Home » UK ISP News Archive » Monthly Archives: March 2013 (94 Posts Found)

ISP News Archives for March 2013

South Yorkshire UK Digital Region Broadband Network at Risk of Closure

13th Mar 2013 (14 Comments)

A new report from Doncaster Council’s finance wing has warned that the debt-ridden Digital Region (DRL) network, which has made superfast broadband available to 80% of premises in South Yorkshire (England, UK), will need another £15m in public funding to stay afloat or it could be “closed down“.

Point Topic Claim Residential Demand for 1Gbps Fibre Broadband is Low

13th Mar 2013 (14 Comments)

A new study from telecoms analyst Point Topic UK has suggested that there is a ceiling to the broadband speeds that residential consumers are prepared to pay for, with hybrid-fibre (e.g. FTTC, FTTN) solutions tending to dominate the “superfast” market and demand for “bandwidths of a gigabit” being “relatively low“.

UK Government Softens Broadband Infrastructure Bill to Protect Parks

13th Mar 2013 (0 Comments)

The government will amend its controversial Growth and Infrastructure Bill, which is designed to help “fast-track” the roll-out of superfast broadband services around the United Kingdom by cutting red tape in the planning system, in order to protect national parks and other “areas of outstanding natural beauty“.

BT Help 88 Percent of Lincolnshire UK to Get Superfast Broadband by 2016

13th Mar 2013 (4 Comments)

BT and the Lincolnshire County Council (LCC) have today announced details of how they intend to make superfast broadband (25Mbps+) available to “at least” 88% of all homes and businesses in the English East Midlands county by April 2016 (everybody else will get speeds of at least 2Mbps).

UPD Why Fibre Based Broadband Internet Access is Not Always Superfast

13th Mar 2013 (21 Comments)

Just because your local authority has promised to cover 98% of homes and businesses with “fibre-based broadband” does not mean that you’re going to get a superfast broadband (25Mbps+) speed and, according to at least one council, you might only get downloads from upwards of 2Mbps.

Cornwall UK Expands Superfast Broadband Coverage Target to 95%

12th Mar 2013 (2 Comments)

The joint public and privately funded £132m Superfast Cornwall scheme, which originally aimed to deploy BT fibre optic (FTTC etc.) based broadband ISP services to “at least” 80% of homes and businesses in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly by the end of 2014, has now expanded its target to cover 95%.

UPD ISP Chief Vents Anger at Missed BT UK Engineer Appointments

12th Mar 2013 (30 Comments)

The CTO of business ISP Timico UK, Trefor Davies, whom last week praised BT’s telecoms engineers for fixing his superfast broadband (FTTC) line, has today criticised the national telecoms operator for missing too many appointments with customers and mishandling his fault report.

EU Telecoms Regulators Support Plan to Boost Broadband Investment

12th Mar 2013 (2 Comments)

The Body of European Regulators of Electronic Communications (BEREC), which represents Europe’s national telecoms regulators (e.g. Ofcom in the UK), has given its preliminary support to new EU rules that are intended to boost investment and competition in the roll-out of superfast broadband ISP services.

ISP PlusNet UK Offer 6 Months Half Price FTTC Fibre Broadband and Phone

12th Mar 2013 (2 Comments)

Internet provider PlusNet UK has today launched a new promotion that offers their FTTC based unlimited superfast broadband (up to 80Mbps) and phone bundles at half price for the first six months of service, which means that the entry-level package costs from just £7.99 a month.

BT Disguise UK Superfast Broadband Street Cabinets with Vinyl Wraps

12th Mar 2013 (7 Comments)

BTOpenreach, which manages access to BT’s national telecoms network in the United Kingdom, appears to have found a new way of using customised Vinyl Wraps to help camouflage some of their superfast broadband (FTTC) street cabinets.

Virgin Media Named Fastest ISP in New Netflix UK Broadband Speed Index

12th Mar 2013 (0 Comments)

Netflix UK, the unlimited movie and TV video streaming service, has launched a new Netflix ISP Speed Index website that is designed to give consumers “insight into which Internet Service Providers [deliver] the best streaming experience“.

UPD Outgoing Virgin Media CEO Gets GBP58m Payday via Liberty Global Sale

11th Mar 2013 (5 Comments)

A regulatory filing has revealed that the boss of UK cable operator Virgin Media, Neil Berkett, will leave the business with the equivalent of £58 million ($86.8m) in his pocket after Liberty Global completes its £15bn acquisition (here) of the group.

UK Internet Users Criticise Governments Poor Broadband Progress

11th Mar 2013 (0 Comments)

The results from 782 respondents to our latest monthly reader survey have revealed that over two thirds (70.8%) think the UK government is making “poor” progress towards its goal of improving the country’s national broadband infrastructure by 2015 (just 7.5% felt progress was “good“).

UPD3 BT Threaten Legal Action to Gag Spoof Wales Superfast Broadband Site

11th Mar 2013 (43 Comments)

BT has threatened legal action against the owner of spoof website Superfarce Wales (Cymru), which parodied the official Superfast Wales project that is designed to inform the public about their plans to make superfast broadband services available to 96% of premises in Wales (UK) by the end of 2015.

Vodafone UK Beat EE to Have the Most Valuable 3G and 4G Spectrum

11th Mar 2013 (0 Comments)

The latest post-4G auction study from Analysys Mason estimates that Vodafone, not EE, now has the most valuable mobile spectrum portfolio in the United Kingdom (worth over £2bn). The operator also spent £802m to secure several slices of the 800MHz and 2.6GHz band (here) in order to roll-out superfast Mobile Broadband services.

Hull ISP KC Reveals Next Locations for its Fibre Optic Broadband Service

9th Mar 2013 (1 Comment)

The incumbent telecoms provider for Hull in East Yorkshire (England), KC, has revealed the next batch of locations that will gain access to its superfast fibre optic (FTTH and FTTC) based Lightstream broadband service during the first half of 2013, which is perhaps incorrectly described as the “UK’s fastest fibre service“.

UPD 98% of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough UK Get BT Fibre Broadband

8th Mar 2013 (3 Comments)

BT has officially signed the £45 million Connecting Cambridgeshire contract, which aims to make superfast broadband (25Mbps+) ISP services available to 90% of homes and businesses across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough (England, UK) by the end of 2015 (i.e. 98% will get FTTC but the 8% difference will be sub-25Mbps).