Home » UK ISP News Archive » Monthly Archives: January 2021 (105 Posts Found)

ISP News Archives for January 2021

Softbank Invests $350m in OneWeb’s LEO Satellite Broadband Network

15th Jan 2021 (6 Comments)

In an interesting development OneWeb, which is owned by a consortium of the UK Government and Indian conglomerate Bharti Global (here), has secured an investment of $350m (c.£257m) from Japanese company Softbank – the same firm that effectively forced it into bankruptcy last year by putting a stop on further funding.

Rural FTTP Community Broadband ISP B4RN Appoints New CEO

15th Jan 2021 (10 Comments)

The community focused broadband ISP B4RN (Broadband for the Rural North) has today announced that Michael Lee is being appointed to become their new CEO. Michael replaces the provider’s former founder and CEO, Barry Forde, in the role (he retired at the end of last year) and thus has some fairly big boots to fill.

Community Fibre Offer 1yr Free Broadband to Vulnerable Londoners

15th Jan 2021 (16 Comments)

London broadband ISP CommunityFibre, which is busy deploying a 3Gbps Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network to cover a good chunk of the UK’s capital city, has announced that they will provide 12 months of free “full fibre” broadband to “vulnerable households” in order to ensure children’s education doesn’t suffer.

ISP Call Flow Adopts Trooli Brand and Extends UK FTTP Rollout

15th Jan 2021 (6 Comments)

Alternative UK ISP Call Flow Solutions has decided to adopt the same branding as its sibling, Trooli, which is currently rolling out a new 1Gbps Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) based broadband service across rural parts of Kent and East Sussex in England. New regions are also being targeted for their network expansion.

EE Mobile UK Extend Free Unlimited Data Offer for NHS Again

15th Jan 2021 (18 Comments)

Mobile operator EE (BT) has announced that their offer of free unlimited data (mobile broadband) to customers who work for the National Health Service (NHS), which was due to expire on 31st January 2021, is to be extended again until June 2021 due to the on-going COVID-19 crisis.

Airband Contracted to Rollout FTTP Broadband in East Cheshire

15th Jan 2021 (6 Comments)

The Cheshire East Council in England has awarded a new publicly funded contract, worth about £4.5 million, to UK ISP Airband in order to help extend gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband to a further 4,100+ homes and businesses in some of the hardest to reach (e.g. rural) areas.

Cityfibre Adds Sunderland to UK FTTP Broadband Rollout Plan

14th Jan 2021 (7 Comments)

Cityfibre has today announced that they’ve added the coastal city of Sunderland (Tyne and Wear), which is home to around 175,000 people, to their rollout of a new 1Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) based broadband ISP network. The project will cost £62m and aims to reach “nearly every home and business.”

Wireless and Fibre ISP Voneus Appoint New CFO from Gigaclear

14th Jan 2021 (0 Comments)

Broadband ISP Voneus, which is currently working to rollout a mix of Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) and “full fibre” (FTTP) networks to premises in rural parts of the UK, has today appointed David Smyth to become its new Chief Financial Officer (CFO).

Ofcom Updates Scorecards for Comparing Mobile and Broadband ISPs

14th Jan 2021 (6 Comments)

Ofcom and the UK Regulators Network (UKRN), which includes data from CCW, FCA, Ofgem and Ofwat, have today published an updated series of scorecards that are intended to help consumers compare several key performance areas from the largest broadband, mobile, phone, energy, water and financial providers.

Survey Claims UK People are Wary of Smaller Broadband ISPs

14th Jan 2021 (13 Comments)

A new Censuswide survey of 2,000 UK people, which was commissioned by comparethemarket.com (vested interest), claims to have found that there is a “lack of competition” in the broadband ISP market (81% of UK households only take a service from the “Big Four“) and 26% fear smaller ISPs might not be as good.

EE Starts Deploying Ultrafast 5G in 13 More UK Towns and Cities

14th Jan 2021 (46 Comments)

Mobile operator EE (BT) has today confirmed that their new 5G ultrafast mobile broadband network has now started to go live in the busiest parts of a further 13 towns and cities across the United Kingdom, which includes locations such as Halifax, Leamington Spa and St Albans.

O2’s 5G Network Now Live in Over 150 UK Towns and Cities

14th Jan 2021 (22 Comments)

Mobile operator O2 UK has today announced that their new ultrafast 5G based mobile broadband network has now gone live across a total of over 150 UK towns and cities (up from 108 in October and 60 in June 2020), which includes new locations like Bournemouth, Cheltenham, Doncaster and Southampton.

Nearly 3 Months Without Broadband – Openreach’s Forgotten Pole

13th Jan 2021 (60 Comments)

We all know how annoying even a brief loss of home broadband connectivity can be, particularly during the current COVID-19 crisis, but spare a thought for poor Joseph Chesney who lives in a rural area just outside of Endon (Staffordshire Moorlands), he’s been waiting almost 3 months for Openreach to fix a broken fibre optic line.

First Projects in Wales Benefit from £10m Local Broadband Fund UPDATE

13th Jan 2021 (4 Comments)

The Welsh Government (WG) has today named the first projects to benefit from their new £10 million Local Broadband Fund (LBF), which aims to help bring “fast and reliable broadband” ISP networks (often FTTP powered) to some of the country’s most poorly served rural communities.

Study Claims UK Gov’s Digital Inclusion Strategy Missed Targets

13th Jan 2021 (0 Comments)

A Rouge Media study has found that the UK Government may have failed the targets set in their 2014 Digital Inclusion Strategy, which among other things aimed to reduce the number of people offline by 25% every 2 years (and by the end of 2020, everyone who can be digitally capable, will be). But only a 16% fall was achieved.

Australia Sets New Distance Record for 1Gbps Speed via 5G mmW UPDATE

13th Jan 2021 (2 Comments)

The nbn™ Fixed Wireless network in Australia has just set what appears to be a new “world record” after it reached a broadband speed of “close” to 1Gbps (1000Mbps) via 5G mobile technology in a millimetre-wave (mmWave) band, using about 400MHz of spectrum bandwidth, over a distance of 7.3km.

Broadband ISP Plusnet UK to Stop Taking YouView TV Orders

13th Jan 2021 (21 Comments)

Budget broadband ISP Plusnet, which is part of the BT Group, has announced that they will “no longer be taking orders” for their YouView (IPTV) powered Pay TV box and service from 19th January 2021, although some customers are already reporting difficulties in adding the service to their package.