Town of St Helens Start £2.5m Project to Build Full Fibre Network
The local authority for the Merseyside (England) town of St Helens, which is home to a population of around 103,000, has notified ISPreview of a new digital infrastructure project that aims to invest £2.5m to deploy a fibre optic network to support businesses across the town centre with gigabit-capable broadband. At present, most of St […]
Quickline UK Expand FTTP Broadband to 3 New Lincolnshire Villages
UK ISP Quickline, which is rolling out a gigabit-capable full fibre (FTTP) broadband network across parts of England, has today announced that they’ve just gone live across three more villages in Rural Lincolnshire – North Somercotes near Louth, Donnington near Spalding and Alford (total of almost 4,000 premises). Residential customers reached by their new full […]
How AIS are monetising 5G for future success in the Thai mobile market
Insight On Day 0 5G Beyond Growth Summit of this years’ MWC in Barcelona, we heard from Thai mobile operator AIS on their 5G progress and achieved milestones. The audience heard from Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Mark Chong Chin Kok, discussing the AIS highlights and future of AIS’s 5G journey so far, and why monetisation is so essential for future success AIS have the largest 5G network in Thailand, covering 90% of the country. Today, AIS have around 9 million 5G subscribers, roughly 20%...
Canadian pension fund to take slice of TIM’s NetCo
News The Canada Pension Plan Investments Board (CPP) will invest $2 billion for a 17.5% stake in the newly spun-off business On Friday, the CPP announced that they would be the latest company to invest in the highly prized fixed network assets of Italian incumbent operator TIM. The pension fund will invest roughly $2 billion for a 17.5% stake in the business, with the deal giving NetCo an enterprise value of $27.5 billion. The deal sees CPP join a growing number of investors in TIM’s spun-off...
Openreach Top 1 Million FTTP Broadband Premises in South West
Network operator Openreach (BT) has today announced that their 1.8Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP network has now covered over 1 million premises across the South West of England (i.e. Cornwall, Dorset, Devon, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire), which reflects an investment of over £300m. The deployment forms part of the operator’s wider £15bn investment to […]
Major UK operators vow to protect vulnerable customers ahead of landline switch
News In the UK, there are nearly 2 million vulnerable people who use personal alarms to call out for help Seven major network operators, including Openreach, CityFibre, and Sky, have agreed on new rules to protect people who rely on personal alarms as UK landlines are upgraded to a new digital network. The alarms work by automatically contracting the emergency services when a button is pressed. The commitment from the seven operators will ensure that the essential and lifesaving buttons are...
Why streamlining processes is crucial for broadband operators
Viewpoint Jay Cadman, Senior Vice President, IQGeo There is a social and economic expectation that full-fibre broadband should be accessible to everyone, regardless of economic status or location. This has created a unique opportunity for new and existing operators to rapidly grow, by providing internet access to previously underserved areas. Many are already benefiting from this growth opportunity. For example, AT&T and Blackrock Ventures recently launched Gigapower, a venture focused on...
Mobile Operator Spusu UK Commits Not to Use AI Chatbots
Mobile provider spusu, which hold a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) agreement via BTWholesale to harness EE’s UK network, has committed to only “using human customer service agents“. The pledge follows in the wake of VOXI’s decision (here) to introduce a ChatGPT (LLM) based AI chatbot to help “transform its customer services“. Currently, spusu’s customer […]
Airband Accounts Give Context to Recent UK FTTP Build Slowdown and Job Cuts
Broadband ISP Airband, which previously aimed to cover 400,000 UK premises in rural areas via a mix of fixed wireless access (FWA) and full fibre (FTTP) networks by 2026, has finally published their company accounts – over 2 months late – and given context to the recent redundancies and build pauses. The operator has spent […]
More UK Providers Commit to Protect Vulnerable Users During Digital Phone Switch
The government has announced that seven UK broadband and phone operators, including Openreach, CityFibre, AllPoints Fibre, CommunityFibre, Ogi, KCOM, WightFibre and Sky, have today signed a charter that commits them to protect “vulnerable customers” (e.g. those with telecare devices) when upgrading phone lines to a new digital (IP) based network. The announcement means that the […]