Weekly Brief – 29th August 2025

A round-up of other news bits that we didn’t cover this week.

LSBUD – Digging up Britain Report

LSBUD’s (Linesarch before U dig) annual report on Digging up Britain has analysed the activity across the country and found that more than 1.4 million underground asset searches occurred on their data from the telecoms industry.

Banks reporting losses on alt-net loans

Banks funding broadband rollout through debt provisions have warned that there could be financial losses due to loans not being repaid in full. Lloyds Banking Group has warned that higher construction costs and lower subscriber numbers have affected the sector, with £25m set aside to cover this. NatWest has lent around £1bn to alt-nets, according to the FT, and was also expecting losses on these loans. G.Network is searching for a buyer following £386m of debt accrual last year, with only £10m in revenue. Gigaclear are also suffering from a large amount of debt that may need refinancing.

Ofcom EMF levels

Ofcom measures EMF (electromagnetic fields) near mobile phone base stations to verify that the emission levels in the vicinity of mobile towers are within acceptable levels. The regulator is reporting that all levels measured are well within the EMF limits.