Home » UK ISP News Archive » Monthly Archives: January 2026 (136 Posts Found)

ISP News Archives for January 2026

Broadband Satellite ISP Starlink Prep Free Stargaze Data to Avoid Space Collisions

31st Jan 2026 (5 Comments)

The Starlink service from SpaceX, which operates a mega constellation using thousands of ultrafast broadband internet satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) for the UK and globally, has revealed that they’re about to start making data from their Space Situational Awareness (SSA) system, called Stargaze, available for free to other satellite operators.

Gigaclear Makes Progress on Cotswolds Project Gigabit Broadband Build

30th Jan 2026 (5 Comments)

Rural broadband ISP Gigaclear, which has so far deployed their full fibre (FTTP) network to cover 612,000 UK premises (inc. 160,000 customers), has just put their new network live in the Cotswolds village of Kemble. The deployment forms part of Project Gigabit’s £10.81m East Gloucestershire (Lot 18) contract to upgrade 3,547 premises in hard-to-reach areas.

Virgin Media and O2 Set to Merge UK Customer Communities Together

30th Jan 2026 (8 Comments)

Broadband ISP Virgin Media and mobile operator O2 are about to begin an impactful change as part of their previous merger, which will bring their once entirely separate community discussion forums together for the first time. The operators also plan to move to a “new platform” during the process as their “agreement with the current provider is ending“.

London FTTP Broadband Network CommunityFibre Reports Strong Growth

29th Jan 2026 (15 Comments)

Network operator and UK ISP CommunityFibre, which has invested c.£1bn to deploy a 5Gbps speed full fibre (FTTP) network across 1.342 million homes (inc. 185k businesses within 200 metres of their network) – mostly in London, has today announced a “record year” of annual revenue growth (up 48% to £113m) and their customer base hit 429,000 (up 26% for a take-up rate of just under 32%).

O2 UK Deploy 5G Standalone Mobile Broadband Network to 5 Towns in Dorset

29th Jan 2026 (7 Comments)

Mobile operator O2 (Virgin Media) has this morning announced that they’ve just switched-on their next-generation 5G Standalone (5GSA) mobile broadband network across five “major towns” in the county of Dorset (England). The operator’s 5GSA network is now live across a total of more than 500 UK locations (70% of the population, or c.49 million people).

EE Wins Big in Opensignal Study of Best 4G and 5G UK Mobile Networks

29th Jan 2026 (22 Comments)

Network benchmarking firm Opensignal has this morning published their first Mobile Network Experience Report for 2026, which measured the 4G and 5G (mobile broadband) services of all the primary network operators – EE, O2 and VodafoneThree (Vodafone and Three UK) – to determine which delivers the best performance. Overall, EE won most, but not all, of the categories.

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Concerns Over UK Funding Shortfall for Gigabit Broadband Raised in Parliament

29th Jan 2026 (18 Comments)

The Conservative MP for Bridgwater, Sir Ashley Fox, this week informed other Ministers that Openreach (BT) had raised “concerns that there is a shortfall in funding from the last spending review“, which he said meant there is a “risk that the Government do not meet their 99% gigabit-coverage target by 2032“.

CalMac Ferry Passengers in Scotland to Get Faster Onboard Broadband

28th Jan 2026 (1 Comment)

People travelling on CalMac‘s (Caledonian MacBrayne) ferries, which serve the Islands and Peninsulas on Scotland’s west coast, look set to benefit from faster onboard WiFi internet connectivity after Clarus Networks secured a major 12-month contract to provide Starlink (LEO satellite) connectivity to the UK’s largest ferry operator.

Old UK BT and EE Pay TV Boxes Set to Lose Support for Netflix Streaming App

28th Jan 2026 (3 Comments)

Broadband and phone provider BT (inc. EE) has revealed that customers still using some of their older pay TV set-top-boxes, including both the TV Recordable Box (G4) and TV Box (Z4), will lose support for the popular Netflix video streaming app after 4th March 2026. The change is happening because of changes by the streaming giant, which will break compatibility with older hardware.

Highland Community Broadband Video Screenshot

Wireless ISP Highland Community Broadband Set to Close in April 2026

28th Jan 2026 (0 Comments)

Fixed wireless access ISP Highland Community Broadband (HCB) in Scotland, which has served the remote rural Ullapool area of the Scottish Highlands since 2017 (here), has revealed that its service is to be shut down on 30th April 2026 due to “increasing financial difficulty” with rising legal and maintenance costs.

Fibrus Name on Engineering Van below Door Mirror

Belfast ISP Barclay Communications Signs Fibrus Wholesale Broadband Deal

28th Jan 2026 (0 Comments)

Belfast-based IT and internet provider Barclay Communications, which mostly serves business customers, has reportedly reached a new wholesale partnership that will enable them to reach businesses across Northern Ireland via Fibrus’ new full fibre (FTTP) broadband network.

Broadband Operator CityFibre Puts 400 UK Staff on Redundancy Notice

28th Jan 2026 (34 Comments)

Network operator CityFibre, which have already deployed their 10Gbps capable full fibre (FTTP) broadband ISP network to cover 4.7 million UK premises (4.5m RFS), has today confirmed that over 400 roles – roughly a third of their workforce (1,400) – could be at risk of redundancy as part of their “shift [in] strategy from building to acquiring networks“.

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Gov to Streamline England’s Building Controls for Fibre Broadband and Mobile UPDATE3

28th Jan 2026 (1 Comment)

The Government appears to have responded to recent concerns over the Building Safety Regulator’s (BSR) approval processes, which are known to have been causing delays and increased costs for broadband and mobile operators trying to deploy new digital infrastructure into large buildings (MDUs etc.). But a new consultation is proposing changes that may address some of the issues.

Netomnia Engineering Van Graphic for 2025 with New Branding

Netomnia Expand FTTP Broadband to 3 Million UK Premises as Take-up Rises

28th Jan 2026 (21 Comments)

One of the UK’s largest alternative broadband networks, Netomnia (Substantial Group), has today reported their latest Q4 2025 results. The figures reveal that revenues on their full fibre (FTTP) network increased to £104m (up 168% year-on-year) and take-up reached 15% (up 28% YoY). Some 3 million premises are now covered (up by 245k in Q4 vs 241k in Q3).

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BT Backs New Apple iOS 26.3 Feature to Limit UK Location Data on Mobile

28th Jan 2026 (13 Comments)

Apple’s next major iOS software update for iPhones – v26.3 – looks set to include an interesting new feature, which aims to improve user privacy by limiting the amount of location data available to mobile network operators. The move is apparently set to be supported by EE (BT) in the United Kingdom, although no other UK operators are currently named.

Virgin Media Start Opening FTTP Upgrade Areas to Existing UK Customers

28th Jan 2026 (20 Comments)

Broadband ISP Virgin Media (O2) has confirmed to ISPreview that they’ve finally started to make their new XGS-PON powered full fibre (FTTP) network upgrade (aka – Project Mustang or Fibre Up), which is being deployed alongside their existing coaxial cable (HFC / DOCSIS 3.1) areas, available to existing customers too.

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Broadband Altnet Fibrus Surpasses 30 Percent UK Full Fibre Take-up

27th Jan 2026 (1 Comment)

Infracapital-backed alternative broadband ISP Fibrus, which is building a full fibre network across parts of Cumbria (England) and Northern Ireland, recently revealed that their Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) infrastructure had now achieved a customer take-up of 30% (up from 28% in March 2025) – we make that roughly 135,000+ subscribers.