Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

The House of Commons Library within the UK Parliament has published a useful new document that helps to summarise and explain some of the core rules around the deployment of poles (telegraph poles) for broadband network expansion. In recent years, these have often become a point of some contention for communities that don’t want them.

The deployment of poles (usually made of wood, but sometimes also metal) to run new overhead fibre optic or copper cables is a common practice across the UK (over 4 million already exist). 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 usually be built under Permitted Development (PD) rights.

However, a lot of people find them ugly, particularly when deployed in areas that haven’t had them before, which over the past few years has – in some parts of the country (often areas that have previously only had underground infrastructure) – triggered strong anti-pole protests.

The new Labour-led UK government, much like the old Conservative-led one, last year responded to this by calling 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” existing guidance.

The industry recently responded to this by introducing new ‘Best Practice Guidance for Poles’ to help tackle the problem, which generally requires network operators to have greater engagement with and respect for community wishes. The government are currently assessing the impact of that before deciding whether further action may be required. But it should be noted that many operators have since had to scale-back their fibre deployments due to wider economic and competitive pressures (i.e. there are now fewer complaints being raised).

Nevertheless, Thinkbroadband has spotted that the House of Commons Library just published a new document, which is designed to help MPs understand the rules around telegraph poles for UK broadband providers and any relevant legislation. The information doesn’t say anything that regular readers of ISPreview won’t already know, but it does serve as quite a useful summary for those who may be seeking some extra background.

Broadband companies and telegraph poles
https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/broadband-companies-and-telegraph-poles/

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Broadband and mobile giant Virgin Media and O2 (VMO2), which currently aims to achieve Net Zero Carbon (i.e. removing as many emissions as they produce) across their operations, products and supply chain by 2040, has today signed a new 10-year Power Purchase Agreement with The Renewables Infrastructure Group (TRIG) to harness renewable electricity.

Under the agreement, which starts in April 2026, TRIG will provide renewable electricity to the company, reflecting around 15% of VMO2’s total energy supply. TRIG typically develops, constructs and operates a portfolio of renewable energy infrastructure across the UK and other countries. For example, TRIG’s wind farms – Earlseat in Scotland, and Garreg Lwyd in Wales, will help to power the company’s sites across the UK.

The deal hands VMO2 a long-term renewable energy supply with predictable costs, which should help them to mitigate price volatility in the wider energy market while also investing in the UK’s renewable energy capacity.

Dana Haidan, Chief Sustainability Officer at VMO2, said:

“This agreement marks the next step in Virgin Media O2’s journey to achieving net zero by the end of 2040 – 10 years ahead of the UK.

By purchasing long-term renewable energy at scale, we’re not only cutting carbon but protecting our network from future energy shocks. Power Purchase Agreements offer price certainty, operational resilience and long-term value.

Virgin Media O2 is committed to growing responsibly, delivering resilient digital infrastructure that support the planet, our customers, and the communities we serve.”

You can check out the progress they’ve been making toward their Net Zero goals here.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Broadband-based live TV streaming service Freely, which is supported by several major UK TV broadcasters (BBC, ITV etc.) and is an evolution – not (yet) a replacement – for the existing Freeview service (inc. Freeview Play and Freesat), has revealed that they’ll add 10 new streaming channels to the free platform in 2026.

The new channels, which are being added thanks to support from Hearst, Bloomberg TV+, AMC Networks International UK (AMCNI UK) and more, include the following additions: BLAZE, Bloomberg TV+, Talking Pictures TV, Gemporia, Local TV, TRUE CRIME UK, Evidence of Evil, Bloodline Detectives, Love After Lock Up and AMC Reality. These new arrivals build on AMCNI UK’s existing portfolio on Freely, which already features LEGEND, TRUE CRIME and WATCH FREE UK.

The move follows the recent launch of several new and exclusive streaming channels from Channel 4 – 4Reality, 4Homes and 4Life. Additional streaming channels from ITV and 5 are expected to follow. Once fully implemented, this will mean that Freely now carries over 70 live channels, alongside the usual array of on-demand content.

Jonathan Thompson, CEO of Everyone TV, said:

“This latest round of content partners marks another step forward for Freely as we scale up the platform for viewers and partners alike. The research we’re releasing today shows just how much audiences still value British free-to-air television – not just the flagship channels, but the wider family of channels that continue to surprise and entertain us. Freely brings all of that together in one place, for free, and it’s exciting to see the momentum behind it as we look to the year ahead.”

Original article Total Telecom:Read More

New ‘Connectivity, Your Way’ approach challenges commoditisation by offering bespoke terms and agile infrastructure delivery to power growth. 

Businesses never stand still. They grow, shrink, evolve, and pivot, sometimes all in the same year. And through it all, one thing remains constant: the need for reliable connectivity that scales with change. That’s where LightSpeed Networks, a UK-based wholesale connectivity provider, makes the difference.

LightSpeed Networks agile wholesale model is built on partnership, directly challenging the industry’s trend towards commoditised transactions. The company is positioning itself as the strategic alternative for carriers, MSPs, and AltNets frustrated by the rigid, one-size-fits-all contracts typical of the national marketplace, which has already led to a 40% reduction in average contract onboarding time for new partners.

The new approach tackles a core industry challenge: the gap between the need for flexible, high-capacity infrastructure and the reality of dealing with inflexible legacy providers.

As Paul Davies, Wholesale Managing Director at LightSpeed Networks, explains:

LightSpeed Networks brings experience, consistency, and ease to the national connectivity marketplace. We pride ourselves on being exceptionally clear and responsive to work with, delivering solutions that help to achieve your business goals and targets. With bespoke, agile commercials, we provide your connectivity, your way.

This dedication to partnership over mere transaction defines their entire service model, enabling partners to drive greater value and differentiation in a highly competitive market.

Empowering Partners to Innovate and Scale

LightSpeed Networks views its wholesale fibre, wavelength, and ethernet solutions as engines for innovation for its partners. Instead of pushing generic products, the company designs solutions that mitigate risk, reduce operational complexity, and ensure faster time-to-market.

Key offerings designed for true partner enablement include:

• Bespoke, Agile Commercials: Providing pricing and contractual terms that adapt to the partner’s growth trajectory and specific business needs, rather than imposing blanket volume commitments.
• Merchant Build and Operate: A critical offering that ensures network infrastructure is delivered exactly where and when it is needed, allowing partners to deploy new services without incurring prohibitive capital expenditure or facing geographic limitations.
• Advanced High-Capacity Solutions: Offering Dark Fibre for full control and capacity, and Optical Wavelengths for ultra-fast, high-bandwidth applications, enabling partners to target data-heavy enterprise and public sector contracts.
• Simplicity and Support: In a market where service quality is the ultimate differentiator, LightSpeed Networks’ promise is straightforward: “We adapt fast to your needs. We keep things straightforward, no jargon. We’re always at the other end of the phone. And above all, we deliver on our promises.”

By providing this framework, LightSpeed Networks is helping UK service providers stand out in their markets, scale their businesses, and seize the new opportunities created by the UK’s full-fibre and digital transformation agenda.

About LightSpeed Networks:

LightSpeed Networks is a UK-based wholesale connectivity provider dedicated to delivering enterprise internet and fibre solutions that empower companies to grow with confidence. Offering a suite of flexible, scalable services including Dark Fibre, Ethernet, Optical Wavelengths, and bespoke Merchant Build/Operate solutions, LightSpeed Networks works with Service Providers, Carriers, MSPs, and Local Authorities, ensuring it’s always your connectivity, your way.

To find out more about LightSpeed Networks’ wholesale solutions, visit www.lightspeed.co.uk/wholesale, call 01775 666 103, or email enquiries@lightspeednetworks.co.uk.

Original article Total Telecom:Read More

News

The offer, announced last night, would have seen Bouygues Telecom, Iliad, and Orange divide the company’s assets between them

Late last night, reports revealed that a Bouygues, Iliad, and Orange had joined forces to put together a €17 billion offer to buy and carve up the majority of rival operator SFR’s assets.

Now, less than a day later, it seems that this approach has been ‘immediately rejected’, according to an email seen by the media that had been sent to SFR staff by Altice France head Arthur Dreyfuss.

An official statement on the rejection has yet to be published.

The proposed deal, which had been rumoured to be in the works since earlier this summer, would have seen SRF’s three national telco rivals split the majority of SFR’s assets between them, with Bouygues taking 43% of the assets, Iliad 30%, and Orange 27%.

All three operators would have taken a piece of SFR’s consumer business, including mobile and fixed broadband customers, while the B2B unit would have been divided solely between Bouygues and Iliad.

The company’s physical network assets, both fixed and mobile, and the company’s spectrum holdings, would largely have been split between all three partners.

The proposal did not include some of Altice’s smaller assets, including stakes in Intelcia, UltraEdge, and XP Fibre, and alsoAltice group’s activities in French overseas departments and regions.

In total, the deal valued SFR at around €21 billion – far short of the roughly €30 billion price point sought by SFR’s billionaire owner Patrick Drahi, which may well explain the offer’s rejection today.

This kind of tripartite carve up would not without precedent; in Brazil in 2020, for example, Telefónica, Claro Brasil, and TIM Brasil struck a similar partnership to divide the mobile unit of floundering telecoms operator Oi. However, it is somewhat unusual, potentially giving the regulatory bodies a challenge in accurately assessing the deal’s impact to consumers.

Historically, EU regulators have been reticent to allow large-scale mergers that reduce the number of telecoms players in the market, fearing that the reduction in competition would drive up prices and reduce incentives for innovation. The telecoms industry itself, on the other hand, has been calling for consolidation for many years, arguing such deals are key to unlocking long term investment in the sector. In fact, just last month, the GSMA were once again called on regulators to overhaul their merger guidelines to facilitate M&A.

Sentiment towards such mergers is thawing, however. The recent merger of Three and Vodafone in the UK and Orange and MasMovil in Spain suggests that getting regulatory approval for such a deal, while troublesome, is potentially achievable.

For now, it is unclear whether Bouygues, Iliad, and Orange will return to the negotiating table. We expect further updates imminently.

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

Also in the news
Connected Britain Award winners 2025 announced!
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Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

The debt strained TalkTalk Group, which at this point has been through a demerger of its businesses and in 2024 secured a £400m refinancing package to avoid a default on its debts (here, here) – not to mention the recent £120m funding deal (here), is reportedly set to axe around 100 more jobs as part of its latest restructuring effort.

Suffice to say that the group, which recently launched a major brand refresh and advertising push of its consumer broadband ISP business (here), is still doing everything it can to cut costs and tackle their underlying debt problem. This includes the possible disposal (sale) of its remaining businesses (here).

The situation has already resulted in various redundancies, such as the recent loss of up to 350 jobs from their wholesale division, PlatformX Communications (here). According to The Standard, another redundancy consultation has just started that could see around 100 further jobs being cut from both their group HQ in Salford (Manchester) and another office in London.

A spokesperson for TalkTalk (Group) said:

“Over the past 18 months, we have been transforming how TalkTalk Group operates, invests, and serves its customers. The proposed changes to our consumer business are a necessary part of that journey, creating a more agile and future-focused organisation that can deliver innovation and improved service for our customers.”

The Group’s latest annual accounts (here) recently revealed that TalkTalk made a statutory loss before tax of £465m for the year ended 28th February 2025 (up from £153m last year) and were home to 1,570 employees (down from 2,065). The overall level of net debt (excluding leases) also hit £1.2bn – rising to £1.96bn if you include leases.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

SpaceX’s global Starlink service, which offers ultrafast broadband speeds across the UK and globally via a mega constellation of compact satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), has provided their best view yet of what the company’s next generation v3 (GEN3) satellites will look like when deployed to orbit. Each one will have 10 times more capacity than earlier v2 satellites.

The service currently has around 8,600 satellites in orbit (c.5,000 are v2 / V2 Mini) – mostly at altitudes of c.500-600km – and they’ll add thousands more by the end of 2027. Residential customers in the UK usually pay from £75 a month, plus £299 for hardware (currently free for most areas) on the ‘Standard’ unlimited data plan (kit price may vary due to different offers), which promises UK latency times of 26-33ms, downloads of 116-277Mbps and uploads of 17-32Mbps. Cheaper and more restrictive options also exist for roaming users.

As we’ve previously reported, SpaceX is aiming to deliver a significant upgrade to the performance and capacity of their Starlink constellation by putting the next generation of v3 satellites into orbit. Each v3 will be able to handle 1 Terabit per second (1000Gbps) of downlink (up from 96Gbps on V2 Mini) and 160Gbps of uplink speed (shared capacity), with the future Starship rocket able to put around 60 of these into orbit per launch (here).

However, the company is currently unable to launch any of their new v3 satellites, which is because they’re too large and heavy (2,000kg each vs 575kg for V2 Mini) for that to be economically viable via their existing Falcon 9 rockets. SpaceX has thus had to wait for their new heavy lift Starship rocket to be ready.

The good news is that Starship has just aced its past two test launches and may thus be able to launch their first commercial v3 satellites into orbit sometime during early 2026 (here). The new satellites, which will also orbit closer to earth (good for performance if not coverage), will feature newer and larger antennas, solar arrays and be able to harness more radio spectrum frequency to help support their performance.

The latest update from SpaceX (here) reveals, as pictured above, what each V3 will look like once fully deployed in comparison to their earlier v1.5 and v2 satellites. The catch is that customers are expected to need a new router and dish (terminal kit) in order to be able to fully benefit from the extra performance they’ll bring.

Currently, the average (median) UK download speed on Starlink is 78.7Mbps and this rises up to 223.4Mbps for those with the top 10% of fastest connections, while uploads average just 10.8Mbps or 18.5Mbps for those in the top 10% (here).

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

The Guernsey Competition & Regulatory Authority (GCRA) has “provisionally approved” the release of new radio spectrum in the 700MHz and 3.6GHz bands in order to enable telecoms operators JT and Sure to roll-out 5G mobile (mobile broadband) services across the islands of Guernsey, Alderney and Sark from “early 2026“.

On 25th September 2025, following completion of the pre-application phase of the Spectrum Licensing Framework, JT (Guernsey) Limited submitted a formal application for the aforementioned spectrum. This was followed on the 3rd October 2025 by an identical application from Sure (Guernsey) Limited.

Just to be clear, JT has applied to take 2×15MHz of spectrum frequency in the 700MHz band (703–718 and 758–773 MHz) and 100MHz of frequency in the 3.6GHz band (3.51–3.61 GHz). By comparison, Sure sought 2x10MHz in the 700MHz band (778–788MHz and 723–733MHz) and 100MHz in the 3.6GHz band (3.61–3.71MHz).

According to the related regulator’s reports (here and here), JT intends to launch 5G across Guernsey, Alderney and Sark from early 2026, “building on its ongoing 5G rollout in Jersey and leveraging its partnership with leading telecommunications manufacturer Ericsson“. It intends to deploy 5G initially as non-standalone (NSA) for enhanced mobile broadband services, before migrating to standalone (SA) over time.

Sadly, Sure chose not to be as open about their planned 5G roll-out on the island, with the GCRA redacting all of the key details, investment commitments and dates from their document. However, Sure previously announced that they would invest £48m into building a new “world-class” 5G mobile network across both Guernsey and Jersey during 2026 as part of their move to acquire rival Airtel Vodafone (here), which required the suspension of local competition laws.

Ofcom currently manages spectrum on behalf of the GCRA under a delegated authority arrangement granted by the UK Government, and the GCRA regulates how spectrum is used commercially within Guernsey. But there are not expected to be any major obstacles to the GCRA’s provisional approval, which Ofcom is expected to grant.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

A recent study from New Street Research has predicted that the UK will lose around 250,000 subscribers to fixed broadband services this year, which would mark “the first time there has ever been a decline” in the market. Competition from Starlink (satellite), fixed wireless and mobile broadband rivals are said to be the main cause.

The study indicates that one of the key changes taking place reflects the growth in mobile-only households, where factors like the cost-of-living crisis and improvements in the performance of 4G/5G mobile networks are causing more people to save money by sharing their Smartphone’s mobile broadband (Tethering / WiFi Hotspot etc.) connection instead of taking a fixed line.

The issue is one that Openreach’s (BT) Deputy CEO, Katie Milligan, similarly touched on earlier in the week when discussing the operator’s own ongoing decline in broadband lines (here). As a related report on Fierce Network also points out, data from Point Topic shows fixed operators shedding a net 14,000 broadband subscribers in Q2 2025, which was actually an improvement on the 88,000 net losses in Q1.

However, we should point out that Ofcom’s most recent Telecoms Data Tables update shows that there were 29.2 million fixed broadband lines at the end of Q1 2025 (here), which is an increase of 756,000 (2.7%) year-on-year. Some 22.3m of that total were via fibre-based FTTx broadband connections (FTTC, FTTP, FTTB etc.), with the rest coming from cable (hybrid fibre coax / Virgin Media) and slow copper ADSL lines.

The number of ADSL lines decreased by 147,000 (8.0%) during the quarter and now total under 1.8m (most of these go to FTTx). But accurately tracking exactly what type of broadband connectivity everybody has at home is difficult, particularly when they switch to a mobile-only or satellite-only approach. Most people still view mobile and satellite as complementary solutions, rather than replacements, but clearly some households may be opting for a more complete switch.

The market has arguably been plateauing like this, at a high point of general saturation, for several years. But it will be interesting to see whether mobile broadband finally starts to become a bigger threat, rather than just a complement, to full fibre (FTTP) over the next few years. Some mobile operators, such as Three UK, have long championed it for fixed wireless broadband delivery, although variable performance and other connection caveats have tended to hold it back. Such issues may become less and less of a barrier as 5GSA (5G+) expands, IPv6 is deployed more widely and 6G comes on-tap.

Original article Total Telecom:Read More

Interview

Sporting a brand new Netomnia hoodie and matching trainers, Chelot said he wants Netomnia to become the largest altnet in the UK

“I want to become the largest altnet in the UK and I think I’ve got a very good shot at it,” he said, noting the company’s 2.8 million premises passed and goal of 5 million by 2027. “As an ISP, we have around 400,000 customers, so we’re about to catch up with Community Fibre an Hyperoptic before the end of the year. After that, the next step is to beat Vodafone.”

Check out our full interview below, covering Netomnia’s rebrand, the company’s latest funding, and Jeremy’s take on altnet consolidation.

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

Also in the news
Connected Britain Award winners 2025 announced!
Netomnia announces ‘powerful and ambitious’ rebrand ahead of Connected Britain
VodafoneThree drops Samsung, relies on Nokia and Ericsson for £2bn network upgrade