Three UK Boosts Rewards and Enters the Smartphone Reuse, Recycle Fray
Mobile network operator Three UK has decided to catch up with some of their rivals by launching three new initiatives (i.e. ‘Like New‘, ‘Trade-In‘ and ‘Connect Together’) for consumers to help them reuse and recycle older Smartphones, while also rewarding households for adding more connections, if they so choose. We’ll start with ‘Connect Together‘ because it’s a bit of a different proposition from the other two initiatives. Under this scheme, customers will be able to receive a 20% discount...
Study Claims UK Broadband Users Lost £98m to Poor Customer Service
A new survey of 4,101 nationally representative UK adults, which was conducted by Which? in May 2024, has estimated that 950,000 consumers were £89m worse off over the last year due to giving up contacting their broadband provider after a poor experience. The magazine previously named Virgin Media as being the worst ISP for customer service (here and here). The survey, which claims that an estimated 9.2 million broadband consumers also experienced emotional harm as a result of poor customer...
Quickline’s £60m Gigabit Broadband Build in North and West Yorkshire UK Goes Live
Alternative network operator and ISP Quickline has today announced that the first 4,500 premises under their £60m state aid supported gigabit broadband roll-out contract for North and West Yorkshire, including the remote areas surrounding York, have been covered by the new network. The goal is to reach 28,000 premises in hard-to-reach rural areas. The West Yorkshire and York Area (Lot 8) contract, which was awarded back in February 2024 as part of the government’s £5bn Project Gigabit...
Investors waiting for the UK’s ‘fragile’ altnet ecosystem to consolidate, says Nexfibre CEO
Interview At this year’s Connected Britain, Total Telecom caught up with Rajiv Datta, CEO of Nexfibre, to discuss the company’s fibre rollout progress since hitting 1 million premises, investor tensions around market consolidation, and what a competitive broadband market will ultimately look like. Check out the full interview here! Also in the news: Meta resumes use of UK user posts to train its AI models Verizon’s 4,800 job cuts will cost over $1.9 billion CMA questions Vodafone–Three...
Dell launches AI For Telecom programme
Press Release Dell Technologies today announced Dell AI for Telecom, a program designed to simplify and accelerate AI deployments for communications service providers (CSPs). A recent MeriTalk study, commissioned by Dell Technologies, found that 48% of telecom executives see AI as the industry’s most transformative technology in the next five years, yet 68% feel their organisation is struggling to keep pace with rapidly evolving technologies and customer needs. The Dell AI for Telecom...
Ofcom Tells UK Telecoms Adjudicator to Help Fix OTS Broadband ISP Switching
The UK telecoms regulator, Ofcom, has called on the Telecoms Adjudicator (OTA) to help fix some of the remaining problems (i.e. the matching process) with the new One Touch Switching (OTS) system, which aims to make it easier for consumers to change broadband ISPs, and the related processes adopted by the One Touch Switching Company (TOTSCo). Just to recap. The long-awaited introduction of OTS, which has faced many delays but aims to make it both quicker and easier for consumers to switch...
Simplicity, versatility, and sustainability: Commscope talks priorities at Connected Britain
Interview At Connected Britain 2024, we caught up with Dean Giles, FAE Manager at Commscope, to discuss the company’s latest R&D efforts and how the company’s latest product line is is prioritising ease of installation and sustainability. Check out the full interview here! Keep up to date with all of the latest telecoms news with Total Telecom’s daily newsletter Also in the news: Meta resumes use of UK user posts to train its AI models Verizon’s 4,800 job cuts will cost over $1.9 billion...
Industry reactions mixed as Deutsche Telekom joins BUGLAS
News The company made the announcement at Fibre Optic Partner Day in Bonn, Germany This week, German incumbent telecoms operator Deutsche Telekom has joined the German Federal Association for Fiber Optic Connections (BUGLAS), an industry association focussed on promoting and expanding fibre infrastructure throughout Germany. While this move may seem outwardly benign, it has been met with trepidation by much of the German fibre industry, with BUGLAS having historically represented the...
Broadband Forum Seeks More Energy Efficient Full Fibre Networks
The Broadband Forum has launched a new project that is seeking to lower the energy consumption of fibre optic broadband networks when accessing the internet. This will build on the ITU-T’s recommendations and guidelines on power-saving in fibre equipment, while adopting some of the forum’s own standards. First things first. Modern fibre optic networks are already highly energy efficient, particularly when compared with older copper-line technologies at similar speeds. But this sort of...
Airtel tackling India’s spam call epidemic with AI
News The operator says its AI-powered spam detection solution is catching over 100 million potential spam calls a day This week, Bharti Airtel has announced the rollout of its new AI-powered spam detection solution. The solution, which has reportedly been developed over the past year, is able to analyse calls and alert the receiver of a potential spam call in just 2 milliseconds. The caller then has the option of whether to block the call or not. The solution uses a purpose-built algorithm to...