Mobile operator Three UK has today reported their latest results to 30th June 2023, which among other things reveals that their 5G based mobile broadband network is now live across more than 4,400 sites (up from 4,250 at the end of 2022) in over 610 towns and cities – achieving 61% outdoor population coverage (up […]

Network access provider Openreach (BT) has made it easier for UK broadband ISPs that want to migrate existing customers on slower copper-based ADSL, FTTC (VDSL2) and G.fast lines to faster full fibre (FTTP) ones, which they’ve done by introducing a new discount for their related “Proactive Upgrades” service. The time-limited special offer, which will run […]

Broadband ISP RunFibre, which is building a new gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network across rural areas of South Gloucestershire in England, has announced that they’re extending into the rural South Gloucestershire village of Falfield – home to a population of around 800. The total value of the local network investment is said to be £250,000, which […]

Press Release

(02 August 20203) Terrapinn / Total Telecom is delighted to announce the acquisition of Broadband Communities, a publishing and events business specialising in the provision and delivery of broadband services in the USA.

Broadband Communities’ annual Broadband Communities Summit event will join Total Telecom’s portfolio of award-winning telecoms events, including Connected Britain, Connected America, Total Telecom Congress, and the World Communication Awards.

Rob Chambers, Managing Director, Total Telecom, said: ”Broadband Communities is a fantastic fit with our Connected series and provides a beachhead for the further development of our business in the USA. We are excited and looking forward to a very bright future with BBC. The Broadband Communities Summit, held annually in May, near Houston, is the industry standard.”

Barbara DeGarmo, CEO, Broadband Communities, said: “We are really glad that BBC has found such a good home. Total Telecom has what is needed to make BBC prosper in the future.”

Broadband Communities Summit 2024 will take place on MAY 6–9 at the The Woodlands Waterway Marriott Hotel & Convention Center in Houston, Texas.

Total Telecom looks forward to serving all stakeholders in building the broadband future of the USA.

The companies would like to thank all staff and advisors that facilitated the deal.

 

About Total Telecom
Since 1997, Total Telecom has provided the connection between the buyers and sellers in the global telecom market. It produces high quality, independent editorial content and events to facilitate discussion on industry issues and recognise innovation and excellence by companies and individuals. Total Telecom serves the global telecom industry, with special focus on executives within operators, service providers, and the enterprise users of telecom products and services. The Total Telecomcommunity comprises more than 100,000 global telecom professionals from more than 200 countries who use our products every month, through our website and opt-in email audience, as well as through social media on which we have over 75,000 followers.

About Broadband Communities

Broadband Communities organises the annual Broadband Communities Summit, the leading event for community leaders, multifamily property owners, and network builders and deployers interested in the building, managing, marketing and monetising of high-speed broadband technologies and services. It is focused on the successful delivery of high-speed broadband networks to communities – from multifamily properties to ultra-connected master-planned developments to the city or town where you live. The Summit’s extraordinary program offers cutting-edge presentations by outstanding speakers with a finger on the pulse of what’s new and what’s coming, what works and what doesn’t. From the first day of the Summit to the last, our goal is to send you home with information you can put to immediate use.

For further information:
Greg Hitchen – CEO of Terrapinn: greg.hitchen@terrapinn.com
Rob Chambers – MD of Total Telecom: rob.chambers@totaltele.com
Barbara DeGarmo – CEO of Broadband Communities: barbara@broadbandproperties.com

www.terrapinn.com
www.totaltele.com

Broadband and Pay TV provider Octaplus (Octaplus Supercharged), which sells services to consumers over various full fibre (FTTP) networks (e.g. MS3, CityFibre and FullFibre Limited), has announced that their network is now finally ready for the IPv6 internet addressing standard and customer migrations will begin next week. Just to recap. Internet protocol (IP) addresses exist […]

Infracapital-backed UK broadband ISP Ogi, which is investing £200m to build a new full fibre (FTTP) network across 150,000 premises in South Wales by 2025, appears to have become one of the first (possibly THE first) alternative network providers to have a high street presence thanks to a new deal with the ‘Get Connection’ retail […]

News

After being one of the first countries to begin implementation back in 2019, analysts say the UK is in danger of falling behind in the global race to roll out 5G networks 

The UK is at risk of being left behind by its international competitors when it comes to 5G, at least according to a new report from the Financial Times. 

Citing a June report from research company OpenSignal, the FT notes that the UK ranks 39th out of 56 countries when it comes to 5G availability, with the average mobile phone users being connected to a 5G network 10.1% of the time. Furthermore, the UK ranked 49th out of the 56 in terms of average download speeds, falling behind Germany, France, and the USA.  

These poor results are likely due to a combination of insubstantial investment from mobile phone operators and the disruption caused by the government’s ban on Huawei. 

UK mobile networks need to invest an estimated £34 billion on 5G infrastructure by 2030 in order to meet the demand of new technologies, such as driverless cars and more efficient waste collection services. However, the actual estimated spend by UK operators is expected to be around £9 billion, falling well short of the targets needed to fulfill chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s wish of turning the UK into the next Silicon Valley. 

Vodafone and Three have also warned that if their UK merger is blocked 5G investment will slow even further. The firms have pledged to spend £11 billion on the project over the next decade if the merger gets the green light. Whether such promises are enough to convince regulators to allow the deal, which would shrink the UK’s mobile market from four players to three, remains to be seen. 

This lack of investment in 5G has contributed to the UK’s 5G performance falling well below other developed markets, which, in turn, has led to an underwhelming public perception of the new technology. According to data from Uswitch, less than half of mobile users have noticed speed improvements since the advent of 5G in the UK and one in six users said they felt the technology is overhyped.  

These statics could be caused by the detachment we are currently seeing between “what had been promised in terms of revolutionary experiences and what we’re actually able to do on our devices,” explained Uswitch. 

The UK’s ban on Huawei, implemented by Boris Johnson in 2020, has undoubtedly slowed the 5G rollout, driving up costs and complexity for operators as they replace Huawei equipment. When first announced, BT estimated that replacing Huawei equipment in their network would cost them £500 million; while this figure was later reassessed due to the agreement of a longer transition period, the replacement of Huawei equipment has still played a significant role in the 5G rollout delay. 

Ultimately, the challenge here for operators is one of monetisation. While firms like Assembly Research have long held that 5G could be worth over a hundred billion pounds to the UK economy, translating such expectations into telco revenue streams has been difficult.  

As noted, most consumers are not seeing a major benefit from 5G and so are unlikely to pay a premium for the technology. This has led telcos to increasingly target the enterprise segment to recoup their 5G investment, creating new 5G use cases and deploying bespoke private mobile networks. However, adoption in this space has been relatively slow, with major enterprises needing significant coaxing to shell out for 5G solutions. 

As Jeanie York, CTO at Virgin Media O2, told the FT, “everybody in the industry in this country is waiting for the right killer application that’s going to help us get a return on our investment”. 

The £40 million funding announced by the government this week, aiming to turn local and regional authorities into ‘5G Innovation Regions’, may go some way to help promote the further development of 5G in the UK, but projects of such a small size are unfortunately just a drop in the ocean when it comes to the scale of the 5G challenge facing the UK.  

How will the UK’s 5G implementation play out? Join in the conversation at this year’s live Connected Britain conference 

Also in the news: 
Vocus offers TPG Telecom $4.2bn for fixed infrastructure assets
TalkTalk mulls break-up as debt pressure grows
Telefónica and Sateliot make history with 5G roaming space connection 

News 

The result brings nearly a year’s worth of legal action to a close 

The High Court has rejected EE’s legal challenge against Virgin Media – now Virgin Media O2 (VMO2) – which accused Virgin Media of terminating their network access agreement before its expiry.  

Virgin Mobile first signed a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) deal with EE back in 2013, offering consumers mobile services powered by the latter’s 3G and 4G network infrastructure.  

In 2019, at the dawn of the 5G era, Virgin ended its contract with EE in favour of Vodafone, saying they would begin to move customers to Vodafone’s platform towards the end of 2021.  

In 2021 itself, Virgin Media would ultimately merge with O2, hence negating the need for the Vodafone MVNO contract. However, EE argue that Virgin had pushed some of its 3 million customers off of EE’s network and onto O2 and Vodafone’s networks platforms before the contracted end date in 2024. 

As a result, EE filed the legal challenge in August 2022, seeking £24.6 million in loss of revenue damages from VMO2.  

Today, the High Court Justice Joanna Smith DBE ruled against the appeal, describing EE’s claim as “fanciful” and noting that it had “no real prospect of succeeding”. 

According to VMO2, Virgin’s former agreement with BT stated that if EE released 5G services to its own customers and failed to reach an agreement with Virgin Media on 5G services within a defined time frame, then Virgin Media was permitted to obtain its 5G services elsewhere – in this case, from Vodafone.   

“We’ve always been very clear that we fully honoured our former mobile agreement with BT while giving our customers access to 5G as soon as possible. We’re pleased that the court has ruled in our favour and summarily dismissed EE’s claim against us,” said a Virgin Media spokesperson. 

BT – parent company of EE – said that “we are disappointed by the court’s judgment and will now carefully review the findings before considering next steps”. 

How is the UK telecoms landscape evolving in 2023? Join the operators in discussion at this year’s Connected Britain event 

Also in the news: 
Virgin Media O2 announces 2,000 job cuts
Vodafone sales increase as merger looms
Vodafone and Three UK closing in on merger 

Startup Stories

Tell us about your startup
eSIM Go was established in 2020 to provide businesses, including those within the travel sector, with the technology to become an eSIM MVNO in a matter of days.

Our vision is to become the world’s leading B2B2C provider of mobile plans. We work with bedroom developers and blue chips, enabling enterprises of any size, anywhere, to sell, bundle or upsell mobile plans on a white-label or ancillary basis. Our mission is to enable companies to deliver better connectivity solutions to telecommunications subscribers.

eSIM Go helps businesses develop and launch their own branded eSIM propositions; generating new revenue streams and additional customer loyalty from selling mobile data in ways that were nowhere near as feasible in the old world of plastic SIM cards.

Our beta offering was launched in Spring/Summer 2022, ahead of opening up our API solution in October 2022. Starting out as a team of 4 co-founders, the eSIM Go team is now (as at June 2023) over 60 people.

In the space of 1 year we’ve gained significant market traction, notably (but not exclusively) in the travel sector. We have over 100 partner customers including European-based budget airline giant, Wizz Air, who launched in May 2023, Sydney Airport, who opened-up its eSIM offering in April 2023, and Mobimatter who became one of the earliest eSIM Go pioneers.

We’ve also sourced some of the best wholesale data eSIM partnerships available on the market (including over 35 mobile operators globally, with coverage in 150 countries and access to 400+ mobile networks), and have worked closely with highly-regarded technology suppliers relationships to create a robust and flexible tech stack.

Our latest innovation is the Breeze affiliate eSIM product.

What is your USP?
The eSIM Go USP is that we do it all with the best technology platform, APIs and Tier-1 connectivity options. This allows us to offer a wide variety of commercial models, including wholesale, white-label and affiliate. It also ensures maximum reliability, quality, choice and value for money in the eSIM bundles themselves.

The upshot is that organisations just have to pursue eSIM as an ancillary revenue objective and we’ll do the rest, quickly, successfully and with virtually no technical or commercial risk. Our approach to the MVNO landscape is unique, providing everything needed to create branded eSIM products and services, from connectivity, platform and APIs, through to full iOS and Android eSIM applications – with absolutely no mobile telecoms infrastructure, knowledge or experience required on their part.

What is your relationship with the telecom sector?
Mobile operators trust us, developers love us and enterprises use us. eSIM Go is a tech company whose founders (with over 40 years’ experience combined) deeply understand mobile telecoms, complemented by ancillary, fintech and proptech executives.

We rely on a deep understanding of mobile data and, through our well-established relationships with global operators, we’re in a position to offer arguably the best wholesale pricing on the market. Because eSIM Go works solely with Tier-1 providers and offers multiple networks around the world (including many with 5G), our partners can give their consumers access to the strongest networks wherever they roam.

The telecom industry and its technologies are evolving all the time and we are committed to helping our customers take advantage of that, without necessarily understanding how it works.

How have you got to your current stage of development?
We’ve been on top of eSIM developments since the concept first took form, but felt the time was right to launch eSIM Go in 2020. The timing was bad in terms of the pandemic beginning just a few weeks later (!!) and the travel sector facing a prolonged existential crisis.

But on the flipside, this gave us ample opportunity to get our technology stack in place – and it’s the investment in these hard yards that are paying off today with a significant upswing in growth during 2023 with customers, partners and the market at large consistently telling us that our proposition is more mature and complete than any competitor.

Our success with big name customers is fuelling rapid expansion, which we expect to see continue strongly into 2024 and beyond.

Why did you establish the business?
eSIM Go is the brainchild of entrepreneurs Zacchary Couldrick, Darren Shaw, Mitch Fordham and Jose De Bardi. Starting around 2018 onwards, the group shared an enthusiasm for the emergence of eSIM technology and envisioned an early opportunity to play an instrumental role in the enablement of eSIM across global businesses.

It’s about empowerment – that’s what the vision of eSIM Go boils down to. We’re on a journey to become the world’s leading B2B2C provider of mobile plans.

Whatever your eSIM business model, we can enable it. It doesn’t matter your size or starting point, eSIM Go provides everything needed to create your own branded eSIM products and services. From connectivity, platform and APIs through to full iOS and Android eSIM application – our services can be taken in any combination.

Who inspired you?
We’re inspired by other sector-leading companies that have redefined their space. See us as a Twilio, CarTrawler and Stripe hybrid for mobile plans!

What does the future hold for your business?
We’re focused on meeting the needs of a very large market opportunity as brands come to the realisation of eSIM mobile data as a new revenue stream and how straightforward it can be to harness that with our support. That’s happening right now, ahead of eSIM being ubiquitous (GSMA estimates by 2025 that 60% of devices sold will be eSIM-enabled).

As we expand, we hope to turn eSIM Go – currently based in multi-offices across the UK – into the global eSIM business hub of the future, as well as establishing regional operating teams in the US and APAC by 2026, giving any business the opportunity to embrace eSIM into their commercial offerings. We plan on tripling our headcount and revenue for 2023, and believe we’re well on track to achieving that.

Total Telecom Congress
Why not join eSIM Go in the Startup Village. Check out the website to see the full range on startups joining Total Telecom in Amsterdam this November.

News

The deal will see the UAE-based operator group continue to expand its global portfolio, just months after CEO Hatem Dowidar said the company had the “capacity and wallet” for international expansion

This week, Emirati telecoms group e& has announced that it has agreed to buy 50% plus one share in PPF Telecom Group’s telecoms assets in Bulgaria, Hungary, Serbia, and Slovakia for €2.15 billion.

The assets in question include the operator units of Yettel in Bulgaria, Serbia, and Hungary, as well as O2 in Slovakia.

The deal also includes the local units of PPF’s telecoms infrastructure business Cetin, all of are being transferred to PPF Telecom Group as part of the transaction.

PPF’s Czech assets (both its telco unit O2 and the Czech unit of Cetin) are notably excluded.

In addition to the €2.15 billion up-front payment for these assets, the deal will also include up to €350 million in earn-out payments over the next three years, payable if PPF exceeds certain targets. Similarly, a claw back clause is in place that will see PPF return up to €75 million if the company fails to reach preset goals.

PPF Telecom’s CEO, Balesh Sharmaand, is expected to retain his position.

“The purchase price of up to €2.5 billion, including contractual earn-out payments, represents one of the largest ever deals for PPF. I am proud of how we have managed to grow the value of this asset since its purchase,” said PPF CEO Jiri Smejc, noting that PF had acquired the telco businesses in Bulgaria, Hungary, and Serbia as part of a group deal with Telenor back in 2018. “I believe that the know-how and experience that PPF has in the region, combined with the global scale of our partner, will enable us to jointly share ambitions for synergies and further growth”.

For PPF this stake sale is in line with their recently announced strategic shift, with the company saying earlier this year that they would reduce their focus on Asian investments to focus on their European markets.

In contrast, e& is currently expanding their international portfolio, with CEO Dowidar targeting new opportunities in Europe and beyond for a number of months now.

“As e& continues on its path to be a leading global technology group, our priority remains focused on expanding our customer base and providing them with more digital services, both for consumers and enterprises. This exciting partnership with PPF Group in Bulgaria, Hungary, Serbia, and Slovakia exemplifies our commitment to seeking new opportunities for collaboration and investment opportunities that will further accelerate our expansion,” said e&’s group CEO Hatem Dowidar.

“By combining PPF Telecom’s expertise with our own innovative capabilities, we are poised to establish a major telecommunications presence in Central and Eastern Europe. We aim to realise synergies, optimise procurement efficiencies, and enhance customer offerings, establishing our position as a leading global tech group”.

The deal is expected to close in Q1 2024, subject to regulatory approval.

In related news, e& has repeatedly grown its stake in Vodafone Group over the past year, increasing it to 14.6% in May, with further reports today suggesting the company aims to increase its stake by an additional 20%. They also announced a formal strategic partnership between the two companies, seeking to work together in on enterprise and technology across Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.

Want to keep up to date with all the latest news from the international telecoms sector? Click here to receive Total Telecom’s daily newsletter direct to your inbox 

Also in the news:
Vocus launches drone to serve as an emergency mobile tower in Australia
Optus partners with Starlink to bring mobile coverage to rural Australia
TalkTalk mulls break-up as debt pressure grows