ISPA FEATURE
The Importance of Protecting Assets when Building Fibre Infrastructure
Britain is undergoing a digging boom.
The race to lay fibre, the electric vehicle infrastructure roll out, mains replacement and upgrades - plus a myriad of other excavating activities - mean that the utility assets that lay in situ are under greater threat of damage than ever before.
Fibre, often the latest asset to be installed, is usually the shallowest asset in the ground. This means that it will be the first to be damaged by poorly planned or executed digging.
With more than 150 ISPs in a highly competitive field racing to connect the UK’s homes to full fibre networks, the volume of works underway and planned over the next 3-4 years is huge. More excavations bring with them an ever increasing risk of third party damage- both for those doing the works and for the ever-increasing assets in situ. Maintaining connection by protecting both the new assets and those already in the ground is of paramount importance in keeping those new customers happy. Making the people who plan and undertake these works aware of the presence of assets before they start work is key to reducing avoidable third party damages.
It was noted at the ISPA Business Summit that the only time a customer notices their Wi-Fi is when it stops working. There is a real injustice when an outage is caused by third party damage as the customer immediately blames their service provider. The service provider, meanwhile, is highly likely to have done nothing wrong, but been the unfortunate victim of a carelessly placed digger bucket or spade. Maintaining connectivity (meaning happy customers) will clearly be a critical differentiator when customers choose their new providers.
It is very hard to change the customer’s reaction, so the emphasis must fall on trying to reduce the instances of third party damage. Combining fibre assets with gas, electricity and other assets through a service such as LSBUD can achieve just that. Making that excavator aware of the fibre’s presence before they go to site is a vital first step in stopping that asset from being damaged. ISPA Members which have already chosen this approach include Voneus, Gigaclear, Jurassic Fibre, Box Broadband, EXA Infrastructure, Gamma, NYnet (see brief case study example in the full article) and Wildanet.
ISPA POLICY UPDATE
ISPA policy look ahead
September will see either Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak elected by Conservative Party Members as the new Party leader and thus Prime Minister resulting in a new Government. Whilst there is significant speculation in the press it is very likely that there will be a brand-new Ministerial team in DCMS.
The Data Protection and Digital Information Bill is set to have it’s second reading on the 5th September when the House of Commons returns from Recess while the Product Security and Telecommunications Bill is likely to return to the House of Lords for Report Stage and Third Reading in October, following the conference recess. The fate of the Online Safety Bill continues to remain unclear until a new Prime Minister and Secretary of State are announced.
ISPA EVENTS
ISPA Awards 2022
Finalists Revealed
Enter the Digital Inclusion Award
Book your tickets for the awards ceremony
The 24th annual ISPA awards is set to be the biggest one yet. On the 24th November 2022 the annual awards will be held at a new venue, the prestigious The Landmark Hotel, Marylebone, London, with 400 guests expected on the night.
The shortlist was revealed at the start of the month. Thirty-five providers have been nominated across ten different categories, with three further category shortlists to be unveiled later in the year.
Exa Networks once again scored the highest number of nominations with four, but Community Fibre, Giganet, KCOM and Ogi are all hot on their heels with three nominations each, and a further five companies are all nominated for two awards. You can find the full finalist list here.
Although entries for most of the categories have already closed, we are still accepting entries for our Digital Inclusion Award, in partnership with the Good Things Foundation. We want to highlight the good work being done to bridge the digital divide. Whether you’re an individual, organisation or community group, we want to hear about the impact and change you have made. It could be improving digital literacy, helping people get connected or simply using digital to change lives for the better.
The 2022 ISPA Awards will shine a light on this vital cause. Shortlisted nominees will be invited to the ceremony as the guests of ISPA and Good Things Foundation. To enter, please fill out this written entry form (keep the document size to no more than two pages of A4 - minimum size font: Arial 10) and send to awards@ispa.org.uk by September 24th.
The winners of all the categories will be crowned on the night and celebrated by the wider ISP community. Please click the link below to secure your seats or full table, with discounts offered to members and finalists. The tickets, as always, include a networking drinks reception, a three-course dinner with wine, live entertainment and most importantly, the awards ceremony! Tickets sold out last year so don't miss out and book yours today.
Book your tickets for the awards ceremony here
Thank you to the sponsors of the ISPA Awards 2022
ISPA PARTNERS
Network and Connectivity Partner
The Greening of our Fiber Networks
During the COVID-19 pandemic, societies across the globe bore witness to tremendous reductions in pollution and greenhouse gas emissions when the daily trudge in and out of our cities and industrial parks was replaced by working from home. This glimpse of what our world could be like if we could reduce and control our emissions was afforded by modern broadband networks. In fact, these networks served as the fabric that held societies together over the last 24 months. As a result, governments around the globe have recognised the importance of broadband in their broader fight to reverse the damage of the last 100 years and provide a path toward a viable future for all.
Continue reading Adtran’s blog: The Greening of our Fibre Networks
Subscriber Experience Partner
Calix Customer OTTC differentiates on Security and Drives 25 Percent Annual Growth in Competitive Markets
To expand into competitive fiber markets, the 100-year-old broadband service provider (BSP) had to deliver differentiated value. Many of their subscribers live seasonally in second homes, resulting in cancellations during the winter. This means fast Wi-Fi is not enough to ensure subscriber growth and brand loyalty.
To differentiate, OTTC engaged Calix’s award-winning Customer Success team to formulate a winning strategy centered on security services. Using the turnkey services—ProtectIQ® and ExperienceIQ®—in EDGE Suites, OTTC rolled out home network security and advanced parental controls to all subscriber in a matter of weeks.
Full Fibre Infrastructure Partner
CityFibre launches major brand update to power its next phase of growth
CityFibre, the UK’s largest independent full fibre platform, has launched a major overhaul of its brand, updating its visual identity, messaging and tone of voice to reflect its status as the nation’s digital infrastructure challenger and to more effectively engage millions of people as it rolls out its new networks across the country.
Research conducted on CityFibre’s behalf demonstrates that consumer confusion is endemic in the broadband market, with 64% of consumers unaware of the difference between full fibre and part fibre broadband. The updated brand’s assets have been designed to help cut through this confusion, explaining the superior user-experience when connected to CityFibre’s network, made possible by a new, fibre-only infrastructure platform, unencumbered by legacy network or systems.
The new messaging and brand has also been optimised to support and augment its partners’ marketing communications, helping them to drive customer acquisitions and migrate existing customers at volume.
Read more about the refreshed brand in the latest blog by Dan Ramsay, Chief Marketing Officer at CityFibre.
DDoS Protection Partner
DDoS Protection as a way to add value
In today’s competitive ISP market, DDoS protection as a service is a great way for ISPs to add value to their existing services and prevent customer churn. How? Service uptime is a key factor for business users, because even a few seconds of downtime can drastically impact daily business, whether that’s online gaming, financial services, or network security. Even if downtime and internet disruption don’t cause a breach of service level agreements (SLAs), they negatively impact ISP brand reputation, customer trust, and revenue. Did you know that one of the biggest (if not the biggest), threats to uptime is Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks? Learn more in Corero's blog
Open Disaggregated Solutions Partner
Unboxing Video! Edgecore Network's AGR120 - 800G Aggregation Router
Carrier access, Aggregation and ToR Data Centre Switch
Edgecore offers disaggregated telco solutions ranging from PON to cell site gateways, aggregation routers to core routers. In this video, EPS Global’s Senior Systems Engineer Barry McGinley unboxes the AGR120 - a field-proven, deep-packet buffer router optimised for carrier access and aggregation which meets the high-performance, availability, and scalability requirements of communication service providers and cloud data centres.
Contact us for stock, pricing and project support: ispauk@epsglobal.com
Damage Prevention Partner
CPE Partner
This month, Linksys will be present at Connected Britain in London and Wi-Fi Now in Stockholm. If you’d like to learn more about their solutions and what they have in store for the upcoming year, you can visit their booth or reach out to Bukhtar (‘Tag’) Taggar to schedule a meeting.
UK-based ISP, ASK4 Internet, needed to find a less complex, time-consuming, and expensive solution for diagnosing WiFi issues for their multi-tenant dwelling and student housing customers. With RouteThis, they saw a 50% reduction in time spent acquiring customer data in just the first year.
In addition to cutting the wait time for gathering customer data, ASK4 was able to:
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- Replace cumbersome diagnostic process with fully remote, automated approach
- Reduce the need for in-person diagnostic visits
- Achieve zero downtime in four years of using RouteThis Core
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TP-Link Launches Aginet - A New Brand to Support ISPs
TP-Link, a global provider of consumer and business networking products unveils a new sub-brand, Aginet and its range of products designed specifically for Internet Service Providers. With its proven history of providing high performance and cost-effective solutions to ISPs around the world, Aginet formalizes TP-Link’s commitment to the sector.
Aginet provides a slew of products and services that offer a wider range of application scenarios, such as xPON, xDSL, OLT, VDSL modem routers, Hybrid access, Wi-Fi access, and mesh networking. All of these will be backed by innovative R&D, quality-assured vertical manufacturing, and excellent pre-and-after sales services. The brand will also feature the fastest response time and the most efficient execution team in the network communications terminal industry.
TP-Link’s ISP customers and partners have been an important part of the process and the new sub-brand, Aginet, provides a fully featured and functional customer Wi-Fi management platform.
Get in contact with the ISP team to know more about the products:
Kalam Meah
ISP Director
TP-Link UK & Ireland
Mobile: +44 7802 466 121
Email:kalam.meah@tp-link.com
TV & Smart WiFi Partner
Netgem TV teams up with Link Broadband to bring great value TV and broadband bundles to fibre customers
Link Broadband is the latest ISP to join the Netgem TV family, which now includes over 15 operators in the UK alone, including TalkTalk and Community Fibre. And Netgem couldn't be happier with this new partnership which will bring great deals to fibre customers everywhere!
Link Broadbands aims to provide the best and most critical products and services for businesses and homes. Like Netgem, Link Broadband is on a mission to provide the best value deals for its customers. To celebrate its launch, Link and Netgem TV have pulled out all the stops by offering 1 year of Amazon Prime subscription, a stylish soundbox and free access to Premier Sports.
With more included content than any other TV service, Netgem TV always puts value first for ISPs customers. The service includes over 215 channels including their favourites from Freeview, like BBC as well as 100+ HD channels. As for the apps, Netgem TV never compromises on quality with premium add-ons including Prime Video UHD I. On top of that, we’re constantly adding free apps such as TikTok, YouTube 4K and other movie streaming apps.
Want to explore TV bundling for your service?
Get in touch with our team: shan.eisenberg@netgem.com
Learn more about Netgem services here
Infrastructure Partner
The Digital Upgrade to All IP – a Council’s perspective
Openreach stops selling wholesale line rental (WLR) across the UK from September 2023 and withdraws the product in December 2025, when the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) is closed down. We recently interviewed representatives from two councils regarding the magnitude of work to be done to ensure residents, businesses and particularly the vulnerable are ready for the digital upgrade to All IP.
Geraint Williams, Swansea Council, talked from the special services telecare angle, emphasising the importance of planning and starting the process as early as possible, sharing examples of work undertaken so far, lessons learnt and what’s next.
David Perrett, Wiltshire Council, spoke from a communications angle, sharing insight into their campaign to raise awareness amongst businesses and residents and also amongst their staff on the ground (interacting with the vulnerable), their council members and wider colleagues. Salisbury falls under Wiltshire Council and is one of our trial areas (along with Mildenhall) the need to raise awareness is greater in these areas as we have already stopped selling WLR and will withdraw the product in April 2023.
Watch the interviewVisit the website for more information on the All IP programme
CX & Smart WiFi Partner
Interview: Plume CTO reveals the inner workings of home Wi-Fi optimisation
Great Wi-Fi is the prerequisite for nearly every other home broadband service, which is one of several reasons why smart home platform leader Plume is fiercely intent on getting remote Cloud-based Wi-Fi optimisation exactly right. Plume CTO Bill McFarland reveals a few of the company’s tricks of the trade to Wi-Fi NOW.
Test & Measurement Partner
Lightspeed Broadband partner with VIAVI to Ensure Network Quality for Full Fibre Rollout
UK altnet Lightspeed Broadband is working to ensure that ultrafast broadband internet access is not exclusive to the big cities, with the goal of bringing full fibre to the East of England.
VIAVI Solutions is one of the trusted industry partners chosen by Lightspeed Broadband to help deliver this service, with Lightspeed opting for VIAVI’s award winning centralised PON testing platform (ONMSi).
Read more about Lightspeed's deployment here
ISPA IN THE PRESS
In August, ISPA commented on cost of living and what broadband companies can do to help in the article for BBC News, on foreign broadband workers for The Times, winter black out fears in ISPReview, call on cutting VAT on broadband bill in ISPReview and announcing our finalists of the ISPA Awards 2022 in Telecompaper and ISPReview.
PARTNER EVENTS
ISPA offers its members a variety of discounts for events that we partner with:
ISPA is partnering with Connected Britain which will take place on 21st and 22nd September at the Business Design Centre in London. ISPA members get 15% discount with the code ISPA15, please click here to get your tickets.
Our other media partner is 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
If you would like to advertise your events here and on our website, please contact Michaela@ispa.org.uk