Eastbourne-based alternative network operator and UK ISP Lightning Fibre, which is building a new Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network across parts of Sussex and Kent in England, has today announced a package refresh for the New Year that delivers some speed boosts and pricing changes.

In terms of what’s changing. The entry level package has been doubled from 150Mbps (symmetric) to 300Mbps for £28 per month to pitch the company head-to-head with its mainstream competitors (i.e. Sky Broadband, TalkTalk and EE), who are charging £28 for a 150Mbps package. The company has also recently reduced its 2Gbps package from £99 per month to £59 per month (a £100 one off set up fee applies).

Furthermore, a price match is now in place for any valid full fibre broadband offer (new customers only), which means the local AltNet pledges they “won’t be beaten on price by any operator”. The company has also decided against introducing annual, mid-contract price rises, unlike the majority of its larger competitors who increase prices each April.

In a self-run survey of its customers (date and sample size unknown), Lightning Fibre claims 86% said their prices were now “about right“.

Rob Reaks, CCO of Lightning Fibre, said:

“We do review things from time to time, but it’s clear that annual mid term price rises are very unpopular with consumers, and often cited as a reason why people switch from a mainstream ISP to us. In a Lightning Fibre survey, 59.8% said that annual price rises are ‘unfair’. So, we’re sticking to the fair, transparent pricing we’ve used since our launch in 2018.”

The alternative network, which has built to a number of locations like Eastbourne, Brighton and Hove, Worthing, Lancing, Hastings and St Leonards, Heathfield, Hellingly and Broad Oak, Hailsham and Polegate, originally planned to cover 140,000 premises with their gigabit-capable network. But it remains unclear how many premises they’ve reached, and they’ve since had to slow their network build due to various challenges (here and here).

The UK telecoms regulator, Ofcom, has today proposed to make it quicker for people to access Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) providers, which are third-party ombudsman schemes that help consumers to resolve complaints with their phone providers, broadband ISPs and mobile operators.

The regulator currently requires that all telecoms service providers – those offering services to consumers and small businesses – must be members of an approved ADR scheme (there are two of these – CISAS (CEDR) and the Communications Ombudsman). The schemes are free for consumers to access and designed to supplement (not replace) your provider’s own internal complaint procedure(s), although ISPs often have to pay sizeable costs (hundreds of pounds) regardless of whether they win or lose a case.

The ADR process is usually seen as a last line of defence for consumers and thus such schemes are generally only used after a dispute has gone unresolved for 8 weeks, or earlier with the agreement of their provider (i.e. the “Deadlock Letter” stage). See our ISP Complaints and Advice section for more information.

However, Ofcom have been reviewing the current ADR process since November 2023 (here), and as part of that they’ve today identified some room for improvement. Between January 2022 and 2024, a significant majority (79%) of complaints received by the main providers were found to have been resolved in less than a week, with 94% within six weeks. This is good, but not for everybody.

Among the remaining 700,000 complainants, a relatively small proportion (around 19%) were able to get their issue resolved or were referred to ADR by the end of the current 8-week deadline. “This suggests that a material number of consumers were left with their complaint – and any associated harm – unresolved for a further two weeks before being able to access ADR,” said Ofcom. The regulator is thus proposing, among other tweaks, to cut this wait period from 8 to 6 weeks.

Ofcom’s ADR Change Proposals

Consumer access to ADR

We are proposing to reduce the timeframe before consumers can access ADR from 8 weeks to 6 weeks. We think this change is necessary to ensure that the ADR regime remains effective and gives consumers prompt access to dispute resolution.

Re-approval of CO and CISAS

We propose to re-approve both CO and CISAS under the assessment criteria set out under the Act. We consider that the consumer research and case review, alongside information we have collected directly from the schemes, demonstrates they are working well and continue to meet the statutory assessment criteria.

While not a condition of re-approval, there are improvements we propose the schemes should implement. The schemes should introduce an improved review process to monitor the quality of decision letters to ensure they remain at a high standard. The schemes should provide more information on the ADR process on their websites, with appropriate guidance on the levels of compensation that would be appropriate to request to support consumers when they are submitting a claim.

Ofcom’s oversight of the schemes

Ofcom monitors the schemes’ operational performance primarily through a set of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) we set for the schemes, which we publish on our website on a quarterly basis. Setting effective KPIs helps build consumer confidence in the ADR process. Our assessment of the evidence suggests that, while the KPIs broadly cover the right areas, some of the KPIs are not set at the right level. Therefore, we propose to increase the targets while keeping them within the bounds of current performance. This will allow us to focus in more detail on performance and identify potential problems should they arise. It should also help the schemes to focus their resources most effectively on the areas that require improvement.

In terms of the KPIs mentioned above, Ofcom currently imposes the following KPIs on ADR providers:

• more than 80% of calls to be answered in less than two minutes;
• more than 90% of calls to be answered in less than five minutes;
• 100% of written correspondence to be replied to within ten days;
• more than 90% of case decisions to be issued within six weeks of the case being accepted; and
• less than 1% of case decisions to be issued later than eight weeks after the case has been accepted.

The regulator is now proposing to tweak these a bit. For example, they’ve proposed increasing the percentage of case decisions to be issued within 6 weeks to 95% to bring it more in line with the schemes’ performance in this area and their planned change to the timescale. But they’d maintain some of the other areas, like the “less than 1%” rule above. The finer details of all the KPIs are still subject to feedback and thus further change.

The consultation on these changes will run until 12th March 2025 and Ofcom then expects to publish their final decision during Summer 2025.

Broadband, phone and pay TV provider Virgin Media (O2) has notified its customers that their Community Forum platform will tomorrow – starting at around 10am – go through a “major upgrade“, which will see the ISP switch from using the older Khoros ‘Classic’ platform over to the modern ‘Aurora’ one.

The community, which will be offline for the duration of the upgrade process (it’s expected to return by the afternoon or late evening), should then return with a “different look and feel“. For those with an interest in this sort of thing, you can get a better idea of what changes this will introduce by visiting the Khoros website here and here.

News 

The joint venture will build up to 2,000 new base stations that will then be shared with other mobile operators in the country 

Vodacom and Orange have formed a new infrastructure joint venture aimed at improving mobile network coverage in rural areas of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The business will focus on building solar-powered mobile base stations in underserved regions, helping to extend mobile and financial services to up to 19 million people. 

Over the next six years, the companies plan to build up to 2,000 new base stations using 2G and 4G technology. The first phase will see the installation of 1,000 sites, with the possibility of an additional 1,000 depending on regulatory approval. 

The initiative is in line with the DRC’s National Digital Plan Horizon 2025, which aims to increase digital access and promote economic growth. The project will also support mobile money services and increase internet access in the country, where mobile internet penetration is currently at 32.3%. 

“With a footprint serving over 210 million customers across Africa, we have the opportunity to significantly contribute to the continent’s socio-economic development by building a digital society and fostering inclusivity for all,” said Shameel Joosub, CEO of Vodacom in a press release. 

“This aligns with our purpose to connect for a better future, and our partnership with Orange is a crucial step towards providing mobile coverage to people in previously underserved areas in the DRC,” he continued. 

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Also in the news:
Adani Group’s ‘foray into industrial 5G’ is total failure
Nokia bags deal to connect new offshore wind farms
Chinese engineers patenting submarine cable cutting tech

News

Two and a half years after acquiring the spectrum at auction, the Indian conglomerate has yet to make use of its airwaves

Reports this week suggest that Adani Group is considering surrendering it 5G mmWave spectrum after failing to turn its dream of deploying private 5G networks into reality.

According to the reports, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has sent multiple requests to the company asking how it intends to use the currently idle spectrum, as well as penalising it for failing to meet minimum rollout targets.

Adani Group purchased the spectrum for $27 million at India’s first 5G auction back in 2022. At the time, Adani said it would use the 400MHz of 26GH (also known as mmWave) spectrum to deploy private 5G networks for its own digital subsidiaries, as well as offering it to enterprise and industrial customers.

As part of the deal, Adani was obligated to begin offering commercial services using the spectrum within a year.

“The Adani Group’s foray into the industrial 5G space will allow our portfolio companies to offer a set of new add on services that capitalises on all the other digital segments we are building,” said Gautam Adani, Chairman of the Adani Group, after acquiring the spectrum.

Adani Group’s participation in the spectrum auction initially caused concern in some corners of the Indian telecoms sector, with onlookers speculating that success with private networks could lead to Adani’s entry into the consumer mobile space.

The reality, however, appears to have been quite different, with Adani Group having failed to make a single deployment using the mmWave 5G spectrum.

Adani has reportedly told the DoT that the spectrum’s deployment across its own industrial operations – including ports, airports, power stations, and logistics – had proven commercially unviable.

If the company continues to fail to meet rollout obligations, the company will be forced to pay fines to the DoT. As such, Adani is considering returning the spectrum licences to the DoT.

It is also worth noting that Adani did not participate in India’s latest 5G spectrum auction, which took place in summer last year and generated a lukewarm response from the country’s mobile network operators. The acquisition of additional spectrum could have made the company’s private 5G network offering more attractive and would likely have allowed them to also offer 5G fixed wireless access services, for which mmWave spectrum is typically well suited.

Failures to meaningfully commercialise mmWave spectrum is nothing new for the mobile industry. While offering considerably lower latency and capacity than typical mid-band spectrum 5G services, mmWave’s shorter range limits often limits its viability and increases deployment costs.

Indeed, even in South Korea, typically viewed as one of the most advanced mobile markets in the world, the country’s mobile operators had failed to make mmWave commercially viable at scale. After four years of lacklustre deployments, all of the nation’s operators ultimately had their mmWave licences revoked by the government.

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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

Spiders have an awkward habit of getting pretty much everywhere imaginable, which is probably down to their deep connection to the web. But spare a thought for one of Openreach’s UK broadband engineers in the Staffordshire village of Hixon who, while working on top of a telecoms pole, had to do a bit of extra debugging after opening up a cable box to find this surprise.

Over the years we’ve seen plenty of animal and insect related damage occurring on UK broadband networks, from swarms of Bees or Wasps occupying street cabinets (here), to Badgers blocking access to cable ducts, and hungry Rodents chewing through vital optical fibre cables (here). Nature certainly has an endless box of surprises for the budding engineer, and today is no different.

According to Openreach, one of their Patch Lead’s, Mark, had a little surprise during a coaching session. He came across this eight-legged “friend” who’d set up shop at the top of a pole in Hixon, Staffordshire. Clearly the spider didn’t realise that Halloween had already passed and instead left the engineer with a touch of extra bug-testing to perform.

Nothing a good hoover can’t resolve, of course, although Openreach are clearly being a bit more PR sensitive to this particular guest than our household would be to such issues. But each to their own, we just hope the little thing got a chance to check their webmail before being disconnected. And with that, I was out of spider puns. But then, this is what happens when you spend too much time on the web. Ok.. enough.

A Spokesperson for Openreach said:

“Our eight-legged friends are super important to the UK’s ecosystem, providing a tasty snack for lots of birds and lizards. They’re also pros at pest control! This reduces the need for pesticides and helps maintain ecological balance.

But our spidey friends are having a rough time, with their numbers dropping due to habitat loss and changes. So, when we’re working on our network, we always keep a lookout for them and keep them safe. It’s a tiny thing we can do that makes a big difference to our local environment.”

The descriptively named Data Communications Company (DCC), which manages Britain’s national Smart Meter network(s), recently began their first live customer trials that will see existing Smart Meters in UK homes being upgraded to use Toshiba’s new 4G Communication Hub. Several suppliers, such as E.on and British Gas, are taking part.

The development was actually announced just before Christmas, so we’re playing catch-up today. At present, existing Smart Meters (SMETS 1 and SMETS 2) use a mix of wireless network technologies to communicate how much gas and electricity people are using back to a central database – better known as the Smart Metering Wide Area Network (SMWAN).

For example, Scotland and the North of England are largely served by Arqiva’s Long-Range Radio (LRR) wireless network, which operates in part of the 400MHz licensed spectrum band. By comparison, O2’s (Virgin Media) old 2G and / or 3G based mobile network is typically used to cater for meters installed across the rest of England and Wales. The original 15-year O2 smart metering contract, signed 2013, was worth £1.5bn, while Arqiva’s contract for the north was worth £625m.

However, O2 will start switching off 3G services in April 2025, and they aim to complete that by the end of this year (here). But it will then take “several years” after that before their 2G services can be fully withdrawn, which is partly due to the technology’s use inside existing Smart Meters. According to the Public Accounts Committee (here), an estimated 7 million Smart Meters may need to have their 2G/3G modules upgraded to 4G to avoid a huge connectivity problem.

The Solution

Back in August 2023 we reported that DCC had signed a new 15-year agreement for Vodafone to manage Britain’s national Smart Meter network (here), which would also see the operator working alongside Toshiba, Accenture, CGI and Deloitte to upgrade the network with a cost-efficient 4G Communications Hub solution. Vodafone are providing the 4G network and management, with CGI doing the software and Toshiba the Hub itself.

Just to be clear, as other reports often get this part wrong, under DCC’s programme the meters themselves won’t be replaced, it’s just the communications “hub” (i.e. the “router” that connects the meters in the home to the network). This is still a very big job (nationally speaking), and it requires a site visit to pull off, but it’s also a quicker and simpler job than when a Smart Meter is first fully installed.

The good news is that DCC began an upgrade trial of the new 4G Dual Band Communications Hub from Toshiba a few weeks ago. Energy supplier E.on is understood to have carried out one of the first installations in Staffordshire (England) and many more are due to follow. Around 10,000 Hubs will be installed in the “coming months” as part of DCC’s validation process (mostly by the end of Feb 2025), all involving several energy suppliers.

Assuming the trial goes well, DCC said they would then begin rolling out the new Hubs as standard from summer 2025. “Given that 2G/3G networks will be phased out by 2033, that gives us and our partners eight years to ensure connection continuity for around 24 million smart meters – a huge challenge, but one we are confident we will achieve,” said DCC.

Tom Stockwell, Head of Critical National Infrastructure at Vodafone, said:

“We are delighted to collaborate with DCC on this significant milestone. The installation of the first 4G Communication Hubs in UK homes marks a major step forward in future-proofing the smart metering network. We now look forward to working together to support the continued rollout of 4G Smart Hubs to millions more in the future.”

Thomas Cunliffe, COO M2M Solutions Division at Toshiba, said:

“It has been a privilege for Toshiba to design and build the 4G Dual Band Communications Hub for the DCC. We are immensely proud of not only the 4G end-product but also the way the team at Toshiba has collaborated with all the partners within the Programme. Our global supply chain is ready, and we look forward to ramping up production volumes for the mass roll-out next year.”

The 4G upgrade programme however doesn’t just seek to “replicate the old functionality with newer technology” and instead claims to have taken the chance to build something better. “We’ve collaborated … to build these 4G Hubs such that they will deliver direct benefits to energy suppliers and network operators, helping to drive flexibility, and maintain grid balance and stability, and allow deep insight into consumption patterns and network performance,” although it may take a few years to fully realise all that.

However, we should point out that gas Smart Meters also contain a lithium battery, which different sources suggest should last for 10 years or longer, although quite a few people have found them failing far sooner. But you can’t change these yourself, and another engineer visit is required. Suffice to say, there may be some cases where it would be more cost-efficient to combine the 4G upgrade with a battery replacement, yet so far as we can tell that will NOT be happening under the upgrade programme.

One final point to make is that 4G is about as future-proof as 2G and 3G were before it (many people are already on 5G mobile and 6G is just around the corner), thus this won’t be the last time that such a problem emerges. Mind you, all such hardware and systems reach end-of-life eventually.

Network operator nexfibre, which shares some of their UK parentage with retail broadband ISP partner Virgin Media (O2), has today announced that they’ve made their 2Gbps speed Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network available to more than 9,000 additional homes in the city of Bath (Somerset, England).

Bath already has a strong level of gigabit broadband coverage, albeit via somewhat of a patchwork of different network operators (not all of which overlap). The latest development means that Virgin Media and nexfibre now have some of the strongest coverage, although Openreach, CityFibre and Truespeed also have a strong level of FTTP coverage in various areas. After that, smaller altnets, like OFNL and Hyperoptic, can similarly be found in a few specific areas.

Nexfibre itself has already covered 2 million premises across the UK with their new full fibre network (here) and many more will follow. Just for some context. Telefónica, Liberty Global and InfraVia Capital Partners originally set up the new £4.5bn nexfibre joint venture in 2022 (here), which aims to deploy an open access fibre network to reach “up to” 7 million UK homes (starting with 5m by 2026) in areas NOT currently served by Virgin Media’s network of 16m+ premises. The funding reflects £3.3bn of fully underwritten financing and up to £1.4bn in equity commitments.

Mobile network operator Lyca Mobile, which in the UK is a virtual operator (MVNO) on EE’s network, has taken a break from recent troubles (here) by pledging to “transform” the “payment experiences” of its customers through a new partnership with online payment provider Revolut Pay, making it the neobank’s first official MVNO partner in the UK.

The partnership promises to introduce “seamless” payment capabilities, including “automated payments for subscriptions and bills, real-time notifications for payment statuses, and one-click top-ups“. These features are said to “eliminate” the need for repeatedly entering bank details, simplifying the payment process and “ensuring a hassle-free experience“.

Revolut Pay’s advanced payment system is already said to have achieved a 100% authorisation rate for Lyca Mobile transactions in its first month of operation. Additionally, 80% of Lyca Mobile customers using Revolut Pay have adopted automatic top-ups and subscriptions.

Frank Wiemann, Group CMO at Lyca Mobile, said:

“Revolut’s focus on efficiency and innovation aligns seamlessly with our mission to deliver unparalleled connectivity solutions. This partnership is already simplifying the way our customers manage their payments, offering convenience and peace of mind. We’re excited to continue enhancing their experience with cutting-edge technology.”

Alex Codina, General Manager of Acquiring at Revolut, added:

“At Revolut, we’re obsessed with creating the best possible customer experience. We’re delighted to partner with Lyca Mobile and bring all the efficiency benefits of Revolut Pay to the world of subscription payments as we expand into the telecommunications sector.”

The move could perhaps also be seen as forming part of Lyca’s recent “strategic reorganisation” that it said aimed to “drive efficiency and foster global growth“ – this has already resulted in UK job cuts as the provider tries to tackle some big financial challenges.

The not-for-profit London Internet Exchange (LINX), which handles a large chunk of UK and global data traffic through their switches via around 900 members (broadband ISPs, mobile operators etc.), has today announced an update to its pricing structure for 2025 – impacting port and service fees – that aims to “deliver greater member value“.

The new pricing structure is said to be based on member feedback and an analysis of the wider interconnection market, which LINX said had “resulted in port price cuts, more flexible and fractional peering services being added as well as increased value to the £100 per month membership fee benefits.”

The new pricing came into action on 1^st January 2025 and LINX member networks will be able to log in to the portal to activate elements of the new pricing structure.  

Key Pricing Changes

• LINX members now receive 2Gbps of peering at each global LINX operated hub included in their monthly membership fee (increased from 1Gbps previous).
• A reduction of approximately 12% on port access fees 
• Increase in options for peering service speeds on 10G ports and a new option of 50Gbps of peering on 100G ports 

For the full breakdown of the pricing strategy with real use cases, visit: https://www.linx.net/services/service-fees/ .

Jennifer Holmes, CEO of LINX, said:

“Here at LINX we pride ourselves on our transparency and as a not-for-profit, reinvesting in the network architecture and delivering price cuts to our members wherever possible. We spent a lot of time reviewing our member feedback over the last 12 months and working out the financials to ensure we could propose the most attractive pricing review possible.

We run an annual member survey as well as our wider team carrying out member interviews where feedback is collected and used where possible to shape future LINX strategies, not only for pricing but for product development and global expansion.”

The exchange recently reported that, during 2024, they achieved their highest-ever network traffic, with a maximum peak of over 10.841Tbps (Terabits per second), up from 9.229Tbps in 2023 and 7.424Tbps in 2022 (here).