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Articles for Category Tag - Openreach

Openreach Tells UK Businesses to “act faster” on Legacy Phone Switch-Off

12th June, 2025 (16 Comments)

Network access provider Openreach (BT) has today warned businesses across the UK that they must “act now” in order to be ready for the old Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) to be switched-off in favour of IP-based digital phone (VoIP etc.) services. But many are leaving it until the last minute, “risking network outages and malfunctioning systems“.

Mobile giant Vodafone UK and Sky (Comcast) have reportedly two among several "groups" that have approached budget conscious fixed broadband ISP TalkTalk about a potential deal (most likely an acquisition), which in theory could create a much larger provider with more influence over the industry. Just to recap. In 2020 TalkTalk became the subject of a £1.1bn takeover by Toscafund - controlled by hedge fund tycoon Martin Hughes (here), which including debt valued the broadband provider at around £1.8bn. The deal took the ISP private and gave them more financial flexibility for their future plans. Since then, they've backed Freedom Fibre (here) and this week made the notable acquisition of Ethernet provider Virtual1 (here). According to the FT (paywall) and Sky News, TalkTalk is now said to have asked investment bank Lazard to review its options after allegedly being approach by several groups, including Vodafone and Sky (Sky Broadband). Lazard is a logical choice as they recently acted as Financial Advisor to TalkTalk on the Virtual1 transaction. Some industry analysts have reportedly suggested that TalkTalk itself could now be worth "at least" £3bn. But this seems rather optimistic for an ISP that doesn't have any significant fixed line broadband infrastructure to call its own (excluding their old unbundled LLU network) and largely just piggybacks off Openreach (BT), CityFibre and Freedom Fibre. But TalkTalk do have a strong business and wholesale side. Funnily enough, Sky Broadband are in a similar position with their own fixed line base, while Vodafone also likes to piggyback off Openreach and CityFibre. At present, Vodafone has a fixed broadband base of 991,000 customers, while Sky Broadband is estimated to be home to around 6.7 million and TalkTalk has approximately 4.2 million. Suffice to say, anybody gobbling up TalkTalk would instantly become a much larger provider, giving them a greater say in how the UK broadband market develops and more opportunities for convergence (Vodafone with mobile, and Sky with mobile and TV). Crucially, TalkTalk's consumer base is mostly made up of those on older copper and hybrid fibre lines (i.e. ADSL and FTTC / VDSL2), which are ripe for a future migration to FTTP. At the time of writing, all of the aforementioned operators have decline to comment on the reports, and TalkTalk has yet to receive any serious formal offers. In other words, we strongly suspect that this is largely just an exercise in spin to help TalkTalk drum up some more productive interest in the idea. But at the same time, it's not unreasonable to suspect that they might succeed, as the interest seems genuine. On the other hand, we see reports like this every year or so and only a very few ever convert into a serious offer. Time will tell. Much may depend upon whether or not TalkTalk’s new owners are more flexible and pragmatic about doing a deal than the previous lot. Arguably, TalkTalk might have gone much further by now had they taken some different decisions a few years ago (e.g. co-investing in FTTP instead of Pay TV).

BT Allegedly Explores Acquisition of Struggling UK Broadband ISP TalkTalk

10th June, 2025 (37 Comments)

A newspaper has claimed that telecoms giant BT (EE, Plusnet etc.) is allegedly in the “early stages of exploring a takeover” of debt-laden broadband ISP TalkTalk. The news follows only days after Openreach reportedly threatened to block the troubled internet provider from adding new customers (here) due to concerns over delayed payments.

Hyperoptic to Extend UK FTTP Broadband Coverage via Openreach

9th June, 2025 (28 Comments)

In a significant strategic development. City-focused UK ISP Hyperoptic, which has spent the past few years deploying their own alternative full fibre (FTTP/B) gigabit broadband network to cover 1.9 million premises (up from 1.73m in July 2024), has confirmed to ISPreview that they plan to extend this to “at least” another 1 million premises – albeit using Openreach’s FTTP products.

Openreach-2024-engineer-holding-fibre-tester

Openreach Finally Kicks Off Larger FTTP Broadband Build in Oxford

9th June, 2025 (15 Comments)

Network operator Openreach (BT) has finally started to deploy their new Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) based gigabit broadband ISP network across the Cathedral City of Oxford (Oxfordshire) in England, which mostly reflects the central area covered by their main exchange.

Openreach Allegedly Threatens to Block New TalkTalk Broadband Customers

8th June, 2025 (39 Comments)

Network access provider Openreach (BT) has reportedly warned the heavily indebted UK broadband ISP TalkTalk that they could block them from putting new customers on to their network. The threat allegedly arose after the ISP missed several monthly payment deadlines to the network operator, its biggest supplier, due to cash flow issues.

Scotland Stops £43m Gigabit Broadband Tender for Fife, Perth and Kinross

7th June, 2025 (5 Comments)

ISPreview has uncovered that the Scottish Government (SG) have stopped their tender for a supplier to deliver on the proposed £43m (state aid) Project Gigabit broadband roll-out scheme in Fife, Perth and Kinross (Lot 4 – Scotland). This had been expected to help expand full fibre (FTTP) connectivity to an estimated 28,441 premises in hard-to-reach rural areas.

2025 Openreach engineer testing connections in exchange PR 200125

Openreach Default to More Expensive Biz FTTP and SOGEA Broadband Installs UPDATE

2nd June, 2025 (16 Comments)

Network access provider Openreach (BT) caught our eye this week, which came after several of ISPreview’s industry sources notified us that the operator had “implemented a nationwide change” on 1st June 2025 that affected how SOGEA (FTTC etc.) and FTTP broadband services are provisioned for UK business premises.

Government Hails Start of National Campaign for UK Digital Phone Switch

2nd June, 2025 (24 Comments)

The UK government has today hailed the start of a new national campaign, funded by broadband giants BT and Virgin Media, which aims to help support and encourage vulnerable people in their efforts to switch from legacy phone lines to new digital (IP / VoIP based) networks before the deadline.

Sky-Broadband-Max-Hub-with-Coloured-Lines

ISP Sky Broadband UK Add Free Device Priority for WiFi Max Customers

29th May, 2025 (7 Comments)

Customers of UK ISP Sky Broadband, specifically those who have added the Wi-Fi Max service to their package (i.e. this includes their fastest WiFi Guarantee, advanced internet security, mobile data boost, requestable engineer visits and more), can now add a new “Device Priority” feature to this “at no extra cost” to help them take control of their WiFi experience.

Allison Kirkby CEO of BT Group and Richard Tang CEO of Zen Internet

BT CEO Talks Shrinking UK Broadband Market Share and Future of Altnets

29th May, 2025 (80 Comments)

The CEO of ISP Zen Internet, Richard Tang, has today shared a new interview with the CEO of BT Group, Allison Kirkby, which touches on everything from how they’d “love to” participate in the future consolidation of alternative networks (but not for a while) and the way that building a more valuable asset via FTTP broadband may compensate for having a smaller UK market share.

Openreach Delay UK Launch of Ethernet Access Direct 2.0 Until Dec 2026

24th May, 2025 (25 Comments)

Network access provider Openreach (BT) has notified UK broadband ISPs of a 9-month delay to the planned launch of their new Ethernet Access Direct (EAD) v2.0 product for businesses, which appears to have been prompted by Ofcom’s current Telecoms Access Review 2026 (TAR). The move means that EAD 2 won’t become available until the end of 2026.

BT Faces Formal Trade Dispute After Union Rejects Pay Offer

23rd May, 2025 (15 Comments)

Telecoms and broadband giant BT appears to be facing another dispute over workers pay after the Prospect union, which represents a majority of staff at management grades within the UK company, overwhelmingly rejected a “derisory” pay offer from the employer (96% of those who voted elected to reject the offer on turnout of 68%).

Openreach Boost UK FTTP Rollout Pace as BT Broadband Customers Fall to 8.2M

22nd May, 2025 (48 Comments)

The BT Group has today published their biannual full year (H2 FY25) results to March 2025, which reveals that Openreach’s full fibre (FTTP) network added 2.2 million premises to their UK coverage in H2 (up from 2.1m in H1) to cover 18.08m (4.9m in rural areas) and will accelerate its rollout by 20%. But broadband line losses to rivals hit 243k in the last quarter (up from 208k).

Openreach Brings Full Fibre Broadband to 80 Percent of Cardiff

21st May, 2025 (4 Comments)

Openreach (BT) has today revealed that their roll-out of a new 1.8Gbps speed Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP network in Cardiff (Wales) has reached 140,000 premises (i.e. around 80% of properties across the city). The build is still very much ongoing, although less than two in five who could upgrade to the new network have done so.

Vodafone-broadband-user-with-daughter-on-shoulders

Vodafone Top 1.61 Million UK Broadband Customers as Mobile Declines

20th May, 2025 (13 Comments)

Mobile network operator and UK ISP Vodafone has today published their Q4 FY25 financial results, which confirms that their fixed line broadband base grew by a healthy 61,000 in the last quarter to total 1.61 million customers (down from 72k added in Q3 2024). But their mobile base fell again to total 18.175m (down by -125k in Q4 vs -174k in Q3).

UK ISP Spitfire Criticise Openreach for Lack of PSTN Switch Off Contract Clarity UPDATE

20th May, 2025 (12 Comments)

Business telecommunications and UK broadband ISP Spitfire has today called on Openreach (BT) to provide “much needed clarity” for service providers, and the businesses they support, on new contracts related to the looming switch-off of the old Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) in favour of IP-based digital phone (VoIP etc.) services.

Openreach Doc Hints at XGS-PON FTTP Plan for 3.3Gbps UK Broadband

17th May, 2025 (61 Comments)

Network operator Openreach (BT) recently published the first edition of a new Suppliers Trial Information Note (STIN) for Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband using 10Gbps capable XGS-PON technology, which interestingly appeared to hint at a series of new speed tiers. This includes symmetric speeds of 2.5Gbps and 3.3Gbps (Gigabits per second).