The Public Accounts Committee (PAC), which is responsible for overseeing UK government expenditures to ensure they are effective, has warned that the current build pace of the £1bn industry-led Shared Rural Network project (i.e. extending 4G mobile (broadband) coverage to 95% of the UK by the end of 2025) “may not be sustainable“.

The SRN – supported by £501m of state aid 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 (MNO). The goal is to extend geographic 4G coverage (aggregate) to 95% of the UK via at least one operator by the end of 2025 (falling to 84% for areas where you’ll be able to take 4G from all providers).

Most of the early work on the SRN has involved private investment from the main mobile network operators (i.e. Vodafone, O2 (Virgin Media), EE (BT) and Three UK), although in recent months we’ve also seen government-funded mast upgrades taking place in other parts of the UK. According to the latest data from Ofcom, geographic 4G coverage from at least one operator is currently said to stand at 93.1%.

However, as has already been well reported (here, here and here), part of the SRN is known to be facing a big delay and this concerns the first target for the delivery of industry funded coverage improvements in Partial Not-Spot (PNS) areas (i.e. areas which receive coverage from at least one operator, but not all). This needs to be achieved by June 2024, when 4G must cover 88% of the UK’s landmass, yet O2, Vodafone and Three UK are known to have called for an “18-month extension” to this (note: EE has already completed it, months ahead of schedule).

By contrast, the second target, which is not yet facing a delay, reflects a deadline for improvements in Total Not-Spot (TNS) areas by early 2027. Just to be clear, Ofcom’s licence obligations commit each operator to increase its 4G coverage to 88% of UK landmass by June 2024 – and to 90% by January 2027 – with these individual obligations supporting the overall target of 95% by December 2025.

What does the PAC say?

The PAC’s report finds that, to meet the 95% target, “progress will need to continue at the same rate as the past year, even though the remaining locations will be even harder to reach and connect“. The problem is that this “pace may not be sustainable“, which is partly due to the aforementioned delays. But the report also identifies some other issues.

The Government’s £501m investment is said to be “subject to cost pressures, which combined with delivery challenges means installing new masts will cost more than expected“, yet the Department (DSIT) is “not yet certain by how much the programme’s costs will rise” as a result of these pressures and what impacts that may have (i.e. on targets and how much of any cost increase will be borne by the taxpayer).

Furthermore, the Department has not confirmed which specific areas are in the 5% of the UK that will not have 4G connectivity, and it “does not yet have a plan to ensure people in these areas are not left behind“. In addition, public reporting of mobile connectivity across the UK was found to be “not fit for purpose” and Ofcom’s data for measuring connectivity “often does not reflect people’s experience“. None of that will come as a particular surprise because it remains incredibly difficult to measure mobile coverage, which can vary due to all sorts of reasons (e.g. weather, tree growth, new buildings, spectrum band selection, end-user device capabilities etc.).

As a result of this, the government currently lacks information on whether mobile network operators are on track to meet targets to improve connectivity for road users and premises, and has insufficient data to judge whether connectivity on UK railways is improving. Ofcom are known to be looking at making improvements in how they measure coverage, but there are limits to how far they may be able to go with this before it becomes impractical or uneconomic.

Finally, the report also touches on the related area of 5G connectivity, although the PAC said they were “unconvinced” about what the government had achieved to date for its £400m investment in the technology or how it will demonstrate related progress. In fairness, 5G has suffered a lot due to the Government’s sudden U-turn to ban Huawei’s kit, which caused lots of delays and extra costs for most mobile operators.

In addition, the PAC suggests that the government look at how to harness the new generation of Low Earth Orbiting (LEO) broadband satellites to support their other policies, which is of course something that is already happening via various different rural mobile and broadband trials with OneWeb (Eutelsat) and Starlink (SpaceX).

Conclusions and Recommendations

The Full Report includes a series of recommendations to help address the challenges being faced by the SRN programme, which will be something that the next government will need to respond to and – due to the General Election – we don’t yet know for sure what that will look like.

However, ultimately it will be Ofcom’s responsibility to take a view on whether the licence obligations have been met and what, if anything, they want to do about that. The regulator plans to run a progress assessment during the summer and will then reach a conclusion a couple of months later, during the early autumn.

In theory, Ofcom could fine the operators up to 10% of their global turnover, if the roll-out is delayed. But in reality, the regulator is expected to be “reasonable” in their judgement. This is important because some of the delays come from external factors, such as rejected planning applications by local authorities, which are a politically tedious area. Not to mention issues with obtaining power supply and fibre backhaul – particularly in remote rural areas.

Furthermore, the ultimate SRN completion date of 2027 was set to allow some contingency for the inevitable complexities and delays that often flow from mobile infrastructure projects (much as we’ve seen many times before). Put another way, it’s technically possible for the first PNS target to be missed and yet operators could still achieve the final TNS target on time, but only time will tell.

PAC’s Seven SRN Recommendations

Recommendation 1:

The Department and BDUK should work closely with the mobile network operators to ensure that government:

• Gets the information it needs from the operators to gain certainty on the cost increases; and
• Uses this information to inform decisions on how cost increases will be managed while at the same time ensuring that coverage targets are met.
• Fully considers emerging new technologies such as low orbiting satellites to ensure investments produce the most cost-effective results.

Recommendation 2:

Now that the proposed locations of Shared Rural Network masts are more certain, the Department should revisit its cost benefit analysis to determine more precisely who will benefit, and how, from its investment in 4G connectivity. It should use this information to inform final decisions on mast locations and numbers and to communicate the case for investment to stakeholders.

Recommendation 3:

With clearer information about the proposed location of masts, the Department should now confirm which areas of the UK will still not have 4G connectivity once the Shared Rural Network programme is complete. It should assess the impact of this on communities in these areas and develop a plan for alternative ways of ensuring they get the connectivity they need.

Recommendation 4:

The Department should take urgent action to ensure that it has meaningful data on mobile coverage that reflects people’s actual experience.

As part of this it should:

• Work with Ofcom to develop ways that consumers and businesses can directly report coverage gaps in real-time to help build a more realistic and detailed picture of mobile coverage across the UK;

• Ask Ofcom to examine any cases where areas have lost all mobile connectivity following 3G switch off; and

• Ensure that mechanisms for measuring access to 5G coverage are fit for purpose.

Recommendation 5:

The Department should work with Ofcom and the mobile network operators to ensure that it can report publicly on progress against its targets for increasing 4G connectivity on roads and premises.

Recommendation 6:

Working with Ofcom and the Department for Transport, the Department should make a plan for more frequent collection of coverage data on the UK rail network to help it prioritise the rail lines where improvements in coverage is most needed. This information should be published on a regular basis so that rail travellers have clearer information on the coverage they will experience.

Recommendation 7:

The Department should set out more clearly what it has achieved from its investment to date in 5G, as well as setting more meaningful and measurable targets for assessing its progress in supporting the roll-out of standalone 5G mobile coverage.

News 

The announcement means around 3,500 towns, cities, boroughs, villages, and hamlets are now included in the company’s build programme 

Broadband infrastructure provider Openreach has announced its plan to deploy full fibre broadband to 517 additional locations in the UK, bringing fibre-to-the-premise (FTTP) to 2.7 million more homes and businesses. 

The new build plan notably 400,000 homes in rural areas.  

Openreach is aiming to make gigabit-capable broadband available to 25 million homes and businesses by the end of 2026, including 6.2 million rural and remote areas, which is expected to cost £15 billion. As of last December, the company had reached the halfway point, having deployed full fibre to 12.5 million premises around the country.  

“We plan to build right across the UK, from cities and towns to far-flung farms and island communities. Ultimately, we’ll reach as many as 30 million premises by the end of the decade if there’s a supportive political and regulatory environment,” said Clive Selley, CEO of Openreach in the press release. 

“Over time, we’ve learnt to deliver predictably, consistently and at a rapid pace – despite this being a hugely complex national engineering project” he continued. 

Openreach is currently deploying FTTP to 78,000 new premises every week – roughly the equivalent of a town the size of Wakefield. At this build rate, Openreach will build out to the remaining 12.5 million homes in half the time it took to complete the first half of the rollout. 

Selley claims this is the fastest of any operator in Europe.  

With the completion of the nearly announced 2.7 million premises, Openreach will have achieved its goal of passing 25 million homes with FTTP by 2026. 

The importance of maintaining this aggressive rollout pace, both in urban and rural areas, is not lost on the government. In December, Minister for Data and Digital Infrastructure, John Whittingdale, said it is “vital the industry maintains its pace of delivery, and extends if further supported by our £5 billion Project Gigabit, ensuring rural and hard to reach communities do not miss out.” 

“This marks another important step in our ambition for 85 per cent of properties to have access to Gigabit-capable connections by 2025 delivering a modern digital infrastructure to every corner of the UK,” he continued. 

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

Also in the news:
UK government conditionally approves £15bn Vodafone–Three merger
Nokia and Vodafone trial Open RAN with Arm and HPE
T-Mobile and Verizon to buy US Cellular, reports say

News

The acquisition comes six months after OTE first attempted to offload the business to Quantum Projects Group 

Romania’s largest operator, Digi Communications, has announced an agreement to take over Telekom Romania Mobile, the local operator owned by Deutsche Telekom’s Greek subsidiary OTE Group.  

Telekom Romania is the country’s fourth largest telco after Orange, Vodafone, and Digi, with around 3.9 million subscribers. Formerly owned by the Romanian state, Telekom Romania has been under the majority ownership of OTE since 2009. 

A filing to the Bucharest Stock Exchange yesterday confirmed that the ‘main terms and conditions’ of the acquisition by West Network Invest, an investment vehicle majority owned by Digi and minority owned by Romanian media firm Clever Media, have been concluded.  

It also confirmed that Telekom Romania Mobile will remain in the market as an independent telecommunications operator, rather than being merged with Digi itself. Whether this will be enough separation to appease the national competition regulator, however, remains to be seen. 

“From a competitive point of view, it’s much more complicated because Digi Romania is a big player on the market,” said Bogdan Chirițoiu, president of Romania’s competition council, speaking to HotNews.  

“The analysis of this transaction will be a priority operation and we will allocate resources, but it is not a simple case,” he continued. 

Chirițoiu also confirmed that the Competition Council would receive an official notification of the deal in the coming weeks, with the authority’s decision coming by the end of the year. 

The news comes six months after OTE confirmed that it was in talks with Quantum Projects Group, owner of Clever Media, which was looking to buy 100% of the network operator’s Romanian business. The two companies had signed a Memorandum of Understanding but had not finalised the deal itself.  

No financial details have been disclosed. The transaction is subject to standard regulatory approval. 

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

Also in the news:
UK government conditionally approves £15bn Vodafone–Three merger
Nokia and Vodafone trial Open RAN with Arm and HPE
T-Mobile and Verizon to buy US Cellular, reports say

News 

The announcement confirms rumours last month that suggested Verizon was also in separate talks to purchase some of UScellular’s assets  

T-Mobile has announced an agreement to acquire the majority of UScellular’s wireless operations, including its customers, retail stores, and certain spectrum assets.  

T-Mobile will pay a total of $4.4 billion for UScellular’s assets through a combination of cash and the assumption of $2 billion of debt.  

As part of the deal, T-Mobile will acquire roughly 30% of UScellular’s spectrum, the specifics of which were not revealed. UScellular, meanwhile, will keep the remaining 70% of its spectrum assets, as well as its 4,400 mobile towers.  

T-Mobile will enter a long-term agreement to lease space on “at least” 2,600 of these towers, UScellular said in its press release. 

Once the deal is finalised, UScellular’s 4 million (predominantly rural) customers will gain full access to T-Mobile’s nationwide 5G network. The companies say it “will provide more competitive choices for UScellular customers, as they will benefit from T-Mobile’s greater resources and ability to provide lower prices, more robust plans, and a better network experience”. Customers will also have the option to switch to T-Mobile’s plans, which may offer cost savings and additional benefits. 

The announcement of the deal follows UScellular undergoing a strategic review in August 2023, which concluded that it was unable to continue funding its wireless operation independently.  

“In the face of rising competition and increasing capital intensity required to keep pace with the latest technologies, and following our careful and deliberate strategic review, we are confident that continuing to deliver on our mission requires a level of scale and investment that is best achieved by integrating our wireless operations with those of T-Mobile.” said said LeRoy T. Carlson, Jr., Chair of the Board of Directors of UScellular. 

“As customers from both companies will get more coverage and more capacity from our combined footprint, our competitors will be forced to keep up – and even more consumers will benefit,” said T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert in T-Mobile’s press release. 

“The Un-carrier is all about shaking up wireless for the good of consumers and this deal is another way for us to continue doing even more of that,” he continued. 

T-Mobile expects an annual yield of around $1 billion after the integration from increased efficiencies, but estimates that this will require a single upfront investment of between $2.2–2.6 billion. 

The transaction is expected to close in mid-2025, once approved by regulators. 

Earlier this month, a Wall Street Journal report suggested that T-Mobile and Verizon were both in separate talks to buy parts of UScellular, likely to avoid attracting the level of regulatory attention brought on by a full merger. The report, which suggested that T-Mobile’s stake in UScellular would be worth $2 billion, correctly confirmed that a deal would be announced this month.  

A deal with Verizon has not been mentioned by UScellular. 

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

Also in the news:
Digi set to buy OTE’s Telekom Romania
Billionaire Xavier Neil ponders Millicom acquisition
EU-funded Global Gateways projects on show at Submarine Networks EMEA 2024

Mobile operator Vodafone has revealed that, as part of their commitment to the £1bn Shared Rural Network (SRN) project, they’ve now expanded 4G (mobile broadband) services to a total of 250 extra rural sites across England, Scotland, Wales, and N.Ireland (up from 200 in April 2024). A mast located in Church Stretton (Shropshire) was the 250th to go live.

The industry-led SRN – supported by £500m of state aid 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. The goal of this is to extend geographic 4G cover (aggregate) to 95% of the UK – from at least one operator – by the end of 2025 (84% when only considering areas where you’ll be able to take 4G from all providers).

The programme actually consists of two targets. The first one is the deadline for delivery of industry funded improvements in Partial Not-Spot (PNS) areas (i.e. areas which receive coverage from at least one operator, but not all), which needs to be achieved by June 2024 – at this point 4G must cover 88% of the UK’s landmass. EE has already completed this, while Vodafone, O2 and Three UK have previously warned of an 18-month delay (here and here).

The second target reflects a deadline for improvements in Total Not-Spot (TNS) areas by early 2027. Just to be clear, Ofcom’s licence obligations commit each individual operator to increase its 4G coverage to 88% of UK landmass by June 2024 – and to 90% by January 2027 – with these individual obligations supporting the overall target of 95% by December 2025. So far there has been no delay to the TNS target.

Andrea Dona, Network Director at Vodafone UK, said:

“Church Stretton is great news and reaching our 250th SRN site is a major milestone for our programme. As society relies more and more on connectivity, we are confident that – through SRN and our other rural initiatives – our customers, living, working and visiting rural locations will benefit from a strong voice signal and fast data speeds. Our mission to make sure no part of the UK is left behind.”

Ofcom are due to assess SRN progress this summer, and they’re expected to report on the outcome of that during the autumn.

As per the report by Global Market Insights, Inc. “Worldwide 5G NTN Market was valued USD 4.2 billion in 2023 and will surpass a revenue collection of USD 79.8 billion by 2032 with an annual growth rate of 35% over 2024 to 2032.”

The market growth is due to an increasing number of companies showcasing their innovations at leading industry events. As the race to deploy 5G networks intensifies, these events serve as platforms for companies to unveil their latest technologies and solutions.

For instance, in February 2024, At MWC Barcelona, the Rohde & Schwarz booth will present a live demonstration featuring a 5G NTN-NR connection, mimicking a LEO satellite access node. This setup is engineered to emulate real-world scenarios, highlighting the potential of 5G technology to deliver connectivity in regions lacking terrestrial coverage. The NTN-NR ensures universal access to essential mobile services like voice, low data rate services, and messaging globally, particularly in environments where terrestrial network coverage is inaccessible or unfeasible, such as maritime, rural areas, and aeronautical.

With the promise of ultra-fast speeds, low latency, and massive connectivity, 5G NTN solutions are garnering significant attention from businesses across various sectors. The visibility gained through participation in these events not only drives market interest but also fosters collaboration and partnerships, fueling the growth of the 5G NTN market.

The overall 5G NTN Industry is classified based on the component, platform, application, location, end-user, and region.

Software segment will exhibit commendable growth from 2024 to 2032. As companies race to deploy 5G networks, the need for advanced software solutions to support NTN infrastructure grows. These software components play a crucial role in optimizing network performance, managing connectivity, and enabling innovative applications. With the promise of ultra-reliable, low-latency communication, the demand for robust software solutions tailored to 5G NTN requirements is on the rise, driving growth and innovation in the market.

5G NTN market share from the government segment will register a noteworthy CAGR from 2024 to 2032. With the global push for advanced connectivity, governments seek reliable communication solutions for critical applications like emergency services, defense, and infrastructure. 5G NTN offers unparalleled coverage and resilience, making it appealing to government agencies for ensuring seamless communication in remote areas or during disasters. As governments prioritize digital transformation and national security, the demand for robust NTN solutions tailored to their specific needs continues to grow, propelling the market forward.

Asia Pacific 5G NTN market will expand at a commendable CAGR from 2024 to 2032. As industries adapt to the digital era, the need for high-speed, reliable connectivity escalates. NTN, with its potential to deliver seamless communication in remote areas, is becoming increasingly indispensable. From enhancing telemedicine to powering smart cities, the applications are vast.

Moreover, with Asia Pacific leading in technological innovation and adoption, the region stands at the forefront of driving the burgeoning demand for 5G NTN services. For instance, in February 2023, Samsung Electronics from Korea, renowned for its cutting-edge semiconductor technology, revealed its achievement in obtaining standardized 5G non-terrestrial networks (NTN) modem technology. This advancement facilitated direct smartphone communication with satellites, particularly in remote regions.

Source: https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/5g-ntn-market

Highlight has integrated Cisco ThousandEyes, a leader in digital experience monitoring into its Service Observability Platform. Highlight now collects the data from ThousandEyes, simplifies it and presents it in a service orientated view alongside the supporting Underlay connectivity, Overlay MPLS or SD-WAN, switch or WiFi LAN infrastructure. 

By integrating the digital experience data from ThousandEyes alongside Highlight’s data about the WAN and LAN, organisations gain a full graphical view of the performance of the network.  Highlight’s unique service-orientated view is intuitive and non-technical so that anyone can understand how both the network and the applications are performing, be they highly skilled engineers, operational managers or service teams including sales and finance.

Digital Experience Monitoring enables organisations to understand how their users experience critical applications. It enables Service Providers and IT departments to identify potential issues and make improvements before users lose patience and trust.  When integrated with Highlight, users can share real time and historic information on the ThousandEyes Agents and application tests they run to anyone who needs to know, with unlimited levels of multi-tenancy and granular role-based-access-control.

Martin Saunders, COO of Highlight says, “We’re delighted to extend our support of Cisco technologies to include ThousandEyes. Highlight combined with ThousandEyes makes digital experience monitoring scalable and dependable for modern IT organisations and Service Providers alike. We don’t recreate the ThousandEyes dashboard but rather deliver the digital experience information in context with other core network information. The combination enables faster and more precise problem identification, with direct links to the ThousandEyes dashboard for deeper investigation. 

“To have full observability of a network and the digital experience, organisations require historical data for trend analysis. Highlight’s reporting engine summarises and presents historical digital experience data alongside supporting network information via flexible and intuitive reports. For services providers, this means we can help facilitate their conversations with customers about how their critical applications are performing, enabling them to focus on any areas with issues and then drill down into the detail.”

Luke Maxwell, Head of Technical Support at ITGL says, “We use the Highlight Service Observability Platform to enhance the services we deliver to our 200+ customers including NHS Trusts, universities, colleges, and private sector companies. The addition of ThousandEyes to Highlight will further strengthen our managed service offering, enabling us to insert the digital experience into our overall network view to deliver the full picture. If a customer experiences a delay or fault with an application, we will be able to quickly identify if any area of the network is involved. The combination of Highlight and ThousandEyes enables us to easily understand the context of an issue and share more detailed reports with our customers.”

Highlight’s cloud-based SaaS platform integrates with Cisco ThousandEyes using a secure API which takes minutes to set up and scales to thousands of devices and tests.  Highlight manages all aspects of the platform, giving customers the freedom to focus on what’s important to them.

www.highlight.net

Epsilon Telecommunications (Epsilon), a global interconnectivity provider, has partnered with Neterra, a global telecommunications solutions provider, to expand its network presence in Europe and around the world. The partnership adds key European cities including Istanbul, Kyiv, Prague, Rome, Sofia, Vienna, Warsaw and Zagreb to Epsilon’s network footprint, as well as Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo in South America.

Epsilon’s international customers can gain immediate access to these markets without their own physical presence, via its Network as a Service (NaaS) platform, Infiny. Local businesses in these markets can also utilise Infiny and its network solutions via these PoPs to access Epsilon’s agile, on-demand global connectivity, accelerating digital transformation across the region.

“This partnership is an opportunity for us to provide more global enterprises with the network and solutions they need to further their digital transformation and gain a competitive edge in the market,” said Mark Daley, Director of Digital Strategy and Business Development at Epsilon. “We’re seeing increasing demands from customers for network reach all across Europe, particularly in Turkey. It’s great to add Istanbul to our global footprint to meet this demand, as well as a number of other high-growth markets across the continent.”

Epsilon’s network ecosystem encompasses 300+ PoPs, and a total of 600+ IX, cloud, SaaS and other technology partners around the world.

“It’s fantastic to work with Epsilon to expand its network and bring the best possible service to customers,” said Neven Dilkov, CEO at Neterra. “Our robust network connects major cities across Europe, North and South America, the Middle East, Asia, and Australia. We’re looking forward to helping Epsilon to connect its customers across an even wider selection of destinations.”

Epsilon’s NaaS platform Infiny provides a suite of on-demand connectivity services to customers across the globe, including Remote Peering, Data Centre Interconnection (DCI), Cloud Connect and Global Inbound Numbers.

About Epsilon Telecommunications

Epsilon is a global interconnectivity provider that simplifies how businesses connect applications and data around the world and in the cloud. Its Network as a Service (NaaS) platform Infiny provides businesses with a suite of high-performance connectivity and communications services at the click-of-a-button.

Epsilon offers fully-managed connectivity services with automation, orchestration and a comprehensive approach to end-to-end service delivery, ensuring consistent and reliable connectivity to world’s leading data centres, clouds and internet exchanges. Its services are powered by a carrier-grade global backbone with extensive presence across the Asia-Pacific including Mainland China.

Epsilon is part of KT Corp. (KRX: 030200; NYSE: KT), South Korea’s largest telecommunications company. It is headquartered in Singapore with offices in London and Sofia.

https://epsilontel.com

About Neterra

Neterra is an independent global communications service provider, winner of the Capacity Global Carrier Awards for “The Best Central & Eastern European Carrier 2023”. It is trusted by 9 out of 10 of the world’s largest telecoms, as well as close to 1000 global enterprises. The company has been providing international connectivity, network management services, and security for almost 30 years across its network of over 220 locations in more than 65 countries. Neterra delivers a range of fast, reliable, and secure Internet access and connectivity services. It offers IT services, servers for rent, a flexible cloud platform, DDoS protection, and a platform for GPS tracking and reporting toll fees. Neterra owns and operates four data centers and represents NetIX, the Global Internet Exchange Platform, all with expert 24*7 support.

https://neterra.net/

“As the United Kingdom gears up for a General Election on July 4th, the future of our society hangs in the balance. For us at the Keeping Digital Foundation, a digital inclusion charitable organisation dedicated to ensuring every resident has equal opportunity to get online, this election is a critical juncture. We urge all political parties and candidates to recognise the fundamental importance of digital inclusion and make it a cornerstone of their policy agendas.

The Importance of Digital Inclusion

“In today’s interconnected world, digital inclusion is not a luxury; it is a necessity. The internet is the backbone of modern society, offering access to essential services, educational resources, job opportunities, and social connectivity. However, millions of people across the UK remain digitally excluded, unable to fully participate in this digital age due to lack of access, skills, or confidence. This digital divide exacerbates existing inequalities and marginalises those who are already vulnerable.

Bridging the Digital Divide, once and for all

Access to Information and Services: In a world where more services are moving online, from banking to the NHS to government services, those without internet access are at a significant disadvantage. They struggle to perform everyday tasks, access critical information, and engage with services that many of us take for granted. 
Educational Opportunities: The educational landscape has transformed with digital technology. From online courses to virtual classrooms, the internet provides limitless learning opportunities. Yet, students without reliable internet access or digital devices are left behind, widening the educational attainment gap.
Employment and Economic Growth: The job market increasingly favours digital literacy. Many job applications, training programs, and professional networks are now online. Without digital skills, individuals are less competitive in the job market, which impacts economic growth and personal livelihoods.
Social Inclusion: Social isolation is a growing concern, especially among the elderly and those with disabilities. The internet can be a lifeline, offering social interaction, support networks, and community engagement. Digital inclusion fosters social cohesion and enhances quality of life.

The Role of the next UK Government

“The next UK Government must take decisive action to promote digital inclusion. Here are key areas that need attention:

Infrastructure Investment: Ensure high-speed internet access is available to all, particularly in rural and underserved urban areas. This requires significant investment in broadband infrastructure and technology.
Affordable Access: Work with internet service providers to make broadband affordable for low-income families. Subsidies or pricing models, like Social Broadband Tariffs, that make connectivity accessible to all residents are essential.
Digital Skills Training: Implement nationwide digital literacy programs to equip individuals with the necessary skills to navigate the online world. Schools, libraries, and community centres should serve as hubs for digital education, similar to our Digital Cafes format.
Accessible Technology: Promote the development and distribution of devices and software that are accessible to people with disabilities. Technology should be a bridge, not a barrier, for those with additional needs.
Public Awareness Campaigns: Raise awareness about the importance of digital inclusion and the resources available to support individuals in getting online. Public campaigns can demystify technology and encourage adoption among hesitant users.

“As we approach this pivotal election, we call on all political leaders to commit to a vision of the UK where everyone can participate in the digital world. Digital inclusion is not just about technology; it’s about fairness, opportunity, and empowerment. By prioritising digital inclusion, the next UK Government can build a more equitable, connected, and prosperous society for all. Let’s make digital inclusion a reality. For every resident. For a better UK. The next UK Government cannot continue to fail the most vulnerable.”

Graystone Strategy, specialist consultants in mobile and virtual mobile networks, announces today that it is acting as the principal advisor to The Channel Island Cooperative (Coop) and its proposed launch of Coop Mobile. As Sure progresses the purchase of Vodafone Airtel, the launch of a new MVNO is part of a remedial plan to ensure consumer choice is protected in the Channel Island’s mobile market.

Acting as the principal strategic and commercial advisor to the Coop, Graystone Strategy has helped Coop secure its wholesale contract with Sure and leverage the capabilities of its mobile network infrastructure, manage the regulatory process, develop the detailed business and investment case, and formulate the initial customer propositions.

The Jersey Competition Regulatory Authority will now initiate a public consultation about the merger and the proposed MVNO. Provided the consultation concludes favourably, and the Guernsey Competition Regulatory Authority provides approval, it’s intended that Coop Mobile will launch 12 months later. If awarded the licence, Coop Mobile will provide residents in the Channel Islands with a third choice for competitive mobile deals and give those who are also Coop members a multitude of perks when they shop in retail stores.

Graystone was selected as special advisor because the team has extensive knowledge of launching and running retail MVNOs, particularly those used to stabilise markets following a significant merger.

Mark Cox, CEO of Channel Islands Coop, said the advice from Graystone Strategy was invaluable as it negotiated its strategic deal with Sure: “Our strategic agreement with Sure represents a significant alliance, providing us with a low-risk, cost-effective way to enter the local mobile market. It was therefore imperative we had a compelling proposition and the right commercial terms in place to make it a success for our members and the wider market.”

“Graystone’s in-depth knowledge in launching MVNOs has underpinned our approach to bidding for a licence. Thanks to their involvement, we have developed an offer that enhances our commitment to giving loyal members great value for money and leverages our existing membership and retail footprint.”

Globally, retail MVNOs have seen remarkable success, with notable examples from the UK’s leading supermarkets. James Gray, managing director of Graystone Strategy, believes there is huge scope to replicate the success in the Channel Islands: “We’re very excited to be working with the team at the Coop on what will be an historic move for the industry. I believe this is a superb opportunity to bring innovative and competitive mobile deals to the Channel Islands.”

“As a team, we’ve worked with most of the UK’s major supermarkets on their MVNO offers and several of us have launched and run MVNOs. We have used our collective experience and expertise to guide the Coop to a credible business case that’s built around the customer. I wish them every success with their MVNO strategy,” he adds.

More information about the proposed MVNO can be found here https://www.sure.com/jersey/latest-news/2024/sure-and-channel-islands-coop-agreement-paves-way-for-mobile-revolution/