The UK Government’s Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) has today announced the names of 19 successful projects that have secured a slice of £88m in funding to help support the development of open network solutions, such as 4G and 5G based OpenRAN on mobile networks and other technologies. The projects – part of […]

Ofcom’s 2023 report into UK fixed line home broadband ISP performance – the last one it plans to publish – has today revealed that the average (median) download speed has risen from 59.4Mbps last year to 69.4Mbps now (uploads went from 10.7Mbps to 18.4Mbps). But the gap between rural and urban areas remains. The regulator’s […]

Telecoms and UK broadband giant BT Group has joined forces with Iceotope to conduct an “industry first” trial of “precision liquid cooled” network switches, which will be applied to their Juniper Network QFX Series switches. In theory, this could substantially improve their energy consumption and efficiency metrics. Admittedly, anybody who works in IT or has […]

Broadband ISP Virgin Media (VMO2) has confirmed that their new 10Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP / XGS-PON) network, delivered via wholesale network partner nexfibre, has for the first time gone live across the small City of Stirling in Scotland – covering 6,900 homes. The move is interesting because, unlike most UK cities, Virgin Media are arriving […]

A Connected Britain Preview 

Connected Britain 2023 is just around the corner and, with just under a week left to go, it is only fitting that we highlight some of our amazing keynote panels, featuring some of the biggest names in the UK telecoms industry. 

 

Day 1 – Wednesday 20th September: 

CXO keynote panel: The state of play for the UK’s mobile market (9:35am) 

Moderated by Karen Egan, Senior Telecoms Analyst at Enders Analysis, this panel will explore the current condition of the UK mobile market in depth. 

Speakers: 

Andrea Donà, Chief Network Officer, Vodafone 

Howard Watson, Chief Security & Networks Officer, BT 

Phil Siveter, Chief Executive Officer, UK & Ireland, NOKIA 

 

CXO keynote panel: Where is the UK fibre market headed? (12:50pm) 

Moderated by Matthew Howett, Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Assembly Research, this panel will explore the latest impacts of the market, understanding the regulatory and investment context for the UK fibre sector, discuss if regulation supports or hinders competition in the market, and address the challenge of adoption.  

Speakers: 

Greg Mesch, Chief Executive Officer, Cityfibre 

Dana Tobak, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Hyperoptic 

Martyn Taylor, Chief Commercial Officer, BDUK 

Clive Selley, Chief Executive Officer, Openreach 

Daren Baythorpe, Chief Executive Officer, ITS 

 

 

CXO keynote panel: Connectivity as the cornerstone of a greener future (17:40pm) 

Moderated by Miran Gilmore, Senior Consultant at STL Partners, this panel will explore how connectivity will play a key role in the country’s environmental future.

Speakers: 

Rafael Jaron, Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Concept for Change 

Wolfgang Schusterr, Executive Director, Connected Places Catapult 

Marzia Zafar, Deputy Director of Governance for Data & Digitalisation, Ofgem 

 

Day 2 – Thursday 21st September

Understanding the connectivity needs of the UK’s nations and regions (9:30am) 

Moderated by Sophie James, Head of Telecoms and Spectrum Policy at TechUK, this panel will dive into the regional perspectives and priorities of the UK’s connectivity needs, addressing the challenges and opportunities of delivering better connectivity to the nation. 

Speakers: 

Nik Johnson, Mayor of Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Combined Authority 

Robbie McGhee, Deputy Director, Digital Connectivity, Scottish Government 

Theo Blackwell MBE, Chief Digital Officer for London, Greater London Authority 

 

Beyond the glass: what does it take to ensure modern broadband services and in-life experiences are truly fit for the future (10:10am) 

Our final panel of the event will be moderated by Lorne Mitchell, MD of Objective Designers, and will look at some of the following key questions: 

What criteria will networks and broadband services of the future be judged on? And what will be demanded of them? 
What decisions and investments today, will help networks and their ISPs stand out from the crowd tomorrow? 
Which technologies and approaches are set to enable the best networks and why? 
Against this backdrop, how must technology suppliers, networks operators and ISPs work together to realise net-zero/sustainability ambitions? 

Speakers: 

Michel Langlois, Chief Technical Officer, Calix 

Nigel Abraham, Customer CTO, Nokia 

David Tomalin, Group CTO, Cityfibre 

 

Connected Britain 2023 promises to be bigger and better than ever before. It’s not too late to join us! Check out the full agenda and secure your tickets here. 

Also in the news:
Are You Winning? Game Changers Build Faster installs With Fewer Experts
T-Mobile signs spectrum deal with Comcast worth up to $3.3 billion
Intel to sell minority stake in IMS Nanofabrication to TSMC

Complaints about the erection of new telegraph poles are nothing new in the UK. But one growing campaign – involving residents of Hedon and South Preston – appears to be taking their dispute with full fibre network builder MS3 to a new level, by organising a 10-year boycott of broadband ISPs that sell their services. […]

After a significant number of redundancies and a long period of silence, investment group Fern Trading – part of Octopus Investments – has finally revealed the structure of their UK fibre optic network following the consolidation of FTTP broadband ISPs Jurassic Fibre, Swish Fibre, Giganet and AllPoints Fibre. In case anybody has forgotten, Fern Trading […]

News 

According to T-Mobile’s SEC filing, the final purchase is expected to be completed in 2028, should it receive approval from the US Federal Communications Commission

T-Mobile US has struck a deal with Comcast to lease, and eventually purchase, Comcast’s spectrum licenses in the 600 MHz band. 

The deal is valued between $1.2 billion $3.3 billion, depending on how much spectrum T-Mobile eventually decides to purchase. Until then, Comcast will be provided with quarterly lease payments from T-Mobile. 

In a statement, Comcast said that they were “unlikely” to need the 600 MHz spectrum, as their 5G network field tests with CBRS spectrum have exceeded expectations, and they have “we’ve found the band to be highly efficient and a significant part of a 5G network”.  

“As a result, we recently entered into an agreement with T-Mobile in which it will lease and eventually purchase our licences,” continued the statement. 

Comcast will continue to test the 600 MHz spectrum in the city of Philadelphia, and under the deal, will be able to reclaim its spectrum licenses if the firm should change its mind. 

T-Mobile first launched their low band 600 MHz 5G network in 2019, which the firm claims was America’s first nationwide 5G network. Last September, the company announced that they had reached a 600 MHz deal with Colombia Capital with $3.5 billion. 

Hear more about the spectrum market in the US at next year’s Connected America – March 12-13 2024 in Dallas, Texas. 

Also in the news:
Are You Winning? Game Changers Build Faster installs With Fewer Experts 
Intel to sell minority stake in IMS Nanofabrication to TSMC
Spanish government scrutinising STC Telefónica deal 

A new report claims that troubled UK network operator Broadway Partners, which had been building fixed wireless and full fibre (FTTP) broadband ISP networks across rural parts of Scotland and Wales – until they fell into administration, has attracted interest from a consortium involving Tiger Infrastructure Partners and Macquarie. Broadway (aka – Broadway Broadband) – […]

Insight 

25 years ago, Kapil Singhal worked as a field engineer at Ericsson to deploy some of the first ever mobile networks in India. His involvement with Telcos across the region in building Mobile Switch Centers and Radio Network Services meant he very quickly learnt and understood, first-hand, the key problems field workers faced in network infrastructure and deployment projects.

 

From arduous paper forms and lengthy inspections that wasted key resources, to inefficiencies in data capture requiring multiple reworks, Kapil felt the difficulty and lack of support to efficiently complete his work to a high standard.

Fast-forward 15 years and Kapil has built teams across Europe to drive significant growth for companies focused on connecting the world, and has now Co-Founded Vyntelligence, a company driven by a singular focus to empower field professionals and organizations to drive efficiencies with higher data quality & analytics. Purposefully  simpler worker life with more time with friends & family and on health.

Led by his passion, Kapil has been fortunate to build a network of game-changing professionals that are excited by the same desire to build a better, safer & sustainable world. Unfortunately, change is slow. On one hand, senior stakeholders are ‘committed’ to driving change and harnessing the power of digital transformation. On the other, the field workforce continues to struggle to complete jobs effectively due to a lack of resources, an aging workforce, regulatory constraints and an increased demand for global connectivity.

Kapil mentions “The amount of time I have seen field people lose / waste time on admin, reporting, conference calls always frustrates me as current channels remain suboptimal to capture quality data; to drive better collaboration, better actions and better decisions.”

But change is not achieved, it’s driven. And part of his mission has been to travel to meet the key players across the industry and enlist them as game-changers pioneering new innovation to drive real benefits and efficiencies in a climate that needs it most.

Leaders such as Fredric Sundin, Head of Network Deployment & Connectivity UK at Vodafone recognise that “there is a shortage of people with the right skills and capabilities in the industry, and more focus and drive are needed to ensure a more flexible workforce with right upskill & cross skilling both into younger workforce and existing”.

How do we do this? BT Advisory Board and ex-CIO with over 25 years experience, Mike Young, shared that “careful communication and community engagement needs to be factored in. Particularly with where our economy is and the cost of living, we need to be very careful we don’t leave people behind. Digital inclusion is key”. On the other hand, he shares that “governments change and therefore Policies can change.  This can have a marked effect on any rollout and the same can be said for environmental concerns”.

In turning to the world of digital, then, Fredric also recommends that technology “will simplify things a lot and result in less resources needed for certain tasks. It will also enable us to do more with less in parallel to being faster and cheaper while providing a better quality with less reliance on human mistakes. Self healing, Self Audit and AI powered automation would result in a proactive approach to ensure network reliability & Safety.

We also spoke with our industry partners to get their expansive insight on the problems faced, and Harish Krishnan, EU Head of Operation Excellence at Prodapt shared that “repeated field surveys due to poor field data capture and lack of A55 field digitisation is impacting the fiber plan and design completion on-time with the right quality”.

It’s clear that the industry & its leaders recognise the problem, and are clear about the solutions too.

But Kapil’s mission spans further. It would be a great oversight to only involve senior leaders in your cause, so through Vyntelligence, Kapil has brought together various game-changers who are already pioneering change at every level.

A commitment to driving organizational change and adopting new technologies is hard, but there are many that have joined the community, driven the change with Vyntelligence and are now advocating the benefits to share with others.

Glyn Albrow, LLU Infrastructure Process Specialist at Openreach mentioned “this is a first for Openreach so is a big achievement that we can remotely audit successfully to the quality standard required.” On speaking about the Vyn SmartVideoNotes platform, he said “We were able to remove the need for any physical visits because the installer was able to audit their own work with the Vyn technology. So 100% audits are now being completed remotely.”

Whilst a well built product that provides targeted solutions to deliver happier customers, contractors & colleagues is essential to achieving these benefits, the credit lies with the game-changers that are not only recognising value, but driving it wherever possible to help others reap the benefits too.

By combining human intelligence with the power of smart, guided asynchronous video for smarter data capture, and harnessing the power of AI/ML capabilities to drive smarter insights and collaboration, a community of game-changers are able to empower themselves, field teams and customers too.

Kapil’s belief has always been that “harnessing the power of video naturally lends to effective remote supervision. It builds better customer engagement, saves field visits (carbon miles), reduces capital programme risks, accelerates productivity and creates safety & compliance as a positive culture”

It is clear now that there is an abundance of smart technologies and new innovations trying to drive change in the industry, but the factor that brings success is culture. A dedicated focus on championing change management within organizations so teams can directly see and feel the value of innovation is what brings together the game-changers. And it only comes when the need has been felt first-hand, the years have been spent building and growing, and the effort has been well placed in bringing together a community of those who recognise value and have a desire to see change.

“I am proud that I’m now able to bring together a community to help the field engineers in the same place as I once was. We’re seeing real commitment and real change leading to real benefits. The work is in progress, and the game is changing” says Kapil.

Are you Vynning?

—

Vyntelligence is a market-leading enterprise intelligence platform. As the category owner, it holds an 80% market share of top UK infrastructure & telco providers including Openreach. They’ve also won the Orange Fab France Women Start Program amongst over 250 innovative global startups and have joined Tomorrow Street’s SCALEUP X, the next generation of strategic suppliers to Vodafone. Vyn leverages its patented data capture, collaboration & AI-powered analytics platform for clients to see faster, bigger, and smarter asset deployment and service delivery using fewer resources with short guided asynchronous video.

Hear more from Vyntelligence at Connected Britain on the 20 – 21 Sept at Stand 185.

Find out more at vyntelligence.com/telecoms

Also in the news:
Unleashing a connected future: Navigating the UK’s broadband landscape
German fibre coverage hits 36%
Potential ‘remedies’ for Spain’s Orange–MásMóvil merger draw in Digi