News 

The outage has caused disruption for millions 

Today, an IT malfunction of unprecedented scale has sent shockwaves across the world, affecting critical services and impacting millions of people. 

Elon Musk, tweeting this morning, has labeled the event as the “biggest IT fail ever.”  

The cause of the huge outage lies in a software update issued by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike. The company uses a cloud-based system that offers companies security over the internet, rather than local installations. It provides companies with real-time insights into security threats.  

A defect in the company’s latest update triggered a chain reaction, impacting Windows operating systems globally, meaning that many systems, including Teams and Outlook, went down. 

CrowdStrike president George Kurtz said that the issue has been caused by “a single content update for Windows hosts”. 

“CrowdStrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts. Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted. This is not a security incident or cyberattack. The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed. Our team is fully mobilized to ensure the security and stability of CrowdStrike customers,” he wrote on X.  

Despite this, the residual impact and full recovery is expected to take several days, with many companies around the world being forced to restart their machines in safe mode. 

The company was quick to stress that the event was not malicious in nature. Despite acting like a cyberattack in many ways, the fault did not compromise the integrity of any users’ data. 

The ripple effects of this glitch have been far-reaching and are still arising. Nearly 1,400 flights have been canceled due to system failures, banks are struggling with transaction processing issues, as well as the broadcasting, retail and healthcare industries, amongst others. 

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

Also in the news:
Power play: Thailand’s biggest telco to merge with energy giant
Germany implements long-awaited Huawei ban
Telecom Egypt readies for country’s first 5G services

Openreach (BT) has today released the next batch of 92 exchanges (Tranche 17) in their “FTTP Priority Exchange Stop Sell” programme, which reflects areas where over 75% of premises are able to get full fibre and will thus stop selling copper based analogue phone and broadband products (i.e. FTTP becomes the only product option).

Currently, there are two schemes for moving away from old copper lines and services, which can sometimes criss-cross. The first starts with the gradual migration of traditional analogue voice (PSTN) services to digital all-IP technologies (e.g. SOGEA), which is due to complete by 31st January 2027 and is occurring on both copper and full fibre products (i.e. ISPs are introducing digital voice / VoIP services). The national “stop sell” on analogue phone services began on 5th September 2023 (here).

The second “FTTP Priority Exchange” programme involves the ongoing rollout of gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) lines – using light signals via optical fibre instead of electrical signals via slow copper lines. Only after this second programme has largely completed (75%+ FTTP coverage) in an exchange area can you really start to completely switch-off copper-based products, which will come later as you have to allow time for natural customer migrations.

Between the scrapping of analogue phone services, the full fibre rollout and the gradual switch away from copper lines themselves, this process will take several years in each area to complete, and the pace will vary (i.e. some areas have better coverage of full fibre than others). Naturally, premises that can’t yet get FTTP will continue to be served by copper-based broadband products.

92 New Exchange Locations (Tranche 17)

In this programme, the migration process away from legacy services starts with a “no move back” policy (i.e. no going back to copper) for premises connected with FTTP, which is followed by a “stop-sell” of copper services to new customers (12-months of notice is given before this starts and that is what today’s list represents). This stage is then followed by a final “withdrawal” phase, but that comes later. The stop sell is applied at premises level, so it shouldn’t impact you if you don’t yet have access to FTTP (edge-case conflicts may still occur due to rare quirks of network availability).

The 92 exchanges announced today – covering at least 615,000 premises – takes the total number of exchange upgrades that have already been notified as part of the aforementioned process (including trial exchanges), or which are actively under “stop sell“, to 1096. The “stop sell” in the Tranche 17 areas will be introduced from July 2025.

James Lilley, Openreach’s Managed Customer Migrations Manager, said:

“We’re moving to a digital world and Openreach is helping with that transformation by rolling out ultrafast, ultra-reliable, and future-proofed digital full fibre across the UK. This game changing technology will become the backbone of our economy for decades to come, supporting every aspect of our public services, businesses, industries and daily lives.

Already, our full fibre network is available to more than 14 million homes and businesses, with more than 4 million premises currently taking a service. Taking advantage of the progress of our full fibre build and encouraging people to upgrade where a majority can access our new network is the right thing to do as it makes no sense, both operationally and commercially, to keep the old copper network and our new fibre network running side-by-side. As copper’s ability to support modern communications declines, the immediate focus is getting people onto newer, future proofed technologies.”

By the end of the summer, these ‘stop sell’ rules will have been activated in more than 700 exchanges (excludes unactivated stop sells) – meaning around 6 million premises will be under active Stop Sell – i.e. premises where Full Fibre is available to a majority of premises & new copper products cannot be sold.

The operator also has a Stop Sells Page on their website, which makes it easy to see all the planned changes. Otherwise, the following list is tentative, so changes and delays will occur (exchanges can and are often shifted around into different tranches).

92 Stop Sell Exchanges in Tranche 17

Exchange Name
Exchange Location

Shenley Church End (XCH)
Milton Keynes

Killingworth (KLT)
Longbenton

Greenhill (SF/GL)
Sheffield

Astley Bridge (EAY)
Greater Manchester – Bolton

Prescot (LV/PRE)
Prescot

Heckmondwike (HHJ)
Liversedge

Toothill (THL)
Swindon (Wiltshire)

Saughall(GSU)
Saughall

Barrow On Humber(BCA)
Barrow upon Humber

Blackwater(BLW)
Sandhurst (Berkshire)

Kesgrave(KGF)
Kesgrave

Stowmarket(STW)
Stowmarket

Brandon(BMT)
Brandon (West Suffolk)

Builth Wells(BSX)
Builth Wells

Port Dinorwic(PES)
Y Felinheli

Sittingbourne(SKD)
Sittingbourne

Maesglas(MES)
Newport (Newport)

Hethersett(HIF)
Hethersett

Wymondham(WRA)
Wymondham (South Norfolk)

Burgh Castle(JUQ)
Belton (Great Yarmouth)

Faygate(FYG)
Horsham

Goldthorpe(GTR)
Thurnscoe

Gorseinon(GBY)
Gorseinon

Llanymynech(LLV)
Pant

Galashiels(GL)
Galashiels

Sevington(SGT)
Kingsnorth (Ashford)

Rye(RI)
Rye

Newton Abbot(NEA)
Newton Abbot

Camblesforth Uc(ZNX)
Camblesforth

Wilberfoss(VFS)
Wilberfoss

West Kilbride (WRB)
West Kilbride

Kinross (KR)
Kinross

Morpeth (MP)
Morpeth

Gorleston (YGS)
Gorleston-on-Sea

Kirkbymoorside(KCZ)
Kirkbymoorside

Rasharkin(RKI)
Antrim

Castlereagh(CTH)
Down

Ilmington (IMN)
Ilmington

New Abbey (NAB)
New Abbey

Borgue (BGZ)
Borgue

Kettleholm (KOM)
Hoddomcross

Eastrington (EJD)
Eastrington

Somerby (SOB)
Somerby

Scalford (SLD)
Harby

Knipton (KEC)
Croxton Kerrial

Honington (HTN)
Grantham

Bridge Of Gaur (QUR)
Carie

Newdigate (NDE)
Dorking

Weston (WGH)
Weston (North Hertfordshire)

Kerry (KRY)
Kerry

Yarrow (YRW)
Yarrow

Bretton (JRF)
West Bretton

Thwing (TWI)
Burton Fleming

Mid Yell (MNU)
Mid Yell

Bearsden (GW/BEA)
Bearsden

Horbury (OBE)
Ossett

Urmston (MR/URM)
Greater Manchester – Trafford

Shrewsbury (SY)
Shrewsbury

Harrogate (HG)
Harrogate

Armley (LRY)
Leeds

Waltham Cross (L/WX)
Cheshunt

Sandy (SDT)
Sandy

Newark (NBD)
Newark-on-Trent

Worksop Mnr (WW)
Worksop

Seacroft (SET)
Leeds

Hornchurch (L/HC)
Greater London – Havering

Hindley (HIN)
Greater Manchester – Wigan

Portland(PLX)
Weston (Dorset)

Kidderminster(KD)
Kidderminster

Devonport(DV)
Plymouth

Neath(NM)
Neath

Davidson Mains (EH/DAV)
Edinburgh

Rochford (REP)
Rochford

Donaghmore(DIZ)
Tyrone

Castlederg(CVC)
Tyrone

Dervock(DVK)
Antrim

Maghera(MOZ)
Londonderry

Toomebridge(TIY)
Antrim

Wolverton (WMV)
Milton Keynes

Stony Stratford (STM)
Milton Keynes

Kettering (KZ)
Kettering

Taffs Well(TAT)
Taff’s Well

Ynysowen(YYN)
Merthyr Tydfil

Brecon(BNB)
Brecon

New Southgate(L/ENT)
Greater London – Barnet

Newington (EH/NEW)
Edinburgh

Gortin(GRP)
Tyrone

Beragh(BZD)
Tyrone

Tulnacross(TNC)
Tyrone

Draperstown(DJI)
Londonderry

Stewartstown(SYP)
Tyrone

Glenwherry(GQW)
Antrim

The Government (DSIT) has just confirmed that the Chair of their broadband and mobile centric Building Digital UK (BDUK) agency, Simon Blagden, resigned from his position yesterday “with immediate effect“. The details of Simon’s departure have not been made public, but it’s perhaps not surprising given the recent change of Government.

A spokesperson at the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology said: “The Department would like to thank Mr Blagden for the significant contribution he has made in this role. Arrangements for appointing his successor will be confirmed in due course.”

The Labour Party’s recent 2024 General Election Manifesto (here) made clear that they would be making a “renewed push to fulfil the ambition of full gigabit and national 5G coverage by 2030.” The party has already given mild support to Project Gigabit and appears to be aware that any big changes would risk adding further delays to the gigabit roll-out. But aside from reform of the planning system (here), solid details of their wider plans in this area remain unclear.

UK ISP Quickline has announced that their state aid (Project Gigabit) supported roll-out of a new gigabit full fibre (FTTP) broadband network in the North Yorkshire village of Escrick has now reached 600 homes. As part of that, they’ve teamed up with PBS Construction to show pupils at the local Primary School how they build the network via a “Digger Day“.

The school Digger Day, which sounds like a dream come true for many kids (particularly boys of a certain age – usually aged 5 to 80+), is a joint project that is designed to cut costs by developing a future work force based on cheap child labour help improve understanding and awareness of the delivery of full fibre broadband in their communities (joking with that strike-out , obviously).

The event comprised a short presentation to a full school assembly to explain the work Quickline and PBS are undertaking in the village, followed by the opportunity for all pupils to see a digger up close in the playground and learn more about how it operates.

Judging by the picture, a few lucky little ones also got the chance to have a go in the digger. But it’s unclear whether or not they were also coached in the ways of dealing with anti-pole campaigners, long breaks for tea drinking and the need to tackle Openreach’s many laboriously “fun” PIA processes. But we’d assume.. probably not.

More Digger Days are being planned for the new school year, with hundreds more children set to be involved in the programme from September 2024.

Tamara Butterworth, Social Values Executive at Quickline, said:

“We have been working with PBS in Escrick over recent months to build our network in the village and so people have seen us, our vehicles and our equipment around.

It’s really important to us that we foster relationships with the communities we serve and spending time at school, talking to the children about what are doing is a great way of bringing it to life and educating them at the same time.”

Quickline is being supported by funding of c.£500m from Northleaf Capital Partners and c.£177m of public subsidy from Project Gigabit (here, here and here). The provider holds an aspiration to cove around 500,000 premises in rural and semi-rural areas across Northern England and beyond with “ultrafast broadband” – via both FTTP and wireless technologies – “by 2025” (here). Some 200,000 of those rural premises will be tackled by their wireless network, with the other half or more coming from FTTP.

Broadband ISP and mobile operator EE (BT) has today announced that UK customers of their internet-connected pay TV service can now, finally, gain access to the YouTube App on their TV Box Pro and TV Box Mini set-top-box hardware.

The long overdue app can be found from the Featured Apps rail, where it will sit alongside other streaming and entertainment apps such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, NOW and Apple TV+. EE TV customers will also be able to sign up to YouTube Premium and YouTube Primetime Channels through the YouTube app on their TV Box Pro and TV Box Mini devices.

Alistair Wilson, EE’s Partnerships Director, said: “Our new EE TV service offers customers access to the widest choice of the very best TV shows, films and sport available, as we look to provide them with access to the content they love. YouTube is the latest partner of ours, and we’re sure that with its the vast library of video and music content now easily accessible via the service, it will prove really popular with customers.”

Admittedly, the YouTube app is about as common as water for most modern set-top-boxes, TVs, Smartphones, computers and various other devices. As such the fact that EE finally got around to adding it, over half a year on from EE TV’s official launch, probably won’t be greeted with too much fanfare. But all the same, it’s nice to have the option.

The Ordnance Survey (OS), which creates and maintains detailed location (map) information for Great Britain, claims to have launched a “game-changing advantage” for alternative broadband networks (Altnet) that can help them to roll-out full fibre lines by “eradicating time-draining obstacles“, such as missing data for multi-dwelling units (big residential buildings).

According to OS, Altnets can sometimes run into trouble, when confronted with high rise flats and mixed-use residential and commercial buildings in Britain. For example, gaps in data around the classification and characteristics of these types of buildings sometimes “prevents the smooth running of operational rollouts, or targeted sales and marketing strategies from reaching the different occupiers inside.”

In addition, other problems, such as “not knowing how much cable or pipework is required for a job, not knowing what tools need to be on-site, or not knowing what type of staffing expertise will be needed to work on a specific type of building” can all mount up. Even before the work can start, not having a clear idea of who owns the piece of land around a building that must be accessed or dug up can create problems.

Suffice to say that OS has been working on a solution to help network operators get good and correct data on these sites, which can reduce the chances of related deployments becoming time-consuming and resource heavy. The solution is a concept called Complex Building Intelligence (CBI), which was first previewed at last year’s Connected Britain event.

Complex Building Intelligence

The analytics pulls data from multiple sources into one new single layer, combining OS’s addressing, topographic and building height data with HM Land Registry and Royal Mail PAF data.

Attributes for complex buildings are all available in one place, including: building geometry (e.g. size and shape), building height, functional use of buildings (e.g. retail or education), key infrastructure sites (e.g. hospitals), Unique Property Reference Numbers and tenure data for England and Wales (e.g. registered owner or leaseholders).

The full analytics service contains 7.2 million addresses shown within 1.2m buildings around Britain.

The solution incorporates HMLR Title Number data and information about land ownership. For altnets, this streamlines the wayleave consent process when installing telecoms equipment on private land. It also means altnets are no longer forced to licence HMLR and OS data separately when seeking correct land ownership data for sites.

Naturally, anything that enables better planning, cost efficiencies and thus faster deployments of new broadband infrastructure can only be a good thing when it comes to the complex task of dealing with MDUs.

Richard Crump, OS’s Strategic Product Manager, said:

“We have observed the challenges surrounding complex building that telecoms providers face, for some time. Having listened and had conversations about these difficulties with many voices in the industry, OS has gone away and developed a solution for its partners that provides a single source of truth in one place.

Complex Building Intelligence basically removes all the complexity of data management – whether that’s collating the data or querying it. It’s a simple, easy-to-use analytics service, kept up to date by experts, that’s ready to load into anyone’s network planning or GIS software.”

Credits to Thinkbroadband for spotting this one.

The UK telecoms regulator, Ofcom, has today finalised their earlier proposal to BAN phone, mobile, pay TV and broadband ISPs from doing mid-contract price hikes that are linked to inflation and percentage changes. The plan is to introduce this change from 17th January 2025, before the next round of annual price increases typically hit.

Back in 2020 most of the major providers preferred to announce a general price increase each year, which usually averaged around 4-6%. But that changed after BT adopted a key policy and now almost all of them (except Sky Broadband) increase their prices each year by nearly 4% plus the rate of annual inflation (CPI or RPI) – as published in a particular month (usually January or February).

Initially, the change wasn’t such a problem because inflation remained low, but it’s been far from low over the past couple of years. In 2022 most consumers saw their prices rise by around 9% (here) and in 2023 that hit over 14% (here), although falling inflation meant that the hikes for 2024 weren’t quite that and were closer to 7-8% (here). But these weren’t the only problems with inflation linked price hikes.

The policy also made it harder for customers to exit their contracts penalty free because the providers could argue that they’d already given prior notice of the increases in the small print. On top of that, many consumers found the policy confusing (e.g. not being familiar with how “inflation” actually works or the meaning of terms like CPI or RPI).

The Intervention

The regulator arguably took too long to respond to the concerns, but their review eventually found that consumers have “low awareness and understanding of inflation-linked price rises” and are “unable to estimate reliably what they will pay”. Ofcom also found that people do not typically consider future inflation-linked price rises when choosing a contract.

Ofcom said more than half (55%) of broadband customers and pay monthly mobile customers (58%) do not know what inflation rates such as CPI and RPI measure. And of those who are with providers that use inflation-linked price rises, very few broadband (16%) and mobile customers (12%) were both aware of the price rise and able to identify that it was inflation-linked with an additional percentage.

In response, the regulator announced a proposal in December 2023 to “effectively ban” the practice (here). Instead, wherever telecoms or pay TV providers apply in-contract price rises they must now “set these out clearly and up-front, in pounds and pence, when a customer signs up“. Put another way, providers would be able to present their monthly subscription price (e.g. £30 per month), but any mid-contract price hikes must be spelled out alongside and include the dates when they will become applicable.

Ofcom has spent the past few months consulting the industry on these proposals, and they’ve today announced their intention to adopt them into their rules (General Conditions). The announcement confirms that the regulator will formally begin to enforce this change on the market from 17th January 2025.

Some providers, such as TalkTalk, complained that the move was unfair because Ofcom hadn’t applied the same rules to wholesale providers – they singled out Openreach as an example. But unlike retail providers, Openreach don’t do the CPI + X% model (usually they just do a pure inflation increase) or apply such changes mid-contract. Likewise, it’s not as if other providers (e.g. smaller players) don’t have to deal with variable supply side costs already, yet many of them still manage to avoid mid-contract hikes.

Cristina Luna-Esteban, Ofcom’s Telecoms Policy Director, said:

“With household budgets squeezed, people need to have certainty about their monthly outgoings. But that’s impossible if you’re tied into a contract where the price could change based on something as hard to predict as future inflation.

We’re stepping in on behalf of phone, broadband and pay TV customers to stamp out this practice, so people can be certain of the price they will pay, compare deals more easily and take advantage of the competitive market we have in the UK.”

The change will naturally increase the risk for providers that typically adopted the CPI/RPI + X% model to annual hikes. But providers still have to balance that higher risk through their pricing, which could well result in bigger price increases to compensate for greater uncertainty (the longer the contract term, the greater the uncertainty). So none of this will make services cheaper, only clearer. In some cases, it may even make them more expensive than the old approach.

Some providers, such as the BT Group ISPs (e.g. BT, Plusnet and EE) and Vodafone, have already responded to this by introducing a flat £3 per year increase on broadband and a c.£1-£2 increase on mobile. Such a policy is much clearer, but it doesn’t scale well across differently priced packages (i.e. those on entry-level services will be hit harder) and is unlikely to damped calls for an outright ban on mid-contract hikes – something we’d support.

Speaking of which, if service providers can now predict their increases ahead of time, then it arguably increases the case for just baking those planned hikes into a fixed price contract. At this point it’s worth remembering that not all providers adopt the same approach as the biggest players and many smaller ISPs, particularly newer alternative networks (altnets), often already promote packages with simple fixed price terms.

Finally, Ofcom’s changes will only impact new or recontracting terms, which means that existing customers will need to change (or re-contract) their current package in order to be covered by the new policy.

Statement: Prohibiting inflation-linked price rises
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/../review-of-inflation-linked-telecoms-price-rises

Mobile network operator Lebara, which harnesses Vodafone’s Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) platform, has introduced a handful of exclusive 4G and 5G (mobile broadband) supporting SIM-Only Pay Monthly mobile plans on 30 day terms for those who want a save a bit of extra money on the middle tier plans.

The additional 30-Day plans include a 10GB for £7 (monthly) option, as well as 20GB for £8 and 30GB for £9 – the latter two are cheaper than the same tiers on their 12-Month terms. The additional plans all include unlimited calls, texts and 100 International Minutes (from the UK) to over 40 countries. You also get a promise of no annual price rises in 2024 and EU roaming at no extra cost (30GB data FUP).

As usual, you’ll need to click the affiliate links above to get these specially discounted plans.

Broadband network builder and UK ISP CommunityFibre, which runs a 10Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network across around 1.4 million UK premises – mostly in London (inc. parts of Surrey and West Sussex), has launched a new offer that discounts their 500Mbps (symmetric speed) package to just £20 per month on a 24-month term (£33 thereafter).

The package includes free setup, a WiFi 6 capable Linksys broadband router and a notice that their prices will increase every April by the prior January rate of inflation (CPI) + 2.9%. But the latter policy will almost certainly change before the end of 2024, due to Ofcom’s forthcoming new rules.

The promotional price is expected to remain available for new customers to take until 4th August 2024. Take note that CommunityFibre also offers a 60 Day Satisfaction Guarantee, meaning that if at any point within the first 60 days of installation a customer is not happy with their new full fibre connection, they can leave their contract without incurring any cancellation fees.

News

The project began in September 2021 

Chinese giant Huawei has completed the construction of its new research and development (R&D) centre in Shanghai, China. 

Officially named the Lianqiu Lake R&D Center, the campus includes offices, R&D, incubation and production services. It is the “largest and most heavily invested R&D base globally,” the company said. In the future, the site will designed to become a core node in Huawei’s global R&D network. 

According to South China Morning Post, approximately 30,000 employees are expected to move into the campus upon completion, with the first number expected in September. Operations are expected to begin later this year, although the company have yet to commented on the project’s completion. A state media report in January confirmed that the site will ‘carry out innovative research and development in the fields of Huawei terminal chips, wireless networks and the Internet of Things’.  

There are currently around 19,000 staff at its research centre in the city’s Pudong district. 

The campus is reportedly comprised of eight blocks and 104 buildings, connected via a railway system. Other amenities, such as the 100 on site cafes, have been included to attract foreign employees.  

“[We aim to] create an atmosphere suitable for foreign scientists to work and live in,” said Huewei founder and CEO Ren Zhengfei in an internal meeting in 2021, which was later made public. 

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

Also in the news:
Power play: Thailand’s biggest telco to merge with energy giant
Germany implements long-awaited Huawei ban
Telecom Egypt readies for country’s first 5G services