Broadband ISP Quickline, which is working to roll out their gigabit-capable full fibre (FTTP) network to 96 rural locations (55,000 premises) across Yorkshire and Lincolnshire in England, has announced that they’ve “connected” their first UK “Q Hub” in the village of Hibaldstow, near Brigg in North Lincolnshire (England). The term “Q Hub” appears to be […]

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The US-based network equipment maker says that Huawei is charging “grossly excessive” fees for use of their intellectual property (IP)

This week, ADVA Optical Networking has revealed it is suing Huawei Technologies, arguing that the Chinese giant is using its dominant position in telecoms IP to exert undue influence over the market.

The case, brought before the Texas Eastern District Court, alleges that Huawei is charging extortionate prices for the use of its patents, as well as asking ADVA to pay for patents that are not required by international standards.

Huawei is required to licence its IP to companies on a fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) basis, as per the International Telecommunication Union (ITU)’s technological standardisation process.

ADVA claims that Huawei has failed to follow these FRAND obligations and has also infringed on ADVA’s own patents.

In the filing, ADVA describes Huawei’s strategic approach to IP as a ‘conspiracy’, accusing the company of working in tandem with its ‘worldwide affiliates’ and the Chinese government “to wrongfully dominate and control the market for telecommunications equipment”.

Huawei is the one of the largest patent holders in the world, with only IBM, Samsung, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) holding more patents as of 2022. Many of these patents are related to image compression, digital information transmission, and wireless communication networks, especially 5G mobile technology.

Indeed, this patent domination has become a major source of revenue for Huawei at a time when its smartphone and network equipment businesses have been largely hamstrung by US trade sanctions.

Huawei reportedly made between $1.2 billion and $1.3 billion in patent revenue between 2019 and 2021 and since then has only increased its R&D efforts.

In the company’s latest financial results, Huawei’s CFO Meng Wanzhou revealed that the company had spent $23.2 billion on R&D in 2022, roughly a quarter of the company’s total revenue.

Led by Huawei, Chinese companies were reportedly behind 65% of standard essential patent filings to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) last year, a fact that has not gone unnoticed.

“I’m strongly urging and encouraging companies to file and file and file patents… Chinese companies are doing it a lot,” said European Commissioner Thierry Breton last month, noting that the European Union’s competitiveness in the connectivity sector could be under threat.

Nonetheless, earlier this year, Huawei’s global intellectual property head, Alan Fan, said that his department was “a corporate function, not a business unit” and that the company was not looking to aggressively monetise IP. He noted that any royalties made from the company’s patents was funnelled back into R&D.

In closing, it is worth noting here that while patent licencing can certainly generate significant revenue for companies like Huawei, it is ultimately a matter of quality over quantity.

For example, Huawei’s largest rivals, Ericsson and Nokia, both have smaller patent portfolios than Huawei, but routinely generate higher licencing revenues; Nokia reportedly earned €1.5 billion from patent licencing in 2021, while Ericsson took home €900 million in 2022.

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Bath-based broadband ISP Truespeed has today announced the next phase of full fibre network expansion across the South West of England, which will see them extend their 10Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) service to cover a further 5 locations – reflecting an investment of £24m to reach another 21,000 premises. The operator, which holds an “ambitious” […]

Belfast-based UK broadband ISP Fibrus, which is currently deploying a 10Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network across parts of Northern Ireland and England, has today revealed that they’ve begun the next phase of their rollout in the North of England – targeting 125,000 premises across 40 locations. At present the Infracapital-backed operator has already covered a […]

A number of TalkTalk’s UK broadband customers have informed us that, since as far back as Wednesday last week, they’ve been unable to access BT’s website and some related online services (e.g. email and the BTSport App). The issue seems to be due to an unspecified fault with the provider’s Domain Name Service (DNS). A […]

London-focused broadband ISP CommunityFibre, which is deploying a multi-gigabit speed Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network to cover 2.2 million premises by the end of 2024 (mostly in the UK’s capital city), has confirmed that its future build plan will stretch into parts of Hertfordshire, Essex and Surrey. At present CommunityFibre have been clear that their full […]

BT’s Chief Security and Networks Officer, Howard Watson, has revealed that the operator has just completed a live field trial that, for the “first time ever“, made it possible for them to deploy a 4G (LTE) mobile cell site that was backhauled (data capacity) over OneWeb’s constellation of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) broadband satellites. OneWeb […]

Several credible sources have informed ISPreview that BT, most likely via EE – their soon-to-be “flagship brand for consumers“, have set themselves a target of being the first UK broadband ISP to market with a WiFi 7 (802.11be) capable router (SmartHub 4). The hope is to be ready by early 2024, but June 2024 is […]

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The £15 billion merger would drastically reshape the UK mobile market, creating a new market leader with 28 million customers

This week, a report from The Financial Times suggests that the long-awaited merger between Vodafone UK and Three UK is soon to become reality, with an announcement expected later this month.

Sources suggest that negotiations between the two companies are almost finished, with the deal valued at around £15 billion, around £6 billion of which is debt.

Rumours that the two companies have been considering a merger have been circling for years, though discussions between the two companies were only formally acknowledged in October last year.

Initial outlines suggest that the merger will see majority ownership of the combined entity go to Vodafone with a 51% stake, while CK Hutchison, Three UK’s owner, taking the remaining 49% stake. Rumours even suggest that the deal could be something of a steppingstone for Hutchison to exit the UK market entirely, likely by selling off its minority stake to Vodafone at a later date.

Vodafone’s interim CEO Margherita Della Valle took on the role permanently last month, a move that likely steadied the ship and helped advance negotiations with Hutchison.

Naturally, such a mega merger would present a huge shakeup for the UK telecoms market, shrinking the country’s mobile ecosystem down to just three players.

In the past, regulatory bodies within both the UK and the EU have been loathe to allow just three mobile players in a single market; in fact, this was one of the main reasons why the Telefonica’s O2 was disallowed from merging with Three back in 2016.

In recent years, however, the regulatory landscape has gradually grown more relaxed when it comes to major M&A. Earlier this year, for example, European Commissioner Thierry Breton said there were “no taboos” when it came to mergers in the telecoms space, especially when doing so would encourage cross-market consolidation.

But despite regulators warming to the concept of major telecoms mergers, it seems likely they will still impose some form of restrictions on any tie-up between Three and Vodafone. Exactly what stipulations might be imposed on the two companies is unclear, but they could include price freezes for customers and various network rollout assurances, particularly in rural areas.

How would the merger of Vodafone and Three impact the UK’s telecoms industry?  Join the ecosystem in discussion at this year’s live Connected Britain conference

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