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Brace for HUGE UK Broadband and Mobile Price Hikes in 2022

28th Dec, 2021 (35 Comments)

The surge in UK inflation is threatening to result in one of the biggest annual price hikes in broadband ISP, phone, mobile and calling charges seen in years, which could hit customers of BT, EE, Plusnet, Vodafone, O2, TalkTalk, Shell Energy, KCOM and others with rises of around 9% come March-April 2022 (double the usual level).

Benchmarking Broadband ISP Speed Testers On a 10Gbps Line

29th Aug, 2021 (29 Comments)

At one point or another, most UK people will have probably attempted to run a web-based speed test on their broadband connection, but have you ever wondered how well some of the most popular speed testing services do when confronted by a fully capable 10Gbps (Gigabits per second) service? For a bit of fun, we tried to find out.

The Top 3 Do’s and Don’ts When Broadband ISP Engineers Visit

28th Aug, 2021 (39 Comments)

Over the years we’ve reported a lot on UK consumer experiences with broadband engineers, both good and bad alike. So just for fun we thought it might be interesting to ask a bunch of engineers from different operators what were the top 3 things they really appreciated, and 3 they don’t, when visiting customers.

Do UK Broadband ISPs Need a New Approach to Price Hikes

11th Jul, 2021 (31 Comments)

Price hikes are fairly common amongst all of the largest UK broadband ISPs, which tend to increase what they charge by an average of c.4-6% with every passing year, albeit often via a mix of very different and changeable approaches. But is it time for the industry to start considering a more predictable and standardised approach?

ISP Choices on Openreach’s UK FTTP Broadband Network 2021

29th May, 2021 (34 Comments)

In this short article we attempt to clear up some of the confusion over ISP choices on Openreach’s new Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) based “ultrafast broadband” (100Mbps+) network, which usually occurs once people realise that it’s not yet available from all the UK market’s internet providers.

USB vs WiFi – Tethering 4G Broadband to a Laptop via Android Phones

6th Apr, 2021 (18 Comments)

A lot of UK people have tried tethering their Smartphone’s mobile broadband (4G, 5G) connection to a laptop by using the ‘Wi-Fi Hotspot‘ feature, but not everybody is aware that you can do the same thing by using a wired USB-C cable. As a bit of fun we decided to find out if tethering via a wired link is any better than a wireless one.

How Much Does 1Gbps UK Home Broadband Cost – ISPs Compared

3rd Apr, 2021 (96 Comments)

At present a mass of rival networks are currently deploying gigabit-capable home broadband services across the United Kingdom and, as part of that, we thought it might be interesting to take a snap-shot of how much each ISP charges for their top 1Gbps (average 900Mbps+) tier. In the future we’ll look back on this to see how they change.

2020 vs 2019 – UK Broadband and Mobile Speeds vs the World

30th Dec, 2020 (29 Comments)

We thought it might be interesting to end 2020 by looking at how the United Kingdom’s position has changed since 2019, at least in terms of the top 50 fastest countries for both fixed broadband and mobile broadband (4G, 5G) speeds. Overall the UK jumped from 52nd to 42nd for mobile, while we fell from 45th to 47th for fixed lines.

The High Cost of Broadband for USO Excluded UK Communities

30th Aug, 2020 (58 Comments)

The elephant in the room of the UK Government’s broadband centric Universal Service Obligation (USO) has always been the fact that it isn’t truly “universal” and tens of thousands of premises have fallen outside of its scope. In other words, getting a minimum speed of 10Mbps can become very expensive for some.

H1 2020 – Full Fibre Broadband Covers 87% of New Build Homes

24th Aug, 2020 (0 Comments)

The latest independent H1 2020 study of broadband coverage among UK new build homes has indicated that 87.3% of houses constructed this year were connected to a “full fibre” (FTTP) broadband ISP network (up from 83% in H2 2019), which rises to 97.6% for 30Mbps+ “superfast broadband” services (up from 96%).

2020 H1 – UK Gigabit Broadband Covers 22% as FTTP Hits 14.8%

7th Jul, 2020 (23 Comments)

The latest independent model has estimated that the H1 2020 coverage of “full fibre” (FTTP) broadband ISP networks across the UK has risen to 14.8% of premises (up from 11% in H2 2019), while 61.7% can get 100Mbps+ (up from 59.3%) and 22.1% are within reach of “gigabit” (1Gbps) speeds.

H1 2020 – Fastest National UK Mobile and Home Broadband ISPs

29th Jun, 2020 (1 Comment)

Once again we’ve taken our biannual look back to see how average download and upload speeds have changed across the fastest nationally available fixed line ISPs and mobile operators. Overall the COVID-19 crisis has produced a broad downward trend in H1 2020, but Virgin Media remains top for fixed lines and EE top for mobile.

optical_fibre_black_broadband_cable_illustration

Summary of UK FTTP Broadband Build Progress by ISP UPDATE412

30th Apr, 2020 (16 Comments)

A couple of years ago we published a ‘Summary of FTTP Rollout Plans‘ and since then many more alternative network (altnet) ISPs have entered the UK market. As such we felt as it might be useful to produce a more comprehensive update on current progress and providers for 2020 and beyond (we’ll try to keep this up-to-date).

How to Choose an External 4G or 5G Mobile Broadband Antenna

11th Apr, 2020 (75 Comments)

Most of us are lucky enough to live within reach of a fairly strong UK mobile broadband (3G, 4G or 5G) network signal but that isn’t true everywhere, particularly in some remote rural areas. Sometimes the best way to receive a stronger signal is to try installing your own external antenna, but knowing what to get can be tricky.

Cityfibre on the Challenges of Copper to Full Fibre Migration

28th Feb, 2020 (23 Comments)

Cityfibre has provided ISPreview with an update on their on-going ‘Copper to fibre switchover‘ consultation, which considers the question of retiring Openreach’s (BT) old copper telephone lines in favour of “full fibre” (FTTP) broadband, albeit from the perspective of an alternative network provider.

New home being built with bricks on white background

H2 2019 – Full Fibre Broadband Covers 83% of New Build Homes

25th Feb, 2020 (31 Comments)

The latest independent H2 2019 analysis of broadband coverage among UK new build homes has indicated that 83% of houses constructed last year were connected to a “full fibre” (FTTP) broadband ISP network (up from 73% in 2018), which rises to 96% for 30Mbps+ “superfast broadband” services (up from 95% last year).

Is UK 5G Mobile Dangerous to Human Health? A Fact Check

7th Feb, 2020 (89 Comments)

Lately we’ve heard a lot of remarks like this: “5G harms human health“, “5G kills bees“,”5G causes cancer“, “overwhelming evidence says 5G is dangerous” and “we have no evidence this technology is safe.” Such statements are often being repeated in opposition to new UK mobile masts, but are they right and should we be concerned.