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Virgin Media O2 Sees Project Lightning Add 3 Million UK Premises

2nd Nov, 2022 (15 Comments)

The latest Q3 2022 results from broadband ISP and mobile giant VMO2 (Virgin Media and O2) has seen their fixed broadband base reach 5.63m customers (up by 19.1k in Q3 vs 16k in Q2), while their gigabit network coverage added 115,000 premises (3 million delivered via Project Lightning) and 5G is available in over 800 towns and cities.

Broadband ISP ZYBRE Adopts F&W Networks UK Full Fibre Service

2nd Nov, 2022 (0 Comments)

Broadband and Cloud Gaming ISP ZYBRE has announced that they’ve joined the F&W Networks platform, which offers access to other UK ISPs via wholesale. The move will give them access to F&W’s existing FTTP deployments in parts West Sussex, Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Surrey.

Openreach Launch Pilot of 1.2Gbps and 1.8Gbps FTTP Broadband Tiers

1st Nov, 2022 (96 Comments)

Openreach has today officially announced the launch of their new pilot for UK broadband ISPs, which will test faster download speeds of 1.2Gbps and 1.8Gbps on their Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) lines. The service will also be accompanied by two new optical modems (ONT) from Nokia G-010G-T and ADTRAN SDX 611Q.

AltNet UK Broadband ISP Freedom Fibre Launch Community Fund

1st Nov, 2022 (0 Comments)

Network builder and ISP Freedom Fibre, which has a long-term aspiration to reach over 2 million properties with their Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network, has today launched a new community fund that will invest thousands of pounds in “environmental projects” across areas where it is building.

Ofcom Wants to be Notified of More UK Network and Internet Disruption

1st Nov, 2022 (1 Comment)

Ofcom has proposed to update their existing Network and Information Systems (NIS) guidance in order to require that UK Operators of Essential Services (OES), such as top-level domain name registries, DNS (domain name systems) providers and IXP (internet exchange) operators, inform them of less severe outages.

Openreach Extend FTTP Rollout Deal with Morrison Telecom Services

1st Nov, 2022 (5 Comments)

Civil engineering company Morrison Telecom Services (MTS), part of the M Group Services, will continue to support Openreach’s ongoing rollout of Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP technology after the pair agreed to sign a new 3-year contract.

Ofcom UK Give the Kiss of Death to FAX Services on BT and KCOM

1st Nov, 2022 (2 Comments)

The UK communications regulator, Ofcom, has today officially proposed to remove the requirement for telecoms operators to provide FAX (facsimile) services under their legally-binding Universal Service Obligation (USO), which only applies to BT and KCOM.

Cityfibre Purle Optical Fibre Cable and Engineer

Cityfibre Invest £30m to Build FTTP Broadband in Warwick and Leamington Spa

1st Nov, 2022 (0 Comments)

Cityfibre has today confirmed that they’ll invest £30m to rollout their gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) based broadband ISP network to cover “almost every home and business” in the two neighbouring towns of Warwick and Leamington Spa in Warwickshire (England).

Rural UK ISP Alncom to Cover 50,000 Premises with FTTP Broadband

1st Nov, 2022 (0 Comments)

Alnwick-based broadband ISP Alncom has announced that they’ve secured enough funding to be able to expand the coverage of their gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network across 50,000 premises in the North East of England (up from 25,000), with a focus on Northumberland, County Durham and the Scottish Borders.

Truespeed Add 12 Areas in South West England to Full Fibre Build

1st Nov, 2022 (3 Comments)

Rural broadband ISP Truespeed, which is rolling out a new gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network across parts of South West England, has today announced that they’re investing £22m to extend their deployment across 12 new locations in parts of South Gloucestershire, North Somerset and Bath.

ISP Zzoomm Expands UK FTTP Broadband Rollout into Wiltshire

1st Nov, 2022 (1 Comment)

UK ISP Zzoomm has revealed that they’re expanding the rollout of their new gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network further south to include the county of Wiltshire (England). The first location to benefit from this will be the town and civil parish of Calne.

ISP Virgin Media O2 UK Confirms New Broadband Speed Boosts UPDATE

1st Nov, 2022 (69 Comments)

UK ISP Virgin Media (VMO2) has today confirmed that both new and existing customers of their fixed line broadband packages, specifically those on their M100 and M200 tiers, will benefit from a modest boost to their download and upload speeds. As a result, M100 is being renamed to M125 and M200 becomes M250.

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).

Virgin Media O2 UK Puts Possible £3bn TalkTalk Merger on Ice

31st Oct, 2022 (12 Comments)

A major newspaper has reported that Virgin Media (VMO2) has allegedly gone cold on the idea of reaching a £3bn merger deal with budget UK ISP TalkTalk, which would have added the provider’s broadband base of over 4.2 million to their own base of 5.6 million in order to more effectively compete with BT.

BT’s October 2022 Progress Update on 10Mbps UK Broadband USO

31st Oct, 2022 (9 Comments)

UK ISP BT has issued the latest biannual October 2022 update on the progress they’ve made in delivering the 10Mbps Universal Service Obligation (USO) for broadband, which confirms that they’ve so far built a USO connection to over 5,900 premises (up from 4,600), with more than 2,000 further builds in progress (down from 2,300).

Virgin Media O2 UK Celebrate 1 Million Volt Broadband and Mobile Customers

31st Oct, 2022 (12 Comments)

Broadband ISP Virgin Media UK and mobile operator O2, which not so long ago agreed a £31bn mega merger to become VMO2, have today celebrated after managing to attract 1 million customers to take-up their first joint product (bundle) under the ‘VOLT’ title – just one year after launching it.

ISP TalkTalk UK Closes “Obsolete” UFO Full Fibre Product in York

31st Oct, 2022 (19 Comments)

Customers on TalkTalk’s 944Mbps Ultra Fibre Optic (UFO) broadband service in the City of York, which is a full fibre (FTTP) network that was originally launched in 2015 as part of a partnership with Sky Broadband and Cityfibre (here), have been informed that the “trial” service is now “coming to an end” because its “equipment is obsolete“.

fibre optic uk network cable flay glowing - 123rf

VXFIBER and Council Owned ISP Extend FTTP Broadband to Wivenhoe UPDATE2

31st Oct, 2022 (3 Comments)

Network builder VXFIBER UK has announced that they’ve joined forces with the local authority owned ISP Colchester Fibre (part of Colchester Amphora Trading) to make their gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network (dedicated point-to-point fibre) available to over 3,500 homes and businesses in the town of Wivenhoe.