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Latest Key Developments

UK Broadband and Mobile Providers Balk at Ofcom’s Call for Battery Backup

7th Aug, 2024 (24 Comments)

The UK telecoms regulator, Ofcom, has published some of the responses they’ve received from fixed broadband ISPs and mobile operators to their consultation on enhancing network resilience in order to “reduce the risk of network outages“ (here). Suffice to say that many operators are balking at the costs of deploying national battery backup.

Scotland Partly Pauses R100 Gigabit Broadband Voucher Applications

6th Aug, 2024 (1 Comment)

The Scottish Government (SG) has confirmed to ISPreview that they will be introducing a “temporary pause” on Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme (SBVS) applications for gigabit-capable projects covering multiple premises, which is intended to ensure the “best use of public funds” and to help “deliver an optimised roll out schedule“.

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Welsh Government Suspends ABC Broadband Voucher Scheme

3rd Aug, 2024 (3 Comments)

The Welsh Government (WG) has chosen to “pause” their long-running Access Broadband Cymru (ABC) grant scheme, which offered funding to help rural homes get a faster broadband service installed in areas of slow connectivity. But given the greater focus on gigabit-capable connections, ABC was starting to look a bit dated.

Internet Danger Websites with Scam Ads and Malware

Ofcom Orders UK Phones Providers to Add Tougher Scam Call Blocking

29th Jul, 2024 (10 Comments)

The telecoms regulator, Ofcom, has today given UK phone providers (fixed line and mobile) six months to implement changes that aim to help tackle scammers who call from abroad and imitate UK landline numbers (i.e. spoofed calls), which requires stricter measures against “Presentation Numbers” that are used to identify who is making a call.

Virgin Media O2 Reveals UK Plan for 2G Mobile Switch Off

23rd Jul, 2024 (37 Comments)

The CTO of network operator O2 (Virgin Media), Jeanie York, has today become the first UK mobile provider to set out their plans for withdrawing the old 2G service, which will see the first customers beginning to be moved off that platform in 2025. But they won’t be switching 2G off completely, at least not for a long time.

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Ofcom Review UK Mobile Licence Fees for 900MHz, 1800MHz and 2100MHz

23rd Jul, 2024 (1 Comment)

The UK telecoms regulator has announced that, following a request from BT, it has launched a review of the annual licence fees they charge mobile network operators (EE, Vodafone, Three UK and O2) for use of three popular mobile spectrum bands – 900MHz, 1800MHz and 2100MHz – supporting 2G, 3G and 4G (mobile broadband) services.

Ofcom Propose New Ban to Tackle Abuse of UK Mobile Networks

22nd Jul, 2024 (8 Comments)

Market regulator Ofcom has proposed to ban UK telecoms operators from leasing Global Titles – numbers like +44 (for the United Kingdom) that support mobile services – to third parties. This is because such leasing can be misused to try and intercept messages and calls, disrupt the operation of networks and track the location of users of other networks.

Ofcom UK Hit BT with £17.5m Fine for 999 Call Handling Fault UPDATE

22nd Jul, 2024 (17 Comments)

The national regulator, Ofcom, has this morning hit BT with a fine of £17.5m for being “ill-prepared to respond to a catastrophic failure of its emergency call handling service last summer” (here), which readers may recall occurred after a technical fault (“complex software issue”) resulted in 14,000 emergency calls being disrupted. The disruption lasted for 10.5 hours.

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Ofcom UK Approve Plan to BAN Some Mid-Contract Broadband Price Hikes UPDATE2

19th Jul, 2024 (25 Comments)

The UK telecoms regulator, Ofcom, has today finalised their earlier proposal to BAN phone, mobile, pay TV and broadband ISPs from doing mid-contract price hikes that are linked to inflation and percentage changes. The plan is to introduce this change from 17th January 2025, before the next round of annual price increases typically hit.

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King’s Speech Reveals Plans for New UK Cyber Security and Planning Reform Laws

17th Jul, 2024 (15 Comments)

The State Opening of Parliament – often referred to as the “King’s Speech” – took place today, which saw the new UK Government set out their agenda for the coming session. The speech included mentions of several bills that could potentially support the expansion of gigabit broadband and 5G mobile networks, as well as toughen cyber security and Digital Verification Services.

Peter Kyle UK Government MP for Labour at Desk - Twitter PR 06072024

Possible Broadband Boost as New UK Gov Looks to Unblock Planning UPDATE2

8th Jul, 2024 (22 Comments)

The new UK Government is off to a rapid start this week and has already appointed Peter Kyle (MP) to be the new Secretary of State at the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), which oversees many of the country’s public broadband and mobile infrastructure projects. But bigger news on planning is expected from the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, today.

EU Reveals 2024 Broadband and 5G Connectivity Progress vs UK

3rd Jul, 2024 (13 Comments)

The European Commission has this week published their annual 2024 ‘Broadband Coverage in Europe’ study, which reveals how the EU’s fixed gigabit broadband and 5G mobile networks compare across all of its 27 countries, plus Norway, Iceland, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

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Vodafone and Virgin Media O2 Sign UK Network Sharing Agreement

3rd Jul, 2024 (15 Comments)

Mobile network operators Vodafone and O2 (Virgin Media) have today announced a new 10-year network sharing agreement. Crucially, the deal also includes a provision for Vodafone’s proposed merger with Three UK (aka – MergeCo), which will enable the merged company to “participate” in the same network sharing deal and divest some radio spectrum to O2.

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Openreach Toughen Whereabouts Stance for Altnet UK Broadband Engineers UPDATE

29th Jun, 2024 (10 Comments)

Openreach (BT) has begun the process of toughening up their stance on compliance with their “whereabouts” rules. This could see them taking further contractual action against alternative UK broadband networks (altnets) that struggle to reach the necessary 90% performance threshold, which might eventually include restrictions on network access.

BT Does Deal to Share Rural UK Mobile Masts with O2 and Vodafone

29th Jun, 2024 (22 Comments)

BT (EE) has confirmed to ISPreview that they’re in advanced talks over a new agreement with rivals, including at least O2 (Virgin Media) and Vodafone, that will give them the ability to access some of EE’s mobile masts in remote locations. The deal may help to improve 4G (mobile broadband) coverage in Partial Not-Spot areas and tackle delays.

Netomnia and Brsk Leadership Teams by Vans

Brsk and Netomnia Agree Large UK Full Fibre Broadband Merger

15th Jun, 2024 (42 Comments)

As first rumoured on these pages during April 2024 (here), two of the markets largest alternative UK network operators – Netomnia (YouFibre) and Brsk – both of which have deployed a significant amount of Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP infrastructure to cover UK homes and businesses, have today formally agreed to merge.

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ISP Sky Broadband UK Deploying IP Address Sharing via MAP-T UPDATE

13th Jun, 2024 (11 Comments)

Some customers of Sky Broadband have noticed, via our forum (here), that the ISP has quietly deployed a modern type of Internet Protocol (IP) address sharing called MAP-T that seems to be a notable improvement on other sharing solutions, like the often maligned Carrier Grade Network Address Translation (CGNAT).