Alternative network operator Grain (Grain Connect) has announced that they’re going to expand the coverage of their existing gigabit speed Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) based UK broadband network in the West Yorkshire (England) city of Bradford, although the details of their expansion remain unclear.

Grain’s network currently covers over 220,000 UK premises and connects 30,000 customers. The deployment they have in Bradford is currently limited to three large areas across the western side of the city, and at the time of writing we couldn’t find any obvious signs of a major expansion (we suspect it may be a smaller build, but Grain haven’t provided any specifics).

Bradford is actually one of Grain’s oldest FTTP deployments (it was announced in 2021), and the city is also home to several other gigabit-capable network operators with major levels of coverage, including Openreach, CityFibre, Virgin Media (inc. nexfibre), Brsk (Netomnia). Not to mention a small build by Hyperoptic. But the picture for overbuild is very patchy, and some pockets do remain poorly served.

Otherwise, Grain’s full fibre network can now be found in parts of around 60 UK locations (plus over 150 new build housing developments), which includes a lot of small-to-modest sized patches of various urban cities and towns like Leicester, Liverpool, Accrington, Grimsby, Cleethorpes, Scarborough, Carlisle, Barrow-in-Furness, Hartlepool, Hull, Newport, Sunderland, Blackburn and so forth.

Prices for Grain’s broadband packages start at £17.99 per month for 150Mbps (symmetric speed) and rise to £28.99 for their top 900Mbps+ tier, which includes a 24-month minimum contract term, a pledge of “no in-contract price rises“, no credit checks, free installation and an included wireless router. The ISP is currently offering the first 2-4 months of service for free to new customers (offer length varies between packages).

Broadband, phone and Ethernet services in the Cambridgeshire (England) town of St Neots have been disrupted after criminals ripped up and stole around 500 metres worth of Openreach’s (BT) copper telecoms cable, which has impacted four of their fibre street cabinets in the area – serving premises with around 380 customers.

The incident, which occurred on a bridge to the south of the town (A428), appears to have happened at around 3am on Friday (14th Feb) morning. Openreach’s engineers have been busily working to get local homes and businesses back online, with the rodding and roping of new cable taking place last night. The jointing work is then expected to be done by Wednesday, but some customers may be offline until the weekend.

The work will take a few days to complete due to how it occurred near a high traffic roadabout junction and several busy bridge crossings, which has also required temporary traffic lights and other safety measures. Sadly, the perpetrators of such crimes never have any regard for the harm they cause to locals, some of which are dependent upon related services.

In this case, it seems as if local businesses and those on leased lines may have also been hit (credits to Ryan for reporting this), possibly due to the wider damage that occurs when copper cable is so unceremoniously dragged out of the ground. Crimes like this have become increasingly common in recent years, driven in part by the high price of copper and the rising cost of living.

A Spokesperson for Openreach told ISPreview:

“Our engineers are working to replace cabling across various bridges and a busy roundabout and, due to high daytime traffic flow – repairs will need to be carried out at night, primarily to ensure the safety of our engineers and members of the public. We’re aiming to have all customers reconnected by the weekend, if not sooner.”

The good news is that metal theft crimes like this are coming under pressure from a rise in the number of UK-wide arrests (examples here, here and here), which are often followed by some convictions. Openreach also reported a 30% reduction in cable theft last year after introducing a new forensic liquid marker (SelectaDNA) to help track and protect their network (here), but that doesn’t cover older cables that are already in the ground.

The ongoing deployment of full fibre (FTTP) lines should, eventually, help to reduce such thefts as fibre has no value to thieves. But this won’t completely stop the problem from occurring because fibre and copper cables often share some of the same ducts (i.e. damaging one also damages the other), and thieves sometimes confuse the two. BT and Openreach will eventually remove all of their copper cables, but that’s a much longer process.

Finally, Openreach has a partnership with Crimestoppers, which sometimes offers rewards for information given anonymously to the charity about cable thefts, if it leads to the arrest and conviction of those responsible – you can contact them 100% anonymously on 0800 555 111 or use their anonymous online form. You can also contact Openreach’s security team direct or report via the local police (101). But if you see a crime in progress, please call the police on 999.

Abingdon-based rural ISP Gigaclear has today announced that they’ve kicked off the construction phase of their £25.4m (state aid) Project Gigabit contracts for South Oxfordshire (Lot 13.01 – c.5,500 premises) and North Oxfordshire (Lot 13.02 – c.4,200 premises), which will extend their full fibre (FTTP) broadband network to around 9,500 premises in hard-to-reach areas.

The contracts were first awarded back in November 2023 (here) and at that point it was stated by the Government’s Building Digital UK (BDUK) agency that the “first premises under these contracts are anticipated to have access to gigabit-capable broadband in 2024“. But Gigaclear has clearly taken a bit longer than that to enter the build phase, and it’s currently unclear when the first homes will go live.

Both contracts will see the installation of over 250km of new cable ducts, and 50% of the project will be delivered using existing infrastructure (e.g. running new fibre existing cable ducts and poles). The Oxfordshire build is now underway and is expected to be completed by November 2026. Gigaclear has previously indicated that this deployment will complement their existing (commercial) £84m investment across the whole of Oxfordshire.

Customers of the new service, once live, can expect to pay from £19 per month for symmetric speeds of 300Mbps on an 18-month minimum term (£46 thereafter), which rises to £34 per month for their top 900Mbps tier (£82 thereafter).

Gigaclear’s CEO, Nathan Rundle, said:

“Here at Gigaclear we’ve made it our mission to bring full fibre ultrafast broadband to Britain’s rural communities, and this is exactly what Project Gigabit has been set up to achieve.

We have already made a significant investment in building our network in Oxfordshire and as a local business based in Abingdon, it is really important to us that we continue to improve digital inclusion in the county, and to bring our home-grown full fibre broadband to local residents.”

Telecoms Minister, Sir Chris Bryant, said:

“There is so much our modern digital world has to offer – from online healthcare to keeping in touch with friends and family – but a lack of fast and reliable broadband has excluded some communities in Oxfordshire from so many of these benefits.

It is great to see that, as part of this Government’s Plan for Change, we are helping to plug some of the digital gaps in North and South Oxfordshire and getting one step closer to realising our ambition to achieve full gigabit coverage by 2030.”

Gigaclear is principally owned by Infracapital, together with Equitix and Railpen. The company previously had investment commitments estimated to be worth up to around £1.1bn (here) and, at the end of 2023, also secured a £1.5bn debt facility (here).

The operator previously held an ambition to cover “over” 1 million UK premises by 2027, but it’s unclear how much this was impacted after last year’s job cuts (here). This came as part of “planning for the next stage of its development” and a “re-focus on ultra-rural areas“.

The operator is reportedly now on the hunt to find new funding in order to help continue their full fibre network deployments across the UK (here).

A new study from comparison site Go.Compare, which used data gathered from YouGov (survey of 2,000 UK residents) and the ONS, has claimed that more than 3.9 million UK households were owed compensation for broadband issues in the last year. But take that figure with a big pinch of salt.

According to the findings, some 17% of respondents with ISPs that have signed-up to Ofcom’s existing Automatic Compensation scheme for broadband faults reported that they had “experienced a delay or missed appointment” in the last year. But more worrying is the indication that 91% of respondents do not know what the regulator’s compensation scheme is, including customers whose providers are signed up to it.

The survey claims that this means ISPs should have paid out over £114.9m in compensation to customers over the last 12 months, which is said to reflect the claim that more than 3.5 million households in the UK suffered broadband delays, with 1.4m experiencing a late start of a new service and 2.1m waiting for a repair following a loss of service.

Plus, Go.Compare believes that 1.2 million households should have been compensated a total of £57m in the last year due to missed appointments (around 5% of eligible broadband users reported to the insurance comparison site that they had experienced this issue).

The catch here is that Go.Compare’s survey is both of a fairly small sample size and one that can’t delve into the detail of each response, which is necessary to understand whether each fault or delay would have actually been eligible for such a payment. Many faults are not eligible, such as when the issue is caused by the customer’s own home network or a remote internet service (i.e. not the broadband line or ISP) – something that isn’t always clear to regular users.

Similarly, customers seeking compensation for a protracted broadband outage often forget that they need to report the outage to their ISP first (as soon as they’re able), otherwise a claim may be rejected (here) – unless you’re from a vulnerable group and eligible for priority fault repair (the eligibility rules for them are more flexible).

Suffice to say that surveys like this have a tendency to inflate the cost reality and scale of such issues. We’re currently asking for some updated figures from Ofcom and will report back later on what was actually paid out to consumers by ISPs.

Rural broadband operator and UK ISP Voneus, which has spent the past few years rolling out a gigabit-capable fixed wireless access (FWA) and full fibre (FTTP) network across poorly served areas, has today informed staff about a fresh round of redundancies after “market conditions” meant it was “no longer possible” to continue their previous pace of deployment.

The development follows shortly after the provider dropped out of the Government’s £12m (state aid) Project Gigabit contract for Mid West Shropshire (here) and suffered a spate of complaints about their legacy network (here). Voneus had previously been aspiring to cover 370,000 UK premises via their gigabit-capable broadband network, although today’s update notes that they have now passed the 100,000 premises milestone.

Naturally, the operator is not immune to the challenges being faced by many other alternative broadband networks in today’s market, such as the pressure from high interest rates, rising build costs and strong competition from rivals etc. Instead, Voneus has today informed ISPreview that they’re adapting their “operating model” to focus less on build and more on commercialisation of what they’ve already built. Similar strategies have been adopted by many other altnets.

A Voneus Spokesperson told ISPreview:

“Since its founding in 2011, Voneus has made impressive strides in establishing itself as a leading provider of rural broadband in the UK, recently passing the milestone of 100,000 gigabit-enabled premises.

Due to market conditions, it is no longer possible for this network roll-out to continue at the same pace. As a result, Voneus is adapting its operating model to focus on enhancing customer service as well as continuing to grow sales and revenue. This shift in focus will involve a strategic reorganisation which is likely to result in some redundancies.

The company remains active on potential strategic growth opportunities through mergers and acquisitions and to secure funding for future network deployment.”

The company’s most recent accounts, which cover the year to 31st March 2023, revealed that the group is being funded by up to £250m from its investors and was home to a total of 156 employees (up from 121 in 2022). Voneus also reported a turnover of £3.29m (2022: £2.72m), gross profit of £942k (2022: £1.39m) and a loss for the year of -£14.47m (2022: -£8.82m).

Contributed Article

The centrally located Netherlands is well-known as an important digital hub. There is a tremendous density of datacenters, a strong digital economy and an excellent digital infrastructure, both by sea and by land to the European hinterland. With its world-class connectivity and strategic position, the country offers unparalleled opportunities for digital infrastructure development. The Dutch Subsea Cable Coalition* aims to foster international collaboration and emphasize and further strengthen the Dutch position as a digital hub.

Unique support for landing sea cables in the Netherlands

The coalition is a unique public-private partnership with top-level partners from the business community, infrastructure, datacenters, wholesale end users, knowledge institutions and different levels of government. The coalition supports new cable initiatives by sharing knowledge about the Dutch ecosystem, connecting with relevant parties and offering support for navigating the regulatory and licensing system in the Netherlands. The coalition is committed to guiding landing parties every step of the way and is the first stop to getting support in navigating the Dutch landscape en-route to a successful landing of a subsea cable in the Netherlands.

2024: A milestone year for the Dutch Subsea Cable Coalition

2024 was a very productive year for the coalition. First off, all Dutch coastal provinces joined the coalition, thereby providing direct lines to all relevant governmental organizations, wherever subsea cables wish to land in the Netherlands.  Besides strengthening the support and reach of the coalition internally, there are also exciting developments internationally.

Martin Prins, the ambassador of the Dutch Subsea Cable Coalition, says: ‘We are currently working on cable routes with various consortia. Off course we are supporting the IOEMA initiative, which is planned to land on two locations on the Dutch coast. We connect them with the relevant people, whether that is with government authorities for permitting procedures or market parties for collaboration.’

Furthermore, the coalition is currently in advanced talks with entities from several other European countries to develop a means to collaborate on a new, extensive and unique cable system. Stay informed by finding Dutch Coalition members at events such as Submarine Networks, connecting through email or signing up for our Webinar later this year.

Further streamlining and lowering the threshold for landing in the Netherlands

In addition to directly assisting international consortia, the coalition is also actively working on projects in the Netherlands that make landing simpler and more attractive. In the first quarter of 2025 a special ‘service counter’ will be launched by the Dutch Enterprise Agency, commissioned by the Ministry of Economic Affairs. All consortia interested in landing in the Netherlands can connect to one project guide who will be their point of contact and help in centrally coordinating permitting processes. By integrally instead of sequentally pursuing permits, this unique service will significantly reduce the processing times for permitting applications.

Peter van Burgel, CEO of AMS-IX: “The Dutch Subsea Cable Coalition is undertaking significant steps in further facilitating submarine cable systems to the Netherlands. We are happy that we are actively collaborating on further strengthening the leading position of the Netherlands as digital hub and digital gateway to Europe.”

The Dutch government is ‘future-focused and supportive’

Landing and properly maintaining sea cables is also on the political agenda. The Dutch government realizes emphasizes that the digital infrastructure, including maritime cables, should not be taken for granted. It requires continuous efforts from both companies and the government to keep the digital infrastructure innovative, high-quality, affordable, resilient, safe, sustainable and attractive for investors.

“The Dutch government’s plan is to invest more in digital infrastructure in the coming years,” says Martin Prins. ‘That is of course a positive development for us, because we want to continue to encourage submarine cable landings. But it is also a good time for external parties to make landings.’

Looking forward to meeting you at Submarine Networks

Dutch Subsea Coalition ambassador Martin Prins, together with his colleagues Aldert de Jongste (Coalition Strategist) and Björn Oosterwijk (Gereral Secretary), and other coalition members representing the Netherlands, will be present at the Submarine Networks Event in London, February 2025. During the News in Brief sessions on Tuesday February 18^th at 10:50, Martin will further discuss the coalition and the proposition of the Netherlands. Don’t miss his unique insights!

Martin Prins: ‘It is clear that the Netherlands is “open for business”. We will further introduce our coalition to the international submarine cable community and inform interested parties about the possibilities that the Netherlands and the Subsea Cable Coalition can offer.’ 

*The Dutch Subsea Cable Coalition is a collaboration of: ABN AMRO, AMS-IX, Digital Realty, Dutch Datacenter Association (DDA), Equinix, Eurofiber, Fiber Carrier Association (FCA), KPN, the Ministry of Economic Affairs, i3D.net, InnovationQuarter, Liberty Global, Netherlands Foreign Investment Agency (NFIA), NL-IX, Relined, Rijkswaterstaat, Stichting DiNL, Stratix, SURF and WorldStream.

Join the Dutch Subsea Cable Coalition at Booth 13 at Submarine Networks EMEA, the world’s largest submarine connectivity event taking place this week! 

Press Release

e& enterprise, the digital transformation arm of e&, today announced a strategic three-year collaboration with PayPal, a globally renowned payment solutions provider, that will enhance the payment capabilities offered through its digital payments platform, empowering businesses in the UAE and beyond with expanded payment options.

Leveraging e& enterprise’s unified integration APIs, which allow businesses to incorporate multiple payment instruments through a single, streamlined interface, this new agreement ensures a seamless adoption process for businesses, facilitating the quick enablement of the PayPal wallet as a payment instrument. This enables businesses to avoid the need for complex IT development work, connecting them to the e& enterprise Payments Gateway (EPG) platform to accept and process payments via PayPal.

Miguel Angel Villalonga, Chief Operating Officer, e& enterprise, said: “Digital payments are not only transforming the way businesses operate but are also redefining customer expectations for speed, security, and convenience. Our collaboration with PayPal is set to provide companies with access to versatile, efficient, and globally recognised payment solutions that are essential, empowering them to compete in the global digital economy and keep pace with these growing demands without the brunt of investing in expensive infrastructure.”

“We’re excited to bring PayPal to e& enterprises’s flagship Payments Gateway, which powers some of the region’s largest enterprises and government services,” said Otto Williams, Regional Head and General Manager for the Middle East, Africa, PayPal. “With over 400 million active PayPal accounts over the world, being able to offer a widely recognised and trusted payment option will help businesses meet consumers’ expectations of being able to pay with their preferred method.”

The addition of PayPal to the e& enterprise payments platform brings extensive benefits to multiple stakeholders. With the integration of PayPal, merchants can enhance their appeal to a broader customer base and boost cross-border payment acceptance. This is particularly beneficial for merchants in the UAE and the region looking to reach customers abroad, driving cross-border commerce and expanding their market reach.

Businesses will continue to be able to provide their customers with access to reliable and well-known payment options that provide transparency on each transaction and the opportunity to support carbon offset initiatives by allowing consumers to track each transaction, view its environmental impact, and contribute to offsetting carbon footprint through trusted methods or causes.

With PayPal’s established global network, e& enterprise anticipates a boost in electronic exports among merchants by enabling them to enjoy higher authorisation rates from these cross-border payments, ensuring smoother transactions and higher revenue.

Strengthening e& enterprise’s position as a leader in offering comprehensive payment solutions within the UAE and globally, the integration of PayPal’s mature product further enhances the EPG platform’s capabilities, allowing businesses to expand their reach and serve international customers more effectively.

Keep up to date with the latest international telecoms news with our newsletter 

Also in the news:
Navigating the depths: Strategies for delivering successful subsea cable projects
Vodafone–Three reveals leadership team
French energy giant EDF offers up land for data centre projects

News

The Italian government has approved a stake swap that will see Poste Italiane take control of the 9.8% stake in TIM currently held by Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP)

The ownership of Italy’s incumbent network operator Telecom Italia (TIM) continues to be a hot topic this week, with the Italian government agreeing to a stake swap between national postal service Poste and state lender CDP.

The swap will see Poste take control of CDP’s 9.8% stake in TIM, in exchange for the Poste’s 3.78% stake in Italian payments group Nexi and an undisclosed cash sum.

While the financial details of the deal were not released, the stake in TIM is worth roughly €440 million, based on TIM’s closing share price on Friday. It also makes Poste TIM’s second largest investor, after French media group Vivendi.

Poste expects the deal to allow for greater synergies for its Post Mobile service – the country’s largest mobile virtual network – while also potentially opening the door for its payments service Postepay to be integrated with the mobile network.

“The transaction represents a strategic investment for Poste Italiane aimed at creating synergies between the companies and supporting, together with all relevant stakeholders, the consolidation of the Italian telecommunications market,” said Poste in a statement.

But beyond these purported synergies, perhaps the largest factor in this stake swap is to help consolidate control of TIM in the hands in Italian companies.

TIM has increasingly been targeted by foreign investors in recent months, with the sale of the company’s networking assets (i.e., ‘NetCo’) to KKR doing little to quell M&A discussions.

Earlier this month, France’s Iliad Group, which owns TIM’s rival Iliad Italia, said it had returned to the negotiating table with TIM regarding a potential tie-up, with a potential merger bringing long-needed consolidation to the sector.

Iliad is not alone in showing interest in TIM, however, with private equity firm CVC Capital Partners also having alerted the government over its intention to approach TIM.

Such discussions are likely to have set alarm bells ringing for Georgia Meloni’s government, which has sought to retain closer control over companies like TIM that it seems to be ‘national champions’.

According to sources, the government has indicated that it would not support a deal that would see a foreign investor control TIM’s strategic direction and would be willing to exerts its ‘golden powers’ to veto such a deal if necessary.

As such, Poste, with its natural synergies with TIM, is deemed to be a more suitable stakeholder than CDP.

Keep up to date with the latest international telecoms news by subscribing to the Total Telecom newsletter

Also in the news:
Navigating the depths: Strategies for delivering successful subsea cable projects
Vodafone–Three reveals leadership team
French energy giant EDF offers up land for data centre projects

Startup Stories

Introducing OciusX, a next-generation construction management platform revolutionising fibre rollout projects with real-time progress tracking, geo-tagged data, and seamless closeout documentation

Tell us about OciusX

OciusX provides an intuitive and field-friendly construction management platform designed specifically for fibre network deployments. By enabling real-time progress tracking, automated closeout packages, and seamless communication between field teams and management, we help service providers and general contractors improve efficiency, reduce costly delays, and maintain high-quality standards. In an industry where time is money, OciusX ensures projects stay on track with unparalleled transparency and control.

What was the inspiration behind OciusX?

The telecom construction industry has traditionally relied on outdated, fragmented tools for project management, leading to inefficiencies, delays, and miscommunication. After witnessing these pain points firsthand whilst building a construction company in Sweden, we started building an internal tool to manage these problems. The intention was never to build commercial software, but the combination of our background in technology together with a deep understanding of fibre network deployment, ultimately lead to OciusX becoming a very powerful tool, built by fibre guys, for fibre guys.

What have been the biggest challenges and successes so far?

Since launching, OciusX has rapidly gained traction, proving the demand for a specialised construction management platform tailored to fibre rollout. One of our biggest successes has been onboarding key customers in the U.S., including major internet service providers and contractors, who have experienced increased efficiency and cost savings using our platform.

Challenges have included navigating the complexities of enterprise sales in the telecom sector and educating potential clients on the value of adopting new digital workflows. However, by consistently delivering results and optimising our product based on customer feedback, we’ve successfully built a strong reputation in the industry.

Where do you see the company a year from now?

In the next year, we aim to expand our presence in the U.S. market, onboarding more major fibre network operators and contractors. We also plan to introduce AI-driven insights to further automate project tracking and quality assurance. Our goal is to become the go-to software for fibre construction management and expand into adjacent industries like power and utility infrastructure.

What are you most looking forward to about exhibiting at Connected America?

Connected America is a key event for the fibre and broadband industry, bringing together the top players shaping the future of connectivity. We’re excited to showcase OciusX to industry leaders, demonstrate how our platform is driving efficiency in fibre rollout, and connect with potential customers and partners. This event is an incredible opportunity to network, gain insights, and reinforce OciusX’s position as a leader in fiber construction management technology.

Join OciusX and the booming startup community at Connected America 2025 live in Dallas, Texas

Company Details:

HQ Location: Stockholm, Sweden

Number of Employees: 9

Funding: Seed-funded, no additional funding needed

Website: https://www.ociusx.com/

Founders: Tim Axelsson (CEO), Marcus Torvang (CTO), Pär Cedergren (Chairman), Andreas Gustavsson.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ociusx

Customers of rural broadband ISP Truespeed, which has deployed their own full fibre (FTTP) network across parts of Devon, Wiltshire and Somerset in England, are reporting that the provider appears to be suffering from a service outage that seems to be primarily impacting premises in the Bristol and North Somerset areas.

The problems appear to have started a few minutes before 11am this morning (here), when customers from across various parts of Truespeed’s network (e.g. BS21, BS32 and BS34) began reporting a loss of internet connectivity. The issue looks as if it could be related to DNS or routing/peering problems, since some customers found their connections worked again once they enabled a Virtual Private Network (VPN).

A spokesperson for the provider said: “We are aware that some customers are facing an outage. Our technical support team are currently working hard to identify and fix the issue. We aim to have service restored as quickly as possible. We thank you for your patience.”

At present Truespeed has already covered over 100,000 premises RFS and they’re home to over 21,000 customers (official figures from 12th Jun 2024). The operator originally held an “ambitious” overall target of reaching 500,000 properties by the end of 2026, but that may have taken a backseat after 2023’s job losses and build slowdown (here).

UPDATE 12:47pm

Customers are reporting that the service has now returned to normal.