Ofcom has today published somewhat of a preview for their annual study into fixed line UK broadband ISP speeds, which reveals that the average (mean) download speed of home connections has risen by 25.3% since last year to 80.2Mbps. Upload speeds have also jumped by 54% to 21.6Mbps.

Mobile network operator O2 UK (Telefonica) has today confirmed that their new ultrafast 5G based mobile broadband platform has now gone live across parts of a further 30 UK towns and cities, which takes the total list of live locations to 183.

The recently proposed ‘European DNS Resolver Policy‘, which aims to foster better standards for privacy and transparency across resolver services for the internet’s Domain Name System (e.g. those run by UK ISPs and third-party providers), has today secured support from several leading organisations.

A Belgian security researcher, Mathy Vanhoef, has uncovered a bunch of new vulnerabilities in Wi-Fi (wireless networking) technology that stem from a mix of historic design flaws and programming mistakes, some of which may have been present since all the way back in 1997! You’re about to hear a lot about “FragAttacks.“

The Pembrokeshire County Council’s (PCC) wider Digital Connectivity Programme (DCP) in Wales appears to have identified the next set of six rural communities (Phase 4 or 5) for their programme, which are likely to benefit from the rollout of gigabit-capable full fibre broadband ISP networks.

The BT Group has published their latest Q4 2020/21 results today, which reveals that Openreach has further expanded their gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP network rollout target from 20 million UK premises to 25 million by December 2026. The extended target will support an additional 7,000 jobs.

The threat of a major national UK strike by a significant chunk of BT’s workforce appears to have subsided, if perhaps only temporarily, after the two sides involved took steps to calm the situation and re-engage in negotiations. But the thaw in hostilities may only last until early June, unless an agreement can be reached.

Openreach (BT) has today confirmed that a further 27 UK locations have been added to their £12bn Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband rollout plan, which is working to make their gigabit-capable network available to 20 million premises by the mid-to-late 2020s (currently building at a rate of c.42,000 premises per week).

The FTTH Council Europe has published their annual 2021 market panorama, which ranks the countries with the strongest subscriber penetration of “full fibre” (FTTP/H/B) based ultrafast broadband ISP networks. The good news is that the UK has continued to show strong growth, but we remain stuck at third from the bottom.

A new survey from Ericsson, which makes 5G networking kit and services for mobile network operators, has found that the number of UK consumers intending to upgrade to 5G has decreased to 25% (down from 27% in 2019) and others remain confused about what the technology will deliver.

Ofcom’s latest Spring 2021 update for UK broadband and mobile networks has revealed that “full fibre” (FTTP) coverage has grown to 21% (up from 18% in Sep 2020) and 37% or 10.8 million homes are within reach of a gigabit-capable (1000Mbps) network (up from 27%). But sadly 4G coverage has not improved and there’s no mention of 5G.

The CEO of BT’s Consumer ISP division, Marc Allera, has today called on the UK Government to help support the industry by making it easier for home broadband providers to launch new social tariffs via targetted funding or subsidies, which could come in a number of different forms.

After much delay the UK Government will today publish a draft of their new Online Safety Bill (Online Harms), which among other things hands Ofcom a new “legal duty of care” that can be used to force websites into removing “harmful” internet content. Failing to do so may risk being fined or blocked by mobile and broadband ISPs.

Openreach has begun using What3words to help find damage to broadband ISP cabinets, telephone poles and overhead wires across the UK. In case readers don’t know, W3W is a geocode system that essentially reduces any location with a resolution of about 3 metres down to being described via three dictionary words.

Rural homes and businesses around the Norwood Park area of Somerset (England), specifically those connected to the local network run by UK ISP Voneus, lost their internet connection over the weekend after a group of “misguided 5G protestors” damaged broadband equipment while mistaking it for a mobile mast.

The Queen has today carried out the first State Opening of Parliament since the pandemic began, which sets out the UK Government’s agenda for the coming session. As expected this included various references to gigabit broadband and mobile connectivity, as well as their plans to publish the controversial Online Safety Bill.

Ofcom has today set out the terms of reference for their future UK mobile strategy review, which will examine how the regulator can adjust their approach in order to improve 4G and 5G based mobile (mobile broadband) network connectivity for consumers and businesses over the next 5 to 10 years.