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Latest Key Developments

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Ofcom UK Approve Plan to BAN Some Mid-Contract Broadband Price Hikes UPDATE2

19th Jul, 2024 (25 Comments)

The UK telecoms regulator, Ofcom, has today finalised their earlier proposal to BAN phone, mobile, pay TV and broadband ISPs from doing mid-contract price hikes that are linked to inflation and percentage changes. The plan is to introduce this change from 17th January 2025, before the next round of annual price increases typically hit.

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King’s Speech Reveals Plans for New UK Cyber Security and Planning Reform Laws

17th Jul, 2024 (15 Comments)

The State Opening of Parliament – often referred to as the “King’s Speech” – took place today, which saw the new UK Government set out their agenda for the coming session. The speech included mentions of several bills that could potentially support the expansion of gigabit broadband and 5G mobile networks, as well as toughen cyber security and Digital Verification Services.

Peter Kyle UK Government MP for Labour at Desk - Twitter PR 06072024

Possible Broadband Boost as New UK Gov Looks to Unblock Planning UPDATE2

8th Jul, 2024 (22 Comments)

The new UK Government is off to a rapid start this week and has already appointed Peter Kyle (MP) to be the new Secretary of State at the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), which oversees many of the country’s public broadband and mobile infrastructure projects. But bigger news on planning is expected from the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, today.

EU Reveals 2024 Broadband and 5G Connectivity Progress vs UK

3rd Jul, 2024 (13 Comments)

The European Commission has this week published their annual 2024 ‘Broadband Coverage in Europe’ study, which reveals how the EU’s fixed gigabit broadband and 5G mobile networks compare across all of its 27 countries, plus Norway, Iceland, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

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Vodafone and Virgin Media O2 Sign UK Network Sharing Agreement

3rd Jul, 2024 (15 Comments)

Mobile network operators Vodafone and O2 (Virgin Media) have today announced a new 10-year network sharing agreement. Crucially, the deal also includes a provision for Vodafone’s proposed merger with Three UK (aka – MergeCo), which will enable the merged company to “participate” in the same network sharing deal and divest some radio spectrum to O2.

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Openreach Toughen Whereabouts Stance for Altnet UK Broadband Engineers UPDATE

29th Jun, 2024 (10 Comments)

Openreach (BT) has begun the process of toughening up their stance on compliance with their “whereabouts” rules. This could see them taking further contractual action against alternative UK broadband networks (altnets) that struggle to reach the necessary 90% performance threshold, which might eventually include restrictions on network access.

BT Does Deal to Share Rural UK Mobile Masts with O2 and Vodafone

29th Jun, 2024 (22 Comments)

BT (EE) has confirmed to ISPreview that they’re in advanced talks over a new agreement with rivals, including at least O2 (Virgin Media) and Vodafone, that will give them the ability to access some of EE’s mobile masts in remote locations. The deal may help to improve 4G (mobile broadband) coverage in Partial Not-Spot areas and tackle delays.

Netomnia and Brsk Leadership Teams by Vans

Brsk and Netomnia Agree Large UK Full Fibre Broadband Merger

15th Jun, 2024 (42 Comments)

As first rumoured on these pages during April 2024 (here), two of the markets largest alternative UK network operators – Netomnia (YouFibre) and Brsk – both of which have deployed a significant amount of Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP infrastructure to cover UK homes and businesses, have today formally agreed to merge.

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ISP Sky Broadband UK Deploying IP Address Sharing via MAP-T UPDATE

13th Jun, 2024 (11 Comments)

Some customers of Sky Broadband have noticed, via our forum (here), that the ISP has quietly deployed a modern type of Internet Protocol (IP) address sharing called MAP-T that seems to be a notable improvement on other sharing solutions, like the often maligned Carrier Grade Network Address Translation (CGNAT).

Scotland Tenders for £106m Gigabit Broadband Rollout in North East

31st May, 2024 (11 Comments)

The Scottish Government has issued a contract notice for the North East of Scotland (Lot 5) under the UK’s £5bn Project Gigabit broadband roll-out scheme, which is expected to expand related connectivity to an estimated 68,342 premises in hard-to-reach (rural) parts of Dundee, Angus, Aberdeenshire, Aberdeen City, Moray, Highland and Perth and Kinross.

PAC Warn Pace of Rural UK 4G Mobile Rollout Project is Unsustainable

29th May, 2024 (4 Comments)

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC), which is responsible for overseeing UK government expenditures to ensure they are effective, has warned that the current build pace of the £1bn industry-led Shared Rural Network project (i.e. extending 4G mobile (broadband) coverage to 95% of the UK by the end of 2025) “may not be sustainable“.

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Openreach Name 517 New UK Locations for FTTP Broadband Rollout

28th May, 2024 (79 Comments)

Network operator Openreach (BT) has today announced a HUGE update, which reveals the next batch of 517 new locations – covering 2.7 million UK premises – to benefit from their roll-out of a 1.8Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP network. The operator has already covered 14m premises, and this update largely completes their build plan to 2026.

Ofcom Fines BT £2.8m Over UK Customer Contract Info Failings UPDATE

22nd May, 2024 (13 Comments)

The UK telecoms, internet and media regulator, Ofcom, has today hit broadband ISP BT (including subsidiaries EE and Plusnet) with a fine of £2.8 million, which occurred after their investigation found the operator had “failed to provide” 1.1 million customers with clear and simple contract information before signing up to a new deal.

Openreach Update as Analogue UK Phone Switch Off Delayed to 2027 UPDATE

17th May, 2024 (46 Comments)

In case anybody missed it after being buried in yesterday’s BT results (here). The plan to withdraw BT and Openreach’s old copper-based analogue line services (PSTN phones and WLR), which was due to complete by December 2025, has been delayed until 31st January 2027 in order to give broadband ISPs, telecare providers and consumers more time to adapt.

BT Group Grows FTTP to 13.81m UK Premises as Openreach Picked for Project Gigabit

16th May, 2024 (13 Comments)

The latest BT Group H2 FY24 results to March 2024 reveal that Openreach’s UK full fibre (FTTP) broadband ISP network added 1 million premises to their coverage in the quarter to cover 13.812m, while EE’s 5G mobile covers 75% of the population (up from 72% in H1), the PSTN (analogue phone) migration won’t complete until Jan 2027 and Openreach is named “preferred bidder” for Type C Project Gigabit contracts.

Gov Expanding Gigabit Broadband Vouchers to UK Urban Areas

15th May, 2024 (9 Comments)

Sources have informed ISPreview that the Government’s Building Digital UK (BDUK) agency has decided to extend the availability of their Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme (GBVS) to include urban areas. The scheme has, until now, only offered grants to help rural properties get a 1Gbps capable ISP connection installed.

Ofcom UK Examine Future of TV Distribution in a Broadband World

9th May, 2024 (58 Comments)

The UK media and telecoms regulator, Ofcom, has today published an interesting new report for the Government that examines the future of TV distribution in an increasing broadband (internet) connected world and proposes how to address the inevitable tipping point – where Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) services risk become too expensive to sustain.