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News

The move would be the largest consolidation of the UK altnet market to date

According to a report from the Financial Times, Virgin Media O2 (VMO2) has entered into negotiations to acquire fibre altnet rival Netomnia for £2 billion.

The move would represent the start in earnest of long-awaited consolidation of the UK’s fibre broadband market.

Founded in 2019, Netomnia’s fibre network currently covers 2.8 million premises, with roughly 400,000 ISP customers. The operator is one of the fastest growing in the UK, targeting 3 million premises passed by the end of the year and 5 million by the end of 2027.

If acquired, anonymous sources suggest that Netomnia’s network would be folded into those of VMO2 and/or Nexfibre, the joint venture owned by VMO2’s shareholders Liberty Global/Telefonica and InfraVia Capital.

VMO2’s network has around 6.4 million premises covered by full fibre, while Nexfibre has roughly 2.3 million. Combining Netomnia with either of these players would make the resulting company the second-largest fibre network operator in the UK, overtaking rival CityFibre, which has around 4.3 million premises passed.

No official agreement has yet been reached. In fact, VMO2 may yet have some competition for Netomnia, with the report also noting that CityFibre is discussing a tie up with the company.

Netomnia has also been positioning itself more as an acquirer than an acquiree. Netomnia acquired smaller rival brsk last year, a deal which remains the largest M&A activity in the altnet market to date, and more smaller players could yet follow.

Speaking to Total Telecom at Connected Britain earlier this year, Netomnia CEO Jeremy Chelot spoke about the company’s rapid growth and his ambitions to make it the “largest altnet in the UK”. The company recently secured an additional £300 million in junior debt in order to fuel its expansion, both organic and inorganic. It also undertook a major rebrand, which Chelot said was more representative of the company’s scale and potential.

The altnet market has been primed for consolidation for some time, with smaller players largely struggling towards a positive cash flow in a highly competitive market. Despite this, M&A has been slow to materialise, largely due the networks’ ever-shifting borders and disparate valuations. If Netomnia is acquired by either of its major rivals, it could be a catalyst for a consolidation cascade.

In related news, VMO2’s latest earnings report coincides with the announcement of a new partnership with SpaceX’s Starlink. The deal will see the operator make use of the Starlink’s nascent direct-to-device (D2D) capabilities via a new product called ‘O2 Satellite’.

Starlink’s D2D capabilities, which are currently limited to data and messaging services, are intended to help fill in the UK’s various ‘not spots’, enhancing the network’s overall coverage in rural areas.

Commercial launch is expected in H1 2026.

Keep up to date with all of the latest telecoms news from around the world with the Total Telecom newsletter

Also in the news
Connected Britain Award winners 2025 announced!
Netomnia announces ‘powerful and ambitious’ rebrand ahead of Connected Britain
VodafoneThree drops Samsung, relies on Nokia and Ericsson for £2bn network upgrade

Original article Total Telecom:Read More

Interviews

At Connected Britain, we spoke with Aurelien Bergonzo, Director of Telecom Datacom, and Infrastructure Business Unit at ACOME, to discuss how to more deeply embed sustainability throughout the telecoms supply chain

Is sustainability truly a priority for telcos?

At Connected Britain 2025, the topic of carbon neutrality and sustainable networks was as prominent as ever, but evidence of true progress at scale was in short supply.

For ACOME’s Aurelien Bergonzo, a big part of this challenge has been the difficult macroeconomic environment, which has seen operators forced to focus more heavily on cost.

“Despite the ambition for carbon neutrality, the reality is that cost remains the main criteria for operators,” he said, noting that technical breakthroughs in greener network tech are being made frequently but implemented too slowly.

“You need to have a competitive physical layer and a competitive network, but at the same time you want to decarbonise. I think that’s impeding our adoption of breakthrough [sustainable] technology,” he explained.

The solution, Bergonzo argues, is taking a more holistic approach to the entire network supply chain, compounding on small sustainability gains throughout the networks life cycle.

“People are engaged and willing but right now we’re not working together as an ecosystem to make this a reality,” he said. “Everyone is the scope three of someone else. So, at the end of the day, its really about taking a holistic approach. If we move forward collectively, we can make some significant advances.”

Watch our full interview below!

Keep up to date with all of the latest telecoms news from around the world with the Total Telecom newsletter

Also in the news
Connected Britain Award winners 2025 announced!
Netomnia announces ‘powerful and ambitious’ rebrand ahead of Connected Britain
VodafoneThree drops Samsung, relies on Nokia and Ericsson for £2bn network upgrade

Original article Total Telecom:Read More

• Dry cooling, which will ensure water consumption at the site will be comparable with conventional office buildings

• Retaining 54% of the land as open space

• A commitment to create new ecological habitats which will deliver a biodiversity net gain of at least 10%

“The UK is a cornerstone of the global economy and is a natural home for our most substantial investment in Europe to date. This development brings a significant amount of data centre capacity to Britain, contributing to the government’s AI growth ambition. But this investment goes far beyond building the infrastructure needed to unlock the UK’s digital potential. It’s the evolution of an ongoing partnership with the local and national community,” said James Tyler, UK Managing Director, Equinix.

“This £3.9 billion investment is a huge win for Britain. It will give businesses – from life sciences to high street banks – the ability to connect to thousands of other businesses across the world in an instant, powering our AI ambitions, boosting growth and creating hundreds of well-paid jobs. This is about making sure the UK is at the forefront of the digital revolution and ensuring that every community benefits from the opportunities this new technology brings,” said Liz Kendall, Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology.

“This announcement reflects the scale of opportunity the UK has to strengthen its digital foundations. As highlighted in our Foundations for the Future report, data centres are the backbone of our economy – they enable innovation, productivity and growth across every sector. Continued investment in sustainable, resilient digital infrastructure will be critical to delivering on the UK’s ambitions for AI and long-term economic prosperity,” said Luisa Cardani, Head of Data Centres, techUK.

This announcement builds on Equinix’s established UK footprint, and existing investment which includes:

• 14 data centres located in the UK. Across these facilities, a large portion of the customer base is UK-based businesses. Equinix supports over 10,000 different customers globally

• Over 1,200 UK-based employees, contributing £145 million directly to household income in the UK

• All sites designed for heat to be exported, enabling future conservation of energy which also benefits local communities

Keep up to date with all of the latest telecoms news from around the world with the Total Telecom newsletter

Also in the news
Connected Britain Award winners 2025 announced!
Netomnia announces ‘powerful and ambitious’ rebrand ahead of Connected Britain
VodafoneThree drops Samsung, relies on Nokia and Ericsson for £2bn network upgrade

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Mobile operator Vodafone (VodafoneThree) has expanded the availability of their “Fix & Go” service for repairing various issues (battery and screen replacement etc.), which is now present across 14 UK stores and is available for Samsung, Apple or Google devices on any network, as well as those with out-of-warranty handsets.

The service, which typically costs from £49 for a battery replacement or £79 for a screen replacement (parts replaced will be covered by a new warranty), is now available at stores in White City, London Stratford, Oxford Street Experience, Cardiff, Edinburgh Princes Street and Belfast Cornmarket. New locations since October include: Glasgow Buchanan Street, Brent Cross, Plymouth, Burnley, Southampton, Swindon, Hanley and Sunderland stores.

Since launching the service earlier this year Vodafone has found that the most commonly requested repairs are screen and battery replacements, followed by more complex repairs like camera lens replacements. Jon Shaw, Consumer Operations Director, said: “We know how important having a working phone is to customers. We also know that, historically, repairs have been too expensive and time consuming, so Fix & Go looks to solve these issues.”

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

A major newspaper has this morning claimed that broadband giant Virgin Media (O2) have opened non-exclusive talks with alternative full fibre network operator Netomnia (Youfibre, Brsk), which could result in a £2bn deal that would expand VMO2’s network coverage and potentially remove a key competitor from the market. CityFibre are also said to be interested in the altnet.

At present Netomnia (Substantial Group) is one of the UK market’s largest altnets and has deployed their Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) based broadband service to cover 2.8 million UK premises RFS (inc. 400,000 customers) – available across parts of over 90 cities and towns. The group aims to cover 3 million UK premises by the end of 2025 and then 5m by the end of 2027 (inc. 1m customers by 2028).

According to the FT (paywall), two people “familiar with the matter” have claimed that VMO2 and Netomia are now in talks over the potential consolidation deal. Such an agreement, if it were made, may involve a combination between nexfibre and Netomnia rather than Virgin Media and Netomia, which we suspect might reduce the chances of regulatory scrutiny due to nexfibre being a semi-separate company, albeit with shared parentage.

Just to recap. Nexfibre is a £4.5bn joint venture between Telefónica, Liberty Global and InfraVia Capital Partners (here). The network has so far covered around 2.4 million UK premises with their new full fibre network, which is being built by Virgin Media’s engineers. But the operator’s original plan to cover “up to” 7 million UK homes (starting with 5m by 2026) in areas NOT currently served by Virgin’s network of 16m+ premises was recently dealt a blow by Telefonica’s strategic review (here) and currently has no clear plan for going beyond 2.5m premises.

However, we can’t help but feel that a consolidation between these two would be a tough sell, particularly due to there being quite a lot of overbuild between VMO2/nexfibre and Netomnia’s respective networks in urban areas. On top of that, Netomnia has positioned itself as being more of a cutting-edge but low cost broadband disruptor, which differs significantly from Virgin Media’s perhaps more historically premium (pricing) approach.

Suffice to say that such a deal may also be unlikely to go down well with customers of Netomnia’s retail ISPs, many of which will have previously chosen them to escape from major ISPs, like Virgin Media, and their cycle of inflation busting mid-contract price hikes and expensive post-contract pricing. On top of that, there’s the usual complexities over differences in network infrastructure and technology, which could be quite tricky to resolve.

On the other hand, it’s worth remembering that such talks aren’t unexpected in today’s market, particularly with so many altnets being under pressure from competition, rising build costs and high interest rates. Netomnia has been one of the few altnets to continue building through this phase of the market, seemingly with some success, but they’re not immune to the challenges.

Just to underline the above point, the same newspaper claims that CityFibre has also approached Netomnia for talks and that a deal “was still a possibility“. Such a deal would actually seem to make a lot more sense, given how there’s significantly less overbuild between this pair and consolidation would create serious competitive scale in the altnet space (CityFibre covers about 4.5m premises). But it would also create a group that carries a huge amount of debt, which might be an issue for an alternative deal with VMO2 too, depending upon the approach.

In the end, none of these talks should be considered as unexpected in today’s consolidation minded market, where everybody seems to be talking to everybody else. But whether any of this leads to a real agreement and even more serious talks is another matter entirely. Take with a pinch of salt.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

The latest Q3 2025 results from Virgin Media and O2 have revealed that their FTTP broadband network increased its coverage by 139,300 premises in the quarter (up from 114.9k in Q2). Similarly, related customers grew to total 5,704,300 (up by 60.8k in Q3 vs -51.4k in Q2) and O2’s mobile base jumped by 419,400 in the quarter, while also doing a multi-year deal with Starlink for satellite mobile (Direct to Cell).

The results confirm that Virgin Media and nexfibre’s combined fixed broadband network now reaches a total of 18,675,100 Homes Serviceable (up from 18,535,800 in Q2). As before, the vast majority of the new quarterly UK network build is from nexfibre’s full fibre lines (accounts for around 2.4m premises of total coverage), although the recent impact of Telefonica’s strategic review has impacted their roll-out (here and here).

The results reveal that a total of nearly 8 million Virgin Media and nexfibre premises (footprint) are now covered by FTTP lines (XGS-PON and RFOG), which is up from 7m in Q2. But this figure also factors in Virgin Media’s ongoing upgrade of existing Hybrid Fibre Coax (HFC) areas to FTTP (they’re aiming to convert all of Virgin’s existing HFC and RFOG lines to XGS-PON by 2028).

Finally, a tiny portion of the quarterly nexfibre build figures (shown below) may also include infill deployments from Virgin Media itself, which usually takes place on sites for existing property developments (i.e. the legacy of long contracts with housing developers for new build homes). But otherwise, the Q3 pace of build shows a marked improvement from the sluggish Q2, which reflected the fallout from Telefonica’s strategic review.

Nexfibre Rollout Progress
Q3 2025 = 139,300 Premises
Q2 2025 = 114,900 Premises
Q1 2025 = 165,000 Premises
Q4 2024 = 485,500 Premises
Q3 2024 = 281,100 Premises
Q2 2024 = 295,300 Premises
Q1 2024 = 194,000 Premises
Q4 2023 = c.299,000 Premises
Q3 2023 = 250,800 Premises
Q2 2023 = 175,500 Premises
Q1 2023 = 107,800 Premises
Q4 2022 = 24,000 Premises

Just for context. Telefónica, Liberty Global and InfraVia Capital Partners established a new £4.5bn joint venture called nexfibre in 2022 (here), which originally aimed to deploy an open access full fibre (FTTP) network to reach “up to” 7 million UK homes (starting with 5m by 2026) in areas NOT served by Virgin Media’s own network of 16m+ premises. But nexfibre doesn’t currently have a clear roll-out plan beyond 2.5m premises (expected to be hit this year).

Elsewhere, Virgin Media has long stopped giving any solid figures for their Pay TV (video) base, which often happens when a base is in decline. But their mobile base has grown, albeit primarily due to their IoT (Internet of Things) customers jumping from 13.2m to 13.55m in the quarter, while their prepaid base fell a bit from 7.17m to 7.07m.

VMO2 Q3 2025 UK Customer (Connection) Figures
5,704,300 Fixed Broadband – (down from 5,643,500 in Q2)
46,584,600 Mobile inc. Wholesale – (up from 46,165,200)

On the financial front, VMO2 reported total revenue of £2,549.3m in Q3 2025, which is up from £2,526.8m last quarter.

Lutz Schüler, CEO of VMO2, said:

“Despite an intensely competitive and tough market backdrop, we continue to be focused and execute against our core strategy with another quarter of profitability growth, stable consumer contract mobile additions and an improved trading picture on the fixed side compared to the last quarter.

We have invested more than £1.6 billion so far this year in our networks and services, delivering sustained improvements in customer service and higher mobile network satisfaction, alongside a fully gigabit broadband network and 8 million fibre homes including nexfibre build. This connectivity is not only laying foundations for our future but is also the fuel that underpins the UK’s digital industries of today and tomorrow and is an essential ingredient in the country’s growth mission.

Strategically, we remain in a strong long-term position with our network investments in 5G and fibre and three clear units across consumer, B2B and wholesale meaning we are well placed to trade hard, deliver for customers, innovate and seize the right opportunities.”

Sadly, the latest results didn’t include much in the way of any useful updates on the future of their roll-out via nexfibre past 2025, but we may get that later through an investors briefing. Otherwise, today’s biggest development is arguably O2’s decision to adopt Starlink’s global network of broadband satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) to support their mobile service via Direct to Cell (DtC), which makes them the first UK mobile operator to do so.

Just to recap. DtC is a technology that Starlink has added to their recent satellites, which enables them to deliver “robust” global coverage of their new 4G mobile roaming service and supply it directly to unmodified Smartphones on the ground. This service is less about performance (it’s capacity constrained) and more about ensuring customers can stay connected, for basic tasks, even in remote areas of weak terrestrial mobile signal.

However, in order to work, DtC requires Starlink to do deals with a local mobile operator, which is where O2 comes in as the new service will use a portion of O2’s licensed mobile spectrum. The new product, which will be called O2 Satellite, will initially deliver messaging and data services, with further improvements and applications to follow in the future across a range of handsets. App support will grow over time, with a focus on targeting support for the most asked-for applications at launch, primarily messaging, maps and location services.

The service will complement O2’s existing mobile network and work automatically in areas with no traditional mobile coverage, known as ‘not spots’, with the aim to expand VMO2’s landmass coverage in the UK to more than 95% within 12 months of launch. This coverage is set to increase even further when next-generation Starlink satellites are deployed, alongside further enhancements in performance, application use and an expansion of use cases.

Mike Nicolls, Starlink VP of Engineering, said:

“We’re excited to bring a satellite-to-mobile network to the UK with Virgin Media O2. This partnership underscores the importance of Starlink Direct to Cell’s mission to end mobile dead zones and deliver connectivity in remote areas where it wasn’t possible before. Whether it’s checking real-time weather updates, sharing a video with friends, or simply sending a text, people can stay connected when they need it most.”

The operator is currently conducting internal trials of the satellite-enabled service, with a customer roll-out planned in early 2026. More details on the proposition and pricing will follow in the near future. O2 customers that are interested in signing up to the O2 Satellite service should register their interest here: https://www.o2.co.uk/satellite .

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Broadband and telecoms giant BT has announced that they’ve partnered with cloud-based cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike to launch a new AI-powered antivirus service for their small business customers – Business Antivirus Detect and Respond (BADR), which is designed to “proactively stop threats before they become breaches” (every AV solutions could be described this way).

The announcement claims that hackers are increasing their monitoring of UK organisations through company laptops and mobiles, with malicious online scans rising by 300% in a year. For example, BT’s own data indicates that web-connected devices are now scanned over 4,000 times a day by automated bots probing for weaknesses in business networks (accountancy, legal and consultancy firms are the most targeted sectors for things like ransomware etc.).

The new antivirus solution, which is said to be “available exclusively” in the UK through BT and is powered by the CrowdStrike Falcon® Go platform, is thus designed to tackle the aforementioned problem; it does this by extending the availability of CrowdStrike’s normally enterprise-focused service to smaller businesses.

Daniel Bernard, Chief Business Officer at CrowdStrike, said:

“Adversaries are weaponising AI to launch faster, more targeted attacks – and BT’s data shows the scale of that threat is only accelerating. At CrowdStrike, we’ve harnessed AI to stop breaches before they happen. Together with BT, we’re bringing that same AI-powered protection and expertise to UK small and medium-sized businesses, giving them the power to stay ahead of even the most sophisticated adversaries.”

Sadly, the announcement doesn’t include a lot of detail on the new service’s price or features, but we did manage to extract a few basic details through follow-up queries. BADR claims to use “Next-Generation Antivirus technology” to stay one step ahead of viruses and malware. It continuously scans for suspicious activity, automatically blocks potential threats, and quarantines harmful files before they can cause damage.

BADR also includes USB Device Control, which helps prevent unauthorised access by tracking the use of external USB devices and allowing only approved ones to connect, which will be handy in a business environment. Customers are supported in all this by BT’s fully managed security service, which includes: guidance on setup and management; 24/7 support in the event of a cyber-attack; diagnostic tools to understand and assess threats; and access to their customer support service desk.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Network operator Openreach (BT) looks set to improve the flexibility and cost of their reappointment process for changes to new provisions of Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) based broadband lines, which will introduce an end customer reappointing calendar and waive the related amendment charge for ISPs.

The change centres on the operator’s FTTP Appointment Pull Forward Process, which allows broadband ISPs to offer certain in-scope customers an earlier appointment date, provided Openreach has operational capacity available in the area to deliver on it.

Giving certain customers the opportunity to choose an earlier date, when requested, using the new end customer reappointing calendar is obviously a welcome development, as it the removal of an amend charge. The change itself is due to be introduced from 28th January 2026, albeit only for customers in certain situations. See the briefing for more.

FTTP CP amend charge waiver

1. From 28 January 2026, Openreach will waive the CP Amend charge for any FTTP orders which meet the following criteria and are therefore classed as in-scope for appointment pull forward (“Pull Forward”):     a.  The order has:

             i.  not passed the Customer Committed Dated (“CCD”) but has an appointment date with a lead time age greater than 7 calendar days; or,

            ii. failed a first CCD and has an appointment date in the future; and,

       b.  Openreach has operational capacity available to offer an earlier appointment date than the current  designated appointment date.

                  (together “Appointment Pull Forward Criteria”)

2.   Those FTTP orders which meet the Appointment Pull Forward Criteria will be managed via a “Pull Forward Appointment Book” and the prioritisation of appointments in the Pull Forward Appointment Book will be determined on the following basis:

           a. those orders which have failed a first CCD will be prioritised for Pull Forward above those orders which have not failed a first CCD; and,

          b. those orders which have the greater lead time (or tail) age will be prioritised for Pull Forward above those which have a shorter lead time (or tail) age.

3. For the avoidance of doubt, the End Customer will need to accept the earlier appointment offered by way of Pull Forward otherwise the order will remain unchanged and no charge will be incurred.

4. Communication Providers will automatically be opted-in and considered for Pull Forward. Communication Providers may opt-out of Pull Forward by contacting their Service Account Manager.

Original article Total Telecom:Read More

News

The announcement brings Amazon’s total pledged investment in South Korea to $9 billion over the next five years

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is investing $5 billion to develop new AI data centres in South Korea, reinforcing the country’s ambition to emerge as a leading AI and advanced industrial hub in Asia.

The pledge, announced during a high-profile meeting between AWS CEO Matt Garman and South Korean President Lee Jae Myung in Gyeongju, marks a continuation of AWS’s significant investments in the region following an earlier $4 billion project linked with SK Group in Ulsan.

The new AI data centres are slated for construction in Incheon and Gyeonggi Province, complementing the Ulsan facility initiated this year. The Ulsan project, a collaboration between AWS and SK Group, involves building the largest AI data centre in South Korea, beginning construction in September 2025 with full operation expected by 2029. It will feature 60,000 graphics processing units (GPUs), and is initially planned to provide 100MW of computing capacity, expandable to 1GW.

President Lee underscored the strategic importance of these investments, highlighting them as crucial to accelerating South Korea’s economic growth and technological leadership. He spoke of an “AI expressway” initiative designed to integrate AI across industries and research sectors nationwide, positioning South Korea within the top three AI powerhouses globally.

For AWS, Garman said the investment should be viewed as part of a broader strategy to deepen the company’s AI infrastructure strategy to support Asia’s digital growth.

“At AWS, we’ve invested and committed to investment of an additional $40 billion across 14 non-U.S. APEC countries and economies between now and 2028,” he said.

This latest AWS commitment is part of a wider wave of foreign direct investment pledges relating to South Korea that total approximately $9 billion from seven global companies over the next five years. These companies, which include Renault, Amkor Technology, Corning, Air Liquide, Siemens Healthineers, and Umicore, are targeting strategic sectors such as AI, semiconductors, secondary batteries, future mobility, and biotechnology.

AWS’s expanding footprint in South Korea is also complementary to parallel initiatives by other global AI players. OpenAI, for example, has announced plans to collaborate with Samsung and SK Group to build specialised Korean data centres and strengthen supply chains by sourcing memory chips from South Korean firms such as Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix.

Keep up to date with all of the latest telecoms news from around the world with the Total Telecom newsletter

Also in the news
Connected Britain Award winners 2025 announced!
Netomnia announces ‘powerful and ambitious’ rebrand ahead of Connected Britain
VodafoneThree drops Samsung, relies on Nokia and Ericsson for £2bn network upgrade

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Residents and businesses in the West Yorkshire (England) market town of Hebden Bridge, which is home to 4,500 people, have been warned that they could suffer from weak to non-existent mobile signals on O2 and Vodafone’s network, potentially lasting into early 2026, after a local mobile mast was suddenly removed.

“I live in Hebden Bridge and as of Monday 21st October, I noticed when out walking my dog, that my mobile signal was gone for O2. After a nose on the local Facebook group, it quickly turned out this was also affecting Vodafone users, but not users of the EE network,” said local resident Ben to ISPreview.

Some indirect feedback from Cornerstone, which manages the mast in question, indicates that the situation stemmed from a dispute with the site’s landowner. O2 later confirmed to ISPreview that the mast’s removal was due to the landlord’s decision, albeit without providing further context.

The situation has left the two mobile operators hurrying to find a replacement site, and a new application has now been placed with the local planning authority. But such things are rarely a rapid process and could still face opposition or other obstacles before deployment can even begin.

Josh Fenton-Glynn, MP for the Calder Valley, said (Halifax Courier):

“Lots of people have been in touch with me about the issues with phone signal around Hebden and Mytholmroyd following the removal of a nearby mast.

We rely on our phones for so much, it is completely unacceptable that thousands have been abruptly left without a service.

Various dates have been mentioned to customers in terms of providing updates, including January 2026. This isn’t good enough – residents and businesses are paying for a service that is not being provided.

Today I have written to the relevant networks explaining what has happened and urging them to fix this as a matter of urgency.

I’ve also asked them to keep customers updated and provide details of compensation available.”

The mobile operators are known to have boosted their signals from other nearby sites, but this won’t be enough to reach everybody and performance for some is likely to remain degraded until a new site can go live.

An O2 spokesperson told ISPreview:

“We apologise to customers in the Hebden Bridge area who may be experiencing issues with their mobile service after a mast in the region was recently removed at the landlord’s request. We’re working urgently to identify a new site and, in the meantime, put a temporary solution in place to minimise disruption for customers.

We’d recommend customers ensure they have Wi-Fi calling enabled on their device so they’re able to make and receive calls and text messages over any broadband network.”

One of the biggest frustrations in all this is with regard to the lack of advanced notice about the situation. The mobile operators could have informed locals before its occurrence, but instead left customers to scramble for answers.

The situation probably isn’t helped by the fact that the town sits in a crisscrossing valley, which makes it difficult to reach every part of the area without the use of multiple mast sites.