News 

The railway line could improve the connectivity for thousands of rural households 

The High-Speed 2 (HS2) railway project could significantly enhance broadband connectivity in rural areas, according to a new analysis released today from High Speed 2 Ltd, a non-departmental public body run by the UK Department for Transport. 

As part of the railway deployment plan for HS2, mobile and broadband providers would be offered access to spare capacity in the 2,000km of fibre cabling and 80 telecoms masts being constructed alongside the railway, which will connect London and Birmingham. Telecoms companies could reportedly access these resources as early as two years before the railway opens, which is expected between 2029 and 2033. 

The development could transform internet speeds for thousands of homes and businesses across 538 postcodes in rural areas, including Buckinghamshire, West Northamptonshire, Warwickshire, and Staffordshire. These regions have historically lagged behind in broadband speeds, due to the high cost of installing direct fibre connections in sparsely populated areas. 

Using HS2 infrastructure, broadband providers could offer ultrafast speeds of over 100Mbit/s to underserved areas, helping address the critical gap in digital connectivity. Notably, 209 postcodes currently lack even ‘decent’ broadband speeds (speeds of least 10Mbit/s). 

“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,” said Rail Minister Lord Hendy.   

In addition to improving broadband, the initiative will also enhance mobile coverage, with around 80 telecoms masts being constructed to provide signalling for trains traveling at speeds up to 360km/h. This infrastructure could also address gaps in 5G coverage, further boosting connectivity for rural communities. 

“We’re [also] determined to ensure that we get the most value out of our new infrastructure and support the local community wherever possible,” said Tim Ward, HS2 Ltd’s Head of Telecoms Engineering. 

“That’s why we’re keen to work with mobile and broadband providers to help unlock better 5G connectivity and faster broadband for communities in more isolated areas along the railway,” he continued. 

 HS2 has faced numerous challenges and delays that have slowed its progress, mainly due to the escalating costs. The London to Birmingham line is now estimated to cost £66 billion, far in excess of the projects initial projections. With the UK Treasury having recently uncovered a “£22 billion black hole” in the nation’s finances, the extent to which HS2 will be prioritised remains to be seen. 

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:
NTT to launch new AI company ‘NTT AI-CIX’
Thousands of kms of fibre could be left underutilised warns asset reuse specialist
IOH launches Southeast Asia’s largest digital intelligence operations centre

News

Alongside the fresh investment, the company says it will expand the business unit by 120 roles

In recent years, Vodafone Germany delivered lacklustre results for Vodafone Group, notably struggling to retain market share versus its major domestic rivals, Deutsch Telekom and Telefonica Deutschland.

A ray of light, however, has been their B2B business arm, which has grown considerably, now accounting for around 20% of the company’s total service revenue.

Now, it seems Vodafone Germany expects this growth to continue, announcing that will invest a further €250 million into its corporate consumer division. This investment, the company says, will allow it to expand and improve the range of digital products and services it can offer to customers.

Existing partnerships with supporting IT players, such as Microsoft, Google, AWS, Accenture, and Zscaler will also be expanded.

In addition to this increase in investment, Vodafone Germany will also grow the unit’s workforce by 120 jobs to facilitate this additional growth. This is part of Vodafone Group’s overall plan to expand its Vodafone Business workforce by 400 roles this financial year.

“Our customers already want more than just SIM cards and landline connections. Every second order we place is for one of our Beyond Connectivity services. And demand continues to rise. In order to provide our customers with the best possible support on their digitalization journey, we are therefore strengthening our Vodafone Business team,” explained Zoltan Bickel, interim head of Corporate Customers at Vodafone Germany. “After all, a successful digital transformation requires not only the best software, but also the best minds. And we have always had them on board.”

Bickel himself will be leaving the business in March next year, set to be replaced by long-time Telekom Deutschland exec Hagen Rickmann, who was announced to be taking over the role earlier this summer.

It is worth noting that the announcement of these new roles comes in stark contrast to the rest of the business, which has seen major staff cuts over the past year in an effort to streamline operations. Back in March, Vodafone Germany said had plans to cut its workforce by 2,000.

Vodafone currently employs around 15,000 people in Germany.

How is the enterprise market for German telcos changing in 2024? Join the operators in discussion at this year’s Connected Germany conference live in Munich

Also in the news:
NTT to launch new AI company ‘NTT AI-CIX’
Thousands of kms of fibre could be left underutilised warns asset reuse specialist
IOH launches Southeast Asia’s largest digital intelligence operations centre

News 

The news follows from the European Union’s similar decision earlier this month 

This week, the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has given HPE’s proposed acquisition of Juniper Networks for $14 billion the go ahead. 

The CMA has not yet published the reasoning behind its decision, but released a statement saying the regulator had “cleared the anticipated acquisition by Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company of Juniper Network Inc.” 

The full text on the decision will be released “shortly”, we were told on Wednesday. 

The acquisition was first announced last January, as an all-cash deal of approximately $14 billion, equating to $40 per share. A CMA investigation was opened in June this year. In a statement, the regulator confirmed that phase one of the investigation would begin on 20 June this year, running until mid-August.  

With this approval now announced, , a second phase investigation will not be necessary. 

The deal was also given the go-ahead by the European Union earlier this month.  

“Based on its market investigation, the Commission found that the transaction, as notified, would not significantly reduce competition on such markets,” read the announcement. 

“HPE’s acquisition of Juniper represents an important inflection point in the industry and will change the dynamics in the networking market and provide customers and partners with a new alternative that meets their toughest demands,” said HPE President and CEO Antonio Neri in a press release following the EU’s approval.  

After the acquisition, HPE estimates that its networking business will at least double, saying that the “explosion of AI and hybrid cloud-driven business is accelerating demand for secure, unified technology solutions.” 

The deal is expected to close late this year or early next year. 

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

Also in the news: NTT to launch new AI company ‘NTT AI-CIX’
Thousands of kms of fibre could be left underutilised warns asset reuse specialist
IOH launches Southeast Asia’s largest digital intelligence operations centre 

Network testing firm Ookla, which collects data from consumers via their popular Speedtest.net platform, has published their latest Q1-Q2 2024 (H1) study into the speed of 5G based mobile broadband networks in the United Kingdom. The results find that Three UK still delivers the fastest average download (255.23Mbps) and uploads (14.47Mbps).

As we’ve said before, mobile data performance remains a difficult thing to pin down because related users are always moving through different areas (indoor, outdoor, underground etc.), using different devices with different capabilities and the surrounding environment (weather, trees, buildings etc.) is ever changeable.

All of the above can impact your service, and that’s before we even consider the other issues, such as network (backhaul) capacity at different cell sites or differing spectrum ownership between mobile operators. Nevertheless, Ookla’s latest study attempts to illuminate all this by comparing 2,089,555 “user-initiated 5G tests“, taken via their iOS and Android based mobile apps (total of 355,522 devices), from all the major UK mobile operators.

The results reveal that Three UK continued to deliver the fastest average (median) 5G mobile download speeds of 255.23Mbps (down from 226.27Mbps in H2 2023) and uploads of 14.47Mbps (up from 13.14Mbps), although this is a long way from the 292.57Mbps they scored back in H2 2022 – performance has been dropping since then. By comparison, Three’s rivals have seen some modest improvements, at least for downloads, although O2 (Virgin Media) remains stuck at the bottom.

Ookla’s UK 5G Mobile Speeds for H1 2024 (vs H2 2023)

Median Download Speed
Three UK – 255.23Mbps (226.27Mbps)
Vodafone – 155.90Mbps (141.71Mbps)
EE – 106.61Mbps (94.79Mbps)
O2 – 75.96Mbps (70.43Mbps)

Median Upload Speed
Three UK – 14.47Mbps (13.14Mbps)
Vodafone – 12.27Mbps (12.21Mbps)
EE – 12.23Mbps (12.06Mbps)
O2 – 8.97Mbps (8.93Mbps)

Median Latency (lower figures are faster)
EE – 29ms (30ms)
Three UK – 29ms (31ms)
Vodafone – 30ms (31ms)
O2 – 34ms (33ms)

Ookla also included some city-specific results for 5G speeds in London, Birmingham and Manchester, which you can see below.

News 

The launch comes ahead of “Call Before You Dig” day on August 11 

Verizon has rolled out a new program aimed at protecting its fibre infrastructure from accidental damage during construction and excavation projects, ahead of the nationwide “Call Before You Dig” day on August 11.  

Each year, many fibre lines are unintentionally cut by homeowners and others digging around network sites, leading to connectivity issues for customers that can last from a few hours to several days.  Currently, Verizon says an underground utility line is damaged in this manner every six minutes. 

To prevent this, diggers are supposed to call 811 and make a formal dig request, allowing those with underground infrastructure in the area to mark the location of the assets with paint or flags.  

Now, Verizon is implementing a new technology that uses artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to help manage these dig requests from 811. By analysing over ten million 811 dig requests each year, the system identifies high-risk excavation sites based on historical data, current activity at the location, and the past performance of the excavators involved. Verizon then takes steps to reduce the chance of damage, such as additional communication with the excavators. 

“We are using artificial intelligence and machine learning to be proactive, rather than reactive, keeping our customers connected and preventing accidents that result in costly repairs,” said Julie Slattery, Senior Vice President of Core Engineering and Operations at Verizon in a press release. 

This new solution has been integrated into Verizon’s existing 811 system and has the potential to prevent several hundred fibre cuts annually. Verizon’s adoption of AI is part of a broader strategy to optimise operations, improve customer experiences, and explore new business opportunities through its network’s capabilities. 

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

Also in the news:
NTT to launch new AI company ‘NTT AI-CIX’
Thousands of kms of fibre could be left underutilised warns asset reuse specialist
IOH launches Southeast Asia’s largest digital intelligence operations centre 

Total Telcom is delighted to announce the shortlisted entrants to this year’s Connected Britain Awards!

With a record number of submissions, this year’s competition has been more competitive than ever. We would like to thank all those who entered the competition and offer our congratulations to those who have made the shortlist this year.

The competition’s winners will be announcd at the Connected Britain Awards ceremony, taking place on Day 1, Wednesday 11th September, on the Keynote Stage at 6.20pm – 7pm.

B2B Service Provider of the Year

CovertSwarm

Evolve B G Limited

NETS International

PlatformX Communications (PXC)

Texaport

ZAYO – Fibre Backhaul

Broadband Provider of the Year

Brsk

Fibrus Broadband

Lightning Fibre

Truespeed Communications

Wessex Internet

Wildanet

Zzoomm

Digital Council of the Year

Cornwall Council

Coventry City Council

Glasgow City Council

Kent County Council

Norfolk County Council

Digital Skills Award

Kent County Council – Digital Kent

Norfolk County Council – Tech Skills for Life

Three UK & Three Discovery – Power up the Possibilities

Trafford Council

We Are Group & Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames

Wigan Council – TechMate digital skills initiative

Enterprise Solution of the Year

Calix – Broadband Platform

Colt – Intent-based Networking Optimisation

Deepomatic – First Time Right Automation platform

Digitalnauts & HoloPlan

Evolve B G Limited

SONALAKE, pivOTS

SuLe – SuLe Hub Limited

Project Rollout Award

4 Fibre Limited

CityFibre

Freedom Fibre Ltd

NETS International

Openreach, Fibre Build plan

Virgin Media O2 & Deloitte – Smart Planning tool

The Access Innovation Award

ACOME Group – Nanomodule ultra lightweight (ULW) fibre cable

The AssetHUB Ltd

Boldyn Networks

Network on Wheels via the The One Word Project – Partnership between Worcestershire County Council, Virtuser and Telet

Nokia – Corteca

Openreach – Scotland’s Fair Isle

Pangea Connected – Global cellular IoT connectivity solutions

The Barrier Removal Award

4 Fibre Limited

Dalcour Maclaren – High Level Design review/ Land Rights Assessment

Freedom Fibre Ltd

Glasgow City Council Telecoms Unit

MapAll, MapAll Blockages

Swansea, Carmarthenshire, Pembrokeshire, and Neath Port Talbot Councils – Digital Champions teams & Swansea Bay City Deal Digital Infrastructure Programme

The Community Improvement Award

BeFibre

Cefnogi’ community engagement programme

#CovConnects Coventry City Council

Commsworld and SmartSTEMs: Inspiring the Next Generation

Fibrus

Sunderland City Council – Digital Inclusion Programme supported by Boldyn Networks

The Full Fibre ISP Innovation Award

Brsk

Gigabit IQ from Grayshott Gigabit Limited

ITS Technology Group

Ogi – Ogi Pro

Wifinity

Zzoomm

The Industrial Innovation Award

aql

Blackline Safety

INNO Instrument

Magdalene

The Rising Star Award

Alan Cutler, Home Unity

Jamie Sandles, V4 Cloud

James Armstrong, Openreach

Natalie Rowley, Truespeed Communications

Ramona McGarry, Coventry City Council

Sophie Dunstan, Openreach

The Sustainability Award

Cable and Things – Sustainable Draw Rope

M Group Services’ Telecom Division

Openreach Limited, Carbon Reduction Programme

PlatformX Communications (PXC)

STL – EcoLabelled Methodology in OFC manufacturing

Technetix, in partnership with Virgin Media O2

TXO

Wildanet

The Wireless Innovation Award

Blackspot Networks Ltd

Iris-iot Solutions Ltd

AWTG Ltd. – Mobile Private Network

The Startup of the Year Award

The winner of this Award will be decided by a panel of judges live at Connected Britain

Join us at Connected Britain 2024, the UK’s largest digital economy event. Get your tickets today!

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.