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Slow Broadband Drags UK Down Digital Quality of Life Index

29th July, 2020 (6 Comments)

Surfshark has examined internet affordability, internet quality, e-infrastructure, e-security and e-government services across 85 countries to produce their latest ‘Digital Quality of Life Index 2020‘, which ranks the United Kingdom 7th overall. But we’re being dragging down by poor broadband and mobile connectivity.

google grace hopper fibre optic cable laying ship

Google’s Grace Hopper Subsea Fibre to Link UK, USA and Spain

28th July, 2020 (9 Comments)

Internet technology giant Google has announced plans to construct a new private subsea fibre optic cable – called ‘Grace Hopper‘ – between the USA (New York), United Kingdom (Bude in Cornwall) and Spain (Bilbao), which could improve the performance of their online services and ensure plenty of data capacity for the future.

Talk Talk Launch Openreach FTTP 500Mbps Broadband Service UPDATE

28th July, 2020 (31 Comments)

Budget conscious UK ISP TalkTalk has finally soft launched their first “Future Fibre” broadband packages based off Openreach’s (BT) ever expanding Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network, which at the time of writing appears to offer ultrafast speeds from 150Mbps to 500Mbps. No 1Gbps, yet.

EE UK Boosts Parental Controls Over Children’s Smartphones

28th July, 2020 (2 Comments)

Mobile operator EE (BT) has today launched “Set Up Safe” for all UK Pay Monthly customers, which is a free new SMS service that is designed to help parents “quickly and easily set up their child’s phone with safety features” (i.e. block adult internet content, set spending caps and stop them adding extra charges to the bill etc.).

Hands holding british pound coin and small money pouch

More Big UK Home Broadband ISPs Commit to Fairer Pricing

28th July, 2020 (2 Comments)

Industry regulator Ofcom has today secured new commitments from UK ISPs EE, Plusnet and Sky Broadband to reduce prices automatically for “vulnerable customers” who are out of contract, which mirrors a similar move agreed last year with BT, TalkTalk and Virgin Media. Savings of £270m are forecast.

Broadband ISP TalkTalk UK Rejects £1.5bn Bid by Key Investor

28th July, 2020 (0 Comments)

Low cost UK internet provider TalkTalk is confirmed to have quietly rejected a takeover bid by one of its biggest investors (Toscafund) last year, which would have valued the entire company at an impressive £1.5bn or 135p a share (roughly equating to double its current share price of around 75p).

VIDEO Full Fibre Ltd Highlight Broadband Rollout in Shrewsbury

28th July, 2020 (1 Comment)

New UK operator Full Fibre Limited, which last year started building a new Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) based broadband network (here) – aimed at “rural and semi-urban areas” around Devon, Surrey, Somerset, Gloucestershire and Herefordshire, has done a new video to showcase their progress in Shrewsbury.

Ofcom Adds 39GHz as Option for Supplying WiFi on UK Trains

27th July, 2020 (9 Comments)

Ofcom has today updated their advice to the UK Government on spectrum bands suitable for providing “trackside to train connectivity,” which adds the 39GHz band as a possible option. In the future this could be used to support on-board ultrafast broadband capable WiFi access points or mobile (4G, 5G) small cells for commuters.

openreach_aerial_drone_carrying_fibre_optic

Openreach Build New Drone Training Area to Help FTTP Rollout

27th July, 2020 (3 Comments)

After a number of successful trials it looks like Openreach (BT) will soon begin training up a whole new team of qualified drone pilots to help deploy their Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) based gigabit broadband ISP network to even more UK homes and businesses, such as those that exist in particularly difficult to reach locations.

airband fastershire fttp herefordshire uk broadband

ISP Airband Fast Tracks Full Fibre Rollout in Herefordshire UK UPDATE

27th July, 2020 (0 Comments)

Worcestershire-based broadband ISP Airband has said they’re now “fast-tracking” their state aid supported fibre roll-out in Herefordshire (England) under the Fastershire contract, which means that “hundreds more homes” will soon gain access to their “ultrafast broadband” (100Mbps+) network.

Tesco Mobile UK Bundles Six Months of Clubcard Plus Access

27th July, 2020 (1 Comment)

New and upgrading customers to Tesco Mobile may be pleased to learn that they’ll now be able to get Clubcard Plus for six months absolutely free, which comes with various benefits including the ability to save up to £40 a month in-store when shopping at.. Tesco, obviously.

Rising Copper Prices are a Double Edged Sword for UK Broadband

27th July, 2020 (10 Comments)

Last week the price per tonne of copper (Cu) bucked expectations by briefly reaching a new two year high of just over $6,500 (£5,074), which could act as a further incentive for UK telecoms operators to remove their old cables in favour of fibre optic (e.g. FTTP) infrastructure. If only it were so simple.

950k connected properties Photocall for Superfast broadband.

Digital Scotland Lauds Fibre Broadband for 950K Extra Premises

27th July, 2020 (13 Comments)

The original £463m (public and private investment) Digital Scotland project with BT (Openreach) is arriving at completion and as such the scheme has today celebrated the fact that it has helped over 950,000 extra premises to access “fibre broadband” (FTTC and FTTP) services (pushing “superfast” 24Mbps+ coverage to 94%+).

Gigaclear Claim 1 in 5 Brits Wait 30 Mins for a Web Page to Load

25th July, 2020 (33 Comments)

Rural full fibre broadband ISP Gigclear has posted the results of an interesting new survey, which questionably claims that a fifth of British people wait “over half an hour for a simple web page to load” and 1 in 10 are “left buffering for up to two and a half hours.” Hmm.

DrayTek Interview – A Brief Look Inside a Router Manufacturer

25th July, 2020 (18 Comments)

Taiwan-based network manufacturer DrayTek is a familiar name in the UK broadband ISP world. Since 1997 they’ve been busy building various routers, switches, access points and modems. Suffice to say that we were keen to get their thoughts on the current market for such devices, as well as their plans for the future.

Virgin Media Bring Full Fibre to 3,300 Premises in Shirebrook

24th July, 2020 (30 Comments)

Broadband ISP and TV provider Virgin Media UK (Liberty Global) have today confirmed that they’ve just completed another network extension, which has seen 3,300 premises in the Derbyshire town of Shirebrook gain access to their gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network.

Ofcom UK Opens 6GHz Radio Band for Use in Faster Home Wi-Fi

24th July, 2020 (12 Comments)

The UK telecoms regulator, Ofcom, has today made it possible for future home WiFi networks to harness 500MHz of radio spectrum frequency in the new 6GHz band, which will significantly boost the speed of licence-exempt indoor home wireless networks (i.e. via the Wi-Fi 6/6E – 802.11ax standard).