Industry news

03 Jun 2021

Proposed licence fees for 412-414 MHz paired with 422-424 MHz

Ofcom has published the proposed licence fees for the 412–414 MHz and 422–424 MHz paired spectrum which is currently licensed to Arqiva and Airwave. Arqiva won this spectrum in a 2006 auction, with a 15-year initial licence period during which no additional fees would be required. The initial period will come to an end later this year at which point an annual licence fee will become payable. Arqiva traded part of the spectrum with Airwave in 2008 – making Airwave the co-licensee.

Ofcom is proposing that the annual fee be set at £396,000 per MHz, which is in line with what Business Radio users pay for a UK-wide licence in nearby bands.

The deadline for comments is 16 July 2021.

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27 Apr 2021

Ofcom’s consultation on future regulation of telephone numbers

Ofcom has launched a consultation which proposes the removal of the requirement to provide a local dialling facility and banning direct and indirect revenue-sharing across geographic and non-geographic number ranges. Local dialling is where a person makes a call from one landline to another landline in the same area without needing to dialling the area code. The migration to IP will affect all landline phone users and is fundamentally restructuring how voice services are provided across the UK. Revenue-sharing occurs where a phone company shares the revenue that it receives for terminating a call with a third party.

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24 Jan 2021

£940 million of support so far from UK telecoms operators during COVID-19

According to a report by Assembly Research,  the value of the initiatives put in place by the UK telecoms sector amounts to some £940 million, with many likely to remain in place until things return to normal, whatever that may be. Of more than 50 initiatives tracked by Assembly, 20 have directly addressed the needs of the most vulnerable (worth £340m), 19 have been made available to all customers (£250m), six are targeted at key healthcare workers (£220m), and four have aimed to help small and medium-sized businesses recover (£130m). Similar initiatives have been launched around the world which Assembly has been tracking on a country-by-country basis since the start of the pandemic.

 

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12 Sep 2020

Local councils boost funding for Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme for rural areas


The announcement today builds on the earlier government update, setting out that a further 250,000 English homes and businesses are now eligible for boosted funding from 17 English councils for the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme.

More than £22 million of additional funding has been provided by local councils to top-up the values of the vouchers in their areas. The Scheme targets areas where the cost of building new gigabit broadband infrastructure is likely to be too high for commercial operators to cover alone. Since May 2019, vouchers worth up to £3,500 for small and medium sized businesses and up to £1,500 for residential premises have been available to cover these costs in rural areas across the UK.  (more…)

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10 Sep 2020

Ofcom’s Connected Nations Report – Summer 2020

Ofcom has published its interim report which states that full fibre broadband is now available to over 4.2 million UK homes (14%), an increase of 670,000 (2%) since January. This is a result of increased rollout from the expansion of existing broadband networks as well as companies building entirely new fibre networks.

The UK Government recently announced that almost 500,000 premises across the UK have been connected to gigabit-capable broadband since summer 2018 as a result of a £1 billion government funding commitment that runs until the end of 2021, with a further £5 billion earmarked for the hardest-to-reach areas. Government has also launched a new taskforce – GigaTAG – to encourage further take-up of gigabit broadband services. (more…)

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21 Aug 2020

Ofcom customer service updates

New research published by Ofcom highlights which phone and broadband companies are setting the industry standard for good customer service in the UK.

Sharing the data, based on company performance up to January 2020, therefore before the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded, Ofcom’s fourth annual Comparing Customer Service report shows that overall, 85% of broadband customers say they are satisfied with their service. Specifically, the report looks at how each of the major telecoms providers performed in 2019 on measures including customer complaints received, value for money and overall customer satisfaction. (more…)

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03 Aug 2020

Ofcom confirms plans for spectrum auction in January 2021

The UK regulator has confirmed plans to auction important airwaves to help improve mobile broadband and support the rollout of 5G, announcing it will release more airwaves, with bidding set to start in January 2021.

The auction will increase the total amount of spectrum available for mobile in the UK by nearly a fifth (18%) – helping improve mobile services and give people better access to 5G. (more…)

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30 Mar 2020

Government agrees measures with telecoms companies to support vulnerable consumers through COVID-19

BSG welcomes the conclusion of a collaborative initiative between the UK major telecoms providers, the Digital Secretary and Ofcom which targets customers in need additional support to stay connected during the current pandemic. Yesterday’s announcement sets out a number of substantial commitments to support and protect vulnerable consumers and those who may become so arising from changes in circumstances brought on by Covid-19. These measures build upon, and reinforce, the Stay Connected campaign launched last week.

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09 Mar 2020

DCMS signs £1 billion deal with mobile networks to improve coverage in rural areas

Government announced today that it has reached agreement with the four mobile networks to improve 4G mobile coverage.

As part of the government’s commitment to improve digital infrastructure in the UK, the Secretary of State for DCMS has signed a £1 billion deal with EE, O2, Three and Vodafone to extend rural coverage via the Shared Rural Network (SRN). This means that 4G will be available to 95% of the UK landmass by 2026, extending mobile coverage to 280,000 more premises and on an additional 16,000km of the UK’s roads. The government has pledged £500 million of funding to eliminate not-spots where there is currently no coverage from any operator. The four networks are committed to investing £532m to close almost all partial not-spots where there is currently only coverage from at least one operator.

Last August the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG) and DCMS published proposals to reform permitted development rights to support deployment of 5G and extend 4G mobile coverage.

 

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12 Feb 2020

Monthly update from the Broadband Stakeholder Group

The Broadband Stakeholder Group has published its latest monthly newsletter “Connectivity sets the agenda.”

The bulletin outlined key updates in industry-related regulation and policy from January 2020 – including the reintroduction into the parliamentary timetable of the Telecommunications Infrastructure Bill – and the much-anticipated conclusion to the Telecom Supply Chain Review. You can read more about the review in detail via our news post.

Our newsletter also provided an overview of developments in consumer protection and child protection regulation, and what lies ahead following the UK’s exit from the European Union on 31 January 2020. BSG and techUK are promoting the interests of the digital infrastructure industry in a number of other recommendations to Government which include improved access for UK companies to priority international telecoms markets in future free trade agreements.

If you would like to receive our next update, you can sign up to the BSG newsletter in the footer of our website below.

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29 Jan 2020

Telecoms Supply Chain Review

The Government has announced new plans to safeguard the UK’s telecoms network and pave way for fast, reliable and secure 5G and full fibre connectivity. This clarification is critical for a number of UK infrastructure providers who sit on the Broadband Stakeholder Group, and to inform decisions in relation to Huawei in the rollout of the 5G and full fibre, gigabit-capable networks.

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23 Jan 2020

CMA investigation into the loyalty penalty

A report published today by the CMA is a progress report setting out the work and progress that has been made over the last 12 months.

In September 2018, CMA received a super-complaint from Citizens Advice. There followed an investigation into the loyalty penalty in 5 markets: mobile phone contracts, broadband, household insurance, cash savings and mortgages. The CMA uncovered continual year on year price rises, costly exit fees from contracts, time-consuming and difficult processes to cancel contracts or switch to new providers, and auto-renewal policies that switched unsuspecting customers onto more expensive contracts, often without sufficient warning. In its response to the super-complaint, the CMA made a number of recommendations to Ofcom, the FCA and other regulators to help them better protect consumers. It also launched its own investigations into auto-renewal practices in two sectors. (more…)

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09 Jan 2020

Cross sector comparisons

The UK Regulators Network (UKRN), regulators in telecoms, water, energy and banking have partnered to compare how customers rate the biggest companies who provide services people rely on every day. The level of customer satisfaction in telecoms varies between 79% to 96%. The scorecards also capture some metrics on perceptions of value for money. Between 82% and 97% of customers in telecoms are satisfied with the value for money they receive from their supplier. Complaints across mobile, landline and broadband complaints are below 1%. (more…)

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