Home » UK ISP News Archive » Monthly Archives: December 2016 (90 Posts Found)

ISP News Archives for December 2016

Concern as UK Government Ponders ISP Block of Twitter and Social Media

15th Dec 2016 (10 Comments)

A recent debate in the House of Lords on the forthcoming Digital Economy Bill has raised significant concern that the Government may be trying to censor social media websites (Twitter etc.), unless they adopt Age Verification. Otherwise ISPs might be forced to block them.

Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox to Gobble Sky in £11.7bn Takeover Deal

15th Dec 2016 (2 Comments)

Second time lucky. Customers of Sky (Sky Broadband) may have mixed feelings when they read today’s news, which confirms that Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox has agreed to gobble Sky by paying £11.7bn to acquire a 61% stake in the company (Fox already owns 39%).

Hampshire UK Targets 97.4% Superfast Broadband Coverage by 2019

15th Dec 2016 (7 Comments)

The Hampshire Superfast Broadband project in England, which recently worked with Openreach (BT) to expand “superfast broadband” (24Mbps+) coverage to 90% of the county (59,500 extra premises), has given the green light to a £7.8m extension that will bring the availability to 97.4% by 2019.

UK ISP BT Warns Email Using Customers After 2nd Massive Yahoo! Hack

15th Dec 2016 (14 Comments)

A staggering 1 billion accounts belonging to Internet giant Yahoo! have been breached by a second major hack, albeit one that occurred in August 2013. Today BT Retail and other broadband ISPs that have used the firm for their email (e.g. Sky Broadband) are warning customers to change their passwords.

Plymouth Science Park Upgrades 120 Businesses to 100Mbps Broadband

15th Dec 2016 (0 Comments)

Over 120 businesses on the 25 acre Plymouth Science Park campus in Devon (England) look set to benefit when the existing fibre optic based ParkNet infrastructure is upgraded to support “UltraFast” broadband speeds of ‘up to’ 100Mbps.

Surrey UK Set to Push Beyond 96% Superfast Broadband Coverage

14th Dec 2016 (6 Comments)

Surrey is special because it’s one of the few counties in England to have already delivered over 96% coverage of “superfast broadband” (24Mbps+) and as a result they were able to skip the Government’s second Broadband Delivery UK phase. But the council has this week agreed to go even further.

UK ISP BT Improves ‘Basic’ Social Phone Tariff for Low Income Users

14th Dec 2016 (6 Comments)

The consumer (retail) division of BT has confirmed that their subsidised BT Basic social tariff, which is a low-cost phone service for those on low-incomes or certain state benefits, has been improved with the addition of a £10 calls cap.

Global Average Internet Speeds Top 6.3Mbps as UK Falls to 14.9Mbps

14th Dec 2016 (6 Comments)

Akamai‘s latest Q3-2016 State of the Internet study finds that the average fixed line broadband download speed in the United Kingdom has fallen slightly from 15Mbps in Q2 to 14.9Mbps in Q3, which compares with a global speed of 6.3Mbps (up 2.3% from Q2). But the UK’s country ranking held at 20th.

UPDATE Modern NETGEAR Routers Hit by Command Injection Vulnerability

14th Dec 2016 (1 Comment)

Do you own a modern NETGEAR broadband router (i.e. R6200, R6400, R6700, R7000, R7100LG, R7300, R7900 and R8000)? If so then we’ve got bad news because a major security flaw, which was first identified and notified to the manufacturer in August 2016, still hasn’t been completely fixed.

Haitong Research Warns Openreach “cannot be legally separated” from BT

14th Dec 2016 (30 Comments)

At the end of last month Ofcom confirmed that they’d force Openreach into “legal separation” from the BT Group (here), which they view as necessary to improve competition / fairness in the UK telecoms and broadband market. But a Haitong Research study warns that Pensions remain a roadblock.

NIC Calls for More Action on 5G and Criticises UK 4G Mobile Coverage

14th Dec 2016 (7 Comments)

The Government’s National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) has today warned that Mobile Broadband and Mobile Voice connectivity in the United Kingdom is “languishing in the digital slow lane” and that there are still “too many digital deserts and partial not spots” with 4G coverage.

DEBill – Land Owners Demand More Details on 10Mbps Broadband USO

13th Dec 2016 (4 Comments)

The Country Land and Business Association, which represents rural land owners and businesses from across England and Wales, has called on the Government to “set out clear plans” for how the new legally-binding 10Mbps Universal Service Obligation (USO) will work in practice.

WarwickNet Bring 100Mbps Broadband to 80 Birmingham Businesses

13th Dec 2016 (0 Comments)

Some 80 businesses at the Kings Norton Business Centre in Birmingham can now access “high-speed” broadband connectivity of up to 100Mbps (FTTC and FTTP), as well as dedicated 1Gbps leased lines, thanks to WarwickNet’s new network.

UPDATE Teenage TalkTalk ISP Hacker Given Rehabilitation Order by Court

13th Dec 2016 (13 Comments)

A little too lenient? The Norwich Youth Court has today handed down a Rehabilitation Order to a 17-year-old boy after he admitted to seven charges under the Computer Misuse Act 1990, two of which are in connection with last year’s cyber-attack on TalkTalk. They also took his iPhone away.

UPDATE13 Customers of Broadband ISP Fast.co.uk and 186k Face Shock Cut-off

13th Dec 2016 (185 Comments)

Sources have informed ISPreview.co.uk that customers of broadband ISP Fast.co.uk, sibling Firenet and supplier 186k are facing a nasty Christmas SHOCK after the provider, which until recently had been quite stable, suddenly announced that they were “unable to continue” the service.

UK ISP Internet for Business Pumps £1m into Ultra-High Speed Connectivity

13th Dec 2016 (0 Comments)

Aberdeen-based broadband and telecoms provider Internet for Business (IFB) has today announced that it will invest an extra £1 million to upgrade the capacity of its UK network, which will help the ISP to support their current and future “fibre and ultra-high speed connectivity” (e.g. FTTP) products.

Vodafone UK Adds Data Rollover to 4G PAYG Mobile Plans

13th Dec 2016 (1 Comment)

A number of mobile operators have recently started offering data rollovers on their plans (e.g. Sky Mobile) and today Vodafone has decided to adopt a similar approach with their 4G Pay-as-you-go (PAYG) based Big Value Bundles.