A new £2m Joint Venture involving broadband operator ITS Technology Group and DG Cities, an innovation company owned by the Royal Borough of Greenwich Council, has been established today to help commercialise a 21km long gigabit-capable full fibre network around the London borough of Greenwich – serving homes and businesses. As part of this project […]

Rural-focused network builder and ISP Quickline, which last week unveiled their 2023 rollout plan for reaching 96 locations (55,000 premises) across Yorkshire and Lincolnshire with their full fibre (FTTP) broadband network (here), has today revealed that engineers are starting work in South Ferriby, Tealby and North Willingham. The newly-recruited in-house infrastructure Build Team – comprising […]

Network operator CityFibre has announced that they’ve signed a key wayleave agreement (land / property access) with Silva homes, which will see them add another 5,000 homes to their full fibre (FTTP) network coverage in the Berkshire (England) town of Bracknell (they’re already investing £20m on a larger deployment there). The work will form part […]

News

With the deal now rubberstamped by the European Commission, the operators hope to close the deal by September

This week, the European Commission has announced that it has given its approval for the creation of Vodafone and Altice’s new German broadband firm, FiberCo.

According to the Commission, the creation of FiberCo will not damage competition in the German fibre market, with the Commission noting “limited horizontal overlaps and vertical links between the companies’ activities in the relevant markets”.

The deal to create FiberCo was first announced back in October, with the companies committing to investing €7 billion in fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) deployments over the next six years.

In total, the FiberCo aims to cover seven million homes by 2029, with around 80% of the rollout focussed on upgrading housing associations that currently use Vodafone’s hybrid fibre coaxial (HFC) network to FTTH. The remaining 20% will target neighbouring homes outside of Vodafone’s current footprint.

Vodafone’s HFC network currently covers around 25 million premises in Germany.

According to Vodafone Deutschland CEO Philippe Rogge, the partners hope to bring FiberCo’s first customers online “before the end of this year”.

Previously, the companies have suggested that the deal will formally close before September this year.

How is the German fibre landscape evolving in 2023? Catch up with all of the year’s hottest topics in the telecoms industry at Connected Germany 2023

Also in the news:
AT&T signs up to use Frontier’s fibre to connect mobile towers
UScellular urges customers to put down their phones in latest initiative
VMO2 and Vodafone give rural Scotland a 4G boost

The latest Q4 2022 results from UK ISP and mobile operator VMO2 (Virgin Media and O2) has seen their broadband base reach 5.653m customers (up by 22.7k in Q4 vs 19.1k in Q3), while their gigabit coverage added another 188,000 premises in the quarter to total 16.14 million (54% of the UK). Now comes Nexfibre. […]

New data from caller ID verification firm Hiya, which also works with UK broadband ISP BT (EE) to help detect and block SPAM and fraud calls, has today claimed that 28% of non-contact calls in the United Kingdom were identified as spam in 2022. Plus, the UK also comes out as the worst in Europe […]

Press Release

T-Mobile and Amazon Web Services, Amazon’s cloud computing division, today are joining forces to bring 5G connectivity paired with AWS compute solutions to T-Mobile’s 5G Advanced Network Solutions portfolio. They will also collaborate on customizable, use case specific offerings as part of the new Integrated Private Wireless on AWS program. These offerings help businesses get the performance and applications they need for their unique use cases – for example, monitoring worker safety on remote industrial campuses, performing predictive maintenance on manufacturing equipment, or ensuring faster aircraft turnaround times at the airport.

“T-Mobile and AWS are coming together to do what industry-leading companies do best – make things easier for customers,” said Callie Field, President, T-Mobile Business Group. “Businesses need a combination of connectivity and compute that fits into their current infrastructure. With our flexible 5G network deployment options and AWS’s cloud compute capabilities, we can quickly provide customers a right-sized solution to make their applications – new and existing – perform like never before.”

“AWS and T-Mobile share a common desire to work backwards from customer feedback to deliver innovation,” said Adolfo Hernandez, Vice President, Telco Industry at AWS. “One of the biggest challenges in galvanizing industries and revenue for 5G services has been the lack of flexible 5G solutions that meet the compute and connectivity needs for customers. Together with T-Mobile’s innovative suite of 5G Advanced Network Solutions and our Integrated Private Wireless Program, we have the power to meet customers where they are.”

After years of industry excitement, 5G private network adoption has underwhelmed, but the potential is undeniably huge. The challenge has been the complexity and cost businesses face in unlocking that potential – requiring them to work across multiple vendors for compute, connectivity, applications, integration and more at a time of increased budget pressures. With some connectivity vendors insisting on a costly one-size-fits all approach to private networking – instead of a flexible set of private, hybrid and public networking options – it’s no wonder adoption has been slow to take off.

By working together, T-Mobile and AWS can help customers more easily discover, customize, and deploy 5G edge compute. Current AWS customers or businesses wanting AWS services can use the Integrated Private Wireless on AWS portal to explore customized solutions, browsing by industry or use case. Then they simply choose T-Mobile as their 5G provider. For U.S. businesses new to any advanced network or compute solution, T-Mobile will be able to work with them to set up a 5G public, hybrid or private network that’s already integrated with AWS’s customizable edge infrastructure and services.

How is the rise of public cloud shifting the dynamics of the US telecoms industry? Join the operators live in discussion at this year’s Connected America conference 

Also in the news:
AT&T signs up to use Frontier’s fibre to connect mobile towers
UScellular urges customers to put down their phones in latest initiative
VMO2 and Vodafone give rural Scotland a 4G boost

Ookla, which runs the popular Speedtest.net service, has published their latest Q4 2022 report into the internet download, upload and latency performance for UK customers – and other countries – on SpaceX’s Low Earth Orbit (LEO) based Starlink ultrafast broadband satellites. The good news is that speeds seems to be rising again. At present Starlink […]

Network operator Broadway Partners (Broadway Broadband) has chosen Nokia to be the primary technology partner for their planned rollout of a new Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network in rural parts of Scotland and Wales, which aims to cover 250,000 premises by around 2028 (within 5 years). Broadway has already conducted various smaller deployments to rural communities […]

Alternative broadband ISP toob, which perhaps questionably claims to be “the UK’s fastest broadband provider“, has today announced that their new Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network in the Hampshire (England) market town of Fareham has started to go live for the first local homes. In case anybody has forgotten, toob announced in October 2022 (here) that they […]