Openreach (BT) has today announced that their “Fibre First” programme will cover the whole of Salisbury (Wiltshire, England) with Gigabit capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband technology and it will aim to do so within just 12 months, which could be the fastest city-wide network build in the UK so far.

The state aid supported £31m+ Better Broadband for Nottinghamshire project has launched a new interactive mapping tool, created by FarrPoint, that helps locals to identify whether they can now or will in the future be able to order a “superfast broadband” (30Mbps+) connection.

Telecoms giant BT (EE) has rejected an industry proposal from rival operators Three UK, Vodafone and O2 that would have aimed to improve national 4G network coverage via “rural roaming,” where signals in remote areas could roam onto whatever alternative network was available (like EU roaming).

Homes around part of Loch Striven (Argyll and Bute) in Western Scotland will soon be able to access “superfast broadband” speeds of up to 30Mbps, which comes after Sheffield-based ISP Whitespace Technology announced they would be deploying a new TV White Space (TVWS) using wireless network in the area.

The Government’s Innovate UK programme, which is being supported by CELTIC-NEXT, has today announced that it’s making £1 million available to help businesses looking to partner with international companies on 5G mobile Research and Development (R&D) projects.

Ofcom has opened a new probe today to investigate whether or not the Post Office, which among other things also offers broadband ISP and phone services to UK consumers, charged customers the correct amount for telephone calls using relay services (e.g. text relay calls).

British space company OneWeb has secured a further $1.25 billion (£940m) in new funding to support their plans for launching a massive constellation of compact low-latency ultrafast broadband satellites into circular Low Earth Orbit (LEO), which takes their total investment pot to $3.4bn (£2.57bn).

The UK Government has officially backed a bid to extend £18.7m of public funding so that it can be used to further extend “superfast broadband” (30Mbps+) in Devon and Somerset up to March 2023, which follows various historic and recent delays to the project’s roll-out plan. Sadly they’ve yet to resolve the Gigaclear situation.

The Better Broadband for Oxfordshire partnership with Openreach (BT) and Broadband Delivery UK has just installed its 600th street cabinet and is now within touching distance of brining fixed “superfast broadband” (24Mbps+) network coverage to 97% of local homes and businesses (up from 69% in 2012).

On 1st April 2019 the Scottish Government will go one big step further than the UK Government in Westminster by introducing 100% relief from business rates on new “fibre broadband infrastructure“. Better yet, the tax break is set to last for 10 long years until 31st March 2029.

The imaginatively named Exeter-based business ISP Full Fibre Limited, which currently claims to operate a core network between its two data-centres in London and fibre broadband access networks in Devon and Surrey, has revealed that they have tentative plans to expand their fibre network.

Mobile operator Three UK has launched a new Mobile Broadband plan that bundles “unlimited data” with the very latest Huawei AICubeB900 router for just £25 per month, which adds Amazon’s Alexa (Echo) AI smart speaker technology alongside the functions of a mobile WiFi router that can handle 64 simultaneous users.

RootMetrics (IHS Markit) has today published the results from their H2 2018 study into 4G and 3G mobile network performance across 16 of the United Kingdom’s “most populated metropolitan markets” (cities), which found that Coventry and Leicester were the best. Sadly London and Birmingham were the worst.

The CEO of Sky UK (Sky Broadband), Stephen van Rooyen, has written a letter to the heads of several alternative “full fibre” (FTTP) network ISPs, seemingly in the hope of opening talks that could result in new wholesale or other agreements to help “increase investment” and “bring ultrafast broadband to more homes.”

The CEO of UK fibre optic network builder Cityfibre, Greg Mesch, has today become the first person to receive the first Charles Kao Award at the annual FTTH Conference in Amsterdam, which recognises the “extraordinary contribution” of an individual to the acceleration of full fibre (FTTH / FTTB) broadband deployment.

Gaist has launched a new “highly detailed” map for use by installers of Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband networks, which claims to cover “over 200,000 kilometres of the country’s roads and pathways, using more than a billion high definition images to map the highway scape of every classified road in England.”

After years of waiting we’re pleased to report that the United Kingdom has finally been included into the FTTH Council Europe‘s annual 2019 country ranking, which lists the countries with the strongest subscriber penetration of “full fibre” (FTTP/H/B) ultrafast broadband ISP networks. Predictably.. we’re at the bottom.