Interview

In a tough economic environment like the UK, going over budget when building a network is not an option

At Connected Britain, the Total Telecom team spoke to Vitruvi Software’s As-built Consultant Felix Wright to discuss how the company is streamlining network deployments and why leveraging new technologies like AI and digital twins could hold the key to delivering networks on time and on-budget.

Check out the full interview here!

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

Press Release 

Thursday September 26th, 2024: A further 4,500 homes and businesses across rural West Yorkshire and the York area can now access the fastest, most reliable broadband on the market, thanks to broadband provider Quickline Communications. 

The rollout is part of the government-funded Project Gigabit programme which will help to boost the region’s economic growth while addressing the digital divide affecting remote areas.   

Communities in rural West Yorkshire and areas surrounding York, including the villages of Escrick, Crofton, Elvington, Sutton upon Derwent and Wheldrake, are the first to benefit from gigabit-capable broadband under a £60 million government contract awarded to Quickline earlier this year.   

The Project Gigabit contract will fund connections for over 28,000 hard-to-reach rural properties across the region once completed, with thousands more set to benefit through additional commercial rollout by Quickline. 

Project Gigabit is the government-funded programme targeting areas that would be too expensive to be connected to gigabit broadband through commercial rollout because of their remote location.   

Residents and business owners in the region, many who struggle to carry out basic online tasks due to outdated broadband infrastructure, will receive major internet speed upgrades providing access to gigabit-capable, full fibre broadband.  

This is one of four contracts awarded to Quickline across Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, which will bring over 170,000 premises out of broadband poverty, making Quickline one of the largest Project Gigabit delivery partners. 

More than 1,725 premises in West Yorkshire and the York area have so far received access to gigabit-capable broadband through Project Gigabit funding, with the remaining premises delivered as part of Quickline’s commercial efforts. 

Beyond broadband connections, Quickline is committed to delivering social value across West Yorkshire. With a focus on educating young people, a partnership has been established with The Lighthouse Futures Trust in Leeds where Quickline has delivering digital skills workshops to support students with learning difficulties to transition into the workforce. These workshops focus on essential skills such as writing emails and creating LinkedIn profiles. 

And this week Quickline participated in the Leeds Digital Festival Careers Fair, offering young people advice and information about employment in the telecommunications industry. In addition, Quickline has engaged with primary school children in the area through interactive “Digger Day” events, educating them about the construction of the full fibre broadband network and its importance in their communities.   

Sean Royce, Quickline CEO, said: “We’re proud to be delivering gigabit capable broadband to rural communities in West Yorkshire and the York area through the government’s Project Gigabit programme. Our mission is to connect these areas quickly and make a lasting impact. 

“Access to reliable broadband is essential, and we are committed to helping our customers thrive in the digital world – not only through the deployment of full fibre but also through our broader social value programme.”    

Telecoms Minister Sir Chris Bryant said: “Thousands of rural households, businesses and students in this region can now enjoy better connectivity without having to battle for bandwidth with neighbours or other family members to stream video and music or download big files crucial for work and education.    

“The digital divide affecting a region as bursting in opportunities as Yorkshire is unacceptable. Since my appointment, I have made it one of my highest priorities to plug digital gaps, and the government and I have vowed to achieve nationwide gigabit coverage by 2030.   

“It is fantastic to mark a new step towards this journey and start delivering the connectivity the region deserves to thrive and compete.” 

Homes and businesses can book their installation today and benefit from the much-improved connectivity available from Quickline. 

Network operator nexfibre, which shares some of their parentage with UK broadband ISP partner Virgin Media (O2), has announced that they’ve built to cover 11,000 additional homes in the Cheshire (England) city of Chester to their new 2Gbps speed Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP / XGS-PON) broadband network.

The top half of Chester is now well covered by Virgin Media and nexfibre’s gigabit-capable broadband network, although they’ve yet to do the bottom half. The city is also home to significant full fibre coverage from Openreach, as well as some modest to smaller deployments by CityFibre, Hyperoptic and OFNL etc.

Nexfibre itself has already covered over 1.3 million premises across the UK with their new full fibre network, and they’re currently in the process of investing another £1bn during 2024, which should enable them to cover an additional 1 million UK premises (reaching a total footprint of c.2m).

Just for some context. Telefónica, Liberty Global and InfraVia Capital Partners originally setup the new £4.5bn nexfibre joint venture in 2022 (here), which aims to deploy an open access fibre network to reach “up to” 7 million UK homes (starting with 5m by 2026) in areas NOT currently served by Virgin Media’s network of 16m+ premises. The funding reflects £3.3bn of fully underwritten financing and up to £1.4bn in equity commitments.

Alternative network provider and rural broadband ISP Gigaclear has today revealed that, as part of “planning for the next stage of its development” and a “re-focus on ultra-rural areas“, their current pace of full fibre (FTTP) build will be slowing and that means job losses.

The “ultra-rural” re-focus mentioned above is likely to be Gigaclear’s way of alluding to the recent state aid supported contracts that they’ve secured under the Government’s £5bn Project Gigabit programme, which includes a £16.6m build contract for East Gloucestershire to reach 4,400 premises (here) and the £26.5m contracts for North and South Oxfordshire to reach 10,000 premises (here).

The announcement doesn’t say how many jobs will go, but sources have told ISPreview that up to 100-150 roles could be on the chopping block (exact figures are subject to consultation), which may have a particularly strong impact upon their build teams. The provider’s community engagement team are also expected to take a hit, but the full team will not be wiped out.

Gigaclear’s announcement does, however, confirm that they’ve now built their Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network to over 560,000 premises (up from 500k in March 2024) – in some of the most hard-to-reach parts of the country – and serve over 120,000 customers (up from 100k in March 2024).

“With that growth in build achieved, the business is now planning for the next stage of its development and will re-focus on ultra-rural areas that are still reliant on the old-fashioned and out-dated copper network, which provides poor speeds and contributes to a digital divide across the country. Recognising that the amount of brand new build will not be of the levels of the last five years, a number of roles across our build teams will be reduced to match our increased focus on ultra-rural. A consultation period has now started with the impacted teams,” said the announcement.

Gigaclear’s Delivery Director, Tony Smith, told ISPreview:

“This important strategic decision is about ensuring we target our future builds on ultra-rural communities that do not have access to full fibre broadband which is crucial to continuing to ensure the long-term success and growth of the business.

When Gigaclear was established, our purpose was to deliver ultrafast, reliable broadband to the rural areas of Britain that were still lumbered with poor connectivity. We have shown that we can provide these communities with the speeds enjoyed by larger, urban areas.

I am immensely proud of our people and all they have achieved, the restructuring of our build teams is a very difficult but necessary decision to ensure the future strength of the organisation and will reinforce our unique position in the industry, focusing solely on ultra-rural parts of the country. We promise to do as much as we can to reduce the impact on our affected colleagues.”

The development surfaces in the same week as Gigaclear’s latest annual accounts to the end of 2023 were published, which we covered yesterday (here). The operator’s accounts revealed that their revenues had increased by 32% to £33.8m (2022: £25.7m) and their workforce had grown to 819 employees in 2023 (up from 670), but their losses for the year also grew sharply to £138.3m (2022: £21.8m).

At the same time Gigaclear are not immune to the same strains that many other network builders are currently experiencing, which can often be linked back to high interest rates, rising build costs and an aggressively competitive environment that can make it harder to both grow take-up or attract fresh investment.

On the other hand, the switch to focus on their Project Gigabit deployments is probably a sensible one (CityFibre did something similar earlier in the year), particularly if they hope to secure any other contracts in the future. In the past, Gigaclear has often struggled to deliver on some of their state aid backed deployments (e.g. Devon and Somerset), which is a mistake they won’t want to repeat.

News

The partnership will see Verizon’s 5G tech embedded within Vay’s remotely driven electric vehicle fleet

This week, Verizon Business has announced a new partnership with German start-up Vay Technology, aiming to provide the latter’s remotely operated electric vehicle fleet with 5G technology.

Berlin-based start-up Vay Technology was founded in 2019 with the idea of introducing a ‘new approach to driverless mobility’.

Using Vay’s app, customers can hire a remotely operated car, which is then driven to their location by a remote driver. This driver is located at a dedicated teledrive station, where they control the vehicle using a steering wheel and pedals, as well as screens linked to on-board cameras. On arrival, the customer then takes control of the vehicle and drives it for as long as they like, paying by the minute. Once they no longer need the vehicle, they use the app to return control to the remote driver.

Vay promises customers their journey will be ‘half the price of Uber’, according to the company website.

The company launched services in Las Vegas in January and this location is the focus of Verizon’s partnership with the company today.

“Vay’s unique operational model shows the importance of mobile connectivity for the future of transportation. From Vay’s app-based user interface to their high-tech teledriving command centers to the vehicle fleet itself, connectivity touches all corners of the business,” said TJ Fox, Senior Vice President of Industrial IoT and Automotive at Verizon Business. “We’re thrilled to work with a company as innovative as Vay, which can use our unrivaled network to fuel their expansions throughout the U.S.”

Verizon says that its 5G connectivity will be used by Vay for “data-intensive, mission-critical workloads such as providing mobility solutions for teleoperation-capable cars; transmitting telematics or diagnostic information from vehicles to Vay and/or Vay customers; and transmitting over-the-air updates to software and firmware in Vay vehicles”.

As part of the deal, Verizon will also provide Vay with custom data tariffs for the vehicles.

“Verizon’s coverage, performance and network reliability are essential for handling the data load inherent to teleoperating our fleet to the highest standards of safety and capability,” said Thomas von der Ohe, Vay co-founder and CEO.

Verizon has been increasingly exploring the connected vehicle market in recent years, announcing formal partnerships with Audi and Sony Honda Mobility earlier this year at Mobile World Congress.

How is the US connectivity landscape changing in 2024? Join the industry in discussion at Broadband Communities Summit West

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

Internet video streaming provider Disney+ has, following earlier hints and a new subscriber agreement, finally joined Netflix by cracking down on password sharing through the introduction of a new ‘Paid Sharing‘ (Extra Member) service, which is indirectly intended to make it more difficult to share your account with people outside your household.

In the past, streaming providers often tolerated password sharing and saw it as a way of helping to drum up publicity / support for their service. But Netflix has since shown that it’s more lucrative to restrict the practice and instead offer those who do it a paid alternative to achieve the same outcome, albeit often without needing to pay full whack for a subscription.

The new ‘Paid Sharing’ features and capabilities are now said to be available in the United States, Canada, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific region after launching in select markets over the summer. But at the time of writing, we couldn’t see this is active on their UK service (we have queried this), but it’s no doubt imminent given that the UK is a part of Europe and has the same terms.

Disney+ states that a subscription to their service is “meant to be used within your Household, which is a collection of devices associated with your primary personal residence that are used by the individuals who reside there“. But if you want to add people outside of your household, then the newly sanctioned way to do that – short of having them pay for their own subscription – will be by adding an ‘Extra Member‘ to your account.

The new Extra Member service naturally attracts an additional monthly charge, which according to details on their website will cost £3.99 extra for Disney+ Standard with Ads or £4.99 extra for either Disney+ Standard or Premium. But one key point here is that the Extra Member feature is NOT available for Disney Bundle subscribers or for subscribers billed through their partners at this time (i.e. if you’ve got Disney+ billed and bundled via a broadband ISP or mobile operator plan, then you can’t yet take advantage of this).

Customers will also still be able to watch Disney+ if they’re away from home (e.g. holiday, commuting etc.). In that scenario you’ll now see the message: “This TV doesn’t seem to be part of the Household for this account”, you can then mark yourself as I’M AWAY FROM HOME, or select UPDATE HOUSEHOLD if you’ve recently moved and need to reset the Household location for your subscription. But these selections will require a one-time passcode that’s sent to the email address associated with the account.

Disney+ will also allow password sharing users from outside your “household” to sign-up for their own subscription by allowing the ability to transfer an eligible profile to a new subscription or Extra Member to keep that profile’s Disney+ watch history and settings. But certain profiles – including primary profiles (account holders), minors’ profiles, and those set to Junior Mode – cannot currently be transferred.

Mobile network operator Three UK has decided to catch up with some of their rivals by launching three new initiatives (i.e. ‘Like New‘, ‘Trade-In‘ and ‘Connect Together’) for consumers to help them reuse and recycle older Smartphones, while also rewarding households for adding more connections, if they so choose.

We’ll start with ‘Connect Together‘ because it’s a bit of a different proposition from the other two initiatives. Under this scheme, customers will be able to receive a 20% discount on “additional lines” or 4G/5G based Home Broadband and will be rewarded every time they add another line to their account.

Just to be clear, additional lines could be a new SIM, device + airtime or even Home Broadband or Mobile Broadband contract. Connect Together also simplifies account management by allowing customers to handle all accounts in one place, making it easier than ever to add products and services as needed.

At the same time Three UK has also moved to enhance their support for device refurbishment and recycling via their ‘Like New‘ and ‘Trade-In‘ initiatives. Check out the official blurb below, although we’ve already seen similar things from their rivals.

Like New

All part of the evolution of our ‘Three Your Way’ proposition, customers are now able to choose a “Like New” device. Like New allows customers to save money on the latest tech by choosing a refurbished device. We’ll also offer a 36-month Extended Warranty for extra peace of mind.

By choosing a Like New device, customers can feel great about doing their bit to protect the environment, while saving money. Purchasing a refurbished phone has a lower carbon footprint than buying a new one and gives a useful device a new lease of life, preventing it from going to waste.

Trade-In

In addition to “Like New”, our new Trade-In proposition enables customers to trade in their old devices – whether it’s a phone, tablet, or smartwatch – to receive either a discount on new tech or money sent straight to their bank accounts. It underpins Three’s sustainability commitment to reduce electronic waste and will provide customers with access to more affordable tech choices.

At this point it’s worth noting that customers can also donate their old phones with the ‘Reconnected‘ programme, which helps disadvantaged people get connected with six months of unlimited data, calls, and texts. Over 16,000 phones have been donated to date.

Andy Foy, New Product Propositions & Insight Director at Three UK, said:

“We’re excited to launch these new initiatives which demonstrate our commitment to improving customer experience and continue to deliver on our sustainability strategy. Both Like New and Trade-In not only deliver better value for our customers, but also reduce electronic waste, while Connect Together is all about recognising and rewarding our customers’ loyalty. By offering discounts on additional lines and making account management easier, we’re ensuring that our customers get the best possible experience across all touchpoints.”

Naturally, consumers could of course just buy a refurbished device from a different service or sell their old kit via eBay or other auction sites, which might result in a better return for your pocket. But there is something to be said for taking an approach that benefits from having the support and guarantees of a big mobile operator behind it.

A new survey of 4,101 nationally representative UK adults, which was conducted by Which? in May 2024, has estimated that 950,000 consumers were £89m worse off over the last year due to giving up contacting their broadband provider after a poor experience. The magazine previously named Virgin Media as being the worst ISP for customer service (here and here).

The survey, which claims that an estimated 9.2 million broadband consumers also experienced emotional harm as a result of poor customer service, found that 14% who contacted their ISP said they gave up seeking a resolution due to problems they experienced with the customer service and 29% said that this left them financially worse off (on average they estimated they were £93 worse off as a result, which is quite anecdotal).

A small proportion of consumers (c.2%) said they did not even contact their broadband provider due to previous bad experiences with their customer service, which the consumer magazine said added an additional £6m to consumers being worse off due to poor customer service in the broadband sector.

Summary of Further Survey Findings

➤ Some 36% of people who contacted their broadband provider reported having at least one problem that wasted their time (e.g. not being able to reach customer service, phone calls being disconnected, being passed between departments and long call waits).

➤ On average, Which? estimates those who experienced time-wasting customer service issues lost 1 hour 38 minutes of their time due to broadband customer service problems.

➤ Which? estimates that consumers experienced time harm in 18.3 million customer service problems with their broadband provider in the past year.

➤ In total, broadband customers spent an estimated 13.4 million hours in a year on customer service issues.

➤ Some 57% of respondents that experienced at least one broadband related customer service problem reported feeling frustrated, while 29% said they felt angry and 19% reported feeling helpless.

➤ More than one in ten of those who had experienced a customer service problem reported feeling upset or distressed. Feelings of helplessness and “upsetness” were most commonly reported amongst customers who did not receive a response to their email (43% feeling helpless and 41% upset) or spoke to an unhelpful or dismissive advisor (38% helpless and 33% upset).

Clearly, there’s a general need for broadband providers to improve their customer support. Such firms must ideally be providing a range of easily accessible contact methods, while problems should be resolved in a timely and efficient way, and customers should be treated with empathy and care. But it’s clear that many businesses are failing to deliver against this most basic of criteria.

However, experiences do tend to vary quite a lot between different ISPs, which is something that the consumer magazine has previously covered (here and here). Earlier this year Which? named Virgin Media, Scottish Power and British Gas as the worst energy and broadband firms for customer service. Both British Gas and Virgin Media responded to that by saying they were making improvements, but Which? highlights how their research shows many of their customers remain dissatisfied.

Alternative network operator and ISP Quickline has today announced that the first 4,500 premises under their £60m state aid supported gigabit broadband roll-out contract for North and West Yorkshire, including the remote areas surrounding York, have been covered by the new network. The goal is to reach 28,000 premises in hard-to-reach rural areas.

The West Yorkshire and York Area (Lot 8) contract, which was awarded back in February 2024 as part of the government’s £5bn Project Gigabit broadband roll-out scheme (here), has initially covered homes and businesses in the areas of Escrick, Crofton, Elvington, Sutton upon Derwent and Wheldrake.

Project Gigabit aims to help extend 1Gbps (download) capable networks to reach at least 85% of UK premises by 2025 (we’re currently at around 84%), before aiming to achieve “nationwide” coverage (c. 99%) by 2030. Commercial investment will deliver more than 80% of this, which leaves the government’s scheme to focus on tackling the final 20% (mostly rural and some sub-urban areas), where the private sector alone often fails. The project is technology neutral, but Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) networks are strongly favoured.

Quickline’s Lot 8 contract is also expected to tackle the rural areas surrounding Selby, York, Bradford, Kirklees, Leeds, Wakefield, Harrogate, Skipton and Ripon, Keighley, Calder Valley, Stamford Bridge and Pocklington.

Sir Chris Bryant, UK Telecoms Minister, said:

“Thousands of rural households, businesses and students in this region can now enjoy better connectivity without having to battle for bandwidth with neighbours or other family members to stream video and music or download big files crucial for work and education.

The digital divide affecting a region as bursting in opportunities as Yorkshire is unacceptable. Since my appointment, I have made it one of my highest priorities to plug digital gaps, and the government and I have vowed to achieve nationwide gigabit coverage by 2030.

It is fantastic to mark a new step towards this journey and start delivering the connectivity the region deserves to thrive and compete.”

Julian Chalk, Head of Network Engagement and Enablement at Quickline, said:

“We’re proud to be delivering gigabit capable broadband to rural communities in the York area as part of the government’s Project Gigabit programme. Our goal is to make an impact quickly and light up these areas as soon as possible.

Everyone deserves access to reliable broadband and we’re committed to helping our customers to thrive in the digital world.”

Quickline typically deploys gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) and Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) broadband networks, although we believe their Project Gigabit contracts mostly focus upon full fibre technologies. Customers of this service currently pay from £14.50 per month for 200Mbps symmetric speeds (£29 after 12 months) on a 24-month term with free installation, which goes up to £24.50 for their top 900Mbps tier (£49 after 12 months).

Interview

At this year’s Connected Britain, Total Telecom caught up with Rajiv Datta, CEO of Nexfibre, to discuss the company’s fibre rollout progress since hitting 1 million premises, investor tensions around market consolidation, and what a competitive broadband market will ultimately look like. 

Check out the full interview here! 

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