BT is selling its data center business in Ireland to Equinix as part of a new 'asset-light' strategy.

The company said it wants to move away from owning and operating data center facilities, instead partnering with globally scaled organizations. The idea is to give the company a much more commercially scalable and flexible model, with services available in over 560 locations worldwide.

"This announcement with Equinix marks an exciting new chapter for our data center business in Ireland," said Shay Walsh, managing director of BT Ireland.

"The deal builds on our existing successful partnership with Equinix and ensures that customers will benefit from top-tier data center services nationally and globally, allowing BT to specialise in our core strengths in cloud, networking, and security."

The €59 million deal includes two data centers in CityWest and Ballycoolin, Dublin - carrier-neutral facilities of approximately 150,000 gross square feet combined - along with staff and customers.

The Ballycoolin site was expanded only last year, with a multi-million Euro investment bringing up capacity to 3.5MW, with 650 square meters of fully allocated data halls.

Citywest, meanwhile, is a Tier III carrier neutral purpose-built facility that's been operating for more than 20 years, made up of two independent data center buildings.

Equinix currently has six data centers in Dublin. However, plans to expand have been hampered by what the company has referred to as a 'moratorium' on data center development after it was refused a national grid connection last year.

"Equinix has a vital and long- established business in Ireland, with a strong track record of delivering huge value to individuals and companies throughout the Irish economy," said Peter Lantry, managing director of Equinix Ireland.

"This acquisition of assets from our existing facility enables us to continue to offer exceptional interconnection services from our unique global platform, augmenting the €35 million annual contribution to national economic output arising from Equinix’s direct and indirect spend, measured in 2022."

The sale is expected to complete during the first half of 2025, subject to competition and regulatory clearance.

Equinix plans to spend the next few months transitioning the data centers from BT, maintaining uninterrupted operations to customers and incorporating the facilities into its own global network.

"We look forward to working closely with BT to ensure a seamless transition, welcoming their data center team and customers to Equinix and bringing the scale, expertise, and investment that next generation data center facilities require for excellent service delivery for organizations in Ireland and globally," said Lantry.

BT has announced the PSTN switch-off date will be moved back by two years to the end of January 2027, as the firm cites a revised approach aimed at better protecting certain customers.

This new approach will take the form of a “single switch” for the majority of customers, both business and consumer, with the expectation that everyone will have transitioned off analogue services by the new date.

BT is looking to ensure that vulnerable customers are better catered to, and cites this as the reason for the change in date, which was originally set as the end of 2025.

BT just recently restarted switching zero-use landline customers to its ‘Digital Voice’ service following an industry-wide pause and an introduction of a governmental charter to “protect vulnerable customers … while making the switch from analogue to digital landlines”.

During this pause, the firm continued to raise awareness about the impending digital switchover, with focused events designed to enhance customer communication in individual regions. 

BT also spearheaded the formation of the ‘Telecare Action Board’, a collaborative effort bringing together 30 separate organizations to identify telecare users with additional needs ahead of the switch to digital.

The firm is now proactively contacting customers and offering digital landline transitions over full-fiber broadband, though with the exclusion of landline-only customers those who use telecare and those who have additional needs. 

Despite forecasted delays, BT urged customers to “engage early” with the PSTN switch, especially in circumstances where new equipment is required, or in which existing equipment may require testing. 

“Managing customer migrations from analogue to digital as quickly and smoothly as possible, while making the necessary provisions for those customers with additional needs, including telecare users, is critically important,” Howard Watson, chief security and networks officer at BT Group, said.

The PSTN switch-off has been a drawn-out process

Originally announced in 2017, the PSTN switch-off has been many years in the making and, assuming this new deadline is met, will have taken a decade to complete. 

The idea behind the switch-off was to organize a full migration away from the antiquated PSTN landline system to make sure that both businesses and consumers alike are running on speedier and more reliable digital networks. 

“The urgency for switching customers onto digital services grows by the day because the 40-year-old analogue landline technology is increasingly fragile,” Watson said.

As the deadline has approached, businesses have expressed concern about the programme, with research suggesting that 54% of businesses don’t think the switch-off has been well publicized.

The pace of technological change is giving business leaders sleepless nights, new research shows, with cyber security threats and AI the biggest culprits.

According to research from BT, 58% are worried about keeping up with current technology trends while nine-in-ten revealed the pressure of adapting is becoming a major factor in work-related stress.

Around two-thirds told BT that digital transformation is vital to the survival of their business, but they’re experiencing ‘tech paralysis’ and are unable to meet expectations.

While failure to adapt to technology trends is having a negative impact on business leader wellbeing, the issue also has wide-reaching economic implications, according to BT. Long-term, the inability to keep pace could cost the UK economy more than £11 billion.

"Today, every business is a digital business – and our research shows that the pace of change is taking its toll," said Bas Burger, CEO, business at BT.

Nearly 90% of businesses are investing in new technology this year to improve productivity and gain competitive advantage, with tech investment overall set to increase 31% year-on-year.

However, 59% of decision-makers say tech is advancing so quickly that they worry about the future of their business. This is an even bigger concern in financial services businesses and HR, the study found, with 74% and 78% respectively saying they're concerned about the impact on their sector this year.

BT’s research indicates that 104,000 British businesses could be opting not to invest in new technology this year due to stress associated with the implementation, transformation, and upskilling involved.

While cyber security is seen as the biggest technological threat to businesses this year, AI is also a huge source of stress. Three-in-four business leaders said it has made them feel stressed or anxious in the past year.

One-third are worried about data privacy and security (34%), with three-in-ten concerned about quality and reliability. One-in-five even see it as an existential threat to their business.

In a bid to combat technology-related stress, the firm recommended business leaders explore measures aimed at improving wellbeing and reducing anxiety, such as meditation.

BT has teamed up with ex-Dragons' Den dragon Sarah Willingham and meditation guru Izzy Judd, to create a series of tech-inspired guided meditations.

The Business Reboot podcast is designed to help businesses of all sizes, and their employees, to prepare themselves for the tech challenges of the day. Episodes focus on AI, cyber security, data analytics, digital skills, and cloud computing.

"Meditation plays an important role in millions of lives across the UK, and is increasingly being used in business to help tackle the stress of life in the fast lane," Judd said.

"Just taking a few minutes to step away from the to-do list, connect your body and mind, and reset your priorities, can provide a huge boost to clarity and concentration, while enabling you to feel calmer."

BT isn't the first company to explore the use of meditation apps to help stressed tech staff. In 2020, Snapchat teamed up with Headspace to bring guided meditations, mindfulness practices, and mental health help to its members.

And the problem of stress in the tech industry appears to be worsening, with a recent Gartner report finding that early half of cyber security leaders are expected to change jobs by 2025 due to work-related stress.

BT Group has announced plans to take on more than 500 apprentices and graduates in its September 2024 intake.

The company says it’s looking for people in a number of areas, including software engineering, customer service, applied research, data analytics and cybersecurity. There are 557 jobs up for grabs in total – 111 graduate and 446 apprentice roles.

The new jobs will be spread across a number of offices that form part of BT Group’s Better Workplace Programme, which BT says is the largest workplace improvement program and consolidation scheme of its type ever undertaken in the UK.  

The locations include Belfast, Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Darlington, Ipswich, Leeds, London, Manchester, Sheffield and Warrington.

"As one of the largest private sector employers of apprentices and graduates in the UK, we continue to recruit and attract brilliant people into our business, and we offer unparalleled opportunities to those who join us," says Elaine Bergin, BT Group's director of colleague experience.

"As we build a better BT Group, we’re developing a pipeline of future talent to help grow our business, deliver great outcomes for our customers and to help underpin economic growth in the UK."

The company says it has recruited more than 3,000 apprentices and graduates over the past five years and last year it was ranked second in the Top 100 Apprenticeship Employers in the UK. The latest cohort is over 25% larger than in 2023, when the company recruited 422 new graduates and apprentices. 

The apprenticeships available this year will range from level two, the equivalent to GCSE standard, through to level seven, which is the equivalent of a master’s degree.

The rocky history of 21st century apprenticeships

Back in 2017, the government introduced an apprenticeship levy, paid by employers with a salary bill of over £3 million ($3.8 million). These organizations pay 0.5% of their total annual salary bill into the levy fund, and can then spend their funds on their own apprenticeship training and assessment costs or transfer them to another employer.

However, an inquiry led by Lord Knight and Lord Willetts last year found that engineering and technology-related apprenticeship starts for 16 to 18-year-olds had fallen by 22% since 2016-2017, with new starts by both 19 to 24-year-olds and those over 25 fell by 6%. 

Their report recommended that the government should rebalance education to give equal status to technical and academic pathways, provide better support for young people and ensure long-term funding for apprenticeships at all levels, as well as greater equity between vocational and academic routes.

Smaller businesses should also be given more encouragement to take on apprentices, found the report, and employers should be more proactive.

Last September, the government put its money where its mouth is by announcing plans to recruit 2,500 tech and digital roles via apprenticeships and talent programmes by June 2025.

More information on how to apply for BT's apprenticeship and graduate job schemes is available here.

UK businesses have been urged to accelerate preparations for the analogue phone switch-off in 2025, with experts warning of serious disruption for those who fail to adapt in time.

In 2015, BT announced plans to retire its Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) and integrated services digital networks (ISDN) by the end of 2025.

Instead, customers will be migrated to new digital technology using an internet connection, such as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), Digital Voice, or All-IP telephony.

Already, it's no longer possible for businesses to purchase traditional landline contracts nor PSTN-enabled devices such as legacy phones or fax machines.

"The landline isn’t going away, but is being upgraded to replace the decades old analogue technology that is increasingly unreliable and is no longer supported by suppliers and manufacturers," said BT.

"Customers risk facing increased service outages if this urgent infrastructure upgrade isn’t carried out now by BT and other operators. This new future-proof, digital landline technology is also a major step towards preparing the country for a full fiber future, in support of the UK government’s gigabit connectivity ambitions."

The rollout has already started, with the North West and London getting the new Digital Voice late last year, and the West Midlands, South East, Wales, and East Anglia set to follow suit during the spring.

The North East, Scotland, and the South West to be migrated during the summer.

Andy Fung, communications solutions architect at Espria, warned that some businesses may not be aware that significant changes are looming, and urged firms to ramp up preparations.

"Already, large parts of the UK can no longer receive new ISDN or PSTN provisions," he said. "Changes are coming and your area may already be affected - Mildenhall and Salisbury were switched off last year as part of the test roll-out."

According to Espria, UK businesses need to properly understand the impact of the changes, particularly for often overlooked services such as lifts, alarms, broadband, PDQs, and EPOS devices, as well as phones.

"Businesses have a duty to themselves to ensure they do not lose access to vital communications tools, and that means looking into exactly what systems are at risk of disrupted business continuity," said Fung.

"The switch off not only affects your telecommunications but could also disrupt your alarm systems, PDQ and EPOS machines, lifts and more, interrupting more than just your business communications."

Espria recommends that businesses should start auditing systems now, looking at voice services, video conferencing, and real-time collaboration tools, but also lesser-noticed yet still integral systems, such as alarms, door entry systems, lift emergency lines, payment terminals, cash and fax machines.

They should consider the needs of both hybrid and office-based employees.

Similarly, firms will need to understand the specifics of their business service provision, such as the use of fixed or mobile networks, knowledge of current and future capacity, and whether VoIP has appropriate ease of use and is fit for purpose.

Hardware needs - such as IP headsets, a softphone client or a hybrid approach to communications - should also be considered, as should the possibility of extending digital transformation across more than just phone services.

"2025 is fast approaching," Fung said. "Preparing now is of the utmost importance to comms providers, and consulting your systems and making changes now can help future-proof your business, not just for the next couple of years but for the foreseeable future."

BT has missed a deadline to remove Huawei equipment from core networks following a government ruling over national security concerns. 

The telecoms giant was required to remove Huawei kit from core network infrastructure by 31 December, along with a long-term goal of cutting equipment from 5G networks by 2027.

The order to remove the Chinese firm’s equipment from core networks was originally given a deadline of January 2023, however, this was extended following industry concerns that the timeframe was not realistic.

BT said it has made significant progress in its work to remove non-compliant equipment, with all 4G and 5G services now delivered by hardware sourced from alternative providers.

“Over 99% of all core traffic is now being served by non-Huawei kit,” the firm said in a statement.

Despite this, the telecoms provider revealed that some services are still reliant on Huawei equipment - specifically 2G and 3G. However, the firm said this accounts for only a small portion of its total traffic.

“Our primary concern throughout these activities has been to ensure the resilience and operational capability of our networks for our customers,” BT told ITPro.

“The only voice and data services yet to be migrated are 2G and 3G, which accounts for less than 1% of the total traffic. We’re working hard to complete this work.”

Kester Mann, director of consumer and connectivity at CCS Insight, told ITPro the time BT has taken to implement changes highlights the difficulty of the task it has faced in recent months.

BT said the project has been “unprecedented in terms of scale, cost, and complexity”, and previously warned that it could cost more than £500 million in total.

“The time it has taken BT to remove Huawei gear demonstrates how technically challenging it is for an operator to switch from one core provider to another,” he said.

“It also hints that BT has sought to move carefully, wary of the potential impact on customers were anything to go wrong during the migration.”

Could BT face a fine?

Questions remain over whether BT could face penalties for its failure to fully meet the end-of-year deadline. 

Companies were warned that they could be fined up to 10% of their annual revenue, or £100,000 ($126,560) each day for failing to comply with the order.

A report from telecoms regulator Ofcom is expected to be published in early 2024 detailing progress on the removal scheme.

BT said it will provide Ofcom with details on progress next year as part of its obligations. The firm added it is still on-track to achieve the broader 2027 deadline.

Mann said that any potential penalties for BT would be harsh given that the deadline was only missed by a small margin. Similarly, figures released by the telecoms provider show it is more or less “over the line” at this stage.

“With almost all core traffic now served by non-Huawei kit, and with its 3G network set to shut down in just a few months, the company is almost over the line.

“Considering the rip-and-replace costs incurred BT would have incurred – estimated at around £500 million – it would feel harsh for the company to be penalized for only missing the deadline by a very small amount of time.”

BT has announced a new partnership with secure access service edge (SASE) specialist Netskope that will see the telecoms giant offer Netskope’s secure service edge (SSE) capabilities to its global customers. 

The latest in a string of large customer implementations delivered by the pair, the collaboration will combine Netskope’s SSE know-how and NewEdge global security private cloud footprint with BT’s network of connections with organizations across more than 180 countries.

In an announcement, BT revealed that its latest data showed that hybrid working has become a requirement for 76% of global workers, generating heightened demand for “more agile, secure connectivity”.

By leveraging Netskope’s SSE capabilities, the firm said it will be able to deliver an improved user experience that fuels productivity, while also providing increased visibility and control of network, applications, and data.

“BT’s focus is always on providing strong connectivity with the best possible experiences for our customers,” commented Tausif Awan, BT’s global solution sales director.

“Increasingly, for our business customers that means helping them navigate the access needs of a hybrid workforce while ensuring the safety of corporate systems and data.

“We are always working to ensure we are partnered with the market leading technology innovators to be able to meet our customers’ needs, and Netskope will be an important partner for us moving forward.”

Netskope’s Intelligent SSE is designed to provide granular visibility and real-time data and threat protection for cloud services, websites, and private apps that can be accessed remotely from any device.

This year, the offering was named as a leader in research firm Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for SSE for the second year running, ranking Netskope as having the highest “ability to execute” and to have the current furthest “completeness of vision” on the market.

The latest collaboration will now enable easy integration with BT customers’ technology stack, thanks to Netskope already integrating with many of the telecommunications firm’s strategic vendors and technology integration partners – including the likes of Microsoft, AWS, and CrowdStrike.

"We're excited to strengthen our collaboration with BT, addressing a key concern for global CIOs and CISOs: security transformation," said Dave Rogers, senior vice president of alliances and global channel sales at Netskope.

“BT clients will benefit from robust security measures to minimize the risk of cyber threats while aiding in meeting compliance standards, and employees will see a boost in productivity via excellent user experiences.”

Achieving excellent internet speed and low latency can break down the barriers to productivity and unlock value for almost any business. But without reliability, speed doesn't matter very much.

Just as it’s no good having a good product if you don’t have enough employees to sell it, superfast broadband speeds are only useful to a business if they can be relied upon. Many organizations over-invest in superfast headline speeds without considering this and end up tied to an internet service that is fast but flaky.

Across the UK, poor reliability has a big impact. Research by Uswitch found that 11 million overall UK customers experienced broadband outages lasting at least three hours between 2021 and 2022, with a total financial impact of £1.3 billion on the UK economy. 

It’s up to business leaders to ensure that when their employees come to the office, they can reliably connect to the internet and complete their work undisturbed by poor latency, slow downloads, or outages.

When your internet connection is unreliable, it’s not just your leaders or workforce that will bear the brunt of this. Poor performance always finds its way along the chain to partners and customers; finding a solution that means you can be there for your customers when they need you is as much a matter of reputation as it is revenue.

Direct leased lines offer the most reliable internet connection alongside the highest speeds, with upload and download rates ranging from 50Mbits/sec to 10Gbits/sec. They provide symmetrical connections, allowing firms to make use of identical upload and download speeds and work that requires any level of connectivity done to the same high measure regardless of the time of day.

Guaranteed fibre and bespoke maintenance

Because leased line fibre involves a business making a direct contract with an internet service provider (ISP), it comes with guarantees and services that are not standard for every internet contract.

For example, the ISP laying fresh cable specifically for a customer helps to prevent any hardware problems in the immediate future and ensures that the specifications meet a client’s needs exactly.

In the unlikely event that a business’s leased line does go down, technicians can also react with haste and work with the affected business to resolve the problem as soon as possible. Unlike businesses that share a cabinet with other firms or even residential addresses, those on leased lines can be served on a 1:1 basis by their supplier.

Through BTnet, businesses get a 100% uptime guarantee to make sure that vital services stay running at all times and employees don’t have to sit idle. Alongside the symmetrical connections of the leased line, this means employees can do their work with total confidence in fast connectivity with the lowest possible latency.

Business leaders who choose BT for their leased line will have direct contact with BT from the day the line is installed, rather than relying on a third-party supplier. This begins from the moment a contract is agreed

If something does happen to affect availability, BT offers 24/7 support and technicians will be dispatched to address issues within five hours. In this way, a business’s losses can be reduced even for more severe internet outages.

BT has backed its confidence in BTnet with a promise to reduce the rental charges for customers who experience an outage. Rates are set out in the SLA and can reach the equivalent of ten days’ rental charge for hours lost to outages.

Guaranteed speed

Because a business doesn’t have to share its connection with others when on a leased line, it will never lose out by having to share bandwidth. With a direct leased line, there are no periods in which a business has to deal with slower broadband due to the time of day or the intensity of a neighboring company’s internet habits.

This frees leaders to adopt or maintain flexible aspects to their working day, including asynchronous collaboration, without the need to predict the time at which the internet will be fastest or anticipate potential slowdowns and outages at a specific time caused by a bottleneck in their business broadband. 

A direct leased line for fibre can ensure that an internet connection is maintained all day and night without the need for more staff and whenever an employee needs the internet in the office, it’s there to be used.

The leaders at Castle Grove, a nursing home in Devon, contacted BT to conduct a digital transformation project on its site linked to resident internet demands and its own pugs for a more resilient and convenient WiFi system.

BT sent a local business expert to Castle Grove, to tailor the project to meet the needs of the nursing home. It found that a dedicated leased line would allow Castle Grove to rapidly improve the quality of data transfers taking place on-site. The reliability and guaranteed bandwidth allow Castle Grove to deliver consistent digital services to its residents, in the same way that one’s employees can make use of solid fibre without breaks.

Castle Grove also experiences fairly regular power failures and there was a prolonged period after each power outage in which its internet connection struggled to reassert itself. BTnet means that once the power cut is resolved they are back online extremely quickly.

The reliability of a direct leased line can be further enhanced through integrated cyber security controls. As your first line of defense against malware and other threats, your internet service is improved if it can independently screen against attackers before any additional security measures come into play.

Being able to repel attacks feeds directly into uptime guarantees, with the number of cyber attacks on UK organizations continuing to surge each year. BTnet customers have the choice to add a Cisco firewall to protect their internal network from malicious external traffic and URL filtering to prevent employees from inadvertently visiting unsafe content.

It also comes with resilience guarantees for the core network, which can help prevent distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks from affecting a business’s services.

In choosing BTnet, businesses can achieve the support they need while safe in the knowledge that multiple contingency plans are in place to keep services safe. Even in the most intense circumstances such as a cyber attack on a business’ connectivity, BT works to resume services as they were.

For more information on BTnet dedicated leased line options, click here.

Digital services are pivotal to business – there's no room for debate and this has been known for some time. From massive corporations to sole traders, phasing out old ways of working for new systems is part and parcel of adapting your venture to the demands of the modern era. This may involve simply swapping an older smartphone for a newer one, or leveraging a significant investment in a software solution to help workers stay better connected with one another. But the pace of change has been remarkable. 

In the wake of COVID-19, 77% of businesses were forced to re-examine the employee experience, according to research by Avaya published in November 2020. This is an important piece of context, as it led to significant growth in the collaboration software market, with revenues climbing sharply by 11% between 2019 and 2020 from $11.01 billion to $12.26 billion. This trend continued into 2021, with revenues rising by 9% to $13.39 billion, according to data from Statista. By contrast, year-on-year revenue increases between 2019 and 2020 in comparable categories such as administrative or creative software collapsed.

Growth in the collaboration software market is expected to slow down in the coming years. This reflects the fact many businesses, by now, have already made significant investments in tools like Microsoft Teams and its array of productivity services. But does that mean they're making the most of these investments? 

Connecting with colleagues and customers

Now the dust has settled and hybrid work patterns have begun to solidify, organizations are finding the various technologies they've bought into may not be as connected as they can be. The result is massive untapped potential, especially when it comes to integrating Microsoft's services with the wider technology stack. There is, after all, lots of scope to better connect existing systems with one another without necessarily needing to make fresh rounds of investments – which is where BT could step in to help.

Ensuring your organization has the right infrastructure in place doesn't just involve patching together the various networks and tools to run applications, but it's also about learning how to make all these components work in harmony. Much like an ensemble orchestra, the various components need to be in tune and in sync in order for your business to really be in a position to enjoy the music.  

BT's 20-year partnership with Microsoft has gone from strength to strength, especially as the need to deliver joined-up collaboration and communication software became a key priority following the Covid-19 pandemic. Microsoft Teams Voice, for example, powers high-quality calling between Teams users in the workplace, with BT able to build a unique solution using Direct Routing, Operator Connect or a combination of the two systems. 

Dealing with customers, too, can be tricky – especially for colleagues who may not adhere to the conventional desk or office-based functions. There are segments of the workforce in need of a strategy for technology-based communications that may have been somewhat forgotten in the drive to invest in systems to support a new wave of hybrid and remote working practices. 

Delivery drivers, for example, could well do with systems like Microsoft Teams Phone Mobile, which lets them transform their own smartphone or tablet (or perhaps another device) into a business endpoint securely. This means, if they need to call customers they're delivering to, they're more likely to pick up the phone, it won't be an unrecognized number. BT is the first Microsoft partner capable of delivering such a service for customers in the UK, allowing them to make and receive external calls to both landlines and smartphones. 

Priming your digital infrastructure for the future

When a business makes a serious investment, it pays to investigate how to make the most of that commitment. Building a coherent strategy for the future also demands that all known possibilities and configurations have been explored, as well as whether there may be any crucial tools or features missing from the current set-up.

While things may be ticking over fine, there is likely more that can be done to connect digital services in the best possible way. To explore this possibility, BT and Microsoft experts have produced a free webinar to guide businesses through the process. Hosted by technology journalist and presenter David McClelland, 'Evolve your digital services, starting with Microsoft' will be a fantastic opportunity to hear how best to empower staff, maintain control by doubling down on security, and reconfigure systems as and when needed to meet the challenges of tomorrow. The webinar will also feature unique insight from BT's principal innovation partner Nicola Millard, director of digital work Andrew Small, as well as Microsoft's modern work lead Gareth Bleasdale. 

Although many businesses have made serious investments in collaboration software like Microsoft Teams, they may not be primed to tap into the full potential that such technologies can offer. Together, these four experts will walk businesses through the need-to-knows when it comes to giving their workforce and your customers the best tools to communicate and collaborate now and in the future. 

To learn more about how you can prepare for the digital future, click here to register now for the upcoming webinar 'Evolve your digital services, starting with Microsoft'.

Discussions around communication and workforce efficiency have ramped up over the past three years as hybrid and remote working have become more common for office workers. 

Cloud-based productivity tools such as Microsoft Teams, for example, have played a key role in alleviating challenges and streamlining communications for businesses; they have provided a vital platform for collaboration and ensured business continuity amidst a challenging operating environment.

However, with conversations on the matter often focused on the needs of office-based ‘knowledge workers’, for the remaining 80% of the workforce who, according to BT, typically work remotely in the field, these needs have been largely overlooked. 

This forgotten workforce – made up of delivery drivers, site managers, traditional sales rep roles and the like – is still as important to modern businesses as their colleagues who sit at a desk. Despite this, they are often forced to contend with poorly aligned communications strategies and equipment that don’t meet their needs; research from Microsoft shows that nearly one-third (32%) of these frontline workers don’t have the necessary tools required to work effectively. 

This lack of access to unified, reliable communications has a marked negative impact on productivity, engagement, and retention, and ultimately has an adverse impact on overall business performance and customer satisfaction. 

One example of the issue at hand would be a delivery driver who needs to speak to a customer. While most jobs will pass off without a hitch, sometimes an address can be hard to find, there’s an external door that requires a code for entry, or some other cause of disruption in them completing the delivery.

While a quick phone call may seem like the solution, many people are hesitant to answer calls from an unknown or unrecognized number. If the customer doesn’t pick up, the delivery person can be left unable to fulfill their task, which is an unsatisfying outcome both for them and the intended recipient. 

Over time, it can end up wasting precious time and resources for the organization in a period of challenging economic conditions and budgetary constraints. 

For sales representatives, this issue poses equal challenges. An inability to engage with customers and prospective clients means that their business could lose out on vital revenue streams. 

Streamlined communication with Microsoft Teams Phone Mobile

Connectivity issues such as these can be addressed through BT’s Microsoft Teams Phone Mobile service, an advanced feature of Microsoft’s flagship collaboration platform.

BT is the UK’s first Microsoft partner to offer Teams Phone Mobile for customers, enabling every call to become a Teams call, whether from the Teams app, or the native mobile dialler.

Users of the service can make calls from their mobile phone dialler, Teams app or physical Teams endpoints using a single business-owned phone number. This easy-to-use single number can be used across multiple devices and provides a verified ID for the caller, alleviating customer concerns over spam calls from unknown contacts. 

This, in turn, helps increase responses to calls and enables staff to engage with customers more effectively wherever they are. 

“Teams Phone Mobile is where we made this network level integration that integrates teams right into the carrier network,” says Gareth Bleasdale, senior GTM manager for Microsoft Teams. 

"Making it easier for users to pick up and make calls on their preferred device for that specific movement."

Fundamentally, Teams Phone Mobile offers businesses an opportunity to consolidate their communications and costs within a single offering, according to Bleasdale. 

Rather than potentially paying for two separate tariffs for one individual employee, or running on two separate platforms, Teams Phone Mobile brings everything under one roof. 

“Because Teams Mobile anchors all those calls on a single platform, it makes it much easier to manage that, to get recordings, to get detailed insights, but also allows you to rationalize your costs.”. 

“Then you get the wider macro benefits of being able to present known phone numbers, reducing those dropped call rates, and providing those business benefits, like reduced wastage from field worker visits, like being able to improve customer experience.”

Office workers can also benefit from Teams Phone Mobile, as well as their colleagues who are out working in the field. 

In hybrid working roles, they can take their phone number with them between locations and it can also facilitate smoother hot desking, as the person’s number isn’t tied to a particular seat. All of which is in addition to the other connectivity benefits brought by Teams.

Reliable connectivity 

Teams Phone Mobile from BT harnesses the power of the EE mobile network to ensure reliability and robust connectivity. 

In July 2023, EE was named as the best overall mobile network for customers across the country. Independent testing from Rootmetrics showed the network ranked best for reliability, accessibility, and speed. 

EE was also identified as the top performing carrier in each individual UK nation for ten years running. 

Intuitive features

There are broader benefits of Teams Phone Mobile with regard to every-day productivity and operational efficiency. 

For example, the roll-out of intuitive, automated transcription services on Microsoft Teams is integrated with user voicemails. This means users who do miss a call are provided with transcribed excerpts of voicemails, making catching up on correspondence easier. 

Users can also receive voicemails on any Teams endpoint, and have secondary voicemail greetings depending on individual circumstances, such as when they are out of office. 

Bleasdale says these small yet impactful features make things easier for both the end user and organization as a whole. 

“I like to think of it as you’re making life easier for the run aspect of the organization, making a streamlined, efficient, consolidated architecture,” he says. 

“When you switch on your out of office you can have a second voicemail greeting that has a slightly different tone. That will flow through to your mobile voicemail. It’s all about making life easier for the IT department, easier for the end user, and much more efficient and future ready.”

Security and resilience

Microsoft Teams Phone Mobile from BT draws on the combined security expertise of both providers, offering customers industry-leading security features. 

The service is compliant with cross-border regulatory requirements, and offers dedicated security teams to protect against growing cyber security threats. 

Management and governance-related considerations are also streamlined through Teams Phone Mobile’s integration with the Microsoft 365 portal. This enables businesses to enforce security, compliance, and data governance policies through a central location. 

The holistic benefits of a mobile-first approach

Organizations leveraging Teams Phone Mobile and adopting a mobile-first approach to their communications strategy can unlock more benefits than operational efficiency; this practice has a tangible positive impact on employee satisfaction and wellbeing. 

Organizations that fail to prioritize employee wellbeing can create long-term issues, such as poorer staff retention, which has a negative impact on their bottom line due to the loss of vital institutional knowledge and expertise. 

Research shows that failure to prioritize employee wellbeing costs SMBs around £125,000 each year, for example. 

Field teams are typically happier when they are able to communicate openly and effectively with colleagues located in-office, and are able to draw on vital support to help them maximize their daily tasks. 

Simple things such as check-ins with colleagues can go a long way to improve morale and wellbeing. 

To learn more about what BT can offer with Microsoft Teams, click here.

Cyber security has grown from a preoccupation of the IT department alone to something that can also keep CFOs, CEOs and others in the boardroom up at night.

There was once a time when a computer virus might have been seen as an annoyance or inconvenience that was contained to at most a handful of computers. Now, however, most companies – and would-be attackers – realize a successful ransomware campaign, for example, could bring down their business.

In this special edition of the ITPro Podcast, in association with BT, Rory and Jane are joined by Deborah Moir, principal cyber security consultant at BT. Together, they discuss the risks  businesses face and how they can quantify them to decide where to concentrate their defense resources.

BT has announced it has appointed Allison Kirkby as its new CEO, as the company maintains its course on proposed cuts.

Kirkby, who is BT’s first-ever female CEO, is currently president and CEO at Swedish telco giant Telia and has previously led Danish, Swedish, and Baltic telecoms TDC and Tele2.

Her first year in the position will open against the backdrop of a wave of layoffs at the firm, spearheaded by outgoing CEO Philip Jansen.

In May, BT announced it would slash 55,000 members of staff by 2030 in a series of vast cost-saving measures. The firm has sought to digitize its processes and lean on artificial intelligence (AI) more as it aims to save £3 billion ($3.86 billion) by 2025.

“I’m incredibly honored to have been appointed as the next chief executive of BT Group,” said Kirkby.

“BT is such an important company for the UK, and our many customers both in the UK and internationally and is uniquely placed to help everyone benefit from the rapid advances in digitalization.

“Our products and services have never been more important to how our customers live and work, and thanks to the significant investment BT is putting into digital infrastructure and in the modernization of its services, I see us playing an even more important role going forward. 

“Having been a member of the BT Group Board for the past four years, I’m fully supportive of our strategy and am excited about leading it into its next phase of development, as we grow to support customers, shareholders, and the UK economy.”

Jansen announced his resignation on 10 July, having led BT for four years in which the company’s value fell by almost 40%.

As the new executive face of the company, Kirkby will fall under pressure to turn this trend around. As a backer of the policies, she is already locked into the majority of cuts and difficult business decisions to come.

The firm’s Q1 2024 results showed signs of growth for the company, with pro forma adjusted revenue up 4% year-on-year at £5.2 billion ($6.69 billion). 

A portion of this was linked to Openreach price rises and improved sales of fiber-enabled products, though the group also revealed equipment trading in its Business unit had improved.

Paolo Pescatore, telecoms analyst at PP Foresight, told ITPro that Kirkby’s career credentials speak for themselves, and that her existing close relationships with the firm have made her familiar with the processes and strategy of the firm as a whole.

“This suggests the strategy is unlikely to change with Kirkby set to continue following Jansen’s transformational program. Managing BT is no easy feat due to numerous stakeholders including Ofcom, the UK government, pension, and unions as well as others. 

“An external person always needs time to get up to speed and establish new connections with everyone. Arguably it might have been time to promote from within the BT ranks rather than recruit another external CEO.”

Pescatore also said that BT has more work to do in its fiber rollout, and for improving the performance of its Business unit.

Within the results, BT announced it is 44% of the way towards its target of reaching 25 million UK premises with fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) broadband by 2026.

Though BT’s Business unit saw a 3% year-on-year revenue increase in Q1 2023, it contributed just 100,000 of the 2 million overall FTTP customers added across the period.

Jansen will leave the company at the end of January 2024, and Kirkby will take over at an as-yet-disclosed date following this.

BT Group CEO Philip Jansen has announced plans to step down after four years at the top of the UK telecommunications giant.

Jansen first took charge of the company in February 2019, leading it through the pandemic and continuing cost of living crisis.

News of Jansen’s replacement could come over the summer, but no official timeline has been set. Jansen told BT’s board of directors he will resign at “an appropriate moment” in the coming 12 months.

"Philip has done an excellent job in his time at BT and the Board is fully supportive of our long-term strategy which he and his team are pursuing,” said Adam Crozier, BT Group Chairman. 

“Whilst we are still in the early years of that transformation we are on track to deliver. The succession process to replace Philip is something that the Board was well prepared for. 

“All appropriate candidates are being considered and we expect to be able to update the market on progress over the course of the summer. In the meantime, it is business as usual, and we are focused on executing our plans and delivering for all our stakeholders."

Jansen had been rumored to be on the way out in the past few months, but the chief executive has remained in place as the firm continued to ride out its rocky period.

“This has been on the cards for some time,” said Paolo Pescatore, tech, media and telco analyst at PP Foresight. 

“There’s not much more left for him to do. He has helped navigate the group through a difficult period. Probably time to think about the next chapter for both him and BT. Openreach is now in a better place, consolidating the enterprise function and moving away from costly sports rights.”

“All eyes now turn on the successor. A prime candidate is already at the business with Marc Allera, who heads up the consumer segment.”

Pescatore told ITPro that the consumer division has “aggressive growth targets” and that, under Jansen, Allera has gained vital experience and the respect of key partners.

In BT’s FY23 results its consumer unit accounted for £9.7 billion ($12.4 billion) out of the £20.7 billion ($26.4 billion) total, with fiber to the premises (FTTP) and 5G highlighted as consumer technologies of particular interest.

The telco has faced hard deadlines for consumer and enterprise technology in recent years. Its initial speed at 5G deployment was hampered by the government’s decision to ban Huawei equipment from the UK’s 5G network.

At the time, BT warned that it could take seven years to fully strip the Huawei kit, and in June 2022 it requested an extension to the January 2023 deadline by which it had been expected to remove all such equipment from its core network.

In May, BT announced plans to lay off 55,000 workers by 2030 in a push to slash operating costs. At the time, BT told ITPro that 10,000 of these roles are expected to be cut as a direct result of greater use of automation and improvements to the firm’s digital channel.

Since Jansen became BT CEO in 2019, the firm’s share value has fallen almost 40%. Its FY23 revenue dropped 1% on the previous year, with profit down 12% across the period.

His successor will have a busy in-tray, with much of the company’s cost-saving measures still to come and lofty goals to reach in areas such as fiber rollout and planning around 6G.

ITPro has approached BT for more information.

BT has announced a new partnership with HPE to provide customers with a new managed service that aims to deliver improved performance flexibility and control of local area networks (LANs).

The offering combines BT’s global reach and expertise in both wired and wireless connectivity with the latest LAN solutions from HPE Aruba Networking. 

The service has been designed to deliver high-performance experiences for hybrid workers and IoT transformations at a time when many legacy LAN solutions struggle to support user expectations when accessing apps. 

In an announcement, BT said its new HPE Aruba Networking LAN service will allow customers to securely modernize connectivity as working patterns continue to evolve, as well as keep pace with IoT demands.

“It’s clear that legacy in-building networks can’t handle modern hybrid working and IoT devices, never mind what comes next,” said Andrew Small, director of voice and digital work at BT’s Business unit.

“That’s why we’re expanding customer choice of managed LAN solutions by partnering with HPE Aruba Networking. This will offer the visibility, flexibility, and security customers need to deliver productive, trusted wired and wireless connectivity.”

The partnership will see BT audit the LAN to determine what is already in place, which elements can be re-used, and anything that should be replaced. 

HPE Aruba Networking will provide interoperable technology that can prevent the need to replace an entire network.

BT said it will also work collaboratively with customers to manage costs by providing a staged approach to modernization, as well as an evaluation of how to secure and protect connected devices. 

Customers can leverage the service via a single dashboard hosted in the cloud, which centralizes reporting, analytics, security, scalability, and resilience. 

Additionally, the offering can also identify redundant devices that are taking up unnecessary power, as well as automate network and energy optimization. 

“Global customers that are building their connectivity strategies are focusing on modern enterprise networks that are secure, agile, responsive to business needs, and simple to operate, while being powerful drivers of transformation,” said Phil Mottram, executive vice president and general manager at HPE Aruba Networking. 

“HPE Aruba Networking is at the forefront of reinventing how customers and partners can consume or deliver business outcome-focused networking, and by integrating our AI, security, automation, and network as a service capabilities, our global managed LAN service with BT is an example of how the network is helping customers achieve their business objectives.”

Let’s face it, the new generation of business technology can be confusing. With the pace of change seemingly moving faster than ever before, it can feel like there’s a new breakthrough every six months – and if you listen to all the hype then it can lead you to believe that you’d better be an early adopter, otherwise your competitors are going to leave you in the dust.

From 5G to the internet of things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI) to edge computing and everything in between, there are some truly game-changing use cases coming to the fore. But, as with anything else, just because it’s there doesn’t mean you need it – and it could well be that a different solution would fit your situation far better.

Understanding the challenges facing your business now, and what it wants to do in the future, is vital to understanding what technologies you should be adopting. And there’s no better way to navigate these questions than with a seasoned and innovative partner, like BT. We provide an effortless end-to-end service, taking care of every detail from ideation to execution and managed service. We provide our customers with a hassle-free experience throughout the project lifecycle.

Surveying the landscape

Before considering embracing any new technology, it’s essential to look at what it actually does – not just what its cheerleaders say it does – and how others are using it. Noting here that outcomes, not the tech itself, are the key: it’s important not to be constrained by what’s already happening in any given sector. A use case in one industry could provide a useful blueprint for another. 

For example, while cloud is mature at this point, the way it is used has evolved over time with organisations moving on from simple Software as a Service (SaaS) applications and storing data in the cloud, to more targeted solutions. Analyst firm Gartner predicted in late 2022 that one of these – industry cloud platforms – would become a key trend in 2023, adding that by 2027 more than 50% of enterprises will be using them as part of their digital transformation strategies.

Another technology that has come to change the way multiple industries work is IoT. Only a few years ago its typical use cases were limited either to the consumer realm in the shape of smart thermostats and connected doorbells, with some industrial applications also put forward – normally with a focus on robotics in manufacturing. 

Fast forward to today and there are concrete examples of IoT being used to improve safety and efficiency far beyond the idea of preemptive maintenance. One of these is a BT project in the Yorkshire Dales demonstrating the powerful benefits this technology can provide for not only business, but communities too. Combining smart IoT sensors and mobile network technology, BT is enabling Yorkshire Water to benefit from remote water quality monitoring.

The data from the monitors is transmitted by a new EE 4G mast, allowing scientists and engineers to proactively select the best available water sources for transfer to the water treatment works. Weather, temperature, and the condition of the moorland can impact the quality of water sources, as they can influence things like the amount of peat found in the water.

Yorkshire Water says the better the water quality is at source, the less energy it takes to process at the treatment works, reducing its carbon footprint and supporting its net zero carbon ambition.

Not only is the new project enabling higher quality water to enter the treatment works (which in turn requires less processing), but the new 4G mast is also providing connectivity for 1,000 residents, holiday homes and local businesses in the area too – demonstrating how technology can provide multiple benefits and be a force for good.

Finding the right partner

Being clear about what you want to achieve as a business and gathering an understanding of which technologies could help, the next step is working with your connectivity partner to bring these plans to life.

It pays to work with a partner who has a solid understanding of your needs and the right experience handling projects of a similar size and scope to yours, even if it’s not exactly the same. You’re also not looking for a partner who says they have the one revolutionary product that can solve all your problems, but one who can leverage their own core strengths and knows how to bring in other suppliers and talents when needed.

“When we talk about digital transformation, it’s not only about the tech. It’s a case of bringing together people, processes and technology to create an end-to-end solution. One that adapts to meet the business’ outcomes. This is the standard that our customers expect – and it’s why BT’s partnerships are so valuable in this space.” Alex Foster, Director for Division X, part of BT’s Business unit, tells ITPro. “Bringing the right partners together creates a complete digital ecosystem for our customers, and it’s something we’ve spent time on with our Partner Advisory Board (PAB), which includes PwC from the consultancy perspective, Microsoft from the cloud space, Ericsson from an infrastructure perspective, and Atos from an application perspective,” she adds.

An example of how this works in practice is BT’s work with the Port of Tyne in South Shields to help fulfil its plans to become a world-class smart port. BT used Ericsson technology for the installation of a hybrid fibre, 4G and 5G private network on the site, which will form a key part of the port’s Tyne 2050 strategic plan.

Moving ahead with confidence

While digital transformation may be a journey rather than a destination, it’s made up of defined projects, each with their own objectives, budgets, and roadmaps, so it pays to have a knowledgeable co-pilot like BT to get you there.

Whether your strategy takes a 50-year view or a more traditional five year one, having a partner that understands your business and the challenges it faces is the key to success. BT, with its long pedigree as a business in its own right, is the digital backbone of more than a million businesses and public sector organisations across the world. Combining secure, resilient networks with unrivalled tech partnerships, the company exists to help customers unlock the value of their digital transformation, with expert support every step of the way.

“Digitisation starts with a strong digital foundation – the network is the bedrock on which you build and evolve a business. This will enable you to stay agile and unlock new business models and opportunities so you can respond to the changing market,” added Foster. “At BT, our focus is always the customer and what’s right for them. The future is now and we’re here to help them make the most of it.”

BT has announced plans to axe up to 40% of its workforce by 2030 as it looks to become a “leaner business” and rely more heavily on digitization and AI to cut costs.

The telco giant currently employs around 130,000 people worldwide, around 80,000 of whom are UK-based, but will seek to reduce this to between 75,000-90,000 between FY28-30.

The news came alongside poor results, with revenue of £20.7 billion ($25.75 billion) down 1% year-on-year and profit down 12% across the same period due to “increased depreciation from network build and specific items”.

The Telegraph reported that up to 10,000 jobs, roughly a fifth of the slashed roles, could be directly replaced with automation technologies such as AI.

BT told ITPro that 10,000 roles will cease as a result of automation and improvements to its digital channel, with customers expected to rely more on online self-service.

“By continuing to build and connect like fury, digitize the way we work and simplify our structure, by the end of the 2020s BT Group will rely on a much smaller workforce and a significantly reduced cost base,” said Philip Jansen, CEO at BT.

“New BT Group will be a leaner business with a brighter future.” 

Its shares fell by more than 10% in early trading.

Kester Mann, director of consumer and connectivity at analyst firm CCS Insight, to ITPro that major cuts were expected given BT’s annual cost savings target of £3 billion ($3.73 billion) by 2025.

He added that the scale of these redundancies has nevertheless come as a shock to the telecoms sector.

“This brutal decision – just two days after Vodafone confirmed 11,000 job losses – reflects consistent underperformance of the telecoms sector despite continued strong demand for its services,” said Mann 

“BT has struggled as much as anyone: its share price is down around 40% since Philip Jansen took the helm in February 2019. The CEO – whose own position has reportedly been under threat – will expect the cull to hasten BT’s migration to a much more lean, simple, and efficient organization.”

Mann also said that greater use of automation and artificial intelligence will make up many of the roles, while the completion of BT’s fiber rollout in 2026 would also lead to job cuts.

BT stated that some 15,000 roles would end as fiber investment is dialed down.

In its results, BT stated that it has hit 41% of its target 25 million premises connected with full-fiber, FTTP broadband.

Network engineers are also expected to lose jobs as BT completes its 5G rollout, with the firm’s network now covering 68% of the UK population and connections up 62% over the financial period.

The Communications Workers Union (CWU), which represents tens of thousands of workers at BT and Openreach, stated that the announcement was unsurprising given new technologies and the fiber completion target.

“However, we have made it categorically clear to BT that we want to retain as many direct labor jobs as possible and that any reduction should come from sub-contractors in the first instance and natural attrition,” a spokesperson said.

“We have also stated that it’s imperative that we should be in the room discussing and shaping the new skills required of the workforce as they move to a more digital network to ensure our members have a stable, secure career within BT well into the future; to which the company has agreed ongoing discussions with the CWU on these matters.”

This article was updated to include additional context from BT.

BT has announced that it successfully connected network masts to OneWeb's satellite constellation - a major milestone in the journey to deliver satellite broadband to the UK's small and rurally located businesses.

The feat meant the two companies were able to deliver 4G data over low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites for the first time, connecting an EE mast to the network core.

Businesses with poor mast coverage, such as those in more remote areas in the UK, as well as those located in areas with older network architectures, are set to be the main beneficiaries of the technology once it matures.

During the trial, a terrestrial base station was connected through the OneWeb user terminal (UT), which then connected to OneWeb’s LEO satellite constellation.

The connection then flowed down into OneWeb’s network and through to BT’s point of presence in London.

Here, there is a direct interconnect into BT 21C, which connects through to IPsec security gateway and onto the mobile core network.

The telco has demonstrated voice calls and group voice calls using the system, which offers greater capacity than would be possible through a direct-to-handset satellite connection.

"A key factor for us was getting that direct interconnect in," said Andy Sutton, chief network architect at BT, told IT Pro. "That’s game-changing for us in terms of quality and capability, and it’s one of a number of direct interconnects we’re going to be building around the world.

“The key point here is not only that we are using the LEO satellite constellation, but also the direct interconnect as well. So we have the end-to-end control of that quality of service user experience, which you wouldn’t have if you were just using a traditional LEO service with internet-based backhaul.”

BT used its test environment in Bristol to carry out the trial, but has also deployed an Intellian dual parabolic user terminal in a field trial site in Shropshire.

It's hoped that testing at this ‘live site’ can begin soon after BT’s Q4 ends in March 2023, which will see both 4G and 5G backhaul tests will be carried out.

The site is currently supported by geostationary backhaul, which provides limited capacity and high latencies. LEO tests in the area should significantly reduce latency - BT's simulations predicted speeds of 100-150 Mbits/sec downlink and 30 Mbits/sec uplink.

BT Business is in discussions with several large enterprise customers about agreements to use the service. Potential partners have also indicated interest in using the infrastructure to provide further resilience in parallel with terrestrial connections.

For example, satellite connections could be established to support an organisation’s SD-WAN should terrestrial connections fail.

As it has a global supplier agreement with OneWeb these partners are based both in the UK and internationally, but its primary focus on LEO networks at this time is centred on UK connectivity.

BT and OneWeb signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in 2021, with the goal to provide better digital services to underserved rural businesses.

Aiming for a range of resilient options, BT is also working closely with Stratospheric Platforms Ltd. This Cambridge-based aerospace company has trialled its high altitude platform (HAPS) system with BT at Adastral Park in Suffolk, in which unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) flying at 60,000ft and above to deliver uninterrupted 4G and 5G direct to consumer smartphones.

Through this multi-orbital strategy, BT aims to provide excellent resilience and speed across the UK, particularly for smaller to medium-sized businesses in under-served rural areas.

“We’ve been able to offer resilient access through space for backing up terrestrial communications. We do that today in some cell sites for emergency services,” said Sutton.

“We see that continuing as a trend in mobile but also being a great opportunity in the wider business world as well.”

It's clear that satellites could be key to boosting rural business connectivity in the UK, alongside widespread fibre broadband rollout and expansion of 5G by mobile network operators (MNOs).

But, addressing the UK government’s Starlink trials in Snowdonia and the Lake District, Sutton said that trials of this kind are not a key focus at this time.

“At the moment, OneWeb is very focused on B2B and that’s reflected in the types of packages they offer, and the capacity across the constellation. Clearly we see a different approach with Starlink, with a direct business-to-consumer proposition.

“OneWeb has plans to densify its constellation considerably in phase two. And with that densification, they'll be able to offer significantly greater capacity per satellite, and each satellite will cover a smaller area, because there’ll be more of them. So then you start to look at the prospects around delivering - potentially - a consumer-based service on the back of that.”

BT aims to provide 90% of the UK’s geography with 5G by 2028, with the network available on demand to 100%. The OneWeb backhaul service is one part of a wider range of tools to deliver on this goal, with its polar-based constellation now able to provide 24/7 UK coverage.

OneWeb continues to launch satellites to expand its satellite constellation, with SpaceX having helped the firm to launch 40 satellites in January 2023. The firm has done 16 of these launches to date, and recently stated that only two more launches are necessary until its first-generation constellation is complete.

BT has partnered with networking giant Cisco to launch a new programme aimed at helping businesses reduce their e-waste and achieve their circular economy targets.

The programme will see BT’s environmental specialists working with businesses to understand their goals and offer ways to responsibly repurpose old networking equipment.

Businesses are increasingly embracing digital transformation and pivoting to multi-cloud environments which often involves changing IT and networking equipment to support the move, BT said.

Businesses will have the opportunity to work with the UK telecoms leader to not only recycle their old equipment but also receive support to help them better understand their role in influencing tech sustainability.

Cisco will be leading the efforts to either reuse or recycle participating business’ decommissioned networking equipment.

The US-based networking firm will receive all shipments of unwanted equipment and promised to responsibly repurpose up to 99.9% of the equipment delivered to them.

BT has Cisco-certified ‘environmental specialists’ working in the UK, US, Italy, Ireland, Switzerland and Singapore. They will be working with businesses in their respective regions to manage the programme.

There are more countries planned to be added to the list by the end of 2022, BT said, but the companies haven’t committed to an exact number.

“E-waste is a growing concern and according to the World Economic Forum (WEF) now the fastest-growing waste stream in the world,” said Hriday Ravindranath, chief product and digital officer at BT’s Global unit. “Our customers and partners have made commitments to report on and improve performance in this critical area.

“Creating a more sustainable, circular economy, where we prioritise dematerialisation and avoid equipment going to landfill, is vital. It builds on our leadership in sustainability and will help deliver on our BT Group Manifesto commitments and ambition to connect for good.”

In a 2021 report, the WEF said the worldwide contribution to e-waste would outweigh the Great Wall of China.

An estimated 57.4 tonnes of waste was to be discarded by the end of 2021, it said, blaming the growth of consumption and production of electronic products as the main reasons.

There are numerous methods a business can use to tackle its own e-waste contribution such as choosing to invest in devices with software that’s known to be supported for a long period of time.

Apple has a troubled history with allegations of hardware-based planned obsolescence in the past, but the company is widely heralded for the long periods of software support.

Its mobile operating system iOS is often used as an example and compared to Android devices which often receive updates for a comparatively much shorter time, potentially reducing the device’s lifespan and increasing the likelihood they will be resigned to e-waste.

BT has been championing the fight against e-waste for some time. It launched a public appeal in August last year to encourage the general public to research recycling opportunities for unused or unwanted tech that may be lying around the house.

A survey commissioned by the company revealed almost a third of Britons (31%) didn’t know how to recycle unwanted devices, with printers proving to be the most confusing.

BT Group has confirmed a new machine learning (ML) platform has been deployed within the business that promises to shorten the development of artificial intelligence (AI) products from six months to six days.

The new platform is called AI Accelerator and is responsible for continually monitoring the health and performance of the AI models built by BT’s digital team.

AI Accelerator will specifically hasten both the administrative and technical process involved in ensuring an AI product or use case is fit for deployment, BT said.

The introduction of standardised tools and data handling make up a number of the platform’s key capabilities that will accelerate the deployment of safer AI models across the business.

Months, it said, will also be freed for the company’s data scientists and analysts thanks to streamlined software updates and monitoring.

From a performance perspective, the new platform will indicate any ‘drifts’ from baseline norms while the model is analysing data. This could involve showing alerts when analysis performance is becoming weaker or less accurate, for example.

There will also be parameters baked into the tool’s monitoring functionality that are designed to check if the AI models are in keeping with the company’s responsible technology principles.

AI is often scrutinised for the biases it can hold and the unethical ways in which it’s deployed but BT is aiming to make its models as cyber-secure and ethical as possible, with data privacy also a key priority.

The AI models developed by BT’s digital team underpin all the AI-driven technology that’s implemented across its products, pulling in data from a 29-petabyte estate BT calls its ‘digital brain’.

Potential use cases for the models soon to be developed in rapid time include products to help personalise services that BT already provides to customers.

Another is the development of propensity to churn models, it said. These models are designed to offer estimations on the likelihood that any given customer will abandon a company’s service within a given time frame.

“A core driving principle for BT Group is to find a way to safely accelerate the time to value, pound per petabyte, of data,” said Adrian Joseph, managing director of data and AI at BT Group.

“AI Accelerator gives us a path to more rapid value with clear oversight of AI use case parameters and performance.” Digital’s goal is to underpin over £500m of internal value from data and AI in aggregate, through improved customer experience and enhanced efficiency within each of the Group’s business units, over the next five years, and help power the transformation required to support BT Group’s long-term success.”

The new platform was built by BT’s digital team together with Datatonic, a London-based data and AI consultancy that’s also a Google Cloud partner.

BT and Google Cloud already enjoy a close relationship. Earlier this year, BT selected the cloud giant as its main partner driving to drive a company-wide digital transformation project.

“Thanks to the work the team has done accelerating our migration into Google Cloud, we have a healthy testbed for AI Accelerator and are seeing it catalyse AI acceleration across the Group,” said Dr Zoe Webster, artificial intelligence director at BT Group’s data and AI team.

“As we progress, we’ll be able to track the health and the performance of our AI use cases in real-time, ensuring consistent, safe, ethical delivery of value from our phenomenal data resources.”

BT and Nokia have announced the successful combination of four carrier components (4CC) in a 5G standalone network (SA), marking a major step towards greater 5G connectivity on its EE network and a first for Europe.

In a blog post, the telecommunications giant celebrated the successful test and the potential it carries for future networking. Carrier aggregation, in which multiple carrier bands are merged to form a stable connection, can provide dramatically improved bandwidth and speeds not capable on any of the carriers on their own.

The majority of 5G networks across the UK use existing 4G infrastructure, making them ‘non-standalone’. Successful implementation of BT’s new 5G SA would grant businesses and consumers widespread network speed improvement and open a new door for creative use of authorised bandwidths.

In another European first, the trial was successfully performed not only in lab conditions but also from a radio mast at BT’s Adastral park in Suffolk. Proof of a working 5G standalone network utilising 4CC is a major step forward for UK 5G, particularly as the team was able to run the 5G network on EE’s existing radio spectrum.

Pre-5G network standards such as LTE-A use carrier aggregation to combine up to five networks together to reach a total speed equivalent to ‘true 4G’. In the case of the announced tests, low and mid-band radio channels in the frequencies 2.1, 2.6, 3.4 and 3.6 GHz were combined using Nokia’s 5G radio access network and a MediaTek M80 5G modem.

“Our trial with Nokia is another demonstration of building the most advanced network for our customers,” stated Greg McCall, managing director of service platforms at BT.

“5G Standalone, coupled with edge compute, will unlock new opportunities for customers looking to develop new services. Furthermore, this technology showcases what’s possible for devices in the future in terms of supporting carrier aggregation, which is an important part of customer experience.”

The rollout of the UK 5G network has seen several setbacks, most notably the government’s 2020 order for BT to remove all Huawei equipment from its core network by January 2023. BT has since stated that it may not be able to meet this target and has asked for an extension citing the impact of covid on the removal process.

There is also growing industry interest in the use of millimetre wave (mmWave), generally defined as the bands between 24-100GHz. BT EE has indicated that they are seeking whole market approval for mmWave, which offers high speeds and little interference, and is currently seeing success utilising the lower end of this spectrum for fixed wireless access such as in stadiums and conference centres.

However, Ofcom has yet to auction off the mmWave spectrum, and BT will face stiff competition from satellite operators when the time comes, with many questions remaining around the best use cases for the 40GHz band. Even as 5G is yet to be properly capitalised upon, the government is working towards 6G through programs such as its recently announced collaborative research scheme with South Korea.

Despite setbacks, BT has several plans in place to dramatically expand its 5G network as well as to boost network technology development. In May, it announced a partnership with Swedish multinational Ericsson to develop private 5G networks for commercial clients.

BT also signed a memorandum of understanding last year with UK satellite communications company OneWeb, in the interest of improving broadband reach for rural customers such as small to medium businesses (SMBs). OneWeb seeks to provide global broadband internet services by the end of 2023 through the use of its low earth orbit satellite constellation, and last month entered into merger talks with French satellite operator Eutelsat.

BT is set to hire 2,800 new employees in the UK and India, as it attempts to reduce its reliance on subcontracted labour.

The company is aiming to grow its in-house digital talent staff to 6,300 people by April 2024, from 3,500 at the start of the financial year, it revealed today.

In India, BT will recruit around 1,800 new workers centred around the company’s hubs in Bengaluru and Gurugram. Meanwhile, in the UK, BT plans to on-board 1,000 new employees who will be based around BT’s hub sites in Birmingham, Manchester, Bristol, Belfast, Ipswich and London. The majority of the new UK digital talent will be based outside of the capital, and the company added that the new talent should be based at one of the company’s workspaces where possible.

The new talent is set to fill roles in product management, software engineering, cloud, design, data, AI and machine learning, and agile delivery.

The company revealed that its financial outlook remains unchanged for the next financial year as the incremental costs associated with these hiring plans are offset by a reduction in its reliance on subcontracted labour.

“Digital was founded to accelerate BT’s transformation, innovation and return to growth,” said Harmeen Mehta, chief digital and innovation officer at BT. “To succeed, we need to bring in and upskill the top digital talent, and our efforts will boost the tech communities in the UK and India along the way.”

BT will focus on entry talent, which could make up as many of the 400 planned new roles, focused on apprentices, graduates, women returners, and others starting their careers in digital. The company said it was working with organisations like Code First Girls and 10,000 Black Interns and underlined it knows its success lies in working with a diverse range of talent.

The telecoms company said that potential candidates can visit its digital careers site to learn more about the roles.

This comes at a time when several tech companies have cut back on hiring. Nvidia revealed in May it had enacted a hiring pause as part of a way to deal with the rising threat of inflation. Microsoft also reportedly said in the same month it had told staff to be more cautious about recruitment, in a bid to slow its hiring amid a global market downturn.

BT has asked the UK government for an extension to the deadline for removing Huawei equipment from its network.

The UK government confirmed in July 2020 that it would remove Huawei equipment from the country’s 5G network by 2027, following concerns over potential ties between the company and the Chinese government. The decision was spurred by the UK sanctions imposed on Huawei earlier in the year, and was expected to delay the UK's 5G rollout by up to two years.

Telecom operators were also given the deadline of 28 January 2023 to remove all Huawei equipment from the core of the telecoms network and reduce its use in non-core parts to 35%.

However, BT has now made a request to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport to extend this deadline, according to The Guardian.

“We are continuing to work towards the January 2023 deadline for that work to happen in our core, but have requested a necessary, short extension, to reflect significant Covid-driven impacts to the programme over the past two years,” BT said.

The government has already granted a six-month extension to July next year for operators to meet the goal of non-core component usage, including in telecoms masts. BT said that the logic behind this decision should also be applied to the core parts removal deadline.

“We continue to liaise with DCMS and the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) to ensure our programme can be completed as quickly and safely as possible, and remain confident that the final 2027 deadline for delivering new equipment throughout the 5G network is achievable,” said BT.

Following the initial removal order, BT and Vodafone warned in 2020 that they would need at least five years to remove all equipment made by Huawei from the UK’s networks.

If telecoms companies fail to comply with the new security rules for the country’s network, they could face fines of 10% of turnover or £100,000 a day.

"Our proposed measures to control the use of Huawei in UK networks were subject to a targeted consultation and BT was one of a number of affected companies that were consulted,” a DCMS spokesperson told IT Pro. “We're considering all the responses received and will publish our decision in due course."

BT Wholesale has announced the launch of WHC Teams Direct Connect, which will give businesses the ability to access external calling for Microsoft Teams using the firm’s cloud-based phone solution, Wholesale Hosted Communications (WHC).

Built for the channel market, BT says the solution is quick and easy to deploy and doesn’t require specialist IT support.

Demand for collaboration software has rocketed in recent years, fuelled by the widespread boom in hybrid working. Microsoft Teams has the biggest share of this market currently, with approximately 6.75 million users in the UK – and that figure has been predicted to rise to 10 million by 2023.

With WHC Teams Direct Connect, users can now leverage hosted PBX or hosted SIP Trunking directly from within Teams, enabling high-quality digital phone calls across all devices, as well as the usual benefits of WHC such as call recording and analytics, BT said.

“Bringing Microsoft Teams into our WHC portfolio was a natural next step for our partners and their customers,” explained BT Wholesale channel director Gavin Jones. “At BT Wholesale we want to ensure our propositions are adding the best value.”

With WHC Teams Direct Connect, partners can mix and match hosted PBX, SIP trunking, and Teams to build solutions that fit their customers needs, with ordering and deployment that doesn’t require specialist IT support or long wait times.

Additionally, BT says the solution offers competitive pricing without requiring end customers to invest in IT development or training.

Ultimately, that means customers can take advantage of improved collaboration in this era of hybrid working. Users can have the same number anywhere, on any device, alongside quick service set-up.

The solution is also natively connected to BT’s WHC automated ordering journey, allowing end users to be added in real time and making calls in a matter of minutes, the company added.

“Microsoft Teams is a great platform that many businesses rely on, but we wanted to take our support further by adding the extra functionality of allowing phone calls,” Jones continued.

“This is a simple and cost-effective way to get calls in Teams so that we can deliver the greatest benefits to our partners and their customers.”

The UK government announced today that it will be investigating Altice’s latest acquisition of shares in BT on grounds of national security.

French billionaire Patrick Drahi is behind Altice’s latest attempt to boost its shareholding in BT after it became the company’s largest shareholder last year.

Drahi bought a 12.1% stake in BT in June 2021 and increased that stake to 18% in December when the UK’s takeover rules had lifted following the first purchase of shares.

The billionaire’s increasing stake has raised questions about whether a foreign company is attempting to take over the UK’s telecoms giant - a possibility the government has said it would “not hesitate to act” upon if it materialised, according to the Guardian.

The UK government’s intervention, announced today, will scrutinise the additional 6% stake Altice purchased in December using the powers afforded it under the National Security and Investment Act 2021.

Under the same act, the government also announced this week that it will be scrutinising the potential foreign takeover of Newport-based semiconductor maker Wafer Fab - the UK’s largest company of its kind - by Chinese-owned Nexperia.

The government has 30 working days to carry out the Altice-BT investigation - a period that is extendable by up to a further 45 working days - and the process has already begun, it said.

Given the time restrictions set out by the Act, the deadline for the government’s assessment is set at 7 July, or 8 September if it chooses to exercise the maximum extension.

“We are monitoring the situation carefully,” a government spokesperson said in December. “The government is committed to levelling up the country through digital infrastructure and will not hesitate to act if required to protect our critical national telecoms infrastructure.”

If the government had not begun its scrutiny of the additional 6% stake and Altice was able to accumulate additional shares to pass the required 30% threshold, Drahi would have been able to start a formal takeover bid on 15 June, the Guardian said.

Business and energy secretary Kwasi Kwarteng, who ordered the assessment of Altice's additional 6% stake, Tweeted yesterday “we welcome overseas investment, but it must not threaten Britain's national security,” in relation to the potential Wafer Fab acquisition.

BT Group has announced that it has increased its original pay rise offer for all frontline staff by hundreds of pounds, although workers still plan to go ahead with a formal strike.

The Group announced on Thursday that it would offer frontline workers across BT, EE, Openreach, and Plusnet a consolidated pay rise of £1,500 as a gesture of thanks for their hard work during the course of the pandemic.

BT Group said this offer represents between a 3-8% pay increase for workers, depending on current salary, and is the biggest pay rise it has offered workers in 20 years. It is also £300 more than an original offer proposed in March.

The Communications Workers Union (CWU), which represents around 40,000 of the company’s 100,000 employees, said it has now rejected both offers from BT Group.

“We have no choice now but to immediately prepare for a statutory industrial action ballot,” it said in a tweet. “We will be sending further communications to members via email and social media later today.”

The rejection of the increased £1,500 offer comes after the CWU said on 29 March that BT Group offered a flat pay rise of £1,200 - an offer it labelled “insulting” at the time.

The CWU has been pushing BT Group for a 10% pay rise for all its members, the workers who “put their lives on the line during the pandemic and significantly contributed to BT’s profits”.

Workers argue that even with the pay rise offer, rising inflation and living costs will still leave frontline staff poorer than they were before the recent cost of living crisis took hold in the UK.

“While we have continued to extend and strengthen our networks to support the country’s recovery, the pandemic has hit our financial performance, like that of most companies,” said Philip Jansen, chief executive at BT Group.

“We know that the cost of living continues to rise and by making this award, we’re ensuring that our lower-paid workers will benefit most and as soon as possible. I’m pleased that we’ve been able to make this pay award – the biggest in 20 years - to thank our colleagues and recognise their hard work.”

Last year, the CWU and BT Group narrowly avoided major industrial action after workers expressed concern over the threat of job losses through BT Group’s mass closure of sites, and contractual disagreements around changes to pay and pensions.

Months of negotiations ensued that ultimately ended in both sides reaching a compromise and BT Group committing to regular pay increases, limiting redundancies wherever possible, and restructuring The Better Workplace Programme, which the CWU said would prevent BT Group from making “knee-jerk decisions without our agreement”.

The Prospect union represents manager-level staff in the BT Group and the company said it will begin talks with these employees soon. Prospect raised concern in September 2020 of looming pandemic-related redundancies leading to “widespread anxiety” amongst staff.

BT Group proposed a number of disruptive changes at the time that were described by the CWU as “aggressive and provocative”.

These changes included tearing up contractual redundancy agreements, closure of the BT Pension Scheme, and a revised location strategy that could have seen workers relocated.

BT has opened a new robotics research facility to help solve some of the most pressing civil engineering challenges as it looks to place the UK at the forefront of a new era of robotics development for telecoms and civil engineering.

The 5000+ sq. ft. facility located at BT Labs in Suffolk is set to play a key role in developing innovative robotics tools to speed the deployment of essential infrastructure, the company said.

The lab, which the company said is the first dedicated telecoms civil engineering robotics test facility in the country, aims to help the company engage with universities and robotics startups to challenge civil engineering tasks. This includes addressing problems like how to clear out blocked ducts, mend collapsed ducts, and install new fibre network infrastructure without the costs and delays that come with digging up roads and pavements.

BT said that combining new robotic locomotion and excavation techniques, inspired by digging and burrowing mammals and insects, with the latest technologies developed for space exploration, aerospace, and medical applications is showing real promise for delivering ‘trenchless’ infrastructure deployment.

The company added that magnetic, climbing, and cable-traversing robotic techniques are also maturing, enabling trials on wireless tower and overhead cable poles.

The test lab is expected to play a key role in supporting BT’s fibre programme as well as helping it collaborate with other utilities like power and water companies as they roll out and update their underground and overhead networks.

“The UK is a hotbed of civil engineering innovation, with a thriving university ecosystem and an enviable robotics startup sector. Our aim is to bring those players together in a dedicated facility to develop solutions that make the UK a world leader in telecoms civil engineering robotics,” said professor Tim Whitley, BT’s MD of Research.

“The lab will provide a hub for the creation of solutions to real-world challenges and pioneering applications of robots, reinforcing the UK’s position at the heart of research and innovation into advanced technologies.”

The site is an indoor facility that will allow researchers to test the latest innovations in robotics in an underground environment with different types of soil, an in-duct environment to simulate scenarios where a duct collapses, and an overhead environment to simulate telegraph poles.

Thanks to its solid performance and very reasonable price, BT’s Whole Home Wi-Fi system has been one of our favourite mesh Wi-FI extenders since its debut back in 2017. Now, the telecoms giant has come out with an even cheaper option, shrinking down its distinctive discs and scaling back the internals. Although this means performance is slower, it still makes a great way to extend the reach of your home network on the cheap.

The Mini Whole Home Wi-Fi kit is an 802.11ac mesh system, just like the regular Whole Home kit. As with the original model – but unlike most other mesh platforms – it works as an extender for your existing router, rather than seeking to replace it.

As the name suggests, however, the Mini uses smaller discs that are easier to locate discreetly about your home and the hardware inside them has been pared back a little too. The full-sized units are rated for connection speeds of up to 800Mbits/sec on the legacy 2.4GHz band and 1,733Mbits/sec over 5GHz connections, while the Mini claims only 300Mbits/sec and 866Mbits/sec.

Those are still fair speeds, and the Mini boasts 4x4 MIMO too. But, since this is only a dual-band platform, your devices can’t make full use of the available wireless bandwidth, as the 5GHz channel also has to carry all the backhaul traffic between nodes.

The Mini Whole Home Wi-Fi units are of a simple circular design, measuring 12cm across (almost exactly the same size as a CD). They stand upright on an integrated plastic foot that sticks out of the back and, when the unit’s powered on, a single LED glows through the faceplate in various colours to indicate activity or connection problems.

At the rear, there’s a power socket, a Gigabit Ethernet connector, a WPS button for connecting devices without having to enter a password and a pinhole for resetting the firmware. It’s a nicely functional design and, while the single Ethernet socket may seem restrictive, remember that this is a wireless extender system: you can connect additional wired clients directly to your existing router.

BT’s quick-start guide encourages you to set up the system via the free app for Android or iOS, and this is made easy thanks to a QR code on the back of each node. Alternatively, you can open a web browser and log into the Mini Whole Home Wi-Fi system directly, using the preconfigured credentials inscribed on the back of each unit.

Either way, there’s little to configure. Once the three units are plugged in, they automatically connect to each other and start broadcasting a wireless mesh that connects back to your main network. From the Wireless Settings page, you can then change the SSID and WPA2 passphrase to whatever you desire (a set of blank stickers is thoughtfully provided for you to write these on and affix directly over the pre-printed information). You can also tweak the radio channels and disable WPS if you’re concerned about unauthorised visitors connecting to your home network, although sadly there’s no password-protected soft-button option.

Other features include an optional guest network, which grants internet access while keeping users isolated from your own clients. While you can’t split up the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands into separate networks, you can enable or disable band-steering on a per-device basis. You can manually pause the internet for all connected clients too, although there are no proper parental controls: that sort of thing is left for your router or broadband provider to handle.

The original Whole Home Wi-Fi outperforms most dual-band competitors, largely because its ultrafast 1,733Mbits/sec 5GHz radio provides enough bandwidth to handle both client and backhaul traffic at decent speeds. As we’ve mentioned, however, the Mini’s transceiver is only half as fast and, while BT doesn’t publish the full internal specification, it’s a good bet that the antennae are smaller too.

To see how these changes affect performance, we tested the BT Mini Whole Home Wi-Fi in our usual way, by setting up the primary node in our main room, situating the other two nodes in adjacent rooms, and walking around with a Microsoft Surface Laptop measuring the average upload and download speed to a NAS appliance connected to the main router by Ethernet.

The results (see the table below) were hardly a big surprise: for the most part, the Mini performed at just under half the speed of the regular BT Whole Home system. That puts it decidedly towards the low end of the mesh market as a whole; we’ve included scores from Netgear’s dual-band Orbi and the tri-band Asus ZenWiFi to illustrate what a premium 802.11ac mesh is capable of.

Even so, the Mini delivered a stable connection everywhere in our premises, and proved convincingly faster than the Tenda Nova MW3. Indeed, its throughput was still good enough to allow us to sit several rooms away and stream 4K videos from YouTube and Netflix without a glitch or stutter. If you’re focused on everyday internet duties you probably won’t ever notice the difference between this and a much more expensive mesh setup.

The BT Mini Whole Home Wi-Fi system currently costs only £75 for a three-node pack. That’s absurdly cheap for a bona fide mesh setup: hitherto, the only such system we’ve seen for under £100 has been the Tenda Nova MW3. If you’re willing to pay a bit more, a twin-pack of BT’s regular Whole Home Wi-Fi discs can be had for £125, while the Orbi and ZenWiFi push prices to around £200.

Unlike its non-BT rivals, the Mini Whole Home Wi-Fi isn’t a replacement for an outdated router, nor is it a turbocharger for your home network. That means, if you’re looking to fling huge data files around at maximum speed, this isn’t the extender for you.

If you’re merely seeking a localised signal boost, however, then the Mini Whole Home Wi-Fi could be just the ticket. The three-node configuration makes it more flexible than a regular wireless repeater, not to mention more manageable and expandable. And while it won’t win any awards for performance, it’s more than fast enough to extend email, web browsing, casual gaming and video streaming into the farthest reaches of your premises.

If that’s all you’re looking for then there’s really no need to spend more – the BT Mini Whole Home Wi-Fi kit will do the job at a fantastic price.

BT Mini Whole Home Wi-Fi specifications

BT has today announced a raft of ambitious plans to improve its business customers' connectivity, including a new 5G service, improved support, digital skills training and even free speed upgrades.

Unveiled at an event at its London headquarters, the biggest news was the launch of BT's 5G network, which will be switched on across 20 UK cities this Friday. The service, which will utilise existing EE infrastructure, will be extended to 25 further cities before the end of the year.

The first cities to get BT's 5G include major urban centres, such as Bristol, London, Belfast Leicester, Edinburgh, Manchester and Coventry and customers can expect speeds 100Mbits/sec to 150Mbits/sec faster than existing 4G connections, according to BT.

No details on prices were announced or which 5G phones BT will be offering part of its packages. BT also announced that customers of the new service will also be able to opt for unlimited 5G data as part of the new "convergence" package called BT Halo.

Halo will combine 5G, landline and broadband in one plan and BT says it is the first company in the UK to offer such a service. BT Halo will offer customers not only unlimited 5G data, calls and texts, but also unlimited broadband and phone calls. This service is also coming to SMBs, in the form of Halo for Business.

This offers the same unlimited packages as the consumer version of Halo, as well as a digital phone line which allows businesses access to services not supported by traditional landlines, such as the ability to make and receive calls using their landline number on their smartphone. Halo for Business also includes uptime guarantees, 24/7 support and a fixed price for the duration of the contract.

The Halo service will be available from 11 October, at the same time that the 5G offering goes live, while the Halo for Business package will be available from 8 November. Again, though, there's no word yet on pricing. Further details, BT says, will be available in the coming weeks.

SMB customers will also now have access to a new team of specialist "Tech Experts", which will assist with setup and deployment of critical products and services. Additionally, the company is investing in new business support teams to handle any issues that business customers may have.

BT also announced that larger customers with multiple branches will now be supported by SD-WAN services, rather than traditional physical links between locations. This, the company says, will offer increased flexibility and security.

Smaller businesses are not left out of the connectivity-boosting fun either; BT pledged that by summer next year, it will have upgraded 700,000 homes and businesses to superfast fibre broadband at no charge, phasing out the legacy copper infrastructure for 90% of the UK. The remaining 10% will be supported by 4G and 5G connections.

Another aspect of the company's plans is a raft of new digital skills initiatives, including programmes to provide digital training to groups including teachers, young people, the elderly and more. One such group is small business owners and employees, one million of whom will be provided with digital skills training through partnerships with organisations such as LinkedIn and Google's Digital Garage.

Finally, one of the most unexpected announcements was that BT will be returning to the high street. 600 EE stores will be converted to co-branded EE and BT outlets, providing a local point-of-contact for customers and small businesses.

The UK government announced today that BT has offered to provide a universal high speed broadband of a minimum of 10 Mbps to homes and businesses from all parts of the UK by 2022.

As part of this initiative, BT offered to "voluntarily provide" the service across the country, mainly through Openreach. The proposal outlines that BT would fund the investment and recover its costs "through the charges for products providing access to its local access networks".

It's expecting to invest 450-600 million in the proposal, something the government is interested in as BT would proactively build the infrastructure instead of waiting for households and businesses to request it, which is what would normally happen under the Universal Service Obligation (USO).

Digital Minister Dan Hancock told The Telegraph that bills may rise as a result of the deal. He stated: "Nothing is going to be paid for by taxpayers here. We have already subsidised superfast broadband to the tune of 1.7bn."

"It's likely that it'll be paid for through every broadband bill" he added.

Culture secretary, Karen Bradley, said: "The government is taking action to ensure that people everywhere in the UK can get a decent broadband connection as soon as possible. We warmly welcome BT's offer and now will look at whether this or a regulatory approach works better for homes and businesses."

The government has to consider whether to take up BTs offer or revert back to its USO, which it has already committed to.

BT CEO Gavin Patterson said the company was pleased to make a voluntary offer to deliver the government's goal for universal broadband access.

He added: "This investment will reinforce the UK's status as the leading digital economy in the G20. We already expect 95% of homes and businesses to have access to superfast broadband speeds of 24Mbps or faster by the end of 2017. Our latest initiative aims to ensure that all UK premises can get faster broadband, even in the hardest to reach parts of the UK."

Quocirca analyst Clive Longbottom highlighted how the government has made numerous promises to raise internet speeds over the past 20 years.

"In 2013, the government promised superfast broadband to 95% of the population by December this year, with a universal 2Mb/s by the same date. This was abandoned in 2016. David Cameron promised a universal right to a minimum of 10Mb/s this seemed to die a very quick death, until being brought back up in the Digital Economy Act by Karen Brady this year," he told IT Pro.

Longbottom pointed out that, however good the intention, the 2022 deadline "pushes out the original commitment by 5 years hardly pushing the limits".

Longbottom underlined how the government's own figures show we are only at 93% broadband penetration so far. In order to meet the 99% promise, it will have to ensure 1.5 million homes have access to the new technology.

"Openreach reckons that it can introduce this mix of technologies at a cost of no more than 400 per home. If this is the case, why hasn't it been done before?" he said.

Ofcom states that around 1.4 million households cannot get speeds over 10Mbps. The figure is disputed by some MPs who claim there are a further 5.3 million who have not chosen to opt in for faster broadband services as well as some who may not be able to get 10Mbps speeds, according to the BBC.

Last week Openreach rival Hyperoptic raised 100 million to expand its network in the UK. Four European banks invested in the company: BNP Paribas, ING, RBS and Dutch investment bank NIBC. It is hoping to expand its full-fibre broadband and reach five million homes by 2025.

BT-owned broadband infrastructure business Openreach has started removing BT's logo from its vans as the first step in its break away from the telecoms firm. However, it's likely to take a long time to remove all BT branding from Openreach's vehicles and other materials, with the company saying it will take until 2021 before all of its 22,000 vehicles are in the clear.

The announcement was made by the OpenreachGB account on Twitter with the caption "First look at our new van design!" alongside a gif of one of its new, plain branded vans driving around the country.

The tweet was supported by a letter sent out to Openreach customers, going into a little more detail about the changes afoot and why it's decided to start the update a little earlier than Ofcom's deadline.

"We're removing the BT' element from the Openreach logo," Clive Selly, chief executive of Openreach wrote. "This is a visual sign to reflect how we deal with everyone on equal terms. We are committed to delivering the highest standards to everyone and we're doing this well ahead of Ofcom's timeframe as we feel the re-brand is an important step in building trust with you and our stakeholders."

He added that the rebrand is "a simple and pragmatic step" that will allow Openreach to focus on its core business, providing the infrastructure underpinning a range of broadband services.

"The move reaffirms our commitment to treating all communications provider (CP) customers equally," Openreach told City AM in a statement.

BT agreed to remove its branding from Openreach's marketing in March, when the regulator told the telecoms business it needed to split from the infrastructure company as it didn't just provide services to BT, but Sky, TalkTalk, Vodafone and a range of other telecoms organisations too.

Main image credit: Openreach

Ofcom will be cutting the price that BT can charge rivals for use of its Openreach fibre network in order to promote competition, it has been announced.

Specifically, Ofcom will be placing restrictions on the amount it is allowed to charge for its superfast broadband services, which have a maximum speed of 40Mb/s. The watchdog expects this to lead to cheaper prices for end-users, as well as promoting competition within the marketplace.

The company would also be compelled to complete repairs and line installations more quickly, something the company was fined by the regulator for earlier this month. If BT fails to deliver, Ofcom will have the ability to impose further fines.

Our plans are designed to encourage long-term investment in future ultrafast, full-fibre networks, while promoting competition and protecting consumers from high prices," said Ofcom's competition group director, Jonathan Oxley. "People need reliable phone and broadband services more than ever. We're making sure the market is delivering the best possible services for homes and business across the UK."

Ofcom will not, however, be capping the company's higher-speed services. This is partly because it believes that the caps on superfast broadband (as opposed to ultrafast networks like BT's new G.Fast infrastructure) would be enough to ensure competition, but also because it believes this will incentivise rival companies to build their own fibre infrastructure to keep up with BT.

The telecoms industry has reacted positively to the news, predicting a better overall quality of service for users. "This move is recognition that superfast broadband is increasingly becoming the new normal when it comes to the speed consumers expect from their internet provider," said uSwitch's head of regulation Richard Neudegg. "This should help to reduce fears of broadband blackouts, that research shows puts some consumers off moving to better services."

Mark Collins, director of strategy and policy for CityFibre, was similarly pleased: "Ofcom is finally delivering its promise to support full fibre investment and competition that will help close the UK's embarrassing fibre gap."

"This review is a major step forward. It provides the incentives for investing in full fibre networks that compete with BT. In addition to the measures announced today, we urge Ofcom to follow through on its proposals to improve access to BT's ducts and poles, and if Ofcom gets that right it will give us the tools and incentive to continue our investment in full-fibre infrastructure across the UK, and deliver it further and faster."

BT has been hit with a 42 million fine for failing to install high-speed business lines fast enough, in what is being described as a "serious breach" of contract terms.

Following an investigation by Ofcom into BT's fibre rollout arm Openreach, it was found that BT had abused the terms of its contracts by cutting compensation payments for delayed Ethernet line installations.

These high-speed business lines are the most common type of leased lines used by businesses and public services, offering high-speed and high-capacity data transfer to both BT and other telecoms providers.

Regulator Ofcom found that between January 2013 and December 2014, BT "misused the terms of its contracts to reduce compensation payments owed to other telecoms providers for failing to deliver 'Ethernet' services on time". The fine represents the largest ever made against a telecoms company.

BT breached competition rules and exploited its position as a "significant market power", Ofcom ruled, as most telecoms companies rely on BT's infrastructure to host connections to customers for services such as broadband.

Gaucho Rasmussen, investigations director at Ofcom, said in a statement: "These high-speed lines are a vital part of this country's digital backbone. Millions of people rely on BT's network for the phone and broadband services they use every day."

"We found BT broke our rules by failing to pay other telecoms companies proper compensation when these services were not provided on time," added Rasmussen. "The size of our fine reflects how important these rules are to protect competition and, ultimately, consumers and businesses. Our message is clear - we will not tolerate this sort of behaviour."

As part of its obligation to Ofcom rules, BT is required to install Ethernet services for other providers, including Vodafone and TalkTalk, in accordance with contracts, and to provide compensation payments for delays past 30 days.

The investigation was opened after Vodafone alleged that BT had abused contractual terms by extending the delivery of Ethernet services without its consent, and had failed to provide any compensation.

BT has admitted its failings, and has agreed to compensate the companies affected. Clive Selley, CEO of Openreach said in a statement: "We appologise wholeheartedly for the mistakes Openreach made in the past when processing orders for a number of high-speed business connections. This shouldn't have happened and we fully accept Ofcom's findings."

BT's compliance knocked 30% (18 million) off the total fine, however the company is likely to pay as much as 300 million in compensation payments to other telecoms providers. A further 300,000 will also be paid to Ofcom for a failure to provide adequate information during the investigation.

The fine comes less than two weeks after the BT agreed to officially separate Openreach, complying with demands issued in November by Ofcom, which believed BT's monopoly over network infrastructure was anti-competitive.

Dan Howdle, consumer telecoms analyst at Cable.co.uk, said: "Today's ruling offers insight into just some of the factors contributing to Ofcom's decision to split BT and Openreach into two separate entities. Clearly, being the sole owner of shared infrastructure has given rise to precisely the sort of conflict of interest of which BT has long been accused."

BT and Huawei have teamed up to conduct research into the development of 5G mobile technologies.

The two companies will be investigating ways in which faster communication technologies can be implemented, as well as technical and commercial implications of deploying them.

BT and Huawei will collaborate at BT Labs in Ipswich and other locations around the UK to explore different aspects of 5G, such as network architecture, network slicing, a new air interface between devices and base stations, machine-to-machine communications in Internet of Things (IoT) and security technologies.

Gavin Patterson, CEO of BT said his firm was determined to maximise the potential of 5G for its customers.so collaborative research has a key role to play as the technology develops. This partnership with Huawei will see us explore the potential uses and make sure 5G is designed to meet the needs of our consumer and business customers throughout the world."

"Collaborative research has a key role to play as the technology develops. This partnership with Huawei will see us explore the potential uses and make sure 5G is designed to meet the needs of our consumer and business customers throughout the world," he said.

Ken Hu, deputy chairman of the Board and rotating CEO at Huawei said the firms have conducted joint research and development activities, which have led to new products and solutions.

"With 5G we look forward to continuing this fruitful partnership. Together we can explore the potential of 5G networks and analyse how this vital technology can best be delivered," he said.

The companies have already collaborated in the past, and recently announced trials of 3Tbps data transfer over BT's core network, as well as research into 40Gbps speeds within the Openreach access network.

BT chairman Michael Rake admitted the company needs to improve its customer service, in an interview with ITV's Peston on Sunday.

Rake also spoke about BT's Openreach broadband service, saying: "Just to point out that Ofcom and the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) and every independent survey showed this is one of the fastest roll-outs of broadband ever in an OECD country with some of the lowest speeds, most competition and highest access. But it isn't enough and we'll get there."

Ofcom, the UK's telecommunications regulator, is preparing to force BT to separate its Openreach division, which is responsible for deploying the vast majority of the UK's broadband infrastructure.

Although Openreach is part of BT, other providers such as TalkTalk, Sky and Vodafone also use the network.

Ofcom believes Openreach should run as a separate company, saying BT is hindering competition.

Last week, the British regulator said it will go to the European Commission to try and make BT legally separate from Openreach.

A spokesperson for Ofcom said at the time: "We are disappointed that BT has not yet come forward with proposals that meet our competition concerns. Some progress has been made, but this has not been enough, and action is required now to deliver better outcomes for phone and broadband users."

Speaking with Robert Peston, Rake said: "Everyone is frustrated because they want superfast broadband today. We understand that and we're committing to deliver it."

He added: "The point that I think is something that we have to work on is customer service, which has not in the industry as a whole been good enough nor is it with us, and we are doing a lot to improve that."

A week after Ofcom announced its decision to ban BT from bidding on half the frequencies available at the next spectrum auction in 2017, Three is once again campaigning to reduce BT's over dominance in the UK mobile market.

Three has been asking its customers to send letters to Ofcom to push for limits on BT and Vodafone's overall spectrum ownership.

The campaign, called "Make The Air Fair", is backed by Three, TalkTalk, CityFibre, Gamma, Relish and the Federation of Communication Services.

As part of this campaign, new advertisements with a cartoon superhero image of Ofcom CEO Sharon White started appearing on buildings around London.

Three and other mobile operators have been campaigning for a 30% cap on spectrum for months. In October, they sent an open letter to Sharon White asking for this cap to be established.

At the present moment, BT owns around 45% of the UK's usable spectrum, followed by Vodafone (28%), Three (15%) and O2 (14%).

BT's acquisition of EE at the beginning of the year made the situation worse, increasing its dominance over the UK's mobile market even further.

Last week, Ofcom said it has decided to reduce the amount of spectrum BT can acquire in the next spectrum auction, allowing the mobile operator access to the 3.4GHz spectrum, but not to the 2.3GHz.

The 3.4GHz is not immediately usable, but should be once 5G-supporting technology becomes widespread.

This decision did not satify Three and other mobile operators who own smaller amounts of spectrum. In a statement, Three's CEO Dave Dyson said: "The mobile industry is failing customers and Ofcom has showed it has no interest in addressing that. A 30% cap on total spectrum ownership and a spectrum reservation for smaller operators are the only measures that will preserve competition for the benefit of UK mobile consumers."

Ofcom, the UK telecoms regulator, is preparing to formally require BT to spin off its network infrastructure arm, Openreach.

The oversight body has repeatedly raised concerns BT is acting in an anti-competitive manner and had already ruled in July that Openreach should be run as a separate company. However, at that time it wasn't recommended that the organisations should be split up completely.

The issue arises from the fact that, although Openreach is part of BT, it's responsible for providing the majority of telecoms network infrastructure to competitors like TalkTalk, Sky and Vodafone, as well as BT's retail arm.

"Ofcom is pressing ahead with its plans to improve broadband and telephone services for people across the country, pursuing better service quality and encouraging greater investment in networks. Creating a more independent Openreach which works in the interest of all providers, not just BT is an important part of achieving this," said Ofcom in a statement.

"We are disappointed that BT has not yet come forward with proposals that meet our competition concerns. Some progress has been made, but this has not been enough, and action is required now to deliver better outcomes for phone and broadband users," it added.

Consequently, Ofcom will be submitting an official notification to the European Commission to start the process of separation, as is required by law.

"We remain open to further voluntary proposals from BT that address these outstanding concerns. However, we are now preparing a notification to the European Commission to require the changes to increase Openreach's independence," Ofcom continued.

A public consultation with the EC is expected in early 2017. If Ofcom is given the go-ahead, the process of separating the companies will take place "as soon as possible".

In response to the ruling, a BT spokesman told IT Pro: "We note Ofcom's announcement this morning, updating on the next steps of the Digital Communications Review.

"We put forward proposals in July that we believe are fair and sustainable, and that meet Ofcom's objectives without disproportionate costs. We are implementing these proposals, and have just appointed Mike McTighe to be the first chairman of Openreach. We are in discussions with Ofcom on two outstanding issues, the reporting line of the Openreach CEO and the form of legal incorporation.

"We will continue to work with Ofcom to reach a voluntary settlement that is good for customers, shareholders, employees, pensioners and investment in the UK's digital future"

Dan Howdle, consumer telecoms expert at telecoms comparison provider Cable.co.uk said: "It's tough to read whether BT's heel-dragging is as a result of a tactic with the intention to deliberately delay and undermine the process, or whether, rather like Brexit, the process of separating Openreach is simply too vast and complex to be fully planned out in such a short period of time.

"That Ofcom has had to speak out of its 'frustration' suggests to me there is more to this delay than bureaucracy and red tape that unwillingness to comply is also playing some part."

Ofcom has set out rules for next year's spectrum auctions, which appear to prevent BT from bidding for half of the available frequencies on offer.

The 2017 auction should bid out 190MHz of spectrum in two bands, 2.3 GHz and 3.4GHz, increasing the overall spectrum available by 29%.

According to figures from Citi (cited by The Financial Times), after its acquisition of EE, BT owns around 42% of the UK's usable spectrum, while Vodafone owns about 28%, followed by Three (15%) and O2 (14%).

In order to prevent BT from becoming too dominant and favour competition between UK mobile operators, Ofcom said it would prevent BT/EE from bidding for 2.3 GHz band spectrum.

The 2.3GHz band is accessible by most current smartphones, and would hence be frequencies that would immediately boost a mobile provider's capacity.

As most mobile devices are not currently using it, spectrum in the 3.4Gz band, will not be capped. This spectrum is likely to become usable in the coming years.

This should allow a greater possibility for expansion in currently utilisable spectrum by smaller mobile operators such as Three and O2.

In October, Three, TalkTalk and the Federation of Communication Services (FCS) had sent an open letter to Ofcom CEO Sharon White, asking for a 30% cap on the total amount of spectrum companies can own, to prevent BT/EE and Vodafone from monopolising the market.

Among other things, the letter said that the uneven spectrum distribution between UK mobile operators could result in "higher prices for a poorer service at a time when mobile's importance to the digital economy has never been greater".

At the time, a BT/EE spokesperson had told IT Pro: "We use our spectrum to deliver the very best network experience for customers. We pioneered 4G and we are a leader in network speeds, developing technologies to provide some of the highest mobile download speeds in the world."

Ofcom's decision suggests it also wants to prevent BT from dominating the mobile operator market, particularly seeing as this auction will be of crucial importance, as no further spectrum should be released before 2020.

Some mobile operators, such as Three, were not entirely satisfied by OfCom's decision. Three's CEO, Dave Dyson, released a statement saying: "Ofcom exists to promote competition and protect consumers but it has once again shown it is not willing to make the big decisions needed to deliver the best outcome for the UK."

Dyson added: "The mobile industry is failing customers and Ofcom has showed it has no interest in addressing that. A 30% cap on total spectrum ownership and a spectrum reservation for smaller operators are the only measures that will preserve competition for the benefit of UK mobile consumers."

This article was originally published on 21/11/2016 at 12:00, but was updated on 22/11/2016 at 15:27 to include a statement by Three.

BT and Nokia have agreed to work together to advance 5G technologies, bringing us one step closer to ultrafast mobile connectivity.

The companies will collaborate on a number of trials to test mmWave radio spectrum and convergence as enablers for the new technology, alongside how it would work with the Internet of Things.

Mobile gaming and driverless cars could stand to greatly benefit from 5G, thanks to greatly reduced latency and ultrafast speeds.

BT-owned EE's 4G network will cover 95% of the UK by 2020, according to Howard Watson, chief executive of BT technology, service and operations.

Nokia is currently trialling 5G-ready radio equipment at BT labs in Suffolk, using Nokia AirScale radio access and a new 5G frame structure.

5G is the next generation of wireless mobile technology, and will be significantly faster than the current 4G and 3G. In theory, on a 5G connection you could download 33 HD videos within a single second.

2020 is the date widely touted as the earliest we'll be able to take advantage of such speeds, though given that the benchmarks have been chalked up in lab conditions, it's unlikely to be quite as speedy out in the wild.

The UK government will establish a 5G strategy next year, in an effort to secure a place among technology world leaders.

Last month a coalition of close to 20 major telecoms providers offered to work together to create 5G networks across Europe in exchange for the EU softening its stance on open internet.

Former business minister Anna Soubry has said BT needs to do more to bring superfast broadband to the nation, suggesting the company should split from its infrastructure arm, Openreach, to speed up delivery.

Soubry said Ofcom has not come down hard enough on BT, adding that the company has had too many second chances to get the rollout right. Last week, Ofcom said Openreach should remain to be part of BT, but it would need to change significantly to ensure customers' best interests were being considered.

"It's not good enough. It's outrageous in this day and age to not have access to super fast broadband and mobile phone signals - and that includes on our trains too," she said, speaking to the Radio 4's Today programme.

"Not only would I have put a very sharp toe under BT and looked at its performance and actually considered splitting it up, making sure it did a proper job - and I'm far from convinced that it's done a proper job."

When questioned about BT's claims 90 per cent of the nation has access to superfast broadband, Soubry said she doubted the figures were truthful, suggesting the company was being dishonest about its coverage and called for broadband to be considered the fourth utility under law, so rollout would be faster.

"It's strange that in my time as business minister, I seemed to meet every member of the 10 per cent," said Soubry.

However, BT responded to the claims and said it fails to understand how splitting Openreach would benefit anyone, especially those still waiting for superfast broadband to arrive.

A BT spokesperson said: "We fail to see how a smaller, independent Openreach would be able to invest the 1.4 billion each year that it does currently."

"Independent data clearly shows that 91% of UK premises have access to superfast speeds today and this will rise to 95% by the end of 2017. Numerous independent reports, including those from Ofcom and the EU, consistently rank the UK number one amongst our main European peers for superfast broadband coverage and take-up."

Main image credit: Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

Openreach should be run as a separate company from BT, industry regulator Ofcom recommended today.

BT's fibre rollout division would not be fully separated from BT under the watchdog's proposed model, but would be run as a distinct company with its own board and employees.

It would also own the physical network it operates, allowing the board to make decisions around investing in the UK's broadband network and other Openreach assets.

Ofcom stopped just shy of recommending full separation between BT and Openreach, but said: "This model would provide Openreach with the greatest degree of independence from BT Group that is possible without incurring the costs and disruption - to industry and consumers - associated with separating the companies entirely."

Part of BT Group, Openreach comprises the UK's main broadband network whose lines are used by BT rivals like Sky and TalkTalk, and Ofcom has expressed concerns that BT's ownership of the network can lead to competition problems.

The latest proposals, which would come under the Communications (Access to Infrastructure) Regulations 2016, seek to make Openreach more independent from its owner.

Ofcom did not rule out separation if the proposed model does not work, however, saying: "If it cannot achieve this, Ofcom will reconsider whether BT and Openreach should be split into two entirely separate companies, under different ownership."

Research house CCS Insight's director of media, Paolo Pescatore, told IT Pro: "Fundamentally, BT will always be under pressure to perform and, ultimately, the threat of functional separation will remain. Therefore, we suspect the topic of separation will likely return in the future should this proposed new model not work."

Ofcom's recommendations build on its 10-year review of the digital communications market in February, when it ruled out separation but demanded BT open up more access to its ducts and poles to competitors, which BT has since started to do.

The regulator also recommended letting Openreach take its own decisions on budgets, investment and strategy, something today's proposals are designed to effect.

BT has responded by giving its rivals more access to the fibre network. Yesterday, it made a series of concessions ahead of Ofcom's proposals, including appointing an independent chairman, a majority of independent directors, and giving Openreach more autonomy over investment.

A spokeswoman for the telco today said: ""We welcome Ofcom's recognition that structural separation would be a disproportionate move. Our proposals provide Ofcom with every benefit they're seeking but without any of the substantial and unavoidable costs associated with legal incorporation. We will continue to engage with them over the coming months."

The proposals are subject to a public consultation, and people can have their say on the plans until 4 October.

Rivals' reactions

However, the measures outlined by Ofcom do not go far enough for BT's competitors.

"BT has gone the extra mile to appease Ofcom but rivals will still not be happy," said CCS Insight's Pescatore. "We firmly believe that it is now time for all parties to work together to ensure an efficient and speedy outcome in the interests of consumers. And more importantly regulatory certainty."

Sky's group CEO, Jeremy Darroch, said the proposal of a legally separate Openreach "falls short of the full change that would have guaranteed the world-class broadband network customers expect and the UK will need".

He added: "In particular, leaving Openreach's budget in the hands of BT Group raises significant questions as to whether this will really lead to the fibre investment Britain requires.

"At the end of the day, Ofcom's changes will only work if they deliver better outcomes for customers. It's now important that the changes Ofcom have mandated today are implemented rapidly, fully and without dilution. We are encouraged by Ofcom's stated commitment and willingness to use its powers to hold BT's feet to the fire."

Dido Harding, CEO of TalkTalk Group, said a legally separate Openreach "is a step in the right direction".

But she added: "The intention ten years ago was to create a functionally separate division that served all customers equally, but that is far from what happened. The lack of clear rules and responsibilities meant that BT was (according to Ofcom) able to make 4 billion in excess returns in a decade, and I fear we're repeating the mistakes of the past.

"Legal separation still means that a highly complex web of regulation, and BT has proven itself expert at gaming this system. There is nothing to suggest they will not continue to do so in the new system. Structural separation is cleaner, with less red tape - and removes BT's ability to exploit loopholes in the regulation. In taking one cautious step forward, I fear Ofcom may in practice have taken five steps back."

However, Dan Howdle, editor-in-chief of broadband comparison site Cable.co.uk, told IT Pro separation is inevitable.

"In terms of full amputation of Openreach from BT, the leg is now half off," he said. "A separate board, staff becoming Openreach employees, separate and more transparent budgets and strategies - these are the things you would do when preparing for a full split."

He added: "With pressure applied by government, consumers and competitors unlikely to let up any time soon, I can't read this any other way: Separation is now is case of when, not if."

What's next?

Today's recommendations regarding Openreach form just part of Ofcom's proposals resulting from its 10-year review, with the plans open to public consultation until early October.

The regulator plans to build on the review by setting out stricter minimum requirements on Openreach to repair problems and install new lines more quickly later this year.

Performance tables will also chart communication providers' quality of service on a number of metrics from next year, and interactive maps will show broadband coverage for individual addresses.

CEO of Ofcom, Sharon White, said: "We're pressing ahead with the biggest shake-up of telecoms in a decade, to make sure the market is delivering the best possible services for people and business across the UK."

Plans to make it easier to switch providers, and for telcos to automatically compensate customers for poor service, are also underway.

Openreach, BT's network implementation division, is trialling a new, simpler duct and pole sharing process across the UK, which could launch a country-wide rollout of new fibre broadband networks.

The process would see companies carry out more work themselves as well as more efficiently, without asking Openreach for permission. It is currently being tried by five communications providers including Callflow, NextGenAccess and WarwickNet.

The streamlined process was developed by an industry working group launched in November 2015, and its announcement comes after Ofcom fell just short of separating BT and its network arm, instead demanding it open up its network more to rivals.

BT responded by saying it would open up its ducts and poles to competitors "if they are genuinely keen to invest very large sums as we have done".

Clive Selley, CEO of Openreach, said of the trial: "This is an important step which gives greater access to our network and encourages other companies to join Openreach in building better, broader and faster communications services for the whole UK.

"We have already built an open wholesale fibre network which is available to more than 25 million homes and businesses, and we're continuing to bring fibre to more than 25,000 premises each week.

"We have also outlined ambitious plans to move the UK from superfast to ultrafast speeds, and we support other companies building their own networks using our underlying infrastructure."

Communications providers will be able to clear blockages they find without consent from Openreach, and install new distribution joints inside junction boxes in order to make deployments more cost effective and faster.

"Our ducts and poles have been open to these companies for several years, and Ofcom has been clear that the price to access them is in line with international comparisons, but they haven't been used on a large scale to date," Selley continued. "We hope that these new, simpler processes which have been designed and developed in partnership with the industry will encourage more companies to invest, particularly in parts of the UK that aren't already served by high-speed networks."

Three has asked Ofcom to stop Vodafone and BT buying too much spectrum when the auction happens later this year.

The company's smallest mobile provider thinks it would be unfair if the two companies bought more than their fair share. After all, BT and EE together (now just one massive BT network) own almost half of the available spectrum, Vodafone owns around a third more, while Three and O2 own comparably less. Three feels it would put the company in a bad position if Ofcom allows both operators to buy up more.

"The combination of BT and EE is incredibly strong financially. It has got the financial ability to outcompete everyone in the market in how much they are willing to pay," Three chief David Dyson told the Financial Times.

"Potentially, given how much spectrum they are already sitting on, BT is incentivised to strategically bid in the next auction to restrict the other operators in the market from increasing their spectrum portfolio...That could make life difficult."

The European Commission didn't allow Three and O2 to complete its merger earlier in the year, so it could be that Three has a bee in its bonnet about that and the impact it will have on its market share.

"Three and O2 are important and effective competitors in the UK, helping to deliver innovation, investment and competitive prices over many years," the European Commission wrote in its decision.

"Competition must be sustainable, and regulation should support it. We will aim to do so through tools such as market reviews or auctions of mobile airwaves."

BT has demonstrated the fastest ever broadband speeds possible, with trials achieving speeds of 5.6Tbps using a live core network between BT's Labs in Adastral Park, Ipswich and the BT Tower in London.

Alongside Huawei, the company won't be offering commercial broadband with such speeds, but hoped to offer 2Tbps broadband in the future using its live core network link. It demonstrated this separately in trials between London and Dublin.

"The core network is the superhighway of the internet. It's important that our core networks keep pace with the growth in bandwidth demands driven by take-up of high-speed fibre broadband, HD content, 4G smartphones and tablets and in the future, 5G services," Howard Watson, CEO of BT Technology, Service & Operations, said.

"So we're investing in our core, as well as in high-speed access technology such as fibre broadband, to make sure there is no capacity crunch and deliver the best possible speeds to customers."

The network uses Terabit superchannels and flexible grid infrastructure, meaning it doesn't have to rely on its existing infrastructure that would potentially cause networks to grind to a halt when bandwidth reaches its limits.

"Ultra-High-Speed optical networks are an indispensable infrastructure for the future of digital life, and this is an area where Huawei is investing, to help telcos such as BT squeeze as much capacity out of their core networks as possible," Zha Jun, President of Huawei Fixed Network Product Line.

BT has previously used optical superchannels to bolster the capacity over its networks. In 2014, the company trialled the technology in a closed environment where it obtained speeds of 3Tbps.

"These landmark trials show that we can easily turn up the dial to deliver the speeds needed in our core networks to stay well ahead of rising customer demand.

"BT scientists built the first commercial single mode optical fibre link back in 1984 and the BT Labs remain at the forefront of photonics research more than thirty years later," Watson said.

BT will pump 6 billion into improving Britian's super and ultrafast broadband infrastructure, the telco has announced.

The scheme is part of BT's pledge to extend superfast broadband coverage - which offers internet speeds of between 25Mbps and 80Mbps - to include more than 95 per cent of the UK by 2020.

The company is aiming to bring ultrafast broadband (with speeds of around 100Mbps) to at least ten million homes and business with the same period, two million of which will be connected directly via fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP).

Business parks, high streets and new housing developments will benefit from the expanded FTTP rollout, which follows BT's earlier commitment to bring FTTP to any new housing containing over 250 properties.

The remaining eight million premises not receiving FTTP connections will instead get upgrades to the pre-existing copper infrastructure that runs from the properties to their local cabinet, which BT has dubbed G.fast technology.

BT CEO Gavin Patterson said: "The UK is a digital leader today and it is vital that it remains one in the future. That is why we are announcing a further 6 billion of investment in our UK networks, subject to regulatory certainty. Networks require money and a lot of it. Virgin and BT have both pledged to invest and we will now see if others follow our lead.

"G.fast is an important technology that will enable us to deploy ultrafast broadband at pace and to as many homes as possible. Customers want their broadband to be affordable as well as fast and we will be able to do that using G.fast. FTTP will also play a bigger role going forward and I believe it is particularly well suited to those businesses who may need speeds of up to 1Gbps. My ambition is to roll it out to two million premises and our trials give me confidence we will."

However, some industry experts have urged BT to up its commitment and increase its FTTP expansion plans.

"BT has the opportunity to help the some of the millions in the UK with broadband that isn't fit for purpose," said Dan Howdle, telecoms expert at Cable.co.uk.

He added that poor connections to cabinet infrastructure affect "primarily those in rural areas, but also anyone living more than 1,000 metres from their local fibre cabinet. If indeed they have one".

"BT absolutely must seize this opportunity, not only for the sake of those who suffer daily with appalling broadband speeds, but also for its own sake, since failure to do so may contribute towards a future in which it is forced to give up Openreach," Howdle said.

Most of BT's 7.9 million broadband customers will get hit with a rise in their bills, as Britain's most popular provider increases its costs for the second time this year.

The price of having a standard line will be increasing by 1 per month, which in total raises the cost to 18.99. This is an increase of 12 per year that will be affecting around 10 million subscribers.

Broadband customers with standard and unlimited plans will see a price increase as well, raising the costs of their services to 15 and 20. But it should be noted that those with copper lines will pay an additional 2 per month.

The changes also include a rise for BT's superfast broadband Infinity customers by 3 per month, although they're attempting to soften the blow by increasing the speed of their service. The package will now offer 52Mbps rather than its previous mark of 38 Mbps.

There have also been small price raises for the Unlimited Anytime Calls plan, which now includes free calls to BT mobiles. Additionally, BT sport, which is to include all live UEFA Champion League matches, will increase by 1 per month.

"We realise that customers never welcome price rises, but we have again ensured that low-income customers avoid increases," said John Petter, the chief executive of BT Consumer. "And we continue to highlight money-saving options for all customers, including those who just want a great value package of a line and calls, such as Home Phone Saver 2019."

The majority of the price changes will go into effect on July 3.

EE plans to bring 4G coverage to 95 per cent of the UK within the next four years.

The mobile operator's strategy focuses on eradicating so-called notspots - places where there is no 4G coverage - and pays particular attention to rural areas.

This includes 4G coverage that has been turned on in Shetland and the Isles of Scilly, which the company claimed demonstrates its "commitment to connect the furthest edges of the UK". Shetland is the most northerly region of the UK, while the Scilly Isles are the most southerly.

It comes after the UK's 4G coverage was found to lag behind the US and Europe, with EE providing the most coverage at 60 per cent, 10 per cent behind coverage in other countries.

The company is also rolling out Voice over LTE (VoLTE, also known as 4G Calling) across the UK, which it said will both allow users to continue accessing high-speed internet while they are on the phone, rather than being shifted onto 3G as currently happens.

It will also ensure people who are in 4G-only areas can make calls on their mobile phones.

"For the average smartphone user, not-spots aren't tolerated and 2G doesn't deliver what they need," said EE CEO Marc Allera.

Allera said mobile operators were "too used to saying 'no' to new coverage", but that with this announcement his company is "saying 'yes' with an ambition to go further than any operator has ever gone ... with the ultimate aim of covering the whole of the UK with 4G".

As well as announcing its 4G plans, EE also revealed it will bring all its customer service calls back to the UK and Ireland, after Ofcom fined it 1 million last year for customer service failures.

This will create 600 new roles, the company said, including 100 jobs spread across Plymouth, Merthyr Tydfil and North Tyneside, which will be created by the end of June this year. The remaining 500 will be announced in the second half of 2016.

"We've already seen a major boost in customer satisfaction by creating 1,400 new service jobs here since 2014," said Allera. "Now we're creating 600 additional jobs to handle all EE customer service calls in the UK and Ireland by the end of this year, providing the best possible experience for our customers."

BT's latest CIO report has revealed digital transformation and the cloud are the biggest priorities for companies and every business questioned by the company said they are driving forward to make sure they are digitally sound.

The three most disruptive technologies within large organisations are cloud (58 per cent), mobility and collaboration (54 per cent) and data (52 per cent). A fifth of the 1,000 CIOs questioned said their company is completely cloud-centric, yet 65 per cent said their current infrastructure is struggling to meet the growing demands of digital technologies.

Security, as always, is the biggest barrier to cloud adoption, although a third of the CIOs said they understand cloud can actually improve security if used correctly.

As a result of this shift to the cloud and focus on digital transformation, the role of the CIO is changing. BT's previous CIO report revealed the role was becoming more strategic, creative and consultative. Now, the CIO is an essential part of the board, making many of the important decisions about the direction of the entire organisation, rather than just where the business should take its IT services.

"The creative use of technology is absolutely accepted as a differentiator, not just in transforming costs or efficiency, but in improving customer experience and enabling disruptive growth," BT explained in its report, saying the network is at the heart of everything companies are doing now and in future.

Almost a fifth of IT spending will come from outside the IT function within the next two years, focusing on the changing needs and expectations of customers rather than just addressing the needs of staff within the organisation itself. CIOs are also expected to continue their responsibilities with keeping companies secure, however, with the robust infrastructure required.

"If there's one key message from the report, it's that there is no blueprint for any of this," the report continued. "The challenge is knowing the right questions to ask when, as well as knowing what matters and what doesn't. We all need to have an open mind. The constraints of technology are lifting, enabling people to achieve more."

As a result of its findings, BT has revealed its The Digital Possible initiative, which aims to help CIOs adopt digital transformation in their organisation.

It will bring a range of new digital services to market to support CIOs, including real time big data analysis capabilities, expansion of its cloud connectivity and software defined networking services, new security and professional services capabilities and the launch of UK and global mobility services through BT's acquisition of EE.

"The pace of digital change is creating new opportunities for our customers and those opportunities require quick responses. The role of the digital CIO is one of the most demanding in business. They need to be strategic, creative, growth-minded and cost conscious," said Luis Alvarez, CEO of Global Services.

"They have to understand technology and people, and balance control and safety with enablement and speed. They are becoming the pioneers of change. To be successful, they now require strategic partnerships within and beyond their organisation."

BT will take on an additional 900 people for its security business in 2016, with 170 posts being handed to graduates who will be trained at the company's Security Academy.

By taking on such a high volume of security experts, BT is attempting to combat the growing security threats faced by consumers, business and the government, while also addressing demand for cybersecurity experts to take on the digital skills shortage.

"A number of high-profile security and data breaches have dominated the headlines in recent months, and this has led to a surge in interest from both consumers and IT departments wanting to know how best they can protect themselves in the digital world," said Mark Hughes, president of BT Security.

Graduates entering the BT Security Academy will be taught a number of skills across the entire security spectrum, including physical security, penetration testing, threat intelligence, risk management, security operations and sales.

The delegates will be recruited from a number of leading UK universities, while others will be selected from hackathon-style competitions including Cyber Security Challenge UK and the international Cambridge 2 Cambridge cyber security challenge.

"BT plans to remain at the forefront, innovating in cybersecurity, by hiring some of the best talent while training up the next generation of experts at our BT Security Academy," Hughes continued.

BT already employs 2,500 people in security-related roles across the world and it is a rapidly growing part of its business, the company said. Its annual revenues are growing at a double digit rate and includes products such as antivirus and parental controls that protect families, plus managed security solutions used by multinational companies.

BT must slash its prices for high-speed business lines and install them more quickly, under new Ofcom recommendations released today.

The new rules, which are subject to EU approval, would see the regulator impose tougher installation targets on BT and its fibre network arm, Openreach, when they install leased lines, a process that currently takes 48 working days, up from 40 in 2011.

Leased lines are dedicated high-speed data links made available to businesses to transfer high volumes of data on their networks.

The majority of these lines are owned or maintained by BT, on behalf of rivals who can provide their own services on them.

Ofcom's proposals would require Openreach to reduce its average installation times to 46 days by 2017, and back down to 40 the following year, after finding that the body fails to complete one in four installations on the agreed date.

Jonathan Oxley, Ofcom competition group director, said: "BT is relied on by many companies to install these lines, and its performance has not been acceptable. These new rules will mean companies across the UK benefit from faster installation times, greater certainty about installation dates, and fast repairs if things go wrong."

Openreach must complete 90 per cent of leased line installations on the day it originally promises from April 2018, under Ofcom's plans.

Prices

Meanwhile, Ofcom wants BT to make deep cuts to its leased line prices.

Newer lines based on Ethernet standards, with bandwidths up to 1Gbps, would see an initial 12 per cent cut, with an overall cap - linked to the consumer price index - of 13.25 per cent for each year of the charge control.

For older lines with bandwidths of up to 8Mbps, Ofcom will enforce a nine per cent price reduction, with an overall cap, linked to the consumer price index, of 3.5 per cent for each year of the charge control.

Ofcom aims to bring prices down over a three-year period starting this May.

"Today's statement from Ofcom is very much in line with what they proposed last year," a BT spokeswoman said in a statement, "so there are no surprises here. Competition and choice have been growing in the business connectivity market and we believe there is a strong case for less, not more, regulation."

She added: "We accept there is more to do on service and are committed to doing better and meeting our business customers' rising expectations. Ethernet provision can be complex and the need for street works and wayleaves mean delays are often beyond our control. We are doing all we can to overcome such challenges. The required Ethernet price cuts and the introduction of dark fibre will not help to underpin service improvement."

Dark fibre network

Ofcom also wants to loosen BT's grip on the UK broadband market by giving rivals more access to the telco's dark fibre network, which is effectively fibre that is not lit' by BT rather by another provider who would install their equipment at both ends of the optical fibre.

BT is already required to offer leased line products including fibre and BT's own network kit to competitors, but Ofcom wants to allow rivals to use their own network equipment, instead of relying on BT's.

Oxley added: "We have outlined plans to reduce the country's reliance on BT's Openreach division. Our proposals on dark fibre' do just that, letting BT's competitors better serve their customers by getting direct access to BT's optical fibre cables."

The BT spokeswoman said: "Dark fibre is a flawed piece of regulation that introduces an unnecessary layer of complexity and will deter others from building their own fibre networks. It is at odds with Ofcom's recent statements about increasing competition at the infrastructure level. It is a cherry pickers' charter benefiting those who don't invest in networks at the expense of those who do including BT, Virgin Media, City Fibre and Zayo."

EU approval

The proposals were published today in Ofcom's Business Connectivity Market Review, and must gain approval from the European Commission before being finalised by the end of April.

They come after Ofcom's Strategic Review of Digital Communications, in which the regulator decided not to remove Openreach from the control of BT, but forced BT to open up its network more to rivals.

Broadband speeds in the UK should be "a thousand times faster" than they currently are, according to a recently published report from the Institute of Directors (IoD).

The organisation, which represents the interests of business leaders, accused the government's current target of 10Mpbs by 2020 of lacking ambition.

Instead, it called for a new target for consumers and businesses to have access to broadband speeds of 10Gbps by 2030.

Its Ultrafast Britain report said that while the UK leads the world in internet-based business, it lags behind many European countries when it comes to installing fibre broadband.

Dan Lewis, senior advisor on infrastructure policy at the IoD, and author of the report, said that it was time to set a "bold new target for genuinely world-beating broadband".

"We have the leading internet economy in the G20, and yet download speeds are mediocre and the coverage of fibre optic cable is woeful," he said. "Unfortunately, the government's current target displays a distinct poverty of ambition."

He said that he expected the UK government to meet the Universal Service Obligation of 10 Mbps by 2020, but only "because they've set themselves such a low bar".

Lewis added that instead of spending money on incremental upgrades on copper, politicians must "look ahead" and figure out how the country is going to provide the necessary infrastructure in order to maintain Britain's position at the forefront of digital business.

The IoD said that in Lithuania, around a third of homes and businesses had fibre to the premises; in the UK, this was a fraction of one per cent. The report interviewed IoD members and they said that improved broadband speeds would help in making the firms more productive, competitive as well as allowing flexible working for staff.

Just last week, a report by the European Commission said that the UK has fallen behind other countries in Europe in areas such as connectivity, digital skills and the integration of digital technology.

Ofcom also ruled that BT should remain in control of its fibre rollout arm, Openreach, last Thursday, despite criticisms of delays to extending the UK's broadband coverage, as well as concerns BT could make decisions that disadvantage rivals using its network.