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Latest Key Developments

COVID-19 – Openreach Limit UK Broadband ISP and Phone Work UPDATE

24th Mar, 2020 (78 Comments)

In a significant development Openreach (BT) has issued a status of Matters Beyond Our Reasonable Control (MBORC) across a variety of popular products, which from 23:59 tonight will effectively stop, limit or delay many new broadband and phone provisions (installs), repair jobs and engineer appointments on a “national basis.”

10Mbps UK Broadband Universal Service Obligation to Go Live UPDATE3

19th Mar, 2020 (98 Comments)

The UK Government’s new legally-binding Universal Service Obligation (USO) for broadband – supplied by ISPs BT and KCOM – will tomorrow go live. The aim is to ensure that anybody living in a digitally disadvantaged area can request a “minimum” download speed of at least 10Mbps (1Mbps upload), but there are caveats.

Ofcom’s Plan to Measure the 4G UK Mobile Coverage Obligation

18th Mar, 2020 (4 Comments)

The telecoms regulator, Ofcom, has today revealed some more details about the new £1bn Shared Rural Network (SRN), which aims to extend UK geographic 4G mobile coverage to 95% by the end of 2025, and explained how they will assess the compliance of O2, Vodafone, Three UK and EE (BT) with those commitments.

Government Push Gigabit Broadband into New Build UK Homes

17th Mar, 2020 (11 Comments)

The UK Government’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) has today unveiled new legislation, which will effectively make it mandatory for property developers to ensure that almost every new home is built with support for “gigabit-speed” (1Gbps) broadband ISP connections “fit for the future.“

Ofcom UK Publish 5G Auction Rules for 700MHz and 3.6-3.8GHz

13th Mar, 2020 (6 Comments)

The UK telecoms regulator has today finalised their rules for this year’s forthcoming auction of the 700MHz and 3.6-3.8GHz radio spectrum bands, which hopes to boost new 5G mobile network coverage and mobile broadband speeds further into the Gigabit-capable (1000Mbps+) territory.

Operators Sign £1bn Deal for 95% Geographic UK 4G Cover by 2026

9th Mar, 2020 (11 Comments)

Mobile operators BT (EE), Vodafone, O2 and Three UK have today reached a final agreement on costs to support the Government’s £1bn Shared Rural Network (SRN) plan, which will work to extend geographic 4G mobile (mobile broadband) coverage to 95% of the UK by the end of 2025. But one aspect may have been watered down.

Cityfibre Confirm 62 UK Areas for £4bn FTTH Broadband Rollout

6th Mar, 2020 (37 Comments)

Full fibre builder Cityfibre has today confirmed that an additional 36 UK cities and towns have been added to their 1Gbps Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) broadband roll-out programme (total of 62), which working with ISPs like Vodafone and TalkTalk aims to eventually cover 8 million premises by 2025 or a bit later.

Boris’s Gigabit Broadband for All UK by 2025 Aim Faces Inquiry

5th Mar, 2020 (31 Comments)

A cross-party group of MPs (select committee) has today launched a new inquiry, which will examine how “realistic” the Government’s challenging “ambition” is for ensuring that every home and business in the United Kingdom can access a “gigabit-capable broadband” service by 2025. It will also look at the role of 5G mobile.

Virgin Media Insources Home Engineers and Sign £500m Build Deal

3rd Mar, 2020 (14 Comments)

Cable ISP Virgin Media UK has today announced that they’ve awarded a series of new regional build contracts for their gigabit-capable broadband and TV network to 6 national partners (worth £500m per year). On top of that they’ve also brought more than 700 customer-facing engineers back in-house to improve customer service.

New UK Homes Ombudsman’s Remit to Cover Broadband Speed

26th Feb, 2020 (6 Comments)

The UK Government has confirmed its intention to launch a ‘New Homes Ombudsman’ in order to protect homebuyers from “rogue” developers and their shoddy work, but if you look deep into the text this also appears to include tackling complaints related to “broadband performance.” Sadly the details are extremely vague.

Ofcom Warns Major UK Broadband ISPs Over Charging for Email

22nd Feb, 2020 (74 Comments)

Buying your own email address from a dedicated UK web hosting provider is cheap (c.£1-3 a month), unless you’re a former broadband ISP customer of BT (£7.50) or TalkTalk (£5) where in order to keep your address you can end up being charged significantly more for an often inferior product. Ofcom isn’t happy.

Government Hand £65m to New UK 5G Mobile Broadband Trials

20th Feb, 2020 (5 Comments)

The UK Government has today announced £65m in public funding to help conduct “innovative” new R&D trials of 5G style applications and specific wireless broadband connectivity solutions, which among other things includes £30m for nine projects under the Rural Connected Communities (RCC) programme.

Three UK to Go Live with Ultrafast 5G Mobile at 65 Locations

14th Feb, 2020 (120 Comments)

After a delay Three UK (Hutchison 3G UK) has this morning announced the launch of their 5G mobile network for Smartphone users, which will be available across busy parts of 65 new locations from the end of this month. Previously they’d only been able to launch the network on their dedicated Mobile Broadband service.

End of Contract Letters to Start for UK Mobile and Broadband ISPs

14th Feb, 2020 (22 Comments)

Starting tomorrow all fixed broadband, mobile, home phone and pay TV providers will be required to implement Ofcom’s end-of-contract notification system (sent by text, email or letter), which is designed to help tackle the so-called “loyalty penalty” by keeping customers informed about the best deals and encouraging switching.

Government to Unveil £40m for UK Rural 5G Broadband Pilots

10th Feb, 2020 (17 Comments)

The UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, is today reportedly gearing up to announce a fresh round of new capital investment in major infrastructure projects (HS2 etc.), which is expected to include a pot of £40 million to support pilots of superfast 5G based wireless (mobile) broadband in rural areas.

network cables closeup with fiber optical background

Welsh Government to Open Cable Ducts for Fibre Broadband

7th Feb, 2020 (2 Comments)

The Welsh Government (WG), which is currently working with Openreach (BT) to extend gigabit-capable”full fibre” (FTTP) broadband to a further 26,000 premises by March 2021 (here and here), has announced that they intend to open some of their own telecoms ducts up for use by ISPs to help boost connectivity and capacity supplies.

Ofcom Toughens Personal UK Broadband ISP Speed Estimates

30th Jan, 2020 (30 Comments)

Ofcom has today announced that they intend to toughen their existing Broadband Speed Code of Practice, which among other things requires UK ISPs to supply consumers with a personal estimate of their broadband line speed before buying. Under the new change this estimate will become more accurate, but there’s a catch.