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The Government has today proposed to switch-off terrestrial TV signals in either 2034 or 2044 as part of a wider change to reflect the move to internet-based streaming, provided broadband coverage is ready to support the transition (they expect it to be). Support will also be provided to the UK homes that may struggle to afford broadband, possibly backed by a new subsidy scheme.

Over the past couple of decades there has been a significant shift in how we all access and view TV content. Traditional Digital Terrestrial TV (DTT) signals are in decline and internet (IP)-based streaming platforms are on the rise (e.g. Netflix, Amazon, Sky Glass / Sky Stream, YouTube, Disney+, Freely and so forth).

The Public Service Broadcasters’ (i.e. BBC, ITV, Channel 4 etc.) have recognised this shift and forecast it will be necessary to transition to streaming / IPTV solutions in the mid-2030s. Otherwise, they warn, it could become increasingly challenging for them to bear double costs from running multiple distribution platforms.

At the same time Ofcom have been busy introducing new rules to help lay the groundwork for a more streaming centric future (here, here and here), such as by modernising the country’s broadcasting regulations, while also expanding them to cover IP-based video-on-demand (VoD) and streaming services.

Until today the UK Government had already committed to the future of DTT until 2034, but a question mark has continued to exist over how long the service could continue beyond this date.

Obstacles to the DTT Switch Off

One of the biggest challenges in making such a major shift stem from the fact that not everybody may be ready for it. According to a previous 2024 Government report on the future of TV distribution (here), come 2040 it’s forecast that some 5% of UK homes (1.5 million) will still rely on digital terrestrial television via the air waves.

Just to be clear. The 1.5 million figure reflects 0.4 million homes that will opt not to connect to broadband and 1.1 million homes that will have broadband, but which will not connect their TVs to use an internet TV service. “These viewers are more likely to identify as female and to live on their own. They are also more likely to live in the north of England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, be on low incomes and have a disability,” said the report.

The same report predicted that “superfast broadband” (30Mbps+) would reach at least 99.65% of homes by 2030 (at the end of 2025 it was around 98.5%), although such figures may be open to debate given the recent slowdown in some deployments of even faster broadband networks.

The above is relevant because most services currently require a download speed of c.5-6Mbps to support a single HD video stream (c.15-30Mbps for UltraHD / 4K), but this figure will actually shrink as more platforms adopt increasingly sophisticated compression and codecs. But of course, home users also need their connections for other tasks, hence why speeds of 30Mbps+ are considered somewhat of a basic requirement for any transition away from DTT.

The government’s proposals

The UK government has today published a new Green Paper on their proposed approach to the future of TV distribution in the UK – ‘Watch this Space: A new strategic direction for UK media‘, which proposes a series of changes and options for how the process should be tackled.

Key Proposals of the Green Paper

➤ The government “sees a strong case” for a managed transition to internet-based TV services by 2034, not least because it expects the necessary broadband connectivity “to be in place to support a transition in 2034” and views this date as being able to “unlock a range of strategic, economic and consumer benefits“.

However, it also recognises the “challenges involved” and is consulting on an alternative option too, which would be a transition by 2044 – offering a 10-year extension to the DTT platform. This would involve maintaining a hybrid DTT/IPTV model until 2044, while preserving universal free-to-air access for households that are slower to adopt broadband, including older and more vulnerable viewers.

The 2044 model would overall “allow for a gradual, lower-risk transition“, not least because it says “near-universal access to IPTV is not anticipated until the early 2040s” (i.e. when 30Mbps+ should be universal).

➤ The government will reform the UK’s Public Service Media (PSM) system to ensure it delivers for the public and gives the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, 5, STV, and S4C more flexibility to attract audiences online. For example, social media companies and video sharing platforms will be required to make sure that news content from PSMs and “other trustworthy providers” is prominent and easy to find on their platforms (i.e. being more likely to be at the top of people’s social media feeds when they search for news).

Changes are being considered to make the system more flexible – this could mean that other broadcasters and YouTube channels could similarly be designated as PSM providers in the future.

➤ On-demand rights for major sporting events to be added to the free-to-air ‘Listed Events Regime‘ (currently this only covers the rights required to show events live), which aims to protect free access for fans to the World Cup, Wimbledon, Olympics and other major sporting events (i.e. stopping them being put behind a paywall). “Bringing on-demand rights in scope of the regime will make sure these sporting moments continue to be provided for free in the future by PSM on digital and online platforms – rather than just traditional TV channels,” said the government.

➤ Options for improving media literacy are also being considered to make sure that people of all ages have the skills they need to critically think about the content they are consuming online and on social media. The government is exploring the possibility of introducing a new duty on PSM providers to deliver and report on media literacy activity, allowing best practice to be shared more widely, with the aim of building on work already being done under the Media Literacy Action Plan.

➤ The government will work with industry and audience groups on a support programme to help transition their viewing to IPTV services and “make the most of the additional benefits this provides“. This package will depend on industry and a strong ecosystem working together to develop and deliver it: PSM providers, platform operators, telecoms providers, manufacturers and retailers, charities and local delivery partners, each playing their part.

Some of the options being considered for this are low-cost or subsidised broadband for people receiving benefits or on low incomes; as well as low-cost or discounted internet capable TV sets for people on low incomes; and distributing simple / affordable streaming devices that connect older TVs sets to the internet with no ongoing fees.

The government also seeks views on how TV and streaming platforms can develop “services and systems that feel the same as digital terrestrial television so they are easy to use for people with limited digital skills“. This includes straightforward setup, direct access to live channels on start-up, and intuitive navigation via remote controls and electronic programme guides, alongside reliable provision of accessibility features such as subtitles, audio description, and sign language.

The Media Green Paper’s public consultation starts today (23rd June 2026) and will run for 10 weeks until 31st August 2026.

Culture Secretary, Lisa Nandy, said:

“It is vital that we make sure that people have better access to trusted and accurate news and that our regulated public service media is seen and heard in the fierce battle against mis and disinformation.

As the media landscape moves further and further online away from traditional broadcasting we must act so that our world-leading TV sector continues to thrive and top quality UK content keeps being produced.

TV remains at the heart of our society. It is key to supporting social cohesion and is a cornerstone of our democracy, which is why, as the technology underpinning it changes, we are making sure it is protected for generations to come.”

The full report goes into lots more detail, although the government also makes clear that it “does not see a further extension of DTT beyond 2044 as either economically sustainable or desirable“, while the preferred approach seems to be for a transition to take place in time for 2034 – when they expect the country to already have the right broadband connectivity ready (this assumes Project Gigabit will hit their 2032 target of c.99% coverage).

However, the key focus will clearly be on that small group of homes who have either refused (or been unable) to upgrade their broadband to cope with internet-connected TV streaming, or those who continue to use a traditional TV service for other reasons (income, disability, choice etc.). If the consultation ultimately concludes that this is a problem that can be resolved by 2034 with minimal support, then that’s the direction we can expect.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Mobile operator O2 (Virgin Media) has this morning revealed that they will start switching off their “decades-old” 2G network starting in Summer 2029. The move follows their successful 3G switch off programme, which was completed at the end of 2025. But removing 2G is a slower and more complex process due to the many services that still depend upon it.

Just to recap. O2 and other mobile operators are currently in the process of preparing to switch off their legacy 2G mobile networks, although it’s expected to take several years longer to completely retire 2G as it remains necessary for various devices (e.g. Energy Smart Meters / IoT) and as a fallback in areas of poor 4G or 5G signals. Suffice to say that more time has to be allowed for the transition to go smoothly.

As with the prior 3G switch-off, the move will free up radio spectrum so that it can be re-farmed to further improve the network coverage and the mobile broadband speeds of more modern 4G and 5G networks, as well as future 6G services. The switch-off will also reduce the operators’ costs and power consumption.

The 2G network today carries less than 0.5% of all data on VMO2’s mobile network and is already closed for international roaming. But on the flip side, 2G also accounts for more than 10% of the company’s total cell site energy consumption, while 4G and 5G networks are said to be “10 times more efficient“. The move will thus contribute to VMO2’s wider plans to reach net-zero by 2040.

Jeanie York, CTO at Virgin Media O2, said:

“We’re investing £700m this year to transform our mobile network and ensure it can keep pace with growing consumer demand. As we look to the future, we’ll be switching off the old 2G network so we can double down on providing all customers with the reliable and efficient 4G and 5G mobile services they expect.

Having recently switched off our 3G network and signed up to the government 2G switch-off charter, we know exactly how to do this responsibly and without disrupting customers. While most customers won’t need to take any action at all, some businesses might need to start planning for this now.

We will communicate with customers directly and ensure we support everyone as this essential upgrade takes place.”

The operator states that the “vast majority of customers won’t need to take any action during this switch-off period“, but anyone relying on the network, including organisations using it to connect IoT devices, will need to take action before summer 2029 to avoid disruption.

VMO2 said they’re committed to helping those who may need additional support – for example those who still use older devices (many of these will have been helped during the prior 3G switch-off, but not all). The company will be contacting customers well in advance to ensure they are aware of these changes and will aim to clearly outline the steps they need to take and their options, with support pages and trained agents on hand to help.

The switch off will also affect O2 Business customers, as well as customers of O2’s various virtual operator partners (MVNOs), such as giffgaff, Tesco Mobile and Sky Mobile. According to the Public Accounts Committee (here), an estimated 7 million Smart Meters may need to have their 2G/3G modules upgraded to 4G to avoid a huge connectivity problem. The programme to do this began last year (here).

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has announced that they’re investigating a UK-based telecoms services provider called Internet Mobile Communications Limited (aka – Bank of Telecom) over allegations of “suspected fraud, false accounting, and money laundering“. The company collapsed into administration back in June 2024.

The company ran an international platform selling telecom services for over 12 years from its base in Chelmsford, Essex. At its peak, IMC operated around the world, processing millions of internet telephone minutes and SMS transactions annually, presenting itself as one of the largest virtual telecommunications marketplaces of its kind.

However, the company’s collapse in 2024 left some creditors in debt, while a number of reports at the time also indicated that restructuring experts at Interpath were struggling to account for a £15 million black hole in the company’s accounts. Now, some two years on since that event, we may now have a better idea of why.

The SFO, which for “operational reasons” has opted to keep their activity “covert” (until now), has said they’ve been working alongside a parallel investigation by the District Attorney’s Office of New York to investigate allegations of “suspected fraud, false accounting, and money laundering” within the company.

Graham McNulty QPM, Director of the Serious Fraud Office, said:

“Serious financial crime does not stop at borders, and neither do we. The SFO works closely with our international partners to ensure there are no safe havens for those suspected of fraud. Our investigation into these allegations will be thorough, independent and evidence-led.”

At present there are no further details and it remains unclear how long we’ll have to wait for an outcome, although it’s not uncommon for investigations like this to result in people being sent to jail. The SFO would only confirm that, at the start of June 2026, they conducted an interview under caution of a man in his sixties as part of its ongoing investigation.

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Customers of consumer broadband provider TalkTalk, specifically those looking to engage with their community forum, have spent the past few days scratching their heads after both the forum and many supporting support pages on the provider’s website – including their all important ‘Service Status’ page – suddenly went offline.

The situation appears to have started around Friday 19th June 2026, at least that’s the date given on the general notice, which TalkTalk seems to have stuck to various related TalkTalk Community pages since last week. But the notice merely said “our Community Forum is unavailable at the moment“, without saying for how long, and those who go looking for the Service Status page are greeted with the same message.

In the past few minutes their Service Status page has been changed again and now directs to a different URL, albeit one that seemingly sends visitors around in circles and back to a generic notice with no information. Clearly the ISP appears to be dealing with a few technical problems on their website at the moment, which will hopefully be resolved soon. We are currently awaiting an update from the provider.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Broadband ISP BT has informed ISPreview that last Friday’s (19th June) FIFA World Cup 2026 match between Scotland v Morocco, which kicked off at 11pm BST (UK time), sent streaming demand across their network soaring, with a 544% increase in peak traffic through ITVX compared with an average evening.

The catch is that most people will have been home and watching this offline via a regular TV. So while the event may have been big on ITVX, it didn’t appear to move the overall level of general UK internet traffic by a significant margin. But it still had an impact, particularly given that this time of night is usually fairly quiet.

Nevertheless, across the full 11pm – 1am match window, BT also saw peak ITVX traffic rise by 219% compared with the busiest five-minute period during an average week, showing how Scotland’s World Cup moments are increasingly driving major streaming spikes alongside traditional TV viewing.

In Scotland, Glasgow led the way as the city most engaged with the game, generating more than three times the ITVX traffic of Edinburgh, the next highest city. Dundee followed in third, ahead of Perth, Dunfermline, Aberdeen, Stirling and Inverness.

Original article Total Telecom:Read More

Viewpoint, Comarch Communications

The European telecommunications market is expected to grow slowly, at just 2% to 3% by 2029. Because of this slow growth and the challenges of a complex global economy, operators are rethinking how they work. The industry is now looking beyond traditional consumer cellular services, which are only growing at 3% to 4%, and is moving toward broader communication ecosystems, including mission-critical networks, satellite infrastructure, and massive IoT deployments.

These challenges and emerging trends were extensively discussed at the recent Comarch User Group gathering, highlighting the critical paths operators must take to stay competitive. The event hosted over 700 partners from 53 countries across 8 streams, including 201 connectivity experts.

Economic pressures and productivity demands

The global economy now demands high levels of investment, especially in technology. Major countries are spending heavily. China, for example, is allocating 25% of its GDP to infrastructure and technology, creating far more value than Europe’s tech investments. In this competitive environment, traditional efficiency methods are not enough. Communication Service Providers (CSPs) need to boost productivity by quickly adopting new technologies.

“Global markets are pivoting towards AI adoption, where traditional efficiency methods simply won’t be enough to keep pace with the global economy. As we emphasized alongside our partners at the recent Comarch User Group, CSPs must fundamentally rethink their operational models. We can no longer rely solely on consumer cellular services, we must pivot aggressively toward broader, more complex ecosystems and services that encompass mission-critical networks, massive IoT deployments, and autonomous multi-orbit satellite infrastructure,” commented Marcin Kaleta, CEO at Comarch Communications.

Tackling complexity with Agentic AI

One of the main challenges for CSPs is handling the growing complexity of their networks. Right now, up to 40% of network outages are caused by human error, and 88% of digital transformations do not meet their goals. To address this, the industry is moving from basic automation, which depends on humans following rules, to Agentic AI, where systems take on more responsibility within set policies.

Client case studies presented at the Comarch User Group this year highlighted that changing systems to support intent-based actions allows for as much as 30% to 40% cut in Network Operations Center costs and a 10% to 20% faster Mean Time to Repair (MTTR). However, only 6% of CSPs have the data streaming abilities needed to fully use advanced AI models, meaning that technical readiness is still a big hurdle.

Massive IoT deployments and API Economy

Integrating Massive IoT into 5G networks brings new physical and technical challenges. The old way of constantly checking devices drains batteries and can overload the network. During the inaugural IoT Connectivity Forum at CUG 2026, experts detailed that switching to an event-driven setup and using the 5G RedCap standard makes it easier to manage connected devices. Standardizing CAMARA interfaces and Network Exposure Functions (NEF) also helps operators move toward an “API economy.” This change enables them to monetize network Quality of Service (QoS) through targeted microservices, making CSPs more than just simple data carriers.

Overcoming technology debt with modular systems

To take advantage of these new revenue opportunities, operators need to address their existing technology debt. Old, monolithic systems often slow down IT teams and pose significant risks when changes are made. Instead of replacing everything at once, the industry is moving to composable Business Support Systems (BSS) using the TMF Open Digital Architecture. This modular approach allows for targeted upgrades, such as adding cloud-native billing engines that can scale resources as needed.

Jacek Prokop, BSS Product Marketing Manager at Comarch Communications, highlighted this topic, referring to monolithic legacy systems as a “silent killer”. To mitigate the risks of migrating away from these monoliths, he introduced the concept of operational digital twins within a modular architecture present in Comarch Communications’ Composable BSS suite: “We are giving you a secure, isolated sandbox where you can clone and test your real production data, like orders and products, without ever touching the live system.”

Sovereign networks in the face of global instability

Geopolitical instability has made connectivity more than just a basic service – it is now seen as a key part of national sovereignty. There is a clear gap in space infrastructure: the US has many more satellites and launches them much more often than Europe. To reduce this dependency, programs like the European Union’s IRIS² are investing €10 billion in building a secure, multi-orbit satellite network. Running this kind of infrastructure requires ground software that can manage complex data and mission control autonomously, without relying on other countries.

Preparing core architecture for the next decade

As the industry faces economic pressures and the need to improve productivity quickly, it is important to focus on core architecture rather than individual use cases. Building modular systems and supporting operational independence will be key for operators who want to profit from new ecosystems.

Looking ahead, CSPs need to ask themselves an important question: Is our data architecture strong enough to support autonomous agents and sovereign networks so we can stay competitive in the next decade?

The post Comarch User Group 2026: Navigating the 2% Growth Trap with Agentic AI and Composable Architecture appeared first on Total Telecom.

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Edinburgh-based alternative UK broadband network GoFibre, which is building a gigabit full fibre (FTTP) network across rural parts of Scotland and Northern England, has today awarded £12,000 to four community projects under their GoFurther fund in the Scottish Borders area where their infrastructure is being built.

The GoFurther Fund currently offers grants of up to £3,000 (each) to help local charity projects and community organisations in the Scottish Borders and other areas. Applicants to the fund must present projects that meet one or more of four criteria: Environmental Benefit, Community Wellbeing, Education and Skills, or Internet Safety and Digital Inclusion.

The latest four funding awards saw £3,000 being allocated to Cornerstone Community Care (Galashiels), The General Store (Selkirk), Stable Life (near Selkirk) and Hawick High School Inclusion Hub (Hawick), supporting adults with learning disabilities, older residents facing everyday tech barriers and young people who need alternative routes to thrive.

Since launching in 2023, the GoFurther Fund has supported 17 charities and community organisations across its network areas, in addition to the latest Borders-based recipients.

Neil Conaghan, CEO at GoFibre said:

“Building full fibre broadband is an important part of our job, but it is not the whole story. How we show up for customers and invest back into the areas we serve matters just as much. These projects speak to that commitment as they each help people build confidence and skills and foster a sense of community through the region. The Borders is our home, and we’re genuinely looking forward to seeing the difference this funding makes for people across the region over the months ahead.”

To date, more than 6,500 homes and businesses are now able to connect to GoFibre’s network, with over 1,000 already connected across the Scottish Borders and East Lothian. The local network build is now complete in Innerleithen and Oxton, while work is taking place across Chirnside, Eyemouth and surrounding villages, Lauder, Denholm, Coldingham, St Abbs, and Jedburgh.

Further expansion is also underway in Kelso and Galashiels, where around 2,000 additional premises in each location are expected to benefit, contributing to the 20,000 total premises set to benefit across the wider region. The provider currently expects to deploy their new full fibre based broadband network to reach a total UK footprint of 250,000 premises by around mid-2028, and they were home to a total of around 15,000 customers as of June 2025.

Original article Total Telecom:Read More

Press Release

Major global sporting events have always attracted opportunistic fraud. The 2026 FIFA World Cup, played across the United States, Canada, and Mexico, is no exception. Every major cybersecurity vendor, and the FBI itself, has published warnings about the surge in FIFA-branded scam domains ahead of the tournament. That coverage has focused almost entirely on fan-facing fraud such as fake ticket sites, counterfeit merchandise stores, and phishing emails targeting supporters. But what CUJO AI’s Security Research Laboratory has unearthed is a separate, targeted campaign employing fake FIFA job portals designed to harvest corporate credentials from would-be job applicants. 

The targeting mechanism no one is talking about 

The researchers identified 21 domains posing as FIFA recruitment pages. These sites presented as professional-looking careers portals, carrying official FIFA branding, stolen recruiter profiles with photographs and job titles, and an invitation to schedule a 30-minute phone call via Google Calendar (Figure 1). Examples included fifa-careerhub[.]com, fifa-careerportal[.]com, and fifajobs[.]com. 

Figure 1: A fake FIFA recruitment portal presenting official branding, a stolen recruiter identity, and a Google Calendar booking prompt. 

When attempting to sign in with a personal email address, the form returned the message “Please use your work or business email” (Figure 2). Personal email providers that triggered this response included: gmail.com, googlemail.com, yahoo.com, msn.com, icloud.com, live.com, hotmail.com, outlook.com, protonmail.com, and aol.com. This mechanism was clearly designed to coerce victims into exposing their corporate login credentials and is inline with the campaign’s objective to access corporate Google Workspace accounts. 

Figure 2: The email validation error returned when a personal email address is submitted. The JavaScript filter accepts only work or business email domains. 

What happens after the email check passes 

Applicants who passed the email check were then sent to a page impersonating a Google Calendar booking interface, where they were prompted to sign in with their Google Workspace account. This page hosted a malicious sign-in service that then sent the victim’s login credentials to a backend server hosted on “fifa2026back”. The backend domain was accessed via an obfuscated string that replaced each letter “a” with the characters “eq”, a technique commonly used to avoid detection by automated keyword-matching systems. 

Victims were likely directed to these pages via social media posts and phishing messages framed as outreach from FIFA recruiting contacts. Research published by Group-IB covering the broader 2026 FIFA fraud landscape documents similar referral mechanisms across multiple campaigns targeting the tournament. 

WHOIS records for the 21 identified domains revealed that most were registered via name.com between April and May 2026. All registrant countries in the dataset were the United States. 

By the time of CUJO AI’s analysis, most of the domains had been replaced by parking pages serving generic search links through a commercial domain monetisation service (Figure 3). This pattern is common to short-lived phishing campaigns where infrastructure is stood down after the active window closes, with registered domains held for future use or left to generate residual ad revenue. 

Figure 3: A parked page returned by one of the identified domains, indicating the active campaign phase had concluded. 

A broader pattern: the same kit, different brands 

The phishing kit deployed in this operation was not specific to FIFA. The same infrastructure and approach have been used in campaigns impersonating Heineken, Hilton, Coca-Cola, Netflix, PepsiCo, Delta, and Spotify, each using a different stolen recruiter identity sourced from LinkedIn. Arctic Wolf identified at least ten FIFA-specific phishing domains active as of late May 2026. 

The timing of domain registrations is shown in Figure 4, based on WHOIS creation dates across the identified domain set. The concentration in April and May 2026 aligns with a measurable increase in FIFA-related threat traffic observed across CUJO AI-protected networks during the same period. 

Figure 4: FIFA-related scam domain registrations per month, based on WHOIS creation dates. 

The operator’s position: visibility before the credential is submitted 

DNS lookups to these fake job portals, and the subsequent traffic to credential-harvesting backends, passed through network operator infrastructure regardless of whether the operator was aware of the campaign. Every subscriber who searched for a FIFA job and clicked on one of these domains generated a DNS query on the operator’s network before any interaction with the malicious site had taken place. 

This is precisely where the benefits of network-layer intelligence shine. Operators who can see DNS resolution patterns in real time, and who have access to aggregated threat signals across large network footprints, are afforded the opportunity to identify and block these domains before a single credential is entered. Operators without that visibility are dependent on endpoint security, which in a BYOD or remote-work context may not be deployed on the device the employee is using when they fall for the scam. 

Regulatory pressure is moving in the same direction with NIS2 and the UK’s Online Safety Act both pushing operators toward more active roles in the detection and blocking of harmful traffic on their networks. 

What this campaign reveals 

For operators, the takeaway of our research is that phishing campaigns are becoming more selective, more targeted, and more focused on corporate access than ever before. 

Every interaction with these domains began on the operator’s network. Long before credentials were entered, DNS requests, domain lookups, and traffic patterns provided signals that a campaign was active. Operators with visibility into those signals have an opportunity to disrupt attacks before they reached enterprise accounts. 

The 2026 FIFA World Cup will be remembered for the matches played on the field. But for network operators and security teams, it may also be remembered as a case study in how modern phishing campaigns identify, qualify, and target victims long before credential thefts occur. 

The post FIFA scams shift focus from fans to employees, CUJO AI finds appeared first on Total Telecom.

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Hundreds of millions of people around the world maintain family, work, and community ties across borders. The United Nations estimated the number of international migrants at 304 million in 2024. This large, dynamic population relies heavily on cross-border communications. Consequently, international calling serves as an essential infrastructure for staying connected with families and households split across borders. 

Yet for decades, the pricing, reliability, and user experience of international calls from traditional operators lagged behind domestic mobile services.

Pricing was often difficult to interpret, rates varied widely by destination and plan, and call quality was inconsistent on certain routes. This gap created the conditions for a new category of providers to emerge — cross-border communication apps, including international calling apps for expats and diaspora communities.

The telecom operators’ diaspora market gap

In 2024, the World Bank estimated record remittances to low- and middle-income countries at $685 billion, larger than foreign direct investment and official development assistance combined. World Bank projections also put remittances to low- and middle-income countries at $690 billion in 2025, reinforcing the scale and persistence of the cross-border relationships behind the market.

Many traditional operators prioritized ARPU from domestic subscribers, while international calling was handled mainly as a source of margin. In practice, it was rarely developed as a service built around the needs of expat communities.

Apps built specifically for diaspora communities underserved by traditional communities took a different view. They competed on price transparency, destination breadth, and reliability to reach mobile numbers in countries where generic VoIP termination alone was not enough. The result was a better kind of international calling service, and it helped define the international calling app market around repeat cross-border communication needs.

What cross-border communication apps got right — three structural lessons

The rise of cross-border communication apps offers more than a competitive warning. It shows how specialist providers earned repeat usage by addressing practical problems that legacy international voice services had not fully resolved. Three decisions stand out.

1. Pricing transparency as a trust mechanism

Cross-border calling apps displayed per-minute rates, making the cost clear before a call was placed. That reduced friction in a category where users had often been exposed to unclear usage charges and bill shock. International calling rates transparency became a trust mechanism for diaspora users making repeat calls to the same destinations.

2. Ecosystem thinking beyond the call

The most durable platforms in this space combined international calling with complementary services, knowing that diaspora communities had multiple needs.

That same understanding helps explain why diaspora mobile top-up services and mobile recharge abroad became natural extensions of the calling relationship. One study published in the International Journal of Data Science and Analytics found that international airtime top-up transfers are heavily used by expats to support families in their home countries.

The call was only one part of the service. The stronger platforms added messaging, domestic calling plans, and mobile top-up around international calling. Mobile top-up lets users send credit or data to a family member’s prepaid SIM abroad.

3. Routing quality for emerging-market destinations

Dependably reaching a mobile subscriber in Guatemala, Nigeria, or the Philippines requires a different termination strategy than calling a landline in Western Europe.

This is because real-time voice is sensitive to delay, congestion, and the quality of the interconnection path. A 2025 IETF RFC document on congestion control notes that workloads such as Voice over IP can face performance issues from congestion, and that network evaluation should account for added latency or increased packet loss.

For cross-border communication apps, routing quality was not a back-end detail. It was part of the user experience. Platforms that invested in direct carrier relationships and redundant routing paths for high-demand corridors were better positioned to deliver reliable call quality than generic VoIP alone.

They treated termination as a corridor-specific problem rather than defaulting to the cheapest or most convenient available route.

With diaspora communication, quality is measured less by technical architecture than by whether a call connects, stays connected, and is clear enough for a conversation.

BOSS Revolution international calling as a case study

The BOSS Revolution international calling model is a useful case study in the cross-border communication app category. IDT launched the brand in 2008 as a low-cost, PIN-less international long-distance calling service. Since then, it has grown to 6M+ active subscribers and processes 36M+ mobile top-up transactions annually (across more than 280 carriers in 95 countries). It also has a 25K+ retail distribution network.

What largely fueled the BOSS Revolution calling app growth was a combination of app-based international calling access, strong features, and complementary services. It offers international diaspora communities services that support their wider needs. Users can make international calls, send mobile airtime to relatives abroad, and use related services such as money transfer from the same ecosystem.

BOSS Revolution illustrates the bundle logic and user-experience-first approach that made a defined product category rather than a legacy add-on.

The operator opportunity in migrant communication services

Traditional operators are not structurally excluded from the cross-border communication market. In many cases, they already have the assets that specialist apps had to build around. They have network relationships, billing infrastructure, distribution, customer trust, and experience operating regulated communications services.

The issue is not access to the market. It is whether operators treat migrant and diaspora communication as a product design challenge, not a pricing exercise. The tools to do that already exist, which makes this a practical telecom operators diaspora market opportunity rather than only a defensive response to specialist apps.

eSIM technology is lowering entry barriers for MVNOs by eliminating physical SIM distribution and enabling digital-first launches. This allows MVNOs to partner with major carriers to target specific diaspora communities without building a massive retail footprint from scratch. Consequently, an MVNO diaspora strategy provides carriers with a practical, precise route to serve niche markets. Finally, API-driven platforms seamlessly connect airtime, data, and payment flows across these international borders.

The strategic question is whether operators will use those tools to compete, partner, or continue leaving the segment to specialists. Cross-border communication apps have already shown that the demand exists. The operator opportunity is to treat migrant and diaspora communication as a designed proposition for a defined audience, not as prepaid international calling plans or a legacy international calling line managed at the edge of the core business.

The communities that international calling apps were built for were never hard to find. They were simply not treated as a priority.

The post What Telecom Operators Can Learn from the Growth of Cross-Border Communication Apps appeared first on Total Telecom.

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Mobile and broadband operator VodafoneThree (Vodafone and Three UK) has today announced that they’ve extended their existing partnership with CityFibre, which will see the fixed line operator’s full fibre network being used to feed capacity for network transmission services at “selected mobile sites” in support of the operator’s 5G Standalone rollout.

As one of the country’s largest alternative broadband networks, CityFibre’s national Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) infrastructure already covers over 4.7 million UK premises (4.5m Ready for Service) and they aspire to reach 8 million in the future. Many of these can also access their dedicated Ethernet (Leased Line) solutions, and they have a fairly large Dark Fibre network.

At present Vodafone already has a long-term partnership with CityFibre and sells consumers broadband packages over their network. But the operator is also keen to leverage some of the same infrastructure to help fuel their post-merger plan, which includes investing £11bn into upgrading the UK’s 5G mobile infrastructure and coverage over the next decade (here, here and here).

The combined business has previously stated that it aspires to reach more than 99.95% of the UK population with their latest 5G Standalone (5GSA / 5G+) network by 2034 and push fixed wireless access (mobile home broadband) to 82% of households by 2030.

The new agreement will see Vodafone continue their existing broadband partnership with CityFibre, while also naming the operator as a “preferred supplier” for network transmission to connect a number of its mobile sites across the UK underpinning its ambitious 5G+ build. The deal also extends to CityFibre’s future network expansion (up to 8m premises).

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