Home » UK ISP News Archive » Article Tag: Crime (291 Posts)

Articles for Category Tag - Crime

Arrests as Kent Police Clampdown on Openreach Cable Thieves

8th December, 2022 (1 Comment)

Good news. One man has been charged, and three others arrested (currently released on bail), in connection with several thefts of Openreach’s copper broadband and phone cables across Kent (England) during the late spring and early summer this year. The incidents caused significant service outages across several villages.

Softened Online UK Internet Censorship Bill Returns to Parliament

28th November, 2022 (18 Comments)

The UK Government has confirmed the mess of confusing legislation that is the Online Safety Bill (OSB), which attempts to clampdown on “harmful” internet content (i.e. via fines, website blocks by broadband ISPs and other sanctions), will return to Parliament “next week” (5th Dec) with some key changes.

Ofcom Tells UK Phone Providers to Identify and Block Spoofed Calls

15th November, 2022 (13 Comments)

The UK telecoms regulator, Ofcom, has today introduced new rules that will require phone providers to crackdown on “fake phone numbers” by identifying and blocking “spoofed calls“, where feasible. The move aims to tackle a problem that, during the summer, resulted in 40.8 million people being targeted by suspicious calls and texts.

copper cable resting exposed on the sandy ground

Openreach UK Highlights Mass of Copper Cable Thefts in Rutland

28th September, 2022 (2 Comments)

The growing national scourge of copper telecoms cable theft has raised its ugly head again, this time in Rutland (England), after Openreach (BT) highlighted that their local broadband ISP and phone network had – over the past few months – been struck multiple times by the criminal activity. But arrests are being made.

Government Hints at Climbdown Over UK Online Safety Bill

21st September, 2022 (26 Comments)

The UK Government’s new Culture Secretary, Michelle Donelan, has signalled that the mess of complex and confusing legislation that is the Online Safety Bill (OSB), which seeks to tackle “harmful” internet content (i.e. via website blocks by broadband ISPs, fines and other sanctions), is likely to be softened before it returns to parliament.

Cable Thieves Knock Out Openreach’s Broadband in Shenley

5th September, 2022 (1 Comment)

Openreach UK has confirmed that around 970 premises (homes and businesses) in the village of Shenley (Hertfordshire), near Watford, were impacted late last month after copper thieves ripped 1,400 metres worth of the operator’s cable out of the ground, which has so far taken several weeks to fully resolve.

8000 Premises Lose Broadband After Maidstone Copper Cable Theft

30th July, 2022 (31 Comments)

The seemingly endless campaign of copper cable thefts by increasingly brazen criminals has continued. The latest incident is one of the biggest so far, knocking out broadband and phone services for around 8,000 homes and businesses on Openreach’s (BT) UK network across Maidstone, Sutton Valance and Staplehurs in Kent.

Ofcom Sets Out UK Internet Censorship Plans Under Safety Bill

6th July, 2022 (19 Comments)

The UK communications and media regulator, Ofcom, has today set out their plans for putting the mess of complex and confusing legislation – that is the Online Safety Bill (OSB) – into practice, which aims to tackle “harmful” internet content through website bans by broadband ISPs, fines and other sanctions.

smartphone with incoming call from unknown person

Government Sets Out New UK Penalties for Nuisance Calls and Texts UPDATE

16th June, 2022 (13 Comments)

The UK Government has today responded to an earlier consultation on their new Data Reform Bill (DRB) by, among other things, setting out how they’ll increase the financial penalties for those pestering people with nuisance calls and text (SMS) messages. But this probably won’t do much to stop calls made from outside the country.

4000m of Openreach’s Underground Copper Cable Stolen Near Lincoln

25th May, 2022 (22 Comments)

More than 4,000 metres worth of Openreach’s copper telecoms and broadband cable has been ripped out of the ground in the Nottinghamshire (England) village of Harby near Lincoln, which resulted in around 200 local homes and businesses being disconnected from the operator’s local network and ISPs.

Copper Cable Thieves Strike Openreach’s Wrexham Network AGAIN UPDATE

18th May, 2022 (8 Comments)

Some 1,200 customers on Openreach’s broadband and phone network in Wrexham (Wales) have been left disconnected again after the operator’s local network was hit by yet another theft of copper telecoms cable, which appears to have occurred in roughly the same area as two prior thefts earlier this month (here).

Openreach Cable Theft Knocks Out Broadband in Part of Wrexham

9th May, 2022 (0 Comments)

As many as 2,400 broadband ISP and phone customers on Openreach’s network in Wrexham (Wales) have suffered a serious loss of service after two separate thefts of copper telecoms cable (Metal Theft) struck several locations in the county, which both occurred over the past week.

Russia Sanctions Add Shock Internet Censorship Twist for UK ISPs UPDATE2

30th April, 2022 (41 Comments)

Broadband and mobile providers were on Friday subjected to a shock twist after the Government – without consultation – amended the Russian sanctions legislation to require that – “a person who provides an internet access service must take reasonable steps to prevent a user of the service in the [UK] from accessing … an internet service provided by a designated person.”

Freedom Fibre Female Engineer with Tablet

ISP Freedom Fibre Warns of Fake UK FTTP Broadband Engineers

24th April, 2022 (7 Comments)

Network builder Freedom Fibre (FF), which is supported by UK ISP partner TalkTalk (here) and is busy deploying a new 10Gbps Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network across semi-rural parts of North England, has warned residents in some of their network patches to be on the lookout for individuals posing as FF engineers.

Mobile Operators in UK Competition Moan vs Apple Private Relay

14th March, 2022 (14 Comments)

The Mobile UK trade body, which represents Three UK, EE (BT), O2 (VMO2) and Vodafone, has called upon the Competition and Markets Authority to probe the impact of Apple’s new iCloud linked internet privacy tool – ‘Private Relay‘ – due to concerns over its negative impacts on their network optimisation and filtering measures.

Error message concept. Alert, attention notification. Important reminder

Government Extends UK Online Safety Bill to Tackle Scam Adverts

8th March, 2022 (15 Comments)

The UK Government has today announced that their controversial new Online Safety Bill (OSB) will be extended to add a new duty, which aims to bring fraudulent paid-for adverts on social media and internet search engines into scope, whether they are controlled by the platform itself or an advertising intermediary.

Copper Thieves Strike Openreach’s Network in Cambridgeshire AGAIN

25th February, 2022 (20 Comments)

The previous offer of a £20K reward to help catch those responsible for a string of copper cable thefts in rural Cambridgeshire (England) has not been effective, yet. Openreach’s (BT) network in the county has again been hit by the crime, which saw 3.4km of underground cable stolen and broadband disrupted for 3,000 properties.