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Wales Audit Office to Review Superfast Cymru Broadband Deployment

8th May, 2014 (3 Comments)

The Wales Audit Office (WAO) has confirmed that it intends to conduct an audit of the Superfast Cymru scheme, which aims to make BT’s faster “fibre broadband” (FTTC/P) speeds of up to 80Mbps available to 96% of Welsh premises by the end of spring 2016.

Metronet UK Aim Ultrafast Broadband for 50% of Top Manchester Office Spaces

8th May, 2014 (1 Comment)

Business Internet provider Metronet UK has announced that their hybrid fibre optic (Dark Fibre) and “high capacity” carrier grade wireless network has now connected almost 20% of Greater Manchester’s “most important buildings” and almost 30% of those in Manchester city centre with speeds of up to 10Gbps.

UPDATE UK ISP AOL Broadband No Longer Available to New Customers

8th May, 2014 (4 Comments)

One of the oldest ISP names in the United Kingdom, AOL Broadband (formerly AOL UK), appears to have stopped taking on new Internet and phone customers. Instead the provider’s website now redirects potential subscribers over towards their parent, TalkTalk.

UPDATE2 West Oxfordshire Council to Help Fund FTTP via Cotswolds Broadband

8th May, 2014 (1 Comment)

Cotswolds Broadband (Broadway Partners), which aims to roll-out an open-access 100Mbps Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network to 90% of homes and businesses in the Chipping Norton area of west Oxfordshire (England), looks like it might soon be able to move forward after West Oxfordshire District Council committed new funding to the project.

BT Achieves 66% UK Fibre Broadband Rollout Target as Customers Soar

8th May, 2014 (37 Comments)

BT has today released their latest Q1-2014 (calendar) results, which confirm that their £2.5bn commercial roll-out of superfast capable “fibre broadband” technology (FTTC/P) has now reached its goal ahead of schedule by passing 19 million premises (around 66% of the United Kingdom). Separately, BT’s retail broadband ISP customers topped 7,281,000 (up +170k in the quarter vs +150k during Q4-2013).

O2 and BT Wholesale Sign UK Fixed Line and ICT Services Partnership

7th May, 2014 (0 Comments)

Mobile operator O2 UK might have sold off their fixed line Home Broadband and Phone customers to Sky Broadband (BSkyB) last year, yet a new 5-year partnership extension deal signed with BT Wholesale today means that the business side of their service(s) will continue to be expanded via a “fully-integrated suite of ICT services” to include mobile, Ethernet and FTTC “fibre broadband for the very first time“.

UK Mobile Virtual Network Operator OVIVO Pushed into Liquidation

7th May, 2014 (3 Comments)

Mobile operator OVIVO, which was supplied by Vodafone UK via Cognatel and recently shocked around 50k – 70k customers by suddenly closing its service, has now suffered the final nail in its coffin after officially entering liquidation. Unfortunately this means that subscribers who haven’t already got a refund now stand little hope of receiving one.

RightsCorp Threatens More Bullying Piracy Letters for UK Internet Users

7th May, 2014 (12 Comments)

The shadow of “speculative invoicing” could soon return to our shores after the US-based copyright enforcement agency RightsCorp, which monitors public P2P File Sharing traffic for “illegal” activity before pursuing related broadband ISP customers with financial settlement demands, confirmed that that they are “investigating a launch in Europe” and had received a “great reception” from interested groups in the United Kingdom.

Wireless Business ISP Urban WiMAX Moots Growth After Funding Boost

7th May, 2014 (0 Comments)

London-based business ISP Urban WiMAX, which specialises in delivering a mix of wired and or wireless (wimax and microwave) broadband / Ethernet solutions to around 500 customers, last month secured additional investment worth £2.15 million through Santander’s Breakthrough programme and is now planning for their future growth.

B4RN Beat BT to Connect First Premises to 1Gbps Broadband in Dolphinholme

7th May, 2014 (19 Comments)

The predominantly community funded and built B4RN (Broadband 4 Rural North) network, which is deploying a 1000Mbps capable “hyperspeed” Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH/P) broadband platform in parts of rural Lancashire (England, UK), has beaten BT’s rival 330Mbps FTTP deployment in Dolphinholme by being the first to connect the Village Hall and several houses to its service.

Cable ISP Virgin Media Reaches 4536200 UK Broadband Subscribers

7th May, 2014 (0 Comments)

Cable operator Virgin Media (Liberty Global) has today released their latest Q1-2014 (calendar) results, which reported that the provider’s total broadband ISP subscriber base had grown by +25,700 subscribers in the quarter (up from +21.9k in Q4-2013) to reach 4,536,200 customers. But rumours of a Virgin National (Virgin.net ADSL) sale continue to loom overhead.

UPDATE ASA Slap BT Broadband Checker for Misleading Speed Estimate

7th May, 2014 (26 Comments)

The Advertising Standards Authority has triggered some confusion after it ruled that an Internet download speed estimate provided by the superfast broadband BTInfinity (FTTC) “availability checker” on BT’s consumer website (bt.com) was “misleading” because the complainant could not receive the speed promoted. The ruling could also have repercussions for other ISPs.

First 2G and 3G Mobile Services Go LIVE in the Chunnels North Tunnel

6th May, 2014 (6 Comments)

Eurotunnel has today confirmed that Le Shuttle and High Speed Train commuters travelling along the Channel Tunnel (North Tunnel) route, which links the UK to France, can now access 2G and 3G based mobile phone and mobile broadband connectivity via EE and Vodafone (O2 will soon follow) thanks to a new fibre optic based GSP-P retransmission system. 4G is coming soon.

Arthur D.Little Report Warns FTTC Broadband is Not Future Proof

6th May, 2014 (19 Comments)

A new report from Arthur D.Little and Exane BNP Paribas, which examines the Capital Expenditure (Capex) of European telecoms operators, has warned that incumbent providers will face a growing divide versus cable and pure fibre optic (FTTH/P) ISPs because the cheaper and slower hybrid-cheap (FTTC) approach is “not future-proof“.

ITU Ranks UK 7th Globally for Fixed Broadband Subscriptions by Speed

6th May, 2014 (0 Comments)

The International Telecommunication Union has released its annual Information and Communications Technology (ICT) figures for 2014, which ranks the United Kingdom 7th for fixed broadband subscriptions by service speed. But it also appears to exclude a few big countries (e.g. Australia) and curiously lists France as 2nd from the top while Sweden and Japan’s national FTTH networks seem underrated.

BT Prepare Phase 2 Vectoring Trials to Boost UK FTTC Broadband Speeds

6th May, 2014 (31 Comments)

BTOpenreach has decided to extend their on-going trials of VDSL Vectoring (ITU-T G.993.5) technology into a second phase, which could improve the speeds delivered via BT’s existing “up to” 80Mbps hybrid-fibre (FTTC) superfast broadband network by helping to eliminate interference (crosstalk). But it might also push any future roll-out back to late 2014 or 2015.

UPD Virgin Media UK Launch Big Bundles of Quad Play Broadband and Mobile

6th May, 2014 (0 Comments)

Cable provider Virgin Media has announced that existing customers will today become the first who can order from their new range of customisable quad-play “Big Bundles“, which adds an optional mobile SIM tariff alongside the usual mix of superfast broadband, TV and fixed line phone services.