Feature Week: Trump on Telecoms

Donald Trump’s return to the White House in 2025 has ushered in a new era for US telecoms and technology policy. His administration has wasted no time in making major changes, with key moves including the appointment of Brendan Carr as Federal Communications Commission chair and proposals for greater control over platforms like TikTok.

With a focus on deregulation, free speech, and national security, Trump’s policy decisions are set to redefine the telecoms landscape that President Biden’s administration has presided over since 2020.

Let’s take a look at what’s happened so far.

2024

5th November – Trump win election to become President of the United States
Donald Trump wins the 2024 US Presidential Election, suggesting significant shifts are to come in telecoms and tech policy.

17^th November – Brendan Carr nominated for FCC chair
Trump names Brendan Carr as FCC chair. Carr, a notable critic of Big Tech and opponent of net neutrality, has been a commissioner since 2017. His appointment suggests a potential shift towards deregulation for telecoms operators, but scrutiny for major tech players like Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon.

22^nd November – Carr puts BEAD’s future up for debate
Carr suggests an “important discussion” about the program (BEAD)’s future is needed, given that the lion’s share of the money has not been spent.

2025

20th January – Trump sworn in
Trump was inaugurated for his second term, and Brendan Carr officially became FCC chair.

21t January – Trump delays decision over TikTok ban
Trump signs an Executive Order giving ByteDance more time to find a new owner before a shutdown. He had previously proposed the US government take a 50% stake in TikTok to address security concerns, though many Republicans pushed for a full divestiture by the company’s Chinese owners. “Frankly, we have no choice. We have to save it,” said Trump.

21^st January – New FCC commissioner named
Olivia Trusty is nominated to serve on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) by President Donald Trump. Trump says Trusty and Carr will work together to “cut regulations at a record pace.”

22^nd January – Trump backs $500bn AI project ‘Stargate’
The president praised a new joint venture between OpenAI, SoftBank, Oracle, and MGX that promises $500 billion in AI investment, with the first $100 billion to be invested this year.

23^rd January – Ericsson CTO bullish on tech support from Trump administration
Industry leaders such as Ericsson’s CTO expressed optimism about Trump’s policies at the World Economic Forum in Davos, expecting additional support for 5G and AI advancements. “The opportunities just seem fantastic right now to put in an extra gear and then make sure that we are part of that (AI), says CTO Erik Ekudden.

23^rd January – FCC reinstates complaints about 2024 election coverage
Ex-FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel had previously dismissed complaints about election coverage from NBC, ABC, and CBS, describing them as attempts to ‘weaponise the FCC’.

27^th January – Trump fires Cyber Safety Review Board members
The CSRB advisory committee, serving the Department of Homeland Security, was set up to investigate cybersecurity and digital espionage incidents, most recently the massive ‘Salt Typhoon’ cyberattacks carried out by China-liked hackers. The CSRB committee was one of many disbanded by the new administration.

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The Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy (JCNSS) has launched a new UK inquiry that will see cross-party MPs and Lords examine the growing threats to undersea fibre optic cables, which are described as being the ‘backbone’ of the world’s internet (broadband, mobile etc.) systems.

The inquiry, which is simply titled ‘Undersea Cables‘, notes how over 500 cables carry around 95% of all international data, with demand set to increase in the coming years. Around 60 of those cables connect the United Kingdom to the outside world, although there are also various Microwave (wireless) and satellite links, but those cannot directly replace all of the undersea fibres (particularly on longer links, such as to the USA etc.).

However, damage to submarine cables is not uncommon, with an average of 150 to 200 faults occurring globally each year and requiring about three cable repairs per week, according to the ICPC (here). In addition, it usually takes a few weeks to fix a break, but this depends upon the type of break, its depth, weather conditions and various other factors. Suffice to say that there are some well-known vulnerabilities with this infrastructure.

Most cable breaks occur due to accidents by deep sea fishing trawlers, as well as ships accidentally dragging their anchor over them, abrasion, equipment failure or marine life deciding to take a nibble (the latter is only really an issue for smaller / older cables that haven’t been buried). But in recent months the threat of deliberate sabotage has also become a much more real concern (example).

Existing responses to such damage tend to focus more on repairs because monitoring the long, and often very remote (as well as deep), cables is an extremely difficult and costly thing to do. But the inquiry group warns that the potential impact from simultaneous damage to multiple cables “would be significant, particularly during periods of heightened tension or conflict“. In that case, on-shore cable landing stations may also be targeted.

James Ovel, COO at Zayo Europe, told ISPreview:

“2024 saw several sabotage attempts targeting critical subsea cables in the Red Sea and French infrastructure in the run up to the Olympics. Even without deliberate damage, subsea cables are under threat from a large range of risks, including natural disasters and accidental cable interference. Repairs are no easy task either, given their inherent inaccessibility.

This is why the UK government launching an inquiry into UK subsea internet cables is a crucial step to further heighten the security of critical infrastructure that acts as the backbone for a connected Britain.

Creating and maintaining a diverse network of cable routes is essential for building resilient global communications infrastructure. Where possible, we always recommend investing in at least three or four distinct routes for data transmission, guaranteeing reliable connectivity in the event of one route being compromised. Creating this level of network diversity is the best way to safeguard critical infrastructure connecting the UK with the rest of the world.”

The new inquiry will thus “explore the UK’s ability to defend our subsea infrastructure, and how this might change in the coming years as technology develops“. The inquiry will look at UK strategy, engagement with allies and partners, options for improving deterrence and redress, and the adequacy of cross-Government co-ordination. It will also examine the UK’s resilience in the event of major disruption to internet infrastructure.

Chair comment:

“Our internet relies on undersea cables: around 99% of our data goes through them, connecting the UK to the outside world.

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”.

However, it’s worth remembering that cutting lots of transatlantic fibre optic cables within the same short period of time, while a risk, is something that would be difficult to completely prevent and also to carry out. On the other hand, the more such attacks take place, the greater the strain on limited resources for repairs, which could result in a build-up of cumulative delays and thus connectivity problems.

The same sort of attack could similarly then be used against an aggressor. The fact that so much international trade is carried over the internet also means that other countries are likely to be harmed by such an activity, which in a conflict may also include the attacking state or its allies (i.e. directly or indirectly).

The inquiry itself will be open for submissions until Thursday 6th March 2025.

News

The newly merged business will be one of the UK’s largest altnets with over 600,000 properties passed with fibre-to-the-home (FTTH)

Today, UK fibre altnets FullFibre and Zzoomm have announced they will merge their operations.

The deal will make the nearly combined entity one of the UK’s largest alternative fibre networks, with over 600,000 properties ready for service and over 65,000 existing customers.

According to the companies, the deal will create “significant opportunities to accelerate customer growth across a larger footprint, secure funding for new builds and future mergers, and achieve greater operational and financial efficiencies through economies of scale”.

Zzoomm founder and CEO Matthew Hare will be executive chairman of the new business, while FullFibre CEO Jame Warner will serve as the company’s Group CEO.

Financial details of the deal were not revealed.

“We have consistently stated our strategy is to grow organically and by M&A in this fragmented market,” explained Matthew Hare, CEO of Zzoomm. “An enlarged business with the operational and financial infrastructure, benefitting from the economies of scale, as well as a management team with an exceptional track record, we will have an excellent platform to combine with other Altnets in the near future as well as driving organic growth faster.”

Reports that Zzoomm was looking to pursue M&A first arose in September last year, with FullFibre tied to discussions by November.

FullFibre itself is no stranger to mergers. Back in 2023, the altnet announced it would merge with fellow fibre infrastructure provider Digital Infrastructure, a deal which included the latter’s ISP unit BeFibre. The move brought FullFibre’s premises ready for service to over 250,000.

“For FullFibre, this is our second merger and another milestone in our mission to create a 21st-century digital backbone for the nation,” added James Warner, CEO of FullFibre. “Following our recent successful integration with Digital Infrastructure and BeFibre, this next merger further accelerates our ambitions to lead the market and provide unmatched connectivity to homes, businesses, and wholesale partners alike.”

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Alternative broadband network builders Zzoomm and FullFibre Limited (Fibre Heroes), both of which have been rolling out multi-gigabit speed capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) ISP networks across different parts of the United Kingdom, have this morning announced that they’ve agreed to merge to create one of the UK’s largest Altnets.

At present Zzoomm’s network, which is home to over 30,000 customers (15%+ take-up) and covers 202,000 premises (RFS), is currently available across parts of around 29 market towns and small urban communities in Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Herefordshire, Yorkshire, Staffordshire, Wiltshire and Cheshire. The provider is primarily a vertically integrated operator, which acts as both the network operator and a retail ISP.

By comparison, FullFibre Ltd (including ISP sibling BeFibre) have deployed their open access FTTP network to cover 380,000 UK premises ‘ready for service’ (23rd Aug 2024). The focus of this operator has been on 81 market towns across parts of Derbyshire, Essex, Gloucestershire, Greater Manchester, Herefordshire, Lancashire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Merseyside, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, Shropshire, South Yorkshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire in England.

The good thing above is that neither operator has any significant overbuild with the other, and both have been looking at consolidation as a way of balancing against the difficult market conditions. This has seen high interest rates, rising build costs and strong competition making it hard to raise fresh investment. But together, the combined group will have 600,000 premises passed (RFS), as well as 65,000+ customers, and a “platform for rapid growth and future M&A” (i.e. more mergers may follow). Enhanced “operational efficiency” is also anticipated (i.e. cost savings).

Matthew Hare, CEO of Zzoomm, said:

“With our clear focus on serving happy customers with brilliant broadband, Zzoomm has delivered for a number of years industry leading organic growth across its network.

We have consistently stated our strategy is to grow organically and by M&A in this fragmented market.

An enlarged business with the operational and financial infrastructure, benefitting from the economies of scale, as well as a management team with an exceptional track record, we will have an excellent platform to combine with other Altnets in the near future as well as driving organic growth faster.”

James Warner, CEO of FullFibre, added:

“This merger represents another significant step in our journey. With a shared commitment to delivering transformational full fibre connectivity with exceptional customer experience, this deal strengthens our collective ability to grow even faster and seize new market opportunities.

For FullFibre, this is our second merger and another milestone in our mission to create a 21st-century digital backbone for the nation. Following our recent successful integration with Digital Infrastructure and BeFibre, this next merger further accelerates our ambitions to lead the market and provide unmatched connectivity to homes, businesses, and wholesale partners alike.”

Under the agreement, which is still subject to final documentation execution and regulatory approval (expected during “early 2025“), Matthew Hare, CEO of Zzoomm, will become Executive Chairman and James Warner, CEO of FullFibre, will be the new Group CEO. The announcement also claims that the new group will “secure funding for new builds“, albeit without announcing any fresh funding or roll-out plans today.

The announcement of such a deal is of course only the first step in what can often be a complicated effort to integrate two separate networks and align their pricing, as well as policies. We’ve seen other altnets taking up to around a year, and sometimes longer, to fully integrate their infrastructure, customers and services.

Wireless infrastructure provider Freshwave has teamed-up with Electracom Projects to deliver a 4G mobile signal – from all four mobile network operators (MNOs) – to the 50-storey ‘8 Bishopsgate’ development in the City of London (CoL), which will benefit local businesses inside the property.

The building represents the latest flagship CoL development of Mitsubishi Estate London and Stanhope PLC. The 50-storey tower offers more than 900,000 sq ft of space, some 500,000+ sq ft of which is for offices. It’s also the UK’s tallest BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method) Outstanding building.

However, one catch with modern buildings like this is that their materials often block or seriously impede mobile signals from entering from outdoors, which can be problematic for users of the building. Freshwave has worked around this by deploying one of their 4G distributed antenna systems (DAS) to provide assured connectivity for everyone in the building, no matter which mobile network they use – supported via an ongoing managed service.

The new connectivity is delivering mobile coverage for the landlord areas, while occupiers can connect to the service via a commercial model agreed between 8 Bishopsgate, Freshwave and Electracom. Sixteen occupiers have already opted into the service.

Brendan Hourihane, Senior Director at Freshwave, said:

“We’re delighted to have delivered connectivity from all four operators to this spectacular building through our valued partners at Electracom Projects. Mobile signal is essential for modern life now, whether it’s for dealmaking in the office or keeping in touch with loved ones, so it’s a must in high-quality buildings such as 8 Bishopsgate to give the best experience.”

8 Bishopsgate is said to also have 75,000 sq ft dedicated to amenity space, which is 10% of the building. This includes a restaurant, café, 7,600 sq ft communal terrace, events space and The Lookout viewing gallery on floor 50, which members of the public can also book viewing tickets for free of charge.

Mobile operators Three UK and O2 (Virgin Media) have today announced that they’re partnering with the cloud communications platform, Sinch, to make RCS Business Messaging (RBM) available on iOS (Apple iPhone, iPad etc.) for their customers – previously this was only available to Android based phones and devices.

The announcement, which comes shortly after Three UK introduced support for regular Rich Communications Services (RCS or “Enhanced Chat“) alongside the iOS 18.2 update (here), means that users of RBM will also benefit from real-time, personalised two-way interactions, as well as new interactive features (i.e. videos, carousels, and branded content) and secure communications (i.e. verified sender identities, branded messages, and other built-in security features).

The adoption of RBM on iOS by the two operators also extend to their respective Mobile Virtual Network Operations (MVNOs), with Tesco Mobile and Giffgaff both being named in the announcement.

Nicklas Molin, Executive VP of EMEA at Sinch, said:

“This is what the future of messaging looks like. Partnering with Three UK and Virgin Media O2 is a big step forward in delivering richer, more engaging interactions between businesses and their customers. Together we are making it easier than ever for brands to connect with people in ways that feel personal, secure, and impactful.”

New data from Ookla, which runs the popular Speedtest.net broadband connection benchmarking service, has revealed that Storm Éowyn (pronounced ‘Ay-oh-win’) triggered a “rapid, severe and sustained decline” in mobile performance across all operators in Ireland and parts of the UK, particularly Northern Ireland and Scotland, on a “scale not seen before“.

The particularly nasty storm system, which was the result of explosive cyclogenesis (aka – a weather bomb), hit on Friday morning and tore its way across Ireland, as well as Northern Ireland, Northern parts of Wales and Scotland (other parts of the UK also felt the storm, but were spared the worst). In some areas, record wind speeds of up to 114mph were even reported.

Such storms do have an impact on fixed broadband and mobile connectivity, which can be caused by a variety of different factors from storm damage (wind, floods etc.) to power outages and power surges (lightning) etc. Such things, when occurring over a wide area, can impact both network capacity, stability and performance.

Ookla’s data found that, on the day of the storm, median mobile download speeds in Ireland (10.04Mbps) were 78% lower than the preceding 7-day average of 47.43Mbps, while median latency was 23% higher at 47.6ms. In Scotland and Northern Ireland, mobile broadband download speeds at the 10th percentile — a critical metric reflecting the poorest network performance — dropped significantly on the same day, falling by 63% to 2.19Mbps and by 74% to 1.31Mbps, respectively, compared to the 7-day average.

Network disruptions also drove a “dramatic deterioration” in the Quality of Experience (QoE) of bread-and-butter consumer applications. Consistency — an important metric indicating the proportion of Speedtest samples meeting minimum download and upload speed thresholds — dropped sharply on the day of the storm, falling by over 20 percentage points to 60.3% in Northern Ireland and by nearly 40 percentage points to 52.3% in Ireland compared to the preceding 7-day average.

On the day following the storm (25th January), as power restoration efforts were still in their early stages, Video Score — a key indicator of QoE in gaming activities — remained significantly suppressed, falling by over 23 points compared to the preceding 7-day average in Northern Ireland.

Ookla last noted how they saw record daily consumer-initiated Speedtest volumes and a 62% surge in Speedtests conducted via Starlink (SpaceX) connections in Ireland on the storm day, compared to the preceding 7-day average. This, they claim, highlighted the severity of the telecoms infrastructure disruptions as “consumers scrambled to troubleshoot issues and turned to alternative connectivity solutions like satellite“.

The experiences above may also help to underline the importance of Ofcom’s ongoing drive to improve network resilience across the UK (here), which is currently still examining the costly and complicated problem of improving battery backup on mobile networks, as well as at the retail broadband ISP end (here).

The regulator previously noted that only around 20% of all mobile sites in the UK have some backup functionality at the Radio Access Network (RAN) level for more than 15 minutes, while only around 5% of sites are able to withstand a six-hour power loss (excluding battery backup for transmission traffic). But it’s worth remembering that battery backup is not a panacea for all such difficulties.

City-focused ISP Hyperoptic, which since 2011 has built an alternative full fibre (FTTP/B) network to reach “more than” 1.73 million homes in parts of 64 UK towns and cities, has informed its staff that 2025 will see a “reduced volume of work” and thus a potential reduction in their infrastructure teams of nearly 130 jobs (out of nearly 280 potentially impacted roles).

The operator, which at the last update in July 2024 said they were home to a customer base of 340,000 (with a target of 500,000 for some point in the future), was previously known to be aiming to cover 2 million premises with their gigabit broadband network by the end of 2024. But we remain unsure of how close they are to that figure.

Hyperoptic previously suffered a modest sized round of redundancies in mid-2023 (here), but since then they will have also been coming under pressure from the same challenges as other operators (i.e. high interest rates, rising build costs and strong competition from rivals in the same space). In addition, we also saw a smaller number of job cuts in the latter half of 2024, but this was only a little above ‘business as usual’ levels.

The company’s most recent financial results (here) confirmed that high interest rates had helped to fuel a total loss for the year of £142m (e.g. the interest due on their loans reached £66.85m, up from £27.66m in 2022). But the operator had still been continuing to expand their network, which is very capital intensive. Revenues also grew by 19% to £93.4m and their customer base jumped 17%.

However, much as we remarked in October 2024, Hyperoptic really needed a big surge of new investment, or it would have to increasingly switch away from new build and move more toward greater commercialisation like other altnets (i.e. growing their customer base).

What’s the latest development?

Information leaked to ISPreview reveals that, toward the end of last week, Hyperoptic’s staff were notified that the operator was expecting a “reduced volume of work … in some areas” (build) during 2025. The operator said this meant they’d “need fewer managers overall” and that it would result in “appropriate changes to the UK Infrastructure teams” supporting their roll-out.

The announcement questioned whether Hyperoptic itself was “using our money wisely” by maintaining current team sizes and then admitted that, after “very careful thought“, some people would be losing their jobs. But it wasn’t all bad news, as up to 30 new roles will also be created, which might be suitable for some of those whose role is now at risk.

The proposed changes indicate a potential reduction of less than 130 roles from their UK-based Infrastructure team (there are almost 280 people whose roles are impacted), which mostly impacts manager, support and some engineering roles. The consultation process for this is only just getting underway, and thus a final redundancy figure isn’t yet known.

Dana Tobak, Founder & CEO of Hyperoptic, told ISPreview:

“As is often the case for a mature business such as ours, we regularly review our processes and how our teams are structured, to ensure we remain on track to deliver against our business plan. Following our most recent review, we identified further opportunities to improve the way in which we support our partners and customers. These improvements require organisational changes (that will include redundancies) which we are in the process of implementing. Naturally, this has been a tough decision to make and we are supporting impacted people throughout the process.

With our target of 2m homes passed well within our sights, we have entered the next phase of our growth strategy: to continue to deliver a five-star customer experience to many more customers. To support this ambition, we are continuing to work with and grow our relationships with new build developers, freeholders and management companies to bring our services to more homes and businesses.”

The decision to cut jobs as they near their current build completion is understandable. At the same time, the provider could also be said to have a stronger and more established economic base than many of today’s significantly younger altnets, which affords them some stability.

On the other hand, it wasn’t so many years ago that Hyperoptic were promoting a somewhat overly ambitious target of reaching 2 million UK homes by the end of 2021 and 5 million by 2024. The provider may well be continuing some build going forward, albeit at a reduced pace and scope, although it’s currently unclear how far beyond that 2m figure they’ll go.

Customers of debt-troubled UK internet provider TalkTalk have been given an uncomfortable reminder of the 2015 cyberattack (here), which came after the ISP admitted that it was “investigating” reports on a cybercrime forum that alleged the provider had suffered a new data breach.

According to The Register, a member of the forum claimed that personal data belonging to 18.8 million current and former customers of TalkTalk had been leaked, including – subscriber PINs, first and last names, email addresses, information about customers’ last account access, IP addresses, business and home phone numbers. But no financial details appear to have been exposed.

The breach, which allegedly took place last month, is said to have occurred in an external third-party supplier that is used by TalkTalk. But doubts have also been cast over the figure of 18.8m customers, not least since the provider currently only has 3.6 million customers (including residential, business and wholesale etc.).

However, even accounting for past customers, it would still be a struggle to reach 19m, and that’s before we consider the requirement of data protection laws to erase old data (exemptions do sometimes apply). But debates over the scale of the breach may be at risk of distracting from the negative impact of the alleged breach itself, regardless of how many customers it may involve.

A Spokesperson for TalkTalk said:

“As part of our regular security monitoring, given our ongoing focus on protecting customers’ personal data, we were made aware of unexpected access to, and misuse of, one of our third-party supplier’s systems, however, no billing or financial information was stored on this system.

Our security incident response team is continuing to work with the supplier regarding this matter and protective containment steps were taken immediately. Our investigations are ongoing, however, we can confirm that the number of potential customers referred to in certain online posts is wholly inaccurate and very significantly overstated.”

As it stands, TalkTalk are still in the early stages of investigating the claim and cannot yet confirm whether any personal data has in fact been breached, although the above statement does appear to hint in that direction. At this point it probably goes without saying that this is the last thing the provider and their customers need, particularly given their recent financial woes.

The City of London Police (CoLP) have arrested a 29-year-old man after a climate protest group claimed to have “[disrupted] the wifi systems of hundreds of insurance companies across the UK“, which they achieved by cutting key fibre optic cables in London (similar events are also said to have occurred in Leeds, Birmingham and Sheffield).

In a post on Instagram, the relatively new group, calling itself Shut the System, said on Monday that its “activists” were “demanding an immediate end to support for new fossil fuel projects and mandatory transition plans for all clients involved in the fossil fuel industry.”

Some businesses in the affected area(s) are understood to have suffered a significant slowdown in broadband and Ethernet connectivity, which has raised additional questions about the need for greater resilience within those companies. But that’s another story and one that all businesses have to consider, although many of the organisations hit did have an adequate backup in place.

Unfortunately, in recent years, we’ve seen a rise in the number of fixed line and mobile network operators facing attacks against their infrastructure (arson, cable cutting etc.) and often for very different reasons (e.g. disgruntled former staff, anti-5G conspiracy theorists and theft etc.). Now it seems we have one more group to add to that list, but in this case the Police are already making progress.

DCI Kevin Ives, CoLP’s Criminal Investigation Dpt., said (The Guardian):

“A 29-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of criminal damage, following reports of external cabling being damaged under the City of London on Monday 20th January. The man has been bailed with conditions, pending further police investigations.”

Events like this are not victimless crimes and often impact innocent third-parties, such as local residents and unrelated businesses. This is particularly true when it comes to the act of cutting vital communication cables. A single cable will often contain many fibres, each of which can be carrying connectivity to help serve many thousands of premises (homes, hospitals, GPs, restaurants and so forth) – both locally and in areas far beyond the intended target.

Attacks against UK telecoms networks, which are part of Critical National Infrastructure (CNI), tend to be considered as a serious crime and one that has, in the recent past, resulted in various individuals being jailed. The people who commit such acts rarely seem to have any regard for the innocent users (residents and businesses) that end up being disrupted by such activity, which can have serious consequences and even threaten life. Credits to forum member father_ted for spotting this development.