Home » UK ISP News Archive » Monthly Archives: June 2020 (111 Posts Found)

ISP News Archives for June 2020

Openreach Finish City-Wide FTTP Broadband Cover of Salisbury

12th Jun 2020 (36 Comments)

Openreach (BT) has today announced that they’ve “fully fibred” the cathedral city of Salisbury in Wiltshire (England), which means that 22,242 premises in the area can now access their gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network and 800 premises have already upgraded; the work only took 12 months to complete.

Accident of water supply, sewage. Water fountain pours out from under the road sewer. Breakthrough sewerage system

Government May Open UK Utilities Infrastructure for Broadband

12th Jun 2020 (13 Comments)

The UK government (DCMS) will today launch a call for evidence as part of a new review of the Access to Infrastructure (ATI) Regulations 2016, which could enable “gigabit-capable” broadband operators to expand their networks by harnessing existing electricity, gas, water and sewer networks via infrastructure sharing.

ISP TalkTalk See Broadband Base Shrink to 4.22m as Fibre Grows

11th Jun 2020 (24 Comments)

UK ISP TalkTalk has today reported their latest trading update to 31st March 2020 (FY20 financial), which saw their on-net fixed broadband base decline from 4.289 million last year to 4.22m now. On the bright side their fibre (FTTC/P) base increased by 605,000 (net adds) in the year to account for 2.37m of the total.

Cityfibre Plan to Boost UK Fibre Rollout via 10,000 New Jobs

11th Jun 2020 (4 Comments)

Cityfibre has today announced a major recruitment and training drive, which over the next 3 years will see them create 10,000 jobs (engineers etc.). The move supports their £4bn investment (here) to roll-out a new 1Gbps Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP network across 8 million UK premises by around 2025.

fibre broadband is here high bt street cabinet

Openreach Extend G.INP to More ECI FTTC Broadband Lines

11th Jun 2020 (16 Comments)

Openreach’s (BT) latest trial of ReTransmission (ReTx / G.INP) technology for UK Fibre-to-the-Cabinet (FTTC / VDSL2) based broadband ISP lines on their estate of ECI street cabinets, which was recently paused by the COVID-19 crisis, is about to be extended to include in-life ECI lines as a one off exercise.

O2 Expands 5G Mobile to 60 UK Sites and LTE-M to 10,000 Sites

11th Jun 2020 (9 Comments)

Mobile operator O2 has today announced that their new ultrafast 5G based mobile broadband network is now live across parts of 60 UK towns and cities (up from 20 at the start of 2020), which puts them ahead of their target (50 places by summer). On top of that they’ve extended their roll-out of 4G based LTE-M to 10,000 sites.

UK Mobile Firms Remove Data Charges on Sites Supporting Victims of Crime

11th Jun 2020 (0 Comments)

The UK Government has today reached an agreement with Vodafone, Three UK, Tesco Mobile, Virgin Media (Virgin Mobile), O2, EE (BT), Sky Mobile and giffgaff to remove mobile data (mobile broadband) charges for customers who need to access websites that support some of the most vulnerable victims of crime.

Cityfibre Begin £32m Full Fibre Broadband Build in Portsmouth UK

10th Jun 2020 (13 Comments)

Full fibre operator Cityfibre has today announced that they’ve started work on their latest £32m project to deploy a new “gigabit-capable” Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) broadband network across the south coast city of Portsmouth (Hampshire, UK), which is being supported by UK ISP partner Vodafone (with TalkTalk to follow).

O2 and Ericsson Deal to Continue 5G Rollout Across the UK

10th Jun 2020 (10 Comments)

Mobile operator O2 UK and telecoms technology giant Ericsson have today agreed to expand their existing relationship by deploying the firm’s latest 5G Radio Access Network (RAN) hardware, software and service upgrades across the “West” of the United Kingdom. The work will include upgrades for existing 2G, 3G and 4G sites.

Swish Fibre Reveals Next 22 UK Towns for 10Gbps Broadband

10th Jun 2020 (55 Comments)

New ISP Swish Fibre, which last year began work to extend their 10Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network to cover 250,000 premises across the Home Counties (i.e. just outside London), has today unveiled a full list of 33 poorly served towns (22 new additions) where their service is due to be rolled out next.

Sky UK Charges Old 4K TV Customers £50 to Get HDR Upgrade

9th Jun 2020 (75 Comments)

Sky (Comcast / Sky Broadband) finally launched their long-awaited High Dynamic Range (HDR) TV upgrade last month (here), which was made available to those with an existing Sky Experience or Ultra HD (4K) subscription. Unfortunately those with older Sky Q set-top-boxes will now have to pay £50 to benefit.

Gigaclear Expands FTTP Rollout in Herefordshire and Gloucestershire

9th Jun 2020 (10 Comments)

Rural UK ISP Gigaclear has announced that they’ve completed a revision of their “full fibre” (FTTP) broadband roll-out contract with the Fastershire project in Gloucestershire and Herefordshire (England), which alongside their commercial commitment initially planned to cover more than 70,000 premises but will now reach 110,000.

wireless microwave radio tower (123RF - 13813875)

COVID-19 5G Conspiracy Arsonist Gets 3 Years for Burning Mast

9th Jun 2020 (0 Comments)

The Liverpool Crown Court has sentenced Michael Whitty (47) to three years in prison after he set fire to one of Vodafone UK’s 4G masts in Kirkby on 5th April 2020, which caused damage estimated to be worth up to £15,000. Whitty’s action was fuelled by a bonkers conspiracy theory that links the spread of COVID-19 to 5G.

6000 Homes in Barmulloch and Cardonald Get Virgin Media FTTP

9th Jun 2020 (6 Comments)

Broadband ISP Virgin Media UK has today confirmed that their gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network (inc. TV services) is now available to 6,000 extra homes in Barmulloch and Cardonald near Glasgow, which is on top of the additional 220,000 premises that have been reached in Scotland since 2016.

COVID-19 Saw Big Falls in 4G Mobile Speed and Rise in WiFi Use

9th Jun 2020 (6 Comments)

Opensignal, which specialises in crowd-sourced testing of 4G and 5G based mobile networks, has updated their study of the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) crisis to show how much of an impact it had on Smartphone users across the UK and the world. Suffice to say that mobile users spent a lot more time on WiFi via home broadband.

COVID-19 – 86% of UK SMEs Had to Overcome Telecoms Challenges

8th Jun 2020 (3 Comments)

A new survey of 1,000 workers at UK SMEs, which was conducted by broadband ISP Onecom (vested interest), has found that 86% of respondents had to overcome “significant telecommunications challenges” (e.g. home working) in order to maintain as close to “business as normal” as possible during the COVID-19 crisis.

Cityfibre UK Begins 1Gbps FTTH Broadband Build in Leicester UPDATE

8th Jun 2020 (20 Comments)

Cityfibre’s civil engineering teams appear to have begun their deployment of a new 1Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) based broadband ISP network in the East Midlands city of Leicester (England) this month, with locals in the Belgrave and some central areas reporting lots of duct and trenching work.