Alternative network operator and ISP Quickline, which is deploying gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) and 5G powered fixed wireless access (FWA) broadband networks across rural and semi-rural parts of the North East and Midlands of England, has today appointed three experienced executives to support its growth.

Just to recap. Quickline is currently being supported by funding of c.£500m from Northleaf Capital Partners, as well as c.£296.4m of public subsidy from Project Gigabit (here, here and here), some £225m in term loans and debt guarantees from the UK Infrastructure Bank (UKIB) and a £25m term loan from NatWest.

The provider’s original ambition was to cover around 500,000 premises in rural and semi-rural areas across Northern England and beyond with “ultrafast broadband” – via both FTTP and wireless technologies – “by 2025” (here). Some 200,000 of those rural premises were due to be tackled by their wireless network, with the rest coming from FTTP.

However, since then they’ve secured £296.4m worth of public funding via Project Gigabit, which will bring full fibre broadband with public funding to almost 170,000 premises in mostly rural areas, which rises to 360,000 when you include the provider’s complementary commercial build.

In order to support this, the provider has today appointed three new experienced executives. Firstly, Julian Burton takes up the newly created position of Chief Revenue Officer (CRO). Julian has previously held senior commercial and sales roles at companies such as Digicel, O2, Tesco, CPW, and Vodafone.

In addition, experienced solicitor Julia Dettmar, who previously worked at Cable & Wireless and Vodafone UK, has been appointed into the role of General Counsel and Company Secretary. Finally, Dan Hague has been appointed as Project Gigabit Delivery Director – before this he held senior positions at GoFibre, Hyperoptic, Cityfibre and Openreach.

Sean Royce, CEO at Quickline, said:

“As we continue to scale up the business it is imperative that we have the right team in place to lead the way through our next chapter of growth. These appointments of highly experienced executives, which were made ahead of our Project Gigabit wins, position us well for the future. I am delighted to have Julian, Julia and Dan on board to help steer Quickline through the next exciting part of our journey.”

Broadband ISP Sky Business (Sky UK) has today announced that they’ve signed a new long-term agreement that will enable them to sell packages to businesses over the new full fibre network being built by the ITS Technology Group, which operates wholesale full fibre broadband and Ethernet networks (“Faster Britain“) across urban parts of the UK.

The move, which could be seen as a complement to Sky’s recent deal to harness CityFibre’s new FTTP network (here) for their residential focused Sky Broadband division, means that Sky Business will now be able to launch business Ethernet services using the ITS network. The ITS network is currently claimed to be ready to serve more than 25% of all UK commercial premises (465k business/commercial premises).

The partnership builds on the success of the existing relationship Sky Business and ITS forged in 2020, which allows ITS to deliver business connectivity services using Sky’s infrastructure.

Damian Saunders, MD of Sky Business Hospitality & Wholesale, said:

“Sky Business’s new partnership agreement with ITS will enable us to expand our reach and introduce an exciting new offering to deliver a robust network experience for more businesses across the UK.

This means we are now uniquely positioned to provide our customers with a broader, combined infrastructure, underpinned by the best of both networks and our best-in class service wrap.”

Daren Baythorpe, CEO at ITS, said:

“We are delighted to forge this new agreement with Sky Business which creates a reciprocal relationship, building on our existing partnership. We have invested heavily in our full fibre infrastructure which has been designed and is being rolled out specifically to serve businesses across the UK. Driving business full fibre uptake through Tier 1 partners is at the heart of our growth strategy as we work towards our ambition to be the UK’s best option for last mile business-grade connectivity.”

At present there’s no indication that Sky will be using ITS’ network for residential broadband packages, only business Ethernet solutions.

The Independent Networks Co-operative Association (INCA), which represents many of the UK’s alternative gigabit broadband builders, has today launched a new initiative that aims to “standardise wholesale fibre” networks and thus make it easier for retail and business ISPs to purchase services from operators.

Some 30 alternative networks are currently backing INCA’s Wholesale Standards initiative, which seeks to create a “homogeneous standard” that can ease the process for ISPs to purchase services from altnets, particularly in regions where such operators have deployed full fibre (FTTP) broadband networks and Openreach will not cover in the short to medium term.

The initiative is said to have been in the works for some time, but has only recently gained significant momentum. Key contributors include Altnets operating wholesaler networks, Altnet and traditional ISPs along with OSS/BSS software vendors. The initiative will endeavour to lower the practical, commercial and technical barriers to doing business at this level.

The program is structured around three critical workstreams, each addressing a key aspect of the Wholesale Standards initiative:

The Three Key Workstreams

1 – Regulatory:
This workstream is focused on aligning the initiative with Ofcom’s ongoing Telecoms Access Review (TAR) consultation. The group provides guidance and regulatory direction to ensure that the standards being developed comply with the latest regulatory requirements and support a fair and competitive marketplace.

2 – Commercial:
To facilitate the adoption of Wholesale Standards, this workstream has developed a draft framework contract designed to serve as an “off-the-shelf” agreement. This standardised contract addresses all key commercial aspects, significantly reducing the effort and complexity associated with negotiating multiple bilateral agreements.

3 – Technical:
The technical workstream is tasked with defining a unified set of message flows, data models, and APIs. These standards will be supported by multiple BSS (Business Support System) suppliers, enabling ISPs and Altnets to interconnect more efficiently on a common platform. This commonality streamlines operations and fosters easier integration across the industry.

The work on wholesale standards is also somewhat complementary to INCA’s similar work-stream on infrastructure sharing, which focuses more on creating a standard framework for passive infrastructure access to reduce the need for new cable ducts and poles to be built (i.e. fewer street works and lower build costs, as well as fewer related gripes from the residents).

James Warner, CEO of FullFibre, said:

“Lowering complexity and cost, to enable National ISP’s to consumer services from Altnets more easily, is vital to help sustain long term infrastructure competition in the market. By developing common standards, we can achieve this and help the scale players to help themselves in providing the best options available to consumers.”

Guy Miller, CEO of MS3 Networks, said:

“The UK has moved on from one or two underlying network suppliers and is starting to enjoy what competition and innovation brings. It is critical however that these alternative networks are standardised to allow easy access for retail ISPs to take advantage of this and ultimately provide better quality and value to homes and businesses around the country. MS3 is proud to be part of this initiative.”

Over the years we’ve seen plenty of retail broadband ISPs highlight the extra costs and complexity with needing to onboard new networks, which can be very tricky to overcome for those networks with more of a wholesale-only focus.

Suffice to say that anything able to reduce the cost and complexity of onboarding, such as through shared standards, is obviously something that’s going to be of benefit and helps to make the commercials more attractive to retail ISPs.

Mobile operator Three UK has today done something a bit different by introducing a 5G Outdoor Hub option for their Three Home Broadband service, which as the name indicates is a mobile router that you “self-install” on the outside of your home in order, we presume, to hopefully get a better 5G mobile signal and thus performance.

Consumers can already buy external routers for mobile broadband connections via third-party brands, although they can be quite expensive and require some additional skills (DIY and IT/Networking) to deploy (we also prefer the Router + External Antenna combo). The advantage of Three UK doing one is that it will come pre-configured and that helps to simplify the installation, but you’ll still need some skills to do the DIY side properly.

The other difficulty for things like this is that you still need to wire them up to power, which when deployed externally will often mean drilling holes through walls – unless you’ve got an external power socket that remains well shielded during wet weather and is positioned close enough to where you mount the Hub (usually at the highest point available / accessible).

Speaking of wires, the 5G Outdoor Hub also comes with one of Amazon’s eero 6 WiFi routers, which naturally goes indoors and that’s of course another device you’ll have to wire up to the Hub. By the looks of it, the power and Ethernet (LAN) connection is handled via a single PoE cable and adapter (Power over Ethernet), so you’ll need both a spare AC plug socket for the Hub and one to power the eero router too – see the user guide.

As usual, Three says customers taking a package with this device “can expect average download speeds of 150Mbps“, but the reality is that this will vary depending upon your location and a variety of other factors (e.g. device placement, capacity at the local mast, spectrum bands used etc.). Suffice to say that your mileage may vary, a lot.

At present we could only see one ‘Outdoor Home Broadband‘ plan available, which costs from £24 per month on a 24-month term and that price will increase by £2 per month from April 2025. The first 6 months are currently also being offered at half price.

Recent discussions, largely driven by Openreach, are pushing for regulatory changes to ease access to Multi-Dwelling Units (MDUs). In response, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) has sought input from internet service providers (ISPs), but there has been little representation from freeholders.

With over 35 years of experience working with both freeholders and full-fibre ISPs, we have a unique insight into the barriers to fibre broadband delivery in MDUs. This experience has led to the development of the following solutions:

4Fibre: A neutral, shared full-fibre network supporting multiple providers over a single installation.

Fibre Assist: Helping freeholders navigate fibre deployment across their entire portfolio.

We believe it’s critical to distinguish between “upgrading” and “installing new infrastructure.” The installation of fibre is a complex process that involves significant safety considerations, such as asbestos management, fire safety, and resident impact. The term “upgrade” oversimplifies what is essentially the creation of a new network.

Freeholders must maintain control over access to their buildings, ensuring work is done safely and to a high standard. ISPs, focused on speed and cost, may take shortcuts that compromise safety and long-term viability. If ISPs are granted automatic rights, how can freeholders ensure the safety and integrity of their buildings?

Openreach’s push for automatic rights (here and here) stems from underestimating the complexities of MDU installations, particularly in areas where other ISPs have already deployed, sometimes poorly. Altnets have been navigating these challenges for years, and changing the law to favour one player is unfair to those who have worked within the current framework.

Paragraph 17 of the Electronic Communications Code (ECC) outlines the conditions for upgrading and sharing infrastructure, stating any changes must have minimal impact on appearance and impose no additional burden on property owners.

However, upgrading and installing fibre are vastly different. Installing a new fibre in some MDU’s can take up to 10 weeks – demonstrating how misleading the term “upgrade” can be. We believe freeholders should retain the right to decide what happens on their property. Loosening planning rules could lead to serious financial and legal consequences.

Instead of focusing solely on upgrade rights, the government should promote shared, neutral networks like 4Fibre, which allow multiple ISPs to use a single installation, reducing the burden on freeholders and accelerating fibre deployment.

The Electronic Communications Code already supports shared networks, stating operators have a legal duty to share apparatus whenever practicable. Shared networks should be a government priority alongside upgrade rights.

We are committed to breaking down barriers to fibre deployment and would welcome further discussions on the key differences between upgrading and new fibre installations. We’ll be at Connected Britain, feel free to stop by stand S131 to talk all things fibre!

Mobile operator Vodafone UK are launching a new service called ‘Xchange‘, which they say will let customers exchange their phone for a new one every year on a 24-month Phone Plan (or a year early on longer plan lengths), with no early upgrade fees and nothing left to pay on their old Phone Plan. Just remember to send your previous phone back in “good condition“.

At the time of writing, the web page for the new service currently still says it’s “coming soon” (it’s unclear precisely when it will go live) and that Xchange is currently only available on “the iPhone 16 series and pristine refurbished phones” (the iPhone 16 was only soft launched yesterday).

The pledge of there being “no early upgrade fees and nothing left to pay” on old Phone Plans when customers exchange does also come with a caveat – it’s only applicable when customers upgrade to a new Airtime and Phone Plan (i.e. keeping you tied to the operator), and of course comply with the Vodafone’s Xchange terms and conditions.

Rob Winterschladen, Consumer Director of Vodafone UK, said:

“We’re launching Vodafone Xchange allowing customers to get a new smartphone every year. There’s no early upgrade fees or costs to Xchange, customers simply return their existing phone, and they’ll be nothing left to pay on their old phone plan. It’s really that simple.

This, combined with the UK’s only Lifetime Service Promise, means we are offering customers market-leading choice when it comes to their mobile phone. Whether that is getting a new phone every year or keeping their existing phone for longer, Vodafone offers something for everyone. Another great example of why we are The Nation’s Network.”

The operator adds that they’re the “only network provider that gives customers the full value for their phone when they exchange“. If a customer’s phone value exceeds the balance remaining on their Phone Plan, Vodafone says they will credit them back the difference, helping them save on their new plan.

Vodafone Xchange

· Get a new phone every year – On 24-month Phone Plans – or a year early on longer plans.

· 0% APR Phone Plans – Xchange is included with selected new and refurbished phones, on 0% APR Phone Plans up to 36 months and, with the choice of flexible upfront costs.

· No additional costs – No early upgrade fees and nothing left to pay** on old Phone Plan when customers exchange.

· Full value for your phone – If a customer’s phone value exceeds their Phone Plan balance when they exchange, Vodafone will credit the difference – the only network provider to do this.

· Give an old phone a second life – Vodafone refurbish or resell 97% of phones they receive back, with the rest recycled.

A new survey of 250 business leaders from London’s smaller and medium-sized firms, which was conducted by Censuswide and Development Economics for UK broadband ISP G.Network, has claimed that SMEs are missing out on an estimated £28bn in annual revenue due to “slow and unreliable workplace broadband“.

According to the polling, 52% of senior leaders and business owners among London’s SMEs have considered moving office location in order to get better access to faster and more reliable workplace internet, with 4 in 10 stating they can’t serve clients in the way they’d like due to problems with slow or unreliable office internet.

Furthermore, a quarter of respondents admitted that problems with slow or unreliable broadband have caused them to lose business, while 47% identified employee connectivity in the workplace as an area undermined by poor connectivity and over 40% said that their ability to serve customers suffered.

The polling claims that these “broadband issues” have also negatively affected productivity for a quarter of all employees at the capital’s SME-size businesses over the last three months. The estimated annual lost output due to these broadband issues is put at £5.34bn Gross Value Added (GVA).

On the flip side, SMEs identified quicker response times to clients and customers as two of the key benefits they could reap from improved office broadband connectivity. The study claims that the high costs and complex processes involved in securing reliable services remain “prohibitive for many SMEs“, although this does somewhat depend upon what each business actually requires.

Kevin Murphy, CEO of G.Network, said:

“Digital connectivity is at the heart of London’s economy, but despite extensive availability the SMEs we spoke to for the research are still suffering because connections are too costly and complicated. As an SME ourselves, we understand the challenges they’re facing, and we’re determined to put an end to slow internet speeds. Whether we are serving a hairdresser or a hedge fund, our mission is to provide businesses of all sizes with the reliable gigabit connectivity essential for their success.”

The survey fails to identify whether all the connectivity issues experienced are actually related to the underlying broadband link or local network issues within the office, but we suspect it’s probably a combination of both. In addition, it appears to overlook the importance of having effective redundancy for main link disruption, which when correctly implemented should be able to mitigate a lot of the negative impacts upon revenue.

Some other issues that could do with being explored further in the survey centre around the availability of network choice and take-up. Much of London does have a fair choice of different network providers (e.g. Openreach, Virgin Media, CommunityFibre, Hyperoptic, G.Network etc.) and so if one ISP is performing poorly then there are often other, potentially better, options already available. But London does still have some patches of poor connectivity too.

Naturally G.Network, which claims to have covered a total of 330k “connectable premises“ in the city with their own full fibre network (an independent estimate in July 2024 put them closer to 250k), has a vested interest in surveys like this because they encourage businesses to consider alternative providers.

A Connected Britain Preview   

Connected Britain 2024 is just around the corner and, with just days left to go, it is only fitting that we highlight some of our amazing keynote sessions, featuring some of the biggest names in the UK telecoms industry.   

Day 1 – Wednesday 11 September 

CXO Interviews 

Intimate discussions with some of industry’s biggest names  

Marc Allera, CEO EE (08:50)  

Lutz Schüler, CEO, Virgin Media O2 (10:00)  

Katie Milligan, Chief Commercial Officer, Openreach; Rajiv Datta, CEO, nexfibre; Greg Mesch, Founder & CEO, CityFibre; Stephanie Liston, Chair of the Board, Jersey Competition Regulatory Authority & Chair, Digital Connectivity Forum (12:10) 

Panel Discussions 

Bringing together speakers from across the telecoms industry and beyond to tackle the sector’s biggest challenges 

Securing the UK’s position as a global tech leader (09:20) 

What are the barriers to success for the UK tech sector? What is needed from govt, industry and other key stakeholders to overcome these challenges? 

Speakers:  

Sasha Qadri, Moderator 

Paul Alexander, Head of Cloud Infrastructure Business, Europe, Nokia 

Julian David, CEO, techUK 

Iain Milligan, Chief Network Officer, Three UK 

Keri Gilder, CEO, Colt Technology Services 

The changing landscape of the UK fibre market (12:50) 

Exploring the past year’s developments in the fibre market and tackling major topics including investment, competition, regulation, and deployment strategy. 

Speakers: 

Stephanie Liston, Chair of the Board, Jersey Competition Regulatory Authority & Chair, Digital Connectivity Forum 

Rajiv Datta, CEO, nexfibre 

Rebecca Molyneux, Deputy Director, Broadband Regulation and Investment, DSIT 

Katie Milligan, Chief Commercial Officer, Openreach 

Greg Mesch, Founder & CEO, CityFibre 

Daren Baythorpe, CEO, ITS 

Digital Britain: Connecting our nation (17:40) 

Discussing technology, policy, and innovation in the UK telecoms industry and what impact these can have on wider society. 

Speakers: 

Duncan Golestani , Correspondent, ITN 

Jaynesh Patel, Head of Telecoms and Spectrum Policy, techUK 

Ian Smith, Head of UKTIN, UKTIN 

Gareth Elliott, Director of Policy and Communications, Mobile UK 

Presentations and Updates: 

Mission Critical is Relative (09:10) 

Paul Alexander, Head of Cloud Infrastructure Business, Europe, Nokia 

Innovation and imagination: helping our industries lead the world (10:15) 

Dame Melanie Dawes, Chief Executive, Ofcom 

Diamond Sponsor presentation: ITS (12:40) 

Daren Baythorpe, CEO, ITS 

Enabling a Digitally Connected Society: How Cornerstone Connects the Four Corners of the UK (17:20) 

Jamie Hayes, Chief Sales and Commercial Officer, Cornerstone 

Connected Britain 2024 promises to be bigger and better than ever before. It’s not too late to join us! Last minute tickets are available here 

News 

The new hires come as Quickline has recently secured its fourth government contract under the Project Gigabit programme 

East Yorkshire based ISP Quickline Communications has expanded its senior leadership team with three key appointments to support the company’s ongoing growth. 

The Project Gigabit  contracts will bring full fibre broadband to nearly 170,000 premises through public funding, and up to 360,000 homes and businesses when combined with Quickline’s commercial build. The network expansion covers Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, where communities such as Escrick, Woodsetts, and Wroot are already benefiting from improved connectivity. 

To oversee sales, customer service, and retention, Quickline has appointed Julian Burton as Chief Revenue Officer (CRO). Burton brings over two decades of telecoms experience, having previously held roles at Vodafone, O2, and Tesco. 

Julia Dettmar has been named General Counsel and Company Secretary, responsible for corporate governance and legal affairs. Dettmar has extensive legal experience, including positions at Cable & Wireless and Vodafone UK. 

Finally, Dan Hague joins as Project Gigabit Delivery Director, overseeing the delivery of the government contracts. Hague has a strong background in fibre and telecoms, previously working at GoFibre, Hyperoptic, and BT Openreach. 

As pointed out by the company press release, these appointments were made ahead of the company’s latest Project Gigabit wins.  

“As we continue to scale up the business it is imperative that we have the right team in place to lead the way through our next chapter of growth. These appointments of highly experienced executives, which were made ahead of our Project Gigabit wins, position us well for the future,” said CEO Sean Royce. 

Quickline is aiming to provide gigabit-capable broadband to over 500,000 homes and businesses in the North of England and beyond by 2025. 

In an exclusive interview with Total Telecom last month, Sean Royce explained the details of Quickline’s most recent £250 million debt facility package.  

“UKIB and NatWest, who we’ve done the deal with, they see the opportunity in rural areas – they see that these areas are being left behind,” he said. “They’re seeing an operator who is laser focused about trying to build where nobody else is building. And that’s really important point today in the UK.”  

Sean Royce is speaking at this week’s Connected Britain on the “Customer uptake” panel, 11-12 September in London. Last minute discounted tickets are available here! 

Also in the news:
Coastguard’s emergency network gets an upgrade from Telent
AT&T fined nearly $1m over 911 failings
How will the CityFibre–Sky deal really affect BT?

News 

The deal builds on a pre exiting agreement between the two companies 

Sky Business has signed a new long-term agreement with ITS to provide fast and reliable Ethernet connectivity to businesses across the UK.  

The partnership combines ITS’s fibre network with Sky Business’s core network to offer high-quality, ultrafast services, the press release explains. 

According to ITS, their network currently extends to 25% of all of the UK’s commercial premises. 

“Sky Business’s new partnership agreement with ITS will enable us to expand our reach and introduce an exciting new offering to deliver a robust network experience for more businesses across the UK,” said Damian Saunders, Managing Director, Sky Business Hospitality, Mid-Market & Wholesale.  

“This means we are now uniquely positioned to provide our customers with a broader, combined infrastructure, underpinned by the best of both networks and our best-in class service wrap,” he continued. 

“We have invested heavily in our full fibre infrastructure which has been designed and is being rolled out specifically to serve businesses across the UK. Driving business full fibre uptake through Tier 1 partners is at the heart of our growth strategy as we work towards our ambition to be the UK’s best option for last mile business-grade connectivity, echoed Daren Baythorpe, ITS CEO. 

Join Sky and ITS at Connected Britain, THIS WEEK on 11-12 September. Last minute discounted tickets are available here! 

Also in the news:
Coastguard’s emergency network gets an upgrade from Telent
AT&T fined nearly $1m over 911 failings
How will the CityFibre–Sky deal really affect BT?