Foresight Group-backed UK ISP Connect Fibre (Fibre Assets), which aspires to cover 100,000 premises across the East of England with their gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network, has today become the latest alternative network to launch their own pay TV product powered by Netgem’s IPTV platform. Netgem has already been adopted by a number of UK AltNets. […]
Easynet to Finally Close UK Email Service After Decades of Use
The once popular managed UK service provider Easynet, which finally became defunct in 2015 after the last bits of their business were sold off to Interoute (GTT) for an enterprise value of £402m (here), has begun informing long-time users of their legacy email platform (running since the 1990s) that the service is due to close. […]
ASA Ban Misleading Vodafone UK Phone Buy-Back Ads After Sky Complain
A complaint by Sky (Sky Mobile) has resulted in the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) banning a multitude of Vodafone’s adverts for misleadingly claiming to offer the “UK’s only Phone Buy-Back Guarantee“, which is despite the fact that they are not the only UK company to guarantee to buy back the phones they sold. The mobile […]
GoFibre Start Project Gigabit Broadband Build in Rural Northumberland
Independent UK rural broadband ISP GoFibre (BorderLink) has this morning announced that they’ve begun the building phase of their £7.3m state-aid supported Project Gigabit broadband rollout contract for North Northumberland (England), which will aim to upgrade over 3,750 hard-to-reach premises. After spending over six months planning and surveying for the build phase (here), Edinburgh-based GoFibre […]
Jio targets customers languishing on 2G with launch of budget 4G phone
News
The company will target the roughly 20% of Indian mobile subscribers still using 2G feature phones
This week, Reliance Industries, parent company of Indian mobile operator Reliance Jio, has announced the launch of a 4G-enabled phone costing just Rs 999 ($12).
The new 4G phone, named Jio Bharat, runs on Reliance Jio’s proprietary operating system and comes with a suite of home-grown applications, including the video streaming app JioCinema, music app JioSaavn, and mobile finance app JioPay.
Jio says Jio Bharat is the cheapest 4G-enabled phone in the country, a fact which they hope will entice some of the roughly 250 million Indian customers currently only capable of using 2G connectivity to make the purchase.
“There are still 250mn mobile phone users in India who remain ‘trapped’ in the 2G era, unable to tap into basic features of the internet at a time when the world stands at the cusp of a 5G revolution,” said Reliance Jio chair Mukesh Ambani.
“Six years ago, when Jio was launched, we made it clear that Jio will leave no stone unturned to democratize internet and pass the benefits of technology to every Indian. Technology will no longer remain a privilege for a select few,” he added.
Jio’s initial beta trial is the sale of one million devices – no small feat, but still only a tiny dent in market that contains nearly 1.5 billion people. Nonetheless, if successful, the move could further consolidate Jio’s position as the frontrunner of the Indian mobile market and pile pressure onto its rivals, particularly the struggling Vodafone Idea (Vi).
Some analysts suggest that the introduction of the new phone model with its accompanying cheap data plans could represent a significant threat the competitiveness of Jio’s rival Bharti Airtel, which has been vying for the country’s top spot for over a year now.
“We believe with this phone Jio can take market share at the lower end of the market. This also puts Bharti at risk as it can see increased churn from its recent 2G price action of increasing the Rs 99 plan to Rs 155 plan,” said JP Morgan in a note. “We believe this is negative for Bharti as any hopes of a tariff hike should be diluted over the next 12–18 months.”
Others, however, say Airtel could be less concerned. Brokerage firm BNP Paribas argues that the customers Jio is targeting with this new phone already had a chance to jump to Jio’s now discontinued smartphone, Jio Phone, in previous years and refused to do so. Airtel argues that Jio Phone had numerous additional features and advantages compared Jio Bharat, and could even be attained for a cheaper price, but this was not enough to lure customers away.
The exact impact of Jio Bharat’s launch remains to be seen but, given Jio’s intense track record when it comes to aggressive marketing strategies, this latest entrance into the mobile phone market has every reason to turn heads.
Will the launch of Jio Bharat help Jio to extend its subscriber lead over its rivals? Join the operators in discussion around market disruption at this year’s Total Telecom Congress
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Met Office makes climate data more accessible to help telcos respond to climate change
Press Release
The Met Office’s Climate Data Portal has gone live today, giving telecoms organisations improved access to climate data and other resources, allowing them to better understand and respond to climate change. Part of the Met Office’s wider strategy to maximise the benefits of its data, the portal contains 60 different data layers, as well as guidance and information.
Built using geospatial technology from Esri UK, the portal makes it easier for any business or government organisation to combine open climate data with their own data and reveal the future impact of extreme conditions on their operations, including heatwaves, floods or droughts.
The main users are expected to be within government, utilities, engineering, urban planning, transport and energy industries.
Combining Met Office expertise and authoritative data with Esri’s geospatial tools, the portal presents complex scientific climate projections in easy-to-use formats, ready to visualise and analyse in GIS and non-spatial applications or integrate into business processes for improved decision making. Spatial analysis can be performed at a global, regional or local level enabling location-specific action plans to be developed.
The project is part of the strategic partnership between the Met Office and Esri UK who have been working together for over 20 years.
“Historically, climate science has defined the problem, now it’s moving to help with the solution, providing information at a local level which is highly relevant to UK organisations,” explained Professor Jason Lowe, Head of Climate Services at the Met Office. “By combining the Met Office’s latest projections with Esri UK’s geospatial tools, the reach and value of this data is greatly extended. UK stakeholders can investigate their physical climate risks over the next 50 to 100 years. The most detailed climate projections reveal a greater chance of warmer, wetter winters and hotter, drier summers and these help users plan and prepare for extreme weather, climate change and the reporting which new regulations, linked to climate change, will require.”
Data on temperature extremes can be used to understand the impacts on transport infrastructure, health and energy demand. For example:
Days above 25°C can indicate when trains could be disrupted due to overheating of railway infrastructure
Nights above 20°C can indicate heat stress as night time temperatures impact the body’s ability to recover from higher daytime temperatures
Days below 0°C can indicate transport disruption and increased energy demand for heating
The portal will also help provide insight to help organisations start their response to regulatory climate reporting such as TCFD (Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures), which is being rolled out across the UK.
“The Climate Data Portal is a giant step forward in making climate data more usable for UK stakeholders,” commented Pete Wilkinson, Managing Director of Esri UK. “Climate change presents a major challenge and this challenge is a geographic one. Using geospatial technology as a delivery mechanism for climate data makes it quickly accessible and usable in spatial and temporal analysis, helping to identify at-risk areas and develop location-specific action plans.”
Are telcos doing enough to ensure their businesses and networks are sustainable? Join the experts in discussion at this year’s Total Telecom Congress
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CityFibre wins trio of Project Gigabit contracts worth £318m
News
The UK’s largest altnet has secured £318 million in government to rollout fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) to areas of Hampshire, Norfolk, and Suffolk
The UK government has announced its latest allocations for its flagship broadband funding initiative Project Gigabit, awarding CityFibre £318 million to roll out FTTP to rural areas in Hampshire, Norfolk, and Suffolk.
Coupled with £171 million in private investment, this funding will allow CityFibre to expand its full fibre network to 218,000 additional homes and businesses across the regions, focusing heavily on rural and hard-to reach areas.
“Securing three further Project Gigabit contracts firmly establishes CityFibre as an integral delivery partner to the Government for rural connectivity,” said CityFibre CEO Greg Mesch. “Our growing participation is central to our strategy, optimising our commercial rollout plan alongside the programme to provide our ISP customers with unrivalled network density in regions throughout the country.”
Survey work for the affected areas is expected to begin immediately, with the first installations set to be completed by early 2024. Customers should be able to access services over the infrastructure from the second half of that year.
Alongside these fibre deployments, CityFibre has announced various supporting projects in the local areas, including internships in Norfolk and six months of free internet access for 30 community centres in Suffolk.
Project Gigabit was first launched back in 2021, with the government set to allocate £5 billion in public funding to expand access to gigabit-capable broadband across the UK. At the time of its inception, the goal of the project was to ‘full fibre for all by 2025’ – at least according to then Prime Minister Boris Johnson – but this target has since been downgraded to 85% coverage of gigabit-capable broadband by 2025.
The government now aims to extend these speeds to “as close to 100% [of the population] as possible” by 2030.
With this latest batch of contract allocations, CityFibre is the largest active partner of Project Gigabit, having already been awarded a contract to cover Cambridgeshire back in March.
The altnet is currently planning to rollout full fibre to 8 million UK homes in total by 2025, having passed roughly 2.8 million UK premises at the most recent count. This goal reportedly includes half a million premises in the affected counties of Hampshire, Norfolk, and Suffolk, hence the company will need to pass 283 million additional premises with FTTP without supporting funding from the government.
But while CityFibre celebrates its successful partnership with the government, it is worth noting that Project Gigabit is only just beginning. Prior to awarding these CityFibre contracts, the government had only allocated around £270 million to various broadband projects. Combine this with funding for additional schemes supported by Project Gigabit – such as dark fibre funding for the public sector and the gigabit voucher scheme – and the government still has over £3.5 billion left to divvy up.
With just under 18 months to go until 2025, the remaining funding will need to be allocated soon if it is to have a meaningful impact towards helping the broadband sector reach its target of 85% coverage.
Want to hear more from CityFibre and their role in building Gigabit Britain? Join the operator in discussion at the upcoming Connected Britain conference
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Sky UK Tries to Improve Sky Stream TV Uptake – Sells in Currys
Sky’s standalone Sky Stream TV product, which uses your broadband ISP and Wi-Fi connection to stream their on-demand video content and live channels directly to your existing TV set (without a satellite dish), can now be purchased in 285 Currys stores nationwide after the media giant signed an exclusive retail partnership. The partnership between Currys […]
Survey Claims 53% of UK Broadband Users Suffer Connection Woes
A new survey of 3,975 UK people who had a contract for a home broadband ISP in December 2022 and January 2023, which was conducted by Which?, has found that 53% have experienced “connection issues” in the past year (e.g. very slow speeds, connection drop-outs etc.) and Sky Broadband were the worst offender. Out of […]
Virgin Media UK Pay TV Customers Get Access to Pluto TV
Broadband ISP Virgin Media (VMO2) has announced that customers of their pay TV service(s), specifically Virgin TV 360 or Stream, can now access thousands more TV shows and movies from Pluto TV, directly via their set-top-box and “all at no extra cost“. Pluto TV is a free, ad-supported, streaming TV (FAST) service that gives customers […]