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Broadband Provider Exascale Creates Own Midlands UK Internet Exchange

11th October, 2025 (6 Comments)

Broadband ISP 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, this week did something quite unique by quietly founding a brand new Internet Exchange (IX) in the Midlands (MidlandsIX).

2025 Openreach engineer testing connections in exchange PR 200125

Openreach List Next 94 UK Areas for Copper to FTTP Switch – Tranche 22

10th October, 2025 (19 Comments)

Openreach (BT) has today published the next (Tranche 22) batch of 94 exchanges in their “FTTP Priority Exchange Stop Sell” programme, which reflects areas where over 75% of premises are able to get full fibre lines and will thus stop selling copper based legacy phone and broadband products (i.e. FTTP becomes the only product option).

Rural UK ISP Airband Expands Full Fibre Broadband Reach via Openreach UPDATE

10th October, 2025 (11 Comments)

Rural broadband provider Airband, which has deployed its own Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) and Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) based networks to cover various parts of Wales and South West England, appears to have become the latest alternative network (altnet) to expand beyond their existing reach by adopting Openreach’s full fibre lines for off-net areas.

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BDUK Switch Gigabit Broadband Contract for Mid West Shropshire to Openreach UPDATE2

10th October, 2025 (19 Comments)

The Government’s Building Digital UK (BDUK) agency has just announced that their Project Gigabit broadband roll-out contract for Mid West Shropshire (Lot 25.01), which was originally held by Voneus until they “mutually agreed to terminate” it at the end of 2024 (here), has now been merged into Openreach’s (BT) existing call-off 3 deployment contract.

Wireless radio spectrum UK mast tower 123RF ID 13477202

Opensignal Examine Performance Gap Between Fixed Line and Wireless Broadband

10th October, 2025 (0 Comments)

Network benchmarking firm Opensignal, which gathers crowdsourced data from consumer speedtests via its App, has today published a new report that attempts to identify how far behind fixed wireless broadband (FWA) networks are in terms of performance and quality vs modern fixed line networks between 11 different countries. The gap is biggest in countries like the UK.

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Virgin Media UK and Nexfibre Extend Full Fibre to 13,000 Homes in Sheffield

10th October, 2025 (1 Comment)

Broadband ISP Virgin Media (O2) and network operator partner nexfibre, which share some of the same parentage, have today announced that they’ve once again expanded the reach of their symmetric 2Gbps speed full fibre (FTTP) network to more than 13,000 additional homes in the South Yorkshire (England) city of Sheffield.

Broadband ISP Rebel Internet Join CityFibre’s UK Full Fibre Network

10th October, 2025 (5 Comments)

Retail broadband ISP Rebel Internet, which was set up a couple of years ago by two former BT executives (here), has this morning announced that they’ve signed a new partnership to harness CityFibre’s growing 5.5Gbps speed Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network – covering around 4.6 million UK premises (4.3m Ready for Service).

CWP Domain Goes Down and Disrupts Some UK Broadband ISP Switching UPDATE

9th October, 2025 (7 Comments)

The Common Wholesale Platform (CWP), which is a non-profit member-owned organisation that helps alternative broadband networks to connect with the retail ISP market, appears to be suffering some sort of disruption today after their main website domain went down (CWPUK.org) and stopped some consumer switching between ISPs.

Streaming broadband video between two hands by 123RF ID174000861

Channel 4 and the BBC’s UKTV Platform to Exchange UK Streaming TV Content

9th October, 2025 (6 Comments)

British TV broadcasters Channel 4 and UKTV (U platform), which is owned by the BBC’s commercial division, have today announced a major new multi-year carriage agreement, which will see C4 gaining access to stream thousands of hours of additional free TV content and shows from the BBC via their online service (The Office, Red Dwarf etc.).

O2 UK Mobile Customers Can Now Pick TNT Sports as an Extra and Save £6 PM

9th October, 2025 (2 Comments)

Mobile operator O2 has today announced that millions of their UK customers can now enjoy the TNT Sports TV content on the discovery+ streaming app at a discounted price via O2 Extras on a 30-day rolling contract (i.e. £26.99 per month instead of the usual £30.99), while at the same time saving an additional £2 per month off their Airtime bill.

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Ofcom UK Reject Competition Concerns over Openreach’s FTTP Upgrades Offer

9th October, 2025 (51 Comments)

At the start of this week ISPreview revealed that a number of rival broadband networks had raised competition concerns with the UK telecoms regulator after Openreach introduced a new discount on upgrades to full fibre lines (here). Ofcom has now responded to these concerns via a new open letter, which largely rejects them but remains “alive” to the concerns.

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Broadband ISP Virgin Media UK Launch Single Visit FTTP Install Programme

9th October, 2025 (22 Comments)

Broadband, phone and TV provider Virgin Media (O2) has this morning announced the launch of its new Single Visit Install (SVI) programme, which aims to provide customers with a faster and more reliable approach to installations. But it’s currently only live across their nexfibre built full fibre (FTTP) connections (c.2.4 million UK premises).

Tees Valley Authority Publish Performance Map of Local Mobile Signals

9th October, 2025 (2 Comments)

The Tees Valley Combined Authority (TVCA) in North East England, which covers Darlington, Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Redcar and Cleveland and Stockton-on-Tees, has today published a map of mobile signal quality and mobile broadband performance – the result of their prior work with Inakalum to harness local bin lorries to help test 4G and 5G coverage.

Gigaclear Start East Gloucestershire UK Project Gigabit Broadband Rollout

9th October, 2025 (2 Comments)

Rural broadband provider Gigaclear, which has already deployed their full fibre (FTTP) network to cover 612,000 UK premises, has this morning finally announced the start of their roll-out under Project Gigabit’s East Gloucestershire (Lot 18) contract. The £10.81m deployment is currently expected to help upgrade 3,547 premises in hard to reach areas.

Cable Thieves Knock Out Openreach Broadband in County Durham Village

9th October, 2025 (3 Comments)

Broadband internet connectivity across part of the County Durham (England) village of Shotton Colliery was left disconnected for five days earlier this week after Openreach’s local network was targeted by copper cable thieves. The activity also caused damage to some local fibre optic cables.

Network Operator and Broadband ISP ICUK Suffers Protracted Attack

8th October, 2025 (6 Comments)

Network operator ICUK, which provides wholesale connectivity and broadband solutions to ISPs and businesses, appears to be in the process of trying to fully recover all of its services after suffering an ongoing cyber-attack that has disrupted some of their systems.

eSIM.net Launch Free 30 Day Vodafone eSIM Mobile Plan Called AirFree

8th October, 2025 (9 Comments)

Mobile provider eSIM.net, which normally specialises in offering travel eSIMs for roaming usage, has today launched a Vodafone-based plan called AirFree that gives UK customers 30 days of free data, calls, and texts. After that you can either continue on a flexible 30-day rolling plan for a monthly fee, upgrade to a higher data package, or cancel at any time without obligation.