Home » UK ISP News Archive » Article Tag: O2 (945 Posts)

Articles for Category Tag - O2

Sky UK Add FREE Mobile Social Tariff for Sky Broadband Basics Users

14th December, 2022 (11 Comments)

Customers who take UK ISP Sky Broadband’s cheaper “Basics” social tariff for home broadband and phone connectivity will now also gain the ability to add Sky’s new mobile social tariff, which will provide existing users with unlimited UK calls and texts and 3GB of data per month for 12 months “at no cost at all“.

Three UK Build First Shared Rural 4G Mast Site with O2 and Vodafone

13th December, 2022 (13 Comments)

Mobile operator Three UK has today announced that they’ve started construction of the UK’s first joint mast site in Scotland under the £1bn Shared Rural Network (SRN) project, which is expected to go live in early 2023 and supply 4G (mobile broadband) connectivity to customers on the Isle of Mull.

Virgin Media O2 UK Updates on Yorkshire Broadband and Mobile Upgrades

13th December, 2022 (0 Comments)

Virgin Media and O2 (VMO2) has issued a general progress update on their various mobile and broadband ISP network upgrades, investment, and digital inclusion initiatives across Yorkshire in England, which among other things also confirms that Skipton (North Yorkshire) is the home of their first XGS-PON (FTTP) trial users.

Virgin Media O2 is First UK Telecoms Provider to Gain Carbon Trust Certification

7th December, 2022 (5 Comments)

Broadband ISP and mobile network operator VMO2 (Virgin Media and O2) has just become the “first UK telecoms provider” to be recognised by the Carbon Trust for its action towards achieving Net Zero carbon emissions across its business (i.e. removing as many emissions as they produce).

VMO2 Finds UK Broadband and Mobile Amongst the Cheapest in Europe

6th December, 2022 (8 Comments)

Broadband ISP and mobile giant Virgin Media and O2 (VMO2) have today published the results of a new Assembly Research study, which examined the value of telecoms services in the UK compared to other major countries and found that “typical UK prices for fixed and mobile services are amongst the lowest in Europe“.

Gov Campaign to Raise Awareness of UK Social Broadband Tariffs

29th November, 2022 (9 Comments)

After meeting with ISPs, the Government has today launched a UK-wide public awareness campaign as part of its Help for Households programme, which aims to help people through the cost-of-living crisis and will also work to improve the uptake of cheaper social tariffs from broadband and mobile providers (available to those on benefits).

Virgin Media O2 UK Hand Free Mobile Data to All Big Issue Vendors

29th November, 2022 (0 Comments)

Mobile operator O2 (VMO2) has announced that it is supplying all Big Issue (magazine) vendors with free mobile SIMs and “data vouchers“, which represents an improvement from last year when they gave over 200 Big Issue vendors free data plans, enabling them to take contactless payments (52% of magazine sales are via contactless).

Sky Mobile UK Celebrates 3 Million Customers Milestone

24th November, 2022 (17 Comments)

Sky (Sky Broadband, Sky TV) has today announced that their Sky Mobile service, which is an O2 (VMO2) powered Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO), has reached the major milestone of 3 million customers and is now the “fastest growing mobile provider in the UK“.

Mobile Operator Giffgaff Plan to Boost UK 4G and 5G Data Caps

16th November, 2022 (17 Comments)

Mobile network operator giffgaff has today announced that it will shortly introduce a range of new SIM-Only “goodybag” plans and, at the same time, it will also boost mobile data allowances across most of their existing plans too. The changes are due to be introduced from 7th December 2022.

virgin media o2 network engineer in data centre 2021

Virgin Media Business Wholesale Upgrades Core UK Network

16th November, 2022 (0 Comments)

Broadband ISP Virgin Media Business (Wholesale) are rolling out an upgrade to their core UK National High Capacity Services (NHCS) network, which among other things will make their more affordable 10Gbps optical point-to-point data connections available to more businesses across the country.

Virgin Media O2 UK to Create 125 New Engineers in Big Cities

7th November, 2022 (3 Comments)

Mobile operator and broadband ISP Virgin Media (VMO2) has opened applications for 125 field engineer apprenticeship positions to help rollout their full fibre (FTTP) and 5g mobile networks across the UK. Most of the positions will be filled in London, Manchester, Bristol, Birmingham, Glasgow and Leicester.

Numis Report on Cityfibre Reveals New Details of UK FTTP Broadband Build

6th November, 2022 (29 Comments)

A new research report from investment bank Numis, which was pieced together by analyst John Karidis, has revealed some useful information about Cityfibre’s £5bn project to deploy a new gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP network across the UK and their perspective on overbuild and prices vs Openreach (BT) etc.

Virgin Media O2 Sees Project Lightning Add 3 Million UK Premises

2nd November, 2022 (15 Comments)

The latest Q3 2022 results from broadband ISP and mobile giant VMO2 (Virgin Media and O2) has seen their fixed broadband base reach 5.63m customers (up by 19.1k in Q3 vs 16k in Q2), while their gigabit network coverage added 115,000 premises (3 million delivered via Project Lightning) and 5G is available in over 800 towns and cities.

Mobile giant Vodafone UK and Sky (Comcast) have reportedly two among several "groups" that have approached budget conscious fixed broadband ISP TalkTalk about a potential deal (most likely an acquisition), which in theory could create a much larger provider with more influence over the industry. Just to recap. In 2020 TalkTalk became the subject of a £1.1bn takeover by Toscafund - controlled by hedge fund tycoon Martin Hughes (here), which including debt valued the broadband provider at around £1.8bn. The deal took the ISP private and gave them more financial flexibility for their future plans. Since then, they've backed Freedom Fibre (here) and this week made the notable acquisition of Ethernet provider Virtual1 (here). According to the FT (paywall) and Sky News, TalkTalk is now said to have asked investment bank Lazard to review its options after allegedly being approach by several groups, including Vodafone and Sky (Sky Broadband). Lazard is a logical choice as they recently acted as Financial Advisor to TalkTalk on the Virtual1 transaction. Some industry analysts have reportedly suggested that TalkTalk itself could now be worth "at least" £3bn. But this seems rather optimistic for an ISP that doesn't have any significant fixed line broadband infrastructure to call its own (excluding their old unbundled LLU network) and largely just piggybacks off Openreach (BT), CityFibre and Freedom Fibre. But TalkTalk do have a strong business and wholesale side. Funnily enough, Sky Broadband are in a similar position with their own fixed line base, while Vodafone also likes to piggyback off Openreach and CityFibre. At present, Vodafone has a fixed broadband base of 991,000 customers, while Sky Broadband is estimated to be home to around 6.7 million and TalkTalk has approximately 4.2 million. Suffice to say, anybody gobbling up TalkTalk would instantly become a much larger provider, giving them a greater say in how the UK broadband market develops and more opportunities for convergence (Vodafone with mobile, and Sky with mobile and TV). Crucially, TalkTalk's consumer base is mostly made up of those on older copper and hybrid fibre lines (i.e. ADSL and FTTC / VDSL2), which are ripe for a future migration to FTTP. At the time of writing, all of the aforementioned operators have decline to comment on the reports, and TalkTalk has yet to receive any serious formal offers. In other words, we strongly suspect that this is largely just an exercise in spin to help TalkTalk drum up some more productive interest in the idea. But at the same time, it's not unreasonable to suspect that they might succeed, as the interest seems genuine. On the other hand, we see reports like this every year or so and only a very few ever convert into a serious offer. Time will tell. Much may depend upon whether or not TalkTalk’s new owners are more flexible and pragmatic about doing a deal than the previous lot. Arguably, TalkTalk might have gone much further by now had they taken some different decisions a few years ago (e.g. co-investing in FTTP instead of Pay TV).

Virgin Media O2 UK Puts Possible £3bn TalkTalk Merger on Ice

31st October, 2022 (12 Comments)

A major newspaper has reported that Virgin Media (VMO2) has allegedly gone cold on the idea of reaching a £3bn merger deal with budget UK ISP TalkTalk, which would have added the provider’s broadband base of over 4.2 million to their own base of 5.6 million in order to more effectively compete with BT.

Virgin Media O2 UK Celebrate 1 Million Volt Broadband and Mobile Customers

31st October, 2022 (12 Comments)

Broadband ISP Virgin Media UK and mobile operator O2, which not so long ago agreed a £31bn mega merger to become VMO2, have today celebrated after managing to attract 1 million customers to take-up their first joint product (bundle) under the ‘VOLT’ title – just one year after launching it.

Virgin Media O2 UK Trials Emergency 5G Mobile from Drones

27th October, 2022 (9 Comments)

Broadband ISP and mobile operator Virgin Media and O2 (VMO2) has teamed up with the Snowdonia Aerospace Centre in Wales to trial 4G and 5G connected drones, which in an emergency could be deployed to help create a temporary airborne mobile network for both visitors and emergency services (Mountain Rescue).

Virgin Media O2 Parents May Sell Stake in UK Masts to Boost Full Fibre

26th October, 2022 (7 Comments)

The parents of ISP Virgin Media (Liberty Global) and mobile operator O2 (Telefonica) are reportedly considering a sale of their 50% stake in mast operator Cornerstone, which is part of a network sharing agreement with Vodafone (Vantage Towers). The extra funding would be used to help fuel their UK rollout of full fibre (FTTP) broadband.