November Newsletter

New categories for the 2016 ISPAs

To reflect the ongoing development of the industry and market, we have launched three new categories:

• Best Marketing Campaign – For providers who have delivered the best marketing campaign
• Best Cloud Product – For the most innovative and transformational cloud product
• Best CPE Hardware – For vendors who make routers and equipment for consumers.

Entry is free and please contact awards@ispa.org.uk if you have any questions.

Sponsor the 2016 ISPAs

The ISPA Awards is a gala ceremony with 300 senior figures from the dozens of ISPs, hosts, media and other organisations in attendance. Sponsoring a category is a great way to raise your profile with ISPs audience. To learn more please email awards@ispa.org.uk.

20^th Anniversary ISPA Conference discusses future of the Internet industry

The 2015 ISPA Conference, ISPA’s set piece policy event for members and the wider Internet community, took place this month at the BT Tower in London. The Conference had one hundred senior attendees listen and contribute to panels on the Investigatory Powers Bill, broadband rollout, new technology and business Internet, as well as keynotes on ISP cyber-security and rolling out superfast. There were lively discussions on how to fund a USO for broadband, the status of Openreach and insightful presentations on the DDoS threat faced by ISPs and new products like G.FAST and 5G. ISPA members received a summary of the Conference and for a rundown of what was said, please go here, here or see the #ISPA15 hashtag. Many thanks to Openreach for hosting and to Arista, Corero, Venus, Xantato and Yaana for their support.

ISPA outlines concerns on Investigatory Powers Bill

ISPA responded to the publication of the Investigatory Powers Bill which came before Parliament in November. ISPA supports the idea of replacing several outdated laws with a single piece of legislation and a single, stronger Commissioner to head up oversight, however questions remain about the exact definition of an ‘Internet Connection Record’ and the status of the ‘request filter’. ISPA has been working with members to fully understand the requirements and will be giving evidence to the Joint Committee next week. ISPA Chair James Blessing (CTO, Keycom) and Council member Matthew Hare (Chief Executive, Gigaclear) also gave evidence to the Science and Technology Committee on the technical aspects of the Investigatory Powers Bill, outlining the technical challenges of the Bill as well as costs, equipment needed to store data, and cyber-security concerns.

Reducing Peering Costs using Merchant Silicon

Arista is at the forefront of innovation of the modern Cloud Data Centre, is a market leader and is widely deployed at 7 of the 8 largest cloud companies. Arista pioneered the use of merchant silicon to address the challenges of scaling performance whilst reducing footprint and power. This approach, coupled with an operating system uniquely designed to be open, extensible, resilient and highly serviceable, has enabled these organisation's to embrace true automation and provide the most highly agile, dynamic and cost effective market offerings available today Arista continues to look for new applications where this model can also be leveraged. High-speed Internet routers are very expensive, low density and power hungry. Netflix, Spotify and Equinix are now using Arista switches for internet peering worldwide. The next generation of merchant silicon is due in early 2016 which will further position traditional switches as real alternatives to expensive routers.

Xantaro

Xantaro is a vendor-independent Service Integrator focusing on carrier-class networks and services, cloud infrastructures and orchestration. Being the single point of contact towards numerous international technology leaders, Xantaro supports its customers locally in the sustained development of business critical networks and high-performance services, across technological and corporate boundaries. The long lasting experience and the multilateral know-how of its in-house technology experts is concentrated by Xantaro into the core competence of "Service Integration": Through a useful combination of existing and/or new network components and technologies within an end-to-end services portfolio, tailored solutions are evolved. From network planning, design and proof-of-concept through delivery, installation and implementation to operational support and maintenance services.

ISPA seeks clarity on broadband USO

The Prime Minister announced Government plans to take forward a 10Mbits Universal Service Obligation and whilst ISPA shares the goal of achieving universal access to broadband, ISPs need detail on how it will be funded and the impact on competition. Our press release can be read here.

ISPA meeting with MPs on broadband and Internet policy

As part of its ongoing engagement of MPs in the new Parliament, ISPA has met with MPs from across the UK to discuss the broadband market, rural rollout and how to foster investment in networks.

Broadband in the Spending Review

In the Autumn Statement and Spending Review, there was a pledge to investigate a new ‘Broadband Investment Fund’ to get superfast broadband to the hardest to reach areas. ISPA will be consulting with the Department of Culture, Media and Sport and members to understand what the fund could mean for members.

Huawei, Surf and Stream join ISPA

ISPA would like to welcome Huawei, Surf Telecoms and  Stream Networks to the association.

ISPA in the press

The Investigatory Powers Bill and the broadband USO led ISPA's media coverage with ISPA featuring in The Guardian, Daily Mirror, Computing, The Register, V3 and more. Our full coverage is here.

Deals for members

ISPA members get a range of discounts and deals at external events and conferences. A list of upcoming events is here.