November 29, 2011
The Highlands and Islands region of Scotland sees just BT left for the contract to deliver broadband to the region.
Both Cable & Wireless and Fujitsu have both pulled out of the bidding process to bring super fast broadband to the Highlands and Islands. The area was one of 4 rural areas in the country that is to receive between £5-£10m of funding to help roll out a pilot of fibre broadband to the area, however, Fujitsu have withdrawn from the process as they claim that additional investment would be required for the required infrastructure and Cable & Wireless have also followed suit, this just leaves BT left in for the project.
Rhonda Grant, the Labour MSP for the Highlands & Islands, said:
“This pilot is of vital importance to every community throughout the Highlands and Islands and it is essential that more public money is invested in this project – so far only 10 per cent of the estimated costs have been secured.”
Alex Neil, the Scottish cabinet secretary for infrastructure and capital investment has previously estimated that the cost of rolling out next generation broadband across the Highlands & Islands region would be in the region of £300m alone.
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November 23, 2011
£5 million of public funding has been allocated to help roll out superfast broadband to Southern Scotland.
The Borders Council and Dunfries and Galloway Council have been allocated the funds to help roll out the superfast broadband with a target of having all homes and businesses connected to superfast broadband by 2020.
Despite BT rolling out their fibre network to around two thirds of the UK by 2015 it would only be around 35% of Southern Scotland that would be covered by this rollout.
Scotland was given nearly £69 million from the BDUK (Broadband Delivery UK) fund earlier in the year with the Scottish Government having increased this to around £144 million, it is out of this pot of money that this £5m has been taken.
It is hoped that further private investment and funding will also be found now from other sources now this initial funding has been granted.
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November 9, 2011
BT are managing to roll out fibre broadband even faster and save themselves money by the use of a new extra sharp super spade!
 The new spade has an extra sharp edge which makes it possible for it to cut through tarmac and remove blockages during the fibre installation process. Previously a separate civil engineering team would have been required to come to dig up pathways.
Having the new spade has meant that fibre installations can now be done in just two days rather than a week thus saving time and speeding up the fibre roll out process and also saving money.
There are a few other innovations that BT are also using to help speed up fibre broadband deployment which includes the trialing of a polymer based plinth for the base of the street side cabinets. Previously the cabinets were secured down with concrete in the bottom, this either required wet cement to be poured in which takes time to set or if pre-cast concrete was used it required extra workers and machinery to lift and move the concrete block. The new Polymer plinths are pre-formed and light that are suitable for all weather conditions, this alone could cut the deployment time from 7 days to just a couple of hours!
 They have also worked on the power supply infrastructure and have new ways where meters don’t need to be installed, this alone BT claim reduces deployment by 2 weeks!
Trefor Davis, the Chief Technology Officer at Timico, said:
“Well actually whilst each of these innovations may seem trivial what they collectively do is send out a signal that BT is trying to do something about the aspect of it’s business that is often criticised as being one of the barriers to cost effective fibre (FTTC & FTTP) rollout and that is the cost of digging trenches.“
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November 1, 2011
Virgin Media are offering new and reconnecting Virgin Broadband and Virgin Mobile customers free Spotify Premium access worth around £10 per month as part of a new deal.
 New or reconnecting Virgin Broadband customers who take out an XL (30Mb), XXL (50Mb) and 100Mb broadband deal will get themselves 6 months free Spotify Premium access which has allot more enhanced features and usability than the free Spotify option. The 6 months free Spotify Premium is worth around £60.
The same deal applies to new and reconnecting Virgin Mobile customers who take out a pay monthly contract and have a compatible mobile phone, they will receive 3 months free Spotify Premium access.
Also, when in the UK there will be no data charges for using Spotify although data charges are likely to apply when listening abroad.
Spotify is an award winning completely legal music service that allows you access to over 15 million different music tracks and albums that you can listen to when you want, you are even able to have the music available to you when you go offline. Songs you select will stream immediately so you don’t need to worry about downloading a full song before you can listen to it.
The executive director of digital entertainment at Virgin Media, Cindy Rose, said:
“The launch of Spotify on Virgin Media marks a significant milestone for digital entertainment and the way it is enjoyed by consumers. Great digital services are no longer just about fast broadband or the latest TV technology, but increasingly about how people use their services to power and excite their daily lives. Bringing together Virgin Media services with brilliant entertainment such as Spotify is a core part of our ongoing strategy and we’re excited to be able to lead the way with such a great partnership.”
Going forward we expect to see more content tie-ups between broadband providers and content providers, especially as the increase of broadband speeds continues to grown and content can far more easily be delivered online.
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October 31, 2011
BT’s roll out of fibre broadband is set to be completed a year ahead of schedule as they take on a further 520 engineers to accelerate the roll out.
 BT had originally planned on having two thirds of the UK covered with fibre optic broadband by 2015, but they are taking on all these new engineers, most which are ex-armed forces, to help with the fibre deployment and will mean that BT hope to have this target completed by the end of 2014, a year ahead of schedule.
BT are investing £2.5bn into their fibre network, the majority of which is done as FTTC (Fibre To The Cabinet) for most of the country. Although FTTC is not classed as full fibre as it only has the fibre optic cable going form the exchange to the street-side cabinet and then requires standard copper wires to take it the remaining distance to the premises it does represent a huge increase in broadband speeds over what is available by standard broadband lines which are based on copper all the way. Currently the FTTC solution offers broadband speeds up to 40Mb, although this is set to double by next spring along with the headline speed for the full fibre (FTTH) being increased to a huge 300Mb.
Due to their speeded up roll out it will also see BT bringing forward £300 million of the investment forward to help fund the progress.
Currently around 6 million premises has fibre optic broadband available to them, with this figure likely to reach 10 million in 2012 and then to hit the two thirds of UK premises by 2014.
Only a few days ago the UK were ranked in 25th position on global broadband speeds based on the results from “Akamai’s State of the Internet report”, it is news of this accelerated rollout which should hopefully see the UK quickly rise of the world rankings, especially as the UK government has aims to have the best super fast broadband network in Europe by 2015.
BT markets their own fibre broadband solution as BT Infinity.
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October 27, 2011
Virgin cable broadband service is continuing to grow in popularity according to their latest set of results with most new customers taking broadband with a speed of 30Mb or above.
 Virgin have just released their Q3 2011 results and it shows that they have increased their number of cable broadband customers by 24,300 to their fibre optic cable broadband service but have lost 5,200 customers on their standard DSL service. The customers on Virgins DSL service are those who are not in areas covered by Virgin Medias cable network and so will connect via standard copper broadband connections on BT’s network.
They are also seeing far more new customers taking out super fast broadband options, with 54% of new subscribers taking out broadband with speeds of 30Mb or above, this is compared to a year ago where just 28% were taking 20Mb or higher.
Of Virgin Media’s 4,072,900 cable broadband customers, over 26% are now taking 20Mb or higher broadband form them, this equates to over 1 million customers.
We anticipate allot of Virgin broadband customers who have existing deals may only move to faster broadband packages when they are offered free upgrades to do so. Virgin Media already offer a 50Mb broadband and are rolling out a 100Mb broadband service that is due to be completed during 2012 that will be available to 8 million homes.
Virgin will no doubt eventually change their packages and will not offer their 10Mb broadband service but it is likely to be increased, many customers may only then move to a faster broadband connection when they will not have to pay more for it.
Neil Berkett, the Chief Executive of Virgin Media, said:
“Over a quarter of our entire base now subscribe to speeds of 20Mb or higher and a record number of
customers joined us on superfast broadband speeds during the period with. In TV, we have quadrupled the
number of households using our game-changing TiVo service and customer advocacy for this product is
very strong.
We are increasing the value and mix of our customer base as people add or move to higher tier services
and as new joiners increasingly take up higher value products. This, along with subscriber growth, has
increased revenue and we have had further substantial increases in free cash flow and OCF. Our strong
and sustained financial performance allows us to continue to invest in giving our customers more value and
further differentiating our range of market leading products.“
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October 20, 2011
The first city in the UK & Ireland to be fully upgraded to Fibre broadband is Derry in Northern Ireland.
Every BT street cabinet in Derry has now been upgraded to FTTC (Fibre To The Cabinet) and now means that around 40,000 homes and businesses will be able to use the new fibre broadband service. It is probably little co-incidence that Londonderry was high up on BT’s list of places to get fibre broadband fully installed to as BT are one of the main sponsors of Derry for 2013 when they become the UK City of Culture.
FTTC will offer users in Derry up to 40Mb broadband speeds with this likely to increase to up to 80Mb next year when BT increases the available broadband speeds across its fibre network.
Colm O’Neil, the BT Chief Executive in Northern Ireland, told this to the BBC:
“There is different pricing and we have done it on an open access basis.
It is a more expensive product than your standard broadband product but for that, you would potentially get 10-50 times increase in speed.
This city on the north west coast of Ireland, right on the edge of Europe, now has access to speeds and connectivity better than people in Hong Kong, Tokyo, London or New York.
That is an important message for the business community to understand.“Derry first city to get full FTTC coverag
Customers in Derry won’t get an automatic switch0over to the fibre broadband, this is because prices are currently around 30% more expensive than standard broadband connections, but as Mr O’Neil pointed out there are much larger speed increases available for the extra you will be paying.
Despite BT being one of the partners for Derry’s 2013 UK City of Culture this does not mean that the fibre broadband is only available via BT Infinity. Other Broadband providers will be able to offer services through the new fibre network.
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October 5, 2011
BT Broadband are to offer broadband speeds up to 300Mb via it’s FTTP (Fibre To The Premises/Home) and double the speeds of it’s FTTC (Fibre To The Cabinet) to around 80Mb during 2012.
 BT Openreach have announced today the speed increases that they are planning to roll out it the BT Fibre broadband network which will see the full fibre broadband connections that are available to some see the launch speeds of 110Mb have their available speeds upped to a whopping 300Mb from Spring 2012. Only a relatively small number of premises are connected via the full Fibre broadband offering from BT to be able to have these broadband speeds as a reality, however, the up to 300Mb broadband speeds do represent broadband speeds 3 times faster than the headline 100Mb broadband that Virgin Media currently offer. It would be little surprise though to see or hear of plans from Virgin media to also increase their headline speeds. We already know that they have run trials that allows them to offer speeds of up to 1.5Gb using the same infrastructure that they have already in place (Virgin’s 1.5Gb broadband trial a success).
On top of this BT also announced that they will be able to double the fibre broadband speeds that the majority of the country will receive via their FTTC deployment from 40Mb to 80Mb.
BT are investing £2.5bn in rolling out fibre broadband across the UK, the majority of which is via Fibre To The Cabinet which then requires the standard copper cables from the streetside cabinet to take broadband the remaining distance, by the end of 2015 they hope to have fibre broadband available to around two thirds of the country.
Liv Garfield, the chief executive of BT Openreach, said:
“Today is a significant step in the UK’s broadband journey. These developments will transform broadband speeds across the country and propel the UK up the broadband league tables.
All our fibre products are fit for the future and these developments show that to be the case. As always, we want to go further and faster and so our journey doesn’t end here. We can turn up the dial should there be demand and so we can look to the future with confidence.
No-one is keener than us to extend these super-fast speeds to rural areas and so we will be bidding for public funds to help extend these services even further. The challenge is a tough one but by working with the public sector it is within our reach.”
BT sell their fibre broadband to customers via BT Infinity.
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September 16, 2011
Fibre optic broadband and mobile broadband networks is taking too long according to the culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt.
Mr Hunt believes that the UK is in danger of falling behind the rest of Europe by taking too long to get things sorted. He liked the problems to how we dealth with our railways by saying:
“We need to ensure we do not make the same mistake in broadband that we made in railways – building our high-speed network 45 years after the French and 62 years after the Japanese.
PIA (physical infrastructure access) has to be sorted out – and quickly – in a way that allows fair competition with different providers able to invest in our broadband infrastructure.”
The price that BT wants to charge rivals for access to their underground ducts and telephone poles so that they can install or lay their own fibre network are due this month, but it is likely to be a case that the prices will be disputed by BT’s rivals as too high which will then again delay the process of more fibre being laid in the UK. This could then delay the process by up to a year before Ofcom comes in with making a decision.
Currently we have Fujitsu looking to create a £2bn fibre network across the UK but they are after £500m of funds from the government that have been put aside to help roll-out next generation broadband to rural areas.
Along with his thoughts on fixed line fibre broadband Mr Hunt also said how he wanted the mobile phone operators to work together and put aside any competitive differences with the forthcoming 4G spectrum auction so as to not have that delayed any further.
Mobile data is increasing at an astonishing rate and so the 4G network capacity is in great need, it is predicted that by 2015 the volume of mobile data is set to increase 26-fold!
Currently Vodafone and O2 have space spectrum while Three and Everything Everywhere (Orange & T-Mobile are jointly owned) are in desperate need for extra capacity.
Mr Hunt said:
“Sweden completed their auction in 2009, Germany last year, Italy is doing theirs this week and France will finish theirs this year.
Mobile phone operators must put aside competitive differences and work together in their common and our national interest to make this happen.”
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September 12, 2011
BT are trying to create a fibre monopoly according to the commercial boss of TalkTalk.
David Goldie has claimed that BT is trying to regain “the monopoly position that it lost many years ago” and fears that Britain will be left with a second class infrastructure that falls behind that of other developed nations.
BT are investing £2.5 billion in their fibre network (BT Infinity) which will cover two thirds of the UK by 2015. Most of those connected to it will be via FTTC (Fibre To The Cabinet) which means that from the streetside cabinet the standard copper wires are used for the rest of the distance to the house. Only around 4 million homes will be connected with full fibre broadband (FTTH) Fibre To The Home which can offer even faster speeds.
BT are bidding for £360m worth of government subsidy to help get fibre into rural areas, however the Japanese electronic giant Fujitsu are also after this money and some more so that they can bring their 1Gbit fibre technology to around 5 million homes in rural Britain over the next 5 years. Fujitsu are after £500m to help fund their £2bn project that has already had promises from Virgin Media & TalkTalk to be customers of the network should Fujitsu manage to get the money to do it as it will help create a competitor edge to BT.
Fujitsu however need BT to lower the prices for access and rent of their telephone ducts and poles so that they can install their own fibre. It is thought that Fujitsu want BT to half it’s prices but this could prove a sticking point.
Goldie also said:
“Right now BT knows what its costs are but nobody else does. I look at it from the point of view of the taxpayer and the market and none of them is well served by having a bidding process that favours one party.”
“BT’s is a mother knows best approach. I don’t think they are building the right infrastructure for Britain.”
The Chief Executive of BT Openreach, Olivia Garfield, said:
“BT has provided reciprocal wholesale access to its fibre network from the outset. This allows other operators to piggyback off our investment, while encouraging competition and the take-up of fibre services to thrive. We’ve also volunteered to provide additional forms of wholesale access via our ducts and poles. We expect to announce revised pricing for such access shortly.”
Looking at the issue from BT’s side they will argue that they are already investing £2.5bn into rolling out fibre across the country and also need to make a return on their investment.
It is likely that Ofcom will be the ones who have to come in to help make agreement on both sides.
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