Ship’s Maritime Mobile Roaming Network Causes Problems on Norfolk UK Coast | ISPreview UK

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People living, visiting and working along the North Norfolk (England) coast recently ran into an unusual problem with mobile roaming after their mobile phones began connecting to the ‘Maritime‘ network. The seamless change meant that locals ended up being hit with high roaming charges for calls and data usage, as they were no longer connected to a domestic network.

In the past, there have occasionally been cases where people living in certain parts of the UK, such as Dover (Kent), have seen their mobile phones automatically connect to a mobile network in nearby France (e.g. certain atmospheric conditions, in the right location, can make French signals stronger than domestic ones). If you aren’t aware of this occurring, then it can lead to problems with dramatically inflated bills for calls, texts and 4G / 5G data (mobile broadband).

However, such issues would not normally be a risk for those on the North Norfolk coastline, which is too far from other countries. But according to the BBC News (credits to Chris for spotting), residents in the area have been left fuming over expensive mobile bills after their phones started roaming on to a Maritime network.

Mobile operators will send a message to warn when this happens, but such things are easily overlooked, and then you have to correct for it too (not so easy, until you move away from the area or manually select the network). As a result, some people have been charged ridiculous sums, such as £13 a minute for data or £3.35 a minute for calls. Somewhat more expensive than domestic UK tariffs.

North Norfolk MP, Steff Aquarone, said:

“This is not good enough. People need the clarity and reassurance they are not going to get charged an international fee just for using their phone on the cliffs of our beautiful county.”

On the one hand, some mobile operators, such as EE, have said that they may be able to refund customers who have been incorrectly charged. But the BBC’s piece seems to focus more on the fallout and less on identifying the cause, which would perhaps have been easier if they’d mentioned some dates and times.

As above, Norfolk is not near enough to any other foreign landmasses to be able to receive a domestic mobile signal from abroad. The culprit in this case is thus likely to be a ship sailing near the coast. Many Ferries and Cruise ships, which are often equipped with Satellite linked Maritime mobile networks, tend to only deploy these indoors or will disable them when close to port/shore, precisely to avoid this sort of issue.

The onboard Maritime networks they deploy will often also be using small, low-power cellular base stations (aka – picocells). But these are usually only capable of providing wireless network coverage over a very limited area, usually less than 200 metres, for both indoor and outdoor environments. One possibility is that a ship could have been running these at a higher power than would normally be allowed.

As a general rule, it’s almost always wise to turn ‘Data Roaming‘ off on your mobile phone / SIM profile, at least until you need it (e.g. when travelling abroad to a supporting country). But unfortunately, the same flexibility doesn’t typically extend to calls and texts (roaming is a core part of how mobile networks work), although mobile operators may allow you to disable international roaming via their App or Account portals.

Parliament Debates Broadband and the Future of Terrestrial UK Television | ISPreview UK

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The topic of UK broadband coverage and the future of TV came up for debate in Parliament yesterday, which did a good job of highlighting the challenges. On the one hand, some MPs believe that the “switch-off of terrestrial TV in the 2030s is completely premature and unrealistic“, while the government warned that as terrestrial TV audiences fall, the cost of keeping it would eventually become unsustainable.

As most people will already be aware, there has been a radical shift in how the majority of us access and view TV content over the past decade or so. Such content is now increasingly being viewed online, via services like iPlayer, Netflix, Amazon (Prime Video), NOW TV, Sky Glass, Virgin Media (Stream Box), YouTube and so forth. Due to this, there has been a decline in those using traditional Digital Terrestrial TV (DTT) signals.

NOTE: At present c.88% of UK premises can already access a gigabit-capable network (here) and Ofcom forecasts that this could hit around 97% by May 2027 (here). The government’s Project Gigabit aims for this to reach c.99% by 2032 (here).

The past and present governments have thus been considering how to adapt to this (here), what to do about the TV licence fee, BBC and how to handle the related UHF bands (here) – those that help to carry Digital Terrestrial TV (DTT / DTTV) services (470-694MHz) – after the service has eventually been switched off. So far there’s been plenty of debate, but the most difficult decisions have yet to be made.

As it stands, the licences that support DTTV are due to expire in 2034 and past that point it may become too costly to sustain the service, with most users being expected to have ditched TV aerials in favour of IP (internet) based platforms and services.

The debate itself (here), which was raised by Conservative MP David Mundell, opened by calling on the government to “give certainty for the [DTTV] service into the 2040s” in order to support those who may not be able to access it via alternative methods, due to issues of cost, coverage and other reasons.

David Mundell MP said:

“Freeview is a universal service reaching 98.5% of the UK population, including those in remote and rural areas. It is available at no additional cost over and above the licence fee. This is a crucial point: people do not need to pay any additional monthly bills to watch terrestrial TV; all they need is a TV set and an aerial.

The options for watching TV have broadened in the last few years, with the arrival of TV streaming over the internet, or IPTV, as it is known. Many of us enjoy those services, but the fact is that to do so, someone needs a high-speed fixed broadband subscription of sufficient speed and reliability, and not everyone has that.

Terrestrial TV has a reliability of close to 99%, which broadband does not. Almost half — 45.1% — of broadband customers experienced an outage lasting more than 48 hours in the past year. Indeed, Biggar and the surrounding communities in my constituency experienced an outage of 36 hours. Even as high-speed coverage increases through initiatives such as Project Gigabit, take-up is entirely a different matter.

Research from the consultancy EY estimates that by 2040, some 5.5 million premises will not have taken up a high-speed fixed broadband subscription. Today, some people cannot access fixed broadband because the signal where they live is not fast or reliable enough. Other people simply cannot afford to pay for fixed broadband subscriptions on top of other bills. Millions of people are relying exclusively on mobile for access to the internet. Indeed, data from Citizens Advice suggested that, in 2022 alone, up to 1 million people cancelled their broadband subscription because of the high cost of living.

That is really my message today — any talk about a switch-off of terrestrial TV in the 2030s is completely premature and unrealistic. The Government have the opportunity to take that possibility off the table and give certainty for the service into the 2040s.”

Firstly, we’re not entirely sure where the MP got that 45.1% statistic from for outages lasting more than 48 hours, as this seems unlikely to be correct from our own observations of the market. The majority of common outages that do occur typically only last for a few minutes to a few short hours, with anything longer being a very rare occurrence indeed. Equally, sometimes the problem can be within your own home network, so take it with a pinch of salt.

However, the former culture secretary, Sir John Whittingdale MP (Conservative), warned that “moving purely to IPTV is, I think, inevitable” (we’d tend to agree) and spoke of how he personally thought that the date that has been set as a guarantee for DTT continuing — 2034 — “is about right“. Both Ofcom and broadcasters have previously warned that there will come a tipping point where it’s no longer economically viable to continue to maintain DTT.

Whittingdale also pointed out that there would be some benefits to a switch-off, aside from the direct cost savings, such as by allowing the possibility of using existing DTT spectrum for other purposes (e.g. if auctioned off to mobile operators, the IMT600 band could theoretically raise up to £980m and help to improve network coverage).

Sir John Whittingdale MP said:

“The other reason why I think a switch-off is worth considering is the future of the BBC. Fewer and fewer people each year choose to pay the licence fee, and we need to look at alternatives. Lots of people say, “Well, in that case, why can’t we just operate like Netflix or Amazon and charge people?” The reason is that the BBC cannot, unless it has streamed services with conditional access that allows people to choose not to receive it. That is also an important part of the debate.

My right hon. Friend is absolutely right that there are real challenges. The cost has already been referred to. In government, I had responsibility for Project Gigabit—the Minister will be all too familiar with that—and the initiative to extend gigabit broadband coverage across the country. We still have some way to go. It would be unthinkable to turn off DTT before we reach the point at which gigabit broadband is universal.”

The government’s representative, Stephanie Peacock MP (Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Culture), responded to all this by acknowledging both the significant shift in viewers to “internet-based platforms“, the high cost of trying to maintain DTT past 2034 and the importance of “not [losing] sight of those who still rely on digital terrestrial television as their main way of watching TV … especially true for people without access to fast, reliable broadband“.

Stephanie Peacock MP (Government) said:

“I would like to directly address the issue put to me by the right hon. Member for Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale and others of why the Government do not simply commit to extending the licences past 2034. The cost of DTT to the PSBs is substantial. As fewer people rely on DTT, the cost per house is going up and will continue to do so.

I am aware from my visits and meetings with providers that as part of the network reaches the end of life, investment would be needed to carry on even the current services. The right hon. Member for Maldon (Sir John Whittingdale), a former media Minister, referred to that tipping point. I say that while very clearly saying that no decisions have been made; these are complex issues.

Around 4.5 million households still face real barriers to accessing TV over the internet, whether due to a lack of broadband, unconnected TVs, or a preference for traditional linear viewing. To understand those challenges, we commissioned researchers who spoke directly with a representative range of viewers across demographic groups, from DTT-only users to hybrid users, who use both DTT and IPTV, and full internet TV adopters.

Building on the University of Exeter’s research, this in-depth work shows that many are interested in IPTV once they understand it better, but concerns remain about cost, internet reliability and technical confidence, even among those with broadband. We are using those insights to understand how different groups are affected and to explore what the Government and industry can do to support fair and inclusive access to television.

We also know this is not an easy decision. The choices ahead are complex and must be guided by evidence, and that is why we are taking the time to get them right, drawing on data, research and the views of people across the sector and across the country. We know this work cannot happen in isolation; it is a joint effort that requires extensive collaboration across Government, industry and audience groups

The debate doesn’t really say anything new, but it does summarise the current thinking in parliament and shows that all sides do seem to be trying to find a solution that works. The inevitable reality here is that the days of DTT are slowly coming to an end and nobody should seriously expect it to be continued, at least not at full national scale, much past 2034. But the form of that solution remains unclear.

Equally, there seems to be a strong focus on the need for gigabit broadband to achieve its near universal coverage target first (currently set for 2032, which marks a recent delay from the original 2030 target). But it’s worth remembering that you don’t need gigabit download speeds to watch several HD TV content streams live online (some 98% of the UK can already access speeds of 30Mbps+).

Even the relatively new Freely TV streaming service (eventually this may replace Freeview, even if it’s not promoted like that) states that supporting TVs and other devices require a “minimum broadband speed of 10Mbps” to “stream live internet channels or watch on demand shows“. In reality, you can already fit a single 1080p (Full HD) video stream down a stable download rate of 2Mbps+ with modern codecs, and future developments may even squeeze this down to 0.5Mbps.

The catch being that we still have to allow overhead, particularly in family homes, for people to be using their broadband connection – reliably – for other tasks than just streaming TV/video content (even though that does account for the vast majority of consumer data traffic). Nevertheless, it’s not a negative that the government may wish to achieve universal gigabit coverage before culling DTT, particularly as modern FTTP lines are much more stable and reliable than older copper-based solutions with their many caveats.

SMARTY Finally Introduce eSIM Support to UK Mobile Network | ISPreview UK

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Consumer mobile provider SMARTY, which is a virtual mobile operator (MVNO) on Three UK’s (VodafoneThree) national UK network, yesterday finally joined the large club of providers able to offer eSIM (Electronic SIM) support to their customer base of mobile users.

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).

The good news, as first spotted yesterday by a member (CarlO1460) of ISPreview’s community forum (here), is that customers of Smarty can now also take advantage of eSIM support (here). “If you’re an existing SMARTY customer, you can swap your physical SIM for an eSIM today. New customers and Group owners will be able to order an eSIM directly soon. In the meantime, you can still activate one by doing a SIM swap,” states Smarty.

As usual, you’ll first need to double-check that your mobile phone is actually eSIM compatible. The easiest way to do this is by dialling *#06# into your keypad. If you then see a pop-up that includes an EID number on the screen, your device should be compatible. The move comes just in time for the next refresh of Apple’s iPhone series, which is expected to include at least one eSIM-only model. Better late than never, hay Smarty.

Test of Amazon’s Initial Project Kuiper Broadband Satellites Hits 1.29Gbps | ISPreview UK

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Online retail giant Amazon has conducted a speed test on their initial deployments of Project Kuiper broadband satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), which demonstrated a peak download speed hitting 1.29Gbps (Gigabits per second). But this is naturally on a new network, without any capacity strains (real-world load) from other users.

The company currently has approval to deploy and operate their own constellation of 3,236 LEO satellites as part of Project Kuiper and Amazon has already launched 104 satellites into orbit (altitudes of around 590km to 630km), including two of their initial prototypes. Each spacecraft can technically process data traffic at speeds of up to 1Tbps (Terabits per second), albeit shared between many users.

NOTE: The whole project is expected to cost up to around $20bn (£14.9bn) to deliver, using a mix of rockets from ULA, Arianespace, Blue Origin and even SpaceX, by around 2030/31.

The good news this week is that the Head of Project Kuiper, Rajeev Badyal, recently helped to conduct an initial round of speed tests using their enterprise-grade customer terminal (more context on this below). The test clearly showed their ground-based setup hitting a download speed of 1.29Gbps, although the demo video cuts out before we see any results for upload performance.

The test, which naturally made use of Ookla’s Speedtest.net service, also displayed a real-world latency time of around 47-48ms (milliseconds), which is good and about what we were expecting for their first run of satellites and hardware at that altitude. This should improve a little as their network is refined, but there are limits to what can be done at such distances.

Project-Kuiper-First-Broadband-Speed-Test

According to past information, the latency (often c.20-40ms) and speed of the new broadband service, once live, is expected to be similar to that of Starlink (SpaceX) and will similarly focus on reaching “unserved and underserved communities“.

Technical doc suggest that Project Kuiper’s smallest ultra-compact (7-inch square) ground terminals (pictured) are, for example, expected to support downloads of “up to” 100Mbps (Megabits), while their slightly larger standard model (11 inches square) delivers up to 400Mbps, and the largest model (19 inches) should be able to do up to 1Gbps (Gigabit per second). The latter is more intended for government and enterprise users (this is what was tested above).

Rajeev Badyal said (LinkedIn):

“>1 Gbps speeds from low Earth orbit.

With our first Amazon Project Kuiper satellites on station at 630 km, we’ve been able to put the network through its paces, and last week our team conducted another round of speed tests using our enterprise-grade customer terminal. The results speak for themselves.

For all the focus on our satellites, some of the biggest Kuiper inventions are on the customer terminal side of the house. The team set a high bar from the start, and as far as we know, this is the first commercial phased array antenna to deliver 1+ Gbps from low Earth orbit. We can’t wait to get it in the hands of our customers.

P.S. Uplink numbers generated as much excitement (if not more). We’ll save those for another day though…”

The first commercial beta services are currently still expected to kick off with a few initial users around the end of 2025, but it will be later in 2026 before it gets an early commercial launch in the USA. The service is due to come to the UK sometime within that period too, but Amazon has yet to confirm a clear launch date or any consumer pricing.

Plusnet Discounts UK Full Fibre Broadband Plans and Adds £150 Gift Card | ISPreview UK

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UK ISP Plusnet has introduced a bunch of new discounts across their home broadband packages for new customers. For example, they’ve cut the monthly price of their top 900Mbps Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) package to one of its lowest ever levels – £33.99 per month on a 24-month term – and thrown in a £150 Reward Card (pre-paid Mastercard) for good measure.

The internet provider’s fibre broadband packages are typically data-only plans (no home phone) that include unlimited usage, a new Hub Two wireless router (re-branded BT Smart Hub 2), UK based support, a 24-month minimum contract term, Plusnet SafeGuard and Protect – both powered by Norton – and free activation.

NOTE: Plusnet is powered by Openreach’s full fibre (FTTP) network, which covers around 20 million UK premises but will reach 25m by Dec 2026 and “up to” 30m by 2030.

Take note that, on 31st March each year, the monthly plan price will increase by £4 for broadband. We’ve summarised what this means and the latest deals below, but otherwise these are some of the most attractive deals we’ve seen from Plusnet this year. As usual, you’ll need to click the affiliate links in this article to get these discounts.

Plusnet’s Easter 2025 Broadband Discounts

Full Fibre 145Mbps (30Mbps upload)
£150 Reward Card
Price: £24.99 per month

Price increases to £28.99pm on 1st April 2026 and £32.99pm on 1st April 2027

Full Fibre 300Mbps (50Mbps)
£150 Reward Card
Price: £29.99

Price increases to £33.99pm on 1st April 2026 and £37.99pm on 1st April 2027

Full Fibre 500Mbps (75Mbps)
£150 Reward Card
Price: £30.99

Price increases to £34.99pm on 1st April 2026 and £38.99pm on 1st April 2027

Full Fibre 900Mbps (115Mbps)
£150 Reward Card
Price: £33.99

Price increases to £37.99pm on 1st April 2026 and £41.99pm on 1st April 2027

Take note that Plusnet also sell a 75Mbps FTTP and SOGEA (FTTC) based broadband tier that starts at £24.99 and £25.99 per month, respectively, which also comes with a £100 Reward Card on the SOGEA option.

Telehouse Thailand partners with NT to support digital transformation across public and private sectors | Total Telecom

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Press Release  

Telehouse Thailand, a renowned global provider of data center colocation services, has partnered with National Telecom Public Company Limited (NT) to deliver high-capacity international data transmission via submarine cable systems. This initiative serves to significantly enhance the country’s telecommunications backbone and support digital transformation across the public and private sectors.

The partnership sees NT’s international submarine cable network linking directly to the now fully operational Telehouse Bangkok facility, enabling Telehouse Thailand to offer domestic content providers and ISPs from neighboring countries seamless access to the Asia Direct Cable (ADC) and Asia America Gateway (AAG) systems.

The ADC network provides connectivity between China, Hong Kong, Japan, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam, many of which host data centers for major cloud and content providers, while the AAG network extends connectivity from Asia to the United States, linking together major global economies from around the world.

NT’s domestic submarine cable system provides alternative routing via Thailand’s Gulf coast to NT’s international cable landing stations in Songkhla and Satun, ensuring reliable global reach across multiple regions.

Alongside benefits to private and public organizations, the partnership will serve to advance the Thai government’s vision of establishing the country as an ASEAN Digital Hub, enabling digital transformation of the Southeast Asian region and encouraging global investment.

Colonel Sanpachai Huvanandana, President, National Telecom Public Company Limited commented: “This collaboration expands Thailand’s business potential and telecommunications readiness in the AI era. With terabit-scale capacity and high-reliability network design, our international connectivity infrastructure addresses the critical requirements of global cloud and content providers when considering investment in Thai data center facilities.”

Ken Miyashita, Managing Director of Telehouse Thailand, added: “Leveraging NT’s submarine cable network, a core element of Thailand’s telecommunications infrastructure, enables our customers to efficiently handle the huge volumes of data traffic from Gen AI and cloud services, which are expected to significantly grow. As Bangkok’s leading carrier-neutral interconnection data center, Telehouse further strengthens this submarine connectivity and high service availability with the four diverse incoming fiber routes.

About National Telecom Public Company Limited (NT)

NT is Thailand’s leading integrated telecommunications and digital service provider, delivering end-to-end connectivity solutions domestically and internationally. Its network spans terrestrial fiber, more than seven international submarine cable systems, satellite communications, and wireless technologies.

About Telehouse

Telehouse, a subsidiary of KDDI Corporation, is a leading global data center provider, with 45 or more sites in 10+ countries and bringing together a range of business partners. With over three decades of expertise and partnerships with more than 1,000 network providers worldwide – including carriers, mobile and content providers, enterprises, and financial services companies. – Telehouse delivers highly reliable, interconnected, and carrier-neutral data center solutions.

Openreach Offer Free Connections on FTTP New to Network (NTN) Orders | ISPreview UK

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Network access provider Openreach has launched a new special offer, which will be available to UK broadband ISPs “nationwide” and gives a free connection on New to Network (NTN) orders for Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) based lines. But this will only apply to related orders placed between 3rd October 2025 and 31st December 2025.

Openreach typically charges ISPs anything from £122.84 +vat (Standard Connection) to £297.84 (Advanced Connection) for new service provisions, although various discounts and retail pricing offers by broadband ISPs often reduce the impact of this.

However, it is important to caveat that New to Network (NTN) means a property (house, flat etc.) where there has been no Openreach products and services on the relevant line at any point in the last 90 consecutive days prior to the date of an FTTP order (excluding any premises on ‘New Sites’, like new build homes etc.).

Further details on the special offer can be found here and here. As usual, the decision about whether or not to pass related savings on will be up to each ISP, although many are already running free installation style offers.

VIDEO – Altnet UK Broadband ISP Quickline Launches Rare TV Ad Campaign | ISPreview UK

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Alternative network operator and rural ISP Quickline, which is busy rolling out their new gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network across parts of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire in England (3-Year Rollout Plan), has launched a new TV advert that will air throughout September 2025 on ITV.

The new campaign is said to come at a pivotal time. Over the next three years, Quickline’s rollout will extend gigabit-capable broadband to a further 360,000 premises across thousands of rural communities in the region. To date, the company has already invested more than £107m into rural areas and more will follow.

NOTE: Quickline is supported by around £300m of public subsidy across four Project Gigabit contracts (here, here and here), a private investment of £500m from Northleaf Capital Partners, plus c.£225m in term loans and debt guarantees from the National Wealth Fund (NWF) and a £25m term loan from NatWest.

Kat Jeffery, Head of Marketing at Quickline, said: “Customers are at the heart of everything we do and every decision we make. That’s why it felt only right for them to be the stars of our latest TV campaign. This advert is about celebrating their experiences and shining a light on the real difference connectivity makes to rural life.”

Openreach Urge Action from UK ISPs as Pilot Exchange Closures Draw Near | ISPreview UK

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Openreach (BT) has warned broadband and phone providers impacted by three of their pilot UK exchange closures – Deddington, Ballyclare and Kenton Road – that they only have c.90 days left to identify their risk cohorts (e.g. telecare customers) and migrate them. The network operator said they were growing “increasingly concerned” about the pressure on their resources from ISPs leaving it too late.

In case anybody has forgotten. Openreach currently operates around 5,600 UK exchanges, but only c. 1,000 of those are used to provide nationwide coverage of modern “fibre broadband” based services (FTTC, FTTP etc.) – the Openreach Handover Points (OHPs). However, the rollout of full fibre (FTTP), combined with the retirement of copper lines and legacy services (ADSL, WLR etc.), will make it economically unviable to support both the old and new exchanges.

NOTE: Openreach previously predicted that, come 2025, the number of copper broadband customers being served by the old 4,600 exchanges will fall to just 1 million.

The operator thus has a long-term plan for closing the other 4,600 exchanges – known as the Exchange Exit Programme, which starts with their initial pilot of 3 exchanges (see above) and then extends to an initial closure of 105 “priority exchanges” by 2030, with the rest gradually following through the early 2030s.

However, closing an exchange and migrating affected customers is a highly complex process, which typically takes around 4-7 years (depending upon the complexity of each exchange) – starting with a Stop Sell of old products and eventually ending with everything being switched off (Openreach and ISPs then remove their physical equipment over the remaining months).

The three pilot exchanges have already been in this process for a while, with Deddington (covers 1,200 premises) due to reach the final product switch-off on 28th November 2025, while the much larger Ballyclare (9,500 premises) and Kenton Road (9,500 premises) exchanges will reach this point just two days later (aka – Network Cease Date). There may be some exceptions to this date for Deddington.

What’s the problem?

As the deadline nears, Openreach have said they’re growing “increasingly concerned” that receiving orders for the full remaining volume over this reduced timescale may “challenge their available resources” (including engineering, civils etc), especially considering the volume of complex services still live at the pilot exchanges.

The operator is thus calling on communication problems to “urgently work to identify their risk cohorts asap” (Telecare, CNI/Complex, 2 stage FTTP provisions etc.) and share their plans for tackling them with Openreach before 12th September 2025. This is because related customers are expected to have longer than average lead times and orders must thus be placed by mid-September “at the latest” to allow enough time to tackle them before the final switch-off.

The situation is even more urgent for providers with Ethernet (EAD) circuits that still need to shift/cease, which really need to be tackled right now in other to avoid running into the final network cease. Similarly, any ISP that may be planning to use the bulk FTTP broadband ordering process must consider that it has a minimum 6-week lead time (i.e. these must already be underway or there could be issues).

The clear risk here is that some providers are in danger of leaving things so late that their customers could run the risk of being disconnected. “[Providers] who are non-responsive to these points and not actively sharing plans with Openreach should expect that they will see all remaining services being ceased from 1 December 2025, this will include any services with in-flight orders with a CCD that exceeds 30 November 2025“, said the operator. On top of this, providers that have signed up to the Openreach Exchange Exit commercial contract may have compensation withheld if they fail to migrate every line in their base prior to the final exit date.

At this point such issues aren’t too much of a cause for wider concern because Openreach’s pilot only impacts three relatively small exchanges. But the operator won’t want to see this situation repeated when it comes to expanding the process across hundreds and thousands of exchanges in the future, which would risk creating a nightmare scenario for their UK engineering etc. resources.

However, we should keep in mind that the purpose of any trial or pilot is to test and understand things like this, so the hope is that the learnings Openreach and ISPs take away from it will make future closures much less challenging. The first ones are always the hardest. But equally it might just be possible that it ends up taking the network operator a lot longer to shut their old exchanges down then they would have liked.

The alternative would risk a mass of unwanted customer disconnections, which nobody wants to see, especially as it could then turn it into more of a political issue.

New Techy Focused Broadband ISP Olilo Goes Live for UK Consumers | ISPreview UK

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The United Kingdom may not exactly be short on broadband ISPs at the moment, but today we welcome another one into the fold – Olilo. The new internet provider claims not to be targeting the mass market and has positioned itself more as a product for the “niche market … of geeks/nerds/homelabbers, sysadmins” etc.

The service has been in the private trial phase for the past few months, but recently began to open up for new customers, and their website certainly exudes that ‘coder’ vibe through its design. Prices start at £36 per month for speeds of 900Mbps and go up to £50 for their top 2.3Gbps plans (5Gbps is “coming soon“), supplied via both Openreach and CityFibre’s respective FTTP networks. But new connections do attract a one-off installation charge of £60 to £130, depending on network.

The good news is that Olilo doesn’t do CGNAT, but instead offers static IPv4 and IPv6 addresses by default (dual-stack) and seems to have a mix of 12-month and no contract options. On the flip side, you will need to bring your own router in order to use the service, as they don’t currently bundle their own options into the packages.

Liam Mulryan, Director of Olilo, said:

“We’re stripping out the contracts, hidden clauses and vague promises that plague traditional ISPs, and replacing them with straight-up transparency, technical freedom and speeds that actually match what’s on the tin.

We’re built for the geeks, the sysadmins, the home-lab tinkerers and anyone who hates being treated like they don’t know how the internet works. That means static IPs, no throttling, no traffic shaping, bring-your-own-router if you want, and real-time visibility of how our network is running – all on simple rolling terms so you can leave any time (where our partners allow flexibility with contracts we try and give everyone monthly rolling, and where we haven’t yet we are working with partners to try and get this done).”

Liam originally helped to found another internet provider, Yayzi, before moving away at the start of 2025 to setup his own independent ISP in the shape of Olilo with a new team and ideas etc. (company details). The provider currently appears to be running its own core network (after initially using Velox).