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Latest Key Developments

Voneus Drops Out of Project Gigabit Broadband Contract for Mid West Shropshire

20th Dec, 2024 (9 Comments)

In an unexpected development, the Government’s Building Digital UK (BDUK) agency has just announced that rural broadband ISP Voneus have “mutually agreed to terminate” the £12m (state aid) Project Gigabit broadband roll-out contract for Mid West Shropshire (Lot 25.01), which would have expanded a full fibre (FTTP) network to 6,000 premises in hard to reach areas.

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Ofcom Publish New Online UK Internet Safety Codes of Practice

16th Dec, 2024 (20 Comments)

Ofcom has today published the “first edition” of its new online UK safety codes of practice for “tech firms” (e.g. social media) and smaller websites under the government’s Online Safety Act (OSA). Providers now have 3 months to ensure they’re able to tackle “illegal harms” (content), such as terror, hate, fraud, child sexual abuse and assisting or encouraging suicide.

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Ofcom Report 506,000 UK Homes Now Take Social Broadband Tariffs

12th Dec, 2024 (0 Comments)

The UK telecoms regulator has today published their annual 2024 Pricing Trends Report, which among other things confirms that the take-up of cheaper social broadband ISP and mobile tariffs for those on state benefits has jumped to 506,000 customers in June 2024 (up from 380,000 in Sept 2023). But that’s still just 9.6% of eligible households (e.g. those on Universal Credit).

Scotland Tenders for £40.7m Gigabit Broadband Rollout in Orkney and Shetland

12th Dec, 2024 (4 Comments)

ISPreview has spotted that the Scottish Government (SG) yesterday issued a contract notice for the Orkney & Shetland (Lot 6 – Scotland) deployment under the UK’s £5bn Project Gigabit broadband roll-out scheme, which is expected to expand full fibre (FTTP) connectivity to an estimated 13,550 premises in hard-to-reach (rural) parts of the remote Northern Isles.

Openreach Reveal Annual 2024 UK Broadband and Ethernet Price Rises for ISPs

11th Dec, 2024 (2 Comments)

Network access provider Openreach (BT) has today started to unveil their usual round of annual (2024) price increases across their wholesale broadband and Ethernet products for UK ISPs, which touches on everything from full fibre (FTTP) lines to hybrid fibre (FTTC / SOGEA), Cablelinks and Ethernet, among other products.

Vodafone and Three UK Mega Mobile Merger Gets Final Approval UPDATE

5th Dec, 2024 (88 Comments)

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has today finally granted approval for mobile operators Vodafone and Three UK to proceed with their merger deal (here), which will result in an expansion of their 5G Standalone (SA) network (broadband) coverage. But the merged company will have to comply with new legal obligations and consumer pricing controls.

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Ads Watchdog Updates UK Guidance on Mid-Contract Broadband Price Hikes

29th Nov, 2024 (11 Comments)

The UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has today updated their guidance for how broadband ISPs, phone, pay TV and mobile operators should communicate mid-contract prices hikes to consumers. The change is primarily intended to align their policy with Ofcom’s imminent ban on mid-contract price hikes that are linked to inflation and percentage changes.

November 2024 BDUK Update on UK Project Gigabit Broadband Rollout

27th Nov, 2024 (4 Comments)

The Government’s Building Digital UK agency has published its latest quarterly November 2024 progress update on the £5bn Project Gigabit broadband rollout scheme, which now has “over” 30 live contracts in place across England and Wales – supporting planned deployments of gigabit-capable broadband to around 1 million premises.

Gov Launch £3.5m UK Rural Broadband Trials of Hybrid Networks

27th Nov, 2024 (2 Comments)

The UK Government (DSIT, UK Space Agency) has today announced the launch of a new £3.5m “Very Hard to Reach Programme“, which will conduct three projects that seek to use hybrid networks (e.g. a mix of satellite, fixed wireless and 5G/6G mobile technologies) to help improve broadband connectivity in remote rural areas.

Top 10 Fastest and Slowest Streets for UK Broadband in 2024

25th Nov, 2024 (18 Comments)

New research from Broadband Genie has analysed 207,711 internet speed tests in order to identify the top slowest and fastest ten UK streets for broadband. The slowest street was found to be Greenfields Road in Bishop Auckland (average downloads of 0.35Mbps), while the fastest was Tynemouth Street in London (921.76Mbps). But this isn’t the full story.

Northern Ireland Tenders for £81m Project Gigabit Broadband Rollout

12th Nov, 2024 (0 Comments)

The Building Digital UK agency and Department for the Economy (DfE) have this week begun the supplier procurement phase of their future Project Gigabit broadband roll-out for Northern Ireland, which values the contract at up to £81m (state aid) and could potentially achieve almost universal coverage of 1000Mbps+ broadband speeds.

Virgin Media O2 Adopt New UK Pricing Policy for Broadband, TV and Mobile UPDATE

11th Nov, 2024 (53 Comments)

Broadband and mobile operator Virgin Media and O2 (VMO2) have today become the latest ISP to adopt Ofcom’s new guidance on inflation-linked annual broadband price rises. In practice, this means that new and re-contracting (upgrading) customers will be hit by a flat price increase of up to £3.50 (monthly) each April.

CMA Give Provisional Green Light to Vodafone and Three UK Merger UPDATE2

5th Nov, 2024 (56 Comments)

The Competition and Markets Authority has today appeared to give a “provisional” approval to Vodafone and Three UK’s recently tabled commitments (here) under their proposed merger (here), which were intended to placate concerns that the deal could result in a “Significant Lessening of Competition” (SLC) in the mobile market. But it will require changes.

Devon and Somerset UK Broadband Project Scales Back Airband Rollout UPDATE

31st Oct, 2024 (33 Comments)

The state-aid supported Connecting Devon and Somerset (CDS) programme has suffered yet another problem with one of their rural broadband contracts, which occurred today after they announced that their full fibre roll-out deal with Worcestershire-based Airband was being “scaled back” following its underperformance.

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Autumn UK Budget 2024 Commits £500m to Broadband and Mobile UPDATE4

30th Oct, 2024 (6 Comments)

The new Chancellor of the Labour Government, Rachel Reeves MP, has today announced her first Autumn 2024 Budget and confirmed that she would commit “over £500m of funding next year” for “improving reliable fast broadband and mobile coverage across our country, including in rural areas“.

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Telecoms May Benefit from Gov’s New British Infrastructure Taskforce

19th Oct, 2024 (6 Comments)

The UK Government has launched a new British Infrastructure Taskforce (BIT), which is intended to attract more private investment by encouraging businesses to help design future infrastructure policy. In theory, this could be of some benefit to broadband and mobile (digital infrastructure), although the announcement doesn’t give specifics.

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Gigabit Broadband Coverage Reaches 85 Percent of UK Premises

7th Oct, 2024 (26 Comments)

New independent data has revealed that 85.06% of premises across the United Kingdom can now access a gigabit-capable broadband ISP connection (1000Mbps+), which is up from 80% at the end of 2023 and means the first target under the Government’s £5bn Project Gigabit programme has likely been achieved. The figure drops to 70.84% when only looking at full fibre (FTTP) lines.