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   

News

A new study suggests that forgotten drawers containing old phones, cables, and electrical goods could cumulatively contain nearly 40,000 tonnes of valuable copper

A new study from Recycle Your Electricals is this week encouraging Brit’s to begin ‘urban mining’ – digging through drawers of unused electrical equipment – as part of efforts to recycle valuable copper.

According to the study, these “drawers of doom” across the UK could contain up to 38,449 tonnes of copper in the form of unused devices and related cables. This reclaimed metal, the researchers say, could provide 30% of the copper the UK needs to transition to a decarbonised energy grid by 2030.

Global demand for copper is increasingly outstripping supply in recent years, partly because of an increasing global focus on deploying renewable energy infrastructure and building electric vehicles, both of which rely heavily on copper wiring for their internal systems.

As such, experts predict that the world will face severe copper shortages over the next decade.

“We all have our own stashes of unused or broken electricals. But it’s time that we realised the value and power of the silent majority; the hidden treasures inside our homes,” said Scott Butler, executive director of Material Focus, the non-profit behind the Recycle Your Electricals campaign. “People may not realise that cables and electricals contain valuable materials, not just copper, and that if binned or stashed, we lose everything inside of them when we don’t recycle them into something new.”

“We need to start ‘urban mining’ and help protect the planet and nature from the harmful impacts of mining for raw materials and instead value and use what we have already,” he added. “Anything with a plug, battery or cable can be reused and recycled and there’s somewhere near you to do it.”

The concept of recycling unused copper is one global telecoms operators are increasingly well acquainted with. As the world’s broadband networks transition to fibre optic technology, the now obsolete copper networks largely remain buried underground, waiting to be reclaimed. And, with copper prices rising, recycling these networks can be extremely lucrative.

According to a report from TXO earlier this year, around $7 billion of unused copper could be reclaimed by the global telecoms community over the next decade.

In fact, largescale copper recycling efforts by some of the world’s largest telcos are already underway, providing a significant novel revenue stream at a time when traditional revenues remain flat. At the start of this month, for example, BT announced that it had raised £105 million from the sale of surplus copper cables.

The operator says it aims to recover 200,000 tonnes of copper over the next decade.

Is the telecoms industry doing enough to recycle its legacy networks? Join the operators in discussion at this year’s Connected North conference

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“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 

Spotlight Article

By William Webb, Independent Consultant and author of “The 6G Manifesto” 

Mobile generations tend to come along every 10 years, and we are now midway between the advent of 5G in 2020 and the introduction of 6G scheduled around 2030. This is a good time to review what we have learned from 5G and where we should focus our efforts on 6G. 

5G promised much – to be a generation like no other that delivered a new world of immersive communications – but has disappointed, with no new applications, no increased revenue for operators, and customers that perceive no material difference from 4G. Importantly, the “build it and they will come” approach to 5G, hoping problems would emerge to the solution being delivered, did not work and the applications envisaged such as the metaverse and network-controlled autonomous cars have proven illusory. On the plus side, 5G did deliver more capacity, and this has been important as data usage grew from the time of its introduction to the present day. 

The cellular community, led by the manufacturers and academics, is now discussing 6G. But it is far from clear that we need 6G. As I showed in “The End of Telecoms History”, data growth is slowing and will plateau long before 6G is introduced, so there is no need for more capacity. As seen with 5G, there are no new applications on the horizon, and even if there were 5G is capable of handling all of them. Operators do not want 6G because they perceive it will result in expense for no benefit. A sensible approach might be to put 6G on hold until such time that it is needed, if ever. 

However, the 6G “super tanker” has already left the port. Manufacturers, governments, and standards bodies have activities in place that will result in 6G arriving around 2030 and stopping these is near impossible. The arrival of 6G is inevitable. Better then to ask what 6G can best deliver rather than whether it should happen.  

Alarmingly, those with the greatest ability to influence standards – the global equipment suppliers – do not appear to have learned the lessons of 5G. Instead, they are arguing for “5G-on-steroids”; a solution that is even faster than 5G, with lower latency, using higher frequency bands. They argue that 5G did not deliver on the vision of a “cyber-physical continuum” because it was not good enough. But 6G, being even better, will finally enable us all to exist in virtual digital-twin worlds.  

But if 6G should not be about the cyber-physical, what should it address? Consumers are asking for better coverage, so that they are always connected at a sufficient data rate. Operators are asking for lower operating costs, lower energy consumption, and greater network reliability. These are not new requests – better coverage and lower costs have been a desire since 2G. That these needs have not been met suggests that a new approach is needed.  

In many cases where consumers are not connected, there are networks available – Wi-Fi indoors, other cellular networks in urban areas, and increasingly satellite solutions in deeply rural areas. There is the possibility of neutral host networks that can be roamed onto and new solutions using high-altitude platforms (HAPs) to deliver rural coverage less expensively. 

Using these other networks would deliver better coverage at little extra cost. Relying more heavily on Wi-Fi indoors would lower energy consumption. Roaming across cellular networks would improve reliability. 

But today’s network structure and protocols do not make multi-network operation easy. Cellular networks seek to provide complete connectivity solutions including voice and messaging. As a result, Wi-Fi is required to interwork with cellular, for example as with voice-over-Wi-Fi, which is cumbersome and needs to be implemented with each separate mobile operator. Protocols such as IP are tunnelled through mobile networks in an inefficient manner which reduces flexibility. Broadly, we have networks structured for a world where voice was native to the network and was the key application.  

A better approach would be where each network was just a bit-pipe to the internet and applications run over the top. This would be facilitated by a new “multi-network coordinator” that sits outside of individual networks and coordinates and provides common services across all of them. It would enable routing of incoming calls and messages to whatever network the user is currently attached, handle authentication, legal duties such as intercept, provide APIs to the applications that were network-agnostic and help ensure devices were connected to the optimal network. 

This, then, could be what 6G is about – delivering a true “hetnet” world where all networks are equal, and devices connect freely across multiple technologies and operators. This does not require advanced technology, but it does require a restructuring, particularly of cellular, to remove some of the features, such as voice provision, to simplify and to ensure that all networks can work with the multi-network coordinator. It requires some thought as to how to handle multiple messaging platforms such as WhatsApp.  

Such a vision is challenging because it requires organisational change. It might require a new standards body, or partnership of existing standards bodies, to sit above 3GPP, IEEE, and similar. It requires Wi-Fi and cellular proponents to work together, and it changes the customer relationship. While some stakeholders, such as the handset manufacturers, might embrace this vision, others such as the cellular equipment manufacturers might not. It represents a radical change of direction from the current “5G on steroids” work that is taking place. 

But given that the current approach to 6G is clearly going to disappoint, just as 5G did, then even the most self-interested ought to realise that it is time for a change. 6G could be the generation that ensures we are always connected. That would be worth fighting for. 

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

Wednesday 9th October, 2024 – Rural broadband specialist Quickline Communications has teamed up with Tech She Can, a leading tech education and careers charity, to tackle the issue of gender disparity in technology roles across the UK.  

The collaboration aims to inspire young girls and women to pursue careers in technology, with a particular focus on schoolchildren in West and South Yorkshire. 

Through this new partnership, Quickline will support Tech She Can’s efforts to increase the representation of women in technology by focusing on two key programme elements.  

Quickline’s support has enabled Tech She Can to expand its educational team with the recruitment of two new regionally based teachers dedicated to schools in West and South Yorkshire. Funded by Quickline, these educators will deliver inspiring tech resources and visit partnered schools each half term, helping to reach children early on in their education. 

In addition, a new classroom resource called ‘Tech for Connectivity’ will launch later this term, aimed at teaching thousands of primary and secondary students how technology facilitates online communication. The lesson will feature a new animation that explores the technology behind Wi-Fi and aims to spark interest in tech careers.  

Julie Holmes, Social Value Manager at Quickline, said: “We’re thrilled to partner with Tech She Can to support them in their mission to inspire and empower girls and young women, particularly those in rural communities across Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, to explore the exciting possibilities of STEM careers.  

“It’s especially rewarding to support projects that target primary school children, helping to spark interest in tech careers from a young age. At Quickline, we’re committed to breaking down barriers and opening doors for the next generation of innovators.” 

Becky Patel, Head of Education at Tech She Can, added: “We are very excited about our new partnership with Quickline and the undoubtable impact it will have on spreading our mission to inspire the next generation of technology professionals.  

Earlier this year, Quickline secured four Project Gigabit contracts covering all of Yorkshire and the majority of Lincolnshire. These contracts will provide gigabit-capable broadband to 170,000 hard-to-reach premises.  

Project Gigabit is a government-funded programme enabling communities that would otherwise miss out on access to fast, reliable gigabit-capable broadband. 

As part of its commitment to Project Gigabit, Quickline has partnered with Tech She Can as part of an extensive social values programme. The programme supports initiatives across three core areas – educating people, enhancing environments and improving employability. Through these efforts, Quickline strives to foster thriving communities and reduce inequality across rural Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. 

News 

Six separate Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) rulings have been published this week regarding British telcos 

The ASA has cracked down once again on some of the UK’s biggest telcos for ads containing misleading broadband price information.  

The ASA issued rulings on ads from BT, its subsidiaries EE and Plusnet, as well as TalkTalk, Virgin Media, and O2, after finding they did not adequately inform customers about mid-contract price rises. 

The crackdown follows new guidance introduced by the ASA in December last year. This new, stricter guidance on mid-contract price rises for telcos followed a six-month grace period that began last June and is aimed at tackling what has been dubbed “greedflation” within the sector. These rules require that telecom companies clearly highlight any potential price hikes in their advertising when customers sign up for broadband or mobile services. They also require that these price increases be communicated clearly, in terms of “pounds and pence”, at the point of purchase. 

In the watchdog’s rulings, it claimed that the highlighted ads failed to meet this guidance, often by presenting the price rise information in smaller text beneath the offered price or by failing to provide enough information for customers. 

As such, the named companies must stop running the misleading ads and ensure that future promotions make the possibility of mid-contract price increases both clear and prominent.  

“All of the companies have fallen foul of guidance that sets stricter standards on the prominence advertisers must give to important information about future price rises,” said an ASA spokesperson speaking to the Guardian.  

“Marketers are required to ensure that advertising for services that include mid-contract price increases … is presented clearly and prominently. The guidance also states that asterisks or links, which linked to information more than one ‘step’ below the price claim, were unlikely to give adequate weight to the significance of material information. We concluded that the ads are likely to mislead.” 

The rulings follow pressure from Ofcom, which banned the practice of raising prices during contracts without fully informing consumers in advance. From January next year, all percentage-based price hikes in new contracts will be banned altogether. 

Mid-contract price increases have been widespread in the telecom industry since for a number of years, but the sharp rise in inflation, which reached a 41-year high in 2022, intensified the impact on customers’ bills. While sectors like electricity and gas have stricter protections in place, the telecom industry has been slower to act.   

The ASA have repeatedly urged companies to stop using small print or links that obscure vital pricing details. This intervention is part of a wider effort to ensure companies are upfront about the full cost of their services amid growing scrutiny over consumer protection during the ongoing cost-of-living crisis. 

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