Press Release 

London, UK – Submarine Networks EMEA, the world’s largest annual subsea connectivity event, is returning to London this February for its seventh annual event. 

Hosted by communications media and events specialist Total Telecom, this year’s event will bring together over 1,000 global industry leaders and key stakeholders, 120 speakers, and 50 exhibitors to explore the challenges and opportunities shaping submarine networks across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.  

Nine carefully selected key themes at this year’s event will dive into: 

• Commercial Strategy 

• Sustainability 

• Market dynamics 

• Data centres 

• Technology innovations 

• Resilience and security 

• People and skills 

• Installation, maintenance, and operations 

• Regulation 

Creating networking opportunities for this tight-knit industry is a major focus for the event, aiming to spark invaluable discussions between the individuals, companies, and policymakers shaping the subsea cable ecosystem.  

The event will also offer a record number of free tickets to students, recent graduates, and apprentices working on recognised programmes. The event’s second ever “Junior Top Dogs” networking event, in partnership with Aqua Comms and HOT Telecom, will take place on day two of the conference, providing an ideal opportunity for new entrants to the subsea industry to meet with some of its senior leaders 

“Submarine Networks EMEA has become a must-attend event for the subsea industry, providing an essential forum to tackle challenges, explore innovation, and drive the sector forward,” said Rob Chambers, Managing Director at Total Telecom. “We’re excited to welcome the industry back to London for what promises to be a fantastic event.” 

Submarine Networks EMEA will take place on the 18–19 February at the Business Design Centre, London. 

For more information, or to register for the event, click here.  

For Sponsorship and exhibition opportunities, contact laura.oreilly@totaltele.com  

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About Total Telecom
Since 1997, Total Telecom has provided the connection between the buyers and sellers in the global telecom market. We do this through high quality editorial content and events to facilitate discussion on industry issues, and recognise innovation and excellence by companies and individuals.   

Our community of 120,000+ telecom professionals rely on Total Telecom for daily news and regular in-depth insight, delivered through a number of channels including online, video, social media, and at our series of events.  

Our award-winning event portfolio includes, Broadband Communities Summit, the World Communication Awards, Connected North, Connected Germany, and the UK’s largest connectivity event Connected Britain.

News

The operator claims the move makes it “the UK’s second largest alternative network”

Today, fibre network wholesaler nexfibre has announced it has passed 2 million premises with its fibre-to-the-premise (FTTP) network.

The milestone, the company says, makes it the second largest alternative fibre network in the UK – although this will depend on whether you still classify CityFibre (over 4 million premises passed) as an altnet.

“This is an outstanding achievement in just two years of operation – making nexfibre the UK’s second largest alternative network,” said nexfibre CEO Rajiv Datta. “However, our work is far from done. Our mission is to be part of a network platform that drives sustainable, nationwide competition, provides a genuine alternative to Openreach, and transforms access to broadband across the country.”

nexfibre was created as a joint venture between Telefonica, Liberty Global, and InfraVia Capital Partners back in 2022. With an initial investment of £4.5 billion, nexfibre’s aim was to deploy fibre-to-the-premise to up to 7 million homes not already covered by Virgin Media’s network.

The company passed its first million premises in April 2024, just 14 months after its official launch, giving nexfibre a build rate faster than any UK operator except Openreach. This is an accolade the company has retained and reiterated in today’s press release – in fact, the company’s rollout has accelerated, with the second million premises being passed in roughly 9 months.

It is worth noting, however, that nexfibre currently has goals of passing 5 million premises by 2026, a figure that would need them to pass a further 3 million premises in the upcoming 12 months.

How is the UK fibre market evolving in 2025? Join the discussion at Connected North live in Manchester

Also in the news:
VEON and Starlink to launch Direct-to-Cell Satellite connectivity in Ukraine
Swisscom completes acquisition of Vodafone Italia
Equinix to buy BT’s Irish data centre business for €59m

A new Opinium survey of 2,000 UK adults, which was commissioned by Uswitch.com and conducted on 7th Jan 2025, has claimed that more than 4.3 million Brits could potentially be left without access to mobile broadband if they don’t upgrade their device before O2 switches-off their 3G service (inc. MVNO’s Tesco Mobile, GiffGaff and Sky Mobile etc.).

Just to recap. Back in 2023 O2 (Virgin Media) became the final operator to reveal their plan for switching off their old 3G mobile data network (here), which will begin and end this year (withdrawal will occur in phases). O2 then followed that by announcing that they’d also start shifting almost all remaining traffic and customers off their oldest 2G network this year too (here), but they won’t be turning that off completely for “several years” because it’s still necessary for some vital services (e.g. Smart Meters – home energy tracking).

However, the new survey claims that O2’s 3G switch-off could leave 4.3 million British people without access to mobile data, and that some 6% of respondents (almost 3 million people) on O2, Tesco Mobile, Giffgaff, Virgin Media and Sky Mobile don’t know if their phone is 4G or 5G ready. But confusingly, the same survey also states that “more than 1.3 million say they still use a 3G handset“.

Ernest Doku, telecoms expert at Uswitch.com, said:

“The 3G switch-off, which began last year, is a crucial step to free up capacity for expanding 4G and 5G networks, offering significantly faster and more reliable connectivity than 3G.

While the majority of customers do have a 4G or 5G compatible phone, there will still be a proportion of customers with older devices who will need to upgrade this year.

If you’re still using an older phone, you can check your device’s 4G and 5G compatibility by looking for ‘Network Mode’ or ‘Prefered Network’ under ‘Network’ or ‘Mobile Data’ in your Settings. If you see 4G or 5G, your phone is compatible.

If you do need to upgrade, there are plenty of affordable options out there, and it may be worth looking into a refurbished device if you’re not looking for the latest launches and don’t want a costly upgrade.

It’s also worth running a coverage check for your area – Ofcom has one on its website – especially if you live rurally and have previously relied on 3G. Most of the country has strong 4G or 5G coverage, but it’s always a good idea to check which networks have the best coverage in the places you frequent most.

The 3G switch-off is an important step in moving us towards a faster and more reliable service, but consumers must be fully aware of their network plans and how it might impact their device.”

At this point we’d have to sound a note of caution, as Uswitch are known for surveys like this, which don’t always reflect reality. Both EE and Vodafone have already switched-off their 3G services and, while a small portion of users did lose data connectivity, the issues did not seem to cause any truly wide scale problems and some areas saw a positive outcome (here). Three UK are about to finish their 3G switch-off, and it’s a similar story (here).

Mobile operators have generally been compensating for the 3G switch-off in some areas by introducing upgrades to newer 4G and 5G services and supporting customers with 3G-only devices (e.g. offering handset upgrades and extra support to vulnerable users). The removal of 3G also freed up some radio spectrum that can be re-farmed for use by more modern services, which could boost network performance.

On the other hand, there’s still not really enough research in this area to be able to draw any firm conclusions about the overall impact, although we also haven’t seen a huge avalanche of complaints (you’d expect to see that if millions were cut-off). We thus suspect the portion of consumers who do experience a strongly negative outcome will be very small (i.e. those in areas where 3G is switched off and there’s no viable 4G or 5G signal to replace it, although 2G will often still exist as a fallback for voice and texts).

Digging deeper. Uswitch notes that only 875 respondents to their survey used an O2 based mobile service. But of those, just 51 said they knew their phone is not 4G or 5G ready and 110 did not know. So, for those who don’t know or know they are not 4G or 5G compatible, the comparison site calculated 159/2000 = 8.0% multiplied by the adult population (54,196,443) to get that 4.3 million.

The sample size here is tiny and doesn’t take account of how much impact O2’s support campaign, end-user device changes and network upgrades will have as the switch-off occurs. Take with a sizeable pinch of salt. On the other hand, O2 does perhaps support more legacy 3G devices than rival operators, which could prove to be a challenge to migrate. Time will tell.

News 

The new EVs are part of a broader investment in 6,000 new vehicles, over half of which will be electric 

BT has announced the largest-ever commercial electric vehicle (EV) order in the UK, as the company continues its efforts to reduce its carbon footprint. The order includes 3,500 new EVs, which will contribute to BT Group’s goal of operating the largest fleet of electric vehicles in the UK, with nearly 8,000 vehicles by 2026. 

BT currently operates the second-largest commercial vehicle fleet in the UK, with over 27,000 vehicles. With 4,300 electric vehicles already in service, this new order brings the company closer to its target of achieving net-zero emissions by March 2031, with plans to extend this to its supply chain and customer emissions by 2041. 

“By integrating yet more electric vehicles into our operations, we are taking another significant step towards reducing our carbon footprint and supporting the UK’s transition to a greener future. As we extend our full fibre build from 16 million homes and businesses today to 25 million by the end of 2026, having the most efficient, sustainable electric vehicles will give our engineers the edge as they connect customers at pace to our next generation networks. Our modern fleet will help us to be more efficient and deliver a better service for our customers,” said BT CFO Simon Lowth in a press release. 

The EVs will be supplied by Ford, Stellantis, Toyota, and Renault over the next two years. This order aligns with BT Group’s ongoing commitment to sustainability, having already reduced its carbon emissions intensity by 61% since 2017. The company is also transitioning to more energy-efficient networks, including full fibre, 4G, and 5G, while phasing out older legacy systems. 

Join the conversation around EV’s at this year’s Connected North, 23-24 April in Manchester. Get discounted tickets here! 

Also in the news:
Deutsche Telekom combines domestic and international wholesale under T Wholesale banner 
Toyota completes Phase 1 of Mount Fuji smart city construction
Is there still a role for the rural ISP in tomorrow’s digital infrastructure? Beyond the Cable discusses

Some broadband ISP customers on Cityfibre’s national Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network, which covers 4 million UK premises, are currently experiencing ongoing connectivity problems due to an unspecified issue that seems to only be affecting those that have one of Nokia’s Optical Network Terminals (ONT) installed inside their building.

Just for context. The ONT / ONU or optical modem device is usually installed inside your home or office (wall hung), near to where the fibre optic cable physically enters your property, and its primary job is simply to take the optical signal and convert it into an electrical one that can be connected to your broadband router via a Local Area Network (Ethernet) port. The standard ONT is usually a very small single port device.

Most of the residential customers on CityFibre’s network are probably connected using the ONT supplied by Calix, which tend to be coloured black (there are several models in circulation, but they’re usually the same colour). By comparison, Nokia‘s ONT is more of a cream white colour and has rounded edges. This is most commonly found in CityFibre’s newer XGS-PON (10Gbps) areas (roll-out update), although Calix also do some of the XGS-PON kit.

However, several of ISPreview’s readers from different parts of the UK have been reporting problems with Nokia’s ONT units since just after 8pm last night, which has also generated a related post on Reddit. As one of our readers (Jonny) said this morning: “My connection went down at 20:30 last night and [my ISP] have confirmed a wider network issue to me in a support ticket. Symptoms are a steady flashing PON light, which is supposedly indicative of a firmware update. Outage has so far been 15 hours.”

The fault is not believed to be impacting too many of CityFibre’s connections and as a result we haven’t seen many of their ISPs putting out a notice about it yet, although we did get this from No One Internet (Leetline).

No One Internet Status Update

Jan 09, 10:09 AM

CityFibre is aware of an issue impacting a small number of FTTH and business FTTP customers. We have engaged with our technical teams who are currently investigating to resolve the underlying issue as quickly as possible, and we are also working to minimise impact to those customers who are affected. We apologise for any inconvenience this is causing.

We have asked for a comment from CityFibre too and will report back when one arrives. The hope is that this fault can be rectified remotely, but if it is a problem with a borked firmware update, then those can sometimes only be rectified by a device replacement. But at this time, the specifics are not clear on what has actually gone wrong.

The UK internet domain registry, Nominet, has confirmed to ISPreview that their network has suffered an “unauthorised intrusion” after hackers exploited a “zero-day vulnerability” in the Virtual Private Network (VPN) software they use, which is supplied by Ivanti and enables their people to access systems remotely.

ISPreview first became aware of a problem yesterday after the UK Government’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) put out an urgent bulletin that encouraged organisations to “take immediate action” to mitigate vulnerabilities affecting Ivanti Connect Secure (ICS), Policy Secure and ZTA Gateways (CVE-2025-0282 and CVE-2025-0283).

On top of that, Ivanti themselves said they were “aware of active exploitation” affecting their software, although at the time it was not known who or how many organisations had been targeted. But it was known that this had started “beginning mid-December 2024“.

NSCS Description of the Critical Vulnerabilities

CVE-2025-0282 – A stack-based buffer overflow in Ivanti Connect Secure before version 22.7R2.5, Ivanti Policy Secure before version 22.7R1.2, and Ivanti Neurons for ZTA gateways before version 22.7R2.3 allows a remote unauthenticated attacker to achieve remote code execution.

CVE-2025-0283 – A stack-based buffer overflow in Ivanti Connect Secure before version 22.7R2.5, Ivanti Policy Secure before version 22.7R1.2, and Ivanti Neurons for ZTA gateways before version 22.7R2.3 allows a local authenticated attacker to escalate their privileges.

In addition, Google Cloud has also put out a detailed advisory on the vulnerabilities, which adds a lot more context. But unfortunately, it appears as if the UK’s registry for internet domains, Nominet, is one of those organisations to have been attacked, and they’ve shared the following customer notice with us.

Important security update (Nominet)

We want to update you about an ongoing security incident that is currently under investigation.

We became aware of suspicious activity on our network late last week. The entry point was through third-party VPN software supplied by Ivanti that enables our people to access systems remotely.

However, we currently have no evidence of data breach or leakage. We already operate restricted access protocols and firewalls to protect our registry systems.

The unauthorised intrusion into our network exploited a zero-day vulnerability.

As you will recognise, these incidents are always fast-moving and require investigation – but we have NOT uncovered any backdoors or routes onto our network. Aided by external experts, our investigation continues, and we have put additional safeguards in place, including restricted access to our systems from VPN.

Domain registration and management systems continue to operate as normal.

As well as informing members and customers, we have reported this incident to the relevant authorities, including NCSC.

Ivanti has made available patches to address this vulnerability which we are implementing. Those also using Ivanti’s VPN services are encouraged to patch their software immediately.

We will update you when our investigation concludes, or as necessary.

Nominet will not be the only organisation to be dealing with the headaches that have resulted from the latest situation. Sadly, this is not the first time that Ivanti’s VPN solution has faced serious security problems (example), which appears to have been promptly exploited by “Chinese state-sponsored threat actors.”

News

At CES 2025, Toyota Motor Corporation announced the completion of Phase 1 construction of Toyota Woven City (“Woven City”), its self-made smart city at the base of Mount Fuji.

The Japanese automaker giant has labelled the city as a “test course for mobility” and plans to launch Phase 1 for late 2025.

Speaking at the CES confrence, Akio Toyoda, Toyota’s Chairman of the Board of Directors (Representative Director), detailed his vision for the city: 

“From personal mobility devices, like a wheelchair race car…to drones that safely escort you home at night, to interactive pet robots that provide support and companionship for the elderly, to flying cars…”

At the official launch of Woven City, approximately 100 residents―primarily Toyota and WbyT staff and their families―are expected to participate in co-creation activities as the first residents. Plans to welcome the general public are in place for 2026.

The Woven City concept was first unveiled in 2020, where it was described as a “living laboratory”.

Woven City is ideated to be where “Inventors” can develop, test, and validate innovative products and services. These inventors include Toyota and Toyota Group companies, such as WbyT, as well as external companies, startups, and individual entrepreneurs.

This article was written by Grace Dawes, Editor of movemnt.net

Also in the news:
VEON and Starlink to launch Direct-to-Cell Satellite connectivity in Ukraine
Swisscom completes acquisition of Vodafone Italia
Equinix to buy BT’s Irish data centre business for €59m

Consumer magazine Which? has warned customers of UK broadband ISP BT (inc. EE) to be on alert for phone scammers who are now actively impersonating BT’s support agents in order to exploit the ongoing migration onto digital landlines (Digital Voice). The scammers do this by trying to con customers into sharing their financial (payment) details.

In this case, a growing number of consumers have reportedly been called by fake BT support agents, who will state that they need to confirm your personal and payment information to ensure the phone service can be migrated before a “January 2025 deadline” (this should actually be end of December 2025 for most people and 31st January 2027 for vulnerable users – here and here). But alternatively, they may also demand on-the-spot payments to move the phone service and threaten disconnection if refused.

The wide availability of personal data online, both via public systems and through past data breaches, means that savvy fraudsters may often already know some of your personal details before they call, which can make the scam sound much more convincing. Such scams are not new and have been on the rise over the past couple of years (here).

The reality is that BT’s change to digital voice does not require any changes to your plan or bill, and your number won’t change either. The change itself, for most people, is quite straightforward when providers communicate it properly and support their customers correctly during the transition. But not everybody is as comfortable with the change, and it can be confusing for those who have spent a lifetime plugging their phones into the same old wall socket; particularly if they haven’t previously had a broadband service (your old handsets will now need to be plugged into a router or ATA device).

On top of that, there are still some long-standing problem areas, such as compatibility woes with third-party products and services (e.g. alarms and telecare services), many of which haven’t yet fully adapted to this change. BT and others are providing targeted support to resolve these issues, but it’s obviously also proving to be fertile grounds for scammers to exploit.

Tips to avoid scams include:

• If you receive a suspicious call, put the phone down and call back on a trusted number to verify the call
• If you mistakenly give a caller your bank account details, contact your bank immediately
• If you receive a suspicious call, report the call to BT here
• Block any suspicious numbers after you have reported them

Remember:

• Take a moment to stop and think. Trust your instincts. If it sounds too good to be true or is suspicious, there’s probably a catch
• Don’t stay on the phone unless you’re 100% sure the caller is genuine
• Don’t give away any of your personal details or give anyone access to your computer

Victims of such scams or fraudulent activity should also report it to Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040 or via their website, and/or contact your local trading standards team.

Telecoms and broadband giant BT Group (inc. Openreach) has today announced the “UK’s largest ever commercial Electric Vehicle (EV) fleet order“, which will see them purchasing around 3,500 new EVs and thus expanding their EV fleet to nearly 8,000 by the time the order is complete in 2026.

The operator, which currently manages the second-largest commercial vehicle fleet in the UK (i.e. more than 27,000 vehicles are used by their engineers across the country), already has around 4,300 electric vehicles, and they’re aiming to upgrade their entire fleet of diesel-powered vans and cars to EVs by the end of March 2031 (supporting their Net Zero target for the same date).

The order of the new EVs is part of a larger delivery of 6,000 new vehicles, with more than half of the vans being EVs. All of this will be delivered by four manufacturers over the next two years: Ford, Stellantis, Toyota, and Renault (BT and Openreach have previously also purchased some EVs from Vauxhall).

By the end of FY24, the BT Group had already achieved a 61% reduction in its carbon emissions intensity since FY17. A big contributor to this performance has been the move to more energy-efficient full fibre (FTTP) broadband and 4G / 5G mobile networks, while switching off old legacy networks (e.g. 3G and analogue phone).

Simon Lowth, Chief Financial Officer at BT Group, said:

“By integrating yet more electric vehicles into our operations, we are taking another significant step towards reducing our carbon footprint and supporting the UK’s transition to a greener future. As we extend our full fibre build from 16 million homes and businesses today to 25 million by the end of 2026, having the most efficient, sustainable electric vehicles will give our engineers the edge as they connect customers at pace to our next generation networks. Our modern fleet will help us to be more efficient and deliver a better service for our customers.”

Lilian Greenwood, Future of Roads Minister, said:

“Businesses have a crucial role to play in driving the transition to electric cars and vans. That’s why it’s fantastic to see that BT have made the most of our plug-in van grant to order 3,500 brand new EVs – which means they will have the largest electric commercial fleet in the UK.

“We want to help more businesses decarbonise their operations, and we’ve extended our plug-in van grant with £120 million funding to help roll out more zero emission vans on our roads – part of our £2.3 billion to support industry and consumers switch to EVs and make the transition a success”.

Sadly, BT’s announcement doesn’t contain any details on precisely which models the operator has ordered or how much range each of them will have. Last year we also reported that Openreach had teamed up with ‘Ground Control’ to install an initial 8,500 charging points for Openreach. Many of those will be installed outside engineer’s homes and at key sites, such as exchanges, up and down the country. The broadband network operator is also working with other operators, like First Bus, to share charging infrastructure (here).

Finally, BT’s awkwardly named UK digital incubation team, Etc., last year “powered up” their first Electric Vehicle (EV) charger under a 2-year pilot, which is one of potentially tens of thousands that could be established by repurposing Openreach’s old fixed broadband street cabinets (here) – these can be used by both residents and Openreach’s engineers. The first such conversion went live in Scotland, but the pilot itself is focused on West Yorkshire, with ambitions to scale up to 600 trial sites across the UK.

Network operator nexfibre, which shares some of their parentage with ISP partner Virgin Media (VMO2) and uses the same build teams, has today revealed that the roll-out of their new 10Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP / XGS-PON) broadband network has reached its coverage target of 2 million premises on time and is now moving on with the next phase.

Just to recap. Back in 2022 Telefónica, Liberty Global and InfraVia Capital Partners setup nexfibre as a new £4.5bn joint venture (here), which aims to deploy an open access (wholesale) full fibre network to reach “up to” 7 million UK homes (starting with 5m by 2026) in areas NOT served by Virgin Media’s own network of 16m+ premises. The funding reflects £3.3bn of fully underwritten financing and up to £1.4bn in equity commitments.

The operator previously reported that their full fibre network had been built to 1,557,000 premises as ‘Ready for Service’ at the end of October 2024 (here), which means that they’ve managed to add around 440,000 additional premises over the last two months. But it’s not clear from today’s announcement whether this figure now includes the 2023 acquisition of Upp and its c.175,000 premises.

“The business has delivered its network to more premises than any other fibre provider in 2024, except for the incumbent [Openreach], which makes it the UK’s second largest alternative network provider,” said nexfibre’s announcement today. But in fairness, CityFibre’s rival FTTP network has already reached 4 million premises, and we’re certain that Netomnia (YouFibre) has also just passed the 2 million premises mark (not yet official). Hyperoptic aren’t far behind the 2 million figure, either, but their roll-out has slowed.

Rajiv Datta, Chief Executive Officer of nexfibre, said:

“Reaching two million premises is testament to the dedication of our team and the support of our partners and investors. It reflects our commitment to building a network that prioritises underserved communities and creates a real and lasting impact – most of all by driving economic growth and improving living standards across the UK.

This is an outstanding achievement in just two years of operation – making nexfibre the UK’s second largest alternative network. However, our work is far from done. Our mission is to be part of a network platform that drives sustainable, nationwide competition, provides a genuine alternative to Openreach, and transforms access to broadband across the country.”

Sadly, today’s announcement, while extremely positive, doesn’t include a specific build target for the coming year. But given their progress and the future targets, it’s not unreasonable to expect them to do over 1 million premises during the next 12-months as well.

UPDATE 10:18am

Nexfibre has today informed ISPreview that, as the Upp migration exercise is expected to “reach its conclusion in the coming weeks“, the 2 million does include “some” of the Upp homes. But we expect to get a fuller update shortly.