Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

TechUK, which represents many of the UK’s key technology firms, has today drawn on 23 indicators from across the economy, connectivity, and skills to paint a regional and national picture of the tech ecosystem via their 2025 Local Digital Index. But the report also calls on the government to “fast-track” completion of its broadband and mobile projects to tackle slow spots, ideally alongside relief from business rates.

The new index shows that while the UK tech sector continues to outperform most of the economy – now contributing £101bn in Gross Value Added (GVA) and employing 1.7 million people – growth remains uneven. The index highlights some dramatic progress since 2020, such as in terms of the gigabit broadband roll-out, but it also identifies that growth and investment remain “too heavily concentrated” in London, Oxford, and Cambridge.

Overall growth for the digital sector has a forecast of 8.9%, which is above the general UK average. However, the projected rate has decreased slightly since last year’s index (10%). The report also warns that, despite the improvements in digital infrastructure, “too many communities and business parks still face slow or unreliable connectivity“.

In response, techUK has “urged” the UK Government to treat business connectivity as Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) and to start “fast-tracking” the completion of their £5bn Project Gigabit broadband roll-out and the industry-led Shared Rural Network (SRN) for boosting 4G mobile coverage, while expanding coverage measurements to include commercial sites, not just homes (Ofcom’s reports often focus on residential properties).

Matthew Evans, Director of Markets and COO at techUK, said:

“Our Index shows that there is incredible innovation happening across the whole of the UK. However, only some of the regions are reaping the benefits. We must ensure the benefits of innovation reach every region and community. If we invest now in infrastructure, capital, and skills, we can build a digital economy that delivers growth and prosperity everywhere.”

In fairness, both Project Gigabit and the SRN have so far met their initial targets, although Project Gigabit did recently delay its coverage target (99% of UK premises) from 2030 to 2032 (here). Suffice to say, the notion of “fast-tracking” may not be very realistic; much of this is down to the network operators and their ability to deliver in some very challenging areas, although there’s still some scope for the government to remove red tape (planning / road permissions and MDU access etc.).

Overall, the new report makes three key recommendations for action, and the ones for digital infrastructure are particularly interesting.

The Three Priority Areas for Action

• Catalyse investment beyond the Golden Triangle:

Investment remains at the heart of innovation; yet capital, both public and private, is still clustered in the South East.

techUK calls for a deliberate effort to channel investment into high-potential regional ecosystems, ensuring that scale-ups from across the UK can access the finance they need to grow. This includes expanding regional investment funds, aligning Innovate UK and the British Business Bank to support early-stage innovation pipelines, and establishing a Digital Technologies Office for Investment to showcase UK strengths to global investors.

• Accelerate digital infrastructure for business connectivity:

The UK’s digital infrastructure has strengthened significantly since 2020, yet too many communities and business parks still face slow or unreliable connectivity. techUK urges Government to treat business connectivity as critical national infrastructure, fast-tracking the completion of Project Gigabit and the Shared Rural Network while expanding coverage measurement to include commercial sites, not just homes.

 

To incentivise deployment, techUK proposes “targeted business rates relief for next-generation fibre and 5G standalone networks“, alongside support for alternative technologies such as satellite to close the rural gap.

• Align skills supply and demand to drive regional growth:

The UK produces exceptional digital talent, but the Index shows growing disparities between where people train and where they find work. Some regions risk becoming “training grounds” for talent that relocates elsewhere.

 

techUK calls for a more flexible, regionally empowered approach to digital skills. Reforming the Growth and Skills Levy would allow employers to fund short, modular training aligned with emerging technologies such as AI, semiconductors, and cyber security. Local and devolved authorities should also be empowered to reinvest levy underspends into digital inclusion and community-based upskilling.

 

Universities, meanwhile, should act as anchor institutions for digital adoption, helping local SMEs modernise management practices and embed digital tools across supply chains.

Regular readers will know that the Government has recently been facing heavy criticism from network operators, particularly bigger players like BT and Virgin Media (here and here), over their plans to reform business rates; this may actually increase the tax on broadband operators and at a time when they’re trying to invest in the deployment of new networks.

However, so far, there’s been no indication that the government might consider “targeted business rates relief” for fibre and 5G networks. Failing to address this may thus risk causing a slowdown or even abandonment of some deployment plans, at least that’s what Openreach have been warning (here).

The prospects are better for the government to introduce greater support for alternative rural broadband technologies in rural areas, which could perhaps take the form of a new voucher scheme. The new agreement between BT (EE) and Starlink also looks set to target this area next year (here), although we’re still of the view that foreign owned satellite networks should be considered a stop gap solution, with fibre in the ground remaining the ultimate goal.

The difficulty for the government is that they’re extremely strapped for cash, due to the level of debt and related repayments that has accumulated in recent years. The flexibility may not exist to do everything the industry might want.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Good news for residents of the remote Falkland Islands, which are a British Overseas Territory off the South American coast. After a long and complex battle, SpaceX’s ultrafast Starlink broadband service has recently gone live and its final pricing appears to closely mirror the standard packages that are available to UK consumers.

The Starlink constellation currently has around 9,000 satellites in orbit (c.5,500 are GEN2) – mostly at altitudes of c.500-600km (Low Earth Orbit). Residential customers in the UK usually pay from £75 a month, plus £299 for hardware (currently free for many areas) on the ‘Standard’ unlimited data plan (kit price may vary due to different offers) directly from Starlink, which promises UK latency times of 26-33ms, downloads of 116-277Mbps and uploads of 17-32Mbps. Cheaper, albeit more restrictive (data capped), options also exist for roaming users (e.g. £50 per month for 50 GigaBytes of data).

The situation in the Falkland Islands is, however, a little bit different due to the history of local satellite connectivity – the main means of local communication and one that was previously dominated by a slow and expensive solution from Sure (Sure Falklands Islands). But we’d suggest reading the prior article for a history lesson on that and the battle to overturn it (here).

Consumers on the Falkland Islands can now legally sign-up to Starlink and the Standard no-contract Residential package will set you back 75 FKP per month (1FKP is almost identical to £1), plus 300 FKP for the hardware (terminal, router etc.) – or 160 FKP for the Mini kit –  and 20 FKP for shipping (postage). In addition, customers will also need to secure a VSAT licence from the Falkland Islands Government (FIG) – get one here – and provide the related code to Starlink (this costs £180 per year).

Some hidden data selectors on Starlink’s Coverage Map also allow you to see what kind of performance the network can currently deliver across the Falklands. The data suggests that download speeds of between 208-358Mbps, uploads of between 29-45Mbps and latency times of 37-42ms (milliseconds) should be possible. But officially, Starlink’s advertised speeds propose downloads of 135-305Mbps and uploads of 20-40Mbps.

Credits to one of our readers (Danny) for spotting the update on the Open Falklands blog.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

The NordVPN service, which is a familiar Virtual Private Network (VPN) provider, has today announced that they’ve expanded the availability of their Call Protection feature (formerly known as scam call protection) – initially only available across the USA – to also cover Android users in the United Kingdom and Canada. Support for iPhone users is coming soon.

The rebranding to “Call Protection” is said to reflect the provider’s focus on moving beyond scam detection and including more detailed caller identification as part of the service. In short, the feature gives an early warning, notifying the recipient of a potential scam attempt before they can pick up the phone. NordVPN does this by examining “call patterns and metadata to spot potential scams“, without touching your actual conversations.

The feature also runs quietly in the background without needing an active VPN connection. Customers of the NordVPN service in the UK need only open their Android app, navigate to the “Threat Protection” tab, and toggle the feature on. The app will then guide them through updating the necessary Android settings.

In addition, NordVPN are planning to introduce a “user reporting system” in the future, which will let people flag suspicious numbers, helping to strengthen the scam database for everyone.

Domininkas Virbickas, Product Director at NordVPN, said:

“Scam calls are a global problem that requires a global solution. By expanding call protection to the UK and Canada, we’re taking another step toward our goal of making phone communication safer and more transparent for users worldwide. We want to give people the context they need to make informed decisions about every call.”

Admittedly, while such features are always welcome, it’s worth pointing out that many modern Android Smartphones already work with UK mobile operators to provide a user reporting system and most mobile operators have already adopted sophisticated network-level scam call and spam detection systems (these often block such calls before they even reach you).

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Mobile operator O2 (Virgin Media) has revealed that they’ve recently boosted 4G and 5G based mobile (mobile broadband) coverage across 590 miles of road in the UK (i.e. major motorways and A roads, including the M1, M4, M6, M8 and M25). The move aims to improve network reliability and help drivers with navigation, charging apps and calls to breakdown services etc.

As part of the network optimisation work, many routes have received upgrades including a 4G boost for 311 sites and 338 brand-new 5G builds, “significantly enhancing network performance and reliability for road users“. Further improvements are also being planned for the A14 (Rugby–Ipswich), the M20 (London–Folkestone) and the A75 (Gretna–Stranraer).

At the same time, the Liberty Global-backed EV charge point operator, Believ, is installing up to 30,000 new public charging points nationwide to expand its charging footprint, including in areas where O2 has recently boosted mobile coverage.

In addition, VMO2 recently commission Strand Partners to conduct a nationally representative online survey of 1,000 people, including a sub-sample of 298 EV drivers between 29/08/2025 – 01/09/2025. This revealed that 76% of EV drivers worry about losing mobile connectivity, which can also make it difficult to access charging apps (you can usually charge without these, but some services adopt a subscription).

Jeanie York, Chief Technology Officer at VMO2, said:

“Connectivity underpins a huge part of the driving experience today, but particularly for EVs. By optimising coverage on more than 40 motorways and A roads as part of our £700 million investment in our Mobile Transformation Plan, we’re helping make every journey safer and more reliable. Alongside Believ’s new charging points, this is about removing barriers so more people can make the switch to electric with confidence.”

The upgrades form part of VMO2’s wider £700m Mobile Transformation Plan, which is expanding 4G and 5G coverage, rolling out Small Cells in dense urban areas, and tackling persistent network pain points along railways, airports, stadiums and now main roads.

Original article Total Telecom:Read More

News

Microsoft has unveiled Project Gecko, a research-driven initiative aimed at producing cheaper, localised generative AI systems for populations under‑represented in current models , starting with smallholder farmers in Kenya and India.

The project, led by Microsoft Research with contributions from Microsoft Research Africa in Nairobi, Microsoft Research India, the Microsoft Research Accelerator in the US and partners including agri‑tech NGO Digital Green, seeks to tackle the language, cultural and infrastructure barriers that limit AI uptake in low‑resource settings.

At the centre of the effort is the MultiModal Critical Thinking Agent (MMCTAgent), a multimodal system that ingests speech, images, and video to produce context‑rich, locally grounded answers. Microsoft says MMCTAgent can break complex queries into sub‑questions, verify its own outputs, and anchor responses in community‑generated practice captured in videos and transcripts.

The system is available on Azure AI Foundry Labs and its code has been published on GitHub.

Agriculture is Project Gecko’s first focus because of its economic weight in countries such as Kenya and India, where millions of smallholders work plots of under five acres. Microsoft and partners argue that existing AI tools often fail farmers because models are trained predominantly on English data, do not handle local dialects, and do not reflect region‑specific agronomic terms or practices. Farmers commonly rely on oral instruction and video demonstrations, both of which are channels that conventional text‑centric models struggle to exploit.

Project Gecko builds on Digital Green’s FarmerChat platform, which already serves millions of farmers and holds more than 10,000 agricultural videos in over 40 languages and dialects. Microsoft says Project Gecko enables a farmer in Nyeri County, for example, to ask a question verbally in Kikuyu and receive a text, audio, or video response, including a jump to the precise timestamp in a training clip. Field studies in Kenya and India reportedly show improved accuracy, usability and trust compared with generic AI systems.

A key technical strand of the work is creating speech infrastructure for under‑served languages. The team has collected roughly 3,000 hours of crowd‑sourced Kenyan speech and expanded support to Swahili, Kikuyu, Kalenjin, Dholuo, Maa, and Somali. To run on the low‑cost devices typical in rural areas, the project uses small language models (SLMs) and is preparing a public leaderboard to benchmark African language performance.

Microsoft plans to broaden Project Gecko beyond agriculture into healthcare, education, and retail, and will publish a multilingual playbook for developers.

While major challenges still remain for the project, including limited connectivity for the target consumers and sparse datasets for many languages, Project Gecko represents a significant attempt to bridge the rapidly growing digital divide.

Also in the news
Connected Britain Award winners 2025 announced!
Netomnia announces ‘powerful and ambitious’ rebrand ahead of Connected Britain
VodafoneThree drops Samsung, relies on Nokia and Ericsson for £2bn network upgrade

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

New research from Broadband Genie, which recently interviewed 3,997 broadband bill payers over a 4-month period, claims to have identified the “worst” ten locations in the UK for “broadband overspend” (i.e. where consumers are out of contract and thus paying more than if they were to switch ISP for a better deal). Wolverhampton tops the table with an overspend of £292.56.

The study compares the average spend in each area with the hypothetical savings customers could make over a 12-month period. On average, broadband customers overspend £183.60 and over the Black Friday period, this can top £230. Annually, this is claimed to equate to £2 billion a year. Across the UK, some 8.8 million customers are estimated by the study to be out of contract and thus free to switch to something cheaper.

The somewhat anecdotal results found that Wolverhampton bill payers overspend the most for broadband than any other area in the UK (£292.56), although the differences between the listed locations were overall found to be fairly small (possibly reflecting some differences in network and ISP availability).

Top 10 cities which overpay the most on broadband

As usual, we feel it’s important to take opinion surveys like this with a fairly big pinch of salt, since they often reflect highly subjective analysis that doesn’t consider the wider context for each consumer decision. How we all value our broadband package and ISP tends to differ, and many of us value quality and support over getting the cheapest price. Likewise, not all ISPs play the post-contract price hikes game.

Suffice to say that how each of us chooses to value the service we receive is different and can’t always be whittled down to an assumption of “overspend” vs the cheapest available deal from another provider. On the other hand, it’s always wise to keep your options open and do a bit of research to identify comparable providers and packages that might suit.

The alternative avenue, which tends to be more viable with the largest providers, is to try haggling for a better deal – see our Retentions Tips article for some help on that. The above survey doesn’t seem to have considered whether those they questioned had already secured a better deal with their existing ISP.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Ofcom has today released their Connection Nations 2025 digital infrastructure report earlier than usual, which reveals that residential gigabit-capable broadband ISP networks now cover 87% of the UK (up from 84% in 2024), while outdoor 5G coverage from at least one mobile operator is available to 97% of premises (up from 95%). But rural cover remains weaker.

The latest CN2025 report typically offers a general overview of fixed line broadband and mobile network availability, as well as related service take-up and data usage from across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, which is largely based off data that was gathered during July 2025 (varying between the results).

Before we begin, it’s important to note how Ofcom defines the different broadband performance classes. For example, “Decent Broadband” means a 10Mbps+ download speed with 1Mbps+ uploads (i.e. the Universal Service Obligation), while “Superfast” is 30Mbps+, “Gigabit” equates to 1Gbps+ (1000Mbps+) and “Full Fibre” essentially means a pure Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP/B) network (these are also gigabit capable).

As usual, we’ve split our summary of the key results from this report into categories for fixed line broadband and mobile networks.

Fixed Line Broadband Coverage

The rapid deployment of “full fibre” broadband networks by various providers continues to be the main area of growth and change during 2025 (Summary of UK Full Fibre Build Progress), which predominantly reflects the efforts of commercial investment in urban areas. But that is starting to change due to the Government’s £5bn state aid funded Project Gigabit programme.

The project, which aims to make gigabit speeds available “nationwide” (c.99%) by 2032, is starting to convert contract awards into tangible build activity across various rural areas. Admittedly, its impact is still small to modest, but it’s growing and the focus on rural connectivity is helping to lift some of the figures in this report. Upgrades via Project Gigabit can also lead to additional commercial coverage in nearby areas.

Overall, the picture today is that “full fibre” network coverage has risen from 10% of the UK in 2019 (3 million premises), then 18% (5.1m) in 2020, 28% (8.2m) in 2021, 42% (12.4m) in 2022, 57% (17.1m) in 2023, 69% (20.7m) in 2024 and now stands at 78% (23.7m) for 2025. As for “gigabit” coverage, which is driven by both FTTP and Virgin Media’s HFC network (there’s a lot of urban overbuild between these two), that has grown from 84% (25m) last year to 87% now (26.4m).

Elsewhere, “superfast” coverage has risen to 29.7m premises or 98% (up from 29.4m last year), which falls to 91% in rural areas (up from 89%). But the number of premises that cannot get a “decent broadband” service is 44,000 premises (down from 58,000 last year). But this includes 4G and fixed wireless coverage into the figure too, which reaches 1% (340,000 premises) when you only look at fixed lines (down from 385,000 in 2024).

Sadly, many of those that remain in sub-10Mbps areas are often too expensive for even the USO to fix (here and here), but this gap continues to fall. Ofcom predicts that the number of premises unable to get 10Mbps (decent) broadband could fall to around 36,000 by the end of 2026, mostly as a result of upgrades via publicly funded schemes (connection vouchers, project gigabit contracts etc.).

Ofcom also provides some useful data on the rural vs urban coverage split for superfast, decent broadband, full fibre and gigabit lines below – split by region.

In terms of take-up, some 42% or 10.6 million premises have now taken up a “full fibre” network (up from 35% and 7.5m last year). But it’s also noted that 56% of premises in rural areas have taken full fibre (up from 52%), compared to 40% in urban area (up from 32%). The take-up of services on gigabit-capable networks, where they are available, is now at 56% (up from 49%). Over time, the gigabit and full fibre figures should align, once Virgin Media fully migrates from coax to FTTP.

Breaking news.. more to follow..

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Network operator CityFibre appears to be getting close to completing the integration of Connexin’s 10Gbps capable full fibre (FTTP) broadband infrastructure, which is present across parts of East Yorkshire (Hull etc.), Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire (England), into their national UK network.

In case anybody has forgotten. CityFibre announced the acquisition of Connexin’s broadband network back in March 2025 (here). The deal included Connexin’s built network assets of more than 80,000 premises passed, as well as work-in-progress to a further 20,000 premises and options to extend further throughout Hull over time. PATRIZIA’s European Infrastructure Fund II also became a minority shareholder in CityFibre.

The acquisition also saw CityFibre take on responsibility for Connexin’s £58.6m (public subsidy) Project Gigabit contract for rural parts of Nottinghamshire and West Lincolnshire (Lot 10), which has been stuck in a state of limbo since the agreement but originally aimed to cover 34,320 hard to reach premises (this will also make it possible to reach over 50,000 non-subsidised premises in the target regions).

Overall, CityFibre expected the deal to eventually enable a total expansion of their existing FTTP footprint by “up to” 185,000 premises, while the associated retail customer base would remain controlled by Connexin as a now independent retail ISP. At the time CityFibre said they expected to complete the integration of Connexin’s network “later this year“.

The latest development, as spotted by Thinkbroadband, is that Connexin’s main footprint in Hull is now starting to come up via CityFibre’s availability checker, which suggests that the network integration work is starting to make some real progress. But at present Connexin is the only ISP on CityFibre’s wholesale-only network able to serve this; it’s unclear if this is related to a degree of time-limited wholesale exclusivity (they’ve done that before) or just the fact that other ISPs haven’t had a chance to expand into it yet.

However, some testing reveals that not all of Connexin’s network patch has been integrated yet, since we saw positive results for tests with the HU5 2JN postcode area and others, but negative ones when testing a few like HU7 5DF and HU8 9PD (those two do come up as positive via Connexin’s website, but not CityFibre’s checker). Clearly there’s still some work left to do.

Take note that we didn’t check the status of Connexin’s other FTTP builds in Tickton, Leven, Brandesburton, North Frodingham and Beeford. We have asked CityFibre if they could provide a progress update on their network integration work and will hopefully be able to share their response later today.

Original article Total Telecom:Read More

News

Leading telecom organisations are on track for digital transformations and, with it, the benefits that the best CPQ software can provide.

By: Brad Randall, Broadband Communities

The wrong configure, price and quote (CPQ) system can send a company off the rails. It’s a fact that VicTrack, an Australian company operating rail assets in Victoria, knew all too well.

Once upon a time, VicTrack (with a portfolio that includes dark fibre and managed telco services) was struggling with pricy manual quoting. Even worse, the organisation found themselves unable to take on multiple projects efficiently or cost effectively.

Said plainly, the company needed a CPQ system that could simplify processes.

VicTrack’s decision to act has yielded results.

Today, the company reports a monumental 30% improvement in design and run time processes and offers over 1,800 miles of network to its public transport servicing partners. It also was able to consolidate its products, from hundreds to dozens, and now conducts 30% of transactions via digital channels. Bruce Moore, the executive GM for telecommunications at VicTrack, said they chose wisely in their journey for the right CPQ system.

“This is more than a transaction, it’s a partnership. CSG has gone above and beyond.” Sean Casey, during a recent appearance on Beyond the Cable, spoke to why CPQ systems prove so crucial in the current climate.

“While (traditional CPQs) can manage those (leads and sales) pipelines well and manage longer term sales engagements, they fall apart in the telecom and cable world,” Casey said.

He also said traditional CPQs not built for the telecom industry can add immense costs to the operations of communications service providers.

Not just a trend

As Casey points out, digital transformations like the one undertaken by VicTrack aren’t just a trend, they’re a necessity.

In July, Orange Business became one of the clearest examples of a large company coming to this realisation. That’s when they announced that they’d be switching to a catalog-driven CPQ solution, aimed at simplifying the quote-to-cash process.

At the time, John Marcus, a senior principal analyst with GlobalData, said Orange Business’ announcement represents “a strategic shift toward a platform-driven, innovative approach that aligns well with enterprise customer expectations.”

“Our transformation is not just about technology: it’s about how we create radically better experiences for our customers,” said Hriday Ravindranath, the chief technology and information officer for Orange Business. “By partnering with industry leaders, we are building a next-generation, fully digital, and AI-native Orange Business.”

The solution Orange Business settled on, CSG Quote & Order, “enables faster, error-free product configuration and order fulfilment,” according to Orange Business.

CSG Quote & Order is tailored to telco-specific complexities, creating faster time to revenue and improved process speeds.

Some main factors to consider

When it comes to choosing the right CPQ, CSG lists several main factors of consideration:

• Centralised and rules-based cataloging
• Seamless integration capabilities
• Dynamic pricing
• Margin analysis
• Mobile compatibility

A 2024 whitepaper from Appledore Research highlights the point. The survey that led to the whitepaper’s findings talked to 50 senior executives across 23 countries about their CPQs, mostly at tier-1 and selected tier-2 CSPs.

According to Appledore, 85% of respondents confirmed that their existing CPQ systems meet fewer than three quarters of their requirements.

The survey also reported that 60% of those questioned said their current CPQ was meeting less than half of their organisation’s requirements.

The CPQ systems falling short, also known as legacy or incumbent systems, as described in the whitepaper, leave CSPs with a lack of automation, delayed response times, and qualification inaccuracies. A lack of clarity on margins in real-time and poor financial capabilities is also symptomatic of legacy CPQ systems, the whitepaper says.

Telecoms face a split in the tracks

The paper also ends with a dilemma, painting a picture of a telecom industry at a critical juncture.

“The enterprise segment represents a crucial growth frontier, with connectivity serving as the foundation for modern business services,” the whitepaper’s author, John Abraham, a principal analyst at Appledore, concludes. “However, capturing this opportunity requires CSPs to overcome significant challenges in offer complexity, competitive differentiation, and time-to-market. Specialised CPQ systems emerge as a vital enabler in this transformation, particularly for enterprise market success.”

Abraham further continues with his findings.

“While CPQ systems alone cannot address all transformation challenges, they provide a critical foundation for modernising sales operations and accelerating go-to-market capabilities,” Abraham writes. “CSPs that invest in these specialised platforms position themselves to capitalise on enterprise opportunities more effectively, with the agility and precision required in today’s competitive landscape.”

Subscribe to the Broadband Communities newsletter!

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

The Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) has allowed a class action claim – originally worth “at least” £3.285bn – against EE (BT), Vodafone (Three UK) and O2 (Virgin Media) to move forward, albeit with limitations. The case, brought by Justin Gutmann and law firm Charles Lyndon, accuses the operators of overcharging for mobile handsets beyond the end of their contractual term.

Just to recap. Mobile operators often offer a choice of either SIM Only (airtime) plans or bundles that include those in with a handset (e.g. Smartphone). However, the legal case itself centres around bundles, which tend to cost more because you’re also spreading the cost of the handset across the contract term. But issues often arise when some operators maintain the same monthly charge even after your contract ends (i.e. you effectively keep paying for the handset, which has already been paid off).

Savvy consumers impacted by this would just switch to a SIM-Only option on a different operator or re-contract to a new plan, but not everybody does that (some people just forget or don’t realise). Ofcom has since put pressure on the mobile operators to mend their ways and in recent years there have been improvements (with mixed success), but the aforementioned class action claim is more concerned with historic “overcharging“.

Back in 2023 Justin Gutmann, the former Head of Research and Insight at Citizens Advice, and law firm Charles Lyndon launched class action proceedings (here) against the major mobile operators (Loyalty Penalty Claim). The case alleged that the operators had been “abusing their dominant positions” by charging a “loyalty penalty,” in which long-standing customers were overcharged for handsets beyond the end of their contract.

The case claims that operators have overcharged on up to 28.2 million contracts and, as a result, would be seeking damages of at least £3.285 billion. If successful, someone who held a contract with just one of the mobile operators could receive as much as £1,823. Many consumers are expected to have claims against more than one mobile operator and so could, hypothetically, receive more than this, if it succeeds.

What’s the latest?

Back in April 2025 we reported that the mobile operators were attempting to get the case dismissed (here). The operators argued that the lawsuit was fundamentally flawed, not least because they say it alleges anti-competitive behaviour “in an industry renowned for its competitiveness” and because large parts of the case (dating back to 2007) were raised too late. They added that it would also be “extraordinarily difficult” for them to identify eligible class members.

The Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) has now ruled that claims for damages arising before 1st October 2015 in the Vodafone, EE, Three UK and O2 Proceedings are “struck out“. The operators had also sought to do the same for all claims for losses that arose between 1st October 2015 and 8th March 2017, but the court “refused” that part of the request and allowed it to proceed.

The Tribunal also ruled that they were “satisfied that the Eligibility and Authorisation Conditions were met and granted the CPO Applications in all four proceedings“, which is despite the mobile operators raising questions over Gutmann’s (Proposed Class Representative – PCR) ability to fund future proceedings and to fairly represent claimants. But the tribunal did direct the PCR to inform them “immediately of any material development in respect of his funding arrangements” and to provide them with an update on his current funding position in advance of the next case management conference.

In short, the case can proceed, albeit now with a much more limited scope and doubts remain over its prospects for success. A spokesperson for O2 separately told The Register (credits for spotting this development): “We maintain that there is no merit to Mr Gutmann’s case for the remaining period and will continue to robustly defend our position as it proceeds.”

A spokesperson for EE similarly echoed O2’s remarks and said they “do not accept the substantive allegations of the claim” and that their “priority is, and always will be, to provide a great experience for our customers“.

Big legal cases like these often have to grapple with complex issues, such as with respect to how the law approaches consumer choice, package / brand value and ignorance of contract details. At the same time mobile operators also have the freedom to set retail pricing however they so choose, albeit often restricted by the realities of natural competition (i.e. making your service too expensive can be counter-productive).

Lest we forget that the separate Collective Action on Land Lines (CALL) campaign recently tried and failed to argue a different class action case against BT (here), which related to the alleged overcharging of several million landline-only phone customers. The court ultimately dismissed the case and found that BT’s “prices were not unfair, and therefore there was no abuse of dominant position.”