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Netomnia Network-Installation in Street 2026

BT, Sky, Grain and Hyperoptic Comment on Nexfibre’s £2bn Move to Buy Netomnia UPDATE

4th August, 2026 (36 Comments)

The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) recently published several responses from BT (Openreach), Grain Connect, Sky Broadband and Hyperoptic to the ‘Areas of Focus’ document for their Phase 2 competition investigation of Netomnia’s proposed £2bn acquisition by the parents of Virgin Media (O2) and nexfibre. The early feedback provides some useful market perspective.

Thomas Cook Harness Travel eSIM to Give Every Customer 1GB of Free Mobile Data

3rd August, 2026 (7 Comments)

Online travel agency Thomas Cook has become the latest UK company to do a deal with travel eSIM (embedded SIM) provider Kolet, which will enable them to give every package holiday customer 1GB (GigaByte) of complimentary mobile broadband data when they travel overseas – “helping them get online as soon as they land without relying on airport Wi-Fi or local SIM cards”.

Part of Fusion Fibre’s UK Broadband Network Suffering Protracted Outage UPDATE3

3rd August, 2026 (19 Comments)

Rural network builder and ISP Fusion Fibre Group, which have deployed a few of its own FTTP broadband networks to various remote rural communities and also sells services via other altnets (e.g. CityFibre, Freedom Fibre, FullFibre, ITS Technology etc.), appears to be suffering from a protracted service outage in some areas that started yesterday.

GoFibre Boost Speeds and Update on FTTP Broadband Rollout in North East Scotland

3rd August, 2026 (0 Comments)

Edinburgh-based UK ISP and alternative network builder GoFibre has today provided a progress update on their roll-out of a new full fibre (FTTP) broadband network across North East Scotland, which reflects the £105m (public subsidy) Project Gigabit contract they signed a year ago (here). The provider’s packages have also recently introduced a symmetric speed boost.

Grain Connect Offers up to £100 in Bill Credits to New UK Broadband Customers

3rd August, 2026 (0 Comments)

Carlisle-based alternative broadband ISP Grain, which has so far built their point-to-point full fibre (FTTP) network to cover 300,000 UK premises and connect 56,000 customers, has launched a new offer for the month of August 2026 that will give new subscribers a bill credit of up to £100 (varying by package choice).

Broadband ISP TalkTalk Sells 120,000 UK Customers to Rise Fibre UPDATE

3rd August, 2026 (12 Comments)

Debt-strained UK ISP TalkTalk has unexpectedly sold a further 120,000 of their consumer broadband customers to the relatively new internet provider Rise Fibre, which is backed by private equity firm CVC and is a trading name of the more established alternative network and ISP 4th Utility. But the deal raises questions over TT’s plan to sell their consumer division.

Netomnia Apologises After Damaging Customer’s Openreach FTTP Line and Kit

3rd August, 2026 (40 Comments)

Alternative UK broadband operator Netomnia has apologised to one of their YouFibre ISP customers after an engineer they sent out to install the new full fibre connection botched the setup, not least by ripping Openreach’s existing optical modem (ONT) off the wall and using the incumbent’s own fibre cable to finish the job – breaking a second FTTP connection in the process.

Broadband ISP YouFibre Slash 8Gbps Plan to £50pm and Adopt 24 Month Terms

2nd August, 2026 (0 Comments)

Internet provider YouFibre, which is the retail ISP arm of alternative network operator Netomnia (Substantial Group) that has covered 3.2 million UK premises with their full fibre (FTTP) broadband network, appears to have significantly discounted their top 7-8Gbps speed (symmetric) package from £99.99 to just £50 per month. But that’s not the only change.

Broadband TV Streaming Platform Freely Gets 11 New UK TV Channels from 5

2nd August, 2026 (16 Comments)

Broadband-based live TV streaming service Freely, which is backed by the major UK broadcasters and is an evolution – not yet a replacement – for the existing Freeview platform (inc. Freeview Play and Freesat), last week added eleven new TV channels to its service that have been supplied by 5 (Channel 5).

Fibre optic broadband cables connecting to a house by CoPilot AI for MJ - 210524

The Largest 17 UK Full Fibre Broadband Networks by Coverage for H1 2026 UPDATE

1st August, 2026 (0 Comments)

The latest independent data from Thinkbroadband for July 2026 has today helped us to produce an updated H1 assessment of how big – in terms of network coverage (premises passed) – the top seventeen largest Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) based UK broadband ISP networks have become. We also compare this data against official coverage claims.

Broadband ISP Aquiss Offer 8 Months Half Price on CityFibre and Openreach

1st August, 2026 (0 Comments)

Shropshire-based independent UK ISP Aquiss has informed ISPreview that they plan to introduce a new special offer on their full fibre (FTTP) broadband plans via both the CityFibre and Openreach networks, which will discount their package prices to half price for the first 8 months of service with new customer connections.

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Giffgaff Disconnect Some Prepaid Mobile Users for Extended Roaming Outside UK

1st August, 2026 (6 Comments)

Some pre-paid customers of mobile operator giffgaff, which is controlled by Telefónica UK (part of the VMO2 Group) and uses O2’s virtual network platform, have complained to ISPreview after the provider suddenly informed them that their service was to be disconnected over “extended or permanent use outside the UK“. The provider also declined to refund unused credit.

Virgin Media O2 Engineer Stephen Parsonage

Virgin Media O2 Engineer Saves UK Customer Suffering a Stroke

31st July, 2026 (8 Comments)

A special mention today goes out to one of Virgin Media’s (O2) broadband engineers, Stephen Parsonage, who was in the process of installing new services for one of their customers in Leeds when, during a conversation, the customer began showing signs of suffering a stroke.

ISP EE UK Launch 2.3Gbps and 8Gbps Broadband and Confirm Prices UPDATE

31st July, 2026 (61 Comments)

Mobile and internet provider EE (BT) has today confirmed our earlier leak (here) by officially launching their Advanced Full Fibre Broadband packages, offering downloading speeds of 2.3Gbps and 8Gbps to new UK customers. But availability remains limited to the Guildford, Woking and surrounding areas, although this is due to “expand further in the near future“.

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Openreach Warn 1.5 million UK Analogue Phone Lines Yet to Make Digital Switch

31st July, 2026 (33 Comments)

The latest update from network access provider Openreach (BT) has today warned that homes and businesses only have 6 months left before the old Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) is permanently retired on 31st January 2027. As it stands, some 1.5 million UK lines (down from 1.9m in June 2026) are still operating on legacy copper, including roughly 350,000 business premises (the latter group faces disconnection).

network cables closeup with fiber optical background 123rf

Study Claims 1 Mill Rural UK FTTP Premises At Risk of Openreach’s “uneconomic overbuild”

31st July, 2026 (20 Comments)

Consulting firm Cartesian has released a new report on the state of the UK’s fibre full broadband market, which unsurprisingly highlights how challenging it is for alternative networks (altnet) to create sustainable business models. The study also claims that c.1 million rural FTTP premises could see uneconomic overbuild if Openreach is required to meet a high exchange coverage threshold for copper switchover.

EE, BT and Plusnet to Reintroduce UK Home Broadband Activation Fees

31st July, 2026 (35 Comments)

New customers looking to take a home broadband package from one of BT Group’s retail ISPs, including EE and Plusnet, will from today find that they’ll also need to start paying for a one-off broadband activation fee again. The providers haven’t charged an activation fee for the past few years, partly to help boost take-up (a common practice).