Home » UK ISP News Archive » Monthly Archives: March 2016 (102 Posts Found)

ISP News Archives for March 2016

Unicom’s Parent VERASTAR Gobbles UK ISP Business Comms Solutions

19th Mar 2016 (2 Comments)

Telecoms and broadband company VERASTAR (aka – Universal Utilities / Unicom), which was fined £200k by Ofcom last year after they were found to have mislead consumers (here and here), has confirmed that they’ve finalised the purchase of Premier Calls parent company, Business Comms Solution.

Quickline Expand 50Mbps Wireless Broadband Cover in West Lindsey

19th Mar 2016 (5 Comments)

Fixed wireless ISP Quickline claims to have boosted its existing 50Mbps broadband network coverage in the Lincolnshire (England) district of West Lindsey, which should mean that they’re able to reach some of the remotest outlying rural homes and businesses in the area.

Three UK See Mobile Broadband Data Usage Surge to 5GB Per User

18th Mar 2016 (1 Comment)

Mobile operator Three UK, which claims to carry 42% of the United Kingdom’s mobile data traffic, reports that their existing 3G and ever expanding 4G network coverage has pushed the average data usage per customer from 500MB (MegaBytes) in 2010 to 3.3GB (GigaBytes) in 2014 and it’s now 5GB.

BT Reveal FTTC “Fibre Broadband” Cabinet Cost as BDUK Clarify Delays

18th Mar 2016 (56 Comments)

The cross party Culture, Media and Sport Committee inquiry into UK broadband infrastructure has revealed some useful new information on the “cost per [street cabinet]” of BT’s (Openreach) FTTC “fibre broadband” service and confirmation of which BDUK areas have fallen behind their coverage targets.

Broadband Satisfaction Study Hails Zen Internet, as TalkTalk Hit Bottom

18th Mar 2016 (7 Comments)

Consumer magazine Which? has this week published the outcome from their latest reader survey of broadband ISP satisfaction, which saw Zen Internet and Utility Warehouse win the highest ratings. Unfortunately the same could not be said for TalkTalk, which had the lowest score by far.

TalkTalk Becomes First UK ISP to Offer Biometric Voice Passwords

18th Mar 2016 (0 Comments)

Budget ISP TalkTalk are continuing to work on their image after last year’s security woes (e.g. here and here) and have today taken another step forward by allowing all 4 million of their customers to use their own voice as their password (aka – ‘TalkSafe‘).

Gigaclear Bring 5Gbps FTTP Broadband to 10,000 Oxfordshire Properties

17th Mar 2016 (32 Comments)

Rural ISP Gigaclear has confirmed that their ultrafast 5Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP/H) broadband network will soon have reached a total of 10,000 homes and businesses in Oxfordshire (England) when their local roll-out completes with the final few communities.

Progress Report – 565K Premises in Wales Benefit from Superfast Cymru

17th Mar 2016 (2 Comments)

The state aid supported Superfast Cymru project, which hopes to push BT’s “fibre broadband” (FTTC/P) network out to 96% of Wales by the end of 2016 (691,000 extra premises) and a further 42,000 premises by June 2017, has today issued a useful region-by-region progress update.

Cityfibre to Build 50km Ultrafast Fibre Optic Network in Southend-on-Sea

17th Mar 2016 (0 Comments)

Fibre optic builder Cityfibre has today won a new 10-year and £3.24 million contract to build a new 50km long Dark Fibre network in Southend-on-Sea (Essex, England), which will provide ultrafast broadband and data services to 120 key public sector sites and local businesses.

Want 300Mbps on Virgin Media Today, Add the Home Works Upgrade

17th Mar 2016 (13 Comments)

Last month Virgin Media announced that their SME (business) focused 300Mbps broadband package would be extended to “home office workers” in March 2016 (here) and now one of our readers has spotted (here) that domestic customers can take it by adding the ‘Home Works‘ upgrade.

Virgin Media Slash Non Direct Debit Payment Handling Fees to 45p

17th Mar 2016 (0 Comments)

Customers of Virgin Media, specifically those who pay their bills by non-Direct Debit methods (e.g. debit / credit cards) will be pleased to know that the somewhat hefty £5 payment handling charge (quite a bit higher than some other ISPs) is being slashed to just 45p from 1st April 2016.

EU Court Says Public WiFi Networks Not Liable for Internet Piracy by Users

16th Mar 2016 (1 Comment)

The European Court of Justice has today offered a preliminary “opinion” on the long-running “McFadden case” in Germany, which effectively concludes that operators of free (no password required) open public WiFi networks cannot be held liable for copyright infringements committed on their networks.

UK Budget 2016 – No Big New Bits for Boosting Broadband Connectivity

16th Mar 2016 (2 Comments)

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, has today set out the annual Budget 2016 report for the United Kingdom, which among other things announced the plan to publish a strategy for 5G mobile services in 2017 and the release of more radio spectrum below 10GHz (bands).. but not a lot else.

F4RN Raise GBP84K to Bring 100Mbps Broadband to Rural Nottinghamshire

16th Mar 2016 (1 Comment)

The B4RN inspired and community backed Fibre for Rural Nottinghamshire (F4RN) project, which aims to roll-out a 100Mbps broadband service to the rural Nottinghamshire (England) villages of Fiskerton and Morton (Fiskerton-cum-Morton), has managed to raise £84,250 to fuel its effort.

BT Take Flak for Missed Appointments, FTTP and UK Broadband Maps

16th Mar 2016 (45 Comments)

The on-going cross party Culture, Media and Sport Committee inquiry into UK digital infrastructure produced another interesting evidence session yesterday after BT and sibling Openreach were both grilled over the country’s broadband quality, 1,000 missed appointments per week and USO plans etc.

Salford UK Council Deploy FTTP Ultrafast Broadband to Housing Blocks

16th Mar 2016 (0 Comments)

Thousands of residents in Salford (Greater Manchester, England) look set to benefit after fibre optic ISP Hyperoptic announced that the local council had become the first in the UK to roll-out their 1Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network across its housing portfolio.

Virgin Media UK Kills Online Cloud, Webspace and SmartCall Services

16th Mar 2016 (1 Comment)

In a surprise move cable operator Virgin Media has announced that they’re culling their online Cloud storage, Webspace and SmartCall services from 28th April 2016. The loss of Virgin’s Cloud and SmartCall will come as a particular shock since they’ve only been available for the past 2-3 years.