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

ISP News Archives for March 2020

COVID-19 – Wireless UK ISP Airband Upgrade Old Networks to Unlimited UPDATE

23rd Mar 2020 (0 Comments)

At present only those who subscribe to Airband’s most recently built Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) broadband networks can benefit from their unlimited usage packages. But now those on some of their smaller and older rural infrastructure projects may also be able to benefit, thanks to a new pilot project.

Virgin Media UK Add 2,300 Premises in Bury to FTTP Broadband

23rd Mar 2020 (4 Comments)

Cable and full fibre ISP Virgin Media UK has today confirmed that they’ve just completed another network expansion of their 1Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband and TV network to cover 2,300 extra homes and businesses in the Greater Manchester town of Bury.

FibreNation to Begin 1Gbps FTTH Broadband Rollout in Bolton

23rd Mar 2020 (4 Comments)

The FibreNation project, which is currently being acquired by Cityfibre from UK ISP TalkTalk for £200m (here), has today confirmed that 100,000+ homes and businesses across the Greater Manchester town of Bolton will be the next to benefit from their roll-out of a new 1Gbps Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) broadband network.

OneWeb Future Uncertain as 34 LEO Broadband Satellites Lofted

23rd Mar 2020 (2 Comments)

British space firm OneWeb successfully launched 34 new compact Low Earth Orbit (LEO) ultrafast broadband satellites into orbit on the back of a ‘Soyuz-2-1b Fregat-M’ rocket on Saturday (active total of 74), but despite this progress the company has been sacking staff and is reportedly considering filing for bankruptcy protection.

ISP BT Prices New UK Gigabit and Full Fibre Broadband Plans

22nd Mar 2020 (193 Comments)

BT has today quietly revealed how much they’ll charge new customers who pick a package from their refreshed range of “Full Fibre” (FTTP) ultrafast broadband plans, which includes a “gigabit” class top tier that offers average download speeds of 900Mbps+ (uploads of 73Mbps). The good news is that they’re surprisingly cheap.

COVID-19 – Disney+ to Reduce Video Streaming Quality by 25%

22nd Mar 2020 (15 Comments)

The new Disney+ streaming service, which is due to launch on Tuesday 24th March 2020 next week, has perhaps unsurprisingly become the latest online video platform to confirm they will reduce their bitrates (image quality) in order to help UK and EU broadband ISPs cope with demand during the Coronavirus outbreak.

Bigger Allowances – EE UK Launch New 4G PAYG Mobile Packs

20th Mar 2020 (10 Comments)

Mobile operator EE UK (BT) has once again refreshed their range of Pay-As-You-Go packs, which they say come with “more data than ever before” (i.e. data / broadband allowances up to 60GB) and each one will receive the operator’s “superfast 4G speeds.”

COVID-19 – Amazon Agrees to Reduce Video Streaming Quality

20th Mar 2020 (17 Comments)

The latest to join Netflix (here) and YouTube (here) in reducing the bitrate of their streams – so as to help broadband ISPs deal with rising levels of network demand – is Amazon (Prime Video), which claims to be applying a similar measure “where needed,” such as when requested by internet providers and local authorities.

COVID-19 – East Yorkshire ISP KCOM Softens Data Allowances

20th Mar 2020 (1 Comment)

Hull-based UK ISP KCOM, which is currently investing £100m to extend their “full fibre” network across new parts of East Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire (here and here), has announced that – due to COVID-19 (Coronavirus) – they will be making changes for those customers still on data capped packages.

Virgin Media UK Release New Movies from Universal, Online

20th Mar 2020 (0 Comments)

Broadband ISP Virgin Media has joined Sky (Sky Broadband, Sky TV) in reaching a new agreement with Universal Pictures, which means that NBCUniversal titles that are currently in theatrical release will also be available on-demand to customers via Virgin’s Store from today.

COVID-19 – YouTube Cuts Video Stream Quality to Standard Def

20th Mar 2020 (9 Comments)

Internet video streaming giant YouTube has today announced that it will follow Netflix (here) by reducing the quality of their streams across the EU in order to help broadband ISPs deal with rising levels of network use. But unlike Netflix they’ve “temporarily” switched “all traffic in the EU to standard definition by default.”

COVID-19 – ISP BT (EE) UK Offers Extra Support to Customers

20th Mar 2020 (4 Comments)

BT (EE) has today become the latest broadband ISP and mobile operator to offer some free extras and support to their customers, which among other things includes changes to help the most vulnerable and ensuring that all of their users can access “unlimited” home broadband (no data caps).

COVID-19 – UK ISPs Being Urged to Offer Free Broadband

20th Mar 2020 (11 Comments)

The Government is understood to be in “very early talks” with UK internet access providers over how they could better support people during the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) crisis, which has resulted in many people and families needing to work from and stay at home. One option could be to offer free broadband.

Netflix Lowers Video Quality to Aid Broadband ISP Congestion

19th Mar 2020 (43 Comments)

In a somewhat unusual development Netflix, the global internet video streaming giant, has responded to some concerns about broadband congestion in other European countries by agreeing with the EU to lower the quality (bitrate) of its videos for the next 30 days (i.e. easing the strain on fixed line ISPs and mobile operators).

COVID-19 – Everyone on Jersey to Get 1Gbps Broadband Speed

19th Mar 2020 (4 Comments)

The Government of Jersey (English Channel Island) and Digital Jersey, an economic development agency and industry association, has reached an agreement with local telecoms operators (JT, Sure and Homenet) that will see all “full fibre” broadband lines on the island being speed boosted to symmetrical 1Gbps “at no extra cost.”

10Mbps UK Broadband Universal Service Obligation to Go Live UPDATE3

19th Mar 2020 (98 Comments)

The UK Government’s new legally-binding Universal Service Obligation (USO) for broadband – supplied by ISPs BT and KCOM – will tomorrow go live. The aim is to ensure that anybody living in a digitally disadvantaged area can request a “minimum” download speed of at least 10Mbps (1Mbps upload), but there are caveats.

Virgin Media Confirm 1Gbps Broadband Live in West Midlands

19th Mar 2020 (5 Comments)

Cable and full fibre ISP Virgin Media UK has today officially confirmed that their new 1Gbps+ (52Mbps upload) broadband network upgrade – via the roll-out of DOCSIS 3.1 technology – has finally gone live for more than 1 million homes across Birmingham, Coventry and surrounding areas in the West Midlands (England).