Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

The ITS Technology Group, which has deployed various open access full fibre broadband and Ethernet networks across parts of the United Kingdom, has today announced the launch of its new Cisco-powered ‘ITS SecureEdge’ product. The new value-added service is designed to “protect businesses of all sizes” from Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks.

The new service, which will leverage Cisco Secure DDoS Protection technology, is said to be part of ITS’ “wider mission” to redefine what business connectivity looks like in the “fibre utility” era, moving beyond pure bandwidth and into smarter, more equitable infrastructure solutions.

According to ITS, traditionally, DDoS mitigation has been the “preserve of large enterprises and government“, relying on solutions that backhaul traffic to off-site scrubbing centres – often at significant cost and prohibitive in today’s low latency application environments. But SecureEdge’s approach is said to bring this protection “closer to the edge of the network“, utilising AI to allow constant monitoring, fast mitigation and accuracy at scale.

The approach also seems to avoid the need for redirection to external scrubbing centres, reducing mitigation times and cutting costs.

Pete England, Product Director at ITS, said:

“Connectivity has to be more than speed alone. We’re investing in innovation that directly answers the real-world risks businesses face every day. DDoS attacks can cripple an organisation in minutes – from online retailers losing sales, to schools and councils losing critical digital services. With this launch, we’re making protection simple, affordable, and built into the network itself.”

The new service is said to be available on all ITS Internet Access services (FibreOne, FibreLight, FibreBright) through a simple, transparent uplift, with “no premium pricing tiers” (i.e. it shouldn’t cost thousands of pounds a year like some existing solutions). The focus here seems to be on SMEs, schools, and public sector organisations.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

As first hinted at last month (here), broadband and TV provider Virgin Media (O2) has now begun the process of rolling out the latest firmware update (v5.21) for their TV 360 and STREAM platforms (set-top-boxes). The change introduces a new search feature and some smaller changes / fixes, but nothing major.

The key change this time around includes enhanced search functionality, which uses small image previews (tiles) on its results instead of a text heavy display (pictured – top). The update also appears to introduce a few minor graphical changes to the onscreen programme guide, and they added a few extra details on the WiFi settings page (e.g. RSSI signal strength, channels used etc.).

Some further details on this were released earlier in the month (here), but it looks like customers will have to wait a bit longer for a major feature update to arrive.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Broadband, mobile and telecoms giant BT has today published a new economic modelling study from Assembly Research, which examines how the ongoing migration from legacy networks (PSTN/WLR, 2G mobile etc.) to All-IP (Internet Protocol) services could “deliver billions in benefits” (£3bn) to the UK’s critical national infrastructure sectors.

At present BT (EE) and Openreach have a number of programmes that could be said to form part of this migration, such as their move from legacy to digital phone services, the withdrawal of 3G/2G mobile platforms, the closure of old telephone exchanges and the related migration of copper to full fibre (FTTP) broadband lines. But while in recent times much of the media’s attention has tended to focus on the disruption this causes, BT clearly wants to highlight the benefits too.

The new Assembly Research study broadly claims that a £3 billion net economic benefit could be realised across five key sectors by 2040, such as £1.4b in potential saving for the energy sector through improved resilience and demand forecasting. In the water sector, smarter network monitoring and reduced electricity usage could generate efficiencies worth £771 million.

The research evaluated the costs, risks and potential gains from digital migration across energy, water, health (NHS), emergency services and local government. It accounted for the direct cost of upgrading, as well as the rising expense of maintaining legacy systems like the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) and the 2G mobile network – both decades old and increasingly challenging to support. Ofcom data shows resilience incidents on the PSTN have risen by 45%, underscoring the urgency of change.

Summary of Predicted Benefits by 2040

➤ Preventing 750,000 unnecessary ambulance trips – averaging more than 100 avoided journeys every day.

➤ Freeing up 12 million hours of council staff time – equal to around 6,500 staff working full-time for a year.

➤ Saving over 600,000 NHS staff hours – comparable to the annual workload of 350 full-time employees.

➤ Avoiding up to 280,000 false fire service callouts as businesses move away from legacy fire alarms – equivalent to 54 false alarms every day.

➤ Cutting 3.42 megatonnes of carbon emissions – equal to powering every home in Birmingham for a year.

Local governments, often under pressure to do more with less, also “stand to gain” £486m by modernising telecare systems and cutting the cost of maintaining ageing analogue equipment. In the NHS, digital transformation promises better call handling and more efficient emergency response. Meanwhile, emergency services could see fewer false alarms and improved call management, enabling faster, more targeted responses.

Jon James, CEO of BT Business, said:

“This research sends a clear message: delaying the shift to digital carries a real cost to public services, the environment and the wider economy. Legacy systems are becoming increasingly unreliable, and the case for action is urgent. BT is committed to guiding the UK’s critical national infrastructure sectors through this upgrade with the resilience and support they need.”

The UK’s transition to digital connectivity is a major national infrastructure programme endorsed by Ofcom and the Government. The Public Switched Telephone Network will be fully retired in January 2027 for the most vulnerable users, with businesses and public services urged to complete their migrations sooner – by the end of 2025 – to “avoid last-minute disruption“.

In 2024 alone, BT migrated nearly 300,000 legacy PSTN business lines. Yet the operator warns that “many CNI [critical infrastructure] providers in the UK still rely on ageing analogue systems for critical operations“, while other countries are moving faster (e.g. Germany and Spain are close to completing their migrations).

The report also claims that the “cost of inaction” could be £437m, although the report itself doesn’t make it easy to clarify how such a figure was produced. As usual, it’s often wise to take such economic modelling with a pinch of salt, not least because it’s incredibly difficult to verify and associate such impacts in the real-world.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Internet provider TalkTalk has today unveiled the “next step in our Wi-Fi transformation” with the launch of “U“, which as well as being a letter in the alphabet also seems to be both a new class of UK broadband product and order process that aims to deliver a “tailored setup for each customer’s home, with speed that flexes as they need it, all for one price“.

The official announcement is heavy on the promotional language and light on detail, which makes it a bit tricky to reflect what TalkTalk U actually offers. The provider says it’s designed to give consumers a “custom set-up” that removes the need for them to worry about “annoying blindspots in the house” (poor WiFi) or what broadband speed they need, instead “seamlessly flexing to ensure they are always on the right speed for them“, all for one price.

Customers’ TalkTalk U journey will apparently begin by simply providing their home address, the provider then does the work, using property data to ensure that whatever the size and whatever construction type, customers are receiving the right amount of equipment (WiFi boosters etc.) in the right places tailored to their home.

The service will also choose the right speed broadband package for them and, once connected, will use its “smart algorithm to monitor and seamlessly flex their speed behind the scenes as their demands change“, without the need to change package or contract. We quite like the idea of a flexible package like this, but it’s unclear if doing this may impact the price.

In addition, TalkTalk U customers will also be amongst the first to benefit from TalkTalk’s new customer management system, enabled by Kraken Technologies, which is said to be “improving customer services by giving customer service agents all the tools they need to help customers end-to-end“.

Susie Buckridge, TalkTalk CEO, said:

“We’re shaking up our outdated industry by starting to change the way we talk about our products with customers – TalkTalk U is all about need not speed.

The industry has converged around ever-increasing speed packages, implying that these alone are the answer, but the fact is that the majority of homes don’t need more than about 80 or 100mps to cover the average nine connected devices.

Customers tell us what really matters to them is how their Wi-Fi works around the home: they want to be able to stream TV episodes and films seamlessly, have video calls that don’t drop out, and scroll TikTok without endless buffering.

It has been years since we saw any change in the way Wi-Fi is sold, but TalkTalk U allows customers to never have to think about Wi-Fi. It just works, all around their home, automatically flexing with changing needs, no matter what is demanded of it.”

The new type of product is certainly a bit of an innovation in the consumer space (although flexible speeds already exist on Ethernet / leased line services), not least because wholesale providers usually sell Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) based products to ISPs by splitting different speeds between tiers and pricing each tier differently from the last one. But this approach tends to work against flexible products like U.

The above might help to explain why, at launch, the “beta version” of their U product is currently only available in CityFibre areas (c.4.5 million UK premises). But TalkTalk said they plan to expand it out to “other networks by the end of the year“, which seems like it will require some networks to offer a different class of product to ISPs at wholesale. At present we’re not sure if this would work on some networks, like Openreach’s, where this sort of speed flexibility doesn’t yet seem to exist.

However, we’re still missing a lot of details, such as how fast ‘U’ will actually allow lines to go (maximum and minimum), what the base package includes and how the wholesale side will be balancing the costing for such a changeable product. But TalkTalk does state that U “starts from” £28 per month and will launch “this month“. If Wi-Fi Extenders are required, depending on home size, an additional charge is also payable.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Rochdale-based UK broadband ISP Zen Internet has today announced that MS3 have become the latest alternative network to sign a wholesale partnership deal. The move means that Zen’s customers will soon be able to order packages via the new FTTP network and no doubt the altnet will also join their Fibre Hub (network aggregation platform for use by other ISPs).

The Fibre Hub already offered access to a Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) based broadband footprint of over 20 million premises via infrastructure providers Openreach, CityFibre, ITS Technology, Freedom Fibre and Trooli. But today’s agreement will further expand its reach for Zen’s partners and also provide greater access to their own retail base.

Hull-based alternative UK network operator MS3 has so far deployed their full fibre broadband network across 234,000 premises (207k RFS) in the North of England – mostly around the Hull (East Yorkshire) and Lincolnshire regions – and recently announced connecting their 20,000th customer to the network, which is offered via several partner ISPs; now including Zen Internet.

Zen Internet hasn’t yet revealed any details of the broadband packages or prices they’ll be offering to customers on the new network, which won’t be known until they go live during early 2026. Zen’s implementation of new altnets often occurs gradually and in phases, rather than all at once, so after they go live it may still take a bit longer for everything to be fully integrated.

Credits to Thinkbroadband for spotting this development. In addition, Zen Internet said they expected to sign another alternative network to their platform in November 2025.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

The UK telecoms regulator, Ofcom, has today hit internet phone (VoIP) provider Vonage with a £700,000 fine after an investigation that started in March 2024 (here). The penalty follows an incident that resulted in disruption for its business customers to emergency calling (999) services between 23rd October and 3rd November 2023.

The regulator’s existing General Conditions rules (e.g. General Condition A3.2 and sections 105A, 105C and 105K of the Communications Act 2003) require every communications provider to “ensure the fullest possible availability of public communications services at all times, including in the event of a disaster or catastrophic network failure, and uninterrupted access to emergency organisations.”

Naturally, any failure of such communications, particularly to the emergency services, is extremely serious and could result in a loss of life. This is particularly relevant now that broadband ISPs and their customers are increasingly switching away from traditional phone line services and on to IP-based phone alternatives, which may be more exposed to connectivity problems and power cuts etc.

However, Ofcom’s investigation of Vonage found that, during the aforementioned period, the company’s UK VoIP business customers were “unable to connect to the emergency services when using desk phones” and their internal processes “did not include adequate assessment of whether a software update, which caused the issue, had the potential to impact emergency calls“. As a result, Vonage failed to carry out testing following the update, which led to its emergency call service failing.

The provider also “failed to have adequate monitoring procedures in place“, which meant it did not have sufficient oversight of its network to enable it to identify an outage affecting emergency calls.

George Lusty, Ofcom’s Enforcement Director, said:

“Being able to call the emergency services can mean the difference between life and death. It’s vital that telecoms providers take their responsibilities seriously and if they don’t, we’ll hold them to account. Vonage fell short on a number of levels, putting its customers at unacceptable risk.”

Breaking news.. more to follow..

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

The Citizens Advice agency has warned that broadband ISPs and mobile operators are making it difficult for people trying to negotiate for a better renewal, which it’s estimated could save UK consumers more than £325 a year for both services combined. The charity has called on Ofcom to take action in order to ensure greater pricing transparency.

As most readers already know, new broadband and mobile customers – usually reflecting those who hunt around for a better deal and switch providers – often benefit from big discounts that are designed to attract them, while existing customers who reach the end of their initial contract can be hit with larger price rises.

The practice is fairly common among the largest providers and, indeed, somewhat normal in any truly competitive market. In recent years, Ofcom has implemented various changes to tackle this, such as the End-of-Contract Notifications (ECN) system (i.e. showing the best deals for re-contracting) and easier switching processes for mobile and broadband providers (e.g. One Touch Switching).

Not to mention the regulator’s move to ban providers from doing mid-contract price hikes that are linked to inflation (CPI or RPI) and percentage-based changes (here), as well as their industry Fairness Framework (guidelines), the impact of which remains debatable.

Savvy consumers, such as those who don’t wish to change provider, also know to try to option of haggling for a better deal (Retentions Tips), which Citizens Advice estimates could save you more than £325 a year combined for mobile and broadband bills. As a result, the charity estimates that collectively, loyal consumers who don’t negotiate are “losing out” on £28m in savings every month.

Murky Practices

However, the charity also conducted a nationally representative Opinium Research survey of 6,000 UK adults – run between 22nd April and 6th June 2025 – to discover their experiences of haggling with telecoms providers, which revealed the “murky practice of only making better deals and discounts available after persistent efforts from customers“. This includes people being forced to hunt through confusing online options or being stuck on hold for ages, among other things.

Key Survey Findings

➤ 18% don’t negotiate or switch at all, but nearly one in three do renegotiate with their provider at the end of their last fixed term telecom contract.

➤ 78% found at least one of the steps in the renegotiation process difficult. This includes navigating confusing call menus to get through to the right person (43%) and waiting on hold (55%).

➤ 66% who negotiated on the phone experienced at least one negative consequence, such as feeling like they wasted their time (39%) or feeling stressed (37%).

Dame Clare Moriarty, CEO of Citizens Advice, said:

“For too long, mobile and broadband providers have forced consumers to go through the charade of pretending to leave in order to access hidden renewal deals.

Millions of people are still paying over the odds for something as essential as mobile and broadband because of this murky practice.

Ofcom has taken some welcome steps to strengthen protections for consumers, but this loophole needs to be closed.

We want to see Ofcom clamp down on long overdue transparency on pricing – closing the gap between what deals are on the table and what’s kept under the counter.”

At this point we should highlight that not all providers adopt the same model and many smaller providers, which may also offer a selection of more advanced features (static IPs, better routers etc.), simply charge a set monthly fee that rarely ever changes.

Equally it’s unclear precisely what Citizens Advice means by “clamp down“, since there are different approaches that could potentially be taken and then there’s always a risk from unintended consequences (e.g. Ofcom’s move to ban inflationary linked price hikes did improve transparency, but it also seemed to cause larger general price hikes).

The current model that many big providers adopt relies on the fact that a good proportion of customers will, at the end of their first contract, choose to remain with their ISP and accept the basic re-contracting offers – even though prices may rise.

Ofcom would thus need to be very careful to avoid making any changes that could cause prices to rise for other users, or even choke off the option of renegotiation entirely. But so far we’ve not seen any indication that the regulator is planning to take further action on this.

An Ofcom spokesman said:

“We’ve made it easier to get a discount and save money, whether that’s by haggling with your existing provider or moving to a new one. Phone and broadband companies must tell you when your contract’s ending and what you could save by signing up to a new deal. Our rules also mean it’s never been simpler to switch, and millions of customers have taken advantage of the competitive market we have in the UK.”

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

The annual Connected Britain Awards 2025 (Total Telecom) took place this week, which among other things saw alternative full fibre ISP Lightning Fibre scoop the coveted “Broadband Provider of the Year” award, while Openreach won the “Access Innovation Award” and CityFibre was once again handed the “Project Rollout Award“.

All of the organisations that entered – spanning across various different categories – were assessed by a large panel of judges, which included key figures from various analyst firms, consultants, network operators, universities and various other companies or organisations with industry links.

The final list includes a limited but useful description of why each winner was chosen.

Winners of the Connected Britain Awards 2025

➤ B2B Service Provider of the Year

The B2B Service Provider of the Year award recognises a company going above and beyond to serve business customers, not just through connectivity, but through outstanding operational delivery.

This year’s winner stood out for their hands-on support of major industry players, their consistent investment in service excellence, and a strong track record of results that speaks for itself.

Winner: Nets International Group

➤ Digital Skills Award

The Digital Skills Award celebrates projects that tackle skills gaps and broaden access to digital learning.

This year’s winner stood out for directly addressing digital exclusion, reaching thousands of children and educators, and embedding digital confidence across the education sector. The judges praised the initiative as a scalable, inclusive model with truly impressive results.

Winner: Three UK – Three Discovery – Empowering in Education

Highly commended: Liverpool City Region Combined Authority – Digital Inclusion Initiative

➤ Broadband Provider of the Year

The Broadband Provider of the Year award recognises a broadband provider that truly puts its customers and communities at the heart of everything it does.

With industry-leading retention, outstanding customer feedback, and strong partnerships across housing and local organisations, this winner sets a benchmark for service, innovation, and trust in the broadband space.

Winner: Lightning Fibre

➤ The Access Innovation Award

The Access Innovation Award recognises breakthrough initiatives that deliver connectivity where it was once thought impossible.

This year’s winner impressed the judges with an ambitious engineering project in one of the UK’s most remote communities, deploying subsea fibre and innovative network design to overcome extreme challenges. The result is reliable, high-quality broadband that respects the local environment and transforms life for residents – a powerful example of access innovation at its best.

Winner: Openreach – Baltasound, Isle of Unst, Shetland

Highly commended: Dorset Council

➤ The Smart Places Award

The Smart Places Award celebrates the transformative use of connectivity, data, and technology to improve lives and communities.

This year’s winner stood out for tackling both rural and urban challenges head-on, deploying cutting-edge 5G OpenRAN networks and smart infrastructure to deliver tangible benefits. The judges praised it as a bold and forward-looking model for what a smart place can achieve.

Winner: Cambridgeshire Open RAN Ecosystem (CORE HDD) Consortium – Cambridgeshire County Council, AWTG, Benetel, Ontix, Gooi, Wolfram, University of Surrey & University of Cambridge              

➤ The Industrial Innovation Award

The industrial Innovation Award shines a light on how digital transformation is reshaping the backbone of industry.

This year’s winner took a sector that had long relied on traditional methods and injected it with the power of private 5G, revolutionising productivity, improving quality, and delivering huge efficiency gains. Judges described it as a remarkable demonstration of what happens when cutting-edge connectivity meets real-world manufacturing, setting a new benchmark for industrial innovation in the UK.

Winner: Ayrshire 5GIR Project and Anderson Stewart Castings          

➤ The Barrier Removal Award

The Barrier Removal award celebrates initiatives that have broken down the toughest obstacles to connectivity rollout.

This year’s winner impressed the judges with a unique industry-wide collaboration that removed long-standing commercial barriers, transformed rural coverage, and delivered results ahead of schedule. By tackling partial not-spots on a national scale, the project is ensuring more communities can benefit from equitable access to mobile connectivity.””

Winner: Mova, on behalf of EE, Three, VMO2 and Vodafone for their work on the Shared Rural Network programme      

Highly commended: Glasgow City Council

➤ The Startup Award

Winner: NodeQ

Highly commended: Unified Telecoms Supplier

➤ The Sustainability Award

The Sustainability Award recognises projects that put environmental responsibility at the heart of telecoms.

This year’s winner impressed the judges with a practical, large-scale initiative to cut emissions, consolidate infrastructure, and embed sustainability into everyday operations. With clear evidence of energy efficiency gains, a strong commitment to the circular economy, and real social impact, it demonstrates how major players in our industry can lead by example.

Winner: BT Group – Networks Data Centre Optimisation Programme

➤ Digital Council of the Year

The Digital Council of the Year award highlights councils that have embraced digital transformation.

This year’s winner has embraced digitalisation with purpose and clarity, delivering real improvements in public services, from smarter infrastructure and sustainable transport to enhanced care and connectivity. Their collaborative, tech-forward approach is helping redefine what local government can achieve in the digital age.

Winner: Coventry City Council

Highly commended: Fylde Council

➤ The Wireless Innovation Award

Wireless innovation is unlocking opportunity across the UK and this year’s winner is proving just how powerful fixed wireless access can be.

By targeting hard-to-reach areas with faster, more reliable services, they’re transforming connectivity for rural homes and businesses. The judges applauded their ambition, their smart use of international learnings, and the impressive performance gains already being delivered.

Winner: Airband Community Internet  

➤ Project Rollout Award

The Project Rollout award honours exceptional achievement in accelerating gigabit-capable broadband delivery.

This year’s winner was praised for rolling out fibre at scale and speed, reaching tens of thousands of premises on time and on budget while pioneering innovative engineering techniques to reduce risk. Judges highlighted the project’s strong community engagement and its role in boosting connectivity and economic prospects in one of the UK’s most challenging regions.

Winner: Fibrus

Highly commended: CityFibre

➤ The Enterprise Solution Award

The Enterprise Solution Award recognises innovation that transforms the way enterprises connect and operate.

This year’s winner delivered a breakthrough in indoor mobile coverage, combining all UK operators into a single small cell solution. Judges praised its impact on productivity, energy efficiency, and user experience, a clear example of enterprise innovation with measurable results.

Winner: Freshwave’s Omni Network on the ANDREW RP5000 

➤ The Rising Star Award

One of the most exciting awards of the evening, the Rising Star Award celebrates emerging talent making a lasting mark on the connectivity sector.

This year’s winner was praised for their leadership in digital inclusion, building partnerships across sectors, and delivering measurable social impact. Judges highlighted their deep community engagement and innovative approach, recognising not just a promising career, but a rising star already changing lives and shaping a more inclusive digital future.

Winner: Will Plant –  Cambridgeshire County Council

➤ The Community Improvement Award

Our final award was one of the most hotly contested of the evening. It attracted the largest number of entries, and the judges’ scores were incredibly close across the shortlist.

This year’s winner stood out for its scale, longevity, and ability to reach hundreds of thousands of people since its launch. Judges praised its commitment to bridging the digital divide, empowering vulnerable groups through skills training, and showing how a major organisation can use its resources to create meaningful social change.

Winner: Three UK – Three Discovery – Free skills training UK-wide to help bridge the digital divide

Original article Total Telecom:Read More

The Connected Britain Awards winners have been announced, following a highly successful Connected Britain conference

With a record-breaking number of entries this year, the Connected Britain Awards 2025 showcased the most innovative and exciting elements of Britain’s ever-growing and rapidly evolving digital economy. This year’s shortlist included a fantastic array of diverse organisations and individuals, all of whom were highly deserving of praise. 

A big thanks to all our award presenters and to our expert panel of judges for lending us their expertise in selecting the winners.

B2B Service Provider of the Year

The B2B Service Provider of the Year award recognises a company going above and beyond to serve business customers, not just through connectivity, but through outstanding operational delivery.

This year’s winner stood out for their hands-on support of major industry players, their consistent investment in service excellence, and a strong track record of results that speaks for itself.

Winner: Nets International Group

Digital Skills Award

The Digital Skills Award celebrates projects that tackle skills gaps and broaden access to digital learning.

This year’s winner stood out for directly addressing digital exclusion, reaching thousands of children and educators, and embedding digital confidence across the education sector. The judges praised the initiative as a scalable, inclusive model with truly impressive results.

Winner: Three UK – Three Discovery – Empowering in Education

Highly commended: Liverpool City Region Combined Authority – Digital Inclusion Initiative

Broadband Provider of the Year

The Broadband Provider of the Year award recognises a broadband provider that truly puts its customers and communities at the heart of everything it does.

With industry-leading retention, outstanding customer feedback, and strong partnerships across housing and local organisations, this winner sets a benchmark for service, innovation, and trust in the broadband space.

Winner: Lightning Fibre

The Access Innovation Award

The Access Innovation Award recognises breakthrough initiatives that deliver connectivity where it was once thought impossible.

This year’s winner impressed the judges with an ambitious engineering project in one of the UK’s most remote communities, deploying subsea fibre and innovative network design to overcome extreme challenges. The result is reliable, high-quality broadband that respects the local environment and transforms life for residents – a powerful example of access innovation at its best.

Winner: Openreach – Baltasound, Isle of Unst, Shetland

Highly commended: Dorset Council

The Smart Places Award

The Smart Places Award celebrates the transformative use of connectivity, data, and technology to improve lives and communities.

This year’s winner stood out for tackling both rural and urban challenges head-on, deploying cutting-edge 5G OpenRAN networks and smart infrastructure to deliver tangible benefits. The judges praised it as a bold and forward-looking model for what a smart place can achieve.

Winner: Cambridgeshire Open RAN Ecosystem (CORE HDD) Consortium – Cambridgeshire County Council, AWTG, Benetel, Ontix, Gooi, Wolfram, University of Surrey & University of Cambridge              

The Industrial Innovation Award

The industrial Innovation Award shines a light on how digital transformation is reshaping the backbone of industry.

This year’s winner took a sector that had long relied on traditional methods and injected it with the power of private 5G, revolutionising productivity, improving quality, and delivering huge efficiency gains. Judges described it as a remarkable demonstration of what happens when cutting-edge connectivity meets real-world manufacturing, setting a new benchmark for industrial innovation in the UK.

Winner: Ayrshire 5GIR Project and Anderson Stewart Castings          

The Barrier Removal Award

The Barrier Removal award celebrates initiatives that have broken down the toughest obstacles to connectivity rollout.

This year’s winner impressed the judges with a unique industry-wide collaboration that removed long-standing commercial barriers, transformed rural coverage, and delivered results ahead of schedule. By tackling partial not-spots on a national scale, the project is ensuring more communities can benefit from equitable access to mobile connectivity.””

Winner: Mova, on behalf of EE, Three, VMO2 and Vodafone for their work on the Shared Rural Network programme      

Highly commended: Glasgow City Council

The Startup Award

Winner: NodeQ

Highly commended: Unified Telecoms Supplier

The Sustainability Award

The Sustainability Award recognises projects that put environmental responsibility at the heart of telecoms.

This year’s winner impressed the judges with a practical, large-scale initiative to cut emissions, consolidate infrastructure, and embed sustainability into everyday operations. With clear evidence of energy efficiency gains, a strong commitment to the circular economy, and real social impact, it demonstrates how major players in our industry can lead by example.

Winner: BT Group – Networks Data Centre Optimisation Programme

Digital Council of the Year

The Digital Council of the Year award highlights councils that have embraced digital transformation.

This year’s winner has embraced digitalisation with purpose and clarity, delivering real improvements in public services, from smarter infrastructure and sustainable transport to enhanced care and connectivity. Their collaborative, tech-forward approach is helping redefine what local government can achieve in the digital age.

Winner: Coventry City Council

Highly commended: Fylde Council

The Wireless Innovation Award

Wireless innovation is unlocking opportunity across the UK and this year’s winner is proving just how powerful fixed wireless access can be.

By targeting hard-to-reach areas with faster, more reliable services, they’re transforming connectivity for rural homes and businesses. The judges applauded their ambition, their smart use of international learnings, and the impressive performance gains already being delivered.

Winner: Airband Community Internet  

Project Rollout Award

The Project Rollout award honours exceptional achievement in accelerating gigabit-capable broadband delivery.

This year’s winner was praised for rolling out fibre at scale and speed, reaching tens of thousands of premises on time and on budget while pioneering innovative engineering techniques to reduce risk. Judges highlighted the project’s strong community engagement and its role in boosting connectivity and economic prospects in one of the UK’s most challenging regions.

Winner: Fibrus

Highly commended: CityFibre

The Enterprise Solution Award

The Enterprise Solution Award recognises innovation that transforms the way enterprises connect and operate.

This year’s winner delivered a breakthrough in indoor mobile coverage, combining all UK operators into a single small cell solution. Judges praised its impact on productivity, energy efficiency, and user experience, a clear example of enterprise innovation with measurable results.

Winner: Freshwave’s Omni Network on the ANDREW RP5000 

The Rising Star Award

One of the most exciting awards of the evening, the Rising Star Award celebrates emerging talent making a lasting mark on the connectivity sector.

This year’s winner was praised for their leadership in digital inclusion, building partnerships across sectors, and delivering measurable social impact. Judges highlighted their deep community engagement and innovative approach, recognising not just a promising career, but a rising star already changing lives and shaping a more inclusive digital future.

Winner: Will Plant –  Cambridgeshire County Council

The Community Improvement Award

Our final award was one of the most hotly contested of the evening. It attracted the largest number of entries, and the judges’ scores were incredibly close across the shortlist.

This year’s winner stood out for its scale, longevity, and ability to reach hundreds of thousands of people since its launch. Judges praised its commitment to bridging the digital divide, empowering vulnerable groups through skills training, and showing how a major organisation can use its resources to create meaningful social change.

Winner: Three UK – Three Discovery – Free skills training UK-wide to help bridge the digital divide    

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

The Co-Founder and Chairman of alternative rural broadband ISP Fibrus, Conal Henry, will tomorrow tell the Connected Britain event that Government subsidies (e.g. the £5bn Project Gigabit programme) are being “wasted” due to Ofcom’s rules allegedly making the roll-out of rural broadband “unnecessarily expensive“.

At present Fibrus has already deployed their own gigabit-capable broadband network, using full fibre (FTTP) technology, to cover 440,000 premises across poorly served parts of Northern Ireland and Cumbria (England). The operator has also connected 125,000 customers to this network (up from 113k in March 2025). Most of that build has stemmed from commercial investment, but a big chunk has also come via state aid (public funding) – see below.

However, Henry argues that such deployments are currently being hampered by the rules and costs of harnessing the Physical Infrastructure Access (PIA) product, which is the regulated service that allows rival networks to run their own fibre via Openreach’s existing cable ducts and poles – cutting down on build costs, disruption and speeding up deployments of gigabit-capable broadband networks.

Openreach has previously described their PIA product as being “cheap as chips“, “really successful” (175 network builders are using their ducts and poles) and said it returns “very strong customer satisfaction scores“. But Henry argues that a change to PIA pricing would reduce the need for funding and could speed up regional roll-outs further.

What’s the issue with PIA?

According to Henry, under the current system, altnets such as Fibrus must pay for the use on a per-metre basis, which he claims is “disproportionately impacting rural areas“. Rural properties are on average 200m away from their nearest neighbour, compared to just 10m in urban areas. As a result, Henry says it can cost altnets “almost twenty times more” to roll-out FTTP to rural areas than in towns and cities (we’ve heard this before).

The current rules are also said to “prevent altnets from recovering these costs from consumers“, although this aspect wasn’t fleshed out in the press release. Henry added that rural areas are also more likely to have slower broadband speeds, and fewer providers to choose from, partly as a result of the issues raised.

We should add that other altnets have previously also called on Ofcom to deliver fairness in PIA pricing, to “ensure all users of PIA have a level playing field for access to infrastructure“ (here and here).

Conal Henry is expected to say:

“Companies like Fibrus have a strong track record of delivering rural broadband but the current model is stifling investment, creating an uneven marketplace and making it harder for providers like ours to connect more homes and businesses.

The disproportionate impact these costs have on rural broadband providers is well illustrated by the fact that Fibrus serves 0.3% of total UK broadband premises but it contributes 12% of Openreach’s altnet PIA income – a staggering figure. This directly undermines the UK’s goal of nationwide fibre coverage and inhibits growth.

Both Ministers and Ofcom can get on and solve this. Doing so would mean Ministers spend less on subsidy and consumers have more choice. In an age of online working and accessing learning, business and healthcare online, it’s vital that Ministers get a grip on this issue or rural communities will be left behind.”

In fairness, the fact that rural builds cost significantly more than urban ones is nothing new, and it’s worth bearing in mind that Openreach will also suffer that impact when they build the infrastructure (they need to gain a fair return on their investment for it to be viable). The incumbent is not magically immune to the realities of rural deployments being disproportionately more expensive than urban ones. This is partly because there are fewer premises to reach, and they’re often dispersed over a much wider area of difficult terrain.

The use of state-aid (e.g. Project Gigabit) in poorly served areas can help to mitigate against the extra costs of such builds (Fibrus has benefitted from this too). At the same time, it’s natural that Openreach itself doesn’t need to pay the same rents as altnets because they’ve built and run the infrastructure. The incumbent also has maintenance, repairs and other upkeep costs to consider.

At the same time, Openreach has previously suggested that the prices they charge for PIA may be too low and that rivals don’t share access to their own infrastructure in the same way (note: altnets that receive public investment are often obliged to offer a degree of infrastructure access, but this is almost never as attractive as PIA). Smaller altnets carry a lot of risk and often desire to protect the value of their asset vs those with Significant Market Power (SMP), such as Openreach – it’s not an even battlefield.

None of this is to say that Fibrus’ complaint is wrong, and indeed there may be some arguments around certain aspects of PIA, which could potentially be considered as too expensive or in need of improvement. But those prices are ultimately set by Ofcom, not Openreach, and they’re supposed to be set at a level which supports entry into the market by companies like Fibrus.

Naturally, all of this is coming to the fore now because Ofcom are in the final stage of preparing their market decisions for the next 5 years via the Telecoms Access Review 2026 (TAR), although the regulator’s initial proposals didn’t appear to push for any radical changes to PIA. The latest TAR is mostly about tweaks and smaller improvements, mainly to avoid destabilising existing investments at a critical point in the national roll-out (i.e. gigabit broadband for 99% of UK premises by 2032).

As usual, Ofcom has the incredibly difficult job of trying to balance the many competing (vested) interests between different operators, which will always result in some winners and losers. We should close by mentioning that INCA’s Infrastructure Sharing Group (ISG) is separately working to produce a new sharing framework (here), but this is more of an altnets-only club and focuses on areas when Openreach’s own PIA solution is not available.