Debt-troubled UK internet provider TalkTalk has confirmed that its staff were yesterday informed about another round of significant redundancies, which one report indicates could affect almost a quarter (c. 130) of their consumer division workforce across the country. But the specifics won’t be known until after Christmas.

The move comes shortly after the group’s recent decision to accept a refinancing package worth roughly £400m (here and here), which saved TalkTalk from the immediate risk of a default. The deal essentially extended the group’s debt maturities to September 2027 and buys them more time to fix the foundations, which won’t be an easy task (here).

At the same time, TalkTalk’s most recent financial results (here) revealed that their on-net customer base (fibre FTTP/C and broadband) fell again to 3.6 million (down from 3.94m in 2023), although their Ethernet (leased lines etc.) base grew to 75,000 (up from 69,400).

Suffice to say that, given the recent results and refinancing deal, there was already some speculation that the provider might have to slash more jobs and now it has been confirmed.

A TalkTalk spokesperson said (Manchester Evening News):

“This is the first stage in a multi-year transformation of our business to deliver differentiated service and product to our customers. We are simplifying our business to ensure that we can continue to offer great value connectivity to our millions of customers across the UK.

As part of this, we have made the difficult decision to launch a consultation about the future of some roles at TalkTalk’s consumer business.”

In addition, some of ISPreview’s sources have indicated that TalkTalk’s approach to “simplifying” their business may involve moving to adopt more of a virtual operator model, although the details of how this might work, if true, remain unclear.

Mobile operator EE (BT) has come top in umlaut and Connect’s latest annual 2024 UK Mobile Network Test, which used a range of different benchmarks to test 4G (voice and data / broadband) and 5G performance across 19 cities, 27 towns and along 10,480km of major roads. On the flip side, O2 (Virgin Media) once again found themselves at the bottom.

The study’s more scientific drivetests and walktests were both conducted between 28th October to 13th November 2024 using Samsung Galaxy S23 Smartphones for each operator. Additionally, some of the walk test teams visited several cities and travelled on trains between them. The test area accounts for 17.2 million people, or approximately 25.7% of the total population of the United Kingdom.

On top of that, the analysts also harnessed crowdsourced data, which was collected over 24 weeks from the end of May to mid-November 2024. A total of 7,449 million data samples were collected by this method from mobile phone users across the UK, which stems from tests conducted via various Smartphone apps with a special background diagnosis process.

Overall, EE came top in all three of the primary data, voice and crowdsourced testing categories, scoring a total of 913 points out of a possible 1,000. Following them were Vodafone (815), Three UK (765) and finally, at the bottom, was O2 (729) – though they did improve their score by 29 points this year. Otherwise, this marks the tenth time in a row that the BT brand has topped the study.

Hannes Ruegheimer, Editor at Connect, said: “Congratulations to EE for winning our connect Mobile Network Test in the UK with the highest scores in all test disciplines. Our results reflect a positive trend: EE and VMO2 had the biggest improvements in score.”

The Full Report includes a lot more data, and we’ve pasted some of that below, although it’s wise to read the main report in order to get the correct context. For example, the first report extracts below depict the 5G based mobile broadband data rates that the study got when conducting a simple 7-second download test. The second image after that shows the crowdsourced results.

7 Second Download Test on 5G Connections

Crowdsource Results

News 

Gelsinger has spent more than 40 years at the company 

Intel has announced that CEO Pat Gelsinger has retired.  

Gelsinger, who also stepped down from Intel’s board of directors, first joined the company in 1979 and became its first chief technology officer in 2005. After spending few years at EMC and almost a decade as CEO of VMware, Gelsinger returned to Intel as CEO in 2021. Since then, he has overseen a pivotal period for the chipmaker as it worked to address major challenges in a highly competitive industry.   

Intel has struggled in recent years to keep pace with rival chip compnaies like TSMC and AMD, losing ground in both manufacturing capabilities and market share. Under Gelsinger’s leadership, the company has focused on reclaiming its position as a leader in chip production, making significant investments in semiconductor technology and committing to expanding its foundry business. Despite some progress, however, Intel remains under pressure to deliver results in a rapidly evolving market.   

In its most recent quarterly results, Intel recorded a loss of $1.6 billion, compounding the $437 million it lost in the quarter before that. It also revealed in August that it would be laying off over 15,000 workers, saying it will cut 15% of its workforce in efforts to streamline the business. 

Intel has named David Zinsner, its Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, and Michelle Johnston Holthaus, who leads Intel Products, as interim Co-CEOs. The board’s independent chair, Frank Yeary, will also take on the role of interim executive chair while a search is conducted for Gelsinger’s permanent successor.   

Gelsinger described his tenure at Intel as “the honor of my lifetime… It has been a challenging year for all of us as we have made tough but necessary decisions to position Intel for the current market dynamics. I am forever grateful for the many colleagues around the world who I have worked with as part of the Intel family.” 

Zinsner, a financial veteran with experience across the semiconductor sector, and Holthaus, a 30-year Intel veteran with deep expertise in product development and sales, will oversee day-to-day operations during the transition.  

“We know there is more work to do to rebuild investor confidence and deliver the performance our customers expect,” added Frank Yeary.  

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

Also in the news:
Deutsche Telekom replaces Huawei kit in new Nokia deal
BT secures £1.29bn contract for UK emergency services network
UK govt looks to satellite to solve rural connectivity woes 

News 

The formation of the joint venture had been under discussion for over a year 

Telefónica’s proposed sale of its Peruvian fibre optic network to private equity firm KKR and Chilean telecom operator Entel has collapsed, representing a major setback in the Spanish telecom giant’s efforts to streamline operations and reduce debt.  

The deal, announced in July last year, would have seen KKR and Entel acquire a 54% and 10% stake in the network, respectively, valuing the business at approximately €550 million, including debt, according to reports. The newly created joint venture, dubbed On Net Fibra de Peru, would become Peru’s first open first independent open access wholesale fiber optic network, with KKR aiming to more than double the network’s coverage to 5.2 million by the end of 2026. 

The deal was cleared by the Peruvian competition regulator in September, leaving the way seemingly clear for the deal to go ahead. 

Last week, however, Entel disclosed the breakdown of negotiations in a Peruvian regulatory filing, citing unfulfilled closing conditions.  

“Pangea has communicated that, due to the failure to comply with certain closing conditions stipulated in the SSA (in reference to the agreement), related to a parallel transaction between KKR and Telefónica Hispam regarding Pangea that will not materialize, Telefónica Hispam has expressed its intention to formally document the termination of the SSA. To date, the parties to the SSA are in discussions regarding the terms and conditions of said termination,” explained Entel in a statement. 

Telefonica had planned to use the sale proceeds to cut its debt by €200 million, aligning with its broader strategy to divest non-core assets and focus on key markets like Spain, Brazil, and Germany. 

Telefónica has been actively selling off assets in recent years, including its tower businesses and shares in fibre ventures across Europe and Latin America. These moves are aimed at tackling its €26 billion debt burden and free up capital to investment in 5G and digital infrastructure in key markets. 

KKR has a history of investments in critical telecom infrastructure – including most recently in Telecom Italia – has partnered with Telefónica in other fibre-related ventures, including acquiring its Chilean wholesale fibre optic network in 2021. 

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

Also in the news:

The UK telecoms regulator, Ofcom, has today introduced changes that are designed to improve their spectrum sharing framework, which among other things have been designed to add more flexibility, facilitate more effective spectrum sharing and increase spectrum supply to support new types of fixed wireless (broadband) and mobile (4G, 5G etc.) services.

The existing spectrum sharing framework was first introduced in 2019 (here) and paved the way for many smaller mobile and fixed wireless data networks to be created in order to deliver local coverage, such as for industrial, events, farming or residential connectivity etc.

The shared access licences, which were made available via a mix of Low Power and Medium Power licences, initially covered spectrum in four specific bands – 1800MHz, 2.3GHz, 3.8-4.2GHz, and 26 GHz (the latter was only made available for indoor low power licences). Naturally, this all had to be made to coexist with other users of the same spectrum bands, such as mobile network operators.

Ofcom currently offers two primary types of Shared Access Licence (distinguished primarily by permitted power levels) to cater for different types of use, which we’ve summarised in a little bit more detail below.

Shared Access Licences

• Low power licence (per area licence): This allows users to deploy the required number of base stations in a circular area with a 50-metre radius without further authorisation from Ofcom. For large sites, people can apply for multiple licence areas to achieve the required coverage area.

• Medium power licence (per base station licence): Given the higher transmit power and larger potential interference area, this licence will be issued on a per base station basis and, generally, for deployments in rural areas only, where they are unlikely to constrain low power users.

Since then Ofcom has issued a total of 988 licences (as of November 2024), which are fairly evenly split between low and medium power licences – the most popular bands are 1800MHz and 3.8-4.2GHz. The regulator also recently published an updated map of spectrum supply, to assist stakeholders in making their applications.

Suffice to say that demand is only expected to grow and, as a result of the aforementioned success and recent consultations, the regulator is now introducing changes to improve local spectrum availability – especially in the busiest bands. The core changes being introduced by Ofcom have been summarised below, but they aren’t all being implemented today.

Ofcom’s Spectrum Sharing Changes

➤ We will remove the Terminal Registration Requirement (TRR) for all Low Power deployments (including outdoor use) in the 3.8-4.2 GHz band.

At present, users are required to keep records for mobile terminals connected to base stations in this band. This change opens new opportunities for ‘neutral host’ style deployments, with the potential to improve network coverage for outdoor and campus locations.

➤ We will allow licensees easier access to Medium Power in most urban areas in the UK, in the 1800MHz and 3.8-4.2GHz bands.

This will streamline the licensing process, making it simpler and quicker to access Medium Power licences, which can unlock the business case for new applications.

➤ We will also implement three balancing measures to ensure that Medium Power use is managed appropriately:

– limit to 100 MHz the spectrum that can be held by a Medium Power user in a given urban location. This aims to ensure no single user exhausts spectrum supply in an area.

– retain our ‘exceptions process’ in Greater London, to help manage supply and demand. This aims to encourage carefully planned deployments that preserve opportunities for more sharing.

– set a new price point of £160 per 10 MHz, per annum, for urban Medium Power licences. This is designed to incentivise Low Power usage where it would still meet user needs.

Ofcom said they are “keen to make changes quickly to deliver benefits for stakeholders“, but they also need to ensure that more complex system changes are thoroughly tested and integrated with their wider programme of work to evolve the licensing platform. Consequently, some changes will be given a bit more time for implementation.

In short, the regulator has today implemented new Low Power licences in 3.8-4.2 GHz that omit the TRR (with variations available on request for existing licensees), as well as the Medium Power licences available in urban areas (with a 100MHz limit, and an exception process in Greater London). But the new fee for Medium Power in urban areas in the 1800MHz and 3.8-4.2GHz bands won’t come in until the second half of 2025.

Contributed Article 

Recently, Huawei launched its new 5G-A^A solutions, designed to address the growing demands of Mobile AI.  

The solutions aim to deepen the integration of 5.5G networks with AI technologies, improving both network capabilities and user experiences. As such, these solutions focus on two complimentary concepts: ‘Networks for AI’ and ‘AI for Networks’.  

‘Networks for AI’ seeks to ensure that mobile networks are equipped with the necessary capacity and flexibility to support the diverse service requirements emerging through the global adoption of AI.  

On the other hand, ‘AI for Networks’ seeks to equip the mobile networks themselves with advanced AI features, such as RAN Agents, making their operations intelligent, autonomous and efficient. 

“Mobile AI is changing our lives. The arising new connections and services pose increasingly higher requirements on networks,” said Cao Ming, Vice President of Huawei and President of Huawei’s Wireless Solutions. 

“Huawei’s 5G-A^A 10 solutions build multidimensional ultimate network capabilities through the full-series Advanced Radio, enable full-domain site digitalisation through Ambient Site, and achieve L4 network autonomy through the Agent-based digital engineers team. With such excellent performance, these solutions will help operators meet the ever-diversifying demand for services in the Mobile AI era,” he continued. 

Cao presented a variety of new solutions, with one of the most innovative of which being the new Sub-1 GHz Massive MIMO technology, allowing low-band spectrum to benefit from Massive MIMO architecture. This has numerous benefits for operators, allowing them to leverage the low-band spectrums long range while also providing improved downlink, uplink, and low-latency performance. It offers full access to all radio access technologies (RATs) and guarantees reliable real-time services and IoT connectivity. 

Huawei also introduced several products aimed at simplifying 5G deployment. The Blade AAU X, for example, supports Massive MIMO across all sub-6 GHz bands with a single antenna. It requires 50% less space than competing products and reduces operational costs by 70%. For U6GHz, the new IMT spectrum, Huawei releases the U6GHz AAU that integrates over 1,500 antenna elements and supports speeds of up to 10 Gbps. Based on Huawei’s unique ELAA technology, the U6GHz AAU achieves indoor continuous Gbps experience. The EasyAAU represents the industry’s lightest AAU on the market, weighing half of a typical 8T RRU model, making it ideal for rapid 5G deployment. 

To support the rapidly growing IoT market, Huawei’s new LampSite X solution enables indoor 10Gbps and Passive IoT (P-IoT) access, allowing enterprises to generate more real-time data within their operations, including daily asset stocktaking and digital upgrades.  

For rural areas, Huawei unveiled RuralCOW, the latest iteration of the RuralLink and RuralStar product line. This all-in-one solution integrates fronthaul and radio units into a single box, eliminating the need for backhaul, BBU, and access to the energy grid. This will allow mobile connectivity to be delivered in areas previously unavailable to operators, as well as significantly reducing site costs for multi-RAT deployments in remote locations. 

Supporting all of these innovations is Huawei’s intelligent RAN Agent-based digital engineers team, which offers unattended maintenance, real-time optimisation, and 24/7 energy-saving possibilities. This approach, alongside with Huawei’s Ambient Site technology, enables full-site digitalisation, improving energy efficiency and overall user experience. 

In his closing remarks, Cao Ming emphasised the significance of Mobile AI and 5.5G and encouraging industry-wide collaboration, 

“Mobile AI is on the horizon.” We will continue to work with all industry partners and innovate to promote the integration of 5.5G and AI.” 

News 

BT has long been a cornerstone of the UK’s emergency connectivity, handling 999 emergency calls since 1937 

BT has signed a £1.29 billion contract with the Home Office to provide mobile services for the UK’s Emergency Services Network (ESN) over the next seven years, the company announced over the weekend. 

The ESN is a critical system that uses the 4G network to deliver secure and reliable voice, video, and data communications for the UK’s emergency services. It allows police, fire, and ambulance services to access essential information in real-time, ensuring they can respond quickly and effectively, even in remote areas or during peak network use. The network prioritises these services, ensuring emergency workers can communicate effectively during crises.  

Since 2015, BT’s EE has played a central role in developing the ESN as part of a programme to replace the ageing Airwave system, owned by Motorola. This included upgrading over 19,500 of BT’s existing 4G sites, expanding rural coverage, and creating a dedicated core network to ensure emergency services have priority connectivity all the time. 

Progress on the project, however, has been heavily delayed. The ESN was initially scheduled to be fully operational by 2019, but today’s contract suggests this will only be achieved by 2029 – a decade behind schedule. These delays have incurred significant costs, with the government having spent £2 billion on the project by March 2023 and a further £2.9 billion maintaining the old Airwave system. 

This week’s new agreement with BT aims to accelerate the project, as well as updating its capabilities to meet today’s demands, includes maintaining and developing the infrastructure to support more than 300,000 users.  

BT will also manage key infrastructure such as the Air-to-Ground (A2G) network, Extended Area Services (EAS), and connectivity for the London Underground, as well as key road and rail tunnels. 

A major focus of the new contract is improving indoor connectivity, with plans to carry out the largest rollout of coverage solutions in UK history to meet Public Safety Communications Services standards. 

“BT Group has been a committed longstanding partner for Britain’s Emergency Services Network (ESN). We’re proud to double down on this commitment today by broadening the scope of our agreement with the Home Office until 2032 and beyond – as the Government takes ESN from build through to delivery and operation of this critical network,” said Bas Burger, CEO of business at BT in a press release. 

“Essential public services like these depend on a rock-solid digital foundation. Through our award-winning EE mobile network, we’ll continue to play a central part in delivering mission- critical, trusted communications for the Emergency Services on the ground, in the air, and wherever they need to operate – helping them connect for good and protect the communities they serve nationwide,” he continued. 

Join us at next year’s Connected North, 23-24 April in London. Get discounted tickets here! 

Also in the news:
New European Commissioners set sights on bloc’s international competitiveness
Namibia halts Starlink operations amid licensing dispute  
Deutsche Telekom replaces Huawei kit in new Nokia deal

Broadband ISP and mobile operator EE (BT) has today announced that customers of their pay TV service have just gained access to the new Paramount+ streaming App via their TV Box Pro and TV Box Mini hardware (set-top-boxes). This offers access to a wide selection of blockbuster movies and TV shows etc. But there’s a catch for those with a Premium plan.

In addition to the ‘Standard’ (£7.99 per month) Paramount+ plan, customers can also sign-up to the recently introduced ‘Basic (with ads)’ (£4.99) and ‘Premium’ (£10.99) subscription tiers through EE TV. But EE notes that Paramount+ ‘Premium’ plan subscribers will initially “receive content in ‘Standard’ plan capabilities at launch” (i.e. all other ‘Premium’ plan benefits will become available to EE TV customers “at a later date“).

Paramount+ also includes content produced by the production company’s various associated brands and studios, including CBS, Comedy Central, MTV Entertainment Studios, Nickelodeon, Paramount Pictures and SHOWTIME®.

Alistair Wilson, EE’s Partnerships Director, said:

“It’s our ambition to provide EE TV customers with a truly extensive variety of the very best TV, film, and sport options – and the addition of Paramount+ adds a whole new catalogue of exciting content for our customers to stream. The blockbusters, new originals and hit shows offered by Paramount+ will be a welcome addition for customers and easily accessible for anyone with EE TV.”

The Bridgend County Borough Council (BCBC) today claims to have become the “first local authority in Wales” to complete a digital switchover of its telecare alarms. This has seen them move away from BT and Openreach’s old copper-based analogue line services (PSTN phones and WLR) to adopt internet-based solutions instead.

Just to recap. The shift to digital landlines is an industry, not government, led programme that is partly driven by the looming retirement of copper lines in favour of full fibre (FTTP) broadband. Not to mention that modern mobile and Internet Protocol (IP)-based communication services have largely taken over from traditional analogue phones, and it’s become harder to find parts for the old network.

The plan to switch-off older phone lines was recently delayed by BT to 31st January 2027 in order to give internet and phone providers, as well as telecare providers and consumers, more time to adapt (details). But the main focus of this delay was on the 1.8 million people who use vital home telecare systems in the UK (e.g. elderly, disabled, and vulnerable people), which often aren’t compatible with the replacement VoIP / IP-based digital phone services (i.e. for everybody else the deadline is still technically Dec 2025).

In addition, last month saw the Government agree to a new Telecare National Action Plan with major UK communication providers (e.g. BT, Virgin Media, Vodafone and Sky Broadband). This requires them to do more to protect vulnerable telecare users when upgrading phone lines to new digital (IP based) networks.

However, the challenges involved in this are not merely a matter for telecoms providers, as local authorities and other sectors (e.g. lift operators) have also needed to adapt. This is thus just as much of a challenge for the telecare and alarm providers themselves to get to grips with (i.e. failing to upgrade their systems), which have thus far been slow to adapt and that’s despite having years of warning.

The good news today, at least from Wales, is that the Bridgend County Borough Council has completed a digital switchover of its telecare alarm calls. As part of this, the council has installed over 2,200 new units in advance of the move away from using the PSTN network to digital networks. The local switchover programme is said to have started in January 2024 and has cost £1m to deliver, using equipment manufactured by Legrand Care and supported by telecare service providers, Care & Repair and Galw Gofal.

Cllr Jane Gebbie, Bridgend’s Deputy Leader, said:

“The completion of the digital switchover for our telecare clients is a key milestone for the authority and improves the reliability and efficiency of telecare services, ensuring that vulnerable residents receive a faster and more responsive level of support.

The success of this switchover has also provided the foundation to moving forward with technological developments to support our services.”

Interestingly, the council reports that the switchover had also provided telecare users with “better call quality and reliability” – with fewer failed calls to the call centre – and given service providers a real time overview of the status of the appliances used. We don’t often hear about the positives of this switch, so that does make for a refreshing change, even if a lot of UK councils have yet to complete similar work.

The programme has also provided scope to combine telecare with telehealth support for people who need it.

The UK Government has signed a new £1.29bn deal with BT (EE) to extend their operation of the 4G based Emergency Services Network (ESN) for another 7-years. But after years of delays and disputes, only some of which is related to EE’s side of things, the Home Office still doesn’t expect the ESN to be fully operational until 2029.

Just to recap. The emergency services (police, fire, ambulances etc.) were originally due to have moved away from the old Motorola-owned Airwave network several years ago, which harnessed TETRA (Terrestrial Trunked Radio) technology. This is because TETRA was regarded as slow (dialup / ISDN like data speeds) and expensive, although it does deliver strong voice coverage (c.97% geographic reach) and has been reasonably dependable.

The limitations of Airwave’s network were often highlighted as the primary reason for why the UK government, in 2015, decided to replace it with a 4G mobile alternative (ESN) – the first country to do so. The Home Office originally expected that emergency services could start using the ESN in September 2017, allowing Airwave to be replaced by December 2019, but the contract ended up being billions of pounds over budget and years behind schedule.

According to last year’s report from the National Audit Office (here), the Home Office is expected to have spent just under £2bn on the ESN by March 2023, and a further £2.9bn to maintain Airwave because of all the delays. A variety of problems have beset the project, from delays with developing the new end-user kit (handsets etc.), to delays with the network build and competition disputes related to Motorola’s conflicting roles in the project etc. The project has since been effectively reset.

On the BT side of things, EE has already built a new dedicated core network for the ESN, ensuring priority EE connectivity to Emergency Services users at all times. The original contract also included upgrading more than 19,500 of EE’s existing 4G sites ready for ESN and expanding coverage in rural and critical operational areas etc.

The New Contract Extension

The Home Office has previously indicated that it intended to award EE a new contract, “without competition“, for the network rollout side to avoid delaying the programme further, which it planned to complete when the current contract ends (31st December 2024). Suffice to say that the BT Group finally confirmed they’d signed this 7-year extension contract, worth £1.29bn, on Sunday.

Under the new contract, BT Group will continue to build, maintain and develop critical mobile coverage and capabilities for ESN as it rolls out to support more than 300,000 users. The new contract also sees BT take management responsibility and provide coverage services for the Home Office’s Air-to-Ground (A2G) network, their Extended Area Services (EAS) sites, London Underground and specific road and rail tunnels.

It is expected that the ESN programme will see BT Group carry out the country’s largest ever single roll-out of coverage solutions into indoor locations – to meet the operational standards for Public Safety Communications Services (PSCS) users. The new contract spans 7.25 years, with the option for a one-year extension.

Bas Burger, CEO of Business at BT, said:

“BT Group has been a committed longstanding partner for Britain’s Emergency Services Network (ESN). We’re proud to double down on this commitment today by broadening the scope of our agreement with the Home Office until 2032 and beyond – as the Government takes ESN from build through to delivery and operation of this critical network.

Essential public services like these depend on a rock-solid digital foundation. Through our award-winning EE mobile network, we’ll continue to play a central part in delivering mission- critical, trusted communications for the Emergency Services on the ground, in the air, and wherever they need to operate – helping them connect for good and protect the communities they serve nationwide.”

According to the Home Office, the timetable for completion of the ESN (this covers everything, not only the network side) has been pushed back to 2026 “at the earliest”, with the later date of around 2029 often being touted as a more realistic expectation. Meanwhile, maintaining Airwave into the 2030s is predicted to cost at least £250 million a year.