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Articles for Category Tag - Mobile Broadband

ISPA and INCA Set Out New UK Guidance for Deploying Telegraph Poles

25th March, 2025 (10 Comments)

The ISPA and INCA have today published new ‘Best Practice Guidance’ for gigabit broadband operators that are building new poles as part of their UK network expansions. The guidance aims to support the Government’s goal of “ending the deployment of unnecessary telegraph poles” (here), not least by requiring providers to engage more closely with communities before they build.

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O2 UK Complete 4G and 5G Upgrades for 3500 Postcodes in Liverpool

20th March, 2025 (6 Comments)

Mobile network operator O2 (Virgin Media) has today announced that they’ve completed a project to upgrade the capacity of their 4G and 5G mobile services across “over” 3,500 postcodes in the Merseyside city of Liverpool (England), which should mean “faster” mobile broadband speeds and greater reliability.

O2 Reminds Durham Over Start of UK 3G Mobile Switch Off in April 2025

19th March, 2025 (5 Comments)

Mobile network operator O2 (Virgin Media) has today issued a reminder about how they intend to start switching off their old 3G mobile (broadband) services across the United Kingdom from next month, which is a process that will start in the city (NOT county) of Durham and should complete nationally by the end of 2025.

EE Expand 5G Standalone Mobile Network to 50 UK Towns and Cities

19th March, 2025 (21 Comments)

Broadband ISP and mobile operator EE (BT) has today announced the next batch of locations where their new 5G Standalone (SA) mobile network will be deployed and made it available to all new customers. By the end of March 2025, the new 5GSA network will be live and available to over 28 million people across 50 “major towns and cities” in the UK (over 40% of the population).

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Ofcom to Launch Improved UK Mobile Coverage Checker Later in 2025

18th March, 2025 (8 Comments)

The UK telecoms regulator, Ofcom, this week informed ISPreview that they’ve been “working hard to overhaul our mobile coverage checker” in order to better match people’s real-world experiences, particularly of modern 4G and 5G (mobile broadband) services, and intend to launch the result of all their work “later this year“.

Mobile Operator Spusu Continues UK Price Freeze Until 2026

17th March, 2025 (3 Comments)

The SIM-only UK mobile provider spusu, which holds a virtual operator (MVNO) agreement via BTWholesale to harness EE’s national 4G and 5G network, has today confirmed that it will continue its existing price freeze for another year until 2026.

Mobile Coverage in Worcestershire UK is 1000x Worse Than Ofcom Suggests UPDATE

15th March, 2025 (28 Comments)

The Worcestershire County Council (WCC) in England has revealed the results of a recent study they conducted with Streetwave, which harnessed local bin lorries to map the coverage and performance of 4G and 5G mobile (broadband) networks across the county. Overall, it claims to have found that mobile coverage is “over 1,000 times worse than Ofcom and mobile operator data suggests“.

Streetwave to Map 4G and 5G Mobile Cover Across Liverpool City Region

12th March, 2025 (1 Comment)

As hinted last week (here), network analyst firm Streetwave has confirmed that they’ve won yet another contract to map 4G and 5G based mobile broadband coverage using bin lorries, which will this time focus on the Liverpool City Region in Merseyside (England) and some 7,000km of the UK’s road network.

Vodafone UK and Ericsson Trial AI Tech to Improve 5G Energy Efficiency

11th March, 2025 (2 Comments)

Broadband and mobile operator Vodafone UK has today announced that they’ve successfully conducted trials with Ericsson of three new Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) powered software solutions. This showed that they were able to reduce the daily power consumption of their 5G radio units by 33%.

Virgin Media O2 Invest £700m into UK 4G and 5G Mobile Upgrades for 2025

11th March, 2025 (18 Comments)

Mobile operator O2 (Virgin Media) has today announced that they’ll invest the equivalent to approximately £700m this year into their ongoing Mobile Transformation Plan (MTP). This is aimed at enhancing network coverage and performance via new masts, small cells, 4G and 5G upgrades, additional spectrum deployment and increased automation via AI.

Bundle of optical fibers with lights in the ends lay on keyboard.

Hope for Broadband and Mobile Boost as UK Gov to Publish Planning Bill

10th March, 2025 (6 Comments)

The UK Internet Service Providers Association (ISPA) has called on the government to be “bold and brave” when they publish their new Planning and Infrastructure Bill (PIB) tomorrow, which it’s hoped may contain some measures that will benefit the roll-out of gigabit broadband and 4G / 5G mobile networks.

Network map of United Kingdom. Country digital connections map. Technology, internet, network, telecommunication concept. Vector illustration.

Government Invests £23m into Cutting Edge UK Telecoms R&D

10th March, 2025 (11 Comments)

The UK Government’s Science and Technology Secretary, Peter Kyle, has today outlined a raft of new investments, reforms and appointments aimed at “supercharging innovation and helping to grow the economy“, which among other things includes an investment of £23m into “cutting edge telecoms research and deployment“.

Ofcom Propose Part of 1900MHz Band for 5G Mobile on UK Rail Network

10th March, 2025 (8 Comments)

The UK telecoms regulator, Ofcom, has today proposed to make part of the 1900MHz radio spectrum band (1900-1920MHz), which was previously awarded for mobile operators but has since gone unused, available for use by both the UK’s rail network (5G mobile / broadband services) and to extend coverage for the 4G Emergency Services Network (ESN).

Smarty UK Launch New TV Campaign and Cheap 4x Mobile Data Plans

5th March, 2025 (0 Comments)

Smarty, which is a virtual mobile operator (MVNO) on Three UK’s network, has recently introduced two plans that offer 32GB of mobile broadband data for £7 per month (normally 8GB) and 12GB for £6 (normally 5GB) – available until the end of March 2025 and lasting for 15 consecutive months. The move supports their new “Less Malarkey, More SMARTY” TV campaign.

Honest Mobile Launches New UK eSIM Based Smart SIM Plan

3rd March, 2025 (24 Comments)

Crowdfunded mobile operator Honest Mobile, which harnesses Three UK’s network via a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) agreement, has today announced the launch of a “first-of-its-kind SIM” plan – Smart SIM – that is multi-network and designed to tackle expensive global roaming, as well as poor UK phone signals.

Study Claims 40 Percent of UK 5G Mobile Connections are Really 4G

3rd March, 2025 (40 Comments)

New research from SignalTracker, which runs a popular Android mobile app (but not iOS) for monitoring and examining mobile phone reception, appears to show that although your handset may say 5G, it frequently only has a 4G connection. In UK samples, when the 5G icon was displaying, 38% of tests were in fact found to be a 4G connection.

Streetwave to Map 4G and 5G Mobile Coverage Across East Midlands

2nd March, 2025 (5 Comments)

Network analyst firm Streetwave has revealed that they’ve won another contract, this time via the Derbyshire County Council (DCC) in England, to map 4G and 5G mobile broadband coverage across another 10,000km of the UK’s road network in the East Midlands of England, using bin lorries.