Now (formerly Netvigator), a UK Fixed Access Wireless (Wi-Fi) broadband ISP that is backed by UK Broadband Ltd. (wholly-owned subsidiary of Hong Kong's PCCW telco), could be closing as early as next month if the information we've received is to be believed.


In fact no new information has come out of the ISP itself since February last year, when it was revealed that UK Broadband had won 4 of the 40GHz licences being auctioned by Ofcom. This cost them a hefty £120,000 but would have made deploying faster WiMAX based broadband services a possibility.

It’s also well known that NOW has not updated its packages in a long time, with their fastest option continuing to be a woefully outdated 1Mbps package. By comparison many UK ISPs now offer speeds that are considerably faster.

Details on the situation itself remain difficult to find, although one of several customers informed us that the provider will be "discontinuing" their service on 21st April 2009. Attempts to reach the ISP have so far gone unanswered and the 'Abouts Us' page on NOW's site does not appear to function properly.

UPDATE 20th March 2009 @ 12:20am:

Faisal Ahmed, UK Broadband Ltd's (PCCW) VP for Strategy and Planning, has given us the following reply. It seems like the service is being upgraded but scaled back to focus on the 'Reading' area: