The Connecting Cambridgeshire project, which is led by the Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Combined Authority, has today issued a progress update on their “Dig Once” policy and efforts to accelerate the roll-out of gigabit broadband across the county, with 21.6km of new fibre ducting already installed or soon to be deployed. Both Cityfibre and Gigaclear have now harnessed this.

Just to recap. The programme’s “Dig Once” policy was one of the first to include fibre ducting in new transport infrastructure schemes, which formed part of their Digital Connectivity Infrastructure Strategy 2021-2025. So far 21.6km of new fibre ducting is in the process of being made available, or is planned during the construction of new road and cycleway schemes, by 2025 (largely unchanged from last year’s update).

The infrastructure can be accessed, on a commercial basis, via Light Blue Fibre, a Joint Venture (JV) between Cambridgeshire County Council and the University of Cambridge – making it quicker and easier for operators to extend gigabit networks and avoid costly, disruptive retrofitting.

Last year we reported that CityFibre were one of the first network operators to harness this for their deployment of FTTP to 5,000 premises in Whittlesey, while integrating fibre ducting in a major re-working of the Robin Hood Road junction also helped their roll-out in Cambridge.

Since then, rural focused ISP Gigaclear has also harnessed the pre-installed fibre ducting to avoid disruptive engineering works and provide full-fibre broadband to over 2,000 properties in Linton and the surrounding communities. The overall policy is also estimated to have prevented the release of more than 20 tonnes of CO2 (unchanged from last year), while reducing the need for costly, disruptive roadworks.

Cllr Ros Hathorn, Chair of Cambridgeshire County Council’s Assets and Procurement Committee, said:

“The Light Blue Fibre venture showcases the value of long-term collaboration and the importance of strategic planning to deliver greener and smarter infrastructure.

Connecting Cambridgeshire’s Dig Once policy demonstrates how we can work together to improve connectivity while reducing carbon emissions and disruption in our communities. By integrating digital infrastructure into our transport planning, we’re not only delivering short-term benefits but also laying the groundwork for a sustainable, connected future for the region.

So far, this policy has resulted in a huge CO2 reduction and significantly less disruption to road users, thanks to the proactive installation of ducting as part of new road projects.”

Light Blue Fibre is now said to be “in discussions” with a global cloud services provider to further extend the reach of its infrastructure, although they haven’t provided any further details on that.

Broadband ISP connections on CityFibre’s UK full fibre (FTTP) network in Glasgow have been knocked offline after a potential fire caused damage to the operator’s local Fibre Exchange (FEX) last night, which took down their core link (gla1215). But unusually they’re having to pull in a specialist electrician from Portsmouth as they don’t have any in Scotland.

The outage, which affected 1,936 of the provider’s local FTTP customers, appears to have started around 11:30pm following an “alert regarding high temperatures” at the Glasgow FEX. The operator’s engineers soon identified a “potential fire hazard” and immediately engaged the fire brigade, which then isolated the heat source from the power supply and cut power to the unit (hence why the core link went down).

The fire brigade then proceeded to ventilate the area and worked to lower the temperature, so engineers could safely access the exchange site. But by 5am this morning it was determined that the site “remains unsafe” and needed to be assessed by a fully qualified electrical engineer before CityFibre’s team could conduct their work.

However, none of the engineers on-site were found to be “fully qualified to perform the necessary assumptions or restoration work” (i.e. they need to bypass the UPS power, which has been cut, while the main power to the FEX is currently still active), which meant that the operator is having to pull in a qualified electrical engineer from as far away as Portsmouth on the south coast of England.

CityFibre Service Status Update (5am)

The vendor’s engineers on-site are not fully qualified to perform the necessary assumptions or restoration work. It has been confirmed that while the UPS power has been cut, the mains power to the FEX is still active. To safely bypass the UPS power, a qualified electrical engineer is required.

Unfortunately, the vendor currently has no qualified electrical engineers available in the Scottish region. They have assigned the task to an engineer based in Portsmouth, with an estimated time of arrival of 9:30 AM. All escalation avenues have been set with the vendor. Updates to follow pending the arrival of the Electrical Engineer.

In fairness, you often can’t just pull in any old electrician for this sort of job, which requires familiarity with the setup being used. But it is perhaps a little bit surprising, for an operator of their size, that they didn’t have any “qualified electrical engineers available” across the whole of the Scottish region or nearer than Portsmouth. At this stage it’s not known when the issue will be fully rectified, but that should hopefully occur sometime today.

Such exchanges form a vital part of CityFibre’s effort to cover up to 8 million UK premises with their Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network – representing c.30% of the UK. So far, they’ve covered around 3.8m premises and have connected 400,000 customers (8th May 2024), but are also known to be hunting for fresh investment (here). We have asked CityFibre to comment on this outage.

Broadband and mobile operator Virgin Media and O2 (VMO2) has today announced that around 1,500 employees (i.e. customer service, commercial and legal teams) are set to move to their new North West HQ in late 2025, which is to be based out of the Island (pictured) building – a net zero carbon workspace in central Manchester.

The new multi-million-pound contract, which is occurring because the lease on the operator’s Wythenshawe office (they’ve occupied this since 1991) is due to expire in early 2026 and ‘Island’ was their preferred replacement, reflects a 10-year agreement to take up around 50% of the new site – almost 50,000 sq ft – with the new regional HQ expected to be operational late next year.

The news follows similar developments in other parts of the country. For example, VMO2’s London-based employees are due to move from Hammersmith to a new state-of-the-art London HQ in Paddington in December 2024, while staff in Lanarkshire will move to a brand-new office space, Maxim Park, early next year. The company also has other core office locations in Reading, Birmingham and Leeds.

Patricia Cobian, VMO2’s Chief Financial Officer, said:

“This significant investment demonstrates our commitment to retaining a sizeable presence in Manchester, with a flagship new office that places us in the heart of the city’s thriving technology hub. With enviable environmental credentials and excellent transport links, this move will help reduce our carbon emissions and make it easier than ever for our employees to choose more environmentally-friendly modes of transport.”

The government’s Building Digital UK (BDUK) agency has revealed that they’ve made some tweaks to the state aid funded Project Gigabit broadband roll-out contracts for Teesdale (Lot 4.01) and North Northumberland (Lot 34.01), which were both awarded to alternative network ISP GoFibre (BorderLink) during 2022 (here and here).

Just to recap. The Government’s £5bn Project Gigabit programme has spent the past few years aiming to help extend 1Gbps download speeds (200Mbps+ uploads) to cover at least 85% of UK premises by 2025 (this has just been hit), before hopefully achieving “nationwide” coverage (c. 99%) by around 2030 (here). But over time it’s not usual for related contracts to be tweaked, which can result in changes to their planned coverage and funding.

Changes like this can occur due to various reasons, such as operators finding certain areas to be more expensive (or possibly cheaper) to build than originally expected, as well as greater than expected coverage of commercial networks (i.e. reducing the need for state aid builds) or knock-on impacts from neighbouring build contracts in other LOTS etc.

In this case, BDUK recently notified that both of their Local (Typa A) Project Gigabit contracts for Teesdale (Lot 4.01) and North Northumberland (Lot 34.01) have gone through some changes. For example, BDUK and GoFibre recently identified several hundred more eligible premises that could be added to the Teesdale Intervention Area, which means greater coverage than planned.

However, on the flip side, BDUK and GoFibre have “agreed to the reduction of premises scope in North Northumberland, in part to mitigate existing gigabit-capable coverage“. This is usually done to avoid making an unnecessary public investment in areas that have since got access to gigabit-capable broadband.

Teesdale Lot 4.01 Contract Changes

Original
Original figure
Revised figure

Funding Allocated
£6,602,000
£6,980,887

Total number of uncommercial premises in Contract
4,079
4,441

Northumberland Lot 34.01 Contract Changes

Original
Original figure
Jan 2024 figure
Revised figure

Funding Allocated
£7.3m
£6.6m
£5,660,154

Total number of uncommercial premises in Contract
3,790
3,898
3,698

The eagle eyed among you may notice that the Northumberland Lot also underwent another tweak in January 2024, prior to the latest adjustment. The January tweak occurred due to both BDUK and GoFibre gaining a better understanding of the Intervention Area during build and survey work, which removed 40 premises from scope whilst adding 148 and, in the process, reducing the amount of public funding needed to deliver this.

The latest figures mean that Lot 34.01 will still deliver to a roughly similar number of premises as originally announced (c.100 less than originally planned), albeit at a significantly lower cost in terms of the public investment required.

News 

The huge growth of AI, particularly generative AI, has skyrocketed tech company’s energy usage

Google has signed the world’s first nuclear energy agreement with Kairos Power to supply nuclear power to meet its electricity demand for AI. 

The financial details of the deal were not disclosed, not where the plants are to be built. The first reactor is expected to go online by 2030, with more to follow by 2035. The deal aims to support the growing electricity demands of AI technologies, which are driving scientific and business advancements. Nuclear energy provides reliable, 24/7 power and helps cut carbon emissions, aligning with Google’s energy goals. 

Kairos Power’s reactors use a safe, molten-salt cooling system and ceramic fuel to generate power more efficiently. Their design allows for faster construction and easier deployment. The company has already started building its first demonstration reactor in Tennessee. 

This nuclear deal is part of Google’s broader strategy to expand clean energy options, adding to their previous investments in solar, wind, and geothermal power. Google aims to power all of its operations—data centers, offices, and more—with carbon-free energy every hour of every day by 2030. 

“Nuclear solutions offer a clean, round-the-clock power source that can help us reliably meet electricity demands with carbon-free energy every hour of every day,” said Michael Terrell Senior Director of Energy and Climate in a company blog post. 

“The grid needs new electricity sources to support AI technologies that are powering major scientific advances, improving services for businesses and customers, and driving national competitiveness and economic growth,” he continued. 

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

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News 

The company recently received a cash injection of £400 million in a rescue deal 

TalkTalk’s auditor Deloitte has quit after over 22 years in the position, according to a recent report from the Telegraph. 

Deloitte cited serious concerns over the telecom company’s financial controls. The resignation letter from Deloitte pointed to “weaknesses and deficiencies” in TalkTalk’s internal controls over financial reporting, which had not been addressed despite previous warnings. It is “not at the level we would expect for groups of the scale and complexity of TalkTalk,” according to Deloitte’s resignation letter. 

A spokesperson for TalkTalk told the Telegraph that the move was planned, and followed a break up of the TalkTalk group last year, where it split into three separate companies: wholesale, consumer broadband and small business. London based RSM has been appointed as the replacement. 

In the report, James Ratzer, analyst at New Street Research, explained that Deloitte’s exit “reduces the chance that any company would want to take over TalkTalk”. 

The company has been in hot water with debt struggles for several years, as has been teetering on the edge of collapse in the last few months, with its current debt pile standing at almost £1 billion. In August, TalkTalk announced that it has signed a binding agreement on a refinancing deal. Here, company shareholders – including founder Sir Charles Dunstone, Toscafund, and Ares Management – agreed to inject an additional £170 million into the business, in addition to the £65 million invested in July. 

The deal also included the transfer of assets including Virtual subsidiary and the customer bases of Ovo and Shell, bringing the total refinancing to over £400 million. 

This will allow TalkTalk to extend the debt repayment deadlines which were originally due in November 2024 and February 2025. The new agreement will push the debt maturities out to September 2027, giving the company more time to square up its finances. 

Just incase this does not work out, the Telegraph also reported that Ofcom is putting together a “supplier of last resort” regime in case the company does collapse. 

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

Also in the news:
Singtel becomes latest telco to launch AI cloud services
South Korean telcos accused of collusion, may face fines of $4bn
Hexatronic: Innovation will be needed to reach rural customers

Edinburgh-based UK alternative network ISP GoFibre (BorderLink) has today announced that they’ve “completed” their planned roll-out of a new full fibre (FTTP) broadband network to the Borders area, which has covered 25,000 rural premises. This is a big chunk of the 118,000 they already cover across the North of England and Scotland (up from 115k on 28th Aug 2024).

The announcement notes that more than 500 business customers, such as Borders Buses, are also now connected to the network. But GoFibre’s impact in the Borders area also extends across 25,000 premises in locations like Galashiels, Kelso, Melrose, Selkirk, Hawick, Jedburgh and Duns, and 13,000 premises in North Northumberland, including Wooler, Seahouses, Cornhill-on-Tweed, Belford, Berwick-upon-Tweed and Alnwick.

Customers of the GoFibre’s network can expect to pay from £36 per month (currently discounted to £29) for a 150Mbps (30Mbps upload) package on a 24-month term with an included wireless router, which rises to £69 per month (currently discounted to £49) for their top 1000Mbps (100Mbps upload) plan. The latter also comes with a bonus Wi-Fi extender (this can optionally be taken on other plans at extra cost).

Sam Calvert, Chief Revenue Officer at GoFibre, said:

“GoFibre and Borders Buses are joining forces to keep people connected in the Borders – whether digitally, or getting out and about. As a company rooted in the Borders, it’s incredibly rewarding to witness the positive impact our broadband service has had on a cornerstone business like Borders Buses.

GoFibre’s mission is to deliver reliable, high speed internet to underserved communities, and this partnership with Borders Buses illustrates how robust digital infrastructure can transform everyday operations. We are dedicated to supporting local businesses empowering them with the essential tools they need to thrive in today’s digital world, demonstrated by our success in reaching out to business”

Hampshire-based network builder and ISP toob, which is rolling out a gigabit speed full fibre (FTTP) network across parts of South England, has expanded their availability to include the Bedfordshire town of Luton, as well as the cities of Cambridge (Cambridgeshire) and Leicester (Leicestershire). But this will be via their partnership with Cityfibre (not own build).

Just to recap. Toob is currently being financed through equity from funds managed and advised by the Amber Infrastructure Group, as well a huge amount of debt financing provided by Ares Management’s Infrastructure Debt (here). At the end of 2023 this mix of equity and debt reflected a total commitment of £395m.

However, as mentioned earlier, toob both builds their own Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) infrastructure and holds a complementary network partnership with CityFibre to help expand their coverage (CF also gains reciprocal access to harness toob’s network). The announcement of an expansion into Cambridge, Luton, and Leicester thus reflects that partnership with CityFibre’s existing FTTP network, rather than their own build.

Nick Parbutt, CEO of toob, said:

“I am delighted to bring toob’s full-fibre broadband service to the residents of Cambridge, Luton and Leicester. For too long customers have been taken for granted by their broadband suppliers, with poor service and above inflationary price increases.

toob is focused on what customers really need, fast, reliable broadband at an affordable price. toob’s service is delivered through our partnership with CityFibre using full-fibre technology, which is the most reliable technology available.

Customers will get the benefit of full-fibre broadband with speeds of 900Mbps for only £29 per month on an 18 month contract. Also, with our toob promise customers can be assured that there will be no in-contract price rises unlike many broadband suppliers.”

The announcement comes shortly after toob published their latest annual accounts to the end of 2023, which among other things revealed that they were aiming to “largely complete the current phase of expansion of its network to 300,000 premises … during 2024.” But it’s unclear whether this reflects their own network build or the combined reach with CityFibre’s availability.

Toob’s accounts also reported an operating loss of £19.48m (2022: £13.57m), capex of £38.68m (2022: £26.39m), revenue of £5.5m (2022: £2.16m) and total liabilities of £214.7m (2022: £139.6m).

Network operator Openreach (BT) has named Exeter engineer Mari Owen (40), who installs full fibre (FTTP) broadband around Devon and Cornwall in South West England, as their ‘Engineer of the Year 2024‘ for her “outside the box” approach to problem-solving and ability to tackle “some of the most complex and diverse jobs“.

Mari Owen, who only started as a trainee with the UK’s biggest broadband network provider in 2020, won Openreach’s highest engineering award at the company’s annual Shining Stars ceremony in London. The 40-year-old was recently promoted to Service Delivery patch lead in the Exeter area, helping to provide Full Fibre broadband to homes and businesses, looking after the network and making sure people stay connected.

As well as being presented with the award, Mari will also be able to drive an Openreach van with the “special … OR74 ENG” licence plate. So that’s.. something.

Mari said:

“I didn’t expect to win, and I’m so grateful and honoured. I’d like to say thank you for all the nominations and recognitions I’ve received. The event was spectacular. Phoning my Mum in Romania from the BT Tower and telling her I’d won was very special. I don’t think it’s sunk in yet, and it has definitely been the highlight of my career so far.

Work hard and never give up. Have the right attitude and work ethic, be proud of what you do and never stop learning from everyone around you.”

Last year’s winner was Glenrothes engineer Lee Carmichael for his repairs, installs, out-of-the-box thinking and support for colleagues.

News 

The news comes just weeks after the company inked deal with Indian telco Vodafone Idea 

Sweden’s Ericsson has won a new multi-billion dollar 5G equipment contract with Bharti Airtel according to an exclusive Reuters article published this week, citing people familiar with the matter. 

Financial details of the deal have not been disclosed, but according to Reuters, the newly secured contracts are expected to boost Ericsson’s revenue for 2025, after a fall in contracts from India in the first half of this year. 

Just weeks ago, Ericsson won part of a $3.6 billion deal, and expanded its preexisting partnership with Vodafone Idea to upgrade its 4G network and introduce 5G services in in key regions, including Delhi, Kerala, Chhattisgarh, and Rajasthan. 

This week, the company also released its third quarter results for 2024, which showed mixed performance with regional differences. While overall sales fell 1% year-on-year to SEK 61.8 billion (USD 5.4 billion), North America saw a strong 55% growth in sales, balancing out declines in other regions. The company’s gross margin improved to 46.3%, driven by cost savings, better market positioning, and higher revenue from intellectual property rights (IPR).

Adjusted EBITA increased 64% year-on-year to SEK 7.8 billion (USD 677 million), with a margin of 12.6%, helped by higher gross income and cost controls. Net income rose sharply to SEK 3.9 billion (USD 339 million), recovering from a SEK 30.5 billion (USD 2.65 billion) loss in Q3 2023.

“Q3 marks a period of laser-focus on execution of our strategic plan. We see increasing customer momentum around programmable networks that deliver differentiated performance, and expect further traction, supported by the JV we have announced with 12 of the world’s largest telecom operators. The JV will aggregate network APIs, accelerating commercialization and generating new opportunities for network monetization.,” said Börje Ekholm, President and CEO. 

“We see signs that the overall market is stabilizing with North America, as an early adopter market, returning to growth. While the market development is ultimately in the hands of our customers, we are working to deliver operational excellence regardless of market conditions,” he continued. 

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