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!

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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 

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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“.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Network operator Freedom Fibre has today announced that they’ve chosen network solutions provider Xantaro and their related “Cabinet-as-a-Service” street cabinet solution to help “accelerate” their ongoing roll-out of a full fibre (FTTP) broadband ISP network in Shropshire (England). This is being conducted alongside fixed and IP services from Nokia.

In case anybody has forgotten, Freedom Fibre currently holds the £24 million (state aid) LOT 25.02 Project Gigabit contract (here) to cover “around” 12,000 hard-to-reach rural homes in North Shropshire (England). The first homes and businesses on this network started to go live in October 2024 (building began in March 2024) and the 3-year deployment is roughly due to complete by around mid-2026.

As part of today’s complementary collaboration, Xantaro have implemented their “Golden Cab” concept — taking street cabinets to a staging facility for testing before field deployment. This proof-of-concept approach is said to help ensure the Nokia kit is fully tested and configured, ready to be installed with minimal disruption.

In addition to the physical cabinet services, Xantaro is also providing its professional services team, the High Level Design (HLD) and Low Level Design (LLD) for the active network, including the configuration of the network elements and the installation and commissioning of the Nokia Altiplano management platform.

David Hough, Network Operations Director at Freedom Fibre, said:

“We sought a partner that could provide an end-to-end solution and Xantaro brings a wealth of experience to the table. Their agility, responsiveness, and strong ties across Nokia will help us accelerate our network rollout and support our ambition to become one of the top five altnets in the UK.”

The service that Freedom Fibre provides is typically offered via wholesale to a variety of supporting broadband ISPs, such as TalkTalk, iDNET, Home Telecom, Fusion Fibre Group, Squirrel Internet, Yayzi etc.

Xantaro is currently supporting over 40 other altnets across the UK to build networks for hard-to-reach and underserved communities.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Business focused UK ISP and Managed Service Provider (MSP) Connectus has today announced that they’re investing a further £500,000 into the Doncaster Airport Business Park in South Yorkshire (England), which is on top of the £1m they previously put in to help ensure all businesses on the park could enjoy access to their gigabit full fibre (broadband and Ethernet) network.

The investment, which comes just days after the Government announced it would plough £30m into the newly-reopened Doncaster Sheffield Airport, will see Connectus “turbocharge its work in and around the site’s Innovation” (the park consists of 140 business units for start-ups and growing businesses).

The funding will help to create two diverse links for increased connectivity (reliability) to the site, as well as the development of new engineering roles to manage and support demand for their services. Not to mention the roll-out of additional renewable and alternative power solutions to further improve reliability in the event of a Heathrow-like outage.

In addition, Connectus said they would be building new AI based diagnostics and tooling via their partner Kaseya, while some investment would also go toward community outreach projects (i.e. continued support to Doncaster Knights Rugby Union and other grassroots sports clubs).

Roy Shelton, CEO of Connectus, said:

“This new investment underlines our commitment to provide the very best connectivity services to Doncaster Airport Business Park and the businesses based there.

Connectus is the leading managed services provider around the City of Doncaster, and this investment will further strengthen this.

We’ve already invested £1m over several years at the Business Park, which has helped to ensure all businesses on the park can enjoy access to our gigabit full fibre network. Now we’ll go further and faster to give lift off to even better services.”

Covering an area of around 62 acres, the Business Park also has planning consent for over 2,000,000sq ft (186,000sq m) of commercial development.

Original article Total Telecom:Read More

News

Newspaper reports suggest that the newly merged telco giant is preparing to bundle Pay-TV services with fixed broadband, phone, and mobile plans

According to reports, Vodafone and Three may be preparing to launch a Pay-TV, seeking to capitalise on their newfound scale and help grow their subscriber base.

The Telegraphnotes that discussions between the two operators on this topic have already begun, but highlights that no formal decision has been made.

As such, the specifics of the potential offering are yet to be decided but are likely to include broadcast TV as well as streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime.

Vodafone–Three’s  largest rivals, Virgin Media O2 and BT (EE) both already offer Pay-TV services, hence the operator’s interest in this space is hardly surprising. However, success in the Pay-TV market is far from guaranteed. These offerings must compete in a highly competitive streaming market, with viewing habits shifting away from conventional TV services.

BT itself has notably reduced its focus on the Pay-TV segment in recent years, with the traditional customers increasingly preferring to subscribe to streaming services independently.

That said, it is worth noting that Vodafone Group already has experience with the converged Pay-TV formula, with the company already offering similar bundled services in Germany and the Netherlands with some success. In the UK, the company’s TV offering has so far been limited to providing subscribers with an Apple TV box as part of certain packages.

The £15 billion merger of Vodafone and Three was finally approved by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) in December last year. The move will make Voda–Three the largest mobile network operator in the UK, with around 27 million subscribers.

How will the Vodafone–Three merger impact the UK telecoms industry? Join the discussion next week at Connected North, live in Manchester

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Original article Total Telecom:Read More

News

The move is the latest step in Telefonica’s ongoing retreat from its Latin American businesses

Telefonica has announced it will sell all its shares in Telefonica del Peru to Argentina’s Integra Tec International for around PEN 3.7 million ($999,000).

The deal will see Telefonica sell its 99.3% holding in the business, with Integra Tec pledging to purchase the remaining 0.7% via a public tender offer.

”Today Telefónica Hispanoamérica, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Telefónica (Telefónica Hispam), has sold all the shares it holds in Telefónica del Perú, representing approximately 99.3% of its capital stock, to Integra Tec International,” the company announced in a statement, adding that “the price has been determined considering the situation of Telefónica del Perú and the context of the agreement reached.”

Telefónica del Perú, which serves over 13 million customers, has been in financial trouble for many years, having faced a myriad of historic tax and regulatory problems that left the company “at a competitive disadvantage”.

In total, the operator owes €1.24 billion ($1.41 billion)to tax authorities and bond holders – debt that Integra Tec will assume as part of the transaction.

Telefonica instigated voluntary bankruptcy proceedings for the business earlier this year, having recently written down the business’s value by €314 million ($357.49 million).

The sale represents a continuation of Telefonica’s ‘strategic shift’ that began in 2019, when the operator announced it would pull back from the majority of its Central and South American operations and instead focus on four key markets: Germany, Spain, Brazil, and the UK.

Since then, the company has quickly divested of operations in smaller markets, such as Guatemala and El Salvador, and slowly working towards deals in its larger markets.

Telefonica is currently in the process of selling its Argentinian unit to local rival Telecom Argentina for $1.2 billion. The deal is facing strong regulatory scrutiny due to competition concerns.

The operator is also in negotiations around the sale of its Colombian unit and is looking for a buyer for its Mexican operations.

Keep up to date with the latest international telecoms news by subscribing to our newsletter 

Also in the news: 
Nokia, Telia, and Finnish military demo 5G network slicing across borders
Mobile operators quibble with Ofcom over spectrum fees
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Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Edinburgh-based UK alternative broadband network operator and ISP GoFibre, Neil Conaghan, has now quietly also been named as the Interim CEO of network provider Wildanet – they’re doing something similar to GoFibre, albeit at the other end of the United Kingdom.

Just to recap. GoFibre is currently busy building their gigabit-capable broadband network across rural parts of Scotland, the Scottish Borders areas and also Northumberland in North England. The operator, which is backed by £164m of investment from Gresham House (here), has so far managed to build their network to cover over 120,000 premises (RFS) across 40 “local areas”.

By comparison, Wildanet, which only just lost its last CEO (here) and is also being backed by an investment of £100m from Gresham House (plus £35m from the National Wealth Fund), is deploying a mix of full fibre and wireless broadband networks across rural parts of Cornwall and Devon in South West England.

Suffice to say that both operators share the same primary investment partner, although there’s also a fair bit of geographic distance between the two. Nevertheless, ISPreview has noted that the CEO of GoFibre, Neil Conaghan, recently updated his LinkedIn profile (‘Experience’ section) at the end of last week to state the following: “In addition to my existing role as CEO at GoFibre, I am fulfilling the role of Interim CEO at Wildanet.”

We had caught some whispers about this on Wednesday last week and emailed Wildanet’s PR firm to find out more. But they did not respond to provide a comment.

UPDATE 12:16pm

Wildanet has now issued the following comment.

Martin Harriman, Chairman of Wildanet, said:

“We are delighted to confirm that Neil Conaghan has been appointed Wildanet’s Interim Chief Executive Officer following the recent departure of Helen Wylde-Archibald.

Neil is a highly experienced and successful CEO, he currently serves as the CEO of GoFibre, another alternative network provider backed by Gresham House, and will continue in this role as well as assuming leadership of Wildanet in an interim capacity working with the senior management team to ensure continued delivery of the strategic plan to provide gigabit speed full fibre broadband to underserved communities in the South-West of England.

Neil brings extensive industry experience and a strong track record of leading fibre broadband rollouts. His dual role will support the ongoing execution of Wildanet’s Project Gigabit contracts and the broader strategic ambitions of both Wildanet and GoFibre.”