Policy Updates

November flew by in a storm of policy and political developments as we race towards the holiday season. Starting with Budget debates (still dominating the headlines) and ending with Starmer’s first Cabinet resignation, Westminster saw protests, divisive debates, a new shadow cabinet, and fundamental shifts in geopolitics.

Most notably for the telecoms sector, on the 14th November Chancellor Rachel Reeves delivered her first Mansion House speech, which included a call to action for tech and telcos to play a greater role in tackling fraud.

Further, the Data (Use and Access) Bill, which will enable measures like the National Underground Asset Register (NUAR) and open communications, passed its second reading in the House, and moves on to Committee Stage on 3rd December.

The Government also made a range of announcements around the PSTN migration, NUAR and Project Gigabit — keeping the sector (and the ISPA policy team) on its toes.

ISPA Policy Work
This month, the policy team submitted two consultation responses — to the Government’s industrial strategy consultation, and the HSE's creosote consultation. 

The Telecoms Poles Working Group is wrapping up work on new guidance around the siting of telecommunications poles, which is due to be submitted to the Minister in December.

If you have not spoken to us about our response to the fourth Adaptation Reporting Power (ARP4), which will give an overview of the resilience of the telecoms sector to climate-related risks, then please get in touch — the report will be submitted before the New Year.

We are currently working on developing ISPA’s position around fraud and non-consensual intimate image abuse (NCII) — please get in touch with any questions.

As always, please get in touch at policy@ispa.org.uk with any questions, or if you have any suggestions for policy issues we should look into

ISPA Partners

Need to connect an MDU from a pole? Altnets offers PIA-approved Ultra Light Weight 8/12F Aerial Drop Cable, manufactured by FIBRAIN for exceptional performance. Lightweight, durable, and easy to install, it's perfect for complex MDU setups. Upgrade your network today—contact Altnets at sales@altnets.co.uk

Boundless service opportunities – unlocking revenue and subscriber loyalty (additional services and benefits)

The Heights Telecom opened software architecture, powered by its containerised software infrastructure, is more than a technical platform. it’s a strategic asset that opens a universe of service opportunities for CSPs, enhancing customer experiences and driving revenue growth. Imagine a network that anticipates and resolves issues before your subscribers even notice. With advanced Wi-Fi optimisation technologies, seamlessly integrated through the orchestration system, this proactive approach becomes a reality. By proactively optimising network performance and troubleshooting issues, you not only ensure a seamless user experience but also free up valuable resources for your teams, translating to significant cost savings and improved operational efficiency. The smart home revolution is in full swing, and your network can be at the heart of it. Your network becomes the backbone of a truly intelligent home, solidifying your brand as a trusted provider of holistic digital solutions and opening new revenue streams.

Enhancing Connectivity in Interconnected Places - 
How can comprehensive OpenWiFi systems deliver a positive impact?

Webinar by ISPAUK and EPS Global

Interconnected places are becoming increasingly important for social and business environments in the UK and globally. Whether it’s a large enterprise environment, hospitality venue or unit with multiple dwellings, access to the internet is fundamental to the activity of the people & businesses within them.

However, this has until now presented a headache for service providers, perhaps most prominently in MDUs and urban not spots, where cost, access and user density make it difficult to deliver comprehensive network environments.

Hear how industry leaders Ask4, ThyssenKrupp Materials Services & Pavlov Media have delivered OpenWiFi systems in commercial and social environments in the UK, across Europe and North America to ensure the delivery of high quality and consistent services to their end consumers, specifically:

• How did they approach the deployment and build?
• What challenges did OpenWiFi solve for them?
• What are the results?

PXC Joins ISPA Community

It’s been an exciting few months for PXC since becoming members of ISPA. In October, we hosted the annual ISPA Conference at our offices in Manchester which saw the joining together of ISPs to discuss ways the industry can work better together. We also took home the award for Best Channel Support at the ISPA Awards, thanks to our impactful support to ISPs through our FTTP infrastructure. We’re really excited to be a part of this community, to be able to share our story and join in with the ISPA mission and are looking forward to the year ahead.

Read more HERE

New Datacenter Challenges from AI Growth

 Growing demand for AI tools and cloud services is leading to the rapid construction of new network infrastructure and data center interconnects.

With a focus on speed and reliability, the installation of high fiber count cables – numbering in the thousands, sometimes millions – creates a critical data transmission between data center campuses and edge networks.

For engineers, this means more fibers to connect, inspect and test. But it doesn't have to mean more time spent per test. See how new advances in fiber inspection and OTDR technology are helping hyperscale engineers at www.viavisolutions.com/supercharge

Industry Insights

ISPA Launches New DE&I Policy 

Flexibility & Stability For Broadband Services With uOLT

Live-Streaming: Future-Proof Your Network and Ease OTT Strain

Genexis and F-Secure Announce Strategic Partnership

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Due to LinkedIn security updates, ISPA has now had to move all our activity, updates and announcements from the ISPA LinkedIn team page to our ISPA UK company page.

Many of you already follow this page but we would ask everyone to please check and if you are not, please sign up to follow ISPA UK on LinkedIn.

This is an important step to ensure you never miss any of our updates, event invites and more...

And lastly, we would like to thank everyone who came to last month's ISPA Awards! We were delighted to see you there, and we hope that you found the evening as much fun as we did. If you would be interested in sponsoring next year's awards, get in touch with krystian@ispa.org.uk

Partner Events

Comms Council UK Lunch - 12th December 2024 - Find out more and register here.

Intelligent Automation Conference Global - 5th and 6th February 2025 - Find out more and register here.

Unified Communications Conference Global - 5th and 6th February 2025 - Find out more and register here.

Channel Live - 19th and 20th March 2025 - Find out more and register here.

Join ISPA's Sister Trade Association CCUK for Christmas!

We would love to cordially invite ISPA partners and members to join us for our sister trade association CCUK's Christmas Lunch, taking place at Gaucho on Thursday 12th December!

Comms Council UK represents and supports telecommunications companies providing services to businesses in the UK.

Members and partners will receive CCUK member rates. If you have any questions following the event, then please reach out to team@commscouncil.uk

CCUK Fraud Summit 2025: Joining the dots on information sharing for the UK communications ecosystem.

Save the date for the inaugural CCUK Fraud Summit, with talks and opportunities for networking. Speakers, topics and exact timing of the event TBC.

Members and partners will receive CCUK member rates. If you have any questions following the event, then please reach out to team@commscouncil.uk

Sponsorship opportunities available, for more information visit HERE.

ISPA Members

Partners of ISPA

ISPA is delighted to announce our newest partner, Aprecomm! Aprecomm provides advanced network management solutions that help service providers enhance and streamline their operations. Their technology focuses on self-healing networks—automated systems that detect and resolve network issues without manual intervention. Aprecomm’s Quality of Experience (QoE) engine is a key part of their offerings, optimising broadband performance to improve user experience.

Additionally, their applications leverage real-time data and artificial intelligence to automate customer support, making it faster and more cost-effective for service providers. With their cloud and AI-powered software, Aprecomm currently manages networks across millions of locations worldwide, serving over 45 service providers.

Learn more about Aprecomm here: https://aprecomm.ai/

Become an ISPA Partner