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Latest Key Developments

NAO Warn GBP1bn UK Rural 4G Mobile Rollout is Facing Delays

22nd Feb, 2024 (9 Comments)

The UK’s independent public spending watchdog, the National Audit Office (NAO), has today published a new report into £1bn industry-led Shared Rural Network project (i.e. extending 4G mobile / broadband cover to 95% of the UK by the end of 2025), which finds that it’s “behind schedule” and at risk of cost overruns.

Quickline Win GBP60m Yorkshire UK Gigabit Broadband Rollout Contract UPDATE

22nd Feb, 2024 (2 Comments)

The Government’s £5bn Project Gigabit broadband rollout scheme has today awarded the £60m (state aid) regional contract for West Yorkshire, parts of North Yorkshire and East Riding in England to UK ISP Quickline, which will aim to extend their full fibre network to “around” 28,000 additional premises in hard to reach rural areas.

Virgin Media O2 Engineers Holding Fibre Cables

Virgin Media O2 Takes UK Fibre Broadband Network Wholesale

16th Feb, 2024 (88 Comments)

Broadband ISP Virgin Media (VMO2) and its shareholders (Liberty Global and Telefónica) have this afternoon finally announced plans to “create the biggest direct network challenger to BT Openreach in UK history“, which for the first time will open their existing fixed line broadband network up to wholesale by other internet service providers.

finger touching fiber optic on technology background

Broadband AltNets Setup New UK Infrastructure Sharing Group

14th Feb, 2024 (10 Comments)

The Independent Networks Co-operative Association (INCA), which represents some of the UK’s alternative broadband networks, has helped to setup a new Infrastructure Sharing Group (ISG) to ensure that the rollout of full fibre (FTTP) is “not held back by inconsistencies in the availability of Openreach physical infrastructure“.

consumer switching uk broadband and phone

Ofcom Pressures Big UK ISPs to Set New Broadband Switching Date

13th Feb, 2024 (7 Comments)

The UK telecoms regulator, Ofcom, has written a new letter that singles out big ISPs, including BT, Sky Broadband, TalkTalk and Virgin Media (VMO2), for being too slow to implement their One Touch Switch (OTS) system, which aims to make it quicker and easier for consumers to switch providers on different networks.

Openreach Confirm UK Launch of 1.8Gbps and 1.2Gbps FTTP Tiers UPDATE

13th Feb, 2024 (197 Comments)

After a lengthy pilot programme, Openreach (BT) has finally revealed the commercial launch date and final pricing for their faster Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband tiers, which from 1st April 2024 will make it possible for UK ISPs to push their top download speeds to 1.2Gbps and 1.8Gbps (both 120Mbps upstream) to consumers.

Ofcom Investigate Virgin Media UK Over Digital Phone Migrations

9th Feb, 2024 (21 Comments)

The UK telecoms regulator, Ofcom, has this morning announced that they’ve opened a new investigation into broadband ISP Virgin Media’s migration of customers from analogue to IP-based digital landlines. The case will look at whether they’ve been treating vulnerable consumers correctly and “ensuring uninterrupted access” to emergency services.

Virgin Media UK Launch 2Gbps Broadband and Symmetric Speeds UPDATE2

7th Feb, 2024 (109 Comments)

Broadband ISP Virgin Media (VMO2) has this morning announced that they’ve become the first “major” UK internet provider to publicly launch a residential 2Gbps broadband package (Gig2 Full Fibre). On top of that, they’re also introducing symmetrical download and upload speeds as an optional add-on. But initially only for nexfibre areas.

Connexin Win Gigabit Broadband Rollout for Nottinghamshire and West Lincolnshire

6th Feb, 2024 (2 Comments)

Network operator and UK ISP Connexin has today announced that they’ve secured a contract under the Government’s £5bn Project Gigabit broadband rollout programme, which will see them extend their Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network to 34,320 hard to reach premises in parts of Nottinghamshire and West Lincolnshire (Lot 10).

CityFibre Win Five Big UK Project Gigabit Broadband Contracts

6th Feb, 2024 (55 Comments)

CityFibre has today secured another five of the UK government’s Project Gigabit broadband rollout contracts, totalling over £394m. The deals will spread their full fibre (FTTP) ISP network to over 202,000 hard to reach premises across parts of Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, Berkshire, Leicestershire, Warwickshire, Sussex, Kent, Bedfordshire, Northamptonshire & Milton Keynes.

EE Complete First Phase of Shared UK Rural 4G Mobile Upgrade

16th Jan, 2024 (5 Comments)

Broadband ISP and mobile operator EE (BT) has today announced that they’ve completed – six months ahead of schedule – the first phase of their roll-out under the £1bn industry-led Shared Rural Network (SRN) project, which aims to extend geographic 4G (mobile broadband) coverage (aggregate) to 95% of the UK by the end of 2025.

Government Confirms Gigabit Broadband Covers 80 Percent of UK

15th Jan, 2024 (21 Comments)

The Government has today confirmed that 80% of the United Kingdom now has access to a gigabit-capable broadband ISP network, which marks good progress on their way to achieving at least 85% coverage by 2025, and then “nationwide” (c.99%) coverage by 2030. But most of the progress so far has been fuelled by commercial builds.

A Look at UK Domain and IP Address Seizures in the Criminal Justice Bill

12th Jan, 2024 (16 Comments)

The new UK Criminal Justice Bill (CJB), which was first tabled in parliament toward the end of last year, includes a number of interesting new powers that can force Regional Internet Registries, Local Internet Registries or Internet Service Providers (ISP) to suspend internet domain names and IP addresses used for criminal purposes.

Major UK Home Phone Providers Commit to Protect Vulnerable Users

18th Dec, 2023 (26 Comments)

The UK government has this morning announced the signing of a new charter with major broadband ISPs and landline phone providers, including Sky Broadband, BT, Virgin Media (O2) and TalkTalk, which sets out “new measures” to protect vulnerable customers when upgrading phone lines to a new digital (IP / VoIP based) network.

Winter 2023 BDUK Update on UK Project Gigabit Broadband Rollout

15th Dec, 2023 (3 Comments)

The Building Digital UK agency has released their Winter 2023 (Dec) progress update on the £5bn Project Gigabit broadband rollout scheme, which is so far running live contracts and procurements worth over £2bn in state aid to help extend coverage to an extra 1.1 million hard to reach premises.

network cables and fiber optic closeup with keyboard background

Connect Fibre Win Derbyshire UK Gigabit Broadband Rollout Contract

15th Dec, 2023 (1 Comment)

The UK Government’s £5bn Project Gigabit broadband rollout scheme has today announced that they’ve awarded the regional £33m (state aid) rollout contract for Derbyshire (LOT 3) in England to ISP Connect Fibre, which will aim to extend their full fibre network to an additional 17,000+ premises in hard to reach rural areas.

UK Gov Confirm Scotland to Get £450m for Gigabit Broadband Upgrade

14th Dec, 2023 (5 Comments)

The UK Government has finally revealed that Scotland’s share of the £5bn Project Gigabit broadband rollout scheme will be an “estimated” £450m, although market engagement work is ongoing (i.e. getting feedback from suppliers) and has yet to reach the procurement stage – this was originally supposed to happen in the autumn.