Home » UK ISP News Archive » Mark Jackson (18294 Posts)

Latest

Starlink-satellites-in-orbit-around-the-earth GEN1

Ofcom Grant Starlink an E Band Capacity Boost for UK Satellite Broadband

28th October, 2025 (0 Comments)

The telecoms regulator, Ofcom, has today granted “temporary authorisation” for SpaceX’s Starlink service to harness the E band (71-76GHz and 81-86GHz) frequencies for their mega constellation of compact ultrafast broadband satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO). The move will boost their backhaul data capacity at three gateway earth station sites.

Grain Start Building UK Full Fibre Broadband Network in Gainsborough UPDATE

28th October, 2025 (2 Comments)

Carlisle-based alternative broadband network and UK ISP Grain, which recently secured a £225m funding boost to continue their expansion (here), has revealed that they’ve now begun to expand their Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) lines across the Lincolnshire (England) market town of Gainsborough; home to over 20,000 people.

BT Group Explore Launch of Budget UK Mobile Brand to Complement EE UPDATE

28th October, 2025 (40 Comments)

Telecoms and broadband giant BT is reportedly exploring the possibility of launching a new low-cost mobile service brand to complement their premium EE service. Such a move would seek to replicate Three UK’s approach with sub-brand Smarty or Vodafone’s approach with VOXI, albeit with some of BT’s own unique twists.

Virgin Media O2 CEO Joins BT in Raising Concern Over UK Biz Rates Hike

27th October, 2025 (18 Comments)

The CEO of broadband and mobile giant Virgin Media and O2 (VMO2), Lutz Schüler, has today warned the UK government against reforming business rates in a way that would impose a “hefty hike” on telecoms providers because, he says, it would act as a “disincentive to invest that will be a real kick in the cabinets” to the industry. At a time when they’re already under pressure.

wireless internet radio spectrum frequency by 123rf

5G on Aircraft and 5.8GHz for UK FWA Broadband as Ofcom Make Kit Licence Exempt

27th October, 2025 (1 Comment)

The UK communications regulator, Ofcom, has today decided to proceed with all the proposals they outlined in January 2025 to exempt lots of additional equipment from needing a wireless telegraphy licence, such as 5G handsets and dongles on aircraft or ships and 5.8GHz (5725-5850 MHz) Fixed Wireless Access kit – used by many wireless broadband ISPs.

2025 Openreach engineer testing connections in exchange PR 200125

Openreach UK Launch Rental Discount on up to 1Gbps EAD Ethernet Tiers UPDATE

27th October, 2025 (1 Comment)

Network operator Openreach (BT) has notified UK internet providers (ISPs) about the looming launch of a new special offer on their Ethernet Access Direct (EAD) lines for speeds of 1Gbps or below. The deal will apply a rental discount of 10% on the current one-year term rental prices with no CPI price rises for a full 36 or 60 months in return for signing up to a new 36 or 60-month term.

Sky UK Launch Business Focused SIM-Only Pay Monthly Mobile Service

27th October, 2025 (0 Comments)

Sky Business, the business broadband and wholesale focused division of Sky UK, has today expanded their product offerings by launching a new SIM-Only mobile service that’s been designed for small and medium-sized businesses (SME) across the country. Prices start at £11 +vat per month for a 10GB data plan (inc. unlimited calls & texts) and go up to £35 for an unlimited data.

Broadband ISP WightFibre Start Charging for “Free” Phone Line Service

27th October, 2025 (4 Comments)

Internet service provider WightFibre, which is deploying a Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) based gigabit broadband network across the Isle of Wight – just off the South Coast of Hampshire (England), have begun informing existing customers of their full fibre packages that they’ll now have to pay a monthly fee to keep their “free” phone line service.

Bad Weather Delays Fix for Broken Shetland Subsea Fibre Cable Until Tuesday UPDATE

27th October, 2025 (0 Comments)

Bad weather means customers of broadband and mobile providers Vodafone, Sky Broadband and TalkTalk on Shetland, which is a remote UK subarctic archipelago that resides north of the Scottish mainland, will have to wait until Tuesday until repair ship Cable Vigilance can complete its fix of the recently broken SHEFA-2 (Faroese Telecom) subsea cable.

JT Group Acquire Isle of Man Broadband and Mobile Provider Manx Telecom

26th October, 2025 (2 Comments)

Broadband, technology and telecoms operator JT (Jersey Telecom), which is owned by The States of Jersey and headquartered in St Helier, has expanded its reach from the English Channel Islands to include the Isle of Man after they partnered with CVC DIF (CVC Capital Partners) to acquire the Manx Telecom Group.

Openreach Damages Netomnia’s Main Fibre Optic Cable Near Bristol

25th October, 2025 (58 Comments)

Hundreds of customers on Netomnia’s (Substantial Group) alternative broadband network in the Bristol (South West England) area, which has now covered 2.8 million UK premises RFS (inc. 400,000 customers) with their full fibre (FTTP) lines, are suffering connectivity problems after Openreach “took down one of our main cables” yesterday afternoon.

Scottish Government Upgrades Broadband Coverage Checker UPDATE

25th October, 2025 (13 Comments)

The Scottish Government put out a brief notice this week to say that their “upgraded address checker … is now live” for broadband coverage, which apparently “now includes more detailed info on access and our delivery programmes“, albeit seemingly without providing any further specifics to better explain what’s changed.

New Scotland-based UK Broadband ISP Fibeo Set to Launch in 2026

25th October, 2025 (4 Comments)

The United Kingdom isn’t exactly short on consumer ISP options right now, but Glasgow-based Fibeo has revealed to ISPreview that they’re currently planning to join the club sometime in “early” 2026 – powered by the Dotlines Catena Cloud platform and the PXC (formerly TalkTalk Wholesale) broadband network.

Fast moving UK train image by Microsoft CoPilot for MJ on 050925

Ofcom Make Part of 1900MHz Band Available for 5G Mobile on UK’s Rail Network UPDATE

24th October, 2025 (3 Comments)

As expected, Ofcom has today confirmed that they will make part of the 1900MHz radio spectrum band (1900-1920MHz), which had previously gone unused by mobile operators, available for use by both the UK’s rail network (5G / data services) and to extend coverage for the 4G Emergency Services Network (ESN).

Project-Gigabit-UK-Gov-Investment-Scheme-2025

BDUK Summarise Progress of UK Project Gigabit Broadband Rollout Contracts

24th October, 2025 (12 Comments)

The Government’s (DSIT) Building Digital UK agency has today finally started to publish monthly updates on the delivery progress of contracts that have been awarded under their £5bn Project Gigabit broadband rollout scheme, which among other things reveals that some 150,730 contracted premises have already been built out of a planned total of 1,002,270 (October 2025).

Ofcom Publish Final Results of UK 5G Mobile Auction for 26GHz and 40GHz

24th October, 2025 (4 Comments)

The UK telecoms regulator, Ofcom, has this morning revealed the final (assignment stage) results of last week’s auction of the 26GHz and 40GHz millimetre wave (mmW) spectrum bands for use by 5G mobile broadband operators, which sets out precisely which frequencies within each band will be allocated to EE, O2 and VodafoneThree (Vodafone and Three UK).

ip address Fiber optic cables for backbone lines on blue network background

Internal Auditors Seek Greater UK Telecoms Role via New Security Code

24th October, 2025 (5 Comments)

The Chartered Institute of Internal Auditors (CIIA), which recently complained that some of the UK’s major broadband ISPs operated without an internal audit (here) – potentially exposing them to “unchecked risks and increasing the likelihood of corporate collapse“, has now sought to drum up new business by pressing the government to make it a requirement of their revised telecoms security code.