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ISP Pure Broadband Joins Cityfibre’s UK Full Fibre Network

21st January, 2021 (13 Comments)

UK ISP Pure Broadband has today become the latest provider to join Cityfibre’s growing national Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network, which will enable them to take a wholesale service and thus launch gigabit-capable internet packages across a number of initial UK towns and cities during early 2021.

Giffgaff UK Boost 5G Mobile Data Allowances, Hikes PAYG Price

21st January, 2021 (16 Comments)

Mobile operator giffgaff has announced that they will soon be boosting the data (mobile broadband) allowances on some of their plans and as part of that they’ll also launch two new 5G ready “golden goodybag” plans. But it’s not all good news as the operator is doubling the price of data usage on their Pay As You Go (PAYG) service.

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).

Broadband ISP TalkTalk Preps New UK Smart Home Protection

21st January, 2021 (16 Comments)

Budget conscious internet provider TalkTalk appears to be nearing completion of a new ‘Smart Home Protection‘ service (app), which is currently being trialled by a number of their broadband customers and looks to be an upgrade of their existing ‘Supersafe Boost’ (usually costs an extra £4 per month) and HomeSafe service.

Vodafone UK Says it’s Unable to Offer Free BBC Bitesize Access

20th January, 2021 (22 Comments)

Mobile operator Vodafone has said that they won’t be following EE’s (inc. Plusnet and BT) lead by offering free data (mobile broadband) access to BBC Bitesize (education) content during the latest COVID-19 lockdown because it is “not possible,” at least not without applying the same rule to the whole of the BBC’s UK website.

ISP TalkTalk Business Offer 3 Months Free Full Fibre Broadband

20th January, 2021 (5 Comments)

UK ISP TalkTalk Business recently began offering a new promotion on their Openreach based “Business Full Fibre” (FTTP) broadband products for small and medium sized businesses, which on top of the existing monthly discount also gives new customers the first 3 months of service for free.

EE Still in the Lead as Best UK Mobile Network for H2 2020

20th January, 2021 (17 Comments)

The latest biannual H2 2020 study of mobile network (4G and 5G) performance across the United Kingdom by RootMetrics has found that EE (BT) continues to be the best overall operator. On top of that they also delivered the fastest median (average) broadband download speed of 43Mbps (similar to 42.6Mbps in H1).

Mobile Operators Reject Call to Stop 5G Rollout Over Health Fears UPDATE

19th January, 2021 (0 Comments)

The trade association for UK mobile operators, Mobile UK, has warned that calls for the 5G rollout to be delayed on health grounds are “without merit“. The commentary comes after Professor John William Frank (University of Edinburgh) alleged that the transmitter density required for 5G may be “potentially harmful to health.”

Wireless ISP Quickline Joins Cityfibre’s UK Full Fibre Network

19th January, 2021 (14 Comments)

Broadband ISP Quickline has today become the latest ISP to join Cityfibre’s growing national wholesale Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network, which will enable them to launch gigabit-capable internet packages across a number of initial UK towns and cities during early 2021.

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Chair of UK Business Committee Pushes Social Tariff for Broadband UPDATE

19th January, 2021 (5 Comments)

The Chairman of the cross-party UK Commons Business Select Committee, Darren Jones MP (Labour), will tomorrow propose a new Private Members Bill that seeks to introduce a new low cost “social tariff” for broadband, which will be focused upon families with children on free school meals (i.e. disadvantaged groups).

ISP KCOM Discounts Broadband in New Full Fibre Build Areas

19th January, 2021 (8 Comments)

Hull-based UK ISP KCOM, which serves broadband and phone users across their network in East Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire, has launched a new “January Sale” that discounts selected Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) prices by up to 26%. The catch is that you have to be within one of their new network extension areas.

ISP Lothian Broadband Plans FTTP Rollout to 50,000 Premises

18th January, 2021 (7 Comments)

Fixed wireless and full fibre ISP Lothian Broadband, which covers parts of East Lothian and Mid Lothian in rural Scotland, has today announced that they’re planning to accelerate growth through a “large-scale investment in fibre infrastructure” by deploying FTTP to 50,000 homes in communities where they already have a presence.

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UK Internet Censorship – Damned if you do, Damned if you don’t

18th January, 2021 (68 Comments)

Prompted by Donald Trump’s ban from social media, calls are once again growing from politicians for internet sites to be held liable if they remove lawful content and users. Soon it may be a case of damned if you do, damned if you don’t, as the future approach toward protecting freedom of speech risks doing the opposite.

Hyperoptic Gifts Free Fibre Broadband to Disadvantaged UK Kids

18th January, 2021 (9 Comments)

UK ISP Hyperoptic, which is rolling out a 1Gbps FTTP/B broadband network to large residential (MDU) buildings and office blocks, has today echoed last week’s news from CommunityFibre (here) by announcing that they too will supply a “free 50Mbps service” to homes with children stuck on slower connections (coverage allowing).

BT Accused of Overcharging UK Landline Only Customers £500m+ UPDATE

17th January, 2021 (49 Comments)

BT has said they “strongly disagree” with a new court case being brought by Justin Le Patourel, a telecoms consultant who worked at Ofcom for 13 years. Justin claims that the broadband ISP overcharged c.2.3 million landline-only customers. If successful, the case could force the provider to pay out over £500m in compensation.

Softbank Invests $350m in OneWeb’s LEO Satellite Broadband Network

15th January, 2021 (6 Comments)

In an interesting development OneWeb, which is owned by a consortium of the UK Government and Indian conglomerate Bharti Global (here), has secured an investment of $350m (c.£257m) from Japanese company Softbank – the same firm that effectively forced it into bankruptcy last year by putting a stop on further funding.

Rural FTTP Community Broadband ISP B4RN Appoints New CEO

15th January, 2021 (10 Comments)

The community focused broadband ISP B4RN (Broadband for the Rural North) has today announced that Michael Lee is being appointed to become their new CEO. Michael replaces the provider’s former founder and CEO, Barry Forde, in the role (he retired at the end of last year) and thus has some fairly big boots to fill.

Community Fibre Offer 1yr Free Broadband to Vulnerable Londoners

15th January, 2021 (16 Comments)

London broadband ISP CommunityFibre, which is busy deploying a 3Gbps Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network to cover a good chunk of the UK’s capital city, has announced that they will provide 12 months of free “full fibre” broadband to “vulnerable households” in order to ensure children’s education doesn’t suffer.