techUK, an industry group for many of the UK’s key technology companies, has today published the outcome of their review into the progress that the Government have been making on rolling out both ultrafast 5G based mobile broadband and full fibre networks across the country. Needless to say, a few areas need improvement. The new […]

Infracapital-backed broadband ISP and network builder Ogi, which is investing £200m on their project to deploy a new Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network across 150,000 premises in Wales by 2025, has started giving out small cash injections to help community groups across Pembrokeshire, Monmouthshire and the Vale of Glamorgan. The provider has already connected premises across a […]

Scotland-based business ISP Commsworld has entered into a new partnership with UK network operator Netomnia (ISP YouFibre), which aims to provide full fibre broadband connectivity to around 90,000 homes across North Lanarkshire over the next few years. The move seems intended to complement Commsworld’s existing agreement with the North Lanarkshire Council in Scotland, which in […]

Alternative network provider Netomnia – supported by UK broadband ISP YouFibre – has today announced the start of their full fibre rollout across five new locations including Tunbridge Wells (Kent), Burntwood (Staffordshire), Morriston and Neath (South Wales), and Livingston (West Lothian, Scotland). The operator, which has already covered 265,000 premises with their Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network […]

Interview

Ahead of Total Telecom Congress 2022, we spoke to Matt Hatton – Founding Partner at Transforma Insights to hear his take on the changing enterprise connectivity market.

From your perspective, how do telcos need to evolve to remain competitive in the modern connectivity ecosystem?

The key thing for telcos is knowing where they have the right to play themselves, where they need to harness third parties, and which bits of the market they should leave well alone. At Transforma Insights we focus a lot on the IoT market, and particularly the role of the telco in it. In IoT there’s a lot of price pressure (as there is everywhere!) to the point where we talk about $1 IoT, the idea that pretty soon there will be a big chunk of the cellular IoT market generating just $1 per year. How do telcos cope with that. Some would recommend a universal panacea of ‘moving up the stack’ and selling end-to-end solutions. After all, the actual applications accounts for 70-80% of the revenue in IoT, versus 5-10% (and shrinking) being connectivity. An obvious solution, and completely wrong. That bit of the market is fiercely contested with incumbent players with mature products, decades of experience and established channels to market. There are opportunities there, but only where the telco has carved out a ‘right to play’, which will apply in some cases, but certainly not all. Regarding harnessing third parties, we’ve recently completed some research on how telcos should work with the hyperscale cloud providers, rather than necessarily fearing them. The key is to put significant value-added wrappers around the core commoditised cloud computing functionality.

You’ll be chairing the Enabling Enterprise Track at Total Telecom Congress. There’s a lot of talk about the importance of private 5G for enterprise connectivity – how important will private 5G be?

We need to be a little careful not to get too carried away. It’s certainly the hottest part of enterprise 5G at the moment. But in our recent report on MPN, published just in October, we found that 80%+ of private networks are still 4G. We’re yet to see the use cases that will really use that extra functionality (and it’s good, particularly for reliability and low latency). It’s new, and it was always going to take time. The bottom line with MPN is that the functionality is great, but the networks and devices are typically an order of magnitude more expensive than alternatives, meaning that you’ve have to really value the additional security, coverage, reliability and so on. We’re expecting 22,000 MPNs deployed by 2030 so not insignificant.

Which other technologies are changing the game?

Edge computing, of all types from edge device to MEC, is clearly critical. The combination of that with AI means for a lot more automation of just about everything, particularly relevant to the IoT space which is our bread and butter. Throw in 5G and you have a combination of factors that will have a significant impact on how solutions are architected. There’s more intelligence and it needs to reside closer to the application. All of that combined is a bit of a game-changer.

What are you looking forward to at Total Telecom Congress next month?

I want to hear about how the roles in the ecosystem are changing. We have a hypothesis that with the evolution of cloud/edge, increased focus from telcos on IT services, the further separation of control layers from network infrastructure, virtualisation, open networks and a few other macro trends, that the old roles of organisations will change and that we need a new taxonomy for the organisations in the space. I’m looking for input on that.

Total Telecom Congress will be held on 1st and 2nd November at London’s Business Design Centre. The event will bring together over 1000 senior leaders from the global telecoms industry to discuss the key strategic priorities for telcos around the world. To join us in London next month, head to the event website to book your ticket.

The post Understanding the telco’s role in the IoT market first appeared on Total Telecom.

Broadband ISP and network builder Lit Fibre, which is building a new gigabit-speed Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network to cover 500,000 homes by 2026, has today announced that they’ve appointed Openreach’s former CEO, Steve Robertson, as a Non-Executive Director. The provider, which only began their rollout last year and is being backed by an equity investment from […]

UK ISP Virgin Media (VMO2) has today announced that they’ve reduced the monthly price of their “Essential Broadband” plan from £15 to £12.50, which offers speeds of just 15Mbps (2Mbps upload), unlimited data usage and a 30-day rolling contract to those receiving Universal Credit. But they’ve also added a new 50Mbps option. The move came […]

The latest biannual data from Point Topic has revealed how the top and bottom ten UK local authorities have changed, at least with respect to their coverage of Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) based broadband ISP networks. As before, Hull remains at the top of the table (99.3%), but the Isles of Scilly (1.5%) are now at the […]

London focused UK ISP CommunityFibre, which has so far covered 675,000 premises in the city and South East with their Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network, has this afternoon announced that they’ve signed a new finance facility of £985m that will enable the company to execute the next phase of their rollout. At present the operator, which […]

Marcello Del Brenna, CEO Prysmian UK, shares his thoughts on the increasingly crowded space available for the UK’s energy transition and the deployment of broadband networks

The post An interview with Marcello Del Brenna, CEO UK, Prysmian Group first appeared on Total Telecom.