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Articles for Category Tag - Openreach

Broadband ISPs Braced for Weekend of Heavy Thunder and Rain Storms

18th July, 2014 (22 Comments)

Internet and telephone providers across the United Kingdom, particularly those in England, are bracing themselves for a weekend of turbulent weather as the meeting of a high and low pressure front converge to create heavy thunder and rain storms, which could cause damage to telecoms networks and create connectivity problems for customers.

Ofcom Moot New Broadband ISP Switching Process for KC and Virgin Media

17th July, 2014 (2 Comments)

The UK communications regulator has launched another mini consultation (Call for Input) on the long road to introducing their new broadband and phone switching process, which once live could now be expanded to more fixed-line operators than just those operating off BT’s national copper telecoms network (e.g. KC and Virgin Media’s cable network).

BT’s Ultrafast FTTP Broadband Reaches Nearly 150,000 UK Premises

10th July, 2014 (6 Comments)

BT’s “ultrafast” fibre optic based Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network, which can currently deliver Internet download speeds of up to 330Mbps (30Mbps uploads), has revealed that the operators national network is now covering “nearly” 150,000 homes and businesses (premises passed) across the United Kingdom.

BT Openreach Confirm Final UK Phone and Broadband Prices for 1st July

28th June, 2014 (3 Comments)

BTOpenreach has posted a lengthy list of price changes that represent the final outcome of Ofcom’s Fixed Access Market Reviews (FAMR), which are due to take effect from 1st July 2014 and include everything from the expected line rental adjustments to cheaper fault fixing engineer visits (Special Fault Investigation) etc. The list is quite extensive.

Ofcom UK Impose New Quality of Service Rules Upon BT Openreach

26th June, 2014 (10 Comments)

The national telecoms regulator has today confirmed that BTOpenreach, which maintains BT’s UK phone and broadband network, will from 1st July 2014 be officially required to meet tougher quality of service standards (i.e. faster installs, quicker repairs and making available more information about their performance to the public). Shorter contracts and cheaper FTTC switching are also coming.

BT Openreach UK Raise the Price of Premium Line Rental and Boost Repairs

24th June, 2014 (11 Comments)

BTOpenreach are preparing to increase the cost of their premium wholesale line rental product, which ISPs often sell on to businesses as part of a phone or broadband bundle, from £110 +vat per year to £114 (+3.64%). It follows a similar rise in the cost of Basic Line Rental on 17th May 2014, which went from £93.32 to £96.17 (+3.05%).

UPDATE4 BT’s Broadband ISP Network in East Anglia Suffers Major Outage

16th June, 2014 (5 Comments)

Several Internet Service Providers are this morning reporting a number of seemingly related Major Service Outages (MSO) on BT Wholesale’s broadband network, which appears to be causing issues of intermittent Internet connectivity across England’s East Anglia region and some of the surrounding areas (e.g. Norfolk, Suffolk, North Essex).

BT Openreach Engineers Forget to Install VDSL Modems in FTTC Homes

13th June, 2014 (6 Comments)

“Oops!.. I did it again” is a well-known song recorded by American pop-star Britney Spears and one that also comes to mind after learning that, very occasionally, some of BTOpenreach’s telecoms engineers will neglect to install a VDSL modem as part of their superfast broadband FTTC Basic Install process.

UPDATE BT to Improve Quality of Service and FTTC Broadband Competition

20th May, 2014 (6 Comments)

The telecoms regulator has today pushed BTOpenreach, which maintains BT’s national phone and broadband network across the United Kingdom, to adopt new targets that aim to improve its quality of service by fostering faster installs, quicker repairs and making available more information about their performance to the public. Superfast broadband (FTTC) lines will also benefit from cheaper migrations and shorter contracts.

Hundreds of New Windsor Park Homes Left to Wait Months for Broadband

19th May, 2014 (11 Comments)

Residents of a new housing estate at Windsor Park, which sits just south of Buckingham town in England and includes 700 new build homes, are furious after being left waiting for a broadband and phone service to arrive via BT since before Christmas.

BT Openreach Recruit 1600 New UK Engineers to Improve Service Standards

19th May, 2014 (10 Comments)

BTOpenreach, which is responsible for looking after BT’s national UK telecoms network, will soon be bolstered by an additional 1,600 engineers in order to help the operator meet Ofcom’s forthcoming quality of service requirements (i.e. faster fault fixing etc.) and assist in the roll-out of superfast broadband (FTTC/P) technologies.

Romsey Residents Angered by “Eyesore” BT FTTC Broadband Cabinet

16th May, 2014 (32 Comments)

Residents and politicians in Romsey, a small market town in the county of Hampshire (England), have become the latest group to moan of an “eyesore” after BTOpenreach installed one of its large (1.6 metres high) green superfast broadband (FTTC) street cabinets on the pavement of a busy high-street.

BT Clear to Replace Ethernet Excess Construction Charges with Setup Fee

16th May, 2014 (5 Comments)

Ofcom has formally allowed BTOpenreach to proceed with their proposal to replace the sliding scale of Excess Construction Charges (ECC) on their point-to-point Ethernet Access Direct (EAD) products with a simple balancing charge fee of £548 +vat, which will benefit many but not all customers.

BT Achieves 66% UK Fibre Broadband Rollout Target as Customers Soar

8th May, 2014 (37 Comments)

BT has today released their latest Q1-2014 (calendar) results, which confirm that their £2.5bn commercial roll-out of superfast capable “fibre broadband” technology (FTTC/P) has now reached its goal ahead of schedule by passing 19 million premises (around 66% of the United Kingdom). Separately, BT’s retail broadband ISP customers topped 7,281,000 (up +170k in the quarter vs +150k during Q4-2013).

BT Prepare Phase 2 Vectoring Trials to Boost UK FTTC Broadband Speeds

6th May, 2014 (31 Comments)

BTOpenreach has decided to extend their on-going trials of VDSL Vectoring (ITU-T G.993.5) technology into a second phase, which could improve the speeds delivered via BT’s existing “up to” 80Mbps hybrid-fibre (FTTC) superfast broadband network by helping to eliminate interference (crosstalk). But it might also push any future roll-out back to late 2014 or 2015.

BT Estimates 80 Percent UK Total Fibre Broadband Footprint by Spring 2015

30th April, 2014 (16 Comments)

A rough estimate released by BT Wholesale earlier this year has predicted that the operators total “fibre broadband” (FTTC / FTTP) network footprint will increase to reach 80% of the United Kingdom by Spring 2015.

Better Broadband for Suffolk UK Publishes 2nd Open Market Review

29th April, 2014 (8 Comments)

The £40m Better Broadband to Suffolk project in England, which aims to roll-out BT’s “fibre broadband” (FTTC/P) network to more than 90% of local homes and businesses by the end of 2015 (note: 85% will get “superfast” speeds of 24Mbps+), has published the results from its second Open Market Review (OMR) which focuses on the future plans to reach around 95% by 2017.