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Articles for Category Tag - Openreach

Norfolk UK Confirm GBP5.3M Clawback Boost for Fibre Broadband Rollout

3rd August, 2015 (6 Comments)

The Better Broadband for Norfolk project in England has become the first individual Broadband Delivery UK scheme to confirm that the clawback mechanism in its contract with BT will result in an additional £5.3 million being returned to further improve superfast broadband (24Mbps+) coverage.

BT Reach 7.8M Broadband Customers and 80 Percent UK Fibre FTTC Cover

30th July, 2015 (3 Comments)

BT has released the latest results for Q2-2015 (calendar) and confirmed that their retail business added +85K new broadband subscribers in the quarter (down sharply from +121K in Q1) to total 7,798,000, which includes 3,226,000 on BTInfinity “fibre broadband” (up by +217K vs +266K in Q1). Incidentally FTTC/P is now available to 23 million premises (80% of the UK).

BT Escape Latest Ofcom UK FTTC Margin Squeeze Test Unscathed

29th July, 2015 (1 Comment)

The telecoms regulator has re-run its FTTC / VULA “margin squeeze” test, which was introduced earlier this year as a mechanism for keeping BT’s “fibre broadband” prices fair by ensuring they “maintain a sufficient margin between wholesale and retail … charges“, and found that the operator is not in breach.

France Rules Against Misuse of “Fibre Optic Broadband” in ISP Adverts

29th July, 2015 (9 Comments)

The debate over whether or not broadband ISPs that don’t sell a pure “fibre optic” (FTTH/P) broadband connection should be allowed to use such terminology in their adverts is nothing new, but a new ruling by the Government of France shows that some countries are taking a stand.

Vodafone UK Report 70K Fixed Broadband Users and Moot National FTTH

25th July, 2015 (14 Comments)

Mobile giant Vodafone UK has just reported their latest results to the end of June 2015 (Q2), which reveals that their fixed broadband customer base has increased by +4,000 to total 70,000 and 4G subscribers have grown from 3M in Q1 to 4.7M now, with related outdoor network coverage reaching 68%.

BT’s “Fibre Broadband” Finally Arrives in Rothesay on the Isle of Bute

23rd July, 2015 (1 Comment)

After a long wait some 2,700 premises in Rothesay, which is the main town of around 5,000 people on the Isle of Bute (West Scotland), have finally been given access to “high-speed fibre broadband” (FTTC) connectivity as part of the wider Digital Scotland project.

BT Openreach Start Inviting ISPs to 500Mb NGA2 G.fast Broadband Trial

17th July, 2015 (39 Comments)

BTOpenreach has told ISPreview.co.uk that the first large-scale residential trial of their future G.fast broadband technology (details), which the telecoms operator expects to sell via the Next Generation Access 2 (NGA2) tag, will begin next month in Huntingdon (Cambridgeshire) and ISPs are now being invited.

Ofcom UK Asks for Feedback on Full Separation of Openreach from BT

16th July, 2015 (41 Comments)

The telecoms regulator has today published a new discussion document as part of their major Strategic Review of Digital Communications, which asks for feedback on the vexed question of whether Openreach should be completely separated from BT so as to boost UK broadband and phone competition.

BT Moot UK Airborne Drones to Help Broadband Cover or Telecom Repairs

7th July, 2015 (8 Comments)

BT says that in the future their Internet and phone related UK engineering tasks could be improved, especially in remote rural areas, by harnessing semi-autonomous flying drones to “deliver urgent parts for our network” or provide “temporary broadband access” (please don’t call it Fibre-to-the-Drone).

BT Openreach Detail More Price Cuts for UK High Capacity Ethernet Services

3rd July, 2015 (0 Comments)

BTOpenreach has announced another round of significant price reductions on their high-capacity business focused Ethernet services, such as the 10Gbps Ethernet Backhaul Direct (EBD) and Wholesale Extension Services (WES).

UK Government Finally Adds “up to” on its 80Mbps Fibre Broadband Signs

1st July, 2015 (24 Comments)

A small but mildly comical change has been made in the Government’s publicity drive for the Broadband Delivery UK project. Somebody somewhere finally recognised that those big red and white “speed limit” signs, which are often used to highlight the top speed of 80Mbps for FTTC “fibre broadband” lines, needed an “up to” prefix.

UPDATE Sky Demand Ofcom Open UK Competition Inquiry into BT Openreach

29th June, 2015 (16 Comments)

Sky (Sky Broadband) has used the backdrop of Ofcom’s on-going strategic review of the UK’s digital communications market to formally demand that the national telecoms regulator launch a competition review of BTOpenreach, which manages BT’s underlying broadband and phone infrastructure.

UPD BT Begin Rollout of Vectoring to Fix FTTC “Fibre Broadband” Speeds

16th June, 2015 (16 Comments)

BTOpenreach has confirmed that VDSL2 Vectoring (ITU-T G.993.5), which reduces crosstalk interference on ‘up to’ 40-80Mbps FTTC “fibre broadband” lines and thus improves service speeds, is now being deployed beyond trial areas; specifically focusing on “areas where it delivers the most benefit to customers“.

Ofcom Consult on BTSport Tweaks to FTTC Broadband Margin Squeeze Test

11th June, 2015 (0 Comments)

The UK telecoms regulator has today launched a consultation on several new tweaks to the FTTC “margin squeeze” test, which is designed to keep the BT’s “fibre broadband” prices under control by forcing them to “maintain a sufficient margin between [their] wholesale and retail superfast broadband charges“.

BT Claims Future G.fast Broadband Delivers 300Mbps Speeds at 350 Metres

11th June, 2015 (61 Comments)

The CTO of BT’s Wholesale division, Colin Bannon, has revealed that their future G.fast (ITU G.9701) broadband technology has also been tested on longer copper lines of 350 metres and the operator found that at this distance it was still able to deliver Internet speeds of 300Mbps.

Long Wait for BT’s GBP50m Pledge to Upgrade Broadband in 30 UK Cities

8th June, 2015 (1 Comment)

One and a half years ago BT made a £50 million commitment to expand the commercial roll-out of superfast capable “fibre broadband” (FTTC/P) services to 400,000 additional premises in 30 UK cities. Since then the operator has remained largely silent and questions are now growing over the projects status.

Interview – How Openreach is Creating a New Fibre Infrastructure for Wales

3rd June, 2015 (21 Comments)

In this guest editorial Nicholas Hardiman, an IT consultant who has worked with Internet and Enterprise technologies since the 1990s, interviews Openreach’s (BT) Senior Project Manager, Steve Jones, about the work being done to bring faster “fibre broadband” connectivity to many thousands of new homes and businesses in Wales.