Home » UK ISP News Archive » Monthly Archives: March 2020 (124 Posts Found)

ISP News Archives for March 2020

EE UK Wins Best Mobile Operator for Scotland in H2 2020

31st Mar 2020 (6 Comments)

RootMetrics appears to have invented a time machine, which has today enabled them to publish the results from over 94,000 scientific tests of mobile network and mobile broadband performance conducted across Scotland during “the first half of 2020” (but.. it’s March). Once again EE (BT) comes top, while Three UK sits at the bottom.

Virgin Media UK Gives Away 7 Kids Pay TV Channels for Free

31st Mar 2020 (0 Comments)

Customers of broadband ISP Virgin Media, specifically those who also take one of their Pay TV packages, can now get access to seven of its “most popular” children’s channels, at no extra cost, to help keep them distracted during the current COVID-19 (Coronavirus) lockdown. Access to these will remain free until 21st April 2020.

Full Fibre ISP Telcom Acquires Infrastructure Services Firm SDH

31st Mar 2020 (0 Comments)

Manchester-based UK ISP Telcom, which has active plans to roll-out a gigabit-capable “full fibre” and broadband network to cover various homes and businesses across the North West of England and Midlands, has acquired the Yorkshire-based infrastructure firm SDH Project Services for an undisclosed sum.

COVID-19 – UK Smartphone Users Spend More Time on WiFi

31st Mar 2020 (8 Comments)

The latest data from Opensignal, which conducts crowd-sourced testing of 3G, 4G and 5G Mobile networks, has perhaps unsurprisingly revealed that the current Coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis is causing more Smartphone users to go online via WiFi from home broadband instead of mobile data.

BT Reopens 10 Year Old Case – Demands HMRC Repay Millions

30th Mar 2020 (4 Comments)

Broadband ISP and media giant BT appears to have successfully lifted a stay against a decade old restitution suit in the UK High Court for Value Added Tax (VAT) refunds, which originally claimed that HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) owed them £91.8 million plus interest in overpaid tax.

Government Considers COVID-19 Tracking of UK Mobile Phones

30th Mar 2020 (17 Comments)

The UK Government appears to be considering an idea that could see them attempt to monitor the spread of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) by working with mobile network operators (e.g. Three UK, Vodafone, BT (EE) and O2) to track the location data of handsets (Smartphones etc.), but it’ll only be able to use “properly anonymised” data.

COVID-19 – A Look at UK Internet Traffic Across March 2020

30th Mar 2020 (3 Comments)

Last week represented the first full week of the national Coronavirus (COVID-19) lockdown since schools closed. Due to this we thought it might be a good idea to take another a quick look back at UK internet traffic from broadband ISPs and mobile operators over the past month. Suffice to say that last week was the busiest so far.

COVID-19 – Virgin Media Engineers Say Home Installs Risk Lives

30th Mar 2020 (44 Comments)

Some of Virgin Media’s UK broadband ISP and TV engineers have accused the operator of putting “lives in danger” by continuing to do new in-home installations, during the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) crisis, for people who previously had a working service from another provider (they argue such work is unnecessary in this climate).

LEO Satellite Broadband Firm OneWeb Files for Bankruptcy

29th Mar 2020 (8 Comments)

The British-registered space company OneWeb, which had been in the process of launching a mega constellation of compact Low Earth Orbit (LEO) ultrafast broadband satellites, has officially filed for voluntary relief under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code in the USA. But finding a buyer in this climate may present some challenges.

Mobile Firms and UK ISPs Commit to Protect Vulnerable Users

29th Mar 2020 (0 Comments)

Most of the major UK broadband ISPs and mobile network operators have today agreed a set of “important commitments” with Ofcom and Government (DCMS) help to support and protect “vulnerable consumers,” as well as those who may become vulnerable due to circumstances arising from COVID-19 (Coronavirus).

Impact of COVID-19 on the UK Full Fibre Broadband Rollout

28th Mar 2020 (8 Comments)

The rapid spread of COVID-19 (Coronavirus) has had a significant impact upon the United Kingdom and we thought it might be useful to take a quick look at how it’s impacting the national roll-out of Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP networks, as well as to try and answer a few common questions.

COVID-19 – Snapshot of Internet Traffic from EE and Virgin Media

27th Mar 2020 (27 Comments)

Broadband and mobile providers EE (BT) and Virgin Media UK have today posted some interesting snapshots to help illustrate how the current spread of COVID-19 (Coronavirus) is impacting the way their customers make use of internet connectivity, which among other things show a big surge during the Prime Minister’s daily briefings.

O2 UK Consortium Secures Big West Midlands 5G Project Contract

27th Mar 2020 (7 Comments)

West Midlands 5G, which is one of the groups responsible for helping to deliver the UK’s first government-backed 5G testbed, has awarded a major contract to a consortium led by O2. Under this deal the mobile operator will build 5G accelerators that could benefit up to 2,000 businesses in Birmingham, Wolverhampton and Coventry.

500,000 Vodafone UK Customers to Get Free Unlimited Data UPDATE

27th Mar 2020 (4 Comments)

Mobile operator Vodafone UK has announced that they’re giving 500,000 of their Pay Monthly customers, plus NHS staff, 30-days free access to unlimited mobile data (mobile broadband). On top of that those flagged as being “vulnerable” can expected to be “proactively” upgraded to benefit.

Major UK ISPs Pause Orders for Ultrafast Broadband Services

27th Mar 2020 (4 Comments)

Openreach’s decision to significantly limit their engineering work this week (here) has naturally caused somewhat of a cascade effect among UK ISPs. As a result providers, such as BT and Sky Broadband, have paused new orders for ultrafast broadband services and limited other activity.

Cityfibre Finish FibreNation Buy – Target 8 Million FTTP Homes

27th Mar 2020 (6 Comments)

Cityfibre have this morning confirmed that they’ve completed their £200m purchase of FibreNation from UK ISP TalkTalk, which increases the operator’s roll-out ambition for 1Gbps Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) broadband technology from 5 million to nearly 8 million premises, supported by an investment project of up to £4bn.

Juice Broadband Gives Unlimited FREE UK Calls to Customers

27th Mar 2020 (0 Comments)

Poole-based ISP Juice Broadband, which offers a mix of “full fibre” (FTTP) and wireless internet access services to homes and businesses around southern Dorset, has responded to the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) situation by giving all of their existing residential customers “unlimited” free UK landline and mobile calls.