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Mobile Operator EE Sets Out UK Approach to Future 2G Switch Off

13th January, 2025 (38 Comments)

The Chief Security and Networks Officer of BT Group, Howard Watson, has today joined the COO of BT Business, Kerry Small, in setting out what approach they intend to take when it comes to withdrawing their old 2G mobile service on EE. This will start in the “coming months“, when they’ll begin encouraging some customers to move to their more modern (4G and 5G) network.

Mobile giant Vodafone UK and Sky (Comcast) have reportedly two among several "groups" that have approached budget conscious fixed broadband ISP TalkTalk about a potential deal (most likely an acquisition), which in theory could create a much larger provider with more influence over the industry. Just to recap. In 2020 TalkTalk became the subject of a £1.1bn takeover by Toscafund - controlled by hedge fund tycoon Martin Hughes (here), which including debt valued the broadband provider at around £1.8bn. The deal took the ISP private and gave them more financial flexibility for their future plans. Since then, they've backed Freedom Fibre (here) and this week made the notable acquisition of Ethernet provider Virtual1 (here). According to the FT (paywall) and Sky News, TalkTalk is now said to have asked investment bank Lazard to review its options after allegedly being approach by several groups, including Vodafone and Sky (Sky Broadband). Lazard is a logical choice as they recently acted as Financial Advisor to TalkTalk on the Virtual1 transaction. Some industry analysts have reportedly suggested that TalkTalk itself could now be worth "at least" £3bn. But this seems rather optimistic for an ISP that doesn't have any significant fixed line broadband infrastructure to call its own (excluding their old unbundled LLU network) and largely just piggybacks off Openreach (BT), CityFibre and Freedom Fibre. But TalkTalk do have a strong business and wholesale side. Funnily enough, Sky Broadband are in a similar position with their own fixed line base, while Vodafone also likes to piggyback off Openreach and CityFibre. At present, Vodafone has a fixed broadband base of 991,000 customers, while Sky Broadband is estimated to be home to around 6.7 million and TalkTalk has approximately 4.2 million. Suffice to say, anybody gobbling up TalkTalk would instantly become a much larger provider, giving them a greater say in how the UK broadband market develops and more opportunities for convergence (Vodafone with mobile, and Sky with mobile and TV). Crucially, TalkTalk's consumer base is mostly made up of those on older copper and hybrid fibre lines (i.e. ADSL and FTTC / VDSL2), which are ripe for a future migration to FTTP. At the time of writing, all of the aforementioned operators have decline to comment on the reports, and TalkTalk has yet to receive any serious formal offers. In other words, we strongly suspect that this is largely just an exercise in spin to help TalkTalk drum up some more productive interest in the idea. But at the same time, it's not unreasonable to suspect that they might succeed, as the interest seems genuine. On the other hand, we see reports like this every year or so and only a very few ever convert into a serious offer. Time will tell. Much may depend upon whether or not TalkTalk’s new owners are more flexible and pragmatic about doing a deal than the previous lot. Arguably, TalkTalk might have gone much further by now had they taken some different decisions a few years ago (e.g. co-investing in FTTP instead of Pay TV).

Cost Cutting Sees UK ISP TalkTalk Scale Back Support for Internet Matters

13th January, 2025 (12 Comments)

Debt-troubled UK broadband provider TalkTalk has reportedly “pulled out” of industry-funded online child safety charity Internet Matters, which was established alongside BT, Virgin Media and Sky Broadband during 2014. The move is said to form part of the ISP’s efforts to cut £120m in costs and follows recent job cuts (here).

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Altnet UK Broadband Provider Fibrus Confirms More Job Cuts

11th January, 2025 (6 Comments)

Infracapital-backed ISP Fibrus, which is busy rolling out their alternative gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network across rural parts of Cumbria (England) and Northern Ireland, has confirmed another round of redundancies as their roll-out in N.Ireland comes to an end. But new jobs in customer facing roles are expected to be created.

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Three UK Still Fastest for 5G Mobile Broadband in Ookla H2 2024 Study

11th January, 2025 (8 Comments)

Network testing giant Ookla, which collects data from consumers via their popular Speedtest.net service, has published their Q3-Q4 2024 (H1) study into the speed of 5G based mobile broadband networks across the United Kingdom. The results reveal that Three UK once again delivered the fastest downloads (236.25Mbps) and uploads (12.94Mbps), but their performance has fallen.

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TOTSCo Updates on Development of UK Business Broadband ISP Switching

10th January, 2025 (1 Comment)

The One Touch Switching Company (TOTSCo), which is the industry-led company that is helping to implement Ofcom’s solution (One Touch Switching) for easier and quicker UK consumer switching between broadband and phone providers, has now started to consult on contract changes to enable business switching.

Three UK Discounts Unlimited 5G Home Broadband Service to £19

10th January, 2025 (0 Comments)

Mobile operator Three UK has introduced a new discount this week that cuts the monthly price of their 5G powered unlimited Three Home Broadband package to just £19 per month on a 24-month minimum term, rising to £28 if you only take a 1-month term or £21 for the equivalent 4G service on a 24-month term.

Swansea Bay City Deal Seeks Support for Better Broadband Infill Project

10th January, 2025 (0 Comments)

The Swansea Bay City Deal’s Digital Infrastructure Programme has launched a new Prior Information Notice (PIN), which is seeking feedback from suppliers that might be interested in helping to provide “affordable” gigabit broadband to poorly served premises in the Swansea Bay City Region (Pembrokeshire, Carmarthenshire, Swansea, and Neath Port Talbot).

Customers Report Problems with Vodafone’s Roaming Service

9th January, 2025 (17 Comments)

Some customers of mobile network operator Vodafone UK, specifically those who are currently abroad in a variety of countries and using the operator’s roaming services, have for the past few hours been complaining about connectivity problems (e.g. they’re unable to make any calls and find that mobile broadband / data isn’t working).

Survey Claims 4.3 Million UK People May Lose O2 Data Access After 3G Switch Off UPDATE

9th January, 2025 (33 Comments)

A new Opinium survey of 2,000 UK adults, which was commissioned by Uswitch.com and conducted on 7th Jan 2025, has claimed that more than 4.3 million Brits could potentially be left without access to mobile broadband if they don’t upgrade their device before O2 switches-off their 3G service (inc. MVNO’s Tesco Mobile, GiffGaff and Sky Mobile etc.).

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Broadband Users on CityFibre’s UK Network Suffer Nokia ONT Problems UPDATE2

9th January, 2025 (23 Comments)

Some broadband ISP customers on Cityfibre’s national Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network, which covers 4 million UK premises, are currently experiencing ongoing connectivity problems due to an unspecified issue that seems to only be affecting those that have one of Nokia’s Optical Network Terminals (ONT) installed inside their building.

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UK Internet Domain Registry Nominet Suffers Cyber Attack

9th January, 2025 (2 Comments)

The UK internet domain registry, Nominet, has confirmed to ISPreview that their network has suffered an “unauthorised intrusion” after hackers exploited a “zero-day vulnerability” in the Virtual Private Network (VPN) software they use, which is supplied by Ivanti and enables their people to access systems remotely.

CityFibre Begins Project Gigabit Broadband Roll Out for Sussex

9th January, 2025 (4 Comments)

Network operator CityFibre has this morning announced that they’ve begun the roll-out phase of their £108m state-aid supported Project Gigabit contract for the West & East Sussex (Lot 16 & 1) area in England. This will extend their 10Gbps capable FTTP broadband ISP network to an additional 57,000 hard-to-reach rural premises.

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Nexfibre’s UK Full Fibre Broadband Build Covers 2 Million Premises UPDATE2

9th January, 2025 (15 Comments)

Network operator nexfibre, which shares some of their parentage with ISP partner Virgin Media (VMO2) and uses the same build teams, has today revealed that the roll-out of their new 10Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP / XGS-PON) broadband network has reached its coverage target of 2 million premises on time and is now moving on with the next phase.

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BT Make Largest Ever UK Commercial EV Fleet Order of 3,500 Vehicles

9th January, 2025 (15 Comments)

Telecoms and broadband giant BT Group (inc. Openreach) has today announced the “UK’s largest ever commercial Electric Vehicle (EV) fleet order“, which will see them purchasing around 3,500 new EVs and thus expanding their EV fleet to nearly 8,000 by the time the order is complete in 2026.

Scam Alert UK Finger on Computer Keyboard Warning

Scam Callers Target Broadband ISP BT’s UK Digital Voice Switchover

8th January, 2025 (15 Comments)

Consumer magazine Which? has warned customers of UK broadband ISP BT (inc. EE) to be on alert for phone scammers who are now actively impersonating BT’s support agents in order to exploit the ongoing migration onto digital landlines (Digital Voice). The scammers do this by trying to con customers into sharing their financial (payment) details.

Comms Council UK Appoints New Chair to Represent VoIP Providers

8th January, 2025 (0 Comments)

The Comms Council UK, which represents the United Kingdom’s national Unified Communications and Voice-over-Internet-Protocol (VoIP) phone industry, has today announced that they’ve appointed new Chair, Tracey Wright, to replace Eli Katz, who, after 20 long years of service, stepped down as Chair on the 6th of January 2025.

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Wireless ISP Kijoma Broadband Vanishes During UK Service Outage UPDATE2

8th January, 2025 (12 Comments)

Little-known fixed wireless ISP Kijoma Broadband (Kijoma Solutions), which generally covers rural parts of West Sussex, Surrey and Hampshire in England, appears to have vanished (including email and website) after appearing to suffer a service outage that started just before 9am yesterday morning.