Network operator nexfibre has today confirmed that they’ve expanded their 2Gbps speed Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP / XGS-PON) broadband network, alongside partner UK ISP Virgin Media (VMO2), to cover an additional 25,000 premises in the seaside town of Lowestof in Suffolk (England).

The development marks a significant change in the town from what we saw in 2020, when there was hardly any gigabit-capable broadband coverage in Lowestof. But since then we’ve seen a big expansion of full fibre coverage by nexfibre, as well as rivals Openreach (BT) and CityFibre. OFNL also has a small patch in the odd new build homes site.

Nexfibre has already covered 1 million premises across the UK with their new full fibre network, and they’re currently in the process of investing a further £1bn during 2024, which should enable them to cover an additional 1 million UK premises on top of that. Both Virgin Media and nexfibre share some of the same parentage in Telefónica and Liberty Global, while nexfibre also harnesses Virgin’s existing build engine to aid their roll-out.

Just for some context. Telefónica, Liberty Global and InfraVia Capital Partners originally set up the new £4.5bn nexfibre joint venture in 2022 (here), which aims to deploy an open access fibre network to reach “up to” 7 million UK homes (starting with 5m by 2026) in areas NOT currently served by Virgin Media’s separate network of 16m+ premises. The funding reflects £3.3bn of fully underwritten financing and up to £1.4bn in equity commitments.

The result of all this is that both nexfibre and VMO2 combined should cover up to 23 million premises, or around 80% of the UK, by around the end of 2028.

News

The cause of the outages is currently unknown 

Three out of five of Vietnam’s international undersea cables are down, the country’s state media has confirmed. 

The impacted cables include the Intra Asia (IA) connection to Singapore, the Asia Pacific Gateway (APG) link, and the Asia-Africa-Europe-1 (AAE-1) pipeline. 

According to the Vietnam News Agency, it is especially difficult for internet users to access services that have servers located abroad, as the three cables connect Vietnam with the US, Europe and Asia. The problems have “significantly affected Vietnam’s internet connection with the world,” the news agency said. 

It also reported that there has been no given timeframe for the cable repairs, which are notoriously slow to fix. A global shortage of repair ships and time spent identifying the damaged area(s) contribute to the delays. 

Early last year, all five of the country’s submarine cables went down simultaneously. The cause of this still remains unclear, but the country was able to maintain most of its connectivity through terrestrial connections. This demonstrates the importance of having diversified connectivity routes. 

In February, the country announced plans to invest in up to four more international telecommunications cables with a data capacity of 60 Tbps by 2025. Assuming all five of Vietnam’s existing cables are operational by the plan’s 2025 deadline, they will almost double the country’s undersea bandwidth to 122Tbps. 

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Also in the news:
Brsk and Netomnia merge as UK alnet consolidation continues
Vodafone looks to sell $2.3 billion Indus Towers stake
BT pushes back against Vodafone–Three merger 

A new Censuswide survey of 2,004 UK respondents, which was commissioned by Broadband Genie, has claimed that 7.09% of respondents would be willing to live in or around somewhere with “coastal erosion” if it was for their dream home, but only 5.34% were willing to live with “poor broadband“.

The survey, which was conducted between 20th to 22nd May 2024, found that 95% of respondents said they couldn’t live in an area with poor broadband (falling only slightly to 93% for poor mobile reception), even if it was otherwise their dream property.

Potential buyers said they would expect a discount of 18% if they discovered the broadband was unreliable, which equates to knocking more than £67,000 off the average UK house price (Right Move puts the average UK house price at £375,131). But in reality, you’re unlikely to ever get such a discount, particularly during a period where the market has returned to some stability (i.e. the seller will just wait for another buyer) and there are often other connectivity solutions that can be tried.

The research broadly investigated which unpopular ‘blights’ Brits were most willing to compromise on when choosing somewhere to live.

Which, if any, of the following would you live in or around if it was your dream property or the only property you could afford?

➤ 3.1% said they would live near a rubbish tip or waste disposal centre, the lowest of the different blights

➤ 5.34% said they would live with poor broadband

➤ 4.9% said they would live near a power station

➤ 7.09% said they would live next to somewhere with coastal erosion

➤ 14.9% said they would live next to a wind turbine

➤ 72% of people living in Cardiff said they would be willing to live next to at least one of the undesirable features, the highest of any city in the UK.

However, this is a very simplistic way of looking at such things, which doesn’t tell us the whole story about any other differences that may exist between the areas. For example, there could be significant differences in terms of council tax bands, school catchments, quality or size of housing, availability of gas, crime rates etc.

Ultimately, the decision about how much you pay and what house you pick will always come down to a matter of personal choice / budget, which is of course different for everybody and thus very hard to quantify. But clearly most people do seek good quality broadband and mobile services.

Press Release

Amdocs now leverages Google Cloud’s unified AI-ready data platform to help service providers evolve with cost effective, scalable, and impactful business insights 

JERSEY CITY, NJ – June 18, 2024 – Amdocs, a leading provider of software and services to communications and media companies, today announced a collaboration with Google Cloud to accelerate successful data transformations for communications service providers (CSPs) and better provide impactful real-time business insights. 

Amdocs’ AI and Data Platform (previously DataOne) now leverages Google Cloud’s unified AI-ready data platform to help CSPs better leverage data to make business decisions. Further, the platform also uses Google Cloud Architecture Framework to create a layered and service-based architecture that leverages best practices for operational excellence, reliability, cost optimization, performance optimization, security, privacy and compliance. The result is a unified, telecom-specific real-time data source that integrates information from various systems across the business. 

By combining Amdocs’ data insights with Google Cloud’s AI capabilities and BigQuery’s data assets, service providers can unlock new opportunities for innovation and efficiency, transforming customer experiences, business operations and revenue performance, helping CSPs evolve into true AI-driven service providers.  

“Our collaboration streamlines the integration of diverse data sources, enabling real-time decision-making and personalized customer experiences,” said Vivek Gupta, Director, Telco Industry, Google Cloud. “This joint approach empowers CSPs to accelerate new revenue possibilities aligned with significant insights coming from their business.”   

“Data is the foundation of any AI-powered experience, including the burgeoning world of generative AI experiences,” said Anthony Goonetilleke, Group President of Technology and Head of Strategy, Amdocs. “Yet, data is complex, and accessing it in a scalable, performant way that enables high-value insights is challenging.  We are therefore excited about our collaboration with Google Cloud to simplify the process for service providers, helping them develop a competitive edge and deliver real-time, AI-driven outcomes based on enterprise-scale data readiness.”

Amdocs will be demonstrating its Google Cloud supported AI and Data Platform capabilities at TM Forum’s Digital Transformation World, June 18-20, Copenhagen, Denmark. 

The Scottish National Party (Pàrtaidh Nàiseanta na h-Alba) yesterday offered a preview of their forthcoming 2024 Manifesto for the UK General Election, which among other things promised to extend their idea of a social tariff for energy providers to also include broadband and mobile services. But the latter already exists.

Social tariffs are typically cheaper packages that are usually only available to those on state benefits (sometimes only certain state benefits). The good news is that, in recent years, Ofcom and the UK government have been reasonably successful in encouraging a wide array of mobile and broadband operators to launch social tariffs for consumers. Most of those hover around or upwards of the £15 per month mark.

The fact that such tariffs already exist created some confusion yesterday after the SNP’s Leader, John Swinney, announced that their forthcoming “manifesto will set out a social tariff to reduce energy, broadband, and mobile bills for hard-pressed consumers.”

So far, we’ve been unable to find an online copy of any transcripts or press releases from yesterday’s event that covered this. But various media reports have quoted John Swinney as stating that their social scheme for broadband/mobile would be better than what already exists because it would be more “comprehensive” and they’d “make sure that [it has] got the range and the scope to [reach] everybody that needs to be supported by such a tariff in our society“. This doesn’t tell us much.

John Swinney said:

“Fast broadband and good mobile phone connections are critical to modern life. In fact, in rural Scotland and the Isles, it is critical to the whole future of the economy. As more and more people work from home at least part of the week, often you literally cannot do your job without a decent internet connection.

That’s why, to help people get jobs, keep jobs and keep more of their hard-earned cash, there should be a social tariff for broadband and mobile charges too.”

The hope is that the imminent launch of the SNP’s Manifesto document this week may provide more in the way of actual details, such as in terms of how the tariffs will practically differ from what already exists. Not to mention the question of how the SNP will encourage ISPs to introduce something that sounds like it may only be available to people in Scotland. The latter would be particularly tedious for ISPs to juggle, especially around the border communities.

However, manifestos aren’t particularly well known for their ability to flesh new policies out, so we’re not holding out much hope for greater clarity as the week rolls on.

Bristol-based Blu Wireless, which makes mmWave (unlicensed 57-71GHz) radio networking technologies in the UK, has secured an investment boost from Maven Capital Partners (a fund manager for the British Business Bank’s South West Investment Fund) to help both promote and drive sustainable economic growth and support innovative.

Both organisations are said to have been in talks for over six months, and the opportunity to invest at this point in time is said to have “made perfect sense for both parties“. At this stage it’s unclear precisely how much investment has been secured, although Maven Equity Finance will often invest between £150,000 and £5 million into such companies.

The deal seems to be at least partly related to Blue’s new patented mmWave wireless solution for rail networks, which provides high bandwidth and low latency connectivity from trackside to train. The solution “delivers gigabit data throughput, increased security and cost-effective deployment” and is already being rolled out on the busy South Western Railway (SWR), as well as in the USA (e.g. the CALTRAIN commuter rail line running from San Francisco to San Jose).

Alexander Sleigh, Maven Investment Director, said:

“Blu Wireless has developed a highly defensible and scalable mmWave solution which has the potential to materially improve connectivity on high-speed rail transportation. This new investment will enable the company to further commercialise its market leading technology including through the creation of new high quality engineering jobs in the Bristol region. We are pleased to have partnered with Alan and his team, through the South West Investment Fund, and we look forward to supporting them over this next phase of growth.”

This investment will allow Blu Wireless to serve its growing international customer base and deliver commercial mmWave deployments worldwide. It will also fuel commercialisation of mmWave technology in the rail sector and pave the way for the ‘gigabit train’ in the UK and globally.

New data from broadband connection testing firm Ookla, which operates the popular online Speedtest.net service for internet users, has revealed the mobile data (4G, 5G) and WiFi performance results from some of the world’s busiest airports, including London Gatwick (LGW) and London Heathrow (LHR) in the UK.

The study found that the fastest airport for median average download speeds over Wi-Fi was San Francisco International Airport in the USA (173.55Mbps down, 233.29Mbps upload and 7.81ms latency), while the fastest for mobile broadband speeds was Hamad International Airport in Doha, Qatar (442.49Mbps down, 33.54Mbps upload and 34.43ms latency).

Network latency times (a lower figure is faster) on mobile were also found to be generally higher than on Wi-Fi, with some 46 airports showing a Wi-Fi latency lower than the lowest latency on mobile. Upload speeds were often also faster on WiFi than on mobile, while download performance tended to be much more variable. As for the only two UK airports included in the test..

Results for LGW and LHR in the UK

Heathrow Airport (WiFi)
Download: 58.44Mbps
Upload: 68.06Mbps
Latency: 6.43ms (milliseconds)

Heathrow Airport (Mobile)
Download: 38.12Mbps
Upload: 7.02Mbps
Latency: 50.1ms (milliseconds)

Gatwick Airport (WiFi)
Download: 49.46Mbps
Upload: 49.84Mbps
Latency: 11.71ms (milliseconds)

Gatwick Airport (Mobile)
Download: 86.82Mbps
Upload: 9.83Mbps
Latency: 43.49ms (milliseconds)

Sadly, Ookla’s full study wasn’t able to provide a simple results table, so it’s a bit tricky to show everything side-by-side.

Telecoms giant BT has kindly provided ISPreview with some internet traffic statistics from the first UEFA Euro 2024 football match between England and Serbia, which took place at 8pm on Sunday (16th June 2024), as well as the opening match between Germany and Scotland on Friday 14th (8:30pm).

Matches that take place outside a traditional holiday period, and during normal working hours, tend to drive a larger increase in usage, as people often attempt to stream such content while at work via their Smartphones, rather than view it via a traditional TV broadcast. However, the opposite is often true when outside of working hours, since people are more likely to tune-in via a traditional living room TV and terrestrial signal.

Suffice to say that most of the ISPs we’ve spoken with only saw a small increase in overall usage from the aforementioned UEFA Euro 2024 matches, which is unsurprising as they both occurred while most people were at home. But the latest data from BT’s fixed broadband network still manages to include some interesting stats.

The data below shows the impact that both matches had on BT’s UK network, as well as the number of fans who streamed the match live, how much data was streamed at the time of both matches and in what parts of the UK.

England vs. Serbia

Unique customers: 1.39 million, with a peak of 298,000 viewers.
Data usage: BBC’s streaming drove 982.1 TB (TeraBytes) of data, marking a 186% increase compared to an average week, with a peak of 1.15Tbps (Terabits per second), an increase of 182%.
Total network traffic: 15,664 TB of data, peaking at 18.5 Terabits per second.
Top content providers during the match: BBC ranked 3rd, following Netflix and YouTube, with Facebook and Amazon completing the top five.
Significant increases in network traffic in various regions, particularly in London and South East of England, indicating high concentration of football fans in these densely populated regions, glued to their screens and streaming the match

Scotland vs. Germany

Unique customers: 571,000, peaking at 247,000 viewers.
Data usage: ITV’s streaming drove 1,250 TB of data, a 341% increase compared to an average week, with a peak of 1.44 Terabits per second, an increase of 336%.
Total network traffic: 15,104 TB, peaking at 17.6 Terabits per second.
Top content providers during the match: ITV ranked 3rd, following Netflix and YouTube.
As expected, Scotland saw significant traffic spikes, especially in major cities. Additionally, parts of the North West and Midlands also showed notable increases, suggesting widespread interest in the match.

News 

The company won spectrum in the 28 GHz band earlier this year 

The South Korean Science Ministry has announced it will revoke the license of new mobile carrier, Stage X, for failing to meet the legal requirements to run its business.  

Stage X is the country’s fourth mobile operator (after SK Telecom, LG U+, and KT), and is owned by a consortium led by tech giant Kakao Corp. and other unnamed partners. It has not met set requirements, which include paying the paid-in capital of KRW 205 billion ($149 million) that was due last month. 

The ministry has since requested additional reasoning and compliance from the company but the problems are still unresolved. Therefore, the ministry will launch proceedings to revoke the company’s license before formally cancelling it.  

“We concluded the capital raising claimed by Stage X could not be trusted and that it would be difficult to properly carry out the business if the capital specified in the allocation application was not properly secured,” said second Vice Science Minister, Kang Do-Hyun in a press conference. 

A representative of Stage X, Seo Sang-won has refuted the claims, saying “we submitted a plan to the government and are proceeding accordingly, but they suddenly ignore it and say it is wrong. If I understand the government’s argument, I will accept it, but I think it is unreasonable.” 

It was only in February this year that Stage X emerged as the winner of a spectrum auction, placing a bid of $322.1 million for a licence in the 28 GHz (‘mmWave’) band. The newly established company was due to launch services in 2025. 

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Also in the news:

The Horsham-based Telecom Acquisitions Group (TAL), which is a holding company for several familiar UK residential broadband ISP brands (Home Telecom, Eclipse Broadband etc.), has today announced yet another acquisition after they scooped the CityFibre (FTTP) linked residential customer base of ISP Gigabit Networks.

Not unlike the recent deal with Eze Talk (here), it seems as if today’s agreement reflects the fact that Gigabit Networks has decided to focus on the wholesale side of their business, which has left the door open for their residential base of customers on CityFibre’s national full fibre broadband network to be sold. Some 2,000 customers will be impacted by the change.

The TAL Group, which is now home to over 100,000 broadband customers and has returned a turnover of £40m, is currently continuing to negotiate with other prominent alternative networks and ISPs for further expansion during the course of 2024.

Nigel Barnett, CEO of TAL, said:

“Gigabit Networks is a highly successful ISP in the B2B arena. Over the last few years, CEO David Yates and his team have built a reasonably sized residential base but have now made a strategic decision to put all their focus into their B2B offering. This will add circa 2,000 residential customers to our expanding base and enhances our relationship with CityFibre and TalkTalk.

David and I have both been in this industry for years and over that time I’ve built a great business relationship with him and his family. He is not alone in his decision to withdraw from the residential space. It seems so simple to add customers, but it’s become very competitive and expensive.”

David Yates, CEO of Gigabit Networks, said:

“We’ve built a very solid infrastructure aggregating multiple fibre networks across the UK and delivering quality connectivity to businesses, wholesale partners and consumers. The consumer business has become secondary to our channel and wholesale ISP offering, so seeing what Nigel has done with TAL over the last four years means it makes great sense to partner with him on the residential base.

I’m really looking forward to working with TAL to grow the residential side allowing us to focus on our channel and wholesale partnerships.”

In terms of the customer impact from this, TAL has confirmed that based on this agreement, all prices and terms and conditions will remain the same for former residential customers of Gigabit Networks. TAL and Gigabit Networks will now also work together on a residential offering that “enhances services” provided by BT, TalkTalk, Sky Broadband, Vodafone, Virgin Media and other altnets, all from one postcode checker.