Broadband ISP TalkTalk has moved to try and deflect some of the negative attention they’re likely to get from the confirmation of today’s annual inflation linked price hikes. The provider has done this by shifting the blame for those rises on to the shoulders of Ofcom and their wholesale providers (mainly Openreach). As we reported […]

News

Reports show that smartphone uptake is stagnating, potentially offering a major hurdle for the adoption of 5G services

In the short time since launching 5G services, India’s mobile network operators have been rolling out infrastructure at a rapid pace, seemingly adding new locations almost daily. Reliance Jio’s 5G network reportedly covers 134 cities across India, while rival Bharti Airtel has said that most parts of the country should be covered by the new technology by March.

But while this is undeniably a very exciting time for India’s mobile market – the Indian government recently claimed India to be the largest “connected” country in the world – it belies a rather worrying trend: the number of new internet users in India is declining year-on-year.

According to a recent report by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), India had around 837 million internet subscribers in June 2022, 92% of which were mobile broadband subscriptions.

This represents a growth of just 1% over 2021 figures, which themselves saw only a 4% lift on the total subscriber numbers from 2020.

Compare this with the double-digit growth rates seen in the 2016–2020 period, and it is clear that the Indian internet market is reaching something of a bottleneck.

“The number of new subscribers using the mobile internet per year plunged from pre-Covid levels of 60-70 million to around 35-40 million in CY2022, which has resulted in telcos potentially losing out on around a $300 million additional revenue opportunity, assuming that the extra 25 million new mobile broadband users would have easily generated at least $1 of incremental monthly ARPU for the operators,” said Tarun Pathak, research director at Counterpoint.

The primary culprit for this stagnating growth appears to be the nation’s smartphone market, with high device prices leading to a much slower rate of adoption by new customers.

The smartphone market has been hit severely by the global supply chain crisis, with its reliance on the glacial recovery of the semiconductor industry driving up prices since the coronavirus pandemic began. Last year, market researchers from International Data Corporation estimated that smartphone prices in 2022 had risen 20% on average since the early days of the pandemic.

This is in stark in contrast to the highly affordable smartphones of the 2010s, a decade which saw smartphone user numbers surge from just 34 million to almost 750 million.

Analysts suggest that these supply chain issues are unlikely to improve until the latter part of 2023 at the earliest, leaving it unclear whether India’s new 5G services will be enough to entice new customers to pay a premium for a new smartphone.

Unfortunately for the operators, against the backdrop of higher inflation rates and the global economic downturn it will likely be harder than ever to migrate customers away from their less expensive feature phones towards 5G-capable smartphones.

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Credible sources have informed ISPreview.co.uk that customers of UK broadband ISP Plusnet (part of the BT Group) may soon lose the ability to directly add BT Sport TV to their service (this currently costs from an extra £17.15 a month), with the feature allegedly due to then be closed by June 2023. The move to […]

Northern Ireland-based civil engineering firm Viberoptix, which is working alongside ISPs like Fibrus to roll-out full fibre (FTTP) broadband networks in the UK, has launched a new “Fibre Campus” to train new engineers in the specialist skills required to support such work in Cumbria, England. The Newtown Rigg Fibre Campus is located within the former […]

A specialist broadband ISP for the UK education market, Talk Straight (aka – Schools Broadband and Trust IT), has today announced that they’ve acquired Essex based internet and manager solutions provider United Network Technologies (UNT) for an undisclosed sum. Both providers appear to serve some of the same market. For example, UNT already delivers ISP […]

Press Release

Nokia today announced that Telefonica Spain has successfully trialed 25G PON technology

The trial, the first in Spain to demonstrate symmetric speeds of 20 Gbps, showed that the state-of-the-art 25G PON can co-exist with Telefonica’s existing GPON solution.

Telefonica, with almost 60 million FTTH homes passed already deployed in their multiple business units, has validated with this trial that current GPON and XGS-PON broadband technologies can co-exist seamlessly on the same fiber with the 25G PON. High speeds aligned with low latency, get the network ready for future exciting applications like the Metaverse. 25G PON delivers huge symmetrical bandwidth capacity that will support new use cases and bandwidth requirements.

Gonzalo Garzón, Head of Fixed Access at Telefónica España at Telefonica, said: “Telefonica was the first operator in Spain to provide gigabit connectivity, but we are not stopping there. Consumer bandwidth demands never halts and exciting applications, like VR gaming, will always be evolved to make the most of available bandwidth. New FTTH technologies give us even more opportunities than home connectivity. With their massive uptick in capacity we’ll be able to offer new business services on the same network.”

Bjorn Capens, VP Europe, Nokia Fixed Networks, said: “Thanks to our Quillion chipset, this 25G PON proof of concept with Telefonica has demonstrated that the huge bandwidth-capacity can be easily added to their existing networks, co-existing with their existing PON technologies. This means customers on the same fiber line can be served with GPON, XGS-PON or 25G GPON, making it much easier to manage upgrade cycles.”

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News

According to reports, the layoffs primarily affect territorial retail managers and retail dealers

According to recent reports, a unknown number of T-Mobile’s retail stores have been closed and around 600 retail staff members have been laid off, according to estimates from analyst Jeff Moore of Wave7 Research.

The job cuts primarily appear to affect territorial retail managers and those involved with retail dealers and indirect retail sales.

Staff impacted by these job cuts have already been informed and, in many cases, have the option to reapply for their old jobs under a new title.

This news shortly follows a recent blog post from T-Mobile entitled ‘We’re Reshaping Retail in a Digital‑First World’, in which T-Mobile’s President of Consumer Group Jon Freier explained a shift away from one-size-fits-all stores and towards a more personalised, multi-channel retail experience for customers.

“Is brick-and-mortar retail dead? Here’s what I think: Yes, the way we’ve known it is dead. But it’s because physical shopping is changing – yet again – and will deliver experiences that will surprise and delight customers in ways that are more innovative than ever,” he explained.

He went on to explain that delivering this new experience would require the company to focus on “four distinct brick-and-mortar store formats that will serve customers’ different needs”:

Signature stores, which serve as brand showrooms and host events and product launches.
Experience stores, which will feature the “latest and broadest assortment of T-Mobile products and services”, as well as being staffed by the company’s Mobile Experts. Freier says this will be the fastest growing format.
Neighbourhood stores, which are more localised and offer a more limited selection of products and services.
Express stores, a new format

T-Mobile will also expand their mobile truck fleet, which primarily serves to provide customers in hard-to-reach areas with support and retail services, often ahead of the opening of a brick-and-mortar outlet.

The operator will also focus on branded kiosks within larger retail outlets, such as Costco stores.

Naturally, the blog post makes no reference to job cuts as a result of this strategic shift.

T-Mobile reportedly has around 7,000 retains outlets across the US – a figure which the operator says is growing, despite these recent cuts.

It should be noted that T-Mobile is far from alone when it comes to laying off staff in recent months. In the US, T-Mobile’s largest rivals, Verizon and AT&T, have both announced job cuts in the latter half of 2022, primarily as cost-cutting measures aimed at refocussing funds elsewhere.

Similar tales of job cuts as a cost-cutting measure can be found in numerous global markets, with many of the world’s largest telcos feeling the financial pressures posed by strong market competition, supply chain issues, and the global economic downturn. Earlier this month, for example, Vodafone Group said it would cut hundreds of jobs, with the company’s London office expected to face the biggest cutbacks.

So, is high street retail dead for telcos? Not exactly, but it is undoubtedly an area viewed as ripe for restructuring in the face of shifting customer expectations – and if cost savings via job cuts can be derived from this new strategy, then so much the better.

How is the US telecoms market shifting in 2023? Join the experts in discussion at the upcoming Connected America conference live in Dallas, Texas

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Customers of Tesco Mobile, which is an O2 (VMO2) based Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO), can now harness a new trade-in scheme that enables them to donate their old mobile phones or other devices for cash (direct to your bank account) or a Tesco e-gift voucher, usually within just 5 working days. In order to […]