Industry trade body Mobile UK, which represents Three UK, EE (BT), O2 (Virgin Media) and Vodafone, has joined with the Mobile Infrastructure Forum (MIF) to set out a series of recommendations for how the next government can tackle an “underfunded and under resourced planning system” to “unlock growth and get Britain fully connected” to the latest 4G, 5G and future 6G networks.

Ofcom recently reported that, as of January 2024 (here), geographic coverage of 4G mobile (mobile broadband) networks stood at between 81-88% for all operators, while 85-92% of UK premises can get outdoor 5G coverage via at least one operator (population coverage). But the latter figure drops to just 16-28% when considering outdoor 5G capable premises covered by all operators.

However, there are a number of programs and targets that are attempting to support improvements in this area, such as the £1bn industry-led Shared Rural Network project (i.e. extending geographic 4G coverage to 95% of the UK by the end of 2025) and the Wireless Infrastructure Strategy (i.e. “all populated areas to be covered by ‘standalone’ 5G (5G-plus) by 2030”). But problems remain on the deliverability side, particularly when it comes to 5G.

The new and somewhat high-level report – ‘Failing to Plan, Planning will fail‘ – from Mobile UK and the MIF has thus sought to find ways of accelerating these deployments, which they’ve done by attempting to “uncover the barriers that exist within the planning system that hinder the roll-out of this critical national infrastructure.”

Hamish MacLeod, CEO of Mobile UK, said:

“There is widespread acknowledgement that the planning system is dysfunctional, and we are calling on all parties to acknowledge this and commit to our six-point planning framework.

We see this dysfunction on a daily basis. Planning departments operate on tight budgets and face severe labour and skills shortages, which has led to inconsistency and delays in decision-making.”

In particular, the report notes that replacing existing infrastructure can still be challenging, while planning decisions for mobile infrastructure in remote areas can take up to 2 years (appeals against negative decision can also be slow) and there remains a lack of awareness and understanding about the benefits of mobile connectivity; the latter often results in objections to new masts etc.

The report then goes on to make a series of six recommendations, which will no doubt already be quite familiar to our regular readers because they’ve often come up before in prior reports from the industry (here, here and here).

The Six Recommendations

1. Urgently increase funding for planning services – there are a range of policies in place to combat this, but they need to be delivered, and additional financial support is needed.

2. Recognise the importance of mobile infrastructure in the planning system – to ensure that sufficient weighting is given to the economic and social benefits of mobile connectivity by building super squads of mobile infrastructure specialists, creating barrier-busting taskforces, fast-tracking of planning in key growth areas and exploring mobile connectivity considerations in redevelopments.

3. Hire Digital Champions to support the planning process – helping to align decision-making within local authorities around digital connectivity, and acting as a single point of contact for the mobile infrastructure industry.

4. Do more to attract and retain talent – local authorities, government departments and professional bodies should build upon programmes like Pathways to Planning; and implement steps to reverse recent pay erosion for planning professionals to help retain talent.

5. Improve planning policy frameworks – telecommunications-specific reviews of the National Planning Policy Framework and Permitted Development Rights should happen as soon as possible.

7. Foster proactive digital leadership within councils – by working with local government bodies to ensure the benefits of mobile connectivity are well understood by councils and that an evidence-based and honest discussion can be made with residents about the infrastructure required to provide it.

In terms of fostering softer planning rules, we’ve already seen some developments on this front, such as changes to support the use of taller masts and making it easier to upgrade existing sites via Permitted Development (PD) rights. But one big obstacle to further change is that politicians still have to balance such demands against issues of public opinion (i.e. new mobile masts often attract complaints), which is particularly relevant during a General Election period.

On the flip side, there are also plenty of people and politicians who object to new masts based on questionable grounds, which can create unnecessary obstructions to deployments that would otherwise be very suitable. Finding a balance in this area remains feverishly difficult, but it’s a problem that the next government will have to tackle if they want to improve the pace and performance of UK mobile infrastructure.

At the same time, nobody should be pretending that mobile network operators and related infrastructure developers are saintly figures that will only ever do the right thing, which means that some credible checks and balances against abuse of even a more flexible approach must always exist.

News reports have indicated that the auditor – PKF Littlejohn – for mobile network operator Lyca Mobile, which is a virtual operator (MVNO) on EE’s platform in the UK, were unable to sign off the company’s most recent accounts (to December 2022) due to various concerns, such as the recoverability of a due balance of nearly £150m.

According to Lyca’s latest company accounts (here), which were published at the start of this month, the operator had 1.7 million subscribers at the end of 2022, a churn rate of 9% and revenues of £145m (up from £138m). But they also made a loss after tax of £25.1m, which compares with a profit of £1.8m in 2021, and they’re still in dispute with HMRC over an issue related to the treatment of Value Added Tax (a provision of £99m has been recorded to reflect their current best estimate of potential exposure).

However, the accounts also included an independent auditor’s report (page 11) from PKF Littlejohn, which saw the auditor state that it did “not express an opinion on the accompanying financial statements” and that’s partly because they had “not been able to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence to provide a basis for an audit opinion” of those statements.

The core issue seems to concern the recoverability of around £150m, which includes a balance of “£105,979,000 due from related parties“, as well as “£41,704,000 due from directors and parties associated with directors” and the “completeness and accuracy of the deferred income balance of £10,870,000” related to creditors. The Telegraph (paywall) has a bit more detail on these items.

Generally, it’s worth noting that PKF Littlejohn expressed some concerns around the statements in Lyca Mobile UK’s accounts in the previous year, too (here). But despite all this, the Directors’ report in the filing does still say they: “believe the company will be able to continue to operate and meet its obligations as they fall due for the foreseeable future.”

A spokesperson for Lyca Mobile said:

“Lyca has a number of successful private businesses and entities under common control, but it is not a ‘group’. There is no obligation to produce consolidated group accounts, nor to have these audited. As a result, no single auditor has a remit to audit or review related party transactions, which is noted by the auditor of Lycamobile UK as a reason for the disclaimer in the audit report.”

The development follows last year’s cyberattack (here), recent problems with 5G connectivity (here) and the conviction of Lyca’s French entities for money laundering and VAT fraud. The hope is that Lyca will be able to find a way through all the recent bumps, but then we’ve still got the outcome of the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) investigation into last year’s hack to come.

Edinburgh-based network builder and ISP GoFibre (BorderLink), which is rolling out a 10Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network across rural parts of North England and the Scottish Borders, has today announced that they’ve passed a key milestone by covering “more than” 100,000 premises with their new infrastructure.

The announcement represents significant build progress for such a young alternative network, which aims to cover 500,000 premises in the North of England and Scotland by around the end of 2025 and is supported by an investment of £164m from Gresham House (here).

As of June 2024, GoFibre claims that their full fibre network is now “ready for service” (RFS) to more than 100,000 premises, spanning key regions (“across more than 30 local areas“) including:

➤ Aberdeenshire: 9,600 premises
➤ Angus: 12,200 premises
➤ Fife: 23,500 premises
➤ East Lothian and Midlothian: 21,500 premises
➤ Scottish Borders: 23,900 premises
➤ North Northumberland: 11,200 premises
➤ Durham-Teesdale: 3,700 premises

Neil Conaghan, CEO of GoFibre, said:

“We are proud to have reached this significant milestone in such a short length of time, because that means we’ve been able to make a positive impact on even more lives and businesses quicker. In today’s digital world, where online activity is ever-increasing, a reliable high-speed broadband connection is essential and not having it in place can really hold people and businesses back from reaching their full potential.

Our unwavering local focus and dedication to customers and local communities sets us apart. Scottish engineering and ingenuity has driven us to achieve this milestone, and has ensured that we can provide responsive, high-quality customer service from experts with local knowledge.

This accomplishment firmly places us on the map as a major broadband provider in our regions, and we can’t wait to continue expanding our services, bringing high-quality connectivity to even more communities and customers. Our commitment to innovation and customer satisfaction will drive us forward as we build on this success.”

Customers of the new service can expect to pay from £36 per month (currently discounted to £29) for a 135Mbps (25Mbps upload) package on a 24-month term with an included wireless router, which rises to £69 per month (currently discounted to £49) for their top 900Mbps (100Mbps upload) plan. The latter also comes with a bonus Wi-Fi extender (this can optionally be taken on other plans at extra cost).

Network operator MS3, which is rolling out a 10Gbps capable open access full fibre (FTTP) broadband ISP network across 30 UK locations (mostly East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire), has today announced the launch of a customer referral programme that will offer a £50 shopping voucher to all those who make use of it.

The Asterion-backed operator currently aims to cover 535,000 UK premises by the end of 2025 and they’ve already covered 200,000 premises (171,814 Ready for Service). A big chunk of that has been happening in Hull, where the operator – based in the same city – has now seen its network rollout reach 113,000 premises passed (93,000 RFS) and local customers top 10,000. The gap between their Built and RFS figure partly reflects issues with gaining access to Multi-Dwelling Units (MDU).

However, in order to complement this effort, the operator has now launched a customer referral programme. The scheme will provide customers with a personalised code to share with their friends, family and colleagues. When the code is used to sign-up to one of MS3’s internet service provider (ISP) partners, both the new customer and the person who referred them will receive a £50 voucher from their choice of Amazon, Asda or Just Eat.

The programme is now available across MS3’s network areas of Hull, Scunthorpe, Grimsby, Immingham and Mexborough.

Adam Kelly, Head of Marketing at MS3 Networks, said:

“As fast and reliable internet becomes increasingly important, we don’t want people in the Hull and Humber region to sacrifice speed for affordability, especially amid cost-of-living concerns. Our referral scheme not only allows local people to switch to a quick and affordable package, but also helps them save money on food and household essentials with Asda, Amazon and Just Eat vouchers.”

The new programme also has an online dashboard that allows existing customers to see how many times their link has been used, as well as any vouchers they are due to receive.

Broadband ISP Manx Telecom (MT), which serves premises on the Isle of Man (a British Crown Dependency) in the Irish Sea between England and Ireland, has warned that its ongoing work to deploy a new full fibre (FTTP) network across the island could be delayed due to issues with getting planning approval for new poles.

In case anybody has forgotten. Back in 2020 the Isle of Man Government agreed (here) to invest £10m with MT in order to help them extend the coverage of their gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network from 25% (10,000) of local premises to 99% (41,000+) by around the end of 2025 (MT’s commercial investment of £50m would have only got them to 75%).

As part of the fibre deployment, MT has had to complete civil works which have involved the installation of new duct work, poles, and short-term road closures. But the operator’s CTO, Hugo Von Zylwork, has now warned that their work on the state aid supported side of this roll-out could be at risk of missing its target due to delays in getting planning approvals, particularly for new poles.

According to the BBC News, a total of 12 planning applications for poles have already been submitted – 9 of which are still awaiting a decision, while 2 have been approved and 1 rejected. During a recent planning committee hearing, planning committee member Matthew Warren said he felt “more problems” would arise from “putting up poles for everything“.

However, Hugo Von Zylwork warned that it was often “not practically possible” to build underground ducts across all of the remaining areas, which is partly due to the risk of disrupting gas pipes, water mains, and a cost that would be up to five times more expensive than poles. Hence, why such areas have previously not been considered commercially viable to upgrade.

Much as we’ve seen elsewhere around the UK, not everybody is a fan of poles and a growing number of people in related areas have often voiced objections, particularly when they’ve been rolled out into a location that hasn’t previously had them before. Residents typically find the new erections ugly, obstructive, and often complain about the lack of effective prior consultation. But economically viable alternatives for FTTP are hard to find.

On the flip side, the Isle of Man has stricter rules around approvals for new poles, and it would be incredibly difficult for the UK to achieve its own coverage targets for gigabit-capable broadband if our country was similarly slow and restrictive with granting permissions on a national scale (poles are considered Permitted Development in the UK and do not require planning permission).

Balancing both viewpoints remains a key challenge for operators and politicians, even outside the UK.

Network access provider Openreach (BT) are preparing to trial a new “end customer voucher scheme“, which will offer a special gift card for shopping worth £50 to consumers who follow the promotion and sign-up via a Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) based broadband package from one of their many retail ISPs.

The idea of a wholesale provider offering an incentive directly to consumers is nothing particularly new in this market (i.e. as a complement, NOT replacement, to any offers that retail ISPs might already be running). For example, CityFibre have long made a habit out of offering cashback incentives to new subscribers (here).

However, Openreach usually prefers to deal directly with ISPs at the wholesale level, rather than consumers. But the new trial changes that dynamic a bit. Sadly, the related briefing on the operator’s website (here) doesn’t include any useful information, although we have since been able to uncover some details and can now share them with our readers.

The voucher scheme appears to reflect a small scale trial, which will run from 24th June 2024 to 1st September 2024 and is to only be marketed at certain postcode sectors in England, Wales and Scotland (reflecting an overall sample of under 100,000 premises). Northern Ireland has not yet been included.

As part of this, Openreach will market a special offer to consumers in the chosen FTTP areas – aimed at those who have yet to sign-up with the new service – via online social media and physical postcards. The trial offer involves a One4All multi-store gift card that is said to be worth £50, irrespective of your choice of ISP. Existing FTTP customers on their network won’t be able to apply, unless they’ve been without an active service for at least 60 days.

Crucially, this is currently just a trial, and we don’t yet know how the promotion might change in the future, or even if they’ll expand its availability. Openreach are already seeing decent take-up of around 34% and this may well help to incentivise further adoption, while at the same time helping them to compete with cheaper and faster rivals. But no doubt Altnet’s will be watching very closely for anything they might deem as the incumbent abusing its market position.

As first rumoured on these pages during April 2024 (here), two of the markets largest alternative UK network operators – Netomnia (YouFibre) and Brsk – both of which have deployed a significant amount of Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP infrastructure to cover UK homes and businesses, have today formally agreed to merge.

Firstly, some context. Brsk is currently the smallest of the pair and have, thus far, been fuelled by an investment of at least £259m (mostly via Advencap and the Ares Management Corp), which has enabled them to cover 552,000 premises (536,000 Ready for Service) in England. The operator sells packages to consumers under the same brand (they have 41,200 customers) and, until today, were aiming to pass 1 million homes by 2026.

On the other side we have Netomnia, which is easily the largest of the two operators, having already covered almost 1 million premises and raising £795.5m of investment in the space of just three years (via Advencap, DigitalBridge and Soho Square). The operator, which sells its packages to consumers via sibling ISP YouFibre (they had 80,000 customers in March 2024), also held a tentative ambition to reach up to 2 million premises by the end of 2025 (1.5m is already planned).

However, the pair have long been linked to speculation about a possible consolidation, which is partly due to the fact that they share one of the same investors. In addition, both operators have managed to avoid overbuilding each other, and appear to share a similarly capital-efficient approach to build, which harnesses as much of Openreach’s existing cable ducts and poles (PIA) to run new fibre as possible (Netomnia spends an average of £250 per premises passed).

The newly merged group will thus have a combined network footprint of 1.5 million premises (RFS) and a customer base of 140,000 immediately post-merger, with a target of reaching 3 million premises (coverage) by the end of 2025.

Jeremy Chelot, CEO of Netomnia, said:

“By merging our network expertise and resources, we are creating a powerhouse to deliver an unparalleled internet experience for our customers, driving innovation and further consolidation among altnets. The additional capital from our investors and support from our lenders is a powerful endorsement of our vision and ability to execute at the highest level.”

Giorgio Iovino, CEO of Brsk, said:

“The merger is a testament to our shared entrepreneurial spirit and experienced teams that can deliver even more. Together, we are set to deliver a fibre network that is not only fast and reliable but also future-proof, ensuring our customers benefit today and tomorrow. Our joint platform will be where the most powerful internet lives.”

The official announcement notes that Netomnia and Brsk have already used £300m of debt and they “plan to use up to £900m of debt to grow the footprint to 3 million premises, demonstrating the companies’ prudent approach to capital management“.

Just for context, since 2020, Netomnia and Brsk have raised over £1.3bn of capital, with support from investors Advencap, DigitalBridge, and Soho Square Capital. DigitalBridge and Advencap will now be committing additional equity funding as part of today’s news.

The merger is set to be finalised in the coming weeks, pending regulatory approval (this will not be an obstacle), enabling customers to benefit from an “alternative FTTP platform that offers a seamless network experience, unified pricing, and enhanced service quality across the shared footprint.”

The deal will create one of the market’s largest Altnets, which will be much more readily able to challenge the leading players in this space, such as CityFibre, CommunityFibre and Hyperoptic. In addition, the combined entity creates a much more attractive wholesale option for ISPs, since scale is often a key factor for some providers when planning to invest in supporting a new network.

The newly merged entity will be led by Netomnia and YouFibre’s existing boss, Jeremy Chelot, as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Wil Wadsworth as Chief Financial Officer (CFO). Giorgio Iovino and Ian Kock will remain as CEO and Chief Operating Officer (COO), respectively, of Brsk.

Finally, I’d like to apologise for being slower than usual to cover this development, but even yours truly needs time off and a 1pm press release on Saturday tends to clash with lunchtime alcohol consumption and chaotic family life .

Telecoms giant BT has confirmed to ISPreview that they’re aware of an annoying error that impacted many entries in a couple of the online .PDF (Adobe Reader) versions of their A-Z Directory of Business & Residential Listings (phone book), which have recently begun to replace the old printed Phone Book.

In this case, the issue stemmed from the fact that BT had accidentally added an extra zero (0) on to the end of all the residential listings for places like Horsham (here), which is now in the process of being corrected “as soon as possible“.

Suffice to say that if you’ve already downloaded some of the affected listings then it might be wise to try again in a few days and, hopefully, by then it will have been resolved to give the correct numbers again. Credits to one of our readers (Hywel) for pointing out the mistake.

News

Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, and BNP Paribas have been hired to manage the sale in the Indian market 

Vodafone is seeking to sell its 21.5% stake of India’s Indus Towers, which is worth around $2.3 billion, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. 

The sources said that the final stake sale remains undecided, but could be lower than 21.5% if demand is insufficient. 

Indus Towers are one of the largest tower companies in the world, with 219,736 towers and 368,588 co-locations to its name as of March 2024. 

Vodafone first announced its intention to sell its stake in 2022 (which then was 28%), but has only sold off a small percentage so far. 

Staying with the Indian market, Indian operator Vodafone Idea has issued its network equipment vendors Nokia and Ericsson with preference shares instead of payment for product orders. If approved by investors, Nokia will receive nearly 1.03 billion shares and Ericsson 634 million, giving the companies a 1.48% and 0.91% stake in Vodafone Idea respectively. 

“VIL is all set to participate in the industry growth with right investments to expand its 4G coverage and offer 5G experience to its customers while remaining focused on its execution capabilities,” said Akshaya Moondra, CEO of Vodafone Idea in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange. 

“As VIL embarks on its growth journey, support from key stakeholders is critical and the agreement with Nokia and Ericsson reaffirms these vendors as long-term partners of the Company, and sets the stage for the next phase of our growth,” he continued. 

The company has struggled with its cash flow for some time. Although the country’s third largest mobile operator by subscriber numbers, it struggles to compete with Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel. The Indian government became the company’s largest shareholder last year (33.1%), but due to its debt, remains as India’s only telco yet to launch 5G services. 

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Also in the news:
Freshwave to deploy small cells in Manchester for VMO2
SGP.32: A reality check on the latest remote SIM provisioning standard
Vodafone Germany partners with FlyNex on industrial drone platform 

Customers of Sky’s sibling NOW Broadband ISP sub-brand, which is best known for its associated NOW TV streaming service, should take note that the provider has today launched a new 75Mbps Full Fibre (FTTP) tier via Openreach’s network and will now only sell new packages via Sky’s website (i.e. NOW no longer has their own order system).

The move reflects a continuation of the strategy that we first saw in February 2024 (here), when NOW introduced their first Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) package (100Mbps “Powered by Sky“) and oddly only made it available via Sky’s website – effectively diluting the somewhat more separate approach and branding that NOW TV had previously been taking.

However, from today, new customers will also be able to purchase a new full fibre product, NOW Full Fibre 75, which adopts the same “Powered by Sky” approach as their 100Mbps tier. Where full fibre isn’t available, NOW Superfast (average speeds of 61Mbps) – a Fibre-to-the-Cabinet (FTTC / VDSL2) product – will be available instead (also via Sky).

As a result, the old NOW Super Fibre, NOW Fab Fibre and NOW Brilliant Broadband packages are no longer available to purchase for new customers via NOW’s own website. Existing NOW Broadband customers will be able to keep their current NOW Broadband contract, at least for now. But they will “have the choice to move to a NOW Powered by Sky package when recontracting.”

Amber Pine, Sky’s MD of Connectivity, said:

“With data consumption exponentially increasing every year, customers need increased bandwidth, better reliability, and ultrafast speeds in the home. Full fibre is essential to the connected home and NOW Full Fibre 75 provides an additional speed choice for NOW customers. ‘Powered by Sky’, both NOW Full Fibre 75 and NOW Superfast packages, enable us to offer the best technology at the best value through the NOW brand.”

The new approach will no doubt be more cost-effective for Sky to maintain, while the refreshed packages also maintain a similar price point to those that came before. But quite why they haven’t gone any faster than 100Mbps yet is unclear, and this does raise questions about the future of the NOW Broadband.