Home » UK ISP News Archive » Monthly Archives: February 2015 (89 Posts Found)

ISP News Archives for February 2015

KC’s Fibre Optic Broadband Network to Cover 60,000 Hull UK Premises

21st Feb 2015 (3 Comments)

The incumbent telecoms operator for East Yorkshire and Hull, KC (KCOM), has quietly announced that their superfast “Lightstream” fibre optic (FTTP/C) broadband network is to be expanded beyond the current target of 45,000 premises by March 2015 and will add another 15,000 homes and businesses to their footprint by around spring 2016.

UPDATE Teesdale Valley Locals Angered by SHOCK Withdrawal of Broadband

20th Feb 2015 (19 Comments)

Last year’s effort by the ITS Technology Group to save a struggling fixed wireless broadband network (Digital Teesdale), which was serving fixed wireless broadband to homes across rural parts of the Teesdale valley (east of the Pennines in England), appears to have stumbled after a hike in the spectrum licence made the service economically unviable.

EU Caution Ofcom Over Regulation of BT’s FTTC “Fibre Broadband” Prices

20th Feb 2015 (28 Comments)

The national UK telecoms regulator’s plan to control the margin between BT’s wholesale and retail superfast “fibre broadband” (FTTC) prices has suffered a setback, albeit a non-binding one, after the European Commission (EC) warned that the “proposed approach lacks the necessary flexibility” and could result in higher retail prices for consumers.

Virgin Media Business and Arqiva to Improve 4G Mobile in UK Cities

19th Feb 2015 (5 Comments)

Cable operator Virgin Media Business has signed a new partnership with Arqiva that will help to improve the coverage and performance of 4G mobile connectivity in city centres across the United Kingdom, particularly in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Bradford and Southampton.

Big Change Unlikely as Ofcom Consult on UK Mobile Operator Licence Fee Hike

19th Feb 2015 (1 Comment)

The national telecoms regulator has today carried out its promise to once again review the plans for a massive hike in annual licence fees on the 900MHz and 1800MHz radio spectrum bands, but they’ve also been quick to warn that the recent coverage agreement between mobile operators and the Government is “unlikely to have a material effect“.

PlusNet Customers Harassed by Phantom Billing and Data Usage Errors

19th Feb 2015 (2 Comments)

UK ISP PlusNet has apologised after its automated data usage monitoring system suddenly lost the plot and began applying incorrect usage levels to some of the provider’s broadband customers on older capped usage accounts, which triggered a mass of email warnings about excessive usage.

Durham Sign Extended BT and BDUK “Fibre Broadband” Rollout Contract

18th Feb 2015 (48 Comments)

The Digital Durham project in England, which includes Gateshead, Tees Valley, Sunderland and currently aims to make BT’s “fibre broadband” (FTTC/P) network available to 98% of local premises by September 2016 (96% will get “superfast” speeds of 24Mbps+), has signed a second contract that should push the network coverage near to the magic 100% mark.

CityFibre Grabs New Talent from TalkTalk, BT and Other Big Telco Names

18th Feb 2015 (3 Comments)

CityFibre, which specialises in deploying fibre optic broadband networks around some of the United Kingdom’s second tier cities, has expanded its team by hiring a number of recognisable names from the wider telecoms industry, including a few that hail from the senior levels of TalkTalk, BT Scotland and Geo Networks (now owned by Zayo Group).

Welsh Government Tenders to Extend Superfast Business Broadband

17th Feb 2015 (34 Comments)

The Welsh Government appears to have posted an official tender for their Superfast Cymru “Infill Project“, which will look to extend the reach of superfast broadband (24Mbps+) services to beyond the current target(s).

UK Lords Report Demands Universal Internet Access as a Utility Service

17th Feb 2015 (7 Comments)

The House of Lords, specifically their Digital Skills Committee, has today published a new report and warned that the United Kingdom is at a “tipping point” because it hasn’t fully addressed the “significant digital skills shortage“. One of the proposed remedies for this is to define the Internet as a utility service, “available for all to access and use“.

UPDATE BT Replace Faulty PSU on Some FTTC Broadband Modems

17th Feb 2015 (22 Comments)

An apparently small number of Openreach’s VDSL (FTTC) “fibre broadband” modem users are being sent replacement white power adaptors (HW-120100B12W) after a “manufacturing fault” allegedly meant that a component inside the old black PSU adapter plug (FM120007-UK) might “fail and break the casing“.

Local ISP Deploys 1000Mbps FTTH Broadband to Part of Rural Cheddleton

17th Feb 2015 (10 Comments)

Residents of St. Edward’s Park, a small rural community in the Staffordshire (England) village of Cheddleton, are celebrating after local ISP Internet Connections began rolling out a 1000Mbps capable Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) broadband network to the area. But oddly the local community already had superfast access.

UK ISP Zen Internet Start to Offer Self-Install FTTC Fibre Broadband

16th Feb 2015 (8 Comments)

New customers who take one of Zen Internet’s superfast “fibre broadband” (FTTC) packages (e.g. Fibre 1, Unlimited Fibre 1, Unlimited Fibre 2 or Unlimited Fibre Office) can now also take a Self-Install (Plug’n’Play) option, which means that an Openreach engineer doesn’t need to enter your home in order to complete the setup.

BT Criticised for Approach to Devon and Somerset Broadband Contract

16th Feb 2015 (12 Comments)

A new report suggests that the recently announced £45.5m extension to the Connecting Devon and Somerset project, which will make superfast broadband (24Mbps+) speeds available to even more local premises, very nearly didn’t go ahead after BT initially refused to bid. The move gave the council little option but to sign an exclusive deal with BT, instead of pursuing a more open tender.

FSB and WarwickNet to Tackle Slow Business Broadband in Northamptonshire

16th Feb 2015 (18 Comments)

The Federation of Small Businesses and WarwickNet have joined forces in Northamptonshire (England) for a unique project to identify business parks and industrial estates that have been labelled the “worst affected” by a lack of good broadband, with the goal being to then rollout superfast connectivity to those areas.

UPDATE ISP PlusNet Tackles Broadband Price Confusion on Low Cost Areas

16th Feb 2015 (14 Comments)

Budget Internet provider PlusNet must correct their definition for “Low Cost” areas, which directly impacts the price that subscribers pay, after ISPreview.co.uk readers noted that the details on their website appeared to have been out of date since 26th June 2014 when Ofcom changed the regulation.

Rural Broadband Solution Found, Put WiFi on Sheep and Badgers

14th Feb 2015 (5 Comments)

Is it April 1st? On any other day a story like this would surely fit right into the annual day of loony news, but in this case scientists working at Bangor and Lancaster University in Wales have decided to use £171,000 of funding to look at the very real possibility of fitting farm animals with WiFi. Not that we’re feeling sheepish about it or anything.