News 

The launch of DeepSeek has rattled the global AI industry, potentially offering a far cheaper alternative to market leaders like OpenAI and Anthropic 

Founded in 2023 by former hedge fund manager Liang Wenfeng, DeepSeek has quickly positioned itself as a strong competitor to the likes of OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Microsoft’s CoPilot, having seemingly trained a comparative AI model at a fraction of the usual cost (around $6 million compared to the industry standard of billions).  

The launch has brought into question the current US dominance in the sector. By reducing the costs of AI development and deployment, DeepSeek has created an economic advantage for itself in terms of startup and operating costs, but has also challenged the way the AI industry operates, which has the potential to transform the future of AI adoption and accessibility. This is because DeepSeek has proved that  advanced models don’t require massive budgets, lowering barriers for new players. If its claims about faster inference speed are true, it may accelerate AI adoption and shift investment away from costly, chip-heavy models 

DeepSeek’s own website describes the chatbot as achieving a “significant breakthrough in inference speed over previous models. It tops the leaderboard among open-source models and rivals the most advanced closed-source models globally.” 

Both the chatbot release and the slimmer startup costs has caused panic in the global financial markets, especially in the case of chip giant Nvidia, which lost almost $600bn (£482bn) of its market value on Monday, which was the biggest one-day loss in US history. Today, however, stocks have begun to recover, having gained around 2.5% in early trading yesterday. In short statement since the market tumble, Nvidia called DeepSeek “an excellent AI advancement.” 

President Trump has responded to the news, calling it “a wakeup call for our industries that we need to be laser-focused on competing to win”.  

The success of the launch is also a huge boost for the Chinese AI industry, as technological geopolitical tensions between China and the West continue to rage. Yesterday, China’s state-owned Global Times suggested that the US has failed to halt Chinese progression in the sector, adding, “the Biden administration’s four-year crackdown on China’s AI and computing power has not only failed but has also spurred the country to forge a unique path for AI development.” 

Join the discussion around AI at this year’s Connected America, 11-12 March in Texas. Get discounted tickets here! 

Also in the news: 

Tim Höttges to remain at the helm of Deutsche Telekom until 2028 
VMO2 bring connectivity to rural notspot with Starlink
A ‘vulnerable soft underbelly’: UK joint committee explores subsea cable security

Internet service provider iTalk, which is powered by Openreach’s national network, has today announced the arrival of their brand-new “Full Fibre” (FTTP) home broadband packages to complement their existing range of ADSL and FTTC (VDSL2) based packages on older lines. The new tiers are being launched alongside some big price discounts.

The ISP did previously offer some FTTP packages, but they didn’t reach up into gigabit speeds and weren’t always as competitively priced as they needed to be. The new packages aim to correct that and all attach an 18-month minimum contract term, UK support, an included wireless router and an £18.95 one-off setup fee (includes postage cost for the router).

iTalk’s new packages start at £30.99 per month (discounted from £40.99) for average download speeds of 100Mbps, which rises to £34.99 for 300Mbps (£44.99), £37.99 for 550Mbps (£46.99) and £40.99 for their top 900Mbps tier (£54.99).

The only annoyance is that the provider fails to mention the upload speed of their packages, but we assume they’d be 20Mbps (upload) on the 100Mbps (download) package, then 50Mbps for 300Mbps, followed by 75Mbps for 550Mbps and 115Mbps for 900Mbps (those reflect the capabilities of Openreach’s wholesale tiers).

News 

The announcement coincides with a leadership shuffle that will see Srini Gopalan, current head of Deutsche Telekom’s Germany business, become COO of T-Mobile 

Tim Höttges, Deutsche Telekom’s CEO since 2014, will remain in his role until the end of 2028 after the Supervisory Board extended his contract two years ahead of schedule.  

Höttges has been credited with transforming Deutsche Telekom into a global leader, steering initiatives like the 2020 T-Mobile–Sprint merger in the US and the company’s push toward 5G and sustainability. 

“Tim Höttges has made Telekom the world’s leading telecommunications company. We are pleased that he has accepted our request to continue his successful work beyond the end of his current contract,” said Frank Appel, Chairman of DT’s Supervisory Board. 

Given his track record, the fact that the board wants Höttges to continue as CEO is hardly surprising. However, it is notable that they are willing to undermine their own rules to do so; the company’s corporate governance policy state that board members may be no older than 65, an age Höttges will reach in 2027. 

Alongside this CEO news, Deutsche Telekom also announced two key management changes. Srini Gopalan, currently leading Deutsche Telekom’s German business, will become Chief Operating Officer of T-Mobile US. He is set to take on the role in March 2025, bringing his experience in digital transformation and market growth to one of Deutsche Telekom’s most successful business units. 

Replacing Gopalan as head of Telekom Germany will be Rodrigo Diehl, who has been leading Magenta Telekom in Austria. Diehl, with over 20 years of industry experience, is known for his focus on customer satisfaction and growth. 

“With Srini Gopalan, one of our most experienced managers is strengthening the management team of T-Mobile US. He already knows the company from his almost four years on the Supervisory Board (Board of Directors) of TMUS and can bring all of his experience, for example in digital transformation, to day-to-day business. We hope that Srini Gopalan’s move will further strengthen the successful relationship between T-Mobile US and Deutsche Telekom. With Rodrigo Diehl, we are appointing an outstanding manager for the German business who stands for entrepreneurial success and customer focus,” said Appel. 

Keep up to date with the latest international telecoms news direct to your inbox from Total Telecom 

Also in the news: 

News

The news comes as yet another submarine cable is damaged in the Baltic Sea, with authorities suspecting deliberate sabotage

The Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy (JCNSS) is set to explore the security credentials of the UK’s submarine cable ecosystem as part of a new industry enquiry.

In its announcement, the government noted the UK’s reliance on its 60 existing submarine cables, warning of the potential disruption that damage to multiple cables at once would cause the UK.

The JCNSS makes clear that the enquiry is a direct response to the rise in submarine cable damage incidents in recent years, which have shed light on the potential vulnerabilities of this critical infrastructure.

The Baltic Sea has seen a slew of submarine cable incidents since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, with many of these cable cuts – intentional or otherwise – being linked to Russian and Chinese vessels. The increasing frequency of cable damage in the region and suspicions of foul play have led NATO to deploy patrol ships to the region as part of a mission called ‘Baltic Sentry’.

“Although the Government has taken a number of steps to improve maritime security, alongside Allies and partners, concern has been growing over Russian and Chinese capabilities to hold undersea infrastructure at risk – particularly during periods of heightened tension or conflict,” explained the JCNSS in their call for evidence.

More specially, the JCNSS is asking the submarine cable industry for support in answering the following questions:

1. How might the UK’s reliance on undersea cables evolve over the next 10–15 years?
2. Who are the main threat actors and what are their capabilities?
3. What developments are expected in subsea technologies over the next 10 years?
4. How resilient are the UK public and private sectors likely to be in the event of major disruption?
5. How effective are the deterrents against the targeting of our undersea cables? Are any improvements needed regarding: maritime security capabilities; military strategy; engagements with Allies and partners; and legal frameworks, including options for redress?
6. How well is policy and co-ordination working across Whitehall departments, law enforcement and private sector actors? Are any changes needed?
7. In the context of limited resources, what is the appropriate balance to strike between enhancing domestic resilience on the one hand, and improving detection and interdiction on the other?

“Our internet relies on undersea cables: around 99% of our data goes through them, connecting the UK to the outside world,” said the committee chair, Matt Western MP.

“As the geopolitical environment worsens, foreign states are seeking asymmetric ways to hold us at risk. Our internet cable network looks like an increasingly vulnerable soft underbelly.

“There is no need for panic—we have a good degree of resilience, and awareness of the challenge is growing. But we must be clear-eyed about the risks and consequences: an attack of this nature would hit us hard. Our inquiry will look at what’s needed to defend our subsea cables, and consider the UK’s national resilience should our internet face major disruption,” he added.

Submissions to the enquiry must be made by 6^th March 2025.

Results of the enquiry can surely not come soon enough, with yet another submarine cable cut in the Baltic being reported on Sunday, despite NATO’s presence in the region. The cable, which links Sweden and Latvia, was reportedly the victim of “gross sabotage” according to Swedish investigators.

Is the submarine cable industry doing enough to secure this critical infrastructure from deliberate sabotage? Join the discussion at Submarine Networks EMEA

Also in the news:
EXA Infrastructure enters into agreement to acquire Aqua Comms
“European competitiveness has one foot in the morgue,” warns Nokia CEO
BT quietly scraps EV charging pilot

News 

UK mobile operator Virgin Media O2 (VMO2) says the satellite communications constellation has brought mobile coverage to the village of  Craster in Northumberland for the first time 

VMO2 is making good use of SpaceX’s Starlink this week, leveraging the satellite technology to enable connectivity to the previously unconnected village of Craster.

Starlink is providing satellite backhaul for a new mobile tower that has been deployed to serve the village. The new mast will provide reliable mobile signal to the area, which is an important tourist destination attracting more than 250,000 visitors every year. 

“As part of our commitment to improving rural connectivity, we’re using innovative satellite connectivity to bring mobile coverage to Craster for the first time,” said Steven Verigotta, Director of Mobile Delivery at VMO2 in a press release. 

“Our investment to deliver reliable connectivity in this beautiful area will be a boon for the many visitors that come here each year, transforming their experience and improving opportunities for local businesses and residents,” he continued. 

SpaceX and VMO2 announced a partnership in April last year to boost mobile services in the UK’s most remote areas. Since then, the network operator has been exploring the use of Starlink’s constellation of over 5,000 Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites to support backhaul services across the country. 

By leveraging Starlink, VMO2 is able establish reliable backhaul connections to remote masts without needing to deploy expensive terrestrial network infrastructure, like fibre or microwave technology .   

Join us to discuss all things Northern Connectivity at this year’s Connected North, 23-24 April in Manchester 

Also in the news:
Trump on telecoms: The story so far
FullFibre and Zzoomm merge in latest altnet consolidation move
Germany sets aside €1bn for fibre broadband expansion 

News

A spate of recent changes has brought several telecom policy objectives of Donald Trump’s administration into focus, but questions remain.

By: Brad Randall, Broadband Communities

Changes have been coming fast and furious during the first days of Donald Trump’s presidential administration, and the FCC has been far from immune.

New leadership at the Federal Communications Commission has wasted little time changing directions, signifying that business as usual is over.

Shortly after being designated as chair, Commissioner Brendan Carr announced action to end the FCC’s diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) directives, following up on an executive order issued by President Donald Trump.

He’s also reopened previously dismissed complaints against broadcasting organizations, as was reported by other media outlets like The Hill last week.

Additionally, Carr has further targeted what he considers “regulatory overreach from Washington” during his first days as chair.

This weekend, it became known that Carr ended the FCC’s consideration of a proposed ban of bulk billing by service providers at multifamily properties.

The proposed ban, fiercely opposed by many in the multifamily industry, was removed from consideration on Friday, according to a Monday release from Carr’s office.

Big questions remain

As these and other changes add clarity to the landscape providers will have to navigate in 2025, questions remain.

There are questions about the Trump-touted joint venture to develop American AI infrastructure between Oracle, OpenAI, and SoftBank.

The joint venture, planning to invest $500 billion, was immediately attacked from, arguably, the most influential figure in Trump’s orbit: Elon Musk.

“They don’t actually have the money,” Musk posted on X following the president’s White House appearance with representatives from all three companies. “SoftBank has well under $10B secured. I have that on good authority.”

There are other questions, too.

Notably, many of those questions swirl around the future of the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program.

The program, a massive $42.45 billion push to achieve the vision of ‘Internet for All,’ has been a target of Trump’s attacks in the past.

Memorably, while on Joe Rogan’s podcast in October, Trump criticized the program, which was born with the passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law in 2021.

“Elon can do it for nothing,” Trump stated at the time.

So, what’s going to happen to BEAD?

Despite Trump’s attacks on the BEAD Program, its future may not be in jeopardy.

Jade Piros de Carvalho, VP of Broadband Advocacy and Partnerships for the Bonfire Infrastructure Group, spoke to why she believes the BEAD Program will survive.

She pointed to a little discussed provision in the guidance for initial BEAD proposals, known as Requirement 17.

“While originally intended to give states access to up to 20 percent of their funding early, NTIA smartly advised states to request 100 percent of their funding in their Requirement 17 language,” Piros de Carvalho said. “States listened.”

As a result, according to Piros de Carvalho, who formerly ran the Office of Broadband Development in Kansas, states entered into award agreements with the NTIA upon approval of their initial proposals.

As was previously reported by Broadband Communities, all 56 eligible states and territories have had their initial proposals approved as of December.

Texas, which has been allocated $3.3 billion to deploy or upgrade internet networks, was the final state approved.

“Now, I’m not an attorney,” Piros de Carvalho said. “But it seems to me that if clawbacks were attempted by a new administration, that would amount to breaching contracts/agreements made with the states.”

According to Piros de Carvalho, the issue presents a challenging dilemma for the Trump Administration.

“Most of that money is going to red areas,” she said. “It’s a political quagmire for an administration that wants to overhaul the program but knows that it’s popular on the whole.”

Learn more about Broadband Communities Summit 2025 in Houston.

Also, click here to subscribe to the Broadband Communities newsletter.

The communications regulator, Ofcom, has today proposed to cap the wholesale price charged by mobile network operators (e.g. EE, O2, Vodafone and Three UK) for the delivery of automated text messages, known as application-to-person (A2P) SMS, which are widely used by business and organisations across the public and private sectors.

Such messages are often sent, for example, by the NHS when issuing medical appointment reminders, as well as parcel delivery notifications, and one-time passcodes etc. The regulator states that over 20 billion A2P messages like this were sent in 2023-24 and are worth around £400m a year to the mobile operators.

The market for these particular text messages is complex, as businesses do not usually buy them directly from mobile operators and will instead go through intermediaries. A business will first contract with a Messaging Service Provider (MSP), with whom they have a direct relationship. The MSP will often then use the services of an Aggregator, who contracts with the main mobile operators for delivery (‘termination’) of the text messages.

However, wholesale prices for the termination of these messages (A2P SMS termination rates) have increased significantly in recent years, with Ofcom seeing prices rise by as much as 70% since 2021 (the consultation document actually expresses this as a range from 15% to 75%). Naturally, these increases are starting to translate into increases in retail prices (i.e. the prices charged by MSPs to business senders for sending A2P SMS), which has prompted Ofcom to examine competition within this space (an area they haven’t previously regulated).

The regulator’s assessment of the A2P SMS termination market has now provisionally found that MCPs have Significant Market Power (SMP) in this market, including the “ability and incentive to increase their termination prices to an excessively high level“. As a result, Ofcom are proposing to intervene by imposing a price cap.

Ofcom’s Proposal

Our preliminary view is that there are 51 separate markets for wholesale A2P SMS termination, one for each of the MCPs allocated mobile phone numbers on which they terminate A2P SMS (or MCPs which are planning to do so during the review period).

We consider that these MCPs have SMP in those corresponding markets. This derives, in part, from our assessment that there are currently no effective substitutes to A2P SMS messaging services in the retail market and an effective substitute is unlikely to develop during the proposed market review period.

We consider that, in the absence of intervention, the MCPs would be likely to exercise their market power by increasing pricing to an excessively high level.

To address the competition concerns we have identified, including the risk of these rates being set (and maintained) at an excessively high level, we are proposing a price cap on the A2P SMS termination charges of each relevant MCP:

• We propose applying the cap for all A2P SMS termination, both ‘on-net’ termination via Aggregators and for termination on interconnect routes between MCPs. The cap would be set at the same level for both channels.

• The cap would be based on an average of ‘on-net’ December 2020 prices charged for termination by the four large MNOs (1.60p), equal to approximately 1.96p in September 2024’s prices (when allowing for inflation at CPI since 2020)4 and going forwards it would be adjusted by inflation.

Ofcom’s new consultation is now inviting comments from stakeholders on the proposals until 8th April 2025, and they aim to then reach a final decision during Q2 2025/26. The final remedy would then be introduced only 3 months after the publication of their final decision and this would be subject to a 3-year review period, which they plan to run from 1st January 2026 to 31st December 2028.

“We consider that by promoting competition in valued A2P SMS services these proposals will help enable private and public sector efficiency (e.g. by reducing missed appointments) while facilitating innovation in the business messaging market,” said Ofcom.

ISPreview has spotted that the Scottish Government (SG) yesterday published a contract notice for the Fife, Perth and Kinross (Lot 4 – Scotland) area under the UK’s £5bn Project Gigabit broadband roll-out scheme, which is expected to expand full fibre (FTTP) connectivity to an estimated 28,441 premises in hard-to-reach (rural) locations.

Firstly, it’s important to point out that the SG is already working to expand FTTP coverage in these areas as part of their existing £600m Reaching 100% (R100) contract with Openreach (BT), which is due to reach completion by 2027/28. But this will still leave some premises unserved by gigabit-capable broadband, and that’s where the follow-on Project Gigabit scheme is likely to help fill in the gaps.

The new £43.14m (state aid) Project Gigabit procurement for Fife, Perth and Kinross (Lot 4 – Scotland) is currently targeted to be awarded to a supplier in September 2025 (estimate) and will then remain in force for approximately 11 years – comprising a build period of approximately 4 years, followed by an operational period of at least 7 years. “It is the intention that the build period will be completed by the end of 2029,” said the contract notice.

The area is already home to a number of gigabit broadband providers, with Openreach being the most dominant and Virgin Media (inc. nexfibre) also having a limited presence, albeit more in the Fife area. After that, there’s also a little coverage from Hyperoptic, Netomnia (Brsk) and Lothian Broadband, with CityFibre being nearby but not really encroaching much into the intervention area itself.

At this stage it’s unclear which of those players would have an interest in placing a serious bid, while Openreach have tended to avoid Type A/B (Local/Regional) contracts in favour of Type C (Cross-Regional) ones (Lot 4 is ‘Regional’), but this one might make more sense as a complement to R100.

Similarly, Virgin/nexfibre hasn’t really shown much of a serious interest in Project Gigabit contracts, and neither has Netomnia, although CityFibre might have some interest. But it would be a challenging build for anybody to take on.

Juniper Networks and European broadband operator Liberty Global, which is one of the parents of Virgin Media and O2 UK, have just completed a joint Proof-of-Concept (PoC) in the UK that demonstrated a “cost-efficient, software-programmable, secure and seamless way” to consistently connect services and applications hosted in disparate locations and across different cloud technologies.

The PoC, which was built on a prototype of Juniper Cloud Interlink, essentially made it easier to bring together data and applications that might be spread across multiple cloud environments. This was partly achieved by automating the creation and management of assured, hybrid, multi-cloud networks across public cloud, on-premises and co-located data centres.

As part of this, the Juniper Cloud Interlink Gateways were deployed in an AWS Outpost on LG premises in Reading (UK) and in regional Clouds environments from both AWS and Google. The Gateways were then successfully interconnected within hours (instead of the more usual “weeks“) and supported advanced yet easy-to-operate network and security services, whilst maintaining consistent policies end-to-end.

“Juniper Cloud Interlink from Juniper also met Liberty Global’s stringent operational requirements by ensuring applications and SLEs were upheld, providing proactive anomaly detection, immediate root cause discovery, automated notifications and faster Mean Time to Identify (MTTI) and Mean Time to Resolution (MTTR) on networking issues across the fabric,” said the announcement.

Madalina Suceveanu, MD of Mobile & Cloud Tech at Liberty Global, said:

“Creating a single, programmable fabric across all our “national champion” broadband and mobile brands in Europe—from deployment to ongoing operation—is a critical ingredient in our mission to deliver the best possible user experiences to our cloud customers. Seamlessly and consistently managing the complexity of different cloud environments, locations and providers, this POC demonstrates the power of thinking holistically about the cloud and working with the right partners, like Juniper, to deliver solutions that can be utilized at scale.”

The focus above is clearly on medium and larger sized service providers and businesses (enterprises), which will often be using a mix of different cloud technologies, environments and locations. For example, such businesses might have several systems looking after different aspects, such as logistical handling, components drawings, design, manufacturing, inventory, customer ordering and payments etc. – often hosted in different clouds to suit specific needs and costs. The new solution attempts to make all of this easier and more cost-effective to manage.

Raj Yavatkar, SVP and CTO at Juniper Networks, said:

“In this POC we were able to show how Liberty Global could deploy Juniper Cloud Interlink to fully align cloud-based network access for applications and services to user expectations—yielding a secure, assured experience. It is also a perfect example of the important work done in Juniper Beyond Labs, helping us to anticipate our customers’ challenges and develop solutions that can shape the future of networking.”

Liberty and Juniper said they intend to continue cooperating in the development of this technology, at least until it reaches the required level of maturity for its commercial introduction. No ETA was given for when the latter might happen. But we should point out that multi-cloud management is not a new concept and various solutions already exist, although Juniper and Liberty Global appear to be trying to take this a step further.

Mobile network operator O2 (Virgin Media) has harnessed a Starlink based LEO satellite broadband connection for backhaul capacity in order to successfully expand their 4G mobile coverage across the remote rural Northumberland (England) village of Craster, which they say “previously had no coverage from any mobile operator“; 5G and fibre will follow.

In case anybody has forgotten, O2 have spent the past couple of years conducting various trials of satellite-based backhaul solutions to help connect remote mobile sites (examples here and here). But the latest deployment marks one of the first times this has been deployed as part of a commercial roll-out.

The new mast, which is being supported by the Atlas Tower Group, will provide reliable mobile signal to the whole of Craster on the coast, which is an important tourist destination attracting more than 250,000 visitors every year. Dunstanburgh Castle, the nearby National Trust site, is also set to benefit, with the connectivity set to improve the experience for visitors.

Steven Verigotta, Director of Mobile Delivery at VMO2, said:

“As part of our commitment to improving rural connectivity, we’re using innovative satellite connectivity to bring mobile coverage to Craster for the first time. Our investment to deliver reliable connectivity in this beautiful area will be a boon for the many visitors that come here each year, transforming their experience and improving opportunities for local businesses and residents.”

The remote area does not currently have access to any fibre optic broadband networks, which are typically used to carry mobile traffic to and from their mast sites. But that is due to change “later this year” when new fibre lines are installed into the area and plans are already in place to upgrade the mast, at which point O2 plans to bring their fastest 5G based mobile broadband to Craster and the surrounding areas.