Home » UK ISP News Archive » Monthly Archives: July 2026 (172 Posts Found)

ISP News Archives for July 2026

Virgin Media O2 Engineer Stephen Parsonage

Virgin Media O2 Engineer Saves UK Customer Suffering a Stroke

31st Jul 2026 (8 Comments)

A special mention today goes out to one of Virgin Media’s (O2) broadband engineers, Stephen Parsonage, who was in the process of installing new services for one of their customers in Leeds when, during a conversation, the customer began showing signs of suffering a stroke.

ISP EE UK Launch 2.3Gbps and 8Gbps Broadband and Confirm Prices UPDATE

31st Jul 2026 (61 Comments)

Mobile and internet provider EE (BT) has today confirmed our earlier leak (here) by officially launching their Advanced Full Fibre Broadband packages, offering downloading speeds of 2.3Gbps and 8Gbps to new UK customers. But availability remains limited to the Guildford, Woking and surrounding areas, although this is due to “expand further in the near future“.

Phone handset hanging from cord - 123RF - 26684886.webp

Openreach Warn 1.5 million UK Analogue Phone Lines Yet to Make Digital Switch

31st Jul 2026 (33 Comments)

The latest update from network access provider Openreach (BT) has today warned that homes and businesses only have 6 months left before the old Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) is permanently retired on 31st January 2027. As it stands, some 1.5 million UK lines (down from 1.9m in June 2026) are still operating on legacy copper, including roughly 350,000 business premises (the latter group faces disconnection).

network cables closeup with fiber optical background 123rf

Study Claims 1 Mill Rural UK FTTP Premises At Risk of Openreach’s “uneconomic overbuild”

31st Jul 2026 (20 Comments)

Consulting firm Cartesian has released a new report on the state of the UK’s fibre full broadband market, which unsurprisingly highlights how challenging it is for alternative networks (altnet) to create sustainable business models. The study also claims that c.1 million rural FTTP premises could see uneconomic overbuild if Openreach is required to meet a high exchange coverage threshold for copper switchover.

EE, BT and Plusnet to Reintroduce UK Home Broadband Activation Fees

31st Jul 2026 (35 Comments)

New customers looking to take a home broadband package from one of BT Group’s retail ISPs, including EE and Plusnet, will from today find that they’ll also need to start paying for a one-off broadband activation fee again. The providers haven’t charged an activation fee for the past few years, partly to help boost take-up (a common practice).

Openreach Propose to Expand UK Area Covered by FTTP Broadband Discounts UPDATE

30th Jul 2026 (3 Comments)

Network access provider Openreach (BT) has today notified UK broadband ISPs that they intend to expand the Equinox Offer Area, which reflects their long-term wholesale pricing discount scheme for helping move customers from slower copper to faster full fibre (FTTP) lines.

Cityfibre Purle Optical Fibre Cable and Engineer

CityFibre Shareholders Aim to Raise £900m to Boost UK FTTP Broadband Consolidation

30th Jul 2026 (13 Comments)

The largest alternative full fibre broadband network in the United Kingdom, CityFibre, which has already built their fibre lines to cover 4.7 million UK premises (with 1m customers connected), is reportedly working with shareholders to raise around £900m to boost their future network expansion and consolidation strategy.

Sky UK TV Customers Finally Get Hayu as Part of their TV Subscription

30th Jul 2026 (6 Comments)

Sky (Sky Broadband etc.) has confirmed that access to Hayu is now included with Sky Ultimate TV, Sky Signature, Sky Entertainment and Sky+ Original, Variety and Family packs (i.e. no need for a separate subscription or standalone app). The move follows Sky’s Feb 2026 news (here), which revealed their plans for combining Netflix, Disney+, HBO Max and Hayu into a single sub.

AST Space Mobile Satellites Over UK and Europe with Vodafone

Vodafone UK Says Space 5G Mobile Service Still on Track for Early 2027 Beta

30th Jul 2026 (3 Comments)

The CEO of Vodafone Group, Margherita Della Valle, has stated that their joint plan with AST SpaceMobile (aka – Satellite Connect Europe) to launch a space-based 4G and 5G mobile (mobile broadband) service to connect regular Smartphones is still expected to enter its “beta” testing phase “at the beginning of 2027“. Despite suffering an earlier launch failure.

Virgin-Media-O2-2025-Engineers-dressed-like-an-airforce

Virgin Media O2 Ponders UK Cost Cutting to Tackle £22bn Debt Mountain

30th Jul 2026 (39 Comments)

Multiple news reports appear to be indicating that the owners of UK broadband, mobile and TV provider Virgin Media (O2), Telefónica and Liberty Global, may need to execute a significant round of cost-cutting (e.g. job cuts, reducing capital expenditure and cutting dividends etc.) in order to get the company’s £22bn debt mountain under control.

Fenton Street Lancaster Derelict Telephone House Building

Vodafone UK Aim to Improve Mobile Signals in Lancaster After Vandal Attacks

30th Jul 2026 (4 Comments)

Repeated attacks of vandalism by gangs of youths recently caused Vodafone (VodafoneThree) to remove a key mobile mast site in central Lancaster (Lancashire, England), which was shared with mobile operator O2 (Virgin Media). The situation resulted in significant 4G and 5G (mobile broadband) coverage problems for users in the area, but a temporary solution is now imminent.

Broadband ISP Virgin Media UK Boost Contract Buyout to £300 for Switching

30th Jul 2026 (8 Comments)

New customers looking to switch to broadband, phone and TV provider Virgin Media (O2) may like to know that they’ll today increase the value of their Contract Buyout (i.e. Switching Credits), which is now worth up to £300 (previously £250) on their top packages – at least for a limited time.

Point Topic Shows Why Ofcom Want to Block Openreach’s UK Broadband Discount

29th Jul 2026 (5 Comments)

Telecoms analyst firm Point Topic has published research that helps to explain why Ofcom has proposed to block one of Openreach’s new discounts on their full fibre (FTTP) broadband products (here). This might have otherwise given ISPs and new customers to their network a £35 connection rebate and a £9.50 monthly rental rebate (for 18, 24 or 30 months depending on performance).

Wessex-Internet-break-ground-in-South-Wiltshire-PR-110924

Wessex Internet Tweak Dorset and Somerset UK Project Gigabit Broadband Contract

29th Jul 2026 (0 Comments)

The Government’s Building Digital UK (BDUK) agency has posted another contract modification notice for Wessex Internet’s Project Gigabit contract in Dorset and South Somerset (Lot 14.02), which slightly reduced the planned roll-out of full fibre broadband (FTTP) by 1,047 premises and shrinks its value by £702,296 (public subsidy).

openreach-engineers-on-a-rural-countryside-lane

BDUK Update Figures for Openreach’s Project Gigabit Broadband Contracts

29th Jul 2026 (4 Comments)

The Government’s Building Digital UK (BDUK) agency has updated the latest contract values and contracted premises figures for their Project Gigabit broadband roll-out contracts with Openreach (BT), which takes account of recent changes to show that all of the contracts combined are now worth £850m and will bring FTTP to around 358,000 premises.

CityFibre 2025 Female Engineer next to Van

CityFibre Pick Netceed to Handle Inventory Management for UK Fibre Network

29th Jul 2026 (0 Comments)

Alternative full fibre broadband operator CityFibre, which has already deployed their 8.5Gbps speed capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network to cover 4.7 million UK premises (4.5m Ready for Service), has chosen global infrastructure supply chain solutions provider Netceed to handle their strategic inventory management going forward.

FTTH Council Europe Renames Itself to Fibre Council Europe

29th Jul 2026 (3 Comments)

The FTTH Council Europe, which has traditionally represented full fibre (FTTP/H/B) broadband network operators and related suppliers across the UK and Europe, has today announced that they’ve rebranded themselves to the ‘Fibre Council Europe’ in order reflect the organisation’s expanded role.