News

The Communications Ombudsman, which is one of Ofcom’s two approved Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) providers for UK consumers of broadband ISPs, mobile and landline phone providers, has released its complaints data Q3 2024 and reported a 29% increase compared to the same period in 2023. The regulator requires that all telecoms providers – those offering services to consumers and small businesses – must be members of an approved ADR scheme. The schemes are free for consumers to access and...

Broadband and telecoms giant BT Group has today highlighted how they’re using AI (Artificial Intelligence) based systems to “significantly” enhance the customer experience and streamline support processes across the Group. For example, EE’s (mobile) new virtual assistant, Aimee, now handles up to 60,000 customer conversations per week. The group’s adoption of “advanced AI and generative AI technologies” is being conducted in collaboration with Sprinklr, which has supplied BT with their unified...

Prices aren’t the only thing changing at Openreach (BT) today. The national UK network operator has also revealed that it will be withdrawing some of the “legacy” speed tiers on their Fibre-to-the-Cabinet (FTTC) and Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP + FTTP on Demand) based broadband products for ISPs and their customers. The public briefing summary on this doesn’t provide any useful information, except to confirm that they’re today notifying all Communication Providers (CP) about “legacy speed tiers...

News Here’s a look at the five biggest stories over the last week from our sister publication, Broadband Communities A partnership between T-Mobile and Starlink can move ahead with providing supplemental cell service from space following approval from the FCC, and the industry applauds the latest digital equity grant approvals and passage of the ACCESS Rural America Act.   T-Mobile and Starlink score a win with the FCC The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has approved an application...

News The deal comes with a price tag of $6.5 billion Having been in discussions since May this year, Indonesia’s third- and fourth-largest telcos, XL Axiata and Smartfren, have finally agreed to merge their operations. The deal, valued at around $6.5 billion, will see both parties take a 34.8% stake in the merged entity, with the remaining 30.4% stake being traded publicly. Axiata will receive roughly $400 million as part of the deal. The new company will be called PT XLSmart Telecom Sejahtera...

Network access provider Openreach (BT) has today started to unveil their usual round of annual (2024) price increases across their wholesale broadband and Ethernet products for UK ISPs, which touches on everything from full fibre (FTTP) lines to hybrid fibre (FTTC / SOGEA), Cablelinks and Ethernet, among other products. Ofcom’s regulatory rules (example) currently allow Openreach to increase prices across their various products, usually by the CPI level of inflation (currently 2.3%), although...

News  The agreement will allow Vodafone to offer space-based cellular broadband in both its home and partner markets  AST SpaceMobile has entered into a long-term commercial agreement with Vodafone to provide global broadband access in underserved areas, enabling users to access broadband services directly through their phones.  Under the agreement, Vodafone will incorporate AST SpaceMobile’s space-based cellular broadband services into its home markets and offer these capabilities to other...

Broadband, phone and mobile operator Manx Telecom (MT), which serves premises across the remote Isle of Man, has revealed that they will begin “shutting down” their legacy copper telecoms network in 2025, with the full switch-off completed “no later than” 2029. In case anybody has forgotten. Back in 2020 the Isle of Man Government agreed (here) to invest £10m with MT in order to help them extend the coverage of their gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network to 99% of...

Satellite communications firm Viasat appears to be following Starlink and AST SpaceMobile by successfully demonstrating their own Direct-to-Device (D2D) connectivity, which could allow their broadband satellites to connect with “everyday devices“, like 4G/5G mobile phones, industrial machinery or transport operators. The successful demo of D2D, which took place in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), was fairly simple and sent satellite-enabled two-way messages and SoS messages for attendees at...

UK ISP InternetTY (aka – Internet ThankYou), which in 2020 began deploying a new gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network to “rural and semi-urbanised areas” across Staffordshire and Lincolnshire, has revealed that they now cover around 12,000 premises in North Lincolnshire and Lincolnshire. This is the first update we’ve had from the network operator in a long time, so it’s good to see that their new Point-to-Point style “full fibre” network is still keeping busy. Just...