ISPA Insights Video Interview

Openreach & Zen Internet speak about the Great British Switch Off

ISPA Insights, our series of member video interviews, bring you valuable views and analysis from the booming UK broadband market. In this interview, Andrew Kernahan, ISPA’s Head of Public Affairs, has the pleasure to welcome Juliette Scott, Senior Manager, All IP Migrations from Openreach as well as Andrew Sayle, Broadband Portfolio Manager and Lee Houston, Voice and UC Strategy Portfolio Manager from Zen Internet to speak about the big challenge of the PSTN switch off that will happen in December 2025.

Please check the full interview below and subscribe to our YouTube channel for more interviews in 2022 >>> 

ISPA POLICY UPDATE

Tackling the Barriers to Broadband in Parliament

The long-awaited Product Security and Telecommunications Bill returned to the House of Commons for its second reading, the Bill seeks to introduce reforms to the wayleave process in rural areas as well as introducing specific code rights for upgrading and sharing of apparatus. The Bill passed second reading without a division and will now move to committee stage. Elsewhere, GigaTAG reconvened for a 6-month update on the progress of take-up as well as the recommendations from the report.

Resilience, Resilience, Resilience

The start of 2022 has already proved busy for cyber policy. The Cabinet Office published the first ever Government Cyber Strategy - a plan of action to ensure critical functions across government are significantly hardened to cyber-attacks by 2025, with all Government organisations being resilient to known vulnerabilities and attack methods no later than 2030. Meanwhile DCMS launched two consultations on cyber security incentives and regulation. This includes proposals to expand the scope of 2018 NIS Regulations which the Government suggest is necessary to ensure they remain resilient to technological developments. In Parliament, MPs debated proposals for product security requirements for IoT during the second reading of the Product Security and Telecommunication Bill.

Online safety continue to be a hot issue in parliament

January saw multiple parliamentary debates, questions and reports on online safety. This included a report by the DCMS Committee which was published as part of their inquiry into Online safety and online harms. The Committee put forward a range of recommendations and called for enforcement powers to be specified and future-proofed to ensure they are effective.

ISPA EVENTS

The Parliament & Internet conference will take place in Portcullis house in London on 23rd March from 9am to 1pm, and gather delegates from Government, Parliament, Whitehall, industry and civil society to debate the UK's latest digital policy agenda.

Tickets are free but numbers are limited as we will be following the venue's safety restrictions and priority is given to ISPA members and partners so if you are planning to attend, please secure your ticket now.

Register now for the 2022 Parliament & Internet Conference

ISPA Awards 2022 Launching in February

ISPA Awards 2022 will launch this month. Keep an eye on the future announcements, including the new categories, upgraded entry forms and the new fabulous venue reveal for the awards ceremony in November.

Sponsors of the ISPA Awards 2022

 

          

Save the date for the Business Model Summit - 8th June 2022

ISPA Logo - The Voice of the UK Internet Industry

 

This year's event will once more be in-person and we are very excited to reveal that the summit will take place on 8th June at the offices of our legal member DLA Piper LLP in London. Details will be revealed in the coming weeks and you will be able to book your tickets soon. The tickets will be complimentary for ISPA members.

 

ISPA PARTNERS

Full Fibre Infrastructure Partner

CityFibre enable National FTTH connectivity via a single interconnect location

Following significant investment in its Full Fibre network, CityFibre's new National Access Residential FTTH solution enables partner ISPs to connect nationally at one or more points of interconnect, avoiding the need to invest in a local presence across each fibre exchange. This service provides CityFibre partners with a fast, simple way to serve homes with fibre-to-the-home broadband across the CityFibre footprint.

You can find out more about CityFibre's National Access here.

DDoS Protection Partner

HighNet Finds Corero SmartWall® TDS is the Smart Choice for DDoS Protection

HighNet is a class-leading provider that truly understands the impact that DDoS attacks were having on their network.  Over the past few years, HighNet recognised that DDoS attacks were becoming increasingly sophisticated, and were happening more frequently, thus requiring a solution that could not only detect, but automatically mitigate these attacks, whilst allowing legitimate traffic to flow through as it normally would.

Since HighNet implemented Corero’s SmartWall TDS, they’ve experienced regular — and sometimes repeat — attacks on some of their customers that are quite large in volume, and a few that were of significant duration. “All attacks have been mitigated, so they are happy customers,” said David Alldritt (HighNet’s Technology and Innovation Director). “The Corero SmartWall has handled every DDoS attack that has been thrown at us, so we haven’t had to explore any gaps.”

Download case study

Open Disaggregated Solutions Partner

What does a pint of Guinness have in common with a Data Centre's Carbon Footprint?

Power usage and carbon emissions are high on every company's Sustainability agenda. It turns out scope 3 emissions are not a problem unique to data centres. This video offers practical advice on how the use of open networking solutions and a circular economy can reduce carbon emissions for your business and earn you carbon credits. Oh, and of course answers the toughest question of all: "what does a pint of stout have in common with a data centre?"

Watch the video here.

Damage Prevention Partner 

LSBUD welcomed more than 3.4m searches in 2021

LSBUD, the UK’s leading online safe digging resource, welcomed more than 3.4 million searches for underground pipes and cables through its central system in 2021. This figure is up 13 percent on 2020, showcasing how all industries, particularly the telecoms, water, farming, construction, highways, gas and electricity sectors, are more committed to safe digging than has ever been the case before.

Richard Broome, MD at LSBUD, comments: “In order to approach the 3.5 million milestone, our portal has received a search enquiry every two seconds during the average working day. This is more often than we blink, which is just phenomenal. Clearly, operators from all industry sectors are taking the right steps to avoid the negative consequences that come from hitting an underground asset, chiefly health and safety disasters, plus significant financial and brand implications. It’s such brilliant news that the majority of people involved in digging work are taking note of the fact that this can all be avoided through asset searching.

To know more, please click here: https://lsbud.co.uk/

 

CPE Partners

Identified by IDC as the world’s Number 1 networking manufacturer for 10 consecutive years, TP-Link is at the cutting edge of Wi-Fi technology. With more than 5,000 engineers dedicated to research and development, we deliver blazing fast, reliable Wi-Fi connections to customers in more than 170 countries. The TP-Link Service Provider Whole Home Wi-Fi 6 Mesh System, which features TP-Link Mesh technology and Wi-Fi 6, is made up of multiple units working together seamlessly to immerse homes in powerful Wi-Fi no matter its size or shape.

Getting ready for Gigabit rollout? If you’re looking to deploy Wi-Fi 6 Routers & Mesh within the next six months, please call Kalam Meah at the TP-Link Service Provider Team to talk through all your requirements: kalam.meah@tp-link.com

TV & Smart WiFi Partner 

Netgem TV and WiFi make launching seamless

Following the announcement of Brawband and Box launching with Netgem TV & WiFi and the growing interest in Netgem why are ISP’s turning to Netgem for their TV & Wifi solutions?

One of the reasons is when launching with Netgem TV and Wifi the process is not only seamless it is fast too. The team will provide sales and marketing packs for the sales and customer services teams and provide operational training to the installers and technicians meaning you have a fast and frictionless go to market. We provide everything from smart TV marketing tools (Web plug-ins) to vehicle wrapping designs. We think of everything so you don’t have to.

Find out more email Aziz Head of Business Development on aziz.laouir@netgem.com

Infrastructure Partner

Openreach logo

Salisbury and Mildenhall trials progress

As a reminder the trials are due to end on 16 December 2022.  Migrations are underway, but not currently at the rate required to migrate all active circuits by the closure date.  CPs with active assets in the trial areas should by now be able to consume the appropriate products and have developed their migration plans.  We’ll be moving into our ‘Managed migrations’ phase shortly and this will bring much more focus onto the achievement of each CP’s migration plan.  If CPs require any support they should contact their migration manager, business development manager or customer experience manager.

Digital Services Test Lab
Openreach’s Digital Services test lab opened on 1 November 2021.  The lab is for special services providers and vendors to test their equipment in a multi-CP All IP environment – there are currently six CPs with active circuits in the lab offering FTTP, SOGEA and SOGFAST services. Example special services include telehealth devices, alarms of all types, emergency lift lines and card payment machines.  There’s been a number of vendors performing testing in the lab and as we already have a busy diary for 2022 we encourage all special services providers who’ve not tested their equipment to get in touch to make a booking at: www.openreach.com/upgrading-the-UK-to-digital-phone-lines/industry/digital-services-test-lab

Special Services (vulnerable) trialling
Many of us will know someone we’d consider vulnerable – perhaps old or unwell and who may rely on a special service device for support.  It’s also possible they’re less tech savvy or able to make changes themselves in their homes.  We need to ensure this group of end customers are supported throughout the migration process to All IP.  Openreach has proposed a special services trial to industry – initially focussed on vulnerable end customers – and we want to work with CPs to plan and test the end-to-end migration processes to ensure they’re fit for purpose for the special services sector. We don’t want these migrations to be left to the end of the trials and encourage CPs to contact their migration manager, business development manager or customer experience manager to get involved.

Contract termination in the trial areas
On 12 January 2022, Openreach notified the contract termination of WLR3 services to all CPs with WLR3 assets in trial areas of Salisbury and Mildenhall.  Openreach Portal briefing GEN005/22 refers.  The notification advised the contract will be terminated on 19 April 2023 where it relates to assets in the trial areas.  CPs can request a report on their trial area assets via their migration manager, business development manager or customer experience manager.  Impacted CPs should ensure they take action to migrate WLR3 lines onto other services. If there are specific scenarios of lines that cannot be migrated before the contract termination date, an exemptions process will be implemented to consider formal requests to maintain service.  If CPs have any questions they should get in touch with their business development manager or customer experience manager.

 

CX & Smart WiFi Partner

3 new customer expected essentials for smart home living

Smart home devices aren’t just getting more popular. They’re also creating new customer expectations and transforming the way people work, relax, and learn in their homes. During the pandemic, investments in smart cooking devices grew 60%, wearables and smartwatches 51%, and smart TVs and streaming devices 34%. Read more >

Test & Measurement Partner

Accelerating Full-Fibre Deployment

With so much fibre to deploy, ISPs are challenged with building quickly and with high quality to ensure a robust network that will be reliable for decades to come.

Listen in as to how Openreach are progressing their full-fibre deployment, and how the VIAVI Optical Test Head (ONMSi) technology is helping accelerate the UK’s FTTH rollout.

Listen now>>

ISPA MEMBERSHIP

ISPA welcomes Blue Telecoms and DX Networks as new members

We're a UK based Telecommunications Provider specialising in VoIP and Software Based telephony. We work with public and private sector clients.

Fibre Broadband Provider

Find membership benefits and form to join here

ISPA in the PRESS

In January ISPA Chair Andrew Glover made comments about poor broadband speeds in urban areas despite Government’s gigabit plans that were picked by The Telegraph, ISPReview and iNews.

 

PARTNER EVENTS

ISPA offers its members a variety of discounts for events that we partner with.

White Label Expo UK - 2nd and 3rd March. White Label Expo runs alongside the "Smart Retail Tech" and "Retail Supply Chain and Logistics" Expo and your ticket will allow you to visit all these events.

For more information and discounts please visit our website. If you would like to advertise your events here and on our website, please contact Michaela@ispa.org.uk