News

CEO Tim Cook called Apple’s AI launch the ‘next big step’ for the company 

At Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference this week, Apple has announced a new partnership with OpenAI that will integrate ChatGPT directly within Apple devices. 

In the day one keynote speech, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced the company’s new integrated ‘Apple Intelligence’ system, which he characterised as “the personal intelligence system that puts powerful generative models right at the core” of your Apple device. 

The new features, the company says, are a “new chapter in Apple innovation,” and will include: 

– Writing tools, allowing users to summarise, rewrite, or proofread text on different apps such as Mail, Notes, or third-party applications. 

– Image generation, including ‘Genmoji’, which creates personalised and instantly curated emojis. 

– A Siri overhaul, making platform is more natural and personal, with more control over apps and actions, for a wider range of actions. 

“AI has to understand you and be grounded in your personal context like your routine, your relationships, your communications and more. It’s beyond artificial intelligence. It’s personal intelligence,” said Cook. 

“We’re excited to partner with Apple to bring ChatGPT to their users in a new way,” said OpenAI CEO Sam Altman in a press release, who did not attend the event. 

“Apple shares our commitment to safety and innovation, and this partnership aligns with OpenAI’s mission to make advanced AI accessible to everyone. Together with Apple, we’re making it easier for people to benefit from what AI can offer,” he continued. 

Apple has kept its AI cards close to its chest for some time, leaving users that the company could fall behind other US tech giants like Microsoft, Google, and Meta. Despite this, rumours of discussions with OpenAI had been circulating for some time. 

Apple has emphasised its dedication to privacy when it comes to its new AI solution, with Cook confirming that Apple Intelligence accesses user information in a “completely private and secure way”. 

Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering, told attendees that the Private Cloud Compute that the feature uses means it works with “groundbreaking privacy,” and is the “most advanced security architecture ever deployed for cloud AI at scale”. The company say that it will only use user data to make the AI request and never store it, meaning it is not accessible to anyone, not even Apple.  

The integration of Chat GPT, however, has brought these claims into question, as using the features would mean personal data is sent outside of Apple’s secure ecosystem. 

X CEO Elon Musk has emphatically expressed his disapproval, calling the deal an “unacceptable security violation” in a post on X. 

It’s patently absurd that Apple isn’t smart enough to make their own AI, yet is somehow capable of ensuring that OpenAI will protect your security & privacy!

Apple has no clue what’s actually going on once they hand your data over to OpenAI. They’re selling you down the river.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 10, 2024

Conversations surrounding data privacy have reached a critical point in the last few weeks as Open AI has found itself embroiled in a scandal involving Scarlett Johansson. Last month, the company launched a chatbot named “Sky” with a strikingly similar voice to the actress, after she declined to voice the chatbot herself. The ordeal has brought the ethics of OpenAI into question and highlighted the ways in which such companies can seemingly bypass consent to advance their platforms.  

Most importantly, it has emphasised the need for ethical guidelines and legal protection as the AI field evolves rapidly. 

Alongside the Apple Intelligence announcement, the company also revealed new satellite messaging capabilities for its iMessage app, in an effort to solve connectivity issues caused by “not spots”. With this new capability, iMessage users can send and receive messages even when a terrestrial mobile or Wi-Fi connection is not available.  

Since 2022, users of the iPhone 14 and higher have been able to use a satellite connection to make emergency calls. 

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?

The Conservative Party has today published their own Manifesto for the 4th July 2024 UK General Election, which naturally echoes their existing pledges around fixed line gigabit broadband coverage, as well as their efforts to improve 5G based mobile network coverage across the country.

One of the advantages – or disadvantages (depending upon your perspective) – of being the party of Government is that people often go into a General Election with a better idea of what you’d actually aim to deliver and how. In that sense, the current Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, can only really repeat the pledges they’ve already made in this area.

The party is currently backing several programmes for improving broadband and mobile. The first is the industry-led £1bn Shared Rural Network project, which aims to boost geographic 4G coverage to 95% of the UK (or 84% for areas where you’ll be able to take it from all operators) by the end of 2025 (part of this is delayed).

In addition, they’ve also set a target for “all populated areas to be covered by ‘standalone’ 5G (5G-plus) [network] by 2030“ (here), although we would have preferred to see a stronger target based on geographic coverage and one that was a bit more binding on the operators.

The final one is their £5bn Project Gigabit programme, which aims to make 1Gbps+ fixed broadband speeds available to at least 85% of UK premises by the end of 2025 and to then push that “nationwide” (c.99%) by 2030.

As above, the new Conservative 2024 Manifesto Document (PDF) doesn’t add anything new and makes two related mentions of broadband and mobile policies. The only slight annoyance below is the unnecessary switch in terminology from “high-speed internet” to “gigabit coverage“, which later changes to “high-speed broadband” (just to be clear, they’re all talking about the same thing – gigabit speeds):

➤ “We have transformed our digital infrastructure by rolling out gigabit broadband to over a million hard to reach premises, helping to deliver high-speed internet to over 80% of the country. We are set to achieve at least 85% gigabit coverage of the UK by 2025 and nationwide coverage by 2030. Our ambition is for all populated areas to be covered by ‘standalone’ 5G mobile connectivity and to keep the UK at the forefront of adopting and developing 6G.”

➤ “Over 80% of properties across the country can now access high-speed broadband, up from just 7% in 2019, with a record £714 million committed to boosting rural broadband coverage in 2024. We will invest in new technology to achieve our ambitious broadband targets for hard-to-reach areas.”

At present, the first 2025 pledge (85%) for gigabit broadband under Project Gigabit looks likely to be exceeded. Ofcom currently forecasts that gigabit coverage will reach around 87-91% by May 2025 (here), albeit thanks mostly to commercial builds. But the 2030 goal for “nationwide” (c.99% of the UK) coverage will still be a challenge, and we wouldn’t be surprised if it fell a little short.

By comparison, the party’s targets for 4G and 5G mobile coverage have, in the past, often been a bit of a mixed bag, and it doesn’t help that gauging the progress of mobile coverage remains notoriously difficult due to the highly variable environment for related signals and performance. The SRN shows just how challenging such projects can be, particularly with so many unknowns around planning approvals (i.e. local opposition) and the current delays (here), thus it remains unclear how close the country will get to hitting these mobile targets.

Network builder and UK ISP Connect Fibre, which is currently deploying their gigabit-capable full fibre (FTTP) broadband network to cover 100,000 premises across the East of England, has today revealed that they’ve become the latest Altnet to secure the ISO certification for quality management standards (ISO 9001).

ISO certifications are a seal of approval from a third-party body, which represents a series of global standards developed and published by the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO). The idea is that by securing these companies can show that they’re safe, reliable and of good quality for particular tasks, features, management and / or services etc.

As part of that, the Quality Management Systems ISO 9001 standard is generally designed to help companies improve customer satisfaction levels, internal efficiency and process consistency. The operator sees this as bringing “numerous benefits to Connect Fibre, enhancing various aspects of its operations and service delivery. From greater levels of accountability and cultural improvements, to enhanced leadership engagement.”

Dale Regan, Connect Fibre’s Chief Delivery Officer, said:

“Achieving ISO9001 certification is a testament to the hard work and dedication of our team. Our primary focus has been to optimise our operational processes, and obtaining this validation rubber-stamps the efforts that have been put in.

It not only highlights the high standards maintained in our work but also provides a framework for continuous improvement. This achievement positively impacts our customers by guaranteeing consistent, quality services while also having huge benefits for our internal team. We are excited about the future and remain dedicated to delivering the best possible broadband experience to our customers.”

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. 

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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.