At present, it can sometimes be difficult to keep track of where Cityfibre are actively building their new gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network and which of those deployments have gone allow (i.e. allowing you to order a live service from an ISP). The following list may help to answer this. Just to recap. The operator […]

A report from the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) – ‘The Growth Belt: Supporting Rural Small Businesses’ – has today highlighted the way rural businesses are struggling against a backdrop of mounting energy costs, poor transport links, and “unreliable broadband“. Focusing upon the internet connectivity aspect. The new report found that 32% of rural firms […]

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Nine of the ten poorest scoring councils were located in the North of the UK, while all 10 of the highest scoring were situated in affluent parts of the South

This week, the UK government announced its new Wireless Infrastructure Strategy, promoting the use of the latest technology to turn the UK into a “digital superpower”. But, looming in the background of all this talk of 5G innovation and 6G progression, is the stark reality that connectivity is far from a given for many in the UK. The digital divide is very real and, according to new analysis from Uswitch.com, appears to largely mirror the North–South economic divide.

Using a composite ‘digital divide’ score derived from broadband speed and accessibility data combined with home working statistics, Uswitch’s latest analysis explores the digital divide as it relates to UK councils.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the best performing councils – with the lowest digital divide score – are largely from the South of the UK, with Rugby council the only (arguably) Northern local authority to make it into the top 10.

Table 1: The ten councils with the smallest digital divide (smallest to greatest)

Data from Uswitch.com

By contrast, the ten highest scoring ‘digital divide’ councils are primarily from the North, Scotland, and Wales. Indeed, of the 25 most digitally divided regions recorded, 12 were in Scotland and Wales.

The city of Edinburgh (15.6%) and the Vale of Glamorgan (17.3%) were the only councils from Scotland and Wales, respectively, to make it into the top 25 least digitally divided regions.

The ten councils with the greatest digital divide (greatest to smallest)

Data from Uswitch.com

The severity of the digital divide for some of these councils should not be underestimated. For the poorest performing council, Argyll and Bute, only 5.8% of premises have access to full fibre, the median download speed is 26.7Mbps, and less than a fifth (18%) of people work from home.

“Our digital divide report shows that regions with a poorer internet connection have less access to digital technology overall, with lower work from home rates and less reliable connections to the internet. Meanwhile, British councils with the smallest digital divide have higher percentages of their workforce able to work remotely,” said Uswitch.com fibre broadband expert Max Beckett.

“With the UK government recently committing £3.5 billion towards their ambition of becoming a scientific and technological superpower, including ‘levelling up’ more areas of the UK to foster better paid jobs and opportunities in these sectors, it is important to ensure people of all backgrounds will benefit from this investment in digital tech.

That the digital divide should closely correlate to the economic disparities in the UK should come as no surprise to anyone. Nonetheless, this analysis serves as a timely reminder that, even as major progress continues to be made in 5G and fibre, there are many parts of the country that are still woefully lacking quality connectivity.

Is the government doing enough to tackle the digital divide in the North of the UK? Join the connectivity industry in discussion live in Manchester next week at Connected North

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The latest independent data from Thinkbroadband has revealed that 50% of homes across the United Kingdom (c. 15.365 million) now have access to a gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network, which transmits data over optical fibre cables using laser light. This splits down to 49.22% in England, 46.53% in Scotland, 46.09% in Wales and 90.50% in Northern […]

VIEWPOINT

A growing number of telcos have started to move towards 5.5G to further improve the customer experience and provide new and innovative use cases to increase their revenue. e& in the Middle East region is at the forefront of adopting new-age 5.5G technology to provide a superior user experience to their subscribers.

“We believe that next generation 5.5G technology will deliver an ultra-experience, larger bandwidth, higher spectrum efficiency and higher-order modulation. Speeds reaching up to 10 gigabits per second with unmatchable experience. Etisalat is always deeply engaged in the state-of-the-art proof of concept and trials around the 6GHz and around the millimeter wave (mmWave) that will help in spectrum harmonization, resulting in more bandwidth and improving the network experience,” said Khalid Murshed, Chief Technology and Information Officer at Etisalat by e&. He was speaking at the recently concluded Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2023.

As the number of consumers join the 5G network and enterprises start to use the technology for improving productivity and efficiency, the 5G networks will not be able to meet the demand. On the other hand, the next generation 6G technology is likely to be commercially deployed only in 2030. The 5.5G will help the telcos address this gap and will enable them to provide exceptional user experience and introduce innovative new use cases.

“In the next few years, the demand from the consumer and enterprise is going to be tripled if not tenfold of the current demand that we are having today. It is forecasted that the future digital and connected world will increase the demand up to tenfold. And 5.5G will address the future network requirements. And before time the networks should be ready for this unprecedented flux of requirements,” explains Khalid Murshed.

5G is already helping Etisalat in providing improved user experience. “Etisalat is very proud of adopting the state-of-the-art technology. We are also very proud of bringing relevant technologies to our consumers and our enterprises. Etisalat runs the highest penetration for fiber to the home globally, and according to the recent benchmarking results, we are also on the top of the world globally when it comes to speed of the 5G network. So, our technology direction always encircles around best user experience for end users, to make the network and infrastructure ready for premium in class services,” says Khalid Murshed.

The company is using cutting-edge technologies in both mobile and fixed networks to provide a truly differentiated experience. It is leveraging Massive MIMO, Wi-Fi 6 and 50 GPON, among others to ensure best-in-class user experience.

“We have also invested in our backhauling because we cannot ignore the importance and the relevance of the backhauling to adopt the state-of-the-art technologies and provide unprecedented speeds to our consumers,” says Khalid Murshed.

Driving sustainability

The communications service providers are under immense pressure to adopt sustainable business practices to bring down carbon emissions and become net zero. Changing regulatory norms coupled with the growing awareness of the end consumers is putting a lot of pressure on the telcos to realign their processes to bring down carbon emissions.

In this regard, Etisalat by e& has adopted several steps to improve sustainability. “Our commitment is to achieve this target by network evolution and network transformation, adopting state-of-the-art products and solutions that are more environmentally friendly, with low carbon emissions and more efficient water and waste management,” says Khalid Murshed.

“Our Environmental Management System is in place to encourage internal collaboration to create initiatives that promote environmental protection. And in 2021, we were re-certified for ISO 14001, the Environmental Management System, which is in place to encourage those initiatives taking place in practical terms,” he added.

Focus on key strategic areas

Etisalat is now focusing on key strategic areas, including driving digital future, accelerating value generation through innovation and digitization, improving its capabilities and developing talents for the future. Khalid Murshed elaborated that the company would be growing its presence in business-to-business segment in a digital way across their footprint. Further, e& would be expanding the portfolio in the MENA region and around the world.

“We will continue to transform to reach the level of excellence that we are aspiring for our customer and for our enterprise market,” says Khalid Murshed.

Slovenia-based ICT provider Iskratel, which only last year opened a new branch in the United Kingdom to supply ISPs (e.g. Zzoomm) deploying Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband networks with various types of optical fibre kit, today claims to have unveiled the “world’s fastest” Passive Optical Network (PON) Optical Line Terminals (OLT). Premises covered by a full fibre […]

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As rural hard-to-reach communities go, Teesdale pretty much typifies the type of area that the UK government’s Project Gigabit scheme is intended to serve.

So a week ahead of the Connected North event in Manchester, it is good to see that Borderlink, trading as GoFibre, have started connecting 4,000 hard-to-reach homes and businesses in a project that will run until 2025, encompassing Middleton-in-Teesdale, Barnard Castle, Gainford, West Auckland and neighbouring communities.

The £6.6 million contract was awarded to GoFibre last Autumn, who have spent the last six months planning and surveying for the build alongside the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) and Durham County Council.

Neil Conaghan, Chief Executive Officer at GoFibre, said: “For years, rural towns across northern England, including Teesdale, have faced a persistent digital connectivity problem, which has left local communities frustrated and very much behind in terms of infrastructure upgrades.”

Digital Infrastructure Minister Julia Lopez commented that “Teesdale was one of the first contracts awarded as part of Project Gigabit, our £5 billion plan to connect hard-to-reach areas and deliver on the Prime Minister’s priority to grow the economy. Now spades are in the ground, thousands in the region are a big step closer to feeling the benefits of lightning-fast broadband.”

Cllr Susan McDonnell, Durham County Council’s Cabinet member for digital, customer added “Not only will it allow for the creation of more opportunities for employment and education, particularly around studying or working from home, it will also help our communities to connect with each other and develop further social opportunities.”

Teesdale lies approximately 120 miles north of Manchester, an easy hop down the M61 if you want to attend Connected North on the 17-18 April. BOOK YOUR PLACE HERE

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The newly announced UK Wireless Infrastructure Strategy from Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) includes a pot of up to £148 million to help “boost the UK’s digital connectivity’

This week, the UK government has announced a new policy framework, the Wireless Infrastructure Strategy, aiming to buttress the wireless landscape as 5G technology matures and advances towards 6G. The new outline includes a number of new ‘ambitions’ for the UK telecoms industry and has allocated up to £148 million towards reaching some of these goals.

DSIT’s first priority is expanding 5G standalone (SA) coverage to all populated areas in the UK by 2030, which it says will “supercharge” the UK economy by enabling various latent technologies like driverless cars, drones, and robotics.

In short, 5G SA means coupling both 5G-enabled radio equipment with 5G core network technology, enabling much higher throughput and lower latency than non-standalone (NSA) 5G, which uses 5G radio kit alongside 4G core technology.

According to government figures, 77% of the population currently has access to 5G NSA coverage from at least one mobile operator, with Virgin Media O2, EE, and Vodafone having all announced 5G SA trials in recent months, in preparation for the arduous task of a nationwide network upgrade to 5G SA.

Alongside this 5G SA goal, DSIT has also pledged $40 million to establish 5G Innovation Regions across the UK. These Innovation Regions will set up taskforces to help encourage 5G uptake at a local level, the flagship project of which will be to equip all new UK hospitals with “5G or equivalent” wireless infrastructure.

The majority of the funds being announced, however, will not go towards 5G connectivity at all, but rather directed towards 6G research, aiming to make the UK a “science superpower” of the future.

“Our 6G strategy outlines how we will draw on our expertise and experience and provide an initial investment of up to £100 million to pioneer future telecoms and 6G research and shape the global debate on the standards which underpin it, protecting our position in an increasingly competitive global economy, securing the UK’s international competitiveness and ensuring that our wireless future works for British people and businesses in every corner of the country,” explained Michelle Donelan, Secretary of State for Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.

The remaining £8 million in funding is being reserved to help connect up to 35,000 of the most hard-to-reach locations to satellite broadband. At least some of this funding will likely go to UK based low Earth orbit satellite operator OneWeb, who today announced the government had selected them to begin trials to connect very remote communities.

Underpinning these projects will be a renewed commitment to better coverage reporting, particularly for areas that are currently poorly reported upon, such as rural areas, indoor locations, and on railways.

“This package of measures turbocharges our progress towards becoming a science and tech superpower with a substantial initial investment in the future of telecoms. We want to ensure that 6G is developed to meet the needs of people and businesses right across the UK and bolster our international competitiveness throughout the economy,” concluded Donelan.

Ultimately, the government says that its main priority with its new Wireless Infrastructure Strategy is to create an ecosystem where the technology can flourish, building a “pro-investment framework” from which mobile network operators can expand with confidence.

As a final note, it is notable here that DSIT also took the opportunity to reiterate a point it first made in the 2018 Future Telecoms Infrastructure Review, saying there is no ‘magic number’ of mobile network operators in the market. Could this be a nod towards the ongoing merger discussions between Vodafone and Three UK, hinting at a supportive government attitude towards industry consolidation?

Only time will tell.

Join the UK’s leading telecoms voices in discussion at the upcoming Connected North conference live in Manchester next week

Also in the news:
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US wireless operators move to allay 5G aviation fears

We’ve lost count now of how many times ISPreview has had to say this over the years, but there are still far too many broadband ISPs in the UK – particularly larger players – that fail to clearly inform their customers of how much their package will cost post-contract. As a result, consumers often feel […]

Rural broadband ISP GoFibre (BorderLink) has announced that they’ve entered the building phase of their Government state-aid supported £6.6 million Project Gigabit contract, which was awarded in September 2022 (here), to upgrade more than 4,000 hard-to-reach Teesdale premises in Northern England with 10Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) technology (Lot 4.01). The new project aims to cover […]