Press Release

Virgin Media O2 has completed the first phase of its Shared Rural Network (SRN) rollout, bringing reliable 4G coverage to 227 rural communities across the UK
The final partial not-spot site built by Virgin Media O2 is at Glencoe Mountain Resort, which became the highest mobile mast in the UK, standing 1,108 metres above sea level
The operator will now turn to the second phase of the programme, bringing 4G connectivity to areas with no existing mobile service

Virgin Media O2 has completed its share of the first phase of the Shared Rural Network (SRN) programme and built more shared sites than any other operator to improve mobile coverage in 227 partial not-spot areas across the UK.

Glencoe Mountain Resort became the 227th site to benefit from improved 4G coverage as the operator delivers its company-specific build target in time for the June 30th deadline. The mountainous site is over a kilometre above sea level, making it the highest mobile mast standing in the United Kingdom today.

While these 227 sites are controlled by Virgin Media O2, customers of Three and Vodafone are also benefitting from the operator’s extensive rollout of shared sites. Considering upgrades delivered by all operators, Virgin Media O2’s customers can now benefit from reliable 4G services in more than 300 former coverage black spots.

Glencoe became the latest site to benefit from improved mobile connectivity after Virgin Media O2 used helicopters to deliver a new 4G mast to the top of the mountain, standing 1,108 metres above sea level. The new mast will deliver reliable mobile coverage to Glencoe Mountain Resort, Scotland’s oldest ski centre, greatly improving safety and convenience for its many visitors.

The operator faced significant challenges building the remote site, with extreme weather conditions making delivery exceptionally difficult. On top of this, Glencoe is a National Nature Reserve and home to endangered species, including golden eagles and ptarmigans. Virgin Media O2 worked closely with build partner, WHP Telecoms, to overcome these challenges and deliver the site in just five weeks.

The SRN is a £1billion joint initiative between mobile network operators and the UK Government to extend 4G connectivity to 95% of the UK’s landmass by the end of 2025. The first phase of the programme required each operator to build a set number of new and upgraded sites by the end of June to tackle Partial Not Spots. The upgrades provide customers with faster and more reliable mobile data and higher quality voice calls, transforming coverage in areas that previously suffered from patchy or slow services.

Jeanie York, Chief Technology Officer at Virgin Media O2, said: “We are absolutely committed to bringing reliable mobile connectivity to more rural communities and have now completed the first phase of our SRN rollout. Our 227th site at Glencoe is now the highest mast in the UK and one of the most impressive to date, standing over a kilometre above sea level and providing connectivity to the nearby ski resort. This work is vital in tackling the urban-rural digital divide that exists in the UK.”

Mobile network operator Vodafone has this afternoon followed both O2 (Virgin Media) and EE (BT) in announcing that they’ve “hit [the] Partial Not Spot (PNS) coverage target of the Shared Rural Network (SRN) programme“, which was achieved by expanding their 4G (mobile broadband) coverage to a total of 400 rural locations.

Just to recap. The SRN – supported by £501m of public funding and £532m from operators – involves both the reciprocal sharing of existing masts in certain areas and the demand-led building and sharing of new masts in others between the operators, which aims to extend geographic 4G coverage (aggregate) to 95% of the UK by the end of 2025 (or 84% when only considering the areas where you’ll be able to take 4G from all providers).

The SRN includes several targets, but the first involves the delivery of industry funded coverage improvements for Partial Not-Spot (PNS) areas (i.e. areas that receive coverage from at least one operator, but not all), which needed to be achieved by June 2024. At this point, 4G (mobile broadband) must cover 88% of the UK’s landmass.

Rival operator EE (BT) became the first provider to report having achieved the PNS target in January 2024 (here), nearly half a year ahead of schedule. However, despite concerns about long delays (as recently expressed by both the National Audit Office (here) and Public Accounts Committee (here)), yesterday also saw O2 (Virgin Media) confirm that they’d been able to achieve the PNS target on time (here), and they’ve today been joined Vodafone.

Andrea Donà, Chief Network Officer at Vodafone UK, said:

“At Vodafone, we’ve always been vocal in our belief that a rural postcode should not be a barrier to connectivity. And, as The Nation’s Network, our mission is to make sure no part of the UK is left behind.

This is why we continue to invest millions in our rural network, so that customers living, working and visiting rural locations will benefit from a strong voice signal and fast data speeds. The SRN is a world-first partnership between Government and mobile operators, and this is a major milestone for Vodafone, achieved through teamwork, passion, creative delivery and determination, and I’m honoured to lead this incredible team.”

One catch here is that neither O2 nor Vodafone’s announcements included an up-to-date figure for current geographic 4G coverage, which is partly because achieving the 88% goal is still contingent upon all four of the primary network operators being able to deliver on their commitments (i.e. there’s a degree of infrastructure sharing involved, as well as new mast builds). But today’s news means that Three UK is the only laggard left.

The fact that O2 and Vodafone have been able to pull this off on time, without suffering from more significant delays, suggests that they’ve been able to ramp-up their pace of deployment over the past few months. In addition, it’s possible that BT’s (EE) new mast sharing agreement with Vodafone and O2 may have also helped to play an 11th hour style role (here).

However, it’s ultimately Ofcom’s responsibility to take a view on whether the Phase One (PNS) licence obligations have actually been met or not. The regulator is due to run a progress assessment this summer and will then reach a conclusion by the early autumn, which should give us a much clearer idea of how much progress has been made (or not) and where the operators have fallen short.

We have asked Vodafone to clarify how much geographic 4G coverage they’re able to deliver and whether the recent deal with EE (BT) played a role in today’s development. We hope to report back soon.

The Independent Networks Co-operative Association (INCA), which represents many of the UK’s alternative gigabit broadband providers, has today published a new manifesto. The document sets out the key recommendations that it thinks the next government will need to implement – within the first 100 days in office – to help boost network roll-outs.

The United Kingdom will this week (4th July 2024) go through its first General Election since 2019 and, as things stand, the polls appear to be indicating that a change of Government is likely to be the outcome. Such a change could naturally have an impact upon policies and approaches to digital infrastructure.

Suffice to say that we’ve already seen various internet providers and related organisations responding to this by setting out what they think the next government, whatever form it may take, should be focusing upon. For example, BT’s CEO has called for improvements to planning policy (here) and Mobile UK, which represents Three UK, Vodafone, O2 and EE, echoed similar points (here). Not to mention the ISPA’s effort to promote several strategic priorities and actionable policies (here).

Today it’s the turn of INCA, which has published its own manifesto document (i.e. a short 4-page summary with five loosely explained bullet points) that includes some of their own recommendations – covering everything from ensuring consumer choice to guaranteeing universal coverage – to help the next Government further transform the digital landscape.

RECOMMENDATIONS: THE FIRST 100 DAYS OF GOVERNMENT

1. Achieve universal coverage by recommitting to Project Gigabit

The next Government must remain committed to the Building Digital UK (BDUK) programme, which has successfully made significant progress in rolling out digital infrastructure, but it is not finished. Universal coverage has yet to be met, and swathes of the country are still languishing in the digital slow lane, which will only exacerbate existing social and digital exclusion.

2. Support competition and consumer choice in the private rental and social housing sectors

BT Openreach have long called for an automatic right to enter private property – particularly Multiple Dwelling Units – to upgrade internal cables from copper to fibre without the need to gain permission from the property owner. However, in order to preserve a fair and rigorous competitive market, the next Government must reject these proposals, which would inherently undermine competitive investment by entrenching BT’s incumbency advantage and providing them with a huge commercial advantage.

3. Minimise disruption and speed up rollout by fully adopting flexi permits

Flexi-permit trials have been shown to be a success for industry, councils and residents, allowing the authority and the network operator to work collaboratively and mitigate concerns around projects overrunning. The next Government should encourage and facilitate the use of flexi-permits to support infrastructure development projects.

POLICY PRIORITIES FOR THE NEXT PARLIAMENT

4. Secure the UK’s digital future by embracing competition and consumer choice

Despite the profound strides forward in the roll-out of full-fibre infrastructure, the economic headwinds over the past few years have dented investor confidence in the UK market. The next Government must provide reassurances, supportive policy and a supportive regulatory environment to deliver a fair and competitive marketplace across the UK to provide Altnets with the opportunity to deliver long term benefits for consumers and businesses, underpinning nationwide economic growth.

5. Launch a public information campaign about the digital infrastructure revolution

We’re in the midst of the biggest telecoms transformation in our lifetimes, and the public are largely unaware. The old copper phone network will be switched off within a couple of years, impacting much more than just voice services. Fibre delivers huge benefits, and a well-informed public will be better able to navigate the coming changes and take advantage.

INCA CEO, Malcolm Corbett, said:

“The digital world we live in demands a fast, reliable internet service connected everywhere, from our homes to hospitals and shops to schools. Without universal access to full-fibre gigabit speed broadband, we cannot achieve the productivity levels and economic performance all parties claim they want.

The latest data shows the impact a healthy market has had towards delivering national coverage, competitive prices, more rural internet connections and customer satisfaction – it’s crucial that the environment that has helped Altnets thrive and deliver these benefits does not go to waste.”

Once again, many of the key talking points above could be said to have echoed those we’ve seen before (e.g. virtually everybody agrees with the need to facilitate the use of flexi-permits) in similar documents from the aforementioned organisations. But there are some exceptions.

For example, INCA raises an issue with Openreach’s push to make it easier for them to upgrade existing MDUs (big residential buildings / apartments) to full fibre, which sounds fair on the surface. But it could also easily ride roughshod over the legal rights of landlords/tenants and hand the incumbent an unfair advantage if altnets aren’t given consideration (here). Finding a fair balance here is difficult to do.

The most likely outcome, judging by the political manifestos from various different parties, is that the Project Gigabit scheme will be retained and we might see greater infrastructure sharing. The next government will probably also try to avoid doing anything too radical in case it upsets or significantly delays existing contracts / deployments, which could impact tens of billions of pounds in private network investments. But nothing is currently set in stone.

Insight

Amid the increasing network complexities driven by the growing usage of Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications, telecom solutions provider Huawei, in partnership with telecom operators is intensifying efforts to commercially deploy AI across their networks

The operators are leveraging 5G-Advanced (5G-A) technology capabilities and AI applications to make the telecom networks intelligent, energy efficient, automated, secure, and adaptive, thus boosting productivity and saving costs.  

“Our goal is to bring AI to networks. To achieve this, we will, for our part, shift from a solution provider to a co-builder of intelligent networks,” said Eric Zhao, Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of Huawei Wireless Solution at the MWC Shanghai 2024 for the 5G-A & AI Roundtable on June 25.  

This is significant as with the advent of 5G, 5G-advanced technologies and AI in everything, data traffic has been increasing widely, thereby requiring intelligent networks for traffic management. In fact, predictive network maintenance and reduced downtime, along with real-time analytics, are also the need of the hour for telcos to improve end-user experience. 

5G-A or 5.5G, is an upgrade to 5G technology, with improved speeds, latency, capacity, and energy efficiency. Lately, China has been leading in testing and deployment of 5G-A networks and operators are looking to commercially deploy the network in 2024.  

Boosting Network Performance with RAN Intelligent Agent 

Huawei, which has been leading the charge in works around 5G-A, says AI to 5G-A networks will prove effective in boosting network productivity. The company has built Radio Access Network (RAN) Intelligent Agent that provides copilots or virtual assistants to support role-based chatbots and agents to support scenario-based solution automation in telecom networks. RAN is one of the key domains of telecom networks. It uses radio frequency to connect mobile devices with the core network.   

“We believe that the co-growth of RAN Intelligent Agent and networks will create more extensive business value, transform networks more rapidly, and lead our industry into a new era of intelligence,” said Zhao. In the first phase of deployment of RAN Intelligent Agent, the company looks to cover 1,000 site engineers and 10,000 sites across Hangzhou, Guangzhou, Bangkok, Jinan, and Shenzhen, and more cities within a half year. 

One of the use cases of RAN Intelligent Agent pertains to fruit farmers, who can show their consumers the quality of fruits through live streaming on 5G-A. For a high-definition live streaming experience, uplink is important, and Huawei solutions in telecom networks ensure that in real time. 

Similarly, for automated network operations and maintenance (O&M), Huawei believes that the RAN Intelligent Agent can operate stably for thousands of hours, maximizing performance automatically while keeping energy consumption as low as possible. 

“In future, telecom networks will be able to resolve issues automatically. With copilot and intelligent agents we intend to improve O&M and network efficiency for telcos,” Zhao said.  

Chinese Telcos: Effectively Leveraging AI To Acquire New Capabilities  

China Unicom, one of the major telecom operators, is looking to leverage the Open Gateway framework for AI integration into networks. Open Gateway is a framework by GSMA (Global System for Mobile Communications Association) that consists of common network APIs (Application Programming Interface) designed to provide universal access to operator networks for developers.  

This helps developers and cloud providers deploy services rapidly across operator networks via single access points to the world’s largest connectivity platform. 

“China Unicom deeply integrates open models with its commercial services to display the business value of network capabilities,” said Yang Jianjian of China Unicom at the 5G-A& AI Roundtable. The company is open to new partnerships to increase the adoption of AI in networks. 

The company is also leveraging its network capability openness platform, which aggregates capabilities such as resources, data, AI, fault identification, instructions, and cloud communications and integrates operational services.  

China Mobile also echoed the views on deploying AI into the networks, as it is through AI that the potential of technologies like 5G-A can be maximized. The company is trying to be a comprehensive solution provider by integrating AI and connectivity.  

“We don’t have to wait until 6G to have coordination of services and network. Now is the time to combine 5G-A and AI,” said Deng Wei, Head of Wireless and Device Research Center at China Mobile. Wei emphasized intent-driven communication with 5G-A networks, wherein AI can be leveraged to improve the effectiveness of data transfers. 

Intent-driven communication involves leveraging AI to deliver a personalized experience to users by understanding their preferences and needs. “AI is helping to improve energy savings. Platforms can make predictions and also conduct analysis,” Wei said. 

According to Shaun Collins, Executive Chairman of CCS Insight, telecom operators require 5G Standalone as a foundational technology network to benefit from AI and 5G-A. “5G networks need to be even more responsive with better latencies, be more reliable and faster,” said Collins.  

Further, he said using AI would also make private networks easier to manage, thereby boosting the enterprise take-up of AI applications. Across China, there are 27,900 private networks that are deployed. According to CCS Insight, operators will face an enormous compute challenge and opportunity with over 4-8 billion parameters operational on devices. 

Press Release

[Copenhagen, Denmark, June 19, 2024] The Autonomous Networks Summit was held during DTW 2024. Distinguished guests, including executives and representatives from China Mobile, TM Forum, Vodafone, Telefonica, Huawei, Ericsson, and AsiaInfo, as well as Professor Joseph Sifakis, the winner of the 2007 Turing Award, delivered speeches and engaged in discussions about the Level 4 development path. During the summit, industry partners jointly released the Autonomous Networks Level 4 industry blueprint: high-value scenarios. 

This report introduces the Autonomous Networks (AN) Level 4 industry blueprint, which includes the vision and objectives, value scenarios, technology architecture, and evolution path. It serves as a valuable reference for communications service providers (CSPs) looking to plan and deploy AN Level 4. TM Forum has selected 15 high-value scenarios based on service and operations value and technology maturity for CSPs to prioritize when implementing Level 4. Additionally, TM Forum has proposed the integration of AI and GenAI into the three-layer AN architecture to develop role-specific copilots and scenario-specific agents. Furthermore, TM Forum has defined the overall AN Level 4 evolution plan. The plan focuses on achieving single-domain closed-loop autonomy in maintenance and optimization scenarios in phase 1. In phase 2, the plan focuses on implementing end-to-end closed-loop autonomy in complex scenarios. 

During the event themed ‘L4 is Coming’, a diverse group of guests shared their thoughts on Level 4 high-value scenarios, key challenges, solutions, and practical experiences. The discussions centered around the journey towards achieving Level 4. 

In the welcome speech, Nik Willetts, TM Forum CEO, said, “ As one of TM Forum Missions, Autonomous Networks not only improve the O&M efficiency and user experience, but also enables operators to efficiently innovate new services and products, and unlock the new revenue opportunities.” 

Dr Li Huidi, Vice President of China Mobile, emphasized in his speech that “As 5G, AI and other technologies quickly develop, we are writing a new chapter of history. To achieve AN Level 4, we propose the following suggestions. First, we must seize the opportunities for innovation and encourage various organizations to collaborate on the development of an AN standards system. Second, we must advance industry collaboration and develop a new ecosystem for converged development. Then, we must widely promote international collaboration based on the concept of mutual benefits.” 

“Autonomous Networks are an advanced integration of AI and networks, and Highly Autonomous Networks need to be achieved phase by phase. We must integrate an AI agent architecture to networks, while ensuring trustworthy systems and network group intelligence.” said Professor Joseph Sifakis, while presenting his solutions to AN L4+ technical challenges. 

As a representative of leading vendors, Dang Wenshuan, Huawei’s Chief Strategy Architect, stated, “Autonomous Networks are currently witnessing tremendous progress. We suggest that the industry take Level 4 as a new starting point and adhere to five principles, which are single-domain autonomy, cross-domain collaboration, value-driven, visualization, and productization. We should develop scenario-specific AI agents and role-specific copilot apps as products and professional services to achieve a quantum leap to Autonomous Networks Level 4.” 

Reaching Level 4 will be a gradual and long-term process that requires step-by-step and phase-by-phase implementation. The Level 4 industry blueprint is anticipated to serve as a valuable guide for the industry as it progresses towards Level 4. All industry stakeholders are dedicated to working together to drive the transformation of the telecom industry towards Highly Autonomous Networks. 

About Autonomous Networks Summit 

Autonomous Networks (AN) was jointly proposed by TM Forum and industry partners, including carriers and vendors in 2019, aiming to make services quicker, cheaper and simpler to deploy and manage. After five years of development, AN has achieved remarkable milestones in industry consensus, standardization and practical implementation. Autonomous Networks Summit is a communication platform for industry leaders to share their practices, thoughts, and viewpoints around AN and discuss how to collaborate to advance AN development. 

Mobile network operator Vodafone has today announced that they will donate “up to” 75,000 free mobile data (broadband) and calling SIMs, as part of this year’s Wimbledon Championships (tennis), to help both digitally excluded people and sports clubs to cross the digital divide.

The reason why the figure is being expressed as “up to” is because the number of mobile SIMs that Vodafone chooses to donate will, for some reason of marketing, be based on the fastest serves recorded by IBM during Wimbledon. This will be done by multiplying the final MPH (Miles Per Hour) number by 14 – the number of days the event runs.

Based on the fastest serves recorded by IBM during last year’s Wimbledon, this could mean 71,148 donations provided to people, businesses, and communities without access to digital connectivity. On the other hand, they could have just skipped the gimmicks and handed out 75,000 SIMs. But perhaps that was just a bit too easy for Vodafone’s marketing department.

The initiative comes as research by Vodafone claims that 43% of Brits admit they’d find it difficult to identify opportunities to get involved in sports without digital connectivity, while 33% would struggle to do so for their children. Furthermore, 31% say they use digital connectivity to find out information about local sports clubs, book themselves into classes or sessions (27%) and to get hold of required kit and equipment (18%).

Over a quarter (26%) rely on the internet to connect with other people, such as other parents, who are involved in local sports clubs, while 12% use it to book their children into sports classes. In fact, 63% of new sports club sign-ups – for adults and parents doing so for their children – are all done online.

Nicki Lyons, Chief Corporate Affairs and Sustainability Officer at Vodafone UK, said:

“As the Official Connectivity Partner to The Championships, we recognise that the digital divide extends to the world of sport. Many individuals, communities and businesses lack the necessary connectivity to fully participate in and enjoy sports activities. This divide poses a barrier to accessing training resources, engaging with sports communities, and even promoting local clubs effectively.

Our everyone.connected initiative is designed to help address these challenges. By providing essential digital resources and support, we aim to empower sports enthusiasts and the organisers of grassroots clubs and businesses – who are often volunteers – to ensure that more people in sport can benefit from the opportunities that connectivity brings.”

The Connect Better challenge is part of Vodafone’s everyone.connected programme, which ultimately aims to help 4 million people and businesses to cross the digital divide by the end of 2025 (they’ve already distributed over 2.2m SIMs). The SIMs they supply typically come with 40GB of mobile broadband data every month, as well as unlimited texts and calls. But the free period only lasts for 6 months.

Rural-focused broadband ISP and alternative UK network builder Wessex Internet, which is deploying a gigabit speed full fibre (FTTP) service across parts of Dorset, Wiltshire, Hampshire and Somerset in England, has opened a new base in Codford to help supply their ever expanding rollout efforts in Wiltshire.

The civil engineering yard will employ at least 15 people, including ploughing and drilling teams who will build the fibre cable network, engineers who are qualified to work with overhead and underground cables, surveyors, and planners. It is positioned conveniently close to the main junction of the A303 and A36, making the location accessible to workers from across the region.

The new yard joins existing bases near to Yeovil in Somerset and Ringwood in Hampshire, and the company’s HQ near Blandford Forum in Dorset. The new staff are needed to help Wessex Internet deliver on their recently secured £18.8m (state aid) Project Gigabit roll-out contract for “around” 14,500 additional hard-to-reach premises across rural parts of South Wiltshire (here).

The contract will expand the provider’s existing network in the Wylye Valley area – going across the Salisbury Plain, connecting villages surrounding Amesbury to the east and going as far north as Chisbury and Little Bedwyn. Construction of that network is due to start in September 2024 and the first properties are planned to be connected by the end of 2024.

Ed Carter, Wiltshire Project Manager for Wessex Internet, said:

“Since being awarded this contract in March, our teams have been working hard to plan the best way to bring ultrafast broadband to rural and presently underserved communities across South Wiltshire. This is a five-year project, so the roll-out will reach areas at different stages.

“However, we’ve now reached the exciting stage of being ready to start the network build in September, meaning we’re looking for colleagues to join our team at a new base in Codford. We are looking for people with a background in utilities, construction, telecoms, agriculture, or the military. Our innovative approach to building in the countryside requires people who know how to develop understanding with local communities and landowners, and who show respect and care for the landscape in which they work.

“In return, we offer excellent pay and benefits for the right candidates, which over recent months has attracted many people to join Wessex Internet from utility companies and careers in agriculture. Unlike many jobs in the sector, we provide generous paid holiday, sick leave and family leave, private medical insurance and life assurance, and perks including tax-free schemes to buy tech gadgets and bicycles.”

The company has already rolled out its infrastructure to more than 3,000 properties in Wiltshire in areas such as East Knoyle and West Knoyle, Donhead St Andrew, Fisherton De La Mere and Corton. The operator’s existing UK network footprint is currently said to cover “tens of thousands of homes” (some of this may include their old fixed wireless network too), while their business plan targets an “additional” 150,000 premises by 2027 through a combination of subsidised and unsubsidised capital investment.

Prices for their full fibre packages start at £29 per month for a 100Mbps (15Mbps upload) tier on a 12-month term, but this only comes with a meagre 100GB data allowance (£44 for unlimited), and you’ll have to pay £49 (one-off) for activation. By comparison, their top unlimited usage plan will give 900Mbps (450Mbps upload) for £79 per month.

Several credible sources have now informed ISPreview that two well established alternative network providers – County Broadband and Truespeed, both of which have been rolling out gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) lines across remote rural parts of England for several years, are allegedly preparing to announce a merger agreement.

At present Truespeed, which is mostly focused upon serving rural premises in parts of Devon, Wiltshire and Somerset, has already covered over 100,000 premises RFS (up from 75k in May 2023) and they’re home to over 21,000 customers. The operator originally held an “ambitious” overall target of reaching 500,000 properties by the end of 2026, but that may have taken a backseat after last year’s job losses and build slowdown (here).

Meanwhile, County Broadband has been busy rolling out their own FTTP network across rural parts of Cambridgeshire, Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk in England (i.e. they’ve been building to over 250 villages, but we haven’t had any detail on premises passed or customer totals). The operator once held a similar ambition of reaching 500,000 premises by the end of 2027, but that too suffered a setback last year after they confirmed redundancies (here).

Both network operators are thus known to have been under many of the same strains as other players in the wider UK market, which typically stems from issues related to rising build costs, high interest rates (i.e. harder to secure fresh investment) and the difficulties of growing consumer take-up in such a competitive market. The situation has already resulted in a fair bit of consolidation among rival networks, with more expected to follow.

Suffice to say that we’ve long been hearing industry whispers that Truespeed and County Broadband would be the next to merge, although the volume has recently increased, with several credible sources now indicating to ISPreview that a formal agreement may have been reached. This is certainly plausible since both operators lack any physical network overlaps with each other and share the same investment partner in Aviva.

Back in April 2024 we asked the operators about this and both declined to comment. We did the same against last week and the response was the same. But the difference today is that we’ve now got enough credible sources, all saying the same thing, to be able to report the news with some confidence.

The deal itself is alleged to have been reached a while ago, although working out the formal details of such things can take a bit of time and question marks remain over what this deal will mean for their future plans.

Mobile network operator O2 (Virgin Media / VMO2) has reported that they’ve “completed the first phase” of the £1bn industry-led Shared Rural Network (SRN) rollout, which was achieved by expanding their 4G (mobile broadband) coverage to a total of 227 rural communities in “partial not-spot areas” across the UK.

The SRN – supported by £501m of public funding and £532m from operators – involves both the reciprocal sharing of existing masts in certain areas and the demand-led building and sharing of new masts in others between the operators, which aims to extend geographic 4G coverage (aggregate) to 95% of the UK by the end of 2025 (or 84% when only considering the areas where you’ll be able to take 4G from all providers).

The SRN includes several targets, but the first one involves the delivery of industry funded coverage improvements for Partial Not-Spot (PNS) areas (i.e. areas that receive coverage from at least one operator, but not all), which needed to be achieved by June 2024. At this point, 4G (mobile broadband) must cover 88% of the UK’s landmass.

Rival operator EE (BT) became the first provider to report having achieved the PNS target in January 2024 (here), nearly half a year ahead of schedule, and it now appears as if O2 has recently gone full throttle to deliver on their own side of the SRN build commitment in time for the deadline. The progress is important, particularly given the concerns about long delays by the National Audit Office (here) and Public Accounts Committee (here).

Overall, O2 claims to have now built “more shared sites than any other operator” to improve mobile coverage in 227 partial not-spot areas across the UK. The Glencoe Mountain Resort (Scotland’s oldest ski centre) became the 227th site to benefit from improved 4G coverage, which also has the distinction of being the “highest mobile mast in the UK“, standing some 1,108 metres above sea level.

Jeanie York, CTO of VMO2, said:

“We are absolutely committed to bringing reliable mobile connectivity to more rural communities and have now completed the first phase of our SRN rollout. Our 227th site at Glencoe is now the highest mast in the UK and one of the most impressive to date, standing over a kilometre above sea level and providing connectivity to the nearby ski resort. This work is vital in tackling the urban-rural digital divide that exists in the UK.”

However, the official announcement makes no mention of the 88% coverage figure, which forms a key part of the PNS target. We are currently seeking clarification from VMO2 as regards to whether or not they’ve now hit this figure, as it’s also possible that achieving such a level may yet be contingent upon the other operators (i.e. Vodafone and / or Three UK) delivering on their PNS build (i.e. if their rivals are still heavily delayed, then O2 will still be below 88%).

At the end of the day it’s Ofcom’s responsibility to take a view on whether the Phase One (PNS) licence obligations have been met or not. The regulator is due to run a progress assessment this summer and will then reach a conclusion by the early autumn, which should give us a clear idea of how much progress has been made and where the operators have fallen short.

In addition, BT has just reached a crucial mast sharing agreement with Vodafone and O2 (here), which could enable rival operators to catch-up.

Merseyside-based ISP BeFibre, which harnesses FullFibre Ltd’s national full fibre (FTTP) broadband network, has today increased their out-of-contract prices by £5 per month across the board. But the good news is that there’s no change for new offer customers, who will still enjoy the same first 12 or 24-month term discounts as existed before.

The change means that somebody who, for example, takes out their entry-level 150Mbps (symmetric speed) package on a 24-month term with free installation will continue to pay the same offer price of £19 per month until the end of that term. But after that the price will now rise to £30 per month instead of £25 as it was before.

The network, which as of May 2024 could be reached by about 339,000 premises (RFS) across England (here), can be found in parts of Derbyshire, Essex, Gloucestershire, Greater Manchester, Herefordshire, Lancashire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Merseyside, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, Shropshire, South Yorkshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire.