Technical UK consultancy firm FarrPoint has today published their second annual (2024) survey of digital leaders at councils across England, Scotland and Wales. The results reveal that getting more areas covered by gigabit broadband is still the top priority for the second year running, while 5G divides opinion. The report – FarrPoint Digital Connectivity Survey […]

Crowdsourced benchmarking firm Opensignal, which collects data from consumer speedtests, has today published a new summary of mobile broadband (4G and 5G) speeds across Europe – based on data from Q4 2023. But if you want to find the UK, you’ll need to look toward the bottom of the tables. In terms of the UK, […]

News

A selection of the month’s biggest news stories from the German telecoms market, with guest commentary provided by Rowan Thomson, Senior Conference Producer of Connected Germany, Total Telecom

EU launches Nostradamus – prepares Europe for a quantum world: A Deutsche Telekom-led consortium has been given a mandate by the European Commission to create testing infrastructure for quantum key distribution.

Nokia doubles down in Germany with €360 million investment  The Finnish vendor says the investment will cover chips, software, and hardware as part of a four-year European IPCEI (Important Projects of Common European Interest) project.

Deutsche Telekom and BREKO clash over duct access rights: As regulators continue to debate the Gigabit Infrastructure Act, industry association BREKO is clashing over potential changes that they say will lead to overbuild by incumbent operator Deutsche Telekom.

Telefónica increases stake in German unit to 93%: The Spanish operator group upped its stake in its German business by roughly 21% for €1.5 billion following a public tender process.

Vodafone Germany and Autobahn collaborate on 5G rollout: Vodafone will add 150 new 5G sites by the end of 2026, aiming to cover the entire German motorway system by 2028.

“Germany’s telecoms market is likely to see further consolidation and evolution as funding and investment are prioritised for the new year. Shared access to infrastructure, via open access, is likely to remain a key topic this year as well as avoiding overbuild – you can read in more detail on the disagreement between BREKO and Deutsche Telekom over duct access rights in our round up of German news above.

Away from the fibre market, we’re also taking a look at developments in mobile, from Nokia’s increased investment in Germany to the collaboration between Vodafone and the Autobahn to extend the 5G network across Germany’s motorways. Make sure you subscribe to our newsletter to get the latest industry news from Germany and further afield.”

– Rowan Thomson, Senior Conference Producer of Connected Germany, Total Telecom

Click here to receive Total Telecom’s daily newsletter direct to your inbox

Want to keep up with all the latest developments in the German telecoms market? Join the ecosystem in discussion at this year’s Connected Germany conference live in Munich

News 

The move aims to build skills and foster AI innovation within the industry 

The GSMA and IBM have joined forces to announce the launch of GSMA Advances’ AI Training programme and the GSMA Foundry using Watsonx, IBM’s AI and data platform with AI assistants. 

The training is aimed at telecoms leaders and executives to prepare them for the AI era, and will take place at IBM offices in Dubai, London, Mexico, New York, and Seoul throughout the year. 

The training experience will span a wide range of topics, ranging from AI basics to specialised Generative AI (GenAI) applications for the telecoms sector. The Foundry will also allow them to access industry specific use cases of GenAI. 

Research from IBM showed that 40% of telecoms companies surveyed are experimenting with GenAI in some form, and 45% have accelerated the rollout of AI. Additionally, GSMA research found that 56% of operators are already trialling GenAI products, but this is notably less common in smaller operators. 

“Artificial Intelligence provides the telecoms industry, and the societies it serves, with huge opportunities to launch new services, improve connectivity and customer experience. Overall, it’s estimated that AI could contribute $15.7 trillion1 to the global economy by 2030,” said the GSMA’s Chief Technology Officer Alex Sinclair in a press release. 

“However, it’s critical that AI is democratised to ensure that all parts of the connectivity industry and their customers, wherever they are in the world, benefit,” he continued. 

The GSMA is set to share more details on the programme at this year’s upcoming Mobile World Congress.

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

Virgin Media O2 and Tesco Mobile renew joint venture
Japanese government pledges $307m to NTT, Intel, and SK Hynix for chip project
AWS confirms $10bn Mississippi data centre development  

News

The company’s winning bid of $322.1 million comfortably exceeded analyst expectations

This week, South Korea’s Ministry of Science and ICT has announced the results of its latest spectrum auction process, revealing Stage X as the winner poised to become the country’s fourth national mobile network operator.

Stage X, owned by a consortium led by tech giant Kakao Corp., placed the winning bid of $322.1 million for a licence in the 28 GHz (‘mmWave’) band.

As part of the licencing terms, Stage X will be required to build 6,000 base stations nationwide within the first three years and implement various measures to address frequency congestion and interference.

“We will work to become a new brand in the communications market and facilitate fresh and innovative changes in the market by boosting the 5G network service,” said Stage X CEO Seo Sang-won in a statement.

South Korea’s relationship with mmWave spectrum has been somewhat fraught. All three of the country’s major mobile operators – SK Telecom, LG U+, and KT – won five-year spectrum licences in the 28 GHz back in 2018, paying a collective $463.7 million for the privilege. These licences carried rollout obligations, with the group required to jointly deploy 15,000 mmWave base stations by 2021.

However, all the operators missed these targets by significant margins, instead focussing their 5G rollout on the more utilitarian mid-band spectrum, leading the South Korean regulator to revoke the mmWave licences of LG and KT entirely in 2022. SK Telecom, which had performed slightly better than its rivals, initially simply had the length of its licence reduced by six months, but its licence was ultimately cancelled too last year due to a lack of improvement.

By the start of 2023, the South Korean Ministry of Science and ICT had already devised plans to reauction the spectrum, notably setting aside a tranche of spectrum for a new market entrant, saying this would drive up 5G competition.

By late last month, multiple parties were reported as interested in acquiring the licence, with three named by media reports as Sejong Telecom, Stage X, and My Mobile Consortium.

Sejong Telecom is an existing internet service provider and mobile virtual network operator, while Stage X and My Mobile Consortium are purpose-built partnerships between various tech firms to participate in the spectrum auction.

Having won the auction, Stage X says it plans to work alongside major smartphone manufacturers like Samsung, Apple, and Google, to develop mmWave 5G-capable smartphones.

This is certainly an interesting proposition. mmWave is characterised by shorter range and penetration than more traditional midband 5G but has considerably higher speeds. As such, operators have typically focussed their mmWave projects on more focussed deployments thus far, such as for backhaul or fixed wireless access services – the latter having been a huge success in the US, and increasingly elsewhere.

Using mmWave spectrum for 5G mobile subscriber connectivity will be more challenging, requiring denser (and therefore more expensive) infrastructure deployments to ensure consistent coverage. On the other hand, customers connecting to mmWave 5G will have access to incredible speeds, potentially enabling far more extravagant 5G-adjacent, latency-sensitive services, such as extended reality.

So far, most operators around the world have baulked at the idea of such largescale deployments of mmWave spectrum, struggling to see the business case as viable, particularly in today’s economic climate. But if there is any 5G market in which mmWave 5G smartphones could prove a success it is South Korea, with its strong consumer appetite for the latest technologies and services.

Stage X now has three years to prove the business case for consumer mmWave. The company’s rivals will surely be watching closely.

Keep up with all the latest news from the international telecoms community with Total Telecom’s daily newsletter

Also in the news:
EE dominates RootMetrics benchmarking study but loses 5G crown to Three
FCC updates spectrum rules to facilitate broadband access on ships and aircraft
UK government strikes deal with Vodafone over e& security concerns

The UK telecoms regulator, Ofcom, has today moved to strengthen their existing rules against the use of “fake phone numbers” and “spoofed calls“, which involves a proposal for phone providers (fixed line and mobile) to introduce stricter measures against “Presentation Numbers” that are used to identify who is making a call. Most of the major […]

Viewpoint

Dan Bloch, Senior Vice President of Global Solutions at Calix, shares his insights on how independent fibre-to-the-premise (FTTP) providers can win the customer acquisition battle and unleash their brand’s potential. 

Independent and alternative network operators, or altnets, will play a key role in building out a modern digital infrastructure. As altnets continue to construct fibre networks, they are also expanding their focus to subscriber acquisition—and for good reason.

“A fibre network is an amazing community asset, especially in areas that have been traditionally under-served or ignored altogether,” says Bloch. “When these networks are built using public funds, the return on investment is the building of the infrastructure itself, and success is measured by how many homes are passed. But when private funding comes into play, investors want to see financial returns. Their measure of success is defined by profitability and long-term monetisation, and the first step towards that is to connect as many homes as possible.”

Building a Winning Brand

How can altnets adapt their business models to make this shift successfully? According to Bloch, it’s all about the brand. The first step is to build brand awareness and trust that will attract and retain subscribers with value-added offerings once the network is deployed. To date, this has taken a backseat to building the actual network.

“Most altnets I’ve spoken with have been initially focused on homes passed as their funding was targeted on network build. Adding subscribers took a backseat in terms of focus and now we are seeing that situation turn around as generating revenue is mandatory to ensure continued operations of the business. While intentions were always there, in reality, everything needs to happen in parallel,” says Bloch.

Just as important as adding subscribers is the ability to deliver on the brand’s promise at each customer touchpoint. This consistency will result in a strong, sustainable that will provide a competitive differentiator in an industry plagued by poor customer satisfaction: the average Net Promoter Score (NPS) for altnets in the United Kingdom is a dismal 12*.

“Users’ experiences are defined by how they use the networks, what they are doing while they are on them,” explains Bloch. He compares the network to a brand-new motorway with many lanes to accommodate a lot of traffic. He notes that in fact, like the Autobahn, the fibre network is capable of much higher speeds than other roads. But the driving experience is associated with the car they’re steering, rather than the road they’re on.

“No one driving on it knows which companies were involved in building it,” he says. “It is simply the roadway that enables the driver’s experience, which is largely dictated by the car they are in. For the builders of the motorway, they get no brand equity for that experience.”

While the natural inclination is to address this by focusing on speed and pricing, the results of a 2023 Calix survey of service providers indicate that this may not be the right strategy. Most subscribers purchase half a gigabit or less, which implies that speed is simply not enough of a differentiator.

Going Beyond Connectivity To Exceed Subscriber Expectations

Instead, successful altnets making a splash in the market are customising the in-home subscriber experience by offering value-added services coupled with a persona mindset. That means appealing to consumers based on what they care about. And it seems that subscribers are willing to pay for this level of personalisation. According to an Omdia Digital Consumer Insights Survey, subscribers in the United Kingdom said they would pay extra for:

Work-from-home service and plans (55%)
Cybersecurity options (51%)
Advanced Wi-Fi management capabilities (45%)
Tech support for all connected devices (43%)
Prioritised video streaming (40%)
A better gaming experience (35%)

A unified broadband platform, such as Calix Cloud, that enables you to partner with known entities to deliver third-party, value-added services and grow your business is key, says Bloch. “Your platform must deliver the capabilities you need to sustain service delivery, keep operating costs at bay, and engage with subscribers to attract, retain, and nurture these relationships.”

This includes services for small businesses currently leveraging enterprise offerings that may not meet their unique needs. Altnets made the investment to pull fibre into areas that are made up of homes, businesses, and communities. To maximise the return on investment, every possible endpoint should be connected to that infrastructure to increase network penetration and revenue.

Altnets don’t need to spend millions of dollars on advertising to achieve success either, emphasises Bloch. For example, the Calix platform provides a content marketing toolkit that includes award-winning marketing content with more than 5,000 pieces of digital content that can be branded with the broadband service provider’s logo and colour scheme to help them drive successful campaigns.

Bloch underscored the changing landscape and opportunities it provides for altnets, likening it to his company’s own journey over the past two decades. “Calix has evolved from a network-first focus to a more holistic approach that places value-added services and persona-based marketing at the forefront of the subscriber experience,” he says. “We are committed to this win-win strategy that will help altnets drive acquisition, growth, and retention.”

*Source: Ofcom report UKRN: Moving Forward Together – Performance Scorecards 2021.

Dan Bloch, SVP Global Solutions at Calix

Dan.bloch@calix.com

LinkedIn

Customers of BT’s Redcare division, which supplies monitored alarm signalling systems to UK homes and businesses that enable fire, security and more to be monitored over a secure network, have informed ISPreview that the telecoms operator has communicated their plans to close the Redcare service on 1st August 2025. According to the “Important notice” sent […]

Broadband and telecoms giant BT Group has today posted a short trading update for the last quarter to December 2023, which reveals that Openreach expanded the UK coverage of their Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) based broadband ISP network by another 950,000 premises (up from 860k last quarter) to total 13 million passed. Take note that the BT […]

A new Opinium survey of 4,000 UK adults, which was commissioned by Uswitch, has claimed that 44% of renters – who typically move home more frequently than any other group – remain locked into 18-24 month contracts with their broadband provider and 23% had to pay exit fees to leave their ISP when their tenancy […]