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Headaches for UK ISPs as Telecoms Security Bill to Become Law

9th Nov, 2021 (15 Comments)

The UK Government’s new Telecommunications (Security) Bill (TSB) is set to become law after passing through both houses of parliament this month, but it goes much further than just banning Huawei from the UK’s 5G mobile networks. Broadband ISPs, both big and small alike, also face a cacophony of tedious new rules.

Virgin Media O2 Upgrade 90 Percent of UK Network to 1Gbps

9th Nov, 2021 (48 Comments)

Broadband ISP Virgin Media (VMO2) has today switched-on gigabit broadband capability (1130Mbps downloads and 52Mbps up) for another 1.6 million UK homes, which means more than 90% of their entire network has now been upgraded to the DOCSIS 3.1 standard. The remaining 1.2 million should follow by the end of this year.

BT Phone Box payphone booth evolution 2021

Ofcom Moves to Protect 5,000 UK Payphone Boxes from Closure UPDATE

9th Nov, 2021 (4 Comments)

The UK telecoms regulator, Ofcom, has today announced that they intend to protect around 5,000 “vital phone boxes” from closure by BT and KCOM, but only those that are truly still needed by local communities. Without such protection, some of those phone boxes considered “vital” would still have been set for removal.

ISP Baltic Broadband Introduce Baltic Backpack to Fix Connectivity

8th Nov, 2021 (6 Comments)

Business ISP Baltic Broadband, which typically offers a mix of fixed wireless and full fibre broadband to firms in the Liverpool area, has introduced an unusual new product called the ‘Baltic Backpack‘ – designed to be introduced to tackle areas of slow or failed broadband, seemingly by harnessing multiple cellular networks.

Broadband ISP TalkTalk Bundles Cheaper Netflix without Pay TV

8th Nov, 2021 (10 Comments)

Budget UK ISP TalkTalk has today introduced a new package that bundles a home “Fibre Broadband” (FTTC / VDSL2) service with a cheaper subscription to Netflix’s popular internet video streaming service, albeit without requiring new customers to take out a traditional Pay TV service first in order to benefit.

Dorset Project Demos Satellite Backhaul from a 5G Standalone Network

8th Nov, 2021 (3 Comments)

The 5G RuralDorset project, which is testing various 5G based mobile voice and broadband technologies alongside existing fibre cables, claims to have achieved a “world-first” by demonstrating satellite backhaul from a 5G Standalone network (i.e. using satellite to keep the connection live when terrestrial mobile fails).

WightFibre’s Full Fibre Build Tops 30,000 Isle of Wight Premises

8th Nov, 2021 (4 Comments)

Broadband ISP WightFibre has revealed that their £85m project to deploy a new 1Gbps Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network across the Isle of Wight (South Coast of Hampshire, UK) has now covered “over” 30,000 premises, which is up from 26,000 in April (here), albeit still short of their 41,000 goal for the end of 2021.

Virgin Media O2 UK Update on Wholesale and FTTP Upgrade Plan

8th Nov, 2021 (23 Comments)

The CEO of Liberty Global, Michael Fries, has given an update on Virgin Media’s (VMO2) aspiration to launch a wholesale product for UK ISPs and their plan to upgrade existing Hybrid Fibre Coax (HFC) areas with XGS-PON based Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband. A trial of the latter is now taking place at 50,000 homes in 3 locations.

BT Test Robots to Help Build and Fix UK FTTP Broadband Ducts

8th Nov, 2021 (5 Comments)

Telecoms giant BT has confirmed that they’re working with the UK university sector and other utilities to develop and trial a new range of robots, which they hope could be used by Openreach and others to help speed up the rollout of gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP networks and fix them when broken.

Update on IPv6 Plans for Virgin Media, TalkTalk, Plusnet and Vodafone

6th Nov, 2021 (63 Comments)

A number of our readers have been asking for an update on the progress being made by several major UK broadband ISPs, including TalkTalk, Vodafone, Plusnet and Virgin Media (VMO2), toward the deployment of the “new” IPv6 internet addressing standard. Sadly only one provider was able to give a rough launch date.

Gigaclear Complete GBP21m West Oxfordshire Full Fibre Rollout

5th Nov, 2021 (4 Comments)

Some 16,000 extra premises across rural parts of West Oxfordshire in England can now access a gigabit speed Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network after Gigaclear completed its local project, worth £21m, in the district. The area has now also achieved almost universal (99%+) coverage of “superfast broadband” (30Mbps).

ISPA Name Winners of the 2021 UK ISP Internet Industry Awards

5th Nov, 2021 (2 Comments)

The UK Internet Service Providers Association (ISPA) last night unveiled the winners of their 23rd annual 2021 internet industry and broadband awards, which among other things saw B4RN walk away with the award for “Best Rural ISP“, while CommunityFibre scooped both the “Best Consumer ISP” and “Best Ultrafast ISP” awards.

Former Complete Utilities Staff Seek to Sue Failed Company

4th Nov, 2021 (11 Comments)

The collapse of UK civil engineering firm Complete Utilities this week (here), which disrupted ISP Gigaclear’s rollout of gigabit-capable broadband, resulted in around 300 staff being told via email that they no longer had a job. In response, an unspecified number of those former employees are attempting to sue the firm.

fullfibre van and engineer working picture

FullFibre Ltd to Plant a Tree for Every UK FTTP Broadband Order

4th Nov, 2021 (8 Comments)

Network builder FullFibre Limited, which is working to deploy their 1Gbps Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP network across “at least” 500,000 premises by 2025, has today responded to the COP26 event by pledging to plant a tree for every new order placed for their service via Fibre Heroes.

Ofcom UK Expands the Range of Indoor Mobile Signal Boosters

4th Nov, 2021 (5 Comments)

Ofcom has today confirmed that they will next year introduce new changes to help expand the range of licence exempt “mobile phone repeaters” for UK consumers to adopt, which can be used in locations where people want to boost mobile signals for indoor and in-vehicle (low gain) use.

CityFibre Digger and Driver Picture 2021

CityFibre Begin GBP12m FTTP Broadband Rollout for Horsham

4th Nov, 2021 (14 Comments)

CityFibre has today announced that they’ve begun to rollout their 1Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP network for local homes in the West Sussex market town of Horsham, which is home to a population of around 51,000 and is expected to cost the operator £12 million to complete.

Brsk’s FTTP Broadband Network Goes Live in Town of Keighley

4th Nov, 2021 (4 Comments)

Full Fibre UK ISP Brsk, which recently began to build a new gigabit-capable and “open access” Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network across parts of West Yorkshire and Lancashire in England (here and here), has now started to connect their first customers in a second town – Keighley.