Home » UK ISP News Archive » Monthly Archives: February 2026 (135 Posts Found)

ISP News Archives for February 2026

HBO Max Streaming Service Confirms UK Launch and Prices for 26th March 2026

9th Feb 2026 (24 Comments)

The popular American TV and Movie streaming service, HBO Max, has today confirmed that it will finally go live in the UK and Ireland on 26th March 2026. Customers of Sky TV with access to the Sky Atlantic channel will also be carrying the content (here) and so will Amazon Prime, but others will now be able to subscribe directly.

GoFibre Begin Next Phase of UK Full Fibre Broadband Rollout in Scottish Borders

9th Feb 2026 (5 Comments)

Edinburgh-based UK network operator GoFibre, which is deploying a gigabit-capable broadband (FTTP) ISP network across remote rural parts of Scotland and Northern England, has today announced that they’ve begun the next stage of their rollout in the Scottish Borders region – reaching 2,000 more premises – as part of their Project Gigabit contract.

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UK Government Project to Test ZBLAN Optical Fibre Cables Made in Spaaace

9th Feb 2026 (0 Comments)

The UK Space Agency has today awarded contracts to three companies to investigate the possibility of producing advanced materials in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), which includes one project (SkyYield) that aims to design a payload to process ZBLAN fluoride glass in microgravity (i.e. a specialist optical fibre that can transmit light with up to 100 times less signal loss than traditional silica fibre).

Netgem TV Drops UK Price of PLEIO Freely Streaming Box Back to £99

9th Feb 2026 (22 Comments)

Digital entertainment platform Netgem TV appears to have responded to British company Manhattan TV’s recent launch of Aero (here), which is a budget friendly (£69.99) 4K set-top-box that supports the new broadband-based live TV streaming service – Freely, by dropping the price of their own rival PLEIO box back from £109.89 to its original launch price of £99.

O2 UK and Ontix Enhance 4G and 5G Mobile Network Capacity in North Wales

9th Feb 2026 (0 Comments)

Mobile operator O2 (Virgin Media) and network technology provider Ontix have this morning reported that they’ve successfully deployed their first 4G and 5G Small Cells in North Wales, which have apparently gone live across Flintshire to boost data capacity (mobile broadband), including around Deeside Industrial Park.

Concern for O2 UK’s 5G Small Cells as IONX Networks Suffers Administration UPDATE

9th Feb 2026 (2 Comments)

O2’s (Virgin Media) joint deployment with IONX Networks (formerly Dense Air), which last year claimed to have become one of the first mobile operators in the UK to successfully integrate a neutral host Small Cell into their live 5G Standalone (SA) core network (here), has been cast into doubt after IONX fell into administration at the end of last year.

Wessex Internet Revise Dorset and Somerset UK Project Gigabit Broadband Rollout

7th Feb 2026 (8 Comments)

The UK Government (DSIT) appears set to revise their Project Gigabit contract with rural UK ISP Wessex Internet for Dorset and South Somerset (Lot 14.02), which originally aimed to build a full fibre (FTTP) broadband network to cover “around” 21,400 hard-to-reach premises. But the contract value has now been increased to £38.2m and fewer premises are set to be reached.

University of Leeds Team Push Free Space Terahertz Laser Data Link to 4Gbps

6th Feb 2026 (1 Comment)

A team of UK researchers working at the University of Leeds, supported by colleagues from University College London (UCL) and others, has demonstrated a wireless line-of-sight Free Space Optical (FSO) communication link pushing data speeds of 4Gbps (Gigabits per second) using Terahertz (THz) frequencies; something that has previously been extremely difficult to harness.

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Uswitch 2026 Awards Name Top UK Broadband ISP and Mobile Providers

6th Feb 2026 (7 Comments)

Comparison site Uswitch.com has named the winners of their annual 2026 Telecoms Awards, which among things saw EE scooping the win for best “National Broadband Provider of the Year“, while YouFibre won the best regional provider award for the second year in a row and VOXI scooped the win for best mobile “Network of the Year“ etc.

Openreach Warn 500K UK Business Lines Haven’t Switched Away from Legacy Phones

5th Feb 2026 (68 Comments)

National operator Openreach (BT) has today warned that “more than half a million business lines” still haven’t migrated away from the old Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) to new IP-based digital phone (VoIP etc.) alternatives, which with only 12-months to go until the service is switched-off risks firms being exposed to price hikes, as well as “failing equipment and eventual loss of service“.

Starlink UK Terminal and Broadband Router 2025

Ookla 2026 Study Finds Starlink UK Broadband Speeds Poor vs Europe

5th Feb 2026 (20 Comments)

Internet benchmarking firm Ookla, which operates the popular Speedtest.net broadband connection testing website and app, has published a new study that examines the performance of Starlink’s (SpaceX) LEO satellite broadband service across the world. Overall, performance in the UK has improved, but we continue to lag most of Europe.

Broadband ISP VISPA Informs UK Customers of Closure and Liquidation

5th Feb 2026 (6 Comments)

Long-running UK ISP VISPA, which was first launched way back in 1999, appears to have begun informing customers that they’ve “ceased trading and decided to commence liquidation proceedings“. The provider’s remaining broadband subscribers have been told they will need to “immediately” find an alternative.

New Coop Mobile MVNO Service Launches on the Channel Islands

5th Feb 2026 (0 Comments)

A new mobile virtual network operator service has just launched on the Channel Islands called Coop Mobile, which some readers might recall is partly the product of last year’s £48m deal to build a new “world-class” 5G mobile broadband network across the islands (reflecting Sure‘s acquisition rival Airtel Vodafone).

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Vodafone UK Introduce New Mobile Broadband 5G Speed Boost Add-on UPDATE

5th Feb 2026 (22 Comments)

Some of ISPreview’s readers (credits Jade and Mike) have spotted that mobile network operator Vodafone (VodafoneThree) appears to have quietly added a new ‘Speed Boost’ add-on (Extras), which promises that data usage will be “prioritised on our network giving you the fastest speeds available in busy areas like train stations, stadiums, and crowded places.”

VodafoneThree Top 1.77 Million UK Broadband Users as Mobile Shrinks to 28.6M

5th Feb 2026 (7 Comments)

Broadband and mobile operator Vodafone (VodafoneThree) has today published their latest Q3 FY26 financial results. The figures show that they now have 1.768 million fixed broadband customers (up strongly by 64k in Q3 vs 50k in Q2) and a huge combined mobile base of 28.619m (down from 28.824m).

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BT Results – Openreach Lose 210k UK Broadband Lines as FTTP Cover Hits 21.4M

5th Feb 2026 (28 Comments)

Telecoms giant BT Group just published a short trading update to the end December 2025 (Q3 FY26), which reveals that Openreach lost a total of 210,000 broadband lines to rivals over the past quarter (down from 242k in Sept 2025). But their “full fibre” (FTTP) coverage grew to 21.4 million premises (up from 20.3m) and take-up increased to 38% (up from 37.66%).

Virgin Media UK Add 3 More Rakuten FAST TV Channels to Service

4th Feb 2026 (0 Comments)

Customers of broadband provider Virgin Media (O2), specifically those who also take their Pay TV services via their TV 360 or Stream (Flex) platforms, may like to know that the ISP has today added support for three new Rakuten TV based FAST channels to their TV service “at no extra cost” – Rakuten TV Drama (Ch 462), Comedy (Ch 463) and Sci Fi (Ch 464).