Broadband ISP Virgin Media (VMO2) has today confirmed that, from next week, new and existing customers who take their 500Mbps or 1Gbps broadband packages will be able to enjoy updated upload speeds of 52Mbps (previously 36Mbps) and 104Mbps (previously 52Mbps), respectively, “at no extra cost“. This free of charge boost follows only a few short […]

News

The Digital Poverty Alliance (DPA) launched its National Delivery Plan during an event at the House of Lords in London yesterday. The strategy’s ambition is to end digital poverty in the UK by 2030.

Taking a phased approach which will be reviewed every year, the National Delivery Plan sets out a roadmap which government, industry, and local communities can use and collaborate on to alleviate the challenges of digital poverty.

The six core missions of the National Delivery Plan are:

Increase awareness across society about the need for sustainable and strategic action to end digital poverty.
Ensure affordable connectivity and guarantee full digital access for those in need on a sustainable basis.
Improve standards of accessibility, safety, and inclusiveness across all digital products and services.
By 2030, significantly reduce the proportion of individuals without essential digital skills and ensure the sustainability and expansion of these skills in response to changing technologies and needs.
Enhance knowledge and understanding of digital poverty among all stakeholders, including citizens, governments, and the public and private sectors, through the development and utilisation of research.
Increase local capacity to provide joined-up digital inclusion support to individuals and communities.

The DPA highlighted the timeliness of the plan’s launch with the upcoming General Election and the importance of raising the profile of digital poverty. The strategy also includes a call to the UK Government to create a new digital inclusion strategy (the previous strategy having been released in 2014).

Other key action points are laid out in the National Delivery Plan including calls for a guarantee of access to free devices and connectivity for those at risk of digital exclusion; more action on access to social tariffs; a suggestion of a jointly funded, industry-wide social tariffs; and a proposal to cut the VAT rate charged on broadband and mobile bills to five percent, thus recognising connectivity as an essential utility.

Paul Finnis, CEO of the Digital Poverty Alliance and the Learning Foundation said: “The National Delivery Plan is a unique and revolutionary strategy to tackle the issue of digital poverty, calling on an urgent and collaborative effort between the Digital Poverty Alliance, government, industry leaders, and community organisations…This flagship strategy set out by the DPA is designed to have a tangible impact on those most impacted by a lack of essential access to the digital world and the alliance is committed to delivering this support alongside our partners and fellow community.”

Paula Coughlan, Chief People, Communications and Sustainability Officer at Currys plc (one of the founding partners of the DPA) said: “At Currys we believe in the power of technology to improve lives. With digitisation continuing to flourish – bringing great advantages to individuals, communities, and businesses – digital inclusion is no longer a ‘nice to have’, it’s an essential, for everyone.”

Strategies for promoting digital inclusion and bridging the digital divide will be a key theme at Connected Britain 2023. Join us for the UK’s most important connectivity event, taking place at the London ExCeL on 20 and 21 September.

Abingdon-based rural broadband ISP Gigaclear appears to be expanding their new gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network to cover another three rural locations in Essex (England) – reflecting an additional 3,800 premises, which forms part of the operator’s £140m investment in the county. The three locations are Tollesbury, Kelvedon and Feering. At present, we already know that […]

Network builder and broadband ISP 4th Utility, which is rolling out a gigabit speed Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) service to UK homes (SDU) and large residential buildings (MDU), has today been given a boost after Dutch bank NIBC Bank N.V. made a £25 million investment to help accelerate their plans. The provider, which has in the recent […]

The UK Government’s Department for Transport (DfT) has hinted that the ability of railway commuters to access free onboard public WiFi while travelling could be cut to help pay for the train service itself, which is said to be unsustainable in its current form. At this point it may be worth highlighting that, back in […]

News

The European Union (EU) said the company’s data transfers to the US violated General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and jeopardised the “fundamental rights and freedoms” of EU citizens

This week, the EU has issued its largest regulatory fine to date, ordering US tech giant Meta to pay €1.2 billion as a result of breaches to GDPR.

The decision was made by Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC), which said that Meta’s transferring of personal data from EU citizens to the US since 2013 had exposed that data to privacy violations by US security services.

The DPC said that Meta’s existing policies towards transferring sensitive EU data to the US “did not address the risks to the fundamental rights and freedoms” of EU citizens.

Meta is heavily reliant on delivering EU data to the US in order to facilitate advertising.

In the past, Meta has said transferring this data to the US for advertising purposes was paramount to its continued operations in the EU, even threatening to shut down Facebook and Instagram services in Europe if forced to cease these data transfers.

The EU responded saying it would not be threatened or blackmailed, saying the company’s withdrawal “would be their loss”.

Now, the EU says that Meta has five months to suspend any future transfer of personal data to the US, and six months to stop “the unlawful processing, including storage, in the US” of EU data.

These orders only apply to Meta’s Facebook service and not to its other offerings, such as Instagram and WhatsApp.

Meta, naturally, says it appeal the DPC’s decision, which it called “unfair” and “unjustified”.

“We are appealing these decisions and will immediately seek a stay with the courts who can pause the implementation deadlines, given the harm that these orders would cause, including to the millions of people who use Facebook every day,” wrote Meta’s president for global affairs, Nick Clegg, and the company’s chief legal officer, Jennifer Newstead in a blog post.

The decision should come as little surprise. The EU has been clamping down on major US tech companies in recent years, with numerous fines being passed down to likes of Google, Amazon, and Meta for breaching GDPR.

In fact, in 2020, the European Court of Justice found the existing legislative framework between the EU and the US – known as the Privacy Shield – to be inadequate for protecting EU data from being accessed by US surveillance services. Since then, the EU and the US government have been working on a replacement data transfer pact, which could come into effect as early as this October.

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Also in the news:
Tusass: Connecting Greenland’s remote communities
Watchdog hits Eir with €2.45m fine for overcharging customers
SENSE: Nokia and Citymesh launch national drone network in Belgium

News

A proposed decree would see Italian telcos receive a tax break until 2025

According to a report seen by Reuters, Italy’s Ministry of Enterprise and Made in Italy (Mimit) is reportedly drafting a new piece of legislation that incorporates measures worth almost €1.5 billion in support for the nation’s telecoms sector.

The decree would see an existing energy-related tax break extended to the telco sector, as well as the introduction of further tax reductions on energy bills for companies deemed to be of national strategic importance, such as network operators.

Combined, these tax relief mechanisms could result in savings of up to €1.2 billion for telcos until 2025.

In addition to these tax breaks, additional measures being considered include €200 million in funding to support operators in transitioning their existing copper networks to full fibre and €145 million to fund early retirement schemes and hire younger replacements.

The relief package is reportedly not yet finalised and would still require approval by the cabinet before being enacted. Some measures could also require the approval of the European Commission.

The Italian telecoms sector has been struggling to perform under the weight of intense competition for many years now, most notably since the introduction of mobile newcomer Iliad Italia in 2018. Offering mobile services at a greatly reduced rate, Iliad’s launch marked the beginning of an aggressive price war in the company’s mobile market that still continues to this day, leaving the telco sector struggling for growth.

Indeed, these slim profit margins have already forced some major changes in the industry in recent years, most notably for the nation’s largest telco Telecom Italia (TIM), which is undergoing a significant strategic shift under new CEO Pietro Labriola. This transformation involes spinning off the company’s infrastructure and service arms into separate business units to encourage external investment.

Investment firm KKR and state-owned lender Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP) are currently embroiled in a bidding war to take control of TIM’s would-be-spun-off infrastruture unit, for now still dubbed NetCo.

Vodafone Italia too continues to struggle, with their most recent Group results earlier this year showing a lacklustre performance in Italy.

Both TIM and Vodafone announced major staff reduction plans in Italy last year as part of wider cost-saving measures.

Want to keep up with all of the latest international telecoms news? Click here to receive Total Telecom’s daily newsletter

Also in the news:
Tusass: Connecting Greenland’s remote communities
Watchdog hits Eir with €2.45m fine for overcharging customers
SENSE: Nokia and Citymesh launch national drone network in Belgium

Interview

Headquartered in Nuuk, Greenland, Tusass is one of the country’s leading telecom service providers. Head of Tusass’ subsea business unit, Steen Hansen, caught up with Total Telecom about the company’s plans for improving Greenland’s international connectivity and explains the importance of keeping the region’s most remote areas connected.

Can you tell us more about the Tusass network and your current subsea cable investments?

Tusass is supplying the same type of telecom services that telecom operators/service providers in Europe are supplying to their customers.

The services are supplied through an access network based on 4G, 5G, fibre and copper to business and residential users. Tusass has decided that 4G and 5G should be the primary access technology for customers in settlements, towns and most cities, while fibre will primarily be used for business access and larger residential areas in the biggest cities.

The access network is supported by a backbone network based on satellite, microwave, and subsea cable. The satellite network is mostly covering the eastern and most northern part of Greenland supplying services to approximately 4,000 inhabitants. The microwave radio relay and the subsea cable is serving the west coast of Greenland from Narsaq Kujalleq in the south to Kullorsuaq in the north supplying services to approximately 52,000 inhabitants.

Along the Greenlandic west coast from PCS in the south to Upernavik in the north, there is a trunk microwave radio relay system of approximately 2,400 km with more than 50 unmanned repeater hill-sites and several connections to cities, towns, and settlements. The overall capacity varies between 1 Gbps and 10 Gbps depending on the area. The unmanned hill sites are powered using solar, wind turbine and standard generators. The settlements are connected to the trunk through a combined microwave radio relay of 1,800 km.

The subsea cable is 5,400km in length and is divided into two systems:

Greenland Connect; with 4,700 km interconnecting Qaqortoq and Nuuk with Iceland and Newfoundland, providing international gateways as well as a domestic connection between Qaqortoq and Nuuk.
Greenland Connect North; a domestic non-repeatered system of approx. 700km interconnecting Nuuk, Maniitsoq, Sisimiut and Aasiaat. The longest fibre path (non-repeatered) in this system is 495km.

Greenland Connect was established in 2007 – 2008 with RFS in Q1 2009. The overall investment was 140 million euros. Greenland Connect North was RFS in December 2017. The overall investment was 35 million euros.

There is a lot of activity and growth in the EMEA subsea cable market, but which regions need more investment? Why is international connectivity so important for these remote locations?

You are right, there is a lot of activity and growth in the EMEA subsea cable market. As I read the market, its seems as the biggest growth (and demand) is from the hyperscalers as well as data centre providers, while the demand from telecom operators either is the same or decreasing. Furthermore the demand is between countries with high populations, significant development, large business sectors as well as those where the major financial markets and assets are located. In these regions, it seems as though funding for subsea and terrestrial digital infrastructure is limitless as these markets have the customers, population, and growth to support the investments to fulfil the ever-growing demand.

However, remote regions are more or less forgotten as they do not hold an equivalent customer base or a commercially viable demand to attract similar investments in digital infrastructure.

The societies, inhabitants, residents and businesses in these remote regions require the same level of digitalisation as the rest of world, and especially as Europe. You could even argue that these remote regions require a higher degree of digitalisation to ensure the social interconnection between the population and government, between people and their families. This is due to a small population being scattered over a large geographical area, where transportation between settlements, towns and cities can be a huge challenge.

There is no doubt that a digital network with high-capacity services will support healthcare, education, business, and development. This is why these remote regions require domestic digital infrastructure. But without the international digital connections, the society will not be able to support the international co-operation, development and business with the rest of the world. Most of these remote areas don’t have the same resources within education, health, etc. as many countries in Europe, therefore these regions depend on co-operation with institutions and resources in Europe.

Damage to subsea cables can have a significant impact on remote communities, how is Tusass looking to mitigate this risk and protect its subsea infrastructure?

Greenland and Tusass have experienced a situation where the society was disconnected from the international world. Fortunately, the disconnection was for less than an hour, but it showed how dependent our society has become on both the domestic and international digital connection.

Tusass is monitoring our submarine cables corridors using AIS and this system is used to monitor the movements of vessels in order to contact them in case it seems that they are preparing to anchor or start fishing.

To mitigate other known risks in the Arctic areas (namely ice and icebergs), the cable corridors have been placed where icebergs aren’t stranding. Drifting ice, drifting sea ice and solid sea ice are not a danger to submarine cables. In the crossing from the sea to land we protect the cable landings by use of HDD (horizontal direct drilling) if there is even the slightest risk from sea ice.

In 2020, Tusass drafted a vision to mitigate the risk of losing domestic and international connectivity. This vision is the Tusass Connect Vision, enhancing the domestic resilience in our network as well as the resilience of our international connections by establishing additional submarine cable systems over time. As part of this vision we have looked into other regions, countries, and remote areas that, like Greenland and Tusass, might require additional international connection to enhance the resilience in their digital networks. It is our hope that we during 2023 can conclude on this interest.

What do the next 18 months look like for Tusass?

Whilst considering the digital submarine network, we are planning to carry out a marine route survey from Qaqortoq in the south to (at least) Ilulissat in mid-Greenland (Disco Bay) over the next 5 to 6 months. After this survey we expect to plan and design the terrestrial infrastructure for Tusass Connect between Qaqortoq and Disco Bay, with the objective of improving resilience in this area by 2026.

In parallel, we will continue to investigate the possibility of co-operation in the EMEA region to realise the vision set out in Tusass Connect Vision, in conjunction with or as a combined system.

We consider the Tusass Connect Vision as critical infrastructure for our society, which in itself isn’t a commercially viable system, but with a co-operation could combine both critical and commercial objectives for the greater good of the society and businesses.

What are you looking forward to about attending Submarine Networks EMEA 2023?

I am looking forward to meeting people and organisations with other submarine cable initiatives in the region and I am looking forward to learning about the developments taking place in this market.

Steen Hansen will be presenting Tusass Connect on 1st June at Submarine Networks EMEA 2023 (held on 31st May and 1st June at the Business Design Centre in London). To join Steen and 800+ attendees from the EMEA subsea cable market, head to the event website and book your ticket to the region’s leading subsea event.

Independent rural UK broadband ISP GoFibre (BorderLink) has today named 32 new locations across Scotland and the North of England – reflecting a total of 82,000 premises (homes and businesses) – that will benefit from the next phase of their work to deploy a new 10Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network. The alternative network, which last […]

Broadband ISP Virgin Media (VMO2) appears to have unofficially begun the full national rollout of 100Mbps+ (110Mbps max profile rate) upload speeds on their top “Gig1 Fibre Broadband” package (avg. 1130Mbps download), which was previously limited to an upstream rate of 52Mbps. Regular readers will recall that we first spotted a smaller batch of 1Gbps […]