Press Release

Dell Technologies today announced Dell AI for Telecom, a program designed to simplify and accelerate AI deployments for communications service providers (CSPs). 
 
A recent MeriTalk study, commissioned by Dell Technologies, found that 48% of telecom executives see AI as the industry’s most transformative technology in the next five years, yet 68% feel their organisation is struggling to keep pace with rapidly evolving technologies and customer needs.  
 
The Dell AI for Telecom program, part of the Dell AI Factory, addresses these challenges by bringing together Dell’s AI expertise, infrastructure and services with software and silicon from across the AI ecosystem. The program will develop and deploy on-premises AI solutions that CSPs can use to enhance network performance, improve customer service and provide greater value at the enterprise edge. 
 
“Capitalising on the multiple opportunities presented by AI has become the most compelling driver of network cloud transformation,” said Dennis Hoffman, senior vice president and general manager, Telecom Systems Business, Dell Technologies. “Dell AI for Telecom brings together Dell’s AI expertise and infrastructure, with partners across the ecosystem, to help network operators implement AI solutions in and on the network that reduce OPEX, improve performance and create new edge revenue opportunities.” 

Dell collaborates with NVIDIA to transform telecom networks with AI solutions 
 
Dell extends its collaboration with NVIDIA to: 

Co-create and validate telecom AI solutions for CSPs, built upon and validated with the Dell AI Factory with NVIDIA. Using Dell PowerEdge servers, NVIDIA GPUs and enterprise-grade AI software, the solutions help CSPs use AI to: 

– Enhance customer care and improve network maintenance with the Amdocs amAIz platform.  

– Automate call center scripts and customer care operations with Iternal. 

– Conduct network troubleshooting and analysis with Kinetica SQL-GPT. 

– Develop digital twins for networks and perform predictive network maintenance with Synthefy. 

Facilitate AI deployments at the edge of the telecom network with the PowerEdge XR8000 server, now available with NVIDIA L4 Tensor Core GPUs. Designed for telecom and edge use cases, the PowerEdge XR8000 servers are available in compact form factors with a scalable, modular design that simplify deployment and maintenance.
Help CSPs design and deploy GPU-as-a-Service (GPUaaS) offerings, so they can provide on-demand NVIDIA GPU capacity for enterprise customers. With infrastructure solutions optimised for enterprise AI workloads, CSPs can unlock new revenue opportunities and use their networks to deliver carrier-grade, low latency AI inference and training closer to data. Enterprises can scale AI deployments and resources as needed, while maintaining data ownership and governance.  

Dell Professional Services help CSPs with their strategy, implementation and operation of AI solutions for telecom use cases. 
 
Collaborating with network operators to speed AI adoption and innovation 
 
Dell is already partnering with CSPs in the Dell Telecom Open Ecosystem Labs to develop AI solutions with Dell AI Factory infrastructure and ecosystem partners to enhance customer experiences and improve network performance. 

Lintasarta, an Indonesian information and communication technology solutions company, is offering GPU Merdeka, a GPUaaS, to provide AI infrastructure, including NVIDIA GPUs with Dell PowerEdge XE9680 servers, for national businesses. 
SK Telecom, Dell, and other partners are collaborating to develop an AI chat agent for communications service providers. By creating the Mobile Network Operator (MNO) AI Platform, the team aims to integrate AI into existing business support systems (BSS) to enhance telecom business operations, drive revenue growth and quickly address and solve customer problems.  

“As part of our collaboration with Dell Technologies and NVIDIA, Lintasarta will provide GPU-as-a-Service (Deka GPU) with Dell AI infrastructure and NVIDIA GPUs for national businesses, providing them access to the latest AI capabilities tailored for high-demand computing tasks,” said Gidion Suranta Barus, Chief Cloud Officer, Lintasarta. 
 
“The creation of the Mobile Network Operator (MNO) AI Platform signifies a pivotal step in integrating AI into existing business support systems (BSS). This innovation aims to not only enhance our telecom business operations, but also drive revenue growth and resolve customer issues with unprecedented speed and efficiency by minimising legacy burdens and standardising so that LLMs can easily understand MNO products, supporting well-organised API calls necessary for problem-solving. Through our collaboration with Dell Technologies, we aim to accelerate AI adoption and innovation to deliver superior service and value to our customers,” said Haisung Kwon, Head of MNO AI Platforms, SK Telecom. 

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
 

The UK telecoms regulator, Ofcom, has called on the Telecoms Adjudicator (OTA) to help fix some of the remaining problems (i.e. the matching process) with the new One Touch Switching (OTS) system, which aims to make it easier for consumers to change broadband ISPs, and the related processes adopted by the One Touch Switching Company (TOTSCo).

Just to recap. The long-awaited introduction of OTS, which has faced many delays but aims to make it both quicker and easier for consumers to switch between broadband and phone providers on physically separate UK networks (e.g. migrating from a CityFibre based ISP to Virgin Media etc.), was finally introduced on 12th September 2024.

However, the launch also acknowledged that TOTSCo’s industry-led messaging platform still needed to improve the success rate of its “matching process” (i.e. ensuring that customer switches are correctly verified and migrated between providers), which caused Ofcom to temporarily retain the old migration process (Notification of Transfer / NoT+) – until 24th October 2024 – to act as a fallback for any OTS failures.

Ofcom has now written a new open letter to the OTA, which confirms how they would like the adjudicator to work with ISPs and other relevant stakeholders to “coordinate and facilitate industry effort on matching improvement in the run up to … the end of the six-week transition period.” This work will include the following.

OTA’s Required Work on OTS

• investigating the implementation of industry best practice and identifying causes of matching failure;

• scrutinising the matching approach for both losing and gaining journeys of providers to improve all matching rates; and

• producing a report of key observations and recommendations that can be implemented by communications providers, including as appropriate by amendment to industry best practice.

The OTA will now be expected “urgently to survey and meet with stakeholders who have been closely involved with recent matching review activities” and any insights must then be shared with the full community. Ofcom’s Director of Telecoms Consumer Protection, Cristina Luna-Esteban, added that they “expect providers to cooperate promptly, openly and positively with the OTA2 in this matter to ensure that OTS can be fully adopted with the greatest urgency, and by the planned withdrawal of NoT+.”

For its part, TOTSCo recently reported that, during the first week of OTS, they’d seen over 40 brands (e.g. ISPs like BT, CommunityFibre etc.) place some 26,000 OTS switch orders, albeit with only 3,500 successful completions. Currently, 251 brands are listed in the live directory, of which most are using a Full Management Managed Access Provider (MAP) to engage with TOTSCo. Clearly early adoption is still a bit of a work-in-progress, and you can find the latest stats below.

“While we are all delighted with this strong start, we recognise that significant work remains for the entire industry to achieve 100% of switches processed using OTS. Two key areas of focus are improving match success rates and addressing the remaining CP-side system defects. We are actively supporting industry in their performance-improvement initiatives,” said TOTSCo’s CEO, Paul Bradbury, last week.

Interview

At Connected Britain 2024, we caught up with Dean Giles, FAE Manager at Commscope, to discuss the company’s latest R&D efforts and how the company’s latest product line is is prioritising ease of installation and sustainability.

Check out the full interview here!

Keep up to date with all of the latest telecoms news with Total Telecom’s 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

News

The company made the announcement at Fibre Optic Partner Day in Bonn, Germany 

This week, German incumbent telecoms operator Deutsche Telekom has joined the German Federal Association for Fiber Optic Connections (BUGLAS), an industry association focussed on promoting and expanding fibre infrastructure throughout Germany.  

While this move may seem outwardly benign, it has been met with trepidation by much of the German fibre industry, with BUGLAS having historically represented the interests of smaller fibre players and municipalities fighting against Deutsche Telekom’s market dominance.  

Deutsche Telekom itself says that its membership will be beneficial for the country, helping them to cooperate more closely with rivals to ensure efficient national coverage.  

“Deutsche Telekom and BUGLAS share a long-term investment horizon for fiber optic expansion,” said Srini Gopalan, who is responsible for business in Germany on the Telekom board in a press release. 

“We want to further intensify our collaboration with regional providers and enter into even more FTTH partnerships for future-proof digitisation. In this way, we are accelerating fiber optic expansion together with our partners. And we are doing this with open networks that offer all customers a wide range of providers,” he continued. 

Thilo Höllen, Telekom’s Head of Fibre Optic Cooperation, added that the company will use its membership to help jointly campaign around industry-wide issues. 

“[We are] continuing to campaign for faster approvals and alternative installation methods,” he said. “These issues affect our entire industry and we see significant potential for improvement here.” 

But while Deutsche Telekom argues that its membership is beneficial to the wider fibre industry, not all of the market agrees.  

German telecoms industry group VATM has notably criticised BUGLAS for accepting Deutche Telekom as a member, with Managing Director Dr. Frederic Ufer released a statement saying the move would “slow down” the nation’s fibre rollout.  

“It sounds good – to jointly drive forward the expansion of fiber optics, use cooperations and negotiate on an equal footing. The reality is much more sober and it is not surprising that Telekom has chosen small regional partners who are rarely sufficiently viable on their own in the long term,” he said, in the translated letter. 

“The large investors in Germany are clearly to be further weakened by the continued strategic over-arching and the widespread refusal to purchase higher-quality wholesale products via bitstream. Of the small cooperation partners, Telekom generally only uses fiber optics, preferring to manage operations itself and thus strategically depriving the market of the added value that investors need for large-scale expansion.” 

He added that Deutsche Telekom uses construction workers paid for by local municipalities to save money on its fibre expansion, and uses this money to reinvest in the American market (via T-Mobile) where returns are higher. Furthermore, the investors in the Germany market will be weakened by the “strategic over-arching and the widespread refusal to purchase higher-quality wholesale products via bitstream,” he concluded. 

BUGLAS itself had previously been a long-term critic of Deutsche Telekom’s approach to network expansion –particularly overbuild – and had  written letters to the German government on the topic as recently as last year. 

Dr. Frederic Ufer is speaking at this year’s Connected Germany, 5-6 November in Munich. Get discounted tickets 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

The Broadband Forum has launched a new project that is seeking to lower the energy consumption of fibre optic broadband networks when accessing the internet. This will build on the ITU-T’s recommendations and guidelines on power-saving in fibre equipment, while adopting some of the forum’s own standards.

First things first. Modern fibre optic networks are already highly energy efficient, particularly when compared with older copper-line technologies at similar speeds. But this sort of comparison will only get you so far because full fibre networks typically deliver significant faster speeds than those older technologies. Nevertheless, there’s always room for more improvement.

The project – ‘Energy Power Saving Requirements, Test Plan, and Data Model‘ – will see a number of the Broadband Forum’s standards and specifications incorporate these new energy saving requirements for the industry to adhere to. This builds on the ITU-T Supplement 45 (G series), which published recommendations and guidelines on power-saving in Passive Optical Networks (PON) equipment.

The main focus here will be on making improvements to Optical Line Terminals (OLTs) and the more familiar Optical Network Units (ONU / ONTs), which are the optical modems that FTTP broadband consumers often have to get installed inside their homes. For example, future ONUs will probably see more power shedding (i.e. reducing power to non-essential functions without breaking the optical link) and add watchful speed modes to ensure that only the relevant hardware is consuming power.

Hugues Le Bras, Network Engineer (Orange) and Project Editor, said:

“Energy efficiency in fixed broadband equipment is essential for reducing power costs and CO2 emissions for operators and their customers. As the demand for high-speed connectivity continues to rise, it becomes crucial that FTTH networks operate sustainably, ensuring connectivity empowers the end user as well as nurturing the planet. To achieve this, the new project outlines power saving requirements, power measurement monitoring and testing methods that are needed to unlock greater energy efficiency.

We need service providers to commit to lower energy consumption, equipment and component vendors to comply to these targets, and test labs to test the interoperability and functionality of protocol specific power saving methodologies once agreed on.”

Assuming all goes to plan, the project will aim to publish its specification during Summer 2025. The focus will then switch to encouraging the development of technologies that satisfy the new power-saving requirements.

News

The operator says its AI-powered spam detection solution is catching over 100 million potential spam calls a day

This week, Bharti Airtel has announced the rollout of its new AI-powered spam detection solution.

The solution, which has reportedly been developed over the past year, is able to analyse calls and alert the receiver of a potential spam call in just 2 milliseconds. The caller then has the option of whether to block the call or not.

The solution uses a purpose-built algorithm to accurately classify communications as “Suspected SPAM”, as well as scanning SMS messages for malicious links that have been identified on a centralised database.

“In 2 milliseconds our solution processes 1.5 billion messages and 2.5 billion calls every day. Our solution has been able to identify 100 million potential spam calls and 3 million spam SMSes originating every day,” explained Airtel CEO Gopal Vittal.

The solution will be rolled out to all of Airtel’s 387 million Indian customers for free.

“Spam has become a menace for customers. We have spent the last 12 months to solve this comprehensively. Today marks a milestone as we launch the country’s first AI-powered spam-free network that will shield our customers from the continuous onslaught of intrusive and unwanted communications,” said Vittal.

Calls and messages made through apps, such as WhatsApp, will be unaffected, a fact that Vittal called “one of the pain points” in the ongoing battle against spam.

The scale of the spam calling challenge in India is enormous. Earlier this year, media reports suggested that more than 60% of Indian’s receive three or more spam calls a day.

Indeed, the issue is well known by the government, which set up the National Do Not Call Registry (NDNC) in response in 2011; this allows registered mobile users to opt out of unwanted marketing calls.

While the NDNC has reduced the number of spam calls to these customers, data suggests it is far from perfect, with a survey from LocalCircles showing that 95% of people who registered still receive unwanted calls and messages.

Ironically, while AI is here being used to combat spam, it should be noted that it is also being used by bad actors to help facilitate it. Last year, for example, the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced that it would be assessing AI’s impact on robocalling and telefraud, noting that AI deepfakes were becoming increasingly adept at mimicking users voices.

“While we are aware of the challenges AI can present, there is also significant potential to use this technology to benefit communications networks and their customers—including in the fight against junk robocalls and robotexts,” said FCC chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. “We need to address these opportunities and risks thoughtfully, and the effort we are launching today will help us gain more insight on both fronts.”

Keep up to date with all of the latest telecoms news with Total Telecom’s 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

The Northern Ireland Assembly yesterday met to debate the need for improvements in rural mobile coverage, which among other things highlighted problems with “major delays in the planning process” for approving new 4G / 5G masts, the need for greater infrastructure sharing and question marks over what impact the barrier busting task force has actually had.

In case anybody has forgotten. The Department for the Economy (DfE) published a rather vague Mobile Action Plan for Northern Ireland (MAP NI) in June 2022, which set out a series of measures that the executive should take to help support the wider £1bn industry-led Shared Rural Network (SRN) project – aiming to extend geographic 4G / mobile broadband coverage (aggregate) to 95% of the UK by the end of 2025 (84% when only considering the areas where you’ll be able to take 4G from all providers).

The action plan proposed to look at ways of ensuring the planning system could support the roll-out of new mobile networks, foster Digital Champions within local authorities to help with operator engagement, enable greater use of publicly owned assets to support related infrastructure and establish a NI Barrier Busting Taskforce to tackle obstructions to such builds.

Since then, there has been some progress and Ofcom recently reported that the SRN project had largely achieved its first coverage target for Partial Not-Spot (PNS) areas (here), which reflects locations that receive coverage from at least one operator, but not all. The PNS goal was for 4G to cover 88% of the UK’s landmass by the end of June 2024.

The regulator’s report noted that only Three UK failed to achieve the 88% UK target on time, although it should be noted that all four of the primary operators (EE, Three UK, O2 and Vodafone) managed to meet to even exceed the PSN target when only looking specifically at Northern Ireland:

Despite this, yesterday’s debate in the NI Assembly (here) saw ministers highlight how the barrier busting taskforce, which was established and met for the first time in December 2022, has since met only twice and few ministers seemed to know what, if anything, it had actually managed to achieve.

The debate also contained the usual complaints about gaps in rural mobile coverage, as well as a desire by some ministers to see greater sharing of mast sites (the SRN already does a lot of this) and calls for putting the building of new masts under Permitted Development (PD) rights (upgrades to existing masts are already partly covered by PD). But the latter was rejected by NI’s Minister for Infrastructure, John O’Dowd.

John O’Dowd, NI Minister for Infrastructure, said:

“I note Members’ concern about the fact that the [barrier busting] group has met only twice. Following the debate, I will undertake to go back and see what barriers there are to the barrier busting task force’s meeting. I will see whether we can ensure that the group meets more regularly and that the issues that are at the heart of concerns are dealt with in a way that they can be.

I suspect that some in the industry are seeking permitted developments for new masts etc, but I do not think that that is the road to go down. Some Members expressed concerns about the visual impact that telecommunications masts can have in rural communities. Some residents have also had concerns that, in some instances, have been ill-informed. It is only right and proper that, when new significant development is proposed in an area, communities have a right to raise their concerns and that those are dealt with appropriately through planning legislation.”

The debate ultimately ended with the assembly agreeing to issue a joint statement that recognised the “major delays in the planning process” (holding up some mast sites), but which doesn’t really say much in terms of how the big challenges should be resolved.

The Agreed Statement / Question

That this Assembly recognises the need for high-quality mobile coverage in rural communities across Northern Ireland; supports the roll-out of the Shared Rural Network (SRN) by the UK Government and four leading mobile network operators and welcomes progress to date; expresses concern that further investment in new and existing phone masts under this initiative has been jeopardised by major delays in the planning process; believes no community should be left behind as a consequence; acknowledges the work of the Department for the Economy in leading the barrier busting task force and its planning subgroup, including the involvement of the Department for Infrastructure, local councils and mobile network companies; endorses the aims of the subgroup to identify barriers relating to the planning system and to investigate best practice in mobile network development; further believes no community should be left behind; and calls on the Minister for Infrastructure to support the work of the task force to address the barriers to extending the 4G and 5G mobile network in rural areas, whilst respecting the principles of an inclusive planning system and ensuring the benefits of mobile coverage are maximised across this region.

London-focused broadband ISP CommunityFibre (CF), which has rolled out their 3Gbps speed Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network to around 1.4 million UK premises (predominantly in the city), has launched a new discount that cuts their mid-tier 500Mbps (symmetric) speed package to £20 per month on a 24-month term (price increases £4 post-contract).

Just to put this in perspective. Residential customers of CF typically pay from £21 per month on a 24-month term for speeds of 150Mbps (symmetric) with free setup, a 60-day satisfaction guarantee and an included WiFi 6 router, which rises to £56 for their top 3Gbps tier. The pricing is currently fixed if you join before 4th November 2024. At the end of your contract, your price will increase by £4 per month.

CommunityFibre also offers a separate 35Mbps social broadband tariff at £12.50 a month (rising to £16.50 after the first 12-months), although their 35Mbps plan isn’t technically a true Social Tariff because it’s available to everybody covered by their network (i.e. not just those on state benefits).

The special discount on their 500Mbps package will be available to take until 21st October 2024.

Alternative network provider Gigaclear, which as of March 2024 has built a gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP network to cover 500,000 rural premises (RFS) in England (inc. 100,000 customers), has this week published their annual accounts to the end of 2023 and revealed some key figures for the year.

Just to recap. Gigaclear is principally owned by Infracapital, together with Equitix and Railpen. The company previously had investment commitments estimated to be worth up to around £1.1bn (here), although at the end of last year they also secured a £1.5bn debt facility (here) and recently won the £16.6m Project Gigabit rollout contract for East Gloucestershire (here), as well as the £26.5m contracts for North and South Oxfordshire (here).

The company’s annual accounts to the end of 2023 (here) naturally gives us a chance to see how Gigaclear has changed through the previous year, with the picture seeming to show an operator that is continuing to spend big while they scale up their build engine and prepare to deliver on those new Project Gigabit contracts. All this has been occurring during a period where many of their rivals have been force to cut jobs and slow their builds.

On the flip side, rural altnets like Gigaclear have been running for a while and thus carry a lot of debt, which is only going to grow as that build continues. In that sense, it’s good to see their customer base growing and general take-up still hovering at around the 20% mark, which should go higher once their rate of build slows in future years.

Remember that the figures below are to the end of 2023, thus the premises and customer figures stated above are slightly higher due to being a bit more recent.

Summary of Key Gigaclear Figures for 2023

➤ The company grew to 819 employees (2022: 670).

➤ Gigaclear’s network is now present in 26 counties of England (2022: 23).

➤ Built to a total of 166,252 extra premises during 2023 (2022: 118,000).

➤ Ready for Service (RFS) premises hit a total of 480,000 at the end of 2023 or 500,000 premises passed.

➤ Customers grew by 24,000 in the year (up by 41% from 17,000 last year) to total 92,000 (2022: 69,000).

➤ Gigaclear finished 2023 with customer installations reaching a monthly run rate of over 3,000 (15% of these also took their Home Phone service alongside broadband).

➤ Revenues increased by 32% to £33.8m (2022: £25.7m) – due to growth in their customer base.

➤ Losses for the year grew sharply to £138.3m (2022: £21.8m) – made worse by a market-to-market loss on their interest rate swaps of £23.8m (2022 had a £46.8m profit).

➤ Total assets reached £849m (2022: £701m).

➤ Total liabilities reached £845.7m (2022: £559.7m)

➤ Operating expenses for the year increased to £91.9m (2022: £63.75m) – in no small part due to Gigaclear scaling-up their build engine and upgrading systems, new staff etc.

➤ Total drawn debt grew to £657.6m (2022: £501m) – due to network construction work.

➤ The operator’s Trustpilot scored increased to 4.5 (up from 3.8).

➤ Revenue from the Government’s gigabit broadband voucher scheme increased by 28%.

Crowdsourced benchmarking firm Opensignal has today published their latest Mobile Network Experience Report for H2 2024, which examines the 4G and 5G (mobile broadband) services of all four primary networks – EE, Vodafone, O2 and Three UK – to find which delivers the best performance. Overall, EE scooped 10 out of 14 awards.

As usual, the report is based off data (speed and signal tests etc.) gathered from people using hundreds of thousands of devices (Smartphones etc.) between 1st June and 29th August 2024. The results were then processed to reveal how the primary mobile network operators compared across various categories.

The study continues to be predominantly focused upon the combined performance of 3G, 4G and 5G networks, but it also splits out some of the results for 5G-only connections. Overall, EE continued to pick up the win for most of the performance categories in the primary study, while Three UK came top for 5G download speed, 5G upload speed and general network availability (i.e. % of time users spent connected to a network), albeit not 5G availability where EE now tops the table.

Elsewhere, O2 only managed to pick up one win for ‘Coverage Experience’, while Vodafone failed to score any wins across any categories – despite still performing reasonably well in several areas.

Download Speed Experience – All Mobile Connections
(H2 2023 Result in Brackets)

1. EE 45.9Mbps (40Mbps)
2. Three UK 38Mbps (34.5Mbps)
3. Vodafone 31.1Mbps (27.9Mbps)
4. O2 23.1Mbps (20.9Mbps)

Upload Speed Experience – All Mobile Connections

1. EE 9.8Mbps (9.3Mbps)
2. Vodafone 7.8Mbps (8Mbps)
3. Three UK 7.1Mbps (6.3Mbps)
4. O2 5.3Mbps (5Mbps)

Download Speeds – 5G

1. Three UK 208.9Mbps (205.5Mbps)
2. Vodafone 138.7Mbps (114.3Mbps)
3. EE 96.8Mbps (99.5Mbps)
4. O2 80.1Mbps (77Mbps)

Upload Speeds – 5G

1. Three UK 19.2Mbps (17.5Mbps)
2. EE 17.7Mbps (15.9Mbps)
3. Vodafone 15.1Mbps (14.9Mbps)
4. O2 10.1Mbps (10Mbps)

UK Availability % – All Mobile Connections

1. Three UK 99.2% (99.1%)
2. EE 98.5% (98.5%)
3. O2 97.4% (97.3%)
4. Vodafone 95.4% (97.5%)

UK Availability % – 5G

1. EE 13.2% (10.6%)
2. Vodafone 9.6% (10%)
3. Three UK 9.3% (10.3%)
4. O2 8.3% (10.1%)

Overall, most of the mobile operators seemed to record a performance improvement over this time last year, albeit with smaller changes now that the first generation 5G deployments have reached some level of maturity. But sadly, O2 continued to generally trend toward the bottom of the pack across most of the key performance metrics.

However, the 5G availability (% of time spent on 5G) performance of Vodafone, Three UK and O2 all seemed to suffer a fall over this time last year, with O2’s drop from 10.1% to 8.3% being particularly pronounced. We aren’t quite sure why this has occurred, although 5G availability is one of those areas that can be affected by external factors that impact signal strength (e.g. the weather) and other changes (i.e. it doesn’t mean that 5G coverage shrank). The 3G switch off and wider changes in 4G signal strength, such as via the ‘Share Rural Network’ programme, may have also impacted this area.

Naturally, there are caveats to this sort of study, such as the fact that app-based crowdsourced data can be impacted by any limitations or locations of the devices or plans being used, which at the same time removes the ability to adopt a common type of hardware and environment to help form a solid baseline. Naturally, some operators also have better 4G or 5G coverage, lots of spectrum bands and more advanced networks than others too.

Suffice to say that performance testing like this may not always tell the whole story, although Opensignal are generally one of the better organisations at analysing such data.