Some sources have indicated to ISPreview that reputable mobile network provider giffgaff, which is owned by Telefónica and uses the associated Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) provided by O2 (Virgin Media) in the UK, are allegedly testing the possibility of offering full fibre (FTTP) broadband packages via nexfibre’s network.

Just to recap. Nexfibre is the product of a £4.5bn joint venture (here) between Telefónica, Liberty Global and InfraVia Capital Partners, which aims to deploy an open access full fibre network to reach “up to” 7 million UK homes (starting with 5m by 2026) in areas NOT served by Virgin Media’s own network of 16m+ premises (Telefonica and Liberty Global also own Virgin Media).

Nexfibre’s 10Gbps capable FTTP (XGS-PON) network has so far covered 1,277,800 premises (RFS), which is up from 986,000 in Q1 2024 and much of that has been built by Virgin Media’s engineers. But they’re currently in the process of investing another £1bn this year to help cover an additional 1 million UK premises (i.e. on top of their existing coverage) and this should get them to around c.2m by the end of 2024.

Suffice to say that it’s not impossible to see giffgaff, given the many aspects of intertwined ownership, getting into the fixed broadband game too. But thus far there has been no indication of such activity, and giffgaff has instead always tended to remain exclusively focused upon mobile provision.

Nevertheless, information received by ISPreview suggests that giffgaff may at least be exploring such a move, which appears to be occurring as part of a limited trial on part of Nexfibre’s network – possibly in part of Scarborough. In this area nexfibre have allegedly been spotted deploying a number of seemingly unbranded ONTs (optical modems) in homes for an operator other than Virgin Media and the indications suggest it’s giffgaff.

The solution at work looks similar to a white label agreement, although plenty of details remain unknown and we must stress that none of this has yet been officially confirmed. We did ask both giffgaff and Nexfibre about it and they each declined to give a comment.

Mobile provider easySim.global, which is part of the Stelios-linked easy® family of brands (easyJet, easyCar etc.) and offers low cost travel data (mobile broadband) to use all around the world via eSIM, has informed customers that they recently suffered a data breach after their database was “accessed remotely by a hacker“.

The incident itself appears to have occurred after the hacker(s) gained unauthorised access to one of the company’s servers on 5th August 2024 at 1:22pm due to an unspecified “server vulnerability“, although customers affected by the hack have only this week started to receive an email notification about the event.

The good news is that no security (passwords etc.) or financial data was compromised, but customer names and email addresses were exposed. In addition, in a “very small number of cases“, this is also said to have included customer phone numbers. One of ISPreview’s readers (Upminster309) has kindly posted a copy of the email they received on Tuesday of this week (here), which we’ve published below.

Interestingly, the email reveals that the hacker has then gone on to contact a number of the affected customers and that easySim.Global have already self-reported the data breach to the UK’s Information Commissioners Office (ICO) for further investigation, which could potentially result in a financial penalty further down the line. But the ICO typically take quite a long time to investigate such incidents.

Copy of easySIM’s Customer Email

Dear xxx,

It has come to light that our customer database was accessed remotely by a hacker late yesterday, and a small amount of customer data has been compromised.

We regret to inform you that the following data has been exposed in the data breach:

Your name
Your email address

We would like to apologise sincerely for this data breach, caused by a vulnerability on one of our servers, which has now been rectified.

We would like to confirm that no other data has been exposed, such as your phone number, account password or payment details. Please be aware that we do not store customer payment details on our systems at any time. Furthermore, the hacker has no way of accessing your easySim.global account, your phone or eSIM, all of which continue to be safe to use.

However, the hacker, who has so far used the name Anton Green and has contacted some of our affected customers. If this happens, please forward any email to support@easysim.global immediately.

The Information Commissioners Office (ICO) has been notified and we are doing everything possible to inform affected customers. Please see the statement on our website, with details of the extent of the breach and the action we have taken. We continue to protect the integrity of our systems and would like to apologise again for any inconvenience and distress caused by this data breach.

If you need any further information, please contact us at support@easysim.global or call us on +44 (0)23 9277 8833 and press option 4 to leave and message and we will call you straight back.

Best regards
Richard Gwilliam
Director
easySim.global​

EasySim.global has also posted a statement on their website, which appears to have been published the day after the event itself occurred, and largely echoes the above email. The company also confirms that only those affected by the data breach will be receiving an email about it.

Asset reuse specialist AssetHUB has today claimed that an estimated 100,000km of publicly funded full fibre broadband cables in UK rural and hard to reach areas, allegedly worth over £1.4bn (total state aid), could be “left underutilised due to a lack of visibility” and “despite open networking being a condition of receiving taxpayers’ money“.

The aforementioned reference relates to the Government’s £5bn Project Gigabit broadband roll-out programme, which is being overseen by the Building Digital UK (BDUK) agency. But AssetHUB clams that some builders of related networks “could be failing to make their cables easily available to other operators” and thus “holding back plans to ‘level-up’ remote communities across the UK.”

The company is thus urging all network builders that have received funding through BDUK to make sure they know where their fibre is deployed and advise that this infrastructure is open for use by other companies. “BDUK provides public money for rural deployments that are mandated to provide wholesale access to passive, active, backhaul and dark fibre,” said AssetHUB, which is of course an area where they have a clear vested interest.

Rob Leenderts, CEO of AssetHUB, said:

“The UK Altnet industry is at a risk of more unnecessary overbuild as new entrants rush to deploy new infrastructure without considering the long-term sustainability of their business models. AssetHUB’s BDUK Project Gigabit-compliant trading platform for purchasing and selling infrastructure and services helps network builders map their fibre networks for visibility. It also makes sure approved ISPs and other network builders are aware and able to gain access to the network, securely, offering those that have not received funding an alternative to building more fibre.

For those network builders who have funded their own network buildouts, there is the added opportunity to generate some more revenue by selling space, services and unused fibre to other companies”.

On the one hand, it is true that those operators receiving state aid for related deployment contracts do face a wholesale obligation. On the other hand, making a commercial model for this is still down to the network operators’ and not every operator has seen fit to make the commercials attractive enough for others to use. But conflating the active and passive parts of this also makes for a rather more complex discussion, since they’re both very different sides of the same coin, where generalisations can cause confusion.

As for access at the infrastructure layer. Most alternative networks prefer to use Openreach’s existing cable ducts and poles, rather than that of other operators, because it is a regulated solution and one that has been reasonably well refined over many years.

Put another way, altnets tend to avoid building their own ducts and trenches where possible, which can make for quite a patchwork of infrastructure (awkward to harness). ISPreview explored the issues of infrastructure sharing in a bit more depth back in 2021 (here).

At this point it is important to remember that smaller alternative networks also carry much more financial risk than the established incumbents, which is often, but not always, reflected in the commercial models they come up with at wholesale. However, dedicated wholesale providers, such as CityFibre, do of course have more of an interest in making wholesale attractive, at least to retail ISPs.

A recent study has warned that Starlink’s (SpaceX) latest broadband and Direct to Cell based satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) are somewhat brighter than the company’s previous spacecraft, which risks adding to the headaches that observational sciences (e.g. astronomy) already have to tackle.

Starlink currently has 6,313 LEO satellites (c.2,000 are Mini GEN 2A) in Low Earth Orbit (LEO altitudes of c.500-600km) and they’re in the process of adding thousands more by the end of 2027. Customers in the UK typically pay from £75 a month for a 30-day term, plus £299 for hardware on the ‘Standard’ plan, which promises internet latency times of 25-60ms, downloads of c. 25-100Mbps and uploads of c. 5-10Mbps.

According to a previous study (here), Starlink’s latest GEN2 Mini (Bus F9-2) satellites have done a lot to resolve the brightness problem and were found to be over ten times fainter than SpaceX’s first generation (GEN1) spacecraft – despite GEN2s being much larger (3-4x once fully deployed). The mean of apparent magnitudes for Mini satellites recorded during early mission phases is 3.07 and the corresponding mean of magnitudes adjusted to a uniform distance of 1,000km is 5.08.

However, on top of that, the company has also begun launching satellites with their new global Direct to Cell (DtC) mobile roaming capability (details), which enables basic 4G communications using nothing more than regular unmodified smartphones on the ground. So far they’ve got about 116 of these into orbit and a new study finds that they’re brighter than the GEN2 Minis. Take note that the DTCs are slightly larger than Starlink’s existing satellites (125 m2 versus 116 m2), which is due to the new DTC antenna.

Study Conclusion

The mean apparent magnitude of low altitude Starlink DTC satellites is 4.62 while the mean of magnitudes adjusted to a uniform distance of 1000 km is 5.50. DTCs average 4.9 times brighter than Starlink Internet spacecraft when observed at a common distance.

However, we cannot currently separate the effects of the DTC antenna itself, the different attitude modes that may be required for DTC operations and to what extent brightness mitigation procedures were in place at the times of our observations.

In a best case scenario, where DTC brightness mitigation is as successful as that for other Minis and the DTC antenna does not add significantly to brightness, we estimate that DTCs will be about 2.6 times as bright as the others based upon their lower altitudes.

The DTCs spend a greater fraction of their time in the Earth’s shadow than satellites at higher altitudes. That will offset some of their impact on astronomical observing.

On the surface this might not seem so bad per individual satellite, but this has to be taken in the context of Starlink’s plan, which could see 7,500 DTC spacecraft put into even lower orbits of between 340 and 345km; these will join the c.7,500 Starlink Mini satellites at higher altitudes. The impact upon light pollution and observational sciences would thus be magnified.

Just for some additional context, AST Space Mobile’s significantly larger 1.5-ton BlueWalker 3 satellite (featuring a huge 64.4-square-metre phased array antenna – here) – orbiting at an altitude of a little over 500km and offering similar mobile capabilities – seems to move between a staggering brightness of +0.4 (i.e. akin to one of the ten brightest stars in the sky) and a heavily dimmed +6 as it rotates.

However, AST only plans to launch 100 of these and BW3 was an experimental platform, while the company plans to make their production models (aka – BlueBirds) much dimmer. We should add that brightness isn’t the only consideration with these mobile-centric satellites, and concerns have also been raised over their impacts upon radio astronomy (inc. weather predictions) and interference with other radio services. But that’s more of a matter for Ofcom in the UK and the ITU more globally.

Mobile operator Vodafone has announced that their 5G Ultra service, which uses 5G Standalone (SA) technology to deliver faster mobile broadband speeds and better performance in other areas, has now been made available to Enterprise and SMB (business) customers in the UK. The service originally launched for consumers over a year ago.

At present most existing 5G networks in the UK are Non-Standalone (NSA) based, which means they’re still partly reliant on older 4G infrastructure. By comparison, 5GSA reflects a pure end-to-end 5G network that can also deliver improvements such as ultra-low latency times (fast), better mobile broadband upload speeds, network slicing capabilities, better support for Internet of Things (IoT) devices, increased reliability and security.

The good news today is that Vodafone has now made 5G Ultra available to business customers too, which they claim will deliver benefits such as up to 25% longer battery life on supporting Smartphones, as well as “increased reliability, capacity, speeds [and] lower latency.” But for now you’re most likely to find 5G SA in the “busy areas” of major cities, with the operator saying that it’s now available in 23 cities and more than 300 locations across the UK.

Device support is another issue, with Vodafone stating that currently only the Samsung Galaxy S21, S22, S23 and S24 ranges, the OPPO Find X3 and X5 ranges, as well as the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip5 and Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5, are 5G Ultra ready on their network, with more coming soon.

As usual Vodafone doesn’t miss an opportunity to promote their proposed merger with Three UK, which they say could bring 5G Standalone to more than 99% of the UK’s populated areas by 2034. But it’s important to remember that this is just a commitment, which could change, and is not a legally binding obligation.

Nick Gliddon, Business Director, Vodafone UK, said:

“Our customers are telling us they are ready for 5G Standalone. Whether it is to keep employees connected with more reliable services, or to customise their business through next-generation services such as network slicing. 5G Standalone is the doorway to innovation, new revenues, and better connection with employees.

We launched the UK’s first 5G Standalone network in 2023. But to bring the benefits to everyone, we need consolidation – we cannot avoid a digital divide without it. Our proposed merger with Three UK is good for customers, good for competition and good for country. It will deliver much needed scale, better enabling us to deliver the benefits of 5G Ultra to all customers, regardless of where they live.”

Vodafone’s insight team has also surveyed 462 business customers across the UK, of which 24% were Vodafone customers. The research claims to have found that 39% of UK companies are ready to invest in 5G SA today, with 14% making the move within 12 months. Similarly, 93% of respondents agreed that reliable data connections are critical to success in today’s modern world, with 71% saying the same about remote working.

Elsewhere, 86% of customers suggested the rollout of 5G SA is either important or extremely important, with 44% stating lower latency would help business growth, while 83% would slightly or significantly increase 5G investments once advanced capabilities are available. Finally, 46% believe 5G Standalone would offer them a competitive advantage within three years by better enabling innovation.

Rural focused UK broadband network B4RN (Broadband for the Rural North), which is a community benefit ISP that has rolled out their 10Gbps FTTP network to 25,000 premises across England (inc. 13,000+ customers), has announced that existing CEO Michael Lee is to step down on 1st September 2024 and be replaced by Tom Rigg.

According to the announcement, Michael has taken the decision to step down after over three years in the post because he will be moving outside the UK with his family as his wife starts a new experience working abroad. But despite this Michael will continue to support B4RN in his new role as Chief Strategy Officer (CSO), and he will also maintain his position on the Board of Directors.

The Board of Directors has thus decided to appoint Tom Rigg as their new CEO. Tom is a familiar name because he has been involved with B4RN since it was first founded in 2012, and as COO he was already working closely alongside Michael since his appointment.

The move comes at an interesting time for B4RN, which only recently began the next phase of their network expansion – taking them further into Northumberland and County Durham (here).

Chris Carr, Chair of the Board, said:

“I speak for all the directors of B4RN in thanking Michael for everything he has achieved during his period as the Chief Executive of B4RN. He has been an outstanding CEO who has occupied the role with great distinction. Although his change of family circumstances means that Michael has decided to step down as CEO, the Board is delighted that he will continue his relationship with B4RN as its Chief Strategy Officer.

The Board is extraordinarily fortunate in having been able to appoint Tom Rigg as Michael’s successor as CEO. Tom has been involved with B4RN from its very earliest days. He has been its Chief Operating Officer since 2018 and he is well-known in the industry for the innovatory approach which he has spearheaded in that capacity. No-one knows more about the technical and engineering foundations which underpin the operations of the company, and the Board is very much looking forward to working with Tom as he continues with the implementation of B4RN’s plans for the future.”

The press release also included a couple of similar quotes from Michael and Tom, but they both follow a similar form to Chris’s statement above. As such we’ll just say congrats to Tom and best wished to Michael on his future, even though he’s not really leaving B4RN completely.

New analysis published by High Speed 2 Ltd, which is a non-departmental public body that is wholly funded by the UK Government’s Department for Transport (DfT), has claimed that the HS2 rail project could help “thousands of properties” across 538 postcodes to gain access to “ultrafast broadband speeds” and better mobile connectivity.

According to the blurb, the new railway – which will link London and Birmingham – runs through largely rural areas of Buckinghamshire, West Northants, Warwickshire and Staffordshire, many of which are said to “lag behind the rest of the UK in terms of data speed and mobile coverage.” The project suggests this is because the “high cost of installing the direct fibre connections” in such areas makes it unviable for serving the “small number of potential customers.”

However, it has long been proposed that HS2 would sell mobile and broadband providers access to its trackside network, which reflects spare capacity in the fibre optic cabling and telecoms masts that are being built to support the railway’s own signalling and telecoms needs.

The scale of the opportunity is underlined in a new analysis of the latest Ofcom data commissioned by HS2, which is said to have identified more than 538 postcodes within 5km of the HS2 route that currently do not have access to ‘ultrafast’ speeds of more than 100Mbps. This includes 209 postcodes that currently don’t even have access to ‘decent’ broadband speeds (i.e. 10Mbps+ downloads – the USO level).

Similarly, the next stage of HS2’s construction, which aims to free up space on the west coast mainline into Euston for more local services, is expected to deploy 80 trackside telecoms masts to provide signalling for the trains which will travel at speeds of up to 360km/h. But these could also be used to boost local 5G mobile coverage, with 15 postcodes along the route currently unable to receive a reliable 5G signal (this really is not very big).

Rail Minister, Lord Hendy, said:

“Investment in our transport infrastructure can boost opportunities and drive economic growth in every part of our country.

This scheme will have a positive impact on local areas for generations to come, providing connectivity that will create new opportunities for people and businesses to thrive.”

However, the announcement is somewhat rehashing a very old argument (here and here), and it’s worth noting that the talk of it being able to benefit “thousands of properties” is akin to a drop in the ocean of the wider challenge. Not to mention that HS2 is now so far behind the original plan that, by the time it has completed, much of the underlying problem may have already been resolved.

On the other hand, the project has stated that telecoms companies could get access to masts and fibre optic cabling “two years before the railway opens – during the testing and commissioning phase“, which we assume may translate to sometime around 2027.

Equally, the biggest challenge is often less about core fibre capacity and more about the cost of connecting individual homes in sparse rural communities, but clearly there will be some remote areas that could still benefit and this is the first solid analysis we’ve seen of the scale. But the fact remains that many parts of the areas on the HS2 route already have core fibre optic cables nearby.

Passengers would naturally also benefit from “seamless mobile connectivity” throughout the project’s tunnels and cuttings, thanks to the new trackside network and technology aboard the new trains.

The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has followed a similar decision in the EU by clearing the move by Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) to acquire Juniper Networks for an all-cash transaction for $40.00 per share (here), which represents an equity value of around $14 billion (£11bn).

At the time of writing the CMA has yet to publish the details of their decision and, following a brief Phase 1 investigation, have merely issued the following statement: “The CMA has cleared the anticipated acquisition by Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company of Juniper Networks, Inc. The full text of the decision will be published shortly” (i.e. it didn’t raise any major competition concerns).

Network operators across the UK (e.g. broadband ISPs, data centres etc.), and elsewhere across the world, have been watching the agreement to see how the change might impact the vital networking kit and services they buy and use, particularly in terms of its cost, quality and performance. This is because Juniper’s networking kit (routers, SDN, WiFi etc.) and related services are used by many operators.

However, the newly combined company has previously pledged to “provide customers of all sizes” with a complete, secure portfolio that enables the networking architecture necessary to manage and simplify their expanding and increasingly complex connectivity needs. Nevertheless, some still fear that HPE might attempt to re-focus the network biz over time to cater for more lucrative clients and thus cast aside the Service Provider (SP) market.

Clearly, the CMA felt as if this was not an area where they had any significant concerns.

RtBrick’s CTO, Hannes Gredler’s, told ISPreview:

“These big acquisitions are becoming the norm, especially in the telecom industry, and it’s quite alarming for customers. The market is clearly shifting towards bigger players consolidating power, which is why the CMA has tried to scrutinize the deal. The bottom line is that while HPE has strengthened its market position by acquiring Juniper, it has also left a concerning dent in competition, customer choice and confidence.

Another example is Nokia’s recent $2.3 billion acquisition of Infinera, underscoring the company’s push to dominate the optical network market, boosting its market share and enhancing its competitive edge. However, this move also reduces the number of independent vendors in the optical networking space, further consolidating market power among a few large entities and limiting customer choice. Acquisitions of this nature inevitably come with product overlap and resetting priorities by the acquiring company, leaving customers uncertain about the future of their chosen products.

We welcome CMA’s decision today, but we need to carefully inspect the impact of such deals on the wider market and ensure the right to fair competition and innovation. We’ll be watching this one closely.”

The rather generically named alternative network ISP UK Fibre Networks, which operates an 8Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network in central York (England), has today announced that they’ve re-branded to Fastr Broadband as they continue to roll-out their network to 8,000 homes and businesses in the city centre.

The company said they chose the Norse word, Fastr, to reflect the ultrafast speeds it will be delivering whilst drawing upon the city’s Viking roots and reflecting its status as a York independent business.

Based on our earlier article (here), Fastr’s network expansion began in the Gillygate area of York during January 2024 (Phase 1) and should now be starting to expand into the Micklegate area (Phase 2), as well as Walmgate (Phase 3), with Goodramgate / Stonebow (Phase 4) following in September or late 2024.

The original plan was to reach 8,000 premises by the end of 2024, although we don’t currently know how many premises they’ve managed to cover. But the service is said to be available in streets including: Blake Street, Bootham, Church Street, Claremont Terrace, Colliergate, Coney Street, Coppergate, Gillygate, Goodramgate, High Petergate, , Low Petergate, Lord Mayor’s Walk, Marygate, Stonegate, Swinegate and Parliament Street.

Pete Evans, Director of Fastr Broadband, said:

“These are exciting times for digital connectivity in York and we are thrilled to be at the heart of it. We are committed to delivering businesses and residents the fastest broadband they’ve never had, with download speeds more than 452 times faster than those currently available within the city walls.

Having spoken to many business owners and residents who are working and living in the city centre, we have heard their frustrations of the slow speeds and unreliable connection that is having a real impact on their daily lives, and they have simply been left behind for too long. We work closely with Digital York, Streetwork’s and Highways teams and so it’s with their approval that we are able to build considerately at their approval that we are able to build considerately at night, tidying up old cables up as we go and reusing existing boxes to connect the network, our aim is to work with residents, landlords and businesses to find the best solution for their property.

We are really excited about the possibilities this will bring for residents and businesses in York and we encourage those living and working within the city walls to register their interest, so they are among the first to know about when connections are available.”

Interestingly, Fastr says they’re building the network “considerately at night” and “following the routes of existing cables along the outsides of each property to ensure minimal impact” (i.e. Openreach’s ducts and poles / PIA) on the heritage and historic buildings in the city, which also avoids impacting local residents, businesses and visitors.

However, the new website for Fastr wasn’t loading at the time of writing, while the original site still lacks a useful availability checker on their website, as at present you have to send them your personal data just to find out if the service is available. But we hope that will be improved.

News 

The pledge comes just days after scrapping the Conservative party’s £1.3 billion AI investment 

The new Labour government has announced £32 million in funding for 98 AI projects designed to improve the UK’s productivity and public services. 

In a press release published yesterday, the government confirmed that AI companies working on solutions such as improve safety on construction sites, reduce time spent repairing the railways and cut emissions across supply chains, will receive a share of the £32 million funding. 

One such award company is Cambridge-based Monumo, part of a team who received £750,152 to improve the designs for motors in electric vehicles. 

“AI will deliver real change for working people across the UK – not only growing our economy but improving our public services,” said Minister for Digital Government and AI Feryal Clark. 

“We want technology to boost growth and deliver change right across the board, and I’m confident projects like these will help us realise that ambition,” she continued. 

It must be noted that the funding call for this investment follows on from the opening of the competition last October ahead of the AI Safety Summit, which was launched under Rishi Sunak’s government. 

Earlier this week, the government scrapped the £1.3 billion AI investment pledged by the Conservatives. The investments included £800 million to build a supercomputer at the University of Edinburgh, which would be able to complete one billion calculations each second, and £500 million to set up an AI Research Resource, which helps to fund computing power for AI. However, the recently launched AI action plan promises to put AI “at the heart of the government’s agenda”, and allowing AI in the UK to compete on the global stage.  

Join the conversation around AI in the UK at this year’s Connected Britain, 11-12 September in London. Get tickets here.