Network builder nexfibre, which shares some of the same parentage as Virgin Media (VMO2), has today announced that they expect to cover 12,000 premises across the Rochford District of Essex (England) via their new wholesale accessible 10Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP network.

The company has already covered over 1 million premises across the UK with their new full fibre network, and they’re currently in the process of investing another £1bn during 2024, which should enable them to cover an additional 1 million UK premises (on top of their existing footprint).

Just for some context. Telefónica, Liberty Global and InfraVia Capital Partners originally setup 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 network of 16m+ premises. The funding reflects £3.3bn of fully underwritten financing and up to £1.4bn in equity commitments.

Rajiv Datta, CEO of nexfibre, said:

“We are committed to delivering high quality full-fibre connectivity to communities and business across the UK, including here in Rochford. By boosting access to broadband, we are enabling access to the tools needed to participate and thrive in a modern, digital society and stoking growth in the local economy.”

The move makes sense as Virgin Media doesn’t currently have much of any gigabit broadband coverage in Rochford, although nexfibre’s network will face strong competition from both Cityfibre and Openreach’s rival FTTP networks, which are already widely present.

Press Release

The collaboration will advance Indosat’s AI Native TechCo vision, empowering it to better serve more than 100 million customers across its B2B and B2C segments

Companies to develop enterprise-grade AI solutions for customer service modernization, dynamic content generation and hyper-personalization, geospatial analytics and predictive modelling, augmented network and IT operations, and back-office transformation

Jakarta, June 14th, 2024 – Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison (“Indosat” or “IOH”) and Google Cloud today announced the expansion of their long-term strategic alliance, aimed at accelerating Indosat’s transformation from telco to AI Native TechCo. This collaboration will combine Indosat’s vast network, operational, and customer datasets with Google Cloud’s industry-leading unified AI stack to deliver exceptional experiences to over 100 million Indosat customers, as well as enterprise-grade AI and generative AI (GenAI) solutions for businesses across Indonesia.

AI agents and applications, when effectively grounded in a communications service provider’s securely managed and privacy-compliant data assets, can augment human capabilities with powerful multimodal data analysis, pattern recognition, and recommendations to unlock new revenue streams and efficiencies, and elevate the customer experience. Under this alliance, the companies’ joint innovation initiatives will therefore be focused on creating tailored AI and GenAI solutions to address unique opportunities and challenges in the Indonesian market. These include:

Customer service modernization: Google Cloud’s Contact Center AI solutions will equip call center staff with GenAI tools to enhance their productivity and effectiveness. Specifically, these tools will provide live call transcription; recommended responses derived from knowledge bases; real-time conversation analysis; and post-call sentiment analysis, leading to faster, more accurate, and more effective resolution of customer queries. In addition, GenAI-powered conversational agents will be built and deployed to offer self-service options across Indosat’s digital touchpoints. These agents will be capable of seamlessly switching between topics, addressing complex inquiries, supporting transactions, and operating 24/7.

Dynamic content generation and hyper-personalization: Creative AI agents with multimodal and multilingual capabilities will promote relevant offerings based on a customer’s profile and specific needs. When integrated with customer relationship management and content management systems, they will assist marketers by identifying high-value leads, generating rich content (i.e., text, images, and videos), and engaging customers across channels with personalized offers and messages.

Geospatial analytics and predictive modelling: Google Cloud’s custom machine learning (ML) models, trained on Indosat’s extensive operational datasets, will empower organizations across industries to make data-driven decisions around optimal site selection for strategic expansion; optimize asset management and maintenance based on real-time location and condition data; and model potential natural disaster scenarios to develop proactive mitigation strategies. Indosat will also leverage these tools to identify areas with high growth potential but limited network coverage, informing its strategic decisions to expand network capacity and bridge the digital divide between urban and remote communities.

Augmented network and IT operations: Self-optimizing systems that are powered by custom ML and multimodal models will predict ROI from capital investments; reduce energy consumption; optimize asset design and utilization; and proactively detect and resolve issues. This results in cost savings, more sustainable operations, and improved service reliability. For example, AI can dynamically adjust cell tower power levels during off-peak hours, assist field technicians in rapidly diagnosing and resolving faults based on their verbal and visual inputs, and intelligently reroute network traffic to avoid faulty components while repairs are being made. Additionally, GenAI-powered agents that assist with code generation, completion, and troubleshooting will significantly increase IT teams’ development and delivery velocity, leading to faster time-to-market and time-to-value for reliable software products and services.
Back office transformation: Custom GenAI-powered enterprise search applications will enable HR, legal, procurement, and finance teams to instantly access the precise information they need to excel in their job roles. By simply asking questions in natural language, they will receive accurate, contextually relevant answers or summaries from vast amounts of unstructured data, such as policies, contracts, financial reports, or employee records, thereby eliminating the need for manual searches, accelerating decision-making, and boosting overall productivity.

In addition to implementing these solutions across Indosat’s business operations, Indosat and Google Cloud will also explore joint go-to-market initiatives to empower Indonesia’s digital ecosystem. They will look to provide micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSME), startups, enterprises, and public sector organizations with access to these solutions, alongside Google Cloud’s AI-optimized infrastructure, unified data platform, and unified AI development platform.

Vikram Sinha, President Director and Chief Executive Officer, Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison, said: “As Indonesia steps into the digital era, we remain committed to Indosat’s larger purpose of empowering Indonesia by providing businesses and individuals with the essential tools and technologies needed for success. Our collaboration with Google Cloud is not just a pivotal milestone for Indosat, but also a significant stride in our mission to transform into an AI Native TechCo. Together, we will harness the full potential of cloud and AI to drive innovation, create new opportunities, and propel Indonesia’s digital economy forward.”

Karan Bajwa, Vice President, Asia Pacific, Google Cloud, said: “Indosat’s early adoption of cloud-native architectures and an AI-ready data analytics platform exemplifies its forward-thinking approach. This strong foundation, established through our collaboration from 2021, is now enabling Indosat to pursue a wide range of high-value ML and GenAI use cases at scale—and we’re excited by the possibilities. These initiatives will not only demonstrate the transformative power of AI in telecommunications, but also serve as a blueprint for other sectors seeking to harness this technology to drive growth and nationwide impact.”

It’s been a couple of years since CityFibre first started rolling out their 10Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP network across the West Sussex seaside town of Bognor Regis (here). But the operator has today revealed that they’re now expanding their build into the areas of Middleton-on-Sea, Elmer Sand and Flansham.

The expansion should help to complement their existing deployment in the town, which the operator states has already brought full fibre to the areas of Aldwick, North Bersted, South Bersted, Shipney, Hotham and Felpham. But it remains unclear precisely how many premises will be reached by this build and when it will complete.

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).

Adrian Smith, CityFibre’s Partnership Manager for Bognor Regis, said:

“Our full fibre rollout in Bognor Regis is progressing well and as we expand into new areas, we’re enabling even more residents and businesses to enjoy the benefits of gigabit speeds and ultra-reliable connectivity. Digital infrastructure underpins so much of modern life so we’re excited to see the impact that our world-class network will bring to the town. We’d like to thank residents for their continued support as we work to complete our network.”

The operator’s main FTTP competitor in the town is Openreach.

Mobile network operator Vodafone UK has introduced a new condition grade to their refurbished phones scheme, which will mark out devices as being a “Good Grade” when they’re in “excellent working order“, albeit with some visible signs of use, such as small scratches, dents or marks on the case and screen.

From today, customers will be able to pick up a host of “Good Grade” devices that may potentially save them “up to £216” compared with buying brand-new, including iPhone 12, iPhone 13, iPhone 14 and Samsung S23 phones. But this scheme seems to only cover the more premium handsets from Apple and Samsung, while other manufacturers aren’t mentioned.

The operator’s scheme also continues to offer two higher grades. For example, a “Pristine” phone has no visible signs of use on the casing or the screen (savings up to £144), while having a “Great” condition means minor signs of use on the casing or the screen, such as light marks or barely visible scratches (savings up to £198).

The latest devices from Vodafone’s refurbished range are available on their EVO range of airtime plans and phone bundles. Customers can decide how much they want to pay upfront for their smartphone, as well as choose the length of their phone plan – anything from 3-36 months interest free.

The EVO plans also support flexible upgrades and a Lifetime Service Promise (i.e. Battery Refresh and Lifetime Warranty) at no extra cost. The latter includes free battery health checks and replacements for up to 3 years with Battery Refresh, while Lifetime Warranty covers device repairs against manufacturer faults for as long as customers have a Pay Monthly Airtime Plan.

A new report from Curia, which has been published by local ISP WightFibre, has revealed that the efforts to deploy gigabit-capable full fibre (FTTP) broadband networks across the Isle of Wight – just off the South Coast of Hampshire in England – are slowly nearing completion and could help to generate £328m of new business.

At present there are two operators deploying Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband technology at scale across the island, which is home to 141,000 people. The first is WightFibre, which according to the latest update has already spent over £80m (Dec 2023) – rising to £110m by 2030 – to cover 77% of the island (“nearly” 70,000 premises). This will increase to 86% (74k) of the island by the end of 2024 and 99% by 2027 (c.82,000 premises).

In addition, Openreach (BT) have so far invested £4.5m to cover 15,000 premises across the Isle of Wight (here), which is expected to reach around 45,000 premises by 2026. This forms part of their wider c.£15bn plan to cover 25 million UK premises by December 2026 and then rising up to 30m by around 2030 (close to universal coverage).

Suffice to say that the new report, which was commissioned by WightFibre, reflects the impact of this new network and has been designed to help the operator quantify the social, environmental, and economic value of full-fibre infrastructure to the island.

Benefits of Full Fibre to Isle of Wight by 2030

➤ Create 1,800 new jobs and safeguard 450 existing jobs.

➤ Generate £328M of new business and £73M of existing business safeguarded. This would foster an annual increase of £86M in new business GVA by 2030.

➤ Achieve Public sector savings of over £2M.

➤ Have a social wellbeing, digital inclusion, upskilling and employment impact of £50.2M.

➤ c.£2M of cashable public sector network savings by 2030. Over £3.5M savings per annum across the public sector, from 2024, with a new integrated plan for remote digital healthcare, if completed in conjunction with an integrated plan for digital inclusion and upskilling.

➤ Over £62.6M of equivalent carbon taxation savings by 2030 (including over £12M per annum by 2030).

John Irvine, CEO of WightFibre, said:

“WightFibre’s company purpose is about more than just providing broadband, its about helping make the Isle of Wight a better place to live, work and play. This report shows how WightFibre is delivering on that aim, leading the way on the delivery of full-fibre broadband across the Island.”

Clearly the new networks are most welcome and going to deliver some big benefits, which is good news. But as we always say when such reports surface, it remains incredibly difficult to accurately gauge the economic impact of deploying faster broadband. This is partly ecause most premises won’t be starting from a point of zero connectivity and many of the most common tasks (shopping, banking etc.) only need a basic connection. Suffice to say, such forecasts should always be taken with a pinch of salt.

Network access provider Openreach (BT) has issued a small but interesting update to UK ISPs on the question of how they intend to deal with G.fast broadband cabinets that have a) no activate customers, and b) have been 100% overbuilt by the operator’s latest gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network. You can guess the answer.

Just to recap. G.fast (ITU G.9701) was an interim hybrid-fibre and copper technology, which was capable of download speeds up to around 300Mbps, but which ultimately ended up being abandoned (here) in favour of Openreach’s welcome desire to deploy full fibre (FTTP) technology at scale. The service only ever covered around 2.8 million UK premises and just a tiny number of ISPs still support it (here).

Openreach has since overbuilt many of their G.fast cabinet (extension pods) areas with FTTP and take-up of the old service was so low that some of those don’t have any active G.fast customers left. According to the details of a new briefing (here), which have been seen by ISPreview, Openreach already have an agreement with ISPs that would allow them to close G.fast in FTTP Priority Exchanges areas with 100% full fibre overbuild.

The agreement has since been firmed up through discussions at the industry CFPCG (Copper Fibre Products Commercial Group), which means that they now have the support to “close ALL remaining Gfast Pods with zero active end customers where they also have 100% FTTP overbuild“. As a result, 30 days’ notice has been issued for the first tranche of the qualifying DSLAMS (cabinets) to be put into the decommissioning programme.

At present this means that a total of 335 G.fast DSLAMs will be put through the Openreach Compaction process, where line cards are removed for reuse, all systems and inventory will be updated and then finally the DSLAM will be stood down and removed from power.

At this stage we don’t have any details regarding the exact list of DSLAMs or how long they will all take to be decommissioned, but then this process is as much a learning process for Openreach as it is for ISPs. Overall, this is a logical step (given the total availability of FTTP in related areas) and obviously won’t impact any live customers.

Just to be absolutely clear, if you are still on a G.fast line in an Openreach FTTP area then you’re not on a “zero use” cabinet and so don’t need to worry.

News

A contract worth billions of dollars will provide U.S. Navy agencies with T-Mobile equipment for years to come

This article was originally released by our sister publication Broadband Communities

T-Mobile has been selected for a $2.67 billion defence contract that will make them a wireless solutions provider for the U.S. Navy for the next decade.

The contract replaces a previous iteration, known as Spiral 3, which expired in May.

With the new Spiral 4 contract, all agencies under the U.S. Department of Defence umbrella will have the ability to place orders for wireless services and equipment for the next 10 years with T-Mobile.

An announcement from T-Mobile, released Thursday, explained how the company has grown its range of services for government operations since 2017, when the provider began participating in Spiral 3.

T-Mobile’s release cited the company’s advanced 5G network solutions, which includes applications that can “meet specific performance needs of government agencies,” as an advantage.

David Bezzant, a VP of sales with T-Mobile’s government division, said the Spiral 4 contract award is a testament to T-Mobile’s network and emphasis on solutions.

“With a cutting-edge product portfolio, a proven track record and a clear vision for the future, we’re ready to take government innovation to the next level,” he said, according to T-Mobile’s release. “It’s an honor to serve those who serve this nation.”

Major carriers like T-Mobile, Verizon, and AT&T were all involved with the Spiral 3 contract vehicle, which allowed agencies to place orders against the contract.

T-Mobile’s release called the Spiral 4 contract a ” comprehensive, multiple-award contract” that includes solutions for voice, data, fixed wireless access, Internet of Things and mobility management.

In the future, according to T-Mobile, the government could also leverage the company’s partnership with Starlink.

In January, T-Mobile celebrated the launch of Starlink satellites with Direct to Cell technology.

According to T-Mobile, the milestone, part of the Coverage Above and Beyond Initiative, “aims to bring connectivity nearly everywhere in the U.S.” for T-Mobile customers.

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

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
Telefónica Germany and Ericsson renew core network partnership  

Infracapital-backed UK broadband ISP Fibrus has today announced that they’ve extended their multi-gigabit speed capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network to reach 1,000 premises in the Cumbria (England) port town of Silloth, which follows similar deployments in locations such as Workington, Parton and Wigton.

The provider’s gigabit broadband network has, as of 31st March 2024, already been expanded to cover 354,000 premises (337k RFS) across parts of England and N.Ireland, which is up from 339,000 premises on 31st January 2024 (321,000 RFS). In addition, the operator recently grew their customer base to over 80,000.

However, it’s worth noting that Fibrus’ deployment in Silloth does not come without some competition, since rival altnet Voneus has already covered most of that location with their own FTTP network.

Chris Collins, Head of Network Build at Fibrus, said:

“We’re delighted to be able to bring the benefits of our Full Fibre network to even more communities in Cumbria. At Fibrus, we use a full-fibre optic cable all the way to the premises creating a quality and reliability that cannot be achieved any other way. This will make a big difference to local businesses and families in Silloth, allowing them to access more reliable broadband rather than having to rely on slow copper wires for their internet.

As you will have fibre directly to your home, you will no longer need a traditional telephone line. If you use your telephone line for making and receiving calls, we can provide you with an excellent low-cost alternative using VoIP (voice over IP) Technology.”

Residential customers can expect to pay from £24.99 £21.99 per month for download speeds of 159Mbps (average) and uploads of 34Mbps on a 24-month term (£39.99 thereafter), which rises to £44.99 £39.99 for their top 982Mbps (310Mbps) tier (£59.99 thereafter). The packages also include an Amazon Eero 6+ router (or routers), UK support, free setup and the pledge of “no mid-contract price hikes“. Prices may differ in areas of subsidised build.

News

The platform aims to be a Google rival, having already received backing from the likes of Nvidia and Amazon boss Jeff Bezos 

South Korean telco SK Telecom has announced today that it will invest $10 million in US-based generative AI search engine start up Perplexity. 

The two companies will collaborate to further develop Perplexity’s GenAI search engine platform, which is attempting to disrupt Google’s hegemony over the industry.  

Founded in 2022, Perplexity AI is an AI-powered search engine that provides direct answers to questions by analysing information from across the internet, rather than just listing websites. It searches the internet in real time, rather than being trained on a fixed dataset (such as Chat GPT), so its answers are more up to date. It currently processes over 230 million search requests each month. 

Perplexity and SK Telecom first signed a strategic cooperation agreement at MWC Barcelona in February. Here, the companies agreed that SKT subscribers could use the paid version of Perplexity for free, and the company could use Perplexity’s models to build personal AI assistant products with access to real-time information.  

SK Telecom will provide Perplexity with Korean-language data and other content to help improve its large language model. 

“Both companies share a vision to provide the best AI services that enrich our lives. We are excited about this partnership and are pleased to have the opportunity to provide Perplexity Pro services to SKT customers,” said Dmitry Shevelenko, Perplexity’s Chief Business Officer. 

“Through this investment cooperation with Perplexity, we have secured global competitiveness in the AI search engine market,” said Lee Jae-shin, SKT’s Vice President of AI Growth Strategy. 

“Based on the close cooperation between the two companies, we will strengthen A.’s search capabilities and plan to launch the highest level AI personal assistant service at home and abroad,” he continued. 

As part of the agreement, Perplexity will also invest in SK Telecom’s Global AI Platform Corporation, which was established last year. 

 SK Telecom has been hugely vocal in the last two years about its goal of becoming a world leader in AI. The company’s Chief Financial Officer Kim Jin Won has said that the company is “stepping up efforts on all fronts to transform itself into an AI company”, including launching numerous initiatives and making various strategic investments in AI startups. 

To this end, last year SK Telecom formed a Global Telco Alliance with e&, Deutsche Telecom, and Singtel to collaborate on the use of AI in the telecoms sector and create new customer and business opportunities. 

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

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
Telefónica Germany and Ericsson renew core network partnership  

Rural network builder and UK ISP Voneus, which aims to cover 370,000 premises via both their gigabit-capable fixed wireless access (FWA) and Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband networks, has announced that they’ve begun to build a new gigabit wireless network that will connect thousands of homes on Walney Island in the south of Cumbria.

The project, which has been in the works for a while, is getting underway in the North Scale area and the first customer installations are scheduled for the beginning of July 2024. Assuming all goes to plan then the build could eventually end up connecting around 4,700 homes, many of which currently lack access to gigabit-capable broadband speeds.

In partnership with the local authority, Voneus has selected lighting columns to deploy the network, which is capable of delivering up to 1 Gigabit speeds both upload and download by harnessing Cambium Networks 60GHz cnWave mesh network technology.

Customers of the new wireless network can expect to pay from £38.99 per month for symmetric speeds of 250Mbps (inc. free router and installation), which rises to £74.99 for 900Mbps. The first three months of service are being offered for free and the provider is pledging no mid-contract price rises on their 24-month term.

Voneus’ CEO, Christoper Traggio, said:

“Voneus is the vanguard of rural gigabit connectivity, deploying advanced wireless and fibre technology in a hybrid, complementary manner.

“Today marks another significant milestone on our mission to bring better broadband to the people of Walney Island. The community’s welcome has been uplifting and the response has been fantastic, with many residents registering already for our game-changing service. We can’t wait to start installing customers next month.”

The news comes just a day after we reported that the operator had benefitted from another investment boost of £18m (here) and appeared to be accelerating their plans.