London-registered network operator EXA Infrastructure has today launched its new Managed Fibre Network (MFN) service to “address market demands for increased connectivity and shorter service delivery times“, which is also said to provide the “benefits of dark fibre and equipment ownership“, albeit without the usual costs of in-house delivery.

The new service will take advantage of the company’s existing reach – covering over 155,000 kilometres of fibre across 37 countries, as well as more than 500 Points of Presence (PoP). But the MFN service is currently only available in 29 European countries, plus the United States and Canada (31).

EXA Infrastructure’s said their MFN enables companies to “fill network gaps, connect data centres and cable landing stations, and rapidly scale into markets quickly and effortlessly“.

Steve Roberts, VP of Strategic Investments and Product Management at EXA Infrastructure, said:

“EXA Infrastructure has managed networks for our customers for years, so this is our bread and butter. Our extensive network, combined with extensive experience in managing different variations of subsea services for customers, means that our engineers and NOC staff are well poised to deliver best in breed service across our MFN customers. We are thrilled to launch our MFN offering today and look forward to continuing to support our customers to meet the never-ending demand for connectivity.”

Debt-troubled broadband ISP TalkTalk, which was recently saved from the immediate risk of a default by a refinancing package worth roughly £400m (here and here), may now find it even harder to find a buyer after their auditor of 22 years – Deloitte – resigned and was replaced by RSM.

The refinancing agreement came after the Group had already spent much of the past few years wrestling with some suffocating debts, which in 2023 culminated in a plan to demerge the group into three separate businesses (TalkTalk Consumer, TalkTalk Business Direct and the wholesale centric PlatformX Communications – here), while also cutting costs (e.g. marketing) and monetising some assets (e.g. selling IP addresses).

The demerger should have also made it easier to sell off individual parts of the business (selling the entire group has proven tricky) and the first piece to go was technically TalkTalk Business Direct, which ended up being sold to the company’s own shareholders for £95m after struggling to attract much interest (here). But so far there have been no further deals, while reports suggest that a proposed deal with Australian banking giant Macquarie for a stake in PlatformX (PXC) fell through.

According to The Telegraph (paywall), an analyst at New Street Research, James Ratzer, said Deloitte’s resignation “reduces the chance that any company would want to take over TalkTalk”. Suffice to say that TalkTalk may have patched up the still leaky roof and brought itself some time to resolve the underlying problem, but it’s by no means out of the woods yet.

The same newspaper also repeats a claim that Ofcom is “drawing up plans” for a “supplier of last resort” regime in the event of a company collapse in the sector (they’ve been reporting the same thing for the last couple of years), although the regulator has long had a general supplier of last resort process to protect customers. Most of the time, when ISPs have fallen into trouble before, then solutions are usually found to migrate the customer base long before the situation puts them at risk of disconnection. In any case, TalkTalk isn’t yet at such a risk.

The UK Government (DSIT) has published an evaluation report into the c.£6.2 million “Fibre in Water” trial (Project TAWCO), which tested the deployment of fibre optic (FTTP) cables through a live water mains (used for drinking water) but, as we previously reported (here), ended up being stalled due to several issues.

Just to recap. The FiW project consisted of three phases (phase two was the physical build and phase three would have been live operation), with phase one – supported by a consortium led by Yorkshire Water – being broadly focused on researching the legal and safety aspects of the plan, as well as some survey work.

Phase One developed a potentially workable commercial model between the two industries, which sought to deploy a direct route using 8km of Fibre in Water and predicted that around 7,000 rural premises could benefit. But this was less than the original proposal (17km and 8,500 premises) because survey work revealed that a high number of private landowners along the route needed to be negotiated with and compensated for access.

However, the previous report noted that the decision to stop the trial before Phase 2 (build) mainly centred around three key issues – uncertainty around the best commercial model to adopt, the financial risk that only one small start-up has the capability of installing the cables and the somewhat crucial lack of Reg 31 (regulatory) approval from the Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI). Some conflicts with the Project Gigabit contract for South Yorkshire also impacted their plan.

The final gov evaluation report, which was published on Friday, isn’t as detailed as the project’s own report from earlier in the year. But it does note that testing, done as part of the regulatory approval process, identified that the chosen installation method can “disturb the water flow, unsettling sediment at the base of the water mains causing it to be introduced into the drinking water supply … This could create significant risks to water quality.”

The report also notes that there existed a sole provider of the key technology needed to complete the project. For fairness of competition, the technology provider was excluded from consortia at the bid stage. However, the report notes that its government sponsors could have considered a greater emphasis on the risks, and associated mitigations, that a monopoly provider introduces to the technical feasibility of the project delivery. The delivery timeline was also viewed as being too ambitious and likely to have discouraged some bidders.

Summary of Lessons Learnt

Business case supporting Phase 1

For innovative projects that are considered to have a high risk of delivery, we recommend structuring the business case to identify the value for money of the independent phases of the project. If the project does not pass the gateway review at the end of Phase 1, then the realised benefits still return value for money to the funder. In part due to the uniqueness of FiW, there is no ready example of this approach successfully being implemented in a similarly complex project.

Understanding the requirements and barriers of building a competitive consortium

FiW received two applications, one of which did not meet the bid requirements by not including a water company within the consortium. The successful consortium required changes at the project start that included replacing key members of the consortium. Providing enough time and market engagement can aid applicants to build a competitive consortium and compile a winning bid. However, a greater consideration of the potential barriers to building a competitive consortium could offer more effective support to applicants and ultimately enhance the number of quality bids received.

Inclusion of a sole technology provider, if such a monopoly exists

For future projects that have a sole technology provider, allowing their inclusion within the project consortium post competition, could mitigate potential communication issues between the project team and the technology provider. This could also aid the alignment of incentives with the project outcomes.

More adaptive project structure

A majority of the project consortium noted that they would have liked a more adaptive project structure, to allow for adjustments to be made more efficiently during delivery. This reflects the innovative nature of the project, where flexibility was important in order to allocate resources to meet the desired outcomes. As partners learned more about the environment the project was operating within, particularly with respect to understanding the regulatory landscape, being able to reallocate resources more effectively may have helped overcome some of the challenges the consortium faced.

Early and clear communication during project inception with all key government departments

The project could have benefited from stronger communication links between departments in the early stages of the project to provide clear indication of responsibilities and level of involvement of project members. A clear delegation of responsibilities can be identified and agreed using a Ways of Working document.

Trial the technical solution in a closed system

Introduce a pilot of the solution that is not within the live drinking water mains but in a closed water system. Using the Innovation Fund, Ofwat have constructed the National Leakage and Test Research Centre, which is a 5km closed water system. This process could have gathered data on water leakage detection, cost of installation, and the durability of the technology without requiring immediate access to drinking water mains.

Separation of technical and commercial feasibility studies

Phase 1 of FiW included a feasibility study which covered technical and commercial concerns. We recommend structuring the project to require first a technical assessment followed by a gateway decision which, if passed, leads to a commercial feasibility study. This should allow for more focus and resources to be directed towards each element in turn and allow more accountability within the project delivery team, across both the consortium and government sponsors.

Include regulatory expertise in the consortium or commissioning team:

The consortium had a vested interest in understanding the details of Regulation 31 and the requirements for approval. Including regulatory expertise within the consortium, for projects involving regulation of drinking water infrastructure, would help navigate the regulatory landscape and mitigate some of the risks surrounding technical feasibility.

At the end of the day this was an interesting project, albeit one that doesn’t seem as if it will be going any further and, even if it did, then a solution would likely end up arriving too late to have much of a positive impact upon the government’s gigabit broadband targets.

Infracapital-backed network builder and UK ISP Ogi, which is deploying a new Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network across South Wales, has today announced that they’ve “worked closely” with Amazon to launch a bespoke Welsh language service that now comes built-in to the latest eero WiFi router software..

Customers of Ogi’s network, which is currently available to 100,000 ‘Ready for Service’ premises in Wales (20,000 customers have already joined), are currently able to get Amazon’s eero 6 Wi-Fi mesh routers on both their 400Mbps and top 1000Mbps broadband packages (the provider’s 200Mbps plan comes with a Zyxel EX3301 instead).

However, engineers at eero have now customised the mobile app, incorporating familiar Welsh-language terms to help enhance the experience. But this isn’t limited to Ogi’s customers and Welsh language support is now available to all eero users by downloading the latest software update (release v6.47.0).

Ogi’s Brand Marketing Director, Sarah Vining, said:

“Ogi’s mission has always been to provide world-class services that are inherently Welsh. Working with the team at eero, we’re not only bringing cutting-edge technology to Welsh homes but also making it more accessible for our customers, and for users all over Wales too. This partnership reflects our shared vision to make the internet more accessible to everyone.”

Mark Sieglock, eero EVP of Software and Services, said:

“We’re thrilled to partner with Ogi to add Welsh language support, making the eero app more accessible to Welsh speakers in Wales.”

Network operator CityFibre has given ISPreview an update on the effort to upgrade their GPON based Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network for ISPs to XGS-PON, which can handle broadband speeds of up to 10Gbps (Gigabits per second). However, not much progress seems to have been made since the end of 2023, but it is still moving forward.

In case anybody has forgotten, CityFibre started their upgrade in the spring of 2023 (here). The operator’s network previously used Calix’s GPON (Gigabit Passive Optical Network) technology and this invariably places constraints on how much capacity can be delivered to each end user (i.e. GPON shares capacity of 2.48Gbps downstream and 1.24Gbps upstream between 8 to 32 users).

By comparison the switch to XGS-PON, using kit and services from both Nokia and Calix, has enabled them to support symmetric speeds of 10Gbps (9.953Gbps to be exact). But like most providers using this type of platform, they initially started (here) by offering a more modest top tier of 2.5Gbps to supporting ISPs and consumers (e.g. Vodafone, TalkTalk, Zen Internet and many more).

However, the challenge for ISPs has been in the limited coverage of CityFibre’s XGS-PON platform, which hasn’t been expanding as quickly as some might have liked. The operator had previously set a target for 90% of its fibre exchanges and 20% of its ‘Ready for Service‘ (RFS) footprint (premises) to be upgraded by the end of 2023, so we were a little surprised to find that not much had changed.

A spokesperson for CityFibre told ISPreview:

“The rollout of XGS-PON across our network continues at pace, with equipment deployed into over 90% of our fibre exchanges and new XGS-PON products already available to around 20% of our ready for service footprint as planned.

We are pleased by the progress to date but are committed to further accelerating the upgrade of our entire network to XGS-PON, supporting the introduction of an expanded symmetrical multi-gigabit product portfolio for our ISP partners and delivering world-class full fibre broadband to millions of homes.”

The catch in all this is that CityFibre has often been coy about saying precisely when they’d achieve 100% coverage of their network or close to that, which makes it difficult to judge their progress. But after a bit of nudging, we were eventually told that the operator was “on track to double our XGS-PON footprint to 40% by the end of the year” (RFS premises).

Put another way, if the operator continues to do c.20% each year then it could take another three years to complete the upgrade (by the end of 2027). But ISPreview understands that CityFibre will be looking to further accelerate the upgrade of their network throughout 2025, which could yet change that calculation in a more positive direction.

In relation to all this, we recently noted that one ISP, Yayzi Broadband, appeared to be conducting trials (here) of “upgrades on demand … so if we get X interest in an area for 2.3Gb then when it reaches this point they will upgrade the local node“, which could make it quicker for some areas to benefit from the top speeds. But we understand that CityFibre isn’t currently looking to shift to a demand led approach for XGS-PON upgrades.

However, it is very important to remember that even the top GPON package (2Gbps down and 1Gbps upload) is still exceptionally fast, and more than the vast majority of UK consumers would either need or even be able to fully harness today.

The alternative network operator currently still aspires to cover up to 8 million UK premises with their new full fibre network (funded by c.£2.4bn in equity, c.£4.9bn debt and c.£800m of BDUK / public subsidy) – 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).

A small but growing number of O2 UK’s (Virgin Media) mobile customers have reported that the operator has assigned an Internet Protocol v6 (IPv6) address to their connections, although in most cases the IP address itself is not fully functional (certainly doesn’t work on data / mobile broadband connections).

At this point we’ve long since given up chasing the industry’s remaining IPv6 laggards, such as Virgin Media and O2, to find out when they’ll get around to actually deploying it – this is largely due to the many false starts and missed promises we’ve seen over the years. But we do still keep an eye out for any practical developments on this front.

Suffice to say that, over the past couple of months, we’ve seen a noticeable up-tick in O2 customers, both directly and via some of their MVNO partners on the same platform (e.g. giffgaff), reporting that their mobile connections and Smartphones have been assigned an IPv6 address – even if the v6 address itself doesn’t appear to function (e.g. you can’t ping them) and hasn’t yet been fully assigned to an ASN (Autonomous System Number).

So far all of the IPv6 addresses we’ve had reported appear to form part of the same 2a03:dd00::/32 (CIDR) range, which is owned by Telefonica UK Limited. But O2 itself remains vague on their plans, with a spokesperson telling ISPreview: “We are continually reviewing our IPv6 strategy and will announce any plans in due course.” Back to waiting, then.

News

The service claims to make AI adoption easier and more affordable for businesses 

Singaporean telco Singtel has launched RE:AI, a new cloud-based service designed to make artificial intelligence (AI) easier for businesses and public sector organisations to access and use.  

Launched yesterday, the service provides affordable AI solutions without the need for companies to invest in expensive infrastructure or specialist skills. 

The AI cloud solution offers customers access to high-performance computing, data storage, and AI tools, all managed through Singtel’s Paragon platform. This, combined with Singtel’s network infrastructure, including 5G and quantum safe networks, allows enterprises to manage and scale AI applications across their organisation.  

“With the launch of RE:AI, we’re significantly reducing entry barriers, making AI easily accessible to enterprises, government agencies, research communities and academia – the more people have access to AI, the more innovation is bound to emerge, which in turn fuels growth,” said Singtel’s CEO Bill Chang in a press release. 

“RE:AI will foster a dynamic ecosystem of partners with distinctive capabilities and platforms to accelerate AI adoption to drive innovation and growth in Singapore and the region, sustainably,” he continued. 

The launch fits with Singtel’s broader plans for digital transformation. Back in August, the company announced a strategic partnership to bring its GPU-as-a-Service (GPUaaS) offerings to business across Southeast Asia. Regional telcos AIS, Maxid and Telkomsel are the first to take up the offering.   

Singtel is also expanding its AI infrastructure through global partnerships, and is developing new AI-ready data centres via its Nxera arm. In June this year, Singtel became a founding member of the Global Telco AI Alliance, along with Deutsche Telekom, SK Telecom, e&, and SoftBank. The joint venture will develop multi lingual Large Language Models (LLMs), specifically designed to meet telco needs, in areas such as improving customer interactions via digital assistants and chatbots. The LLMs will be tailored to the needs of the five companies in their respective markets, allowing them to reach a combined customer base of around 1.3 billion people in 50 countries. 

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

Also in the news:
“We’re the best kept secret in data centre and cloud,” says Nokia at Connected Britain
Submarine cable damage in the Red Sea ‘severely underestimated’
Vodafone and Google deepen relationship with 10-year AI partnership

News

SK Telecom (SKT), KT, and LG Uplus allegedly coordinated to keep their sales incentives at the same level

This week, South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission (FTC) has announced a preliminary decision to impose fines of up to $4.1 billion on the nation’s three telco giants.

SK Telecom, KT, and LG Uplus are accused of sharing internal information with each other between 2015 and 2022, allegedly to align their sales incentives paid to mobile phone retailers.

According to local media, if the FTC’s decision is finalised, the regulator intends to charge SKT between $1.05 billion and $1.63 billion, KT between $750.7 million and $1.3 billion, and LG Uplus between $732.2 million and $1.2 billion.

If imposed, these fines could be catastrophic for the operators, with even the lower bounds of these fines being far greater than their respective net incomes.

It is worth noting, however, that what the FTC here may consider to be collusion could, in fact, be efforts to follow government guidance.

In 2014, the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) introduced guidance as part of the Mobile Device Distribution Improvement Act that told operators to provide sales incentives of around 300,000 won ($222).

This Act was intended to promote competition in the mobile market by preventing major handset discounts and thereby maintaining a level of pricing stability. A decade on, however, and the Mobile Device Distribution Improvement Act is largely seen as a failure, having inadvertently served to maintain high prices for customers.

As a result, the South Korean government announced plans to abolish the Act at the start of this year.

But regardless of the Act’s ultimately failure, the KCC points out that the telcos were nonetheless following government guidance in their incentive strategies during the period in question.

“The KCC has delivered its opinions to the FTC multiple times, highlighting that it is difficult to view the case as collusion,” said KCC Secretary General Cho Sung-eun at a National Assembly audit on Monday.

He added that the KCC’s own investigation had not found evidence of collusion.

“The FTC and KCC have been collaborating since the investigation of the allegation began and will continue to closely communicate with each other through the upcoming processes,” said the FTC in a statement.

The FTC’s final decision on the matter is expected to be delivered early next year.

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

Also in the news:
“We’re the best kept secret in data centre and cloud,” says Nokia at Connected Britain
Submarine cable damage in the Red Sea ‘severely underestimated’
Vodafone and Google deepen relationship with 10-year AI partnership 

Viewpoint

[Paris, France, October 9, 2024] During Network X 2024 — Broadband World Forum (BBWF), Huawei teamed up with carriers and Informa to hold the All-Optical Access Innovation Summit, bringing together heavyweight analysts, carrier customers, and Huawei experts. They discussed a range of frontier topics such as the launch of 50G PON for 10Gbps, 10G PON true gigabit experience, FTTR scale-up, Wi-Fi 7 2+2 industry generation guidance, network construction with optimal TCO, and premium broadband experience management. Through discussions, they outlined the development trend of the global 10Gbps industry.

Feng Zhishan, President of Huawei Optical Access Network Product Line, delivered a keynote speech titled ” F5.5G Booming, Moving Towards an Intelligent World”. He pointed out that the rapid emergence of AI applications drives the optical broadband industry to evolve to gigabit/10Giga intelligent access networks, and that now is the time to develop F5.5G all-optical intelligent access networks. Huawei launched three innovations: the industry’s first 16-port 50G PON service board, 50G PON FTTR and distributed AI computing engine, and the industry’s first intelligent home broadband model — Agent. By doing so, Huawei expects to build an all-optical intelligent access network that features deterministic experience, gigabit/10Gbps access, and computing-network integration. This can help accelerate the popularization of gigabit and the commercial use of 50G PON for  10Gbps, promote the innovation of intelligent applications, and help carriers seize new opportunities in the 10Gbps all-optical network era. All of this further propels us towards an intelligent world.

Stephen Wilson, Chief Analyst at Omdia, said the emergence of new AI applications, fierce market competition, and opportunities for ARPU growth are compelling carriers to upgrade to 10G PON, which is now a mainstream technology that has been launched by many carriers across the world. Wi-Fi 7 is gaining popularity among consumers, and shipments of Wi-Fi 7 CPEs among broadband carriers are expected to surge. Dual-band Wi-Fi 7 CPEs with 2×2 MIMO are an ideal choice for many carriers considering spectrum resources, power consumption, and user experience.

Peter Weiget, Lead Architect of Network Connectivity at Swisscom, said, “Swisscom is dedicated to providing a faster and more intelligent all-optical access network. Based on the FANO target network architecture, Swisscom uses 50G PON to provide the best access services and provide customers with network rates of up to 50Gbps. It also supports XGS-PON and 50G-PON Combo mode, achieving smooth service upgrade.”

Hudson KC Lou, SVP of Network Services and Development at CTM Macau, China, stated that CTM is committed to providing ultimate network experience for local residents with three innovations: FTTR services that feature full-home gigabit Wi-Fi coverage, differentiated intelligent acceleration services for eSports, and “Wi-Fi Manager for intelligent O&M”. To embrace the upcoming F5.5G 10Gbps era, CTM focuses on deploying mobile smart home and cloud storage services at the application level, and uses Wi-Fi 7 FTTR technology on home networks and 50G PON on access networks, driving the development of “Digital Macau 3.0”.

In a speech titled “One fiber to One Home, iFTTR Lights up Smart Life”, David Yi, General Manager of Huawei’s Home Network Domain, noted that, in the digital era, more smart home devices need to be deeply integrated with networks, and a unified smart home base is critical to high-quality smart home services. Huawei iFTTR OptiXstar F50 is the industry’s first FTTR+X product. It helps build a unified smart home base and provides storage, sensing, computing, and control capabilities. In this way, it can enable many smart home application scenarios, such as home guard, home healthcare, HD live broadcast, cloud gaming, and remote education. All of this brings users better smart life experience, propelling us towards a smart home era.

Balla Peter, Fixed Access Network Product Owner of DTAG, shared valuable experience in the successful development of 10G PON. He also pointed out that amid the rapid growth of live streaming, IoT, and remote work, the demand for bandwidth has skyrocketed, prompting us to pursue true gigabit experience. The company’s fiber strategy plays a fundamental role in the development towards 10G PON. In this case, the company focuses not just on network speed but also on creating a scalable and reliable network to meet future requirements.

Allen Zheng, Chief System Engineer of Huawei Optical Access Network, said that new digital and intelligent services drive continuous broadband evolution. Access networks should fulfill the following requirements: 0 video freezing, 0-wait experience, and 0-delay intelligence. Huawei intelligent OLTs can provide three key capabilities for the best service experience and new broadband growth:

1. Ultra-broadband: from leading 10G PON to the industry’s first commercial 50G PON solution;
2. The industry’s first dual-plane forwarding and hardware slicing: from best-effort experience to deterministic experience;
3. FAN intelligent engine: The industry’s first native intelligence enables quality on demand for carriers.

Cisternas Gonzalez Nicolas, Entel 2H Product Director, delivered a speech titled “Premium Broadband Operation Brings Ultra-Gigabit Experience to Every Chile Home”. In the speech, he introduced how Entel provides the best home connectivity experience in Chile and discussed its strategy in maintaining leadership. The company expects to expand home services to Peru and continuously improving user experience. He emphasized Entel’s focus on innovation and its position as a pioneer in the region thanks to technologies such as 10G PON and Wi-Fi 7 optical terminals.

Xu Fan, Chief Architect of Huawei’s Access Network Domain, said that as AI keeps growing, different applications have different requirements on bandwidth and latency. Huawei has introduced FIE intelligence technology to its latest access network solution. The wireless optical network (AI-WON) architecture, where APP-Flow at the intelligent service layer and OLTs at the intelligent network layer coordinate with the FTTR solution, provides ms-level adaptive closed loops and on-demand deterministic experience, helping carriers provide SLA payment methods based on bandwidth and latency. All this promotes experience monetization.

As a leader in the global optical network field, Huawei is committed to working closely with industry partners to explore and innovate in three dimensions: bandwidth expansion, user experience optimization, and intelligent upgrade. In this way, Huawei aims to promote the evolution of F5.5G technologies, propelling us towards an intelligent world.

Broadband ISP Virgin Media (O2) has issued a brief update on the gradual roll-out of “Smart Support”, which is a new service that aims to boost the reliability of internet connections by proactively identifying and tackling issues remotely at no extra cost. Some 200,000 customers have now benefitted from this (up from 50k in July), with 150k more to join by the end of 2024.

Just to recap. The Smart Support service is built on technology from Cisco’s ThousandEyes (formerly SamKnows) platform (i.e. cloud-based data sets and advanced device ID technology), which initially targeted customers “whose connections will be checked throughout the year as the service learns and evolves” (i.e. it monitors for things like speed drops and disconnections), before being rolled out more widely.

Smart Support is still going through Phase 2 of its deployment and is currently only “available to fibre customers and not full fibre” ones, which in the land of Virgin’s peculiar definitions means that it will work on both their Hybrid Fibre Coax (HFC) and RFoG (Radio Frequency over Glass) based FTTP broadband lines, but not their latest XGS-PON FTTP network (many ordinary users probably won’t know which one they have).

The forthcoming Phase 3 deployment will also add machine learning to help fix faults and prevent them from reoccurring, but we still don’t know when that will begin. After that, the plan is to develop Smart support to support digital TV issues (e.g. buffering), but for now it’s focused purely on the core internet connectivity angle.

Smart Support’s Multi-Layered Approach Includes:

➤ Always-on monitoring: Using smart support technology to constantly monitor the customer’s broadband speeds and connection performance.

➤ Problem solving: If a fault is detected, the WiFi Hub will work automatically overnight to try and resolve the issue.

➤ Tailored advice: If the suspected issue cannot be fixed remotely, the customer will be sent personalised advice on how they can try to resolve the issue themselves.

➤ Easy to book expert help: Should this be unsuccessful; the customer will be invited to book a free engineer appointment at a time that suits them.

➤ Regular check-ins: The customer’s connection will be monitored continually and they will be updated within 48 hours at every step.

One other benefit of this approach is that it could reduce calls to Virgin Media’s support lines, since customers won’t need to manually report all of their faults. But we should point out that proactive monitoring of broadband lines is something that other ISPs have also adopted, albeit to varying different levels of effectiveness and sophistication. Sometimes this comes as part of a premium add-on, while in other cases it’s a default feature.

Gareth Lister, Director of Connectivity at Virgin Media O2, said:

“We’re committed to giving our customers the very best broadband experience, that’s why we’ve invested in accelerating the roll out of smart support so even more homes can benefit from the service at no extra cost each month. Smart support is a unique benefit that no other major network offers. This game-changing technology will give our customers extra peace of mind, without them having to lift a finger.”