BT has re-entered negotiations with the Communications Workers Union (CWU) to hopefully settle the ongoing pay dispute with up to 38,000 employees, which has so far resulted in 8 days worth of national UK strikes. The move comes only a day after the operator’s CEO, Philip Jansen, described the matter as “closed” and seemed to […]

NEWS

BT blames 18% fall in profits on need for additional savings after large increase in energy bills and soaring inflation

BT has warned of further job cuts after it was forced to find an additional £500m in additional savings due to rapidly rising inflation and energy bills. The telecoms giant, which has reported an 18% slump on pre-tax profits from £1bn to £831m year-on-year in the six months to the end of September, has stated that its energy bill will be £200m higher this year. The company’s last official plan for job cuts under previous CEO Gavin Patterson, saw 13,000 jobs cut over three years from 2018.

As a result, BT has said that it has been forced to raise its cost-savings target from £2.5bn to £3bn by the end of its financial year in 2025, in response to inflation hitting a 40-year high and the surge in energy costs.

As reported in The Guardian, “We are leaving no stone unturned to make sure BT can be the most-efficient organisation it can be,” said Philip Jansen, the chief executive at BT.

“Inevitably it means some jobs will not exist in the future but that has been true of the last few years too. We will use natural attrition as much as we can. In these difficult conditions we know we have to double down on our costs. There are no specific numbers in mind. This [cost-cutting programme] is up until the end of 2025. Everyone has to share the pain – all 100,000 people at BT – to get to this £3bn on cost savings.”

Jansen also reiterated plans to push-through higher than inflation price rises, which could see bills rise by 14% for customers, a move which has seen BT and other operators criticised, as Ofcom has indicated that nearly 8 million households have experienced difficulty paying their bills, having told operators to “think hard” about making further price hikes in the current climate.

BT indicated that the slump was due to higher costs across its business as well as costs incurred in the £15bn rollout of next-gen full-fibre broadband across the UK. BT, which has been hit by ongoing strike action by tens of thousands of its near 60,000 frontline workforce, said that the industrial action had affected the rollout of broadband to new customers, with 40,000 homes missing out on new connections due to the strike action.

Openreach, BT’s broadband network subsidiary, has also stated that its customer base fell by 89,000 in the company’s second quarter compared with a 29,000 increase in the same period last year.

With strike action set to continue, and energy prices likely to remain high, BT’s difficult year looks set to continue into the next.

Related content:
The sky’s the limit for BT
TIM looking to cut 2,200 more jobs by 2024

The post BT warns of further job losses as soaring bills force bigger cost-cutting drive first appeared on Total Telecom.

NEWS

A new wholesale operator is being formed with the objective of deploying local fibre-optic networks in underserved areas across Germany, with ISP’s novanetz and YplaY responsible for marketing the fibre-optic network to customers.

The initial aim is to give access to full fibre to at least 150,000 homes in Hessen and North Rhine-Westphalia.

Open German Fiber is a join venture between MEAG – the asset manager of insurers Munich Re and ERGO – pension fund Arzteversorgung Westfalen-Lippe (AVWL) and investment firm Primevest Capital Partners.

This is the first investment for MEAG’s new infrastructure equity fund MEAG European Infrastructure One. The head of infrastructure equity at MEAG, Dominik Damaschke, said “We see a huge market potential for the FTTH market in Germany. Despite its position as Europe’s largest economy, Germany significantly lags behind in FTTH coverage.

Markus Altenhoff, CIO at ÄVWL said they were “proud to be able to support the nationwide expansion of the fibre-optics network in Germany.”

The most recent data from the FTTH Council Europe, their Fiber to the Home / Building (FTTH/B) Global Ranking published in May 2022, shows that seven European countries have passed the 50% penetration rate mark (Iceland, Spain, Sweden, Portugal, Norway, Romania, Latvia). Germany lags far behind with 6.3% penetration – marginally above the UK on 5.9% (although the UK has more FTTH subscribers).

To keep up with the latest on Germany’s broadband progress join Total Telecom in Mainz on the 6 – 7 December 2022 for Connected Germany

The post New JV Open German Fiber seeks to boost FTTH coverage first appeared on Total Telecom.

Broadband ISP and network builder Grain (Grain Connect) has today added four new locations to their ongoing UK rollout of a gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network, which will see them expand across parts of Whitley Bay and Thornaby in the North East, Blackpool in the North West and Tonypandy in Wales. The provider, which is being […]

The South Western Railway and telecoms firm Evo-rail (FirstGroup) recently announced the people travelling on a 70km long stretch of their Main Line into London – between Basingstoke and Earlsfield – would be the first to benefit from the rollout of new rail-side 5G poles (masts) that will be used to deliver “superfast” onboard WiFi. […]

The latest H1 2022 report into the broadband coverage of new build UK homes reveals that 99.03% of houses constructed during the first half of 2022 were connected to a gigabit-capable network (using full fibre FTTP and Hybrid Fibre Coax), which falls slightly to 98.03% when only looking at FTTP. The data, which flows from […]

Broadband and Cloud Gaming ISP ZYBRE, which offers services to UK homes over a number of Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) networks (Openreach, MS3, FullFibre etc.), has this morning announced the acquisition of rival provider Air Broadband that adopts a similar approach to network aggregation. Air Broadband is one of several in the market, like ZYBRE, that has […]

Scottish ISP Lothian Broadband, which is building a gigabit-capable full fibre (FTTP) network to cover 70,000 premises across rural parts of the Highlands and East to Mid Lothian, has become the latest provider to introduce a Netgem powered Pay TV service and they’ve also launched a VoIP based home phone solution from Netsapiens. Netgem has […]

INTERVIEW

At #ConnectedBritain 2022, Vitruvi Software, an industry leader for end-to-end Build Management Software announced their newest game changing Roll-Out Feature for UK Altnets: A55 Management.

Vitruvi’s award winning build management solution is empowering Altnets to rollout fibre at record speeds – enabling them to build smarter & faster. With GIS at the core, altnets can manage a variety of OpenReach PIA and design data, while maintaining full project controls for production costs and schedules. This enables streamlined Openreach reporting from A55s, NOIs, to SPO Evidence, and Whereabouts. Reducing overhead, expediting survey, and getting fibre in the ground faster. Teams are able to make real-time, data-driven decisions, cut inefficiencies – ensuring fast and efficient project rollout across all of the UK. 

Vitruvi was a finalist for Enterprise Solution of the Year Award at #ConnectedBritain 2022. We spoke to Bryan McIver, CEO of Vitruvi Software to find out how they are helping Altnets to deploy smarter.  

 

About Vitruvi™ Software

Vitruvi is an innovative construction management software that allows you to efficiently manage every aspect of your telecommunications or utility infrastructure construction project. It’s a single, end-to-end, GIS-based platform that connects everyone, seamlessly, for unmatched project control and collaboration. Vitruvi’s best-in-class functionality spans the entire project build: from scoping & planning through to reporting & close-out. Build smarter & deploy faster with Vitruvi™. To learn more, visit www.vitruvisoftware.com.

 

The post Vitruvi Software announces game changing roll-out feature for UK altnets: A55 Management first appeared on Total Telecom.

VIEWPOINT

By Jürgen Hatheier, Chief Technology Officer for EMEA and APAC at Ciena

Since the mainstream introduction of the metaverse as a concept, people have been ideating on what its uses could be. So far, entertainment has won out as the most explored virtual sector with a number of use cases springing to life. The Foo Fighters, David Guetta, Justin Bieber and more have all held concerts in the metaverse, some of which have been attended by nearly 28 million people. According to Ciena’s findings, E-sports, shopping, gaming, education and even tourism are all activities that people would consider doing in an immersive virtual world.

But, the metaverse is likely coming to the office, as well.

In fact, Ciena recently commissioned a study to better understand business professionals’ sentiments about the metaverse in the workplace. How might people use it? What concerns do they have? And, what might hold businesses back from using the metaverse at the office? The results were certainly telling. Of the 15,000 business professionals surveyed across the globe, more than three-quarters (78%) say they would participate in more immersive experiences like the metaverse versus current tools such as video conferencing.

 

Working in the metaverse

Businesses have already begun considering the benefits of virtual reality technology. In fact, Accenture has already invested heavily in a virtual space it calls ‘The Nth Floor’ for employees to onboard, learn new skills and socialise remotely.

But, just how ready are business professionals to collaborate in the virtual world? According to Ciena’s research, in the last three years, uptake in virtual collaboration has skyrocketed so, it’s perhaps not a surprise that 96% of survey respondents across the globe see the value of virtual meetings. Respondents agreed the top two benefits are improved collaboration (41%) and convenience (44%). Globally, 71% of professionals can see the metaverse becoming part of existing work practices, and 40% think their business will move away from traditional static collaboration environments to more immersive and virtual reality-based environments in the next two years.

The findings have also given some hints about what business professionals expect to get up to while working in the metaverse, with 87% confirming that they would feel comfortable conducting sensitive meetings, such as those with HR, in a virtual space.  People are thinking about how they might represent themselves: 35% of business professionals reported that they would choose an avatar that reflects their real-world self, while 22% would choose to show a more idealistic version of themselves. Interestingly, only 17% would pick a pop culture figure or something non-human.

 

The network is critical

It’s clear that there is an appetite for immersive virtual collaboration – so what might hold us back? Over a third of all surveyed (35%) reported that the technology’s currently limited availability is a drawback. But unreliable network performance was cited as the top concern (38%) holding organisations back.

The metaverse will bring with it an eruption in network demand, driven by users wanting the ability to access the cloud and consume high-definition immersive content, video and applications more frequently and for longer periods of time. However, many of today’s networks are full of overbuilt legacy systems and protocols, leaving them unable to rapidly scale or adapt. They were not designed to adjust to these growing and unpredictable demands. As our working habits become more reliant on the network, service providers have run into challenges when trying to adapt.

The metaverse is coming, and Ciena’s research has shown that business professionals are ready to embrace it.  The move to the metaverse creates an unprecedented opportunity for our industry. Realizing this opportunity requires correlating network Quality of Service (QoS) metrics with metaverse user QoE metrics. Supporting such immersive applications at scale demand highly capable E2E network that deliver significant improvements in latency, symmetrical bandwidth and speed. Ciena’s research has shown that business professionals are ready to embrace such capabilities and to prepare their networks for the future, many providers are utilising innovative solution across the hardware and software stacks that offers scalable & low-latency network powered by including intelligent automation guided by streaming telemetry, data-driven analytics and intent-based policies. By doing so, they’re ensuring that their networks can rapidly scale, self-configure, and self-optimise by constantly assessing network pressures and demands.

 

 

 

 

 

The post The metaverse – the next frontier for virtual work first appeared on Total Telecom.