British space company OneWeb has just conducted the first live test of their new compact ultrafast broadband satellites in circular Low Earth Orbit (LEO), which achieved top data speeds of up to 400Mbps and a latency time of under 40 milliseconds (very impressive for a space based comms technology).

Mobile operator Three UK has today gone live with their new “world’s first” software-based cloud core network, which sits in a virtual environment and will be used to underpin the launch of their new ultrafast 5G based mobile broadband services next month (as well as existing 4G services).

A joint £2.4m UK project with South Korea looks set to trial how ultrafast 5G wireless data connections could be used to support “uninterrupted infotainment services” (i.e. travel services, entertainment and advertising) for commuters travelling around the Glasgow Metro, as well as possibly the London Underground.

The Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy (JCNSS) has launched a new inquiry into UK 5G and fixed broadband telecommunications infrastructure, which in the wake of all the alleged risks from Huawei’s kit will examine the issues of sustaining access to “safe” telecoms technology as a national security issue.

Gigabit broadband UK ISP Community Fibre, which currently aims to bring their “full fibre” network to more than 500,000 premises (homes and businesses) across London by 2022, has today secured an extra £50m of funding from its two institutional investors – RPMI and Amber Infrastructure – to help support their plans.

The Suffolk County Council in England has issued a new report on the progress of their £64m project to help extend the coverage of “superfast broadband” (24Mbps+) capable ISP networks to 98% of local premises by the end of 2020, which after some initial delays is now running nearly 6 months ahead of schedule.

Cable ISP Virgin Media UK has today announced that they’ve completed the rollout of their 500Mbps+ capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) based DOCSIS / RFoG broadband and phone network to cover 4,000 extra homes in the Gorton area of Manchester.

A new Research Without Barriers survey of 1,000 UK workers who attend meetings, which was commissioned by online print and design firm MOO, has claimed that 20 minutes out of each 1 hour (average) meeting is “wasted company time” (agreed by 90% of respondents) and 4.6 minutes of that stems from WiFi or internet problems.

City focused full fibre broadband ISP Hyperoptic, which currently claims to cover 500,000 UK premises and hopes to reach 2 million by the end of 2021 (aspiration for 5 million by 2024), appears to have quietly introduced a new 500Mbps package but it only shows up for certain areas / buildings.

A number of customers from cable broadband provider Virgin Media are reporting that the ISP has blocked the whole of the popular picture sharing website Imgur.com through its Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) linked proxy filter, which normally only targets criminal pages that depict indecent images of children.

After a frenzied week of bidding The Takeover Panel has announced that Macquarie Infrastructure – MEIF 6 Fibre – had won the auction for Hull and East Riding’s (East Yorkshire, England) incumbent broadband ISP KCOM. The group put in a huge final bid of £627m to see off competition from rival Humber Bidco.

New customers looking to take one of Vodafone’s fixed line FTTC based superfast broadband and phone packages are, until 13th August 2019, also being offered an included Amazon Echo Plus smart speaker (retails at up to £139.99). On top of that the ISP has also slightly reduced their monthly price on the 35Mbps plan.

The Institute of Customer Service has published its latest UK Customer Satisfaction Index, which lists the top 50 organisations for customer service.. obviously. Overall only two telecoms providers (mobile, broadband ISP and phone) made the grade – mobile operator giffgaff (ranked 19th) and Tesco Mobile (ranked 49th).

The UK telecoms regulator, Ofcom, has today proposed to make a “slight change” to the technical parameters allowed for licence exempt use of in-vehicle low gain mobile phone repeaters (aka – signal boosters / signal enhancers), which in theory could help to improve mobile reception inside vehicles.

Consumer magazine Which? has published the results of a new survey, which asked over 8,000 UK respondents about their broadband ISP switching habits. Overall a third said they were considering a change of provider but nearly half have NEVER switched and here are the top reasons why.

The UK Internet Service Providers Association (ISPA) last night confirmed the winners of their 21st annual 2019 internet industry awards, which among other categories saw Hull provider KCOM scoop the win for “Best Consumer ISP” and altnet FTTH provider TrueSpeed come out top as the “Best Rural Broadband” ISP.

Dorset-based My Fibre Limited, which describes itself as a “mechanical or industrial engineering” company that runs some Dark Fibre networks, has proposed to extend their network and may build an ultrafast Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) broadband ISP service for a rural community in mid-Wales.