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ISP Plusnet UK Discounts FTTC Broadband and Phone Prices

1st July, 2020 (22 Comments)

UK ISP Plusnet has introduced new discounts on their ADSL and FTTC based broadband and phone packages, which reduce their monthly prices for the first 18 month contract term. On top of that they’ve also thrown in a “Reward Card” (pre-paid Mastercard) worth between £50 to £60.

CMA, ICO and Ofcom Launch Digital Regulation Cooperation Forum

1st July, 2020 (3 Comments)

The UK telecoms regulator, Ofcom, has today joined forces with both the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) in order to launch a new forum, which aims to help “ensure online services work well for people and businesses in the UK.”

Virgin Media UK and Cisco Deploy OpenRoaming WiFi in London

1st July, 2020 (3 Comments)

Broadband ISP Virgin Media and Cisco have joined forces to setup the first European commercial deployment of OpenRoaming technology for residents on the Canary Wharf estate, which makes it easier for mobile users to stay connected to the internet by allowing them to seamlessly and securely roam between different WiFi hotspots.

COVID-19 – Biz Investment in UK Telecoms Remains Steady

1st July, 2020 (0 Comments)

A recent analysis of the latest data from the Office of National Statistics (ONS), which was conducted by tax relief consultancy Catax, has revealed that business investment in the UK telecoms sector has held mostly steady, falling by only 0.6% in a year, as the Coronavirus crisis hit.

Full Fibre UK Home Broadband ISP Zzoomm Cuts its Prices

1st July, 2020 (22 Comments)

Broadband ISP Zzoomm, which is currently deploying a new 2Gbps Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) based broadband network in the Oxfordshire town of Henley-on-Thames and aspires to cover 1 million UK homes by the end of 2025 (here), has significantly reduced the monthly rental prices of nearly all their packages.

Vodafone UK Leave WiFi Calling Users Waiting for SMS Support

1st July, 2020 (47 Comments)

Mobile operator Vodafone’s recent decision to stop selling their femtocell based Sure Signal 3G router on 30th April 2020, while instead encouraging use of Wi-Fi Calling, has one significant flaw. The latter still doesn’t support the ability to send and receive text (SMS) messages (it’s been listed as coming “soon” since 2018).

Lords Make Changes to Telecommunications Infrastructure Bill

30th June, 2020 (9 Comments)

The UK House of Lords has made a couple of key amendments to the Telecommunications Infrastructure (Leasehold Property) Bill (here), which aims to make it significantly easier, quicker and cheaper for “gigabit-capable” broadband ISPs to access big apartment blocks (MDU) when “rogue landlords” fail to respond.

Broadband ISPs Respond to Boris Johnson’s Call to Build, Build, Build

30th June, 2020 (60 Comments)

The UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, has today pledged to accelerate new infrastructure projects by establishing something called Project Speed to “scythe through red tape and get things done,” although unfortunately the announcement was rather short on specifics (or anything truly new) for broadband and mobile.

Openreach Recruit 100 Extra N.Ireland Engineers to Boost FTTP

30th June, 2020 (3 Comments)

Network access provider Openreach (BT) has announced that, as part of their rapid UK roll-out of “gigabit-capable” Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP technology in Northern Ireland, they are going to recruit a further 100 engineers before the end of March 2021.

ISP Origin Broadband Launch UK Pay TV Service with Netgem TV

30th June, 2020 (13 Comments)

Customers of UK ISP Origin Broadband are to be offered a new Pay TV service after IPTV supplier Netgem TV announced that it had just launched their “largest deployment deal to date” with the internet provider, which is being bundled alongside their broadband and phone packages with prices from £12.99 per month.

Vodafone Say 5G to Boost UK Economy by £158bn Over 10 Years

29th June, 2020 (8 Comments)

Vodafone has published a new report from WPI Economics, which perhaps predictably forecasts that the cumulative gains of UK businesses moving from 4G to 5G (mobile broadband) could produce an economic boost of more than £38bn by 2025, plus £120bn between 2025 to 2030 (total productivity-based boost of £158bn).

Fears of More Broadband Delays in Scotland from Gigaclear’s Lawsuit

29th June, 2020 (19 Comments)

At the end of last year the Scottish Government revealed that LOT 1 of their £600m R100 (Reaching 100%) project, which had given BT “preferred bidder” status and was aiming to extend “superfast broadband” (30Mbps+) coverage, had become the subject of a legal challenge by Gigaclear. Sadly the case is now threatening more delays.

Virgin Media UK Refresh Bundles and Add 600Mbps Broadband UPDATE2

29th June, 2020 (86 Comments)

Cable and full fibre broadband ISP Virgin Media UK has done exactly as we reported a couple of weeks ago (here) and today made their 516Mbps tier available as a standalone package for the first time (no TV bundle required). At the same time they’ve also bumped the top speed of their Ultimate Oomph TV bundle to 600Mbps.

O2 UK Extends 4G Mobile to 91,000 Extra Postcodes in 2020

29th June, 2020 (11 Comments)

Mobile operator O2 has announced that they now have 4G (mobile broadband) coverage in over 18,000 regional UK towns, villages and hamlets (many of them rural), which follows a service upgrade across over 91,000 postcodes since the start of 2020; including almost 400 tourist hotspots “ahead of a record staycation summer.”

H1 2020 – Fastest National UK Mobile and Home Broadband ISPs

29th June, 2020 (1 Comment)

Once again we’ve taken our biannual look back to see how average download and upload speeds have changed across the fastest nationally available fixed line ISPs and mobile operators. Overall the COVID-19 crisis has produced a broad downward trend in H1 2020, but Virgin Media remains top for fixed lines and EE top for mobile.

Lords Tell UK Gov to Stop Pandemic of Internet Misinformation

29th June, 2020 (9 Comments)

A new cross-party report from the House of Lords Digital Technologies Committee has called on the UK Gov to ensure that their future Online Harms Bill can tackle the rising “pandemic of misinformation” on the internet, which they warn is a “threat” to democracy. More censorship and blocking by broadband ISPs is proposed.

West Sussex UK Boosts Rural Gigabit Broadband Vouchers to £4k

26th June, 2020 (4 Comments)

The West Sussex County Council has joined other parts of the UK in helping to top-up the Government’s £200m Rural Gigabit Connectivity (RGC) programme with some of their own funding, which more than doubles the maximum value of vouchers to help local homes get a “gigabit-capable broadband” service installed.