Broadband, social tariffs and the cost of living
With the cost-of-living crisis importing significant financial constraints on UK households, the price we pay for broadband has rightly come under broader public scrutiny. Till Sommer, Head of Policy, Internet Service Providers’ Association (ISPA) discusses why the broadband market cannot be seen as just another utility and how the sector has responded to the challenge of the cost-of-living crisis....
ISPA POLICY UPDATE
One step closer to easier access to property and land for gigabit capable rollout
The Product Security and Telecommunications Bill has completed its final stages in the House of Lords and has returned to the House of Commons for consideration of the Lord’s amendments. The House of Lords amended the Bill to include access to poles above ground for pre-2017 wayleaves to allow the flying of fibre. Once the amendments have been scrutinised by the House of Commons and, either accepted or rejected, the Bill will receive Royal Assent. In addition, Government has now laid two Statutory Instruments for the Telecommunications Infrastructure (Leasehold Property) Act Regulations outlining the time limits and conditions and the terms for agreement. The new regulations will come into force in England and Wales on 26th December 2022 and in Scotland on 1st July 2023. Together these pieces of legislation will be a significant step for the rollout of gigabit capable broadband.
Online Safety Bill delayed
Following the change in Government, the Online Safety Bill has been delayed once more as the new Government assess the proposed changes in the Bill. The delay has been widely criticised by online safety groups who are now calling for a clear time for the Bill to return to the House of Commons.
Cyber everywhere
Reflecting the importance of cyber security across all economic sectors and society as a whole, we are seeing more and more cyber legislation and regulation coming down the track. While some of these initiatives, like the Telecoms Security Regulations, are rightly aimed at our sector, others extend to Telecoms without much thought. We will continue to inform policy makers on the approach on issues such as the cyber duty to protect or new financial regulations.
ISPA EVENTS
ISPA Awards
24th November, The Landmark Hotel, London
We revealed the shortlist for the Digital Inclusion Award, in partnership with leading digital inclusion charity Good Things Foundation, this week. The finalists are:
- Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA)
- Libertie Project
- Plymouth Digital Inclusion Network
- Wildanet
ISPA will be fundraising in aid of Good Things Foundation during the awards ceremony, attendees should look out for the JustGiving donate code on their tables and encourage everyone who can to donate. Everyone who wishes to donate already, please click here.
You can find the full shortlist here. The winners will be unveiled at the gala awards ceremony on November 24th at the Landmark Hotel, Marylebone, London. The event is now nearly sold out, only a few tickets are remaining so if you plan to attend, please book them here.
Thank you to the sponsors of the ISPA Awards 2022
Re-watch ISPA's latest business model webinar - Capitalising on the FTTH opportunity
Deployment of ‘gigabit capable’ broadband continues to progress, with almost 70% able to access gigabit capable broadband and nearly 40% FTTP. While deployment continues at pace attention is focusing on how service providers can make the most of the investment, help customers to upgrade to often more expensive packages and achieve further funding in a crowded market. With issues like take-up, customer retention, subscriber experience, value add and ARPU at the fore, this webinar heard from vendors and providers who are helping meet the expectations placed on industry.
This impactful one-hour webinar explored
- Leveraging data to better understand and serve your customers
- Happier customers by reducing inefficiencies and improving services
- Improving the overall subscriber experience with value added services
Speakers Included:
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- Vicky Higgin, Chief Digital & Information Officer, CityFibre
- Jason Moore, CEO, RouteThis
- Joshua Greedy, Head of Marketing and Business Development, Air Broadband
- Oliver Johnson, CEO, Point Topic
- Andrew Kernahan, Head of Public Affairs, ISPA
ISPA PARTNERS
Network and Connectivity Partner
ITS Technology Group (ITS) has selected the Adtran open and disaggregated 10G fibre access platform to future-proof its growing wholesale network in the UK, known in the marketplace as “Faster Britain.” Adtran provides ITS with a flexible solution that makes it easy to deploy, scale and surpass the diverse and ever-changing needs of a growing wholesale partner community
Learn more in this latest press release
Subscriber Experience Partner
Connexin Subscribers Break Free of Monopolised Internet With Calix’s End-to-End
Connexin is currently rolling out fibre throughout Hull and the wider East Riding of the Yorkshire region. Connexin’s network is one of the first in the UK to be built over an existing fullfibre network. Calix understood Connexin’s priorities to offer a well-rounded broadband access experience with convenience and control to Hull’s residents.
Full Fibre Infrastructure Partner
CityFibre's Vicky Higgin Talks of Simple Switching at ISPA Business Model Webinar
CityFibre, the UK’s largest, independent, fibre-only platform, recently welcomed Vicky Higgin to the executive team as its new Chief Digital & Information Officer. Recognising the opportunity CityFibre has to futureproof its IT framework and offer customers a level of service they can’t find elsewhere, Vicky quoted “I am looking forward to working with every team at CityFibre and placing IT enablement at the heart of our future-thinking mindset.”
At the ISPA Business Model Webinar held last month, focused on ‘Capitalising on the FTTH opportunity’, Vicky spoke about CityFibre’s ambition to use data intelligently to enhance the customer experience. “We want to make everything simple for the customer. We believe the switch to full fibre should be as simple as a software upgrade, with a smooth and rapid install process. This is what our partners and their customers want.”
Read more in a recent CityFibre blog
DDoS Protection Partner
DDoS protection as a service as an additional revenue stream
Have you considered how offering DDoS protection as a service could give you that extra edge?
Our customer Cloudvider ,a global cloud infrastructure provider, said:
“We definitely stopped losing customers; we can retain customers now because we offer top-notch DDoS protection. And, we’re also gaining new customers because they had previous experience with Corero’s solution and were satisfied with it.”
Would you like to learn more about DDoS mitigation service that will give you:
- the peace of mind not to be the next organisation on the news as a cyber victim
- additional revenue by offering it as a service
- an easy to manage 98% automated solution that your IT team will not complain about.
Chat about this in more detail with the Corero team
Open Disaggregated Solutions Partner
Open Networking 101: Your Questions Answered
Open Networking has been growing in relevancy due to pandemic-related supply chain issues. Some organizations who may have previously disregarded it are now finding it to be a viable market alternative as it offers shorter lead times, more flexibility in network deployments and significant cost reduction. But in essence what is Open Networking? What are the benefits and indeed drawbacks of this approach? Over the past 12 episodes of The Critical Lowdown podcast we have brought you insights and testimonials from the world of Open Networking. Today we'll be answering the web's most frequently asked questions as well as questions submitted by our listeners.
Damage Prevention Partner
Searching for pipes, cables and fibre at record-breaking levels
Record-breaking numbers of people in the UK are checking for underground pipes, cables and fibre before they start digging projects.
There were over 33,500 new registrations on LSBUD’s central search portal between January and September. This represents an 18 percent increase over the same time period last year and is 37 percent up on 2020, highlighting how much more committed the UK has become to safe digging.
Reflecting this momentum, the number of actual search enquiries is on the rise too. There have already been 2,828,562 search requests placed in 2022, which equates to more than 314,250 enquires passing through LSBUD’s portal each month. This is a 12 percent increase on 2021, and a 25 percent rise on 2020.
Get in touch with the LSBUD team
CPE Partners
Linksys announces new partner BeFibre
Linksys and BeFibre have recently announced their partnership to provide UK customers with leading-edge connectivity through reliable mesh Wi-Fi solutions.
Next year, the hardware firm will supply alt-net, BeFibre, with its MX4200 Wi-Fi 6 router – which features mesh technology, capable of delivering wi-fi speeds of 4.2Gbps, within a range of up to 2,700 sq. ft. and to over 40+ devices. This announcement comes as a great addition to BeFibre’s existing partnerships with router providers who enable homes with best-in-class wi-fi technology.
Read more about the partnership
TP-Link Launches TAUC — A Client-Level Wi-Fi Management Solution for ISPs
TP-Link, the leading global provider of consumer and business networking products launches the TP-Link Aginet Unified Cloud (TAUC) solution for Internet Service Providers. As the next-generation of Wi-Fi management solutions, TAUC offers a flexible and powerful management platform for Service Providers, based on the TR-369 protocol USP cloud server and its agile API integration.
ISPs can centrally manage all supported Wi-Fi routers, xDSL modem routers, xPON routers, and 4G/5G routers from one single interface. The innovative mesh topology design and radar coverage charts offer instant Wi-Fi and network analysis, letting you monitor a subscriber’s network performance with data updated every minute. ISPs can easily reduce their operational costs without on-site technical support and improve their net-promoter/customer satisfaction metrics.
Get in touch with the ISP team to learn more about our ISP and Business products & solutions:
Kalam Meah
ISP Director
TP-Link UK & Ireland
Mobile: +44 7802 466 121
Email: kalam.meah@tp-link.com
TV & Smart WiFi Partner
6 TV Industry Key Trends brought to you by Netgem TV
If you are thinking about bundling entertainment with fibre or if you just want to gather some insights on the TV industry, here are some numbers you might want to look at.
Netgem is happy to share this free downloadable infographic with you.
Get your free infographic here
Infrastructure Partner
WLR Withdrawal in the Trials – 6 Months to Go
Openreach has written to Communications Providers (CPs) as it prepares to shut down and withdraw old analogue products in the two trial areas – Salisbury and Mildenhall in Spring 2023.
The business is supporting CP customers throughout the migration to new digital services and has written to those impacted within the trial areas to check they’re ready for when the old analogue network (WLR3) services are finally switched off on April 19, 2023.
When the trials end, CPs with end customers still connected to WLR3 services where Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) is available, but who haven’t been switched to a digital service and aren’t exempt from migration, could lose their service. Openreach is keen to work closely with those CPs to help them avoid this.
CPs have been asked to provide Openreach with a with a second forecast and identify all WLR assets they believe are exempt from migrations. CPs who haven’t stuck to provided forecasts or don’t submit one will be reviewed and may see their customers being contacted by Openreach to advise they could lose service unless their provider takes action.
No end customer should be left behind and Openreach want to support CPs. Further information on the All IP Programme can be found here, you can also subscribe to the Openreach newsletter here.
CX & Smart WiFi Partner
Personalized smart services pioneer
Plume announced the launch of Uprise™, the world's first cloud- and AI-powered connectivity and management solution designed to meet the unique needs of Multi-Dwelling Units (MDUs)—including apartments, multifamily, and other high-density living spaces—with high capacity, reliable and secure services. The new suite of services extends the benefits of Plume's field proven HomePass™ and WorkPass™ suites to the MDU market, enabling property managers and Communications Service Providers (CSPs) to provide highly personalized customer experiences while reducing costs through unmatched hardware choice and lower CAPEX.
Test & Measurement Partner
Field Service Management Partner
The Elusive Upside of Capacity Management
Capacity management can be a powerful tool to help field service organizations forecast, plan, utilize, and automate their resources. Done right, it can go a long way to address the 20-30% of the losses that stem from glitches and surprises in the planning process.
But many of the tools for field service management focus on more familiar challenges, like scheduling. What would the right capacity management solution look like? Zinier offers a preview of the ideal capacity management application.
ISPA IN THE PRESS
In October, our comments were included in The Telegraph and Telecom
PARTNER EVENTS
ISPA offers its members a variety of discounts for events that we partner with:
We are a media partner with Working From Home event, which is part of the The Business Show on 16th and 17th November, tickets are free and you can book them here.
TechEx Global Conference & Exhibition is taking place on 1st and 2nd December at Olympia in London. ISPA members can claim 20% discount, using the code ISPA20
Communication Technology Expo, taking place on 15th and 16th March 2023 at ExCel London. You can register here.
If you would like to advertise your events, please contact Michaela@ispa.org.uk