Original article Total Telecom:Read More

Bangalore, India – April 30, 2025: Today, Aprecomm, the intuitive network and customer experience platform provider, announced a major coup by appointing former Airties CEO and highly experienced telecom leader Philippe Alcaras as an advisor. Presiding over Airties during a time of substantial growth, when the company expanded its footprint into new markets, Philippe brings the experience and business acumen necessary to support and advise Aprecomm’s Executive Team as global demand for its AI-driven customer experience (CX) platform continues to grow at pace.

“Aprecomm has already secured over 20% of the Indian fixed broadband market and is supplying close to 50 service providers with its customer experience optimization software,” said Philippe Alcaras, Aprecomm’s latest advisor. “With the penetration of managed WiFi estimated at only 15-30% globally [1], Aprecomm has a huge opportunity to disrupt the market with its AI data-driven approach and fast speed to market—I’m excited to join Pramod and his Team and support this high-growth phase.”

Among several key focus areas, Philippe will bring extensive experience to help guide the company’s positioning and narrative for investor outreach and fundraising initiatives, support engagement with strategic customers and partnerships, ⁠and provide ongoing input and feedback on corporate governance, product strategy, and roadmap development.

“I’m thrilled to welcome Philippe, who will provide his expertise and advice to the Company during our next growth phase,” said Pramod Gummaraj, Founder & CEO, Aprecomm. “Philippe’s knowledge will be invaluable as we continue to disrupt the industry, helping service providers harness AI’s power to serve their subscribers better, bringing joy to online experiences while achieving significant operational savings through our intuitive and self-healing approach to network management.”

Serving both residential and business subscribers, Aprecomm’s CX suite helps broadband service providers (BSPs) transform their connectivity approaches. By utilizing sophisticated artificial intelligence, including a unique quality of experience algorithm, Aprecomm is paving the way for intuitive zero-touch networks. Aprecomm adopts a self-optimizing and self-healing approach to managed WiFi, adjusting the network to accommodate the unique needs of each user and the application they are using. Aprecomm’s advanced analytics and automated support tools provide access to real-time data, enabling service providers to monitor end-to-end network performance. Its CX suite is field-proven [2] for enhancing subscriber satisfaction and reducing operational costs.

About Philippe Alcaras

Based in Dubai (UAE), Philippe Alcaras holds non-executive positions as Chairman of OnRobot (Odense, Denmark), Chair of the Advisory Board at Vianeos (Paris, Dubai), and Board Member at S3 Connected Health (Dublin). From 2012 to 2022, Philippe was the CEO of Airties, leading the company to become a global leader in home network WiFi performance. He also served as the General Manager of Philips Home Networks, CEO of Nagra France, and General Manager of Digital TV Devices at Vantiva. Philippe graduated with an MBA from KEDGE (Marseille) and is certified as an INSEAD International Director.

<Ends>

Aprecomm harnesses the power of AI to provide a unique applications suite that enables service providers to create self-optimizing and self-healing broadband networks.

Our quality-of-experience engine monitors and optimizes WiFi performance to ensure consumers enjoy the best possible internet experience. At the same time, our cloud-based support applications leverage real-time data to predict and resolve customer service issues before they happen, saving providers time and money.

Aprecomm manages over 7 million home and business locations, partnering with more than 45 service providers worldwide.

We’re making intuitive, self-healing networks a reality.

Follow Aprecomm on LinkedIn here.

#IntuitiveNetworks

#BringingJoyToOnline

Visit www.aprecomm.ai to discover more.

Press contact:

corporatecomms@aprecomm.ai

[1] Various industry estimates

[2] Excitel case study

Original article Total Telecom:Read More

Edinburgh, UK, 30th April, 2025 – Pulsant today announced it has been chosen by Edinburgh-based, maritime search and rescue innovator Zelim, as its digital infrastructure partner.

As part of a vision is to deliver the world’s first unmanned search and rescue capability, Zelim launched ZOE Intelligent Detection in 2024. ZOE applies inference artificial intelligence (AI) to video feeds, to deliver real-time detection and alert of passengers or crew who fall overboard. This guides search and rescue operations, making them faster and safer.

Due to intense, rapid growth, Zelim identified a need for a colocation partner. Having initially hosted its servers on-premise, Zelim quickly realised it faced not only high energy costs but also an unacceptable level of risk. This exposure ranged from the threat of power outages and fire, to flooding and theft.

Any compromise to the resilience of the infrastructure is unacceptable as it stops Zelim from delivering life-saving services.

Following a thorough review of the market, Zelim chose the Pulsant facility at South Gyle, Edinburgh. The physical proximity of the data centre to the Zelim headquarters was key to the decision, as the team at Zelim need fast access to implement new hardware, switches, and firewalls.  The connectivity offered by Pulsant has enabled Zelim to run a 10Gb, 5G LTE out to twelve nautical miles from South Gyle. This high-speed, low latency connection is critical for the lifesaving, inference-AI feeds.

Operationally, Pulsant has enabled Zelim to meet the intensive demands of AI. Zelim servers draw not only copious amounts of power but also need to be integrated in order to analyse the high throughput of data coming in from the camera feeds. In addition, the ability to demonstrate high security and ensure physical separation of data, has been critical in reinforcing Zelim’s services and reassuring clients.

“The second someone hits the water, the clock is ticking,” said Doug Lothian, CTO, Zelim.  “Anything that makes our technology faster, more dependable and sharper means we save lives. That is the context for our move to Pulsant.” 

“We initially considered centralised, hyperscale providers, but processing this volume of video data in the cloud is expensive, and we would have lost control of the environment,” explains Euan Cowie, software engineer, Zelim.  “We have always recognized our strong AI focus and are now accelerating in that space by bringing key data processing on-premises at South Gyle. This allows us to fetch frequently accessed video data faster locally to boost performance for training and inference, while still leveraging the cloud for broader storage and scalability.”

The next steps for Zelim include plans to combine the detection and tracking capabilities of ZOE with unmanned search and rescue craft and expansion throughout the world.

“There are few examples of AI that demonstrate the need for high-speed, high-performance infrastructure, as well as Zelim,” said Mike Hoy, CTO, Pulsant. “Zelim brings innovation of the highest level to Scotland, and we are incredibly proud to become a partner as they continue to grow.”

Original article Total Telecom:Read More

News 

The launch positions Revolut as one of the first digital finance companies to expand into mobile connectivity 

Mobile bank Revolut has announced the launch of a new mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) services in the UK and Germany, with more markets to follow. 

The London-based fintech company, best known for its digital banking services, announced today that it will roll out mobile subscriptions with unlimited calls, texts, and data. The plans include 20GB of roaming data across the EU and USA, with no fixed contract required. 

The move is the latest step in Revolut’s push to expand beyond banking and could represent a significant shakeup to the existing MVNO market. With over 10 million existing UK customers and a further 2 million in Germany, Revolut has a major platform from which to attract mobile subscribers.  

The company says it is aiming to attract customers frustrated with rising roaming charges and rigid contract terms. 

The move follows the success of Revolut’s eSIM product last year. Since then, the company claims millions of data plans have been used across more than 100 countries, making eSIM its most popular non-financial feature. 

Revolut says the new mobile plans will be integrated into its app, giving users more visibility and control over their usage.  

“The massive success of our eSIM product launched has proven mobile offerings are ripe for disruption. In our view, consumers are suffering with traditional network offerings due to a lack of transparency with hidden fees, painful customer experience and old, difficult to navigate UX,” said Hadi Nasrallah, General Manager, Telco and Retail Director at Revolut. 

“We’re looking to solve all three, providing Revolut customers with a tech-led experience, the best value and no fixed contract commitments. It’s yet another step for Revolut into the consumer telecommunications arena where innovation is desperately overdue and we look forward to bringing this update to consumers in more markets soon,” he continued. 

The MVNO market has had a second disruption this week as the Octopus Group, the investment group behind Octopus Energy, announced it is exploring plans to launch a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) that could challenge the dominance of the UK’s current biggest four operators,  EE, Virgin Media O2, Vodafone, and Three.  

Join us at Connected Germany, 18-19 November in Munich. Get tickets here! 

Also in the news:
Germany appoints first ever digital minister
Signify and Cornerstone to deploy city-wide multi-operator wireless network through street lighting
BT opens new flagship Manchester office

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

The CEO of ISP Zen Internet, Richard Tang, has today shared three recent interviews with the bosses of several alternative network providers, including B4RN (Tom Rigg), MS3 (Guy Miller) and Quickline (Sean Royce). Each provides a useful progress update on their efforts to deploy full fibre (FTTP) broadband across different parts of the UK.

The first interview is one that combines both MS3’s Guy Miller and Quickline’s Sean Royce. Just to recap, Hull-based MS3 is an Asterion-backed network builder that originally aspired to cover 535,000 UK premises with their gigabit wholesale fibre broadband network across the Hull and Humber region of England by the end of 2025. MS3 tends to be a bit more of an urban builder and one that is backed by an unspecified amount of private investment.

By comparison, Quickline is backed by c.£500m from Northleaf Capital Partners and tends to focus their builds on rural and semi-rural parts of the Lincolnshire and Yorkshire regions of England. The operator has previously indicated a desire to cover 500,000 premises using a mix of fixed wireless and FTTP technologies by the end of 2025, but it’s been a while since they reported on overall build progress (although they do issue lots of smaller community updates).

The new interview largely focuses on the many challenges of urban vs rural builds, which using the differing perspectives of Quickline and MS3 helps to illustrate why it’s often so much more expensive to tackle rural areas. None of this is particularly new territory for the pages of ISPreview, but we do get some useful progress updates from both providers and a few key quotes.

MS3’s boss reveals that their FTTP network has now passed 207,000 premises as Ready for Service (RFS), although their raw homes passed footprint is currently on about 234,000 (up from 210,000 in Oct 2024) and they’ve got just under 18,000 customers (up from 15,000 in Oct 2024).

“We’ll continue growing the customer base, we’ll continue building the network out. In terms of long-term targets … the market will determine that over the next few years and access to funds etc. We’re quite a rarity in that we are debt free and it’s fully equity invested,” said Guy Miller, while appearing to hint that they’re currently more focused on commercialisation than new network builds.

“The great thing there is I’m not accruing enormous amounts of interest per year and I’ll start reporting EBITDA positive at the end of this year … We’ll wait until the markets are more sensible before we commit to a huge RFS target,” concluded Guy while looking toward the future.

Guy also touched on the recent merger between CityFibre with local rival Connexin, which has similarly been deploying FTTP into some of the same areas as MS3: “It doesn’t make too much difference to us. Connexin are a good local brand, [but] they’re a smaller network than ours, and we’ll carry on doing what we’re doing really well, I think.”

However, Guy did acknowledge that “there is an amount of overbuild” between MS3 and Connexin (quite a sizeable one in Hull), which does pose a risk. Not least due to CityFibre’s stronger reach with major ISPs, although much may yet depend upon whether CityFibre decides to overbuild even more of MS3 and KCOM’s patch in the future.

Interestingly, both MS3 and Quickline seemed to support the idea of a grand consolidation between altnets in the future (something CityFibre wants to lead). But both operators also said they want to ensure they’re stable as independents first and don’t feel a need to rush into doing a merger (with CityFibre or other operators) on bad terms.

In terms of Quickline’s progress, Sean said they expect to reach 200,000 premises passed with FTTP by the end of 2025 (up from 65,000 premises in Nov 2023). The four Project Gigabit contracts they hold will also deliver 180,000 premises by completion around 2027/28 and they aspire to add another 200,000 commercial premises that will be wrapped around the publicly funded build. “We’ll have a premises count of around half a million [500k] and that is fully funded,” said Sean when looking toward the end of those contracts.

B4RNs Interview

Richard Tang also separately did a new interview with Tom Rigg, the CEO of rural network provider B4RN. This provider is somewhat of a rarity in the market as they’re a registered Community Benefit Society (i.e. they can’t be bought by a commercial operator and profits go back into the community) and one that often engages local volunteers to help build their network.

Tom reiterated that B4RN are continuing to deliver an average take-up of 50% and are connecting an extra 1,000 customers to their network each year. The rural FTTP network itself currently reaches roughly 30,000 premises RFS (up from 27,000 premises in August 2024) and they expect to end up with maybe 40,000 to 50,000 RFS in total once their existing plans reach completion.

The above may seem small by comparison to other altnets, but it’s worth remembering that as a rural builder, this still reflects a fairly sizeable level of geographic coverage. The interview doesn’t really add much else in the way of new information, although both Tom and Richard expect that the current consolidation will “end up with a few big players“. But while Tom believes B4RN will continue to be a niche independent in that future market, Richard does see “all of it consolidating … I do think that long-term, into the 2030s, it will end up joining together with two big players left.”

All the aforementioned interviews took place during the recent Connected North 2025 conference in Manchester, and more are due to follow. Take note that, at the time of writing this, the YouTube videos were not yet available for public consumption, but we’ve included the links above (they should convert to embedded videos once live).

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Network benchmarking firm Opensignal has today published the result of a new study that analyses the performance of Mobile Network Operators (MNOs like EE, O2, Vodafone and Three UK) and then compares that with their many virtual operators (MVNOs like Sky Mobile, iD Mobile, Smarty etc.). Overall, the primary operators deliver faster data speeds than virtual providers.

On the surface, you might think that virtual (MVNO) operators should perform about the same as their primary parent (MNO) operators, given that they harness the same underlying network(s) as their partner. However, MVNOs don’t always gain immediate access to the latest features from their parents (e.g. 5G Standalone, Wi-Fi Calling etc.), which will vary and depends on the agreements they’ve signed.

However, there can also be other differences in terms of how network traffic is managed, capped or setup (either imposed by the parent network or directly by the virtual operator), although such details tend to be very opaque for consumers and are thus hard to assess.

In addition, mobile performance remains a difficult thing to study because end-users are always moving through different areas (indoor, outdoor and underground), using different devices with different capabilities and the surrounding environment is ever changeable (weather, trees, buildings etc.). All of this can impact service quality, and that’s before we consider any differences in network (backhaul) capacity or spectrum between locations.

Suffice to say that all of this tends to complicate any attempted comparisons between MVNOs and MNOs, since there’s a significant margin for potential variation. Despite this, Opensignal has attempted to leverage the mass of crowdsourced data they collect – via end-users on their benchmarking app and services – to identify just how much of a difference, if any, really exists between sibling virtual operators and their network parents.

The results found that virtual (MVNO) mobile operators consistently delivered slower mobile broadband (3G, 4G and 5G) speeds across the countries surveyed, although interestingly the performance gap experienced by MVNO users in the UK is much smaller than in any of the other countries tested. Primary MNOs in the UK delivered an average download speed experience of 39.2Mbps, which fell to 33.8Mbps for MVNOs. But in Mexico MNOs are around two thirds faster than MVNOs.

Opensignal also assessed the Reliability Experience of the two groups, which reflects the ability of Opensignal users to connect to and successfully complete basic tasks on mobile networks. But looking at the scores across the group of analysed countries — the differences between brand MVNOs and MNOs are not always as stark as in the case of Download Speed Experience.

Primary operators still perform better for network reliability, but in the UK you’d be hard-pressed to notice any practical difference as the scores are more or less in the same ballpark. Several of the other countries follow this trend, although there’s a bigger gap to be found in the USA, Mexico, Japan and Brazil.

The UK is known to have one of the healthiest MVNO markets in this whole group. Some 14% of all retail mobile connections in the UK come via MVNOs, although this may not be a factor in performance because Mexico also had a high level of MVNO adoption (13%) and yet saw some of the biggest performance and reliability gaps.

We’ve long suspected that primary MNOs were faster than MVNOs, but until now that has been largely based on anecdotal feedback and comparisons from consumers. Suffice to say that it’s interesting to see some hard data now being put behind this.

Original article Total Telecom:Read More

Press Release

The partnership will enhance urban connectivity across three major cities in the UK this year, with Oxford as the first city of deployment, enabled by Dense Air’s neutral host platform

London, United Kingdom – Signify (Euronext: LIGHT), the world leader in lighting, has partnered with Cornerstone, the UK’s leading mobile infrastructure services company, and Dense Air, a leading neutral host platform-as-a-service provider, to transform street lighting infrastructure into a platform of scalable multi-operator connectivity.

This first-of-its-kind partnership will launch in Oxford, creating a shared network for mobile operators that leverage existing light points to seamlessly expand wireless coverage and capacity, enabling instant connectivity in dense urban areas.

Using street lighting, Signify’s BrightSites solution provides connectivity for 4G and 5G, IoT applications such as CCTV cameras, Internet services via Wi-Fi, and other high bandwidth applications, eliminating the need for additional infrastructure and resetting the economic model on how mobile operators deliver service.

Dense Air’s multi-operator cellShare® platform enables Cornerstone to provide neutral host services to UK mobile network operators, adhering to Joint Operator Technical Specifications (JOTS). The technology optimizes network capacity by leveraging small cell technology specifically designed for public spaces.

Khalid Aziz, SVP and Managing Director of BrightSites by Signify: “By harnessing the power of 5G and IoT through our lighting technology, we not only illuminate streets but also pave the way for a more connected and sustainable future. In partnership with Cornerstone and Dense Air, Signify will enable our partners to tap into existing lighting infrastructure as a wireless network, bringing a new era of smart city solutions.”

Martin Reeves, Chief Executive of Oxfordshire County Council, said: “These new small cells offer an excellent connectivity solution, and it’s exciting to see a sustainable option that works in both urban and rural areas. Enhanced digital infrastructure supports the council’s strategic objectives by providing environmental, economic, and social benefits. Small cells, being only the size of a shoebox, minimise street clutter and seamlessly integrate into our surroundings.”

Miranda van Gestel, Chief Customer Officer at Cornerstone: “At Cornerstone, we are leading the way in transforming the UK’s digital landscape with innovative solutions such as our Small Cell Coverage Solution. By integrating state-of-the-art technology into existing infrastructure, we’re not only addressing the growing demand for seamless connectivity but also empowering local authorities, MNOs, and communities to thrive in the digital age. Our approach ensures faster, more sustainable deployments that enhance everyday life, drive economic growth, and set the standard for smart city innovation.”

As the world leader in lighting, Signify is well-placed to transform existing light points into city-wide wireless network grids, enabling seamless connectivity at scale. Starting in Oxford, the project will later deploy across three major cities in 2025, setting the foundation for future expansion and innovation across the UK in the field of smart city infrastructure.

Learn more about BrightSites by Signify at https://www.signify.com/global/innovation/brightsites

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

New research from Broadband Genie has analysed 348,000 internet speed tests across 1,302 locations in order to identify the top slowest and fastest UK locations for broadband. The slowest location was found to be Lostwithiel in Cornwall (average downloads of 2Mbps and uploads of 1Mbps), while the fastest was South Hetton in County Durham (526Mbps down and 448Mbps up).

According to Thinkbroadband’s latest data, some 87.3% of UK premises are currently within reach of a gigabit-capable fixed broadband network (1000Mbps+), which primary reflects the combination of full fibre (FTTP/B) and hybrid fibre coax (HFC) lines. Similarly, some 98.3% of premises should be within reach of a fixed “superfast broadband” (30Mbps+) network.

However, the new study is based on consumer speedtests, which are useful but tend not to accurately reflect the underlying availability of faster broadband networks and are thus more a reflection of consumer take-up (i.e. people on slower networks/packages may weight against those on faster ones).

For example, many homes in Lostwithiel, the slowest location, should still have access to FTTC connections via Openreach’s network, which can locally go a lot faster than 2Mbps (often exceeding 25Mbps). Suffice to say that the test sample may be weighted more in favour of older ADSL users or outlying premises, rather than those on more modern FTTC connections within the town.

In other cases, consumers may be aware that a faster service exists, but they have simply chosen not to upgrade due to various issues, such as the potentially higher price, lack of support for the new network by their existing ISP, fear of switching, being stuck in a long contract term or a simple lack of need or desire for anything faster.

Speedtest-based studies like this can also be influenced by other factors, such as poor home wiring, the user’s choice of package (e.g. 1Gbps could be available, but people may pick a slower tier), local (home) network congestion and slow home WiFi etc.

Fastest Broadband Speeds by Home Nations

The report also notes that London is ranked 587th for broadband speed in the UK (other large cities also struggled – Manchester (291st), Leeds (422nd), Glasgow (510th) and Birmingham (824th)). Apparently, locals of the capital recorded broadband speeds of 82Mbps, which is deemed “unremarkable for a hub of finance, commerce, and education“, while 20% experienced broadband speeds lower than 10Mbps and 4% failed to reach 3Mbps. But the report doesn’t seem to make a weighted table available that shows this (there’s only an unweighted dataset that doesn’t follow the same ranking).

In short, take these results with a pinch of salt and remember, the slowest locations are the ones that cannot get a viable broadband service and thus won’t appear in these studies. Similarly, the fastest areas are those covered by the handful of providers capable of offering them speeds in the 7-10Gbps range, such as B4RN, Youfibre (Netomnia) and a few others.

Fastest Broadband Speeds by UK County

Fastest 10 UK Locations by Broadband Speed

Slowest 10 UK Locations by Broadband Speed

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Network analyst firm Streetwave, which is using bin lorries to help map the coverage and performance of 4G and 5G mobile (broadband) networks across 113 UK councils, has revealed how much the £1bn Shared Rural Network (SRN) project has helped to improve mobile coverage across mid-Wales over the past 9 months – O2 saw the strongest improvement.

Just to recap. Streetwave has spent the past couple of years harnessing waste (bin / refuse) collection trucks to map mobile network coverage and performance across various parts of the UK (e.g. here, here, here, here and here). In this setup, bin lorries are installed with several off-the-shelf Smartphones using software from Streetwave, which run continuous network tests as the vehicles go around their routes (once every 20 metres in rural areas and 5m in urban areas).

The data they collect can then be used by local authorities to help identify areas that may require additional intervention in order to improve local mobile coverage or network capacity. In addition, members of the public have also been given access to some of this data via address-based coverage checkers and interactive maps, although this isn’t yet available for every location they study.

In this case, Streetwave has examined how mobile coverage has changed in the very rural mid-Wales region. Much of this change has been fuelled by the SRN project – supported by £501m of public funding and £532m from operators. This 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 (MNO).

The target of the SRN is to extend geographic 4G coverage (aggregate) to 95% of the UK by the end of 2025, which falls to 84% when only considering the areas where you’ll be able to take 4G from all providers. Streetwave thus set the coverage threshold for this survey as locations where a user receives at least 2Mbps download speeds (mobile broadband), which is also Ofcom’s minimum threshold for SRN compliance.

Results – Streetwave Study of Mobile Coverage in Mid Wales

Coverage levels in June 2024:
1. EE – 85%
2. Vodafone – 71%
3. Three UK – 70%
4. O2 – 62%

Coverage levels in March 2025:
1. EE – 85%
2. Vodafone – 78%
3. Three UK – 74%
4. O2 – 72%

This represents the following improvements:
1. O2 +10% coverage
2. Vodafone +7% coverage
3. Three UK +4% coverage
4. EE No change (but remains the strongest performer)

Clearly, the majority of mobile operators have improved their mobile coverage during the most recent 9-month period, with O2 and Vodafone seeing the biggest improvements. No doubt the impact would be much bigger if Streetwave’s data stretched all the way back to the start of the SRN scheme. By comparison, EE has remained largely static, but that’s because they’d already delivered superior mobile rural coverage in prior years and everybody else is still playing catch-up.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

A new study from comparison site Go.Compare has claimed that broadband users who have a landline phone service included in their package could save as much as a combined £61.1m each month by switching to a non-landline deal (roughly £4.1 per month per user). But it’s not always quite so simple.

The study, which uses internal comparison data on the cost of packages (from January 2020 to February 2025), as well as data from the ONS and a recent (Feb 2025) survey of 2,000 UK residents conducted by YouGov, claims to reveal that around 21.4 million UK adults have a landline today (roughly 41% of the UK) and the majority (92%) of these are included in a broadband package. But only 24% of these users say they use their home phone regularly.

Currently, Go.Compare states that Brits can expect to pay approximately £27 per month for their broadband (average), yet the average standalone broadband package without a landline costs almost £50 less per year (c.£4 per month). This is also roughly about how much it costs to add a phone service to one of BT’s broadband-only packages (£5 per month extra).

Put another way, the survey suggests that UK adults who don’t regularly use their landlines spend £611.8m each month on broadband packages that include their home phone line. But by switching to a package without a landline, they could save £61.16m in total each month. That is said to work out to around £49.27 per person every year, or c.£4.1 per month.

However, only 2.7 million adults state that they plan to cancel their landline in the next year, which equates to roughly 13% of residents with a home phone line. But to be fair, many people retain a landline, even if they don’t use it much, for a variety of different reasons.

For example, some people like to keep continuity with historic contact records or intend for it to act as a backup – complementing mobile services. Some vulnerable users also retain it for telecare purposes and, in other locations, there may be few alternatives (e.g. no mobile signal or a lack of user familiarity with VoIP/internet messaging etc.). Equally, some users do still adopt landlines as their primary phone service.

For the more technically minded user and infrequent landline user, it may also be possible to use the switch to FTTP broadband as an opportunity to split your previous copped-based broadband and phone bundle into a broadband and independent VoIP solution. For example, you could order FTTP as a new service and then port your phone number on the copper line to a separate, and hopefully cheaper, VoIP platform. This would cancel the old copper broadband service too, but that won’t matter if you’ve already got FTTP installed.

In the end, this is a matter of individual consumer choice, and the savings per user are often quite small.

Original article Total Telecom:Read More

News

Delays to BEAD forced a Louisiana broadband construction firm to layoff 80% of subcontractors, according to the organisation’s co-owner

This article was originally published by Brad Randall, Editor of our sister publication, Broadband Communities

A broadband construction firm in rural Louisiana has been forced into layoffs due to BEAD delays, according to Josh Etheridge, the co-owner of EPC.

Etheridge, who founded EPC with his brother eight years ago, is the latest Louisiana business leader to sound the alarm on delays to BEAD, the nation’s massive $42.45 billion effort to deploy broadband to all Americans.

In a new letter, addressed to Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, Etheridge said EPC was ready to put boots on the ground to begin BEAD deployments on January 25.

Read Etheridge’s letter to Lutnick here

“But now? The market is frozen,” Etheridge wrote. “I’ve had to release 80% of our subcontractors. We’ve paused philanthropic giving, scaled back our chamber memberships, and sadly begun to make layoffs of our full-time employees.”

Since it was founded, EPC has grown to include more than 160 full time employees, Etheridge wrote. Additionally, he said the company had built a network of more than 150 subcontractors.

Now, Etheridge says even North Louisiana-based EPC’s at-risk capital builds are “pulling back.”

“We were poised for 300% growth,” he wrote. “We prepared accordingly. And now—we wait.”

Etheridge’s letter, given to Broadband Communities on Monday, calls on the administration not to let “bureaucracy unravel everything we’ve built.”

“If this continues, you will have effectively weaponized a great ambition—meant to lift up and transform rural America—against the very people who believe in this administration,” his letter continued. “We supported our newly elected leaders— with our money, our words, and our votes — believing you would support us in return.”

‘And now? We hear nothing’

Louisiana has been highly impacted by an ongoing review to the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program called by Lutnick.

In 2024, Louisiana notably became the first to award BEAD funds through a state program called GUMBO 2.0 (Granting Unserved Municipalities Broadband Opportunities).

It was also the first state to gain approval for their initial BEAD proposal.

Now, Etheridge’s letter to Lutnick is the latest from a Louisiana executive that warns about dire impacts from Lutnick’s BEAD delay.

With the letter, Etheridge now joins the CEO of Louisiana-based SkyRider Communications and David Herring, the founder and CEO of ClearPath Fiber, as the latest company leaders sounding the alarm.

According to Etheridge, if the silence continues “it will say what no words ever could.”

“That we were never truly understood, that our sacrifice was never truly valued, and that our votes and voices mattered only when it was time to count them — not when it came time to honor them,” he wrote.

Like Herring’s letter last week, Etheridge stresses that Louisiana “did it right.”

He said his company “followed the rules and “ran a clean process.”

“No DEI mandates. Forty percent under budget. Tech-neutral. No labor strings,” he said.

Etheridge’s letter to Lutnick ends with the EPC co-founder telling Lutnick that “it’s not too late.”

He calls on Lutnick to “let Louisiana move forward.”

“Let EPC build. Let our people work,” he wrote. “Don’t let another generation lose faith in the promises we were raised to believe in. We are still ready. We are still willing.”

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