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Network testing firm Ookla, which collects data from consumers via their popular broadband Speedtest.net service, has today launched a new Speedtest Certified scheme. The program seems to be designed to help people verify whether properties like hotels, stadiums, event venues, office buildings, and airports are able to deliver “superior connectivity“.

According to Ookla, many property owners are looking to answer the question of how they can “prove to consumers that they deliver superior connectivity and are ready to support today’s connectivity needs“. The new Speedtest Certified service is said to be the answer to that.

The program aims to offer a “trusted badge of excellence“, which they claim will allow properties, like those mentioned earlier, to differentiate themselves by “proving their commitment to exceptional digital experiences“, backed by Ookla’s globally recognised reputation for broadband and mobile performance measurements.

In order to deliver on this, Ookla said they will adopt a data-driven approach, which aims to provide a comprehensive and objective assessment of a venue’s enterprise network deployment. This will measure “key factors“, such as Wi-Fi radio frequency (RF) quality, Wi-Fi network configuration, Wi-Fi network security assessment, network performance metrics, and ISP backhaul.

Stephen Bye, President and CEO of Ookla (Division of Ziff Davis), said:

“We’ve all felt the frustration of arriving at a hotel, conference, airport, or sporting event – only to discover that the internet connection is painfully slow. Today, Ookla is introducing a solution. For years, you’ve trusted Speedtest for your own connectivity. Now, with Speedtest Certified, we’re extending that trust to the places you visit. Our rigorous testing takes the gamble out of finding a reliable network, giving you a seal of approval you can count on.”

Properties that meet the “rigorous standards” will earn a high-value certification, backed by the Speedtest name. Certified network owners and partners also gain access to the Speedtest Certified Digital Platform, where they can access personalised insights, benchmark performance against other Speedtest Certified networks, and receive targeted recommendations for improvements.

In the past we have seen the odd similar scheme crop up, but these have typically been focused on very specific areas (e.g. large new MDUs) and often came from organisations that are unfamiliar to consumers. The fact that Ookla is involved and using their ‘Speedtest’ branding, while also targeting many different types of properties, could certainly help to make a difference.

However, so far as we can tell ordinary consumers may only be able to see very limited performance results for each property showing the Speedtest Certified “trusted badge of excellence” (e.g. 0 to 5 stars for speed etc.). The badge itself will then be valid for a period of 1 year, and after that the property must be re-certified to maintain its status.

Finally, the initial focus seems to be on in-building and WiFi connectivity performance (phase one), but Ookla later said there would be a phase two of the program that will expand the assessment to include cellular (4G/5G mobile) performance testing, which is expected to follow sometime in the “coming months“.

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A new online survey of 2,000 UK adults, which was commissioned by Axicom on behalf of broadband ISP TalkTalk and conducted by OnePoll, claims to have found that “Wi-Fi” is the “most popular name” for home internet connections. One third of those asked said they use Wi-Fi to describe their internet connection, pipping “broadband” and “internet” to the post.

In addition, some 76% of respondents say they “confidently understand” the term Wi-Fi, although only half of those asked could confidently say they understand the term “fibre“, a name frequently used by telecoms companies to describe broadband products. Finally, 6 in 10 respondents agree that technology-related information is difficult to understand due to jargon.

Sadly, TalkTalk hasn’t released the full results of their survey, which makes it a bit tricky to give this the full context. But it does seem like an attempt by the ISP to help justify their focus on the use of “Wi-Fi” to describe broadband connectivity as part of their recent brand refresh (here and here), despite the fact that doing so may not be entirely correct and could reinforce a misconception.

Steve Wallage, TalkTalk’s Product and Propositions Director, said:

“Wi-Fi is a staple in all our homes, yet as an industry we haven’t kept up with the times when we talk to our customers. At TalkTalk, we’re shifting to talk about Wi-Fi more and more, as it’s the connectivity – making sure streaming or browsing is seamless – that matters most for our millions of customers.

Our latest research tells us that people prefer to communicate in the same way that they speak, without jargon, and our industry should reflect that. We know we’re not perfect, and we have much to do, but this is the first step in delivering a Better Way to Wi-Fi for customers who just want transparency and information they can confidently understand. And this builds trust between us and our customers too.”

The term “Wi-Fi” is of course also still jargon. But for the avoidance of doubt, in most homes Wi-Fi connectivity represents a wireless local area network (WLAN) connection that comes from your router and / or booster (repeaters / extenders etc.), which can also be used to help distribute the broadband internet connection from your ISP. But broadband can also be distributed from the router via wired (LAN) links too.

One problem with using Wi-Fi to describe broadband is that all sorts of other connectivity and performance issues can impact wireless links. But ISPs might not always want to associate that with the fixed line connectivity they provide, since to do so risks inheriting lots of additional support problems that exist outside of their realm.

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Mobile network provider giffgaff, which is owned by Telefónica and uses O2’s associated virtual operator (MVNO) platform, has today officially taken their home broadband products – powered by nexfibre and Virgin Media’s full fibre networks – out of trial and made them available as commercial products for consumers to order.

Just to recap. The trial of this service was first unveiled in mid-April 2025 (here), which meant that giffgaff would become the first retail provider after Virgin Media to fully harness nexfibre’s new wholesale FTTP network – currently available to over 2.3 million UK premises. Admittedly, this wasn’t all that surprising, not least because Telefónica is also one of the co-parents behind Virgin Media and nexfibre.

In terms of the final launch packages and prices, giffgaff are offering three unlimited plans on a monthly rolling (30-day) term, which are naturally much more expensive than their trial prices. The 200Mbps (symmetric) service costs £34 per month, while 500Mbps is £36 and their top 900Mbps tier is £39. But those prices are still pretty good for a monthly term.

Customers in nexfibre areas who sign-up to this service can expect to receive an Amazon eero 6+ router (inc. giffgaff branded User Interface) and engineers will also install an Optical Network Terminal (ONT) from Arcadyan Technology (PB6802B-LG) inside your home.

However, at the time of writing, we struggled to get any positive results from their new broadband availability checker for nexfibre addresses, which instead returned this: “We’ve checked your address, and sadly, we can’t do your broadband just yet..” But this is probably just a launch bug, although it does mean that we can’t yet confirm whether the service installation is free or at cost.

Rajiv Datta, CEO of nexfibre, said:

“We’re delighted to see giffgaff’s broadband rolling out across our network. Our investment in an all XGS-PON network provides symmetrical high bandwidth connectivity, and also offers the agility to support the member co-created products that differentiate giffgaff in the marketplace.”

ISPreview also spotted that giffgaff have updated some of their support pages for the launch (here), which reveals a couple of interesting details. Firstly, the provider states that they’re still intending to make their packages available via Virgin Media’s fixed broadband network (“Later we’ll also leverage full fibre on Virgin Media O2’s network“), which suggests that at least some aspect of VMO2’s plan to open up their existing consumer broadband network to wholesale (c.16m premises) is still on the cards, despite recent events.

Secondly, giffgaff state that at present you can only take their home broadband and mobile services as “separate” products, but unsurprisingly they are planning to launch a bundle of the two in the future – not doubt with some extra incentives attached (price reductions etc.).

Breaking news.. more to follow..

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Mobile operator Talkmobile, which is a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) on parent Vodafone’s (VodafoneThree) national UK 4G and 5G network, has finally begun to offer eSIM (Electronic SIM) support to new customers who join by taking one of their SIM Only plans.

The eSIM standard is an alternative to physical SIM cards, which works by essentially embedding an electronic SIM into your device (Smartphone) that could – once fully implemented – make it easier and quicker to switch between operators (e.g. not having to wait for a SIM card to arrive), as well as to use additional networks alongside your main mobile plan (e.g. eSIMs for travel when abroad).

Credits to one of our readers (Zakir) for spotting the change, which occurred last week.

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The BBC’s Research & Development division has extended the testing period and increased the number of devices able to take part in their beta trial of “low latency streaming” on their iPlayer service. This aims to reduce the delay on live TV shows/events that exists between terrestrial broadcasts and streamed content.

The delay on iPlayer, which partly occurs due to all the extra processing and connectivity that’s needed to stream a live broadcast, has reduced significantly in recent times but is still around 40 seconds, though it is not the same for all viewers. Many streaming services today have similar delays. By comparison, the BBC’s broadcast services deliver an end-to-end delay of around just 8-10 seconds.

The new testing phase will allow the BBC to measure more precisely how well low latency streaming performs outside of their lab and in people’s homes, across different networks and conditions. “It’ll also help us to understand what it takes to deliver live content online as fast and reliably as broadcast,” said the BBC earlier this week (here).

Melissa Darragh, Senior R&D Engineer at the BBC, said:

“As of this week, we’re entering a new phase designed to broaden device support and extend the hours of operation. This is so we can reach more reliable conclusions about how low latency streams behave in the home, at scale. This will also increase participation from homes with different internet service providers, Wi-Fi setups, and network stress patterns. Low latency puts the player closer to the ‘edge’ of what the network can support; so, diversity in real-world conditions really matters.

Extending when the trial is available lets us capture performance through different live moments such as sports, music, or breaking news, as well as across weekdays and weekends. This will result in a larger and richer dataset, which will allow us to measure smaller differences in performance.

Working with the teams responsible for our TV iPlayer product, we have once again arranged for a low latency stream to be available via iPlayer beta.”

The table of supported devices now includes a couple of Amazon Fire TV Sticks, BT’s TV Box Pro, the Sky Glass Gen 1 TV(s) and various TV models from Bush, Sony and Toshiba. But the BBC acknowledges that this is still very much a work-in-progress trial and “more work is needed before we could deliver a fully resilient fault tolerant low latency stream at the scale needed for a major sporting event.”

Anybody who wants to give this a go on a supported device merely needs to switch-on iPlayer Beta in the settings and watch BBC Two live – the trial stream is currently available from 8am – 10pm BST for viewers who have set their location to England or Scotland. It is expected to run for around a month. Credits to Thinkbroadband for spotting this development.

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The Newcastle City Council has announced the launch of a pilot scheme with digital connectivity provider Purple, which will see an “extensive city-wide Wi-Fi” network being rolled out for residents, students and visitors to help them connect to the internet. The service is expected to be free to access.

The new wireless network is expected to be deployed across Council buildings and other participating venues, including gyms, libraries, commercial buildings and public spaces. Users will be able to “connect once and roam freely across hundreds of hotspots without repeated logins“, thanks to the use of Purple’s associated ConneX App.

To accelerate adoption, Purple is also giving away £120,000 of free Wi-Fi hardware and licenses to 1,000 small and medium-sized businesses.

Cllr. Paul Frew, Newcastle City Council, said:

“Even with near-universal broadband coverage, not everyone can afford reliable access on the go. We’ve used government funding to improve our free public Wi-Fi offer to improve performance for residents, and this new partnership will enable us to further tackle digital poverty and give residents free access in more places. This project is about fairness as much as technology.

Seamless, free connectivity helps level the playing field, ensuring no one in Newcastle is left behind in the digital age. It also supports our ambitions to be more evidence-led and data-driven. The insights gained by working with Purple will allow us to better understand people’s use of public Wi-Fi and how we can deliver the best possible service for residents, businesses and visitors.”

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Residents covered by the Rhydlewis Exchange in Ceredigion (Wales), which serves 1,058 premises across 127 postcodes, may be pleased to learn that their stop-start deployment of a new Openreach based Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP network can now finally complete after they worked together to raise £1.4m in pledges.

The exchange previously had some of the lowest fibre (FTTP) coverage in the county, with just 30% of local homes and businesses able to access such a network, but that is now set to change. Work to roll-out the new network did in fact start once before, after the community succeeded in securing pledges for 217 vouchers under the government’s Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme (GBVS) by the summer of 2024.

“Unfortunately by the summer of 2025, it was obvious the network build had dramatically slowed down and in June 2025 Openreach informed the community it had experienced unexpected challenges and costs and needed to raise the target to 325 voucher pledges to ensure the complete network build,” said local resident Sandy to ISPreview.

Thankfully, the same small community action group that had been so effective at raising the initial batch of funding was able to spring into action again and raise pledges for a total of 325 vouchers (£1.4m). The catchment area was also increased to include over 800+ premises (up from 700+ originally). All of this was enough for Openreach to continue the build.

A Spokesperson for Ceredigion County Council said:

“This latest milestone shows what’s possible when rural communities come together to secure investment in their digital future – and offers encouragement to others still working towards their own targets in Velindre, Maesycrugiau, and Llandysul.”

At present some 154 premises are already Ready for Service (RFS) with the new full fibre network and work can now continue across the catchment. The bulk of this roll-out is due to complete by the end of 2025, although a few properties won’t be covered until the Spring of 2026 due to delays caused by road closure procedures.

“We are very grateful for the support of our local MP, Ben Lake, Senydd Member, Elin Jones, and the local council, Ceredigion County Council. So, come the Spring of 2026 our rural community should be celebrating the success of FTTP!,” said Sandy. We should point out that the community has been designated a Voucher Priority Area (VPA) by the government’s Building Digital UK (BDUK) agency.

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SpaceX’s popular Starlink service, which offers ultrafast low-latency broadband speed across the world via a mega constellation of compact satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), suffered another global outage this morning that started at around 5am. But services now appear to be returning to normal for many, but not all, users.

Starlink currently has around 8,400 satellites in orbit (c.4,800 are v2 / V2 Mini) – mostly at altitudes of c.500-600km – and they’ll add thousands more by the end of 2027. Residential customers in the UK usually pay from £75 a month, plus £299 for hardware (currently free for most areas) on the ‘Standard’ unlimited data plan (kit price may vary due to different offers), which promises UK latency times of 26-33ms, downloads of 116-277Mbps and uploads of 17-32Mbps. Cheaper and more restrictive options also exist for roaming users.

The network operator’s last major global outage was in late July 2025 (here), although this one won’t have been quite as disruptive because it occurred late at night for much of the world. For example, most of the impact in the UK appears to have hit between just after 5am and then ended just before 6am (roughly 1 hour). But a few users still appear to be reporting problems.

Starlink itself acknowledged the outage by posting a brief message to their website: “Starlink is currently experiencing a service outage. Our team is investigating“. At the time of writing the cause of this latest wobble remains unclear, although we note that it coincided with a modest G1 solar storm. Starlink’s network can usually adjust for the impact of space weather, but disruptions may still occur.

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Telecoms and broadband giant BT Group has this morning announced that Bharti Mittal, the Founder and Chairman of Bharti Enterprises, and Gopal Vittal, Vice Chairman and Managing Director of Bharti Airtel Limited, will both join the company’s Board as non-independent non-executive directors.

In case anybody has forgotten. Last year saw Bharti Global (via Bharti Televentures UK Ltd), the Indian multinational conglomerate, agree to acquire French billionaire Patrick Drahi’s (Altice UK) stake of 24.5% (issued share capital) – worth around £3.6bn at the time – in the BT Group (here). But BT’s market cap has risen significantly since then (it’s now about £20.50bn), thus this stake is likely to be worth closer to £5bn.

However, while Patrick Drahi seemed more inclined to be a fairly passive shareholder, Bharti may have other plans. But they’ve thus far been very supportive of BT Group’s existing CEO, Allison Kirkby, which is hardly surprising given the operator’s rapidly improved share price over the past year.

Adam Crozier, BT Group Chairman, said:

“We’re delighted to welcome Sunil and Gopal to the Board of BT. They bring significant experience and global perspectives in the telecoms industry, and we look forward to their contribution to the Board and to the future success of BT Group.”

Sunil Bharti Mittal said:

“I am delighted to be joining the Board of BT, an iconic company delivering critical infrastructure and services for the UK. I look forward to working with Chairman Adam Crozier, the Board and CEO Allison Kirkby to drive forward the strategy to win in the market and deliver world-leading services for BT’s customers.”

Gopal Vittal said:

“I am honoured to be joining the BT Board at a pivotal moment for our industry. I look forward to bringing my experience at Airtel to help support BT, whose unique assets and businesses offer valuable opportunities for growth. Airtel and BT have much to learn from and contribute to each other.”

Such developments often have a habit of triggering talk about takeovers etc. On that front, BT itself could be said to have overcome some of the obstacles and uncertainties that often-discouraged potential bidders in the past, although there are still plenty of hurdles for a suitor to consider (e.g. the increasingly competitive UK full fibre market, the high level of debt, high interest rates, political opposition and so forth).

Doing anything serious on this front would thus require a green light from the UK Government, although the UK’s relatively new National Security and Investment Act (NSIA) is unlikely to throw up any real obstacles until or unless Bharti’s stake goes beyond the 25% mark.

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UK ISP TalkTalk has followed last week’s launch of their refreshed branding (here) by kicking off a nationwide marketing and TV campaign. The campaign will run across social media, video-on-demand, outdoor, and audio channels, and features the provider’s new tag line: “Now you’re TalkTalkin“. They’ve also cut the price of their 150Mbps full fibre package.

According to the announcement, TalkTalk’s 150Mbps broadband package has now been reduced to just £25 per month, albeit rising to £28 from April 2026 and £31 from April 2027. The package is available on a 24-month minimum term and includes a wireless router (Wi-Fi Hub 3), as well as free installation and internet security features.

Susie Buckridge, CEO of TalkTalk, said: “We’re returning to our challenger roots, focusing on what our customers want which is simply reliable Wi-Fi without the jargon and the fuss, at the right price. Our new look website, strengthened by our brilliant new-look brand and engaging marketing campaign, are just the beginning of our journey and signal our intent to continue to shake up the industry on behalf of our customers.”

You can see the two new TV and streaming adverts below.