News 

The news comes just days after fellow African nation Chad approved Starlink to begin operations in the country 

Namibia’s Communications Regulatory Authority (CRAN) has ordered Starlink, the satellite internet provider owned by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, to cease business for operating without license in the country. 

While Starlink has filed an application for an operating license, the CRAN has yet to grant it, and has cautioned consumers against purchasing or using Starlink equipment.  

“The public is hereby advised not to purchase Starlink terminal equipment or subscribe to its services, as such activities are illegal,” said an emailed statement. 

“Investigators have already confiscated illegal terminals from consumers and have opened criminal cases with the Namibian police in this regard.” 

The escalation highlights Starlink’s ongoing challenges in establishing a foothold in Africa, where it faces regulatory hurdles and resistance from a number of state-owned telecoms monopolies. However since the start of 2023, Starlink has been launched in 15 African countries. 

Starlink’s services, which are promoted as helping to bridge the digital divide in rural and underserved areas, are often seen as disruptive to local telecoms markets. Indeed, this month Starlink has faced allegations of predatory pricing in Kenya, aimed at luring away customers from local service providers, though the national competition regulator says it will not be investigating the issue.  

Disruption from Starlink’s presence in national telecoms markets will only increase as the company begins to offer direct-to-device connectivity, which it is currently testing in the US with T-Mobile. 

It is worth noting that claims of operating without a licence is nothing new for Starlink. Similar issues have arisen in other nations, such as Cameroon, where authorities have also seized Starlink equipment for operating illegally. 

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

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VMO2 launches UK’s first 5G standalone small cells in Birmingham
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News 

The group’s formation is timely, following the high-profile damage to subsea cables in the Baltic Sea earlier this month 

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the International Cable Protection Committee (ICPC) have joined forces to create a new advisory group focused on protecting submarine cables.  

Submarine cables carry over 99% of international data, making them essential for everything from online shopping and financial transactions to digital health services and education. However, is critical infrastructure is vulnerable to damage from fishing, anchoring, natural disasters, equipment failures, and potentially deliberate sabotage, with around 150 to 200 faults reported each year, according to data from the ITU. 

As such, this newly formed advisory body will bring together governments, industry leaders, and experts to develop best practices for protecting cables, speed up cable repairs and deployment efforts, and reduce risks to existing cables. 

“The formation of this International Advisory Body with ITU marks another step toward safeguarding our global digital infrastructure,” said ICPC Chair, Graham Evans in a press release. 

“By working together, we can promote best practices, foster international collaboration, and create a consistent approach to protect the vital submarine cable networks that underpin global connectivity,” he added. 

The advisory group currently includes 40 members, including government ministers, telecom regulators, and industry experts. It will be co-chaired by Bosun Tijani, Nigeria’s Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, and Sandra Maximiano, Chair of Portugal’s National Communications Authority (ANACOM). 

The group will meet at least twice a year, with the first virtual meeting planned to take place next month. A physical meeting at the Submarine Cable Resilience Summit in Nigeria will follow in February. 

The formation of this advisory group comes just days after a pair of submarine cables were severed in the Baltic Sea, putting the submarine cable industry under the international spotlight. An investigation into the cause of the damage is already underway, with European governments saying at the time that they feared the incident could be an intentional act of sabotage on behalf of malicious state actors.  

This week the Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson requested that Chinese cargo ship Yi Peng 3 return to Swedish waters as part of the investigation, as the incident occurred inside Sweden’s exclusive economic zone (the area of the sea to which a country has exclusive rights). The ship was in the area at the time of the damage. 

Just yesterday, it was revealed by the Wall Street Journal that the ship is currently surrounded European vessels after investigators suspect that the ship deliberately dragged its anchor 100 miles across the Baltic Seabed.  

The investigation is still ongoing and the ship’s crew is cooperating.  

“Neither sabotage nor an accident can be ruled out,” said Katja Bego, a Senior Research Fellow at Chatham House, speaking to Reuters. 

Join us at next year’s Submarine Networks EMEA in London. Discounted tickets available here! 

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The International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the United Nations Agency for Digital Technologies, and the International Cable Protection Committee (ICPC) have today formed a new ‘International Advisory Body for Submarine Cable Resilience‘, which comes hot on the heels of an ongoing dispute after two fibre optic cables were cut in the Baltic Sea last week.

Just to recap. Two subsea fibre optic cables, one linking Finland and Germany, and the other connecting Sweden to Lithuania, were damaged in less than 24 hours between 17th and 18th November 2024. The finger of suspicion soon cast its way toward the Chinese bulk carrier Yi Peng 3, which was outbound from St. Petersburg (Russia) in the Baltic and was in the vicinity of both breaks at around the same time.

The damage itself is suspected to have been caused after the Yi Peng 3 allegedly dropped and dragged its anchor across the seabed for more than 100 miles over both cables (something the captain should have noticed), with some investigators suspecting that the damage was deliberate (maritime maps normally reference cable locations, precisely to avoid this).

Whatever the reason, the ongoing incident has helped to highlight the vulnerability of these most vital of links. Damage to submarine cables is, however, not uncommon, with an average of 150 to 200 faults occurring globally each year and requiring about three cable repairs per week, according to the ICPC – it usually takes a few weeks to fix a break, but this depends upon the type of break, depth, weather conditions and various other factors.

Today most cable breaks occur due to accidents by deep sea fishing trawlers, as well as ships accidentally dragging their anchor over them, abrasion, equipment failure or marine life deciding to take a nibble (the latter is only really an issue for smaller / older cables that haven’t been buried).

In addition, US and UK intelligence officials have repeatedly highlighted the potential vulnerability of such cables to actions by hostile states. But whatever the cause of a given break, the new Advisory Body will aim to improve cable resilience by promoting best practices for governments and industry players to ensure the timely deployment and repair of submarine cables, reduce the risks of damage, and enhance the continuity of related communications.

Doreen Bogdan-Martin, ITU Secretary-General, said:

“Submarine cables carry over 99 per cent of international data exchanges, making their resilience a global imperative. The Advisory Body will mobilize expertise from around the world to ensure this vital digital infrastructure remains resilient in the face of disasters, accidents, and other risks.”

However, it’s worth remembering that cutting lots of transatlantic fibre optic cables within the same time window (i.e. what you’d have to do to cause a much more serious disruption), while a risk, is something that would be very difficult to completely prevent and carry out. The same sort of attack could similarly then be used against an aggressor.

The fact that so much international trade is carried over the internet also means that other countries are likely to be harmed by such an activity, which in a conflict may include the attacking state (i.e. directly or indirectly). But for now, the greatest danger to such cables still seems to be maritime negligence.

Finally, the Advisory Body’s 40 members include Ministers, Heads of Regulatory Authorities, industry executives, and senior experts on the operations of telecommunication cables from across the world. The body will meet at least two times a year and the first virtual meeting is scheduled for December 2024. The first physical meeting is currently scheduled to take place during the Submarine Cable Resilience Summit, planned for late February 2025 in Abuja, Nigeria.

The UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has today updated their guidance for how broadband ISPs, phone, pay TV and mobile operators should communicate mid-contract prices hikes to consumers. The change is primarily intended to align their policy with Ofcom’s imminent ban on mid-contract price hikes that are linked to inflation and percentage changes.

Just to recap. The ASA introduced its original guidance (here), which was intended to help make sure that providers made their policies on mid-contract price hikes clearer and more transparent, back in mid-2023. At the time, it was still normal for providers to use confusing annual inflation-linked (CPI/RPI) price hikes that were often expressed using percentages, which many people tended to find confusing.

The original guidance recently resulted in several adverts from BT, EE, Plusnet, TalkTalk, O2 and Virgin Media being banned after they were found to have breached the ASA’s guidance (here). This occurred because the way they all presented their annual mid-contract price hikes was found to be “misleading“.

Since then, Ofcom has effectively moved to ban providers from doing mid-contract price hikes that are linked to inflation and percentage changes (here), which is due to be enforced from 17th January 2025. Instead, wherever telecoms or pay TV providers apply in-contract price rises, they must now “set these out clearly and up-front, in pounds and pence, when a customer signs up“.

In response, the ASA yesterday published updated guidance, which is designed to reflect Ofcom’s change and remove references to the old inflation policies etc.

ASA Statement

The guidance already provided that if the amount by which the customer’s monthly contract price would increase was known in advance, then it should be stated in full. The proposed amendments clarify that the full future monthly price and when it will rise are likely to constitute material information that the consumer needs to make an informed transactional decision. Because the means to calculate the future price will always be known in advance, percentage-based presentations of the price are unlikely to be sufficient to avoid misleading the consumer.

The prominence principles set out in the guidance remain the same. In short, ads for telecoms contracts that include (or have the potential to include) a mid-contract price rise are less likely to mislead if:

➤ Information indicating the presence or (in the case of variable contract) possibility of a price rise has equal prominence with the initial price claim

➤ Information on the nature of the price rise (the full future price in pounds and pence) is prominently featured within the main ad copy – no lower than one ‘step’ below the initial price claim

Several other changes have been made to remove references to inflation-linked increases that will no longer be relevant and to contextualise the guidance in relation to the Ofcom rule changes.

The guidance refers to underpinning law in the form of the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 (the CPRs). This legislation will be replaced from April 2025 by the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer Act 2024. However, this will not affect the content of this guidance.

The amended guidance is naturally timed to take effect on 17th January 2025. The main principles under the amended text are as follows.

Updated Guidance principles

➤ An ad is more likely to comply when advertisers do not state or imply that a price will apply for the full minimum term of the contract, if that is not the case.

For example, wording such as ‘fixed’ or ‘£X for X months’ is likely to mislead if the price is due to rise before the end of the minimum term. Subsequent information detailing the mid-contract price increase is likely to contradict rather than qualify a claim that implies the price applies for the full contract.

➤ An ad is more likely to comply when information indicating the presence or possibility of a price rise has equal prominence with the initial price claim.

➤ An ad is more likely to comply when the future price statement is featured prominently within the main copy of the ad. Specifically:

• In static-format ads, no lower than one ‘step’ on the qualifications ladder (see Guidance on the use of qualifications) below the information signalling the price increase.

• In TV or video ads, within the main copy, rather than in superimposed text.

The following approaches are unlikely to give adequate weight to the significance of this material information:

• an asterisk linking to information more than one ‘step’ below the price claim

• a link that has to be clicked on or hovered over with a cursor in order to access the information

• in a radio ad, featuring the information only in the terms and conditions that follow the main copy

If the minimum contract term is greater than 12 months and therefore there will be more than one tiered increase, the ad should make that clear.

➤ Ads are more likely to comply when advertisers are mindful of the time of year when the ad is being published, relative to the timing of any compulsory annual increase, to avoid misleading consumers. In particular:

• Ads are less likely to mislead if consumers will be charged the monthly price stated in the ad at least once before the upcoming increase is applied.

➤ An ad is more likely to comply when advertisers make clear when a price rise applies to only one element of the contract.

➤ Where a variable telecoms contract is linked to another product (for example, another telecoms contract, a device finance plan, or a TV or other content subscription service), exiting the variable contract following a price increase may affect the status of the other product.

Where applicable, ads should make clear that if consumers exit the contract for the variable product due to a price rise:

• They will lose a linked product;
• The price of a linked product will increase; and/or
• They will incur charges as a result of terminating a linked product

➤ For ads for variable contracts, where a product listing is included on a webpage with multiple other listings, then it may be sufficient to link each price statement to one or more qualifications providing further information, further down the page – provided the qualification is sufficiently prominent and visible at all times without having to scroll down the page.

Contract-free mobile provider VOXI, which is the virtual network operator (MVNO) sibling of Vodafone, has today launched a series of Black Friday discounts across their Pay Monthly SIM Only 4G and 5G plans, which quadruples or more the included data (mobile broadband) allowance for new customers.

For example, VOXI’s entry-level £10 per month plan now comes with 80GB (GigaBytes) of data instead of 20GB. The same plan also includes unlimited calls, text, picture messages and social media usage (WiFi Calling, 4G Calling and Visual Voicemail are also supported). Similarly, the operators £20 plan now comes with 500GB of data instead of 100GB, while also adding unlimited social media, music and video.

The promotions, which also include various discounts on their Smartphone handsets and bundles, will be available for new customers to take until 2nd December 2024.

Alternative network operator and ISP Quickline, which is deploying gigabit-capable broadband networks (FTTP and wireless) across rural and semi-rural parts of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire (England), has today become the latest provider to launch some big Black Friday discounts on their packages and Amazon vouchers worth up to £1,000.

Building on their current half price for 12 months offer to new customers taking any of their packages, for the Black Friday weekend (until 11:59pm on Monday 2nd December) Quickline says they’re also giving away Amazon vouchers to all new customers with the value of the voucher ranging from £30 to £1,000. The size of voucher you receive will be decided by a prize draw – outcome to be revealed on 3rd December.

Packages start at £14.50 per month (£29 after 12-months) for a 200Mbps symmetric speed broadband service with a free router and installation, which goes up to £24.50 per month (£49) for their top 1000Mbps tier. The provider also promises “no in-contract price hikes” and 24/7 tech support 365 days a year.

Ben O’Leary, Head of Product and Proposition at Quickline, said:

“We’re passionate about bringing cutting-edge technology and reliable internet to rural communities that have been left behind for far too long. Our Black Friday deal is not just about great savings, but also spreading a little extra cheer with our Amazon voucher giveaway. It’s the perfect time to make the switch to faster, more reliable broadband – just in time for Christmas.”

The provider’s original ambition was to cover around 500,000 premises in rural and semi-rural areas across Northern England and beyond with “ultrafast broadband” – via both FTTP and FWA technologies – “by 2025” (here). Some 200,000 of those rural premises were due to be tackled by their wireless network, with the rest coming from FTTP.

However, since then they’ve secured several state-aid funded Project Gigabit contracts, which will bring full fibre broadband with public funding to almost 170,000 premises in mostly rural areas, which rises to 360,000 when you include the provider’s complementary commercial build.

Alternative network provider Wildanet, which is deploying a gigabit speed Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network across rural parts of Cornwall and Devon in England, has today appointed a trio of new chiefs (CCO, COO and CFO) to help oversee the deployment of its new network and strengthen its leadership team.

The operator, which originally started life as a Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) broadband provider in the same area, has recently been deploying gigabit-capable full fibre lines – both commercially and via public investment – and is estimated to have so far covered around 30,000 premises (Ready for Service). Since 2023, Wildanet has also secured 3 contracts worth £77m to roll out FTTP to over 37,000 premises across Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, as part of the UK government’s Project Gigabit.

In terms of the new appointments, Simon Hughes has just been named their new Chief Commercial Officer (CCO), while Alastair Woods will become the operator’s Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Jai Madhvani has joined Wildanet to take up the role of Chief Financial Officer (CFO). Suffice to say that the ISP has added a lot of experience to their ranks.

Simon was previously the CCO for alternative network provider County Broadband, and has also held senior roles at BT and Microsoft. As for Alastair, he previously held senior roles within Openreach and BT Group. Finally, Jai was most recently the Group CFO of The Collective, which builds and operates large-scale city-based co-living residential projects.

Wildanet CEO, Helen Wylde-Archibald, said:

“We are delighted to be able to announce the completion of the Wildanet senior team with three high calibre appointments bringing highly relevant expertise and huge industry experience to the business.

Simon, Alastair and Jai are all inspirational leaders and managers who will play key roles working with myself, Justin, Julie-anne, the Board and the wider Wildanet team as we continue our work to bring Full Fibre broadband to more communities across the region, with support from Project Gigabit, the UK government’s rollout of lightning-fast, reliable broadband across the UK.”

Pictured (L/R): Justin Clark (Chief Strategy & Technology Officer and Deputy CEO); Jai Madhvani (Chief Financial Officer); Helen Wylde-Archibald (CEO); Alastair Woods (Chief Operating Officer); Julie-anne Sunderland (Chief People Officer) and Alastair Woods (Chief Operating Officer).

Contributed Article 

As both 5G and AI technologies continue to mature, GTI’s Intelligent RAN, Ubiquitous AI Project aims to explore existing synergies and develop combined use cases  

At this year’s Global Mobile Broadband Forum (MBBF) in Istanbul, GTI launched a global recruitment drive for its Intelligent RAN, Ubiquitous AI Project.  

The initiative is part of GTI’s wider 5G-A x AI Development Program launched at MWC Barcelona alongside 20 partners earlier this year. The Program focuses on combining 5G-Advanced (5G-A) networks with AI to drive innovation, including setting up open research labs around the world to collaboratively explore new use cases.  

Founded in 2011, GTI (Global TD-LTE Initiative) is an international platform initially started to promote the development of mobile technology, focusing on adoption of time division (TD)-LTE. Over time, GTI has evolved and expanded its mission to include the advancement of 5G and beyond. The organisation currently has 146 operator members and 262 industry partners, all of which collaborate on the development of new 5G products and technologies.  

Some of these partners, including the GSMA, China Mobile, Telefónica, AIS, HKT, Zain, Leju Robot, and Huawei took to the stage at MBBF to discuss the further development 5G-A and AI, and the progress of the 5G-A x AI Development Program so far .  5G-A,  the next step 5G in 5G’s evolution, has already started to be deployed in markets around the world and is delivering new benefits for homes, businesses, and industries through improved network performance, sustainability, and AI integration. These AI technologies themselves are also advancing rapidly and increasingly working with 5G-A to enable smarter applications and systems.   

To further support this progress, GTI’s 5G-A×AI Development Program has already seen the establishment of four labs where companies can experiment with using 5G-A and AI in areas like improving networks and cutting energy use. GTI and GSMA Foundry have also launched challenges to encourage collaboration and solve key problems in combining 5G-A and AI.   

The Intelligent RAN, Ubiquitous AI Project represents the next step in this collaborative journey, with GTI inviting companies to jointly explore how to leverage these new technologies to enable intelligent O&M, optimise network deployments, boost energy savings, and create new revenue streams. It also seeks to support the mobile industry in better supporting AI use cases by promoting network upgrades and supporting numerous AI pilot projects in industries including transport, energy, and city management.  

GTI encourages interested parties from across the telecoms industry and beyond to join the Project and further expand the rapidly growing collaborative community.  

News 

The deal covers over 3,000 Open RAN sites across Germany 

Nokia has announced a deal with Deutsche Telekom to support the deployment of over 3,000 sites for its Open RAN network in Germany.  

The rollout, which is already underway in the Neubrandenburg region, will see Nokia replace equipment from the incumbent vendor, Huawei. Partnering with Fujitsu, Nokia will provide O-RAN-compliant technology designed to modernise Telekom’s network.  

“This deal is further evidence of our significant commitment to multi-vendor Open RAN and ensuring we have greater supplier choice for radio access networks,” said Abdu Mudesir, Group CTO and Managing Director of Technology Germany at Deutsche Telekom in a press release. “The network performance in the already implemented area is delivering the best customer experience. And now together with Nokia, we look forward to scaling up Open RAN in Germany.”. 

This deal comes amid broader efforts by European telecom operators to reduce their reliance on Huawei, which has historically been a dominant supplier of equipment in the region. 

 Huawei’s presence in Europe has faced increasing scrutiny over security concerns raised by the US and several European governments. While the EU itself has not specifically lobbied against the use of Huawei equipment, it has introduced more stringent security guidelines for network equipment and encouraged telecom operators to diversify their supplier base. 

As such, only a small number of countries – such as the UK and Sweden – have banned the use of Huawei equipment in national networks outright. Instead, most governments have taken a lighter approach, with many only mandating that Huawei equipment be removed from the most sensitive parts of telecoms networks.  

This is the case for Germany, which has been particularly cautious in mandating operators to phase out Huawei equipment. After years of indecision, it was only this summer – almost five years since the 5G security debate began – that  Germany ordered the removal of Huawei equipment from the core of the network by the end of 2026. By the end of 2029, the wider network components from these manufacturers in 5G access and transport networks must be replaced. 

“We are protecting the central nervous systems of Germany as a business location — and we are protecting the communication of citizens, companies and the state,” said Interior Minister Nancy Faeser. “We must reduce security risks and, unlike in the past, avoid one-sided dependencies”  

In anticipation of rules such as this, Deutsche Telekom, one of Huawei’s largest European customers, has been gradually shifting toward a more diverse vendor mix for a number of years. The partnership with Nokia represents another significant step in this direction, with Deutsche Telekom moving to better align with European Union objectives of reducing dependency on high-risk vendors and fostering a competitive, secure telecom ecosystem. 

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

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Mobile operator EE (BT) has confirmed to ISPreview that they’ve “started the work” to repurpose more of their old 3G radio spectrum for use by modern 4G and 5G based mobile networks, which is said to already be delivering “performance improvements” (e.g. faster mobile broadband speeds) for customers in “thousands of postcodes” across the UK.

In case anybody has forgotten, EE switched-off their final 3G sites back in February 2024 (here). But it’s long been known that the radio spectrum which operators free up, as a result of this change, would go toward improving the performance and coverage of their more modern 4G and 5G networks – not to mention helping to lower their network costs and facilitating a big reduction in energy usage.

However, the precise approach that different operators planned to use (i.e. when switching the spectrum that 3G used and re-farming it to 4G or 5G services) has often remained unclear, which may also vary between different areas. But last year a spokesperson for EE told ISPreview that their own process would happen gradually over time, with an initial focus being given to areas of greatest need (e.g. congested sites or areas at risk of congestion).

In fact, EE has previously re-farmed 15MHz of the 2100MHz band (n1), which was originally used for 3G. But, over the past few months, some of EE’s customers (example) have reported seeing an additional change on the n1 band, which increases the channel bandwidth from 15MHz to 20MHz. This was underlined last week, when a sizeable number of EE’s masts in South Wales suddenly adopted this change to improve 4G and 5G services.

The operator has since confirmed to ISPreview that Appleby (we assume they mean the one in Lincolnshire) was the first location to see this work take place, although they’ve also now done it in parts of Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester, London, Birmingham, Liverpool and parts of North Wales. As above, they’ve recently been adding South Wales to that list (this is due to complete next week). A total of 7,000 sites have been upgraded this year.

An EE spokesperson told ISPreview:

“Shutting down outdated technologies like 3G carries benefits for everyone because modern networks provide more reliable, sustainable and secure services. By closing down 3G, more mobile spectrum has been freed up and is now being used to improve EE’s 4G and 5G networks. This work is already delivering performance improvements for customers in thousands of postcodes across the UK.”

The operator has been conducting some early monitoring of the recent n1 change to 20MHz, which appears to suggest performance benefits of between 20-35% in some KPIs, although no specifics were included to elaborate. But such performance benefits typically include things like less congestion, fewer dropped calls and modestly faster broadband speeds.