Contract-free mobile operator VOXI, which is a virtual network operator (MVNO) sibling of Vodafone, has more than doubled the 4G and 5G data allowances (mobile broadband) on their two entry-level plans. New customers will now get 45GB (GigaBytes) for £10 a month (up from 20GB) or 75GB for £12 (up from 25GB).

As usual, these plans reflect a 30-day subscription that you can cancel at any time, which also includes unlimited calls, texts & picture messages, support for WiFi Calling, 4G Calling and Visual Voicemail, and unlimited usage of social media – regardless of your data allowance (Facebook + Messenger, Twitter (X), Snapchat, Instagram, WhatsApp, Pinterest etc.).

The recent meeting of an overview and scrutiny committee in West Devon (England) saw local councillors, as well as some residents, heap criticism on the state aid supported Connecting Devon and Somerset (CDS) programme and contracted UK ISP Airband for being “inefficient and chaotic” in their delivery of faster broadband networks.

Just to recap. The CDS scheme is a local government-led partnership which has spent many years helping to deliver faster broadband infrastructure to areas where the market has failed to invest. The scheme has already helped over 320,000 poorly served premises to access “superfast broadband” speeds (usually defined as 30Mbps+), but it’s also suffered plenty of big bumps and delays along the way (e.g. the scrapping of Gigaclear’s (here) and Truespeed’s (here) contracts, as well as the earlier rejection of BT’s Phase 2 proposal (here)).

The latest criticism, which has been covered by the Bude & Stratton Post, appears to be focused upon CDS’ various contracts with Airband (no other suppliers are named). Airband has already provided a “superfast wireless network” (FWA) to cover more than 11,700 premises in Devon and Somerset through its pre-existing contracts with CDS.

The provider is currently also delivering full fibre (FTTP) broadband to more than 6,000 premises in Central Devon, North Devon, Torridge and West Devon. On top of that, in 2020 they secured a £25.5m (state aid) Phase 2 contract (here and here) to reach over 40,100 homes and businesses in earmarked areas of Somerset West and Taunton, parts of Sedgemoor, East Devon, as well as areas of Mid Devon, South Hams and Teignbridge. This contract was originally due to complete by the end of 2024, although we haven’t seen any progress updates from CDS on this since last year.

According to the new report, councillors complained that “hundreds of homes and businesses” were being affected by slow broadband speeds and delays in work to install new fibre cables. In other areas, residents say they were having to dig their own trenches to help run the new fibre optic cables (not so easy if you’re disabled or a pensioner), had been suffering from “wifi connections dropping out up to 100 times a day” and it was stated that there had been “technology failures” on 30,000 care devices during the CDS rollout.

Cllr Isabel Saxby (Lab, Bere Ferrers) said:

“People in our area cannot wait till 2027 until technology catches up, if we do not speak up for those people, it will be 2029 or 2032 before they are connected.”

Cllr Neil Jory (Con, Milton Ford), lead member for the economy, said:

“It’s a strategic aim of ours to promote faster broadband, many rural businesses are reliant on it. It’s been a very frustrating exercise, we have pushed really hard but our over-riding impression of CDS is that it is inefficient and chaotic and left us in situation where we are not getting the service we should be receiving.”

Cllr Neil Jory also noted that, at one point, the local authority did have a dedicated “broadband officer” in place who could help related communicates and convene with CDS, as well as Airband. But it was stated that the funding for this position was no longer available, and clearly that hasn’t helped matters.

Sadly, the article doesn’t provide enough context on the complaints, which makes it hard to analyse. For example, it’s not completely clear which gripes may relate to Airband’s FTTP deployments and which are more focused upon their fixed wireless network, as the issues often end up being conflated.

Similarly, the remarks about WiFi drops probably refer to their fixed wireless network, but then the use of “WiFi” terminology could just as easily reflect issues with a separate / internal home network. As for the talk of needing to dig their own cables, it was unclear whether this was only applicable to specific properties.

The reality is that sometimes houses exist so far from the main road (e.g. farms), where the fibre runes, that it is not always economically viable for an operator to trench all the way out to them without charging hefty fees. This is when it may become cheaper for a homeowner to take the DIY approach, if they’re able. Such issues are often more likely to crop up in remote rural areas.

The article itself doesn’t include a comment from CDS (they didn’t respond) or Airband, although we have shot off our own message to related contacts this morning and hope to receive a reply. The local authority is now said to be in the process of calling on both CDS and Airband to “appear at a future meeting” in order to discuss the issues.

Hampshire-based business broadband and cloud provider Onecom, which is backed by LDC and Ares Management Corporation (here), has today announced yet another acquisition after they scooped Leicester-based telecoms and IT provider Daly Systems for an undisclosed sum.

Martin Flick, CEO of the Onecom Group, said: “The acquisition of Daly Systems is yet another transaction that fits perfectly into our expansion and diversification strategy. In addition to broadening our geographic reach across the UK, we foresee exciting cross-sell opportunities with our combined customer groups.”

The move broadly continues Onecom’s current buy-and-build strategy, where a big chunk of their growth is being developed through acquisitions. Onecom was advised by Shoosmiths and HMT LLP for transaction support. Daly Systems was advised by Knight Corporate Finance, Torr Waterfield Accountants and Nelsons Solicitors.

City-focused broadband ISP Hyperoptic, which has so far extended their gigabit full fibre (FTTP/B) network to cover “more than” 1.6 million UK homes (as well as 300k customers) across parts of 64 towns and cities, has appointed ex-BT figure Kathryn Bowden to be their the new Director of Regulation, Policy, Risk, and Compliance.

Kathryn’s career began at BT, where she contributed to Openreach’s regulatory market reviews and established new compliance frameworks. Following her tenure at BT, Kathryn also held “significant roles” at the Post Office’s telecommunications division and Shell Energy.

Richard Woodward, Chief Financial Officer at Hyperoptic, said: “We are excited to have Kathryn join Hyperoptic. Her extensive experience in regulation, compliance, and policy, coupled with her practical approach to risk management, will be invaluable as we continue to grow and evolve. Kathryn’s commitment to regulatory excellence and customer-centric values aligns perfectly with our mission to provide the best in industry compliance assurance and enterprise risk management.”

News 

The move is a huge investment in the North of England, and will create the UK’s third Microsoft datacentre 

Microsoft has announced that it will build a huge data centre on the outskirts of Leeds, on a site costing £106.6 million. 

The deal was announced by Rotherham based property development group Harworth, who said the deal was the largest in its history.  

The hyperscale data centre site will be comprised of two plots, one of 27 acres valued at £52.9 million, and one of 21 acres valued at £52.2 million. The development company has said the site will bring around £4 billion to the local economy and create many jobs. 

Not many additional details, such as completion dates, were disclosed. 

Microsoft currently has two data centres in operation in the UK; one in London and one in Cardiff. Back in November, the company announced an investment of £2.5 billion in expanding its next-generation AI data centre infrastructure across the UK.  

The plan includes bringing over 20,000 advanced Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) to its sites in London and Cardiff by 2026, which are essential for machine learning and AI model development. The investment aims to meet the growing demand for efficient, scalable, and sustainable AI-specific compute power, positioning the UK as a hub for cutting-edge technology. The investment is the company’s largest in its 40-year history in the UK.  

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called the investment a “turning point for the future of AI infrastructure and development in the UK.” 

Join the conversation on the North’s connectivity sphere at next year’s Connected North event, 23-24 April in Manchester – get discounted tickets here! 

Also in the news:
Nvdia and Ooredoo launch data centre deal
India concludes underwhelming 5G spectrum auction
US launches probe into Chinese telcos over data concerns 

Viewpoint

China Mobile held a press conference in Beijing to announce the commercial use of the world’s largest 400G all-optical premium transmission for intelligence. By the middle of this year, China Mobile expects to realize high-speed interconnection between eight hubs in the “East Data, West Computing” project. This will make it an carrier that provides the world’s first 400G all-optical inter-province backbone network, which features the largest scale and widest coverage among all backbone networks.

In 2022, China initiated the “East Data, West Computing” project. A series of policies was released to guide the collaborative development of computing and network resources, with optical transport capacity playing a vital role. Against this backdrop, there has been a concerted effort among all parties in the industry in the planning and deployment of all-optical transport capacity construction. High-quality all-optical transport capacity connects users, data, computing power, and applications, paving the way for high-quality growth of digital economy.

Li Huidi, Executive Vice President of China Mobile, said that the establishment and application of the first link of China Mobile’s 400G OTN inter-province backbone network signifies the start of the large-scale commercial use of backbone 400G OTN all-optical networks. The project uses more than 1900 sets of OTN devices in 135 cities across China to connect the eastern and western part of the country using optical networks, and as such is the largest of its kind in the world. With more than 30 PB of computing power scheduling capacity on the entire network and less than 20 ms latency between hubs, China Mobile has developed powerful transmission capability to construct the high-quality all-optical transport network spanning the entire country. In the future, the carrier will coordinate the deployment of game-changing technologies such as 5.5G, computing network, and artificial intelligence to promote the transformation from “+AI” to “AI+”, jointly build intelligent and inclusive new information services, drive the growth of new industries and models for digital intelligence, and accelerate the development of new productive forces. All this will benefit countless households and empower all kinds of industries.

At the conference, Huawei showcased the new Kepler OTN platform used by the first link of the 400G all-optical national backbone network (Beijing–Inner Mongolia), as well as the full series of ultra-high-speed 400G and NCE-T transport capacity map solutions.

Over the past decades, Huawei has been working closely with China Mobile.

In 2019, Huawei helped China Mobile introduce the single-wavelength 200G transmission technology in the eastern region, initiating a phase of large-scale 200G construction across China.
In June 2022, Huawei helped China Mobile verify the industry’s first C6T+L6T OTN solution featuring single-fiber ultra-broadband spectrum.
In March 2023, Huawei helped China Mobile complete the lab verification of the first 32T 400G QPSK system.
In June 2023, Huawei helped China Mobile achieve the longest 400G QPSK transmission distance ever on the live network — 6028 km, and win the only optical transmission award at European Conference on Optical Communications (ECOC), a top academic conference in the global optical communications field.

In the computing era, Huawei provides all-optical premium transmission network solution that supports 400G interconnect computing hubs, 100G to sites, and integrated scheduling of computing and network resources. In this way, the backbone and metro networks can be improved in all aspects, reinforcing computing with network connectivity and empowering various industries with computing power. Bob Chen, President of Huawei Optical Business Product Line, said, “In the future, Huawei will continue to invest in the optical transport field and cooperate with China Mobile in fields such as post-400G evolution, computing-network synergy, and AI+ to accelerate green technology innovation and the development of new productive forces, promoting digital intelligence.”

We must seize opportunities and get prepared for the future. Leveraging the world’s leading technologies, Huawei will work with carriers to build new communications infrastructure in the digital era, laying a solid foundation for the development of new productive forces and promoting the integrated growth of the digital economy and real economy on a larger scale and at a deeper level.

News 

India’s latest 5G spectrum auction completed on Wednesday after seven rounds 

The government collected 113.40 billion rupees ($1.35 billion) from the auction, which was far less than the total spectrum on sale, simply because demand for the spectrum is too low. The sale fell short of the 962.38 billion rupees worth of spectrum on offer. 

The auction covered spectrum in the 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2300 MHz, 2500 MHz, 3300 MHz, and 26 GHz frequency bands, but it was the 900 MHz, 1,800 MHz, 2100 MHz and 2500 MHz bands that were snapped up by the operators. “The unsold spectrum will again be put to auction next time,” confirmed the Indian Ministry of Communications. 

The country’s second largest telco Bharti Airtel topped the auction spending 68.57 billion rupees ($820.80 million), followed by 35.1 billion rupees from Vodafone Idea ($420.5 million) and then market leader Reliance Jio with 9.74 billion rupees ($116.7 million). 

The last spectrum auction in India took place in 2022. This auction was much larger, with 51.2 GHz of radio frequencies sold for a record 1.5 trillion rupees, mainly because much of this spectrum was on sale for the first time. 

In this auction, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea all took home spectrum licences. Since then, both Jio and Airtel have been hard at work rolling out their 5G networks, while Vodafone Idea delayed the process due to financial strain.  

But despite swift rollouts from the country’s two largest operators, uptake has been slow to follow, with both operators reporting relatively little in the way of 5G revenues in their latest financials, and are therefore reluctant to spend heavily on spectrum at the moment.  

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

Also in the news:
Nvdia and Ooredoo launch data centre deal 
Nexperia to Invest 200 Million USD in Hamburg
US launches probe into Chinese telcos over data concerns 

News

USS Investment Management has demonstrated ongoing confidence in the growth of London full fibre broadband provider, G.Network, by providing access to additional funding of £85 million.

CEO, Kevin Murphy reflected that “Our vision to build a better-connected London is coming to fruition and would not have been possible without the ongoing investment and support of USS”.

The new funding will be used to facilitate G.Networks ambitions to developing their business in the B2B retail and wholesale sector, working with partners such as Boldyn Networks to build more fibre. This fibre will support small cells, CCTV and smart city applications as well as seeing additional work with landlords and developers to pre-wire flats and office blocks across the network.

The company pointed to a number of measures to showcase business success, including ARPU approaching £50 and customer satisfaction reflected by a Trustpilot score of Excellent 4.5.

USS Investment Management first invested in G.Network in late 2020 with an initial investment of £295 million.

For the latest on the changing landscape of the UK fibre market, make sure you attend Connected Britain, 11 – 12 September 2024 at ExCeL London and join 7,500 of your peers at the UK’s most important digital economy event.

Mobile operator O2 (Virgin Media) has today launched a new top tier ‘Ultimate‘ mobile plan, which combines the usual services with a range of benefits that are said to be worth more than £1,000 across the contract duration. Some of those include Ultimate cover, O2 Switch Up, an Extra from O2, McAfee Mobile Security Plus and inclusive roaming in 123 destinations worldwide.

The Ultimate Plan is available to both new and existing customers starting from £50.99 per month, which includes a data allowance of 30GB, unlimited calls and unlimited texts on a Pay Monthly tariff. This rises to £54.99 for 150GB and £59.99 if you want unlimited data. The price includes the £9.50 per month cost of their insurance feature, which is covered below as one of the key benefits:

O2 Insure – Ultimate Cover: A new level of insurance offering O2’s most comprehensive cover yet, including a 3-Year Warranty and unlimited claims against theft, loss, accidental damage and breakdown. Customers can also benefit from same-day delivery of a replacement device if the claim is successful before 12 noon, available Monday – Friday.

O2 Switch Up: Perfect for customers who like to keep up with the latest handset, O2 Switch Up enables customers to swap their current phone for any of the latest and greatest, or one of O2’s Like New mobiles, every 90 days.

Extras from O2: Customers can unlock even more value with an Extra included for the lifetime of their Ultimate Plan – choosing from options such as Disney+ Premium Plan, Amazon Prime and Cafeyn.

Online Privacy and Identity Protection McAfee Mobile Security Plus provides comprehensive privacy and identity protection, including VPN, safe browsing and Text Scam Detector, an AI powered feature that warns you of suspicious links in texts before you click.

O2 Travel Inclusive Zone Ultimate​: Ideal for globe trotters, customers can roam freely in more countries than ever before (123 destinations worldwide), including the USA, Mexico, Thailand, Turkey and Dubai, usually £6 per day with O2 Travel. A 25GB fair usage policy applies on data.

Priority from O2: For those that love getting more for their money, O2 customers can enjoy daily treats, experiences and early access to the most sought-after tickets in entertainment, with exclusive benefits worth nearly £500 a year according to Uswitch.

Flexibility: O2 Pay Monthly customers can flex their plan to suit their needs by changing the amount of data they have and their contract length once a month (at no extra cost) via the My O2 app.

Christian Hindennach, Chief Commercial Officer at VMO2, said: “Mobiles are essential to everyday life, so we’re putting the very best of O2 into one flexible plan, packed with perks for our customers to enjoy. With added benefits worth over £1,000, and carefully chosen based on what we know our customers want, Ultimate Plan offers enhanced value and freedom unlike any other mobile plan.”

A quick look at O2’s website this morning shows the plans, albeit at a different cost, with 30GB Ultimate starting at £32.49 per month, then 150GB for £35.49 and Unlimited for £44.49 on a 24-month term. But these prices don’t appear to include the insurance feature or some of the other benefits. You can of course still get one of their regular plans for a lot less (e.g. Unlimited data can be had for £25 per month).

Nearly three years have passed since CityFibre first started rolling out their gigabit speed Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP network across the Cathedral City of Chichester in South East England (West Sussex). The good news is that they’ve now passed 12,000 premises and are “fast approaching around 85% coverage of the city“.

The operator claims to have completed “most of its rollout in the area“, covering the “vast majority” of homes and businesses. CityFibre’s Chichester rollout also includes the areas of Fishbourne and Stockbridge, as well as other businesses and housing estates on the outskirts of the city.

The work supports CityFibre’s wider ambition of covering up to 8 million UK premises (funded by c.£2.4bn in equity, c.£4.9bn debt and c.£800m of BDUK subsidy) – across over 285 cities, towns and villages (c.30% of the UK), although it’s unclear precisely when they will achieve this target (the original goal was for the end of 2025, but their current build + M&A plan may only get them to c.6m). The operator currently covers 3.6 million UK premises (3.3m RFS).

The company said they’re also exploring opportunities to reach more sites, including new build properties, multi-dwelling units, homes on private or unadopted roads and business parks – these are all often a bit harder to tackle due to issues of wayleaves (access), cost etc.

Adrian Smith, CityFibre’s Partnership Manager for Chichester, said:

“We’re really pleased to have brought our full fibre networks to the vast majority of homes and businesses in Chichester. This means even more people now have the opportunity to join our network and unlock the benefits of full fibre connectivity.”

As usual, CityFibre aren’t the only gigabit-capable broadband network present in Chichester, with both Virgin Media and Openreach also covering much of the area. Not to mention smaller deployments from Hyperoptic and OFNL etc.