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Winter 2023 Update on Project Gigabit UK Broadband Rollout

27th Feb, 2023 (13 Comments)

The Building Digital UK team has today published their latest quarterly Winter 2023 update on the Government’s £5bn rural Project Gigabit broadband rollout scheme, which has so far awarded six contracts – worth £164.8m – and launched 14 further procurements with a combined estimated value of £906.7m.

Full Fibre Operator Freedom Fibre Awards Money from Community Fund

27th Feb, 2023 (3 Comments)

Network builder Freedom Fibre, which aims to cover over 2 million UK premises with their Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network and is being supported by ISP TalkTalk, has awarded thousands of pounds worth of grants to 13 local community schemes in some of the areas where their new infrastructure is being built.

Netomnia FTTP Broadband Rollout Targets Apartment Blocks

27th Feb, 2023 (19 Comments)

Network operator Netomnia – supported by UK ISP YouFibre – appears to have started to put more focus on extending their 10Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP / XGS-PON) broadband lines into large residential buildings (Multi-Dwelling Units), with MDUs in Liverpool expected to see quite a bit of work.

Starlink V2 Mini Satellites in SpaceX Packed Form

SpaceX Set to Launch First V2 Mini Starlink Broadband Satellites

27th Feb, 2023 (14 Comments)

Elon Musk’s SpaceX will today attempt to launch the first batch of its second generation “V2 Mini” (Bus F9-2) ultrafast broadband satellites into Low Earth Orbit (LEO), which add a bunch of new features that should help to improve the service for both consumers and businesses alike.

The Case of a 6 Year Wait for an Unfinished Openreach FTTP Build

25th Feb, 2023 (57 Comments)

In most cases, the UK roll-out and activation of a Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP network into a new area is a process that can take anything from a few months and up to 1-2 years. But spare a thought for those who get stuck with part-complete builds, such as in one Lancashire community, where it may take 6 years to finish.

UK ISP Vfast Pledges NO Mid-Contract Broadband Prices Hikes, EVER

24th Feb, 2023 (11 Comments)

Kent-based independent UK ISP Vfast (Orbital Net), which sells packages to homes via a mix of wireless (FWA) and full fibre (CityFibre and OFNL) broadband networks, has today committed to tackle the cost-of-living crisis by “[locking] in prices for all contracts, indefinitely” (i.e. no mid-contract inflation-linked increases, ever).

Boss of Liberty Global Slams Openreach’s “Desperate” FTTP Price Cuts

24th Feb, 2023 (63 Comments)

The CEO and Vice Chairman of Liberty Global (VMO2), Mike Fries, has told an investor meeting that Openreach’s recently announced FTTP broadband price cuts for UK ISPs (Equinox 2) are a “desperate and premature” move by BT, which he sees as an “overreaction to the market more broadly.”

INeedBroadband Expand FTTP Network in Nottinghamshire UK

24th Feb, 2023 (0 Comments)

The quirkily named ISP I Need Broadband (INB), which began building their own gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network around early 2021 (called “I-Fibre“), has ended a long period of silence by confirming that their new infrastructure has been expanded to cover several new areas in Nottinghamshire.

Broadband ISP KCOM Targets Net Zero Carbon Emissions by 2040

23rd Feb, 2023 (12 Comments)

Hull-based full fibre network builder and ISP KCOM, which serves much of East Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire in England, has today announced plans to reach Net Zero carbon emissions by 2040 – some ten years ahead of the UK Government’s official target.

Digital Greenwich Connect Map and Trevor Dorling

New Partnership Brings Full Fibre Network to Greenwich in London

23rd Feb, 2023 (2 Comments)

A new £2m Joint Venture involving broadband operator ITS Technology Group and DG Cities, an innovation company owned by the Royal Borough of Greenwich Council, has been established today to help commercialise a 21km long gigabit-capable full fibre network around the London borough of Greenwich – serving homes and businesses.

CityFibre Deal Extends FTTP Broadband to 5,000 Extra Bracknell Homes

23rd Feb, 2023 (0 Comments)

Network operator CityFibre has announced that they’ve signed a key wayleave agreement (land / property access) with Silva homes, which will see them add another 5,000 homes to their full fibre (FTTP) network coverage in the Berkshire (England) town of Bracknell (they’re already investing £20m on a larger deployment there).

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.