News 

The funding will help expand the company’s data centre portfolio to meet the growing demand for cloud and AI infrastructure across Asia 

Digital Edge, a developer and operator of data centres cross Asia, has successfully raised over $1.6 billion in new funding.  

The capital, which includes both equity and debt financing, will fuel the company’s next phase of growth as it works to meet the increasing demand for cloud and AI services across the region. 

This funding round is made up of $640 million in equity contributions from a mix of current and new investors, alongside $1 billion in debt financing. 

These funds will be used to support the expansion of multiple campuses, including at Navi Mumbai, India, and Incheon, South Korea, according to anonymous sources.  

Since its establishment by Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners in 2020, Digital Edge has grown its operations to encompass 21 data centres across several key markets in Asia, including Japan, Korea, India, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines.  

Digital Edge launched its third data centre in South Korea, the 36MW SEL2 facility, in October last year. Located within the 100MW Incheon campus, this new facility marks a significant step in the company’s expansion to meet the soaring service demand in the country. Earlier in 2024, Digital Edge also opened the EDGE2 data centre in Jakarta, Indonesia, contributing an additional 23MW of capacity to its Southeast Asian portfolio. 

The company’s latest data centre projects also include its planned deployment of its 300MW Navi Mumbai campus in mid-2025. as well as a new hyperscale edge facility in downtown Tokyo, Japan. 

“The level of interest received from existing and new investors is testament to Digital Edge’s proven track record, expansion capacity, and relentless focus on delivering for our customers across the Asia Pacific region,” said Andrew Thomas, Chairman of Digital Edge and a Senior Managing Director at Stonepeak in a press release. “Since making the founding investment in Digital Edge in 2020, Stonepeak has been proud to support the platform’s expansion into six countries and a truly pan-APAC footprint.” 

The data centre industry has been booming for the past two years in line with increasing digital demand and the meteoric rise of AI services. Asia – particularly Southeast Asia – has been a major hotspot in this regard, seeing billions of dollars invested in new data centre projects from the likes of Google, Amazon, and Microsoft.  

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Finnish court rejects calls to release tanker suspected of subsea cable damage
NTT Docomo hit by DDoS attack

Rural focused alternative UK ISP Quickline, which is building a gigabit-capable broadband network (full fibre and wireless) across parts of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire (England), has collaborated with the Lincolnshire Institute of Technology (LIoT) to help support 500 students through a bursary scheme (i.e. money will help with study, travel and additional childcare costs).

The bursary is intended to be used to support students from “underrepresented groups“, including mature students, parents, people from low-income families, people with a disability and people who were previously in care. Students who meet these criteria and are enrolled on level 4 and 5 courses will be eligible for the funds.

The bursary support for LIoT forms part of the social value commitment made by Quickline as part of its Project Gigabit contracts, one of which is their £118.9m roll-out contract for the East Riding of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire (Lot 23) area (here) – this will see their network reach 72,000 additional premises in hard-to-reach areas.

Quickline Communications joins LIoT’s two other employment partners, Bakkavor and United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust.

Julian Chalk, Head of Engagement and Enablement at Quickline, said:

“We’re very excited to be joining the Lincolnshire Institute of Technology and can’t wait to get stuck in with some exciting new projects.

Our whole ethos as a business revolves around accessibility – we connect rural communities that have been left behind by other providers and are on a mission to ensure that everyone has access to decent broadband, wherever they live.

Now, we’re channelling this focus on accessibility and inclusivity into our work with the Lincolnshire Institute of Technology, ensuring everyone has access to the education they need to thrive in a STEM career.”

Mick Lochran, Director of the LIoT, said:

“It’s a pleasure to welcome Quickline Communications to the Lincolnshire Institute of Technology and it’s fantastic to see the business’s commitment to making STEM education more accessible.

The bursary will help us to remove the barriers underrepresented groups face when enrolling for, attending and achieving higher-level technical qualifications and moving into employment.”

LIoT is a partnership between employers and nine education partners across the county – the University of Lincoln, University Campus North Lincolnshire, University Centre Grimsby, Boston College, Grantham College & University Centre, Lincoln College, Riseholme College, Lincoln UTC and Stamford College.

It is part of a national network of 21 IoTs, made up of experienced education providers and leading employers across England. Backed by £290 million of government investment, each IoT focuses on specialisms to suit their location, with the aim to fill immediate skills gaps while building a pipeline of talent for the future.

News

The tanker is believed to have damage submarine telecoms and electricity cables by dragging its anchor across the lines late last year

Late last month the subsea cable Estlink 2, which connects Finland and Estonia, was severed, causing significant disruption to data transport between both countries. An adjacent subsea power cable was also damaged.

An investigation into the damage was quickly launched, Finnish authorities seizing the tanker Eagle S, which was in the vicinity when the damage occurred.

Speaking the following day, Helsinki’s Police Chief Jari Liukku said Finnish authorities were “investigating grave sabotage”, with authorities further alleging that Eagle S is part of a so-called ‘shadow fleet’ of older tankers seeking to evade sanctions on the sale of Russian oil.

On Friday, the ship’s owner, United Arab Emirates-based Caravella LLC FZ, had its request to release the ship denied by a Finnish court.

Repairs to the cable system are expected to take two months.

The Baltic has turned into a hotspot for subsea cable damage since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Late last year, a pair of submarine cables in the region were damaged in what is being investigated as an act sabotage as part of Russia’s ‘hybrid warfare’ strategy to destabilise the region.

In response, NATO has said it will boost its presence in the region to protect the critical infrastructure.

The Baltic is not the only region seeing a worrisome increase in submarine cable damage in recent years. The Red Sea, for example, saw significant cable damage last year linked to Houthi rebels in Yemen attacking shipping routes.

The geopolitically charged waters around Taiwan have also seen increased cable disruption. Today, a submarine cable in the region was cut off the north-east coast of the island, with authorities blaming a Cameroonian-registered cargo ship, the Shunxin-39, for causing accidental damage.

With the world becoming increasingly unstable, the security of submarine cable networks is becoming a major international priority.

Keep up to date with all the latest telecoms news from around the world with the Total Telecom newsletter

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

Business focused UK broadband ISP, IT and Cloud solutions provider FluidOne has today announced the appointment of Graham Dickie as its new Chief Financial Officer (CEO), effective immediately. Graham will replace former CFO, Roy Hastings, in the role after he left during July 2024 by mutual agreement.

The new CFO is said to bring over 20 years of financial leadership experience to FluidOne and has worked in multinational businesses with revenues of upwards of £100m. In particular, the provider notes his extensive experience in driving change and creating value in both private equity backed and multi-billion dollar listed global organisations, which they said would be “pivotal in supporting FluidOne’s next steps in scaling up“.

Since a management buyout, led by CEO Russell Horton and backed by Livingbridge some 6 years ago, the business is said to have quadrupled in size to revenues of £113m and expanded its focus into IT and Cyber Security-led managed service provider solutions. The provider has also made nine acquisitions in recent years and is now aiming to achieve a turnover of £300m by 2030.

Russell Horton, FluidOne CEO, said:

“I am delighted to welcome Graham to FluidOne and am very much looking forward to collaborating with him in realising our 2030 vision. Our already talented team is considerably stronger with Graham on board. He brings unparalleled financial experience in buy and build strategies, combined with an immediate cultural fit, making him the ideal person to take us to the next level.”

A new newspaper report has revealed what digital infrastructure investors think of the UK’s current market for alternative broadband networks (altnets). Suffice to say that, after a difficult couple of years, there still seems to be a fair mix of both strong pessimism and optimism for 2025, which perhaps reflects the different states of the market’s many providers.

ISPreview’s regular readers will already be familiar with the many challenges being experienced by network operators over the past couple of years. The current situation has been fuelled by rising build costs, fierce competition from rivals (i.e. overbuild and the challenges of growing take-up), the problem of growing brand familiarity and the difficulties of securing fresh investment during a period of high interest rates (inc. the rising cost of debt repayments).

In response, we’ve seen many network operators adopt a more protectionist strategy, which often involves scaling-back (or even halting) their deployments of new full fibre (FTTP) gigabit broadband networks and switching their focus to growing customer take-up (i.e. commercialisation).

At the same time, some other network operators and investment firms have gone on a consolidation drive in an effort to capitalise on the difficult climate. But we didn’t see as much consolidation occurring during 2024 as many expected (this is partly suspected to be due to disagreements over valuations) and it remains to be seen whether that changes in 2025. For some, an inability to consolidate could mean a greater risk of failure, which might cause even bigger losses further down the road if their assets get hoovered up on the cheap (i.e. during administration).

Back in October 2024 Enders Analysis published a report that calculated how the 20 largest altnets had collectively suffered losses of around £1.304bn in 2023 (increased from £755m in 2022), while also suggesting that most altnets were now heading for under 20% take-up within 5 years of build completion, “even at maturity“ (here). But Enders also estimated that altnets needed a 40% take-up rate to deliver a reasonable return, which in reality will vary dramatically between operators as the cost to build and maintain such networks varies significantly (some could get a reasonable return with sub-20% and others will need more). Location is also a factor (rural vs urban).

What do investors think?

One thing missing from our above analysis is what the infrastructure investors themselves think of today’s market and its prospects for 2025, which is particularly relevant since these are the very people and organisations who will ultimately decide the fate of many altnets. Thankfully, the FT (paywall) has published an article that includes a mix of feedback from various investors, which we’ve summarised and paraphrased below.

However, we do have to sound a note of caution on the below remarks, as investors will always be speaking from a position of their own vested interests and that will be coloured by where they currently have their money. For example, investors with a strong altnet position won’t want to talk the market down too much, unless they’re planning to drive some consolidation themselves. So keep that in mind for context.

Summary of Thoughts from Altnet Investors

➤ Vicente Vento, CEO of investment management firm DTCP (they back CommunityFibre in London), warned that banks had in recent years financed some projects that, in hindsight, they probably should not have done.

➤ Ben Terry of Amber Infrastructure (they back toob, CommunityFibre etc.) expects altnets to continue their focus on commercialisation instead of new infrastructure build in 2025 so as to demonstrate a clear trajectory toward profitability and self-funding. Ben added that consolidation was still firmly on investors’ agendas and “many discussions are underway“, albeit with sticking points like valuations tending to slow that process.

➤ Max Gilbert, MD of investment bank Houlihan Lokey (they’ve advised on deals, like the one between CityFibre and Lit Fibre), does not expect investor sensitment to materially improve during 2025. But he was cautiously optimistic after the sector had gone through somewhat of a “reset period” and a good number of altnets were now expected to be break-even, in terms of ebitda, during the next year or so.

➤ Cesar Bravo of Hamburg Commercial Bank (altnet investor) said they’d taken a step back from the market, but were now looking at potential deals and increasingly baking key performance indicators into covenants from the beginning. The bank still sees the sector as having strong fundamentals and businesses that make for attractive investment opportunities.

➤ An anonymous senior investor at a asset manager that specialises in digital infrastructure warned that a “large chunk” of altnets are uneconomic (mostly due to limited take-up) and is predicting a lot of failures, with lenders sitting on a big pile of material losses and trying to avoid write-downs.

➤ A second anonymous industry investor felt the challenges of what altnets were trying to do had been underestimated during the “gold rush” period and that some may go bankrupt, with assets being sold off for a lower price than they cost to build. But they also said that the characteristics that attracted them to the market in the first place still remain (i.e. the networks are expensive build, but they’re cheaper to run).

➤ A third anonymous executive at a digital infrastructure investor said they had declined ten different proposals to invest in UK altnets over the past 3 years, usually because the there were risks in the altnets assumptions on pricing, profitability and competition (e.g. one altnet it saw had been valued at half the amount of invested capital). The executive felt more consolidation was inevitable.

The comments above, which are quite varied but do seem to agree on some shared points of view, broadly reflect our own impression of today’s market. But it shouldn’t be forgotten that, for altnets, there are still signs of optimism, at least for those operators that are in the best position right now to capitalise on it.

For example, Ofcom’s new One Touch Switching (OTS) system, despite its challenges, is making it easier for consumers to change broadband ISP, particularly between those on physically separate networks (doing this was much more tedious before). The dominant market player, Openreach (BT), is also continuing to lose a sizeable number of broadband lines each year to rivals (line losses in H1 were 377k, a 2% decline in their broadband base).

On top of that, we’ve been seeing a rise in the number of debt raises by altnets over the past year. In addition, there are signs that we could see greater infrastructure sharing occurring between networks in the future, which if done well could reduce deployment costs and increase coverage. Some of this may come via INCA’s efforts to encourage it (here) and possibly also Ofcom’s new Telecoms Access Review (TAR). But it’s still a bit uncertain, due to the difficulty of bringing so many competing interests together.

Finally, it’s important to remember that not all network operators have felt forced to slow their pace of build to focus more on commercialisation. Some operators have felt confident enough to keep building at the same or even greater scale than they were before the current climate established itself, such as Openreach, Netomnia (inc. Brsk), Nexfibre (Virgin Media) and a few others.

The future direction of the market is thus far from being set in stone, and there are plenty of big developments expected during 2025. Not forgetting Virgin Media’s move to open up their existing network to wholesale. The next 12 months are thus sure to be eventful.

The CEO of alternative network operator AllPoints Fibre (APFN / Fern Trading), Jarlath Finnegan, has today told ISPreview – in a new interview – of his ambition for the company to become the “UBER of the full fibre wholesale market“, which reflects their desire to help “accelerate” the delivery of related UK broadband services over the next few years.

In case anybody has forgotten, AllPoints Fibre Networks was officially formed between 2023 and 2024 from the consolidation of three alternative broadband networks and ISPs (here and here), including Giganet, Swish Fibre and Jurassic Fibre. All of the companies were backed by Fern Trading and had previously been deploying FTTP networks to premises across different parts of the UK.

The consolidation occured against the backdrop of a market under growing strain from various challenges, such as rising build costs (inc. high interest rates), network overbuild and competition. Such strains had already put pressure on Fern’s various altnets and consolidation was seen as part of their strategy for creating a more efficient, flexible and diverse network.

The outcome saw APFN take on the role of a single national wholesale network for all of the aforementioned fibre operators, while UK ISP Cuckoo became the main outlet for all their retail customers. Since then APFN has also acquired another retail ISP in the shape of Glasgow-based full fibre ISP Brillband (here), which isn’t touched on in this interview because we conducted it just before that announcement.

However, just to be clear, while APFN has previously talked about harbouring post-consolidation plans to “accelerate full fibre delivery over the next five years”. Jarlath makes clear that the focus here is no longer on driving new network build. Instead, the operator is developing a wholesale offering that has a wider reach, which includes onboarding new networks and providing ISPs with access to operators that were once rivals (e.g. Openreach, CityFibre etc.).

“Think of us as the UBER of the full fibre wholesale market,” said Jarlath. “We are absolutely pushing to accelerate full fibre delivery. But this is not a build strategy: we are a wholesaler offering amazing service experiences to our customers.”

In the following interview, Jarlath also remarks that it would be “crazy for the Government to use [gigabit broadband] vouchers in urban areas” (these are currently limited to rural areas), while also saying that he’s “broadly happy with the current [markets] regulatory framework and would like to see it maintained“. On top of that he calls for altnets to “avoid under-pricing full fibre into which billions has been invested in a dash for customer numbers.”

The APFN Interview

1. I think it’s fair to say that APFN has had a busy couple of years, not least with the effort to consolidate the full fibre broadband networks of Giganet, Jurassic Fibre, and Swish Fibre under a single infrastructure brand, while at the same time splitting the retail bases of those providers out to Cuckoo. Has this consolidation drive now fully completed, and what did you find to be the biggest challenge in the process?

Jarlath Finnegan said:

In February 2023 we began the journey to extract all the best parts of each of the individual investments and create our national full fibre platform ‘aquila’, but more about that later. We wanted to rip up the rule book in the way full fibre services are delivered across the UK without having to build or buy to every premise. Think of us as the UBER of the full fibre wholesale market. We strongly believe the best way to challenge the market is to prove that our platform delivers, so we needed a customer with the same mindset and who better to work with initially than Cuckoo, who deliver fast, fair, feel-good broadband.

APFN is now supporting Cuckoo in their migration off legacy brands and networks, and they will be one of the first customers to benefit from the APFN aquila platform. We’re really excited to onboard further ISPs and Partners in the coming months who will have the advantage of our disruptive, seamless platform.

2. Prior to the consolidation, we had an incomplete idea of how much network coverage had been delivered by the aforementioned networks (premises passed / RFS) or how many customers they’d managed to acquire. Are you now in a position to share such details?

Jarlath Finnegan said:

aquila is network agnostic and currently offers access to 18m homes. This is increasing each quarter as our network partners continue to deliver new homes and business. We have also lit up and cut over onto our aquila national backbone network which we know is currently the fastest, most resilient way to traverse the UK. Our aquila edge network deployment is underway which means we will deliver amazing service experiences every time. We’re confident that the experience we’ll provide isn’t just better than our competitors; it’s unique.

3. APFN has previously indicated that, with the consolidation out of the way, they would push to “accelerate full fibre delivery over the next five years”. But the current environment has proven to be extremely challenging for many alternative networks, due to high build costs, strong competition and the difficulties of trying to raise fresh investment during a period of high interest rates.

Sadly, challenges like this have caused some operators to make redundancies and scale-back their network builds, which is something that we recall has affected APFN’s networks in the recent past too. Given all of this, can you possibly offer a bit more detail about what APFN’s actual network roll-out plans are for the next year or so, or is the strategy now one that is more focused upon growing customer take-up (commercialisation)?

Jarlath Finnegan said:

We are absolutely pushing to accelerate full fibre delivery. But this is not a build strategy: we are a wholesaler offering amazing service experiences to our customers. Our strategy to develop aquila was based on the needs of B2C and B2B ISPs. We aim to raise the standard in the market in partnership with our network partners CityFibre and Openreach, and our own APFN network. We have also made aquila network agnostic, so this allows us to get to an individual premise in the most cost-effective way and so we continue to assess the market opportunities. Enabling our customers to increase take up with the lowest cost to serve is where our focus is.

We work, day in day out, with our partners (which includes our own APFN network team) to push the boundaries of what is possible in this area as we believe in competition which will ultimately benefit the consumer. However, we do not support excessive overbuild as it’s a poor use of capital and will impact the attractiveness of the sector.

4. In a climate where consolidation seems to have become the talk of the town. Does APFN see itself more as being an attractive prospect for being consolidated by a bigger fish, or are you likely to focus on remaining independent, while potentially raising fresh investment as interest rates come down – perhaps even doing a little consolidation of your own?

Jarlath Finnegan said:

It’s clear the market will consolidate but there will be different levels on how this happens across assets and customers. It’s inevitable that some of the fibre investments that have been made will fail, but we have seen some good examples of what is possible. For example, I was interested to see the announcement of the recent CityFibre / Lit Fibre deal, with the ISP going back to the founders. This is really good business for all, including the end consumer. We will always be active in the market but like aquila it must be something different with realistic expectations. This is a long but exciting game!

5. The country recently welcomed a new government, which over the past few months has been sending some mixed signals. On the one hand we’ve seen various tax rises in the budget (increasing costs in certain areas), while on the other there’s been talk about making a “renewed push to fulfil the ambition of full gigabit and national 5G coverage by 2030” and unblocking planning.

How do you think the new government is doing, with respect to supporting altnets like APFN on this front, and what more would you like to see them do?

Jarlath Finnegan said:

When a government wins a landslide, expectations are always high across the board that they will bring in sweeping positive change, for everyone. And of course, we know that, with every decision a government makes, there must be winners and losers. The recent budget is certainly a case in point in that regard.

We will always want the government to do more but at the end of the day it’s business that creates jobs and wealth, so we must get on with it and they can hopefully support us. But we will always need to move first.

We have been talking about 5G for a long time now and when you compare it to the fibre roll out it hasn’t kept up. In the early stages of the fibre rollout, the industry set to work and just got on with the task in hand of building out, but we are not done yet and now we need to push for ubiquitous coverage which will need both fixed and wireless over the next 7 to 10 years along with government support to ensure the digital economy can thrive. Look at what we have achieved in 5 years!

Please flick over to Page 2 in order to finish reading the interview.

National network access provider Openreach (BT) has today revealed that their Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network, which offers broadband speeds of up to 1800Mbps to homes and businesses via hundreds of ISPs, has now covered 17 million UK premises. This includes more than 4.3 million premises in “rural and hard-to-reach areas“.

The data means that Openreach, which also saw their overall broadband usage (data / internet traffic) surge by 10.8% during the year (representing traffic from multiple communication providers), added a total of 4.2 million additional UK premises to the coverage of their “full fibre” network during 2024 (i.e. an extra home or business every 8 seconds).

The operator is currently investing up to £15bn to expand the coverage of this full fibre network to reach 25 million UK premises by December 2026 (here), which includes around 6.2 million premises in rural or semi-rural areas. On top of that, they’ve also expressed an ambition to reach up to 30 million by the “end of 2030“, although this is partly dependent upon a favourable outcome from Ofcom’s next Telecoms Access Review 2026 (TAR).

Clive Selley, CEO of Openreach, said:

“Fast, reliable connectivity is essential for the UK, and the increased traffic on our broadband network is evidence that customers are increasingly reliant on it in their daily lives.

We’re building and connecting people faster than ever before and I’m proud of the progress our engineers have made. We’re well on our way to delivering our ambition of reaching 25 million homes and business by the end of 2026, and now our sights are set on reaching 30 million premises by the end of 2030,

While over a third of properties have already switched, there’s plenty of room for more people to get a better connection right now. So why not check if you could get faster – and potentially cheaper – broadband today.”

The new service, once live, can be ordered via various ISPs, such as BT, Sky Broadband, TalkTalk, Vodafone and many more (Openreach FTTP ISP Choices) – it is not currently an automatic upgrade, although some providers have started to do free automatic upgrades as older copper-based services and lines are slowly withdrawn.

SpaceX’s Starlink service, which offers ultrafast broadband speeds to the UK and globally via a mega constellation of satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), has published an annual 2024 Progress Report that summarises their recent upgrades and reveals how their future V3 (GEN3) satellite will be able to handle 1Tbps (Terabits per second) of capacity.

At present Starlink’s network has around 6,900 satellites in orbit (c.2,800 are v2 Mini / GEN 2A) – mostly at altitudes of c.500-600km – and they’re in the process of adding thousands more by the end of 2027. Customers in the UK typically pay from £75 a month for a 30-day term, plus £299 for hardware on the ‘Standard’ unlimited data plan (inc. £19 postage), which promises latency times of 25-60ms, downloads of c. 25-100Mbps and uploads of c. 5-10Mbps.

However, those with a long enough memory may recall that the operator has long held an aspiration toward delivering up to 1000Mbps (1Gbps) download speeds to customers (possibly even rising up to 10Gbps in the future), although today’s real-world experiences often still fall quite a bit short of that. For example, the average (median) UK download speed on Starlink is currently 66.8Mbps and this rises up to 157Mbps for those with the top 10% of fastest connections, while uploads average 10.2Mbps or 16.7Mbps for those in the top 10% (here).

Suffice to say that the network is currently a long way off the 1Gbps+ mark for UK consumers, which in fairness is partly how they’re able to keep the service so relatively affordable for what you get. According to Starlink’s new 2024 Progress Report, the company’s current network has already launched a total cumulative data capacity of around 350Tbps (Terabits per second) into orbit, but that’s about to grow considerably.

Adding Capacity via Starlink’s GEN3 Satellites

SpaceX has long envisaged that their huge new Starship rocket, which is now nearly ready to handle its first commercial launches, would be capable of lofting much heavier / larger satellites in the future – in a greater quantity and thus higher cost efficiency. This is important because they’re currently preparing their next generation (V3) satellites to take advantage of this.

Just for some context, Starlink’s current V2 Mini satellites, introduced in 2023, have already enhanced performance with quadrupled bandwidth capacity (96Gbps per satellite) compared with their previous v1.5 spacecraft. But the company’s new progress report tells us precisely what we can now expect when they start launching their first v3 / GEN3 satellites in the near future.

In short, each v3 satellite will be able to handle 1Tbps (1000Gbps) of downlink speeds and 160Gbps of uplink capacity, with the Starship rocket seemingly able to put around 60 v3 satellites per launch into orbit (Credits to PCMag for spotting the release of this report). But this is an assumption of ours based on the statement below, which assumes 60Tbps is only referring to downlink performance, otherwise it may be closer to c. 50 satellites (inc. uplink).

V3 STARLINK SATELLITE

The V3 Starlink satellite will be optimized for launch by SpaceX’s Starship vehicle. Each Starlink V3 launch on Starship is planned to add 60 Tbps of capacity to the Starlink network, more than 20 times the capacity added with every V2 Mini launch on Falcon 9.

Each V3 Starlink satellite will have 1 Tbps of downlink speeds and 160 Gbps of uplink capacity, which is more than 10x the downlink and 24x the uplink capacity of the V2 Mini Starlink satellites.

The V3 satellite will also have nearly 4 Tbps of combined RF and laser backhaul capacity. Additionally, the V3 Starlink satellites will use SpaceX’s next generation computers, modems, beamforming, and switching.

At the time of writing, we still don’t know precisely when SpaceX will start using Starship for full-scale commercial launches, but it’s highly likely to begin sometime during 2025 given the rocket’s recent progress. The new satellites may well sit slightly closer to earth (lower altitude, which is good for performance but does sacrifice a little coverage) and will be able to harness more radio spectrum frequency to help support their performance, as well as other enhancements (newer antennas etc.).

Speaking of Starlink, SpaceX are currently planning to launch their 6th rocket test around 10th January 2025 from their Starbase at Boca Chica Beach (Texas, USA). This will be another suborbital flight test of its fully integrated Starship rocket, a combination of the Ship upper stage (S33) and the Super Heavy booster (B14).

SpaceX plans to catch the Super Heavy booster using the chopsticks on the launch tower again, but will make a final determination on the catch following lift-off and stage separation. This mission will feature the first block upgrades for the Ship upper stage. S33 will perform a landing flip and make a hopefully gentle splashdown in the Indian Ocean.

News

The court of appeal ruled on Thursday that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) does not have the legal authority to reinstate the rules

This week has seen a US appeals court strike a major blow to the Biden administration’s aspirations of restoring net neutrality, ruling that the FCC does not have the power to enforce such regulations.

Net neutrality is the concept that all internet users and internet traffic should be treated equally by service providers. This paradigm means that providers may not block, slow down, or charge different rates for specific online content. Championed by the Democrats for over a decade and formally introduced as a ruleset by the Obama administration, net neutrality was then rescinded in 2018 during the Trump presidency.

As a paradigm, net neutrality has been highly political since its inception, with left-leaning Democrats arguing that net neutrality principles are necessary for a fair and open internet, while right-leaning Republicans see it as heavy-handed and unnecessary regulation of the free market.

Joe Biden made the reinstatement of net neutrality a focal point of his election campaign, issuing an executive order encouraging the FCC to reinstate the rules in 2021.

Now, following this new ruling from a US appeals court, it seems that net neutrality’s return is unlikely.

The courts new ruling hinges on a new precedent set by the US supreme court case (the ‘Loper Bright’ case) last summer. This case saw a previous precedent – known as the 1984 Chevron doctrine – overturned, ruling that only the judiciary should have the power to interpret the law in ambiguous cases, rather than federal agencies like the FCC.

Since previous net neutrality rulings by the FCC rested on their interpretation of ambiguous regulatory law via the Chevron doctrine, these arguments are no longer valid.

“Applying Loper Bright means we can end the FCC’s vacillations,” read the court ruling.

In reaction to the ruling, FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel argued that it was now necessary for Congress to enshrine net neutrality principles into federal law.

“Consumers across the country have told us again and again that they want an internet that is fast, open and fair. With this decision it is clear that Congress now needs to heed their call, take up the charge for net neutrality and put open internet principles in federal law,” she said.

However, with Congress majority controlled by anti-net neutrality Republicans, it seems unlikely that this call to action will bear fruit – at least during the incoming Trump administration.

Republican FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr, on the other hand, was much more positive about the ruling, describing net neutrality regulations as the Biden government’s “internet power grab”.

Brendan Carr is set to take over as FCC chair under the incoming Trump administration.

Keep up to date with all the latest telecoms news from around the world with the Total Telecom newsletter

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

News 

The deal follows Zegona’s €5 billion purchase of Vodafone Spain last June 

Zegona Communications has announced that Vodafone Spain and MasOrange will form a new fibre network joint venture, dubbed FibreCo. 

FibreCo will combine the two companies’  fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) networks, reaching roughly 12.2 million premises across Spain. This, the partners say, will create the largest FTTH network in Europe. 

FibreCo will use existing infrastructure, with nearly 40% of the combined FTTH network already in use  by 4.5 million customers. It plans to deploy the latest technologies, such as XGS-PON, to improve service quality. Vodafone Spain will use FibreCo to deliver services to both retail and wholesale customers. 

FibreCo is expected to generate approximately €480 million in annual EBITDA within three years.  

A third-party investor is also being sought to join the venture, with the proposition already reportedly receiving strong interest. Under the proposed structure, MasOrange will retain 50% ownership, Zegona will hold 10%, and the third-party investor will take a 40% stake. 

“Entering this FibreCo partnership with MasOrange, alongside our recently announced agreements with Telefonica, transforms Vodafone Spain’s fixed line strategy. The combination will give guaranteed access to a future-proof all fibre national network with attractive economic terms and will enable substantial cost savings across the business. Monetising these two FibreCos is expected to deliver very significant Zegona proceeds, generating the ability to reduce leverage and provide a return of capital to shareholders,” said Eamonn O’Hare, Chairman and CEO of Zegona in a press release. 

The initiative follows Zegona’s recent agreement with Telefónica to establish another fibre network in Spain and renew wholesale access terms. Combined, these projects represent a significant overhaul of Vodafone Spain’s fixed-line strategy, enabling full FTTH coverage across the country and achieving cost efficiencies.  

The deal is subject to regulatory approval and is expected to close by mid-2025, alongside the onboarding of a third-party investor. 

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