Home » UK ISP News Archive » Monthly Archives: May 2017 (88 Posts Found)

ISP News Archives for May 2017

2017 Conservative Party Manifesto is Short on Surprises for Broadband

18th May 2017 (11 Comments)

The Conservative Party has today joined Labour (here) and the Liberal Democrats (here) by publishing their own Manifesto for the 2017 UK General Election, although anybody looking for PM Theresa May to surprise us with a set of bold new pledges for broadband and mobile will be disappointed.

ICO Fines UK Business ISP Onecom £100,000 for 3.3 Million SPAM Texts

18th May 2017 (0 Comments)

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has hit Hampshire-based business broadband ISP Onecom with a fine of £100,000 after they “broke the law” by sending millions of SPAM texts about mobile phone upgrades, which triggered 1,050 complaints from the public.

UK ISP TalkTalk Preps “Britain’s best value unlimited fibre” Broadband Deal

18th May 2017 (1 Comment)

In an effort to retake the budget crown TalkTalk has claimed that they will tomorrow launch “Britain’s best value unlimited fibre” package, which offers broadband speeds of up to 38Mbps (FTTC / VDSL2) for just £25 per month on a 24 month contract term.

UPD Sky, TalkTalk and Vodafone Moan of £140m Delay to Cheaper Broadband

18th May 2017 (56 Comments)

Broadband providers Vodafone, TalkTalk and Sky Broadband have complained that Ofcom’s delay to the introduction of their recently proposed wholesale price reduction on Openreach’s (BT) 40Mbps (10Mbps upload) Fibre-to-the-Cabinet (FTTC / VDSL2) service could cost consumers £140 million.

UK Liberal Democrats Pledge 30Mbps+ for All by 2022 and 2Gbps+ FTTP

17th May 2017 (18 Comments)

Yesterday it was the Labour Party (here) and today it’s the turn of the Liberal Democrats to publish their manifesto for the 2017 General Election, which aims to “ensure that every property in the UK” is provided with an unlimited 30Mbps (6Mbps upload) service by 2022 (plus 2Gbps FTTP?).

BT Openreach Say LR-VDSL Could Push “Fibre Broadband” to 99% of the UK

17th May 2017 (19 Comments)

Openreach (BT) has issued an update on their existing plan to run a “commercial pilot” of Long Reach VDSL (FTTC) broadband technology, which involves around 120 premises across 6 rural locations. The operator claims that if deployed LR-VDSL could bring “fibre” to 99% of the UK by 2020.

UPDATE2 Peak Time Latency Spikes Return to Haunt Virgin Media’s Broadband

17th May 2017 (23 Comments)

Customers of broadband cable operator Virgin Media are once again reporting a spike in latency during peak times (typically starting at before 7pm and running until around 11pm), which can cause disruption for latency dependent software / services like fast paced online video games and voice/video calls etc.

ISP TalkTalk Business Cuts UK Broadband and FTTC “Fibre” Prices

17th May 2017 (0 Comments)

New customer of TalkTalk Business may be interested to know that the ISP has cut the price of their ADSL2+ and FTTC based broadband and phone line rental packages until 30th June 2017, with the discounts lasting for the first 12 months of service.

880 New Tornagrain Homes in Scotland Get GTC’s 300Mbps FTTH Broadband

16th May 2017 (1 Comment)

Utility infrastructure builder GTC (Brookfield Utilities UK / IFNL) has announced that the initial phase of 880 new homes being constructed in Tornagrain, which is the Highlands newest town near Inverness (Scotland), will benefit from their 300Mbps Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH/P) broadband network.

SSE Telecoms to Unbundle 40 BT Exchanges and Use Openreach Dark Fibre

16th May 2017 (3 Comments)

The enterprise division of SSE Telecoms has announced that their on-going ‘Project Edge‘ fibre optic network expansion in the United Kingdom will soon unbundle another 40 BT Exchanges in “prime business areas” and leverage Openreach’s new Dark Fibre Access (DFA) service.

Final UK Labour Party Manifesto Hints at 300Mbps Broadband for All

16th May 2017 (12 Comments)

The UK Labour Party has today published the final version of their Manifesto for the General Election, which is broadly similar to last week’s leak but includes a few changes. One of those tweaks is an aspiration (not target) to roll-out 300Mbps broadband “across the UK within the next decade” (i.e. by 2027/28).

UK ISP BT Business Cuts the Cost of 76Mbps Infinity Broadband Packages

16th May 2017 (2 Comments)

Telecoms provider BT Business has slashed the price of their FTTC based “Infinity” broadband packages for new business customers, which all offer unlimited usage and download speeds of up to 76Mbps (19Mbps upload) on a 24 month contract term.

Nominet Expands TV White Space Wireless Broadband Trial to Wales UK

16th May 2017 (6 Comments)

The UK Internet domain registry, Nominet, has announced that their pilot of “White Space” wireless broadband technology, which utilises the gaps in radio spectrum that exist between Digital Terrestrial TV channels (470-790MHz), is now being extended into Monmouthshire (Wales).

Vodafone UK Grows to 216000 Fixed Broadband and 9.5 Million 4G Customers

16th May 2017 (3 Comments)

Telecoms operator Vodafone UK has today published their Q1 2017 (calendar) results, which saw their fixed line broadband base grow by +33,000 customers in the quarter to total 216,000 (up from +16k in Q4 2016). Meanwhile 4G coverage now stands at 96% (98% by Ofcom’s definition).

BT Wholesale’s UK Broadband Checker Adds Status for Bridge Taps

16th May 2017 (7 Comments)

The BT Wholesale Broadband Checker has recently added a new row to its output that appears to very generally reflect the status of a wiring issue known as a ‘Bridge Tap‘, which so far as we can tell only shows when testing with a specific telephone number (not address or postcode checks).

2017 EU Broadband Progress Report Puts UK Bottom for “Full Fibre” Cover

15th May 2017 (8 Comments)

The European Commission has published their annual 2017 European Digital Progress Report, which confirms that Ireland, the United Kingdom, Belgium and Greece all lag behind the rest of the 28 EU member countries when it comes to ultrafast “full fibre” (FTTH/P/B) broadband coverage.

Clearer Broadband Speeds in Ads? Entanet Criticises Proposed Improvements

15th May 2017 (1 Comment)

ISP Entanet has warned that none of the recently published proposals for improving how broadband speeds are advertised in the United Kingdom are perfect. Instead they propose that it might be “better to avoid the advertising of speed completely,” although that too has drawbacks.