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Sky UK Charges Old 4K TV Customers £50 to Get HDR Upgrade

9th June, 2020 (75 Comments)

Sky (Comcast / Sky Broadband) finally launched their long-awaited High Dynamic Range (HDR) TV upgrade last month (here), which was made available to those with an existing Sky Experience or Ultra HD (4K) subscription. Unfortunately those with older Sky Q set-top-boxes will now have to pay £50 to benefit.

Gigaclear Expands FTTP Rollout in Herefordshire and Gloucestershire

9th June, 2020 (10 Comments)

Rural UK ISP Gigaclear has announced that they’ve completed a revision of their “full fibre” (FTTP) broadband roll-out contract with the Fastershire project in Gloucestershire and Herefordshire (England), which alongside their commercial commitment initially planned to cover more than 70,000 premises but will now reach 110,000.

wireless microwave radio tower (123RF - 13813875)

COVID-19 5G Conspiracy Arsonist Gets 3 Years for Burning Mast

9th June, 2020 (0 Comments)

The Liverpool Crown Court has sentenced Michael Whitty (47) to three years in prison after he set fire to one of Vodafone UK’s 4G masts in Kirkby on 5th April 2020, which caused damage estimated to be worth up to £15,000. Whitty’s action was fuelled by a bonkers conspiracy theory that links the spread of COVID-19 to 5G.

6000 Homes in Barmulloch and Cardonald Get Virgin Media FTTP

9th June, 2020 (6 Comments)

Broadband ISP Virgin Media UK has today confirmed that their gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network (inc. TV services) is now available to 6,000 extra homes in Barmulloch and Cardonald near Glasgow, which is on top of the additional 220,000 premises that have been reached in Scotland since 2016.

COVID-19 Saw Big Falls in 4G Mobile Speed and Rise in WiFi Use

9th June, 2020 (6 Comments)

Opensignal, which specialises in crowd-sourced testing of 4G and 5G based mobile networks, has updated their study of the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) crisis to show how much of an impact it had on Smartphone users across the UK and the world. Suffice to say that mobile users spent a lot more time on WiFi via home broadband.

COVID-19 – 86% of UK SMEs Had to Overcome Telecoms Challenges

8th June, 2020 (3 Comments)

A new survey of 1,000 workers at UK SMEs, which was conducted by broadband ISP Onecom (vested interest), has found that 86% of respondents had to overcome “significant telecommunications challenges” (e.g. home working) in order to maintain as close to “business as normal” as possible during the COVID-19 crisis.

Cityfibre UK Begins 1Gbps FTTH Broadband Build in Leicester UPDATE

8th June, 2020 (20 Comments)

Cityfibre’s civil engineering teams appear to have begun their deployment of a new 1Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) based broadband ISP network in the East Midlands city of Leicester (England) this month, with locals in the Belgrave and some central areas reporting lots of duct and trenching work.

Full Fibre Broadband to Help Create 1.2 Million UK Jobs by 2025

8th June, 2020 (12 Comments)

The Centre for Economics & Business Research (CEBR) has updated their research to account for the impact of the “full fibre” broadband roll-out and more people working from home post-COVID19, which now assumes that 25% of the workforce could be working from home by 2025 and this may help to create 1.2 million jobs.

Cityfibre Start £45m Derby UK 1Gbps FTTH Broadband Rollout

8th June, 2020 (26 Comments)

Cityfibre has confirmed that they’ve begun construction of their new 1Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) based broadband ISP network in the city of Derby (Derbyshire, England), which is being conducted alongside civil engineering firm J. McCann & Co Ltd and is expected to cost £45m.

The Curious Case of a Muddled FTTP on Demand Installation

6th June, 2020 (94 Comments)

Sometimes getting a new broadband service installed can involve significantly more hassle than usual. At least that seems to have been the case after Lewis Roberts shelled out £9,600 to have Openreach (BT) install a 330Mbps FTTP on Demand (FTTPoD / FoD) broadband line in March 2019, and so begins our story.

facebook_terragraph_wireless_60ghz_mesh_small_cell

Facebook Prep New 60GHz Terragraph Wireless Broadband Tech

5th June, 2020 (30 Comments)

After several years of development Facebook’s networking division is finally getting the commercial UK launch of their new Terragraph wireless broadband technology off the ground. This uses a mesh of small cell style 60GHz (mmW) base stations to distribute a gigabit speed broadband ISP connection across communities.

Three UK, O2 and Vodafone Confirm Plan for Reopening Shops

5th June, 2020 (1 Comment)

Mobile operators Three UK and Vodafone have revealed that they will start re-opening their high street stores on 15th June 2020, albeit with new social distancing measures to help protect both staff and customers alike. The move comes after EE (BT) confirmed (here) that all of their stores would also reopen on the same date.

YouGov Survey Claims Broadband Got Worse During Lockdown

5th June, 2020 (28 Comments)

A new YouGov survey of 2,301 UK adults has reported that 28% of people experienced an internet connection that was “slightly worse” than usual during the COVID-19 lockdown, while 7% said it was “much worse” and 57% saw “no change“. At the same time 73% said they were making heavier use of broadband due to home working etc.

ISP Trooli Covers 26,000 UK Premises with FTTP Broadband

4th June, 2020 (3 Comments)

Fibre optic UK ISP Trooli (CallFlow), which has spent the past year quietly deploying a new gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband service across parts of Kent and Hampshire, have announced that their network has now built 200km of optical fibre to cover 26,000 premises (i.e. completed on target).

Report Reveals the Barriers to UK Gigabit Broadband Adoption

4th June, 2020 (26 Comments)

The Broadband Stakeholder Group, which is a think-tank that advises the UK Government, has today published a new report from WIK to help highlight some of the barriers that remain (other than coverage) to getting customers to adopt “gigabit-capable” broadband ISP connections ahead of the copper switch-off.

ISP TalkTalk UK Sees Job Losses in York After FibreNation Sale

4th June, 2020 (0 Comments)

Broadband ISP TalkTalk has confirmed that a small number of jobs will be cut in the city of York, which is where they had been building a new Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) network via the FibreNation brand until its recent sale (here) to the Goldman Sachs backed Cityfibre for around £200m cash.

ISP italk Offers 1 Month Free Unlimited FTTC Broadband UPDATE

4th June, 2020 (3 Comments)

UK ISP italk has launched a special offer for those looking to take their FTTC based “unlimited fibre” broadband (35Mbps average speed) and phone line rental package, which gives away 1 month of service completely free for new customers (£30.49 per month thereafter + £9.95 one-off delivery).