The industry-led One Touch Switching Company (TOTSCo), which operates the central messaging platform that helps UK ISPs to implement Ofcom’s new One Touch Switching (OTS) process, has today announced that they’ve completed 200,000 switches of broadband and phone services since going live on 12th Sept 2024 (up by 20,000 this week).

In case anybody has forgotten, OTS aims to make it both quicker and easier for consumers to switch between broadband and phone providers, even when those ISPs are on physically separate UK networks. However, TOTSCo’s messaging platform, as well as the processes and systems that ISPs themselves need to develop in order to interface with it, are still a bit of a work-in-progress. But it’s clearly continuing to improve (see the latest switching data).

As well as celebrating the achievement of 200,000 successfully completed switches this week (here), TOTSCo also noted that take-up by laggard ISPs has continued to grow, with 287 brands now in their live directory (up by +7 over the past week). The previous week’s update noted that there were still 40 communication providers completing the testing process before going live, which suggests that this figure is probably now getting closer to 30.

One of the advantages of TOTSCo is that it’s giving us a unique insight into the real-world level of active consumer switching between UK broadband and phone providers. Suffice to say, it will be interesting to see how the looming Christmas and New Year period impacts the volume of switches, as there are sure to be some interesting trends (some ISPs often pause or reduce their support over the festive period).

At present we can already see that the number of switch orders is climbing, which is likely to reflect a combination of the Black Friday season (lots of discounts), as well as the rising adoption of TOTSCo’s platform by ISPs. But there’s still a fair bit of work left for ISPs and TOTSCo to do in order to further improve the new process, although it’s going in the right direction.

Alternative broadband network and UK ISP G.Network, which has deployed a Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network across 361,000 “connectable” premises in parts of London (here), has today become the latest internet provider to launch early Black Friday discounts across their 24-month term packages.

In short. the provider has cut the price of their top 1Gbps (900Mbps average) package to just £17 per month for the first 6 months of service, which then rises to £30 for the remaining 18 months (£35 thereafter). The packages include unlimited usage, free parental controls, an included wireless router and free installation.

The deal will be available to new customers until 3rd December, with no hidden charges or in-contract price hikes. Kevin Murphy, CEO of G.Network, said: “Our research has found that a third of Londoners are actively looking to switch their broadband provider, with high costs being the biggest culprit. Black Friday is the perfect time to shop around for fast and reliable full fibre broadband for a fraction of the cost.”

News

The Federal Communications Commission has voted to launch a major review of licensing rules surrounding submarine cable rules.

A new Notice of Proposed Rulemaking adopted by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will begin a review of the regulations surrounding submarine cables.

The rulemaking notice, approved Nov. 21 by the FCC, will now seek public comment regarding how the commission can streamline the rules around submarine cables to ensure efficient deployment.

According to the FCC’s release following the vote, the agency has not conducted a major review of submarine cable rules since 2001.

“Oversight of submarine cables traces back even before the existence of the commission itself,” the FCC’s release following Thursday’s vote stated.

According to the release, there are currently a total of 84 FCC-licensed submarine cable systems.

As part of the rulemaking notice approved Thursday, the FCC will also seek comment on how the commission can improve security and protection of submarine-cable infrastructure.

“This proceeding will look to streamline the agency’s review process,” the release stated. “It proposes a three-year periodic reporting requirement for cable landing licenses and, in the alternative, seeks comment on shortening the current 25-year license term.”

As of Dec. 2022, the FCC reported that cable-landing licensees had more than 5.3 million Gbps of available capacity, with an additional 6.8 million Gbps in planned capacity this year alone.

“Today’s action continues the FCC’s recent efforts to support national security,” Thursday’s release continued. “The commission has proposed new rules that would require, for the first time, companies with international telecommunications authorizations to file renewal applications with the FCC.”

Join the submarine cable industry in discussion at Europe’s most important subsea connectivity event, Submarine Networks EMEA 2025

New research from network access provider Openreach (BT), which was pieced together by the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr) and Stantec, has claimed that the operator’s ongoing roll-out of a Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) based broadband ISP network could contribute up to £66bn (GVA – Gross Value Added) to the UK economy in 2029.

Openreach are currently investing up to £15bn to expand the coverage of this new 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 2030, although this will partly depend upon the outcome of Ofcom’s next Telecoms Access Review 2026 (TAR).

The new research claims that this roll-out is expected to drive productivity gains and improvements to public services, including supporting more than 620,000 people back into the workforce. It will also enable more than 1 million people to work from home, allegedly contributing an additional £19bn annually.

Taken together, the productivity and workforce improvements highlighted in this report should, it claims, boost the GVA impact to total £66bn per year by 2029 and £73bn per year by 2034.

Key findings include:

➤ Job Creation: Flexible work options could help 620,000 individuals, including parents and older workers, return to work.

➤ NHS Support: An estimated five million online appointments by 2029 to help meet rising healthcare demands, doubling the current number.

➤ Educational Benefits: A boost to pass rates for 21,700 students in key subjects. This equates to over 13,000 pupils (1% of the total number of Key Stage 2 students) achieving pass rates that are higher at Key Stage 2 Maths, Reading and Writing as a result of the increase in Full Fibre connectivity between 2023 and 2029. Additionally, more than 8,700 more pupils (1% of the total number of Key Stage 4 students) could achieve pass rates that are higher over the same period.

➤ Increases to Property Values: Homes with Full Fibre see an average increase of £1,900.

➤ Environmental Gains: By 2029, 1.4 million more home workers will mean fewer car journeys and lower carbon emissions.

Just to be clear, this research is entirely focused upon the impact of Openreach’s own FTTP network and is not considering any of the rival operators and networks that exist.

Clive Selley, CEO of Openreach, said:

“Our new Full Fibre network is a growth and prosperity engine. This report highlights how it will create jobs, enhance connectivity, and drive economic improvements across each nation of the UK, but continued investment depends on a stable policy and regulatory environment.”

Not to sound too much like a broken record, but we always recommend taking such future forecasts with a pinch of salt. This is because trying to accurately gauge the economic impact of deploying faster broadband is notoriously difficult, not least since most premises won’t be starting from a point of zero connectivity (e.g. over 98% of the UK have access to speeds of 30Mbps+ and over 85% can access 1000Mbps+ via various networks).

Likewise, we’re all very different in our consumption requirements, and not all homes and businesses get the same benefit from having access to significantly faster broadband speeds than are currently available. For example, the difference between 10Mbps and 1000Mbps is largely irrelevant when talking about basic tasks, like online shopping, email, messaging and banking etc.

On top of that we have to consider the impact of other things too, such as take-up (i.e. it can take years for this to grow once a new service becomes available and not everybody will opt for the fastest packages), as well as issues like slow WiFi (i.e. having 1Gbps+ isn’t much help in those rooms that struggle to get more than a few tens of Mbps via wireless) and the fact that there are many other FTTP network operators in the market.

One particular example of the difficulties of such forecasts can be seen in the above report’s suggestion that homes with access to Full Fibre see an average increase of £1,900. Now this is all very well and good, albeit often stemming from more anecdotal sources. But it only really makes a big difference when there’s a clear dividing line between the haves and have-nots. The advantage gets eroded as FTTP coverage matures toward near universal reach (i.e. once something becomes normal, it ceases to be a differentiator when moving home).

None of this is to say that FTTP won’t produce big economic benefits, indeed we’re confident that it will, particularly in poorly served rural areas where the differences are often much more apparent. But figuring out precisely how much is subject to many caveats (i.e. reports like this are typically over optimistic), as well as the unquantifiable aspects of how the internet may evolve.

Equally, simply having a broadband connection that is more reliable and delivers lower latency, is something that can be hard to put a price tag on. Speed is not the only factor. In short, few could disagree that there does tend to be a strong positive relationship between broadband investment and growth, even if there is an issue of diminishing returns with respect to the speed and technology choices of those connections.

Speaking of which, Openreach’s 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 ISPs (e.g. TalkTalk) have started to do free automatic upgrades as older copper-based services and lines are slowly withdrawn.

New customers looking to join UK mobile operator Vodafone should note that they’ve today launched a range of new Black Friday discounts across their regular Pay Monthly SIM Only plans and their Basics SIM Only plans, which reflects a varied combination of price cuts and extra data allowances.

The discounts and changes are too numerous to fully list, but they range from a sharp price decrease on the operator’s ‘Unlimited Max Xtra Global Roam Plan‘ (from £46 to £33 per month on a 24-month term) to a data allowance boost (60GB instead of 50GB) on their £10 per month Basics plan.

The operator’s Basics plans also come with unlimited UK minutes and texts on a 12-month term. Take note that Vodafone’s mid-contract policy will increase the price that customers pay each April by £1 (monthly) on Basics and £1.80 on their other Airtime SIM Only plans.

The telecoms regulator, Ofcom, has revealed that they’re moving ahead with plans to consult on specific proposals that would authorise Direct to Device (D2D) satellite services to work in UK mobile bands (inc. MMS – Mobile-Satellite Services), which could be used to help improve mobile (4G and 5G) coverage. The proposals are planned to surface during “early 2025“.

At present a number of satellite-based broadband and communication networks are developing services that can directly connect to unmodified consumer Smartphones via regular mobile spectrum bands. Some examples of this include Starlink (Direct to Cell), OneWeb (Eutelsat) and AST SpaceMobile. In fact, some phones, like the latest iPhone series from Apple, already have a very basic emergency communication system that can work via satellite.

The problem is that the licences held by UK mobile operators to provide communications services do not currently authorise transmissions from space. The introduction of D2D services in terrestrial mobile bands would also raise a number of other issues, such as the potential for an increased risk of interference between the satellite and the ground infrastructure of the mobile operators.

Ofcom began looking at this in July 2024, when they published a related Call for Input. The regulator has this week revealed the outcome of that information gathering exercise, which attracted plenty of broadly supportive responses. As a result, Ofcom now “consider that there is scope for improved connectivity from the sky and space to support economic growth and enable a number of potential citizen and consumer benefits in the UK.”

However, Ofcom opted not to develop any proposals that would authorise High Altitude Platform Stations (HAPS) in the UK, which often reflect stratospheric drones or balloons that could play a role in delivering D2D type mobile services. This is largely because the regulator didn’t receive much interest, commercially or otherwise, in the idea, and that’s not too surprising as we don’t really have a need for HAPS of this type in the UK. But Ofcom kept the door open to the idea, “should we receive evidence of demand“.

Ofcom’s Statement

We plan to consult on specific proposals to authorise Direct to Device satellite services in mobile bands in the UK in early 2025. Subject to consideration of stakeholder responses and our final decisions this could enable such services to be offered to consumers later in 2025.

We plan to review our approach to MSS authorisations (including the frequencies available for IoT services) in Financial Year 2025/2026. We will also review our current authorisation of 2GHz MSS spectrum, which is due to expire in May 2027.

We will continue to engage in ongoing work in Europe on a draft ECC decision on satellite IoT emissions in Short Range Device (SRD) bands. We expect the ECC report to be finalised in July 2025 and will then consider the merits of implementing the recommendation in the UK.

In terms of D2D, Three UK also made the point that such services are often most beneficial in countries with large areas unserved by terrestrial networks. By comparison, the operator correctly noted that the UK is relatively densely populated, with 93% of the landmass covered by at least one operator (i.e. limiting the benefits of D2D to those in rural and hard-to-reach areas, or as an emergency service or back-up solution for network outages).

“In the UK, the most suitable application for D2D services would be as an emergency service, a back-up solution for network outages or offered as a premium feature for customers who want coverage in remote areas,” said Three UK’s response.

The operator also echoed a warning about the risk of interference between satellites and the base stations of MNOs holding the spectrum, “potentially resulting in degraded service for mobile users.” But there are always ways of avoiding such interference, and Ofcom will need to figure out the best approach as part of their efforts to develop a new authorisation proposal.

The UK Internet Service Providers Association (ISPA) has tonight revealed the winners of their 26th annual 2024 internet industry and broadband awards, which among other things saw several providers taking home two awards each across different categories, including Brsk, CommunityFibre, and Vorboss.

The award categories were once again revised for this year’s event, not least through the introduction of several new categories, such as the award for Best Rural Infrastructure and Best Urban Infrastructure, as well as awards for Best Community Engagement; Best Sustainability; Best Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and finally the new Best SME ISP and Best Enterprise ISP awards.

Steve Leighton, ISPA Chair, said: “In a year which has seen our industry surge towards significant fibre rollout targets, a renewed focus on delivering high-quality services to our customers and the turbulence of a General Election, our sector has been tremendous. Our annual awards encapsulates this, showcasing the superb work from across the industry. I am proud to play host to the organisations going above and beyond, building the foundations of the nation’s digital economy and society.”

The winners were all crowned tonight at a gala ceremony in London, in front of more than 475 guests from across industry, which was hosted at the OWO Raffles Hotel in Whitehall (London). The results reflect the outcome of some limited technical testing by Thinkbroadband across several categories, as well as the use of a judging panel of 11 industry figures to help determine the ultimate winners across all 18 categories.

2024 ISPA UK Award Winners

Best Channel Support: PXC
Since its inception, PXC’s approach feels fresh and new, with truly comprehensive packages and an impressive Partner Programme. This allows PXC to provide impactful channel support to ISPs using their FTTP infrastructure, making them deserving winners.

Best Customer, Data, & Network Security: Talk Straight/Schools Broadband

Talk Straight/Schools Broadband has carried out truly impressive work in protecting thousands of schools up and down the country by allowing customers to have full control over their firewalls.

Best Rural Infrastructure: Openreach
Openreach’s full fibre rollout to rural areas has been outstanding this year, reaching over 16 million premises with more than 6 million additional customers set to be connected by the end of this year. An impressive feat!

Best Urban Infrastructure: Brsk

This year, Brsk’s growth and expansion has been unwavering. Although others have slowed their build, Brsk has reached new heights, with the number of installed customers increasing by a huge 308%.

Best Sustainability: KCOM
KCOM took home the first ever Best Sustainability award for their firm commitment in this area.

Their “One Network” project was particularly commended in its aim to reduce KCOM’s electricity consumption by 40% upon completion.

Best Voice Provider: Voipfone

Voipfone are seasoned winners of the Best Voice Provider award, with 2024 marking their 20th business anniversary. This year, their re-developed customer programme impressed the judges, deemed exemplary of Voipfone’s unwavering dedication to customer service.

Best Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion: Vorboss

Vorboss’ commitment to DE&I has resulted in a resounding third of their technical and engineering positions being filled by women, most of whom trained at their academy. Their policies and approach are encouraging significant progress in the sector.

Best SME ISP: Exa Networks

Exa Networks’ comprehensive ‘one-stop-shop’ service makes them deserving winners of the Best SME ISP award. Their investment in improving network reliability and capacity wowed the judges.

Best Enterprise ISP: Vorboss

Vorboss scooped up their second award of the evening for their success as an enterprise ISP. The reliability and performance of their speed innovations such as Light Maintenance Vehicle E-Bikes and their equipment ‘drop box’ are revolutionising the way their engineers travel and install equipment.

Best Customer Experience: Brsk

Another dual winner, Brsk received this award for top-quality overall customer feedback and innovating in their customer support approach with AI technologies.

Best Community Engagement: CommunityFibre

The ISPA judges were pleased to award the Best Community Engagement category to Community Fibre, whose community initiative programmes saw continuously positive outcomes over the course of the year.

Best Communications Campaign: Quickline

Quickline’s ‘broadband built for you’ campaign was a huge success, touching hearts across rural communities by casting the spotlight on local communities and featuring local heroes.

Best Digital Inclusion for Industry: Vodafone

This year, Vodafone’s team took a multi-faceted approach to minimising digital exclusion to great success, going beyond SIM donations to bridging the digital divide through a multitude of impactful initiatives. They have been very active in communities, and have delivered exceptionally well-executed programmes enhancing digital inclusion nationwide.

Best Digital Inclusion for Charities: The Crumbs Project

The Crumbs Project transforms the lives of adults with disabilities and mental health conditions through hospitality-based training, championing their digital inclusion, and advocating for their right to work and to feel included in society. A well deserved win!

Best Consumer ISP under 100k Customers: Lightning Fibre

Lightning Fibre impressed judges with their customer satisfaction scores, and their progress in delivering the fastest residential broadband in the region. They are also working effectively in connecting new affordable housing projects by offering one year of free connection to 10% of residents, and making great progress on some new projects undertaken since last year.

Best Consumer ISP over 100k Customers: CommunityFibre

Community Fibre took home their second award of the night for their stellar work in challenging some of the scale ISPs. Community Fibre has offered the fastest, and most sustainable connections, with consistent and affordable pricing and an impressive 100% full fibre capable Social Tariff.

Internet Hero: Malcom Corbett
Malcom Corbett received the Internet Hero award for dedicating his career to improving connectivity in the UK. He has been involved with the Internet from the very early days. In 2010 he established his own co-op in the form of INCA – the Independent Network Co-Operative Association when there were just a handful of start-up altnets with ambitions to take on established providers.

In 2013 INCA was instrumental in encouraging the Public Accounts Committee to review the Superfast programme, which led to Building Digital UK opening up to more competition.

It’s fair to say that many of ISPA’s members today would simply not exist without the groundbreaking work that Malcolm, and the team he built at INCA, have done in promoting a competitive industry.

News

The operator says it will shift customers to “alternative network technologies such as LTE-M”

AT&T will decommission it narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) network, with IoT workloads to be shifted to alterative technologies like LTE-M early next year.

NB-IoT – a low-power wide-area network technology – was standardised by 3GPP in 2016. Designed specifically to handle low-power IoT devices, the technology was built to allow devices to be more energy and spectrum efficient.

AT&T subsequently began offering NB-IoT services in 2019 and, according to the company’s 2023 sustainability report, currently has more than 127 million connected devices on its network as of Q4.

Now, however, AT&T says that it is aiming to improve IoT services for business customers by moving devices to alterative technologies like LTE-M, which can handle higher data rates.

“We are improving our IoT services for business customers by moving from NB IoT to the LTE-M network. This change will provide more data capacity for both fixed and mobile devices. As a result, we’ve stopped the certification of new NB-IoT devices and the sale of data plans utilizing the NB-IoT network. We’re working closely with customers to make this process as seamless as possible,” said AT&T in a statement reported by RCR Wireless.

The operator says it hopes to have fully transitioned customer devices off of its NB-IoT network by Q1 next year.

In addition to LTE-M, AT&T is also exploring another promising IoT technology in the form of the newly released 5G Reduced Capacity (RedCap). While this technology is still in its infancy, it potentially represents the next step-up from LTE-M, offering even greater capabilities for IoT devices while reducing energy usage and spectrum usage.

But while AT&T seemingly feels its IoT infrastructure warrants an upgrade, its rivals Verizon and T-Mobile consider the issue much less pressing, with both confirming to Light Reading that they have no immediate plans to shut down their own NB-IoT networks.

Join the telecoms ecosystem in discussion over the industry’s biggest issues at Connected America 2025

Also in the news:
VMO2 launches UK’s first 5G standalone small cells in Birmingham
BT says Labour’s budget will cost company £100m
Vodafone Spain and Telefonica complete FibreCo deal

New customers looking to joint Three UK’s mobile network should take note that they’ve today launched some new Black Friday discounts, which for example drops their LITE Unlimited Data SIM (mobile broadband, calls and texts) plan to £20 per month on a 24-month term.

Customers can also get a 120GB SIM (inc. calls and texts) for just £10 on a 12-month term and a 100GB SIM for £12 on a 1-month term. But the operator’s new Black Friday offers will only be available to take until 5th December 2024, and we had some trouble when trying to bring these offers up via their website (oh how we miss the days when you just had a long, simple list of mobile plans to view).

However, it’s important to keep Three UK’s mid-contract pricing policy in mind, which states: “Each April, your Monthly Charge will increase by a fixed amount depending on your plan’s data allowance. Plans 4GB or less & Smartwatch Pairing Plans will increase by £1.00 per month. Plans from 5GB to 99GB will increase by £1.25 per month. Plans 100GB or over will increase by £1.50 per month. All Home Broadband plans will increase by £2.00 per month.”

News 

The case highlights the growing regulatory focus on Big Tech’s influence and raises questions about balancing innovation with fair competition  

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) has proposed that Google sell its browser, Google Chrome, to address concerns about its dominance in the search and digital advertising markets.  

The recommendation is part of a wider antitrust case following a court ruling in August that found Google had illegally maintained a monopoly over online search engines. 

Back in 2020, the DOJ sued Google, accusing it of dominating the internet search market through anticompetitive contracts, exclusionary practices, and the preferential treatment of its own services. It highlighted Google’s agreements with other companies to make its search engine the default on devices and browsers, which the DOJ argued harmed competition.  

The DOJ also separately suing Google, accusing the company of monopolising the adtech market. 

As a result, the DOJ’s recommendations includes several measures aimed at create healthy competition in the search market. These include: 

• Divestment of Chrome: Separating Chrome from Google’s ecosystem could weaken the company’s monopoly on both search engines and advertising. 

• Unbundling Android: Google may be required to decouple its Android operating system from services like Google Search and Google Play, which are currently bundled together. 

• Introducing new data and AI rules: Websites should have the option to opt out of contributing data to Google’s AI training, and Google might also be required to share search data with competitor. 

Google has responded to these proposals by arguing that such drastic steps could harm consumers and developers as a result of disrupting services and slowing innovation. The company also continues to claim that its dominance is the result of offering superior products, and not unfair practices. 

If the court approves the DOJ’s recommendations, the impact could reach far beyond Google. Chrome is the most popular browser in the world, used by over 60% of internet users, and a forced sale would mark one of the most regulatory actions against a major tech company in many years.  

The next court hearing is scheduled for April next year, with a final decision expected by August.  

Join us at next year’s Connected America, 11-12 March in Dallas. Get discounted tickets here! 

Also in the news:
Comcast to spin off raft of cable TV channels
Colt and RMZ form $1.7bn Indian data centre JV
Bharti Global becomes BT’s largest shareholder