Posted on: 2nd October 2025, by Magrathea
Welcome to the October newsletter, combining news from Magrathea and around the industry.
What’s included
- Service Spotlight: Client VPN for VoIP
- Ofcom highlights latest trends for fixed and mobile calling (article link)
- Reminder: Ofcom consultation submissions due in October
- Reminder: DSIT Consultation: Proposal to update the Telecommunications Code of Practice
- Workshop invitation: Number Portability – 9th October 2025
- Events and outings
- What’s on our minds…
Service Spotlight: Client VPN for VoIP
Magrathea offer Virtual Private Network (VPN) connectivity to clients, comprising of two dedicated client facing VPN routers with geographic diversity. Traffic exchanged on this solution is encrypted to help clients meet their security requirements.
For more information about this service please visit The Guide (within our MAGIC Portal) or ask our support team for details.
Ofcom highlights latest trends for fixed and mobile calling
Ofcom’s latest research into how consumers and SME’s use communication services confirms what we see every day – online platforms continue to grow but when it comes to the really important calls, voice is still the go to. At Magrathea we have been long championing the role of voice in an increasingly data- driven world – read our take on the research here.
Reminder: Ofcom consultation submissions due in October
Ofcom kindly provided some summer reading and this is just a reminder that for two of them responses are due this month:
Review of Call Termination Markets and End-to-End Connectivity Condition
This forms part of the 5-yearly market review. Our view, which we have shared in our response to Ofcom, is that the suggestion to leave fixed and mobile wholesale termination rates as they are for the next five years (with no index linking) is a pragmatic solution.
The cost to recalculate would be disproportionate to the difference the result would bring and in real terms the FTR and MTR will reduce as inflation has an impact, so the benefit of network costs reducing will – in theory – align.
The other key area is the proposal to end ‘end to end connectivity’ obligations on BT. Whilst we can see the logic applied to the argument we are not convinced that the realities of interconnect align with the theory and therefore this proposal is one that need careful consideration. Perhaps it is correct that additional burden is not specifically applied to BT, but instead the general rules around interconnect and the provision of call termination should be overhauled for everyone to ensure they match the current commercial landscape.
A more detailed read of the consultation can be found on the Ofcom website here. We have until 5pm on the 10th October to submit comments so if you would like to share your views, particularly if you disagree with our opinions, we would love to hear from you.
Tackling Scam Calls from Abroad
Ofcom are looking to update CLI rules to try and prevent scammers abroad from spoofing UK mobile numbers, but are they going far enough? We don’t believe so, and would go as far to suggest that their approach may even make the situation worse. We recently wrote an article highlighting our concerns and what our thoughts are regarding this.
To review the consultation in full, please click here. Responses are due by 5pm on the 13th October and would welcome any feedback on our approach so we can factor that in to our submission.
Reminder: DSIT consultation – Proposal to update the Telecommunications Code of Practice
As promised last month, we have reviewed the proposal and are unable to find anything that fundamentally changes our guidance for our clients on the UK Telecommunications Security Framework, which is available in the Guide here.
Regardless of where clients are in the supply chain – or size of company – it’s good practice to review all 3rd party suppliers with appropriate scrutiny, not just for security reasons but also for looking at general business conduct. To help clients we can provide our completed supplier summary on request.
Detail on the consultation can be accessed here. The closing date for views is 22nd October.
Workshop Invitation: Number Portability – 9th October 2025 at 11:00
There is still time to sign up for this workshop. Whether you are new to porting or would just value a refresher we are again offering clients an opportunity to attend a 60-minute free online workshop with our porting expert Ashley Farr.
This workshop aims to help clients understand the porting process, explains how to use our Portal and follow our process, and what needs to happen when things don’t go to plan. So, if you have burning questions you’ve always wanted to ask, or have new team members on your porting desk then you’re very welcome to attend this workshop.
Please email support@magrathea-telecom.co.uk to reserve your space.
Events and Outings
Linda and Hayley from business development attended Connected Britain on the 24th September. They caught up with a few clients and all the news in the world of Fibre.
On the 25th September we sponsored the CCUK awards at the beautiful IoD building in Pall Mall. It was a fantastic afternoon and we congratulate all the winners. This year we were delighted to also present the Best Comms Application award to Daktela. Some highlights of our day can be found here: https://www.magrathea-telecom.co.uk/ccuk-awards-2025-congratulations-to-all-winners/
Coming up in October, we are once again looking forward to getting together with industry colleagues at the CCUK Women in Telecom event, in London on the 21st October.
Looking ahead to November we have the NICC forum on the 12th November. This is always an interesting day, hearing key note speakers on the issues impacting interoperability and hearing about NICC work over the year. This year’s focus is on fraud and scams so we’re looking forward to hearing from others doing work in this space.
And then we have the ISPA Awards, – taking place in London on 13th November. We still have a couple of spaces at our table, so if you would enjoy an evening out in the company of our team and other clients please do get in touch.
What’s on our minds….
September has whizzed past however as we head into the last 3 months of the year there is still a lot more time left in 2025 to achieve more of our planned workstack.
As part of all of the work we have already achieved to date, we have recently added a few extra features to our internal systems, including additional tools for our porting team to further streamline testing capabilities, which has the knock-on impact of improved outcomes before we report orders as closed.
With the ever increasing demand on our porting desk it’s critical that we keep improving our processes to help the team keep pace and enable them to maintain their excellent levels of support to our clients.
In case you’ve missed it over the summer, clients can see what we have planned for the whole of our business year on our roadmap, which can be found in The Guide. If you have any feedback on the roadmap – particularly in terms of what’s most critical to you – then please get in touch with us.
As always here at Magrathea we appreciate your comments and feedback, if there is anything you would like to contact us about, please email info@magrathea-telecom.co.uk
Kind regards
Client Support, Magrathea
The information contained in this guidance is for your information only and is not intended to be relied on. It does not constitute legal professional advice, nor is it a substitute for you obtaining your own legal professional advice. Magrathea accepts no liability whatsoever for any errors, omissions or statements in this guidance or for any loss which may arise from your use of this guidance.