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Vodafone Says Fears of Network Overload “categorically untrue”

25th March, 2020 (16 Comments)

The Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of mobile and broadband provider Vodafone UK, Scott Petty, has blasted mass media reports as “categorically untrue” for claiming that their network(s) won’t be able to cope with the increase in voice and data traffic due to the impact of COVID-19 (Coronavirus).

COVID-19 ISPs Uno and County Broadband Remove Data Caps

25th March, 2020 (2 Comments)

Customers of national UK ISP Uno and rural provider County Broadband, specifically those on legacy packages that still apply usage allowances, may be pleased to know that both providers have now removed their data caps in order to help people through the current Coronavirus (COVID-19) situation.

A Snapshot of UK and EU Broadband Speed During COVID-19

25th March, 2020 (10 Comments)

Internet speed testing giant Ookla (Speedtest.net) has updated a report that looks at the impact of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) on global broadband speeds, which largely confirms that the impact on service performance has, so far, only been very mild and traffic in the UK remains some of the most stable.

COVID-19 – Virgin Media Onshoring Brings 500 Jobs Back to UK

25th March, 2020 (11 Comments)

Broadband ISP Virgin Media has confirmed that they will attempt to rapidly bring 500 customer support (call-centre) jobs back to the UK in order to help counter Coronavirus (COVID-19) related lock-downs in countries where they’ve previously outsourced such roles, including India and the Philippines.

Three UK Advert Banned for Misleading “Real 5G” Mobile Claim

25th March, 2020 (26 Comments)

Complaints by BT (EE) and Vodafone have today prompted the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) to ban two adverts for Three UK’s new ultrafast 5G based mobile (mobile broadband) network, which they found had “misleadingly” claimed “If it’s not Three, it’s not real 5G.”

COVID-19 – Openreach Limit UK Broadband ISP and Phone Work UPDATE

24th March, 2020 (78 Comments)

In a significant development Openreach (BT) has issued a status of Matters Beyond Our Reasonable Control (MBORC) across a variety of popular products, which from 23:59 tonight will effectively stop, limit or delay many new broadband and phone provisions (installs), repair jobs and engineer appointments on a “national basis.”

COVID-19 – Ofcom Put the Brakes on New Broadband Regs

24th March, 2020 (8 Comments)

The UK communications and media regulator, Ofcom, has today responded to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis by, among other things, confirming that they’re suspending all existing consultation deadlines and may need to allow for delays in the implementation of new obligations.

COVID-19 – Mobile Operators Close UK Retail Shops and Kiosks

24th March, 2020 (0 Comments)

Last night’s decision by the UK Government to order the immediate closure of all shops selling “non-essential goods” has begun to hit, with mobile operators Three UK, O2 and BT (EE) all confirming that their high street outlets have been shut and must remain that way until told they can reopen.

Virgin Media is First UK Pay TV Provider to Add BBC Sounds App

24th March, 2020 (0 Comments)

Broadband ISP Virgin Media has today become the first Pay TV provider in the United Kingdom to add the BBC Sounds app, which via their v6 set-top-box (STB) platform will give customers access to listen to all of the broadcasters live and on-demand radio, music and podcast content.

COVID-19 – KCOM Won’t Disconnect Users for Non Payment

24th March, 2020 (4 Comments)

Hull-based UK ISP KCOM, which last week introduced some changes to help their broadband and phone customers through the current COVID-19 (Coronavirus) crisis (here), has this week gone one step further and committed NOT to disconnect subscribers for non-payment of bills.

COVID-19 – A Look at Monday’s UK Internet Traffic and ISP Speeds

24th March, 2020 (14 Comments)

Yesterday was an important day for broadband ISPs in the United Kingdom because it was the first working Monday after the mass closure of schools, which has concentrated the demands of both home (remote) working and family internet traffic on to residential connectivity. But as expected the day was busy, albeit uneventful.

COVID-19 – Facebook and Instagram Reduce Video Quality

23rd March, 2020 (7 Comments)

Facebook and Instagram have today become the latest internet content provider to “temporarily reduce” the quality (lower bitrates) of their video streams in order to help UK and EU broadband ISPs cope with demand during the Coronavirus outbreak. Netflix, YouTube, Apple TV, Amazon and Disney+ have already made such a move.

COVID-19 – Wireless UK ISP Airband Upgrade Old Networks to Unlimited UPDATE

23rd March, 2020 (0 Comments)

At present only those who subscribe to Airband’s most recently built Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) broadband networks can benefit from their unlimited usage packages. But now those on some of their smaller and older rural infrastructure projects may also be able to benefit, thanks to a new pilot project.

Virgin Media UK Add 2,300 Premises in Bury to FTTP Broadband

23rd March, 2020 (4 Comments)

Cable and full fibre ISP Virgin Media UK has today confirmed that they’ve just completed another network expansion of their 1Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband and TV network to cover 2,300 extra homes and businesses in the Greater Manchester town of Bury.

FibreNation to Begin 1Gbps FTTH Broadband Rollout in Bolton

23rd March, 2020 (4 Comments)

The FibreNation project, which is currently being acquired by Cityfibre from UK ISP TalkTalk for £200m (here), has today confirmed that 100,000+ homes and businesses across the Greater Manchester town of Bolton will be the next to benefit from their roll-out of a new 1Gbps Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) broadband network.

OneWeb Future Uncertain as 34 LEO Broadband Satellites Lofted

23rd March, 2020 (2 Comments)

British space firm OneWeb successfully launched 34 new compact Low Earth Orbit (LEO) ultrafast broadband satellites into orbit on the back of a ‘Soyuz-2-1b Fregat-M’ rocket on Saturday (active total of 74), but despite this progress the company has been sacking staff and is reportedly considering filing for bankruptcy protection.

ISP BT Prices New UK Gigabit and Full Fibre Broadband Plans

22nd March, 2020 (193 Comments)

BT has today quietly revealed how much they’ll charge new customers who pick a package from their refreshed range of “Full Fibre” (FTTP) ultrafast broadband plans, which includes a “gigabit” class top tier that offers average download speeds of 900Mbps+ (uploads of 73Mbps). The good news is that they’re surprisingly cheap.