The Zayo Group, which operates a large global high-capacity metro and long-haul fibre optic network, has today begun the process of carving out two independent entities from their business. One will consist of Zayo’s European business, while the other will encompass its business that manages customers’ global network needs (outside of their core North American and European networks).

The operator states that their goal is to “provide flexibility to capitalize on unique growth opportunities, simplify operations, and align strategic and business objectives to drive long-term value for Zayo, its customers, and the newly independent entities.” According to the group, Zayo Europe will be “better positioned” – as a standalone business – to “achieve growth objectives” across the Western European markets in which it operates.

Under the change, Zayo Europe will now be headed up by newly-appointed CEO, Colman Deegan, and will maintain their key employee hubs in London, Paris, Stuttgart, and Sofia. Following the separation, Zayo Europe will also have a new board of directors, including Jens Schulte-Bockum as chairman of the board (he’s the former CEO of Vodafone Germany and Group COO of MTN Group).

Both Zayo and Zayo Europe will remain under the same ownership group and offer network services globally through formal contracts.

Steve Smith, CEO at Zayo, said:

“The transition of our European business into an independent entity marks a pivotal moment in Zayo Group’s strategic journey as we look to maximize our potential across the continent. Under the experienced leadership of Colman Deegan, our shared owners will continue to invest in Zayo Europe and position the organization for accelerated growth and momentum in the European market.”

The plan is to complete these separations, with full legal separation anticipated in the second half of 2024.

News 

Apple is seemingly playing catch up in Big Tech’s AI race, with Microsoft having already invested billions I the technology and related infrastructure 

Tech giant Apple has been making investments in its own chips designed for artificial intelligence (AI) processing in data centres, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal. 

The move puts it in direct competition with other tech giants like Google and Amazon, which are already investing heavily in AI chips. 

Internally referred to as “Project ACDC”, Apple’s initiative aims to create AI chips tailored for data centres. These chips would power AI workloads, enhancing performance and efficiency.  

According to the report, by designing its own chips in partnership with its long term partner Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Apple can optimise them for its own software ecosystem.  

Although the report claims that the ACDC project has been ongoing for several years, specific timelines for product releases have not been announced. 

“We continue to feel very bullish about our opportunity in generative AI and we’re making significant investments,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook speaking to Reuters. 

“We believe in the transformative power and promise of AI and we believe we have advantages that will differentiate us in this new era, including Apple’s unique combination of seamless hardware, software and services integration, groundbreaking Apple silicon with our industry leading neural engines, and our unwavering focus on privacy, which underpins everything we create,” confirmed Cook in the Q2 earnings call last week. 

The company has already begun discussions with both Google and OpenAI regarding the integration of advanced AI features into iOS 18. Here, Apple could license OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Google’s Gemini to enhance AI capabilities in the iOS ecosystem. It is not clear if Apple have made a decision on its partner, although the company is expected to announce its AI progress and future strategy at its Worldwide development conference in June. 

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Also in the news:
NTT looks to grab stake in Philippine data centres from PLDT
Subsea Cloud invites customers to trial underwater data centre with “Project OTTO”
Revolutionising local authority digital transformation: An outcomes approach

Fibre optic broadband supplier Emtelle UK, which is a global manufacturer of blown fibre, cabling and ducted solutions for network operators, has launched a “revolutionary” new 3-in-one drop cable (REVOLink3) for last mile connectivity that could speed up the installation process for full fibre (FTTP) broadband services.

The new cable claims it can “push distances never seen before in the telecommunications” sector and the announcement makes reference to it being able to achieve “remarkable distances up to 300 metres (984 ft) ideal for drop cable installations for Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) applications.”

However, just to be clear, the new cable can either be blown over 1,000 metres (it’s compatible with existing blowing machines), manually pulled over 300 metres with pre-installed pullcord in microduct, or pushed up to 300 metres when also combined with Emtelle’s new DropDrive (i.e. this is a pushing machine that can be operated with just a simple battery-powered hand drill).

The REVOLink3 also boasts of improved durability and flexibility, which is supported by a unique ‘textured’ low-friction sheath, and includes a fibre lubrication system that consistently coats the cable during installation via the DropDrive. Since this is a new drop cable, then it currently only comes in configurations of two, four or six fibres, but there are “plans to develop options for higher fibre counts“.

Colin Kirkpatrick, Emtelle Solutions Director, said:

“By extending the pushing distances to unprecedented lengths and simplifying the entire installation process, we are setting new standards that we believe will become the benchmark for the industry.”

In short, the goal here is to deliver a faster and simpler installation for FTTP broadband lines (i.e. lower skill level required), which usually also results in cost savings and removes some of the need for bulky traditional equipment. Changes like this might not be as interesting as talking about actual network builds and coverage, but they do play a role in helping to bring the cost and use of such infrastructure down.

News

Discussions are reportedly ongoing that would see the Japanese telecoms giant purchase a 49% stake in PLDT’s data centre business

This week, PLDT Chairman Manuel Pangilinan has confirmed to Reuters that discussions are underway regarding the sale of up to 49% of the company’s data centre business unit to Japan’s NTT.

PLDT operates 11 data centres across the Philippines via its IT services subsidiary ePLDT. This unit, sources say, could be valued at as much as $750 million.

For NTT, the deal represents its latest push into the data centre sector, a field it expects to grow rapidly in value due to the rapid evolution of generative AI technology. Already this year the company has announced it will build a new data centre in Paris and a third date centre campus in Berlin.

Overall, NTT says it will invest $10 billion to expand its data centre presence between 2023 and 2027.

For PLDT, on the other hand, the deal is seen as an opportunity to reduce its debt, which sats at $5.47 billion at the end of 2023, despite efforts to reduce it through previous asset sales, like its tower infrastructure back in 2022.

According to sources, no decisions have yet been made regarding the stake sale, but a deal is expected to be announced by the second half of this year.

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Also in the news:
T-Mobile and EQT form JV to buy Lumos
Korean Air shows off comprehensive urban air mobility system backed by 5G
Virgin Media O2 reaches plastic waste milestone

Oxfordshire-based alternative UK broadband network and ISP Zzoomm, which have built their 2Gbps Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network to cover 190,000 premises (RFS) in England, has revealed that their network has already achieved a take-up rate of 10% in the South Yorkshire town of Penistone – after only going live in 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 from a slow-down and job cuts (here and here).

The deployment in Penistone, which has a population of around 25,000, is a fairly recent development and the main reason for the strong take-up can be at least partly attributed to the fact that Zzoomm are likely to be the only gigabit-capable broadband provider available (Openreach only has a tiny bit of FTTP).

On the other hand, it’s currently unclear how much of the town Zzoomm actually covers, although the operator does indicate that the “majority of the build” is now complete (not clear if this covers the “majority” of the town). We should add that Northern Fibre, FullFibre Ltd and Quickline are also known to have plans for parts of the Penistone town or surrounding areas.

Chris Collinson, Chief Commercial Officer at Zzoomm, said:

“We’re excited to see such a significant number of Penistone residents joining Zzoomm in just the few weeks since completing the majority of the build. It’s evident that the residents and businesses of Penistone recognise the advantages of gigafast broadband and are embracing our investment in cutting-edge Full Fibre technology.”

We’re thrilled to foster innovation by providing access to our gigafast Full Fibre network to homes and businesses in Penistone. At Zzoomm, we firmly believe in ensuring that everyone has access to dependable, forward-thinking broadband services.”

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. The ISP is also offering a £100 Amazon gift card to new customers on some plans.

News 

The scheme will allow enterprise customers to trial its underwater data centres before purchasing 

Underwater data centre provider Subsea Cloud (SSC), has announced the launch of ‘Project OTTO’, allowing users the opportunity to trial its solutions before making a permanent commitment. 

The US-based company constructs, deploys, and maintains subsea data centres, which can be deployed at depths of up to 9,500ft. It aims to create clean and scalable cloud infrastructure that can “out-compete rigid and expensive land-based centres” and claims its data centres offer unparalleled physical security compared to land-based ones. 

Data require costly and extensive cooling to ensure they are running at maximum efficiency. This is often achieved through liquid cooling, using water and/or other dielectric fluids to keep hardware cool. By placing the data centres themselves underwater, cool water becomes readily available at all times, dramatically reducing the amount of power used to facilitate the liquid cooling process.  

Additionally, underwater data centres are secure from security threats or natural disasters. 

According to SSC, submerged data centre technology could be a viable solution around the world, with more than half of the world’s population living within 120 miles of the coast. 

SSC has conducted individual trials with clients across various sectors over the last three years, but notes that this process can be prohibitively expensive. As a result, Project OTTO has been launched to enable companies to trial the technology without the need for costly individual deployments. 

“Project OTTO offers a testing platform for companies seeking power and cost reductions, but that remain unfamiliar with the subsea environment,” explained Max Reynolds, the company’s founder and CEO. 

“This project is driven by practical and mutual benefits. It eliminates the opportunity costs and the financial burden associated with the previous one-on-one approach for us and our clients,” she continued. 

Trial participants will receive 30-90 days of testing time in the unit before committing to larger-scale deployments.  

The anticipated benefits of the project are significant power and cost savings. Clients can expect to experience a 100% reduction in water usage and power consumed for cooling, a 40% decrease in carbon emissions, and a 30% reduction in operational costs. 

In addition to its focus on operational efficiency, SSC is actively pursuing opportunities with offshore wind farms as part of its commitment to sustainability. 

“By collocating with offshore wind farms, we not only mitigate challenges related to power transmission attenuation but also enhance the value proposition of aging European offshore wind portfolios,” explained SCC partner Peter Stensgård Hansen. 

Join us at this year’s Submarine Networks EMEA, 29-30 May in London. Get your tickets here! 

Also in the news:
T-Mobile and EQT form JV to buy Lumos
Korean Air shows off comprehensive urban air mobility system backed by 5G
Virgin Media O2 reaches plastic waste milestone

Network operator Freedom Fibre, which has so far built a Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP network to cover 300,000 UK premises (27th Mar 2024) – mostly in the North West of England, has distributed litter picking kits across North Shropshire to both help keep the region tidy and support their social commitment under last year’s Project Gigabit contract.

In case anybody has forgotten, during May 2023 the company announced that it had secured a £24m state-aid supported Project Gigabit contract to expand their FTTP network to cover 12,000 of the hardest to reach (rural) premises in North Shropshire (England) by around the end of 2026. In addition to this, Freedom Fibre will extend its network to a further c.50,000 premises in the same county via commercial investment.

The build phase recently began and the first properties – in locations such as Cockshutt, Hinstock, High Ercall, Bomere Heath, Hadnall, Cheswardine and Clive – aren’t expected to start going live on the new network until around October 2024. But as part of the operator’s related social value commitments, they’ve now started handing out litter pick kits across North Shropshire.

Every parish in North Shropshire has been invited to apply for a kit, consisting of litter pickers, bin bags and hoop-holders, gloves and ‘Keep Shropshire Tidy’ high-visibility jackets. But it’s unclear precisely how many such kits have been set aside for this.

Marie Danby, Freedom Fibre’s Customer Operations Director, said:

“As we roll-out our full-fibre broadband network across North Shropshire, it is important to us that we invest in and support the communities where we are operating. We’re so happy to distribute these litter pick kit, and we hope that local groups will make good use of them.”

Press Release 

London, UK – Submarine Networks EMEA, the region’s most important subsea connectivity event, is returning to London’s Business Design Centre on 28–29 May. 

Hosted by communications media and events specialist Total Telecom, this year’s event will bring together over 1,000 senior leaders from the global subsea market for two jam-packed days of learning, collaboration, and exclusive networking opportunities. 

The submarine cable industry represents the backbone of the global digital economy and plays an integral role in keeping communities and businesses around the globe connected. Submarine Networks EMEA will feature updates on cable projects from across the region and beyond, including North America and Latin America. 

This year’s event will feature 120 speakers discussing nine carefully selected themes designed to address the current challenges and opportunities within the subsea connectivity arena: 

Commercial Strategy 
Sustainability 
Market Dynamics 
Data Centres 
Technology Innovations 
Security 
The Future of Subsea 
Installation, Maintenance, and Operations 
Regulation 

“As we continue to navigate through a rapidly changing world, the importance of robust, secure, and sustainable subsea connectivity has never been more prominent,” said Rob Chambers, Managing Director of Total Telecom. 

“Submarine Networks EMEA serves as a pivotal gathering point for leading professionals to explore new ideas, share valuable insights, and forge connections that will shape the future of our industry,” he continued. 

Submarine Networks EMEA will also feature a pre-event masterclass, hosted by senior industry experts from Ciena. Covering the exciting topic of the impact of AI on subsea networks, guests will be treated to an afternoon of industry insights, followed by an exclusive evening drinks reception. 

For more information, or to register to attend the event, click here. Please note that you must be registered to attend the main conference to attend the pre-event masterclass. Apply to register here. 

—- 

About Total Telecom
Since 1997, Total Telecom has provided the connection between the buyers and sellers in the global telecom market. We do this through high quality editorial content and events to facilitate discussion on industry issues, and recognise innovation and excellence by companies and individuals.   

Our community of 120,000+ telecom professionals rely on Total Telecom for daily news and regular in-depth insight, delivered through a number of channels including online, video, social media, and at our series of events.  

Our award-winning event portfolio includes, Broadband Communities Summit, the World Communication Awards, Connected North, Connected Germany, and the UK’s largest connectivity event Connected Britain.    

A recent Freedom of Information Request (FoIR) filed by Broadband Genie has revealed that complaints to Ofcom about UK telecoms providers (broadband, mobile etc.) increased by 37% last year to 34,000. In response, the comparison site has published a new survey of customer service, which sees YouFibre, Trooli and Zen Internet top the table.

Consumers typically send their complaints about internet service and phone providers to different places, such as the provider itself, Ofcom, the ISPA or any one of two independent Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) complaints handlers (i.e. Communications Ombudsman or CISAS).

Ofcom does not typically investigate individual complaints themselves (they normally leave that up to ISPs and the ADR process), but they can use the feedback to help identify wider problems, which may result in larger investigations and possible penalties. For example, the regulator is currently investigating Virgin Media over digital phone migrations (here) and problems with service cancellations (here).

In response to this rise in complaints, the comparison site has today published new research that examines customer care in the broadband industry and ranks providers by their quality of customer service, among other things. But it’s worth noting that the results were based on a fairly small survey of 2,662 broadband bill payers – collected from 28th September 2023 – 8th February 2024.

Nevertheless, the top providers for customer service quality were found to be YouFibre (95%), Trooli (94%) and Zen Internet (89%). By comparison, the worst three providers were named as Onestream (48%), Airband (55%) and Shell Energy (58%). In terms of just the biggest four – BT ranked 11th (70%), Sky Broadband tied with BT’s score, TalkTalk ranked 16th (66%) and Virgin Media was way down in 22nd position (59%).

Survey of Customer Service Quality

1. YouFibre (95%)

2. Trooli (94%)

3. Zen Internet (89%)

4. toob (84%)

5. Plusnet (82%)

6. True Speed (81%)

7. Three (79%)

8. Community Fibre (76%)

9. NOW Broadband (71%)

10. Utility Warehouse (70%)

11. BT (70%)

12. Sky (70%)

13. Lit Fibre (69%)

14. Gigaclear (69%)

15. EE (68%)

16. TalkTalk (66%)

17. KCOM (65%)

18. Vodafone (64%)

19. BRSK (64%)

20. Hyperoptic (62%)

21. SSE (62%)

22. Virgin Media (59%)

23. WeFibre (58%)

24. Shell Energy Broadband (58%)

25. Airband (55%)

26. Onestream (48%)

Broadband, mobile and TV giant Virgin Media O2 has this morning revealed that they reduced their carbon emissions by 23% last year (or 45% since its baseline in 2020). At the same time, they also increased their fleet of Electric Vehicles (EV) to 281 – edging them toward their target to transition to a fully EV fleet by 2030 (c. 4,300 vehicles).

The figures were released as part of VMO2’s update to their sustainability strategy (Better Connections Plan), which among other things aims to achieve Net Zero Carbon (i.e. removing as many emissions as they produce) across their operations, products and supply chain by 2040 – some 10 years ahead of the UK’s goal.

In addition, the company has supported consumers to carry out 4.7 million ‘circular actions’ (e.g. recycling old tech or buying refurbished smartphones), against its 10 million goal by the end of 2025, and the O2 Recycle scheme saw almost 250,000 devices saved from landfill last year.

The operator also claims to have helped improve the digital skills of 2 million people in 2023 and is on track to reach 6 million by 2025. Elsewhere, the National Databank has provided a total of 41,933 O2 SIM cards and 188,149 of O2 data (mobile broadband) vouchers since launch. The company’s workers have also supported more than 100,000 people across the country with their five annual paid volunteering days.

In addition, VMO2 said they’ve removed 65 tonnes of single-use plastic since 2021, while also adding that 11 million routers and set-top boxes have now been refurbished and reused since 2014.

Lutz Schüler, CEO of Virgin Media O2, said:

“Our Better Connections Plan makes clear that we are a business that aims to deliver for our customers, for our communities and for our planet, and we made further strong progress across the board last year.

We are on track to meet our targets to cut Scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions by 60% by 2025 and deliver net zero carbon by 2040. We are supporting decarbonisation through the products and services we provide, encouraging circular actions among consumers, cutting our own use of plastic, and stepping up to support the communities we serve through initiatives designed to boost skills, tackle digital exclusion and provide free data and devices to those in need.

As a major UK business, we’re committed to reducing our environmental impact as we continue to provide fast and reliable connectivity to our millions of customers.”

Finally, it’s noted that the take-up of social broadband tariffs – Essential Broadband and Essential Broadband Plus – increased by 285% last year, although that will be starting from a fairly low base given how relatively young they are.