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The firm passed 2 million premises last September and is currently rolling out fibre at a rate of one million premises per year 

UK fibre network operator CityFibre has today announced that its full fibre (FTTP) broadband network now covers 3 million UK premises, with 2.6 million of these ‘Ready For Service’. The figure is up from 2.5 million premises in January this year. 

Residents within these areas can now receive internet services from 35–40 Internet Service Providers that currently operate on the CityFibre network. 

The rollout is part of CityFibre’s ambitious goal to cover 8 million premises across 285 towns, cities, and villages by 2025, a goal which was set in 2021 by the firm. 

If completed, the achieved goal will include coverage for over 800,000 businesses, 400,000 public sector sites, and almost 250,00 5G access points. 

The firm first began the construction of its network in 2018 in 12 UK towns and cities and has since achieved “primary build status” in locations such as Stirling, Milton Keynes, Peterborough, and Coventry. 

“We have made phenomenal progress this year, matching our performance from last year, and we on track to deliver another million ready for service homes to customers this year,” said Greg Mesch, CityFibre CEO. “I’m delighted that thanks to our investment, 3 million homes now have access to world class digital infrastructure, and we look forward to connecting many more as our rollout progresses.”  

It is worth noting, however, that at Cityfibre’s current FTTP rollout rate of 1 million premises per year, the goal of 8 million premises passed by 2025 will not be reached, perhaps explaining why the firm’s press release of makes no mention of this goal.  

In July this year, the firm secured four public funding awards under the government’s Project Gigabit worth a combined £387 million, with the target of reaching 262,000 homes. These grants cover Norfolk, Suffolk, Hampshire, and Cambridgeshire, which are also supported by a parallel private investment from CityFibre of £223 million. 

“Millions of homes and businesses from Milton Keynes to Stirling now have access to ultra-fast, reliable broadband and 5G thanks to CityFibre’s delivery of the Government’s £5 billion Project Gigabit,” said Sir John Whittingdale Minister for Data and Digital Infrastructure. “We are confidently moving towards achieving our goal of 85% coverage throughout the UK by 2025 and universal coverage by 2030 and it’s the efforts of providers like CityFibre that will help us get there.” 

Join the conversation on the UK’s fibre rollout at this year’s Connected Britain event – 20-21st September 2023 

Also in the news:
Deutsche Telekom launches new London network connection
Huawei and South Africa begin broadband initiative
Italian government to take 20% stake in TIM’s NetCo 

Network access provider Openreach (BT) has revealed that their 1.8Gbps capable UK Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP network now covers a total of 949,000 properties in Scotland (up from 800,000 in mid-March 2023), which is estimated to have cost them around £280m (assumes an average of £300 per premises passed). The vast majority of their full […]

Infracapital-backed ISP Fibrus, which is rolling out a new 10Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network across Northern Ireland and the North of England, has today revealed that their network now covers 300,000 premises (up from 250k in March) and is home to 50,000 customers (up from 36,000). Just to clarify that coverage figure a bit. […]

UK ISP Yayzi Broadband, which mainly sells packages via Cityfibre’s national Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network, has made a bold move today by scrapping their existing 150Mbps and 500Mbps packages in order to focus on a 1Gbps and 2.5Gbps tier. But to compensate for this, they’ve introduced a huge price discount. Just to recap. Yayzi previously sold […]

Broadband internet service providers (ISP) are being encouraged to patch or mitigate a “grave flaw” in the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), which could allow a remote attacker to craft a BGP UPDATE message that can de-peer (reset) BGP sessions and disrupt the global flow of internet traffic or cause a Denial of Service (DoS). The […]

The founders of third-party Domain Name Service (DNS) provider Quad9, including Chief Security Officer, Danielle Deibler, and GM, John Todd, have today spoken to ISPreview about the impact of recent court rulings that will force them to block sites suspected of internet copyright infringement (piracy) at DNS level. For context. DNS providers typically convert Internet […]

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The route is the newest of three between the UK and mainland Europe 

Deutsche Telekom has announced an upgrade to its cross-continental Lambda network, adding a third route across the channel between London and mainland Europe. 

The new route runs between London and Ostend, Belgium, and adds to the existing routes between London and Paris, and London and Amsterdam. 

The Lambda network is a high-bandwidth optical network that delivers cross-continental connectivity, which Deutsche Telekom describes as a cost-effective alternative to building a private network. 

scThe network is powered by Ciena’s WaveLogic 5 Extreme 800G and is built on Dense Wavelength-Division Multiplexing (DWDM) architecture, which is used to increase the bandwidth of existing fibre networks by allowing different wavelengths to be supported over a single fibre.  

As a result, 1G, 10G, 100G, and 400G services can be offered across the whole network, allowing for the development of new applications and the opening of new business opportunities and markets, the firm argues. 

“The three routes connecting London to continental Europe significantly support the region’s efficient exchange of traffic,” said Beatrix Kapitany, head of international sales, network infrastructure solutions at Deutsche Telekom.  

“That’s why we are especially proud to have implemented this third route, which will further increase the stability of customer services. But of course, we will not stop here and will soon follow up with additional routes for other locations to support the growth of our clients.”   

The firm plans to add further routes along additional locations, having recently announced a new route from Sofia, Bulgaria, to Varazdin, Croatia, which the firm says will result in a 5ms latency improvement. 

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Also in the news:
T-Mobile to cut 5,000 US jobs
Dish seeks extension for purchase of T-Mobile’s low-band spectrum
Brazil making rapid 5G progress but challenges remain on the horizon

News 

NetCo includes TIM’s fixed line network assets and their submarine cable subsidiary unit, Sparkle 

The Italian government has announced that it has approved two decrees that will enable it to take up to a 20% stake of Telecom Italia (TIM)’s NetCo, with the rest going to US investment firm KKR. 

The Italian state is a pre-existing shareholder of TIM, owning a 9.8% stake through state investor Cassa dei Depositi (CDP). 

The move affirms the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed earlier this month between the Italian treasury and KKR. 

Italy’s economic minster Giancarlo Giorgetti said that the two decrees will allow the Italian treasury to acquire the minority stake (20%) in NetCo, worth as much as €2.2 billion, according to Reuters.  

According to Giorgetti, the move will “reaffirm the public control over certain strategic choices regarding an infrastructure that we deem as strategic,” while Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said the agreement would allow the government “to defend the national interest and the workers”. 

“What we are taking today is a first step, which will be followed by more market-driven decisions,” she added. 

To reduce its debt pile of €26.2 billion, TIM has been planning to sell off its fixed network assets for some time. 

However, TIM could still be set to face resistance from its biggest shareholder, French media giant Vivendi, before the set deadline of 30th September. Vivendi argues that TIM’s assets are worth around €30 billion and are therefore being undervalued by KKR, who is believed to have made a non-binding bid of €23 billion for NetCo back in June.  

TIM must receive the green light from Vivendi, who have a 24% stake in the firm, for the deal to go ahead.  

Vivendi have not yet commented on the developments.  

In addition, Italian infrastructure fund F2I would also be set to invest in NetCo, which would bring the Italian government’s stake in the unit up to 30%.  

Want to keep up to date with all of the latest international telecoms news? Sign up for Total Telecom’s daily newsletter 

Also in the news:
T-Mobile to cut 5,000 US jobs
Dish seeks extension for purchase of T-Mobile’s low-band spectrum
Brazil making rapid 5G progress but challenges remain on the horizon 

News 

The duo say the partnership will aid the advancement of South Africa’s digital economy

South Africa’s Department of Communications and Digital Technologies (DCDT) and Huawei South Africa have launched a joint broadband development initiative, with the aim of advancing the rollout of the country’s fibre networks and developing the digital economy. 

The partnership, which commenced last week, will initially focus on helping small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to build technical capacity, as well as boosting the country’s wider broadband development. 

The initiative’s launch comes after the DCDT earlier this month gave Huawei an advisory role in carrying out the BRICS ICT Development Agenda and Action Plan to promote ICT collaboration between BRICS members and the National Development Plan 2030, which aims to eradicate poverty and reduce inequality in South Africa by 2030. Here, Huawei will assist the country in planning digital economy policies, infrastructure development, and give businesses practical assistance in improving their technical capabilities, particularly as this relates to fibre technology. 

“We, as government, are committed in building a skilled SME sector that can advance the digital economy in our country, as well as servicing the continent. We want to position our country as Africa’s digital hub,” said DCDT minister Mondli Gungubele. 

“We see a strategic role that SMEs can play in growing the GDP. SMEs are fundamental enablers of the digital economy.” 

In reference to a World Bank Report, Huawei South Africa’s CEO Will Meng noted that each 10% increase in fibre broadband penetration will increase the country’s GDP by 1.5%.  

“To meet the strong demands of the digital economy, we need to accelerate the development of fibre broadband in South Africa, raise public and industry awareness of the value and importance of fibre broadband development, and encourage industry partners to invest more in fibre broadband,” said Meng. 

“Our broadband development initiative will help us move towards a gigabit society in South Africa. Fibre broadband will improve social connectivity, promote industrial transformation and enable the digital economy.” 

The cooperation will also explore other key areas such as growing the digital economy, industrial digitalisation, the cloud, telecoms talent development. 

The initiative marks the latest tie up between China’s Huawei and South Africa at a time when relations between the two are under the international spotlight. 

Earlier this month, South African ambassador Anil Sooklal noted that the country was under “tremendous pressure” from the US to ban Huawei from its national networks, with US claiming the Chinese company represents a major security risk.  

Despite this, South Africa continues to deepen its economic relationship with Huawei and with China – and it is not alone. Last week, Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa – the so-called BRICS geopolitical group – announced they would admit six new countries to the group:  Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Argentina, the UAE, and Ethiopia. 

While the expansion of the BRICS group appears to have little immediate economic or political ramifications, it does hint at international discontent with the existing world order. 

Want to keep up to date with all of the latest international telecoms news? Sign up for Total Telecom’s daily newsletter 

Also in the news:
T-Mobile to cut 5,000 US jobs
Dish seeks extension for purchase of T-Mobile’s low-band spectrum
Brazil making rapid 5G progress but challenges remain on the horizon 

Broadband ISP BT has today continued the region-by-region deployment of their Internet Protocol (IP) based home phone service, Digital Voice, by announcing that they’re about to start the roll-out in Northern Ireland, which will be followed this autumn by customers in the North West and across London. The Digital Voice product was designed to replace […]