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Quickline Kicks Off 2023 FTTP Broadband Build in Lincolnshire UK

23rd Feb, 2023 (2 Comments)

Rural-focused network builder and ISP Quickline, which last week unveiled their 2023 rollout plan for reaching 96 locations (55,000 premises) across Yorkshire and Lincolnshire with their full fibre (FTTP) broadband network (here), has today revealed that engineers are starting work in South Ferriby, Tealby and North Willingham.

Virgin Media O2 Bring 1Gb Broadband to 16 Million UK Premises

23rd Feb, 2023 (22 Comments)

The latest Q4 2022 results from UK ISP and mobile operator VMO2 (Virgin Media and O2) has seen their broadband base reach 5.653m customers (up by 22.7k in Q4 vs 19.1k in Q3), while their gigabit coverage added another 188,000 premises in the quarter to total 16.14 million (54% of the UK). Now comes Nexfibre.

Internet Danger Websites with Scam Ads and Malware

Hiya Claims UK is the Worst Place in Europe for Phone Fraud

23rd Feb, 2023 (5 Comments)

New data from caller ID verification firm Hiya, which also works with UK broadband ISP BT (EE) to help detect and block SPAM and fraud calls, has today claimed that 28% of non-contact calls in the United Kingdom were identified as spam in 2022. Plus, the UK also comes out as the worst in Europe for “phone fraud“.

ISP Toob Puts New 1Gbps Broadband Network Live in Fareham

22nd Feb, 2023 (6 Comments)

Alternative broadband ISP toob, which perhaps questionably claims to be “the UK’s fastest broadband provider“, has today announced that their new Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network in the Hampshire (England) market town of Fareham has started to go live for the first local homes.

Mobile giant Vodafone UK and Sky (Comcast) have reportedly two among several "groups" that have approached budget conscious fixed broadband ISP TalkTalk about a potential deal (most likely an acquisition), which in theory could create a much larger provider with more influence over the industry. Just to recap. In 2020 TalkTalk became the subject of a £1.1bn takeover by Toscafund - controlled by hedge fund tycoon Martin Hughes (here), which including debt valued the broadband provider at around £1.8bn. The deal took the ISP private and gave them more financial flexibility for their future plans. Since then, they've backed Freedom Fibre (here) and this week made the notable acquisition of Ethernet provider Virtual1 (here). According to the FT (paywall) and Sky News, TalkTalk is now said to have asked investment bank Lazard to review its options after allegedly being approach by several groups, including Vodafone and Sky (Sky Broadband). Lazard is a logical choice as they recently acted as Financial Advisor to TalkTalk on the Virtual1 transaction. Some industry analysts have reportedly suggested that TalkTalk itself could now be worth "at least" £3bn. But this seems rather optimistic for an ISP that doesn't have any significant fixed line broadband infrastructure to call its own (excluding their old unbundled LLU network) and largely just piggybacks off Openreach (BT), CityFibre and Freedom Fibre. But TalkTalk do have a strong business and wholesale side. Funnily enough, Sky Broadband are in a similar position with their own fixed line base, while Vodafone also likes to piggyback off Openreach and CityFibre. At present, Vodafone has a fixed broadband base of 991,000 customers, while Sky Broadband is estimated to be home to around 6.7 million and TalkTalk has approximately 4.2 million. Suffice to say, anybody gobbling up TalkTalk would instantly become a much larger provider, giving them a greater say in how the UK broadband market develops and more opportunities for convergence (Vodafone with mobile, and Sky with mobile and TV). Crucially, TalkTalk's consumer base is mostly made up of those on older copper and hybrid fibre lines (i.e. ADSL and FTTC / VDSL2), which are ripe for a future migration to FTTP. At the time of writing, all of the aforementioned operators have decline to comment on the reports, and TalkTalk has yet to receive any serious formal offers. In other words, we strongly suspect that this is largely just an exercise in spin to help TalkTalk drum up some more productive interest in the idea. But at the same time, it's not unreasonable to suspect that they might succeed, as the interest seems genuine. On the other hand, we see reports like this every year or so and only a very few ever convert into a serious offer. Time will tell. Much may depend upon whether or not TalkTalk’s new owners are more flexible and pragmatic about doing a deal than the previous lot. Arguably, TalkTalk might have gone much further by now had they taken some different decisions a few years ago (e.g. co-investing in FTTP instead of Pay TV).

Broadband ISP TalkTalk UK Predicts Data Traffic Growth to 2027

22nd Feb, 2023 (3 Comments)

UK ISP TalkTalk has revealed that peak internet usage on their broadband network is higher now than it was during the height of the pandemic, having risen by a fifth (21%) since 2020, with the average evening peak of 7.23Tbps (Terabits per second) in 2022 vs 5.95Tbps in 2020. But come 2027 it’ll be much higher.

Ookla Q4 2022 Study Sees Rise in UK Starlink Broadband Speeds

22nd Feb, 2023 (3 Comments)

Ookla, which runs the popular Speedtest.net service, has published their latest Q4 2022 report into the internet download, upload and latency performance for UK customers – and other countries – on SpaceX’s Low Earth Orbit (LEO) based Starlink ultrafast broadband satellites. The good news is that speeds seems to be rising again.

Broadway Partners Phil Siveter CEO Nokia UK and Steve Haines CEO Broadway Partners

Broadway Partners Adopt Nokia 10Gbps Full Fibre Kit for Scotland and Wales

22nd Feb, 2023 (0 Comments)

Network operator Broadway Partners (Broadway Broadband) has chosen Nokia to be the primary technology partner for their planned rollout of a new Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network in rural parts of Scotland and Wales, which aims to cover 250,000 premises by around 2028 (within 5 years).

Starlink Tests New Global Roaming Broadband Service

22nd Feb, 2023 (1 Comment)

SpaceX’s Starlink service, which uses a mega constellation of compact satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) to deliver ultrafast broadband speeds, has invited an unknown number of customers to trial a new “Global Roaming” service for the hefty price of $200 per month (c.£165) – plus $599 for the hardware.

BT Calls for Tax Relief to Aid UK FTTP Broadband and 5G Builds

22nd Feb, 2023 (8 Comments)

BT Group’s Chief Financial Officer, Simon Lowth, has today called on the UK government – ahead of next month’s 2023 UK Budget – to consider the introduction of “a much more competitive system of capital allowances” in order to help operators roll-out new gigabit-capable broadband and 5G mobile networks.

BT Sport TV and Eurosport UK Being Rebranded to TNT Sport

22nd Feb, 2023 (13 Comments)

Farewell BT Sport. Last year’s agreement between broadband giant BT and Warner Bros. Discovery, which resulted in a 50:50 Joint Venture (JV) company between BTSport and Eurosport UK, will now officially result in the channels being rebranded as TNT Sport for the UK and Ireland.

UK Gov Debates Surcharge-Free Mobile Roaming in Iceland and Norway

22nd Feb, 2023 (10 Comments)

The government began debating the Draft Trade (Mobile Roaming) Regulations 2023 in parliament yesterday, which at present represents an extension of the UK-Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein free trade agreement that contains provisions for regulating (capping) mobile roaming charges at wholesale (calls, texts and mobile broadband).

The First 6G Mobile Broadband Networks Could Surface in 2028

21st Feb, 2023 (27 Comments)

The Government of South Korea has set somewhat of a marker down for the world this week after announcing that they would aim to bring forward the timetable for launching the first commercial 6G based mobile network, which would see it being introduced from 2028 instead of 2030 (with pre-6G trials staring in 2026).

Lunar Digital Saves Equinix’s Manchester MA2 Data Centre from Closure

21st Feb, 2023 (2 Comments)

Back in early 2022 we reported on the impact of major data centre closures to UK full fibre broadband ISPs and other operators, which included mention of Equinix‘s plan to close their MA2 IBX data centre in Manchester by June 2023 (here). The good news today is that Lunar Digital has saved the data centre from its fate.

Welsh Full Fibre Broadband ISP Ogi Enhance Customer Support

21st Feb, 2023 (0 Comments)

Infracapital-backed network builder and broadband ISP Ogi, which is investing £200m to build a full fibre (FTTP) network across 150,000 premises in rural parts of Wales by 2025, has moved to “enhance its customer experience” by adopting Localz technology to improve how it handles end-user installations.

Virgin Media O2 UK Could Bid GBP100m for Full Fibre ISP Trooli

20th Feb, 2023 (53 Comments)

The parents of broadband, mobile and TV provider Virgin Media (VMO2) are allegedly exploring the possibility of a £100m bid to takeover Kent-based ISP Trooli, which is aims to deploy a gigabit-speed full fibre (FTTP) network to 1 million UK premises by the end of 2024 (in August 2022 they reported 275,000 completed).

Rural UK Broadband ISP Voneus Pick New Boss to Lead Gigabit Rollout

20th Feb, 2023 (2 Comments)

UK ISP Voneus, which is busy deploying both gigabit-capable Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) and Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband networks across rural parts of England and Wales, has decided to replace their current CEO and co-founder – Steve Leighton – with a new boss in the shape of Christopher Traggio.

Tesco Mobile Introduce UK Price Hikes – But Clubcard Users Have Options

20th Feb, 2023 (13 Comments)

Customers of UK mobile provider Tesco Mobile, which is a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) on O2’s (VMO2) platform, has confirmed that it will scrap last year’s fixed price promise for some customers and significantly increase their prices from April 2023. But those with Clubcards may still be able to take fixed price tariffs.