The UK Government, broadband ISPs and the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) are set to meet on the 8th May 2019 in order to discuss Google’s forthcoming implementation of encrypted DNS (DoH – DNS over HTTPS), which politicians fear could break their internet censorship plans.

Several UK ISPs have now launched packages based off the new 160Mbps and 330Mbps capable hybrid fibre G.fast “ultrafast broadband” technology from Openreach (BT), which means that it’s time for us to take a closer look at what you can get for your precious pounds.

The UK telecoms regulator has provisionally proposed to accept a request by Three UK, EE, O2 and Vodafone to vary a number of spectrum access licenses for the 3.4GHz, 3.5GHz and 3.6GHz bands in order to facilitate new Active Antenna Systems (AAS), which could help the future roll-out of ultrafast 5G mobile broadband networks.

Alternative UK network providers seem to be cropping up like spring flowers and the latest to join that club is Jurassic Fibre, which has an ambition to invest over £250m into building a 1Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network to cover 300,000 premises across Devon, Dorset and Somerset.

Some 60 homes in the rural Essex village of Cornish Hall End near Braintree will become the first to benefit from the start of County Broadband‘s roll-out of a new rural Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network, which is being supported by an investment of £46m from Aviva Investors.

The UK Government has sent final terms to Age Verification Providers for the related BBFC certification scheme, which sets strict rules for how such providers must verify a user’s age before allowing them to access a porn site. As before, broadband ISPs must block websites that fail to comply. The system will begin in July 2019.

Cable ISP Virgin Media has successfully nudged the UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) to ban Vodafone from using the term “Gigafast” to generally promote their slower Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) based broadband tiers, which offered average speeds that range from 100Mbps to 900Mbps (i.e. not only 1Gbps).

The £35m joint Cityfibre and Vodafone project to roll-out a Gigabit speed Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) broadband ISP network in the south coast UK city of Bournemouth (Dorset) has been given a boost with the appointment of a new City Manager, Lucy Cooper, to oversee the effort.

Cityfibre’s £30m project to roll-out a new 1Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) broadband network in the town of Southend-on-Sea (Essex) has been given a boost after the operator, which is being supported by UK ISP partner Vodafone, appointed Aideen Sadler to be its dedicated City Manager.

The latest independent data has predicted that 3.8% of UK premises could be affected by full to capacity FTTC (VDSL2) based “fibre broadband” street cabinets on Openreach’s (BT) network (down from 4.6% in December 2018), which might stop you from ordering a new service.

In a slightly comical twist Vodafone has boosted their 4G mobile network coverage around part of Cornwall (i.e. the popular seaside resorts of Polzeath and Sennen Cove) by installing radio kit inside disused telephone boxes, which just so happened to once belong to arch rival BT. More of this will soon follow across the UK.

A new study has examined the impact of network-level filtering (Parental Controls) from the largest UK broadband ISPs, which are enabled-by-default and help to protect children from seeing “adult” content. Unfortunately they’ve also blocked access to many safe sites too, including charities, school and social support services.

Mobile operator Three UK has refreshed its tariffs for small business customers by introducing a range of free subscriptions and discounts on building a website, accountancy, co-working spaces and business cards. But in order to get such a plan you’ll have to either visit one of their stores, call or use web chat.

The UK High Court of Justice has today dismissed Cityfibre’s Judicial Review of the Advertising Standards Authority’s decision to allow slower “part fibre” (hybrid fibre) ISPs to use “fibre” terminology in their broadband adverts, which Gigabit capable “full fibre” (FTTH/P) providers have long felt to be “misleading“.

Alternative rural network ISP Wessex Internet appears to be making good use of the UK Government’s Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme (GBVS) and are using the investment to help grow their Gigabit capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network into more villages around Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire.

At the start of this year UK ISP Vodafone confirmed that they were scrapping their own Demon Internet ISP brand and migrating its remaining users on to more modern services (here). Unfortunately some customers of the provider’s ADSL service, which was the only broadband product they still sold, will not be among them.

Spreading Gigabit speed “full fibre” (FTTP) broadband ISP networks across the UK is a slow and expensive process, although recent improvements to Openreach’s infrastructure sharing product could help rivals to boost their own alternative roll-out plans. But some challenges remain.