The CEO of alternative network operator AllPoints Fibre (APFN / Fern Trading), Jarlath Finnegan, has today told ISPreview – in a new interview – of his ambition for the company to become the “UBER of the full fibre wholesale market“, which reflects their desire to help “accelerate” the delivery of related UK broadband services over the next few years.

In case anybody has forgotten, AllPoints Fibre Networks was officially formed between 2023 and 2024 from the consolidation of three alternative broadband networks and ISPs (here and here), including Giganet, Swish Fibre and Jurassic Fibre. All of the companies were backed by Fern Trading and had previously been deploying FTTP networks to premises across different parts of the UK.

The consolidation occured against the backdrop of a market under growing strain from various challenges, such as rising build costs (inc. high interest rates), network overbuild and competition. Such strains had already put pressure on Fern’s various altnets and consolidation was seen as part of their strategy for creating a more efficient, flexible and diverse network.

The outcome saw APFN take on the role of a single national wholesale network for all of the aforementioned fibre operators, while UK ISP Cuckoo became the main outlet for all their retail customers. Since then APFN has also acquired another retail ISP in the shape of Glasgow-based full fibre ISP Brillband (here), which isn’t touched on in this interview because we conducted it just before that announcement.

However, just to be clear, while APFN has previously talked about harbouring post-consolidation plans to “accelerate full fibre delivery over the next five years”. Jarlath makes clear that the focus here is no longer on driving new network build. Instead, the operator is developing a wholesale offering that has a wider reach, which includes onboarding new networks and providing ISPs with access to operators that were once rivals (e.g. Openreach, CityFibre etc.).

“Think of us as the UBER of the full fibre wholesale market,” said Jarlath. “We are absolutely pushing to accelerate full fibre delivery. But this is not a build strategy: we are a wholesaler offering amazing service experiences to our customers.”

In the following interview, Jarlath also remarks that it would be “crazy for the Government to use [gigabit broadband] vouchers in urban areas” (these are currently limited to rural areas), while also saying that he’s “broadly happy with the current [markets] regulatory framework and would like to see it maintained“. On top of that he calls for altnets to “avoid under-pricing full fibre into which billions has been invested in a dash for customer numbers.”

The APFN Interview

1. I think it’s fair to say that APFN has had a busy couple of years, not least with the effort to consolidate the full fibre broadband networks of Giganet, Jurassic Fibre, and Swish Fibre under a single infrastructure brand, while at the same time splitting the retail bases of those providers out to Cuckoo. Has this consolidation drive now fully completed, and what did you find to be the biggest challenge in the process?

Jarlath Finnegan said:

In February 2023 we began the journey to extract all the best parts of each of the individual investments and create our national full fibre platform ‘aquila’, but more about that later. We wanted to rip up the rule book in the way full fibre services are delivered across the UK without having to build or buy to every premise. Think of us as the UBER of the full fibre wholesale market. We strongly believe the best way to challenge the market is to prove that our platform delivers, so we needed a customer with the same mindset and who better to work with initially than Cuckoo, who deliver fast, fair, feel-good broadband.

APFN is now supporting Cuckoo in their migration off legacy brands and networks, and they will be one of the first customers to benefit from the APFN aquila platform. We’re really excited to onboard further ISPs and Partners in the coming months who will have the advantage of our disruptive, seamless platform.

2. Prior to the consolidation, we had an incomplete idea of how much network coverage had been delivered by the aforementioned networks (premises passed / RFS) or how many customers they’d managed to acquire. Are you now in a position to share such details?

Jarlath Finnegan said:

aquila is network agnostic and currently offers access to 18m homes. This is increasing each quarter as our network partners continue to deliver new homes and business. We have also lit up and cut over onto our aquila national backbone network which we know is currently the fastest, most resilient way to traverse the UK. Our aquila edge network deployment is underway which means we will deliver amazing service experiences every time. We’re confident that the experience we’ll provide isn’t just better than our competitors; it’s unique.

3. APFN has previously indicated that, with the consolidation out of the way, they would push to “accelerate full fibre delivery over the next five years”. But the current environment has proven to be extremely challenging for many alternative networks, due to high build costs, strong competition and the difficulties of trying to raise fresh investment during a period of high interest rates.

Sadly, challenges like this have caused some operators to make redundancies and scale-back their network builds, which is something that we recall has affected APFN’s networks in the recent past too. Given all of this, can you possibly offer a bit more detail about what APFN’s actual network roll-out plans are for the next year or so, or is the strategy now one that is more focused upon growing customer take-up (commercialisation)?

Jarlath Finnegan said:

We are absolutely pushing to accelerate full fibre delivery. But this is not a build strategy: we are a wholesaler offering amazing service experiences to our customers. Our strategy to develop aquila was based on the needs of B2C and B2B ISPs. We aim to raise the standard in the market in partnership with our network partners CityFibre and Openreach, and our own APFN network. We have also made aquila network agnostic, so this allows us to get to an individual premise in the most cost-effective way and so we continue to assess the market opportunities. Enabling our customers to increase take up with the lowest cost to serve is where our focus is.

We work, day in day out, with our partners (which includes our own APFN network team) to push the boundaries of what is possible in this area as we believe in competition which will ultimately benefit the consumer. However, we do not support excessive overbuild as it’s a poor use of capital and will impact the attractiveness of the sector.

4. In a climate where consolidation seems to have become the talk of the town. Does APFN see itself more as being an attractive prospect for being consolidated by a bigger fish, or are you likely to focus on remaining independent, while potentially raising fresh investment as interest rates come down – perhaps even doing a little consolidation of your own?

Jarlath Finnegan said:

It’s clear the market will consolidate but there will be different levels on how this happens across assets and customers. It’s inevitable that some of the fibre investments that have been made will fail, but we have seen some good examples of what is possible. For example, I was interested to see the announcement of the recent CityFibre / Lit Fibre deal, with the ISP going back to the founders. This is really good business for all, including the end consumer. We will always be active in the market but like aquila it must be something different with realistic expectations. This is a long but exciting game!

5. The country recently welcomed a new government, which over the past few months has been sending some mixed signals. On the one hand we’ve seen various tax rises in the budget (increasing costs in certain areas), while on the other there’s been talk about making a “renewed push to fulfil the ambition of full gigabit and national 5G coverage by 2030” and unblocking planning.

How do you think the new government is doing, with respect to supporting altnets like APFN on this front, and what more would you like to see them do?

Jarlath Finnegan said:

When a government wins a landslide, expectations are always high across the board that they will bring in sweeping positive change, for everyone. And of course, we know that, with every decision a government makes, there must be winners and losers. The recent budget is certainly a case in point in that regard.

We will always want the government to do more but at the end of the day it’s business that creates jobs and wealth, so we must get on with it and they can hopefully support us. But we will always need to move first.

We have been talking about 5G for a long time now and when you compare it to the fibre roll out it hasn’t kept up. In the early stages of the fibre rollout, the industry set to work and just got on with the task in hand of building out, but we are not done yet and now we need to push for ubiquitous coverage which will need both fixed and wireless over the next 7 to 10 years along with government support to ensure the digital economy can thrive. Look at what we have achieved in 5 years!

Please flick over to Page 2 in order to finish reading the interview.

National network access provider Openreach (BT) has today revealed that their Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network, which offers broadband speeds of up to 1800Mbps to homes and businesses via hundreds of ISPs, has now covered 17 million UK premises. This includes more than 4.3 million premises in “rural and hard-to-reach areas“.

The data means that Openreach, which also saw their overall broadband usage (data / internet traffic) surge by 10.8% during the year (representing traffic from multiple communication providers), added a total of 4.2 million additional UK premises to the coverage of their “full fibre” network during 2024 (i.e. an extra home or business every 8 seconds).

The operator is currently investing up to £15bn to expand the coverage of this full fibre network to reach 25 million UK premises by December 2026 (here), which includes around 6.2 million premises in rural or semi-rural areas. On top of that, they’ve also expressed an ambition to reach up to 30 million by the “end of 2030“, although this is partly dependent upon a favourable outcome from Ofcom’s next Telecoms Access Review 2026 (TAR).

Clive Selley, CEO of Openreach, said:

“Fast, reliable connectivity is essential for the UK, and the increased traffic on our broadband network is evidence that customers are increasingly reliant on it in their daily lives.

We’re building and connecting people faster than ever before and I’m proud of the progress our engineers have made. We’re well on our way to delivering our ambition of reaching 25 million homes and business by the end of 2026, and now our sights are set on reaching 30 million premises by the end of 2030,

While over a third of properties have already switched, there’s plenty of room for more people to get a better connection right now. So why not check if you could get faster – and potentially cheaper – broadband today.”

The new service, once live, can be ordered via various ISPs, such as BT, Sky Broadband, TalkTalk, Vodafone and many more (Openreach FTTP ISP Choices) – it is not currently an automatic upgrade, although some providers have started to do free automatic upgrades as older copper-based services and lines are slowly withdrawn.

SpaceX’s Starlink service, which offers ultrafast broadband speeds to the UK and globally via a mega constellation of satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), has published an annual 2024 Progress Report that summarises their recent upgrades and reveals how their future V3 (GEN3) satellite will be able to handle 1Tbps (Terabits per second) of capacity.

At present Starlink’s network has around 6,900 satellites in orbit (c.2,800 are v2 Mini / GEN 2A) – mostly at altitudes of c.500-600km – and they’re in the process of adding thousands more by the end of 2027. Customers in the UK typically pay from £75 a month for a 30-day term, plus £299 for hardware on the ‘Standard’ unlimited data plan (inc. £19 postage), which promises latency times of 25-60ms, downloads of c. 25-100Mbps and uploads of c. 5-10Mbps.

However, those with a long enough memory may recall that the operator has long held an aspiration toward delivering up to 1000Mbps (1Gbps) download speeds to customers (possibly even rising up to 10Gbps in the future), although today’s real-world experiences often still fall quite a bit short of that. For example, the average (median) UK download speed on Starlink is currently 66.8Mbps and this rises up to 157Mbps for those with the top 10% of fastest connections, while uploads average 10.2Mbps or 16.7Mbps for those in the top 10% (here).

Suffice to say that the network is currently a long way off the 1Gbps+ mark for UK consumers, which in fairness is partly how they’re able to keep the service so relatively affordable for what you get. According to Starlink’s new 2024 Progress Report, the company’s current network has already launched a total cumulative data capacity of around 350Tbps (Terabits per second) into orbit, but that’s about to grow considerably.

Adding Capacity via Starlink’s GEN3 Satellites

SpaceX has long envisaged that their huge new Starship rocket, which is now nearly ready to handle its first commercial launches, would be capable of lofting much heavier / larger satellites in the future – in a greater quantity and thus higher cost efficiency. This is important because they’re currently preparing their next generation (V3) satellites to take advantage of this.

Just for some context, Starlink’s current V2 Mini satellites, introduced in 2023, have already enhanced performance with quadrupled bandwidth capacity (96Gbps per satellite) compared with their previous v1.5 spacecraft. But the company’s new progress report tells us precisely what we can now expect when they start launching their first v3 / GEN3 satellites in the near future.

In short, each v3 satellite will be able to handle 1Tbps (1000Gbps) of downlink speeds and 160Gbps of uplink capacity, with the Starship rocket seemingly able to put around 60 v3 satellites per launch into orbit (Credits to PCMag for spotting the release of this report). But this is an assumption of ours based on the statement below, which assumes 60Tbps is only referring to downlink performance, otherwise it may be closer to c. 50 satellites (inc. uplink).

V3 STARLINK SATELLITE

The V3 Starlink satellite will be optimized for launch by SpaceX’s Starship vehicle. Each Starlink V3 launch on Starship is planned to add 60 Tbps of capacity to the Starlink network, more than 20 times the capacity added with every V2 Mini launch on Falcon 9.

Each V3 Starlink satellite will have 1 Tbps of downlink speeds and 160 Gbps of uplink capacity, which is more than 10x the downlink and 24x the uplink capacity of the V2 Mini Starlink satellites.

The V3 satellite will also have nearly 4 Tbps of combined RF and laser backhaul capacity. Additionally, the V3 Starlink satellites will use SpaceX’s next generation computers, modems, beamforming, and switching.

At the time of writing, we still don’t know precisely when SpaceX will start using Starship for full-scale commercial launches, but it’s highly likely to begin sometime during 2025 given the rocket’s recent progress. The new satellites may well sit slightly closer to earth (lower altitude, which is good for performance but does sacrifice a little coverage) and will be able to harness more radio spectrum frequency to help support their performance, as well as other enhancements (newer antennas etc.).

Speaking of Starlink, SpaceX are currently planning to launch their 6th rocket test around 10th January 2025 from their Starbase at Boca Chica Beach (Texas, USA). This will be another suborbital flight test of its fully integrated Starship rocket, a combination of the Ship upper stage (S33) and the Super Heavy booster (B14).

SpaceX plans to catch the Super Heavy booster using the chopsticks on the launch tower again, but will make a final determination on the catch following lift-off and stage separation. This mission will feature the first block upgrades for the Ship upper stage. S33 will perform a landing flip and make a hopefully gentle splashdown in the Indian Ocean.

News

The court of appeal ruled on Thursday that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) does not have the legal authority to reinstate the rules

This week has seen a US appeals court strike a major blow to the Biden administration’s aspirations of restoring net neutrality, ruling that the FCC does not have the power to enforce such regulations.

Net neutrality is the concept that all internet users and internet traffic should be treated equally by service providers. This paradigm means that providers may not block, slow down, or charge different rates for specific online content. Championed by the Democrats for over a decade and formally introduced as a ruleset by the Obama administration, net neutrality was then rescinded in 2018 during the Trump presidency.

As a paradigm, net neutrality has been highly political since its inception, with left-leaning Democrats arguing that net neutrality principles are necessary for a fair and open internet, while right-leaning Republicans see it as heavy-handed and unnecessary regulation of the free market.

Joe Biden made the reinstatement of net neutrality a focal point of his election campaign, issuing an executive order encouraging the FCC to reinstate the rules in 2021.

Now, following this new ruling from a US appeals court, it seems that net neutrality’s return is unlikely.

The courts new ruling hinges on a new precedent set by the US supreme court case (the ‘Loper Bright’ case) last summer. This case saw a previous precedent – known as the 1984 Chevron doctrine – overturned, ruling that only the judiciary should have the power to interpret the law in ambiguous cases, rather than federal agencies like the FCC.

Since previous net neutrality rulings by the FCC rested on their interpretation of ambiguous regulatory law via the Chevron doctrine, these arguments are no longer valid.

“Applying Loper Bright means we can end the FCC’s vacillations,” read the court ruling.

In reaction to the ruling, FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel argued that it was now necessary for Congress to enshrine net neutrality principles into federal law.

“Consumers across the country have told us again and again that they want an internet that is fast, open and fair. With this decision it is clear that Congress now needs to heed their call, take up the charge for net neutrality and put open internet principles in federal law,” she said.

However, with Congress majority controlled by anti-net neutrality Republicans, it seems unlikely that this call to action will bear fruit – at least during the incoming Trump administration.

Republican FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr, on the other hand, was much more positive about the ruling, describing net neutrality regulations as the Biden government’s “internet power grab”.

Brendan Carr is set to take over as FCC chair under the incoming Trump administration.

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

Also in the news:
VEON and Starlink to launch Direct-to-Cell Satellite connectivity in Ukraine
Swisscom completes acquisition of Vodafone Italia
Equinix to buy BT’s Irish data centre business for €59m

News 

The deal follows Zegona’s €5 billion purchase of Vodafone Spain last June 

Zegona Communications has announced that Vodafone Spain and MasOrange will form a new fibre network joint venture, dubbed FibreCo. 

FibreCo will combine the two companies’  fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) networks, reaching roughly 12.2 million premises across Spain. This, the partners say, will create the largest FTTH network in Europe. 

FibreCo will use existing infrastructure, with nearly 40% of the combined FTTH network already in use  by 4.5 million customers. It plans to deploy the latest technologies, such as XGS-PON, to improve service quality. Vodafone Spain will use FibreCo to deliver services to both retail and wholesale customers. 

FibreCo is expected to generate approximately €480 million in annual EBITDA within three years.  

A third-party investor is also being sought to join the venture, with the proposition already reportedly receiving strong interest. Under the proposed structure, MasOrange will retain 50% ownership, Zegona will hold 10%, and the third-party investor will take a 40% stake. 

“Entering this FibreCo partnership with MasOrange, alongside our recently announced agreements with Telefonica, transforms Vodafone Spain’s fixed line strategy. The combination will give guaranteed access to a future-proof all fibre national network with attractive economic terms and will enable substantial cost savings across the business. Monetising these two FibreCos is expected to deliver very significant Zegona proceeds, generating the ability to reduce leverage and provide a return of capital to shareholders,” said Eamonn O’Hare, Chairman and CEO of Zegona in a press release. 

The initiative follows Zegona’s recent agreement with Telefónica to establish another fibre network in Spain and renew wholesale access terms. Combined, these projects represent a significant overhaul of Vodafone Spain’s fixed-line strategy, enabling full FTTH coverage across the country and achieving cost efficiencies.  

The deal is subject to regulatory approval and is expected to close by mid-2025, alongside the onboarding of a third-party investor. 

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

Also in the news:
Equinix to buy BT’s Irish data centre business for €59m
Part 2: More US broadband predictions as we approach 2025
World’s first 5G-A region in Mobile AI Era launched 

News

The distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack caused a website failure and service disruption for around 12 hours

Today, Japan’s largest mobile operator, NTT Docomo, has revealed it has suffered a cyberattack, impacting a number of services.

The DDoS attack reportedly resulted in a system glitch at 5:27am, which disrupted access to several services – such as the company website and the company’s ‘goo’ portal – for almost 12 hours.

Mobile and other communication services were notably unaffected, though customers reported difficulty accessing the company’s ‘d payment’ mobile money service.

Cyberattacks on telecoms operators have been increasing in potency in recent years. While this attack on Docomo was relatively benign, more sophisticated attacks can put the data from millions of customers at risk. Last year, for example, a data breach at AT&T saw data from 73 million customers leaked on the dark web.

Cyberattacks are typically motivated by financial gain, primarily via blackmailing the victim or the sale of the stolen data. However, as the world becomes increasingly politically unstable we are seeing activity by state-supported hacker groups focus more on surveillance and sabotage for geopolitical ends.

Indeed, this was seemingly the motivation for a string of attacks reported at the end of last year, in which the Chinese hacker group Salt Typhoon was linked to a series of cyberattacks on the US telecoms sector. These attacks compromised data from at least nine major service providers, including AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile.

US Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner dubbed the breach “the worst telecom hack in our nation’s history – by far.”

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

Also in the news:
VEON and Starlink to launch Direct-to-Cell Satellite connectivity in Ukraine
Swisscom completes acquisition of Vodafone Italia
Equinix to buy BT’s Irish data centre business for €59m

European satellite operator Eutelsat has confirmed that their OneWeb network, which is the global constellation of broadband satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) that is still partly supported by the UK government, suffered a “temporary, 48-hour outage” over the New Year period that started on 31st December 2024.

OneWeb (aka – Eutelsat OneWeb) has 654 small (c.150kg) first generation (GEN1) LEO platforms in space – orbiting at an altitude of 1,200km above the Earth (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 added in May 2023 for “resiliency and redundancy to the network” (here) and then 20 more in October 2024 (here).

However, a number of the platform’s business and other users noted that their internet connectivity was suddenly disrupted on New Year’s Eve, which then continued into the next day (the actual outage was more like 36+ hours). The issue is something that OneWeb has remained tight-lipped about, until now.

Apparently, the cause was a software glitch that occurred because OneWeb’s system timings had failed to take account of 2024 being a leap year, which is a rather surprising oversight for any company that specialises in space-based data connectivity and communications.

OneWeb’s Statement

Eutelsat (ISIN: FR0010221234 – Euronext Paris / London Stock Exchange: ETL), experienced a temporary, 48-hour outage on its OneWeb Low Orbit service, commencing on 31st December 2024.

The root cause was identified as a software issue within the ground segment. Eutelsat was fully mobilized and worked with the vendor to restore full service, while maintaining a constant dialogue with affected customers. The constellation is operating nominally once again.

Despite the somewhat embarrassing fault (that reminds us of the Y2K bug), we do still have to credit OneWeb with being honest about the cause, even if such services really need a better way of communicating with customers when outages like this occur (this has long been a problem in the satellite sector).

At the same time, this incident also goes to show the vulnerability of satellite communication systems, which can have rapid global impacts when they go wrong.

News 

The connectivity could prove vital in areas where infrastructure is destroyed by Russian military activity 

Telecoms group VEON has announced a new partnership with Starlink, a division of SpaceX, to bring direct-to-cell satellite connectivity to Ukraine.  

The deal will see Kyivstar, VEON’s Ukrainian subsidiary, offer these satellite-based connectivity services to its customers across the country. 

The deal will see Ukraine become one of the first countries to benefit from Starlink’s direct-to-cell services, with T-Mobile in the US the only other operator that has agreed to roll out the technology so far.  

Service activation in Ukraine is expected in the fourth quarter of 2025 and will include SMS and over-the-top (OTT) messaging functionality. Service offerings will expand to include voice and data services in future phases. 

Global satellite constellation Starlink is currently operational in roughly 118countries worldwide, where it aims to serve customers in regions where traditional internet infrastructure is limited. Its technology has already played a significant role in connecting areas affected by natural disasters, conflict, and other infrastructure challenges. 

All of these deployments, however, currently require the use of a Starlink terminal dish. Direct-to-cell capabilities, on the other hand, will allow customers to use the satellite connectivity without any deploying any additional equipment.  

These capabilities are limited the latest Starlink satellite models, of which SpaceX has launched over 100 in the past year. 

For Ukraine, this satellite connectivity could provide customers with an invaluable emergency resource, allowing them to stay connected even when terrestrial infrastructure has been destroyed by Russian military action. 

“Kyivstar has done a tremendous job in investing in Ukraine’s 4G connectivity, expanding coverage to remote areas and increasing the energy resilience of its network. Today’s announcement helps us take our commitment to Ukraine’s connectivity to the next level, exponentially amplifying the resilience of our services with satellite connectivity,” said Kaan Terzioglu, CEO of VEON Group in a press release. 

Kyivstar CEO Oleksandr Komarov emphasised the importance of the collaboration in ensuring continuous communication for customers in Ukraine, especially during ongoing challenges.  

“Kyivstar has been the backbone of Ukraine’s resilience throughout the war, and we are committed to leaving no stone unturned to keep Ukraine connected. Our collaboration with Starlink is a game-changer in our journey towards achieving our ‘LTE everywhere’ ambition,” he said. 

VEON, which has invested over $10 billion in Ukraine since 2013, has committed an additional $1 billion for the country’s recovery and reconstruction between 2023 and 2027. The company was named the top international investor in Ukraine for 2022 and 2023 by Forbes Ukraine and NV Ukraine. 

“Working with Starlink allows us to extend connectivity to underserved areas, supporting our broader mission to provide reliable services in emerging markets,” said Augie K Fabela II, Chairman and Founder of VEON.  

At the World Communication Awards held last month in London, VEON Kyivstar won the Crisis Response Award. 

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

Also in the news:
Equinix to buy BT’s Irish data centre business for €59m
Part 2: More US broadband predictions as we approach 2025
World’s first 5G-A region in Mobile AI Era launched 

News 

The news follows final regulatory approval last month 

Swiss telco Swisscom has completed its acquisition of Vodafone Italia in a move set to reshape the competitive landscape of Italy’s telecoms sector.  

The deal, valued at €8 billion, was finalised on December 31 following approval from Italian regulators earlier in the month. 

The acquisition will see Vodafone Italia merged with Swisscom’s existing Italian subsidiary, Fastweb. The move will reduce the number of mobile players in the market from five to four and create a new converged (i.e., fixed broadband and mobile services) operator to take on the incumbent, TIM.  

As part of the transaction, Vodafone will also provide some services to Swisscom for the next five years. 

“I am thrilled about the successful closing, as it strengthens Swisscom Group,” Swisscom CEO Christoph Aeschlimann said in a statement, adding that the company’s ” focus on the Swiss market remains unchanged.” 

The acquisition, first announced in March 2024, required approvals from multiple regulators. It received the green light from the European Commission in August and the Italian Communications Authority (AGCOM) in November. However, the deal faced additional scrutiny when the Italian Competition Authority (AGCM) launched a Phase II investigation in September to assess compliance with Italy’s merger control rules. 

Swisscom addressed these concerns by introducing various commitments to the deal, including maintaining wholesale services for third-party operators and ensuring transparency in public tenders involving Fastweb or Vodafone Italia. The Italian Ministry of Enterprises and Made in Italy (MIMIT) granted approval on December 19.  An independent trustee will oversee compliance with these commitments for three years.  

The deal will incur integration costs of up to €200 million, which Swisscom will reflect in its 2024 financial results. Despite this short-term financial impact, Swisscom sees the merger as a crucial investment in long-term growth. The merger is expected to generate approximately €600 million in savings through increased scale and a more efficient cost structure.  

The merger positions the combined entity as Italy’s second-largest fixed-line broadband operator behind Telecom Italia (TIM).  

This move aligns with Vodafone’s global strategy under CEO Margherita Della Valle to streamline operations and focus on core markets. The company has been divesting underperforming assets, including the sale of its Spanish unit to Zegona Communications for €5 billion, and is currently in the process of mrging its British unit with Three UK.  

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

Also in the news:
For two consecutive years, Huawei has been recognized among notable vendors in the zero trust edge field
Equinix to buy BT’s Irish data centre business for €59m
Part 1: Some US broadband industry predictions as we approach 2025

The UK government has today confirmed the expected news that BT Group (Openreach) have been formally awarded several new Type C (Cross-Regional) Project Gigabit broadband roll-out contracts. This will help upgrade internet connectivity across more parts (hard to reach rural areas) of Shropshire, Herefordshire, Wales, Devon, Somerset, Essex and North East England, and Worcestershire.

Project Gigabit itself has been running for the past few years and aims to extend networks capable of delivering broadband ISP download speeds of 1000Mbps+ (1Gbps) and uploads of 200Mbps+ “nationwide” (c.99% of UK premises) by 2030 (here). But commercial builds are delivering most of this, while public money remains focused on the final 10-20% of poorly served premises.

However, today’s development won’t come as much of a surprise because the Government had already selected Openreach, under a Single Supplier Framework, to deliver all of their Cross-Regional (Type C) procurements – reflecting “up to” £800m in total state aid to upgrade 312,000 premises in rural areas of England, Scotland and Wales. But so far they’d only formally awarded the first two Call Off contracts for this (here), which left several more to go.

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

Such areas are often skipped due to being too expensive (difficult) for smaller suppliers to tackle, 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), such as Fibrus, GoFibre, Wessex Internet, CityFibre, Gigaclear, Quickline and others.

Today’s awards include the following contracts, reflecting a total public investment of more than £289m and should reach around 148,000 premises. The official contract award notices for these are vague and don’t clarify how many premises each contract will aim to deliver or which villages/towns will benefit, but luckily BDUK’s November 2024 update did include some recent estimates (these figures may differ slightly on the final contract). The contracts were all officially awarded on 18th Dec 2024, but they’ve only been made public today.

Today’s Contract Awards for Openreach

Type C (Call Off 3): East and South Shropshire, North Herefordshire, North Wales, and South West Wales
Est. Premises: 55,900
Final Value: £108.94m

Type C (Call Off 4): Mid Devon, North Somerset, and South Devon
Est. Premises: 41,500
Final Value: £77.05m

Type C (Call Off 5): Essex and North East England
Est. Premises: 27,200
Final Value: £61.31m

Type C (Call Off 7): Worcestershire
Est. Premises: 23,800
Final Value: £41.92m

The eagle eyed among you might be wondering what has happened to the Type C contract for ‘Central and North Scotland‘ (Call Off 6), which earlier in 2024 was promising to extend gigabit broadband to around 96,900 premises via a public investment of £207.4m. We originally expected this to be awarded at around the same time as those listed above.

However, there was a clue to the above in BDUK’s November 2024 update (here), which re-labelled Call Off 6 as simply ‘Scotland‘ (no mention of central and north) and is now targeting 76,400 premises for an investment of £157.1m (clearly, it’s gone through a few changes). The contract for this is now only in the process of entering procurement and will not be formally awarded to Openreach until April 2025 (tentative estimate).

At the time of writing, neither the Government nor Openreach have issued their official press releases to announce all of the above, but that usually follows a few days or weeks later. We suspect that the Christmas and New Year period may have created a bit of a gap that means we’re seeing the formal contract award notices being listed before getting a press release. Suffice to say, we expect a more PR friendly announcement of this to follow soon-ish.