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

ISP News Archives for December 2016

Virgin Media Ponder a Budget Broadband Package – Project Prosecco

12th Dec 2016 (12 Comments)

Cable operator Virgin Media has tended to pride themselves on offering premium unlimited broadband packages with speeds of between 50Mbps and 300Mbps, but a new report suggest that they may be planning to launch a cheaper budget option (aka – “Project Prosecco“).

EU Establish New £420m Fund to Upgrade Broadband Infrastructure

12th Dec 2016 (11 Comments)

The European Commission and the European Investment Bank (EIB) have today unveiled plans for a new €500m (£420m at today’s rate) Connecting Europe Broadband Fund (CEBF), which over the next 10 years will help the EU to reach their “Gigabit Society” objectives (e.g. 100Mbps+ for all by 2025).

6200 Extra Staffordshire Premises to Get “Fibre Broadband” Under BT Deal

12th Dec 2016 (2 Comments)

The Superfast Staffordshire project in the West Midlands of England has signed a new £5.1 million deal with BTOpenreach, which will expand the local coverage of their “fibre broadband” (FTTC/P) network to an additional 6,200 homes and businesses.

ISP BT to Recruit 500 New Customer Service Staff for the UK and Ireland

12th Dec 2016 (21 Comments)

The consumer (retail) division of BT has today announced that they intend to further improve customer service quality by hiring 500 people for related roles at its business in the United Kingdom and Ireland (mostly front-line positions in customer care).

Aberdeenshire Council Prep Massive WiFi Upgrade for Local Schools

12th Dec 2016 (3 Comments)

The Aberdeenshire Council in Scotland has signed a deal with Aerohive Networks that will result in a huge upgrade of 4,000 new WiFi access points to public sector sites across the county, with a specific focus on covering 170 schools and 50 other sites (public libraries and buildings etc.).

BT Wholesale Add 18Mbps FTTC Product to UK Broadband Checker

11th Dec 2016 (35 Comments)

The BT Wholesale Checker has added a couple of new columns to reflect the availability of Openreach’s (BT) 18Mbps (2Mbps upload) capable Fibre-to-the-Cabinet (FTTC / VDSL2) based “fibre broadband” product, which is aimed at people who still use slow ADSL copper broadband lines.

UPDATE Microsoft Windows DHCP Bug Causing Internet Problems for Users

10th Dec 2016 (5 Comments)

A recent software update / patch for Microsoft Windows 8 and 10 appears to be disrupting Internet / website connectivity for some broadband ISP customers in the UK and elsewhere. The update apparently makes it so that some systems are unable to get DHCP information from routers.

UPDATE B4RN Connect 2450 Rural North England Premises to 1Gbps Broadband

10th Dec 2016 (17 Comments)

The B4RN (Broadband for the Rural North) project, which has been busy rolling out a 1000Mbps community built and funded fibre optic (FTTP/H) broadband network to rural homes in parts of Lancashire, Cumbria and Yorkshire, has now activated its 2,450th connection and they continue to expand. JFDI.

UK Business ISP Elite Gobbles Tollon Limited

9th Dec 2016 (0 Comments)

Internet, email and website hosting provider Tollon, which has been servicing customers in the United Kingdom since 1997, has been acquired by rival business ISP Elite for an undisclosed sum.

UK ISP Virgin Media Slashes Standalone Cable Broadband Prices

9th Dec 2016 (39 Comments)

Cable operator Virgin Media has sharply cut the price of their standalone (solus) 50Mbps, 100Mbps and 200Mbps ultrafast broadband packages for the first 12 months of service, which returns them to the same attractively low level that they briefly held during the Black Friday event.

WarwickNet Bring 100Mbps Broadband to Drayton Industrial Estate

8th Dec 2016 (0 Comments)

WarwickNet has announced that businesses on the Drayton Fields Industrial Estate in the market town of Daventry (Northamptonshire, England) can now access their new fibre optic based broadband network (FTTP, FTTC etc.), which offers speeds of up to 100Mbps and gigabit leased lines.

EU Clarifies Draft Fair Use Safeguards for FREE Mobile Roaming

8th Dec 2016 (0 Comments)

The European Commission has today clarified the safeguards (“fair use policy“) that will exist alongside their plan to end EU mobile roaming charges from 15th June 2017 (i.e. any call, text or data allowance used will come from your domestic plan).

ISP Zen Internet Moves into “Wireless Leased Lines” with Metronet UK

8th Dec 2016 (1 Comment)

Zen Internet has signed a new partnership deal with alternative network provider Metronet UK, which will enable them to supply “wireless leased line” based Internet connectivity services to their customers and partners.

Gradwell’s League Table of Broadband Speeds Near 92 UK Football Clubs

8th Dec 2016 (5 Comments)

Business ISP Gradwell Communications has recently published a league table of broadband download and upload speeds from around 92 Football League clubs across the United Kingdom. We’re not sure how useful this data is, but it’s certainly a good bit of fun.

BT and Huawei Team Up to Develop Future UK 5G Mobile Broadband Tech

8th Dec 2016 (4 Comments)

Telecoms operator BT (EE) and long-time partner Huawei have today joined forces on a new project to both research and develop the next generation of ultrafast (20Gbps capable) 5G based Mobile Broadband technology at the BT Labs facility in Ipswich.

Which? UK Study Finds Broadband is Essential, But 68% Suffer Problems

8th Dec 2016 (8 Comments)

A new Populus survey of 2,107 UK homes from Which? has found that 90% of people view broadband as being “essential” (just below water, food, energy supply and housing), but 68% have suffered problems with their connection in the past 12 months and three in ten get sub-10Mbps speeds.

Stress Test for UK Broadband as BBC Trial 4K HDR Streams on iPlayer

8th Dec 2016 (15 Comments)

Video streaming accounts for around 70% of all consumer Internet traffic (here) and as such any change in its landscape can have a big impact upon broadband ISPs (network capacity and speeds), particularly when a key content provider like the BBC adds 4K UltraHD content to its iPlayer service.