Broadband ISP WightFibre, which is investing around £85m to deploy a new 1Gbps Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network across the Isle of Wight (South Coast of Hampshire, UK), has confirmed to ISPreview.co.uk that some 26,000 premises have now been covered, and they expect to reach 41,000 by the end of 2021.

Mobile network operator Vodafone UK has today announced that they’ve teamed-up with Sim Local to “explore opportunities to collaborate” and drive customer adoption of eSIM technology, particularly across the global travel market.

Mobile operator Three UK has today announced the appointment of David Hennessy to be their new Chief Technology Officer (CTO). The new chief will oversee the company’s major £2bn+ investment programme that aims to build “the UK’s fastest 5G network” for mobile broadband services.

Broadband ISP CommunityFibre, which is currently deploying their 10Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network across parts of London, has today announced that they’ve joined forces with civil engineering firm Kelly Group to help deliver their goal of covering 1 million UK premises by the end of 2023.

Openreach (BT) has today announced that they will invest a further £100m+ (capital expenditure) over the next 12-months into Northern Ireland. The funding will help to expand the availability of their 1Gbps Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP network to another 100,000 premises, as well as to maintain their existing network.

Liberty Charge (Liberty Global), which is backed by Zouk Capital and leverages infrastructure from broadband ISP Virgin Media, has today announced that they’ve successfully completed their first UK installation of on-street electric vehicle charging points in the London borough of Waltham Forest. Many more will follow.

The London Internet Exchange (LINX), which through its switches handles a key chunk of UK and global data traffic from 965 members (broadband ISPs, mobile operators etc.), has today reported that they hit a new total traffic peak last week of 6.05Tbps (Terabits per second).

Some 13,200 homes in the large Derbyshire (England) market town of Chesterfield have just become the latest to benefit from the expansion of Virgin Media’s new Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) based broadband and TV network, which by the end of 2021 will be able to deliver gigabit speeds to locals.

A new study has analysed 6,148 mobile data (mobile broadband) plans from across 230 countries in order to compare the cost of a 1GB (GigaByte) data allowance, which found that the United Kingdom has seen its position fall from 59th last year to 78th in 2021, with an average price of USD $1.42 per GB (up from $1.39).

Fibre optic UK broadband ISP Grain Connect has announced that they’ve partnered up with Stewart Milne Homes in order to bring their 1Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network to new build homes in the small town of Auchterarder, which is situated in the Perth and Kinross region of Scotland.

At present Scotland doesn’t have too many alternative full fibre networks to call their own, but a relatively new ISP called GigaAir has a plan to change all that by deploying their own gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network to homes and businesses north of the border.

A new request to Ofcom for Code Powers from Liberty Property Co II Limited, which is a subsidiary of Liberty Global, has indicated that it intends to “utilise Virgin Media’s wholesale products” in order to facilitate the “construction and operation of a broadband network” across the UK.

The ongoing global shortage of semiconductor chips, which has so far hit everything from electric cars to graphics cards, is reportedly also causing huge delays in the market for broadband ISP and network routers. The situation could make it harder for providers to add new customers, replace faulty kit or launch new products.

Mobile operator Three UK has today kicked off what they’re calling the “Big Tech Giveaway,” which as the name suggests means that new customers taking one of their latest unlimited data (mobile broadband) tariffs and selected handset bundles will also receive a free gadget – ranging from smartwatches to smart speakers etc.

Full fibre UK broadband ISP Jurassic Fibre, which is working to deploy their own Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network across 350,000 premises in South West England, has recently appointed Steve Garrood to be their new Chief Commercial Officer (CCO).

Contract-free UK mobile operator VOXI, a sibling of Vodafone UK, has extended their special “VOXI For Now” tariff, which offers a 5G (mobile broadband) plan with unlimited data, calls and texts for just £10 a month, for up to 6 months, to anyone who has lost their job as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A new report from mobile benchmarking firm RootMetrics has used the data they gathered for their previous H2 2020 study (here) to rank 16 of the United Kingdom’s largest and fastest cities by their average (median) download speed on 4G and 5G networks. Liverpool came top with an aggregate speed of 43.6Mbps.