Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

A new study by comparison site Go.Compare, which used data gathered from the ONS, internal data and a YouGov survey of 2,000 UK adults in May 2025, has claimed that over 77% of broadband users don’t switch ISPs as regularly as would be ideal to maximise their savings. Plus, of those users, 6% don’t switch more often because they forget to look for a better deal.

The survey thus claims that many UK households could be missing out on an average saving of up to £58 on their yearly broadband bill, provided they switched to the cheapest deal available for the same speeds. This is very roughly said to equate to £76.6 million worth of savings being “up for grabs nationwide“.

The survey also noted that women were twice as likely to forget to look out for cheaper broadband deals (i.e. 8% of women who don’t switch regularly gave forgetfulness as a reason, compared to 4% of men). Age is another factor, with 1 in 10 of those aged under-35 who don’t switch regularly stating that forgetfulness was the reason why, which compares with 4% of over-54s.

Additional Survey Highlights

➤ 39% said convenience was the most common reason for not changing providers more often (i.e. it’s easier to keep their current ISP), despite Ofcom’s new One Touch Switching process making it a lot easier.

➤ 37% said they won’t switch if their current provider has been highly reliable.

➤ 16% admitted they didn’t think they’d be able to find a cheaper deal.

➤ 15% said their provider delivers good customer service or that their package includes a TV deal they want to keep.

➤ 22% said they usually switch when their provider increases prices, while 1 in 10 said they would do so if their service becomes too unreliable and 2% said they would switch if their provider starts slowing their speeds.

Naturally, it’s important to take opinion surveys like this with a big pinch of salt (i.e. small sample sizes and limited questioning), although it does on the flip side help to highlight that not all consumers are as focused on making savings as comparison sites like Go.Compare (with a big vested interest) would perhaps like us to believe.

Clearly a history of good reliability, service and convenience remain big factors in switching decisions too, which is fair enough. At the end of the day, if you’re happy with your current ISP then it may be better to trying haggling for a lower price (more likely to work with bigger ISPs than smaller ones) – Retentions Tips. The best time to haggle is usually around the end of your contract, or following a mid-contract price hike, but it never hurts to ask and the worse they can do is say no.

However, it’s important to underline that not all ISPs are the same. Some adopt fairly standard pricing and avoid discounts, which means that haggling won’t get you very far because both new and existing customers will already be paying the same or a similar amount. But most people tend to use larger ISPs, where first term discounts are much more common, and this can result in a wide cost difference between new and old subscribers.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Network access provider Openreach (BT) has once again tweaked their Proactive FTTP Upgrades process for ISPs, which will allow providers to optionally reduce the normal lead time down to just 15+ calendar days (vs the default 6 weeks). Normally it’s consumers that initiate an upgrade, but with proactive upgrades the initiator is your ISP (this may help with copper to full fibre migrations).

Proactive migrations thus arise where your ISP proposes an upgrade to their new Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) lines from your older broadband service (ADSL, FTTC etc.) and, at the same time, books an appointment for an Openreach engineer to carry out the upgrade (the end user is still able to confirm, reject or select a different appointment).

By default, this process has a 6-week lead time, but in July 2025 the operator introduced a new option for ISPs to opt into a shorter lead time of around 4-5 weeks (here). The latest briefing indicates that Openreach is now announcing a new option of just 15+ calendar days (subject, again, to ISPs opting in).

The updated Proactive FTTP Upgrade process, with this new option included, will go live on 1st October 2025. Openreach has also removed the exclusion of the Highlands & Islands and Isle of Wight regions “now that additional operational confidence in the process has been gained“.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Global network operator Netmore has today signed a 3-year deal with the UK’s second-largest water company, Severn Trent, to deploy and manage network services for 1 million smart meters across more than 20 counties. This will involve the deployment of a dual wireless Long Range Wide Area (LoRaWAN) and Narrowband-loT (NB-IoT) network.

Fixed wireless LoRa networks harness only a small slice of lower frequency radio spectrum (usually in one of the sub-1GHz bands) in order to support relatively slow, but extremely low power, data connections over a wide coverage area. Such networks tend to run at sub-Megabit speeds (often under 0.05Mbps, but some variants can handle several Megabits), which makes them ideal for linking Internet of Things (IoT) style sensors.

Last year we reported that Netmore had signed a contract with Yorkshire Water (here) to upgrade and connect 1.3 million water meters across the Yorkshire region of England (i.e. those that are reaching the end of their operation life) to their new LoRaWAN. The latest deal thus represents a major expansion to that.

The data this network will deliver, on a daily basis, to Severn Trent is expected to improve customer awareness of water usage, reduce leakage, and help accurately plan water supplies for the future. Severn Trent’s goals are to reduce household water leakage by 16%, household water use by 7% and business water use by 3.5% come 2030.

Anthony Hickinbottom, Smart Metering Networks Lead at Severn Trent, said:

“Following a rigorous evaluation process to advance our AMI initiatives, we are confident in our choice of Netmore and its metering partners for our program. Netmore’s experience in supplying carrier-grade network connectivity and reliably delivering smart meter data will help Severn Trent monitor water consumption more accurately, identify leaks faster, and reduce and operational carbon emissions in line with our stated goals.”

Itron and Diehl have been selected as LoRaWAN meter providers for this program and Vodafone IoT has been selected to provide connectivity services for NB-IoT meters. The Netmore Connect platform will be utilized for all network and device management and data delivery to Severn Trent’s Meter Data Management System. Under the management of Severn Trent, Network Plus Services will plan, schedule, and install the meters.

The deal means that Netmore now operates the UK’s largest LoRaWAN network, covering 43 of the UK’s 92 counties, reaching over 51 million people or nearly 77% of the population, and connecting more than 3 million smart water meters. We should add that Severn Trent also work with rival broadband and LoRaWAN operator Connexin to deliver smart water metering using their wireless network (here).

Severn Trent itself serves 4.4m homes and business customers in England and Wales.

Original article Total Telecom:Read More

Press Release

Vodafone IoT and Simetric have announced a new partnership, which combines both companies’ industry-leading IoT platforms to create a ‘Single-Pane-of-Glass’ overview for customers’ IoT estates. Vodafone‘s Managed Connectivity Platform (GDSP) will integrate with Simetric‘s ‘Single-Pane-of-Glass platform, which will deliver real-time visibility, control, and automation across customers’ IoT estates from a variety of network partners.

With analysts predicting that the number of cellular IoT connections will treble over the next 10 years, businesses are looking for a simpler way to oversee the breadth of their IoT connectivity service, whether it’s on a national or international scale. As customers expand their use of IoT and accumulate multiple agreements for a diverse range of products from various providers around the world, the collaboration means customers can have one unified view, bringing all these arrangements together into a single platform.

Vodafone IoT’s secure and reliable connectivity is available to customers in more than 180 countries worldwide, with over 760 networks to choose from. This partnership will give Vodafone IoT customers even more flexibility to tailor their specific IoT operations to suit their needs by bringing additional connectivity partners under one roof – whether they’re private or public sector, small or large business. Furthermore, the Single-Pane-of-Glass enables customers to see all of Vodafone IoT’s network technologies (i.e. 4G, 5G, LPWA, satellite) and SIM technology (i.e. classic SIM, iSIM, eSIM, as well as new GSMA SGP.32 standards) through the platform.

Simetric integrates its Single-Pane-of-Glass platform functionality for all device provisioning and orchestration – unifying a complete workflow control for all IoT and edge devices across networks.

Erik Brenneis, CEO of Vodafone IoT, said: “Many of our customers come to us with a legacy of connectivity agreements having been active within the IoT space for many years. Our partnership with Simetric simplifies managing their IoT estate, by bringing all their connectivity under a single pane of glass – making it even easier to access the benefits of our leading managed IoT connectivity service.”

Allen Boone, CEO of Simetric said: “We’re proud to partner with Vodafone IoT to accelerate how enterprises deploy and manage connected devices at scale. By combining Vodafone IoT’s global device reach with Simetric’s orchestration platform, we will be able to deliver a unified, intuitive solution to activate, monitor, and optimize distributed networking devices – across markets, carriers, and use cases. This partnership brings immediate, measurable impact through automation, control, and enterprise-grade efficiency.”

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Also in the news:
US judge rules Huawei must face charges of fraud and racketeering
Optus ditches football rights to focus on telecoms
Nokia launches digital twin platform Enscryb to digitalise energy sector

Original article Total Telecom:Read More

News

The operator has announced plans to expand the Djibouti Africa Regional Express 1 (DARE1) submarine cable system from Kenya to South Africa

This week, Djibouti’s incumbent telecoms operator Djibouti Telecom has announced plans to extend the reach of the DARE1 cable down Africa’s east coast.

The DARE1 cable system, which came into service in 2021, currently spans the Horn of Africa, connecting Djibouti to Somalia and Kenya. The system includes three-fibre-pairs, each of which is capable of delivering capacity of 120 channels at 100 Gbps.

Alongside Djibouti Telecom, the cable system is also partly owned by Somalia’s Hormuud Telecom, Somtel International, and Telkom Kenya.

The announced expansion will see this route extended 3,200–3,500km down the east coast of Africa, terminating in Mtunzini, South Africa. Landings are also planned for Tanzania, Mozambique, and Madagascar.

Planned route, including landing sites, for the DARE1 expansion

This initiative, Djibouti Telecom says, will increase route diversity and improve network resilience for regional operators.

Work on the expansion is set to begin next year, with the project expected to be ready for service in 2028.

Despite its small size, Djibouti is a major player in the international submarine cable ecosystem. Situated on the Bab-el-Mandeb (literally ‘the gate of tears’) strait in the Gulf of Aden, the country holds significant influence over both international maritime trade and data traffic; least 15 submarine cables lie beneath the surface of the Bab-el-Mandeb, making it a crucial gateway for data traffic travelling between the Mediterranean and Asia.

Over the past two years, this area has been heavily impacted by the hostile activities of Yemeni Houthis, with numerous subsea cable systems damaged, intentionally or otherwise. These cable cuts caused significant disruption to regional data traffic, highlighting the need for a greater diversity of transport routes.

How is the international submarine cable landscape evolving? Join the discussion at Submarine Networks EMEA, the world’s largest subsea cable event

Also in the news:
US judge rules Huawei must face charges of fraud and racketeering
Optus ditches football rights to focus on telecoms
Nokia launches digital twin platform Enscryb to digitalise energy sector

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

The financially troubled broadband provider TalkTalk has today attempted to start putting the recent past behind it by refreshing their brand identity a bit (inc. new website), while at the same time launching new digital platforms and a supporting marketing campaign. But it may yet take much more than this to help turn things around, although it’s a start.

The brand refresh, which is already live across TalkTalk’s newly designed website today, includes “electric green and shocking pink tones” and underlines how the provider is attempting to “reconnect with its challenger roots“. The accompanying marketing campaign for this will launch on 11th September 2025 across digital, video-on-demand, outdoor, and audio channels.

Expressed as being “aimed at delivering a better way to Wi-Fi for UK consumers“, the new website and customer platform is also being underpinned by their recently agreed long-term partnership with Kraken Technologies (here). The new customer management platform replaces a number of internal legacy platforms, and is Kraken’s first large scale foray into the telecoms market.

The first TalkTalk customers have already been migrated over to the platform, supported by a new customer service model, which is said to “empower customer service agents to solve any problem, rather than passing customers around different agents“. But only time will tell what sort of impact this actually has.

Susie Buckridge, CEO of TalkTalk, said:

“We’re returning to our challenger roots, delivering reliable Wi-Fi for all our customers at the right price, at the same time as challenging ourselves to find new ways of delighting our customers. Our new look website, strengthened by our brilliant new-look brand and engaging marketing campaign, are just the latest demonstration of that, and signal our intent to continue to shake up the industry on behalf of our customers.”

The announcement doesn’t mention anything about new or refreshed broadband packages, although we did find their website ordering systems to be a lot smoother. On the flip side, in areas where we used to get package prices and speeds for CityFibre’s FTTP network, we’re oddly now only getting results for Openreach’s slower FTTP options, which is hopefully just an initial bug with the new website.

As above, only time will tell whether this is enough to help improve TalkTalk’s take-up and stem the recently rapid customer bleed to rivals (420,000 lost in the last year) – all occurring amid their widely reported financial challenges, but it often takes more than this to turn such a situation around.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Wireless infrastructure provider Freshwave has today revealed that they’ve worked with UK mobile operator EE (BT) to deploy a further 50 new small cell based outdoor 4G and 5G mobile (mobile broadband) units across the City of London area, which are helping to expand the network operators coverage and performance.

Small cells are akin to small shoebox sized mobile (radio) base stations, which are designed to deliver limited coverage (usually up to around 100+ metres) and thus tend to be more focused on busy areas, specific sites or even indoor locations – it’s not uncommon to find these sitting on top of lampposts, CCTV poles or old payphone cubicles (i.e. this can be more cost-effective than building new street assets or trying to secure wayleaves on buildings etc.).

EE began trialling Freshwave’s new outdoor small cell mobile network in the central ‘Square Mile’ area of London during 2022 (here) and they’ve since expanded it several times (here). The latest sites will add to the previous delivery of 35 sites for the operator, with a further already 34 in-build.

The network is said to use a “first-of-its-kind design” by Freshwave, which is made to accommodate all the MNOs on 4G and 5G from day one, with no adjustments needed to the infrastructure. The latest expansion should boost mobile signals for EE customers outside iconic City landmarks, including St Paul’s Cathedral, the Old Bailey and Guildhall, extending to areas surrounding the Barbican as well as along Fleet Street.

Simon Frumkin, CEO at Freshwave, said:

“We’re proud to be working in close partnership with the City of London Corporation and EE on expanding this pioneering multi-operator network across the Square Mile. This project is a great example of how innovative engineering can deliver real-world impact in even the most complex urban environments. We’re excited to keep building on this momentum to support the UK’s digital economy.”

James Hope, Director of Mobile Radio Access Networks at EE, said:

“As demand for high-capacity, low-latency connectivity continues to grow, we’re proud to be expanding our mobile network in the heart of the City of London. These additional sites will further boost performance and resilience for residents and visitors alike, with robust mobile connectivity being key to supporting the City’s digital future. Working with trusted partners like Freshwave, we’re committed to delivering the best 4G and 5G experience, even in the most data-demanding environments.”

EE is already seeing an average of 125TB (TeraBytes) of data downloaded per week across all its Freshwave-deployed sites in the City (up from 7.5TB last year, in their initial pilot deployment). Freshwave added that more than 5,000,000 sq ft of commercial building space in the City of London also benefits from multi-operator mobile connectivity thanks to their indoor deployments.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

One of the UK’s largest alternative broadband networks, Netomnia (Substantial Group), has revealed that they’re in the process of joining Openreach’s (BT) network in order to harness their Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) products in areas where their network doesn’t yet reach or may be unlikely to reach in the future. But the initial reach will be limited.

The change of strategy, which on the surface seems to mirror Hyperoptic’s recent move (here), could help to give both a further boost to customer take-up and also solves the problem of what happens when existing customers on Netomnia’s own fibre (on-net) move house to a location outside their existing network area (off-net).

At present Netomnia’s own full fibre broadband network, which offers blistering speeds of up to 8000Mbps to consumers via ISPs like YouFibre, Brsk and others (and technically c.40Gbps to some businesses on-demand via 50G PON tech), already covers 2.7 million UK premises (375,000 customers). But as above, their on-net deployment will only take them to 5m by the end of 2027 and, even with consolidation, there will be gaps in their reach.

However, ISPreview has been told that their strategy is currently only planned to go as far as Netomnia’s existing reach allows within BT’s exchanges. Put another way, the operator has already connected their network to Openreach using CableLinks (Ethernet capacity), and they have a max presence within about 200 BT exchanges, so this will enable them to reach around 1.5 million extra incremental properties beyond their own fibre.

Just to be clear, this mixed on-net and off-net strategy will thus see Netomnia’s ISPs reaching 5 million premises with their own fibre and then the extra 1.5 million via Openreach (total reach of 6.5 million). Netomnia said they aren’t planning to wait for Openreach to launch their new XGS-PON based symmetric speed FTTP packages (speeds could go up to 3.3Gbps) and plan to launch their new approach around the end of 2025 or early 2026.

At present the operator doesn’t yet know whether they will go beyond 1.5m premises (c.200 BT exchanges) via Openreach’s network in the future, which may well depend upon how successful this strategy becomes. Netomnia also doesn’t seem worried about the fact that Openreach’s current FTTP products have much slower upload speeds and higher wholesale prices, so it will be interesting to see how they balance this for their consumer packages/prices.

Interestingly, Netomnia also hinted to ISPreview that Openreach may not be the only other third-party FTTP network they onboard with in the future, but it’s too early to talk about that with any certainty. Finally, Netomnia also confirmed via a related report on TheTimes (paywall) that their long-held plans for launching a UK Mobile service this year (here) will harness the combined Vodafone and Three UK (VodafoneThree) network.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Alternative network provider and UK ISP CommunityFibre, which has deployed a 5Gbps speed full fibre broadband (FTTP) network to cover 1.342 million UK homes (plus c.200k businesses) – mostly in London, has today reduced their somewhat industry leading 60 Day Satisfaction Guarantee to 30 days. But this is still better than many other providers can do.

The Guarantee essentially allows new customers to cancel their broadband contract and leave penalty free, within the first 60 days, if they are unhappy with the connection and CommunityFibre can’t fix the problem. But customers who cancel due to the 60 Day Satisfaction Guarantee will not receive any money back for any services they’ve paid for already.

Only a few providers offer a similar guarantee, although they usually run for a much shorter period than 60 days (e.g. 30 days or a couple of weeks).

A spokesperson for CommunityFibre told ISPreview:

“For the small minority of customers who may have issues when they first sign up to Community Fibre, they contact us within the first few days, and we are able to resolve the majority of them swiftly.

Therefore, instead of dragging things out, we want our customers to feel secure right away. That’s why we’ve tightened our guaranteed window – as they can quickly determine if we are the right fit. Even reducing to a 30-Day Guarantee still means we are one of the few ISPs to have a guarantee and additionally have the (joint) longest guarantee of any of the UK broadband providers.”

New customers of the provider’s home broadband packages currently pay from just £19 per month for symmetric speeds of 200Mbps (inc. free router, installation, unlimited usage and a 24-month minimum term) and that rises up to £39 for their top 5Gbps package. Many of CommunityFibre’s packages are currently on a big discount until the end of this week, although monthly prices will rise by £2 from April every year.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

A team of Microsoft backed and largely UK based researches, which were originally part of Lumenisity – a spinoff from the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) at the University of Southampton, appear to have succeeded in reducing attenuation and other signal degradation phenomena in next gen hollow core fibre (HCF) broadband cables – boosting speeds by 45%.

Conventional optical fibre cables work by guiding laser light through solid glass cores, which need to be extremely transparent in order to avoid signal loss. But even the clearest of fibres can still suffer a slight loss over distance, although researchers have long been refining a possible alternative for the future.

By comparison, HCF cables have an air-filled central core (i.e. light travels faster through the air than glass), with an outer ring of glass to help guide the beam, which helps to resolve some of the aforementioned issues – improving data speeds and latency. BT trialled one such solution back in 2021 (here), but the technology still had some issues with the signal losing too much power.

Modern solid core fibres typically deliver a minimum loss of 0.14 decibels per kilometre (0.14 dB km-1), but the researchers were able to improve their alternative HCF solution to deliver “unprecedented transmission bandwidth and attenuation, with a measured loss of 0.091 dB km-1“. According to The Register, this marks a big improvement, as past HCF solutions delivered a measured loss of more like 1 dB km-1, and you thus don’t need to amplify the signal as much.

Extract from the Paper (Nature)

A critical component of optical communications is the availability of a suitable waveguide technology for the transport of electromagnetic waves with low loss over a broad spectral range. In the past four decades, despite extensive research, the attenuation and spectral bandwidth of silica-based optical fibres have remained relatively unchanged, with state-of-the-art fibres offering values of 0.14 dB km−1 and 26 THz below 0.2 dB km−1, respectively.

Here we report a microstructured optical waveguide with unprecedented transmission bandwidth and attenuation, with a measured loss of 0.091 dB km−1 at 1,550 nm that remains below 0.2 dB km−1 over a window of 66 THz. Instead of a traditional solid glass core, this innovative optical fibre features a core of air surrounded by a meticulously engineered glass microstructure to guide light. This approach not only reduces attenuation and other signal degradation phenomena, but it also increases transmission speeds by 45%.

Furthermore, the approach theoretically supports further loss reductions and operation at wavelengths where broader bandwidth amplifiers exist, potentially heralding a new era in long-distance communications as well as remote delivery of laser beams.

All of this sounds good, although it’s worth pointing out that HCF cables aren’t going to be used to replace all of today’s optical fibres – at least not for many decades (if ever) – because we aren’t even close to maximising the capability of existing solid core fibres. But HCF cables could be more widely deployed as part of new core network links, or for providing backhaul style capacity over longer distances etc.

Microsoft is a data behemoth, and thus their interest in this field is clear to understand.