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News

The Hong Kong conglomerate CK Hutchison and the French telecommunications group Iliad, led by billionaire Xavier Niel, are reportedly in preliminary talks to merge their operations in the Italian telecom market.

According to multiple sources cited by Reuters, the discussions could lead to a joint venture combining CK Hutchison’s subsidiary Wind Tre and Iliad’s Italian operations, which currently operate under the Free brand.

Wind Tre, formed from the 2016 merger of Three Italy and Wind and wholly owned by CK Hutchison since 2018, is Italy’s third-largest mobile operator with a market share of approximately 24%, while Iliad holds around 11%, according to Italian regulatory authority AgCom.

Any merger would reduce the number of mobile operators in Italy from four to three, thus drawing significant regulatory scrutiny from national and European regulators. The European Commission has traditionally been resistant to this kind of consolidation, but in recent years its attitude has thawed, allowing significant mergers in numerous markets, like MasMovil and Orange in Spain and Vodafone and Three in the UK.

However, the European Commission’s prior approval of the Wind Tre merger came with conditions that allowed Iliad entry into the market as an antitrust remedy and explicitly prevented Wind Tre from acquiring Iliad before 2026. This timeline suggests a full merger before then may be unlikely, but a joint venture or other cooperation frameworks could be considered.

Iliad’s Italian operations have been valued at over €3 billion, with the group stating a valuation of €4.45 billion when it attempted a bid for Vodafone Italia in late 2023, which was rejected.

Earlier this year, Iliad also explored a potential tie up with Telecom Italia (TIM), indicating its strategic ambition to expand its footprint in Italy. Meanwhile, CK Hutchison has been reportedly considering divesting some of its telecom assets globally, valued between £10 billion and £15 billion (€11.37 billion to €17 billion), with Italy and the UK being the largest European contributors to its telecom revenues. Its telecom division accounted for roughly 25% of CK Hutchison’s group operating profit in 2024.

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Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Ofcom has today announced that they’ve secured “voluntary commitments” from mobile operators including EE, O2, Sky and VodafoneThree (Vodafone and Three UK) to help stabilise the wholesale prices of automated text (SMS) messages that organisations send to people (A2P – application-to-person); these are widely used by organisations across the public and private sectors.

Such messages are often sent, for example, by the NHS when issuing medical appointment reminders, as well as parcel delivery notifications, and one-time passcodes etc. The regulator states that over 20 billion A2P messages like this were sent in 2023-24 and are worth around £400 million a year to mobile operators.

The market for these particular text messages is complex, as businesses do not usually buy them directly from mobile operators (MCP) and will instead go through intermediaries. A business will first contract with a Messaging Service Provider (MSP), with whom they have a direct relationship. The MSP will often then use the services of an Aggregator, who contracts with the main mobile operators for delivery (‘termination’) of the text messages.

The problem is that wholesale prices for the termination of these messages (A2P SMS termination rates) have increased significantly in recent years, jumping as much as 70% since 2021 (Ofcom expressed this as a range from 15% to 75%). Naturally, this is translating into increases in retail prices (i.e. the prices charged by MSPs to business senders for sending A2P SMS), which recently prompted the regulator to examine competition within this space (an area they haven’t previously regulated).

At the start of this year Ofcom concluded that mobile operators had Significant Market Power (SMP) in this area, including the “ability and incentive to increase their termination prices to an excessively high level“. The regulator then proposed to respond to this by imposing a price cap (here), which would run until the end of 2028. But it appears this may no longer be necessary.

What’s been decided?

As a result of Ofcom’s review, the aforementioned mobile operators have since made voluntary commitments relating to their wholesale prices, and the frequency, notice periods and timing of price increases. The commitments last until the end of 2028, and Ofcom estimate they collectively cover more than 90% of A2P SMS sold to Aggregators.

“Given these developments, we have taken an administrative priority decision not to continue with the market review at this time,” said Ofcom (i.e. the voluntary commitments achieve enough of their goals without needing a deeper intervention).

Ofcom Statement

Our decision reflects the following factors:

• Increased uncertainty over future competitive constraints:

Market developments since the publication of our consultation, including recent price cuts for some WhatsApp for Business services (an alternative business messaging service), suggest there is currently increased uncertainty regarding the potential for competitive constraints to develop during the proposed three-year market review period.

Whilst it is not clear that there has been a material change in competitive constraints since our consultation, we observed some potential signals of greater willingness by some larger business senders to consider switching partially or wholly to alternatives in order to bring down their costs, with MSPs potentially facilitating this by offering alternatives to A2P SMS.

• Voluntary commitments that reduce the risk of our competition concerns being realised:

Each of the commitments submitted by the four large operators have been unilaterally determined and their contents cover aspects relating to any increases in the maximum standard prices for A2P SMS termination charged to their Aggregator customers until 31 December 2028 (the end of our proposed market review period). These aspects relate to (a) pricing levels; (b) frequency and timing of price increases each year; (c) notice periods for Aggregators before implementing increases; and (d) notifications to Ofcom before implementing increases.

Taken as a whole, and given these operators cover most of the market, we consider that these voluntary commitments significantly reduce the risk of our competition concerns being realised. In addition, these commitments are likely to contribute to the promotion of effective competition by giving Aggregators greater pricing stability and potentially increasing their ability to meet the demands from business sender customers for longer contracts at fixed prices for A2P SMS messaging services.

• Bias against intervention:

Under our regulatory principles, we operate with a bias against intervention but with a willingness to intervene promptly and effectively where required. We have decided this is not the right time for us to consider introducing ex ante regulation. This is consistent with our statutory duty to have regard in all cases to the principle that regulatory activities should be targeted only at cases in which action is needed, and it frees up Ofcom resource to work on other matters of greater relative priority.

Despite the decision, Ofcom do still intend to periodically monitor the market, including adherence to the voluntary commitments and pricing behaviour by those MCPs who did not submit pricing commitments. “This will enable us to intervene promptly, if we consider that the risk of the competition concerns, we provisionally identified as arising, increases,” added the regulator.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Mobile operator Three UK appears to have further reduced the price of their 4G and 5G powered unlimited Three Home Broadband package, which means it’s been discounted to only £16 per month on a 24-month minimum contract term (or £28 if you take it as a rolling monthly plan).You will also get a £50 Prepaid Mastercard.

As usual, Three’s Home Broadband packages all include a mobile router, while also promising “average download speeds of 150Mbps” (this will vary a lot between different locations) and a 30-day money-back guarantee (there’s no installation charge as it’s Plug & Play). But take note that Three UK’s pricing policy means that, each April, your Monthly Charge will increase by a fixed amount of £2 per month (not applicable to 30-day terms).

The router being bundled with this, at least on their 5G variant of the package, is still the ZTE MC888AD. This is based off the SDX62 (Snapdragon) + WCN6856 chipset and supports WiFi 6 at local network speeds of up to 3.8Gbps (2.4GHz and 5GHz 4×4 MIMO), as well as 2 x 1Gbps Ethernet (LAN) ports and 1 x RJ11 phone port.

In addition, it’s worth noting that Three UK are offering up to £100 in Switching Credit to customers who migrate to this service from an existing broadband package while still within contract with their old provider.

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Customers of mobile operator O2 (Virgin Media), specifically those with the ‘Switch Up‘ service on their plan that gives you the flexibility to swap your Smartphone after 90 days (without having to pay off your contract), have recently been informed that the operator will shortly extend this period to 11 months.

The change wasn’t mentioned to us when we queried last week’s somewhat controversial change to O2’s annual price rise policy (here and here), but customers with the add-on did later receive the following notification as part of that price change: “On 22 January 2026, O2 Switch Up will be changing from a 90-day cycle to an 11-month cycle. This means you can switch to a new device every 11 months.”

In fairness, the old 90-day period, which is currently still being widely advertised on O2’s website despite the impending change, always seemed to be an economically challenging feature to deliver and one that many customers probably wouldn’t use within such a short period of time (although a fair few do). On the other hand, changing the period to 11 months does make it more akin to just being an annual contract.

As we understand it from O2’s community agent (here), the change means that if, for example, somebody Switches Up their device tomorrow (1st November 2025) then, as the 90-day rule will still apply, they’d be able to Switch Up again on 1st February 2026. But after that last switch, the period would be changed to 11 months. Credits to forum member meritez for spotting this change (here).

A spokesperson for O2 told ISPreview:

“We’re continuing to offer Switch Up, allowing eligible O2 customers to ‘switch up’ every 11 months instead of every 90 days. This aligns more closely with how the majority of customers are already using Switch Up, and will help to reduce the number of minimally used handsets in circulation, supporting our sustainability goals.”

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Edinburgh-based UK alternative network GoFibre, which is rolling out a gigabit broadband (FTTP) network across remote rural parts of Scotland and Northern England, has been named as one of the top 50 fastest-growing businesses in Scotland by the UK Fast Growth Index for 2025.

The Index identifies the fifty fastest-growing companies in seven regions and nations namely London, the Midlands and the East of England, the North of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, South of England and Wales. All the firms on the list have been entered for the 2025 UK Fast Growth Awards, due to be held in London on November 26th where the winners will be recognised as the fastest growing in their sectors and their regions.

The operator currently expects to deploy their new Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) based broadband network to reach a footprint of 250,000 premises “in the next 3 years“, which has recently been boosted by several major Project Gigabit contracts with the government. At the end of last year the operator also had a total of 10,597 customers.

Neil Conaghan, CEO of GoFibre, said:

“Being named among Scotland’s fastest-growing companies is an incredible honour and achievement for GoFibre. As a company we’ve demonstrated strong commercial success, not just in the context of the independent broadband provider sector, but as a Scottish company generally.

Our growth has been built on our ambitious, people-friendly culture – adding customers while retaining our hyper-local, customer-centred approach, demonstrated for instance by our industry-leading Trustpilot score. I’m so proud of all that GoFibre has achieved since our founding in the Borders in 2017 and look forward to continued growth while retaining what makes GoFibre unique.”

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The MP for North Shropshire in England, Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat), has called on the Government to take urgent action in its ongoing attempts to find a solution after network provider Freedom Fibre scaled back their £24m (public subsidy) Project Gigabit broadband roll-out contract for the region in June 2025.

Just to recap. The contract with Freedom Fibre originally aimed to cover “around” 12,000 hard-to-reach rural homes in North Shropshire with a Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network. But toward the end of June 2025 the operator (here), which had been under some financial strain, revealed that they’d already completed the build to 2,500 premises and would now only be able to reach 1,000 more (a total of 3,500 have since been completed).

The Government’s Building Digital UK (BDUK) agency then confirmed that they and Freedom Fibre had “mutually agreed to descope the remaining 8,500 premises from this contract“, which left affected premises stuck in limbo while efforts were made to find a solution. At the time BDUK said they were “moving swiftly to put in place alternative plans with other suppliers to connect premises that were due to be covered by this contract.”

According to the Border Counties Advertizer, a meeting was held this week with BDUK to update the local authority on their plans. The local MP said she was told that some as yet unserved properties in the previously contracted area may now have to wait until 2030 to receive full fibre. In addition, BDUK seems to have been unable to appoint a new provider to continue the work and is thus now considering “alternative delivery options“.

Helen Morgan (MP) said:

“The delay to the roll-out of high-speed broadband to North Shropshire is unacceptable. Families and businesses who were promised full fibre under Project Gigabit cannot afford to wait until 2030.

The Government must honour its commitment and deliver these connections as soon as possible. Once again rural areas are being left behind by a government that does not understand the reality of living with patchy mobile signal and snail-paced broadband.”

The update suggests that BDUK may be struggling to adopt the same approach as they did when a similar issue occurred with network operator Voneus in Mid West Shropshire (Lot 25.01), which resulted in the contract being scooped up by Openreach (BT) as part of their Cross-Regional (Type C) procurements (here). We had been expecting that this might work for North Shropshire (Lot 25.02) too, but that is now in doubt.

The above would have been the quickest solution to connecting such premises. But if the area is proving to be too challenging for such an approach (cost may be the big issue) and isn’t attracting interest from other suppliers, then that leaves few options. BDUK has already re-opened Shropshire to their Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme (GBVS), but that’s a very limited approach and is unlikely to deliver for the whole area.

In the meantime, locals impacted by this may need to consider more expensive alternatives, such as the Starlink service. Some of the related area may also be lucky enough to have access to a good 4G or 5G (mobile broadband) signal from one of the major mobile operators, but clearly that’s not going to be the case for everybody.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Ofcom has today published their latest quarterly Q2 2025 study of UK consumer telecoms and TV complaints, which names EE as attracting the most gripes from customers for fixed broadband and Pay TV services, while Three UK took the most flak for Mobile services.

Take note that the regulator’s report only covers complaints that Ofcom itself has received and not those sent directly to an ISP, the ISPA or an Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) complaints handler (i.e. Communications Ombudsman or CISAS). Ofcom does not deal with individual complaints, but they do monitor them and can take action if enough people raise a concern.

Otherwise, the results below reflect a proportion of residential subscribers (i.e. the total number of quarterly complaints per 100,000 customers per provider), which makes it easier to compare providers in a market where ISPs can vary significantly in size. But sadly, the study only covers feedback from the largest ISPs due to limited data (i.e. those with a market share of at least 1.5%).

Just for some extra context. Ofcom’s most recent May 2025 study of telecoms provider quality (here) revealed that the proportion of UK consumers who were satisfied with their communications services stood at 73% for landline services (down from 77% two years earlier), 84% for broadband (up from 82%) and 88% for mobile services (up from 87%).

Fixed Line Home Broadband Complaints

EE attracted the most broadband complaints in Q2 2025, with 38% of them being driven by faults, service and provisioning issues. On the flip side, Plusnet attracted the fewest complaints of all the listed providers. But it’s worth noting that Virgin Media has also continued to improve.

Rob Orr, VMO2’s Chief Operating Officer, said:

“Today’s Ofcom data is further proof that our laser focus on improving customer service is paying off, with complaints down by more than 50% year-on-year, and by almost a third compared with the previous quarter. This also follows our three award wins at the recent UK Customer Experience Awards – including for ‘Best Complaint Handling’ and ‘Best Change and Transformation’ – highlighting the progress we’re making.

We’re investing heavily across the business to simplify our systems and processes, upskill our agents and roll out new technology that helps them support our customers when they get in touch. We’ll continue to make improvements and ensure we consistently give our customers the best possible experience with us.”

Fixed Line Phone Complaints

EE also attracted the most complaints for fixed line (landline) phone services, which were once again mainly driven (35%) by faults, service and provisioning issues. By comparison, Utility Warehouse continued to attract the fewest complaints on a score of ZERO, followed Sky.

Mobile Complaints

Mobile operators still enjoy lower complaint levels than fixed line providers, but Three UK did still attract the most problems, while EE, Tesco Mobile and Vodafone all tied for the fewest complaints on a score of 1.

Pay TV Complaints

Finally, EE also attracted the most complaints for Pay TV services, while TalkTalk received the fewest complaints.

Ofcom’s Consumer Complaints Report Q2 2025
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/../telecoms-and-pay-tv-complaints

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

The UK telecoms regulator, Ofcom, has today said they’re “disappointed” by mobile operator O2’s (Virgin Media) recent decision (here) to increase their annual mid-contract price rises beyond what customers agreed when they signed-up (often above inflation too) and then forcing that upon existing customers. But so far an expression of disappointment is all they’ll do.

Just for some context. At the start of 2025 Ofcom began requiring UK telecoms providers to adopt a new approach to mid-contract price hikes, which did away with the old percentage and inflation-based model – replacing it with one that must now set out such price rises “clearly and up-front, in pounds and pence, when a customer signs up” (here). This made annual price hikes clearer and more transparent, but not necessarily cheaper.

In response, many broadband and mobile providers introduced flat annual price increases. For example, O2 originally said they’d increase mid-contract prices by £1.80 (monthly) every April for Pay Monthly (airtime) customers, but this suddenly changed last week after they increased the level of annual hikes from £1.80 to £2.50. On top of that, they also applied this to existing customers, albeit while giving them the option of a penalty free contract exit.

The move actually isn’t the first example of such a mid-flight pricing policy change, with both Virgin Media (here) and the BT Group providers (inc. EE and Plusnet) recently doing something similar for broadband (here). But for some reason, Ofcom’s response today only seems to single out O2’s change, and they completely fail to address the fact that the policies being adopted by most providers unfairly penalise those on cheaper packages (the same increase is applied, regardless of how much your monthly package costs).

Ofcom’s Statement

We want customers to have certainty about their monthly mobile bills so they can plan their household budgets. That’s why earlier this year we banned unpredictable price rises linked to inflation and instead required providers to tell customers upfront in pounds and pence about any increases in their contract. 

We are disappointed by O2’s decision. This goes against the spirit of our rules which are designed to ensure greater certainty and transparency for customers when they sign up.  

Today, we’ve written to the major mobile companies reminding them of their obligations to treat customers fairly. We encourage any customer who wants to avoid these price rises to exercise their right to exit without penalty and sign up to a new deal, following our five top tips: 

• Know your rights. Your provider must give 30 days’ notice and let you exit your contract penalty free if they increase prices beyond what you agreed when you signed up. That means you’re free to sign up to a new deal – either with your existing provider or with a new one. 

• Shop around. Use a price comparison site to check out the best alternative deals on offer. 

• Text to switch. You can switch to new mobile provider by sending a simple text message. Just text ‘INFO’ to 85075 for free to get the ball rolling and follow the easy instructions. 

• Consider a social tariff. These are cheaper packages for people claiming Universal Credit, Pension Credit or other benefits. They’re delivered in the same way as normal packages, and the price won’t go up mid-contract. 

• Use Ofcom’s ‘Map your Mobile’ tool. Head to Ofcom’s ‘Map Your Mobile’ tool, put in your postcode and instantly find out which provider offers the best coverage in your area.”  

Naturally, the network operators would argue that they have to increase prices each year due to costs rising in other areas, such as service provision, regulation, energy and the need to invest in new network upgrades. At the same time, the level of inflation has remained much higher than it was previously forecast to be, which changes the risk and cost assessment that each provider has to make.

As usual it’s worth remembering that not all providers play the mid-contract price hikes game and quite a few smaller players do still offer fixed price terms. But for now, Ofcom can only express being “disappointed” and seems unwilling to take any firmer action, which is itself a disappointment to consumers. The calls for mid-contract hikes to be banned will no doubt continue to grow, although doing so without wrecking the flexibility to offer competitive discounts would be tricky.

UPDATE 2:05pm

We’ve had a response from O2.

An O2 spokesperson said:

“As acknowledged by Ofcom in its letter to providers, its rules do not prevent companies from increasing annual price changes – for example, to invest in improving networks. The changes we have announced in no way breach any regulatory rules.

We appreciate that price changes are never welcome, but demand for mobile connectivity is greater than ever, and any price change customers see on their bills is greatly outweighed by the £700m we invest each year into our mobile network to meet this growing demand. We have written directly to customers about this change, and they are able to exit without penalty if they wish.”

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The UK communications regulator, Ofcom, has today granted a new gateway licence for Amazon’s future Project Kuiper network. The move supports the retail giant’s effort to launch a global mega-constellation of satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), which will deliver affordable ultrafast broadband and mobile (4G, 5G) services to rival Starlink (SpaceX).

Amazon is already well into the early process of launching its global mega-constellation of 3,236 compact satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) – sitting at an altitude of between 590km and 630km – and they’ve already won several other related licences for this (here). The first commercial (beta) services are currently expected to get underway by around March 2026 (here).

The latest announcement grants the project an NGSO Earth Station Licence for a terrestrial gateway site in Bude (Cornwall), which is needed in order to help Kuiper provide “high-speed, low-latency broadband services” to households, businesses and other customers in the UK, as well as backhaul connectivity to telecommunications carriers.

Ofcom’s Decision

This decision will enable Kuiper to operate a satellite gateway to provide satellite connectivity services in the UK to households, businesses and other customers, as well as backhaul connectivity services, using Ka band frequencies between 27.5-27.9505 GHz, 28.4445-28.9585 GHz and 29.4525-30 GHz.

On coexistence, we consider that Kuiper has provided the necessary evidence to show that its NGSO gateway should be capable of coexisting with current and future NGSO systems and gateway earth stations in the Ka band in the UK, and are assured that its NGSO system is designed with sufficient flexibility to mitigate harmful interference should it arise. We are also satisfied that Kuiper has provided suitable evidence of coordination discussions with other NGSO licensees and that it intends to continue its efforts to cooperate with other licensees.

In addition, we assess that the competition risks from approving Kuiper’s application for an NGSO gateway licence are low, and that the proposed gateway site would benefit UK consumers, customers and citizens.

We will now proceed to issue Kuiper with an NGSO gateway licence to operate in Ka band frequencies 27.5-27.9505 GHz, 28.4445- 28.9585 GHz and 29.4525-30 GHz, subject to payment of the licence fee. A copy of the licence will also be available under the “Existing licences” section of our NGSO licensing webpage.

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The Swansea Bay City Deal’s Digital Infrastructure Programme, which includes various broadband and other digital infrastructure upgrades as part of the wider £1.3bn Swansea Bay City Region project, has received a green rating in its latest Gateway Review, which is said to reflect its progress in improving digital connectivity across the region.

Just to recap. The UK and Welsh Governments gave approval for a £55m digital infrastructure investment under the Swansea Bay City Region project back in 2021 (here), which among other things aimed to expand full fibre and 5G mobile connectivity to benefit homes and businesses across Carmarthenshire, Neath Port Talbot, Pembrokeshire and Swansea. Some of this investment also comes from the Local Broadband Fund (LBF) for Wales.

A number of related projects have since been awarded and made good progress, such as the £1.9m Full Fibre Infrastructure Build project with BT that helped to upgrade 69 key public sector sites (here). As a result, the Office for Project Delivery’s independent review team has now awarded the highest possible rating to the programme, stating that delivery to time, cost and quality is highly likely, with no major issues affecting progress.

Sadly, there isn’t yet a link to this review because it’s still due to be put through programme governance. But it is said to have “praised the programme’s agile delivery, strong stakeholder relationships, and the role of Digital Champions within each local authority“, who have been key in driving delivery, removing barriers and aligning public and private sector investment.

Simon Davies, Senior Responsible Owner for the programme, told ISPreview:

“I welcome the findings of this Gateway Review and am pleased that the Review Team has confirmed the programme is on track for successful delivery. Strong governance, stakeholder engagement and effective management have been key to our success. I’m especially proud of the impact our Broadband Engagement Officers and Digital Connectivity Relationship Managers have had in supporting communities and businesses across the region.”

Looking ahead, work is now said to be underway to explore the programme’s future beyond 2027, which may help to ensure the long-term sustainability of its projects and economic impact in the region.