Cyber and other threats to submarine cables
Spotlight Series Article By Patrick Donegan, Founder and Principal Analyst at HardenStance I recently attended Total Telecom’s outstanding ‘Submarine Networks EMEA 2024’ to learn about this industry’s cybersecurity challenges. Cybersecurity has tended to have a fairly low profile in the sector, largely because nearly all incidents arise from physical world disruption. Moreover incidents nearly all arise from benign causes – trawlers casting their nets and other vessels dragging anchors, or...
EE UK Prep Call of Duty Black Ops 6 via EE Store and Xbox Game Pass
Consumer broadband ISP, phone, mobile and TV provider EE (BT), which has long bundled Xbox Game Pass Ultimate on some of their UK packages, has today followed Microsoft’s announcement about the availability of their popular Call of Duty®: Black Ops 6 video game by confirming that their customers will also be able to benefit. Firstly, for those not on Game Pass Ultimate but who may still have an interest, EE is now offering pre-orders for COD: Black Ops 6 from the EE store. Customers can also...
O2 UK Begins Rolling Out New, Free Caller Identification Feature
Mobile operator O2 (Virgin Media) has today officially confirmed that they’ve started rolling out Hiya’s new Brand ID technology to customers for free, which is a caller identification solution that can reduce the number of calls customers receive from unknown numbers (e.g. scammers) by providing details of the organisation making the call. The news isn’t all that surprising as VMO2 announced in February 2024 that they’d become the second major UK telecoms provider, after BT (EE), to adopt...
Full Fibre Altnet Toob Tops 50,000 UK Broadband ISP Customers
Alternative network builder and gigabit broadband ISP toob, which is deploying a full fibre (FTTP) network across parts of South England (they’re also sharing some of CityFibre’s infrastructure), has recently revealed that they’ve managed to grow their customer base to over 50,000 (up from 20,000 a year ago). The Hampshire-based operator was originally backed by £75m from the Amber Infrastructure Group (here) and “up to” £87.5m from the Sequoia Economic Infrastructure Income Fund (here)....
Broadway Locals Secure Judicial Review of Broadband Poles Rollout
The Lifford Gardens and The Sands residents association, which represents part of Broadway (village) in Worcestershire (England), has been granted a Judicial Review (JR) in the High Court that may allow them to challenge the local council’s decision to allow deployment of a new gigabit-capable broadband network using wood poles. Network operators often deploy 9-12 metre high wood poles to help run their overhead cables, which are a very common sight across the UK (millions have been built)....
5G Has Stopped Working for Some Lyca Mobile UK Customers
Some customers of mobile network operator Lyca Mobile, which is a virtual operator (MVNO) on EE’s platform in the UK, are reporting that they’ve been unable to access the provider’s latest and fastest 5G (mobile broadband) connectivity service for the around a month. Related users find that only 4G is now available to them. The issue, which was picked up by Thinkbroadband, but which has also been spotted by members of ISPreview’s discussion forum community and via social media, appears to be...
AAISP’s Novel Solution to SLAMMING in New UK Broadband Switching System
Broadband ISP Andrews & Arnold (AAISP) has come up with an interestingly quirky way of addressing concerns that Ofcom’s new, and much delayed, One Touch Switch (OTS) system, which aims to make it quicker and easier for consumers to switch internet providers, might make SLAMMING easier (i.e. being switched without your consent). The new OTS approach is really just a more sophisticated messaging systems between ISPs, which expands the existing Gaining Provider Led (GPL) migration system to...
Old copper networks: A gold mine for telcos?
News A report from engineering firm TXO says that over $7 billion-worth of unused copper cabling could be recovered in the next decade In most developed markets around the world, copper telecoms networks are increasingly becoming a thing of the past, replaced by much more effective fibre optic cables. But while this copper is unlikely to find reuse in major telecoms networks, it is growing increasingly important in other sectors, such as for electric vehicles and renewable energy...
AI is shaking up the submarine cable ecosystem
Interview At this year’s Submarine Networks EMEA event, we caught up with Thomas Sorensen, Vice President, Global Sales at Ciena, to discuss the ever-changing submarine cable landscape and some of the key technologies driving change in 2024 The rise of AI is a major focus this year at the Submarine Networks EMEA conference. What impact do you think this is set to have on the submarine cable ecosystem? AI is contributing to increased data and capacity requirements which, in turn, will...
Evolution of a customer-centric culture in the era of digital transformation
Spotlight Series Article By Janet Watkin, Managing Director, Zenith Choice Telcos are not making enough money from their networks, and this, coupled with the continued uncertainty about the source of future revenues, has resulted in major headcount reductions. The rollout of AI-enabled process automation is already underway, aimed at replacing manual tasks and serving customers more efficiently. This has been cited as a contributing factor to the large numbers of layoffs announced during 2023....