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Lords Make Changes to Telecommunications Infrastructure Bill

30th Jun, 2020 (9 Comments)

The UK House of Lords has made a couple of key amendments to the Telecommunications Infrastructure (Leasehold Property) Bill (here), which aims to make it significantly easier, quicker and cheaper for “gigabit-capable” broadband ISPs to access big apartment blocks (MDU) when “rogue landlords” fail to respond.

Broadband ISPs Respond to Boris Johnson’s Call to Build, Build, Build

30th Jun, 2020 (60 Comments)

The UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, has today pledged to accelerate new infrastructure projects by establishing something called Project Speed to “scythe through red tape and get things done,” although unfortunately the announcement was rather short on specifics (or anything truly new) for broadband and mobile.

Openreach Recruit 100 Extra N.Ireland Engineers to Boost FTTP

30th Jun, 2020 (3 Comments)

Network access provider Openreach (BT) has announced that, as part of their rapid UK roll-out of “gigabit-capable” Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP technology in Northern Ireland, they are going to recruit a further 100 engineers before the end of March 2021.

ISP Origin Broadband Launch UK Pay TV Service with Netgem TV

30th Jun, 2020 (13 Comments)

Customers of UK ISP Origin Broadband are to be offered a new Pay TV service after IPTV supplier Netgem TV announced that it had just launched their “largest deployment deal to date” with the internet provider, which is being bundled alongside their broadband and phone packages with prices from £12.99 per month.

Vodafone Say 5G to Boost UK Economy by £158bn Over 10 Years

29th Jun, 2020 (8 Comments)

Vodafone has published a new report from WPI Economics, which perhaps predictably forecasts that the cumulative gains of UK businesses moving from 4G to 5G (mobile broadband) could produce an economic boost of more than £38bn by 2025, plus £120bn between 2025 to 2030 (total productivity-based boost of £158bn).

Fears of More Broadband Delays in Scotland from Gigaclear’s Lawsuit

29th Jun, 2020 (19 Comments)

At the end of last year the Scottish Government revealed that LOT 1 of their £600m R100 (Reaching 100%) project, which had given BT “preferred bidder” status and was aiming to extend “superfast broadband” (30Mbps+) coverage, had become the subject of a legal challenge by Gigaclear. Sadly the case is now threatening more delays.

Virgin Media UK Refresh Bundles and Add 600Mbps Broadband UPDATE2

29th Jun, 2020 (86 Comments)

Cable and full fibre broadband ISP Virgin Media UK has done exactly as we reported a couple of weeks ago (here) and today made their 516Mbps tier available as a standalone package for the first time (no TV bundle required). At the same time they’ve also bumped the top speed of their Ultimate Oomph TV bundle to 600Mbps.

O2 UK Extends 4G Mobile to 91,000 Extra Postcodes in 2020

29th Jun, 2020 (11 Comments)

Mobile operator O2 has announced that they now have 4G (mobile broadband) coverage in over 18,000 regional UK towns, villages and hamlets (many of them rural), which follows a service upgrade across over 91,000 postcodes since the start of 2020; including almost 400 tourist hotspots “ahead of a record staycation summer.”

H1 2020 – Fastest National UK Mobile and Home Broadband ISPs

29th Jun, 2020 (1 Comment)

Once again we’ve taken our biannual look back to see how average download and upload speeds have changed across the fastest nationally available fixed line ISPs and mobile operators. Overall the COVID-19 crisis has produced a broad downward trend in H1 2020, but Virgin Media remains top for fixed lines and EE top for mobile.

Lords Tell UK Gov to Stop Pandemic of Internet Misinformation

29th Jun, 2020 (9 Comments)

A new cross-party report from the House of Lords Digital Technologies Committee has called on the UK Gov to ensure that their future Online Harms Bill can tackle the rising “pandemic of misinformation” on the internet, which they warn is a “threat” to democracy. More censorship and blocking by broadband ISPs is proposed.

West Sussex UK Boosts Rural Gigabit Broadband Vouchers to £4k

26th Jun, 2020 (4 Comments)

The West Sussex County Council has joined other parts of the UK in helping to top-up the Government’s £200m Rural Gigabit Connectivity (RGC) programme with some of their own funding, which more than doubles the maximum value of vouchers to help local homes get a “gigabit-capable broadband” service installed.

Sky and Virgin Media Wave Goodbye to Disney UK TV Channels

26th Jun, 2020 (60 Comments)

Disney has confirmed that it will soon no longer be possible to watch their linear TV channels via Sky (Sky Broadband) or Virgin Media after carriage talks failed to produce an agreement. Instead the channels will be moved to the company’s new Disney+ video streaming service from 1st October 2020.

Government to Splash £500m on OneWeb Broadband Satellites

26th Jun, 2020 (30 Comments)

The UK Government will reportedly invest around £500m (equity) into British-registered space company OneWeb as part of a wider private-sector consortium bid. The firm has been busy building a global network of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites for ultrafast broadband, but as part of the deal it may have to deliver GPS too.

TalkTalk’s Wi-Fi Hub Router Now Available to Biz Customers

26th Jun, 2020 (18 Comments)

New customers of UK broadband ISP Talk Talk Business may be pleased to learn that they too can now access the provider’s latest “best-ever” Wi-Fi Hub (Sagemcom F@st 5364) router, which was first launched for their residential subscribers (here) all the way back in May 2018. At least it looks identical to us.

Complaints Handler Ombudsman Services Returns to Normal

25th Jun, 2020 (2 Comments)

Consumer complaints handler firm Ombudsman Services, which is an Ofcom approved Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) provider for UK broadband ISPs and mobile operators, has announced that it will return to normal requirements and timelines at the beginning of July 2020, following the COVID-19 crisis.

O2 UK Finally Refunds Mobile Customers.. AFTER 15 YEARS

25th Jun, 2020 (23 Comments)

Mobile operator O2 (Telefonica UK) has refunded a number of their customers for over-charging following a double “billing issue“, which wouldn’t be nearly so interesting if it wasn’t for the fact that the problem itself occurred over 10 years ago (i.e. some refunds are from as far back as 15 years). Better late than never? That’s a stretch.

copper vs fibre optic openreach engineer

Ofcom Consults on Openreach UK Copper Retirement Process

25th Jun, 2020 (52 Comments)

The UK telecoms regulator has today opened a short consultation on their proposal to push back some key decisions regarding the retirement process for Openreach’s (BT) copper lines in favour of fibre optic broadband. In short, Ofcom wants to see a bit more FTTP roll-out take place first (for experience), before they set out a final plan.