ISP News Archives for September 2017

The Government has chosen a Sunday to announce that they’ve committed £10m from a new fund to launch 6 local pilots of “full fibre” (FTTP/H) broadband / Ethernet networks, which aims to “test innovative ways” of using the service to connect businesses, homes and public sector sites.

Openreach (BT) has published another round of price reductions for their Ethernet Access Direct (EAD) products, which primarily focuses upon the connection fees for their 100Mbps service and 1Gbps rental prices. The cuts should start from 1st October 2017, assuming Ofcom’s policy doesn’t change.

Openreach has been criticised for a “criminal waste of taxpayers’ money” after their state aid supported roll-out of ‘up to’ 80Mbps capable FTTC broadband technology threatened to overbuild yet another one of B4RN’s community built 1Gbps FTTH/P networks, this time in Cumbria.

Now here’s a product that we didn’t expect. UK ISP Evolving Networks has deployed its first “bonded” Fibre-to-the-Premise (FTTP) connection to a business and they claim that part of the reason for this is because the existing network service is limited to an upload speed of 30Mbps.

The digital divide between UK rural and urban areas is not a new or unfamiliar problem, although a new study from academics at Aberdeen University in Scotland has warned that the issue “will persist for the foreseeable future,” unless public policy does more to embrace alternative network providers.

Some readers have been asking whether any areas that have been upgraded with FTTC (VDSL2) via the state aid supported Broadband Delivery UK programme are going to benefit from Openreach’s (BT) commercial roll-out of ‘up to’ 330Mbps G.fast technology. The answer is yes.

The Citizens Advice agency has claimed that over 1 in 3 people who moved house during the past two years has suffered an “unexpected delay” in getting their broadband working, with some facing a delay of more than 2 weeks. The charity demands that ISPs pay compensation for such delays.