Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

The UK Government today confirmed that Openreach (BT) have been formally awarded the £157 million state aid supported Project Gigabit broadband roll-out contract for Scotland (Call off 6). The deal will see the operator extending their full fibre (FTTP) network to cover an additional 65,000 of the hardest to reach rural premises.

The latest development forms part of Openreach’s earlier Single Supplier Framework agreement (here), which saw them being chosen to deliver all of Project Gigabit’s Cross-Regional (Type C) procurements – reflecting “up to” £800m in total state aid to help upgrade 312,000 premises in rural areas of England, Scotland and Wales (the previous Type A [local] and Type B [regional] contracts have all gone to smaller providers).

So far, the government’s Building Digital UK (BDUK) agency has already awarded most of the contracts related to their above agreement, which until today reflected six Type C contracts awarded since August 2024 – a total of around £577m in public investment to help reach a further 227,000 premises in digitally disadvantaged areas (details here and here).

The last Type C contract to be awarded today, under the same Framework agreement, will add another £157m of public investment and 65,000 premises to the above total – this time focusing upon remote rural Scotland. Several remote islands off Scotland’s west coast will benefit, including thousands of premises across the Outer Hebrides – a chain of over 100 islands where currently just 7% of premises can access gigabit broadband – as well as the isles of Skye, Islay and Tiree.

Rural parts of the Scottish Highlands will also be covered by this boost, such as Applecross, an extremely remote peninsula, and Durness, the most north-westerly village on the UK mainland.

Telecoms Minister, Chris Bryant, said:

“Digital exclusion for people living and working in hard-to-reach areas across Scotland can be a huge obstacle to living a better and healthier life. Elderly and vulnerable people could miss out on the best treatment options in North Ayrshire, while budding entrepreneurs could be held back from their dream of running a successful business in Moray.

With our recent Digital Inclusion Action Plan, we have pledged to take everyone along with us in the digital revolution so that we don’t entrench existing inequalities as technological progress races ahead. This huge UK Government investment is a commitment to using technology to make lives in Scotland better as well as turbocharging local economies to deliver on our growth mission under the Government’s Plan for Change.”

Openreach Deputy CEO, Katie Milligan, said:

“Full fibre is the UK’s most reliable broadband technology, and more than half of Scotland’s homes can already order it thanks to Openreach. But we believe everyone deserves access to fast, reliable connections, so we’re proud to be helping extend access to communities that would otherwise be left behind. Our new network’s a catalyst for growth and jobs, with experts predicting it’ll bring a £4.4 billion boost to the Scottish economy and a raft of social and environmental benefits. We’re confident we’ll reach as many as 30 million UK premises by 2030, assuming the right economic conditions exist.”

Richard Lochhead, Scottish Government Business Minister, said:

“This new contract brings even more investment to Scotland and we are committed to working with the UK Government and Openreach to drive efficiencies across both the R100 and Project Gigabit programmes and maximise gigabit coverage.

Through the Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband (DSSB) programme and our ongoing efforts with R100, over one million faster broadband connections have been delivered across Scotland through public investment – developing infrastructure, knowledge and experience that will be essential in ensuring the success of Project Gigabit in Scotland.”

The areas covered by this Type C contract typically reflect locations where no or no appropriate market interest had previously been expressed before to the Government’s umbrella BDUK agency, or areas that have been descoped or terminated from a prior plan.

Areas like the ones above are often skipped due to being too expensive (difficult) for smaller suppliers, which is why Openreach was favoured to scoop them up and ultimate secured the related framework. All the other Project Gigabit contracts have gone to smaller alternative networks (altnets).

The new contract award also complements GoFibre’s recent success in securing the smaller £26.2m (state aid) Project Gigabit contract for the Scottish Borders and East Lothian regions, which will see them reach an additional 11,000 premises across hard-to-reach rural areas (here). More contracts are also expected to be signed later this year for Orkney, Shetland and across the East of Scotland, although these could just as easily go to different network operators.

The work is designed to complement the Scottish Government’s own £600m R100 programme, which is separately working with Openreach to reach another 113,000 premises in hard-to-reach rural locations by 2028 (the vast majority of this will get FTTP).

In that sense, the Project Gigabit contracts for Scotland should be seen as the successor to the R100 project, although the new contract doesn’t clarify how long it will take to reach the stated 65,000 premises (note: this is down from the 76,400 that was originally being targeted under call off 6).

Original article Total Telecom:Read More

Interview 

The telecom industry is at the forefront of digital transformation, but with growing concerns about energy consumption and environmental impact, operators and vendors are prioritising sustainability

In the WinWin Live Studio, Emanuel Kolta, Lead Analyst at GSMA Intelligence, sat down with Lim Yu Leong, Vice President, Group Strategy, Engineering and innovation at Singtel, and Singleton Zhou, President of Network Consulting and Integration services at Huawei GTS to discuss the Green Network Index (GNI), which is a figure developed by the GSMA to assess and compare the environmental sustainability of mobile networks. 

Singtel has recently implemented the Singtel Group Environmental Framework, which focuses on two key areas: 

1. Climate action: Reducing greenhouse gas emissions, integrating renewable energy, and optimising network energy efficiency.
2. Product stewardship: Promoting responsible sourcing, sustainable packaging, and e-waste management to support a circular economy.

Singtel’s commitment to sustainability has earned it an A score on the CDP 2023 Climate Change assessment, up from A- in 2022, making it the first Southeast Asian telco to achieve this recognition.  

From the carrier’s perspective, Huawei has also helped the advancement of green telcos. Zhou emphasised that legacy telecom equipment consumes excessive energy and space. To address this, Huawei has:  

1. Modernised 100,000 sites and 4,000 equipment rooms in 2024, helping operators save 740 million kWh of electricity.
2. Reduced OPEX costs by optimising equipment usage and improving network migration.
3. Supported zero-outage transitions using its NetLIVE platform, which uses digital twin technology and AI-driven risk assessment to ensure seamless migrations. 

Another huge challenge in modernising telecom networks is maintaining reliability. According to ENISA statistics, network incidents have increased by 35% annually, making resilience an even bigger priority. 

To combat this, Huawei has deployed its security and resilience networks solution, enabling operators to proactively manage risks. Their NetLIVE platform has already prevented 30+ operational risks in network change projects and improved first-time success rates to 99.99%. 

“We have deployed network resilience solution in several projects. Carrier A’s core network fault can cause a 12-hour interruption, affecting more than 5 million users. After reconstruction, the interruption time was shortened to 1.5 hours, and only 1 million users were being affected,” said Zhou. 

“In addition, the network accident rate was reduced by 70% as well. China operator B adopted our network change resilience solution, which has intercepted more than 30 operation risks. For implementing ‘network change’ request, the ‘first-time success rate’ exceeded 99.99%, and no major accident has occurred,” he continued. 

The Green Network Index (GNI) provides telecom operators with a structured approach to measuring sustainability efforts. For Singtel, the GNI has been a valuable benchmarking tool, allowing it to: 

 – Assess its carbon footprint and energy efficiency.  

– Identify areas for improvement and enhance network sustainability.  

– Align with global best practices in green telecom operations. 

For Huawei, the GNI has helped standardise energy conservation efforts across more than 200 operators worldwide. Their NetLIVE platform, currently deployed in multiple regions, enables operators to track and optimise their environmental performance in real time. 

Looking forward, Singtel will continue refining its sustainability strategies and leveraging the GNI for continuous improvement. Huawei will expand its collaboration with global operators, focusing on low-carbon development and energy-efficient technologies. 

“We firmly believe that deep collaboration is key to accelerating green transformation in the ICT industry. Singtel’s strategy to systematically advance carbon reduction through the GNI aligns closely with Huawei’s philosophy of “More Bits, Less Watts”.,” said Zhou. 

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Over the past few days’, we’ve seen a succession of scaremongering newspaper articles, which appear to warn UK consumers that their wireless routers or broadband may “grind to a halt” during this week’s heatwave. The articles appear to have been triggered by some advice that Virgin Media issued, but the reality is that this week’s weather won’t cause any major broadband issues.

Some of the articles that we’re talking about can be found here, here and here. Most of the headlines give the impression that a mass broadband outage may be in the offing, which is despite the fact that this is all based off some simple common-sense advice that Virgin Media issued, where they advised customers to keep their routers (Hubs) “out of bright sunlight” due to the risk that they may “slow down … or even grind to a halt altogether“.

First things first, this week’s “heatwave” is pretty tame and expected to peak into the high 20s in some areas. On the one hand, that’s fairly warm for this time of year and part of the world. But on the other hand, it’s not a patch on the 40c+ heatwave that much of the country experienced in 2022 (much more of a concern) and is below the more typical and often location specific summer peaks of c.35-38c. Small and often very isolated outages are still possible in warm weather, but for the vast majority of people there’s really no need to worry, and we have not seen a noticeable spike in complaints.

All electronic devices generally do emit some heat, even if you can’t always feel it, and the least efficient ones tend to produce more than most. Most router manufactures are aware of this and design their hardware to operate at temperatures of up to around 40c (varying a bit between manufacturers).

Sadly, an overheating broadband ISP router is something that can happen, although even many of the devices with a stated tolerance of up to 40c may actually continue to function for a handful of degrees past that point. But experiences do vary, and we should point out that your mobile phones, laptops, game consoles, tablets and other electronics may also run into their own issues.

However, a router that overheats, or which nears the point of overheating, will often do one of several things. The most likely outcome is that the device’s processor (CPU / APU) will throttle back and performance will be degraded, which could affect response times on the device’s User Interface (UI) and might also impact your LAN and WiFi speeds or connection stability. But this will also lower the heat output and protect the device.

Sometimes routers, just like other electronics, will get so hot that they restart themselves. But in most cases, this is only temporary, and the device will quickly return to normal, causing a short connection drop. Only very rarely does this result in complete hardware failure and, as we say, a 20-28c style heatwave is generally well within the tolerance of most such networking kit.

Suffice to say, nobody should worry, and the vast majority of people are already sensible enough NOT to stick such kit in direct sunlight or place it on top of an existing heat source (it doesn’t take a heatwave to break a router if you do this). Otherwise, we’ll repeat the same tips we’ve given in the past.

ISPreview’s Top Tips for Keeping Broadband Routers Cool

1. Never place it in direct sunlight, obviously.

2. Never allow your pet to use the router as its own personal sleeping mat. Yes, it might seem cute, but the slim risk of this causing an electrical fault, fire or overheating is something best avoided. Just remember, cats can be jerks, so they won’t obey your orders and even placing said device within a ring of defensive orange peel may not be enough to stop their unwanted advances toward your personal centre of internet excellence.

3. Place the router on a hard and flat surface (ideally something cool), which should allow the air to move freely around it (especially below the device). Wall mounting the device can also help (vertically), provided the wall itself isn’t transmitting a lot of heat (e.g. south facing walls with no cavity insultation will get warmer). In other words, never put your router on a surface that doesn’t allow heat to escape.

4. Some older / cheaper routers and chipsets are more susceptible to heat problems, especially if they’ve had a lot of usage, and at the extreme you might need to consider buying a newer device. Mind you, having an ultra powerful device can sometimes be similarly problematic. Granted, this is a pretty rubbish “tip“, so let’s move on.

5. Consider buying a cheap laptop size cooling mat / pad for the router. Kit like this can be had for around £15-£30 (examples) and often includes a small internal USB fan, which is handy because some routers include low-power USB ports that can be used to run the fan(s). Alternatively, any old cheap fan pointed at the router will do, but this probably isn’t really necessary for this week’s heatwave.

6. If the heat is truly horrific in your home (i.e. 40c+), then it may be wise to switch the router off when not in use. In fact, get out of the house yourself and find shade. But don’t restart it too often if you’re on an older DSL (ADSL, FTTC etc.) based connection, as they don’t respond well to being repeatedly switched on and off during the day (can result in a loss of speed). But in our experience, there’s usually not much harm in turning it off once in the day for a period, although this really is a last resort.

7. Disable non-critical router services when not needed. The less the router has to do, the less heat it will produce and the faster it can operate. Some routers allow you to disable specific services (e.g. wifi, connection logs etc.) and, during hot weather, this can help to keep the device running smoothly. On the other hand, it’s probably best not to fiddle with these things unless you know what you’re doing.

8. Situate the router in the coolest room possible, which is often the lowest point in your home with the thickest walls. Unfortunately this might constrain the performance of your wireless network, thus there’s a careful balancing act to consider.

9. Buy Air Conditioning for your home, provided you can afford the energy bills or have a solar/battery system to off-set the usage.

Hopefully it goes without saying that pouring ice or ice water over your router, or even putting it in the fridge, are both things that should be avoided.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Customers of banking and money management app Revolut, which last year launched a limited eSIM based mobile service for roaming travellers (here), has today revealed that they intend to go further by launching a full domestic mobile service for UK consumers with unlimited calls, texts, and data (mobile broadband) at home.

According to a new post on X today (here), which was spotted by members of ISPreview’s forum (here), the new service will shortly be launching in both Germany and the UK. The initial plan is said to offer no fixed contract (this usually means a monthly 30-day term), “superfast” 5G connectivity, inclusive EU roaming, eSIM support, unlimited calls, texts, and data – all for just £12.50 a month.

The exact launch date is not yet known, although £12.50 per month seems absurdly cheap for a plan with unlimited data (we suspect this may be a limited introductory discount to drive early interest). The cheapest plans in this class often come from Three UK’s virtual operators (MVNO), such as iD Mobile and Smarty, which usually cost c.£16 per month. But Revolut has not yet revealed which operator they’re going to be working with.

The new service will be very much an eSIM-only proposition, and those with an interest can sign-up via their waiting list (you’ll need to be an existing Revolut customer for this).

Original article Total Telecom:Read More

News

Google will retain third-party cookies and not introduce new opt-out prompts, despite almost five years working to remove the problematic customer tracking tech

Back in 2019, Google said it would work towards removing tracking cookies, instead replacing them with a ‘Privacy Sandbox’ that focussed on user privacy while still supporting digital advertisers.

By 2021, the internet giant was beginning to test this Privacy Sandbox solution, promising that it would not introduce any “alternate identifiers to track individuals as they browse across the web”.

Removing cookies, while a significant gain for consumer data privacy, posed a significant problem to digital advertisers, which broadly rely on the technology for targeted marketing. Advertisers argued that the move would limit their ability to compete effectively and leave them reliant on Google’s own user databases.

As a result, the plan faced significant scrutiny from various regulators, including the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority.

Fast forward to July 2024 and Google formally announced that it had scrapped its plans to remove cookies from Chrome, instead planning to introduce an opt-out mechanism that would allow users to reject tracking.

“Instead of deprecating third-party cookies, we would introduce a new experience in Chrome that lets people make an informed choice that applies across their web browsing, and they’d be able to adjust that choice at any time,” wrote Anthony Chavez, vice president of the Google-backed Privacy Sandbox initiative, in an associated blog post.

Now, almost a year later, and Google has confirmed it will not be rolling out any form of cookies opt-out prompt for users.

“As we’ve engaged with the ecosystem … it remains clear that there are divergent perspectives on making changes that could impact the availability of third-party cookies,” said Chavez. “Users can continue to choose the best option for themselves in Chrome’s Privacy and Security Settings.”

While this decision will be welcomed by advertisers – who will no longer need to scramble for an alternative method to track consumers’ browsing habits – it represents something of a failure for Google. The company has spent five years building a viable replacement for cookies, only to simply revert to the status quo.

Google insists it will continue to work on the Privacy Sandbox, but its utility remains questionable; if it cannot functionally replace third-party cookies after four years of development, it seems unlikely to be convincing proposition for the wider ecosystem in the near future.

The elephant in the room here, however, is Google’s ongoing antitrust battles with antitrust regulators. The company is already coming under heavy scrutiny for its perceived monopoly on internet search, with the US Justice Department pushing for the company to divest of its chrome browser. At the same time, earlier this month a judge also ruled that the company holds an illegal monopoly in ad tech, potentially foreshadowing a similar divestment ruling.

With this much negative attention surrounding the company from a regulatory perspective, introducing a new alternative to third-party cookies that could arguably grant the company even more control of the market seems like a bad idea.

Keep up to date with all of the latest telecoms news from around the world with the Total Telecom newsletter

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 Total Telecom:Read More

 Interview

At the WinWin studio, Total Telecom was joined by James Maitai, Chief Technology and Information Officer from Safaricom GROUP, and David Li, Vice President of Huawei Wireless Network Product Line to discuss the development of 4G and 5G network evolution.

In Kenya currently, the 4G penetration rate is 60%. And, according to external forecasts, the 5G penetration rate will jump to  about 30% by 2027. At the same time, the 4G and 5G user experience must keep improving: 

“In commercial deployment, we consider taking advantage of the 2.6 GHz and 3.5 GHz spectrums to offload low and medium-band users, to improve 4G user experience with sufficient resources. At the same time, the large bandwidth and the LNR network dual-use technologies are used to greatly improve the experience of 5G users,” said Maitai.  

In discussing the changes that mobile AI will bring to the wireless communications industry, Li highlighted four key challenges: 

• AI traffic surge: The rapid growth of AI devices (phones, cars, robots) is driving massive increases in network traffic and data generation. 

• Network adaptation: AI needs lower latency, higher uplink speeds, and seamless coverage, requiring a shift from current downlink-focused networks. 

• Business model shift: AI-generated content will transform traffic consumption, creating new revenue opportunities for network operators. 

• Power consumption: AI devices and infrastructure demand significantly more energy, making power efficiency a major challenge. 

But, how will Safaricom deal with these challenges? 

AI will introduce multi-dimensional network demands, requiring improvements in uplink, downlink, and latency. Meeting these needs depends on spectrum resources, with Kenya using TDD spectrum and massive MIMO for efficiency. 

For predictable changes, deploying 2.6 GHz in cities and 3.5 GHz in hotspots will help improve network performance and user experience. 

For uncertain changes, AI will impact business models and network intelligence. Safaricom plans to explore experience and service monetisation while integrating 5G and cloud technologies.  

And how will Huawei’s solutions help Safaricom thrive in the mobile AI era?  “In three directions: the first is All Bands in One, and the second is All Scenarios Seamless Coverage, and the last one is the All Days Green,” concluded Li. 

Original article Total Telecom:Read More

Contributed Article

By Rick Byers, Chief Risk Officer at Freedom Fibre

With regards to the 21st century’s business organisational data security needs, prudence has never been more important – particularly with the prevalence of cloud computing. The big cloud computing services used by UK public and private organisations such as Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Oracle all have one thing in common – they are all US-based tech firms. The globalised nature of the technology sector is a double-edged sword, reflected in the risk of global cyber vulnerabilities – both criminal and political.  

For example, the 2017 worldwide cyberattack ‘WannaCry’, a ransomware cryptoworm which affected more than 300,000 computers in 150 nations (causing billions of pounds worth of damage), was accused to have been conducted by North Korea according to the US and UK governments. 

Cyber security is an issue of national importance, reflected in the Telecommunications (Security) Act 2021 which requires telecoms companies to onshore critical systems in the UK. This legislation, in tandem with the government recently detailing the scope of its Cyber Security and Resilience Bill, demonstrates the UK’s commitment to cyber security. The bill will mean that more organisations and suppliers will need to meet the government’s cyber security requirements, including data centres and service providers. 

Organisations are also exploring whether to have their cloud-based solutions onshore, hosted in the UK. US cloud hosting companies are subject the 2001 Patriot Act, with powers further reinforced by the 2018 CLOUD Act which provides a mechanism for United States law enforcement agencies to request data stored in the United States and overseas.  

Another reason for onshoring is that the UK needs to be able to run its critical infrastructure  independently in the event of if its internet services are cut off: either due to hacking from an external criminal or state actor or due to undersea internet cables being destroyed, as seen recently with ships linked to Russia being accused of allegedly sabotaging cables in the Baltic Sea. Geopolitical risks are increasingly a factor for UK organisations to consider. 

Furthermore, there has been a debate in recent years as to whether businesses should move their content back on-premise onto their own servers for technical security. Local storage can have its advantages; if an organisation manages its own physical servers, the company has full control and total ownership over the security of the data and all resources in use. It also means that the organisation’s in-house IT team can address all potential vulnerabilities.  

There are major drawbacks to on-premise storage, however. Whilst perhaps cost-effective in the short term, if something does go wrong, without the vast resources of a cloud storage company it could potentially be difficult to quickly and securely recover data if there is a security breach – potentially at a large financial cost to the organisation. The inherently limited nature of hardware’s scalability should also be highlighted; maintenance and regular updates also require time and investment. The human resource to operate such systems is also in short supply – especially cyber security professionals. 

The big issue is that the move to SaaS (Software as a Service) for a large amount of an organisation’s infrastructure means that often organisations don’t have a choice whether their storage is on-premise or hybrid, due to the SaaS provider looking after the application for the organisation. PaaS (Platform as a Service) and IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) do remedy this somewhat by offering a greater degree of flexibility. With PaaS services (such as AWS), you as an organisation put your application suite on the provider’s platform; with IaaS, your organisation is responsible for your own OS on the platform.  

Ultimately, it depends on the size and type of business. Connectivity is also a key factor; it is therefore paramount for organisations to have the best business fibre broadband connection, with reliability being crucial. In an ever-changing world for businesses to navigate, integrating the right balance of cloud computing and on-premise storage is imperative. 

Original article Total Telecom:Read More

Feature Week 

At this year’s inaugural Data Centre Summit, co-hosted alongside the Connected North conference in Manchester, discussions focussed heavily on the government’s emerging strategy around digital infrastructure and AI.  

In September last year, the UK government announced that it would officially class data centres as critical national infrastructure, ensuring they receive heightened levels of protection against cyber threats and IT disruption.  

The decision, announced by Technology Secretary Peter Kyle, “will allow better coordination and cooperation with the government against cyber criminals and unexpected events.” 

The classification, which has long been advocated by industry leaders, elevates data centres to the same level of importance as water, electricity, and gas. 

“To call it critical is probably underplaying it because the minute you lose it, the world knows about it,” said Mark Yeele, Vice President of Security at Schneider Electric, speaking to Total Telecom at last week’s Connected North event. “I’ve been advocating for [this classification] since I’ve been in the job. It’s really the fourth utility.”  

This designation marked a growing government appreciation for the integral role that data centres play in the country’s digital life, as well as their paramount importance in enabling an AI-powered economy.  

“Cloud computing, the internet, and now AI all lives in the physical data centre, in the physical building. And these physical buildings are the foundation of our technological lives. Without them, we won’t be able to advance forward and be aggressive in the AI world,” said Spencer Lamb, Chief Commercial Officer at KAO Data. 

Leveraging AI Growth Zones 

At the heart of the government’s approach to AI is the proposed creation of AI Growth Zones. These Zones are aimed at accelerating AI data centre deployment improving access to power and providing planning support. 

Exactly what form this support will take it unclear; the government is currently seeking input from regional and local authorities, as well as the data centre and power industries themselves. 

What is clear, however, is the potential this initiative has for the North of the UK. Designed to stimulate investment in AI infrastructure and create high-skilled jobs, AI Growth Zones are especially focused on deindustrialised and economically underpowered regions, many of which are in the North. Areas such as Greater Manchester, South Yorkshire, and Teesside are strong contenders to become AI hubs due to their existing universities, digital clusters, and ambitions to drive tech-led growth. 

“We see the AI Growth Zones as much more than a data centre building opportunity,” said John Duncan, Connected Places Lead – Greater Manchester Combined Authority. “We don’t really know fully what they will look like yet, but what I have liked is that the government are interested in talking to regional and local authorities about where they will see the benefits of data centre deployments. We’ve had data centre operators talking to us not only AI training and R&D, but also how it’s going to support public sector services and local businesses.” 

These collaborative discussions represent a significant shift in mentality for the data centre industry, which have typically been very siloed and largely unregulated. The launch of the AI growth zones is bringing industry stakeholders closer together. Operators used to focus inwardly on building and maintaining their own sites, rarely interacting beyond commercial partnerships or local planning permissions. There was no organised public voice for the sector, no formal representation at government level, and little need to engage with wider national strategy. The UK government has put the sector firmly on the national agenda, meaning that for the first time, cross industry collaboration is essential. 

Training or inference?  

But underpinning these discussions is a larger question: what role does the UK want to play in the global AI ecosystem? Does it want to become an AI training hub or instead focus merely on inference? The infrastructure requirements for each are completely different. 

The infrastructure requirements for each are quite different. Training requires vast amounts of power, high-density data centre design, advanced cooling systems, and proximity to large-scale compute clusters. Inference, by contrast, is more distributed and can run on lighter infrastructure, closer to the edge or within enterprise settings. 

“The Department of Science and Information and Technology actually taking it seriously means we now have got their ear and we can encourage them,” said Spencer Lamb.  Do you want the UK to become an AI training enclave or do you just want to do inferencing? The answers to those questions are very different.” 

Data centre regulation: A Brexit benefit? 

These decisions could have major ramifications for the UK’s technological standing on the international stage. Part of Europe but at the same time separate from it, the UK’s unique post-Brexit position could make it something of an AI gateway, taking the best parts of EU regulation and rejecting those that slow development.  

 “Ideally, I’d like to see it become an AI training country,” said Lamb. “Our independence from the EU […] means we can do our own law changes around data centres without being governed by the unnecessary bureaucracy. There’s an opportunity here, supported by our many renewable energy schemes.” 

“If the UK government do it the right way then I think this is the catalyst to put in the UK seriously on the map as an AI idea,” added Karl Havard, Chief Commercial Officer at Nscale. 

Beyond regulation, sovereignty over cloud and AI infrastructure is becoming a national priority. Control over where data resides, and the laws that govern it, will be crucial for the UK’s long-term digital resilience. 

“There is a need now for countries across the EU and the UK to increasingly to be in control of our own AI architecture, not just its location but actually the laws that govern it,” Havard explained. “That leads to the big question of why is it currently that all the hyperscalers are from the US? Why can’t we create our own?”  

“I think we can help the UK government to see that it’s a bigger risk to [rely on major US cloud providers] rather than actually creating something that is in control of the UK itself. I’m actually very hopeful that we can get to a position where we start to see the UK building its own domestic hyperscalers,” he added. 

A new focus 

The designation of data centres as critical infrastructure, and the rollout of AI Growth Zones mark a turning point, and the optimism in the industry was clear to see at Connected North. But with rising power costs, growing demand, and a fragmented legacy industry, the UK’s ability to deliver on its AI potential will depend on whether it can build and govern the infrastructure to match.  

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.

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[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.”