Research Round-up April 2024
- Veronica Speiser
- May 1, 2024
- 2 min read
Global broadband subscriber growth in Q4 2023 slowest since 2019; Annual INCA / Point Topic Altnet Sector Report; UK telecoms sector news; Project Gigabit, government and Ofcom updates
Key publication of the month:
Altnets full fibre networks covered 35% of the UK, as well as 32% of Area 3 premises at the end of 2023, connections increased by 33% year-on-year to reach 2 million, and investment and expenditure within the sector is expected to reach £25 billion by 2028.
Produced in partnership with Independent Networks Co-operative Association (INCA), the 'Metrics for the UK Independent Network Sector' report, sets out a series of key figures which illustrate the continuing growth and successes of the sector, alongside some of the central concerns occupying the minds of Altnet leaders over the last year.
The report covers the state of play with respect to premises passed, customers connected, the current state of investment into the Altnet sector and the expectations and aspirations of Altnet operators.
Key points
At the end of 2023, 2 million customers across the country were connected to Altnet fibre.
The collective Altnet footprint (premises passed) reached 12.9 million premises, or 35% of all UK premises.
The expectation is that this figure will reach 16.7 million by the end of 2024, with 3 million live connections anticipated.
Altnets have deployed their fibre past 3 million Area 3 premises, approximately 32% – or nearly one-third – of all Area 3 premises.
Our analysis shows that Altnet fibre will pass around 4.5 million premises – 46% of Area 3 – by the end of 2025. In comparison, Openreach fibre passed 3.7 million Area 3 premises (39%). Again, this highlights the ambition and capability of the highly resilient Altnet operators.
In terms of investment, new capital continued to flow into the sector over 2023 despite adverse conditions, with an estimated £7 billion committed over the year.
Read the complete article and access the full report here.
Project Gigabit progress update – April 2024
On 10 April, Building Digital UK (BDUK) published its quarterly update on the £5bn Project Gigabit programme. Fifteen multi-million pound contracts have been signed since the start of the year, covering more than 370,000 homes and businesses across the country.
A total of 31 contracts have been signed, valued at over £1.3bn and in February, BDUK confirmed 1m homes, businesses and public buildings are now able to tap into gigabit-capable networks because of UK Government investment.
The figure below provides gigabit-capable annual growth by region and devolved nation since August 2021. The full progress update publication can be found here.
Key April telecoms sector news
BT Group News
2 April – BT (Openreach) are reportedly lobbying MPs, both UK government ministers and members of the Labour opposition, to introduce further legislative changes that could make it even easier for them to extend their 1.8 Gbps FTTP broadband ISP network into multi-dwelling units (MDUs) by upgrading existing copper lines.
8 April – Openreach announced its commitment to invest over £100m to expand its full fibre network in Northern Ireland. This will connect more than 100,000 additional homes and businesses, including extending its reach into the most rural parts of Northern Ireland. Openreach already provides 87% of properties across Northern Ireland and aims to reach 97% coverage in the region with the investment programme.
17 April – In a Sky News report, BT’s new CEO Allison Kirkby, has revisited plans (that were put on hold in 2020) to sell off its BT Ireland division. Kirkby had brought in Citi to advise on the potential sale and the review is currently undergoing its early review stages.
22 April – Network operator Openreach (BT) confirmed that their 1.8 Gbps capable FTTP network has now “almost” covered 14 million premises, which comes after they ramped-up build to deploy 1 million premises per quarter. The operator also firmed up on their 30m premises ambition for 2030.
25 April – Openreach reported that cable thefts were down 30% due to a wide range of anti-theft measures including coating miles of underground cables with a synthetic DNA and UV tracer, called SelectaDNA. Now widely used across the Openreach network, it easily transfers to hands and clothing, and recently helped secure three convictions in Lincolnshire, including a 16-month prison sentence for attempted theft.
Virgin Media O2 (VMO2) News
3 April – Virgin Media O2 Business has been chosen by the Office for National Statistics to supply anonymised and aggregated O2 Motion data to be embedded into the Integrated Data Service (IDS). The anonymised data will be used to support UK Government work at national and local levels, providing insights that reveal population dynamics, travel patterns, and other movement trends.
10 April – VMO2 announced the use of a helicopter to deliver new 4G masts to the remote village of Killin, near Stirling. As part of its commitment to the £1bn Shared Rural Network (SRN) programme, Virgin Media O2 will be building seven new partial not-spot masts in the area.
16 April – Virgin announced it is working with satellite provider, Starlink, across the UK to accelerate its plans to boost signal in rural areas as part of the Shared Rural Network programme. The operator has already deployed the Starlink mobile backhaul solution to sites in the Scottish Highlands which are extremely difficult, prohibitively costly or impossible to connect using standard technologies such as fibre or microwave connections.
CityFibre (CF) News
18 April – Shropshire-based ISP, Aquiss, launched symmetrical FTTP packages over CityFibre’s national network.
25 April – CF announced it had passed 90k premises in Wolverhampton where it began deploying full fibre services in 2020.
Independent Operators (AltNets) News
2 April – County Broadband announced it had completed building its gigabit-speed full fibre network in Sudbury, Suffolk. A total of approximately 6,200 premises have been connected to the network.
3 April – GoFibre (Borderlink) announced they are currently expecting their network to reach a total of c.120k UK premises during early 2024, but they’re currently both live and in-build at 95,000 premises (homes and businesses) across more than 30 local areas. In particular, over 20,000 premises across towns and villages in Fife can now access their network.
5 April – Zen Internet announced it had reached the 200,000th customer milestone.
14 April – Anonymous sources speaking to ISPreview said Netomnia and brsk are considering combining their operations “in the next 4–6 weeks”. Brsk has covered 450k premises with FTTP, primarily around Birmingham, Manchester, Bradford, Rochdale, Blackburn, and Burnley. Netomnia’s rollout, on the other hand, is much broader, having covered 850k premises with locations throughout the UK.
If combined, the two companies would therefore have access to around 1.3m premises across the UK, making it a considerable force in the country’s broadband market.
17 April – MS3 Networks announced it had secured a master wayleave agreement with Hull City Council to access the city’s multi-dwelling units (MDUs). The agreement marks a milestone for the wholesale supplier as it provides consumers a cheaper alternative to KCOM which has long had a monopoly in the city.
17 April – nexfibre announced it has reached a total of one million premises passed and ready for service, achieving it in just 14 months, through its build partnership with Virgin Media O2.
20 April – Zzoomm reached 25,000th customer milestone up from 20,000 on 18 December 2023.
22 April – Fibrus announced it’s FTTP network had passed 354k premises across rural and regional areas of Cumbria and Northern Ireland.
24 April – GoFibre (BorderLink) revealed that over 10k premises across towns and villages in Angus have been covered by their FTTP network. The provider is currently expecting their network to reach a total of c.120k UK premises during early 2024, and they’re currently live (Ready for Service) at 98k premises across more than 30 local areas.
24 April – Telecom Acquisitions (TAL Group a holding company for several ISPs Home Telecom, Fleur, No One and Eclipse Broadband), signed a reselling agreement with Freedom Fibre.
26 April – Virgin Media reported that Upp’s UK full fibre service to close on 1 June 2024.
26 April – Wessex Internet confirmed where its services have gone live in the first quarter of the calendar year, with more than 20 villages and other rural areas in Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire and Wiltshire connected to ultrafast broadband between January and March 2024.
28 April – Grain Connect FTTP network covers 236k premises (207k Ready for Service) and confirmed they have 28k customers.
30 April – brsk announced its network had passed 500k premises up from 450k on 2 March 2024 and reported that it is ow passing around 30k premises per month.
Other News
3 April – Nokia and Vodafone announced they are collaborating to test the viability of L4S technology over passive optical networks (PON), which could greatly improve the experience of residential customers engaged in everyday internet activities like video conferencing and gaming. Nokia’s research arm Nokia Bell Labs and Vodafone’s Fixed Access Center of Excellence recently performed the world’s first demonstration of L4S running over PON in Vodafone’s lab in Newbury, U.K.
3 April – In a survey carried out by the Internet Services Providers’ Association (ISPA), the trade association for the broadband sector about telecommunications poles are not as publicly polarising as originally thought. Only a small minority (less than 20%) actually ever frequently notice a pole when they are out and about. The vast majority (75%) also clearly recognise the benefits of having access to faster and more reliable broadband even if that is delivered via poles. Even in roads where poles are not currently being used, a large majority (69%) would accept new poles to provide the community with better access to broadband.
16 April – Ofcom published updates on how it will make spectrum available in the 26 GHz and 40 GHz bands – known as millimetre wave (mmWave) spectrum.
17 April – Ofcom published the latest figures for complaints its received about the UK’s main landline, broadband, mobile and pay-TV providers. These figures cover the period from October to December last year. Virgin Media remained the most complained-about broadband, landline and pay-TV provider, although they did see a sizeable fall in all of these areas from the previous quarter. Customers’ complaints were again mainly driven by how their complaints were being handled. Sky UK remained the ISP with the least complaints.
19 April – Vodafone announced it had installed its 200th mobile phone mast in Combe, West Berkshire as part of the Shared Rural Network (SRN) programme.
19 April – Fibrus revealed to ISPReview that it’s Project Stratum deployment is “on target” to cover 81,000 premises by June 2025, “on time and within budget.” According to Fibrus, the operator has now completed coverage for 74,000 of the contracted premises and laid 13,259km of cable. Properties in Counties Down and Tyrone currently have the highest number of connected premises, almost 28,000 and 24,000 respectively, with a focus on the last remaining area to connect, Templepatrick.
20 April – The Scottish Government announced that more than 1 million faster broadband connections have been delivered to homes and businesses across Scotland, backed by £1bn of publicly-driven investment. The £463m Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband (DSSB) programme launched in 2014 (completed in 2020) and connected more than 950,600 premises to fibre-based broadband. The £600m Reaching 100% (R100) programme 48k connections have so far been delivered through the R100 contracts, with a further 3,800 connections provided through the R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme.
21 April – In a report by the Telegraph, KCOM’s owners - Australian investment firm Macquarie, has appointed advisory orientated investment bank PJT Partners for a strategic review of the supplier with an eye on a potential merger or sale of the supplier.
22 April – Scottish Government announced the completion of its £28.75m 4G mobile infill programme.
24 April – Ofcom’s Connected Nations spring update reported that as of January 2024, 62% of households can access full-fibre broadband, with 8 in 10 UK homes (80%) now having access to gigabit-capable broadband, up from 73% the same time last year.
25 April – BDUK announced it had refused the 18-month extension request put forth by Three, Virgin Media O2, and Vodafone of Phase One of the Shared Rural Network programme.
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