Weekly Brief – 9th October 2026

VodafoneThree targets £1bn of annual cost savings by 2032

VodafoneThree has set a new cost savings target in an investor briefing. The company has increased its aim to reach annual savings of £1bn per year by 2032, compared with its previous target of £0.7bn by 2030. The company envisages that this will be possible once its mobile network build is complete and network rationalisation is realised, and the benefits of full group ownership will help it reach this target. It’s aiming to reach £0.8bn of savings by 2030.

Bristol is the latest city to receive O2’s 5GSA network

O2 has announced that its 5G+ network has been switched on in Bristol, allowing up to 495,000 people across the city to benefit from faster speeds and better coverage. This is part of their 5G Standalone network rollout plan, which is seeing O2 enable cities and towns across the country.

“Reliable connectivity is increasingly essential to how people live, work and do business, which is why we’re continuing to invest in strengthening our network in the city.

This rollout is part of our £700 million Mobile Transformation Plan and brings 5G+ to more customers across Bristol. With faster speeds, lower latency and improved reliability, the upgrade will deliver high-quality coverage that helps our customers stay connected when it matters most.”

Professor Robert Joyce, Director of Mobile Access Engineering, O2

Amazon Leo has built its 1,000th satellite

Amazon Leo has announced that it has now built more than 1,000 satellites, which will shape their Low Earth Orbit network. So far, the company has launched 396 satellites across 14 launches to date, with heavy-lift launches to allow even more satellites to be put into orbit per mission. More than 3,000 satellites are planned to be put in the initial constellation design.

No commercial service is available yet, but the company has said that it expects a beta service to launch in late 2026 or early 2027. An enterprise preview is currently underway for selected business customers.

Opus Broadband writes to Culture Secretary over BT takeover of TalkTalk

Opus Broadband has written to the Secretary of State for Culture to complain about the sale of the consumer arm of TalkTalk to BT. It points out that whilst it can see how a rescue deal is necessary to ensure continuity of service of PXC, the TalkTalk Wholesale division, which was a separate company, the same could not necessarily be said for its consumer arm.

Opus feels that it has been strong armed out of a deal by BT swooping in at the last minute to hoover up 1.5m customers, which will only go to strengthen its dominant position in the market. It urges the Government to ensure that a proper Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) review takes place, and says that it doesn’t believe there is a Public Interest Intervention necessary on the Consumer arm when the Opus Broadband offer was available on the table.