Broadband ISP Giganet Start Directing New CityFibre Users to Cuckoo
Internet provider Cuckoo has confirmed that, starting from today, new customers in CityFibre’s full fibre (FTTP) broadband areas that may be looking to sign-up online with UK ISP Giganet will instead be diverted to Cuckoo. The move forms part of Fern Trading‘s (Octopus Investments) ongoing network consolidated efforts. Just to recap. Fern Trading has already consolidated its full fibre networks (Jurassic Fibre, Swish Fibre and Giganet) under the single AllPoints Fibre brand (wholesale). As...
China eases foreign ownership limits for “value-added telecoms services”
News Foreign owned data centres, content delivery networks, and internet service providers, will be allowed to set up shop in certain pilot areas, including parts of Beijing, Shanghai, Hainan, and Shenzhen This week, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has announced a new pilot project that will see foreign ownership restrictions lifted on a number of value-added telecoms services (VATS). The project will run in four specially designated regions, covering parts of...
Xavier Niel sets eyes on Ukraine with Datagroup-Volia acquisition
News The deal is the first major investment by a new and outside entrant since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 French billionaire and owner of European telco group iliad, Xavier Niel, has announced today that he will acquire Datagroup-Volia, Ukraine’s leading fixed telecom and pay TV provider, through his investment firm NJJ. According to NJJ’s press release, the acquisition, which is for an undisclosed sum, has already received regulatory approval. Datagroup-Volia is 96.13% owned by a...
BT and EE changes pricing policy to show “pounds and pence”
News The changes pre-emptively bring the companies in-line with Ofcom’s newly proposed regulations British mobile network operator EE, along with its parent company and internet service provider BT, has announced that it has become the first major operator to simplify its pricing structure. The new ‘pounds and pence’ structure will show customers the exact cost of mid-contract price increases, rather than relying on percentage increases and unclear inflation metrics like the consumer...
Google invests $1bn in US–Japan subsea cables
News The investment will see the deployment of two new cable systems, including the first international subsea cable to connect the Northern Mariana Islands Google has announced a $1 billion investment to improving digital connectivity between the US and Japan through the deployment of two subsea cables, Proa and Taihei, both to be built by Japanese NEC. The investment was announced on the Japanese Prime Minister’s visit to the US this week, organised to boost ties between the two...
Forty years in telecoms: An analyst’s journey in an industry desperately seeking the limelight
Spotlight Article Telecoms analyst Chris Lewis, founding director of Lewis Insight, looks back on forty years in the telecoms industry and why telcos today are still struggling to find a sense of identity Chris Lewis (right, telecoms analyst for 40 years) and guide dog Varley (left, telecoms analyst for 5 years) This year marks my 40th as a telecoms industry analyst. It all started for me using my foreign languages to do research into European markets for modems and multiplexers around the...
BEAD funding: Challenges and opportunities with NCTA’s Rick Cimerman
Interview At Connected America 2024, we met with Rick Cimerman, VP, External & State Affairs Lead at NCTA – The Internet & Television Association, to discuss the pivotal role of federal funding in advancing broadband connectivity across the United States Highlighting the implications of the Broadband Equity and Access and Deployment (BEAD) Act, Cimerman underscored the importance of targeted investment and strategic partnerships in addressing the nation’s connectivity gaps. Cimerman...
O2 UK Extends 4G Mobile Coverage in Stirling via SRN Project
Mobile operator O2 (VMO2) has just deployed the first of 7 new masts in rural parts of Stirling (Scotland) to help boost local 4G (mobile broadband) coverage under the £1bn industry-led Shared Rural Network (SRN) programme. The first site, in the remote village of Killin, required a helicopter to deliver the new mast to its site. The SRN – supported by £501m of public funding and £532m from operators – involves both the reciprocal sharing of existing masts in certain areas and the demand-led...
April 2024 UK Gov Update on Project Gigabit Broadband Rollout
The Government’s Building Digital UK agency has released their April 2024 (spring) progress update on the £5bn Project Gigabit broadband rollout scheme, which is so far running 37 live contracts and procurements worth £1.9bn in state aid (£1.38bn for 31 signed contracts) to help extend coverage up to an extra 1 million hard to reach premises. The project aims to extend networks capable of delivering download speeds of at least 1000Mbps (1Gbps) and uploads of at least 200Mbps to 85% or more of...
Broadband ISP Plusnet Gives Up On UK Home Phone Services
Low-cost focused UK broadband ISP Plusnet (BT Group), which seems to have spent the past few years scrapping many of its extra features (TV, Mobile etc.), has perhaps unsurprisingly now confirmed that it will no longer offer home phone services to existing customers once analogue (PSTN/WLR) services are switched off by BT and Openreach. The news is not particularly surprising because, thus far, Plusnet has flatly refused to copy parents BT and EE by introducing their own IP-based Digital Voice...