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Articles for Category Tag - BT

Openreach engineers building full fibre network in chamber

Openreach Name 21 New UK Locations for FTTP Broadband Build Plan

1st July, 2025 (52 Comments)

Network operator Openreach (BT) has today published an updated build plan for the ongoing roll-out of their Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) based gigabit broadband ISP network, which is the first update since December 2024 and adds 21 new locations – covering 80,000 extra UK premises – to their national deployment plan.

Mobile Operators to Test UK Wide Emergency Alerts Later in 2025

30th June, 2025 (31 Comments)

Get ready to jump out of your skin.. again. The UK Government recently announced that mobile network operators will conduct a second nationwide test of the Emergency Alerts service later in 2025, which is normally only intended to be used if there’s a “danger to life nearby” (e.g. severe flooding, fires and extreme weather).

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A Year Early – £1bn SRN Project Delivers 95 Percent UK Cover of 4G Mobile

30th June, 2025 (5 Comments)

The Government has announced that the £1bn industry-led Shared Rural Network (SRN) project, which aimed to extend geographic 4G mobile (mobile broadband) coverage to 95% of the UK (aggregate) by the end of 2025 (5G also benefits from the new infrastructure), has “achieved its overarching target a year ahead of schedule“. But there’s more work left to do.

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Coverage of Gigabit Broadband Nears 88 Percent of UK in H1 2025

30th June, 2025 (4 Comments)

ISPreview has this morning published our biannual H1 2025 summary of UK fixed broadband coverage, which reveals that “full fibre” (FTTP) ISP networks have grown to reach 78.06% of premises (up from 73.53% in H2 2024) and 87.84% are within reach of “gigabit” 1000Mbps+ speeds (up from 85.87%). Read on to see details for England, Wales, Scotland and N.Ireland…

R100 Gigabit Broadband Build Reaches 80,000 Premises in Scotland

27th June, 2025 (2 Comments)

The Scottish Government (SG) has today revealed that more than 80,000 premises have now benefitted from their £697m Reaching 100% (R100) project with Openreach (BT), which is rolling out full fibre (FTTP) broadband to remote rural areas. Some 27,000 premises of this have been delivered over the past year, which is up from 20,000 the year before.

Rural North Wales Village of Penmachno - Google Streetview Screenshot

Remote Rural Wales Village Cut-Off from Landlines by Overheated Exchange

25th June, 2025 (14 Comments)

Residents in the remote rural village of Penmachno, which sits in the isolated upland Machno valley area of North Wales (Conwy), have complained – via the local community council – that Openreach and BT recently left them unable to make or receive calls for several days due to a heat related fault that started on 19th June 2025.

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Openreach Start Enhanced Migration Pilot for Legacy UK Phone Switch-Off

23rd June, 2025 (9 Comments)

Network operator Openreach (BT) has kicked off their first UK pilot to test the effectiveness of a targeted approach for safeguarding vulnerable customers during the mass migrations away from the old Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), which is due to be switched-off, in favour of a temporary alternative service.

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The H1 2025 Top Fastest UK Mobile and Home Broadband ISPs

21st June, 2025 (1 Comment)

ISPreview has today published our latest biannual study of how the United Kingdom’s broadband download and upload speeds have changed across the fastest nationally available fixed line ISPs, mobile network operators and Starlink (satellite) services since the end of 2024. But this time we’ve made some changes to the structure of our top lists.

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Ofcom Warns UK Broadband ISPs NOT to Use Alternative Switching Methods

19th June, 2025 (29 Comments)

The UK telecoms regulator, Ofcom, has posted an update on their investigation into the performance of the new consumer broadband and phone switching system (One Touch Switching). This found no major problems with the biggest ISPs but did warn that some providers on Openreach’s network were using an “alternative switching method“, which they said must stop.

INCA Calls on Ofcom’s Review to Protect UK Broadband Altnets from Openreach

18th June, 2025 (9 Comments)

The Independent Networks Co-operative Association (INCA), which represents many of the United Kingdom’s alternative network operators, has today set out its formal response to Ofcom’s current Telecoms Access Review 2026 (TAR) and warned that the proposals risk harming altnets in the business market, while also handing Openreach too much power.

Scotland May Reissue Gigabit Broadband Tender for Fife, Perth and Kinross

17th June, 2025 (0 Comments)

The Scottish Government (SG) looks as if they could be preparing to “relaunch” their proposed gigabit broadband roll-out procurement for Fife, Perth and Kinross during September 2025. This might take a second stab at trying to find a supplier that can help upgrade the remaining set of hardest-to-reach premises.

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BT CEO May Consider Spinning Off Openreach After UK Full Fibre Build

16th June, 2025 (30 Comments)

The CEO of BT Group, Allison Kirkby, has hinted at the possibility that network access provider Openreach could be spun off into a completely separate company in the future. But this would only be considered once their roll-out of a national gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP network completes (i.e. after 2030).

Openreach Maps UK Cities by Internet Activity to Celebrate 25 Years of Broadband

16th June, 2025 (10 Comments)

Openreach (BT) has marked “25 years of home broadband” by combining its own data with consumer research to map the UK cities by their online activity. The results found that the busiest hour of the day for internet usage in the UK is between 8-9pm, followed by 9-10pm and 7-8pm. And the highest peak of the year so far was on 14th January 2025 at 9pm.

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“.

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New Subsea Cable Link Being Explored for the Shetland Islands

12th June, 2025 (3 Comments)

Network operator VodafoneThree UK has today announced that they’ve begun a “feasibility study” to explore the possibility and cost of deploying a new subsea fibre optic cable system to help transform broadband and mobile connectivity in the Shetland Islands – a remote subarctic archipelago that resides some way north of Scotland.

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Broadband ISP Plusnet Gives Up on Free UK Email and Webspace Features

11th June, 2025 (21 Comments)

Internet provider Plusnet recently began notifying customers that they “will no longer be offering an email service to new or existing” users of their broadband service, and have instead begun the process of migrating users of their legacy services (inc. webspace and domains) to a new platform. But the new service won’t remain free.

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.