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Shetland Expecting Fix for Broken Subsea Fibre Cable to Occur Next Weekend

18th Oct, 2025 (2 Comments)

Homes and businesses on Shetland, which is a remote UK subarctic archipelago that resides north of the Scottish mainland, could see the full restoration of local broadband services by around next weekend. Connectivity was disrupted earlier this month after Storm Amy caused damage to the main SHEFA-2 (Faroese Telecom) subsea fibre optic cable (here).

Derbyshire County Council Commits £900k to Plug Rural Broadband Gaps UPDATE

18th Oct, 2025 (0 Comments)

The Derbyshire County Council (DCC) in England has agreed to invest £900,000 to support the launch of two grant programmes, which will aim to improve broadband connectivity in at least some of the communities – predominantly rural ones – that are currently still expected to miss out on access to faster connections.

4th Utility Fibre Exploding in City Picture

Full Fibre Broadband ISP 4th Utility Sees UK Turnover and Take-up Surge

18th Oct, 2025 (0 Comments)

Network operator and broadband ISP 4th Utility, which have been quietly deploying their gigabit speed Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) service to UK homes (SDU) and large residential buildings (MDU), this week published their annual accounts for the year ended 31st March 2025 and reported a “doubling of monthly subscriptions sold through the year“.

Crossed BT Wires Led to Three Innocent UK People Being Accused of Child Abuse

17th Oct, 2025 (15 Comments)

A recently published judgement by the UK’s Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) has revealed the disturbing case of how a simple mistake by one of BT’s (Openreach) broadband engineers led to three people, who shared the same house, having their lives turned upside down after they were wrongly accused of child sex offences.

Altnet Broadband ISP Gigabit IQ to Crowdfund for Fresh UK Investment

17th Oct, 2025 (1 Comment)

Internet access and online security provider Gigabit IQ (formerly Grayshott Gigabit) has begun inviting selected people to invest in their company via crowdfunding, which they rightly warn is a “high risk investment” and one where those who make a commitment are “unlikely to be protected if something goes wrong“.

Broadband ISP Virgin Media UK Upgrades Customers to Hub 5 Router for Free

17th Oct, 2025 (33 Comments)

Customers of fixed broadband provider Virgin Media (O2) have today been informed that the ISP is “starting to upgrade” those with their older Hub 3 (TG2492S/CE) and Hub 4 (TG3492LG-VMB) Wi-Fi routers to its newer, more advanced Hub 5 device “at no extra cost“.

Scotland R100 and DSSB Subsea Fibre Map - Arrow Points to Tiree

Tiree Island Suffers Protracted Broadband Outage After Subsea Cable Break

17th Oct, 2025 (1 Comment)

Apparently, Shetland wasn’t the only remote UK island to suffer broadband and phone disruption (here) due to a broken subsea fibre cable after Storm Amy struck Scotland earlier this month. Homes and businesses on the tiny Inner Hebrides island of Tiree are suffering from a similar problem, but have been left with much more uncertainty over its resolution.

Ofcom Consult on Alternative UK Pricing for Openreach’s UK Fibre Broadband Products

17th Oct, 2025 (9 Comments)

The UK telecoms regulator, Ofcom, has today proposed changes under their 5-yearly Telecoms Access Review 2026 (TAR) to how they set charge controls and regulate the pricing of certain Openreach based fibre broadband (FTTC/P) products, such as the regulated 80Mbps (currently 40Mbps) wholesale tier and connection fees for FTTP lines.

openreach-engineers-on-a-rural-countryside-lane

Openreach Offers Free FTTP to UK Fixed Wireless Broadband ISP Users

17th Oct, 2025 (1 Comment)

Network operator Openreach (BT), which has recently taken some flak for its broadband discounts (here), have launched another somewhat curious new promotion for ISPs that cuts the rental charge on all New to Network (NTN) full fibre (FTTP) lines to £0 for the first 12 months when the customer originates from a Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) service.

Broadband ISP Ogi Expand Full Fibre Spine to Connect More Cardiff Businesses

16th Oct, 2025 (2 Comments)

Infracapital-backed alternative network operator and ISP Ogi, which has deployed their FTTP broadband network across 100,000 homes and businesses in South Wales (RFS), has managed to expand their full fibre spine in Cardiff to reach more businesses following an earlier deal to hook up Cardiff Arms Park as an anchor tenant.

BT-Group-2024-name-on-side-of-office-building

BT Group Appoint Greg McCall as New UK Chief Security and Networks Officer

16th Oct, 2025 (0 Comments)

Telecoms giant BT Group has today announced the retirement of industry veteran Howard Watson as its Chief Security and Networks Officer (CSNO), which will take effect in March 2026. Greg McCall, the operator’s current Chief Networks Officer (CNO), will be promoted to replace him – effective 1st January 2026.

BT Group Warn UK Gov Not to Choke Broadband Investment with Biz Rates Hikes

16th Oct, 2025 (19 Comments)

The Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of BT Group, Simon Lowth, has called on the UK government to “rethink” its proposed changes to UK business rates, which they warn could “risk a slowdown” in digital infrastructure (broadband and mobile) investment and lead to “higher bills” for consumers and businesses.

Beaminster Car Crashed into Openreach Pole

Car Crash Knocks Out Openreach Broadband and Pole in Dorset UK Town UPDATE2

16th Oct, 2025 (23 Comments)

Hundreds of people in the Dorset town of Beaminster have reportedly been left without working broadband and digital phone connectivity for several days after a car crashed into one of Openreach’s telecoms (telegraph) poles in the area and promptly burst into flames. Police are currently still trying to locate the driver, which could suggest a criminal aspect.

O2 UK Nokia Massive MIMO Paddington Mast

Virgin Media O2 UK Trial mmW 5G Band for Broadband Speeds of 4Gbps UPDATE

16th Oct, 2025 (0 Comments)

Mobile operator O2 (Virgin Media), which just spent £13m to secure 800MHz (frequency) of 26GHz (band) spectrum and 1,000MHz of 40GHz spectrum in Ofcom’s auction of the two 5G centric millimetre wave (mmW) bands (here), has revealed that a test of the new spectrum has already delivered mobile broadband speeds of 4Gbps (4,000Mbps).

Ofcom Reveal Initial Results of UK 5G Mobile Auction for 26GHz and 40GHz

16th Oct, 2025 (12 Comments)

The UK communications regulator, Ofcom, has this morning revealed the initial (principal stage) results from their auction of the 26GHz and 40GHz millimetre wave (mmW) spectrum bands for use by 5G mobile (mobile broadband) operators, which saw EE (BT), O2 (Virgin Media) and Vodafone (VodafoneThree) pay a combined £39m to secure more airwaves.

University of Portsmouth Team Get £772k to Develop Subsea Cable Surveillance

15th Oct, 2025 (1 Comment)

A scientist from the University of Portsmouth’s School of Mathematics and Physics has successfully bid for £772,372 of funding from the Lloyd’s Register Foundation, which will be used to design a surveillance algorithm and maritime training programme to help identify, repair and reduce damage to undersea infrastructure (e.g. energy pipes and fibre optic internet cables).

Freely’s UK Broadband TV Streaming Service to Get 10 New Channels

15th Oct, 2025 (13 Comments)

Broadband-based live TV streaming service Freely, which is supported by several major UK TV broadcasters (BBC, ITV etc.) and is an evolution – not (yet) a replacement – for the existing Freeview service (inc. Freeview Play and Freesat), has revealed that they’ll add 10 new streaming channels to the free platform in 2026.