Press Release

Launch to mark Cisco joining Greater Manchester Digital Security Hub

Cisco today announced that it is joining the Greater Manchester Digital Security Hub (DiSH) to support the centre’s ambitions to be at the forefront of cybersecurity and innovation, support economic growth and resilience, and to help make the region a trusted and secure place to live, study, and work.

As part of this collaboration, through Cisco’s Country Digital Acceleration (CDA) programme, Cisco is launching a series of targeted initiatives to tackle the widening cybersecurity skills gap. Dedicated programmes will focus on three key areas: the most vulnerable organisations, the widest gap in the industry, and the future generation who will live and work in the region as it realises its digital ambitions.

The Most Vulnerable Organisations

According to Cisco research, half of small businesses (50%) are underprepared when it comes to cybersecurity, leaving them vulnerable to breaches. A core ambition of DiSH is to future-proof Greater Manchester and bring together industry, start-ups, and small and medium-sized enterprises to develop solutions with real-world application that will enhance public and private cyber resilience and digital security.

As part of its role with DiSH, the centre will become a Cisco Networking Academy specifically to support small businesses with their cybersecurity skills. The programme will include a range of learning opportunities starting with a free, self-paced, mobile-friendly ‘Introduction to Cybersecurity’ course. The aim of the course is to equip learners with a basic awareness of cyber vulnerabilities and an understanding of the core principles of cyber resilience. Once users have completed the course, they will have access to additional learning pathways facilitated by Cisco’s partnership with UCEN Manchester.

Jon Lomas, Cybersecurity Partnership Development Manager, DiSH commented: “We greatly value the opportunity to partner with Cisco, a global leader in cybersecurity, to help deliver the critical skills needed to protect businesses of all sizes from potential attacks in an increasingly complicated threat landscape. Becoming a Cisco Networking Academy will help us to deliver free and easily accessible training for our local business population to help them address the security risks they face.”

The Widest Gap in the Industry

As cybersecurity threats continue to rise, the need for a skilled, diverse cyber workforce is more important than ever. Yet, the global cybersecurity workforce was reportedly short of 3.5 million workers in 2021 and constituted less than 25% women.

Cisco’s latest programme, launched today in partnership with the Open University, ‘Cisco Cyber Camps’, will provide free, remote, self-paced training for students in the UK, aged 13-19, who identify as female or non-binary. The courses will allow young women to learn industry-ready cybersecurity skills, while also engaging in forums hosted by Cisco Networking Academy expert women instructors, attending online webinars, and embarking on soft skills training. Upon successful completion of the course, students will receive a certification that will then allow them to go on to complete advanced cybersecurity qualifications and courses.

There will be four enrolment dates each year in January, April, July, and October. To find out more, or sign up for the next cohort, visit here.

Andrew Smith, Senior Lecturer in Networking, Open University Cisco Academy Support Centre, said: “The rapid expansion of the digital economy has created many more cybersecurity challenges that need to be tackled by organisations daily. We urgently need to close the security skills gap, as job vacancies continue to outweigh available expert talent. We look forward to our continued collaboration with Cisco to support the training of talented women to fulfil these critical roles and boost innovation through gender diversity.”

The Future Generation who Will Live and Work in the Digital City-region

Cisco’s partnerships with the Open University and UCEN Manchester have been designed to equip young people with the cybersecurity skills needed to help Greater Manchester succeed in its ambitions to become an internationally recognised digital city-region, attracting industry investment, connecting communities, and driving the local economy. The partnerships focus on providing:

Free, self-paced, and online instructor training programmes, led by a consortium of Cisco Networking Academy partners including the Open University and UCEN Manchester, which work around teachers’ busy schedules, as an exciting opportunity to upskill and support their continuing professional development.
Industry-accredited materials and resources designed for those delivering cybersecurity training to their students, closely mapped to the T-Level curriculum. Aligning the courses with classroom teaching offers students in Greater Manchester vendor-led training that will enhance their future job applications.
Teacher training and skills-to-jobs learning for pupils in the Dean Trust schools and academies across the Greater Manchester region, as well as further schools supported by UCEN Manchester.

David Meads, Chief Executive, Cisco UK & Ireland, commented: “As Greater Manchester realises its digital ambition, it’s crucial that we equip everyone who lives and works in the region with the awareness, tools, and skills to help improve their security resilience. We’re delighted to be working with DiSH, and its founding partners to do just that.”

This announcement builds on Cisco’s role in delivering the Greater Manchester One Network initiative, designed to provide continued trusted access to everything and everyone in the public sector. As part of this initiative, Cisco will deploy a secure, self-monitoring, region-wide digital infrastructure to help underpin public services in the region.

Want to learn more about the digital transformation of Greater Manchester and the North of the UK? Join the telecoms industry in discussion at next year’s Connected North conference

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Press Release

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Interview

Ahead of next week’s Submarine Networks EMEA event, Total Telecom caught up with Mario Martín, CEO of Telxius to find out more about the company’s activities in the global subsea cable market.

Can you tell us more about Telxius’ global network footprint? Are you currently investing in any new subsea cable projects?

Of course. Telxius provides global digital infrastructure featuring ultra-high-capacity, low-latency and high-availability, as well as a suite of value-added services covering Colocation, IP and Security.

The Telxius network features more than 82,000 km of high-capacity fibre optic subsea cables, designed to connect the main digital data hubs in the world. It also features 15 communications hubs including two advanced communications hubs in Derio (Spain) and Virginia Beach (US) that connect to the main data centres in the world. This is combined with onward terrestrial connectivity to key communications hubs across Europe, plus Latin, Central and North America, which means we can give customers greater control over the experience and resiliency they can offer.

We recently announced a new submarine cable to connect Guatemala and the United States – Tikal. It’s going to offer the highest capacity between Puerto Barrios (Guatemala) and Boca Raton (US), and also gives us options to incorporate additional landings in Cancun (Mexico) and Barranquilla (Colombia). We’re really looking forward to making this live.

Our robust set of next-generation subsea cables Marea, Brusa, Dunant, Tannat, Junior, Mistral and soon, Tikal, fully serve the Americas and Europe. By integrating these next-generation cables into our network, we’re enhancing our traditional routes and providing improved connectivity and faster data transmission in the Americas and Europe. This has been a huge step forward for Telxius and really highlights our commitment to delivering cutting-edge telecommunications infrastructure to our customers.

Telxius’ VP Sales, Carlos Casado, will be joining a panel on “What’s on the horizon for the submarine cable industry” at the event later next week. What key themes do you expect to come up during the discussion?

That’s right, there’s going to be a lot of interesting things to talk about. I think one key topic will be how the submarine cable industry is well placed to contribute to the unstoppable digitalisation trends, and why.

Another relevant topic to be discussed would be the new systems that are being deployed globally, and the transformations we can see happening in Telxius as market demands evolve.

We’ve seen lots of investment in the subsea cable market in the past few years, do you see this continuing?

Definitely – digitalisation could not exist without submarine cables. We have to bear in mind that submarine cables carry 99% of international IP traffic. They are the real arteries of the Internet and form the backbone of global telecommunications infrastructure.

Digital infrastructure, subsea cable systems, onward connectivity, colocation services and other value-add services all provide a foundation for innovation, transformation and digital experiences.

Telxius is a good example of subsea cable investment over the last few years. Five years ago, 90% of our revenues were concentrated in a single submarine cable system, SAm-1, which was nearing the end of its useful life. Well aware of this challenge, we put together a strategic roadmap to develop our infrastructure and associated network solutions. This has allowed us to deploy seven new next-generation systems in the last five years and radically transform the Telxius network. Our network has more than doubled in size, now spanning over 82,000 km of submarine fibre.

Which regions globally are you seeing the most activity and growth in? 

There are a number of markets across the globe experiencing huge levels of growth. Some of those that we are particularly interested in are Europe, the Caribbean and Latin America.

Some of these markets are already very strong such as Spain, which is ideally positioned to be a hub for connecting Africa, the Americas and Europe. It provides a number of landing points, digital hubs, exchange points, data centres, cloud regions and more, plus connectivity across the Atlantic and access to the Mediterranean. The strength of this market is demonstrated through some hyperscalers’ plans to open data centres and cloud regions. Spain and the rest of Europe are key focus areas for us due to the huge levels of demand coming from these markets.

On the other hand, a number of Latin American and Caribbean markets are set to experience rapid cloud growth in the near future, which also puts them front and centre. Colombia for example, has a privileged geographical position as it has two coasts – the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean – which make it an ideal connection point for all kinds of content platforms to operate in Latin America from anywhere in the world. Since Colombia is a key emerging hub in Latin America, we are monitoring it closely and considering the extension of Tikal to Barranquilla. We’re focused on providing seamless connectivity between Europe, the Americas and beyond.

Why is Telxius looking forward to Submarine Networks EMEA 2023?

There are lots of things we’re looking forward to at Submarine Networks EMEA. Perhaps the thing we’re most looking forward to is connecting with customers and partners. It’s always great to meet face-to-face.

The team is also keen to engage in productive conversations that will help us to fulfil our aspiration of being the best global provider of digital infrastructure based on submarine cables. The event has a lot to offer and will contribute to us developing a more successful digital infrastructure business overall, so we’re really looking forward to it.

Carlos Casado, VP Sales and David Simarro, Head of Business Development EMEA at Telxius will both be speaking at Submarine Networks EMEA 2023. The region’s pre-eminent subsea conference will see over 800 attendees from the global subsea cable market meet at the Business Design Centre in London on 31st May and 1st June. Head to the event website to secure your place.

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News

The decision will allow Openreach to further reduce wholesale prices, a decision likely to be met with praise from the UK’s ISPs but trepidation from its alternative network providers

Today, following a public consultation, the UK telecoms regulator Ofcom has announced that it will allow Openreach’s proposed Equinox 2 fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) discount scheme.

The scheme, building on the previous Equinox 1 offer, will see Openreach charge cheaper wholesale rates for ISP customers purchasing FTTP products, a move which they say will allow ISPs to become more competitive with alternative network providers.

The regulator said that the decision is “consistent with promoting investment in gigabit-capable networks by Openreach and other operators and promoting network-based competition”. They note that while Equinox 2 will make competition for altnets more intense, the conditional terms in the offer “do not create a potential barrier to using altnets”.

“This is good news for customers as it means lower prices and long-term certainty – encouraging the switch to faster, more reliable broadband connections. It’s also good news for the UK, as it supports our continued multi-billion-pound investment in upgrading the country’s broadband infrastructure,” said Katie Milligan, Openreach’s Chief Commercial Officer. “We take our legal and regulatory obligations extremely seriously and we’ll continue to compete fairly whilst delivering an unrivalled, nationwide service and choice for customers.”

For the UK’s altnet community, however, the decision is much more troubling, with some having previously claimed that Equinox 2 is anticompetitive, serving to lock-in ISP customers with Openreach by offering prices that altnets cannot match and creating a major barrier for entry for new prospective network builders.

Part of the fear here is that Equinox 2 could be merely a stepping-stone to even greater discounts in the future, with Ofcom offering no real resistance; indeed, Openreach’s proposals for Equinox 2 came less than a year after Equinox 1 first came into effect in 2021.

In this regard, however, the altnets are likely to have a level of certainty, with Openreach saying that they will not change the Equinox 2 pricing scheme or introduce further changes (i.e., a potential Equinox 3 scheme) until the end of March 2026.

“We are disappointed Equinox 2 has been approved and will be undertaking a thorough review of Ofcom’s decision. We are, however, pleased to see Ofcom’s pressure has brought about the end of Equinox, with a commitment from Openreach to make no further changes to its wholesale pricing until April 2026,” said Greg Mesch, CEO of CityFibre, the UK’s largest altnet.

“We must not forget that while introducing price discounts to bind its wholesale customers and damage emerging competition, BT is at the same time significantly increasing prices for millions of its retail consumers. Ofcom must ensure that competition is effective and sustainable if consumers are to benefit.”

BT, like many UK telecoms providers, increased their prices above inflation rates earlier in March this year, with BT increasing the prices for consumers by 14.4%.

The potential effects of Equinox 2 on the UK fibre market were one of the major talking points at this year’s Connected North conference in Manchester, with Openreach, Ofcom, and a number of ISPs and altnets sharing their views with the wider community.

At the event, we interviewed Gita Sorensen of GOS Consulting, who explained that much of the criticism levelled against Equinox 2 from the altnet community was not necessarily an attack of Openreach itself, but rather the transparency of Ofcom’s decision making process.

Indeed, a statement from the Independent Networks Cooperative Association (INCA) today had similar misgivings over Ofcom’s methodology.

“Whilst we are still reviewing Ofcom’s statement in full, INCA is initially disappointed with Ofcom’s decision. Not only do we believe that this outcome will have a negative impact on competition and investment and ultimately consumers, we also believe that Ofcom’s approach to taking this decision was flawed,” read the statement. “This initially seems to be an illogical decision based on a questionable process. Government policy and regulatory decision making now appear to us to be out of sync when it comes to infrastructure competition. We call on government to clarify its Statement of Strategic Priorities to Ofcom to ensure that the regulator is compelled to put issues of infrastructure competition and investment at the heart of its decision-making process.”

On the other hand, CEO of Zen Internet, Richard Tang, was a vocal defender of the offer’s competitive qualities, tackling the topic on the keynote stage and further explaining his position in an interview with Total Telecom.

Tang reiterated this opinion today, saying that Zen was pleased that Ofcom had given the offer the green light, saying it was “crucial in making full fibre broadband more accessible and affordable for millions of households across the UK”.

While Equinox 2 is sure to have a significant effect on the UK fibre market, particularly when it comes to accelerating altnet consolidation, the full extent of its impact will not be apparent for many months to come.

How is the UK’s telecoms ecosystem changing in 2023? Join the operators in discussion at this year’s live Connected Britain conference

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