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First In-Field 700MHz UK Standalone Private 5G Network Goes Live

6th July, 2021 (5 Comments)

The 5G RuralDorset (5GRD) project, which is testing a mix of 5G based mobile technologies alongside existing fibre optic infrastructure, has announced the successful installation and testing of the “world’s first” in-field 700MHz based Standalone (SA) private 5G network to serve rural parts of the Jurassic Coast. But not for consumers.

Vodafone UK Gift Pay Monthly Customers 6 Months Discovery+

6th July, 2021 (4 Comments)

Mobile operator Vodafone UK has today announced that “all pay-monthly” customers on their 4G and 5G plans can now enjoy Discovery+ TV content (video streaming) for 6 months at no extra cost, which also includes access to the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 via 55 live event feeds and 2,000 hours of on-demand action.

EE UK’s New Service Makes Capped Mobile Data Plans Unlimited

6th July, 2021 (23 Comments)

Mobile operator EE (BT) has today soft launched a new ‘Stay Connected‘ feature for Pay Monthly customers, which means that 4G and 5G plans with a capped data allowance (mobile broadband) will be able to continue using the internet “at no extra cost” even when their monthly allowance runs out. Obviously, there’s a catch.

No Sign UK Gov Pushing for Mandatory Social Broadband Tariffs UPDATE

6th July, 2021 (2 Comments)

A short but interesting debate was held yesterday in the Lords Chamber, which appeared to indicate that the UK Government are not, at present, pressing Ofcom to introduce mandatory low cost social tariffs for broadband across the industry. But like the regulator, they would like to see better promotion of those that exist.

Three UK Launch New 4G Home Broadband Router, Declines to Identify it

6th July, 2021 (18 Comments)

Mobile operator Three UK has quietly begun to ship a new router (hub) alongside orders for their mobile-based unlimited 4G Home Broadband service, although unusually they’ve chosen not to share the exact specifications and model number because this is said to be “commercially sensitive“. But it looks like a ZTE.

Final Report Published on Scotland’s Superfast Broadband Project

5th July, 2021 (14 Comments)

The Scottish Government has published a final report to help summarise the achievements from one part of their £463m (public and private investment) Digital Scotland project with BT (Openreach), which overall helped 950,600 extra premises to access “fibre broadband” (FTTC / FTTP) services. But it comes with a few caveats.

New ISP No One Joins CityFibre’s UK FTTP Broadband Network

5th July, 2021 (16 Comments)

A new ISP called No One, which is a residential focused off-shoot of business provider Trunk Networks (they’re also behind Leetline), has now officially launched on CityFibre’s new gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network in the West Sussex seaside town of Worthing. Many more locations will soon follow.

broadband vouchers ultrafast gigabit uk full fibre by 123rf

BDUK Tweak Gigabit Broadband Voucher Rules Around Eligibility

3rd July, 2021 (11 Comments)

The Government’s Building Digital UK team has tweaked the eligibility rules for rural gigabit vouchers in order to balance against the issues caused when parts of the UK are placed under a Public Review as part of the £5bn Project Gigabit programme, which can cause in-scope premises to suddenly become ineligible for vouchers.

Three UK Boost 4G and 5G Mobile Data on Pay As You Go Packs

2nd July, 2021 (25 Comments)

Mobile operator Three UK has launched a new offer for their Pay As You Go (PAYG) customers, which doubles the mobile broadband data (4G or 5G) on their cheapest £10 data pack from 6GB (GigaBytes) to 12GB, while their £15 pack jumps from 20GB to 30GB. The packs, which last for 1 month, also add unlimited minutes and calls.

ASA Probe Broadband ISP TalkTalk Over Mid Contract Price Hike

2nd July, 2021 (20 Comments)

The UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has confirmed that they’re investigating budget broadband provider TalkTalk after the ISP announced a price hike earlier this year (here), which somewhat controversially also hit some customers who had previously signed-up under the promise of “no mid-contract price rises“.

Gov Commits GBP30m to Help UK Develop 4G and 5G OpenRAN

2nd July, 2021 (1 Comment)

The UK Government has today committed £30m to support the launch of their Future RAN Competition (FRANC), which will aim to fund “innovative R&D projects” that could help to speed up the adoption of a new breed of wireless Open Radio Access Network (Open RAN) based 4G and 5G mobile networks.

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Virgin Media O2 Deploy FTTP to 4000 More County Down Homes

1st July, 2021 (7 Comments)

Some 4,000 extra homes in the small County Down (Northern Ireland) town of Donaghadee have just become the latest to benefit from the expansion of Virgin Media’s (VMO2) new Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) based gigabit broadband and TV network, which can offer top download speeds of up to 1130Mbps to local residents.

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Full Fibre ISP Lightspeed Broadband Adopts Nokia XGS-PON

1st July, 2021 (3 Comments)

UK ISP Lightspeed Broadband, which is deploying a Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network across the East of England region as part of a £300m investment (here and here), has today confirmed that they’ve chosen to go with Nokia’s 10Gbps (symmetric) capable XGS-PON technology and whole-home Wi-Fi 6 kit to power their service.

Full Fibre ISP Telcom Group Gets GBP63m UK Investment Boost

1st July, 2021 (1 Comment)

Manchester-based UK ISP Telcom (ClearFibre, WeFibre etc.), which is busy deploying a gigabit-capable “full fibre” broadband and Ethernet network across the North West of England and Midlands, has managed to secure a significant investment of £63m from Gresham House, a specialist alternative asset manager.

Openreach Unveil Major FTTP Pricing Offer for UK Broadband ISPs UPDATE

1st July, 2021 (50 Comments)

Openreach (BT) has today unveiled a “major” change to the pricing of their gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband products, which aims to give UK ISPs not only cheaper services but also “long-term price certainty” through a series of new commitments. But in return, providers must push FTTP wherever they can.

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First Rural Full Fibre Customers Go Live in Pembrokeshire Scheme

30th June, 2021 (5 Comments)

The Pembrokeshire County Council’s (PCC) wider Digital Connectivity Programme (DCP) in Wales, which is working with several UK ISPs to rollout gigabit-capable full fibre broadband networks into several remote rural communities, has just seen their first customers go live.

Microwave Ovens Cause WiFi Confusion for UK Consumers

30th June, 2021 (34 Comments)

A new Censuswide survey of 2,014 UK adults that have broadband, which was commissioned by ISP Zen Internet, has found that 75% of people are unaware that using Microwave Ovens could be “causing havoc” for their home WiFi signal and 8% wrongly believe “hitting their router” will improve connectivity.