Home » UK ISP News Archive » Article Tag: Internet Law (445 Posts)

Articles for Category Tag - Internet Law

airband uk female broadband engineer in van

Rural Broadband ISP Airband Fined £11k for Roadworks Offences

12th June, 2024 (4 Comments)

Alternative network operator Airband, which aims to reach 400,000 UK premises in rural areas via a mix of fixed wireless access (FWA) and full fibre (FTTP) networks by 2026, has been hit with fines and charges totalling more than £11k in Somerset for “failing to ensure the safety of the public while doing work” in the County.

Fiber Optic cables connected to an optic ports and Network cables connected to ethernet ports

Competition Watchdog Goes Soft on Structural Remedies for UK Cloud Market

10th June, 2024 (1 Comment)

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has issued a technical update on their investigation into the UK’s public cloud infrastructure services market, which is currently dominated by Amazon (AWS) and Microsoft (Azure). As part of this, the CMA hints that they’re “not currently minded to prioritise further consideration of structural or operational separation remedies” (e.g. divestment).

O2 UK Begins Rolling Out New, Free Caller Identification Feature

10th June, 2024 (11 Comments)

Mobile operator O2 (Virgin Media) has today officially confirmed that they’ve started rolling out Hiya’s new Brand ID technology to customers for free, which is a caller identification solution that can reduce the number of calls customers receive from unknown numbers (e.g. scammers) by providing details of the organisation making the call.

fullfibre van and engineer working picture

Broadway Locals Secure Judicial Review of Broadband Poles Rollout UPDATE

10th June, 2024 (12 Comments)

The Lifford Gardens and The Sands residents association, which represents part of Broadway (village) in Worcestershire (England), has been granted a Judicial Review (JR) in the High Court that may allow them to challenge the local council’s decision to allow deployment of a new gigabit-capable broadband network using wood poles.

Virgin Media Sues Fishing Trawler for Allegedly Damaging Subsea Cable

6th June, 2024 (6 Comments)

The wholesale division of broadband and Ethernet provider Virgin Media UK (VMO2) are suing the “owners and all persons claiming an interest” in a fishing trawler, the Irish-registered MV The Lida Suzanna, for €800k (£680k) after the ship allegedly damaged one of their subsea fibre optic cables between Ireland and England.

New SSID Confusion Attack Exploits General WiFi Vulnerability

14th May, 2024 (11 Comments)

Network security researchers have published details of a new vulnerability that arises from a “design flaw” in the IEEE 802.11 WiFi standard (CVE-2023-52424), which is said to impact “all operating systems and WiFi clients” and allows an attacker to trick Wi-Fi clients into connecting to an untrusted network.

FRITZBOX Router Manufacturer AVM Settles Huawei Patent Dispute

29th April, 2024 (5 Comments)

Germany-based AVM, which manufactures the popular FRITZ!Box range of broadband ISP routers and smart home devices (widely used in the UK), has quietly settled their patent dispute with Huawei over WiFi 6 technology. As a result, some of the recent changes made to AVM’s device firmware will be rolled back.

Openreach Tackle UK Copper Cable Theft with DNA Tracing Tech UPDATE

25th April, 2024 (16 Comments)

Network operator Openreach (BT) has told ISPreview that they’ve seen a 30% fall in the theft of their copper phone and broadband cables (Metal Theft) over the last year, which is being partly attributed to the deployment of a new “invisible” forensic liquid marker that can be sprayed directly onto cables and equipment.

Internet and UK Telecoms Security Picture by 123rf

techUK Raise Internet Snooping Concerns Over UK IP Act Amendments

22nd March, 2024 (14 Comments)

Industry body techUK, which represents many of the UK’s key technology companies, and a broad range of stakeholders have today issued a joint statement that expresses concern about proposed changes under the Investigatory Powers (Amendment) Bill, not least their potential impact upon internet security and privacy.

Broadband Operators Call on UK Gov to Help STOP Physical Network Attacks

7th March, 2024 (4 Comments)

A group of full fibre broadband operators, which are being led by alternative network providers Ogi and Vorboss, have today called on the UK Government and Ofcom to urgently help tackle a recent rise in attacks – often committed by criminal gangs and vandals – against vital national telecoms infrastructure and the engineers who build it.

Virgin Media O2 CEO Raise Vodafone and Three UK Merger Concerns

27th February, 2024 (15 Comments)

The CEO of broadband and mobile giant Virgin Media and O2 (VMO2), Lutz Schüler, has – perhaps predictably – raised competition concerns over the proposed mobile merger between Vodafone and Three UK, not least because he believes the pair will end up controlling too much radio spectrum. Network sharing is another issue.

Virgin Media O2 UK Adopt Hiya AI to Tackle SPAM and Fraud Calls

12th February, 2024 (12 Comments)

Broadband ISP and mobile operator Virgin Media and O2 have today announced that they’ve become the second major UK telecoms provider, after BT (EE), to adopt Hiya’s AI-based technologies, which can analyse call behaviour in real-time and determine whether to flag an incoming call as ‘suspected spam’ or block fraud.

Phone handset hanging from cord - 123RF - 26684886.webp

Court Trial to Start Over BT’s Alleged UK Landline Overcharging UPDATE

13th January, 2024 (3 Comments)

After a three-year battle, the Collective Action on Land Lines (CALL) campaign will this month finally take national broadband ISP and phone provider BT to trial as part of a £600m £1.3bn class-action lawsuit, which alleges that the UK telecoms giant overcharged 2.3 million of its landline-only phone customers between 2015 and 2018.

A Look at UK Domain and IP Address Seizures in the Criminal Justice Bill

12th January, 2024 (16 Comments)

The new UK Criminal Justice Bill (CJB), which was first tabled in parliament toward the end of last year, includes a number of interesting new powers that can force Regional Internet Registries, Local Internet Registries or Internet Service Providers (ISP) to suspend internet domain names and IP addresses used for criminal purposes.

MS3 Error Sees Broadband Poles Installed in Historic Monument Area

11th January, 2024 (18 Comments)

Fibre optic network builder MS3 has apologised after a mistake resulted in several of its new telecoms poles being erected within an area of Hedon (East Yorkshire) that has Scheduled Monument status. The government-linked Historic England agency said consent had not been granted ahead of the work.

Mobile Operators Sued for £3bn Due to UK Airtime Plan Overcharging

8th December, 2023 (13 Comments)

Mobile network operators including EE (BT), Vodafone, Three UK and O2 (VMO2) are facing a class action claim worth “at least” £3.285bn from consumer rights champion Justin Gutmann and the law firm Charles Lyndon, which accuses them of historically overcharging for mobile handsets beyond the end of their contractual term.

Ofcom UK Tackle Consumer Harm Caused by Cash for Calls Schemes

1st December, 2023 (4 Comments)

The UK telecoms and media regulator, Ofcom, has today launched a new consultation that looks set to tackle the risk of consumer harm from so-called “cash for calls” schemes. This will work by making clear that revenue sharing on certain phone number ranges (e.g. 084 and 087) will not be permitted.