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Latest Key Developments

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 fibre optical background by 123rf

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.

Huawei You GO! UK Green Lights Firm for non-Core Telecoms Kit

28th Jan, 2020 (21 Comments)

After a protracted period of uncertainty the UK Government has today confirmed that kit from Chinese technology giant Huawei and other “high risk vendors” will be banned from the “sensitive” core of future UK 5G and “gigabit-capable” fixed broadband ISP networks, although non-core 5G kit (antennas, street cabinets etc.) will be exempt.

Openreach Add 227 Rural UK Areas to FTTP Broadband Rollout UPDATE

26th Jan, 2020 (107 Comments)

Network provider Openreach (BT) has announced that 227 new UK locations – 250,000 premises – are being added to the roll-out phase of their 1Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP technology, which this time appears to focus on some of the “harder to reach” villages, market towns and rural areas.

Ofcom UK Set Final Fairness Framework to Tackle Unfair Practices

23rd Jan, 2020 (1 Comment)

Ofcom has published their final Fairness Framework (guidelines) for UK providers of mobile, home phone, pay TV and fixed broadband ISPs, which have been designed to show consumers how the regulator will in future assess whether such providers, and the way they treat their customers, is fair (pricing, transparency, support etc.).

Cityfibre Buy FibreNation and Set 8 Million UK FTTH Homes Goal

21st Jan, 2020 (24 Comments)

UK ISP TalkTalk has today confirmed that their wholesale full fibre (FTTH) broadband network sibling – FibreNation – has been sold to the Goldman Sachs backed Cityfibre for £200m cash. In response Cityfibre has increased their fibre optic roll-out plan from 5 million UK premises by 2025 to 8 million.

Ofcom UK to Make 6GHz Band Available for Faster Home Wi-Fi

17th Jan, 2020 (7 Comments)

The UK telecoms regulator has today proposed to free up 500MHz of spectrum in the 6GHz frequency band on a licence-exempt basis so that it can be used by the latest WiFi networks (e.g. Wi-Fi 6 / 6E – 802.11ax), which would make such networks faster, more reliable and a bit more secure.

Government Changes UK Gigabit Broadband Voucher Rules

16th Jan, 2020 (48 Comments)

The Government has just approved some changes to the rules and eligibility criteria for both their £67m Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme (GBVS) and the £200m Rural Gigabit Connectivity (RGC) programme, which effectively harmonises both schemes and helps the funding get to the right areas.