A rather basic new study, which was conducted by tech refurbishment firm Back Market, has analysed the number of nuisance call reports coming from 752 area codes across the UK – as reported on who-called.co.uk – to see which ones receive the highest percentage of reports nationally. Perhaps unsurprisingly, given its size, London was found to be the area most exploited by cold callers.

The researchers also analysed the most recent comments left while making these reports to determine what people had to say about the most common scams nationally. Overall, London took the top spot for the area where the most nuisance calls originate from in the UK. A total of 3.58 million reports of nuisance phone numbers have been made against 020 area code numbers on who-called.co.uk, making up 20.14% of the UK’s 17.77 million reports.

Naturally, Manchester was the second-hardest hit by nuisance callers, with 3.44% of all reports filed nationally against 0161 area code numbers. In total, Manchester numbers have had 611,150 nuisance caller reports. But this is where things take an unexpected turn, with the relatively small market town of Blandford Forum in Dorset somehow managing to come third in the table (2.86%).

The 01258 area code for Blandford Forum received 508,653 nuisance call reports in total, which is very unusual for a location with a population of just 11,796. But it also received significantly fewer look-ups (1,218,237) by visitors of the related website, which suggests to us that the data should perhaps be taken with a pinch of salt (they also fail to specify what time period the data covers)

The study also found that scammers routinely impersonate trusted institutions like banks, Amazon, and broadband ISPs such as BT. Banks were the most frequent institution scammers impersonated, with 587 out of 1,168 reports (50%) they looked at mentioning matters relating to bank accounts.

Top UK Area Codes Used by Nuisance Callers (% of National Reports)

Rank
Area
Number of lookups
Number of reports
% of all reports nationally
Area Code

1.
London
183,210,617
3,580,172
20.14%
020

2.
Manchester
66,412,481
611,150
3.44%
0161

3.
Blandford Forum, Dorset
1,218,237
508,653
2.86%
01258

4.
Liverpool
17,387,057
439,605
2.47%
0151

5.
Leicester
9,161,592
435,501
2.45%
0116

6.
Leeds
17,447,710
373,659
2.1%
0113

7.
Birmingham
23,944,561
351,554
1.98%
0121

8.
Sheffield
10,502,984
318,806
1.79%
0114

9.
Glasgow
20,548,882
254,500
1.43%
0141

10.
Bristol
8,143,248
220,745
1.24%
0117

11.
Edinburgh
10,642,047
163,620
0.92%
0131

12.
Cambridge
2,970,310
147,966
0.83%
01223

13.
Nottingham
7,569,825
113,324
0.64%
0115

14.
Cardiff
7,053,157
103,702
0.58%
029

15.
Derby
3,001,531
92,505
0.52%
01332

16.
Bolton
4,301,011
88,437
0.5%
01204

17.
Canterbury
1,608,814
84,502
0.48%
01227

18.
Chesterfield, Derbyshire
2,538,671
84,267
0.47%
01246

19.
Coventry
4,083,190
83,583
0.47%
024

20.
Reading
4,669,455
78,319
0.44%
0118

21.
Bedford
1,967,428
77,387
0.44%
01234

22.
Chester
2,281,775
77,368
0.44%
01244

23.
Bradford
2,670,263
77,200
0.43%
01274

24.
Bournemouth
4,756,179
71,482
0.4%
01202

25.
Luton
1,940,656
69,062
0.39%
01582

26.
Portsmouth
3,147,378
65,543
0.37%
0239

27.
Southampton
3,363,666
65,381
0.37%
0238

28.
Barnsley
1,261,532
64,352
0.36%
01226

29.
Abingdon-on-Thames (Abingdon), Oxfordshire
1,329,425
63,586
0.36%
01235

30.
Brighton
5,071,656
63,571
0.36%
01273

31.
Chelmsford, Essex
1,634,247
62,604
0.35%
01245

32.
Peterborough
1,994,176
56,981
0.32%
01733

33.
Chichester, West Sussex
1,024,375
54,525
0.31%
01243

34.
Dursley, Gloucestershire
1,216,036
54,245
0.31%
01453

35.
Aberdeen
2,958,114
54,121
0.3%
01224

36.
Aldershot, Hampshire
1,762,630
51,986
0.29%
01252

37.
Stoke-on-Trent
2,646,218
51,743
0.29%
01782

38.
Norwich
3,132,089
51,252
0.29%
01603

39.
Bewdley, Worcestershire
1,153,514
50,983
0.29%
01299

40.
Ashford, Kent
1,555,070
50,807
0.29%
01233

41.
Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire
861,089
49,899
0.28%
01283

42.
Cromer, Norfolk
465,207
49,550
0.28%
01263

43.
Wolverhampton
1,814,840
48,971
0.28%
01902

44.
Basildon, Essex
1,467,884
48,594
0.27%
01268

45.
Cirencester, Gloucestershire
751,854
48,380
0.27%
01285

46.
Guisborough, North Yorkshire
980,329
48,132
0.27%
01287

47.
Blackburn
2,824,518
47,386
0.27%
01254

48.
Hull
3,316,562
47,251
0.27%
01482

49.
Middlesbrough
1,649,923
46,554
0.26%
01642

50.
Brentwood, Essex
863,113
46,299
0.26%
01277

Most of the United Kingdom’s major broadband, phone and mobile network providers have already implemented various technical measures to tackle Nuisance Calls and Scam Calls. But these aren’t always 100% effective, although the industry and Ofcom are constantly working to improve the situation (here).

News

The new 5G standalone network is the first of its kind in the country, and covers key urban centres

Today, Nokia have announced the launch of the first 5G standalone (SA) network in Costa Rica in partnership with Radiografica Costarricense (RACSA).

RACSA, the mobile unit of Costa Rica’s state-owned utilities/telecoms group ICE, says they have already rolled out the new technology in of 30 sites in major cities, including San Jose, Cartago, and Limon, with 170 additional sites due later this year.

In total, 500 sites are planned for deployment in both urban and rural areas as part of the project.

“The utilization of Nokia technology represents a pivotal step in Costa Rica’s digital transformation which RACSA has been playing a key role in for the last 103 years. By deploying the first 5G network in the country, we are not only improving connectivity for businesses and government entities but also enhancing the quality of life for our citizens,” said Mauricio Barrantes, General Manager of RACSA. “The high-speed, reliable network will support innovative applications that contribute to the country’s overall economic and social development.”

Costa Rica journey towards rolling out 5G has been a bumpy one. Plans for initial 5G spectrum auctions have been repeatedly delayed by clashes between the telcos and state regulatory authority Sutel. The issues raised have been myriad, with operators complaining about everything from spectrum pricing to infrastructure sharing obligations and competition concerns.

The country’s latest attempt at the tender process was officially initiated at the start of August this year but was cancelled later the same month due to renewed complaints from the telcos.

Without this spectrum auction, 5G activity in Costa Rica has been very limited, with most of the operators only able to offer small-scale private trials.

RACSA, however, is something of an outlier among the Costa Rican telcos, owning 100MHz of 3.5GHz spectrum, which is ideal for 5G services. As a result, RACSA was able to launch 5G fixed wireless access (FWA) services back in April this year.

It is also presumably this spectrum that is being used to support RACSA’s new 5G standalone network with Nokia.

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 

Global satellite provider SES, which operates a network of nearly 70 satellites that can deliver video and data services to 99% of the world’s population, has today announced an extension of their existing partnership with Sky that will see them continuing to provide capacity to support the Sky Q TV service in the UK and Ireland until the end of 2029.

Sky UK has spent the past couple of years putting a lot more effort into pushing their new internet-based streaming platforms, Sky Glass (Sky integrated streaming TV set) and Sky Stream (streaming set-top-box), which are standalone products that use your home broadband ISP and WiFi connection to stream Sky’s on-demand video content and live TV channels – without the need for a satellite dish.

However, Sky have long been expected to continue supporting existing customers of their satellite-based TV products, such as Sky Q, until around 2030 and the new deal with SES supports that strategy. The agreement reflects a multi-year contract renewal for satellite capacity and back-up services from SES’s prime video neighbourhood of 28.2/28.5 degrees East.

SES will extend the capacity for multiple transponders, although interestingly, their complementary back-up services contract with Sky will only run until the end of 2027.

Nick Herm, Chief Business Officer at Sky, said:

“We’re pleased to continue our long-standing collaboration with SES, reinforcing our commitment to providing the best viewing experience to all customers – whether they’re watching on our much-loved Sky Q satellite platform, or over our IP products, Glass and Stream.

This contract renewal provides us with the reliability we need to continue to deliver our market-leading TV offer and broad mix of channels to Sky Q customers across the UK and Ireland.”

Norbert Hölzle, Global Head of Media at SES, added:

“This important contract renewal with Sky reflects our ongoing commitment to deliver the highest levels of performance, service reliability and reach to our customers. As one of Europe’s leading media and entertainment companies, Sky trusts our satellite network to provide its viewers with a premium TV experience. This extension underscores the value satellites continue to deliver in the evolving media landscape to broadcasters and audiences alike.”

SES’s satellites at the 28.2/28.5 degrees East orbital position currently deliver a wide range of Sky TV channels to more than 17 million households in the UK and Ireland. The deal is also good for Freesat, which uses the same satellites as Sky to deliver their free-to-air service in the UK.

Interview

Is the UK fibre market beginning to gain pace once again?

At Connected Britain 2024, we caught up with Telenco UK’s managing director Clement Lesur about the health of the UK’s broadband market and how operators are looking for increasingly tailored solutions to connect their end customers.

Check out our full interview here

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 

Press Release

SAN DIEGO, Calif., Oct. 7, 2024 — Updates from federal, state, and county officials at Broadband Communities Summit West, planned for Oct. 30-31 at the San Diego Convention Center, have taken on an increased significance following the approval of California’s initial proposal for the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program.

Broadband Communities Summit West, the newest addition to Total Telecom’s events portfolio, will now be occurring as state leaders shift their focus to implementation of the BEAD program.
The approval of California’s initial BEAD proposal, announced by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) Oct. 4, paves the way for California officials to begin requesting access to some of the more than $1.8 billion designated for the state under the BEAD program.

“The NTIA’s recent approval of California’s initial BEAD proposal will only add to the significance of Broadband Communities Summit West,” said Bradford Randall, Chair of Broadband Communities Summit West. “This is a pivotal time for efforts to bridge the digital divide in California. Appearances from figures like Marina MacLatchie, a federal BEAD program officer with the NTIA, Robert Osborn, the director of the communications division at the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), and Deputy Director Mark Monroe, California Middle Mile Initiative, California Department of Technology, will have added weight as service providers, property developers, equipment manufacturers, investors, manufacturers, and consultants anticipate the state’s crucial next steps.”

Administering the BEAD program in California are the CPUC, and the California Department of Technology, which has been designated as the administering agent for the state’s digital equity program. Both will have representatives at Broadband Communities Summit West.
In addition to an update from public officials, the summit will also feature updates from service providers in California and the Western U.S. states, with expert panels discussing topics like connectivity in multifamily dwelling units (MDUs), public-private partnerships, and disaster planning.

“It was apparent to all of us at Broadband Communities that the western states merited their own platform to focus on the needs of the regions communities,” said Total Telecom Managing Director Rob Chambers. “We are hugely grateful to the speakers, sponsors and partners that have helped make this inaugural event a reality.”

“We have been delighted by the positive response that has greeted the launch of Broadband Communities Summit West and look forward to establishing what will without doubt become a key event for the region,” Chambers said.

About Broadband Communities

Broadband Communities is the leading source of information on digital and broadband technologies for buildings and communities in the USA. Broadband Communities offers in-depth news, expert insights, and practical know-how on the technical, business, financial, and legal aspects of outfitting properties and communities with broadband solutions.

Founded in 2004, the brand offers a unique audience comprising ISP’s and service providers, municipalities and other government bodies, property managers, owners and developers, and their partners, who access our content via the website, weekly email newsletters, and social media. Visit bbcmag.com

About Total Telecom
Total Telecom meets the information and research needs of the Global Communications industry, from breaking news to expert analysis. It is the leading communications link between end users and the vendors, carriers and resellers of telecommunications technology and services.

About Broadband Communities Summit West
Broadband Communities Summit West is the newest addition to the Broadband Communities event portfolio, part of Total Telecom. The conference series offers leading events for community leaders, property owners, network infrastructure builders and telco service providers to meet and discuss strategies for delivering connectivity for communities all over the United States. Click here to get tickets and learn more about Broadband Communities Summit West.

News

The move is the largest direct foreign investment in Ukraine since the war began

This week, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) have confirmed they will jointly invest $435 million into Ukraine’s newest converged telco.

Back in April, a consortium led by telecoms mogul Xavier Niel’s NJJ Holding announced plans to purchase both Ukrainian TV and fixed broadband provider Datagroup-Volia and mobile operator Lifecell, with the intention of merging the two operators.

The move would create the second largest converged operator in the country, with 10 million mobile customers and a fixed broadband network covering over 4 million homes.

The promise of funding from the EBRD and the IFC was crucial in the planning of the acquisitions, with the details of this funding still being finalised when the merger was concluded last month.

“That is the game changer,” said Holger Muent, EBRD’s director of telecommunications, media and technology, told Reuters. “It will create the second-largest operator of that kind in the country and that leads to higher speed, better coverage, lower energy consumption for the network, and more redundancy in the network as well.”

The deal is seen as a major boon for the Ukrainian economy, ensuring the robust digital infrastructure is in place to support the nation’ economic recovery.

“By strengthening digital connectivity and network resilience, we are delivering a vital service to millions of Ukrainians while reaffirming our commitment to the country,” said Makhtar Diop, IFC’s managing director. “It sends a strong message to global investors about the resilience and significant potential of Ukraine’s economy.”

The newly merged telco, Lifecell-Datagroup-Volia Group, is set to be led by Mykhaylo Shelemba, the current CEO of Datagroup-Volia.

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 

Hampshire-based broadband ISP Onestream, which sells internet access packages using Openreach’s national network, today claims to have become “the first” internet provider to offer all its customers the “game-changing” option to reuse their existing router when they switch – “saving money and preventing devices becoming electronic waste.”

The provider’s announcement, which comes ahead of National Recycle Week (October 14th – 20th), states that it has “decoupled” its service from its routers, and is now calling on major brands like BT, Plusnet, Sky Broadband, TalkTalk, and Virgin Media to “follow its lead and stop locking their devices down” (i.e. stop restricting access to advanced settings in their devices and preventing customers from reconfiguring them for use with a competitor).

In initial trials, Onestream say that 21% of their customers chose their “money-saving, eco-friendly option” to use their existing equipment when they switched, by following a simple process to reconfigure their routers.

The provider claims research has indicated that an estimated 9 million people switch ISPs each year (other figures say switching occurs to a much lower level than this), which, they say, suggests that if a fifth of those decided not to change router, it would prevent around 1.8 million devices being “stored or dumped” each year.

Aaron Brown, Co-founder of Onestream, said:

“Locked-down routers are a major source of e-waste, and providers who refuse to allow them to be decoupled from the service are restricting customer choice and contributing to environmental harm in a way that is completely unnecessary.

We are proud to lead the way in offering a more sustainable, game-changing option that not only saves our customers money, but also helps protect the environment from the effects of large volumes of electronic waste being destroyed or sent to landfill.

For our customers, reconfiguring an existing router is usually simpler than setting up a new one. If the major providers followed our lead, many more consumers would be able to make this choice.

We believe reusing routers should be the default choice, and we challenge other providers to join us in making a simple change that could have a huge positive impact.”

On the one hand, we agree that locking down routers is an annoying practice, particularly if you’re a more advanced user, and anything that helps to put an end to that is usually a good thing. On the other hand, a lot of ISPs out there do NOT lock down their routers or may already allow you to use a third-party device.

Meanwhile, other providers will often ask you to return your router when you leave, at which point they may reuse them with other customers or resell them (i.e. sending the kit to landfill is usually a last resort if they can’t be recycled or reused via another method). For example, BT (inc. EE and Plusnet) put a fair bit of effort into reusing the routers that get returned, so they don’t all get “stored or dumped“, and they’re not the only ones.

However, Onetsream points to another study (here), which in 2022 claimed to have found that two-fifths of households had an unused router in their home, while one in seven had two or more collecting dust – representing over 22 million devices with the potential to become e-waste. But some of that kit may be so old that it might even be dangerous (security risks) to reuse them.

Finally, we should add that not every router will be fully compatible with a different broadband network, so simply being able to reuse the kit doesn’t mean it’ll actually work properly when the physical network and ISP is changed.

ISP LilaConnect, which following the VX FIBER UK acquisition is now part of Freedom Fibre‘s gigabit-capable full fibre (FTTP) broadband network (here), has today revealed that their fibre coverage in the Staffordshire (England) city of Stoke-on-Trent has now expanded to pass 80% of local premises (103,784).

The was made possible by the completion of a related 113km long full-fibre network under the Silicon Stoke project, which has been laid right across Stoke-on-Trent. The infrastructure provider that was awarded this contract by the UK Government was VX FIBER UK, with LilaConnect as its ISP. As above, VXF merged with Freedom Fibre earlier this year.

Just to be clear. Under the original agreement, VXF was contracted to build and operate the infrastructure, while the city network (Stoke’s Private Optical Network) would be owned by the council. VXF also invested their own money to extend this to cover local homes and businesses. Overall, £9.2m came from the Government’s Local Full Fibre Network (LFFN) scheme for the Dark Fibre and public sector build, while VXF put in £10m.

At this point it’s worth noting that, while it’s a wonderful achievement to have covered 80% of the city, the original announcement several years ago did say it was “expected that the whole city will be covered by the network within three years” (at the time this indicated a completion by October 2022). Put another way, they’ve yet to reach c.100,000 premises (100%) and have taken longer than expected, but building FTTP is rarely easy.

Jan Lange, MD at LilaConnect, said:

“To reach 80% of premises being able to connect to our full-fibre network in Stoke-on-Trent is a milestone to be celebrated and is a testament to the dedication and collaborative teams in Stoke-on-Trent. We remain steadfast in our vision to provide all Stoke-on-Trent residents and businesses with first-class gigabit full fibre broadband that is future-proofed for decades to come.”

Councillor Finlay Gordon-McCusker, Stoke-on-Trent City Council, said:

“A full-fibre gigabit broadband is no longer a ‘nice-to-have’ for any city in the UK that is committed to digital transformation, it’s now a must. Only by having the infrastructure in place can you truly ensure that the residential and commercial premises are future-proofed which will enable them to continuously thrive and grow. This is why we have remained resolute in our commitment to achieving the ambitious goals laid out in the Silicon Stoke prospectus.”

Residential packages from LilaConnect typically start at £24.98 per month on a 24-month term for speeds of 250Mbps, which rises to £34.98 for 1Gbps or £69.98 for their top 2.5Gbps plan. But take note that the 2.5Gbps service appears to attract an additional one-off “startup cost” of £99.98.

At present the VXF linked network areas, which reflects their original footprint across Stoke-on-Trent, Bristol, Colchester, Wivenhoe, Crewe, Nantwich, Leek and Uttoxeter, are still not fully merged into the wider Freedom Fibre footprint. As a result, if you want to access this FTTP network in those areas, then LilaConnect still seems to be the main option.

Mobile network operator EE UK has confirmed to ISPreview that it overcharged a “very small” number of customers, in some cases by hundreds of pounds, for calls that should have been included as part of their bundled allowance. The issue appears to have occurred as part of the operator’s move to adopt a new billing system.

Most people these days tend to have mobile plans that come with an unlimited allowance for UK calls and texts, which is pretty much the industry standard, particularly on Pay Monthly SIMs. Suffice to say that customers making normal UK calls on such a plan don’t expect to be charged more than their usual monthly rate for these, and certainly not hundreds of pounds more!

Unfortunately, this appears to be precisely what occurred for a small number of unlucky customers when EE began moving accounts over to their new real-time billing system, which in some cases resulted in those same users being charged hundreds of pounds more than they were expecting.

The issue, which was first raised to ISPreview by one of our readers (Andy), appears to have started around early September 2024 and was soon identified as impacting other customers – see EE’s own community forum (here, here, here and here). The overcharging figures range from around £90 and up to the £400 mark, with some of those affected saying that, despite repeated complaints, they’ve either struggled to get the charges refunded or were, somewhat worryingly, initially told that they’d still have to pay it.

Andy told ISPreview:

“The problem is, for users like me who have unlimited minutes and texts for example, they are overcharged. My bill in Sept for example had £250 added charges for calls to 01 [landline uk] and 07 [mobile uk] numbers which I was never charged for on previous bills.

I have not had Octobers bill yet, but others have reported they too have been overcharged again in October by £300 to £400 for calls that should be part of their allowance.

EE have told various customers its a known issue but not everyone on the forums has had the same customer service experience, with some EE staff telling customers they will still have to pay the charges or face risking credit history damage etc.”

On a major operator like EE, which is home to millions of customers, it’s not unusual to have the odd issue with incorrect billing and Ofcom have certainly had to deal with bigger complaints about this in the past (e.g. here, here and here). Nevertheless, some customers have clearly faced difficulties in getting the problem identified, which is why ISPreview stepped in to have a closer look.

In response, EE confirmed to us that a “very small” number of customers were indeed billed incorrectly for inclusive calls, during the move to a new system. But the operator also informed us that the impacted customers have now been identified and automatically credited for those charges, although not all of those affected have confirmed this to us yet.

Sadly, EE did not provide a quote for us to use, but hopefully they have apologised to those impacted for taking hundreds of pounds more than expected from your customers’ accounts, in some cases more than once. Not everybody can stomach that sort of hit, even if it is eventually resolved, in the current cost-of-living crisis and there’s always the risk of knock-on impacts (extra bank charges, difficulties paying other bills etc.).

News 

Half of businesses (50%) have reported having experienced some form of cyber security breach or attack in the last 12 months, according to a recent government survey 

Vodafone has launched a new cybersecurity platform called Vodafone CybSafe, designed to help small, medium, and enterprise businesses reduce the risk of the cyberattacks that stem from human error.  

Developed in collaboration with human risk management experts at CybSafe, the platform aims to enhance the cybersecurity awareness and promote secure behavior within companies. 

Vodafone CybSafe combines AI, data analysis, and behavioral science to evaluate and enhance employees’ cybersecurity practices. It uses SebDB, reportedly the world’s largest cybersecurity behaviour database, to provide evidence-based personalised ’nudges’ to employees, helping them to avoid cybersecurity errors and adhere to best practices.  

The platform also includes training modules designed to empower employees to identify and manage potential cyber threats, such as phishing and ransomware attacks.  

According to Vodafone, 43% of cyberattacks target these SMEs, with 60% of those incidents leading to business closures within six months. 

“In these businesses, people juggle multiple roles and responsibilities and, as a result, cybersecurity can become an afterthought. Yet, these are the organisations most at risk if a cyber incident occurs and the ones most likely to face serious challenges as a result,” said Oz Alashe MBE, CEO and Founder of CybSafe in a press release. 

“We often talk about the human factor in cyberattacks, but we can’t expect people to defend against these threats without proper guidance. CybSafe’s partnership with Vodafone will provide this support, and we are confident it will have a significant impact on the cyber resilience of small and medium-sized businesses,” he continued. 

Vodafone CybSafe is available for purchase through the Vodafone Business Marketplace. 

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