The future shape of the UK fibre and broadband sector will be a key area of discussion at the INCA Summit this November. The event, to be held at the Wales International Convention Centre on November 26-27th, will also cover topics such as any policy changes resulting from the General Election, the impact consolidation on operators and their customers, and the shifting wholesale market. Keynote speakers will include high profile industry figures alongside senior representatives from Government, BDUK and Ofcom.
News
As well as news from INCA itself we are keen to include relevant news items from INCA members. Please send relevant items of news, ideally including a photo where relevant, to news@inca.coop. We'll publish news from members that we feel is of interest.
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INCA congratulates Sir Keir Starmer and Labour for their tremendous win and looks forward to a productive and successful relationship with the new Government, building on the solid foundations established in recent months through our work with the then shadow front bench team.
Photo: Keir Starmer under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) licence.
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With the 2024 General Election campaign in full swing, INCA has published a manifesto for the full fibre broadband sector. Aimed at candidates, the concise manifesto seeks to inform readers about the significant achievements of the Altnet sector, and sets out just five key policy asks,These five points – taken together – will enable the next Government to ensure that the benefits that Altnets have brought to the fixed telecoms market will be sustained over the long term:
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INCA has launched it's annual 'State of the Altnets' report for 2024 today at the Connected North conference in Manchester. With the full title 'Metrics for the UK Independent Network Sector' the report, produced in partnership with Point Topic, sets out a series of key figures which illustrate the continuing growth and successes of the sector, alongside some of the central concerns occupying the minds of Altnet leaders over the last year. -
Leading UK Altnets are taking action to ensure that the rollout of full fibre is not held back by inconsistencies in the availability of Openreach physical infrastructure.
Many locations across the UK are being removed from Altnet and Openreach plans because Physical Infrastructure Access (PIA) is not available or is unusable. Altnets are frequently having to deploy new infrastructure which has caused concern amongst some local communities and is increasing the cost and reducing the pace of fibre rollouts.
A special interest group set up by INCA will encourage Altnets and others to share infrastructure to reduce the amount of street works and street furniture required to support the UK’s new full fibre networks.
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Leading economics academic Professor Dieter Helm suggests, in his speech to delegates at the INCA Conference, that with the next Ofcom review of the Wholesale Fixed Telecoms Market (WFTMR) on the horizon, the stakes are very high not just for the Altnet sector, but for the whole UK economy, and the current "soggy compromise" is not up to the required job of putting the industry on a stable long term path.
Here is the recording of the talk delivered to INCA Conference 2023 by Professor Dieter Helm, Professor of Economic Policy at the University of Oxford.
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Altnet contributions awarded with Golds at INCA Annual Conference
Ogi, Freedom Fibre, Airband, LCR Connect, and a CityFibre ‘Rising Star’ are among the recipients of the trophies awarded during the celebratory ceremony at the end of the INCA Annual Conference’s first day.
The awards recognise the outstanding work in a sector spearheading the innovation and change needed to deliver transformative broadband across the UK.
The full list of winners is as follows:
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BT is charging customers up to 29% more per month for the same broadband product in areas without infrastructure competition. A new INCA report out today shows how much the incumbent drops its prices when there are competing networks in an area.
Government policy to encourage broadband infrastructure competition has transformed the UK from full fibre laggard into having the fastest full fibre network growth in the world. It is also delivering clear benefits to consumers in the form of lower prices, better service and greater reliability.
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We are looking for a new person to take the lead on our policy and regulatory activities. The successful candidate will work with our Policy & Regulatory Special Interest Group (P&RSIG) comprising senior policy/regulatory officers from our membership, plus specialist regulatory consultancy GOS Consulting and our public affairs agency to drive our policy and regulatory agenda. In close consultation with the Chair of the P&R SIG and INCA’s CEO you will set the priorities for our work, develop and manage projects in the policy and regulatory arena and keep our members abreast of key issues they need to pay attention to.
INCA runs with a small distributed team of people all of whom work remotely. We keep in touch using Zoom, Slack, email and other online tools.
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25% coverage in rural areas by Altnets should convince Ofcom to include ‘Area 3’ in its analysis of Equinox 2 pricing enquiry
The benefits of competition in the UK’s broadband sector have been starkly illustrated by the latest annual review from INCA, which has been published today (17 May 2023).
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