The Zayo Group, which runs a large high-capacity metro and long-haul fibre optic network with global reach, has today announced that they’ve appointed industry veteran Colman Deegan to be the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Zayo Europe.

Deegan is understood to have spent more than two decades at Vodafone, where he held senior leadership positions such as Group M&A Director, CFO at Vodafone India and Italy, as well as CEO of Vodafone Turkey. Most recently, acting as Vodafone Spain’s CEO, he led a successful operational turnaround in one of Europe’s most competitive markets.

Zayo said the new appointment became effective as of 16th April 2024.

Steve Smith, CEO of Zayo Group, said:

“Colman’s experience and proven track record as a CEO leading large teams and businesses makes him perfectly equipped to take our European business to new heights, together with our outstanding local team. Colman will drive Zayo forward, strengthening our partnerships with data centres, hyperscalers, and enterprises across Europe. Under Colman’s leadership, we are confident that we will achieve our bold ambitions and maximise our impact in the European market.”

Zayo’s global network is currently said to span over 17.5 million fibre miles and 144,000 route miles. The network currently also helps to connect 1,600 on-net data centers.

Infracapital-backed UK ISP Fibrus this week revealed that the £197m Project Stratum scheme in Northern Ireland, which is working spread a gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network into rural areas, is currently “on target” to cover 81,000 premises by June 2025, “on time and within budget.”

In Northern Ireland, the current coverage for gigabit-capable broadband networks stands at an already impressive level of 95.3% (latest data from Thinkbroadband), thanks to both commercial projects (e.g. Openreach, Fibrus, Virgin Media [VMO2] and Netomnia) and the £197m state aid supported Project Stratum scheme (£248m if we include Fibrus’ private funding).

The previous target was actually stated to be 85,000 premises by March 2025, although such contracts often need to adapt as they progress due to unexpected changes, such as any obstacles to build or a higher level of commercial coverage than originally forecast. This is likely to be why Fibrus are now stating a figure of 81k (81-82k may be a better range to use).

According to Fibrus, the operator has now completed coverage for 74,000 of the contracted premises and laid 13,259km of cable. Properties in Counties Down and Tyrone currently have the highest number of connected premises, almost 28,000 and 24,000 respectively, with a focus on the last remaining area to connect, Templepatrick.

Dominic Kearns, co-founder and CEO of Fibrus, said:

“This project has been a huge success for both ourselves and the Department in terms of the impact this is having on the rural homes and businesses that we are serving with new full fibre infrastructure.

Rural communities are at the heart of our business and we’ve made a significant contribution to all areas we’ve brought our full fibre infrastructure to, through job creation, community donations, sponsorships and volunteer time.

We were awarded this contract just two years after launching Fibrus. At the time we were best placed and most drivento deliver this project as quickly as possible for all those people in need of a reliable broadband service, regardless of where they live.

Now, three and a half years into the project, we’re extremely proud of the speed and quality of our delivery of Project Stratum. With a year to go we’re well on track to complete our target of connecting more than 81,000 premises and levelling up access to full fibre broadband the length and breadth of Northern Ireland.”

Conor Murphy, NI Minister for the Economy, said:

“Project Stratum has transformed the connectivity prospects for premises without access to next generation infrastructure. Along with ongoing commercial investment, this intervention has reduced the digital divide between rural and urban areas and has helped improve regional balance in much-needed broadband availability.”

I welcome the completion of the services delivered by Fibrus to eligible premises in the Randalstown area, and I look forward to seeing the completion of the remaining areas over the rest of the Project Stratum contract.”

However, data from the Building Digital UK agency, which was published in June 2023 (here), revealed that some 85,504 premises in N.Ireland might still need state aid help under the £5bn Project Gigabit broadband rollout scheme in order to access 1Gbps speeds, once Project Stratum completes.

The 85,504 figure was actually made up of 50,745 “Gigabit White” and 34,759 “Under Review” premises. Gigabit white premises are the only ones that can, at this stage, benefit from a public subsidy because those will not be covered by any commercial builds. But Under Review premises are those where commercial plans may exist, but they’ve been judged to be at risk of not being completed.

The latest data from the UK government’s Project Gigabit scheme notes that pre-procurement market engagement for a future roll-out contract in Northern Ireland has been carried out and the procurement process will start shortly. “It is anticipated this will extend coverage to up to an additional 60,000 premises“, which should in theory be enough to deliver universal coverage of gigabit broadband connectivity – most likely long before the 2030 target that has been set for the UK.

News 

This week, Ericsson has released its first quarter financial results for 2024, which showed profits had risen despite a decline in sales 

In spite of a 14% decline in sales, largely driven by a decrease in Networks sales (-19%), Ericsson achieved a gross margin improvement to 42.7%. 

The company attributed this lift to its product portfolio strength and ongoing cost-efficiency measures (which includes significant job cuts). 

“We maintained our leading market position, but as expected our customers continued to exercise caution with their investments,” said Börje Ekholm, President and CEO, noting this is mainly due to uncertain economic conditions and current high interest rates.  

It is the same reason the company expects the RAN market to decline further, at least until the end of the year. 

“Against this tough market backdrop, we delivered solid expansion in gross margins. This underscores the competitiveness of our solutions, our commercial discipline, and our actions on costs,” Ekholm continued.  

Share price rose by 6% in early trading on Tuesday morning. 

“For the rest of the year, we expect the mobile networks market to remain weak,” said Ekholm in the earnings call.  

“If current trends persist, we expect our sales to stabilize during the second half of the year,” citing “recent contract wins and the normalisation of customer inventory levels in North America”.  

In December, Ericsson beat its close rival Nokia into securing a $14 billion Open Ran deal with AT&T. The partnership will mean that Ericsson will carry 70% AT&T’s wireless traffic by the end of 2026.    

Nokia noted its “disappointment” in the deal’s outcome, but both companies are still grappling with cost-cutting. Nokia recently announced that it would cut 14,000 jobs to shrink costs by up to €1 billion by 2026, and Ericsson are set to cut 8,500 jobs this year. 

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Also in the news:
South Korea to invest $7 billion in AI semiconductors
Swisscom expands 5G partnership with Ericsson
Daisy Group set to acquire 4Com for £215m

Shropshire-based UK ISP Aquiss has this evening announced the launch of their first home broadband packages based off CityFibre’s national Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network (here), which will complement their existing range of Openreach-based services.

The provider, which will shortly be celebrating their 18th year of trading, are initially only introducing two packages – a 150Mbps (average speed) entry-level tier for £38 per month (£19 for the first three months of service) and a 900Mbps option for £42 per month (£21 for the first three months of service).

All packages include symmetric service speeds, unlimited usage, a 12-month minimum contract term, a pledge of no mid-contract price rises, free activation, a static IPv4 address and static IPv6 addresses (/56). The catch is that new customers are expected to supply their own broadband router, which is not included.

News 

An EU report published this week by ex-Italian Prime Minster Enrico Letta has urged the telecoms industry to consolidate, to increase its global competition potential 

The report, titled ‘Much More Than a Market – Empowering the Single Market to deliver a sustainable future and prosperity for all EU Citizens”, sets out ideas to build a stronger economy that can compete more effectively on a global scale. Letta was tasked by Europe’s leaders to assess the failures of Europe’s single market, and the reports findings are to be presented today to the European Council, after a press conference held yesterday. 

Multiple industries were singled out in the report, including finance, energy, retail, telecoms, health, agrifood. The European telecoms market in particular was highlighted for its notable fragmentation. According to the report, the EU is comprised of 27 different national communications markets that each service an average of five million customers, compared to 107 million in the US and 467 million in China. 

It advocates for increased unity and harmonisation of national telecom regulations in the EU and a new cross-European regulatory body to oversee the telco sector. 

Although the report notes that the pro-competitive nature of the European regulation invites new market entrants and benefits the end consumer in terms of price, the ‘excessive’ market entry by ‘small-scale, territorially focused operators”, keeping this focus “would be detrimental for a technology switch towards advanced networks that require massive investments.” 

Only with increased scale can European telcos achieve the cost savings and levels of innovation needed to build critical digital infrastructure and develop new services like edge computing and the IoT, the report said. 

Europe’s mobile operators have been arguing similar points for years through their lobbying group ETNO. The group has long argued that the competitive nature of the EU market, although it is good for consumers, has left operators in a financially weak position with little resources for additional investments.  

“The lack of integration in the financial, energy, and electronic communications sectors is a primary reason for Europe’s declining competitiveness,” read the report. 

“There is an urgent need to catch up and strengthen the Single Market dimension for financial services, energy, and electronic Communications”. 

This is essential for Europe to compete with the likes of China, the US and India. “By identifying the European one as the relevant market, we can finally enable market forces to drive consolidation and growth in scale.” 

The primary objective of the consolidation is to promote growth and investment attractiveness for European operators. The report notes that “Europe must leverage the strengths of a unified telecommunications market and prioritise incentivising the necessary investments to bridge its growing connectivity investment gap.” 

Since the release of the report, Telefonica has expressed its support of it, particularly the “consideration of the telecommunications sector as one of the strategic levers for competitiveness, innovation, citizens’ well-being and the EU’s resilience, especially in terms of cybersecurity.” 

The report states that its contents ‘aim to inspire a genuine call to action among the European public opinion.” Once discussions on the report have been held, the European elections from 6-9 June will help decide on the adoption of the reports’ outlined steps. 

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

Also in the news:
South Korea to invest $7 billion in AI semiconductors
Swisscom expands 5G partnership with Ericsson
Daisy Group set to acquire 4Com for £215m

News

The move will be facilitated by a stake swap, with Dialog Axiata taking 100% ownership of Airtel Lanka in exchange for giving Bharti Airtel a 10.4% stake in Dialog Axiata

Today, Bharti Airtel and Dialog Axiata have jointly announced the signing of a formal agreement to merge their Sri Lankan operations.

The deal, which was first announced almost a year ago, will take place via an equity swap, with Bharti Airtel swapping 100% of its shares in its Sri Lankan unit, Airtel Lanka, for a 10.4% stake in its local rival Dialog Axiata.

The move see Airtel Lanka’s 5 million mobile subscribers integrated with Dialog Axiata’s 17 million, giving Dialog Axiata an even larger lead in the Sri Lankan market, with a market share of over two-thirds.

Rivals Hutch and SLT Mobitel have roughly 3.5 million and 7.5 million subscribers, respectively.

“This consolidation will enable the merged entity to garner economies of scale, reduce duplication of infrastructure, achieve synergies in technologies and capital expenditure, leading to enhanced high-speed broadband connectivity, voice and value-added services, cost savings, and operational efficiencies,” read a joint statement from Airtel and Dialog Axiata.

“The merger between Dialog and Airtel Lanka is aligned to Axiata’s strategy of market consolidation and resilience,” said Vivek Sood, Axiata Group Berhad’s Group CEO and Managing Director. “The merger will create value for shareholders of Dialog Axiata PLC and of Axiata Group through achievable synergies. We have the utmost respect for Airtel Lanka and its employees and look forward to working together as we integrate the two companies.”

According to the statement, the merger has already received regulatory approval from the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka.

The timeline for the mergers finalisation has not been announced.

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

Also in the news:
South Korea to invest $7 billion in AI semiconductors
Swisscom expands 5G partnership with Ericsson
Daisy Group set to acquire 4Com for £215m

Some of Zen Internet’s broadband ISP customers are this afternoon being affected by a “NATIONWIDE OUTAGE“, which appears to have started at around 11:30am today and is currently still ongoing. BT also saw a small increase in complaints at around the same time, but Zen appears to be suffering from the biggest impact.

According to some of those impacted by the problem, their broadband connections are still physically live (i.e. all the router lights are green), but the actual internet connectivity itself doesn’t seem to be functioning or is only partly functional. This usually tends to suggest a problem with routing/peering or possibly a Domain Name System (DNS) issue.

A spokesperson for Zen Internet told ISPreview: “Some of our valued customers may be experiencing an internet outage. Our teams are aware of this and are working to get it resolved asap. We will keep our service alert updated and will also post again across our social media channels as we have updates. Please know that we take this very seriously and we are sorry for any inconvenience this may be causing.”

Zen has also opened a Service Status Page report on the fault, although at the moment it doesn’t add much to the above information.

UPDATE 1:31pm

Some customers have reported that using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) provided a temporary workaround, which further suggests that a routing or DNS issue may be the cause. We should add that the issue also appears to be impacting some of Zen’s leased line users.

Network operator Colt (Colt Technology Services) recently revealed (here) that their metro fibre optic broadband and Ethernet network has been expanded to reach 7,000 more on-net sites through their long-running partnership with CityFibre, which is deploying a full fibre network across a significant chunk of the UK.

The partnership with CityFibre enables Colt to use its access model to connect commercial buildings as on-net locations, supporting the provision of fully managed and multi-gigabit speed Colt services. The extended metro reach enables Colt’s customers to benefit from “On Demand” capabilities in these cities.

As a result of recent work, Colt’s customers now have access to more than 7,000 “virtual on-net buildings across seven new cities“, with the latest additions meaning that businesses in Bracknell, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Maidenhead, Milton Keynes, Leeds and Slough can now benefit from access to Colt’s connectivity services. Credits to Fibre Provider for spotting.

Colt’s Statement

Both Colt and CityFibre are continuing to invest in our networks and expand our reach, with the ever-expanding footprint meaning that businesses in Bracknell, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Maidenhead, Milton Keynes, Leeds and Slough can now benefit from Colt’s agile, reliable and secure global connectivity. For existing Colt customers, this makes it quicker and easier to add new locations in these cities.

Our close partnership means we can offer these sites as ‘virtual on-net’ locations, so customers can provision services through the Colt On Demand portal and quickly see availability.

We’ve been working together with CityFibre since 2016 and their network and values are a great match for ours. Their 10Gbps XGS-PON platform technology upgrade means that, since 2023, we’ve been enabling the future delivery of multi-gig services to businesses, alongside innovations such as zero-touch service upgrades and proactive in-life maintenance and repairs to continually deliver best-in-class service.

Broadband ISP Plusnet has this week introduced a bunch of new discounts across their home broadband packages, which for example have slashed the monthly price of their top 900Mbps Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) package to just £41.99 per month on a 24-month term.

The internet provider’s fibre broadband packages are typically data-only plans (no home phone) that include unlimited usage, a new Hub Two wireless router (re-branded BT Smart Hub 2), a 24-month minimum contract term, Plusnet SafeGuard and Protect – both powered by Norton – and free activation.

Prices tend to start at £24.99 for their SoGEA Fibre / FTTC (up to 70-80Mbps) package (£32.37 after 24-months) and we’ve listed their full fibre (FTTP) packages below. But be aware that prices tend to rise each year on 31st March by Consumer Price Index rate of inflation + 3.9%, although this policy is due to change sometime during the coming summer (here).

Plusnet’s Full Fibre Packages

Full Fibre 145Mbps (30Mbps upload)
PRICE: £27.99 per month for 24-months (£43.20 thereafter)

Full Fibre 300Mbps (50Mbps upload)
PRICE: £29.99 per month for 24-months (£49.38 thereafter)

Full Fibre 500Mbps (75Mbps upload)
PRICE: £33.99 per month for 24-months (£58.02 thereafter)

Full Fibre 900Mbps (115Mbps upload)
PRICE: £41.99 per month for 24-months (£67.89 thereafter)

News

Internet providers are preparing their post-ACP game plans.

The end of the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) is fast approaching and providers and consumers alike are preparing for their next steps.

In early 2022, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) launched ACP to replace the Emergency Broadband Benefit. The program provided eligible households $30 per month towards internet service ($75/month for those on qualifying Tribal land). Some households could also receive a one-time discount on purchasing a laptop, desktop, or tablet.

Now, the end of the ACP is imminent, unless Congress allocates additional funds. The program has less than $1.8 billion remaining, meaning that April is the last month in which operators will be able to provide the full $30 per month benefit with the program’s funding. In May, operators can choose to discontinue the benefit, or to put in place their own subsidized plans.

In a statement released on April 9th, 2024 the FCC indicated that the maximum benefit providers should expect to receive in May is $14 per ACP customer, or $35 per qualifying Tribal customer. The FCC stopped accepting new ACP enrollments in February.

Several providers have already outlined the strategies they will take to “keep consumers connected at this crucial time”, as urged by the FCC.

Verizon will offer home internet for as low as $20/month through “Verizon Forward”. New Verizon Forward customers will pay $0/month for the first 6 months they are enrolled.

AT&T will continue offering its “Access from AT&T” plan which provides 100 Megabit speeds for $30/month. With the ACP’s $30 discount, this plans was previously free for some customers.

With home internet from $9.95/month, Comcast’s “Internet Essentials” plan will continue to provide a low-cost connectivity option. Additionally, customers can transfer their ACP benefit to some plans.

Charter, who was “far and away” the largest provider in the ACP program, has not made specific announcements about ACP replacements or alternatives. However, some customers who were using the ACP benefit may be eligible for Spectrum’s Internet Assist Plan. This offers 50 megabit internet for $24.99/month.

Through August 2024, Fastwyre Broadband will continue to provide the $30 ACP benefit (and $75 benefit for those on Tribal lands) at its own expense. This applies to their existing ACP customers.

A number of other providers offer discounted plans for qualifying families, some from $10 per month. The Lifeline program will continue to provide a benefit, though it is smaller than that provided by the ACP. There are also a number of charitable organizations that can offer assistance with monthly internet costs or provide internet-enabled devices like laptops or tablets.

While there is bipartisan support for extending the ACP and there have been calls from ISPs, government bodies, and advocacy groups to provide additional funding, it seems increasingly unlikely that the program will continue.

Currently, more than 23 million households rely on the ACP to access the internet. The COVID-19 pandemic made it more clear than ever that a reliable, fast internet connection is crucial for participating fully in modern life. Without the extension of ACP or a comprehensive alternative, millions of Americans face being excluded from a host of opportunities.