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Latest Key Developments

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.

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MP Criticises UK Gov Proposal to Spend Rural Broadband Money in Cities

7th Oct, 2024 (10 Comments)

The Shadow Technology Secretary, Andrew Griffith MP, has warned the new UK Government against a “shocking waste of taxpayers’ money” by potentially shifting public funding, which is currently earmarked for the rural-focused Project Gigabit broadband roll-out, and using it to help upgrade parts of major towns and cities (e.g. central London).

Vodafone and Three UK Set Out Competition Commitments for Merger UPDATE

30th Sep, 2024 (21 Comments)

Mobile network operators Vodafone and Three UK (CK Hutchison) have today responded to the recently raised competition concerns over their proposed mega-merger by setting out a series of commitments, which they hope will satisfy the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) enough to approve the deal.

Ofcom UK Probe Brsk Over Birmingham Deployment of Broadband Poles UPDATE

30th Sep, 2024 (3 Comments)

Network operator Brsk, which is in the process of being merged into Netomnia (here), are facing an investigation by Ofcom after the regulator suggested that the operator may have “failed to comply with its obligations” under Code Powers during the roll-out of new “telegraph poles” as part of their new full fibre (FTTP) broadband ISP network in Birmingham.

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Ofcom’s Roaming Rules Come into Force for UK Mobile Operators

30th Sep, 2024 (7 Comments)

The UK telecoms regulator, Ofcom, will tomorrow (1st Oct 2024) begin enforcing new roaming rules that require mobile network operators, such as Three UK, Vodafone, EE and O2 (including their many virtual / MVNO partners), to protect consumers who travel abroad from mobile BILL SHOCKS on data (broadband), call and text charges.

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Scotland to Require Gigabit Broadband for Almost All New Homes from 2025

21st Sep, 2024 (1 Comment)

The Scottish Government has finally caught up with similar legislation in England (here and here), which was introduced at the end of 2022, by effectively mandating that property developers must ensure their new build homes are constructed with support for gigabit-capable broadband connections. This will become effective from 1st January 2025.

Ofcom UK to Enforce Rules on Misleading Use of “Fibre” Broadband UPDATE

15th Sep, 2024 (68 Comments)

The UK telecoms and media regulator, Ofcom, will tomorrow begin enforcing new rules that will only allow broadband ISPs to use terms like “fibre” and “full-fibre” on their websites, and in contracts, if their network brings the fibre optic cables all the way to your home (i.e. FTTP, FTTH and also FTTB).

CMA Demands Changes for Vodafone and Three UK to Merge

13th Sep, 2024 (29 Comments)

The Competition and Markets Authority has this morning revealed their provisional view on the outcome of their in-depth Phase 2 investigation into the proposed merger between mobile operators Three UK and Vodafone. This warns that it will only be able to approve the deal if the pair agree to key concessions that protect consumer prices and network competition.

Ofcom Finds Three UK Misses First Rural 4G Mobile Coverage Target

12th Sep, 2024 (5 Comments)

The UK telecoms regulator, Ofcom, has today published its first report on the progress of the £1bn industry-led Shared Rural Network project (i.e. extending 4G mobile (broadband) to cover 95% of the UK by the end of 2025), which confirms that Three UK is the only mobile operator to miss the first coverage target for Partial Not-Spot (PNS) areas.

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Ofcom Launch Easier UK One Touch Broadband ISP Switching UPDATE

12th Sep, 2024 (20 Comments)

After over 17 months of delays, Ofcom’s new One Touch Switching (OTS) process for fixed line phone and broadband ISPs, which makes it quicker and easier for consumers to switch between providers on physically separate networks (e.g. Openreach to CityFibre or Virgin Media etc.), is today finally going LIVE. But don’t be surprised if your switch doesn’t use it, yet.