interim injunctive relief against satellite provider Avanti Broadband, which had “threatened to withdraw” its backhaul services – used to help supply data capacity to some of the remotest rural UK mast sites – unless the mobile operator agreed to pay a “substantially increased rate“.

The vast majority of EE’s mobile masts and cell sites are typically connected by fixed fibre optic or Microwave wireless links, which supply the necessary high speed data capacity for their services. But around 200 of these, from a total of around 20,000 mast sites, are so remote that this connectivity is currently only supplied via a satellite link supplied by Avanti and its fleet of HYLAS satellites.

Put another way, if the satellite link is not provided, then there will be no EE mobile services in the relevant area. There are a further 400 sites where the primary link is fixed fibre/cable or microwave, but if that primary link fails, a satellite link is still required to act as the backup. Some of these sites were also provided as part of the Government’s new 4G based Emergency Services Network (ESN).

Suffice to say that the importance of these sites is well understood and Avanti has been helping to supply them since 2016. However, according to court documents, the two sides have been locked in a dispute “since early this year” after Avanti “threatened to withdraw its services on a phased basis unless EE agrees to pay for those services at a substantially increased rate which EE contends is exorbitant and unreasonable“.

The related contract is understood to have contained agreed pricing for the services (i.e. fixed capacity and operational charges) up to December 2023, but nothing beyond that date. Avanti’s position was that its obligations ceased when the pricing expired, while BT / EE disagreed.

Extract from the Judgement

The present position is that Avanti has been prepared to continue to provide its services pending the making and outcome of this application. Further, it has made an open offer to EE to continue providing them for a further 3 months but no longer and at the higher rate which it seeks. It contends that it could in any event not supply the services beyond 3 months because this would risk it losing a very lucrative contract for the supply of satellite services to a new customer.

For its part, EE would be prepared to pay Avanti a pro tem fee of £300,000 per month but it would need Avanti to maintain the services for longer than 3 months and ideally for 6-9 months. This is because while EE recognises that it cannot continue to take services from Avanti on a long-term basis at the rate required by Avanti and has indeed started to engage with a different satellite supplier to take over from Avanti, this process of “migration” is a protracted one if it is to be done properly.

Since the parties have been unable to agree a way forward after which they would effectively part company, EE has brought this application for an injunction, effectively to maintain Avanti services until the migration is complete or trial, whichever comes first.

As to the underlying merits of EE’s claim, Avanti disputes that it is presently under any continuing contractual obligation to supply the services. Strictly speaking, it says, it would be entitled to walk away now. In fact, and as noted above, it has never suggested that but instead and in order to facilitate an orderly migration, has intimated that the withdrawal of services would be on a phased basis.

In terms of replacing Avanti’s GEO satellite network, BT / EE are already known to have been playing with Low Earth Orbit (LEO) based solutions from both OneWeb (Eutelsat) and Starlink (SpaceX) – here, which should also be able to deliver better broadband speeds and latency performance. But off-hand we don’t know how the commercials of these alternative platforms differ from that of Avanti’s arrangement.

In any case, the Judge, Mr Justice Waksman, ultimately “dismissed” BT’s application for injunctive relief against Avanti. “I consider that the interpretation of the GSA/SOW contended for by EE is plainly wrong and does not give rise to a serious issue to be tried,” said the judge while referencing BT and Avanti’s supply agreement (GSA) and related Statement of Work (SOW) – the latter sets out in detail the services to be supplied by Avanti.

A Spokesperson for Avanti Communications told ISPreview:

“We welcome the court’s decision and remain open to constructive dialogue with EE.”

The situation leaves BT / EE in a tricky position but, given the lack of an immediately available alternative (the judgement suggests this won’t be ready until later in 2025 at the earliest), they’ll almost certainly have to find a way of continuing to work with Avanti until such time as it becomes viable to migrate to a new solution. Obviously, that will come at a bigger cost. BT declined to comment on the ruling when we asked.

Original article Total Telecom:Read More

News

Charter Communications and Cox Communications have entered into a “definitive agreement to combine their businesses.”

By: Brad Randall, Broadband Communities

Two giants in the telecommunications industry, Charter Communications and Cox Communications, have entered into an agreement to join forces.

The agreed-upon deal, announced today, remains subject to regulatory approval. It values Cox at $34.5 billion, according to a release provided by Charter early Friday morning.

Additionally, the deal would see Charter acquire Cox’s commercial fiber assets, managed IT, and cloud businesses, the release stated.

Further, Cox Enterprises would contribute Cox Communications’ residential cable business to Charter Holdings, which is an existing subsidiary partnership of Charter, according to Charter.

According to Charter, the deal, if approved, would create “an industry leader in mobile and broadband communications services.”

Chris Winfrey, the president and CEO of Charter, said his company is “honored that the Cox family has entrusted us with its impressive legacy.”

“This combination will augment our ability to innovate and provide high-quality, competitively priced products, delivered with outstanding customer service, to millions of homes and businesses,” Winfrey stated, according to Charter’s joint announcement with Cox.

Comments from Alex Taylor, the chairman and CEO of Cox Enterprises, were also included in the announcement.

“In Charter, we’ve found the right partner at the right time and in the right position to take this commitment to a higher level than ever before, delivering an incredible outcome for our customers, employees, suppliers and the local communities we serve,” Taylor stated.

This remains a developing story. Check back for updates.

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