The UK Government has today launched two interesting new consultations, including one that is seeking views on a looming review of the legally-binding 10Mbps+ Universal Service Obligation (USO) for broadband and another that will help better understand how to improve broadband for “Very Hard to Reach” areas. We’ll start with the somewhat maligned USO. The […]

On Day One of this year’s Connected Britain conference, we had the pleasure of speaking with Catherine Colloms, Director of Corporate Affairs and Brand at Openreach, to discuss creating a competitive UK fibre market and the UK’s rollout journey so far.

One of the hottest topics at this year’s Connected Britian conference was altnet consolidation, with rumours of M&A activity beginning to circulate in the broadband market.

For Colloms, the UK’s fibre market is highly competitive and will continue to be so, provided the regulatory environment remains stable and supportive.

“If you think about the way that the economy and the way that we live and work is developing, it all is fundamentally based on connectivity, and as a result, I think the market can grow and grow,” said Colloms.

Collom’s explains that the UK’s  fibre coverage currently stands at around 50%, noting that the rollouts are now progressing to harder-to-reach areas that are supported by projects such as the R100 and Project Gigabit.

“We need certainty and consistency in the regulatory and policy regime to ensure that we can continue to invest,” concluded Catherine.

You can watch the full Connected Britain interview from the link below:

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Also in the news:
Stonepeak buys minority stake in Cellnex Nordics
Telefonica Germany partners with Skylo for satellite-supported IoT
Sky Mobile network outages linked to removal of Huawei equipment 

The consolidation train has started to pick up speed today after two UK builders of FTTP based broadband ISP networks – FullFibre Limited (Fibre Heroes) and Digital Infrastructure (BeFibre) – announced their intention to create a single wholesale company and a single wholesale platform, which will be a bigger, more ambitious single entity. Until today […]

Network access provider CityFibre has revealed that its roll-out of a new 10Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP network across the city of Glasgow in Scotland, which started in 2021 and is costing c. £270m, is now “expected to reach completion in 2029” (the original goal was to be “substantially completed by 2025“). The operator’s […]

News

The UK government has mandated all UK operators to remove Huawei equipment from the core of their networks by the end of this year

Customers of UK mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) Sky Mobile have reportedly suffered from signal outages, seemingly leaving some without mobile internet access and others without any signal at all.

According to anonymous sources speaking to The Financial Times, the outages are linked to the removal of Huawei equipment from the core of Sky’s network, a process mandated by the government to be completed this year.

The outages seemingly occurred in May and June this year.

Back in 2020, the UK government made the decision to ban Huawei equipment from the country’s mobile networks, following in the footsteps of the US in arguing that the Chinese equipment provider represented a risk to national security.

The decision was initially met by a level of incredulity from the UK’s mobile network operators, who said that removing all of the equipment and replacing it would cause significant disruption, costing them millions of pounds and potentially slowing down their rollout of 5G infrastructure.

Indeed, BT initially said complying with the government’s orders could cost the operator up to £500 million over five years, though they later reduced this figure due to the government extending the deadline to remove the equipment.

After numerous revisions, last year the government finally issued the operators with a formal notice that they must remove Huawei technology from the entirety of their networks by the end of 2027 and from the more vulnerable core of their networks by the end of 2023.

Sky Mobile, as an MVNO, provides mobile services over O2’s infrastructure, but also use their own networking equipment.

“Sky is fully complying with government requirements on our mobile network, whilst making every effort to ensure we limit any potential impact on customers,” said the company in a statement to the FT.

Sky, of course, is not the only UK operator still removing Huawei equipment from its network. BT (EE) notably began the process back in 2021, with Vodafone more recently suggesting that at least some of its removed Huawei equipment would be replaced with Open RAN alternatives.

Also in the news:
Stonepeak buys minority stake in Cellnex Nordics
Telefonica Germany partners with Skylo for satellite-supported IoT
Ofcom unveils plan for mmWave spectrum auction 

Some customers of Lyca Mobile, which is a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) on EE’s (BT) national platform (previously O2), have – since Friday – been reporting that they’ve been unable to make any mobile calls or send text (SMS) messages. Most customers also report that they’ve been unable to get through to Lyca’s support. […]

Customers of broadband ISP Virgin Media’s (VMO2) Pay TV services may like to know that, from today until 6am on 31st October 2023, they will all be given access to additional premium kids TV channels “at no extra cost“, including Sky Kids, Cartoon Network, Boomerang, Cartoonito, Nickelodeon, Nick Jr and Nicktoons. All shows will also […]

Reports coming in from Germany over the past couple of weeks appear to suggest that AVM, which manufactures the popular FRITZ!Box range of broadband ISP routers and smart home devices (these are widely used in the UK too), could be sold on to new owners as a way of preserving the company’s future. The company […]

Network operator nexfibre, which is working in a wholesale partnership with broadband ISP Virgin Media (VMO2) to deploy a new 10Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network across up to 7 million UK premises, has today announced that they’ve covered 500,000 premises (RFS) and appointed Rajiv Datta as CEO. Breaking news.. more to follow..

New customers looking to take out a service with ISP Sky Broadband may like to know that the provider has just further discounted the price of their Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) powered packages on Openreach’s national network, which is currently available to 11.5 million UK premises (inc. 3.7m in the hardest to reach rural areas). As a […]