LONDON (1st October 2024) – Cavell, a leading research and consulting firm, has today announced the launch of its AI-powered platform, Channel Insights, to help IT and telecoms companies better identify and nurture channel partnerships.

The new platform utilises AI for comprehensive data gathering and insights, surpassing legacy methods that historically rely on outdated manually sourced information. It will support vendors and service providers with the most up-to-date information on the channel landscape, along with competitor benchmarking to ensure these companies can access a holistic view of the channel in key regions.

Channel Insights offers targeted analysis into potential channel partners using data from various sources, including partner websites, LinkedIn, vendor databases and other public sources. Subscribers simply log in, filter searches through options such as IT services offered, vendors in portfolio, company size and locations to find new partners. The process is completely automated, whilst leveraging AI to drive greater insights into the data – but also done in tandem with human quality checks to ensure the most up-to-date, error-free data for better business decisions.

To give an example of the database, it tracks over 35,000 companies across English-speaking markets. Of these, the data shows 51% of these are currently Microsoft partners, and out of those 17,850 partners, 76% currently sell UCaaS services. Further filters can be applied to either add or remove those providers who offer other vendors or services. This enables IT and telecoms companies to create saveable lists to either track a specific segment of the market to conduct competitive or wider market analysis or use for targeted marketing campaigns.

The creation of private lists also allows for companies to give their channel sales teams a dashboard where they upload their partners in and have an up-to-date view of any news, announcements or changes that may impact their relationship with their partners and can proactively act upon. This can also be done for target accounts who may not be already working with you.

Dom Black, Growth Director, Cavell, commented: “With most IT services being sold through channel partners, the amount of data available on this vital area has historically been shocking and required extensive manual processes. Many companies have resorted to manual reviews of their current channels for projects and customers for years or buying out of date lists from external vendors. With the advent of better data management, scraping and analysis tools, it was the time to automate that process. Now Cavell is delighted to be able to offer this new service to our customers and help them finally shed some light on the complexity of their channel.”

For too long companies have struggled to find the right channel partners that align with their goals and market needs, and there is also often a lack of visibility of existing partners in terms of what they are offering and promoting. With Channel Insights these challenges are eliminated, enabling sales teams to focus on building relationships and ultimately closing new contracts.

-ENDS-

About Cavell

Cavell is a leading research and consulting firm specialising in the telecommunications industry with a particular focus on business communications technologies including UCaaS, collaboration, contact centre and customer engagement software, business messaging, and Microsoft Teams.

Cavell provides insights, analysis, and advisory services to help their clients navigate and succeed in these rapidly evolving sectors.

Cavell’s team combines years of accumulated telecoms industry experience with enterprise and SMB surveys and proven market intelligence to provide a suite of services including market research, commercial and technical due diligence, strategy advisory services and leading industry events.

https://www.cavell.com

Witbe’s Cutting-Edge Technology Enables a Superior Quality of Experience for Video Services on Set-Top Boxes, Smart TVs, and Streaming Media Devices

PARIS — Sept. 26, 2024 — Witbe (Euronext Growth – FR0013143872 – ALWIT), a global leader in test automation and monitoring technology for video service providers, today announced that French operator Bouygues Telecom is strengthening its long-running partnership with the company by upgrading its QA testing equipment to the latest powerful models of the Witbox+. Bouygues Telecom is utilizing Witbe’s new technology to deliver video services more efficiently, with a superior quality of experience (QoE) for viewers.

“Witbe’s technology allows us to detect issues in the lab before they appear in production, optimizing our time to market and ensuring the best possible quality of experience is delivered to our customers,” said Loubna Hamdoun, head of product and service integration and validation for fixed services at Bouygues Telecom.

Bouygues Telecom has been using Witbe’s technology since 2018 and is now supplied with the latest cutting-edge version of the Witbox+ hardware and Witbe Software Suite technology. Integrating the Witbox+’s automated testing technology significantly increases Bouygues Telecom’s quality assurance capabilities for video app performance on set-top boxes (STBs), smart TVs, and HDMI-connected streaming media devices.

The Witbox+ boosts Bouygues Telecom’s testing and monitoring capabilities by allowing team members to easily script new test scenarios, automate complex performance testing, reduce test scenario maintenance with the help of AI algorithms, quickly test 4K assets, and analyze all test results through streamlined reports on Witbe’s Smartgate observability platform. The Witbox+ can power through automated tests that are impossible to perform manually, such as changing a channel thousands of times, continually restarting STBs, or identifying video errors after hours of nonstop viewing.

“We are very happy to continue our partnership with Bouygues Telecom and help contribute to their tremendous success by providing them with cutting-edge video testing and monitoring technology,” said Marie-Véronique Lacaze, president and co-founder of Witbe. “This deployment underscores our mission to ensure that operators like Bouygues Telecom have reliable and innovative tools to deliver exceptional experiences to their users.”

Additional information about the Witbox+ and Witbe’s technology is available at www.witbe.net.

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About Witbe (www.witbe.net)
Witbe (Euronext Growth – FR0013143872 – ALWIT) makes automated testing and proactive monitoring technology for global video service providers. The company’s award-winning technology accurately measures the quality of experience that viewers receive. Witbe’s nonintrusive, plug-and-play technology replicates user behavior to automatically test and monitor video services from anywhere in the world. The Witbe Software Suite allows teams to remotely access their Witbox robot, which can control, test, and monitor any video app running on a real device. The essential data collected by the Witbox can then be analyzed and shared in Witbe’s observability platform.

Witbe’s recent innovations include its streamlined Automated Testing Set, deploying automation and providing QA results faster than ever before; its popular Ad Monitoring and Matching technology to resolve dynamic ad insertion errors; its acclaimed Smart Navigate AI algorithm; and its new Mobile Quality of Experience and Video Traffic Optimization technology. Witbe has a dozen offices around the world and is proud to have customers — including Comcast, Cox, Verizon, Peacock, and Orange— in more than 50 countries. More information and further updates are available at www.witbe.net.

About Bouygues Telecom (www.bouyguestelecom.fr)
A subsidiary of the Bouygues Group, Bouygues Telecom is a global French operator of communications and digital services, generating an annual revenue of €7.7 billion with 10,500 employees and 519 stores across France. Founded in 1994, Bouygues Telecom is committed to providing individuals, businesses, and public administrations with fixed and mobile communication services, as well as high-speed, secure, innovative, and quality internet services by constantly developing its network and user experience.

Bouygues Telecom serves 23.9 million mobile customers and 5 million fixed customers, making it the leading provider of Wi-Fi and fixed internet connections in 2023, according to Nperf, and the second largest mobile operator, according to ARCEP. Its 4G network covers 99% of the French population, while its 5G network covers nearly 17,000 municipalities and more than 81% of the population. Bouygues Telecom Enterprises supports nearly 100,000 clients, including 70% of the CAC 40, in adopting new collaborative tools, migrating to the cloud, and transforming their digital infrastructures. Committed to reducing its carbon emissions, Bouygues Telecom aims to achieve -29.4% for scopes 1 and 2 and -17.5% for scope 3 by 2027, with goals approved by the Science Based Targets initiative. Follow Bouygues Telecom news at www.corporate.bouyguestelecom.fr or @ByTel_Corporate on X.

Link to Word Doc: www.202commsc.om/Witbe/240926-Witbe-Bouygues_Telecom.docx

Wireless infrastructure provider Freshwave has revealed that EE UK have begun to expand their original trial deployment of a new small cell based outdoor 4G and 5G mobile (mobile broadband) network in the central City of London area, which has since added 25 new sites to its coverage.

Small cells are akin to mini shoebox sized mobile base stations, which have been designed to deliver limited coverage (usually up to around 80-120 metres) and thus tend to be more focused on busy urban areas and specific sites. As a result, it’s not uncommon to find these sitting on top of lampposts, CCTV poles or old payphone boxes etc. The same sort of approach can also be adapted to help with indoor mobile coverage too.

EE began trialling Freshwave’s new outdoor small cell mobile network in the central ‘Square Mile’ area of London during 2022 (here). But this appears to have gone well, which has resulted in EE moving beyond the trial phase. The mobile operator has since put 25 new sites live in the central area to boost their network capacity and performance, with more set to follow.

Dozens of additional small cell sites for EE are currently being built and will enhance mobile connectivity in even more of the Square Mile when they are brought live in the future. The network being used here can also be harnessed by other operators, as Freshwave’s bespoke neutral host solution enables the network to accommodate all four MNOs on 4G and 5G from day one with no adjustments needed to the infrastructure.

Simon Frumkin, Freshwave’s CEO, said:

“We believe that multi-operator, shareable digital infrastructure is the future of mobile connectivity. Our unique approach allows the mobile network operators to enhance their networks where they need it most with minimal disruption for the surrounding communities and we’re looking forward to continuing to expand the network.”

James Hope, EE’s Director of Mobile Radio Access Networks, said:

“With our customers using more data than ever we’re committed to ensuring they enjoy the same great experience with EE in more places. Outdoor small cells are an important part of our mobile network and we’re happy to be extending our work with Freshwave using their cutting-edge approach.”

Across all of the sites involved in the initial pilot, EE is seeing up to 7.5TB (TeraBytes) of data downloaded per week.

City-focused UK broadband ISP Hyperoptic, which has deployed a full fibre (FTTP/B) network to reach “more than” 1.73 million homes in parts of 64 towns and cities, have recently published their annual accounts and revealed a surge in losses to £142m on the back of high interest rates. But revenues, coverage and their customer base also saw growth.

The operator, which is now home to a customer base of 340,000 and is targeting 500,000 for the future, was previously known to be aiming to cover 2 million premises with their gigabit broadband network by the end of 2024. But Hyperoptic’s latest results reflect the period to the end of 2023, which means that its figures are a bit behind some of those more recent ones mentioned above.

Overall, it’s been a bit of a mixed year for Hyperoptic, which like many established networks is seeing the impact from high interest rates helping to fuel a total loss for the year of £142m (e.g. the interest due on their loans reached £66.85m, up from £27.66m in 2022). The operator has also continued to expand their network, which is very capital intensive.

On the other hand, revenues grew by 19%, their customer base jumped 17%, while network coverage jumped from 1.08m to 1.51m total homes passed and their total employee count increased from 1,865 to 1,943. But we have seen a few smaller redundancies during 2024 (mostly ‘business as usual’ style movements, with hires in other areas), so this may not change much in 2024.

As Hyperoptic gets closer to hitting their 2 million premises target then, without a big surge of new investment, we’d expect their focus to increasingly switch away from build and more toward growing their customer base.

Summary of Key Hyperoptic Figures for 2023

Revenues grew 19% to £93.4m (2022: 21% growth to £78.7m)

Gross profit grew to £73m (2022: £62.3m), but their profit margin shrank a bit to 78.1% (2022: 79.2%) due to a rise in network operating costs (EAD rentals, PIA etc.)

Capital investment reached £209.5m (2022: £186m), due mainly to network expansion

Subscribers grew by 17% to total 311,999 (2022: 266,856)

Average revenue per user (ARPU) increased to £26.9 (2022: £26.7)

Total homes passed (network coverage) grew to 1,514,162 (2022: 1,085,763) – including 200,000 from new build homes

Administration costs increased to £128.4m (2022: £105.1m), mainly due to a rise in depreciation related to increased fibre network investment.

Operating loss increased by £14m to total £63.1m (2022: £49.1m), but total loss for the year hit £142m (2022: £76m) – due largely to high interest rates increasing borrowing costs.

Interest due on loans reached £66.85m (2022: £27.66m)

Borrowing grew sharply to total £916.2m (2022: £624m). The provider had total loan and debt facilities of £996.5m at the end of 2023, which has since grown and is now around £1.3bn (here).

Employees totalled 1,943 (2022: 1,865)

Network access provider Openreach (BT) has today revealed the top locations for coverage of their Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network in Oxfordshire (England), which sees the historic market town of Witney top the table with “nearly” 70% of all premises able to upgrade.

The operator claims to have so far invested more than £26 million to deploy their new network across Oxfordshire, which has already reached around 88,000 homes and businesses across the county. This works out at a per premises cost of roughly £295 and that’s in keeping with their current expectations. Build in the Oxford exchange area will start later this year.

Interestingly, Openreach also states that around 50% of all homes and businesses which have access to the new network in Oxfordshire have taken a service from a supporting ISP (e.g. BT, EE, Sky Broadband, TalkTalk, Vodafone, Zen Internet, iDNET, AAISP, Freeola and many.. more), which is well above their average UK FTTP take-up figure of c.34%.

Openreach’s partnership director for the South East, Kasam Hussain, said: “Our amazing engineers and build partners have done a wonderful job to help us reach this significant milestone. This Full Fibre upgrade is a huge boost for the county and the wider region. We’re adopting a balanced build, bringing ultrafast speeds to the region’s biggest cities and towns as well as the most rural communities.”

The catch with Openreach’s top ten list below is that the operator hasn’t included any other coverage figures for each location, which is relevant because some places – like Longworth – may be in the top list, but they actually only have around 20% coverage. Suffice to say, there’s still a lot of build left to do and this doesn’t factor in the efforts of their many rival networks.

Top 10 Locations for Openreach FTTP in Oxfordshire (Exchange area):

Witney

Bicester

Banbury

Thame

Wantage

Blewbury

Childrey

Stratton Audley

Abingdon

Longworth

Alternative full fibre operator and ISP Brsk, which now covers “over” 633,000 UK homes with their Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network and is in the process of being merged into Netomnia (here), has today launched their new 2Gbps (symmetric speed) broadband package and introduced some early Black Friday discounts.

The new 2Gbps speed package has actually been in trial since early September 2024 with a variety of customers, although the full product launch will occur this month. The new package will include both a TP-Link EX820v router and the HX710 Pro mesh access points to help boost wireless coverage.

The new router and mesh devices, which were chosen after the ISP undertook a “comprehensive evaluation of various equipment options from multiple vendors, using CDRouter from QA Cafe for this process“, are said to have since “undergone rigorous testing to ensure optimal performance and reliability“.

Jody Botham, Head of Networks at brsk, said:

“While no wireless system is perfect, we understand that it is key to our customers’ experience when using our broadband products, and so for the 2Gbps product it was really important for us to make sure we selected equipment that can deliver the performance to make the most of this product.

We’ve made a significant investment in our CPE testing platform, which has allowed us to validate the functionality and benchmark the performance of a number of vendors’ CPE models, that on paper should have very similar performance, whereas in reality we saw some big differences. We selected the TP-Link devices based on its superior performance.”

The new 2Gbps package is expected to cost £55 per month on a 24-month minimum term, including free installation and a pledge of no mid-contract price rises. Speaking of pricing, some of Brsk’s other packages will also be getting early Black Friday discounts.

Brsk Black Friday Discounts

BetterNet150 (150Mbps upload and download): Was £25pm, now £19pm on a 24-month contract

BetterNet500 (500Mbps upload and download): Was £33pm, now £25pm on a 24-month contract

BetterNet1000 (900Mbps upload and download): Was £40pm, now £30pm on a 24-month contract

BetterNet2000 (2000Mbps upload and download): £55pm on a 24-month contract

Eastbourne-based alternative broadband builder and ISP Lightning Fibre, which over the past few years have been building a new Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network across parts of Sussex and Kent in England, has confirmed to ISPreview that they’ve hit staff with another round of redundancies and slowed their network build.

The operator, which has built to a number of locations like Eastbourne, Hastings, Hailsham, St Leonard’s, Heathfield and more, originally planned to cover 140,000 premises with their gigabit-capable network. But it remains unclear how many premises they actually reached before going through a rapid administration earlier this year and suffering some redundancies in the process (here).

However, back in August 2024 we noted that the operator sent a strong signal of their desire to “facilitate the extension of the network“, which came through an application for Code Powers from Ofcom (here). But the latest development suggests that the way they approach this may be going through some changes.

The situation came to light after ISPreview noticed a surge in redundancy notices toward the end of last week, seemingly all from the operator’s internal build team. Upon investigating this, we were told, by sources, that the operator had suddenly informed staff about a further round of redundancies – allegedly impacting up to 30 internal staff (mostly members of their build team). For a smaller altnet, this can have a big impact.

Lightning Fibre Statement to ISPreview

Our network is now mostly completed in Eastbourne, Hailsham, Heathfield, Hastings, Polegate and Tenterden, and our roll out will now slow down considerably.

We regret the redundancies that this decision has necessitated.

Whilst we operate in a highly-competitive and cost-sensitive market, we are continuing to grow both our network and our customer base, providing great value and service to our residential and business users.

We remain a committed local employer and our HQ will remain fully operational in Polegate, with our commercial teams (sales, installs, customer services) remaining based in Eastbourne.

According to our sources, Lightning Fibre may now be using the contractor ‘Nets‘ to continue their build going forward, albeit clearly at a slower pace. This is perhaps not a particularly surprisingly development, given the currently very difficult trading environment for many alternative networks. But that will come as little consolation to those who are either about to be out of work or have already gone.

Regular readers will know that a growing number of network operators, both big and small alike, have over the past couple of years moved to slow their network deployments (resulting in job losses) and switched their focus toward growing take-up to ensure some future stability. Such moves are a prudent course of action in the current climate of rising build costs and high interest rates, which makes it harder to raise fresh investment.

Interview

As the telecoms industry gradually moves towards tackling Scope 3 emissions and the wider challenge of sustainability, Unipart Logistics’ Steve Carter discusses making the supply chain more circular at Connected Britain 2024

You can view our full interview below!

Also in the news:
Meta resumes use of UK user posts to train its AI models
Verizon’s 4,800 job cuts will cost over $1.9 billion
CMA questions Vodafone–Three merger after second probe

News

The deal covers over 6,000 towers across all 50 states and Washington D.C.

Verizon has announced this week that it intends to sell the rights to lease, operate, and manage 6,339 mobile towers to infrastructure giant Vertical Bridge.

The towers, which are reportedly located across the US, are currently owned by various Verizon subsidiaries and have a collective value of $3.3 billion.

Upfront proceeds from the deal are expected to total around $2.8 billion in cash.

As is typical of tower infrastructure divestments, the deal will see Verizon become the anchor tenant on the towers, with a 10-year deal to lease back capacity on the infrastructure and options to increase this term up to 50 years.

“As the nation’s largest mobility provider, we are well positioned with greater financial flexibility to invest in our business, return value to our shareholders and make the nation’s best network even better for customers,” said Verizon Chairman and CEO Hans Vestberg. “This transaction builds on our existing relationship with Vertical Bridge while realizing substantial value for this unique set of assets and allows us to be agile in optimizing the network with one of the best operating partners.”

The deal is expected to close by the end of the year, subject to the typical regulatory approvals.

Vertical Bridge is already the largest independent mobile infrastructure provider in the US, with over 500,000 sites across the country.

Join thousands of telecoms professionals to discuss the latest developments in the US telecoms market at Connected America 2025

Also in the news:
Meta resumes use of UK user posts to train its AI models
Verizon’s 4,800 job cuts will cost over $1.9 billion
CMA questions Vodafone–Three merger after second probe

News 

A final decision on the merger is expected by the end of the year 

This week, Vodafone and Three have published a joint statement on the company’s merger in response to a statement from the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) earlier this month, which outlined its provisional findings. 

Following a second probe earlier this month, the CMA once again raised concerns that the deal could lead to higher prices and reduced service quality for millions of UK mobile customers. Specifically, it related to three key areas: 

Potential price increases
Impact on Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs), such as Sky Mobile or Lyca Mobile
Uncertainties over on network quality claims

At the time, the CMA said, “we will now consider how Vodafone and Three might address our concerns about the likely impact of the merger on retail and wholesale customers while securing the potential longer-term benefits of the merger, including by guaranteeing future network investments.” 

Today, the two companies have responded to the CMA’s findings, saying they disagree with its conclusions and arguing the “merger will be pro-growth, pro-customer, pro-investment and pro-competitive for the UK”.  

“It is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to transform UK digital infrastructure,” the companies continued 

The companies have proposed solutions to address the CMA’s concerns, including a legal commitment to invest £11 billion in the UK’s network, which will be overseen by Ofcom. They also plan to sell part of their spectrum and enter a network-sharing agreement with Virgin Media O2 (VMO2), which they say will benefit over 50 million customers across the country. 

In response to worries about price increases, Vodafone and Three have pledged to keep tariffs at £10 or lower for two years on the SMARTY brand and on social tariffs for the VOXI and SMARTY brands. On the wholesale front, they will offer more access to their network for mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) to ensure better deals for customers. 

While these pledges are sure to go some way towards reassuring the CMA, whether they will ultimately be enough remains to be seen. Vodafone and Three have long said that the merger would enable them to invest £11 billion in their infrastructure, so making that a legal pledge does not seem to be a major change. Similarly, promises to keep tariffs below £10 on some of their budget brands for two years is promising, but does not represent a long-term fix for consumer affordability. 

Nonetheless, Vodafone and Three say they will continue to work closely with the CMA, and “remain confident that they can secure approval”.  

A final decision on the merger is expected by 7 December. 

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

Also in the news:
Meta resumes use of UK user posts to train its AI models
Verizon’s 4,800 job cuts will cost over $1.9 billion
CMA questions Vodafone–Three merger after second probe