Business focused UK broadband ISP, IT and Cloud solutions provider FluidOne has today announced that they’ve agreed a long-term refinancing package with Pemberton Asset Management (Pemberton), which will be used to fuel their “ambitious plans to treble in size over the next five years“.

The financial details of this agreement haven’t been revealed, although it is noted that the facilities will be enough to support full refinancing and is providing a committed acquisition facility. The latter will support FluidOne’s plans to acquire multiple businesses a year going forward, which is something they’ve already got some experience with.

The provider’s recent acquisitions include Computer and Network Consultants Limited (CNC) and SureCloud Cyber Services (via FluidOne’s Cyber Security Associates (CSA)). Overall, the business has conducted 8 acquisitions since 2019, and many more now seem set to follow.

Russell Horton, FluidOne CEO, said:

“It gives me great pleasure to announce our new partnership with Pemberton. To support our ambitious plans, we ran a process to seek a refinance package that would give flexibility and facilities to support us over the long term. During this competitive process Pemberton stood out as the ideal partner given how their expert team engaged to devise a tailored package to fit our requirements and due to their track record of supporting high growth, evolving businesses. We have our next acquisition in process that will be the first deployment of our new facility, and a pipeline of follow-on targets that fit our Connected Cloud Solutions strategy.”

Since investment from Livingbridge in 2019, supporting a management buyout by CEO Russell Horton, the business has quadrupled in size with revenue growing to £109m on the back of eight acquisitions whilst delivering strong customer service (NPS 89).

Oxfordshire-based broadband ISP Zzoomm has today announced that they’ve built their 2Gbps speed Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network to cover 200,000 premises (Ready for Service) across 29 locations in England, which is up from 190,000 premises passed (RFS) on 5th March 2024.

The operator, which is being fuelled by an equity investment of £100m from Oaktree Capital (here) and a £100m debt facility via an international banking consortium (here), has typically focused their roll-out on smaller towns in parts Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Herefordshire, Yorkshire, Staffordshire, Wiltshire and Cheshire. But their deployment has recently suffered a slowdown and job cuts (here and here).

Customers who take their residential service typically pay from £29.95 per month for an unlimited 150Mbps (symmetric speed) package on a 12-month term with an included router, which goes up to £54.95 (normally £64.95) if you want their top 2Gbps tier.

Matthew Hare, CEO of Zzoomm, told ISPreview:

“We have continued our strategic approach to build, adding a further 50,000 homes and businesses to the Zzoomm network since passing 150,000 last year; and we’re seeing excellent take-up in these locations.

We are welcoming thousands of new customers to Zzoomm each month as we bridge the digital divide for those living in underserved towns – with an exceptional product and exceptional customer service offering.

We’re rapidly heading towards 30,000 customers, who now have access to some of the fastest broadband speeds anywhere in the world!”

Alternative network operator and UK ISP Brsk has this morning announced that they’re going to significantly expand the coverage of their gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network across Calderdale (West Yorkshire), which currently covers 23,000 premises and will now be increased to 47,000.

Currently, Brsk’s network already reaches into parts of Brighouse, Elland, Hipperholme, Bailiff Bridge, Hove Edge, Woodhouse, Rastrick, Lower Edge, Greetland, Stainland, Sowood and Holywell Green. But the additional areas of Calderdale to benefit from their full fibre investment will include Siddal, Skircoat Green, Salterhebble, Outlane, Copley, Bank Top, Lee Mount, Boothtown, Pellon, Ovenden, Illingworth, Holmfield and Northowram.

Overall, the operator – fuelled by an investment of at least £259m – is currently building out its new network across parts of West Yorkshire, Lancashire, Greater Manchester, Cheshire, and the West Midlands (Birmingham and The Black Country).

A total of some 41.2k customers (up from 28k on 1st Mar 2024) already use the service, which has so far covered 552,000 premises across the country (536,000 Ready for Service, which is up from 486k RFS on 30th Apr 2024) and 126,000 of those come from West Yorkshire.

Darryl Niewenhuizen, Brsk’s Regional Head, said:

“The meticulous planning, dedication, and hard work of our team has enabled us to surpass expectations and complete the first phase of our rollout way ahead of schedule. We’re thrilled to share our plans to connect even more homes and businesses in West Yorkshire with our award-winning full fibre optic technology, so that thousands more can enjoy lightning-fast internet speeds, seamless video streaming, and robust connectivity for various online activities.

We extend our sincere gratitude to the Local Authorities for their unwavering support and collaborative spirit throughout the entire process. Together, we have laid the foundation for a digitally connected future, empowering communities with better broadband, no mid-contract price rises and fair prices.”

Residential customers typically pay from £23 per month for a 100Mbps (symmetric) package and this rises up to £32 for their top 900Mbps tier on a 24-month term, which includes a router and free installation.

Community UK ISP B4RN (Broadband 4 the Rural North), which typically works with volunteers inside rural villages across England to help deploy their 10Gbp speed Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network, has officially begun the next phase of their expansion – taking them further into Northumberland and County Durham.

Just to recap. B4RN is a registered Community Benefit Society (i.e. they can’t be bought by a commercial operator and profits go back into the community) that has already expanded their full fibre network to cover 25,000 premises (plus over 13,000 customers) across various remote rural parts of Lancashire, Cheshire, Cumbria, Northumberland, Essex, Norfolk, Suffolk and Yorkshire.

The good news today is that B4RN are now embarking upon a further network expansion, which will take them from their heartlands (Lancashire and Cumbria) and push further into remote parts of both Northumberland and County Durham. The move comes after the Government’s (Building Digital UK) Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme (GBVS) approved funding for the next phase of this work.

The first phase of the project, which saw B4RN building their fibre optic broadband network across communities within the Allen Valleys – from Spartylea through to Whitfield and Catton, has already been completed. This “connected” a total of around 545 properties. But two more phases are due to follow, and they will ultimately reach several thousand additional premises.

B4RN’s North East England Expansion

Phase One (built) – Saw B4RN connecting the Allen Valleys, from Spartylea through to Whitfield and Catton.

Phase Two (in delivery) – Currently in delivery and covers the area of Barrasford, Kirkwelpington and Woodburn. Total of 1,300 properties (RFS).

Phase Three (in development) – Total of 4,200 properties (RFS).

Northumberland
– Kielder Forest
– Simonburn
– Tarset & Falstone
– Warden
– Wall & Sandhoe
– Humshaugh
– Hexhamshire
– Slaley & Healey
– Hexham West

County Durham
– Weardale East
– Weardale West

Lynne Rawles, B4RN’s Volunteer Champion For Barrasford, Kirkwelpington and Woodburn, said:

“Our story started with a need for better broadband in a poorly served remote area of Northumberland. I initially brought together fifteen volunteers from eight rural parishes with a dream to offer every property who wanted a 1,000 megabits fibre broadband connection to their door.

We researched and approached a number of suppliers before finding B4RN. Out of all the suppliers, B4RN was the only one to commit to supply every property in each parish no matter how distant and remote. No-one would be left behind.

At the end of 2023 B4RN started mole-ploughing their network and connecting properties. The aim is to finish the complete network by the end of 2024.

We are very proud of the work being done now. B4RN, together with our volunteers, are transforming our part of Northumberland into one of the best connected places to live in the UK. This is a huge legacy to leave for generations to come.”

Initial work on the pre-planning and engineering surveys will commence soon on Phase Three and B4RN will shortly begin engaging with the communities in all of these areas. In addition, it’s worth remembering that the operator is also still providing free connections and service to local primary schools, village halls, places of worship, as well as other community assets, such as community shops, in the places they cover.

News 

After referral from Ofcom, the competition regulator will likely not push the two companies to divest assets 

The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has published an update on its investigation into the UK’s public cloud infrastructure services (cloud services). 

Although the CMA investigation is still ongoing, it has so far concluded that “we are not currently minded to prioritise further consideration of structural or operational separation remedies.” So, while it is unlikely that the CMA will force the companies to break up their assets to promote a healthier market competition, “behavioural remedies” are likely to be introduced, “designed to remedy, mitigate or prevent any AEC [adverse effects on competition],” say the CMA. Details on these are sparse, and are in the “early stages of being considered,” says the report. 

The UK public cloud infrastructure services market was referred to the CMA by Ofcom in October after a probe found “features of these cloud systems that make it more difficult for UK businesses to switch and use multiple cloud suppliers.” Companies that were individually highlighted were market leaders Amazon (AWS) and Microsoft (Azure), who have a combined market share of 70% to 80% (as of 2022). In comparison, the next closest competitor is Google, with a share of 5% to 10%. 

The report concluded that there were several instances where this could limit the market competition, including high data transfer fees, spend discounts, and technical barriers to switching. This, therefore, makes it difficult for consumers to change cloud providers or use multiple providers simultaneously.  

“Some UK businesses have told us they’re concerned about it being too difficult to switch or mix and match cloud provider, and it’s not clear that competition is working well,” said Fergal Farragher, Ofcom’s Director responsible for the Market Study back in October. 

“So, we’re referring the market to the CMA for further scrutiny, to make sure business customers continue to benefit from cloud services,” he continued. 

The CMA will hold hearings with AWS, Google and Microsoft to discuss issues and solutions of relating to the statement released today, which will be published once complete. The results of the investigation are expected to be around October 2024. 

Want to keep up to date with the latest developments in the world of telecoms? Subscriber to receive Total Telecom’s daily newsletter here         

Also in the news:

The UK Liberal Democrats have today become the first big political party to publish their manifesto for the 2024 General Election (4th July), which includes a couple of broadband and internet related commitments. But as usual with these things, there’s a lack of detail in terms of funding and timescales etc.

Prior to today we knew very little about the LibDems position on matters of telecoms and internet connectivity, which is largely because they haven’t, in recent years, really made it into a particularly audible talking point of their party. In addition, the party’s last big manifesto in 2019 was light on detail and included a vague commitment to “installing hyper-fast, fibre-optic broadband across the UK.”

The 2019 manifesto also talked about prioritising SME businesses in the rollout of “hyper-fast broadband” and of ensuring that “all households and businesses have access to superfast broadband (30Mbps download and 6Mbps upload)“, which we took as possibly being a complementary reference to their desire for a stronger Universal Service Obligation (USO).

The big news today is that the LibDem’s 2024 UK General Election Manifesto (PDF) has just been published, but we couldn’t find any mention of mobile network connectivity. So far as we can tell from their website, the document contains only two commitments related to broadband and internet services:

1. “Ensure that gigabit broadband is available to every home and business, including in rural and remote communities, and support local bespoke solutions so that no property is left out.“

2. “Ending the bulk collection of communications data and internet connection records.“

The lack of any solid targets, funding or useful detail makes it hard to know how the party’s pledge on gigabit broadband differs, if at all, from that of the current Government’s £5bn Project Gigabit programme, which aims to achieve the same goal by the end of 2030 and is already testing various local solutions in some of the remotest parts of the UK. Suffice to say, this may be seen as merely pledging continuity with the current scheme.

The second point, which talks about the often controversial bulk collection of Internet Connection Records (IRC) by UK ISPs, is a reference to the 2016 Investigatory Powers Act (aka – “snoopers charter“) and the current Government’s work to expand those powers (here). Clearly, the LibDem’s are looking to return to a more pro-privacy orientated approach, which will no doubt attract support among those who feel the Government may have gone too far.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has issued a technical update on their investigation into the UK’s public cloud infrastructure services market, which is currently dominated by Amazon (AWS) and Microsoft (Azure). As part of this, the CMA hints that they’re “not currently minded to prioritise further consideration of structural or operational separation remedies” (e.g. divestment).

Just to recap. Ofcom formally referred the market to the CMA in October 2023 (here), which came after the regulator found that high fees for transferring data out, committed spend discounts and technical restrictions were making it difficult for business customers to switch cloud provider or use multiple providers. Ofcom feared that, if left unchecked, “competition could deteriorate in a critical digital market for the UK economy“.

Ofcom’s work focused on ‘cloud infrastructure services’, which are built on physical servers and virtual machines hosted in data centres around the world. Cloud infrastructure provides the foundation for how software applications are developed and run. This consists of products called infrastructure as a service (IaaS), which includes storage, computing and networking, and platform as a service (PaaS), which includes the software tools needed to build and run applications.

The CMA could, if it were – like Ofcom before – to find fault with the market, impose a broad range of remedies, including market-opening measures, structural measures, or recommendations to Government (or other regulatory bodies) to change policy, legislation, or regulatory frameworks.

The competition watchdog has now posted a number of new documents as part of this investigation, which includes one that examines the potential remedies (PDF). Such remedies are typically classified as either “structural” or “behavioural“. Structural remedies in market investigations are generally one-off measures that seek to increase competition by altering the competitive structure of the market (e.g. divesting a business unit or set of assets).

By comparison, behavioural remedies are generally ongoing measures that are designed to regulate or constrain the behaviour of parties in a market and/or empower customers to make effective choices (e.g. making it easier to switch companies, forcing greater informational transparency and so forth).

The CMA’s Updated Viewpoint

At this point it’s very important to stress that the CMA hasn’t yet come to a firm conclusion on anything, although we are expecting them to eventually propose a “package of measures“. The new document gives us an early glimpse into the CMA’s emerging views on structural remedies and things like operational separation.

CMA’s Position on Structural Remedies

Given that we have identified alternative potential remedies, discussed in working papers, and the initial concerns we have [identified], we are not currently minded to prioritise further consideration of structural or operational separation remedies. However, we would welcome responses on our emerging views in this area.

Assuming this position holds, then that would leave the CMA to focus more on behavioural remedies, which they say are “likely to be targeted on reducing barriers to switching and/or using a multi-cloud approach for customers, and reducing barriers to entry and expansion for rival cloud providers,” among other things.

The CMA currently expects to publish their provisional findings in September or October 2024. After that a final decision must be made and published by the statutory deadline of 4th April 2025.

News

The partnership is Vodafone’s 11th landing for the 2Africa cable globally 

Vodafone has landed the 2Africa subsea cable system in Bude, Cornwall. The cable is the largest subsea cable project in the world, spanning 45,000 kilometers to connect Europe, Asia, and Africa once it is fully operational.   

Once complete the cable will benefit more than 3 billion people in 33 countries, 30% of the global population. 

As the cable’s lead UK landing partner, Vodafone will be responsible for bringing the cable to the UK shores, burying it, connecting it to the landing station and providing onward connectivity to the London area. Strangely, Vodafone has named its portion of the cable “SHARP” standing for ‘The System Honouring the Achievements of Rick Perry’, after the company’s Head of Subsea Partnerships, Rick Perry. 

Perry said that “2Africa is the world’s most ambitious cable system and will help to narrow the digital divide in Africa,” in the press release. 

The company says that the cable “will facilitate faster and more reliable connectivity for UK businesses wanting to deliver digital services to Africa, and vice versa.” 

The cable was first announced in May 2020, by a consortium comprised of global giants such as China Mobile, Meta, MTN GlobalConnect, Orange, stc, Telecom Egypt, Vodafone and WIOCC. Alcatel Submarine Networks is leading the cable’s manufacture and installation. The project is expected to be completed by the end of this year. 

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

Also in the news:
AI is shaking up the submarine cable ecosystem
Cyber and other threats to submarine cables
Old copper networks: A gold mine for telcos?

Spotlight Series Article

By Patrick Donegan, Founder and Principal Analyst at HardenStance

I recently attended Total Telecom’s outstanding ‘Submarine Networks EMEA 2024’ to learn about this industry’s cybersecurity challenges. Cybersecurity has tended to have a fairly low profile in the sector, largely because nearly all incidents arise from physical world disruption. Moreover incidents nearly all arise from benign causes –  trawlers casting their nets and other vessels dragging anchors, or natural world events like seismic activity on the ocean floor.

Some speakers and exhibitors showed a weary, eyerolling, frustration at the media’s preference for reporting the 1% of Bond film-themed incidents of nation state-directed vessels carrying out nefarious attacks on cables at sea. For them, the 99% of benign incidents impose a much bigger total cost on the industry so that’s where the reporting should focus.

A clear majority at the event nevertheless recognised that malicious incidents pose a substantially greater risk now than they did even just a year or two ago. One such incident occurred in the Baltic Sea last October when Finland and Estonia attributed cuts to not one but four fibre optic cables and a gas pipeline to a Chinese container ship and Russian-flagged vessel that were in the area. Several people also referred to at least three major incidents in Africa in the last year – each one impacting three or more cables at a time. The majority of opinion I heard pointed to the severity of incidents growing, the risk from malicious activity by nation states growing, and a significant or even strong correlation between the two trends.

Not surprisingly, there is now a relentless focus on taking already well-advanced global and regional route diversity to still more advanced levels. Several speakers shared new build plans, with route diversity to the fore in all their talks. Google’s recent announcement of ‘Umoja’, the world’s first subsea cable directly linking South Africa and Australia, appears to have taken even some seasoned industry leaders by surprise with its ambition.

This is the world of physical risk that cyber threats to the submarine cable ecosystem fit into. From what I was able to ascertain, the  cyberattacks that the sector’s cyber defenders are focused on are grouped into three areas.

The first is corruption of the systems that monitor cable activity on the ocean floor, either by an insider or a remote hacker. These systems are housed in modern, fit-for-purpose, Network Operations Centre (NOC) and Security Operations Centre (SOC) facilities or in less well-equipped variants built at lower cost. The consensus I heard is that both models are well represented across the world’s more than 500 submarine cable systems and more than 1,500 landing stations. Malicious manipulation of these critical monitoring systems could allow adversaries to configure alerts so that they mislead the cable’s owners and stakeholders that everything is fine when it isn’t. It could also mislead them as to the location of a fault when rapid repair times are crucial to the millions of customers that depend on these cables being available.
The second area is a physical breach of a landing station. Depending on how it’s configured, this could yield access to monitoring systems or even the cable’s user traffic. The location of most landing stations isn’t a secret. Some of them are surprisingly open to passers-by stumbling across them on an afternoon walk along the shore. The physical security surrounding them, what they house and how it’s configured, all vary considerably. In developed countries they may be heavily reinforced and staffed with stringent access management. In less developed countries they may be unmanned with not much more than a padlock for physical security. According to multiple individuals I spoke with, most traffic running on submarine cables is unencrypted today. Hence, in cases where cables terminate at a landing site (rather than further in-land at a data centre), there is a theoretical opportunity for an exceptionally skilled, heavily funded, hacker to cut and splice the cable and access the traffic. Even where traffic is encrypted, there’s still the risk of Store Now Decrypt Later (SNDL) attacks, whereby traffic is copied and stored until a powerful enough quantum computer can break contemporary crypto standards.
The third type is the stuff of a Bond film. It consists of a submarine operating at depths low enough to reach the ocean floor (as it happens, Russian Akula class subs can dive to below 1,000 metres). Once it’s guided to the right position above a target cable, a hatch is opened, and the cable is somehow hoisted inside. Some extravagantly talented individual then proceeds to cut and splice the cable – without the 15,000 volts running through the cable to power the transponders blowing the vessel and its crew to smithereens. They then proceed to access the user traffic.Bear with me, here. Several knowledgeable people at Submarine Networks EMEA 2024 assured me that this is a scenario which, while almost certainly not feasible today, is nevertheless one that national security agencies take very seriously. In the case of most cables deployed in the last 10 years or so, encryption is there to be switched on when needed, although US export controls get in the way of universal, frictionless implementations. Encryption wouldn’t mitigate the problem completely, either. It wouldn’t protect against the hypothetical hacker in the submarine copying the encrypted data according to an underwater SNDL attack – a USNDL attack perhaps? With one single fibre pair on a transatlantic cable carrying as much as 25 terabit/s, that submarine is also going to need one hell of a lot of data storage for this cyber-attack. On the defender side, there is also ongoing research into extending the use of seismic sensing technology to apply it to detect physical tampering with the cables.

Nation state threats of all kinds to are clearly growing in the submarine cable business. Throughout the two days, speakers repeatedly referred to a marked uptick in government agencies engaging much more deeply in submarine cable security now. This will make its way into demands for higher standards of cybersecurity – and higher investment to fund it.

Consumer broadband ISP, phone, mobile and TV provider EE (BT), which has long bundled Xbox Game Pass Ultimate on some of their UK packages, has today followed Microsoft’s announcement about the availability of their popular Call of Duty®: Black Ops 6 video game by confirming that their customers will also be able to benefit.

Firstly, for those not on Game Pass Ultimate but who may still have an interest, EE is now offering pre-orders for COD: Black Ops 6 from the EE store. Customers can also register their interest to learn more about all of the announcements from the Xbox Games Showcase coming to EE here – What’s new at EE.

Otherwise, for packages where EE offers Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, the new COD game will be available to play on day one of release. Customers can optionally also add the service to their monthly bill, and it is also available to anyone with an EE ID via the EE App, for £12 per month.