Broadband, phone and mobile operator Manx Telecom (MT), which serves premises across the remote Isle of Man, has revealed that they will begin “shutting down” their legacy copper telecoms network in 2025, with the full switch-off completed “no later than” 2029.

In case anybody has forgotten. Back in 2020 the Isle of Man Government agreed (here) to invest £10m with MT in order to help them extend the coverage of their gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network to 99% of local premises (41,000+) by around the end of 2025 (MT’s commercial investment of £50m would have only got them to 75%).

The rollout of fibre-optic broadband is already well underway, with over 90% of homes and businesses now able to access faster internet. More than half of the island’s population is already enjoying faster, more reliable internet through FTTP based services. This number will continue to grow as the transition continues.

However, the arrival of FTTP lines also means that MT’s legacy copper network will no longer be needed, which is similar to the gradual transition that is taking place across the United Kingdom via operators like Openreach (BT) and KCOM. The withdrawal of MT’s old copper network thus seems set to be covered by the operator’s existing £50m investment in new fibre.

Hugo van Zyl, Chief Technical Officer of Manx Telecom, said:

“The copper network switch-off is an essential step towards modernising the Isle of Man’s telecommunications infrastructure. Fibre broadband offers a more reliable, faster, and future-proof service for the island. Our goal is to ensure every home and business using fixed line communication services takes full advantage of this improved technology by 2029, ensuring the Isle of Man is ready for the digital future.”

The copper network is due to be switched off in phases on a region-by-region basis – residents and businesses will be notified well in advance of this. The BBC News has also discovered that the phasing is being split into six zones, with the disconnection of the first two set to begin in January 2025.

Disconnection zones

Zone 1: Foxdale, Kirk Michael, St John’s

Zone 2: Andreas, Ballaugh, Bride, Jurby, Sulby

Zone 3: Dalby, Glen Maye, Laxey, Peel

Zone 4: Braaid, Crosby, Glen Auldyn, Glen Vine, Maughold, Ramsey, Strang, Union Mills

Zone 5: Ballabeg, Ballasalla, Bradda, Castletown, Colby, Cregneash, Derbyhaven, Port Erin, Port St Mary

Zone 6: Baldrine, Douglas, Newtown, Onchan, Port Soderick

Satellite communications firm Viasat appears to be following Starlink and AST SpaceMobile by successfully demonstrating their own Direct-to-Device (D2D) connectivity, which could allow their broadband satellites to connect with “everyday devices“, like 4G/5G mobile phones, industrial machinery or transport operators.

The successful demo of D2D, which took place in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), was fairly simple and sent satellite-enabled two-way messages and SoS messages for attendees at this week’s Abu Dhabi Space Debate event. This is Viasat’s third successful D2D showcase this quarter, following demonstrations in both Saudia Arabia and India.

The outcome of the trial is said to “prove satellite services to cell phone connectivity is technically feasible” for consumers and businesses using Viasat’s satellite network. The tests used a commercial Android smartphone “enabled for non-terrestrial network (NTN) connectivity” with an over-the-top messaging application.

Separate messages were then successfully sent over two of Viasat’s L-band (1 – 2GHz) satellites, which orbit above Asia. They were enabled by 3GPP standards-based NTN service infrastructure installed in Viasat’s gateways by Skylo, a Viasat ecosystem partner. The technology follows new global mobile 3GPP release 17 standards, which are being adopted by satellite operators, mobile operators, handset and chipset manufacturers.

Kevin Cohen, VP, Direct to Device Partnerships, Viasat, said:

“In regions all over the world, millions of people do not have access to consistent, reliable networks. Satellite-enabled D2D could help reduce these barriers by allowing people to stay safe, secure, and connected when terrestrial services are interrupted or unavailable. That is why we’re excited by the opportunity. We’d like to thank TDRA and our international partners for their support.”

The company added that their approach of using already-licensed and dedicated satellite spectrum will enable it to work with mobile network operators to provide these services in the future without sacrificing or interfering with any terrestrial spectrum.

Quite how comparable this is to the dedicated solutions being deployed by Starlink and others remains unclear. But they’ll need to do more than just send basic messages, with rivals also looking to provide limited mobile broadband and voice calls to unmodified Smartphones (Viasat indicated that their mobile handset had to be “enabled” for NTN connectivity first).

The other catch is that Viasat’s ELERA L-band MSS network usually orbits at an altitude of 22,300 miles or 35,888km, which puts them quite a bit further away than the LEO satellites being used by several rivals (usually orbiting at a few hundred km). This is good for coverage, but also makes for some very slow network latency times.

UK ISP InternetTY (aka – Internet ThankYou), which in 2020 began deploying a new gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network to “rural and semi-urbanised areas” across Staffordshire and Lincolnshire, has revealed that they now cover around 12,000 premises in North Lincolnshire and Lincolnshire.

This is the first update we’ve had from the network operator in a long time, so it’s good to see that their new Point-to-Point style “full fibre” network is still keeping busy. Just to recap, their original deployments started in the village of Ulceby and town of Barton-Upon-Humber, where they rubbed up against some overbuild from KCOM’s network. But since then they’ve reached several more locations.

Apparently, the operator is also feeling a bit festive because they’ve just helped Santa to start some of his rounds in Barton (pictured).

Sarah White, MD of InternetTY, said:

“Last year, Santa didn’t make his usual sleigh ride around Barton, and the absence was deeply felt. Many of our team live locally, and we overheard conversations in the office like, ‘It doesn’t feel like Christmas without it.’ This sentiment was shared across the town.

When we spoke to the local Rotary and Lions, who traditionally organise the event, we discovered that the reason Santa couldn’t visit was due to insurance challenges. Even more concerning, they explained that the event wouldn’t go ahead in future years unless this issue was resolved. That’s when we knew we had to step in!

For decades, this annual event has been so much more than just a visit from Santa Claus. It’s a much-anticipated highlight for the entire community, bringing families together and creating cherished memories that last a lifetime. It’s not just about a jolly figure in red riding a light-filled sleigh with festive tunes playing—it’s about the spirit of togetherness, joy, and hope that makes Christmas special.

I’m incredibly proud of my team for rallying behind this cause, ensuring that no child—or ‘big kid’—misses out on the magic of meeting Santa at Christmas, right on their doorstep. We can’t wait to see the smiles, hear the laughter, and feel the excitement as families come together once again to celebrate.”

Press Release

Jakarta, December 11, 2024 — Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison (Indosat or IOH) proudly announces its recognition as the winner of the Best Digital Transformation Award at the prestigious World Communication Awards 2024. This accolade underscores the company’s groundbreaking efforts in redefining its role from a traditional telecommunications provider to an AI-driven technology leader in Indonesia’s digital landscape. The award was received by Steve Saerang, Senior Vice President – Head  of Corporate Communications Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison, during the award ceremony held in London.

The World Communication Awards, regarded as a benchmark of excellence in the global telecommunications industry, celebrate outstanding achievements and innovations that drive progress in the sector. Indosat’s digital transformation journey stood out among top global contenders for its visionary strategies, seamless technological integration, and dedication to customer excellence.

Vikram Sinha, President Director and Chief Executive Officer of Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison, stated, “This recognition is a testament to the relentless efforts and innovative spirit of the entire Indosat team. Our journey from a telco to a techco is driven by a singular focus on delivering a ‘Marvelous Experience’ to our customers. This award reflects our commitment to empowering Indonesia through cutting-edge technology and customer-centric solutions. As we look to the future, we remain dedicated to pushing the boundaries of innovation and contributing to the digital transformation of Indonesia.”

Rob Chambers, Managing Director at Terrapinn, praised Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison for its exceptional transformation journey, “Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison’s transition into a tech-driven powerhouse showcases a bold vision executed with precision. Their customer-centric strategy has yielded remarkable results, setting a new benchmark for the industry. IOH’s journey is an inspiration to the global telecom sector.”

This recognition at the World Communication Awards 2024 reaffirms Indosat’s commitment to innovation, excellence, and customer satisfaction. Indosat is determined to build on this success by introducing transformative solutions and setting new industry standards.

The transformation taken by Indosat is part of a bold move that aimed to integrate the network infrastructure and its operations. This transformation was not only about achieving quality targets but also about redefining the company’s position from a traditional telecommunications provider to a technology-driven enterprise. Leveraging autonomous transformation as the backbone of its strategy, Indosat successfully laid the foundation for what it terms a “Marvelous Experience,” ensuring a stable and consistent platform for innovation and growth while elevating customer service standards.

A cornerstone of this transformation was the creation of a central data repository, or a big data lake, designed to serve as a single source of truth for decision-making. Indosat implemented advanced technologies to streamline operations, significantly reducing service quality alarms and expediting problem identification and resolution. These technological advancements have redefined operational efficiency and paved the way for unparalleled service reliability.

Indosat’s transformation was deeply rooted in its commitment to its customers, encapsulated in the concept of “Marvelous Experience.” This holistic approach interwove improvements across various touchpoints, enhancing not only customer interactions but also the experiences of employees, partners, and the brand itself. By adopting AI-powered tools to analyse Quality of Experience (QoE) and customer satisfaction (CSAT), Indosat enabled proactive measures to safeguard and enrich the end-user experience. This approach resulted in a ground-breaking and a noticeable uplift in customer satisfaction, setting new benchmarks in service delivery across the industry.

Operational excellence was another pillar of Indosat’s transformation. The unification of its Network Operations Center (NOC) and Service Operations Center (SOC) marked a significant milestone in process optimization and automation. By harnessing the power of AI and data analytics, Indosat ensured that its operations were not only efficient but also aligned with its overarching mission to deliver seamless, innovative services to its customers.

As Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison continues to push boundaries in digital transformation, it remains steadfast in its vision to lead the industry with groundbreaking solutions that empower lives, drive economic progress, and ensure a sustainable digital future.

 Held last night at The Marriott, Grosvenor Square, in London, the 26th World Communication Awards were a huge success!

On behalf of the judges, we would like to congratulate all of the incredible winners.

AI Excellence Award

Amdocs – Amdocs amAIz

amAIz is a Gen-AI platform specifically designed for telco operations, combining LLMs from multiple providers to offer embedded copilots, GenAI agents, and numerous telco-specific use cases. This includes TelcoGPT, a natural language processing model trained on telco-specific data, helping support both network operations an customer-facing applications.

Best Digital Transformation Programme

Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison – Network Operation Autonomous Transformation

Following the merger of Ooredoo and Hutchison 3 Indonesia in 2022, Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison has been on a mission to transform from a telco to a techco. Leveraging AI, big data, and automation, IOH has delivered a network providing faster, more reliable connectivity for customers across the country.

Best Network Transformation Initiative

Orange Wholesale – Orange Disaggregated Open Switch

The introduction of Orange’s Disaggregated Open Switch has seen the company move from closed hardware to open software, marking a significant step in the company’s network virtualization evolution. With major gains in efficiency, flexibility, and control, the shift is already having a major impact for wholesale and B2B customers.

Best Operator in a Growth Market

Jazz

Operating in Pakistan, the world’s fifth most populous country, Jazz has taken a holistic approach to both expanding the availability of high-quality connectivity and supporting customers on their digital journey. Most prominently, this includes operating the country’s largest mobile banking platform and a microfinance bank to support small businesses, as well as various initiatives to promote digital equality.

Best Wholesale Operator

Bayobab Group

Bayobab Group has swiftly emerged as Africa’s premier wholesale operator over the past 18 months, rapidly diversifying and expanding its service portfolio across the nine African markets in which it operates. Demonstrating impressive growth and expanding across borders at a massive scale, Bayobab is having a major impact on the African continent’s digital transformation.

CEO of the Year

Timotheus Höttges, CEO of Deutsche Telekom

A telecoms superstar, Deutsche Telekom’s Tim Höttges needs little introduction. Under Höttges leadership over the past decade, Telekom has become world leader in telecoms innovation, expanded further into numerous international markets, and provided high-quality connectivity and customer service for millions of people. Höttges has proven himself time and time again to be an exceptional leader highly worthy of recognition.

Connected Communities Award

HFCL Ltd.

HFCL is having a major impact on rural Indian communities through the deployment of public Wi-Fi networks as part of the Prime Minister’s WiFi Access Network Interface scheme. These networks are helping to bridge the digital divide, boosting local economies, and reducing reliance on urban centres.

Deployments so far have demonstrated profound user adoption and community engagement, providing a framework for even more widespread rollouts of public Wi-Fi.

Crisis Response Award

VEON and Kyivstar

In the wake of the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, Kyivstar have had to deal with many challenges over the past year – not least reinforcing their network’s shattered energy supply and dealing with an enormous cyberattack. Despite this, the operator continues to support customers at scale both at home and abroad, as well as announcing a $1 billion investment plan to support Ukraine’s digital future.

Enterprise Service of the Year

Telstra & Ericsson – Telstra Dedicated Networks – Industrial (TDN-I)

Telstra’s Dedicated Network – Industrial (TDN-I) service utilises Telstra’s existing Ericsson-based public 4G and 5G radio network, coupled with Ericsson’s Private 5G core to provide managed private network services. This offers enterprise customers a more flexible deployment option with lower TCO, and is already finding huge success in sectors including mining, utilities, ports, a healthcare.

People & Culture Award

Telkomsel – Polaris

Telkomsel’s Polaris programme encourages employees to ‘Explore, Connect, and Make Impact’ within their organization, promoting internal collaboration and discussion through numerous platforms, including Polaris IdeaSpark, Polaris Talks, and Polaris Academy. Combined, these projects have created a framework for developing innovative ideas into viable commercial opportunities.

The 5G Award

Jio Platforms

Jio’s highly impressive rollout of 5G Standalone covered over 8,000 cities with the new technology in less than 150 days, immediately giving customers access to higher speeds, lower latency, and greater capacity. The deployment, which uses a wide range of homegrown technology, has immediately put India among the 5G technology frontrunners on the global stage.

The Access Innovation Award

Cohere Technologies & Vodafone 

Cohere Technologies’ transformative Universal Spectrum Multiplier (USM), a MU-MIMO software solution doubles the utilization of spectrum resources across 4G and 5G networks without any changes to handsets, radios, or antennas. Working with Vodafone, Cohere has shown its Open RAN USM to improve congested FDD bands (low band) by over 50%.

The Beyond Connectivity Award

PLDT & Smart

PLDT and Smart are supporting the Philippines’ agricultural sector and micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) – sectors of the economy that have long suffered from the digital divide. Their ‘eBizNovation’ project has trained 21,704 MSMEs trained on digital entrepreneurship and e-commerce, while their FarmSmart platform has supported 15,990 farmers supported through digital trainings and access to market.

The Cloud Award

Rakuten Symphony – Rakuten Cloud

Rakuten Cloud by Rakuten Symphony continues to go from strength to strength, offering a unified solution for the complexities of 5G and Edge deployments, providing intelligent infrastructure and automation. The platform allows provisioning time to be reduced from days to less than an hour, with capex and opex savings of up to 30%.

The Cyber Security Award

Ericsson Enterprise Wireless Solutions – NetCloud SASE 

Ericsson Enterprise Wireless Solutions NetCloud SASE enhances the simplicity of enterprise-class network security by integrating cellular, SD-WAN, and security in a unified platform. The platform offers a zero-trust foundation capable of being provisioned in just six minutes.

The Future Award

SK Telecom, NTT, NTT DOCOMO & Nokia – AI-native Air Interface

The companies have closely collaborated to develop and test an AI-AI, an interface that will give radios the ability to learn from one another and their environments. Results showed that AI-based pilotless transmission can achieve an average throughput gain of up to around 30% compared to a conventional 5G system.

The Platform Award

Singtel – Singtel Paragon 

Singtel’s Paragon Platform brings together multiple silos of systems, including 5G, edge computing, IT/BOSS, and cloud, in a single unified platform. This dynamic orchestration is helping customers to develop and manage a wide variety of 5G use cases, from drones to augmented reality.

The Satellite Telecoms Award

Telefonica Global Solutions

Telefonica Global Solutions have shown a wealth of satellite innovation in the last 12 months, from combining LEO and GEO solutions in the Galapagos to integrating Lynk’s Sat2Phone technology in Argentina. The company continues to exhibit strong growth, backed by impactful partnerships with Starlink and OneWeb.

The Social Contribution Award

Hormuud Telecom 

Operating in an extremely challenging environment impacted by drought and humanitarian crises, Hormuud Telecom continues to go above and beyond for its customers in Somalia. Hormuud has pioneered numerous projects supporting humanitarian efforts and local communities, including education initiatives and financial literacy programmes, all while continuing the expand the availability of high-quality mobile infrastructure.

Startup of the Year 

DC Smarter – DC Vision  

After a competitive pitching competition by ten shortlisted startups, DC Smarter emerged victorious in the Startup of the Year category. Their DC Vision solution leverages augmented reality and digital twin technology, allowing staff to visually take inventory of data centre assets, access asset details, and receive real-time training.

The Sustainability Award

Ericsson – RAN Deep Sleep (DS) Automation 

Ericsson’s RAN Deep Sleep (DS) Automation allows 5G radios to be turned off or run in low-power mode when not in use, optimising energy consumption for the network. This innovation, already live in over 80,000 cell sites in numerous markets, can result in energy savings of 70–80% per site, resulting in significantly lower carbon emissions and cost savings for operators.

Total Experience Award

e& 

e&’s prioritization of customer experience has been obvious this year, establishing a Customer Experience Department and creating the ‘CX Change Factory’ to ensure escalated customer concerns are resolved. This CX Change Factory systematically catalogues and addresses the root of every customer concern, resulting in a total reduction of recorded complaints by 60% over 12 months.

Woman in Telecoms Award

Josephine Sarouk, Bayobab Group 

Josephine Sarouk, the Managing Director of Bayobab Nigeria has been instrumental in acquiring critical operating licenses, commissioning the largest fibre optic project in Nigeria, and significantly enhancing connectivity for various stakeholders. Her leadership and focus on the personal growth of her team were highly praised by the judges, describing her as ‘an inspiration for women aspiring to a career in telecoms’.

Network operator Virgin Media and O2 (VMO2) has today revealed some insights from their network, which among other things shows that they recorded an 8.1% rise in broadband usage (a new record) and a 9% uplift in mobile data traffic year-on-year. But that’s not all.

Naturally, online video gaming was the main contributor to the growth in data usage on their fixed broadband ISP network, with four of the five busiest days aligned with ‘Call of Duty‘ launches (i.e. this reflects the downloading of new updates, rather than actual gameplay). Traffic peaked in the first week of December when six Premier League games were streamed on Amazon Prime, but VMO2 didn’t provide any stats for this.

The statistics are all a bit vague and represent somewhat of a shotgun blast of information, which we’ve simplified below via a bullet-pointed summary. Jeanie York, CTO at VMO2, said: “It was another record-breaking year across our mobile and fixed networks, as our customers continue to use more data than ever before. To meet this growing demand, we are continuing to invest and innovate.”

Key Stats from VMO2’s Fixed and Mobile Networks in 2024

➤ Broadband data suggests Brits are increasingly getting an early night, with the data showing how the nation is going to bed 20 minutes earlier than in recent years, with network traffic consistently starting to drop off from 9:20pm. In comparison, 2020 traffic shows a later bedtime, with Brits beginning to go offline from 9:40pm.

➤ The nation is also getting up earlier; 2024 morning traffic began to rapidly rise from 6:20am, fifteen minutes earlier than in 2020.

➤ Some 34% of Brits point to the news as negatively impacting their mental health in 2024, while 44% have increased their mindfulness practices and 62% have used their mobile phone to access mindfulness apps. This rose to 88% of 18–24-year-olds.

➤ Broadband data shows that Andy Murray’s final appearance gave Wimbledon a 12% audience boost compared to 2023.

➤ 90% of Virgin Media broadband households tuned into the Euro 2024 tournament over the summer.

➤ The busiest hours on O2’s mobile network came during England’s games with Denmark and the Netherlands, while the Olympics and Paralympics were considered the biggest TV moment of the year by a third of Brits.

➤ 83% of the nation enjoyed TV dramas inspired by true events and scandal, with Mr Bates vs The Post Office the most memorable, closely followed by Netflix breakout hit Baby Reindeer.

➤ BBC iPlayer retained its top spot as most popular app for Virgin Media TV customers, up 8% on 2023, while Netflix took 32% of all streaming traffic as the most viewed on-demand app. YouTube is now the fastest growing app on Virgin Media TV across audience size and total hours viewed.

➤ Commuting increased in 2024, with 48% of Brits heading to the office five days a week. The most popular day of the week to commute was Wednesday, with 74% of Brits making the journey to work.

➤ Many workers say they found the office more productive than working from home (46%), better for connecting with colleagues (42%) and say they provide a boost to physical wellbeing (37%). Over the summer, Gen Z workers had the biggest increase in office trips (12%) indicating a summer of post-work social plans.

Rural UK broadband ISP Wessex Internet has today announced that they’ve begun the build phase of their new £33.5m state aid supported Project Gigabit contract in Dorset and South Somerset (Lot 14), which will extend their gigabit speed Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network to cover 21,400 hard-to-reach local homes and businesses.

With the design and planning stage of this 5-year contract, awarded in April 2024 (here), now completed, construction has finally kicked off in Halstock (Dorset), with engineers laying the first fibre optic cables to serve remote rural areas.

In Dorset, the build will later extend to rural communities surrounding Swanage, Dorchester, Sherborne, and Beaminster. Meanwhile, the South Somerset rollout will reach rural areas close to Crewkerne and Ilminster along its western boundary, with Glastonbury, Shepton Mallet and Bruton on its north-eastern edge.

The provider recently revealed that their gigabit broadband network had already covered 30,000 UK properties (Ready for Service), including 10,000 customers connected (here). But the new Project Gigabit contracts will significantly increase their current level of network coverage.

Telecoms Minister Sir Chris Bryant said:

“Dorset and Somerset are the latest regions to see spades in the ground, laying fibre that will deliver the fastest internet speeds on the market – thanks to our nationwide rollout of Project Gigabit.

The upgrades will help put an end to buffering broadband in hard-to-reach rural communities and support our mission to kickstart economic growth and break down barriers to opportunity. We are on track to keep plugging digital gaps and achieve nationwide gigabit coverage by 2030.”

Hector Gibson Fleming, CEO of Wessex Internet, said:

“We’re delighted to have started the construction phase our fourth Project Gigabit contract, which will benefit thousands of residents and businesses in rural Dorset and Somerset.

This follows the start of construction for our South Wiltshire contract a few weeks ago and demonstrates the commitment and hard work of our teams to rapidly progress the delivery of these vital infrastructure projects.

For too long, rural communities have had to make do with outdated, unreliable internet connections, and this rollout of full fibre broadband represents a great leap in digital infrastructure that will support local residents and rural economies for years to come.”

Prices for their full fibre packages start at £29 per month for a 100Mbps (15Mbps upload) tier on a 12-month term, but this only comes with a meagre 100GB data allowance (£44 for unlimited), and you’ll have to pay £49 (one-off) for activation. By comparison, their top unlimited usage plan will give 900Mbps (450Mbps upload) for £79 per month. Not cheap, but then they’re often the only FTTP choice in a lot of their locations (rural areas cost more to serve).

Broadband ISP Virgin Media has confirmed to ISPreview that, as a “festive treat for our customers“, they have temporarily opened up access to their Virgin TV Ultra HD (4K) channel (Ch 175 and Ch 999) to all their V6, TV360 and Stream customers at no extra cost until 1st January 2025.

The special promotion was introduced on 1st December, although the operator didn’t put out any official announcements about it. Please note, if you watch TV on their older TiVo® box, you will not be able to access the Virgin TV Ultra HD channel. But you can upgrade to their latest Virgin TV box by contacting them on 0345 454 1111 (or call 150 from a Virgin Media phone).

Broadband network builder and UK ISP Brsk, which is in the process of being merged into Netomnia (here), yesterday found itself being the perhaps unwanted centre of attention (again) during a debate in parliament that focused on the problems being caused by the deployment of “telegraph poles” in Birmingham.

Just to recap. Brsk has so far deployed their 10Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network to cover “over” 700,000 UK homes, which tends to involve a mix of both underground (i.e. new trenching and harnessing Openreach’s existing cable ducts, where available) and overhead work (i.e. running fibre cables via both new and existing telegraph poles).

The deployment of wood poles to run overhead fibre is a common practice (over 4 million have already been built). This is because poles are quick and cost-effective to build (several times cheaper than trenching), can be deployed in areas where there may be no space or access agreement to safely put new underground cables, are less disruptive (avoiding the noise, access restrictions and damage to pavements of street works) and can be built under Permitted Development (PD) rights with only minimal prior notice.

On the flip side, such deployments have attracted a fair few complaints over the past few years. Suffice to say that a lot of people find them ugly, particularly when deployed in areas that haven’t had them before, which has in some parts of the country triggered strong anti-pole protests.

Brsk is no stranger to such complaints (here, here, here and here) and their deployment around Birmingham is already the subject of an Ofcom investigation (here), with the regulator looking to see whether the operator failed to provide the expected 28 days’ written notice to a local planning authority before installing some of their poles. This reflects the “voluntary” guidelines under the Revised Cabinet and Pole Siting Code of Practice Nov 2016.

The Parliamentary Debate

Yesterday’s debate in parliament – ‘Telegraph Poles: Birmingham‘, which was raised by the Labour MP for Birmingham Edgbaston, Preet Kaur Gill, similarly echoed many of the complaints we’ve seen before and named Brsk as one of the “cowboys” of the industry.

Otherwise, the debate generally followed the usual structure, with various MPs acknowledging the need for better broadband, while also repeating many of the now familiar talking points around the need for better infrastructure sharing between operators (not only with Openreach) and rules to make it easier to challenge the deployment of poles.

Preet Kaur Gill MP said:

“While the majority of providers are trying to do right by local people by making efforts to consult and not put up poles, some providers in my constituency such as Brsk have occasionally behaved like cowboys by not using existing infrastructure, failing to consult residents with the adequate 28 days’ notice, failing to observe the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 requirements to ensure that pathways are clear and accessible until they are told to do so, failing to secure the right council permits for works, and putting up poles everywhere as the only means to address coverage.

Given that Brsk’s business is communications, it is ironic how poor it has been at communicating with its stakeholders. The crux of the issue is that such companies are not exploring alternatives to poles or using existing infrastructure when they can. I will give some of many examples.

Freedom of information requests to our local council revealed that Brsk did not need to put up poles on Clarendon Road in my constituency, because it could have utilised existing ducts—but it did so anyway, ignoring that fact. Vernon Road is another example; BT [Openreach] installed full-fibre to St Paul’s school for girls at that location without any requirement for poles, yet a constituent came to my surgery on Friday to tell me that another pole had gone up, with a notice on the council’s planning portal appearing only after the pole had been erected. That is even after the Minister’s meeting with Brsk.

I have met Brsk and exchanged exhaustive correspondence on these issues. What has struck me in my dealings with the firm is the lack of policy or strategy for work in my constituency. Poles are supposed to be a last resort, but even where they are not needed, like on Vernon Road, several go up anyway. There are now four on that road. Frequently, when issues are raised, they are not listened to. I asked Brsk for a map of where it is planning to roll out poles in my constituency, and it could not give me one. There is either a plan that it will not share or there really is no strategic focus on where the infrastructure is needed.”

In fairness, the debate also shows that Brsk, on quite a few occasions, has agreed to remove poles when they cause enough complaints. This should perhaps be considered more of a positive, as other operators have not always been so flexible. On the other hand, Preet points out that “it should not take a well-organised community campaign and an active local MP to get a provider to meet its statutory duties“.

As usual, there were also some calls for greater infrastructure sharing, which is an extremely complicated area. Some MPs and their constituents often suggest that this is an easy problem to resolve and have a tendency to over-simplify the challenges. In reality, most operators already do everything possible to share existing poles and ducts, since that’s a lot more cost-efficient than building new stuff (e.g. Openreach’s network is widely re-used by rivals via a regulated solution as they have a dominant market position, with KCOM also moving slowly in this sort of direction)

However, it isn’t always possible to share infrastructure in every location, due to a mix of local restrictions and limitations (commercial or practical) imposed by existing operators. Sometimes no viable underground alternatives exist to poles, such as if past cables have been direct buried without ducts or the pavement already has too much underground infrastructure (i.e. digging more would be unsafe).

Meanwhile, a smaller network operator might build a new trench and ducting but keep it closed to rivals in order to protect the value of what is still a very high-risk investment (i.e. not allowing other altnets a free ride). If they weren’t able to do that, then they might have just built poles or not deployed at all. The latter would be to the disadvantage of people who wanted access to more competitive FTTP networks and don’t mind poles.

The existing Access to Infrastructure (ATI) Regulations 2016, which applies to all operators, does include provisions on the exchange of information about existing infrastructure, and the right to access that infrastructure on fair and reasonable commercial terms etc. But this doesn’t matter much if a commercially viable deal cannot be reached or operators only want to work with Openreach’s regulated solution (not each other). But INCA has setup a new Infrastructure Sharing Group (ISG) that will attempt to tackle some of the obstacles that still exist (here).

The Government’s Position

The previous government, driven by its targets for expanding gigabit-capable broadband infrastructure “nationwide” (c.99% coverage) by 2030 under their £5bn Project Gigabit programme, facilitated today’s market by cutting red tape to help make such work as easy as possible. This, along with other changes and investment programmes, has helped to attract tens of billions of pounds in private investment and spurred a massive commercial deployment that recently saw UK gigabit coverage pass 85% – something the new government wants to continue (Ofcom predicts it will reach around 97-98% by May 2027 – here).

However, the new Labour-led government, much like the old Conservative-led one, has also called on broadband operators to “end the deployment of unnecessary telegraph poles” (here), to “share existing infrastructure when installing broadband cables as the default approach” and pledged to “revise” the existing Code of Practice (as linked earlier).

The Minister for Telecoms, Sir Chris Bryant, broadly demonstrated a good understanding of both sides of the argument with his various responses to the latest concerns. Bryant also reiterated that an updated version of the Code of Practice “might” be due sometime in the New Year, although exactly when it still not set in stone.

Sir Chris Bryant, UK Minister for Telecoms, said yesterday:

“The Government will intervene in the areas where that will not happen commercially, but I say to the hon. Member for Wyre Forest and my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham Edgbaston that we have to be a bit careful about saying, “It’s disgraceful that these people are making money”, because if they did not make money, they would not be rolling it out on a commercial basis and then we might have to intervene a great deal more in the market. But there is a countervailing argument: if operators behave in a way that lacks compassion or sensitivity to the local situation, it is extremely unlikely that anybody in that local community is going to buy their products, so it could destroy their commercial agendas and business strategies if they are so high-handed in their approaches to local communities when it comes to the siting of poles and so on.

….

This Government have been very clear, and the previous Government were relatively clear, that we wanted this infrastructure to progress in a way that was sensitive to local communities. That meant that we had to have proper consultation and to be careful about the siting of poles. We wanted to encourage co-operation and collaboration between different players in the market, so that roads were not dug up two years in a row or three months after the last company dug it up, for example. All that was laid out in the original guidance in 2016. Incidentally, that guidance was provided not by the Government but by the industry. This is an important point: the industry is currently looking at revising that code. It is very close to a revised version. I do not think that that is quite ready yet, but I anticipate that it might come in the new year.

The simple point that I have made repeatedly to all the operators in this field is that if they want people to take up their service and buy their product, they have to take people with them. At our meeting with Brsk last week, Brsk made it clear that if all the members of a community, especially one cut off from everywhere else and not on the way to another place, said, “Look, we don’t want this,” it would work out that there was no point putting in poles, digging up the road or whatever, because there would not be any take-up of its services from that community in future. It would simply say, “All right, fine. We’re not going there.””

Despite Chris’s closing remark above, he did acknowledge that the “difficulty lies where one road leads—as is often the case—to another, and the people on the next bit of road still want the roll-out even if the people on the first bit do not” (i.e. if one street / community blocks the roll-out, then it can sometimes prevent the new network from reaching beyond that area – disadvantaging those who may want it).

“The commercial reality is that inserting a new duct—that is, digging up the road and putting everything underground —might be very attractive to everybody in the community, but it is nine or 10 times more expensive than putting things on poles. If we want commercial operators to roll things out, there are certain situations where there are going to be poles. I cannot hide that from anybody; it is a simple reality,” added Chris.

The government’s telecoms minister has previously suggested that Permitted Development (PD) or other rights for poles could be taken away from network operators that don’t play by the rules. But we’d hope this would, if ever enacted, be a targetted and temporary sanction, and not an industry-wide restriction, as the latter would be suicidal for related investment and coverage plans.

However, questions remain over what practical changes the new Code of Practice will actually deliver, since any overly burdensome changes risk increasing the costs of deployment for operators and thus potentially reducing their roll-out plans (i.e. causing a negative impact on the government’s targets). But we do anticipate that it will most likely result in a need for greater pre-build consultation with communities, as well as some improvements to the complaints process.

As for Brsk, Chris Bryant pledged to “hold their feet to the fire on all the commitments that [they’ve] made in private meetings with me, in the meetings with MPs that we held last week, and in writing“. The minister added that, before Brsk starts rolling out in a particular area, it needs to “explore far more thoroughly” what ducting might be available, which “might be through Openreach or Virgin” (Virgin’s network is currently closed, although it will open to wholesale later in 2025). It must also “consult properly in a local area where people lobby and argue that the siting of a pole is particularly inappropriate” and it has promised to “look at moving” poles in so far as it possibly can.

Mobile provider Tesco Mobile, which is a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) on O2’s national platform, has this morning become the latest UK telecoms operator to adopt Ofcom’s new guidance on inflation-linked annual price rises. But they appear to be taking a more proportional approach than many other operators.

The new policy is intended to reflect the regulator’s earlier move to BAN broadband ISPs and mobile operators from doing mid-contract price hikes that are linked to confusing inflation and percentage-based changes (here). BT, Plusnet, EE, TalkTalk, Vodafone, Virgin Media, Three UK and others have already adopted a similar approach, albeit with some variations.

However, Ofcom’s change was never designed to stop mid-contract hikes completely (it’s more about making future pricing clearer and simpler), but it did require providers to tell customers precisely what any future price increases would be when they sign-up (“in pounds and pence“). This rules out changes to core subscription prices that are linked to unknown future inflation values or percentages.

For example, O2 recently chose an approach that will see customers airtime bills increase by £1.80 each April (this tends to penalise users on cheaper plans), while Three UK picked an approach that scaled the mid-contract increase by the size of their data allowances (i.e. +£1 extra for 4GB or less, +£1.25 for 5GB-99GB and +£1.50 for 100GB+).

Tesco Mobile has similarly announced that all of their annual in-contract price increases on non-Clubcard Price deals will be communicated in pounds and pence at the point of sale from 17th December 2024. “These price increases will be relative to each customer’s basic monthly price, so will reflect their personal budget. This proportional model is a fairer way than taking a one-size-fits-all approach, where a customer on the lowest price would see their price increase by the same amount as a customer on the highest price,” said Tesco’s announcement.

Jonathan Taylor, CEO of Tesco Mobile, said:

“We know how important it is to have certainty around your contract price, and our new approach to annual in-contract price increases has been designed to offer maximum fairness.

Every customer who takes out a non-Clubcard Price deal from 17 December 2024 will be shown what their annual in-contract price increases will be and when they’ll apply from, with all costs clearly explained in pounds and pence.

And if you’re a customer on one of our many Clubcard Price deals, you’ll enjoy peace of mind, knowing your basic monthly usage price will stay frozen for the length of your minimum contract period. And you’ll have the added benefit of no EU roaming fees for the length of your minimum contract period, too – so you’ll be able to use your UK allowances at no extra cost in 48 destinations across the EU and beyond.”

In addition, Tesco Mobile said they’re continuing their ongoing commitment to frozen prices for customers on Clubcard Price deals (i.e. cheaper plans if you have a Clubcard). As well as having their basic monthly usage price frozen for the length of their minimum contract period, these customers will be able to use their UK allowances at no extra cost in 48 destinations across the EU and beyond – also for the length of their minimum contract period.

On the surface, Tesco Mobile’s approach sounds much fairer than what many other broadband and mobile operators have adopted. But we can’t yet judge this properly because the operator’s announcement fails to include any practical examples, which would allow us to assess the proportional impact. Similarly, their website has yet to be updated in order to reflect the change.

The announcement currently only indicates that the new policy will apply to new and re-contracting customers who take out a non-Clubcard Price deal from 17th December 2024, although such changes do eventually tend to filter down to existing customers too.