The UK government’s new £900m Getting Building Fund (GBF), which seeks to help create new jobs, skills and infrastructure across England in order to aid the recovery from COVID-19, has announced its allocations to various regions. A few of the projects also include funding for new gigabit broadband and “full fibre” networks.

Customers of low cost broadband ISP TalkTalk have started to spot that some of the pages on the provider’s website are pointing to future price rises, which are due to be introduced from 1st October 2020. The good news (unless they affect you) is that these only apply to optional (paid) boosts and call charges.

A seemingly growing number of Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) based broadband ISP customers, at various UK providers, have over the past few weeks reported that requests to upgrade (regrade) their service to a faster tier are being delayed. The finger of blame is being cast toward BT’s Wholesale division.

The UK telecommunications regulator, Ofcom, has launched a new discussion document that explores the potential impact of “personalised pricing” on broadband ISP, phone and mobile services (i.e. when providers adopt the ability to set different prices for different customers, based on individual characteristics).

UK ISP Giganet (M12 Solutions) has today launched a new residential division – Giganet Home. At the same time they’ve also expanded the availability of their Openreach based and 1Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband services to homes across the UK (initially it was only available to properties in Salisbury).

A recent update to Sky Broadband’s latest SR203/204 Sky Hub wireless router appears to have caused a bug for the ISP’s VoIP using customers, which results in a 1 hour time difference on DECT handsets that can sometimes prevent calls from reaching the customer. But a fix is coming, even if we don’t know when.

The Scottish Government has issued a small update on the progress of their £600m R100 (Reaching 100%) project with BT, which is working to extend “superfast broadband” (30Mbps+) coverage. The good news is that the first Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) build is about to begin, but the voucher scheme may be delayed.

Broadband and TV provider Virgin Media (Liberty Global) has today published their Q2 2020 results, which saw them add +39,200 new UK internet customers in the quarter (up from +8,200 last quarter) to total 5,318,400. At the same time their network coverage grew by 93,000 premises (unchanged).

Cable broadband ISP Virgin Media UK claims to have today become the UK’s “largest gigabit broadband network” after switching-on their DOCSIS 3.1 network upgrade in Leeds, Bradford, Glasgow and surrounding areas, which means that a total 3.6 million premises can now access their top Gig1 service (1104Mbps download and 52Mbps upload).

A new telecoms experience study from Quadient, which is based on an Opinium survey of 2,000 adults conducted during June 2020, has found that 33% of UK consumers suffered from a “bad internet connection” during lockdown (COVID-19). A reminder, perhaps, of the need to invest in reliable and resilient networks.

The UK telecoms regulator has today confirmed that their much delayed auction of the 700MHz and 3.6-3.8GHz radio spectrum bands, which could boost new 5G mobile network coverage and mobile broadband speeds further into the Gigabit (1000Mbps+) territory, will not now take its first bids until January 2021.

Business and residential ISP Glide, which has an ambition to cover 200,000 premises by the end of 2020 (mostly via fibre optic broadband solutions), has announced that it will be providing gigabit fibre connectivity to two business parks in Rainham, Essex.

Cityfibre, which is being supported by ISP partner Vodafone UK, has today confirmed that their £10m roll-out of a new 1Gbps Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) ultrafast broadband network in the Scottish city of Stirling has become their first completed “Gigabit City” project. But the build is set to see a £2m extension.

The CEO of Openreach (BT), Clive Selley, has warned that the UK Government’s proposed framework for how it intends to invest £5bn in order to ensure that “every home” can access gigabit-capable broadband (1Gbps+) by the end of 2025 is so complicated that it risks being turned into a “bureaucratic car crash.” Delays likely.

Broadband ISP Hyperoptic UK claims to have provided a “significant donation” to support the Birmingham Education Partnership, which among other things provides laptops to disadvantaged children in Birmingham (c.5,000 children in the city have been unable to access remote learning opportunities during lockdown).

The Group CEO of Sky (Sky Broadband), Jeremy Darroch, has quietly revealed to Comcast’s investors that their ISP division will debut “our broadband product to businesses” in the United Kingdom “later this year“, which will be followed by a full launch in 2021.

Rural operator Broadway Partners (ISP Broadway Broadband), which aims to roll-out their “gigabit-capable … fibre” network to cover 500,000 UK homes and businesses by the end of 2022, has announced a new £2m scheme to help improve connectivity across rural Monmouthshire in Wales.