News 

The speech is the first delivered under the new Labour government  

At the state opening of parliament yesterday, the new government set out its agenda for its tenure ahead. At the centre of the event was a speech from the King, written by the new government, which outlines the government’s agenda and proposed policies for the coming parliamentary session.  

Of the 40 bills mentioned in the speech, there were three of relevance to the telco sector: 

The ‘Cyber Security and Resilience Bill’ aims to address the increasing number of cyber threats that the country faces. To prevent cyberattacks, such as the recent cyberattack on London hospitals, this new bill will strengthen the country’s cyber defences, ensure essential cyber safety measures are being implemented fully, and mandating increased incident reporting. 

The ‘Digital Information and Smart Data Bill’ will enable new uses of data to be developed and deployed safely, as well as improving data sharing standards. The bill builds on the news government’s commitment to better serve the British public through science and technology. The bill, the government says, will result in more and better digital public services. 

The ‘Planning and Infrastructure Bill’, according to the King, “will get Britain building, including through planning reform, as they [the government] seek to accelerate the delivery of high-quality infrastructure and housing. They will also pursue sustainable growth by encouraging investment in industry, skills and new technologies.” The planning system will face reform at local level, which will increase the speeds of infrastructure builds. 

The ongoing Project Gigabit, the UK government initiative aimed at providing high-speed, reliable broadband internet to areas that are currently underserved or lack adequate connectivity, was not mentioned directly, and instead was granted a few lines in the party manifesto. The project currently aims to deliver gigabit-capable broadband to at last 85% of UK premises by 2025 and the whole of the UK (roughly 99%) by 2030. 

In the Labour party’s manifesto, published on 13 June, the party blamed the Conservative government for underfunding digital infrastructure, leaving the UK lagging behind its international peers.  

“Under the Conservatives, investment in 5G is falling behind other countries and the rollout of gigabit broadband has been slow. Labour will make a renewed push to fulfil the ambition of full gigabit and national 5G coverage by 2030.” 

It is worth noting here that the King’s speech made no specific mention of the new AI laws the Labour government is expected to introduce, saying only that the government will “seek to establish the appropriate legislation to place requirements on those working to develop the most powerful artificial intelligence models”. 

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

Also in the news:
Power play: Thailand’s biggest telco to merge with energy giant
Germany implements long-awaited Huawei ban
Telecom Egypt readies for country’s first 5G services

Network benchmarking firm Opensignal has today published the results of a new study that explored the differences in broadband reliability between urban and rural areas across 18 countries. The study reveals that, among other things, the Nordics, the United Kingdom and Canada all score highly for connection reliability.

Opensignal typically leverages crowdsourced data collected via end-users on their benchmarking app and services. In this case they also harnessed their new Broadband Reliability Experience metric, which uses a 100-1000 point scale to measure broadband experience in a typical household where multiple devices are used simultaneously (i.e. how well a household’s internet copes with real-world scenarios, with multiple users).

For example, one of their metrics for this identified that 25Mbps “was the right downlink threshold to define a connection as reliable“, but they also looked at the entire user experience – from establishing a connection to successfully completing tasks like streaming video, browsing the web, and scrolling through social media. It then captures the end-to-end reliability experience by analysing the two most popular internet protocols – TCP (transmission control protocol) and UDP (user datagram protocol).

Overall, the study found that Sweden, Norway, United Kingdom, Canada, Japan and the United States all made it into the Higher Reliability (overall score above 650) category at the top of the table, while India, Colombia, Mexico, the Philippines, and Indonesia were all at the bottom with Lower Reliability (under 500).

The study also found that the Broadband Reliability Experience is, on average, 23% higher in urban areas than in rural areas across all markets analysed. There are a few reasons for this. But this isn’t too surprising, as urban areas typically benefit from a more competitive choice of often faster broadband ISPs and networks, while rural areas usually see less choice and are frequently among the last to benefit from network upgrades.

For example, Ofcom’s 2023 Connected Nations report noted that “superfast broadband” (30Mbps+) coverage remains at 97% (29.1m premises) across the UK, but this falls to 88% in rural areas (up from 86% last year). Similarly, gigabit-capable broadband stood at 78%, but that fell to 45% in rural areas.

Interestingly the study found that countries with the highest Broadband Reliability Experience scores are also those with limited infrastructure sharing but targeted subsidies for private rural investment. This suggests that encouraging wider infrastructure sharing in the UK might not be the magic fix that some politicians hope – there are complex reasons for this (details).

Finally, Colombia was found to be the country with the “widest disparity” between rural and urban areas for the broadband reliability experience, with a difference of 176 points in absolute terms (about 38% lower rural Broadband Reliability Experience than urban). This is partially due to geographical barriers (e.g. diverse and rugged terrain), which make it difficult and expensive to lay new broadband, power, backhaul capacity and other vital infrastructure.

London-focused UK business internet provider Vorboss, which has rolled out a 100Gbps capable full fibre network across the city centre, has today announced that they’ve appointed two new chiefs to their top leadership team – Jason O’Malley as Chief of Commercial Operations (CCO) and Malcolm Puddefoot joins as Chief Revenue Officer (CRO).

Just to recap. Vorboss has spent the past few years deploying 500km of their own dedicated point-to-point fibre optic cables across Central London (covering most of zones 1 and 2), which we’re told is enough to potentially connect all commercial buildings in the area to their direct internet access and Ethernet network. The operator has now switched to focus on growing their take-up.

The operator has now switched to focus on growing their take-up and hence the creation of two new commercial roles. Jason O’Malley joins as CCO, having previously been at Zayo and BT, while Malcolm Puddefoot joins as CRO, coming from Colt Technology. The appointments will ensure Vorboss can meet the growing demand for highly reliable, high-quality fibre from London’s businesses. Vorboss has invested £250 million into building its network in central London.

Jason will thus oversee the company’s commercial and marketing operations, while Malcolm will drive revenue performance and sales initiatives across direct, indirect and strategic partner sales channels.

Tim Creswick, CEO of Vorboss, said:

“We’re bringing in high quality industry leaders who will be instrumental in making our fibre network available to new partners and customers. Jason and Malcolm bring hugely valuable experience, but they both also know that things in our industry can be done differently, and better. They’re here at Vorboss to deliver a new way of connecting London’s business community.”

The UK telecoms and media regulator, Ofcom, has launched a new consultation that will update and extend their information gathering policy, which largely reflects the fact that they’ve gained new powers to extract information from companies and broadband providers etc. to support their work.

Ofcom’s existing policy on information gathering was published in March 2005, although they last consulted on changes in 2015, which led to significant adjustments in their practical processes including the establishment of the Information Registry, a dedicated team to deal with the coordination of our information gathering activities.

Since 2005, the regulator has also been given additional information gathering powers under legislation which requires them to publish a statement of general policy (including in relation to post and telecoms security). “We consider now is an appropriate time to update our policy to reflect our new processes and additional powers,” said Ofcom.

However, Ofcom aren’t required to publish a policy for all of their information gathering powers, and this new policy will thus not apply where they have separately set out how they intend to exercise their information gathering powers under another regime.

For example, the regulator has published separate guidance in relation to their information gathering powers under the Network and Information Systems Regulations 2018. In addition, they also intend to consult shortly on separate standalone guidance on how they will exercise their new information gathering powers under the Online Safety Act 2023.

What we are proposing – in brief

• To expand the general policy to cover additional information gathering powers we have acquired since 2005 under legislation which requires us to publish a statement of general policy (including in relation to post) and clarify the scope of the policy under other legislation.

• To update and clarify the text to reflect our experience of issuing statutory information notices in practice, having regard to the responses to our 2015 consultation.

• To provide further detail on how we will handle statutory information notices including:

o the role of the Information Registry and how it coordinates information gathering for Ofcom;
o where we may make use of information provided voluntarily;
o typical processes including the issuing of draft statutory information notices;
o use of information including disclosure and confidentiality;
o record retention and personal data; and
o information security.

• To clarify our approach to enforcement and what we expect from stakeholders when responding to a statutory information notice.

Ofcom are now seeking feedback on all this from stakeholders and they aim to publish an outcome by the end of 2024, assuming no problems arise.

News

The Commission will close its four-year antitrust investigation into Apple’s mobile payment platform Apple Pay following the US tech giant’s decision to open up its tap-and-go payments tech to third parties

The European Commission (EC) has announced that it will close its investigation into anticompetitive practices related to Apple’s iPhone’s contactless payments policies.

The investigation was opened four years ago, when European regulators took issue with the fact that Apple would not allow third-parties access to the iPhone’s Near Field Communications (NFC) technology, in effect forcing customers to use Apple’s Apple Pay platform if they wated to make contactless payments.

The EC accused Apple of using its dominant market position to suppress competition – a charge that is all too familiar to Apple, who was simultaneously fighting numerous additional antitrust cases brought by the EC, including against iOS.

Apple fought against these accusations for almost four years, before presenting the EC with a number of concessions back in January. These concessions included a new set of application programming interfaces (APIs) that would allow approved developers to make use of the iPhone’s NFC capabilities.

Now, after testing these concessions and verifying with interested third parties, the EC says that it is happy the matter is resolved and so will close its investigation.

“The European Commission has made commitments offered by Apple legally binding under EU antitrust rules,” reads the official announcement. “The commitments address the Commission’s competition concerns relating to Apple’s refusal to grant rivals access to a standard technology used for contactless payments with iPhones in stores (‘Near-Field-Communication (NFC)’ or ‘tap and go’).”

“From now on, Apple can no longer use its control over the iPhone ecosystem to keep other mobile wallets out of the market,” explained Commissioner Margrethe Vestager. “Competing wallet developers, as well as consumers, will benefit from these changes, opening up innovation and choice, while keeping payments secure.”

These new policies apply to Apple devices registered within the European Economic Area, spanning 30 countries. They do not, however, resolve the issue in the USA, where NFC payments are part of a wider antitrust lawsuit currently being brought against Apple for monopolising the smartphone market.

Keep up to date with the latest international telecoms news by subscribing to the Total Telecom daily newsletter  

Also in the news:
Australian Government and AWS Collaborate to Strengthen country’s Cybersecurity
Solving congestion challenges in FTTP deployment
Vodafone Invests £120m in AI Chatbot ‘SuperTOBi’

London focused broadband ISP G.Network, which has spent the past few years building a gigabit speed Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network across parts of the city centre (here), has completed the “first phase” of a new deployment with the Peabody Trust – extending their fibre optic service to more homes across Camden and Westminster.

The curiously named Peabody Trust is said to be one of the UK’s oldest not-for-profit housing association and their partnership with G.Network has, since the first installation in January 2024, enabled “hundreds of customers” to be covered by FTTP broadband – often without the need for multiple individual wayleave agreements (legal land/property access deals).

Residents living in Peabody homes have also been able to benefit from G.Network’s social tariff, Essential Fibre. The tariff provides eligible residents with access to 50Mbps full fibre broadband for just £15 a month, enabling G.Network to break down the digital divide and reduce social poverty by financially supporting Peabody residents.

The agreement with Peabody follows the announcement of a partnership with Islington Council and Greater London Authority (GLA) late last year, with the full fibre provider continuing to expand its network across the capital to “meet growing demand in 2024“. But at the same time G.Network are allegedly said to be exploring the potential of a future sale of their network (here).

Kevin Murphy, CEO of G.Network, said:

“G.Network is ambitious about improving connectivity across the capital, as it is an essential part of Londoner’s daily lives. Far too often customers are experiencing frustrating delays caused by the complexity of wayleave agreements. Reflecting on our partnership with Peabody allows us to recognise the importance of removing physical and social barriers to connectivity. We are delighted to have strategic partners like Peabody, onboard, enabling us to better connect Londoners by rolling our full-fibre network fairly and affordably across the boroughs”.

Residential customers of the service typically pay from £19 per month for a 150Mbps (50Mbps upload) service on a 24-month term with free installation (£24 thereafter), which rises to £30 for their top 900Mbps plan (£35 thereafter). Shorter 12 and 1 month contracts are also available, albeit at extra cost, and a symmetric speed 900Mbps plan also exists.

Today’s news follows shortly after the operator secured an additional investment of £85m from long term equity investor USS to support their “next phase of growth“ (here), which was on top of last year’s commitment by the same investor for “up to an additional” £150m (here).

Internet provider Virgin Media (O2) has finally fixed a fault that left a small number of their broadband customers, specifically some of those on top tier packages (e.g. 1Gbps), with half their normal upload rate (i.e. 50Mbps instead of 100Mbps). But it’s unclear why the seemingly simple problem took over a month to resolve.

The issue, which was raised by a couple of ISPreview’s readers (special credit to David) and via Virgin Media’s Community Forum, first appears to have started at the very beginning of June 2024 – after a period of normally routine network maintenance. This left some customers with a stuck c.55000000 bps (55Mbps) upload profile instead of c.1230000000 bps (123Mbps).

Problems with stuck or incorrect speed profiles do sometimes happen on Virgin Media and in theory they should be a quick fix on the network side (note: a hard reset of the router won’t resolve this). But what’s surprising is how many weeks and hoops the customers had to jump through just to get the fault both recognised and then resolved.

The provider’s support team initially denied that there was a problem and even questioned whether one of those affected needed 100Mbps uploads: “I called support to inform them, but they seem clueless and could only say they will monitor for 24 hours, and think it’s fine, and even asked why I needed more speed as if I should be happy with 50Mb (even though I’m paying for double),” said phonic2k.

One of the other customers was also sent a new router, which is unnecessary for resolving this sort of problem. But the good news is that, after a long battle, Virgin Media informed those affected on Tuesday this week that they’d finally managed to resolve the issue.

A spokesperson for Virgin Media told ISPreview:

“Due to a fault, a small number of customers were not receiving their normal upload speeds. This has now been fixed and we apologise for any inconvenience caused.”

As usual, VM gave no details to explain why the problem had occurred, how it was resolved or why it took so long to fix (stuck profiles should be an easy fix). Sadly such ambiguity is not uncommon among major ISPs.

News 

The dispute relates to major planned job cuts following Vodafone Spain’s acquisition by Zegona last month 

Spanish trade unions have accepted the workforce reduction plans offered to them by Vodafone Spain’s new owner Zegona Communications, who acquired the company back in June. 

The Spanish trade union UGT had scheduled strikes for the 9th and 11th of July – with partial strikes being carried out on various days throughout the month – in protest against a redundancy plan announced by Zegona.  

The new owner had originally planned to cut 1,198 jobs as part of the takeover’s restructuring, with the company citing the “strong financial and commercial deterioration” of the business,, according to local reports. 

Now, following negotiations, it has instead been agreed that only 898 employees will be made redundant, 25% less than the original target.  

“By a very large majority (1,821 votes in favour of the agreement versus 468 votes against) the Vodafone Spain workforce has chosen to accept the latest offer presented and, consequently, tomorrow UGT will sign the agreement that sets the conditions for the collective dismissal process presented by the company,” said UGT sources speaking to Europa Press. 

Zegona spent €5 billion on the purchase of Vodafone Spain, €4.1 billion in cash and €0.9 billion in preference shares. The dismissals come just after Zegona announced its refinancing of the acquisition.  

“With Zegona’s long-term financing now secured, we have a capital structure that is fit-for-purpose and we can now focus on the continued execution of our strategic plans to improve Vodafone Spain, driving growth and creating value for all stakeholders,” said CEO Eamonn O’Hare in a press release. 

Keep up to date with the latest international telecoms news by subscribing to the Total Telecom daily newsletter   

Also in the news:
Australian Government and AWS Collaborate to Strengthen country’s Cybersecurity
Solving congestion challenges in FTTP deployment
Vodafone Invests £120m in AI Chatbot ‘SuperTOBi’ 

News

The $20.5 billion deal would see the parent company of Advanced Info Service (AIS) combined with Gulf Energy Development

This week, Thailand’s seventh-richest man, Sarath Ratanavadi, has revealed ambitious plans to merge his energy company Gulf Energy Development with its telecoms subsidiary, InTouch Holdings, the parent company of Thailand’s biggest telco AIS.

The move would see the formation of a new public limited company with an estimate value of $20.5 billion.

Gulf already owns a 47.37% stake in Intouch, with the restructure seeing Gulf’s existing shareholders receive 1.02974 shares per stock held in the merged company, while Intouch shareholders will receive 1.69335 shares per stock held.

Singtel is Gulf’s second largest shareholder with a 24.99% stake, which will be converted to a roughly 9% stake in the combined business.

Alongside this restructure, the deal will see Gulf and Intouch make an offer for the 36.25% of AIS shares not already held by Intouch and Singtel, at a 216.30 baht ($6.02) per share. They are also offering to buy a 58.9% stake in Intouch’s subsidiary and local satellite operator, Thaicom, for 11 baht ($0.31) per share.

Thaicom operates four satellites that provide TV and communication services in Asia, Oceania, and Africa.

By combining the telecoms unit and energy company into a single entity, the companies claim they will benefit from improved operational efficiency, flexibility, and more accessible resources. This, they say, will leave the company well positioned to achieve growth in the energy, infrastructure, and digital services sectors.

“The combined expertise will benefit both companies and all stakeholders, increasing the potential of the new company to be a leader in the energy and telecommunications business,” explained Ratanavadi in a joint statement from both companies.

The deal is expected to close in 2025, subject to typical regulatory clearances.

Keep up to date with the latest international telecoms news by subscribing to the Total Telecom daily newsletter  

Also in the news:
Australian Government and AWS Collaborate to Strengthen country’s Cybersecurity
Solving congestion challenges in FTTP deployment
Vodafone Invests £120m in AI Chatbot ‘SuperTOBi’

The State Opening of Parliament – often referred to as the “King’s Speech” – took place today, which saw the new UK Government set out their agenda for the coming session. The speech included mentions of several bills that could potentially support the expansion of gigabit broadband and 5G mobile networks, as well as toughen cyber security and Digital Verification Services.

Just to recap. The Labour Party’s 2024 General Election Manifesto (here) has previously made clear that they would be making a “renewed push to fulfil the ambition of full gigabit and national 5G coverage by 2030.” The party has already given mild support to Project Gigabit and appears to be aware that any big changes would risk adding further delays to the roll-out, but solid details of their actual plan have been few and far between.

The first hints of at least one significant change came after they set out their desire for more flexibility in the planning system (here), which might make it easier to deploy new digital infrastructure – those who oppose new telecoms poles and mobile masts will be watching very closely. On top of that, there has also been some prior talk about trying to encourage greater infrastructure sharing or co-operative build between network operators, albeit supported by precious little substance.

Suffice to say that the King’s Speech typically provides the opportunity for a new government to flesh out their forthcoming plans with a little more detail, and we were watching closely to see if any of the c.35 draft laws might be of relevance. Sadly, there were no specific mentions of either “broadband” or “mobile” in the briefing documents, but three of the bills do have the potential to touch digital infrastructure and internet connectivity.

However, we were a little bit surprised to see the new Cyber Security and Resilience Bill, particularly as it will be coming so soon after the passing of similar telecoms and internet security laws under the previous government – the industry is still in the early stages of adapting to those. We’ve summarised the three bills of relevance below.

Planning and Infrastructure Bill

“My Ministers will get Britain building, including through planning reform, as they seek to accelerate the delivery of high quality infrastructure and housing”

● The current planning regime acts as a major brake on economic growth. The Planning and Infrastructure Bill will play a key role in addressing this constraint, unlocking more housing and infrastructure across the country and supporting sustained economic growth. The planning system must be an enabler of growth – enabling democratic engagement with how, not if, homes and infrastructure are built.

● Reforming the planning system is key to unlocking our country’s economic growth – enabling us to deliver both the housing and critical infrastructure that communities need. The Bill will speed up and streamline the planning process to build more homes of all tenures and accelerate the delivery of major infrastructure projects in alignment with our industrial, energy, and transport strategies.

What does the Bill do?

● The Bill will make improvements to the planning system at a local level, modernising planning committees and increasing local planning authorities’ capacity to deliver an improved service.

● The Planning and Infrastructure Bill will accelerate housebuilding and infrastructure delivery by:

o streamlining the delivery process for critical infrastructure including accelerating upgrades to the national grid and boosting renewable energy, which will benefit local communities, unlock delivery of our 2030 clean power mission and net zero obligations, and secure domestic energy security. We will simplify the consenting process for major infrastructure projects and enable relevant, new and improved National Policy Statements to come forward, establishing a review process that provides the opportunity for them to be updated every five years, giving increased certainty to developers and communities.

o further reforming compulsory purchase compensation rules to ensure that compensation paid to landowners is fair but not excessive where important social and physical infrastructure and affordable housing are being delivered. The reforms will help unlock more sites for development, enabling more effective land assembly, and in doing so speeding up housebuilding and delivering more affordable housing, supporting the public interest.

o improving local planning decision making by modernising planning committees.

o increasing local planning authorities’ capacity, to improve performance and decision making, providing a more predictable service to developers and investors.

o using development to fund nature recovery where currently both are stalled, unlocking a win-win outcome for the economy and for nature, because we know we can do better than the status quo. Our commitment to the environment is unwavering, which is why the Government will work with nature delivery organisations, stakeholders and the sector over the summer to determine the best way forward. We will only act in legislation where we can confirm to Parliament that the steps we are taking will deliver positive environmental outcomes. Where we can demonstrate this, the Bill will deliver any necessary changes.

Territorial extent and application

● The majority of the Bill is expected to extend and apply to England and Wales. Some measures may also extend and apply to Scotland

Digital Information and Smart Data Bill

● The Government wants to ensure we harness the power of data for economic growth, to support a modern digital government, and to improve people’s lives.

● The Bill will enable new innovative uses of data to be safely developed and deployed and will improve people’s lives by making public services work better by reforming data sharing and standards; help scientists and researchers make more life enhancing discoveries by improving our data laws; and ensure your data is well protected by giving the regulator (the ICO) new, stronger powers and a more modern structure. These measures start delivering on the Government’s commitment to better serve the British public through science and technology.

What does the Bill do?

● The Bill will harness the power of data for economic growth. We are giving a statutory footing to three innovative uses of data that people can choose to participate in and which will accelerate innovation, investment and productivity across the UK. This includes:

o establishing Digital Verification Services, which make people’s everyday lives easier through innovative and secure technology. These measures support the creation and adoption of secure and trusted digital identity products and services from certified providers to help with things like moving house, pre-employment checks, and buying age restricted goods and services.

o developing a National Underground Asset Register, a new digital map that is revolutionising the way we install, maintain, operate and repair the pipes and cables buried beneath our feet. It gives planners and excavators standardised, secure, instant access to the data they need, when they need it, to carry out their work effectively and safely.

o setting up Smart Data schemes, which are the secure sharing of a customer’s data upon their request, with authorised third-party providers.

● The Bill will improve people’s lives and life chances. The Bill will enable more and better digital public services. By making changes to the Digital Economy Act we will help the Government share data about businesses that use public services. We will move to an electronic system for the registration of births and deaths. And we will apply information standards to IT suppliers in the health and social care system.

● The Bill will help our scientists make better use of data for world-class research by reflecting the realities of modern interdisciplinary science research in our data laws. Scientists will be able to ask for broad consent for areas of scientific research, and allow legitimate researchers doing scientific research in commercial settings to make equal use of our data regime.

● The Bill will ensure your data is well protected. We are modernising and strengthening the ICO. It will be transformed into a more modern regulatory structure, with a CEO, board and chair. And it will have new, stronger powers. This will be accompanied by targeted reforms to some data laws that will maintain high standards of protection but where there is currently a lack of clarity impeding the safe development and deployment of some new technologies. We will also promote standards for digital identities around privacy, security and inclusion.

● The Bill also establishes a Data Preservation Process that coroners (and procurators fiscal in Scotland) can initiate when they decide it is necessary and appropriate to support their investigations into a child’s death. This will help coroners get access to online information they need when investigating a child’s death.

Territorial extent and application

● The Bill will extend and apply UK-wide.

Cyber Security and Resilience Bill

● Our digital economy is increasingly being attacked by cyber criminals and state actors, affecting essential public services and infrastructure. In the last 18 months, our hospitals, universities, local authorities, democratic institutions and government departments have been targeted in cyber attacks.

● Our essential services are vulnerable to hostile actors and recent cyber attacks affecting the NHS and Ministry of Defence show the impacts can be severe. We need to take swift action to address vulnerabilities and protect our digital economy to deliver growth. The Bill will strengthen the UK’s cyber defences, ensure that critical infrastructure and the digital services that companies rely on are secure.

What does the Bill do?

● The Bill will strengthen our defences and ensure that more essential digital services than ever before are protected, for example by expanding the remit of the existing regulation, putting regulators on a stronger footing, and increasing reporting requirements to build a better picture in government of cyber threats.

● The existing UK regulations reflect law inherited from the EU and are the UK’s only cross-sector cyber security legislation. They have now been superseded in the EU and require urgent update in the UK to ensure that our infrastructure and economy is not comparably more vulnerable.

● The Bill will make crucial updates to the legacy regulatory framework by:

o expanding the remit of the regulation to protect more digital services and supply chains. These are an increasingly attractive threat vector for attackers. This Bill will fill an immediate gap in our defences and prevent similar attacks experienced by critical public services in the UK, such as the recent ransomware attack impacting London hospitals.

o putting regulators on a strong footing to ensure essential cyber safety measures are being implemented. This would include potential cost recovery mechanisms to provide resources to regulators and providing powers to proactively investigate potential vulnerabilities.

o mandating increased incident reporting to give government better data on cyber attacks, including where a company has been held to ransom – this will improve our understanding of the threats and alert us to potential attacks by expanding the type and nature of incidents that regulated entities must report.

Territorial extent and application

● The Bill will extend and apply UK-wide.

UPDATE 12:23pm

We’ve had the first comment come in from alternative network operator All Points Fibre.

Jarlath Finnegan, Group CEO of All Points Fibre Networks, said:

“The new government’s commitment to boosting productivity and growth is welcome, and connectivity should be at the heart of that plan. There are changes the government could make in planning and tenants’ rights that would make it easier to build and install broadband to millions more people. We hope they’ll seize the opportunity to use fibre in accelerating the digital economy to fulfil the country’s potential.”