Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Digital infrastructure firm Boldyn Networks, which is perhaps best known for helping to build a number of open access UK mobile and fibre networks, has been picked by Kingston Council (Kingston upon Thames) in London to build a new 10km long fibre (broadband, Ethernet etc.) network in the royal borough. Virgin Media’s business division will also be involved.

Work to install the new network, which is being conducted in partnership with Transport for London (TfL) and the Greater London Authority (GLA), is starting this month. The aim is to improve internet access for both local businesses, visitors, and residents around the town centre (including Surbiton), as well as services such as the borough’s CCTV system (58 locations).

The links will connect to the council’s main CCTV office site at Kingswood Business Park, which plays a crucial role in supporting public safety. A total of 12 connections will be delivered by Virgin Media (VMO2 Business), while 46 will be implemented by Boldyn Networks.

The project is funded through the GLA’s Strategic Investment Fund, allowing TfL and Boldyn Networks to deliver full fibre connectivity upgrades in London boroughs.

Paul Osborne, CCO for the UK & Ireland at Boldyn Networks, said:

“Delivering seamless connectivity through full fibre access to the London Boroughs is a major focus of what we do across the city. Our work with the Kingston Council is integral to our vision of creating an interconnected future where local communities and businesses are safer and can thrive.”

Howard Dawber, Deputy Mayor of London for Business and Growth, said:

“In a world where access to reliable high speed digital connectivity is increasingly important, the Mayor and I are committed to ensuring that all Londoners and visitors are connected across the whole of the capital. Kingston and Surbiton are important growth hubs for business and leisure, as well as town centres for residents – so this new partnership will deliver significant improvements for local people, tourists and businesses.”

The new project is expected to be completed by February 2026. Boldyn Networks will work closely with the council to minimise disruption and ensure smooth implementation.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

The UK government has today confirmed its intent to ban SIM Farms (both possession and supply) some 6 months after the new Crime and Policing Bill (CPB) receives Royal Assent. The move is designed to better protect the public from fraudsters and scammers who also use the devices for criminal purposes (e.g. sending scam/spam messages and calls to mobile users).

Just for some context. SIM farms are electronic devices that are capable of using five or more SIM cards simultaneously or interchangeably, and which allows the user to send Short Messaging Service (SMS) texts or phone calls in large numbers over the telecommunications (mobile) network. Such “farms” can have legitimate uses too, but they’re frequently used by criminals engaged in fraud (e.g. sending phishing scam/messages that are designed to steal personal or financial data).

The plan was actually first proposed as part of the previous government’s Criminal Justice Bill (CJB), although this was disrupted by the 2024 General Election and the same measure now comes under the CPB. The previous CJB also included other new powers, such as one that can force Regional Internet Registries, Local Internet Registries or even broadband ISPs to suspend internet domain names and IP addresses used for criminal purposes.

Fraud Minister, Lord Hanson, said:

“Fraud devastates lives, and I am determined to take the decisive action necessary to protect the public from these shameful criminals.

Two-thirds of British adults say they’ve received a suspicious message on their phone – equivalent to more than 35 million people – which is why cracking down on SIM farms is so vital to protecting the public.

This marks a leap forward in our fight against fraud and will provide law enforcement and industry partners the clarity they need to protect the public from this shameful crime. This government will continue to take robust action to protect the public from fraud and deliver security and resilience through the Plan for Change.”

The new offence will make the possession or supply of SIM farms without a legitimate reason illegal and carries an “unlimited fine” in England and Wales, albeit oddly falling to a £5,000 fine in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

The move should complement action being taken by Ofcom, which has long been working with broadband, phone and mobile operators to tackle both domestic and international sources of spam and scam calls/texts. But delivering effective enforcement of such activity may be much harder, particularly when it occurs outside the UK.

Original article Total Telecom:Read More

News 

BT is to sell its remaining stake in its Italian unit to local telco Retelit, the Financial Times has reported today 

Financial details of the deal have not been disclosed, but the unit sold generated revenues of approximately €160 million in 2024. 

The “expansion will further strengthen Retelit’s coverage of the Italian corporate market, providing a more comprehensive suite of ICT infrastructure and services to support the innovation and the digital transformation of Italian enterprises,” said Retelit in a press release. 

Speaking to the Financial Times, Karen Egan, Head of telecoms at Enders Analysis, explained that the unit has been “quite a thorn in the side of BT over the years” and that Kirkby “will be very pleased to have a deal done to sell it”. 

BT CEO Allison Kirkby is focussing BT’s attention on the UK market in an attempt to cut costs. 

Last May, the company said it had hit its target to save £3 billion by 2025 a year early, with much of this total being driven by the company’s ongoing job cutting programme that will see 55,000 jobs eliminated by the end of the decade.   

Kirkby now says it will aim to repeat this, cutting a further £3 billion in costs by 2029.   

In addition, the latest UK budget posed new hurdles for BT. The government’s decision to hike employers’ National Insurance contributions could cost BT an additional £100 million annually. In response, CEO Allison Kirkby outlined several measures to mitigate this impact, including potentially passing costs on to mobile and broadband customers. She also said that cost-cutting initiatives through automation and AI would be accelerated. 

Keep up to date with the latest international telecoms news by subscribing to the Total Telecom daily newsletter  

Also in the news:
Virgin Media O2 to continue 3G switch off in Norwich, Telford, Guildford and Torquay
Amazon reassesses data centre expansion
Investing in the North: How Virgin Media O2 is powering a more connected, inclusive future 

Original article Total Telecom:Read More

News 

Ericsson has announced a €200 million investment in a research, development, and innovation (RD&I) project in Ireland 

Photo: Ericsson. (From left to right: IDA Ireland, CEO, Michael Lohan; Ericsson President and CEO, Börje Ekholm; Ireland’s Minister for Enterprise, Trade & Employment, Peter Burke, TD; Head of BA Cloud Software and Services, Ericsson, Jenny Lindqvist; Head of Ericsson Athlone, Denis Dullea.)

The project, launched at the company’s Athlone facility, will be spread over the next three years, and is supported by the Irish Government through IDA Ireland (the country’s foreign direct investment agency. It will fund research and development focused on making mobile networks more open, efficient, and easier to manage, especially in the context of 5G Standalone (SA) rollout. 

The project centres around Ericsson’s Intelligent Automation Platform (EIAP), a system that helps operators manage and automate 4G and 5G radio access networks (RAN), even when equipment from multiple vendors is involved. The work being done in Athlone will also support the development of ‘rApps’, software applications that help automate and optimise how mobile networks run. 

Ireland’s Minister for Enterprise, Trade & Employment, Peter Burke, says that the investment is “fantastic news”.  

“Their innovative R&D project, which will span a duration of three years, will improve efficiency in 5G networks globally. Ericsson have been established in Ireland for decades, with the Athlone facility a significant employer and an integral part of the fabric of the community for over 50 years. It is really encouraging that Ericsson have once again cemented Athlone as key base for the company, selecting the campus and the staff based here to lead this pioneering work,” he continued. 

”Ericsson’s ambitious programme is strongly aligned with the key growth drivers of IDA Ireland’s new strategy – Adapt Intelligently: A Strategy for Sustained Growth and Innovation. The investment strengthens the long-term legacy of Ericsson in Ireland, building on the success of past investments spanning more than 60 years. This RD&I project embodies cutting-edge innovation, exemplifies IDA’s continued commitment to balanced regional development.  I wish Ericsson every success with this project and assure them of IDA Ireland’s continued partnership,” echoed Michael Lohan, CEO of IDA in a press release. 

Keep up to date with the latest international telecoms news by subscribing to the Total Telecom daily newsletter  

Also in the news:
Virgin Media O2 to continue 3G switch off in Norwich, Telford, Guildford and Torquay
Amazon reassesses data centre expansion
Investing in the North: How Virgin Media O2 is powering a more connected, inclusive future 

Original article Total Telecom:Read More

News

Another Louisiana CEO is calling on Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick to address BEAD delays and reaffirm a strategic commitment to fibre

By: Brad Randall, Broadband Communities

Days after the CEO of Louisiana-based SkyRider Communications penned an open letter to Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick pleading for BEAD to move forward, another Louisiana CEO has voiced a similar call.

In a new letter given to Broadband Communities today, David Herring, the founder and CEO of ClearPath Fiber, said the financial risk to his company is growing “each day federal guidance is delayed or revised.”

Now, Herring says ClearPath “can’t continue this work.”

Click here to read Herring’s full letter to Lutnick

“Not because we aren’t ready,” he writes in the letter, dated April 23, “but because delays and uncertainty are costing us everything.”

According to Broadband Breakfast, ClearPath was awarded over $34.5 million in Louisiana’s BEAD subgrantee selection.

The money will fund ClearPath’s efforts to reach well over 7,300 broadband serviceable locations, the data shows.

Herring’s letter describes ClearPath as “a small, mission-driven startup.”

“We took bold risks, built infrastructure from the ground up, and partnered with manufacturers, contractors, and engineers to serve rural and underserved Americans,” Herring writes.

According to Herring, once confident investors are now backing away due to the delays with BEAD, the nation’s massive $42.45 billion effort to deploy broadband to all Americans as part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law in 2021.

Howard Lutnick (centre) stands with President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance in Feb. 2025. YouTube screenshot

The program, which stands for Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment, has been subject of an ongoing review by Lutnick.

Herring writes that every day of uncertainty is costing jobs.

“We believed in this country’s future and in your administration’s promises to put Americans to work,” the letter reads. “Based on those commitments, we’ve invested real money, secured local support, and laid the groundwork for transformative broadband deployment.”

“Now, we are watching that progress stall,” Herring writes.

‘Let Louisiana move forward’

Herring also urges Lutnick to recognise “what’s happening on the ground in Louisiana.”

“Our state has done everything right,” he says, adding that Louisiana has adopted a tech-neutral approach that does not involve DEI policies.

Herring goes on to say that Louisiana is ready.

“Not next year. Not after another round of revisions. We can be in the ground next week,” he writes. “So why are we being held back?”

The letter concludes with Herring urging Lutnick to stop delaying BEAD.

Herring also calls on Lutnick to “reaffirm fiber as the foundation of our national broadband strategy” and “support Louisiana’s readiness to lead.”

“Let Louisiana move forward,” he says. “Let us lead the way — the right way, right now. Because there’s no benefit in holding back those who are ready, willing, and able.”

Notably, Louisiana has been a leader in the BEAD Program.

In 2024, Louisiana 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.

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Learn more about Broadband Communities Summit 2025 in Houston.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

A new Censuswide survey conducted on behalf of UK broadband ISP Zen Internet, which involved 2,000 nationally representative UK consumers aged 16+ (surveyed during Q1 2025), claims to have found that 52% of Brits still have a landline, yet only 15% use it regularly. But only a third intend to take (or have already) the digital voice alternative when the switchover occurs.

The survey, which has been timed to coincide with the anniversary of the invention of the telephone by Alexander Graham Bell in 1876 (due to be celebrated tomorrow), reminds readers about the upcoming switch from the old Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) to IP-based digital phone (VoIP etc.) services.

Just to recap. The big switch-off was last year delayed to 31st January 2027 in order to give broadband ISPs, phone providers, telecare operators and consumers more time to adapt (details). But the main focus of this delay was the 1.8 million people who use vital home telecare systems in the UK (e.g. elderly, disabled, and vulnerable people), which aren’t always compatible with the replacement VoIP / IP-based digital phone services (i.e. for everybody else the deadline is still technically Dec 2025).

However, Zen’s survey found that 29% of respondents are still unsure about the switch, while 34% say they won’t maintain a phone connection other than mobile. Interestingly, 44% of 25-to-34 year olds are still choosing to retain a landline when the switch off happens. The main reasons cited for keeping a landline is as a backup in case of poor mobile reception (41%) or to stay in touch with elderly relatives who prefer the traditional dial tone (39%).

In the survey, older generations said they felt landlines gave “better call quality” (often this is not the case) and “a more personal feel“, but Zen said the reality is that most landlines now sit unused, collecting dust while households juggle multiple smartphones.

Zen’s survey also found that only 34% of respondents could remember friends’ or family members’ landline or mobile numbers. A surprising number of Brits struggle to recall even one mobile number, despite carrying a phone packed with hundreds of contacts.

Stephen Warburton, MD of Zen’s Retail Division, said:

“While the nostalgia surrounding our experience of landline phones over the decades is entertaining, our survey highlights some real concerns. Nearly half (46%) of landline users worry that removing home phones could lead to more loneliness, particularly for older generations. Two-thirds (66%) also fear that without landlines, grandparents and elderly neighbours will struggle to stay connected.

As for the switch to Digital Voice, there’s still widespread uncertainty. According to our survey, over a third (34%) of Brits have little or no understanding of the impending shutdown, with confusion highest among women (41%) and younger generations.”

Naturally, Zen Internet has a vested interest here, as they’re in a position to help with such transitions.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Broadband ISP and mobile operator Virgin Media and O2 have this morning revealed new mobile, internet, and TV data showing a weekday afternoon surge in traffic after 3.40PM, as children across the UK reach for screens after school. This is largely driven by TV/streaming, YouTube and homework related activity.

The new network data is accompanied by a limited consumer survey, although VMO2 fails to clarify any details about the methodology or sample size of this (take it with a pinch of salt). Nevertheless, this survey finds that half of parents say they head to the park with their children after school, while many others report that they read together.

However, the broadband data shows many families are immediately turning to screens to navigate busy afternoons. Traffic on the network jumps at 3:40pm every week day and continues to rise until around 5pm (sadly no actual network data is provided to help substantiate this), with YouTube topping the list of platforms typically used, cited by 61% of parents, followed by TV at 55%.

Summary of Additional Findings

➤ 46% of parents regularly continue to work after picking up their kids from school and find themselves juggling work and home commitments.

➤ 62% of parents give their children devices to use while they cook, while 47% use the time to tackle housework and a third catch up on emails and work.

➤ 70% consider the internet essential to their family’s daily routine – 44% say the household would fall apart without it, and 47% admit that any WiFi issues would spark arguments over who’s hogging the connection.

Jeanie York, CTO of VMO2, said: “Our data shows just how essential connectivity is to modern family life. With parents juggling busy schedules and children going online to learn, stay entertained and chat with friends, our gigabit broadband ensures everyone stays connected – without the arguments. As busy households turn to our services more than ever, we’re investing and innovating to deliver the reliable, high-speed connectivity British households rely on.”

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Some customers of city-focused UK ISP Hyperoptic, which since 2011 claims to have deployed an alternative full fibre (FTTP/B) network to reach “more than” 1.73 million homes in parts of 64 towns and cities, appear to be suffering from a sizeable network outage this morning.

The outage started at around 7am and the provider issued the following statement via social media shortly after that: “We’re currently facing service disruptions in a number of areas. Our team is on it and working hard to get everything back up and running. We’ll keep you posted with any updates right here. Thanks so much for your patience and understanding!”

The provider does also offer its own Network Status page, but this sits behind a postcode checker and didn’t appear to be working when we tried it earlier. Upon submitting a postcode, it simply returned a rather nondescript error message to say “Some issue occurred“.

However, at the time of writing, we can see that complaints appear to be falling from their peak and hopefully this means the issue may have been resolved.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

The ability of a broadband provider to offer an effective and informative ‘Service Status‘ page, which can be useful for keeping customers updated about developments during network outages, is a crucial but often overlooked feature of modern internet provision. Yet in recent years’ ISPs seem to have been making them less and less effective or removing them entirely.

In the past it was fairly normal for any ISP worth their salt to include a Service Status page, which would often be kept regularly updated with general network incidents, planned maintenance and major outages. Such pages help to keep consumers informed and, as a result, they can also reduce the pressure on support lines (phone), which are often at risk of becoming overloaded with demand during major outages.

Some broadband providers, such as Andrews & Arnold (example) and Zen Internet (examples here and here), still maintain fairly informative and dedicated service status pages. But others seem to have either got rid of them almost entirely (e.g. Plusnet), made them harder to find and access (e.g. sticking them behind an account login – makes life tedious if you don’t have those details on the device you’re using) or reduced the level of information they provide to the point of being almost insultingly vague. Some ISPs even require you to enter a landline number to access the details, which is hard luck if you’re on a data-only connection!

In place of those we have seen some providers putting more effort into communicating their outages via social media, which does have its merits (albeit more of a complement than a replacement). In addition, not everybody uses social media and the updates given via those usually only cover major outages. Suffice to say, there remains a strong argument for a centralised way of finding related information.

On top of this we have also seen the odd peculiarity, such as with the way that a tiny number of network operators (e.g. Virgin Media) often seem to tie their website too closely to their physical network (i.e. many of Virgin’s big outages have often taken their service status page offline too, which rather defeats their purpose). But the latter is mercifully quite a rare occurrence.

In an ideal world we’d like every ISP to maintaining a Service Status page, which would include a useful summary of current network outages (inc. a history log of recent ones), expected fix times and some limited details about the cause. Sadly, Ofcom’s rules do not specifically require ISPs to communicate details of the service outages / disruption events they suffer, which we think is one area that is ripe for the regulator to improve.

However, it’s important to remember that all complex broadband and mobile networks will inevitably suffer from faults, but the harm this causes is often magnified when providers fail to keep consumers updated in a timely fashion. The information vacuum this creates often gets filled by wild speculation and causes anxiety among those who don’t know whether the fault is within their home or the remote network.

The good news is that websites like Down Detector or the ‘Disconnections‘ section in Speedtest.net’s App are slowly becoming more useful as a way of figuring out what’s going on. But their usefulness only really extends to major outages, while smaller or more localised events often won’t register or are harder to spot. In addition, they don’t cover many smaller network providers.

Admittedly, the need for a decent Service Status page probably isn’t top of everybody’s criteria when choosing a new ISP, but we’d argue that it should be – it’s already one of our top considerations when looking to switch. In our view, any ISP that cannot communicate such events in a clear, accessible and timely fashion is failing its customers and does not deserve your money.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Several of ISPreview’s readers have indicated to us that Openreach’s fibre broadband checker has been down since yesterday morning or thereabouts. The popular tool is currently still offline at the time of writing today and returns the following message on use: “Service request failed. Please try again later“.

The network access provider is clearly aware of this, as their website now carries a status message to inform visitors that they are “experiencing some technical difficulties” with the service. “We are aware there is an issue with our fibre availability checker/reappointment, we’re working on it and should be back online shortly,” added the notification.

Service outages like this do happen from time to time, although they are usually very brief and this one has gone on for a lot longer than usual. But no doubt it should return soon. In the meantime, we have requested an update from Openreach and hope to report back soon.

UPDATE 1:52pm

Openreach have informed us that they’re still “investigating” and hope to have the checker back up and running asap.

UPDATE 3:14pm

The checker is now back online.

UPDATE 5:06pm

A spokesperson for Openreach told ISPreview: “The Openreach fibre checker is now back online after we experienced some technical issues following a service software update. We’re sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused.”