Press Release

1 July 2024, London: Vodafone, the Official Connectivity Partner to The Championships, Wimbledon, has pledged to donate up to 75,000 connections over the course of this year’s event to help people and sports clubs cross the digital divide.

The new ‘Connect Better’ challenge will take the on-court competition to new heights this year, with Vodafone challenging the players to hit their fastest serve and help them smash the donation target of 75,000 connections.

Vodafone will be tracking the fastest serves achieved every day across the gentlemen’s, ladies’ and wheelchair singles competitions and will match the total miles per hour (MPH) in donated SIMs, tech and resources.

To serve up a grand total in the tens of thousands, Vodafone will be turning the players’ power into real-world impact by multiplying the final MPH number by 14, the number of days the event runs.

Based on the fastest serves recorded by IBM during last year’s Wimbledon, this could mean 71,148 donations provided to people, businesses, and communities without access to digital connectivity. Game on.

Vodafone ambassador and British tennis legend, Tin Henman, commented; “I’m calling on all the tennis players at this year’s Championships to hit their fastest serves, not just for the glory of the game, but to support Vodafone’s Connect Better challenge. Each powerful serve will directly contribute to donating essential digital resources to those who need them most.”

The initiative comes as research by Vodafone uncovers the impact of the digital divide on grassroots sports and accessibility, with 43% of Brits admitting they’d find it difficult to identify opportunities to get involved in sports without digital connectivity, while a third (33%) would struggle to do so for their children.

Nearly a third (31%) say they use digital connectivity to find out information about local sports clubs, book themselves into classes or sessions (27%) and to get hold of required kit and equipment (18%).

Over a quarter (26%) rely on the internet to connect with other people, such as other parents, who are involved in local sports clubs, while one in eight (12%) use it to book their children into sports classes.

In fact, 63% of new sports club sign ups – for adults and parents doing so for their children – are all done online.

As well as the impact on participation, digital access is key for viewing sports, 42% of the population admit they are reliant on the internet during Wimbledon to check results and look at the order of play (38%), while almost a quarter (24%) watch the matches online during the event.

The challenges presented by digital exclusion extend to the sports clubs themselves, with research conducted by Vodafone’s charity partner, Sported, revealing that 66% of Sported’s member clubs do not consider themselves well connected. In fact, nearly a quarter (23%) say they are poorly connected – or not connected at all.

A further 88% would find improving digital skills from online resources and support valuable to their business.

Sarah Kaye, Chief Executive of charity Sported, said: “Poor connectivity and a lack of resources severely limits the potential of sports clubs in deprived communities.

“Access to the internet, modern devices, and essential digital skills are crucial for these clubs and organisations to thrive. Unfortunately, many are left behind due to a lack of these resources, restricting their opportunities for growth, collaboration, and exposure.

“71% said a free 6-month SIM plan would be valuable to how they operate. That is exactly why programmes like Vodafone’s everyone.connected are essential in helping to bridge the digital divide. It not only equips these difference-makers with connectivity but also fosters a sense of community and inclusion, ensuring no one is left behind in our increasingly connected world.”

The research from Vodafone also found that over two thirds of adults (67%) admit that having access to the internet plays a huge role in keeping them fit and healthy and ensuring they take part in sport and exercise.

Nicki Lyons, Chief Corporate Affairs and Sustainability Officer at Vodafone UK, adds: “As the Official Connectivity Partner to The Championships, we recognise that the digital divide extends to the world of sport. Many individuals, communities and businesses lack the necessary connectivity to fully participate in and enjoy sports activities. This divide poses a barrier to accessing training resources, engaging with sports communities, and even promoting local clubs effectively.

“Our everyone.connected initiative is designed to help address these challenges. By providing essential digital resources and support, we aim to empower sports enthusiasts and the organisers of grassroots clubs and businesses – who are often volunteers – to ensure that more people in sport can benefit from the opportunities that connectivity brings.”

The Connect Better challenge is part of Vodafone’s everyone.connected programme, which aims to help four million people and businesses cross the digital divide by the end of 2025.

The gap between people with internet access and people without it is called the digital divide. For people negatively affected by the digital divide in the UK, it’s difficult to complete everyday tasks, such as accessing online learning or staying in touch with loved ones.

Vodafone believes connectivity is essential and everyone should have access to the opportunities it provides. To date, the company has helped over 2 million people and businesses cross the digital divide by working with partners like Wimbledon to continue to donate mobile connectivity and technology to those who need it most, providing free support to digitally transform and upskill businesses and communities and by offering targeted, affordable tariffs and services that make being connected super accessible.

News

All three national mobile operators picked up additional spectrum in the 3.5 GHz band following a much-delayed auction process

This week, the Dutch telecoms regulator has announced the conclusion of its latest 5G auction, with KPN, Odido, and VodafoneZiggo all acquiring additional spectrum licences.

The auction saw each operator gain 100 MHz of spectrum in the 3.5GHz band, each paying just over the reserve price for the privilege.

In total, the auction raised €174.4 million, with the licences valid until 2040.

The auction has been a long time coming. The Dutch government had initially planned to hold the auction back in 2021 but was severely delayed by a legal tussle with satellite operator Inmarsat, who was already using the spectrum to provide emergency maritime communications.

This dispute was ultimately solved last year, when Inmarsat signed a deal with the government to move its affected ground station to Greece.

The additional 5G spectrum will be greatly appreciated by the Dutch operators, who have been crying out for additional 5G capacity for years. Last year, data from OpenSignal showed the Netherlands to have some of the poorest download speeds in Europe, with 5G services only delivering a small improvement over 4G. The new 3.5 GHz spectrum should play a major role in alleviating these issues, offering customers both greatly improved speeds and capacity.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the operators say that they are already well prepared to quickly make use of this new spectrum. Odido, for example, said that over half of its existing 5G sites will be able to immediately make use of the new frequencies.

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

Also in the news:
India concludes underwhelming 5G spectrum auction
Ericsson Mobility Report: 5G driving change in service providers’ FWA strategies
Nap time: EE rolls out energy-saving ‘cell sleep’ tech to mobile network

New customers looking to join Grain‘s (Grain Connect) UK internet service, which has extended their gigabit-capable full fibre (FTTP) broadband network to cover 220,000 premises (RFS), may like to know that the provider is launching an additional discount that offers the first 3 months of service for free.

The promotion will run through July 2024 and comes in addition to their pre-existing price discounts. Customers of the new service normally pay from just £19.99 per month for a symmetric 150Mbps package on an 18-month term, which goes up to just £29.99 for their top 900Mbps plan (take note that out-of-contract prices are £5 higher than this).

All of these packages come with unlimited usage, free installation, a pledge of no upfront costs or mid-contract price rises and a router. The ISP also has a social tariff for those on benefits.

Press Release

On 1 July 2024 AbilityNet and Citizens Online charities will merge, joining forces to support more digitally excluded people, and create stronger impact.

Both charities share a common mission: to bridge the digital inclusion gap and improve lives through technology, especially for disabled people. By combining resources, expertise, and passion, the joint charity will achieve even better results in boosting digital inclusion.

A complementary offer

Citizens Online charity has worked to improve digital inclusion since 2000. AbilityNet traces its accessibility roots back to 1985: it is a national charity which focuses on helping disabled and older people to gain the maximum benefit from technology at home, work and in education.

AbilityNet is one of the UK’s leading providers of digital accessibility services to organisations that offer digital applications and services, with a broad portfolio of services, including consultancy, conducting digital audits and user research, and providing expert training and strategy guidance.

Citizens Online has a complementary consultancy offer, to improve digital transformation and inclusivity; it strives to embed digital inclusion, to ensure that the impact is sustainable. It builds local partnerships and works collaboratively to share best practice to improve digital inclusion.

Gary Moore, CEO, AbilityNet:

“By combining our two organisations, we aim to distil the best of Citizens Online and AbilityNet’s knowledge and resources to help our beneficiaries. This should also make us more efficient, improving the offer to our supporters and customers. There are substantial synergies between the two charities; each has a volunteer model; provides external digital training courses; distributes digital devices to community organisations; and both charities work closely to support older users.”

Hugo Drayton, Chair of Citizens Online: 

“In AbilityNet, I am confident that we have found a like-minded organisation, to further the mission of Citizens Online. I am immensely proud of what the charity has achieved in the last quarter century and look forward to the continued growth of this impact within the AbilityNet family. I am confident that this move will secure and expand the future for our work.”

Alan Brooks, Chair of AbilityNet Board of Trustees: 

“We are delighted to welcome the staff, sponsors and beneficiaries of Citizens Online to the AbilityNet family. Our trustees have been very impressed with the impact which Citizens Online has achieved throughout its 24 years of operation. It has been a strong campaigner for greater digital equality and has delivered against that vision for thousands of beneficiaries. With our combined resources, we will be able to achieve greater impact for the people we seek to help.”

Steps forward

Citizens Online is being merged into AbilityNet, leaving one overall charity with one board – AbilityNet. Citizens Online operational staff have now joined AbilityNet and existing Citizens Online projects will continue and expand. The Citizens Online website will remain in place for the foreseeable future, but the joint activities will be promoted under the AbilityNet brand.

Join AbilityNet at this year’s Connected Britain conference

Some customers of broadband ISP and TV provider Virgin Media (O2), such as those who have previously taken one of their ‘Maxit‘ bundles that included access to TNT Sports (formerly BT Sport) TV content, have reacted with anger and confusion after the UK provider suddenly removed access to it and with only minimal prior notice.

Just for some context. The Maxit bundle was originally withdrawn from sale at the end of last summer (2023) and replaced with the Mega-TV bundle, which among other things stopped including TNT Sports and instead turned it into a chargeable (£18 per month) extra. But existing customers of the bundle were exempted from this, unless of course they changed they contract or existing bundle.

Since then it’s emerged that Virgin Media is in a dispute with TNT Sports, which is jointly owned by BT and Warner Bros Discovery (WBD), over broadcasting fees (Telegraph) and the renewal terms for their contract (due by the end of July 2024). Suffice to say that these two changes might help to explain why the provider recently sent the following message to those on packages that continue to include TNT Sports, much to the annoyance of their customers.

In short, Virgin Media said they would automatically remove access to TNT Sport for customers that “haven’t viewed these channels in the last 6 months“, while at the same time offering no proportionate discount for the loss of the premium channel content.

Copy of Virgin Media’s Email to Customers

Hello

We wanted to let you know that we’re making a change to the way we provide TNT Sports channels in order to continue to provide the best value entertainment packages for our customers. We’ve noticed that you haven’t viewed these channels in the last 6 months, and therefore we’re removing automatic access to them from 30th June 2024. Don’t worry, nothing else is changing. If you wish to re-activate TNT Sports, you can click here for more information.

Thanks

The Virgin Media team

However, some customers only received the email a few days prior to the 30th June 2024 deadline, while others claim not to have received any such communication (email is not the most reliable of delivery platforms) and a few may simply have overlooked it due to the relatively short notice of such a change. Needless to say, there are more than a few gripes about this to be found via social media and Virgin Media’s Community Forum.

In addition, a number of customers have complained that Virgin Media were incorrect to state that some of those affected “haven’t viewed these channels in the last 6 months“, with several people complaining that they had in fact viewed the channel within that period and questioning the accuracy of the provider’s statement. Not to mention the usual issues with some of Virgin’s support agents either not knowing about the change or making incorrect account changes or statements when asked.

Sample Customer Complaint 1

“It does appear to be genuine but wth, they’re saying they’ll remove some channels and not reduce the price of my package. Why would anyone agree to that? Just like I haven’t watched any of the shopping channels. Does this mean I then have to click through every channel every so often? What nonsense.”

Sample Customer Complaint 2

“Also had this email today and am lost for words. I pay a premium price for services and channels, to be told because I’ve not viewed the channels in the last six months (which I have) that I will loose access. Virgin are quite happy to increase prices but I did not spot a price reduction or incentive in the email to loose access.”

Sample Customer Complaint 3

“I had the same email today and record TNT almost every weekend.

Got on the online chat and they said they could reinstate but price would go up as it’s not included in Maxxit anymore. I complained and the chat person said they spoke to a manager and it would be free til the end of my contract.

An hour later I get an email confirming a new contract that my bill was going up by £20 a month due to TNT and that the next payment would be £40 more than I normally pay!!!!

I have just got off the phone and the chap confirmed that he could see that the account has over 90hrs of viewing on TNT but explained that since January it has been separate from packages which was why the bill had gone up. I complained again saying my contract was agreed and that included BT/TNT sport. I have been assured that my account will be corrected and continue at the original price til it ends in December. But we will see I guess!!!!!”

Sample Customer Complaint 4

“I have watched TNT Sports regularly over the last six months so VM are plain wrong to suggest I haven’t (or have rarely) done so. Why have I received this email? There are lots of channels on my package that I have never watched but VM aren’t taking those away.”

One of Virgin Media’s forum support agents, Akua_A, later clarified that their email had been sent to customers who have both “zero or low usage of the TNT Sports channels“, which is a bit different from the “haven’t viewed” statement in their official email.

However, just to be clear, if you did click the email link in time then Virgin’s T&C’s say you will be “signing up to re-activate the TNT Sports subscription to your package as an optional add-on, at no additional cost“. But they add that “this offer only remains valid whilst you are subscribed to the Maxit TV product and all other components of your current bundle. If you upgrade any aspect of the service, standard pricing will apply to that upgrade.”

The other catch in the T&C’s is that Virgin said their “offer is only valid whilst Virgin Media has this content in its current form, channels and content are subject to change with limited notice,” which could spell bad news in the near future if they fail to reach an agreement for continued access to TNT Sports.

A Virgin Media spokesperson said:

“As we continue to evolve our TV offering to give our customers more choice aligned to their viewing habits, we’re making some changes to how we offer TNT Sports, whereby it will exist as an optional offering. We know many of our customers enjoy watching TNT’s channels which they can continue doing with no changes to the price they pay.”

The 30th June 2024 has of course now come and gone, which seems to have produced another set of problems, with some customers complaining that they filled out the form in time and yet the channels have still been removed. One of Virgin’s forum support agents, Tom_W, has since acknowledged that “we are working through these forms as a priority – we do sincerely apologise for the delays have brought this over the 48-hour timescales advised, but hopefully this is all resolved for you as soon as possible.”

The best advice, if you’ve been affected by this change, is to contact Virgin Media directly to complain if you feel the channels have now been unfairly or incorrectly removed and wish to reverse that, but do it quickly. Admittedly, contacting Virgin’s support teams is often an exercise in crossing your fingers and hoping that the individual you reach actually has correct knowledge of the situation, which sadly isn’t always the case.

As a side note, asking customers to click on a link in an email is generally a poor approach because such communications are often easily be copied / cloned by phishing attacks.

The UK government’s £5bn Project Gigabit broadband rollout scheme has awarded the £73.47 million (state aid) regional contract for North Yorkshire (Lot 31) in England to ISP Quickline, which will aim to extend their 10Gbps capable full fibre (FTTP) network to almost 40,000 additional premises in hard to reach rural areas.

The development reflects another significant win for Quickline, which has previously also secured the Project Gigabit roll-out contracts for both the West Yorkshire and York Area (Lot 8 – 28,000 premises, £60m) and South Yorkshire (Lot 20 – 32,100 premises, £44m). Suffice to say, they’ve now won the related rural builds for almost the whole of Yorkshire.

Just to recap. Project Gigabit is working to help extend 1Gbps (download) capable networks to reach at least 85% of UK premises by the end of 2025, before aiming to achieve “nationwide” coverage (c. 99%) by 2030 (here). Commercial investment is expected to deliver more than 80% of this, which leaves the government’s scheme to focus on tackling the rest (mostly rural and some sub-urban areas), where the private sector alone often fails.

The project uses a number of different methods to tackle this challenge (e.g. vouches and investment in dark fibre builds), but the largest part of the scheme involves a gap-funded subsidy approach – the Gigabit Infrastructure Subsidy (GIS). This is where smaller local, larger regional or major cross-regional contracts are awarded to network operators who can help to build their gigabit-capable infrastructure into the most challenging areas (final 20%).

The Building Digital UK (BDUK) agency, which manages Project Gigabit, has already awarded a sizeable number of deployment contracts to various network providers and the latest one – North Yorkshire (Lot 31) – has just gone to Quickline, which will expand their network to cover almost 40,000 additional premises in poorly served areas.

However, due to the ‘purdah’ period (i.e. rules that force politicians and civil servants to limit announcements during the pre-election period), we won’t be getting the usual press release and instead this development was spotted by ISPreview while we were checking up on the status of various government tenders. As such, we don’t know much about Quickline’s deployment plan, but those details should follow after the election. Quickline has also declined to comment.

Quickline is separately being supported by funding of c.£500m from Northleaf Capital Partners. The provider currently holds a wider aspiration to cove around 500,000 premises in rural and semi-rural areas across Northern England and beyond with “ultrafast broadband” via both their Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP / XGS-PON) and 5G based fixed wireless technology “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.

Residential customers reached by their new full fibre network are typically charged from £29 per month on a 24-month term for 100Mbps (50Mbps upload) speeds with free installation, and that goes up to £49 for their top 900Mbps (450Mbps upload) tier. The first 3 months of service are also free.

Project Gigabit GIS Contract Awards History
➤ Wessex Internet for North Dorset (Lot 14.01) in August 2022 (here)
➤ GoFibre for Teesdale (Lot 4.01) in September 2022 (here)
➤ GoFibre for North Northumberland (Lot 34.01) in October 2022 (here)
➤ Fibrus for Cumbria (Lot 28) in November 2022 (here)
➤ Wildanet for Central Cornwall (Lot 32.03) and South West Cornwall (Lot 32.02) in January 2023 (here)
➤ CityFibre for Cambridgeshire (Lot 5) in March 2023 (here)
➤ Wessex Internet for the New Forest (Lot 27.01) in April 2023 (here)
➤ Freedom Fibre for North Shropshire (Lot 25.02) in May 2023 (here)
➤ CityFibre for Norfolk (Lot 7), Suffolk (Lot 2) and Hampshire (Lot 27) in July 2023 (here)
➤ Gigaclear for South Oxfordshire (Lot 13.01) and North Oxfordshire (Lot 13.02) in Nov 2023 (here)
➤ Connect Fibre for North East Staffordshire (Lot 19.01) in Nov 2023 (here)
➤ Connect Fibre for Derbyshire (Lot 3) in Dec 2023 (here)
➤ CityFibre for Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire & East Berkshire (Lot 26), Leicestershire & Warwickshire (Lot 11), West & East Sussex (Lot 16 & 1), Kent (Lot 29) and Bedfordshire, Northamptonshire & Milton Keynes (Lot 12) in Feb 2024 (here)
➤ Connexin for Nottinghamshire & West Lincolnshire (Lot 10) in Feb 2024 (here)
➤ Quickline for West Yorkshire and York Area (Lot 8) in Feb 2024 (here)
➤ Gigaclear for East Gloucestershire (Lot 18) in Feb 2024 (here)
➤ Wessex Internet for South Wiltshire (Lot 30) in Mar 2024 (here)
➤ Quickline for South Yorkshire (Lot 20) in Apr 2024 (here)
➤ FullFibre for West Herefordshire and the Forest of Dean (Lot 15) in Apr 2024 (here)
➤ FullFibre for Peak District (Lot 3.01) in Apr 2024 (here)
➤ Wessex Internet for Dorset and South Somerset (Lot 14) in Apr 2024 (here)
➤ Wildanet for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly (Lot 32) in Apr 2024 (here)
➤ Voneus for Mid West Shropshire (Lot 25.01) in Apr 2024 (here)
➤ Freedom Fibre for Cheshire (Lot 17) in May 2024 (here)
➤ Quickline for North Yorkshire (Lot 31) in June 2024

News

It was first revealed that Niel was pondering the Millicom acquisition in May

French billionaire Xavier Niel has offered to buy out the shareholders of Latin American telco group Millicom, valuing the group at $4.1 billion. Niel already owns a 29% stake in the company though his firm Atlas Investissement. 

In a press release published today, it was confirmed that Atlas Luxco, a subsidiary of Atlas Investissement, has made an offer of $24 per share, working out at approximately $4.1 billion. 

According to Millicom, a committee of independent members of the Board of Directors of Millicom has concluded that “unanimously believes and has informed Atlas that a $24 per share offer price would significantly undervalue Millicom and not be in the best interests of Millicom’s shareholders. The independent committee’s belief takes into consideration, among other things, Millicom management’s latest review of financial performance”. 

In May, Atlas announced its interest in exploring the acquisition of Millicom, after which Millicom Board of Directors released a statement confirming that it has received a non-binding expression of interest from Atlas. 

“Atlas believes that the Company will benefit from the Purchaser Group’s long-term knowledge and experience in the telecoms sector across numerous jurisdictions, as well as the creation of potential synergies that will allow Millicom to be better equipped to focus on long-term business goals, including pursuing any potential strategic transactions and acquisitions,” read the press release. 

Millicom has not formally rejected the offer, but has said it will “carefully review any information disclosed by Atlas in connection with its anticipated tender offer and will issue the committee’s formal recommendation to Millicom’s shareholders” in accordance with takeover rules. 

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

Also in the news:
India concludes underwhelming 5G spectrum auction
Ericsson Mobility Report: 5G driving change in service providers’ FWA strategies
Nap time: EE rolls out energy-saving ‘cell sleep’ tech to mobile network

Press Release

Virgin Media O2 has completed the first phase of its Shared Rural Network (SRN) rollout, bringing reliable 4G coverage to 227 rural communities across the UK
The final partial not-spot site built by Virgin Media O2 is at Glencoe Mountain Resort, which became the highest mobile mast in the UK, standing 1,108 metres above sea level
The operator will now turn to the second phase of the programme, bringing 4G connectivity to areas with no existing mobile service

Virgin Media O2 has completed its share of the first phase of the Shared Rural Network (SRN) programme and built more shared sites than any other operator to improve mobile coverage in 227 partial not-spot areas across the UK.

Glencoe Mountain Resort became the 227th site to benefit from improved 4G coverage as the operator delivers its company-specific build target in time for the June 30th deadline. The mountainous site is over a kilometre above sea level, making it the highest mobile mast standing in the United Kingdom today.

While these 227 sites are controlled by Virgin Media O2, customers of Three and Vodafone are also benefitting from the operator’s extensive rollout of shared sites. Considering upgrades delivered by all operators, Virgin Media O2’s customers can now benefit from reliable 4G services in more than 300 former coverage black spots.

Glencoe became the latest site to benefit from improved mobile connectivity after Virgin Media O2 used helicopters to deliver a new 4G mast to the top of the mountain, standing 1,108 metres above sea level. The new mast will deliver reliable mobile coverage to Glencoe Mountain Resort, Scotland’s oldest ski centre, greatly improving safety and convenience for its many visitors.

The operator faced significant challenges building the remote site, with extreme weather conditions making delivery exceptionally difficult. On top of this, Glencoe is a National Nature Reserve and home to endangered species, including golden eagles and ptarmigans. Virgin Media O2 worked closely with build partner, WHP Telecoms, to overcome these challenges and deliver the site in just five weeks.

The SRN is a £1billion joint initiative between mobile network operators and the UK Government to extend 4G connectivity to 95% of the UK’s landmass by the end of 2025. The first phase of the programme required each operator to build a set number of new and upgraded sites by the end of June to tackle Partial Not Spots. The upgrades provide customers with faster and more reliable mobile data and higher quality voice calls, transforming coverage in areas that previously suffered from patchy or slow services.

Jeanie York, Chief Technology Officer at Virgin Media O2, said: “We are absolutely committed to bringing reliable mobile connectivity to more rural communities and have now completed the first phase of our SRN rollout. Our 227th site at Glencoe is now the highest mast in the UK and one of the most impressive to date, standing over a kilometre above sea level and providing connectivity to the nearby ski resort. This work is vital in tackling the urban-rural digital divide that exists in the UK.”

Mobile network operator Vodafone has this afternoon followed both O2 (Virgin Media) and EE (BT) in announcing that they’ve “hit [the] Partial Not Spot (PNS) coverage target of the Shared Rural Network (SRN) programme“, which was achieved by expanding their 4G (mobile broadband) coverage to a total of 400 rural locations.

Just to recap. The SRN – supported by £501m of public funding and £532m from operators – involves both the reciprocal sharing of existing masts in certain areas and the demand-led building and sharing of new masts in others between the operators, which aims to extend geographic 4G coverage (aggregate) to 95% of the UK by the end of 2025 (or 84% when only considering the areas where you’ll be able to take 4G from all providers).

The SRN includes several targets, but the first involves the delivery of industry funded coverage improvements for Partial Not-Spot (PNS) areas (i.e. areas that receive coverage from at least one operator, but not all), which needed to be achieved by June 2024. At this point, 4G (mobile broadband) must cover 88% of the UK’s landmass.

Rival operator EE (BT) became the first provider to report having achieved the PNS target in January 2024 (here), nearly half a year ahead of schedule. However, despite concerns about long delays (as recently expressed by both the National Audit Office (here) and Public Accounts Committee (here)), yesterday also saw O2 (Virgin Media) confirm that they’d been able to achieve the PNS target on time (here), and they’ve today been joined Vodafone.

Andrea Donà, Chief Network Officer at Vodafone UK, said:

“At Vodafone, we’ve always been vocal in our belief that a rural postcode should not be a barrier to connectivity. And, as The Nation’s Network, our mission is to make sure no part of the UK is left behind.

This is why we continue to invest millions in our rural network, so that customers living, working and visiting rural locations will benefit from a strong voice signal and fast data speeds. The SRN is a world-first partnership between Government and mobile operators, and this is a major milestone for Vodafone, achieved through teamwork, passion, creative delivery and determination, and I’m honoured to lead this incredible team.”

One catch here is that neither O2 nor Vodafone’s announcements included an up-to-date figure for current geographic 4G coverage, which is partly because achieving the 88% goal is still contingent upon all four of the primary network operators being able to deliver on their commitments (i.e. there’s a degree of infrastructure sharing involved, as well as new mast builds). But today’s news means that Three UK is the only laggard left.

The fact that O2 and Vodafone have been able to pull this off on time, without suffering from more significant delays, suggests that they’ve been able to ramp-up their pace of deployment over the past few months. In addition, it’s possible that BT’s (EE) new mast sharing agreement with Vodafone and O2 may have also helped to play an 11th hour style role (here).

However, it’s ultimately Ofcom’s responsibility to take a view on whether the Phase One (PNS) licence obligations have actually been met or not. The regulator is due to run a progress assessment this summer and will then reach a conclusion by the early autumn, which should give us a much clearer idea of how much progress has been made (or not) and where the operators have fallen short.

We have asked Vodafone to clarify how much geographic 4G coverage they’re able to deliver and whether the recent deal with EE (BT) played a role in today’s development. We hope to report back soon.

The Independent Networks Co-operative Association (INCA), which represents many of the UK’s alternative gigabit broadband providers, has today published a new manifesto. The document sets out the key recommendations that it thinks the next government will need to implement – within the first 100 days in office – to help boost network roll-outs.

The United Kingdom will this week (4th July 2024) go through its first General Election since 2019 and, as things stand, the polls appear to be indicating that a change of Government is likely to be the outcome. Such a change could naturally have an impact upon policies and approaches to digital infrastructure.

Suffice to say that we’ve already seen various internet providers and related organisations responding to this by setting out what they think the next government, whatever form it may take, should be focusing upon. For example, BT’s CEO has called for improvements to planning policy (here) and Mobile UK, which represents Three UK, Vodafone, O2 and EE, echoed similar points (here). Not to mention the ISPA’s effort to promote several strategic priorities and actionable policies (here).

Today it’s the turn of INCA, which has published its own manifesto document (i.e. a short 4-page summary with five loosely explained bullet points) that includes some of their own recommendations – covering everything from ensuring consumer choice to guaranteeing universal coverage – to help the next Government further transform the digital landscape.

RECOMMENDATIONS: THE FIRST 100 DAYS OF GOVERNMENT

1. Achieve universal coverage by recommitting to Project Gigabit

The next Government must remain committed to the Building Digital UK (BDUK) programme, which has successfully made significant progress in rolling out digital infrastructure, but it is not finished. Universal coverage has yet to be met, and swathes of the country are still languishing in the digital slow lane, which will only exacerbate existing social and digital exclusion.

2. Support competition and consumer choice in the private rental and social housing sectors

BT Openreach have long called for an automatic right to enter private property – particularly Multiple Dwelling Units – to upgrade internal cables from copper to fibre without the need to gain permission from the property owner. However, in order to preserve a fair and rigorous competitive market, the next Government must reject these proposals, which would inherently undermine competitive investment by entrenching BT’s incumbency advantage and providing them with a huge commercial advantage.

3. Minimise disruption and speed up rollout by fully adopting flexi permits

Flexi-permit trials have been shown to be a success for industry, councils and residents, allowing the authority and the network operator to work collaboratively and mitigate concerns around projects overrunning. The next Government should encourage and facilitate the use of flexi-permits to support infrastructure development projects.

POLICY PRIORITIES FOR THE NEXT PARLIAMENT

4. Secure the UK’s digital future by embracing competition and consumer choice

Despite the profound strides forward in the roll-out of full-fibre infrastructure, the economic headwinds over the past few years have dented investor confidence in the UK market. The next Government must provide reassurances, supportive policy and a supportive regulatory environment to deliver a fair and competitive marketplace across the UK to provide Altnets with the opportunity to deliver long term benefits for consumers and businesses, underpinning nationwide economic growth.

5. Launch a public information campaign about the digital infrastructure revolution

We’re in the midst of the biggest telecoms transformation in our lifetimes, and the public are largely unaware. The old copper phone network will be switched off within a couple of years, impacting much more than just voice services. Fibre delivers huge benefits, and a well-informed public will be better able to navigate the coming changes and take advantage.

INCA CEO, Malcolm Corbett, said:

“The digital world we live in demands a fast, reliable internet service connected everywhere, from our homes to hospitals and shops to schools. Without universal access to full-fibre gigabit speed broadband, we cannot achieve the productivity levels and economic performance all parties claim they want.

The latest data shows the impact a healthy market has had towards delivering national coverage, competitive prices, more rural internet connections and customer satisfaction – it’s crucial that the environment that has helped Altnets thrive and deliver these benefits does not go to waste.”

Once again, many of the key talking points above could be said to have echoed those we’ve seen before (e.g. virtually everybody agrees with the need to facilitate the use of flexi-permits) in similar documents from the aforementioned organisations. But there are some exceptions.

For example, INCA raises an issue with Openreach’s push to make it easier for them to upgrade existing MDUs (big residential buildings / apartments) to full fibre, which sounds fair on the surface. But it could also easily ride roughshod over the legal rights of landlords/tenants and hand the incumbent an unfair advantage if altnets aren’t given consideration (here). Finding a fair balance here is difficult to do.

The most likely outcome, judging by the political manifestos from various different parties, is that the Project Gigabit scheme will be retained and we might see greater infrastructure sharing. The next government will probably also try to avoid doing anything too radical in case it upsets or significantly delays existing contracts / deployments, which could impact tens of billions of pounds in private network investments. But nothing is currently set in stone.