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Concerns Over UK Funding Shortfall for Gigabit Broadband Raised in Parliament

29th January, 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 January, 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 January, 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.

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Wireless ISP Highland Community Broadband Set to Close in April 2026

28th January, 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.

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Belfast ISP Barclay Communications Signs Fibrus Wholesale Broadband Deal

28th January, 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 January, 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 January, 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.

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

28th January, 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 January, 2026 (12 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 January, 2026 (19 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 January, 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.

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World Broadband Lines Top 1.56bn as UK Full Fibre Growth Slows in Q3 2025

27th January, 2026 (1 Comment)

New research from Point Topic has revealed that global fixed broadband lines grew by 1.46% or 22.42 million in Q3 2025 (up from 1.12% in Q2 2025) to total 1.56 billion connections. The subscriber growth rate of “full fibre” (FTTP/B) networks also remained strong in the UK at almost 7%, but this is down from 11.7% in Q4 2024.

Manhattan TV to Launch Cheap Freely Capable Aero 4K TV Streaming Box

27th January, 2026 (16 Comments)

British device manufacturer Manhattan TV has just become the latest such firm to announce the imminent launch of their next generation IPTV box – the Manhattan Aero, which is another one that includes support for the new broadband-based live TV streaming service – Freely. Best of all, it’ll only set you back £69.99 (RRP).

BBC Considers Linking Online iPlayer TV Accounts to UK Home Addresses

27th January, 2026 (72 Comments)

The endlessly vexed question of TV licence fee evasion has come up in the press again after it was today reported that the BBC were considering a change to the iPlayer video streaming service. The change would essentially involve linking people’s online BBC accounts to their home addresses for the first time (i.e. to see if anybody is using the service without a licence).

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Ofcom Examines Impact of AI on the Experience of UK Telecoms Customers

27th January, 2026 (8 Comments)

The UK communications and media regulator, Ofcom (Office of Communications), has today kicked off a new consultation that aims to gather feedback in order to examine the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on the experience of broadband and mobile customers – both its positives and negatives.

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Mobile Operator Spusu Continues UK Price Freeze Until 2027

27th January, 2026 (5 Comments)

The SIM-only UK mobile provider spusu, which holds a virtual operator (MVNO) agreement via BTWholesale to harness EE’s national 4G and 5G network, has today confirmed that it will continue its existing price freeze for the third consecutive year until at least 2027.

Exascale to Launch UK Home Broadband Plans via CityFibre’s FTTP Network

27th January, 2026 (2 Comments)

Internet provider and UK network builder Exascale, which has deployed their own gigabit speed Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network to a few thousand premises in part of Telford and Wrekin, has expanded on the recent launch of their consumer broadband brand (here) by making full fibre packages available to homes via CityFibre’s national network.