News 

BT has urged the UK’s Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) providers to accelerate plans to transition away from the ageing Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), warning that the outdated system poses growing risks to essential services 

Increasingly fragile and difficult to maintain, the PSTN saw a 45% rise in major resilience incidents last year, according to Ofcom’s Connected Nations report.  

BT warns that delays in migrating to digital connectivity could disrupt critical systems such as fire alarms, lift phones, and even water monitoring sensors.  

Industries like energy and water are leading the way in the transition away from the PSTN, with 80% and 64%, respectively, of BT’s customers in these sectors having already put a transition plan in place.  

However, 60% of the operator’s CNI customers have yet to develop a transition plan.  

“With the ageing copper landline network becoming increasingly fragile, it’s simply too risky to run the UK’s essential public services on outdated networks. BT is committed to moving these services onto future-proofed modern connectivity well ahead of the closure of the analogue copper network – but we can’t do it alone,” said BT CEO Bas Burger in a press release. 

“We’re urging all Critical National Infrastructure providers to act now to help protect their services and reap the long-term benefits of going digital. Waiting until the analogue switch-off is too late. We’re working with customers to review their technology estate, test their critical devices and switch to more reliable connectivity by the end of 2025,” he continued. 

To support the shift, BT’s specialists are helping organisations review technology, test device compatibility, and migrate to digital systems. The government has also introduced the PSTN Critical National Infrastructure Charter, to make sure of safeguards for essential services during the transition.  

The move to digital networks offers a range of benefits. Faster broadband speeds, better security, and features like scam prevention and integrated calling across devices. 

Is the UK’s rollout of next-generation moving quickly enough to support the UK’s digital economy? Join the discussion at Connected North, live in Manchester 

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

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BT quietly scraps EV charging pilot 

News

To date, around 4.3 million connections have been made possible through federal gigabit funding 

The German Federal Ministry for Digital Affairs and Transport (BMDV) has launched its 2025 Gigabit Funding programme. Starting this month, €1.2 billion will be available to support infrastructure projects and a pilot programmes to close connectivity gaps in underserved areas. 

This year’s funding round is centred on the 2025 infrastructure funding programme, which includes both a standard funding process and a quicker “fast lane” option. The criteria and rules for applying remain largely the same as last year, providing stability for states, municipalities, and applicants.  

The funding round also includes the continuation of a pilot programme designed to improve internet access in smaller regions that have been left out of gigabit expansion so far. With a simplified application process, this programme aims to develop these areas quickly, making use of both public and private funding to ensure the best results. 

“Digitalisation requires high-performance, resilient and future-proof networks. Fiber optic technology enables particularly fast, energy-efficient and reliable data communication. In this legislative period, we have made great progress in fibee optic expansion – thanks to the high dynamics in the market and our targeted funding,” said Federal Minister Dr. Volker Wissing in a press release (translated). 

“Even in a difficult budget situation, we are keeping our ambitious gigabit expansion goals firmly in sight: We continue to support regions in which private expansion is reaching its limits and thus create digital participation for everyone. Our goals set out in the gigabit strategy remain clear – nationwide gigabit supply by 2030, a clear focus on private sector expansion and targeted funding measures as a supplement,” he continued. 

In 2022, around 560 projects were approved, with €2 billion invested in expanding fibre optic networks. This helped provide more than 440,000 connections and helped around 1,700 communities.  

Is Germany’s fibre network expansion moving quickly enough? Join us at this year’s Connected Germany event in Munich to discuss the sectors biggest challenges and opportunities! Find our more here 

Also in the news:
BT pushes for accelerated withdrawal from “outdated” copper landline network as faults rise
Boldyn takes first steps in Germany with Smart Mobile Labs acquisition
VMO2 deploys more small cells in Birmingham with Ontix

Press Release

Boldyn Networks (Boldyn), one of the largest shared network infrastructure providers in the world, cements its position as a leading global mobile private networks player through the agreement to acquire Smart Mobile Labs (SML), Germany’s market leader in bespoke private 5G networks and turnkey applications.

The addition of SML will immediately expand Boldyn’s footprint, placing the business with a track record of over 110 mobile private network (MPN) implementations across the five largest European economies, in addition to the US. The strategic acquisition enhances Boldyn’s technical knowledge for critical sectors, tailored use cases, and the further development of its Private 5G as a Service offering, the first of its kind in the industry. Read the full press release here.

Justin Berger, Group Chief Strategy Officer at Boldyn Networks said: “Germany is a very attractive market for mobile private networks. By bringing Smart Mobile Labs’ expertise to Boldyn, we’ll be able to scale our existing private networks expertise to benefit customers looking for a partner of choice across a wider area of Europe.” He continued: “The SML leadership team comes with a combined 100 years of experience in engineering and technology, adding to our talented team at Boldyn.”

Igor Leprince, Group Chief Executive Officer at Boldyn Networks said: “At Boldyn we have been leading the way in reimagining customers’ digital transformations through dynamic private 4G and 5G networks. As an important player in the fast-rising private network ecosystem Smart Mobile Labs will support our expansion in the top five markets in Europe and globally. SML comes with an impressive customer base across key sectors for us, which rely on their strong technical capabilities, innovation, and a market-leading partner network.”

Klaus Nagora, CEO & Founder of Smart Mobile Labs said: “Joining Boldyn Networks in their global growth journey is exciting for us and for our customers. Not only will we be able to scale our private network and EVO offerings inside of Germany, but worldwide, now with the backing of a neutral host portfolio leader and a global team of experts. We share Boldyn’s focus on developing bold solutions that can solve our customers’ needs. It’s in our DNA to be ahead of such needs.”

Rüdiger Hnyk, COO of Smart Mobile Labs said: “SML and Boldyn together will become a major player for private 5G offerings in Europe. We will now be able to offer the most experienced and most practical references for specialised market solutions. From remote driven trains and container handling solutions for logistics storage, to autonomous driving and valet parking, safety applications like “5G drone patrol”, and video camera control solutions for airports, our joint capabilities will be best suited to cover the growing demands of a variety of sectors successfully.”

How is the German telecoms sector evolving in 2025? Join the indutry in discussion at Connected Germany

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News

The tiny base stations will boost 4G mobile capacity in the city centre

Birmingham is set to get a 4G boost this week, with Virgin Media O2 (VMO2) announcing their latest 4G small cell deployments in the city in partnership with Ontix.

Small cells are tiny base stations designed to be deployed in areas of high footfall in order to add capacity to existing mobile networks. Their small size and shorter range mean that these base stations are typically deployed closer to street level, often being attached to existing street furniture like lamp posts.

Ontix specialises these types of deployment, working alongside property owners, local authorities, and mobile operators to facilitate these infrastructure deployments.

This project, supported by the city council and the Soho Road Business Improvement District (BID), will see five additional small cells introduced to the busy areas of Soho Road and Handsworth.

“Small cells are an effective way of increasing local network bandwidth and play an important role in allowing us to keep up with rising customer demand. We are proud to have delivered these new sites in Soho Road and Handsworth, which will unlock opportunities for local residents and businesses,” said Steven Verigotta, Director of Radio & Mobile Backhaul Delivery at VMO2.

“With upgrade programmes underway right across our network, we’re working hard to ensure our customers consistently receive an exceptional network experience wherever they are and even at the busiest times.”

This deployment is an expansion of an existing deal between VMO2 and Ontix, which saw the duo deploy small cells in other parts of Birmingham city centre two years ago.

How is the UK mobile industry evolving in 2025? Join the discussion at the Connected North conference live in Manchester

Also in the news:
EXA Infrastructure enters into agreement to acquire Aqua Comms
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Network benchmarking provider Ookla, which operates the popular Speedtest.net internet connection testing service, has kindly furnished ISPreview with some additional data that reveals the past and present levels of UK 5G mobile (mobile broadband) availability across EE (BT), Vodafone, Three UK and O2 (Virgin Media). Some of the results may surprise.

Just to be clear. The figures for 5G availability reflect the percentage of users with 5G devices spending most of their time connected to 5G networks. This is not to be confused with the figures for either population coverage or landmass (geographic) coverage of the same network technology.

As previously reported on Monday, the United Kingdom currently achieves a national 5G availability score of 42.2%, which put us behind most of Europe and we’ve already explored some of the reasons for that (here). But Ookla has now kindly also pulled together some new data for ISPreview on the UK’s 5G availability by network operator, which shows how the situation has changed between Q4 2023 and Q4 2024.

Overall, EE leads the pack with a 5G availability score of 67.45% (i.e. they might not tend to beat Three UK for 5G speeds, but availability is over double), which is followed by O2 on 46.11% (O2 often come bottom of many performance studies, but availability seems to be another matter), then Three UK on 31.1% and finally Vodafone places last with a feeble score of 16.37%.

The big differences above will be at least partly related to the strength of existing 4G networks and rising adoption of true end-to-end 5G Standalone networks. But on that front we’re still surprised to see Vodafone trailing so far behind and O2 pulling so far ahead of both Three UK and Vodafone.

Hampshire-based network builder and UK ISP toob, which has deployed a gigabit speed full fibre (FTTP) network across parts of South England and also harness some of CityFibre’s network, has placed 4th in the latest 2025 Sunday Times 100 Tech – a ranking of Britain’s fastest-growing private technology companies.

The list is split into a top 50 for software companies and a top 50 for hardware companies, with toob being ranked 4th in the hardware list for annual sales growth of 270.73% (total sales of £5.5m). The only other fibre broadband builder and ISP to make it into this year’s ranking was G.Network in London, which placed 33rd on sales growth of 47.23% (£10.2m). Neither company is in profit yet.

Toob is currently being financed through equity from funds managed and advised by the Amber Infrastructure Group, as well as a huge amount of debt financing provided by Ares Management’s Infrastructure Debt (here). At the end of 2023 this mix of equity and debt reflected a total commitment of £395m.

Nick Parbutt, CEO of toob, said:

“Customers are choosing toob as we are focused on what they want most; fast, reliable broadband at an affordable price. By delivering on what customers want and sticking to our principles, such as no unfair price rises in the middle of your contract, we have managed to double our customers over the last 12 months in a highly competitive market.

The ranking of fourth in The Sunday Times 100 Tech, is a great recognition of the progress we have made over the last few years; however, the best recognition is the thousands of customers that choose toob every month.”

Toob’s most recent accounts also reported an operating loss of £19.48m (2022: £13.57m), capex of £38.68m (2022: £26.39m), revenue of £5.5m (2022: £2.16m) and total liabilities of £214.7m (2022: £139.6m).

The ITS Technology Group, which operates various wholesale full fibre broadband and Ethernet networks (“Faster Britain“) across urban parts of the UK for businesses and ISPs, has today introduced both 2.5Gbps and 5Gbps symmetric speed tiers on their “FibreLight” FTTP over Ethernet (EoFTTP) service.

Just to recap. The operator’s XGS-PON-enabled (10Gbps capable) network is currently said to “pass” approximately 465,000 businesses (inc. commercial premises), and they often claim to “reach the rest” through their trusted operator partners’ infrastructure, which includes the likes of BTWholesale, Sky, PXC (TalkTalk Wholesale), and Virgin Media Business.

The FibreLight FTTP solution is just one of their product set, which is said to have been designed with “guaranteed ‘always on’ access to 20% of the ordered speed” (the remaining bandwidth is burstable, providing the performance demanded by businesses when they need it). FibreLight can be upgraded through enhanced service level agreements (SLA).

The service is designed to “fill the gap between traditional leased line and broadband service offerings“, not least by providing “enhanced service capabilities compared to an FTTP broadband service, at a more competitive price point than leased line services“.

Pete England, Product Director at ITS, said:

“As we continue to invest heavily in the development of our business connectivity product portfolio, I am delighted that this now includes 2.5 and 5Gbps FTTP services.

“FibreLight has broken the mould. Instead of opting for an unspecified ‘minimum speed guarantee,’ our partners can rely on our Committed Information Rate (CIR) of 20%. This ensures their customers receive guaranteed service levels, combined with burstable bandwidth to maintain optimal performance and prevent slowdowns or interruptions.

“Our partners and their customers demand more than promises; they need assured performance. FibreLight provides exactly that, giving businesses the connectivity they need to thrive in an ever-evolving digital economy.”

The new products are offered with a fixed IPv4 address with upgrade options of enhanced business care level and value add services such as backup, voice (phone), additional fixed IPv4 addresses, and dedicated project management services for complex or multi-site projects.

Internet connection benchmarking firm nPerf has this morning published the results from their annual 2025 crowdsourced study into UK mobile broadband (4G, 5G) performance, which sees EE being named as the country’s best and fastest operator for mobile data performance. But Three UK still holds the top spot for 5G-only performance.

The latest nPerf study is based on 91,281 tests carried out – between January and December 2024 – exclusively by end-customers of the various mobile network operators, using tools on both nPerf’s website and via their dedicated mobile testing apps for Android and iOS. The results are said to reflect “users in real conditions” from across the United Kingdom.

However, there are caveats to this sort of data, such as the fact that it could be impacted by any limitations of the devices being used, and it hampers the ability to adopt a common type of hardware in order to establish a solid baseline of performance. But those caveats are shared by all operators in the study.

Overall, EE came top for mobile broadband upload speeds (16.03Mbps), web browsing performance, latency (36.14ms) and YouTube video streaming, which dethroned Three UK from the top spot of last year’s nPerf study. But Three UK remained the fastest for both overall download speeds (111.49Mbps) and also almost across the board for 5G-only connections. Sadly, O2 (Virgin Media) found themselves at the bottom of the study, again.

A new alternative broadband network provider and ISP called Shire Fibre has today surfaced with a tentative plan to build their new Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network across poorly served parts of Shropshire (England), starting with the small market town of Craven Arms (population of 2,300) and surrounding areas.

In order to do this, they’re first seeking Code Powers from Ofcom, which are typically sought to help speed-up deployments of new fibre networks and cut costs, not least by reducing the number of licences needed for street works. The powers can also help with supporting access to run new fibre via Openreach’s (BT) existing cable ducts and poles (PIA).

The new provider (company details) has two Directors, Scott and Grace Marnick, and has been setup as a new venture by civil engineering firm SAS Utilities. But at present Shire Fibre’s website is just a holding page and there’s not a lot of extra detail that can be found online about either their plans or level investment.

Launching a new altnet into an already overcrowded market, which is also under considerable strain due to high builds costs and high interest rates, is currently quite a risky endeavour. On top of that, Openreach has already built a little FTTP into Craven Arms, while Voneus seems to have done the same for most of the town.

Telecoms giant BT has today “urged” providers of Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) to “move off” the “outdated copper network” as it is becoming “increasingly unstable“. BT claims its own data shows that 60% of CNI customers in the UK currently have no plan in place to start migrating off the legacy analogue network.

Just for some context. Sites or networks designated as CNI are those facilities, systems, sites, information, people, networks and processes, necessary for a country to function and upon which daily life depends. It also includes some functions, sites and organisations which are not critical to the maintenance of essential services, but which need protection due to the potential danger to the public (e.g. civil nuclear and chemical sites).

However, to be clear, BT’s call is more focused on the looming switch-off of the legacy Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) in favour of IP-based digital phone (VoIP etc.) services, rather than the much longer winded withdrawal of physical copper lines themselves that will take many years to complete. Openreach are withdrawing their old Wholesale Line Rental (WLR) products as part of this, while BT are retiring the related PSTN.

The big switch-off itself was last year delayed to 31st January 2027 in order to give internet service, phone providers, telecare operators and consumers more time to adapt (details). But the main focus of this delay was the 1.8 million people who use vital home telecare systems in the UK (e.g. elderly, disabled, and vulnerable people), which aren’t always compatible with the replacement VoIP / IP-based digital phone services. For everybody else, the deadline is still technically Dec 2025.

Suffice to say that BT are now pushing for key network and CNI providers to get off the PSTN before the deadline, not least due to its lack of support. This will help to stop the switch-off disrupting critical public systems, such as water monitoring sensors, phone lines for doctors and pharmacies, fire and burglar alarms, lift alarms, emergency phone lines by roads, help points at train stations, and some older card payment machines.

Ofcom’s recent Connected Nations report underlined the issues by highlighting that, in 2024, the number of significant PSTN resilience incidents reported increased sharply by 45% (here). Despite this, BT itself found that 60% of their CNI customers are yet to put a strategy in place for transitioning to digital networks.

However, progress is being made in key sectors: 80% of BT customers in the energy industry and 64% in the water industry have a plan in place or are advanced in their migration journeys. BT added that they moved customers off almost 300,000 legacy business lines in 2024, but many more have yet to follow.

Bas Burger, CEO of Business at BT, said:

“With the ageing copper landline network becoming increasingly fragile, it’s simply too risky to run the UK’s essential public services on outdated networks. BT is committed to moving these services onto future-proofed modern connectivity well ahead of the closure of the analogue copper network – but we can’t do it alone.

We’re urging all Critical National Infrastructure providers to act now to help protect their services and reap the long-term benefits of going digital. Waiting until the analogue switch-off is too late. We’re working with customers to review their technology estate, test their critical devices and switch to more reliable connectivity by the end of 2025.”

As part of the national move away from the PSTN, it’s already no longer possible to sign up to legacy BT phone or broadband services. From 31st December 2025, any existing PSTN-connected business services may change in preparation for the full retirement of the network by the end of January 2027. But any technology still relying on the PSTN will stop working when the old network is retired.

The Government recently announced the PSTN Critical National Infrastructure Charter, which outlines the safeguards that Communication Providers (CPs) and Network Operators (NOs) must put in place during this change to the UK’s connectivity infrastructure. BT is thus urging these organisations to act now, and work with its team (or their existing ISP) to review their technology estates to identify any impacted devices, test whether these devices are compatible with alternative connectivity and make the switch in 2025.