Consumer magazine Which? has published a partial summary of the results from their latest biannual 2023 survey of the best and worst broadband ISPs, which once again named Zen Internet as the best overall provider (customer satisfaction score of 81%), while TalkTalk were found to be the worst of the major players. The survey itself […]

Network builder and UK broadband ISP Quickline, which currently plans to roll out their gigabit-capable full fibre (FTTP) network to 96 rural locations (55,000 premises) across Yorkshire and Lincolnshire in England, has announced that their new in-house Build Team has just connected its first community – Dragonby. The tiny North Lincolnshire hamlet of Dragonby is […]

Budget UK broadband ISP Plusnet, which has often been positioned as BT’s low-cost division, have this morning confirmed to ISPreview.co.uk that they will today stop selling their own-brand of EE powered Pay Monthly SIM-Only Mobile plans to new customers. The move appears to form part of the BT Group’s wider branding strategy and their work […]

Infracapital-backed ISP Ogi, which is investing £200m to build a 10Gbps capable full fibre (FTTP) network across 150,000 premises in mostly rural parts of Wales by 2025, has today announced that their rollout is – for the first time – being extended into a city centre, specifically Cardiff. But the focus seems to be on […]

Press Release

At a meeting held today, the Board of Directors of Cellnex Telecom has agreed to appoint Anne Bouverot as non-executive Chair of the company succeeding Bertrand Kan, who is stepping down as Chair of the Board after two years, while maintaining his status as an independent director.

Anne Bouverot has been an independent director of Cellnex since May 2018 and is a member of the Audit and Risk Management Committee (ARMC).

Anne Bouverot built her career at the forefront of technology and innovation, in France and globally. After having held various operational and strategic positions during 19 years at Orange, in the USA, UK and France, she became Director General of the GSMA, the global association for mobile industry, notably in charge of organizing the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the sector’s flagship annual event. She then was CEO of Morpho, a leading provider of security and identity services.

She has extensive corporate governance experience, having been an independent director of listed as well as private technology companies for more than 10 years, from innovative scale ups to large corporates. She is currently Chairperson of Technicolor, a leading global provider of visual effects and animation services for the global entertainment and media industry.

She is also strongly committed to the academic sector, as chair of the Board of Ecole Normale Supérieure, France’s leading “grande école” in Science and Humanities, and as co-founder of Fondation Abeona, championing responsible artificial intelligence and dedicated to studying its societal impacts.

She is a graduate of Ecole Normale Supérieure in mathematics and holds both an engineering degree in telecommunications and a PhD in artificial intelligence.

“Since its IPO in 2015, Cellnex has grown to become Europe’s leading independent operator of telecommunications infrastructures – said Anne Bouverot.  As announced last November, the company is at the beginning of a new chapter, focussed on organic growth and strengthening of its balance sheet. The Board of Directors is fully supportive of this strategy and agrees that finding the right successor for Tobias Martinez, who has announced he is stepping down as CEO in June, is a key priority. On behalf of the whole Board, I want to thank Bertrand Kan for his work and dedication leading the Board for the past two years. I look forward to working with all my colleagues on the Board as I assume this new responsibility as Chairperson”.

Also in the news:
Fibre overtakes cable in the Netherlands
Ericsson IoT Accelerator to manage the connectivity for Lyft e-bikes and scooters
Spring Equinox? It seems Ofcom aren’t certain of the balance

Press Release

BT Group’s Digital Unit and Amazon Web Services (AWS) today announce a new, wide-ranging strategic collaboration agreement, building on the existing partnership between the companies that already sees AWS play a key role in supporting the Group’s modernisation.

The new partnership covers a few core areas:

·       An agreement to collaborate on new Internet of Things (IoT) industry solutions that help UK and global customers take advantage of the efficiency and innovation benefits next generation connectivity offers

·       BT becomes a Channel Partner for AWS Marketplace, providing a single source for managed solutions to its customers

·       New 5G edge computing services for BT’s UK business customers powered by AWS Wavelength

Collectively, the collaboration agreement targets a $500m revenue opportunity for BT across the spectrum of connectivity and digital solutions and services, in the UK and worldwide, over the next five years.

Connected industry

BT Group’s IoT platform is already built on AWS, delivering connected device capabilities across healthcare, smart places, ports, manufacturing and transport and logistics, including work at Belfast Harbour and the Association of British Ports in Ipswich.  As part of this agreement, the two companies will work together to advance BT’s  existing IoT services and create new ones that combine AWS services with BT’s leading network and service delivery expertise to solve problems for customers across a variety of vertical industries. The new solutions and services that will be explored through the partnership are focussed on delivering value and opportunity for BT’s customers in the UK and globally as they tackle a wide range of challenges.

Reseller partnership

BT becoming an AWS Marketplace Channel Partner allows the company to offer additional enhanced managed security and third party Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions to its customers globally. BT has already started offering customers the opportunity to buy software elements of managed service agreements through the AWS Marketplace. This allows BT customers to benefit from improved simplicity when purchasing via AWS Marketplace, allowing them to retire their annual spend commitments and make use of available AWS programme incentives, while retaining the value of working with BT as a managed service partner to deliver the solution end-to-end.

“AWS and BT Group have shared ambitions at the intersection of cloud and connectivity, and we’re delighted that we have this partnership to frame how we will work together to accelerate these outcomes, for our customers and for the Group,” explains Thomas Duecke, Chief Operating Officer, Digital, at BT Group.

“Moving from a connectivity provider to a digital services provider is a strategic shift to help communication service providers unlock growth,” said Adolfo Hernandez, Vice President and General Manager, Telecom Global Industry Business Unit, AWS. “This new agreement with AWS helps BT accelerate that journey and deliver greater value to its customers.”

For more information on AWS & BT’s partnership for 5G edge computing services, see here. More information on the companies’ collaboration on cloud networking will be released later in the year.

Also in the news:
Fibre overtakes cable in the Netherlands
Ericsson IoT Accelerator to manage the connectivity for Lyft e-bikes and scooters
Spring Equinox? It seems Ofcom aren’t certain of the balance

The UK telecoms regulator, Ofcom, has today begun fielding industry views on how it could improve Shared Spectrum Licences, which enable small businesses to create their own local wireless broadband and mobile networks across various radio spectrum bands (many of these could previously only be used by national operators). The existing Shared Access Licence (SAL) […]

NEWS

Workers at state-run fixed network provider Ogero began an ‘open ended strike’ on Friday in protest against pay freezes reflecting the sharp depreciation of the nation’s currency

Speaking to The National newspaper, Ogero chairman Imad Kreidieh said, ‘We are heading to a catastrophe if a deal is not found with the government: the network will completely stop working as our generators will gradually run out of fuel.’ Kreidieh warned that ‘Lebanon completely relies on Ogero for its bandwidth, leaving no one exempt from a blackout,’ noting that both state MNOs Alfa and Touch would be effected.

Kreidieh also called on parliament to address workers demands, as it convened yesterday stating “The issue of public servants’ salary is supposed to be on the table. We will see what comes from the session: maybe politicians need a sudden blackout to realise how important the telecom sector is.”

The National’s report highlighted how the country’s currency crisis has slashed Ogero’s budget to USD4 million – barely enough to cover expenses for fuel required to operate internet relay stations leading to drastic salary cuts. Lebanon’s currency hit a record low last week, with LBP100,000 now only worth USD1 as opposed to USD67 before the onset of the economic crisis in 2019. The report also quoted an Ogero union member as “our salary is worth nothing because of the currency collapse, our demands are the same as other public sector employees: we want our salaries to be tied to the dollar.”

The country’s rampant inflation rate, currently at 180%, has far outstripped any financial aid afforded to public servants or pay increments on salaries. In a statement last week, Ogero employees invited contractors and non-salaried workers to join them in downing tools “given the continuous disregard for our demands to amend salaries”, which they claimed “are now equivalent to 1%” of their former value.

 

Residential customers on UK ISP Virgin Media’s top “Gig1 Fibre Broadband” package (avg. 1130Mbps down and 52Mbps up) could soon receive an upload boost to 100Mbps+ (110Mbps max profile rate), which comes after we spotted a rise in the number of users receiving a related profile boost over the past few weeks. The provider, which […]

One of the UK’s newest alternative broadband network providers, Spring Fibre, has quietly updated their website to name the first 3 locations – all in Lincolnshire – for their plan to build a new 10Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) ISP network to cover 1 million premises in England. Just to recap. Spring Fibre, which was initially […]