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Virgin Media O2 UK Pledges to Donate 12,000 Smartphones in 2026

20th January, 2026 (4 Comments)

Broadband ISP and mobile operator Virgin Media and O2 (VMO2) have today announced that they will once again aim to donate “up to” 12,000 pre-owned Smartphones during 2026 to help people in need get online and reduce e-waste, which mirrors their previous pledge for 2025 that succeeded in donating the same figure.

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Six Alternative UK Broadband Networks Ranked in Sunday Times 100 Tech List

20th January, 2026 (8 Comments)

The latest 2026 Sunday Times 100 Tech list has been published, which reflects a ranking of Britain’s fastest-growing private technology companies. The good news is that six broadband network operators have managed to make it into the 2026 hardware list, with Netomnia topping the table in 3rd place and CityFibre just edging in at 48th at the bottom.

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Ookla Examine Mobile Broadband Upload Speeds and Capacity in the UK

20th January, 2026 (1 Comment)

Global network benchmarking firm Ookla, which collects data from consumers via their Speedtest.net service (inc. apps), has published a new report that takes a broad look into the impact of mobile (4G, 5G etc.) upload speeds in the age of AI and also reveals how much importance UK operators place upon it (EE, O2, Vodafone and Three UK).

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BDUK Updates on Project Gigabit Broadband Contract for Cheshire UK

20th January, 2026 (3 Comments)

The Government’s Building Digital UK (BDUK) agency recently provided a small but useful update on their stalled £43m (public subsidy) Project Gigabit broadband roll-out contract for Cheshire (Lot 17), which was originally held by Freedom Fibre until they “mutually agreed to terminate” it in March 2025 (here). But Openreach (BT) may now be set to take it on.

Virgin Media O2 UK 2025 Customer Support at Manchester Island

Virgin Media O2 UK Outsourcing 700 Roles to Tata CS and Tech Mahindra

19th January, 2026 (30 Comments)

Sources have informed ISPreview that broadband and mobile operator Virgin Media (O2) has today notified around 700 staff that their roles are to be transferred to the Indian owned Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Tech Mahindra. The move is intended to “better deliver for our customers“, although this could still result in some redundancies.

Quickline Build UK Full Fibre Broadband to 200,000 Premises and Start New Campaign

19th January, 2026 (0 Comments)

Alternative rural broadband provider Quickline, which is deploying a new gigabit-capable full fibre (FTTP) and fixed wireless (FWA) network across parts of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire in England (3-Year Rollout Plan), has today revealed that their fibre network now covers 200,000 premises (plus 200k more via wireless) and they’re launching a new brand campaign.

SpeedGeo Study Names Fastest UK Mobile and Broadband ISPs in 2025

19th January, 2026 (1 Comment)

The relatively new SpeedGeo project, which stems from a Polish team that compares internet quality based on the broadband speeds of real users, has today published their 2025 results for the United Kingdom. The outcome named Virgin Media as the fastest fixed broadband ISP, while Three UK came top for mobile broadband (4G, 5G etc.).

Creditors Allegedly Set to Take Control of Rural UK Broadband ISP Gigaclear

19th January, 2026 (54 Comments)

A major newspaper has claimed that creditors of the indebted Abingdon-based alternative broadband ISP Gigaclear, which has built a full fibre (FTTP) network across 612,000 premises in rural parts of England and is home to c.160,000 customers, are set to take control of the business after an attempt to sell the company failed.

Openreach exchange engineer testing fibre

Openreach List Next 132 UK Areas for Copper to FTTP Switch – Tranche 23

19th January, 2026 (6 Comments)

Openreach (BT) has just published the next batch (Tranche 23) of 132 exchanges in their “FTTP Priority Exchange” stop sell programme – covering 1.23 million premises. This 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, where it’s available).

UK Broadband and Phone Provider KCOM Promotes Richard Schafer to CEO

16th January, 2026 (0 Comments)

Network operator KCOM, which has deployed their Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network across a big chunk of East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire in England, has today announced that they’ve promoted Richard Schäfer to the position of permanent Chief Executive Office (CEO) to replace Tim Shaw, who stepped down last year (here).

BT and EE to Shift Legacy UK Customers to Pounds and Pence Pricing Policy

16th January, 2026 (24 Comments)

Broadband and mobile giant BT (EE) has today announced that they’re following the UK government’s latest guidance, which requested that they “proactively move customers onto price changes with clear pounds and pence pricing amounts instead of inflation-linked rises“. But the risk is that this may result in some customers being hit by much bigger mid-contract price hikes in the future.

Grain Add Sheffield to UK Full Fibre Broadband Network Expansion UPDATE

16th January, 2026 (5 Comments)

Carlisle-based alternative broadband ISP Grain, which has so far built their point-to-point full fibre (FTTP) network to cover 270,000 UK premises (aiming for 600,000 in the future) and in 2025 secured a £225m funding boost (here), has issued a brief announcement to confirm that the South Yorkshire (England) city of Sheffield will be the next to get their network.

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ITS Technology Grows UK Full Fibre Network as Turnover Hits £34m

16th January, 2026 (6 Comments)

The ITS Technology Group, which have deployed various open access and business-focused full fibre broadband and Ethernet networks across parts of the UK, recently published their annual accounts and revealed an expansion of their network length by 13%, as well as a 12% increase in coverage and a 99% rise in take-up (on-net grew 77% and off-net grew 30%).

Openreach Pick Garret Kavanagh to Lead UK Complex Engineering Unit

15th January, 2026 (0 Comments)

Network access provider Openreach (BT), which is currently busy investing £15bn to deploy Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband technology to 25 million UK premises by the end of 2026 (currently 21m premises passed), has today announced that they’ve promoted Garret Kavanagh to be their new Managing Director for Complex Engineering, effective April 2026.

Survey Claims Quarter of UK Broadband Users View £4 Price Hike as Unmanageable

15th January, 2026 (34 Comments)

Over the past few months a number of broadband ISPs have announced an increase to their annual mid-contract price hikes policy of £4 (BT, Virgin Media and TalkTalk etc.). But a new Opinium survey of 2,000 UK adults, which was conducted during December 2025 for Uswitch.com, claims to have found that 24% of broadband users view such a rise as “unmanageable“.

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BDUK Publish Several Studies of UK Mobile Coverage and Performance

15th January, 2026 (1 Comment)

The Government’s Building Digital UK (BDUK) agency, which oversees their gigabit-capable broadband and mobile network expansion programmes, has just published three new studies that examine the wellbeing and social benefits of the 4G Shared Rural Network (SRN) project, as well as the benefits and challenges of 4G mobile in rural Scotland, and finally some additionality research for mobile suppliers.

EE UK to Deliver Mobile Connectivity for easyJet’s Network in 35 Countries

15th January, 2026 (3 Comments)

Broadband and telecoms giant BT has announced that their EE mobile network has secured a major new contract with the UK’s largest airline, easyJet, to deliver thousands of mobile connections to keep its flight crew, aircraft and airports linked up across Europe – in 35 countries and over 150 airports (from Gatwick to Gran Canaria).