The sixth contract awarded under the UK Government’s £5bn Project Gigabit broadband rollout scheme – worth £122 million – has today been awarded to CityFibre, which will upgrade connectivity for “around” 45,000 hard-to-reach homes and businesses across rural parts of Cambridgeshire in England. At present CityFibre is best known for deploying across urban areas and […]

A spinout from a team at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, called WhiteHaul, has secured £275k from Scottish Enterprise (SE) to develop a novel spectrum aggregation technology that claims to enable “high speed long-distance” backhaul links that “cannot currently be commercially achieved by existing fibre or wireless technologies.” The problem with transmitting gigabit class […]

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Article written and supplied by Veego
AT&T recently disclosed its investment of between $10 and $15 billion in fiber cable infrastructure. Nokia and Eurofiber Group signed an agreement at the end of the year to expand on the current 60,000 km of Eurofiber fiber infrastructure. More global CSPs are expected to follow.

But is the investment in this new broadband infrastructure worth it?

The Main Types of Broadband Infrastructure
The answer is: It depends. But to explain how we arrived at this answer in detail, let’s first take a step back and explain the many different types of broadband infrastructure available, each with multiple uses and speeds of data transmission:

DSL – Digital subscriber lines (DSL) transmit data over copper wires, using either asymmetric subscriber lines (ADSL) or symmetric subscriber lines (SDSL). ADSL users receive a lot of data but don’t need to send it (e.g., users streaming movies or playing video games); SDL users receive and send a lot of data.
Fiber – Fiber optic cables convert electric signals into light, which moves much faster than DSL.
Cable modem – Uses the same cables that transmit data to your television.
Wireless – Since it transmits data over radio signals, wireless broadband is particularly useful for delivering service to remote locations. Wireless can be mobile or fixed. Fifth-generation (5G) wireless technology is the latest standard in cellular technology, reaching speeds as high as 20 gigabits per second (Gbps).
Satellite – Uses satellites orbiting the earth to transmit data.

Since fiber offers the fastest connection, many ISPs and CSPs are transitioning to fiber broadband, hoping this will satisfy their subscribers’ needs for fast and stable home connectivity.

Fiber Broadband Infrastructure Doesn’t Eliminate Network Issues
But even with the rapid adoption of fiber broadband around the globe, common internet problems such as weak signals, physical connectivity issues, and slow performance persist.

Let’s explore some of the most common reasons for these issues:

Latency. Caused by internet network hardware, the server’s location and the routers between it and the end-device, almost everything related to a user’s internet experience can be impacted by latency. Increased latency can lead to significantly slower connectivity, making it particularly crucial for online-gaming and conferencing applications.
Signal interference. Probably the top reason for slow home connectivity. WiFi signals weaken as they travel through large metal appliances, thick walls, or if there are multiple devices with overlapping signals to receive the WiFi.
Bandwidth contention. When ISPs share fiber cables between customers, it is known as contention. A 5:1 contention means that five users share one fiber cable. The more users, the more likely the connectivity is slower during peak hours.
Incompatible routers and slow devices. Older routers can’t handle the fast connectivity rates that fiber delivers. Slow devices such as phones or computers also slow data transfer, causing poor connections.

CSPs Invest Heavily in Infrastructure with Little to No Return
CSPs invest a lot to upgrade and maintain their fiber infrastructure and deliver their customers the best possible experience. In the United States, it can cost anywhere from $700 to $6,000 to construct a fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) network per household passed, depending on whether the household is in a rural or urban area.

How is it that despite the many infrastructure improvements, customers are still stuck with slow internet or a generally poor customer experience, leaving CSPs with high operational costs and unsatisfied customers?

Gain Visibility Within the Home and Beyond
These subscriber issues continue because CSPs don’t have the appropriate tools to understand what might be impeding on their subscribers’ Quality of Experience, starting with the real last mile, the subscribers’ home Wi-Fi. They don’t know what is happening inside the subscribers’ connected homes (CPE, LAN, devices) or beyond the homes (server, WAN) that might be causing any service degradation. With no visibility comes no efficient way of resolving problems, which equals being blindfolded.

An alternative for CSPs to improve their customer care and subscribers’ experience is by adding network intelligence and CX management platforms to their portfolio. They can detect where problems are occurring, why they occur, and how they affect the user experience, and deliver a qualitative metric that measures the subscriber’s experience in real-time (e.g., a Quality of Experience score).

So how do they work?
By deploying technology such as app and device identification, CSPs can identify all connected devices and consumed apps within a home, combining it with an intricate knowledge of the entire network, including each of its network conditions and how they affect every individual session.

As a result, CSPs gain a better understanding of:

the network performance along the entire service-delivery chain (cloud, WAN, router, LAN, device)
the subscriber’s Quality of Experience (QoE)
where problems originate, why they occur, and how these problems affect the user experience
how to resolve these issues quickly and potentially even without subscribers noticing

Since it can now identify the root cause of problems and their origins, (e.g., device, router, WiFi, cable, server, etc,) the CSP no longer wastes time and money on other repairs. This includes reducing unnecessary truck rolls and router replacements, shortening support calls, and helping subscribers resolve problems faster.

Another bonus for this technology is that it helps CSPs resolve problems autonomously, reducing the need for technicians or customer care altogether.

Placing Your Bet on Proactive Customer Care
CSPs must make wise investments and not put all their eggs into the broadband infrastructure upgrade basket. They must monitor their network performance, identify when and why something went wrong, and respond quickly without disrupting the subscriber’s experience. Not only can advanced data analytics platforms help resolve these issues cost-effectively, but they can do it while improving subscribers’ Quality of Experience at the same time.

Veego sponsored the 2022 Total Telecom Congress. This year the event moves to an exciting new venue in Amsterdam, offering an even more convenient and compelling proposition for European and international telecom professionals. To find out more about getting involved, visit www.totaltele.com/congress

Broadband ISP RunFibre, which is deploying a Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network across rural areas of South Gloucestershire (England), has announced that they’ve completed their gigabit voucher-supported build to 119 rural properties in the village of Over and its surroundings. The move complements their existing builds in the communities of Hawkesbury Upton, Inglestone Common, Easter Compton, Bradley […]

The government and mobile operators have officially started activating the new UK-wide Emergency Alerts service, which has been designed to warn mobile users if there’s a “danger to life nearby” (e.g. severe flooding, fires and extreme weather). But it will only work on modern 4G and 5G Smartphones. The Emergency Alerts system is similar to […]

Analysts at global telecoms market intelligence firm ThinkCX have published a new report that examines the extent to which Virgin Media’s (VMO2) “Project Lightning” broadband expansion in West Yorkshire (England) “arrested a decline in its local market share and led to net growth“. In case anybody has forgotten, Project Lightning added 3.2 million premises to […]

News

The magenta giant has pledged to ‘supercharge’ the Mint Mobile brand while retaining the marketing bite of celebrity owner Ryan Reynolds

T-Mobile is set to purchase Ka’ena Corporation, the parent company of prepaid mobile virtual network operator Mint Mobile.

The Uncarrier will pay up to $1.35 billion for the company, with final amount varying based on Ka’ena’s performance during certain periods both before and after the deal closes. The sum will be paid in a combination of cash and shares.

The deal also includes the Ultra Mobile, a brand focussed on enabling cost-effective international  calls, and the wireless wholesaler Plum.

“Mint has built an incredibly successful digital direct-to-consumer business that continues to deliver for customers on the Un-carrier’s leading 5G network and now we are excited to use our scale and owners’ economics to help supercharge it – and Ultra Mobile – into the future,” said Mike Sievert, CEO of T-Mobile. “Over the long-term, we’ll also benefit from applying the marketing formula Mint has become famous for across more parts of T-Mobile. We think customers are really going to win with a more competitive and expansive Mint and Ultra.”

Following the acquisition, T-Mobile says that Mint will continue to operate largely as an independent business, headed up by Mint co-founders David Glickman and Rizwan Kassim. T-Mobile also says it will retain the company’s $15 per month price point.

Mint Mobile was formally put up for sale back in 2021, at which time it was rumoured to be worth between $600 million and $800 million. Numerous companies were hinted at as potential suitors, perhaps most notably Altice USA.

However, reports that T-Mobile was interested in acquiring the company, only surfaced at the start of the year.

Mint has seen a meteoric rise to prominence in recent years, helped in no small part by the advertising prowess of movie star owner Ryan Reynolds, who took a 20–25% stake in Mint back in 2019 for an undisclosed sum.

Since then, he has starred in numerous adverts for the company, something that will presumably continue under the company’s new ownership.

“We are so happy T-Mobile beat out an aggressive last-minute bid from my mom Tammy Reynolds as we believe the excellence of their 5G network will provide a better strategic fit than my mom’s slightly-above-average mahjong skills,” said Reynolds in a statement.

The deal is expected to close later this year following the typical regulatory oversight.

How is the US connectivity landscape changing in 2023? Join the debate next week at the Connected America conference live in Dallas!

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

Press Release

New long-term, multi-million-pound investment gives BT’s UK business customers access to edge computing services – with the first site now live for customer trials in Manchester, before general availability targeted for later this year

BT today announced a multi-million-pound investment to bring 5G and 4G mobile edge computing services to its UK business customers in collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS).

The work combines AWS’s cloud expertise with BT’s market-leading 5G and 4G infrastructure. EE’s national mobile network with AWS Wavelength will bring the power of AWS to the network edge for more business and public sector customers across the UK – opening up faster, secure and high-bandwidth connectivity on the move for use cases like policing, crowd management, healthcare and security.

The effort is part of BT’s investment in its existing mobile networks, to enable 5G-connected infrastructure as a service via AWS Wavelength. This includes switching on a new AWS Wavelength Zone in Manchester, which will service trials for eligible businesses and public sector organisations within a 100-kilometre radius (including cities such as Liverpool, Leeds, Sheffield and Blackpool). BT’s ambition is to roll out AWS Wavelength to business customers across the UK more broadly in the coming years.

AWS Wavelength embeds AWS compute and storage services within 5G and 4G networks, providing mobile edge computing infrastructure for ultra-low-latency applications. Hosting services directly at the edge of EE’s UK network reduces lag, as application traffic can reach application servers running in the AWS Wavelength Zone without leaving BT’s network. This opens up mobile edge computing infrastructure for businesses to develop, deploy, and scale mobile Internet of Things (IoT) applications over BT’s existing 5G network securely

The collaboration aims to enable high-speed, latency-sensitive and intensive 5G connectivity for BT customers looking to benefit from high-bandwidth IoT use cases in the field. This includes autonomous vehicles, cameras for policing and other public services to help protect communities, live media production for outside broadcast, smart industrial robots, and use in community healthcare (such as in care homes to monitor for falls and accidents).

BT’s Wholesale unit has worked with AWS on the initial trials in Manchester. After the planned national rollout, the service will be available to all BT business customers in the UK – from small businesses to large enterprise and public sector organisations.

Alex Tempest, Managing Director for BT Wholesale said: “As we continue to build best-in-class 5G infrastructure for the UK, launching the AWS Wavelength service for our business and wholesale customers is a hugely important step on our journey – bringing the power of the cloud to the UK’s best network. It’s set to unlock use cases like IoT cameras to help first responders keep communities safe: a real-life example of using tech to connect for good.

“By building cloud edge services into our 5G and 4G EE network, we can accelerate innovation across industries, and bring fast, secure data processing closer to where our customers need it most. Ultimately, we want to give businesses and public sector organisations all the power of edge computing, wherever they are.”

How is the migration to the public cloud impacting the telecoms landscape in the UK? Join the operators in discussion at this year’s live Connected North conference in Manchester

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

News

Reports suggest that Virgin Media O2 (VMO2) has entered talks to purchase CItyFibre, the UK’s largest altnet, in a deal that could be valued at over £3 billion

This weekend, a report from The Telegraph suggests that VMO2 could be interested in purchasing its fibre rival, CityFibre.

According to the report, Mike Fries, CEO of VMO2’s parent company Liberty Global, and Greg Mesch, CEO of CityFibre, have entered into “initial talks” over the possibility of VMO2 presenting CityFIbre with a roughly £3 billion takeover bid.

If such a deal were to take place, it would represent a major dynamic shift for the UK broadband market, seeing the country’s largest altnet and third-largest fixed network operator absorbed into the UK’s second-place broadband player.

VMO2’s broadband networks currently covers over 16 million premises. However, only around 1.7 million of these premises are passed with fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP), with the rest (roughly 14.3 million) using hybrid fibre coax (HFC) technology.

It is worth noting here that VMO2 finished upgrading its HFC network to DOCSIS 3.1 technology at the end of 2021, hence all of its existing customers now have access to gigabit-capable broadband speeds. Since then, the company has focussed on further upgrading its HFC network to FTTP, aiming to transition the entirety of its broadband footprint to full fibre by 2028.

CityFibre, meanwhile, is a purely wholesale full fibre player, having passed roughly 2.5 million premises FTTP, according to its most recent figures. The operator is currently aiming to cover 8 million premises by 2025.

Thus, for VMO2, the acquisition of CityFibre could be seen as a relatively quick way for the conveerged operator to race towards its ambitious fibre target of passing 23 million premises with FTTP by the end of 2026.

In practice, however, VMO2 and CityFibre’s networks overlap considerably. According to The Telegraph, the two companies’ footprints overlap by around 50%, but some digging by thinkbroadband.com suggests that this could be “as high as 70%”.

Given this much network redundancy and CityFibre’s expensive price tag, it seems unlikely that VMO2 would be interested in acquiring the company directly.

However, a merger between CityFibre and NexFibre ­– the wholesale fibre joint venture (JV) launched by Liberty Global, Telefonica, and InfraVia Capital last summer – could be much more appealing.

Backed by an investment of £4.5 billion, NexFibre aims to cover 7 million UK premises outside of VMO2’s existing broadband footprint with FTTP. The company will offer services on a neutral wholesale basis to the nation’s ISPs, with VMO2 as an anchor tenant.

For Liberty, the acquisition of CityFibre by NexFibre could serve a dual purpose, not only giving the their JV a headstart when it comes to rollout numbers but also taking one of VMO2’s leading competitors out of the market.

As such, it should come as no surprise that any deal via either VMO2 or NexFibre would face intense regulatory scrutiny, with the Competition and Markets Authority having to carefully estimate the state of the UK broadband market if it were to lose CityFibre as a competitor.

In related news, VMO2 has recently been linked to discussions over acquiring Trooli, another of the UK’s altnets.

How is the altnet landscape changing in 2023? Join the operators in discussion at this year’s live Connected North conference in Manchester

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

Press Release

Netomnia, one of the fastest growing altnets in the UK, along with ISP sister company YouFibre, has raised £230 million in committed debt financing

Netomnia has successfully completed its latest fundraise of £230 million in committed debt financing from a group of six bank lenders, comprised of HSBC UK, ING, NIBC, RBC, Standard Chartered, and UKIB. The financing package also includes an accordion to be raised in the future to support the continued growth of the business.

The backing comes at a pivotal moment in Netomnia’s network deployment. The company, known for its fast network rollout and efficient use of capital, has become the fourth largest altnet in the UK in two and half years, recently passing 410,000 premises ready for service and connecting 28,000 customers. Its build speed continues to accelerate as it closes in on the goal of 1 million homes and businesses passed.

Wil Wadsworth, CFO at Netomnia and YouFibre, says, “We are very pleased to welcome this new group of lenders to Netomnia and are thrilled they have chosen to support the continued acceleration of our business. The enthusiasm from these institutions to support our business is a testament to our successes at Netomnia and YouFibre, and our unique approach to building our full fibre network and providing best-in-class Internet speeds and services to customers across the UK.

“Everyone in the UK is impacted by the rising cost of living, and interest rates are hitting businesses and families alike. Now more than ever it’s vital that we continue to build our network at pace to provide better and more affordable broadband to as many homes and businesses as we can.”

How is the altnet landscape changing in 2023? Join the operators in discussion at this year’s live Connected North conference in Manchester

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