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Mobile operator VodafoneThree (Vodafone and Three UK) has reportedly begun informing some staff members that they face redundancy in the future, due to their roles being outsourced to India under new contracts with network suppliers Ericsson and Nokia. On top of that, the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) – or TUPE – rules will not apply.

Just to recap. Ericsson and Nokia were recently appointed as key partners to support the delivery of the newly merged network (here). But according to The Register, employees in the operator’s UK Network Development division have allegedly since been warned that planning and optimisation jobs would soon be transferred overseas, which meant that permanent staff were now “at risk of redundancy.”

“In our current context, the activity transferring to Ericsson and Nokia will be based in India, therefore TUPE does not apply,” said a related FAQ page on the employment change, seen by The Register. “Whilst Ericsson and Nokia both have services and employees in European locations, including the UK, the roles impacted will be offshored to India.”

In fairness, the merger was always expected to result in some redundancies, which often happens when two companies come together (i.e. reducing duplication of roles and making the combined business more efficient). Except in this case the recent Ericsson and Nokia announcement had in fact boasted of creating as many as 13,000 jobs in engineering and construction, although it did state that 74% of these roles would be outside of London and the South East, albeit with no mention of India.

Extract from the Ericsson and Nokia Announcement

VodafoneThree’s fully funded and regulated plan to build the network at pace will bring jobs to every region of the UK, creating as many as 13,000 jobs in the engineering, construction and maintenance of telecom towers, fibre optics and base stations over the entire eight year build period.

The majority (74%) of roles created will be outside of London and the South East, bringing employment opportunities to people in towns and communities across the four nations. This reinforces VodafoneThree’s commitment to supporting national growth through digital transformation, while equipping today’s and tomorrow’s talent with the skills they need for the future.

At present, it’s not yet known exactly how many workers and contractors will lose their jobs over this, although some insiders are said to have estimated that at least 80 roles could be impacted. We have asked the mobile operator to comment and await their response.

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Network operator Openreach (BT) has today informed ISPs about a “realignment of prices” on their top two fastest Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband tiers – 1.2Gbps and 1.8Gbps (both 120Mbps upstream), which in practice appears to mark a further price reduction. Rivals will perhaps remark that we’ve seen quite a few special offers from the incumbent of late.

The changes apply to internet service providers that have joined the network operator’s Equinox contract, which is the name of their sometimes divisive volume focused discount scheme that also provided pricing certainty over a 10-year period (here and here).

According to the latest briefing, as of 1st February 2026, the Equinox prices in the Openreach price list will be changed as follows (Openreach is giving 90 days notice of this, as required by Ofcom):

1. GEA-FTTP 1200Mbit/s / 120Mbit/s from £23.28 per month to £22.24 per month +vat

2. GEA-FTTP 1800Mbit/s / 120Mbit/s from £30.59 per month to £23.28 per month +vat

“Price changes will be effective from 1 February 2026 until 30 September 2031 (inclusive), which is the end of the Equinox contract period. Prices will be subject to annual increases of CPI – 1.25% or 0%, whichever is highest. There are no changes to any other Equinox terms,” added the briefing.

As usual, it’s important to point out that these are wholesale prices, and they thus do not directly reflect the prices consumers pay at retail for the same service, which is because ISPs still have to add all sorts of extra network features, 20% VAT, the need for a profit margin and more before it becomes the product you purchase.

The move will no doubt be welcomed by most ISPs that use Openreach’s broadband network, as well as consumers who might have been eyeing an upgrade to one of the top tiers (assuming providers do choose to pass any related reductions on to their customers, which seems likely); particularly 1.8Gbps, as the change for 1.2Gbps is fairly small.

Meanwhile, we suspect that some rival networks might well lobby Ofcom against approving the measure, perhaps viewing it as another competitive threat to their existence. But thus far Ofcom has been fairly happy to approve such promotions, and we suspect this one will be much the same.

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News

U.S. federal agencies are reportedly considering a significant restriction on TP-Link, a company that produces widely used home internet routers, amid escalating concerns over national security linked to China.

The U.S. Commerce Department, alongside the Departments of Justice, Homeland Security, and Defense, has proposed banning future sales of TP-Link Systems’ devices, a company whose routers reportedly comprise more than a third of the American home router market. The proposal reflects deepening anxieties about the potential for Chinese influence over technology critical to the nation’s cybersecurity infrastructure.

TP-Link Systems, headquartered in California and recently spun out from its former Chinese parent company TP-Link Technologies, faces scrutiny for lingering connections with China. Despite the corporate split completed last year, officials remain wary of the company’s ties to Beijing, fearing that such links could expose American consumers’ data to security risks.

In May, several Republican lawmakers, including Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Tom Cotton, advocated for a ban on TP-Link routers. Their concerns have been fueled by investigations revealing that Chinese state-sponsored hackers exploited TP-Link routers in cyberattacks targeting U.S. critical infrastructure, most notably 2024’s Salt Typhoon attacks.

TP-Link has rebuffed these claims, noting that many device brands were compromised in the attacks and that no evidence was presented that the company is connected to China.

The Commerce Department has not yet implemented the proposed ban and may still opt against it. TP-Link Systems contends that it is a U.S.-based firm that poses no threat to consumers. A company spokesperson told The Independent that no official actions or confirmations regarding the ban have been made and that any regulatory concerns can be addressed through practical measures such as onshoring development and enhancing cybersecurity transparency.

The current scrutiny of TP-Link occurs in the broader context of intensifying tensions between the U.S. and China, particularly over technology and trade disputes. This move parallels actions taken against other Chinese technology firms like TikTok, where U.S. regulators have similarly cited national security as a basis for restricting Chinese influence on American digital infrastructure.

In addition to national security concerns, TP-Link Systems is facing a criminal antitrust investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice. The investigation focuses on the company’s pricing strategies, specifically allegations of predatory pricing. The case suggests that TP-Link may be deliberately selling products at a loss in order to monopolise the market, before increasing prices at a later time.

TP-Link currently controls about 65% of the U.S. home networking market. As such, the potential ban on TP-Link devices would represent one of the largest consumer technology prohibitions in recent U.S. history.

Keep up to date with all of the latest telecoms news from around the world with the Total Telecom newsletter

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 Total Telecom:Read More

News

The Hong Kong conglomerate CK Hutchison and the French telecommunications group Iliad, led by billionaire Xavier Niel, are reportedly in preliminary talks to merge their operations in the Italian telecom market.

According to multiple sources cited by Reuters, the discussions could lead to a joint venture combining CK Hutchison’s subsidiary Wind Tre and Iliad’s Italian operations, which currently operate under the Free brand.

Wind Tre, formed from the 2016 merger of Three Italy and Wind and wholly owned by CK Hutchison since 2018, is Italy’s third-largest mobile operator with a market share of approximately 24%, while Iliad holds around 11%, according to Italian regulatory authority AgCom.

Any merger would reduce the number of mobile operators in Italy from four to three, thus drawing significant regulatory scrutiny from national and European regulators. The European Commission has traditionally been resistant to this kind of consolidation, but in recent years its attitude has thawed, allowing significant mergers in numerous markets, like MasMovil and Orange in Spain and Vodafone and Three in the UK.

However, the European Commission’s prior approval of the Wind Tre merger came with conditions that allowed Iliad entry into the market as an antitrust remedy and explicitly prevented Wind Tre from acquiring Iliad before 2026. This timeline suggests a full merger before then may be unlikely, but a joint venture or other cooperation frameworks could be considered.

Iliad’s Italian operations have been valued at over €3 billion, with the group stating a valuation of €4.45 billion when it attempted a bid for Vodafone Italia in late 2023, which was rejected.

Earlier this year, Iliad also explored a potential tie up with Telecom Italia (TIM), indicating its strategic ambition to expand its footprint in Italy. Meanwhile, CK Hutchison has been reportedly considering divesting some of its telecom assets globally, valued between £10 billion and £15 billion (€11.37 billion to €17 billion), with Italy and the UK being the largest European contributors to its telecom revenues. Its telecom division accounted for roughly 25% of CK Hutchison’s group operating profit in 2024.

Keep up to date with all of the latest telecoms news from around the world with the Total Telecom newsletter

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

Ofcom has today announced that they’ve secured “voluntary commitments” from mobile operators including EE, O2, Sky and VodafoneThree (Vodafone and Three UK) to help stabilise the wholesale prices of automated text (SMS) messages that organisations send to people (A2P – application-to-person); these are widely used by organisations across the public and private sectors.

Such messages are often sent, for example, by the NHS when issuing medical appointment reminders, as well as parcel delivery notifications, and one-time passcodes etc. The regulator states that over 20 billion A2P messages like this were sent in 2023-24 and are worth around £400 million a year to mobile operators.

The market for these particular text messages is complex, as businesses do not usually buy them directly from mobile operators (MCP) and will instead go through intermediaries. A business will first contract with a Messaging Service Provider (MSP), with whom they have a direct relationship. The MSP will often then use the services of an Aggregator, who contracts with the main mobile operators for delivery (‘termination’) of the text messages.

The problem is that wholesale prices for the termination of these messages (A2P SMS termination rates) have increased significantly in recent years, jumping as much as 70% since 2021 (Ofcom expressed this as a range from 15% to 75%). Naturally, this is translating into increases in retail prices (i.e. the prices charged by MSPs to business senders for sending A2P SMS), which recently prompted the regulator to examine competition within this space (an area they haven’t previously regulated).

At the start of this year Ofcom concluded that mobile operators had Significant Market Power (SMP) in this area, including the “ability and incentive to increase their termination prices to an excessively high level“. The regulator then proposed to respond to this by imposing a price cap (here), which would run until the end of 2028. But it appears this may no longer be necessary.

What’s been decided?

As a result of Ofcom’s review, the aforementioned mobile operators have since made voluntary commitments relating to their wholesale prices, and the frequency, notice periods and timing of price increases. The commitments last until the end of 2028, and Ofcom estimate they collectively cover more than 90% of A2P SMS sold to Aggregators.

“Given these developments, we have taken an administrative priority decision not to continue with the market review at this time,” said Ofcom (i.e. the voluntary commitments achieve enough of their goals without needing a deeper intervention).

Ofcom Statement

Our decision reflects the following factors:

• Increased uncertainty over future competitive constraints:

Market developments since the publication of our consultation, including recent price cuts for some WhatsApp for Business services (an alternative business messaging service), suggest there is currently increased uncertainty regarding the potential for competitive constraints to develop during the proposed three-year market review period.

Whilst it is not clear that there has been a material change in competitive constraints since our consultation, we observed some potential signals of greater willingness by some larger business senders to consider switching partially or wholly to alternatives in order to bring down their costs, with MSPs potentially facilitating this by offering alternatives to A2P SMS.

• Voluntary commitments that reduce the risk of our competition concerns being realised:

Each of the commitments submitted by the four large operators have been unilaterally determined and their contents cover aspects relating to any increases in the maximum standard prices for A2P SMS termination charged to their Aggregator customers until 31 December 2028 (the end of our proposed market review period). These aspects relate to (a) pricing levels; (b) frequency and timing of price increases each year; (c) notice periods for Aggregators before implementing increases; and (d) notifications to Ofcom before implementing increases.

Taken as a whole, and given these operators cover most of the market, we consider that these voluntary commitments significantly reduce the risk of our competition concerns being realised. In addition, these commitments are likely to contribute to the promotion of effective competition by giving Aggregators greater pricing stability and potentially increasing their ability to meet the demands from business sender customers for longer contracts at fixed prices for A2P SMS messaging services.

• Bias against intervention:

Under our regulatory principles, we operate with a bias against intervention but with a willingness to intervene promptly and effectively where required. We have decided this is not the right time for us to consider introducing ex ante regulation. This is consistent with our statutory duty to have regard in all cases to the principle that regulatory activities should be targeted only at cases in which action is needed, and it frees up Ofcom resource to work on other matters of greater relative priority.

Despite the decision, Ofcom do still intend to periodically monitor the market, including adherence to the voluntary commitments and pricing behaviour by those MCPs who did not submit pricing commitments. “This will enable us to intervene promptly, if we consider that the risk of the competition concerns, we provisionally identified as arising, increases,” added the regulator.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Mobile operator Three UK appears to have further reduced the price of their 4G and 5G powered unlimited Three Home Broadband package, which means it’s been discounted to only £16 per month on a 24-month minimum contract term (or £28 if you take it as a rolling monthly plan).You will also get a £50 Prepaid Mastercard.

As usual, Three’s Home Broadband packages all include a mobile router, while also promising “average download speeds of 150Mbps” (this will vary a lot between different locations) and a 30-day money-back guarantee (there’s no installation charge as it’s Plug & Play). But take note that Three UK’s pricing policy means that, each April, your Monthly Charge will increase by a fixed amount of £2 per month (not applicable to 30-day terms).

The router being bundled with this, at least on their 5G variant of the package, is still the ZTE MC888AD. This is based off the SDX62 (Snapdragon) + WCN6856 chipset and supports WiFi 6 at local network speeds of up to 3.8Gbps (2.4GHz and 5GHz 4×4 MIMO), as well as 2 x 1Gbps Ethernet (LAN) ports and 1 x RJ11 phone port.

In addition, it’s worth noting that Three UK are offering up to £100 in Switching Credit to customers who migrate to this service from an existing broadband package while still within contract with their old provider.

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Customers of mobile operator O2 (Virgin Media), specifically those with the ‘Switch Up‘ service on their plan that gives you the flexibility to swap your Smartphone after 90 days (without having to pay off your contract), have recently been informed that the operator will shortly extend this period to 11 months.

The change wasn’t mentioned to us when we queried last week’s somewhat controversial change to O2’s annual price rise policy (here and here), but customers with the add-on did later receive the following notification as part of that price change: “On 22 January 2026, O2 Switch Up will be changing from a 90-day cycle to an 11-month cycle. This means you can switch to a new device every 11 months.”

In fairness, the old 90-day period, which is currently still being widely advertised on O2’s website despite the impending change, always seemed to be an economically challenging feature to deliver and one that many customers probably wouldn’t use within such a short period of time (although a fair few do). On the other hand, changing the period to 11 months does make it more akin to just being an annual contract.

As we understand it from O2’s community agent (here), the change means that if, for example, somebody Switches Up their device tomorrow (1st November 2025) then, as the 90-day rule will still apply, they’d be able to Switch Up again on 1st February 2026. But after that last switch, the period would be changed to 11 months. Credits to forum member meritez for spotting this change (here).

A spokesperson for O2 told ISPreview:

“We’re continuing to offer Switch Up, allowing eligible O2 customers to ‘switch up’ every 11 months instead of every 90 days. This aligns more closely with how the majority of customers are already using Switch Up, and will help to reduce the number of minimally used handsets in circulation, supporting our sustainability goals.”

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Edinburgh-based UK alternative network GoFibre, which is rolling out a gigabit broadband (FTTP) network across remote rural parts of Scotland and Northern England, has been named as one of the top 50 fastest-growing businesses in Scotland by the UK Fast Growth Index for 2025.

The Index identifies the fifty fastest-growing companies in seven regions and nations namely London, the Midlands and the East of England, the North of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, South of England and Wales. All the firms on the list have been entered for the 2025 UK Fast Growth Awards, due to be held in London on November 26th where the winners will be recognised as the fastest growing in their sectors and their regions.

The operator currently expects to deploy their new Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) based broadband network to reach a footprint of 250,000 premises “in the next 3 years“, which has recently been boosted by several major Project Gigabit contracts with the government. At the end of last year the operator also had a total of 10,597 customers.

Neil Conaghan, CEO of GoFibre, said:

“Being named among Scotland’s fastest-growing companies is an incredible honour and achievement for GoFibre. As a company we’ve demonstrated strong commercial success, not just in the context of the independent broadband provider sector, but as a Scottish company generally.

Our growth has been built on our ambitious, people-friendly culture – adding customers while retaining our hyper-local, customer-centred approach, demonstrated for instance by our industry-leading Trustpilot score. I’m so proud of all that GoFibre has achieved since our founding in the Borders in 2017 and look forward to continued growth while retaining what makes GoFibre unique.”

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The MP for North Shropshire in England, Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat), has called on the Government to take urgent action in its ongoing attempts to find a solution after network provider Freedom Fibre scaled back their £24m (public subsidy) Project Gigabit broadband roll-out contract for the region in June 2025.

Just to recap. The contract with Freedom Fibre originally aimed to cover “around” 12,000 hard-to-reach rural homes in North Shropshire with a Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network. But toward the end of June 2025 the operator (here), which had been under some financial strain, revealed that they’d already completed the build to 2,500 premises and would now only be able to reach 1,000 more (a total of 3,500 have since been completed).

The Government’s Building Digital UK (BDUK) agency then confirmed that they and Freedom Fibre had “mutually agreed to descope the remaining 8,500 premises from this contract“, which left affected premises stuck in limbo while efforts were made to find a solution. At the time BDUK said they were “moving swiftly to put in place alternative plans with other suppliers to connect premises that were due to be covered by this contract.”

According to the Border Counties Advertizer, a meeting was held this week with BDUK to update the local authority on their plans. The local MP said she was told that some as yet unserved properties in the previously contracted area may now have to wait until 2030 to receive full fibre. In addition, BDUK seems to have been unable to appoint a new provider to continue the work and is thus now considering “alternative delivery options“.

Helen Morgan (MP) said:

“The delay to the roll-out of high-speed broadband to North Shropshire is unacceptable. Families and businesses who were promised full fibre under Project Gigabit cannot afford to wait until 2030.

The Government must honour its commitment and deliver these connections as soon as possible. Once again rural areas are being left behind by a government that does not understand the reality of living with patchy mobile signal and snail-paced broadband.”

The update suggests that BDUK may be struggling to adopt the same approach as they did when a similar issue occurred with network operator Voneus in Mid West Shropshire (Lot 25.01), which resulted in the contract being scooped up by Openreach (BT) as part of their Cross-Regional (Type C) procurements (here). We had been expecting that this might work for North Shropshire (Lot 25.02) too, but that is now in doubt.

The above would have been the quickest solution to connecting such premises. But if the area is proving to be too challenging for such an approach (cost may be the big issue) and isn’t attracting interest from other suppliers, then that leaves few options. BDUK has already re-opened Shropshire to their Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme (GBVS), but that’s a very limited approach and is unlikely to deliver for the whole area.

In the meantime, locals impacted by this may need to consider more expensive alternatives, such as the Starlink service. Some of the related area may also be lucky enough to have access to a good 4G or 5G (mobile broadband) signal from one of the major mobile operators, but clearly that’s not going to be the case for everybody.

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Ofcom has today published their latest quarterly Q2 2025 study of UK consumer telecoms and TV complaints, which names EE as attracting the most gripes from customers for fixed broadband and Pay TV services, while Three UK took the most flak for Mobile services.

Take note that the regulator’s report only covers complaints that Ofcom itself has received and not those sent directly to an ISP, the ISPA or an Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) complaints handler (i.e. Communications Ombudsman or CISAS). Ofcom does not deal with individual complaints, but they do monitor them and can take action if enough people raise a concern.

Otherwise, the results below reflect a proportion of residential subscribers (i.e. the total number of quarterly complaints per 100,000 customers per provider), which makes it easier to compare providers in a market where ISPs can vary significantly in size. But sadly, the study only covers feedback from the largest ISPs due to limited data (i.e. those with a market share of at least 1.5%).

Just for some extra context. Ofcom’s most recent May 2025 study of telecoms provider quality (here) revealed that the proportion of UK consumers who were satisfied with their communications services stood at 73% for landline services (down from 77% two years earlier), 84% for broadband (up from 82%) and 88% for mobile services (up from 87%).

Fixed Line Home Broadband Complaints

EE attracted the most broadband complaints in Q2 2025, with 38% of them being driven by faults, service and provisioning issues. On the flip side, Plusnet attracted the fewest complaints of all the listed providers. But it’s worth noting that Virgin Media has also continued to improve.

Rob Orr, VMO2’s Chief Operating Officer, said:

“Today’s Ofcom data is further proof that our laser focus on improving customer service is paying off, with complaints down by more than 50% year-on-year, and by almost a third compared with the previous quarter. This also follows our three award wins at the recent UK Customer Experience Awards – including for ‘Best Complaint Handling’ and ‘Best Change and Transformation’ – highlighting the progress we’re making.

We’re investing heavily across the business to simplify our systems and processes, upskill our agents and roll out new technology that helps them support our customers when they get in touch. We’ll continue to make improvements and ensure we consistently give our customers the best possible experience with us.”

Fixed Line Phone Complaints

EE also attracted the most complaints for fixed line (landline) phone services, which were once again mainly driven (35%) by faults, service and provisioning issues. By comparison, Utility Warehouse continued to attract the fewest complaints on a score of ZERO, followed Sky.

Mobile Complaints

Mobile operators still enjoy lower complaint levels than fixed line providers, but Three UK did still attract the most problems, while EE, Tesco Mobile and Vodafone all tied for the fewest complaints on a score of 1.

Pay TV Complaints

Finally, EE also attracted the most complaints for Pay TV services, while TalkTalk received the fewest complaints.

Ofcom’s Consumer Complaints Report Q2 2025
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/../telecoms-and-pay-tv-complaints