Policy Update
ISPA engages with Government on Online Safety
ISPA closely followed the Online Safety Bill as it began its pre legislative journey, with the Joint Committee hearing evidence from a wide range of witnesses. The sessions sparked important conversations on themes such as anonymity, the role of Ofcom as Online harms regulator and how best to define and address illegal vs harmful content. As well as following the Committee, ISPA responded to their call for views on the draft Bill. A consultation response was also submitted to the DCMS Sub-Committee which recently launched an inquiry into Online Safety and Online Harms.
ISPA was pleased to host a round table discussion between Government and members on the draft Bill. A session was also held to update Government on the impacts of the latest and emerging technologies on ISPs.
Return of the Telecoms Security Bill
The Telecoms Security Bill will resume its journey through the House of Lords on 19th October. The Report Stage and Third reading will see the Lord's debate and propose amendments to the Bill, before it moves back to the House of Commons. Baroness Barran who as Lords DCMS spokesperson oversaw the Bill through the recent Committee stage, has now moved to the Department for Education and will be replaced by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay. ISPA continued to meet with DCMS and industry to discuss the Bill and next steps.
Broadband Terminology and Use Cases are a key focus
The ISPA secretariat attended Ofcom’s first roundtable discussion on terminology and use cases. The discussions follow the GigaTAG report’s recommendations that Ofcom and Industry should adopt a common set of terms and use cases to describe broadband products. Elsewhere, the ISPA secretariat continued with their ongoing MP engagement discuss gigabit roll out, the barriers to broadband and reform of the Electronic Communications Code. The ISPA secretariat also responded to the Broadband APPG’s inquiry on Electronic Communication Code and gave evidence during a virtual evidence session.
ISPA EVENTS
The Future of wholesale & retail ISP models
20 October, 10.30am to 12.30pm – Hopin
ISPA is very pleased to welcoming you to the final of its three ISP Business Model webinars on 20 October to explore the future wholesale and retail ISP models.
The broadband market continues to evolve and innovate with increased choice in wholesale networks as the established national networks are being complemented by newer independent networks offering wholesale services and new opportunities for retail ISPs. The F20 gigabit subsidy scheme will only increase wholesale options with its open access obligations for those that help deliver the programme. Come and join us to discuss:
- How different networks will work together in the future?
- What makes a successful wholesale network?
- What are service providers looking for from their wholesale partner?
- How retail ISPs can monetize new services and stand out in a very competitive market?
The confirmed speakers include:
- Andrew Wilson, Head of Wholesale and Carrier, CityFibre
- Mark Wiseman, Chief Commercial Officer, Connectus
- Radek Ziemba, Business Development Director, Fibrain
- David Alldritt, Technology & Innovation Director, HighNet Telecoms
- Shan Eisenberg, Chief Commercial Officer, Netgem TV & WiFi
- Mikael Sandberg, Chairman, VX Fibre
And more to be announced very soon...
Book your complimentary seat today here
The event is kindly sponsored by
Join us for the ISPA’s 23rd Annual Awards Ceremony next month!
We are happy to host our annual ISPA Awards ceremony in person again! The winners of the 23rd annual ISPAs will be announced on 4th November from 7pm at the Sheraton Grand Park Lane hotel on Piccadilly in London. There are only a limited number of tickets left so if you plan to attend, please book your tickets today to avoid the disappointment!
The ISPA Awards is the longest running and most prestigious awards for the UK’s ISP industry. You can find the list of the finalists here.
The event is a black tie and the evening includes entertainment, a gala awards ceremony and a three course meal with wine.
You can purchase individual tickets or make savings on purchasing tables for 10. ISPA Awards and ISPA Awards finalists can also purchase special discounted tickets. *
*We continue to monitor Government announcements and advice regarding the events planning to ensure the safest possible event for all and if we are forced to cancel the event your tickets will be refunded.
Book your tickets for the awards ceremony here
ISPA Awards 2021 sponsors
Would you like to sponsor the awards? Click here
ISPA PARTNERS
Full Fibre Infrastructure Partner
CityFibre, the UK’s largest independent Full Fibre platform, has recently confirmed it has secured £1.125bn in its latest capital raise. The financing, which is the largest capital raise ever dedicated to Full Fibre deployment in the UK, will support and accelerate CityFibre’s rollout to a third of the UK market by 2025.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: “The Government is committed to making high-speed broadband available for every part of the UK, and this exciting investment will turbocharge the UK’s full-fibre rollout. It will revolutionise people’s lives and generate huge economic benefits, jobs and growth.
“The UK is open for business and attracting investments like this as a high-value, high-growth science superpower, specialising in industries of the future.”
Greg Mesch, Chief Executive Officer of CityFibre, said: “We’re thrilled to announce the completion of a £1.125bn capital raise, the largest ever secured to support the UK’s Full Fibre future. This new capital will not only underpin our rollout to up to 8m homes across 285 cities, towns and villages, but will also enable our participation in the Government’s ‘Project Gigabit’ programme to extend our future-proof infrastructure to rural areas and ensure no one is left behind.
“This capital raise is proof of the benefits of a truly competitive infrastructure market, as envisaged by both Government and Ofcom. If nurtured and protected, infrastructure competition at scale will continue to unleash huge investment from the private sector as well as catalyse investment from incumbent operators. Ultimately though, it is residents, businesses and the UK economy that stand to benefit, with competition driving what has become the fastest rollout of Full Fibre in Europe.”
As its rollout has continued to scale, CityFibre has become the network of choice for many consumer Internet Service Providers, securing long-term volume commitments from Vodafone, TalkTalk and Zen, as well as mobile operator 3UK. Work to integrate and enable the ISPs over CityFibre’s full national footprint is underway.
CityFibre also currently supports 24 smaller regional consumer ISPs dedicated to Full Fibre broadband services, alongside over 1,800 business ISPs and resellers. Services are now live in 46 locations and CityFibre is exploring opportunities to participate in Building Digital UK’s (BDUK) ‘Project Gigabit’ rural programme.
Open Disaggregated Solutions Partner
How to Build Flexibility into your Network at the Cell Site Gateway
We’d like to invite you to the latest in our It’s Open Networking Webinar Series: How Service Providers Use DCSGs to Build Flexibility into their Network, together with UfiSpace.
This webinar will provide insights into why telecom service providers are beginning their open disaggregation journey at the cell site with disaggregated cell site gateways (DCSGs), and the benefits achieved. We will delve into exactly how DCSGs are being utilized by reviewing some use cases from live telecom deployments around the world.
Not to be missed, this webinar will answer questions like:
- What is a Disaggregated Cell Site Gateway, why is it the best place to begin disaggregating your network, and how hard is it to implement?
- How can it enable 5G?
- What options are available for implementing a cell site gateway router?
- How other telcos and ISPs are using cell site gateways in their network and the benefits they’re seeing.
October 7th 2021, 2pm UK
(if this time doesn't suit, register anyway and we'll send you the on-demand recording afterwards).
Our speakers include Ray Chang, Director of Research & Development at UfiSpace and Barry McGinley, Senior Systems Engineer at EPS Global, joining us from Taiwan and Dublin.
We hope you can make it.
Fibre Technologies Partner
Fibrain FBG series are filters that reflect 1625 nm wavelength and transmit other wavelengths (1310 nm, 1490 nm, 1550 nm). They are used to enable monitoring of an active network with an OTDR using the 1625 nm wavelength. OTDR measurements of the whole optical link from the OLT to the ONT are difficult because of the presence of multiport splitters (that from the point of view of the OTDR are a large point attenuation) and because of large spatial resolution required. Application of 1625 nm reflectors is an efficient and cost-effective way to decrease the required dynamic range of the used OTDR. The FBG 1625 nm reflectors are a basic method of implementation of optical layer monitoring on the whole length of a FTTx network from the OLT to the ONT in real time.
If you are interested in Monitoring in Fiber-Optic Networks, we invite you to read our whitepaper here: https://pon.fibrain.com/pobierz/429 , in which advantages of power monitoring ports in xWDM networks (CWDM, DWDM, 10G PON, NG PON, etc.) are described.
Find out more! → https://pon.fibrain.com/produkty/ and contact us at p.golubski@fibrain.com
TV & Smart WiFi Partner
Netgem TV at Connected Britain
Netgem TV were proud to support Connected Britain which took place in September at the Business Design Centre in London. It was great meet (face to face!) so many growing Altnets as well as mature Telcos, new networks oscillating between open access and ISP (or hybrid) models.
We were showcasing how ISP’s can add £100 value to each and every one of their customers through partnering with us as well as demonstrating Netgem TV and Super Wifi products available. Thank you to all those that came by our stand. If you missed the event because you were focussed on your rollout, good for you, it’s not too late to reach out to us at contact@netgem.co.uk
Infrastructure Partner
Openreach to waive connection fees for low-income households that aren’t connected to its broadband network
- Free superfast broadband installations for low-income households not currently using the Openreach network
Openreach has delivered extra support to low-income households by offering to waive superfast broadband connection fees for any customers who aren’t currently connected to its network and receive Universal Credit with no other earnings.
A recent report from Ofcom, the industry regulator, highlighted that households across the UK which don’t take communications services due to affordability problems “are likely to experience the greatest harm” and explained that a decent broadband connection can provide “better access to education and employment opportunities, as well as wider benefits such as social inclusion”.
Openreach’s new ‘Connect the Unconnected’ offer is therefore designed to help those most at risk - an estimated one million people throughout the country. It will enable Communications Providers (CPs) who connect new eligible customers to benefit from up to £92 of savings on installation charges for Openreach’s broadband service offering download speeds of 40 megabits per second and, on a trial basis, selected higher speed tiers
Such services are capable of supporting all manner of online activities including messaging, access to cloud services, video calls and streaming multiple HD movies simultaneously.
Click here to continue reading....
CX & Smart WiFi Partner
Do devices make the right connectivity choices?
Even the smartest devices need help to ensure that they deliver a fully optimized Quality of Experience (QoE), whatever the prevailing in-home network conditions. Congestion, interference, and load all combine to create their own unique challenges—one of the ways that Plume maintains QoE is by steering devices to the best access point (AP) and WiFi band to maintain capacity and throughput:
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- Steering is critical: During the year ending August 31, 2021, we carried out 206 billion total steering events in smart homes and small businesses across our cloud
- Devices behave differently: Smartphones, smartwatches, and cameras need to be more frequently optimized with an average of 6.0, 5.5, and 3.5 steers per day in August 2021
- Steering is complex: looking across a range of common devices, Apple iPhone 11 requires a higher proportion of band only steering (45%), while Amazon's Fire TV Cube requires more AP only steering
ISPA MEMBERSHIP
Lightspeed joins ISPA
Lightspeed are bringing ultra-fast, full fibre broadband into over 1 million homes in the East of England.
Find membership benefits and form to join here
PARTNER EVENTS
ISPA offers its members a variety of discounts for events that we partner with.
2nd Edition MarketsandMarkets Competitive and Market Intelligence Virtual Excellence Series-EU - 7th and 8th October
Working From Home Live - 24th and 25th November, register for your free tickets!
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