Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Carlisle-based broadband network and UK ISP Grain, which in July 2025 secured a £225m funding boost to continue their expansion (here), has revealed that they’ve now begun to expand their Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) lines across the large Greater Manchester (England) town of Wigan; home to around 108,000 people.

The town is currently well covered by gigabit-capable broadband from both Virgin Media (inc. nexfibre) and Openreach, alongside a few smaller FTTP/B builds from 4th Utility and Hyperoptic (those two are mostly focused on a few large residential buildings / MDUs). Back in December 2022 CityFibre also committed to build in Wigan (here), but it ended up being sacrificed when they scaled-back their commercial deployments.

As for Grain, the announcement doesn’t reveal anything much about their deployment plan for the town, although it’s worth noting that they have previously deployed across the Brogan Wilkins Park area – a development of new build homes. Recent data on local street works suggests their next expansion will, at least initially, be centred around the area of Park Road, Woodhouse Lane, and Gidlow Lane.

The operator’s point-to-point fibre optic broadband network is currently home to over 43,000 customers and covers 270,000 UK premises (aiming to reach 600,000 in the future). We suspect the new areas of Wigan will start to go live for their first customers within the next 1-3 months (the official aim being “spring” 2026), as Grain are usually quite quick at putting new areas live.

Richard Cameron, Grain’s CEO, said:

“We’re excited to offer Wigan residents an internet service that can keep up with their digital lives.”

Customers can normally expect to pay from just £16.99 per month on an 18-month term for symmetric speeds of 150Mbps (including a router and free installation), which rises to £22.99 for their 1Gbps tier. But we understand that those in Wigan may be able to benefit from slightly lower “early-bird” prices, starting at £14.99 for 150Mbps etc.

Grain doesn’t state precisely how many premises in the town they expect to cover or when the roll-out will complete, although it is a location that should be big enough to sustain an additional altnet.

Original article Total Telecom:Read More

News

Private data from 36 users was unintentionally shared with 101 individuals who had just downloaded the app

LG Uplus revealed that a temporary technical error earlier this week related to its AI-based voice call application, ixi O, had led to the exposure of private user information.

The incident, which was promptly addressed, raises questions around the company’s data security protocols amid heightened global scrutiny of privacy safeguards.

The company stated on Sunday that the mishap originated from a misconfigured caching system introduced during recent efforts to optimise the service. This configuration flaw resulted in data from 36 users being inadvertently shared with 101 different users that had redownloaded the app or were using it for the first time.

Data shared included call records that contained fragments of recipient phone numbers, call timestamps, and AI-generated conversation summaries.

Sensitive personal identifiers, such as resident registration numbers, passport details, or financial data, were not part of the exposed information, LG Uplus has confirmed.

LG Uplus said that the issue was resolved within 30 minutes of discovery. It subsequently clarified that each affected user’s call data was viewed by between one and six unrelated individuals. All affected individuals have been notified, according to the company.

“It was not the result of any external cyberattack. We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience and concern this may have caused, and we will fully cooperate with the authorities as they review the case,” said an LG Uplus spokesperson in a statement.

This glitch comes at an inopportune time for LG Uplus, with the company still facing ongoing investigations by a joint public-private cybersecurity task force into a hacking incident that occurred earlier this year.

Keep up to date with all the latest telecoms news with the Total Telecom newsletter

Also in the news
Connected Britain Award winners 2025 announced!
Netomnia announces ‘powerful and ambitious’ rebrand ahead of Connected Britain
VodafoneThree drops Samsung, relies on Nokia and Ericsson for £2bn network upgrade

Original article Total Telecom:Read More

Original article Total Telecom:Read More

Intracom Telecom, a global telecommunication systems and solutions vendor, and GeoLinks, a leader in next-generation fixed wireless, successfully completed and unveiled the results of a breakthrough joint field trial in Las Vegas during WISPAPALOOZA 2025, the flagship conference for Wireless Internet Service Providers (WISPs). The trial achieved multi-gigabit performance on Intracom Telecom’s Fixed Wireless Access platform and confirmed the commercial and operational readiness of GeoLinks Local Multipoint Distribution Service (LMDS) spectrum. As the largest LMDS license holder, GeoLinks is now empowering WISPs nationwide to deliver fiber-like, multi-gigabit services over long distances.

This successful trial advances GeoLinks commercial use of its licensed spectrum within its own footprint and empowers WISPs across 1,300 U.S. counties to expand service delivery using FCC-licensed LMDS spectrum, known for its superior speed, reliability, and security. GeoLinks licensed spectrum portfolio is now fully available to WISPs, and additional details are at GeoLinks.com/LMDS.

Demonstrated Live at WISPAPALOOZA

The platform showcased exceptional capabilities by connecting to terminal devices across Las Vegas, achieving 1.6 Gbps aggregate throughput at a range of 5 miles in the 29/31 GHz spectrum. This demonstration proves that licensed mmWave FWA creates a secure, interference-free, and fiber-like network experience.

Watch the video news release here: Fiber-Like Speeds Anywhere | Intracom Telecom & GeoLinks

“GeoLinks is redefining what’s possible in fixed wireless,” said GeoLinks CEO Kevin Hetrick. “Coming out of WISPAPALOOZA, the message is clear: The technology and spectrum are available right now for WISPs to accelerate deployment, eliminate interference, unlock new revenue opportunities, and deliver fiber-like, enterprise-grade service to the communities they serve.”

“We are excited and honored to join forces with GeoLinks in bringing licensed spectrum access to WISPs,” said Kyriakos Vergos, CEO of Intracom Telecom USA. “Our WiBAS G5 Smart Base Station, combined with GeoLinks spectrum, will help deliver reliable, multi-gigabit performance over great distances, providing fiber-grade connectivity to markets that do not have immediate or cost-effective access to fiber.”

Intracom Telecom’s WiBAS™ G5 Smart Base Station features a unique, hybrid-massive-beamforming design, with advanced algorithms that dynamically allocate capacity, maximize concurrent subscriber connections, and simplify installation and provisioning. Its robust, easily deployable design ensures reliability even in challenging environments, enabling service providers to scale quickly and efficiently. With GeoLinks licensed spectrum assets and WiBAS™ G5 now available to WISPs nationwide, high-speed connectivity and digital inclusion for all move closer to reality.

Original article Total Telecom:Read More

Rome, 4 December 2025

Sparkle, the first international service provider in Italy and among the top global operators, announces the expansion of its network in Chile with the opening of a new Point of Presence (PoP) in Santiago. With this infrastructure, adding to the existing nodes in Santiago and Valparaiso, Sparkle provides greater diversification and redundancy for local customers and further enhances connectivity across South America.

Located at Ascenty, a cutting-edge and rapidly expanding hub, the new node – equipped with a 400GBE-enabled router for IP Transit services – is fully integrated with Sparkle’s global Tier-1 IP backbone Seabone (AS6762), enabling secure and scalable access to the Big Internet.

In addition, thanks to the Curie submarine cable, which directly connects Chile to California, Sparkle can offer ultra-high-speed, low-latency links to the United States. Combined with other terrestrial and submarine networks – such as the “digital highways” Monet, Seabras-1, and soon Manta in the Atlantic – this ensures diversified routes between South and North America for full redundancy.

At the new PoP, network operators, ISPs, OTTs, content delivery networks, and content and application providers can access capacity and IP transit services, as well as advanced solutions including DDoS Protection – to safeguard networks against cyberattacks – and Virtual NAP, enabling virtual access to leading Internet Exchange Points (IXPs) without the need to invest in proprietary infrastructure.

With this expansion – bringing the total number of Points of Presence in the Americas to 54, distributed across Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Puerto Rico, the United States, and Venezuela – Sparkle strengthens its leadership in Latin America, offering a robust and secure global network ready to support the growing demand for international connectivity.

About Sparkle

Sparkle is TIM Group’s global operator, first international service provider in Italy and among the top worldwide, offering a full range of infrastructure and global connectivity services – capacity, IP, SD-WAN, colocation, IoT connectivity, roaming and voice – to national and international Carriers, OTTs, ISPs, Media/Content Providers, and multinational enterprises. As a leading player in the submarine cable industry, Sparkle owns and manages a network of more than 600,000 km of fiber stretching across Europe, Africa, the Middle East, the Americas, and Asia. Sparkle’s sales team has a global presence, with representatives in 32 countries.

Find out more about Sparkle following its X and LinkedIn profiles or visiting the website tisparkle.com

Media Contacts:

sparkle.communication@tisparkle.com

X: @TISparkle

Original article Total Telecom:Read More

Twist, a fast-growing digital entertainment platform in MENA, has renewed its partnership with Tuned Global, the leading B2B music technology platform, for another three years. This collaboration powers the next phase of Twist Music, building on its success in Egypt and enabling expansion into the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia (KSA).

Twist maintains a strong alliance with E& — one of the largest telecom operators in the
Middle East and Africa — offering seamless bundled music experiences to its customer
base while also serving the wider market with hassle-free music access.

As a key part of the Egyptian digital lifestyle portfolio, Twist plays a strategic role in
delivering engaging entertainment experiences to millions of users. With this renewed
partnership, Twist aims to broaden its regional footprint and strengthen its music
streaming capabilities through Tuned Global’s robust technology infrastructure.
The Twist Music app — already downloaded [3 million times] — is available with special
privileges to E& users over mobile plans or through standalone subscription at a very
competitive price addressing the whole market.

It provides users with an extensive catalogue of Arabic and international music, featuring content from major labels and leading independents like Believe, powered by Tuned Global’s content management and rights solutions.

Ahmed Yehia, CEO of Fintech & Digital Lifestyle at E&; Egypt, said:
“Through our support of the renewed Twist partnership with Tuned Global, we’ve
fast-tracked the development of Twist Music and expanded into exciting new
markets. This renewed collaboration ensures we continue to deliver a world-class
platform that blends international catalogue depth with the local content our
customers love.”

Con Raso, Managing Director of Tuned Global, added:
“We’re proud to support Twist in enhancing its music offering and driving
regional growth. Our technology enables entertainment platforms like Twist to
focus on user experience, while we deliver the infrastructure and innovation
behind a scalable and future-ready music service.”

About Twist Music
Launched in 2022, Twist Music combines all commercial music tastes in a culturally aware, ad-free streaming experience. Tuned Global’s algorithms ensure users receive personalized
recommendations that reflect local tastes and values.

Premium features include offline listening, podcasts, broadcast radio, lyrics, Car-play and Echo for sound recognition, tapping into users' engaging features like loyalty coins and twist starts program supporting young talents — all delivered via Tuned Global’s turnkey platform.

In 2022, Twist overhauled its backend using Tuned Global’s 500+ advanced APIs, enabling
faster development, greater platform stability, and new features like Arabic search and improved metadata pipelines for local content. The result is a more seamless and responsive user experience tailored to regional audiences.

Twist Music sits within the digital entertainment ecosystem, which brings together music, VOD, gaming, and sports under one umbrella. By bundling content with telecom services, Twist offers users more value while giving e& a strong competitive advantage in the regional market.

Looking ahead, Twist is exploring new innovations with Tuned Global, including programmatic radio, AutoMix for seamless playlist transitions and AI recommendation tools for advanced personalized music experiences.

About Tuned Global

Tuned Global is the leading data-driven cloud and software platform that empowers businesses to integrate commercial music into their apps or launch complete streaming experiences using advanced APIs, real-time analytics, licensing solutions, and customisable white-label apps.

Our turnkey solutions for music, audio, and video — coupled with a broad ecosystem of third-party music tech integrations — make us the most comprehensive platform for powering any digital music project. We streamline complexities in licensing, rights management, and content delivery, enabling rapid innovation and bringing new ideas to life.
Tuned Global has extensive experience supporting telecom operators and MVNOs worldwide, including True Digital Group in Thailand, Tusass in Greenland, and Gabb in the US.

Telcos choose Tuned Global’s cloud music platform because it allows them to launch innovative branded music experiences quickly, at a fraction of the cost of owning the whole infrastructure, while integrating seamlessly with billing and bundling systems. This enables operators to focus on their core business and customer engagement while relying on Tuned Global’s music industry expertise to deliver a scalable, rights-compliant and future-ready music service.

Since 2011, we’ve supported 40+ companies in 70+ countries — across telecom, fitness,
media, aviation, and more — to deliver innovative music experiences faster and more cost-
effectively. For more information, visit http://www.tunedglobal.com.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Customers of mobile provider Talkmobile, which is a virtual operator (MVNO) on parent Vodafone’s (VodafoneThree) national UK 4G and 5G network, have been notified that they too can now “automatically use both the Vodafone and Three networks” (i.e. the new Multi-Operator Core Network or MOCN – detailed here and here).

Just to recap. VodafoneThree has so far upgraded 8,000 UK mast sites to implement MOCN, which enables customers to roam across both networks at no extra cost (whichever one provides the best signal). But it’s expected to take a total of 8 years to fully complete the roll-out of these upgrades (it’ll be 95% complete after 6 years).

Customers who take their mobile services directly from Vodafone or Three UK have naturally been the first to fully benefit, but it’s already known that the plan was to extend this to include sibling virtual operators VOXI, Talkmobile and Smarty too. We had assumed that this was already happening, although the feedback has been quite limited.

A couple of Talkmobile customers (credits to Zakir and Makky) have now informed ISPreview that they’ve today received the following text notice: “Network update: Starting now, your phone will automatically use both the Vodafone and Three networks to give you more coverage, at no extra cost.” The same message was previously sent out to Vodafone and Three UK’s customers sometime ago.

We believe this change may have technically been live on Talkmobile for at least a few weeks, at least for some customers, thus this may just be more of a belated and administrative confirmation.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Mobile network operator 1p Mobile appears as if it may finally be introducing eSIM (Embedded SIM) support to their service, which follows months of waiting after previous promises evaporated (example). Several customers spotted the feature today, but the launch currently appears to be suffering from a few teething issues.

Just to recap. The eSIM standard is an alternative to physical SIM cards, which works by essentially embedding a digital SIM into your device (Smartphone) that could – once fully implemented – make it easier and quicker to switch between operators (e.g. not having to wait for a SIM card to arrive) and to use additional networks alongside your main mobile service (e.g. eSIMs for travel when abroad).

Officially, the provider’s website currently still states that they only support physical SIM cards. But the first solid sign of a change came on Thursday last week, after one of 1p’s support agents said that eSIM “should be introduced within the next week” and “existing customers will be able to switch with a replacement SIM” (here).

Fast-forward to today and a number of ISPreview’s community members started to report that eSIM support had finally become available to them on 1p Mobile’s website (here and here), albeit seemingly attached to a £2.50 charge for those wanting to swap from their existing physical SIM.

But no sooner than the feature had appeared, and it promptly vanished again. One of our forum members, Sprogletto, claims to have been told by 1P’s support department that this was because the operator had suffered from a few “coding” issues and temporarily took eSIM off the website until they could be resolved (hopefully by later today). We’ll keep an eye out for further updates and report back.

UPDATE 3:59pm

After the earlier issues, eSIM support now appears to have been reintroduced to their website.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Alternative network operator and ISP Trooli, which have deployed their full fibre broadband (FTTP) network to cover 460,000 premises across parts of England and some of Scotland (up from 448k in Sept 2025), has today revealed that their recently established wholesale partnership with PXC (formerly TalkTalk Wholesale) is now “ready to trade at scale“.

Just to recap. Trooli’s gigabit broadband network can currently be found in various towns and large semi-rural villages across parts of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Dorset, East Sussex, Hampshire, Kent, Norfolk, Suffolk, West Sussex and Wiltshire in England. As well as parts of North Lanarkshire, South Lanarkshire and Fife in Scotland (formerly part of Axione UK’s network, before the merger – here).

The provider signed a wholesale partnership with PlatformX Communications (PXC) in March 2025 (here), which allowed PXC to provide their clients (e.g. other ISPs and networks) with more connectivity options on the new network and also gave Trooli the possibility of being able to grow take-up through a wider base of supporting retail providers.

However, no new products were offered via PXC at the time of the announcement because they would first take time to develop and introduce, which is why today’s update is so important. “I’m delighted to say we are now ready to welcome PXC’s end customers on our network,” said Andy Conibere, CEO at Trooli.

Andy Conibere, CEO at Trooli, said:

“Since we announced the start of the partnership earlier this year, our highly experienced teams have been working hard on the integration needed to deliver the opportunities that Trooli and PXC working together will provide. Our high-performing FTTP network is built for the people who would otherwise be left struggling with inferior broadband access and I’m delighted to say we are now ready to welcome PXC’s end customers on our network. We look forward to the exciting next phase of business growth.”

James Smith, CEO of PXC, said:

“Trooli is an instrumental part of our AltNet aggregation strategy. We’re delighted with the progress made and are now in the final stages of integration, positioning us to scale early next year. With Trooli’s strong presence in rural and semi-rural areas, we’ll be able to deliver reliable full-fibre broadband to even more communities, driving the best connectivity in regions that were previously underserved.”

We should point out that the original announcement saw PXC state that their first products on Trooli’s network would be ready to go during Q2 2025, but it’s obviously taken a little bit longer than planned to get that part sorted out.

Original article Total Telecom:Read More

News

Phreeli, pronounced “freely”, only requires a ZIP code for sign-up, aiming to entice privacy-conscious customers

This month saw the commercial launch of Phreeli, a company its founders describe as the world’s first privacy-by-design mobile carrier.

The company, which operates as a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) on T‑Mobile’s network, is seeking to differentiate itself by minimising personal data collection and pledging never to sell call or location data. This ethos extends to customer sign-up, requring only a customer ZIP code to activate services.

At the centre of Phreeli’s offering is a proprietary encryption architecture the company calls Double‑Blind Armadillo, which uses zero‑knowledge cryptography to separate identity information, payment details and phone numbers into isolated systems so that no single database can link a user’s identity to their communications.

Payments, which can be made in conventional means but also via some cryptocurrency, are also isolated from phone number assignment through cryptographic tokens, so that the billing system itself does not know which number it is paying for.

Phreeli was fouded by 2019 by Nicholas Merrill, a man for whom consumer privacy is a deeply personal issue. While working at an internet service provider name Calyx in 2004, Merrill was presented with anFBI National Security Letter (NSL) under the USA Patriot Act, demanding the handover of user data and an accompanying gag order. Merrill refused to comply, challenging the legality of the order. The gag order was only fully lifted in 2015.

Following this experience, Merrill has advocated for consumers handing less of their private data to corporations, suggesting that the solution can be tackled “at the front end”.

“If you don’t provide data, it can’t be lost or sold,” he said.

Merrill and the company acknowledge the risk of abuse that any anonymity tool can bring, and say Phreeli will use rate limiting, fraud detection, and account suspension to combat spam, scams, and other malicious uses of the company’s service, without resortng to mass surveillance.

“We should not allow society to be monitored for 0.1% of criminal acts,” Merrill told Wired in an interview, likening the situation to that of using a typical pay phone. “We’re not looking to cater to people doing bad things. We’re trying to help people feel more comfortable living their normal lives.”

Keep up to date with all the latest telecoms news with the Total Telecom newsletter

Also in the news
Connected Britain Award winners 2025 announced!
Netomnia announces ‘powerful and ambitious’ rebrand ahead of Connected Britain
VodafoneThree drops Samsung, relies on Nokia and Ericsson for £2bn network upgrade