Openreach Bring FTTP Broadband to 10 Million UK Premises

Network operator Openreach (BT) has officially confirmed that their £15bn rollout of gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) based broadband ISP technology has today reached the milestone of 10 million premises passed (up from 9.57m in Dec 2022). Some 3 million customers have also been connected (up from 2.73 million). The milestone and strong take-up help to underline […]

Neos Networks Make Progress on Oxfordshire UK Full Fibre Build

Neos Networks has announced that their ongoing project to deploy a new gigabit-capable full fibre broadband network to over 175 public sector sites (councils, hospitals etc.) across Oxfordshire (England), many of which are in rural areas, is “on track” to complete by the end of 2023 – some 90 sites have already been reached. The […]

Warning of Future UK Broadband Price Hikes as Inflation Jumps

Consumers hoping to see significantly smaller increases in the UK price of their broadband ISP, phone and mobile services next year were given an unwelcome wake-up call today after inflation, which had been forecast to fall sharply in 2023, unexpectedly jumped from 10.1% (CPI) in January to 10.4% in February (RPI also went up). At […]

County Broadband Finally Starts FTTP Build to 9 Suffolk Villages

Rural UK ISP County Broadband, which aspires to cover 500,000 premises across the East of England with their new 1Gbps Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network by the end of 2027, has today confirmed that they’ve started to build across 9 more villages in Suffolk – supported by contractors AB Installs and Highway Workforce. The provider, which is […]

Powys Council Raise Concern Over Project Gigabit Broadband Plans

The Powys County Council in mid-Wales has expressed “concerns” about a change to the UK Government’s £5bn Project Gigabit broadband subsidy programme, which they fear could result in hard-to-reach households and businesses in the county being “negatively impacted“. The statement doesn’t go into a lot of detail, except to highlight how the Building Digital UK […]

Uni of Edinburgh spin-off WhiteHaul bags £275,000 funding for rural broadband

Press Release

A technology company that aims to bring high speed broadband to hard-to-reach areas has been awarded £275,000 in funding from Scotland’s national economic development agency, Scottish Enterprise

Spinout WhiteHaul, from the University of Edinburgh, has developed a platform that will enable Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to provide users with gigabit-capable broadband speeds over long distances and challenging terrain, at significantly lower cost than current network technologies.

Gigabit means speeds of 1,000 megabits per second, or 1 gigabit, the kind of speeds usually only achieved in cities and through ‘full fibre’ networks.

WhiteHaul’s novel spectrum aggregation technology enables high speed long-distance ‘backhaul’ links that cannot currently be commercially achieved by existing fibre or wireless technologies.

Existing wireless technologies suffer from high levels of radio interference resulting in poor distance performance. WhiteHaul’s technology manages radio interference, resulting in reliable network connectivity.

The technology was developed as part of Dr Mohamed Kassem’s PhD at the University of Edinburgh’s School of Informatics, supervised by Professor Mahesh Marina, and the team is being supported to spin out by Edinburgh Innovations, the University’s commercialisation service.

Professor Marina said: “WhiteHaul will play an important role in supporting the UK Government’s ambition to bring gigabit-capable coverage to 85% of the UK by 2025, and close to 100% as soon as possible thereafter. We have seen from previous work the vital importance of rural connectivity for agriculture, businesses, healthcare and education.”

Dr Kassem, chief technology officer, said: “In addition, as a home-grown company, WhiteHaul will help diversify the telecommunications network supply chain – another key policy objective. And by reducing the need to travel to work, and the associated carbon emissions, gigabit broadband in rural areas also supports the transition to net zero.”

The funding, from the Scottish Enterprise High Growth Spin-Out Programme (HGSP), will be used to enhance the performance of WhiteHaul’s hardware and software platform and to speed up the commercialisation of the technology. The team is also investigating other uses for the technology including connecting offshore windfarms and enabling connected farms and the Internet of Things.

Jane Martin, Scottish Enterprise managing director of innovation and investment, said: “Our high growth spin out programme continues to support exciting and ambitious new companies from the innovation that exists across Scotland’s universities through start-up advice, investment and commercialisation.

“WhiteHaul has created a novel solution for connecting rural areas with the potential to bring benefits across Scotland and boost rural economies and it will be exciting to see the team take the company to the next stage as it spins out from Edinburgh Innovations.”

Led by interim CEO, Iqbal Bedi Singh of Intelligens Consulting, WhiteHaul’s future focus will be on attracting seed investment, building its customer pipeline and developing the operational strategy to take it forward into manufacturing.

WhiteHaul will be participating at telecoms event Connected North to be held in Manchester on 17-18 April

Also in the news:
Fibre overtakes cable in the Netherlands
Ericsson IoT Accelerator to manage the connectivity for Lyft e-bikes and scooters
Spring Equinox? It seems Ofcom aren’t certain of the balance

Connecting America: The challenges facing a nation

Interview

Ahead of the inaugural Connected America conference, we caught up with The Wall Steet Journal’s SVP of Tech, Media & Telco Business Development, Sara Mascall, to discuss some of the biggest challenges facing the telecoms industry in the US

5G was a major focus at Mobile World Congress this year. Do you think the technology is living up to its potential in the US?

5G was a huge focus at MWC Barcelona recently, and I was privy to a few discussions about it at our Journal House. This was the first time The Wall Street Journal has hosted a Journal House at MWC, which is an experiential place, offering business leaders a space and time to connect with peers and catch unscripted interviews with the decision makers at the forefront of tech’s biggest transformations.

Joanna Stern, our Senior Personal Technology Columnist at The Wall Street Journal hosted a discussion, What’s the Deal with 5G?, with Cristiano Amon, President and CEO of Qualcomm. Joanna has recently written a column, It’s Not Just You: 5G Is a Big Letdown, which was at the heart of the conversation. Cristiano responded that 5G is still in its early stages, and we could not live up to the needs of consumers without 5G, and that 5G “really is going to be the last mile to connectivity.”

Raakhee Mirchandani, Anchor & Contributing Editor for The Trust at WSJ | Barron’s Group also hosted a conversation covering Connectivity and Digital Equity with Caroline Chan, VP and GM, 5G Infrastructure Division, Network Platform Group Intel and Gretchen Tinnerman, Vice President, US Network & Edge Practice Leader, Kyndryl (the newsroom was not involved in the production of this session). In this discussion, they touched upon ways they’re helping bridge the digital divide by Intel providing connectivity to underprivileged communities in Sacramento, and Kyndryl is working with businesses to provide connectivity to help with health and safety.

Obviously there are lots of discussions surrounding 5G and there is still a lot of untapped potential in this space; for instance, in rural areas and developing regions across the world. And with this next wave of 5G I think we can expect to see new use cases (as Joanna mentions in her article, for drones, self-driving cars, and other devices), and entry into new markets. In fact, at MWC, GSMA Intelligence announced a new report that 5G connections are poised to double over the next two years, with 5G infrastructure deployments in more than 30 countries this year.

The IIJA is at the centre of many industry discussions right now, especially when it comes to fibre. How effective do you think this bill is going to be in helping better connect Americans? Is the funding going to the right places?

The IIJA is putting in place a $65 billion investment into broadband of which $48.2 billion will be administered by NTIA’s newly established Office of Internet Connectivity and Growth. So while this is certainly a step in the right direction to help the digital divide in places with, for instance, underserved areas and areas with higher poverty, but like any bill I think it will come down to the rules, timeframes, and deployment of funds along with the execution.

Do you think the industry is doing enough to reach and support rural communities?

Many of the major challenges in rural areas, such as inadequate infrastructure to support connectivity, complicated terrain, more limited knowledge, and higher costs, have made investment in rural areas a non-viable business case for telecommunications operators.

But now, as mentioned previously, part of the theory of the IIJA is to help underserved communities connect – it should make it more accessible for all, which includes fiber network expansion into rural communities. Last year the USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack announced that the department is investing $401 million to provide access to high-speed internet for 31,000 rural residents and businesses in 11 states, as part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to investing in rural infrastructure. So, with more investment and funding in this space it looks to be improving and more of a priority.

We’re in the middle of a global economic crisis, putting the strain on customers and telcos alike. How do you see this impacting the telecoms sector over the coming year?

The Wall Street Journal recently reported The Companies Conducting Layoffs in 2023: Here’s the List of which tech and media is highly represented, with Ericsson planning to lay off about 8% of its workforce, while it cuts costs as orders for its 5G gear have slowed in the U.S. and other markets.

In order to be competitive, tech and telco industries need to embrace digital transformation and invest in initiatives such as 5G and fiber rollouts but with the uncertainty of the economy these could face setbacks.

I foresee the telecommunications industry continuing to be impacted and challenged by the market reset, including lay offs and labor shortages.

You’re joining us to moderate the opening keynote discussion at the first ever Connected America conference next month. What are you most looking forward to at the event?

It’s been great to attend events recently and have that real life connection that had been missing for a couple of years during the pandemic, so I’m looking forward to meeting and connecting with people at the event, especially with Chris Sambar from AT&T, Prayson Pete from Adtran, and Elad Nafshi of Comcast for the session I’ll be moderating.

As we just mentioned in the last question, it’s an exceptionally challenging time for this industry and I’m eager to learn and hear directly how this is impacting organizations, the shifts we’re seeing, and the trends we expect to see in the industry.

Join the industry in discussion on all of the key issues at our Connected America conference, taking place live next week in Dallas, Texas!

Hungarian govt acquires indirect stake in national operator Yettel

News

The deal means the Hungarian government now has minority stakes in two of the country’s mobile network operators

This week, state-owned Corvinus Nemzetkozi Befektetesi has acquired a minority stake in Hungary’s second-largest mobile operator, Yettel Magyarorszag, via a share swap agreement with Antenna Hungaria.

Antenna Hungaria is itself a subsidy of 4iG, the Hungarian IT firm that purchased Vodafone Hungary for €1.7 billion earlier this year.

Taking both of these deals together, 4iG explained that Antenna Hungaria had raised its stake in Vodafone Hungary to 70.5%, having acquired a 19.5% in the business from Corvinus in return for a 25% stake in PPF Telecom Group, which includes Yettel.

This leaves Corvinus’ stake in Vodafone Hungary reduced to 29.5%.

“The transaction enhances the assets and participation of the Hungarian state in the strategically-important telecommunications sector,” said the Economic Development Ministry in a statement. “Apart from diversifying its investment portfolio further in the telecoms sector, the deal will also enable the state to more forcefully and efficiently contribute to the development of the industry.”

This news represents the latest step in the Hungarian state’s increasing control over the nation’s telecoms industry, which has been growing gradually over the past decade under nationalist leader Viktor Orban.

Under the Orban administration, the government’s control over many of the country’s key sectors, including the energy and banking sectors, has grown considerably, with Orban having called for ‘Hungarian-owned national champions’ to occupy positions of strategic importance for the national economy.

In somewhat related news, Yettel today announced that it has deployed a private 5G network at the Becsi ut campus of Obuda University in Budapest. The company says it completed the deployment late last year, which is now fully available for students and researchers.

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Gigaclear Expand FTTP Broadband Build to 4 Oxfordshire Villages

Rural UK broadband ISP Gigaclear has announced that, as part of their £84 million investment to deploy a gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network across Oxfordshire (England), the provider now expects to reach several thousand additional premises across four villages. Engineering work is already taking place to connect more than 2,400 homes in Adderbury and Hook Norton […]

Why lean IT architecture will be paramount for emerging technologies

Interview

For years, many nations have declared their desire to be a ‘gigabit’ society. But are they? Not yet. The average fibre-to-the-premise coverage that would provide gigabit speed access is still less than 50% in many countries.

But this shortfall is an opportunity. High speed low latency fibre will power fast-growing industries such as autonomous transport, non-line of sight drones, metaverse and more. Investors are waiting.

In this exclusive interview at Total Telecom’s Connected Britain conference, Susan White, Head of Strategy and Portfolio Marketing at Netcracker Technology, outlines the wholesale fibre proposition for telcos and explains how a lean IT environment can speed up deployments and customer on-boarding.

For more information on how lean IT environments can supercharge the wholesale fibre market, please visit: https://www.netcracker.com/portfolio/solutions/netcracker-cloud-solutions-for-netcos-and-servcos/netcracker-fiber-cloud-solution.html

Want to learn more about the rapidly shifting dynamics of the UK fibre industry? Join the telecoms sector in discussion at Connected Britain and its sister event Connected North