Home » UK ISP News Archive » Monthly Archives: May 2014 (105 Posts Found)

ISP News Archives for May 2014

Vodafone UK Stems Fixed Broadband Decline as 4G Users Hit 637K

20th May 2014 (0 Comments)

The latest Q1-2013 (calendar) financial results for Vodafone UK have revealed that their fixed line broadband subscriber base appears to have stabilised at 59,000 customers (unchanged from the end of 2013), which follows last year’s Q2-2013 fall from 85,000.

Shropshire UK Moots Ultrafast FTTH Broadband Alternative to BT FTTC

20th May 2014 (24 Comments)

The Shropshire County Council in England, which recently warned (here) that it was struggling to find match-funding for the Government’s proposed allocation of an extra £11.38m to boost the local coverage of BT’s superfast broadband (FTTC) services, looks as though it might be considering a rival county-wide deployment of ultrafast Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH/P) and wireless technology.

UPDATE BT to Improve Quality of Service and FTTC Broadband Competition

20th May 2014 (6 Comments)

The telecoms regulator has today pushed BTOpenreach, which maintains BT’s national phone and broadband network across the United Kingdom, to adopt new targets that aim to improve its quality of service by fostering faster installs, quicker repairs and making available more information about their performance to the public. Superfast broadband (FTTC) lines will also benefit from cheaper migrations and shorter contracts.

ISP PlusNet Slashes UK Business Broadband and Phone Prices

19th May 2014 (3 Comments)

Internet provider PlusNet Business has slashed the price of their standard and superfast broadband + phone bundles by more than half for the first year of service, although Line Rental is still payable at the standard rate of £10.50 +vat per month with pay-as-you-go calls (add £4 for UK Anytime calls).

UK ISP Zen Internet Shuns Proposal for Voluntary P2P Piracy Warning Letters

19th May 2014 (2 Comments)

The Regulatory Manager for UK ISP Zen Internet, Gary Hough, has criticised the Government’s efforts to introduce a new Voluntary Copyright Alert Programme (VCAP) of Internet piracy warning letters. Zen noted the distinct lack of engagement with the wider ISP industry and said that they currently had no intention of signing up to such a scheme.

Hundreds of New Windsor Park Homes Left to Wait Months for Broadband

19th May 2014 (11 Comments)

Residents of a new housing estate at Windsor Park, which sits just south of Buckingham town in England and includes 700 new build homes, are furious after being left waiting for a broadband and phone service to arrive via BT since before Christmas.

West Sussex UK Council Debates Superfast Broadband Funding Boost

19th May 2014 (0 Comments)

The West Sussex County Council has started to debate an extension to their £20.1m West Sussex Better Connected project, which could put an extra £2-3m (total) or so towards helping to extend the reach of BT’s “superfast broadband” (FTTC/P) speeds to 95% of the region by 2017.

BT Openreach Recruit 1600 New UK Engineers to Improve Service Standards

19th May 2014 (10 Comments)

BTOpenreach, which is responsible for looking after BT’s national UK telecoms network, will soon be bolstered by an additional 1,600 engineers in order to help the operator meet Ofcom’s forthcoming quality of service requirements (i.e. faster fault fixing etc.) and assist in the roll-out of superfast broadband (FTTC/P) technologies.

Fluidata MD – Somebody Should Tell BT the Copper Phone Line is Dead

17th May 2014 (48 Comments)

The outspoken boss of business ISP Fluidata, Piers Daniell, has predicted that the latest generation of fibre optic (FTTP/H) broadband connectivity will steadily remove the need for consumer to be forced into paying for a copper-line Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS) on top of their Internet connectivity, but for BT it’s still too much of a “cashcow” to ignore.

Hull ISP KC Ready to Launch Network Level Filtering in June 2014

16th May 2014 (0 Comments)

East Yorkshire ISP KC looks set to become the latest provider to introduce network-level Internet filtering (Parental Controls), which will give all new KC broadband customers the choice (as part of their set-up process) over whether or not to block certain categories of website / content (e.g. porn, dating, social networks, freedom of speech etc.).

Zayo Group Gobbles UK Dark Fibre Optic Provider GEO Networks

16th May 2014 (1 Comment)

In a surprise move GEO Networks, a dedicated fibre optic solutions developer for the United Kingdom, has been acquired for an undisclosed sum by US-based international bandwidth infrastructure provider Zayo Group.

Romsey Residents Angered by “Eyesore” BT FTTC Broadband Cabinet

16th May 2014 (32 Comments)

Residents and politicians in Romsey, a small market town in the county of Hampshire (England), have become the latest group to moan of an “eyesore” after BTOpenreach installed one of its large (1.6 metres high) green superfast broadband (FTTC) street cabinets on the pavement of a busy high-street.

BT Clear to Replace Ethernet Excess Construction Charges with Setup Fee

16th May 2014 (5 Comments)

Ofcom has formally allowed BTOpenreach to proceed with their proposal to replace the sliding scale of Excess Construction Charges (ECC) on their point-to-point Ethernet Access Direct (EAD) products with a simple balancing charge fee of £548 +vat, which will benefit many but not all customers.

Broadband and Phone Outage in Wales Impacts 140,000 People

16th May 2014 (1 Comment)

Customers on BT and Sky Broadband’s network experienced a 2 hour loss of both Internet and phone connectivity mid-yesterday morning after an unspecified fault triggered a “multiple exchange outage” that impacted services across parts of South Wales.

Sky Broadband Warns of Missing Screws Creating Faulty Power Adaptors

16th May 2014 (2 Comments)

Sky Broadband warns that a “possible safety issue” has been identified with some of the Power Adaptors that were included with their small On Demand Connector for TV set-top-boxes and the Sky Wireless Booster product, many of which have been given away for free to existing broadband and TV subscribers.

UK ISP TalkTalk Confirms Plan to Sell BT Based Broadband Subscribers

16th May 2014 (6 Comments)

Internet and phone provider TalkTalk has identified the sale of its off-net broadband subscribers (BT IPStream based) to another ISP as one of several “major initiatives” that will help to “unlock further significant savings” over the next two years. The move is expected to impact the bulk of their 136,000 off-net Internet customers, most likely excluding the few that are managed on behalf of the Post Office.

Vodafone Connect 233 Large UK Towns and Cities to 4G as More Go Live

15th May 2014 (3 Comments)

Mobile operator Vodafone has announced the next batch of locations for their national roll-out of “ultrafast” 4G based Mobile Broadband connectivity, which is now live in 233 large towns and cities across the United Kingdom (we predict they’re currently able to reach around 40% of the UK).