ISPA Feature
Looking ahead to policy in 2023
The coming year is set to continue to be a busy year in Parliament for internet and broadband regulation. The Online Safety Bill is set to continue its legislative journey in Parliament, after the legislation was paused a number of times last year with previous Governments seeking to amend the Bill.
Net neutrality is set to become a key focus of the year with Ofcom consulting on measures to change existing rules. However, any changes to the core regulations would be a matter for the UK Government and Parliament.
The rollout to achieve Government targets for 99.9% coverage of Gigabit capable broadband by 2030 continues at pace. Prior to Christmas, the Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure Bill received Royal Assent, the next steps before full implementation of the Bill is secondary legislation for key elements of the legislation which we expect to begin this year. Elsewhere, the Government may seek to address the other barriers to rollout including street and road works, permitting and visa for telecoms workers.
ISPA Partners
TP-Link unveils new Wi-Fi 7 products at CES 2023 - Earning two CES Innovation Awards
TP-Link, a leading global provider of consumer and business networking technology, exhibited its complete suite of Wi-Fi 7 products for home and enterprise networking at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2023. TP-Link won two CES Innovation Awards at the show for its Deco BE95 Whole Home Mesh Wi-Fi 7 System and Archer GE800 – TP-Link's first Wi-Fi 7 gaming router with true 10G.
As the world's first vendor to release a full Wi-Fi 7 product line for the home, enterprise, and ISP networking markets, TP-Link is at the forefront of unlocking the potential of this cutting-edge technology. Having already debuted a range of solutions at its exclusive Wi-Fi 7 launch event, the company expanded its range at CES 2023 by unveiling new Wi-Fi 7 range extenders, 5G Wi-Fi 7 routers, XGS-PON Wi-Fi 7 routers, Aginet Wi-Fi 7 routers for the ISP market, and Whole Home Mesh Wi-Fi 7 products to an audience of global media and consumers.
Will Lui, Managing Director at TP-Link UK, comments: “TP-Link aspires to deliver reliability in everything we do and create a lifestyle that is simple, smart, and connected for everyone. We look forward to seeing our customers empower their work, gaming, and social lives with our cutting-edge Wi-Fi 7 products.” Learn more about the CES 2023 here.
CityFibre and Vodafone deliver first 2Gbps residential trial
CityFibre, the UK’s largest independent full fibre platform, has successfully completed a trial of 2Gbps residential services in York with its launch partner Vodafone. The trial was made possible by CityFibre’s recent upgrade of its York network to XGS-PON access technology, due to be rolled out as standard across its network from April THIS YEAR. The 2Gbps service paves the way for the introduction of residential and business services at symmetrical speeds of up to 10Gbps across its entire footprint in the future.
Michael Greening, Product Director at CityFibre, said: “After a successful trial, we’re a major step closer to bringing multi-gig full fibre services to millions of homes across the country. But at 2Gbps, we’re barely scratching the surface of our network’s capabilities. Thanks to our XGS-PON upgrade programme, we’ll be able to offer symmetrical speeds of up to 10Gbps in the future.” Read the full story here.
Viavi - United in possibility
At VIAVI, we’re united in possibility –as a team, with our partners, and with our customers. From fibre and 5G networks to 3D sensing, we enable tomorrow’s technology, becoming partners for the journey to what’s next. All underpinned by our unparalleled knowledge, reputation for quality, and refreshingly human way of working. We’ll remove barriers, every step of the way, and bring new frontiers within reach.
LSBUD renews its offer to the ISPA community
LSBUD is delighted to renew its partnership with ISPA for the coming year. With fast growing Membership overall and particularly from the fibre sector, LSBUD is firmly established as the UK’s safe digging service.
A record breaking 3.8 million searches were made on LSBUD during 2022. Asset owners who are Members of LSBUD were reported as affected / not affected on every one of those searches. For affected searches the Members plans were provided within minutes, helping excavators to work safely.
LSBUD is pleased to extend our partner offer to ISPA Members for a further year. This includes heavily discounted fees and free analysis of how much digging activity has been taking place around each network.
Please see https://www.ispa.org.uk/lsbud-offer/ for more.
ISPA Events
The Internet Service Providers' Association (ISPA) is delighted to launch our 16th annual Parliament and Internet Conference, held on the 29th March 2023 from 2pm to 6pm.
The 2023 Parliament and Internet Conference, hosted in Attlee Suite, Portcullis House, Westminster - will welcome 150 industry representatives, MPs, key stakeholders in government departments and regulators to discuss areas of focus for the UK internet sector, including governance, regulation and future market progression.
This year’s conference offers a diversity of conversation with net neutrality, gigabit deployment, online safety and the UK regulatory landscape all gaining increased visibility and scrutiny in 2023. Attendees will be able to gain key insights from policy makers and leading industry representatives on where next for the governance of the UK internet landscape.
Through a variety of in-depth panel discussions and keynote speakers, Parliament & Internet will provide a vehicle for industry and government to come together to discuss the buoyant UK internet sector as it progresses to its fibre rollout targets and works towards levelling up the UK. Places are limited and ISPA members will get preference tickets if the event is sold out. Register here.
Gigabit capable fibre rollout has continued to accelerate, with the latest figures showing availability to 3 out of 4 households and full fibre inching closer to half the country.
However, while premises are being passed, uptake of gigabit services are still lagging behind - figures from earlier in 2022 only showed a 12.4% uptake in the 11,500,000 of FTTP premises passed in the UK. Understandably, the priority has been on upgrading infrastructure and the physical parts of deploying networks. This presents questions for providers that have been primarily focused on the build of better fibre networks – how to convert premises passed into sustainable business models with more connections, how to grow your customer base and increase revenue, what additional services can be offered and as speed alone is no longer a differentiator how to compete against high-profile household name brands.
The latest ISPA ‘industry in-focus’ webinar will seek to answer these questions with insights from leading sector stakeholders. Hear the opinion of mature US ISP providers about their journey through the customer acquisition process after their full fibre build and listen to UK ISPs about why they have chosen to introduce Revenue Edge technology to navigate the current transitional market period. Finally, leading marketing and executive representatives from across industry will discuss their views on the future and what strategies they will be implementing to ensure their organisation converts premises passed to premises connected.
The session will be hosted as a lunch and learn; and we are delighted to announce Calix will provide an UberEats voucher to all who attend for the duration of the webinar.
Please note that only those who register and attend for the duration will be able to access the webinar and receive their 'Lunch and Learn' voucher. Register here.
7 predictions for the Field Service Industry for 2023
Partner Events
ISPA offers its members a variety of discounts for events that we partner with:
Communications Technology Expo - 15th and 16th March at ExCel London
Connected North - 17th -18th April, Manchester Central
IoT Tech Expo - 30th November - 1st December, Olympia, London
ISPA Partners 2023
