Alternative network operator Connexin, which is busy rolling out a new 10Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network across parts of Hull and Yorkshire in England (here), has today revealed that they’ve just connected their 25,000th customer. The company, which aims to cover 500,000 premises and is currently being backed by an investment of £80 million […]

Alternative network operator and ISP toob, which aspires to cover 1 million premises across the South of England by 2027 – mostly in Surrey and Hampshire – with their Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network, has today announced that they’ve secured a funding boost worth up to £300m to help boost their deployment. Just to recap. The operator, […]

Interview

Ahead of next week’s Submarine Networks EMEA event, Total Telecom caught up with Mario Martín, CEO of Telxius to find out more about the company’s activities in the global subsea cable market.

Can you tell us more about Telxius’ global network footprint? Are you currently investing in any new subsea cable projects?

Of course. Telxius provides global digital infrastructure featuring ultra-high-capacity, low-latency and high-availability, as well as a suite of value-added services covering Colocation, IP and Security.

The Telxius network features more than 82,000 km of high-capacity fibre optic subsea cables, designed to connect the main digital data hubs in the world. It also features 15 communications hubs including two advanced communications hubs in Derio (Spain) and Virginia Beach (US) that connect to the main data centres in the world. This is combined with onward terrestrial connectivity to key communications hubs across Europe, plus Latin, Central and North America, which means we can give customers greater control over the experience and resiliency they can offer.

We recently announced a new submarine cable to connect Guatemala and the United States – Tikal. It’s going to offer the highest capacity between Puerto Barrios (Guatemala) and Boca Raton (US), and also gives us options to incorporate additional landings in Cancun (Mexico) and Barranquilla (Colombia). We’re really looking forward to making this live.

Our robust set of next-generation subsea cables Marea, Brusa, Dunant, Tannat, Junior, Mistral and soon, Tikal, fully serve the Americas and Europe. By integrating these next-generation cables into our network, we’re enhancing our traditional routes and providing improved connectivity and faster data transmission in the Americas and Europe. This has been a huge step forward for Telxius and really highlights our commitment to delivering cutting-edge telecommunications infrastructure to our customers.

Telxius’ VP Sales, Carlos Casado, will be joining a panel on “What’s on the horizon for the submarine cable industry” at the event later next week. What key themes do you expect to come up during the discussion?

That’s right, there’s going to be a lot of interesting things to talk about. I think one key topic will be how the submarine cable industry is well placed to contribute to the unstoppable digitalisation trends, and why.

Another relevant topic to be discussed would be the new systems that are being deployed globally, and the transformations we can see happening in Telxius as market demands evolve.

We’ve seen lots of investment in the subsea cable market in the past few years, do you see this continuing?

Definitely – digitalisation could not exist without submarine cables. We have to bear in mind that submarine cables carry 99% of international IP traffic. They are the real arteries of the Internet and form the backbone of global telecommunications infrastructure.

Digital infrastructure, subsea cable systems, onward connectivity, colocation services and other value-add services all provide a foundation for innovation, transformation and digital experiences.

Telxius is a good example of subsea cable investment over the last few years. Five years ago, 90% of our revenues were concentrated in a single submarine cable system, SAm-1, which was nearing the end of its useful life. Well aware of this challenge, we put together a strategic roadmap to develop our infrastructure and associated network solutions. This has allowed us to deploy seven new next-generation systems in the last five years and radically transform the Telxius network. Our network has more than doubled in size, now spanning over 82,000 km of submarine fibre.

Which regions globally are you seeing the most activity and growth in? 

There are a number of markets across the globe experiencing huge levels of growth. Some of those that we are particularly interested in are Europe, the Caribbean and Latin America.

Some of these markets are already very strong such as Spain, which is ideally positioned to be a hub for connecting Africa, the Americas and Europe. It provides a number of landing points, digital hubs, exchange points, data centres, cloud regions and more, plus connectivity across the Atlantic and access to the Mediterranean. The strength of this market is demonstrated through some hyperscalers’ plans to open data centres and cloud regions. Spain and the rest of Europe are key focus areas for us due to the huge levels of demand coming from these markets.

On the other hand, a number of Latin American and Caribbean markets are set to experience rapid cloud growth in the near future, which also puts them front and centre. Colombia for example, has a privileged geographical position as it has two coasts – the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean – which make it an ideal connection point for all kinds of content platforms to operate in Latin America from anywhere in the world. Since Colombia is a key emerging hub in Latin America, we are monitoring it closely and considering the extension of Tikal to Barranquilla. We’re focused on providing seamless connectivity between Europe, the Americas and beyond.

Why is Telxius looking forward to Submarine Networks EMEA 2023?

There are lots of things we’re looking forward to at Submarine Networks EMEA. Perhaps the thing we’re most looking forward to is connecting with customers and partners. It’s always great to meet face-to-face.

The team is also keen to engage in productive conversations that will help us to fulfil our aspiration of being the best global provider of digital infrastructure based on submarine cables. The event has a lot to offer and will contribute to us developing a more successful digital infrastructure business overall, so we’re really looking forward to it.

Carlos Casado, VP Sales and David Simarro, Head of Business Development EMEA at Telxius will both be speaking at Submarine Networks EMEA 2023. The region’s pre-eminent subsea conference will see over 800 attendees from the global subsea cable market meet at the Business Design Centre in London on 31st May and 1st June. Head to the event website to secure your place.

A new benchmark study from telecoms analyst firm Umlaut, which tested and measured fixed broadband connectivity in the United Kingdom over a period of 6 months, has awarded their overall “Best in Test” certificate to Virgin Media (VMO2) after they came top for both download and upload performance. The analysis is based on crowdsourced performance […]

News

The decision will allow Openreach to further reduce wholesale prices, a decision likely to be met with praise from the UK’s ISPs but trepidation from its alternative network providers

Today, following a public consultation, the UK telecoms regulator Ofcom has announced that it will allow Openreach’s proposed Equinox 2 fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) discount scheme.

The scheme, building on the previous Equinox 1 offer, will see Openreach charge cheaper wholesale rates for ISP customers purchasing FTTP products, a move which they say will allow ISPs to become more competitive with alternative network providers.

The regulator said that the decision is “consistent with promoting investment in gigabit-capable networks by Openreach and other operators and promoting network-based competition”. They note that while Equinox 2 will make competition for altnets more intense, the conditional terms in the offer “do not create a potential barrier to using altnets”.

“This is good news for customers as it means lower prices and long-term certainty – encouraging the switch to faster, more reliable broadband connections. It’s also good news for the UK, as it supports our continued multi-billion-pound investment in upgrading the country’s broadband infrastructure,” said Katie Milligan, Openreach’s Chief Commercial Officer. “We take our legal and regulatory obligations extremely seriously and we’ll continue to compete fairly whilst delivering an unrivalled, nationwide service and choice for customers.”

For the UK’s altnet community, however, the decision is much more troubling, with some having previously claimed that Equinox 2 is anticompetitive, serving to lock-in ISP customers with Openreach by offering prices that altnets cannot match and creating a major barrier for entry for new prospective network builders.

Part of the fear here is that Equinox 2 could be merely a stepping-stone to even greater discounts in the future, with Ofcom offering no real resistance; indeed, Openreach’s proposals for Equinox 2 came less than a year after Equinox 1 first came into effect in 2021.

In this regard, however, the altnets are likely to have a level of certainty, with Openreach saying that they will not change the Equinox 2 pricing scheme or introduce further changes (i.e., a potential Equinox 3 scheme) until the end of March 2026.

“We are disappointed Equinox 2 has been approved and will be undertaking a thorough review of Ofcom’s decision. We are, however, pleased to see Ofcom’s pressure has brought about the end of Equinox, with a commitment from Openreach to make no further changes to its wholesale pricing until April 2026,” said Greg Mesch, CEO of CityFibre, the UK’s largest altnet.

“We must not forget that while introducing price discounts to bind its wholesale customers and damage emerging competition, BT is at the same time significantly increasing prices for millions of its retail consumers. Ofcom must ensure that competition is effective and sustainable if consumers are to benefit.”

BT, like many UK telecoms providers, increased their prices above inflation rates earlier in March this year, with BT increasing the prices for consumers by 14.4%.

The potential effects of Equinox 2 on the UK fibre market were one of the major talking points at this year’s Connected North conference in Manchester, with Openreach, Ofcom, and a number of ISPs and altnets sharing their views with the wider community.

At the event, we interviewed Gita Sorensen of GOS Consulting, who explained that much of the criticism levelled against Equinox 2 from the altnet community was not necessarily an attack of Openreach itself, but rather the transparency of Ofcom’s decision making process.

Indeed, a statement from the Independent Networks Cooperative Association (INCA) today had similar misgivings over Ofcom’s methodology.

“Whilst we are still reviewing Ofcom’s statement in full, INCA is initially disappointed with Ofcom’s decision. Not only do we believe that this outcome will have a negative impact on competition and investment and ultimately consumers, we also believe that Ofcom’s approach to taking this decision was flawed,” read the statement. “This initially seems to be an illogical decision based on a questionable process. Government policy and regulatory decision making now appear to us to be out of sync when it comes to infrastructure competition. We call on government to clarify its Statement of Strategic Priorities to Ofcom to ensure that the regulator is compelled to put issues of infrastructure competition and investment at the heart of its decision-making process.”

On the other hand, CEO of Zen Internet, Richard Tang, was a vocal defender of the offer’s competitive qualities, tackling the topic on the keynote stage and further explaining his position in an interview with Total Telecom.

Tang reiterated this opinion today, saying that Zen was pleased that Ofcom had given the offer the green light, saying it was “crucial in making full fibre broadband more accessible and affordable for millions of households across the UK”.

While Equinox 2 is sure to have a significant effect on the UK fibre market, particularly when it comes to accelerating altnet consolidation, the full extent of its impact will not be apparent for many months to come.

How is the UK’s telecoms ecosystem changing in 2023? Join the operators in discussion at this year’s live Connected Britain conference

Also in the news:
Tusass: Connecting Greenland’s remote communities
Watchdog hits Eir with €2.45m fine for overcharging customers
SENSE: Nokia and Citymesh launch national drone network in Belgium

Abingdon-based UK broadband ISP Gigaclear has expanded their street cabinet options in order to help serve smaller communities, with the first to benefit from this approach being five small villages in Oxfordshire (England) – Burford, Islip, Cassington, Tackley and Weston-on-the-Green. The announcement doesn’t spell out precisely what has changed, except to say that recent technology […]

Alternative network builder and UK broadband ISP Truespeed, which is rolling out a new 10Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network to homes across the South West of England, has removed the area of Ashtree Road from their build plan in Frome after angry locals campaigned against the use of new telecoms poles. The most expensive and […]

Ofcom has this morning announced that it will NOT block Openreach’s proposed “Equinox 2” discount scheme for their Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) based broadband ISP products from being introduced, which came after rival networks raised competition concerns over the plans. Just to recap. Openreach announced in December 2022 that it would introduce another round of wholesale discounts […]

Broadband ISP and mobile operator VMO2 (Virgin Media and O2) has today issued a progress update on their ongoing efforts to reduce their environmental emissions, which among other things reveals that they’ve now cut their carbon by 29% against the 2020 baseline. The operator currently plans to cut carbon and to achieve Net Zero across […]

Network and data centre operator ServerHouse, which already serves over 300 residential and business customers in Hampshire (England) using a hybrid network of “full fibre” and Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) connectivity – across both urban and rural areas, has revealed tentative plans to upgrade and expand their coverage. The details came to light after the […]