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A new report claims that Australian investment group Macquarie has hired business advisors at Perella Weinberg Partners (PWP) to prepare KCOM for sale in Q2 2026. The operator is the incumbent broadband and phone provider for Hull, although their Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network also extends into other parts of East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire.

Just to recap. Macquarie Infrastructure (MIRA / MEIF 6 Fibre), following a fierce bidding war with the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS), finalised their £627m acquisition of KCOM in August 2019 (here). At the time, the operator had only just finished their £85m “Lightstream” roll-out of full fibre technology in Hull (here), but they’ve since expanded this and also been busy removing their legacy copper line network and services.

Regular readers might recall that Macquarie reportedly kicked off a Strategic Review of the business back in the Spring of 2024, which was conducted by PJT Partners (here). Back then it was suggested that this could potentially result in either a sale or merger of the business, which somewhat reflects the same trend toward network consolidation as we’ve seen elsewhere in the market (usually driven by competitive pressures, rising build costs and high interest rates etc.). But until now there have been no new updates.

According to HullLive, Macquarie has allegedly now taken another step toward consolidation by appointing New York based Perella Weinberg Partners to test the UK market for interest in a sale of KCOM’s business, which could take place as soon as the second quarter of this year.

The challenge this time is that KCOM’s control of its core market, particularly in Hull, has been significantly eroded in recent years by rival networks. According to Ofcom, recent builds by rivals like MS3, Connexin (CityFibre) and Grain have given local customers more choice of broadband connectivity, with around 70-79% of premises in the Hull Area now having access to at least one alternative network to KCOM.

The regulator’s recent telecoms market review of the Hull area also looks set to maintain many of its controls on the incumbent (here), which certainly won’t do KCOM any favours in terms of a potential sale of the business. Ofcom are due to publish their final proposals on all this in October 2026. KCOM has declined to comment on the news.

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News

The project includes the deployment thousands of kilometres of fibre cables as Syria looks to become a regional digital hub

This week, Saudi Arabian communication giant STC Group has announced it has won a roughly $800 million contract to lead Syria’s Silklink infrastructure project.

Silklink is a joint venture with the new Syrian government aimed at improving communication both regionally and internationally. It includes the deployment of around 4,500km of optical fibre, as well as the establishment of data centres and international submarine cable landing stations.

STC will hold a 75% stake in Silklink, with the remaining 25% stake held by the Syrian Sovereign Fund.

The new backbone network will be used to underpin Syria’s digital transformation, supporting digital applications, cloud services, the IoT, and advanced mobile services. It will also serve to make the county a key data transit route between Asia, the Middle East and Europe.

While no specific deadlines for the network’s deployment have been announced, Syria’s minister of communications and information technology, Abdulsalam Haykal, said the development would take place in two phases over the next 18–24 months.

For STC, the investment represents its latest efforts to improve cross-border connectivity in the Middle East, helping position Saudi Arabia as the region’s digital centre. STC is currently building a similar international backbone network in Oman with Ooredoo, as well as working to connect both the 2Africa and Saudi Vision Cable subsea networks to countries across the region.

The Silklink project was also announced alongside roughly $2 billion-worth of economic agreements between the Saudi Arabian and Syrian governments, highlighting the warming of a once frosty relationship. These investments notably include the creation of new low-cost airline, aimed at helping reconnect Syria to international travel after years of flight restrictions.

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The post The Silklink project: STC pledges to help reconnect war-torn Syria appeared first on Total Telecom.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Digital entertainment platform Netgem TV appears to have responded to British company Manhattan TV’s recent launch of Aero (here), which is a budget friendly (£69.99) 4K set-top-box that supports the new broadband-based live TV streaming service – Freely, by dropping the price of their own rival PLEIO box back from £109.89 to its original launch price of £99.

Until a few short months ago there weren’t any streaming set-top-boxes with support for Freely, but over the past few months we’ve seen a bunch of new kit enter the market, including at the premium end with the Humax FHR-6000T (Aura EZ 4K Freely Recorder) for £249.

By comparison, neither Netgem TV’s PLEIO (retail via Amazon – affiliate link) nor Manhattan TV’s Aero are designed to fully record TV shows. Both are fairly standard but capable set-top-boxes with Freely support, while the PLEIO also ships with the added bonus of 12 months subscription to their premium content service (you don’t have to keep the subscription after it ends); this normally costs £9.99 per month. The PLEIO subscription includes access to 250+ Cloud Games and 150+ extra channels.

Netgem TV previously had to raise the price of PLEIO due, we understand, to issues with the rising cost of RAM (system memory) and other components. At the time of writing, RAM costs remain high and yet the company has now been able to drop their price back down to £99 and while still retaining the inclusive subscription offer. This is said to be part of a special “Valentine’s offer“, but it could also be seen a response to competition.

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O2’s (Virgin Media) joint deployment with IONX Networks (formerly Dense Air), which last year claimed to have become one of the first mobile operators in the UK to successfully integrate a neutral host Small Cell into their live 5G Standalone (SA) core network (here), has been cast into doubt after IONX fell into administration at the end of last year.

Small Cells are typically mini 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 urban areas and specific sites – it’s not uncommon to find these sitting on top of lampposts, CCTV poles or even inside buildings to boost mobile coverage.

However, VMO2’s new project may have been dealt a blow after IONX Networks (Company Number 10402747), which focused on providing small cell infrastructure and technology solutions, announced on 3rd December 2025 – only a few weeks after unveiling the VMO2 agreement – that they had appointed Joint Administrators from Teneo Financial Advisory Limited (credits to one of our readers – Nucflash – for the tip off). The company’s website has since also gone offline.

According to the Administrators report, which was published at the end of January 2026, the company “generated limited revenue, with only one active customer as at the date of the administration“. IONX therefore “began winding down its operations in an orderly manner” following the appointment of the Joint Administrators to “maximise value preservation“.

The report notes that, at the time of administration, IONX employed 67 staff in the UK and had “one loss-making commercial contract and a related supply contract to provide access to a UK MNO“. But it added that the company had been impacted by “rapidly shifting strategic priorities within the telecoms industry, as operators shifted their focus or delayed 4G deployment“.

In short, IONX’s future was said to have become “more challenging” and their existing shareholders then “determined that it was no longer financially viable to provide further funding to the IONX Group“. However, there may still be some hope, as the report suggests that a buyer for the company’s intellectual property and “certain physical assets” has been found.

The Administrators are now working to complete that sale in the “coming weeks“. The Administrators are also in discussions with an interested party for a smaller (and separate) parcel of the Company’s physical assets, which similarly aims for completion within the “coming weeks“.

ISPreview has contacted VMO2 to query how they’re responding to the situation, although it should be noted that this has no impact on the other small cell companies that O2 are working with across the UK.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Mobile operator O2 (Virgin Media) and network technology provider Ontix have this morning reported that they’ve successfully deployed their first 4G and 5G Small Cells in North Wales, which have apparently gone live across Flintshire to boost data capacity (mobile broadband), including around Deeside Industrial Park.

Small cells are mini 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 urban areas and specific sites – it’s not uncommon to find these sitting on top of lampposts, CCTV poles or old payphone cubicles (i.e. they can be more cost-effective than building new street assets or trying to secure wayleaves on buildings etc.).

“With the extra capacity provided by these small cells, O2 customers can expect more reliable mobile connectivity for everyday calls and online access. Local businesses will benefit from steadier, more resilient connectivity, helping them stay connected with customers and operate effectively during busy periods,” said the announcement.

Steven Verigotta, Director of Mobile Delivery at O2, said:

“Our Mobile Transformation plan is all about ensuring our customers receive a reliable network experience in the moments that matter most. These new small cells will provide extra capacity to the growing Deeside Industrial Park, providing a boost to the businesses based there and to the local economy.”

Richard Jones, Deputy Leader of Flintshire County Council, said:

“The Council welcomes this investment by O2 and Ontix and is pleased to have worked with them and with Ambition North Wales to make public assets available to improve mobile connectivity, a first for North Wales.”

This deployment has been enabled by support from Flintshire County Council, which provided access to its street lighting columns for hosting the new Small Cell equipment. The achievement follows work led by Ambition North Wales, via its 4G+ digital project, which helped councils across the region introduce ‘Open Access Agreements’ – making their infrastructure available to telecommunications companies, like O2.

The upgrades form part of O2’s Mobile Transformation Plan, which is investing around £700m this year into their national mobile network.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

The UK Government (DSIT) appears set to revise their Project Gigabit contract with rural UK ISP Wessex Internet for Dorset and South Somerset (Lot 14.02), which originally aimed to build a full fibre (FTTP) broadband network to cover “around” 21,400 hard-to-reach premises. But the contract value has now been increased to £38.2m and fewer premises are set to be reached.

Before we get started it’s important to understand that Project Gigabit’s contracts are not static and their scope, as well as committed levels of public funding, can change over time for a number of different reasons – informed by regular ‘Open Market Reviews’ of existing UK deployment plans. For example, commercial operators may expand or reduce their roll-out plans in the same region, which can reduce or grow the scope for public investment within those same contracted areas.

The contracted operator could also find the deployment to be more expensive, or possibly even cheaper, than previously envisaged. Such adjustments may occur due to changes in build costs and interest rates / inflation, as well as any unexpected obstacles to street works or greater efficiencies of build than planned or expected.

Suffice to say, there can be various reasons why the contracted scope of related builds and the level of allocated public funding may change over time, although at ISPreview we generally only pay attention to bigger or more unusual changes (minor ones happen all the time).

The Lot 14.02 Modification

The original Lot 14.02 contract for Dorset and South Somerset was announced for Wessex Internet back in April 2024. As above, the official announcement valued this roll-out at £33.5m (public subsidy) and aimed to cover around 21,400 premises. But the latest modification notice states: “The value of this contract has increased by £9,482,533 from £28,736,039 to £38,218,572. The awarded premises have increased by 12,313 premises from 7,224 to 19,557.”

Put another way, the modification has increased the contract value by several million pounds above the original announcement from 2024 and will, at the same time, also deliver fewer premises. The modification notice states that “additional scope and premises from the deferred scope drawdown [have been] added to the contract in accordance with the UK subsidy control regime.”

One key point to consider above is that the public facing Project Gigabit announcements often leave out some key details around the expected impact of Deferred Scope and Under Review premises. The Building Digital UK (BDUK) agency will only provide subsidy to target premises that have been designated as ‘White’ (i.e. no other plans exist for these to get gigabit broadband over the next 3 years).

However, premises which have been designated as ‘Under Review’ (i.e. those that commercial builds by other providers aim to reach, but where that roll-out is deemed to be at risk) may later be included within the Deferred Scope of a procurement. Where this is the case, a further review will be undertaken to confirm whether they can be included into the contracted build.

In short, Project Gigabit’s contracts can go through a lot of changes on their way to completion and the above is an expected part of that evolution, although clearly in this case it’s a roll-out that has become more expensive to deliver. The catch is that there may be further changes in the future, which could go in a different direction, so it’s not always easy to tell what the final picture will be until you actually get near completion. So far, Wessex Internet has already built to nearly 2,000 premises under this contract (here), so there’s a way to go yet.

A quick note about South Wiltshire (Lot 30)

The contract for Lot 14.02 wasn’t the only one of Wessex Internet’s Project Gigabit builds to see a modification yesterday. A smaller but somewhat confusing change also occurred on their South Wiltshire (Lot 30) contract, which was originally announced to be valued at £18.8m and aimed to cover “around” 14,500 hard-to-reach premises in the area (here). Readers may recall that an August 2025 modification had previously increased the value of this to £24m and expanded its coverage target to 21,197 premises (here).

However, the latest contract modification note for Lot 30 appears to contradict this, and states: “The awarded premises has increased by 549 from 18,239 to 18,788 premises.” But it’s presently unclear why this modification notice appears to have ignored the figure of 21.19k in the previous notice from August 2025, although the core change relates to the same “deferred scope drawdown” reason as Lot 14.02 above.

We’re inclined to believe that the 18,788 premises target is the correct one as it’s used elsewhere by BDUK, although we’ve put the question to Wessex Internet and will report back once they respond.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Internet benchmarking firm Ookla, which operates the popular Speedtest.net broadband connection testing website and app, has published a new study that examines the performance of Starlink’s (SpaceX) LEO satellite broadband service across the world. Overall, performance in the UK has improved, but we continue to lag most of Europe.

Starlink currently has around 9,600 satellites in Low Earth Orbit (c.6,150 are v2 / GEN2 variants) – mostly at altitudes of between c.340-525km. Residential customers in the UK usually pay from £35 a month for the ‘Residential 100Mbps’ unlimited data plan (kit price may vary due to different offers), which also promises uploads of c.15-35Mbps and low latency connectivity. Faster packages exist at greater cost, while more restrictive (data capped) options also exist for roaming users (e.g. £50 per month for 100 GigaBytes of data).

According to Ookla’s new study, customers of Starlink’s service in the UK received an average median download speed of 106.63Mbps during Q3 2025 (up from 87.06Mbps almost a year ago). The only other European countries slower than this were Denmark 90.93Mbps, Albania 94.97Mbps and Bulgaria 38.3Mbps.

By comparison, Ireland scored 155.23Mbps, France 132.01Mbps, Germany 123.68Mbps, Norway 142.68Mbps, Italy 138.12Mbps and Spain got 142.76Mbps. Not to mention the USA on 129.61Mbps, Canada 113.13Mbps and Japan with 108.67Mbps.

The performance of Starlink’s network does of course vary due to all sorts of complex factors, such as in terms of how much radio spectrum frequency they’re allowed to harness by regulators in each country, the capabilities of any nearby ground stations with Starlink kit, the consumers own choice of package (Starlink’s packages, prices and limitations vary between countries) and any localised issues of network congestion etc.

Ookla also notes that the United Kingdom is estimated to be Starlink’s 11th largest market, at least in terms of the total global test samples that the company has recorded (i.e. accounting for 3.5% of all global Starlink speed tests). By comparison, the USA tops the table on 22.5% and the next closest entry is Mexico on just 5.7%.

Sadly, the full report doesn’t include any further detail on the UK’s performance (uploads, latency etc.), but there are lots of figures for other countries to dig into if you’re feeling so inclined.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

National operator Openreach (BT) has today warned that “more than half a million business lines” still haven’t migrated away from the old Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) to new IP-based digital phone (VoIP etc.) alternatives, which with only 12-months to go until the service is switched-off risks firms being exposed to price hikes, as well as “failing equipment and eventual loss of service“.

Just to recap. The legacy phone switch-off was last year delayed to 31st January 2027 in order to give broadband ISPs, phone, telecare providers, councils and consumers more time to adapt (details). The main focus of this was the 1.8 million UK people who use vital home telecare systems (e.g. elderly, disabled – vulnerable users), which aren’t always compatible with digital phone services because telecare providers were slow to adapt.

However, there are currently still roughly 2.8 million lines on the old PSTN network that need to migrate, with more than half a million of those serving business premises. Openreach states that legacy line prices are set to double by October 2026 (details) and businesses thus risk failing equipment and eventual loss of service if they don’t make the switch. “For businesses still relying on copper networks, this isn’t just a technical upgrade, it’s a looming budget and operational crisis,” said the operator (note: only the PSTN phone service is being removed – copper lines still exist and can also handle digital IP-based voice / broadband).

While many Communication Providers (CPs) have already migrated much of their customer base, a number of “smaller or specialist providers have been slower to act“. Openreach warns that businesses remaining with these providers face unique risks tied to equipment failure. Beyond phones, critical hardware including fire alarms, burglar alarms and payment terminals, will need to be migrated: the latest data reveals more than 12k lift lines and around 500 lines serving CCTV networks need to be upgraded too.

James Lilley, Director of All-IP at Openreach, said:

“There’s no time left to stall. We’ve spent the last year ensuring telecare customers can be migrated safely through our ‘Prove Telecare’ service, removing the final barrier to the switch-off. Now, the reality is simple. The PSTN analogue network is obsolete, becoming harder to maintain and significantly more expensive to run. We are passing those costs on to providers who continue to sell legacy products. If your business is still on this copper service, you will start to pay a premium for a service that will be switched off in 12 months. Most major Communications Providers moved their customers to digital long ago. If your provider hasn’t contacted you, you need to ask why.”

Openreach say they’ve “made clear” that all technical barriers to migration – including protections for vulnerable telecare users – have now been “resolved“. Consequently, says the operator, “the deadline is locked“, and the focus has thus shifted to the urgent withdrawal of legacy copper products. So don’t expect another delay at the 11th hour, Openreach aren’t currently planning for one.

The industry-led shift is being driven by a combination of factors, such as the looming retirement of copper lines in favour of full fibre (FTTP), as well as future exchange closures and the declining reliability of the old phone network (Ofcom states that fault rates have increased substantially in recent years). Not to mention that it is not economically feasible to maintain both the old and new networks side-by-side long term.

The government and ISPs have already introduced various measures to protect consumers, particularly vulnerable users. But businesses won’t benefit from this and need to ensure that their own systems are up-to-date ahead of time. The best way to start this process is by contacting your current provider to discuss the issue. The operator has also setup an information page for businesses looking to make the transition – here.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Comparison site Uswitch.com has named the winners of their annual 2026 Telecoms Awards, which among things saw EE scooping the win for best “National Broadband Provider of the Year“, while YouFibre won the best regional provider award for the second year in a row and VOXI scooped the win for best mobile “Network of the Year“ etc.

As usual, the comparison site selected its winners via a combination of methods. Most of the awards were decided based on a survey of 27,188 UK consumers (conducted between 28th Nov to 17th December 2025), while several other categories were chosen by a panel of 11 “expert” judges from the fields of consumer affairs, personal finance and technology.

The survey also claimed that value for money and low monthly costs (44%) were found to be the most important factors for mobile users when choosing a service. By comparison, performance was found to be the main goal for broadband customers, with reliability (52%) and fast speeds (50%) being the top things people look for. In addition, Spring price hikes remain a major catalyst for switching provider, cited by 46% of mobile users (oddly we don’t get a figure for broadband subscribers).

We’ve summarised all of the results below.

Uswitch 2026 Telecoms Awards Winners

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

A team of UK researchers working at the University of Leeds, supported by colleagues from University College London (UCL) and others, has demonstrated a wireless line-of-sight Free Space Optical (FSO) communication link pushing data speeds of 4Gbps (Gigabits per second) using Terahertz (THz) frequencies; something that has previously been extremely difficult to harness.

Past FSO links have already demonstrated low latency (<1 ms) data rates reaching several hundred Gigabits per second (Gbit/s) to Terabits per second (Tbit/s), albeit using different spectrum bands. However, FSO links in the visible and near-infrared spectrum do present some challenges due to their very short wavelengths, which are more susceptible to “Rayleigh scattering” in the atmosphere and require very stringent beam-pointing alignment criteria to maintain acceptable link loss as frequency increases.

The ability to shift FSO links into the THz frequencies, which are located in the “gap” between microwave and infrared radiation, could potentially avoid some of the above pitfalls. The catch is that working with the THz band is difficult. The fastest THz FSO system to date achieved a data rate of just 20Mbps and that required the use of a “cryogenically cooled quantum well detector” (i.e. not exactly practical for casual commercial applications).

Suffice to say that establishing a THz FSO communication link capable of multi-gigabit-per-second data rates remains a “significant challenge“, but the UoL team have clearly made some significant progress in this field.

Summary of the Lab Experiment

In this work, we combine some of the most promising technologies in this frequency band and demonstrate a THz FSO communication link with a 4 Gbit/s data rate using a QCL transmitter and a room-temperature Schottky barrier diode as a receiver. The THz QCL carrier frequency is dominated by a 2.4 THz mode and is operated in a closed-cycle cryocooler.

Rather than employing a separate modulator, we show that it is possible to modulate the QCL emission directly over a wide bandwidth without significant distortion or excessive modulation power requirements. We investigate encoding data in NRZ-OOK and pulse-amplitude-modulation-4 (PAM-4) format signals at a free-space transmission distance of 0.5 m

Granted, a distance of 0.5 metres might not sound brilliant, but this is only an early lab test and distance may be less of an issue for some of its potential applications. Past studies have operated more at distances of 5m to 7.5m, albeit delivering speeds between just 1Mbps and 115kbps respectively – extremely slow.

The ability to send data at multi-Gigabit speeds using the THz band could have benefits, such as via cable-free connections (e.g. between server racks) inside data centres. Not to mention the potential for high-capacity inter-satellite links, which would avoid the usual signal losses caused by Earth’s atmosphere. Other potential areas could include secure point-to-point communication in sectors such as defence, finance and healthcare.

Dr Elumalai said: “The main challenge was tuning the terahertz quantum cascade laser to act like a clean, high-speed transmitter that would transmit the signal without distortion. Once we achieved that, we were able to push the laser to transmit high data rates and reliably recover the information.

The researchers are now working to extend the system beyond simple on/off signalling to more advanced data modulation schemes. With further development of higher-power devices, the approach could support even greater data rates (potentially up to 1 Terabits per second), while helping to relieve pressure on increasingly congested wireless frequency bands.