News

The software aims to prevent ‘vishing’, where fraudsters attempt to collect personal data over the phone

Since its launch in May 2024, BT’s Enhanced Call Protect service has blocked over 2.4 million scam calls and flagged 17.7 million spam calls to landlines, the company has announced.

The service is part of BT’s Digital Voice platform, which uses AI powered tools to identify and block malicious calls.

Developed in partnership with Hiya, Enhanced Call Protect uses machine learning to improve scam detection with every call. When a potential spam call is detected, customers receive a warning on their phone, allowing them to either reject or accept the call. Known scam calls are automatically diverted to the customer’s junk voicemail, shielding users from potential fraud.

According to Hiya, UK residents received an average of three spam calls per month in the first half of 2024, with 28% of all unknown calls flagged as spam. This works out at approximately 195 million spam calls each month.

Currently, 2.5 million BT customers use the service, a number set to double as more people switch to Digital Voice. BT expects to block more than 1.5 million scam calls monthly as the rollout continues.

“Our top priority is ensuring our customers feel secure and confident when using our services. This new Hiya technology is now integrated with Digital Voice and is proving to be incredibly effective at stopping scam calls. We remain committed to protecting customers during the switch to digital landlines,” said Lucy Baker MBE, BT Consumer’s All-IP Director in a press release.

“It’s great to see that our technology has successfully blocked fraud and spam calls, which will in turn give customers the confidence to answer their phones and engage in meaningful conversations without the interruption of unwanted disturbances,” Hiya CEO Alex Algard added.

The rollout of Digital Voice is part of BT’s nationwide transition from analogue to digital landlines, aimed at modernising the UK’s telecoms infrastructure.

BT has visited 340 towns and cities as part of the upgrade, reaching 30% of the UK’s urban areas.

The company faced significant backlash for rushing the replacement of analogue landlines with digital ones last year, primarily due to the negative impact on vulnerable customers who rely on telecare devices, which stopped working during the transition. The rapid switch also posed risks during power outages, particularly in rural areas, potentially leaving people without access to essential services. Campaign groups criticised BT for not implementing adequate safeguards, such as effective battery backup units and hybrid phones, to protect these customers. Additionally, many older individuals found the transition confusing, raising concerns about the cost and understanding of new equipment. In response to these issues, BT delayed the full transition to digital services until January 2027 to ensure a smoother and safer switch for all customers.

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

Also in the news:
Hurricane Helene knocks out a fifth of mobile sites in US Southeast
Vodafone Germany leans into fibre infrastructure sharing to reach 11m
EE activates 25 Freshwave small cells in London

News

The operator says it will soon be able to offer fibre optic broadband to more than 11 million homes and businesses across the country

Vodafone Germany is set to offer its fibre broadband packages to 11 million premises across the country, a move it says will make it the largest fibre network in the country.

The expansion comes via the implementation of new infrastructure sharing partnerships with Deutsche Telekom and Deutsche Glasfaser, which will increase Vodafone’s commercial reach by 9.5 million premises.

These new potential connections will be in addition to the more than half a million homes covered by Vodafone’s own fibre network.

Concurrently, OXG Glasfaser – Vodafone’s fibre joint venture with Altice that was set up last year – is also pushing ahead with its fibre rollout, reaching 1.3 million premises.

OXG has pledged to invest up to €7 billion through to 2029 as it aims to pass 7 million homes.

“In 2019, we launched Germany’s largest gigabit network and thus got the fiber optic expansion in this country underway. Today we are taking the next step and connecting the largest unified fiber optic network for our customers,” said Marcel de Groot, CEO of Vodafone Germany. “We are digging ourselves and with our expansion partners from OXG. And we are sharing infrastructure to increase competition and the range of services for people – even without superstructure.”

Vodafone says it will continue to expand its own fibre network directly by working with districts, municipalities, cities, and communities across the country.

This announcement has largely been received positively, with industry association VATM noting in a statement that it will offer some customers the choice of multiple broadband providers for the first time. VATM’s managing director Frederic Ufer, however, remained critical of Deutsche Telekom’s role in the market, blaming them for slowing down nation fibre efforts.

“We are pleased that competition in the fiber-optic market is being strengthened. Such partnerships successfully drive the topic forward in the interests of the #Anbietervielfalt and thus also for the benefit of consumers,” said Ufer in a translated LinkedIn post. “Unfortunately, Deutsche Telekom is still lagging years behind with its technical possibilities and business models and can offer Vodafone and the market bitstream, but still does not buy it sensibly from other expanding companies, which continues to slow down the expansion,”

How is the German connectivity market changing in 2024? Join the experts in discussion at this year’s Connected Germany

Also in the news:
Vodafone and Three defend merger amid CMA warnings
Verizon offloads mobile towers to Vertical Bridge for $3.3bn
Korea Telecom and Microsoft sign multibillion-dollar AI partnership

A new report by Forescout Research has identified 14 new security vulnerabilities in 24 models of DrayTek‘s popular Vigor routers, which is a familiar name in the UK broadband ISP world. One of the vulnerabilities even has a Common Vulnerability Score (CVSS) of 10 out of 10 and over 704,000 routers were found exposed online in 168 countries.

The report (here) notes that approximately 785,000 DrayTek devices are operating Wi-Fi networks in the wild (over 425,000 of those are in Europe – with 36% in the UK). According to the vendor, DrayTek’s Vigor Web UI “should only be accessible from a local network for security reasons“, but the study “found over 704,000 DrayTek routers that have their UI exposed to the Internet” (most of these are used by businesses and some advanced home users).

The research noted that, out of the 14 new vulnerabilities discovered (see bottom of the article for the full list), one had a maximum severity score of 10, while another one is critical at 9.1 and nine others have medium severity scores. The vulnerabilities could all be used in espionage, data exfiltration, ransomware, and denial of service (DoS) attacks and this threat risk is not theoretical.

On 18th September 2024, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the USA announced it had taken down a botnet exploiting three CVEs on DrayTek assets (CVE-2023-242290, CVE-2020-15415 and CVE-2020-8515). Two weeks prior, CISA added two other DrayTek CVEs to the KEV (CVE-2021-20123 and CVE-2021-20124).

In addition, a significant proportion of these vulnerable devices (38%) were also found to be susceptible to similar issues identified two years ago (here), which have already been patched. This suggests that many end-users of related devices are not checking to ensure they’re using the latest and most secure firmware (software) for their routers.

The good news is that DrayTek have already released firmware patches for the newly discovered vulnerabilities, including their EoL kit, which is in stark contrast to certain other router manufacturers we could name that have a terrible history when it comes to supporting older, but still actively used, devices. Well done DrayTek.

Alternative network operator and ISP Brsk, which has deployed their Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) lines to cover “over” 676,000 homes and is in the process of being merged into Netomnia (here), has today announced that their full fibre network is being expanded to reach 25,000 premises in Salford (Greater Manchester).

Some of the areas in Salford that are due to be connected include Blackfriars in the city centre, Seedley, Pendlebury, and Irlams o’ th’ Height (no, that’s not a typo). The operator’s network has already passed 250,000 premises across the Greater Manchester area – extending from Rochdale to Stockport, and Ashton in Makerfield to Ashton Under-Lyne.

New customers of the service currently pay from just £19 per month on a 24-month term for symmetric speeds of 150Mbps, then £25 for 500Mbps, £30 for 900Mbps and £55 for their top 2Gbps (2000Mbps) tier. The packages all include free installation, a router and a pledge of no mid-contract price rises.

Gareth Cornelius, Greater Manchester Regional Head, said:

“Having already brought our world-class full fibre network to Trafford, Stockport, Rochdale, Wigan, Tameside and Manchester, it is fantastic to be coming to Salford and reaching even more people in Greater Manchester with the service they need to be able to go about their daily lives. We are committed to delivering exceptional connectivity and ensuring that communities have access to the fast, reliable internet they deserve.”

The decision to enter Salford is an interesting one as, currently, only Virgin Media (O2) has significant coverage across most of the area and even their network doesn’t reach every part. By comparison, Openreach’s FTTP network only has limited coverage in the area, as does Hyperoptic and Freedom Fibre.

Broadband ISP BT (EE) has this morning announced that their new scam protection service, which is based on Hiya’s technology and was introduced to their IP-based Digital Voice (phone) customers in May 2024, has blocked more than 2.4 million scam calls and almost 17.7 million spam calls since its introduction.

The ‘Enhanced Call Protect‘ feature, which is a free service, follows BT and EE’s decision to start adopting Hiya’s AI-based voice security solutions in January 2023 (here). The tool in question monitors incoming calls and will notify the user of any suspected spam calls. But it also adopts machine learning to improve its scam detection and protection to help tackle the malicious calls it encounters – in one day blocking more than 46,500 scam calls.

According to data from Hiya, UK residents received an average of 3 spam calls per month from January to June this year, with 28% of all unknown calls flagged as spam. This equates to approximately 195 million spam calls per month.

However, with BT’s service, customers will see a visual warning on their landline phone display, saying, “Nuisance?”, when receiving a potential spam call. They then have a choice to reject or accept an inbound call that is flagged as a spam call. Scam calls are automatically diverted to a customer’s junk voicemail, protecting them from the threat of scammers. Any call from a registered business will have their name displayed to verify it as genuine.

Lucy Baker MBE, BT Consumer’s All-IP Director, said:

“Our top priority is ensuring our customers feel secure and confident when using our services. This new Hiya technology is now integrated with Digital Voice and is proving to be incredibly effective at stopping scam calls. We remain committed to protecting customers during the switch to digital landlines.”

BT has also included some tips to help consumers spot and tackle scam calls.

Tips to avoid scams include:

If you receive a suspicious call, put the phone down and call back on a trusted number to verify the call
If you mistakenly give a caller your bank account details, contact your bank immediately
If you receive a suspicious call, report the call to BT here
Block any suspicious numbers after you have reported them

Remember:

Take a moment to stop and think. Trust your instincts. If it sounds too good to be true or is suspicious, there’s probably a catch
Don’t stay on the phone unless you’re 100% sure the caller is genuine
Don’t give away any of your personal details or give anyone access to your computer

Oxfordshire-based alternative network operator Zzoomm, which has built their 2Gbps speed full fibre broadband network to cover 202,000 premises (RFS) in England, have today reported that they’ve achieved 20% take-up in a further four of their deployed market towns and often only 15-months after build completion.

The operator’s network, which is home to 30,000 customers (c.15% take-up), is currently available across parts of around 29 market towns and small urban communities in Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Herefordshire, Yorkshire, Staffordshire, Wiltshire and Cheshire. Zzoomm originally aspired to cover 1 million premises across 85 UK towns by the end of 2025, before the difficulties of raising fresh capital forced their build to stop (here and here). But growth via mergers and acquisitions is still being actively explored (here).

The rate of network take-up by consumers naturally tends to accelerate once it’s no longer being suppressed by an active build phase, which is one of the reasons why we’ve been seeing Zzoomm’s penetration starting to grow more rapidly in recent months. In fact, they’ve already passed the 20% mark in several locations (e.g. Sandhurst and Crowthorne, Shiplake, Northallerton etc.), which is a positive sign for operators.

The latest development is that they’ve now passed the 20% mark in four more locations – Hereford, Stokesley & Great Ayton and Thirsk. This has been achieved on network builds which finished only 15 months ago for Hereford, Stokesley and Great Ayton and 25 months for Thirsk respectively.

Matthew Hare, CEO of Zzoomm, said:

“We are seeing notable take-up of our services across our networks driven by our excellent marketing and sales teams, supported by our customer and field service operations.

As one of our new Zzoomm customers, James Potter commented via Trustpilot. “Everything is working well after one month at 1Gb speed. No install hassle. UK based technical support staff were very helpful during set-up process. The extra speed is preventing buffering across several devices running simultaneously. Thus far well worth the change.

It’s a testament to all those working at Zzoomm that one in five properties across a number of our market towns are now Zzoommers. We are meeting the needs of our customers with our premier service – be it for working from home or multi-person gaming or multiple streaming.

A few weeks ago, we confirmed that nationally we have some 30,000 contracted customers and more than 200,000 ready for service (RFS) properties – the former has continued to increase as we are now adding 1,500 new customers each month. This represents a 15% uptake on a network which has been available for an average of only 17 months.”

Customers who take their residential service typically pay from £32.95 per month for an unlimited 200Mbps (symmetric speed) package on a 12-month term with an included router and installation, which goes up to £54.95 (normally £64.95) if you want their top 2Gbps tier or £29.95 (usually £39.95) for 1Gbps.

Broadband and mobile operator Virgin Media and O2 (VMO2) has today announced that they will open a new office within the business community at Maxim Park in Lanarkshire (Scotland) during early 2025, which will ultimately become home to around 350 employees that are currently based at their Bellshill office in the same region.

With the lease at its current site in Bellshill due to expire shortly, VMO2 went on the hunt for a new home and found the Maxim Park site (Maxim 4 building). The operator will, over the next few months, be working closely with the landlord to install the necessary furniture, fixtures and fittings ahead of employees moving to the site in Spring 2025.

Maxim 4 will become Virgin Media and O2’s second major new office space since its merger in June 2021. The company is separately preparing to move teams into a new HQ in Paddington by the end of the year, and they also have other core office locations in Wythenshawe, Reading, Birmingham and Leeds.

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

“We identified a number of potential locations in our search for a new office in Lanarkshire and have secured our preferred choice, Maxim Park, which is already a thriving business community and the modern, spacious home to a number of the UK’s biggest companies .

Located a very short distance from our current Bellshill office, and with excellent amenities and transport links, we are confident that Maxim Park will prove to be a popular choice with our employees who will now have a flexible space to work, collaborate and socialise together on their office days.

As a flexible employer, Maxim Park is ideally sized to support our hybrid working policies and this long-term commitment is further proof of our exciting property plans which are helping us meet the current and future needs of our business and people.”

News 

With existing funding set to run out in 2025, the company is working to find new sources of cash 

The UK’s largest altnet CityFibre has released its annual statement for the 2023 financial year this week, in which it warned that to continue operations as usual it will need to secure additional external funding. 

“As the Group and Company are reliant on securing further external funding which is not guaranteed, a material uncertainty exists which may cast significant doubt on the ability of the Group and Company to continue as a going concern and as a result they may be unable to realise this assets and discharge their liabilities in the normal course of business,” read the report.  

The altnet is currently privately owned by four companies: Antin Infrastructure Partners, Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Mubadala Investment Company,city and Interogo Holding. 

As per the report, CityFibre stated that its current debt and equity funding will be fully utilised by mid-2025 and that it has hired external advisors Evercore to help find more debt funding.  

Despite these concerns, the company’s current financial health appeared to be strong, with revenue sitting at £99.67 million in 2023 (up from £30.97 million in 2022), having added 163,000 customers. Gross profit stood at £42.76m 

The company also provided its outlook on the wider market, which concluded that more altnet consolidation in the future is inevitable and argued that they represented the ideal ‘third infrastructure platform’ to challenge Openreach and Virgin Media O2. 

“Given the financial pressures on the market and specifically the challenges for smaller players to raise capital to support their growth, we believe that widespread consolidation of UK alt-nets is inevitable and that as the largest challenger to BT Openreach, we will play a leading role. The market needs a third infrastructure platform of scale to ensure competition remains healthy and delivers for UK consumers. CityFibre is the core of that third platform.” 

A CityFibre spokesperson confirmed that the company is midway though a “capital intensive phase” in its long term investment plan, but nonetheless described 2024 as being a turning point for the company’s profitability. 

“2024 is proving to be a significant year for CityFibre: we are EBITDA positive, we’ve secured a long-term partnership with Sky and we’re a trusted partner of Government, which has awarded us £800m to connect rural communities to full fibre broadband as part of Project Gigabit,” said the statement. 

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

Also in the news:
AltNets’ path to success for FTTx Build Acceptance in Openreach PIA
T-Mobile hit with yet another fine over data breaches
“We were into AI before it was cool!”: Chatting AI and telco trust with Juniper’s Neil McRae 

Interview

At Connected Britain 2024, we caught up with ITS’s Dave Ferry to discuss taking the brand on a UK tour, the company’s latest deal with Sky Business, and the next steps for densifying networks.

Check out the full interview here

Also in the news:
AltNets’ path to success for FTTx Build Acceptance in Openreach PIA
T-Mobile hit with yet another fine over data breaches
“We were into AI before it was cool!”: Chatting AI and telco trust with Juniper’s Neil McRae

News

Over a fifth of cell sites within areas impacted by Hurricane Helene reportedly out of service, according to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)

By: Brad Randall, Broadband Communities

More than 20 percent of cell sites in areas impacted by Hurricane Helene remain out of service.

The Federal Communications Commission reported the findings in their recent Oct. 1 communications status report, which has been updated daily in the aftermath of Helene’s landfall.

The hurricane, which struck Florida at peak intensity as a Category 4 storm on Sept. 26, then brought torrential rains and severe flooding to inland portions of the US Southeast.

The storm resulted in an activation of the FCC’s Disaster Information Reporting System across areas in Florida, all of Georgia, all of South Carolina, and portions of Tennessee, North Carolina, and Virginia.

According to outage data submitted by providers in the affected areas, 21.7 percent of cell sites across areas impacted by Helene are experiencing outages.

That number represents a 9.1 percent rise in outages when compared with Monday’s communications status report.

Wireless service disruptions have been most severe in Florida and North Carolina, the report revealed.

In North Carolina, over 48 percent of cell sites within areas impacted by Helene were experiencing outages, representing a decline from 54 percent on Monday.

Meanwhile, in Florida, 36.7 percent of cell sites reported as being out of service as of Tuesday in areas Helene, the report stated.

The number of outages in Georgia areas also remained significant Tuesday, with nearly 22 percent of cell sites across the state experiencing outages.

Cell tower disruptions have been less severe in impacted areas of Tennessee, where over 12 percent of cell sites in impacted areas are out of service.

In South Carolina, a little over 7 percent of cell towers remained out of service Tuesday, and in Virginia, 3.5 percent of cell towers in impacted areas were experiencing disruptions.

This is a developing story. Stay tuned to BBCMag.com for updates.

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