Network access provider Openreach (BT) has made their “Proactive FTTP Upgrades” a standard process from ISPs. This will take effect from 1st October 2024 and should make it easier for UK broadband ISPs that want to migrate existing customers on slower copper-based ADSL, FTTC (VDSL2) and G.fast lines to faster full fibre (FTTP) ones.

A spokesperson for Openreach told ISPreview last year (here): “Proactive migrations arise where a Communications Provider proposes an upgrade to FTTP to its own ADSL/VDSL/GFast broadband customers, at the same time booking an appointment for an Openreach engineer to carry out the upgrade. The end customer is able to confirm, reject or select a different appointment.”

Openreach previously announced a special offer on 28th August 2023, which stated that the first appointment amendment and standard cancellation charges for FTTP orders would be rebated where the orders are part of Proactive FTTP Upgrades.

According to the new briefing, this special offer was due to expire on 30th September 2024, however “given the demand for proactive migrations to FTTP and the success of the process to date“, Openreach said they will instead make this a “standard process” for ISPs from 1st October 2024 (briefing). The charge for cancellation and/or first amend of appointment for FTTP will thus continue to be rebated quarterly for Proactive FTTP Upgrade orders.

The new UK Government has begun informally consulting with the telecoms industry after network operators called on them to make it easier and cheaper to access large residential buildings (MDUs –  blocks of flats or apartments), which could help to upgrade related buildings to gigabit-capable broadband. Easier said than done.

The previous government has already done a fair bit of work to improve the situation around access to Multi-Dwelling Units (MDU). One example of this was the Telecommunications Infrastructure (Leasehold Property) Act 2021 (TILPA), which tackled situations where so-called “rogue landlords” failed to respond (here and here) and tenants had demanded faster connections.

The TILPA changes tackled this by introducing a significantly cheaper and faster route for dispute resolution via a new court process. But this only applies after a landlord has repeatedly failed to respond to requests for access (i.e. when seeking a legal wayleave agreement) and still leaves plenty of other barriers to entry.

For example, Openreach have complained about restrictions on their ability to upgrade existing infrastructure inside large residential buildings (MDUs), which exist because the owners of such buildings must still give their express permission for any upgrades to take place (even when the operator has existing lines in the building). “Some 990,000 tenants are missing out on our Full Fibre [FTTP] network thanks to this red tape,” said the CEO of Openreach, Clive Selley, last month (here). But it’s unclear how many of that 990k may already have gigabit access via a rival network.

The issue of automatic upgrade rights in MDUs sounds like a fair argument (i.e. extending Openreach’s existing maintenance/repair agreements to include full fibre upgrades). But rival operators have previously warned that granting special access to Openreach – without also affording opponents a fair level of comparable accessibility – risks handing the incumbent an unfair competitive advantage (here).

However, the new government, which has pledged to make a “renewed push to fulfil the ambition of full gigabit and national 5G coverage by 2030,” currently appears to be quite receptive to the idea of tackling such problems. For example, they’ve already set out their desire for reform of the planning system under their Planning and Infrastructure Bill (here and here), which might also make it easier to deploy digital infrastructure.

What’s new today

According to the FT (paywall), the government’s Building Digital UK (BDUK) agency has now engaged their Barrier Busting Task Force (BBTF) to informally contact broadband operators and seek feedback on the main challenges being faced in securing agreements for private and social housing MDUs, as well as the average costs and resources used in doing so.

In a letter seen by the newspaper, the BBTF states that they’re looking to understand where the barriers to deployment are “most pronounced and where they can be mitigated or removed“, before adding how they “know there are varied views on this subject and are keen to fully understand different perspectives and experiences“.

The government correspondence, which has been expressed as an “information gathering exercise” that is “not intended as a formal call for evidence or consultation“, is seeking responses to be returned by 9th September 2024.

A spokesperson for the Government (DSIT) said:

“No decision has been reached following an informal gathering exercise. [DSIT] is committed to fair competition, and as set out in our manifesto, our priority is closing the digital divide and ensuring everyone has access to fast and reliable connection, no matter where they live or work.”

However, property owners and tenants also have concerns that have to be balanced in all this (i.e. insurance, damage to property, security, safety [e.g. fire, asbestos] and other liabilities etc.), which is because upgrading copper to fibre lines in MDUs can sometimes be a bit more involved than it may seem (not minor work) and not everybody wants that (especially if the building already has such a network or networks present).

The previous government never quite managed to find a complete solution for all this and the new government will inevitably face the same issues. Suffice to say, network operators and the government will be walking a bit of a tightrope in terms of the rights of freeholders and leaseholders etc.

Broadband ISP Ogi, which is building a multi-gigabit speed Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network across parts of South Wales (UK), has today announced that they’ve secured a new £45m financing package from Cardiff Capital Region (CCR), alongside ongoing equity investment from its principal shareholder, Infracapital, to support their future growth.

The network operator has so far covered a total of 100,000 premises RFS (4th Jan 2024) with their full fibre network – most of them residential – in Wales up to the end of 2023. In addition, they’re home to over 20,000 customers (13th May 2024), which is up from 10,000 on 4th Jan 2024. However, we haven’t seen as much build activity from them in 2024 as we did in previous years, but that may now be about to change.

According to today’s announcement, the new finance package will enable Ogi to extend its reach in the ten local authority areas that make up CCR (Blaenau Gwent, Bridgend, Caerphilly, Cardiff, Merthyr Tydfil, Monmouthshire, Newport, Rhondda Cynon Taf, Torfaen and the Vale of Glamorgan), where it already has an established presence.

The CCR is also home to Ogi’s multimillion-pound and 70km long diverse “high-capacity digital” network (here), which spans the South Wales trunk road into England. This separately stemmed from a 25-year concession agreement with the Welsh Government that is seeing Ogi bring new Dark Fibre and Microduct Access products into the South East region of Wales, while also improving their own network capacity and resilience.

Ogi’s CEO, Ben Allwright, said:

“Right from the start, our ambition has been to become a leading Welsh telecoms company, and the last few years have certainly laid strong foundations for that goal.

With key strategic sites like Aberthaw to the south and the heads of the valleys to the north, there’s massive potential across the capital region – and partnering with CCR at such an exciting time in their own development is the next logical step for Ogi’s growth in southeast Wales.

Together with further investment from our principal shareholder, Infracapital, this is yet another endorsement of our mission to make sure no Welsh community gets left behind.

I’m immensely proud of the work the team at Ogi are doing across Wales, and this news – another leap forward in Ogi’s development – is testament to their commitment to making sure Wales keeps up to speed with the rest of the UK, and the world.”

Councillor Mary Ann Brocklesby, Chair of CCR, said:

“Ogi has taken regeneration to a new level with its initial investment – connecting communities to new possibilities right across the Cardiff Capital Region and beyond. Our investment into Ogi recognises that ongoing commitment to boosting the region, and the work already being done to bring vital connectivity to some of Wales’s biggest towns and villages.”

The announcement doesn’t clarify precisely how many premises (homes and businesses) will benefit from the next phase of their expansion, but it will no doubt be in some service of helping them to reach their first goal of 150,000 premises passed.

Otherwise, Ogi was advised on the transaction by Deloitte and CMS Law acted as legal counsel for Ogi and Infracapital. The new Debt facilities (September 2024 onwards) are provided by the CCR through the South East Wales Corporate Join Committee.

Previously announced build programmes in communities outside of the 10 local authority areas that make up the Cardiff Capital Region – including Pembrokeshire – will continue as planned.

Ogi’s Existing Rollout Locations

Bridgend: Caerau, Cwmfelin, Garth, Llangynwyd, Maesteg^, Nantyffyllon, Pencoed^, Porthcawl^
Caerphilly: Blackwood^, Cefn Fforest, Cefn Hengoed, Fleur-de-lis, Hengoed^, Pengam, Ystrad Mynach, Maesycymmer, Pontllanfraith, Tir-y-Berth, Woodfieldside.
Cardiff^
Monmouthshire: Abergavenny^, Caerwent, Caldicot^, Chepstow, Crick, Monmouth^, Portskewett, Rogiet, Sudbrook, Undy.
Newport: Langstone, Llanvaches^, Underwood^.
Pembrokeshire: Haverfordwest^, Johnston, Milford Haven^, Neyland^, Pembroke^, Pembroke Dock^. Tenby^.
Rhondda Cynon Taf: Cymmer, Dinas, Llwyncelyn, Mount Pleasant, Porth^, Tonyrefail^*, Tonypandy^*, Trebanog, Trehafod, Ynyshir.
Torfaen: Griffithstown, New Inn, Pontymoile, Penygarn, Pontypool^, Sebastopol, Trosnant,
Vale of Glamorgan: Dinas Powys^, Llantwit Major^, Rhoose^, St Athan.

^Local Network Exchange

Broadband, TV and mobile provider VMO2 (Virgin Media and O2) is reportedly seeking outside investors to raise a further £1bn in order to help fund the company’s plan (here) for opening up their existing fixed line network to wholesale via a new business (NetCo), which is expected to be introduced during the first half of 2025.

Just to recap. Virgin Media’s existing gigabit-capable broadband network covers a shade over 16 million UK premises via a mix of different fixed line technologies – primarily Hybrid Fibre Coax (HFC) and some Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) lines (using both Radio Frequency over Glass (RFoG) and XGS-PON). The operator is also working to upgrade their entire HFC network (c.14.3m premises) to FTTP (XGS-PON) by 2028.

As a complement to that, some of VMO2’s parents – Telefónica and Liberty Global (inc. support from InfraVia Capital Partners) – also setup a £4.5bn joint venture called nexfibre in 2022 (here), which aims to deploy an open access full fibre (FTTP) 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; Virgin Media is currently the only ISP on this network (here). Nexfibre has so far covered 1,277,800 premises (here) and is well on their way to hitting 2m before this time next year.

However, according to a slightly confusing report on Bloomberg from last Friday (via Thinkbroadband), VMO2 is currently seeking to raise “at least” £1bn from “outside investors to help fund its £5 billion newly created network company to challenge incumbent BT Group Plc.” This would, it’s claimed, be done via the sale of a minority stake in the new company.

The confusion in all this stems from the fact that Bloomberg’s language could be taken as referencing either their NetCo or nexfibre, but we’re confident they mean the former. VMO2 is already known to be working on the financials for their NetCo (here) and the idea, as suggested by Bloomberg, of a minority stake (20-40%) in that NetCo business being sold to raise investment to support its development would be in keeping with their plan.

The big challenge will be whether the new NetCo can attract any significant ISP support, at least beyond those already owned by the likes of Liberty Global or Telefónica (i.e. O2, Virgin Media, Giffgaff). Potential ISP partners will be looking to be treated fairly (wholesale agreements), which is always a tricky thing to balance vs the desire by some for exclusivity agreements. The NetCo must at the same time be competitive with the dedicated wholesale platforms from larger providers like CityFibre and the regulated Openreach, while also making what they build as easy to harness as possible.

The opportunities to be had in this space are still potentially very significant, but there’s no escaping the fact that today’s infrastructure market is also fairly diverse and competitive. The NetCo may initially also suffer a bit due to Virgin Media still being in the early phase of their HFC to XGS-PON upgrade, which hasn’t even gone live yet (they’ve only put XGS-PON live via nexfibre, not Virgin’s own network).

News 

The company says the deployment is the first of its kind for the ČEZ Group 

Vodafone has launched Europe’s first 5G mobile private network (MPN) at the Temelín Nuclear Power Plant in Czechia. The network, created for the energy company ČEZ Group, is part of a pilot project, currently covering outdoor areas and specific sections of the plant. 

The new 5G MPN is designed to replace traditional walkie-talkie communications at the plant, and support advanced tools like augmented reality glasses for the technicians. 

“By being entirely independent from the public network, our private 5G solution ensures that all user data and infrastructure are securely managed within the power plant’s own systems, which is vital for maintaining the highest standards of safety and reliability,” said Violeta Luca, CEO of Vodafone Czechia in a statement. 

“This technology is a key enabler in advancing the secure digitalisation of such critical infrastructure,” he continued. 

Bohdan Zronek, Member of the Board of Directors and Director of the Nuclear Division of ČEZ confirmed that Temelín is “the first nuclear power plant in Europe to actually test a private 5G network, while other European operators work mostly with 4G.” 

The project at Temelín follows a similar deployment by Vodafone at Škoda Auto’s production plant, where a 5G MPN has enhanced automated processes and machine communication. Vodafone has also launched private networks in Germany, Italy, and Ireland. 

Keep up with all the latest telecoms news with Total Telecom’s daily newsletter 

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?

Debt plagued UK ISP TalkTalk has this afternoon confirmed that they’ve formally signed a binding agreement on detailed terms of the refinancing package, which was announced on 12th August 2024 (here) and is said to be worth around £400m. This extends the group’s debt maturities to September 2027 and buys them more time to fix the roof.

As previously reported, the deal saw TalkTalk’s shareholders – led by founder Sir Charles Dunstone, Toscafund and Ares Management – agree to immediately inject £65m into the company, with a further £170m to follow. This was complemented by an asset package (i.e. parts of the company normally held separately) worth roughly the same value to entice lenders, which bundled-in wholesaler Virtual1 and the customer bases acquired from SSE Broadband (Ovo) and Shell Energy (here).

The agreement came after the Group had already spent much of the past few years wrestling with its existing c.£1bn debt pile, which in 2023 culminated in a plan to demerge the group into three separate businesses (TalkTalk Consumer, TalkTalk Business Direct and the wholesale centric PlatformX Communications – here), while also cutting costs (e.g. marketing) and monetising some assets (e.g. selling IP addresses).

The demerger should have also made it easier to sell off individual parts of the business (selling the entire group has proven tricky) and the first piece to go was technically TalkTalk Business Direct, which ended up being sold to the company’s own shareholders for £95m after struggling to attract much interest (here). But so far there have been no further deals, and TalkTalk came dangerously close to defaulting on some of their debts.

The risk of a collapse has now subsided, but TalkTalk still has plenty of work to do in order to turn things around or find a concrete buyer for what remains.

TalkTalk Statement – 2nd Sept 2024

Further to the announcement on 12th August, the Company is pleased to announce that a binding agreement on detailed terms of the refinancing transaction has been reached regarding extension of the maturities of the Company’s secured debt, being Revolving Credit Facilities (“RCF”) maturing November 2024 and Senior Secured Notes (“SSN”) maturing February 2025.

The Company has entered into a binding lockup agreement in support of the transaction with its major shareholders, RCF banks and a group of SSN holders, which together hold approximately 70% of the Company’s secured debt.

The transaction will leave the Company well-funded to deliver the respective strategic plans of PlatformX Communications (PXC) and TalkTalk, continuing to capitalise on their strong positions in the market.

In conjunction with this binding agreement, the shareholders have over the weekend provided £170m of financing to the Group, in addition to the £65m provided in August.

As announced on August 12th, the agreed terms include:

Provision of £235m of funding from Shareholders in aggregate
The contribution of other assets into the Group by the Shareholders, including the Virtual1 business, and the OVO and Shell branded customer bases, and
The extension of the first RCF and SSN maturities to September 2027

The Company will now move to the implementation phase of the transaction which is expected to close in the next few months.

Residential customers of TalkTalk’s broadband service don’t need to be too concerned about all this, and indeed they would have been protected from service loss, even in the event of a collapse. But it is also true to say that the ISP doesn’t have as much financial flexibility as they once did, which potentially always runs the risk of having a negative impact on service and support quality.

News

Elon Musk’s clash with the Brazilian government over moderation of X (formerly Twitter) has resulted in a government ban on the platform

Volatile billionaire Elon Musk’s ongoing clash with the Brazilian government has this week seen his social media platform X banned across the country.

In addition, the sanctions appear to extend to SpaceX’s satellite constellation Starlink, with reports suggesting that the company’s Brazilian accounts have been frozen.

On April 6 this year, Elon Musk removed restrictions on a number of accounts on X that had been banned as the result of a Brazilian court order. These accounts were linked to the far-right and had been accused of repeatedly spreading misinformation on the platform.

Musk argued, however, that the court order to ban these accounts was “unconstitutional” and called on the overseeing Supreme Court justice, Alexandre de Moraes, to “resign or be impeached”.

Moraes responded by once again reiterating the bans must be enforced, or the X platform itself risked being banned in Brazil. The country’s communications minister, Paulo Pimenta, voiced his support for the ban, saying that “social networks are not a lawless land“.

“We will not allow anyone, regardless of the money and power they have, to affront our homeland,” he said.

Musk responded to the government’s renewed requests by attacking Moraes in various X posts, including sharing derogatory AI-generated images of Moraes, one of which showed the Judge behind bars in a prison cell. He also closed the company’s Brazilian office, leaving the government without a legal interlocutor to resolve the issue.

As such, X was given until August 30 to appoint a new legal representative for Brazil, or else see the platform suspended.

Now, with the deadline passed, X has been banned in Brazil, leaving tens of millions of users disconnected.

In addition to direct impact on X, Brazilian courts have also frozen the accounts of Starlink, the satellite communications service run by SpaceX, also owned by Musk. The move renders the company unable to conduct financial transactions in Brazil.

SpaceX is planning an appeal against this ruling, arguing that the court order “is based on an unfounded determination that Starlink should be responsible for the fines levied—unconstitutionally—against X”.

Brazil is currently one of Starlink’s largest markets, with over 250,000 customers, many of whom live in such remote locations that Starlink is the only available form of internet connectivity.

The ongoing clash between Elon Musk and the Brazilian government is part of a wider clamp down on social media platforms all over the world, with regulators highlighting their ability to spread disinformation and threaten democracy. Last week, France arrested the owner and CEO of Telegram, Pavel Durov, accusing him of being complicit in the platform’s facilitation of illicit transactions and distribution of sexual images of children by gangs, as well as a refusal to communicate with authorities.

Keep up with all the latest telecoms news with Total Telecom’s daily newsletter

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 network will be the first in the UK that is focused on understanding the impact of extreme weather conditions across the country 

The UK government has announced a new initiative to provide earlier warnings for devastating floods and droughts. Backed by £40 million, this project will use advanced technology and real-time monitoring to protect communities from the increasing threat of extreme weather. 

The project, led by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH), will use sensors in rivers and a large data bank to predict where and when floods and droughts are likely to happen. By monitoring factors such as river levels, weather conditions, and ground saturation in real-time, scientists will create better models to forecast these events.  

This effort is designed to help local authorities and the Environment Agency prepare for and respond to extreme weather, reducing the damage and economic losses.  

The cost of flooding and droughts in the UK currently stands at £740 million each year. 

“This project will help drive that progress, with dedicated teams using the most advanced tech to crunch data gathered from our rivers and paint a clear picture of its likely impact – using the power of science and tech to keep the public safe,” said UK Science and Technology Secretary, Peter Kyle in a press release. 

The findings from this project will be shared globally to help other countries facing similar challenges with extreme weather. 

“Our new institute will bring together a team of world-leading researchers and the latest technology to ensure our communities, businesses and farms are protected from these devastating events,” said Emma Hardy, UK floods minister. 

Join Sir Chris Bryant, Minister of State for Data Protection and Telecoms for the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology on day 2 of Connected Britain, 11-12 September in London. Get tickets 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? 

The newly appointed CEO, Tom Rigg, of rural focused full fibre (FTTP) broadband ISP B4RN has told Richard Tang, the boss of Zen Internet, in a new interview that their network now passes 27,000 premises in rural areas and is home to almost 14,000 customers. But they have no plans to “split everything off and then try and go wholesale” with the network.

Just to recap. B4RN (Broadband for the Rural North) is a registered Community Benefit Society (i.e. they can’t be bought by a commercial operator – so consolidation is not an option – and profits go back into the community) that has already expanded their full fibre network to cover various remote rural parts of Lancashire, Cheshire, Cumbria, Northumberland, Essex, Norfolk, Suffolk, Yorkshire, Northumberland and County Durham.

As usual, Richard’s new interview with Tom starts by digging into the history of B4RN, which is a unique network where members of the local communities they serve have often helped to build the physical network in return for shares (dedicated civil engineering teams do the more complex bits). Due to this, the operator also keeps a strong focus on trying to connect everybody in their communities, including the hardest outlying properties: “It wouldn’t work if we just did the guys at the bottom of the hill,” quipped Tom.

At the same time, B4RN acknowledges that they’re still a smaller player, at least in terms of premises passed (geographically their network is huge) – “[our] build rate is nothing compared to what some of the big altnets are doing … it’s inherently slower in a rural build, it’s in the hundreds [premises] per month,” said Tom before adding, “and we’re ok with that.”

The above is also part of the reason why Tom doesn’t, at present, see much attraction in opening up their network to wholesale so that other retail ISPs can harness it. “It’s all around the economics, it would be very difficult for anybody to invest, and then what market share would they get … I don’t think we see a view where we would purposefully split everything off and then try and go wholesale.” This is a shame, albeit an understandable one.

The interview also touches on the tricky subject of overhead poles vs underground cable ducts, which is somewhat of a hot topic these days (here and here). B4RN has built their network underground, which is naturally a lot easier to do when much of your fibre can be laid across farm land (soft dig) and the countryside. But Tom notes some other examples of why this has worked so well for them.

“From a stats point of view (during Storm Desmond and others), we lost practically nothing in the fibre in these storms, and we kept the power on. But yeah, looking at all the rest of it [operators with overhead poles etc.], that infrastructure was just ‘shooooo’ [seriously damaged] across a wide area. From our experience, underground means it will stay on in extreme weather events,” explained Tom.

Finally, Tom doesn’t appear to be concerned about the risk of their network being overbuilt (Openreach currently only overbuilds a small percentage of their network with FTTP): “We believe there will still be people, who, nobody else is going to want to get to these.”

Tom added that half of B4RN’s market share is because there “really isn’t another operator” for people to choose in their patch, and the other half is because people are “buying into what we stand for” (B4RN has long managed to maintain an enviably high take-up rate that averages around 50%).

“I think it’s great [when homes have] a choice [of full fibre networks] … I don’t see a risk where [the business] will be eroded to the point where we’re unsustainable any more. I think there will always be a demand for that very deep rural connectivity and care of those connections,” said Tom. The full interview, which can be seen below, also touches on other areas like sharing cable ducts (PIA), Ofcom’s new broadband migration system (One Touch Switch), mid-contract price hikes and more..

Alternative network operator Open Fibre Networks Limited (OFNL / GTC / BUUK), which typically serves new build homes with gigabit fibre (FTTP) via several of their supporting UK broadband ISPs, appears to be suffering a major national outage this morning that is also making it difficult to access their Incidents Page.

The feedback received from some of OFNL’s customers this morning suggests that everything was working well until around 10am, when the service went down. The good news is that some of OFNL’s internet providers maintain their own service status pages (e.g. Seethelight’s status page), which confirm what their customers are saying. The operator has also been quick to acknowledge the outage.

318282: INCIDENT AFFECTING BROADBAND AND VOICE SERVICES Last updated:(02 Sep 2024 10:20hrs)

Status: Currently open.
Location: Network Wide.

We are currently experiencing a network incident affecting our entire network. Engineers are currently investigating the issue and will provide an update as soon as possible.Please do not reset your equipment.We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

No updates for this incident yet.

A number of broadband ISPs on their network are also advising customers not to “reset your equipment” (router), as this won’t resolve the current issue. Sources have told ISPreview that the issue might be related to Sky Backhaul (capacity links), but at the time of writing we don’t have any further information.

UPDATE 11:37am

The latest status update, as posted at 11:12am, provides a bit more detail: “We are aware that one of our core network suppliers is experiencing a major network incident that is affecting Internet performance over our network. We have implemented a work around in our core network that will help improve performance for some customers. Customers may still continue to experience a reduction in Internet performance and stability.”