Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Mobile operator and broadband ISP EE has updated their online “Tech Store“, which sells a mix of extra services and gadgets (e.g. TVs, games consoles, laptops etc.), to introduced “Tech Drops“. This is a new monthly scheme that sees their store “offer a huge saving on a limited amount of stock of the hottest tech“, purchased via their App on a “first-come-first-serve basis“.

For example, the first “Tech Drop” will be on the Beats Studio Pro headphones on 17th April 2025, which will be reduced to just £149 (less than half the price of the £349.99 RRP). Just to be clear, these monthly Tech Drops discounts will be available to both EE and non-EE customers via the EE App. But select existing EE mobile and home broadband customers “will be alerted up to 24 hours before each drop” (useful as there will be limited stock for the special sales).

Sam Kemp, Director of Gaming and Consumer Electronics at EE, said: “As part of our mission to offer customers access to the best tech, we’re excited to unveil our new monthly Tech Drops initiative. Launching this week, our first EE Tech Drop will give thousands of people the chance to make huge savings on one of the hottest pieces of tech on the market – but they must be quick as the deals only runs for a limited time period. All customers need to do is download the EE App and look out for the next Tech Drop.”

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has banned an advert on UK mobile and broadband operator Vodafone’s website. This occured after EE complained that its claim of being “The Nation’s Network” was an “implied comparative superiority claim“, which was ultimately deemed to be “misleading“.

The ad in question appeared in December 2024 on the www.vodafone.co.uk/network page, which was headed “Connecting you this Christmas on The Nation’s Network”. Some small text stated, “The Nation’s Network: Vodafone UK, supporting the nation since 1984” and linked to “Full verification”. Bold text alongside stated, “The Nation’s Network”.

Text further down the same web page in a sub-section stated, “Why we’re The Nation’s Network Since 1984, we’ve gone from strength to strength to support the nation. Today, we’re proud to call ourselves The Nation’s Network” and listed “Firsts in the telecommunication industry”, “Supporting our emergency services” and “Reliable, award-winning network”.

In addition, text in another sub-section of the web page stated, “Staying connected on The Nation’s Network We’re helping you stay connected, whether you’re at home or travelling” and listed “99% UK home coverage”, “international roaming” and “our growing 5G network”.

Vodafone argued that the use of “The Nation’s Network” was in reference to their heritage as the UK’s “first and most long-standing mobile telephone network“. But the ASA ruled that “there were several possible consumer interpretations” of their statement and that a “significant minority of consumers were likely to view the claim” as being more a reference to comparisons of greater reliability, superior coverage and better connectivity than rivals. But in that case they’d need to be able to substantiate such a position, which they could not.

ASA Ruling (REF: A24-1271366 Vodafone Ltd)

“The CAP Code required that comparisons with identifiable competitors must objectively compare one or more material, relevant, verifiable and representative features of those products. As such, we expected the ad to objectively compare one or more verifiable features. Because we considered that the claim, as it was presented in ad (b), was likely to be understood by consumers in a range of ways (including as a comparison against all other UK networks, for example that Vodafone was the most popular network in the UK, had the most customers or had better coverage or reliability than its competitors), we considered the ad failed to objectively compare one or more material, relevant, verifiable and representative features and concluded that the claim “The Nation’s Network”, as it appeared in ad (b), breached the Code.

We also considered market research submitted by Vodafone. The ASA Council noted that rule 1.7 of the CAP Code stated that “Any unreasonable delay in responding to the ASA’s enquiries will normally be considered a breach of the Code”. The ASA Council considered that Vodafone’s submission of consumer research in this case was at a very late stage of the investigation, and did not provide evidence for Vodafone’s argument that the average consumer would not associate the ‘’The Nation’s Network’’ with an implied comparative superiority claim.

The ASA considered that the themes measured in outcome 1 suggested that the participants felt that the ad was showing things that could reasonably be viewed, as objectively measurable factors with a potential comparative element. For example, 10% of respondents were grouped in the theme “info about Vodafone services and products”, 7% in “network reliability”, 6% in “affordable pricing”. We noted that this question did not ask specifically about the claim “The Nation’s Network”.

We considered that the results in outcome 2 suggested the claim was potentially interpreted by a significant minority of participants (39%) as being about specific objectively measurable features or characteristics of Vodafone’s service, such as the 8% grouped in “Customer satisfaction”, 25% in “Vodafone’s coverage”, 3% in “Telco/service quality”, and the 3% in Broadband services.

The questions did not specifically ask about comparability, and the research outcomes did not provide evidence that participants did not associate “The Nation’s Network” as a superiority claim, as Vodafone suggested. We considered that the research was not sufficient to provide a basis for suggesting that the average consumer would not associate the ‘’The Nation’s Network’’ with an implied comparative superiority claim, as argued by Vodafone. Therefore, our assessment remained that at least a significant minority of consumers were likely to interpret the claim “the Nation’s Network” as being an objective comparative claim against the UK’s other network providers.”

As usual, the ASA banned the advert in its current form and told Vodafone to “ensure they objectively compared one or more material, relevant, verifiable and representative features if making an implied comparative claim“.

EE also lodged a similar claim against a TV ad that featured some of the same wording. But the ASA did not uphold the complaint against that one because Vodafone was deemed to have provided sufficient contextual information to support the statement.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Sky (Sky Broadband, Sky TV etc.) has refreshed their Sky VIP scheme, which typically offers special discounts and rewards to existing customers. This began after the My Sky App introduced (9th April 2025) a new “first-for-Sky discounts marketplace“, exclusively available to their VIP customers.

The change means that Sky VIPs can now access a variety of “best in-market discounts” through the VIP hub on the My Sky app, including ‘Monthly Changing Discounts‘ (i.e. offers that refresh every month), special ‘Seasonal Offers‘ (i.e. discounts tailored to be seasonal and ‘No Minimum Spend‘ promotions (i.e. discounts without any minimum spend conditions).

Sky plans to offer various related discounts and rewards across lots of different categories, such as Sports, Gaming, Entertainment & tech, Home, Food and drink for at home, Magazines/books, Leisure & attractions and also Pets.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

European managed network connectivity provider Hughes Network Systems (Hughes Europe) has today announced that they’ve teamed-up with Eutelsat to harness the OneWeb network. This is a global constellation of broadband satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), which is still partly supported by the UK government (11% stake).

OneWeb (aka – Eutelsat OneWeb) currently has 654 small (c.150kg) first generation (GEN1) LEO platforms in space – orbiting at an altitude of 1,200km (c.600 of them for coverage and the rest for redundancy). The network was completed in March 2023 (here), promising both ultrafast broadband speeds and fast latency times. But a further 15 satellites (plus one GEN2 prototype) were then launched in May 2023 to add “resiliency and redundancy to the network” (here) and then 20 more in October 2024 (here).

In terms of today’s new announcement. Hughes plans to combine their ground equipment, installation, and network management services with the OneWeb network in order to offer enterprises across Europe enhanced internet connectivity (i.e. integrating OneWeb LEO technology into its existing broadband portfolio to help reach areas where traditional networks fall short).

As an engineering partner, Hughes is already developing gateway electronics and the core technology that powers every user terminal in the OneWeb system. Hughes has also designed an electronically steerable flat-panel antenna (ESA) specifically for the OneWeb satellite service.

Christopher Britton, MD at Hughes Europe, said:

“Together with Eutelsat we are bringing reliable, high-quality connections to enterprise and government users across Europe. LEO satellite connectivity with the Hughes ESA and the White glove services from Hughes Europe, offer a European based alternative for high-speed, low-latency coverage.”

Cyril Dujardin, President of the Connectivity Business Unit at Eutelsat Group, said:

“We are pleased to expand on our longstanding partnership with Hughes to enable the delivery of our Eutelsat OneWeb services to European businesses. High-speed, low-latency connectivity is essential to support critical business functions, and we look forward to providing the connectivity needed to help businesses across Europe thrive and succeed.”

Projects are now underway in the manufacturing, construction, power generation, and retail sectors. Additionally, government agencies are reviewing the Hughes LEO service for critical infrastructure connectivity.

Original article Total Telecom:Read More

Partner article

As Türkiye prepares for its anticipated 5G spectrum auction, Türk Telekom is taking the lead, aiming to transform user experiences and drive industry innovation. In the WinWin studio, we chatted to Zeynep Özden, Marketing and Customer Experience Assistant General Manager at Türk Telekom, who shared her insights on the company’s vision and strategy in the approaching 5G and AI era.

“We are eagerly looking forward to offering new services and experiences to our users,” said Ms. Zeynep, highlighting that Türk Telekom has connected 54% of its LTE mobile base stations to fibre, surpassing the global average.

The company has conducted extensive 5G trials over the past two years, spanning sectors including transportation, healthcare, education, and sports. Notably, Türk Telekom recently showcased its 5G capabilities by installing mobile networks in stadiums for the top four Turkish Football League clubs, allowing many simultaneous experiences, a huge milestone following their initial launch at Istanbul Airport.

“We are determined to build all the advantages of 5G to every layer of society, and to build the digital future in the most efficient way possible,” leveraging innovative solutions from partners like Huawei, emphasising energy efficiency and spectrum optimisation.

Additionally, Ms. Zeynep highlighted the crucial role of AI in shaping Türk Telekom’s future, stating that AI will make network management and operational processes smarter, and help in precisely improving customer experiences, “ensuring expectations are reflected accurately in product and service development processes.”

“We hope that AI, which is one of the most crucial outcomes of digitalization, will become a powerful force in promoting network and business innovation at Türk Telekom,” she continued.

Watch the full interview here!

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

The Independent Networks Co-operative Association (INCA) and Point Topic have published their 2025 report into the impact of alternative gigabit speed “full fibre” (FTTP/B) broadband networks on the UK. The study reveals that their coverage grew by 27% in 2024 to top 16.4 million premises (down from 57% in 2023 [12.9m]) and could grow to 18.6m in 2025.

Just to be clear on the coverage figures. INCA’s study excludes Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) deployments from the two largest operators – Openreach (BT) and Virgin Media (VMO2) – in order to focus on independent Altnets like CityFibre, Netomnia, Gigaclear, Hyperoptic, CommunityFibre and many more (Summary of UK Full Fibre Builds).

The new report finds that Altnets now cover a total of over 16.4m premises ready for service (up by 27% from 12.9m last year, but with growth slowing from 57%), which is around half of all UK premises. Furthermore, some 3m of those were in places classed by Ofcom as “Area 3” (i.e. mostly harder to reach rural locations), which is largely unchanged from last year and means that Altnets have delivered full fibre to nearly a third of UK premises in harder to reach rural areas. Take-up also stands at 16.5% (2.7 million live connections), which is up from 15% last year (2 million live connections) – an annual growth rate of 35%.

The previous report also included a future coverage forecast, which last year predicted that Altnets would be delivering to 16.7m premises by the end of 2024. But today’s finalised figure of 16.4m for that same period falls a tiny bit short of this target, which is sadly to be expected given how many network operators have cut jobs and slowed their build over the past couple of years.

The latest forecast is for Altnets to extend their coverage to reach 18.6m premises by the end of 2025 with over 3 million live connections, but there’s still some uncertainty about how this year might progress. Interest rates are falling (not as fast as hoped), which could improve access to funding, and recent consolidation may similarly give some operators a new lease of life to build. Time will tell.

Overall, there’s still plenty of build activity in the Altnet space and a lot more to come, but the 2024 period was clearly a challenging one – mostly due to the strains caused by rising costs (build, leases etc.), competition from rivals (e.g. overbuild, price discounts, growing take-up) and the difficulty of securing fresh investment while interest rates remained stubbornly high.

One possible caveat above is that there can be a tendency for some network operators to report technically unfinished or non-live builds (i.e. you can’t yet order a live service) as Ready for Service (RFS), which may cause complications when forecasting live coverage.

The analysis also claimed that entry-level ultrafast broadband (100Mbps+) services delivered by Altnets are, on average, 11.7% cheaper than those provided by BT. Additionally, it highlighted the growing consumer trust in independent providers, with 13 out of the top 20 ISPs ranked on Trustpilot being Altnets.

The Financial Impacts

According to INCA, investment in the Altnet sector continued throughout 2024 with an estimated £574m of additional funding being committed to network expansions during the year. Including this additional private investment capital, Altnets had committed £5.319bn to network expansions and operations for the 2024/2025 financial year.

However, we should point out that aspirational funding commitments are subject to significant change, much like the builds themselves, and thus should be viewed with caution. Some projects will fail, reduce or be consolidated, so we don’t expect all of this to be realised (accurately accounting for this is extremely difficult due to the lack of transparency from some operators).

However, taking this private sector investment together with the government’s £5bn Project Gigabit commitment (35 contracts worth £1.36bn have been awarded to 10 local or regional altnets – aiming to cover around 940,000 premises), as well as other planned full fibre investments (e.g. £4.5bn on VMO2’s nexfibre project and £15bn on Openreach), quickly highlights just how much investment is still flowing into the market. The vast majority of that is still private funding, which takes a lot of the strain away from the public purse.

The Most Pressing Issues for Altnets

Finally, in terms of the issues that AltNets think are the most pressing to tackle, it’s worth looking back at last year’s report to see what the top concerns were during 2023. According to last year’s report, the top concerns were – 1) Access to finance, 2) Switching between Openreach and independent networks e.g. through the One Touch Switching process, and, 3) Getting wayleaves.

By comparison, the top concerns in this year’s report are – 1) Current/future economic conditions, including access to finance, 2) Risks from Ofcom’s Telecoms Access Review (this was surveyed before we knew that the regulator wasn’t going to make major changes), and, 3) Overbuild by operators with Significant Market Power (Openreach or KCom).

Overall, Altnets are continuing to have a significant impact across the United Kingdom and that is set to continue for the foreseeable future, which is one of the reasons why major network operators are ramping-up their own builds (competition). But at the same time, there’s likely to be more consolidation in the market over the coming year as financial strains continue to bite.

Paddy Paddison, CEO of INCA, said:

“This is the moment we’ve been building towards. Altnets have already connected millions of homes and businesses, and while network expansion continues, the sector is now cashing in on its investment and widening its focus to help more customers make the transition.

Not long ago, if you lived beyond the big cities, fast, reliable broadband felt like a distant dream. Altnets have changed that – bringing full fibre to long-overlooked towns, villages and communities, and in doing so, driving real progress in UK connectivity.

And people are responding. Last year alone, almost three-quarters of a million customers chose to switch to an Altnet. The momentum is building – and this is just the beginning.”

It is also worth noting that Altnets have the more complex task of winning new customers onto their network, as opposed to the incumbents who can convert existing customers onto their full fibre services. On the flip side, Openreach reported 707,000 line losses between Dec 2023 and Dec 2024, which is said to roughly correlate to the 706,000 net additions seen by Altnets year-on-year.

Finally, the report includes its usual brief mention of Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) providers, which in the small print are estimated to cover more than 3 million premises (up from 2m), although not all will have a full speed service available. The fixed wireless access (FWA) market is more difficult to assess due to line-of-sight issues and fragmented supply in the sector.

Original article Total Telecom:Read More

News

A new partnership with River Severn Partnership Advanced Wireless Innovation Region (RSPAWIR) and Wireless DNA will see Vodafone use its mobile network to sense incoming rainfall

Vodafone is running a new trial across the River Severn catchment area aimed at using its mobile network to predict short-term rainfall.

The trial functions by leveraging the inherent physical properties of wireless communications. Electromagnetic spectrum signals – especially at higher frequencies – can be attenuated by rain, meaning that signal strength can be a useful indicator of rainfall.

Vodafone’s partner, Wireless DNA, will monitor and analyse signal information from the Vodafone’s microwave links between masts, allowing for a more accurate short-term forecasting, also known as ‘nowcasting’.

This data, in turn, will be passed to the River Severn Partnership with the goal of supporting early warning systems and flood defence planning.

According to Vodafone, the data gathered from the mobile network will be more accurate that radar and more detailed than weather stations.

“Storms and extreme weather are becoming more frequent and destructive. Working with River Severn Partnership, we can use our cutting-edge technology to provide greater insight on weather forecasting and help mitigate the impact of extreme events,” said Nick Gliddon, Director, Vodafone Business UK. “This example shows how, through innovation, our mobile network can have a real impact on not just the lives of residents who live and work in the River Severn area, but for communities across the UK.”

Using wireless networks as sensors to monitor the surrounding area is not a new concept. In-home Wi-Fi sensing technology, for example, is already on the market, monitoring movement in the home to detect unwanted intruders or contacting emergency services in the event an elderly customer suffers a dangerous fall.

Using a mobile network for this purpose, however, has largely been a topic reserve for 6G. Integrated Sensing and Communications (ISAC) is one of the key developments of the new technology, allowing for far greater detail than traditional radar deployment.

At Mobile World Congress this year, Vodafone itself demonstrated a planned ‘network-as-a-radar’ use case, suggesting that its network could identify objects like birds or drones from 3km away. This, the company said, could provide invaluable data to locations like airports, ports, and other sensitive locations.

Discover more innovative ways telcos are leveraging their networks at Connected North, live in Manchester next week!

Also in the news:
NOW Telecom’s mobile licence revoked after ‘grossly deficient’ infra rollout
Nokia, Telia, and Finnish military demo 5G network slicing across borders
Anatel approves expansion of Starlink satellite operations in Brazil

Original article Total Telecom:Read More

News 

Cordiant Digital Infrastructure has cleared a hurdle in its €22 million acquisition of BT Communications Ireland Ltd (BTCIL), after Ireland’s competition watchdog approved the deal this week 

The transaction, led by Cordiant’s Irish fibre platform Speed Fibre Group, was first announced back in February and includes BT Ireland’s domestic network infrastructure, a portfolio of more than 400 customers, and its local operational teams.  

While the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) has now signed off on the deal, a few conditions remain before it can close. These include approval under Ireland’s foreign direct investment rules, and the completion of BT’s transfer of retained businesses that fall outside the transaction (including its multinational clients, large enterprise customers, and emergency call services). 

The acquisition significantly bolsters Speed Fibre Group’s position in the Irish market. The company, which already owns Enet and Magnet+, is looking to cement its place in the wholesale and B2B telecoms space by expanding its service offering. As part of the deal, Speed Fibre and BT will enter a long-term connectivity partnership, ensuring continuity for customers and a future working relationship between the two companies. 

The move marks a strategic shift for BT, which is increasingly focusing its international operations on serving large multinational clients.  

Speaking at the time of the announcement, BT Business CEO Bas Burger described the sale as “another key milestone” in refining the company’s focus. 

“Our Irish wholesale and enterprise business unit, which has been a leading alternative provider for more than 30 years, will enter a new era with Speed Fibre Group,” he said. 

“We are confident that Speed Fibre Group will continue to deliver exceptional service to customers, and we look forward to working together with them as our future partner in Ireland,” he continued. 

The deal also brings a long-running story closer to its conclusion. BT first tried to sell the Irish unit back in 2019, when it was reportedly valued at €300 million. London-based private equity firm Mayfair Equity Partners came close to sealing a deal a year later, but talks collapsed in 2020 after BT pulled out, citing a change of heart.   

The transaction is expected to complete later this year. 

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

Also in the news:
Industry giants call for joint action on subsea cable security
Vodafone–Three reportedly targeting Pay-TV offering
Telefonica sells bankrupt Peru unit for £1m

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

The not-for-profit London Internet Exchange, which handles a large chunk of UK and global data traffic through their switches via around 900 members (broadband ISPs, mobile and CDN providers etc.), has revealed that their LON2 network (interconnection platform) is nearing a key milestone of 1Tbps (Terabits per second) of peak network traffic and with a full technology refresh planned for later this year.

LINX currently operates two independent network fabrics in the city – LON1 and LON2, both interconnecting the 16 major data centre locations in London. LON1 is by far the largest of those networks, but LON2 was last refreshed in 2018 and does things a bit differently by being a disaggregated platform (i.e. the separation of hardware and software components that carry out the main functions of a network).

The LON2 architecture, employing “EVPN over VXLAN and featuring leaf-spine topology“, uses IP Infusion’s OcNOS network operating system and switch hardware from Edgecore Networks. It’s essentially a fairly cost-effective entry point for a single peering Point of Presence (PoP) at LINX in London, and can also be added as an additional LAN to LON1 for extra resilience.

Many networks connected to LINX in London will thus mirror their services on both LON1 and LON2, with the confidence that in the rare event of network disruption on either fabric, they can re-route traffic and keep their business online. But the network is also in need of a technology refresh (upgrade), which is due to occur this year.

Richard Petrie, CTO of LINX, said:

“Our world-first disaggregated platform has given our members great service for the last 7 years with exceptional value from their investment and we hope to continue this as we innovate further. Our refresh of LON2 this year will bring potentially new technology partners, as we approach the 1Tbps traffic mark on the fabric, bringing many more years of resilience to our members.”

Sadly, LINX’s progress update doesn’t clarify precisely what the full refresh of LINX’s LON2 network in London will deliver, which is partly because they’re currently still deciding upon some of the details and the final upgrade plan. But the work on this is currently planned to “take place later this year” and will naturally need to be done in a way that avoids causing disruption.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Mobile network provider giffgaff, which is owned by Telefónica and naturally uses O2’s virtual operator (MVNO) platform, has today confirmed their intention to trial and launch a range of full fibre (FTTP) home broadband packages via nexfibre and Virgin Media’s national networks. Much as ISPreview first leaked last year.

Just to recap. Nexfibre is the product of a £4.5bn joint venture (here) between Telefónica, Liberty Global and InfraVia Capital Partners, which aims to deploy an open access full fibre network to reach “up to” 7 million UK homes (starting with 5m by 2026) in areas NOT served by Virgin Media’s own network of 16m+ premises (Telefonica and Liberty Global also own Virgin Media).

Nexfibre’s 10Gbps capable FTTP (XGS-PON) network has so far covered 2 million premises (RFS), which is up from 986,000 in Q1 2024 and much of that has been built by Virgin Media’s engineers. The operator is currently expecting to reach another million premises by the end of 2025. The latter is predicted to cost them another £1bn of their committed investment.

However, the good news today is that giffgaff has now confirmed what ISPreview first leaked last year (here), which is that they’re planning to launch a range of broadband packages that will initially harness nexfibre’s growing network – the first major provider to do so, other than Virgin Media. This will later also be extended to include Virgin Media’s FTTP network, once that becomes available via wholesale in the next few weeks or months (here).

As part of this, giffgaff has today said they’re looking for “up to 500 trialists” to help them “build a better broadband” by testing the new service and will even pay them £100 to help. In addition, trialists will get 500Mbps broadband for just £10 a month for a whole year (not reflective of the final price!). A small number of early trialists are already testing giffgaff’s new offering, but this marks the first step in doing something much bigger.

Ash Schofield, CEO of giffgaff, said:

“Broadband is a natural evolution for us as a connectivity brand. We know people are frustrated with their current broadband offering so we’re committed to bringing together the best tech, with the experience of the people that matter most – our customers – to build better broadband.”

A Virgin Media O2 spokesperson said:

“The planned launch of a giffgaff broadband service mirrors the successful approach we’ve taken with the brand on the mobile side. It allows us to offer a complete range of broadband and mobile services to a wider mix of different customers and aligns with our broader commercial strategy with three of the best brands in the country. giffgaff broadband is currently in a trial phase, leveraging our wholesale capabilities and recruiting people to test and shape the service, so we’ll share more information later in the year.”

Giffgaff is a brand that has long earned itself a reasonably positive reputation within the mobile space, which is theoretically something that could also help to fuel interest in their future broadband packages. But at the time of writing, we still know very little about their final packages and prices. The latter could provide some useful indications for how competitive Virgin Media’s future wholesale offerings may be with the wider market.

One of the challenges for nexfibre and Virgin Media here will be in enabling other providers to offer competitively priced broadband packages, albeit without disrupting or cannibalising Virgin’s own range of retail broadband products too much. As we’ve said before, finding the right balance here will be particularly difficult once Virgin Media opens up their own network to wholesale (they’re traditionally positioned as more of a premium brand).

At the time of writing, giffgaff hasn’t said precisely when the final non-trial packages will launch (we’ve been told it’ll be “some time later this year“), but they might wait until after Virgin Media have opened up their existing network to wholesale. Otherwise, anyone interested in giffgaff broadband should register their interest at giffgaff.com/broadband/register-interest to “help it understand demand and where it could launch in the future, or for their chance to be a trialist“.