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The UK telecoms regulator, Ofcom, has today approved a request by the parent of mobile operator O2 (Virgin Media) to vary its spectrum licence to allow for the launch of their imminent O2 Satellite service, which will harness Starlink’s satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) to connect with standard smartphones in the UK.

Just to recap. A good number of Starlink’s satellites support Direct to Cell (DtC) technology, which enables them to deliver “robust” global coverage of their new 4G mobile roaming service and supply it directly to unmodified Smartphones on the ground. This service is currently less about performance (currently capacity constrained) and more about ensuring customers can stay connected, for basic tasks, even in remote areas of weak terrestrial mobile signal.

However, in order to work, DtC requires Starlink to do deals with a local mobile operator, which is where O2 comes in as the new service will use a portion of O2’s licensed mobile spectrum. Ofcom officially approved mobile and satellite operators to harness their airwaves (mobile spectrum bands) to support similar Direct to Device (D2D) services during December 2025 (here) and today’s announcement represents the “first licence variation of its kind to be approved” by the regulator.

The new O2 Satellite service will initially deliver basic messaging and data (broadband) services to 4G mobile “not spots” across the UK, with further improvements and applications to follow in the future across a range of handsets. App support will grow over time, with a focus on targeting support for the most asked-for applications at launch, primarily messaging, maps and location services.

Ofcom Statement

This is the first licence variation of its kind to be approved by Ofcom. We have also made the final regulations to support the rollout of new services powered by ‘direct to device’ (D2D) technology.

D2D services involve satellites in space beaming down signals to smartphones on earth, enabling people to stay connected in coverage ‘not-spots’ – including in hard-to-reach rural areas and mountainous regions.

Having received and approved the first licence variation request from VMO2 under the new authorisation framework, we have now inserted the frequencies on which the company is allowed to provide D2D services and formally made the regulations that allow existing handsets to use the service.

These regulations are intended to come into effect on 25 February 2026.

At present, we still don’t know how much O2 will charge for their new satellite calling and data service (or add-on), although it’s initially expected to launch with limited landmass coverage of the UK (rising to more than 95% within 12 months of launch). The coverage is set to increase even further when Starlink’s next-generation DtC satellites are deployed, alongside further enhancements in performance, application use and an expansion of use cases. Officially the service is still planned to go live during “early 2026“.

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New customers looking to switch to broadband, phone and TV provider Virgin Media (O2) may like to know that they’ve just introduced “Bill Credits” (i.e. Switching Credits or Contract Buyout), which will be available until 1st April 2026 and are said to be worth up to £250 on their top packages.

Despite the slightly generic and thus perhaps confusing name of “Bill Credits“, Virgin Media are really introducing switching credits, which are intended to help customers who switch to their service to cover some or most of the Early Termination Charges (ETC) that may have been levelled against them by their old ISP (this usually occurs if you attempt to exit your old contract early).

New customers who want to take advantage of this must raise a claim within 60 days of activating their service. A final bill from their old provider must also be presented, which needs to clearly show the disconnection fee that has been charged by their previous provider (the bill must not to be older than 30 days from the date the customer ordered their Virgin Media service). Any early termination fees must have also been paid in full to the losing provider. Virgin Media’s bill credits are capped at the value of their early termination fees, up to £250 (whichever is lower).

Student broadband contracts, 30-day rolling contracts and Essential (social tariff) broadband customers are not eligible for these credits.

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The recently launched virtual mobile operator (mvno) for the Channel Islands, Coop Mobile, has complained to the Jersey Competition Regulatory Authority (JCRA) that rival operator JT has been disrupting the ability of consumers to switch to Coop’s service by preventing them from being able to keep their existing mobile number as part of the process.

Just to recap. Coop Mobile came about after the States of Guernsey last year voted to temporarily suspend local competition law in order to allow the merger between Sure and Airtel Vodafone to proceed (here and here), which set in motion a £48m deal to build a new “world-class” 5G mobile broadband network across the islands. The establishment of Coop Mobile (Channel Island Co-Op) formed a required part of that agreement.

However, the BBC News reports that both Sure and Coop Mobile have complained that customers who want to switch to their mobile service from JT (Jersey Telecom) are struggling to do so, primarily because the latter is currently unable to ensure that customers can keep their existing mobile number during the porting (switching) process.

In response, the CEO of Coop Mobile, Mark Cox, said the operator is “actively challenging this with the regulator and will continue to push hard to have number transfers made available as soon as possible“. On the flip side, JT confirmed they were working on the “complex” problem as part of a “significant network upgrade programme“, although they have yet to determine when they’ll be in a position to support number porting.

The JCRA views number porting as an “important feature of a competitive telecoms market” and is working with all sides to “ensure that the mobile market continues to operate in a way that promotes fair competition and protects consumer choice,” although they don’t currently seem to know when number porting will be fully supported either.

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The UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has criticised a comical TV advert for Virgin Media’s (O2) UK broadband service, which featured a Walrus driving a speedboat, after rival ISP BT complained that the promotion included a claim that could not be verified of the provider being “Awarded Best Broadband Experience”. But one other BT complaint was rejected.

The ASA noted that the advert, which was shown all the way back on 29th September 2024 and is one of Virgin Media’s more entertaining promotions, had, for the duration the award was referenced, superimposed text that stated, “GWS network award comparing UK providers’ average performance scores (including speed & reliability). To verify, see virginmedia.com/legalawards. User speed depends on package choice”.

The link for that went to another page and link, highlighting a Global Wireless Solutions (GWS) report from 2024, which contained information on the nine measures used to determine the award. In addition, the document explained that the nine elements were weighted depending on the importance to consumers, as determined by a poll done by GWS. But the ASA correctly pointed out that GWS had failed to explain what those weightings actually were.

For its part, Virgin Media argued the ad was not misleading because it was claimed to have “accurately described” an independently adjudicated award they had won. They said that the GWS award for Best Broadband Experience came from tests comparing major providers’ performance over a six-month period.

The tests were said to have used actual end user experience to the consumer’s device (not just up to the router), so both the fixed line performance and the internet service provider’s (ISP) wireless router performance were considered in the results. The results came from 5,000 UK consumers in their homes who were tested at random times over the period.

ASA Ruling Ref: A24-1267830 Virgin Media Ltd

However, while Virgin Media had provided further detail to the ASA, at no point in the document did it explain what the weightings were and we considered that was fundamental to understanding what the award had been given for. Because the ad did not include, or direct consumers to, sufficient information to allow them to understand the comparison, we concluded that the claim “Awarded Best Broadband Experience” in the ad was not verifiable and therefore breached the Code.

On that point, the ad breached BCAP Code rule 3.35 (Comparisons with identifiable competitors).

In addition, BT also questioned whether the same award statement was “misleading and could be substantiated“, although the ASA did NOT uphold that complaint as they ruled that the ad had made clear that the award was based on speed and reliability measures, which they understood accurately reflected the award criteria. The study also “did not imply Virgin Media’s technology would surpass their competitors’ technologies on all criteria … the ad did not mislead for the reasons raised by BT“.

The ASA ended up merely telling Virgin Media to ensure that they provided sufficient information to enable consumers to verify comparisons with identifiable competitors, or signposted consumers to such information.

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Rochdale-based UK ISP Zen Internet appears to have recently discounted the monthly prices of their CityFibre based full fibre (FTTP) home broadband packages by between £2 to £3. For example, the provider’s top 2.3Gbps (symmetric speed) plan has fallen from £57 to £54 per month. But Zen’s Openreach based packages remain unchanged.

The other discounts, as spotted by one of our readers (John), include their 155Mbps package falling from £30 to £28 per month, while 500Mbps is now £34 per month and 910Mbps has dropped to £39. All packages are on an 18-month minimum term, including a FRITZ!Box 7530 AX WiFi 6 wireless router (except on 2.3Gbps where it’s an Amazon eero Pro 6E by default), Static IP address and “free” setup.

The aforementioned pricing is currently targeted at new customers, although as it appears to be a change in standard pricing then it’s possible that existing customers who choose to re-contract may also be able to benefit (not yet confirmed, but we’re checking). Zen also pledges to guarantee “no in-contract price increases“.

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Abingdon-based broadband ISP Gigaclear, which has so far built their full fibre (FTTP) network to cover 612,000 premises (inc. 160,000 customers) across rural England, have modified their Project Gigabit roll-out contract for South Oxfordshire (Lot 13.01) – reducing its coverage target from c.5,500 to 5,034 premises and public subsidy from £17.04m to £15.49m.

Just to recap. The original contract was first awarded all the way back in November 2023 (here), which occurred jointly alongside the complementary North Oxfordshire (Lot 13.02 – c.4,200 premises) contract under the same Government programme. At the time, both were said to be aiming for build completion by November 2026. Gigaclear has since made good progress (here), deploying to 2,390 premises under Lot 13.01 and 3,220 under Lot 13.02.

However, much as we’ve said before, Project Gigabit’s contracts are not static and their scope, as well as committed levels of public funding, can change over time due to a number of different reasons (this is informed by regular ‘Open Market Reviews’ of existing UK deployment plans across all network operators). For example, commercial operators may expand or reduce their roll-out plans in the same region(s), which can reduce or grow the scope for public investment within those same contracted areas.

The contracted operator could also find the deployment to be more expensive, or possibly even cheaper, than previously envisaged. Such adjustments may occur due to changes in build costs and interest rates / inflation, as well as any unexpected obstacles to street works or greater efficiencies of build than planned or expected. Suffice to say, there can be various reasons why the contracted scope of related builds and the level of allocated public funding may change over time.

In this case, the Government’s Building Digital UK (BDUK) agency appears to have corrected for a mistake on an earlier contract modification notice and also “reduced … [the] contracted scope” in accordance with the UK subsidy control regime. “The contract has been modified again resulting in an updated contract value of £15,493,563, and 5,034 premises,” said the latest notice.

The change is mild and, as explained earlier, should thus perhaps be considered somewhat par for the course with these contracts and the often tentative nature of remote rural FTTP builds.

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The CEO of Carlisle-based altnet broadband ISP Grain, Richard Cameron, has written a new open letter to Liz Kendall MP, the UK Government’s Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, in order to highlight the “shameful” price hike practices of their rivals, which he says will not be resolved by the new Telecoms Consumer Charter.

Just to recap. The Government announced the new charter last week, which succeeded in getting the major UK broadband and phone providers to make a commitment to “stop unexpected bill increases“ (see our summary). But it didn’t do anything to stop mid-contract price hikes themselves and nor did it address the unfairness of how mid-contract price hikes are currently being applied (e.g. applying the same flat c.£2-£4 monthly increase to those who pay just c.£20 a month and those who pay c.£100 – disproportionately targeting those least able to afford it).

The view of Grain’s CEO is that the new charter is merely a smokescreen to distract people from seeing what is really going on in the industry, which he suggests has become an excuse to dramatically increase prices far above what they would have been under the old regime (admittedly this does vary, depending upon how much you pay for your service today).

We suspect that many consumers reading Richard’s letter will agree with the broad thrust of his thoughts. But admittedly this could also be seen as a cunning bit of promotional advertising by Grain itself, which has long pledged not to apply mid-contract price rises on their broadband packages (vested interest). Sadly, we suspect it’ll take more than one letter from Grain to evolve either Ofcom or the Government’s thought process.

Dear Secretary of State,

I am writing to you following the recent announcement regarding legacy broadband providers signing up for the government’s new Telecoms Consumer Charter.

I believe it is important to share how this Charter allows legacy providers to treat their customers. Transparency shines a light on what is happening today, and it is shining a light on shameful practices.

Legacy providers are being allowed to use this as an opportunity to inflict substantially higher price rises on their customers. Providers such as BT and Virgin Media are pushing the phrase “pounds and pence” price rises, moving away from the previous approach linked to inflation. Yet the term is wholly misleading, with the legacy providers using this change as an excuse to push through inflation-busting rises. It is also misleading to call them “mid-contract” price increases, which implies a single rise in the middle of the contract, rather than multiple in-contract increases. Consumers on 24-month contracts are frequently subject to two such increases during their minimum term, without the ability to exit penalty-free. This practice is now permeating throughout the industry, with other providers following suit.

Inflation busting in-contract price increases are now being applied by the following companies, meaning millions of consumers are being forced to pay more than they should be for their broadband services: BT, EE, Plusnet, Virgin Media, KCOM, Sky Broadband, NOW broadband, Vodafone, TalkTalk, 4th Utility, CommunityFibre, Cuckoo, Hyperoptic and Rise Fibre.

The Charter states that this will be the last year of CPI-linked price rises and implies this is beneficial for consumers. However, in practice, the new approach appears to allow legacy providers to impose significantly higher price rises on consumers, despite the increased transparency the Charter promotes. For example, I have included at the bottom of this letter a recent email sent by BT to a customer.

Under the previous approach, price rises were CPI plus 3.9%. BT is using the new approach to put through an excessive CPI plus 20%. This is not in the interests of working people who are struggling with the cost of living.

While it is not unreasonable for companies to protect themselves against increased inflation over time, contracts to consumers are capped at 24 months, and there is no reason why companies cannot be transparent and give a fixed-price contract for that time. This ensures that whenever prices are increased, consumers are treated fairly and have an opportunity to leave their contract without high penalty fees. As such, there is simply no need for inflation-busting in-contract price increases.

I have also included screenshots from the websites of broadband providers Rise Fibre and 4th Utility, which gives another example of a lack of transparency in the industry. These examples show significant differences between prominently advertised headline prices and what consumers are contractually required to pay.

This is inconsistent with guidance from the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), which states advertising must either show the cumulative price the consumer will have to pay over the entire minimum length of the contract or the total price that the consumer will have to pay for each period of the contract, alongside a prominent statement of the number of periods the consumer is committed to pay that price for. The government could help consumers by asking the ASA to review website advertising in the industry to stop misleading claims, such as these, being made.

Finally, I am dismayed at how the rises are being communicated as necessary. For example, BT has claimed that the rises are vital to “continue giving you the connection and reliability you expect”. Connectivity and reliability are fundamental parts of a contract and should not be contingent on inflation-busting in-contract price increases that customers cannot avoid without penalty.

The only conclusion is that these increases are being used to generate excessive profits, and I believe this practice should be banned. I urge the government to act now to protect working people from being exploited by inflation-busting in-contract price increases and reconsider your support for allowing them to remain in place.

I look forward to seeing action taken to address this exploitation.

Yours sincerely
Richard Cameron
CEO, Grain Connect

As above, Richard includes a reference at the bottom of his letter to a recent email sent by BT to a customer, which highlights how it wasn’t only the flat £4 broadband price hike that will be hitting customers mid-contract. BT, claims Richard, “has also taken the opportunity to add an extra £3 for a Pay as You Go Calling Plan … The customer has never asked for this, or used it, but it has apparently always been bundled into the product for free. This new approach has been cleverly designed to allow price increases of £7 a month to be applied to the broadband service” (hence the 20% above inflation remark above).

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New research from the University of Surrey has claimed that an “optimal combination of energy-efficient” 5G (mobile broadband) network features, such as AI systems that let mobile mast and antenna base stations go into sleep mode when usage is low and phones that avoid unnecessary background network checks, could cut “indirect carbon emissions” across the UK by c.25 million metric tons.

Regular readers will know that a number of mobile network operators have already deployed at least some of the solutions being talked about in the new research paper. For example, EE have already deployed Cell Sleep technology across their UK 4G (mobile broadband) network (here), while Vodafone have implemented 5G Deep Sleep, 4G Cell Sleep Mode and a Radio Power Efficiency Heatmap (here), among other things.

The new study examines ten energy saving technologies for 5G mobile networks, six that target how base stations operate and four designed to make user devices more energy-efficient. Some of these included AI-driven multi-level sleep modes (this was the most impactful measure), reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (i.e. smart panels that redirect radio waves using little power), cluster-zooming in cell-free MIMO networks (i.e. allowing groups of small antennas to expand or shrink coverage as required and smarter handset signalling etc.

The analysis shows that sectors such as financial services, IT services and computer programming gain some of the largest indirect benefits, reflecting just how much modern industries depend on digital connectivity.

Dr Lirong Liu, Associate Professor in Environment and Sustainability, said:

“Smarter base stations and devices don’t just cut electricity use in telecoms – they reduce indirect emissions in the whole supply chain. The modelling framework allowed us to quantify effects that are usually hidden, especially the indirect emissions linked to electricity use and wider supply chains. It also gave us a clear way to compare different 5G features side by side and identify which combinations deliver the strongest environmental benefits.”

However, the research also suggests that to fully unlock these benefits, 5G policy must “extend beyond coverage and speed targets and encourage the adoption of energy-efficient architectures“. Related measures, say the study authors, could include building energy targets into Ofcom’s spectrum licenses for 5G frequencies, which they say would incentivise for low-power network design and making sure 5G research supports the UK’s broader Net Zero goals. In fairness, the financial savings alone for network operators (i.e. lower energy bills) of adopting such methods are often enough of an encouragement.

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In a small but welcome development. Mobile and internet provider giffgaff has announced that both new and existing customers of their home broadband products – powered by nexfibre’s UK full fibre network (covers 2.5 million premises) – will benefit from a change of standard price on their 200Mbps tier that reduces it by -£1 to £29 per month.

On the surface such a charge is hardly much to write home about, but it’s important to reflect that this isn’t a temporary discount and to underline that they’re reducing the standard monthly price at a time when many other broadband providers have been hiking their prices, often significantly.

Lest we forget that giffgaff’s broadband packages only attract a basic 30-day minimum contract term and include no setup fees, despite including a wireless router in the package. In addition, existing customers of giffgaff’s mobile plans can apparently also benefit from three months of free service when they sign-up.

Giffgaff Statement

We’re making a change to our 200mbps broadband plan, bringing it down to £29 from £30. Members already on this plan will automatically be placed on to the new price point at their next renewal.

Don’t forget that if you’ve been a mobile member with giffgaff since before 1st January, 2026, then you can still take advantage of [the] offer … where you can get three months free broadband if you sign up by 12th April, 2026.

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A new study into the global progress of 5G Standalone mobile broadband networks, which was conducted by Ookla, has revealed that global 5G SA availability – based on Speedtest.net sample share – reached 17.6% in Q4 2025 (i.e. one in six 5G speed tests were conducted on SA networks). The UK was also identified as an accelerator and saw its share rise from 1.7% to 7% in the last year.

Just for some context. Earlier deployments of 5G were largely Non-Standalone (NSA), which meant they were partly reliant upon slower 4G infrastructure. But Standalone (SA) networks, which are rapidly growing their coverage, are pure end-to-end 5G that can deliver ultra-low latency times, greater energy efficiency, better mobile broadband speeds (particularly uploads), network slicing, improved support for Internet of Things (IoT) devices, increased reliability and security etc.

The new report highlights how, at the country level, the USA remains the largest accelerator, with its 5G SA sample share rising from 23.4% in Q4 2024 to 31.6% in Q4 2025 (+8.2 pp). Singapore remains among the highest-SA-share markets globally at 38.9% in Q4 2025, but was broadly flat year-on-year. Other notable accelerators included Hong Kong (+7.1 pp to 8.8%) and the United Kingdom (+5.3 pp to 7%).

Just for some context. Europe’s 5G SA sample share still remains generally low, but it did more than double from 1.1% to 2.8% over the past year, primarily driven by accelerated deployments in Austria (8.7%), Spain (8.3%), the UK (7%), and France (5.9%). Spain’s 5G SA share is comparatively high in Europe, but its year-on-year increase was more modest (+1.7 pp).

5G Mobile Broadband Speeds

In terms of the impact upon mobile broadband speeds of 5G SA technology. Ookla noted how, globally, 5G SA connections delivered a median download speed of 269.51Mbps (or just 205Mbps in Europe), representing a 52% premium over older 5G NSA’s 177.37Mbps (or 45% faster than NSA in Europe). But that 269.51Mbps figure is actually down by 3.5% from 279.25Mbps last year.

However, there are plenty of significant regional variations in all this, such as with the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), which delivered a median download speed of 1.13Gbps! Similarly, the UAE leads median 5G SA download speeds globally at 1.24Gbps, a speed that would be considered exceptional even for many full fibre (FTTP) broadband lines in developed markets.

As for the United Kingdom, Ookla’s report found that we delivered a median download speed of 142Mbps via 5G SA, which makes us one of the slowest countries in the entire study. Sadly there are no comparative figures for 5G NSA in the UK as we’re not even fast enough to make their downloads table (below).

The performance gaps between NSA and SA 5G typically reflect continued reliance on low-band spectrum (particularly in Germany) and limited mid-band deployment for SA networks.

The global median upload speed similarly slipped 4.6% to 16.91Mbps over the same period, while latency times improved by over 6% to 42ms (milliseconds). As for the United Kingdom, we were once again at the bottom of the upstream table but did show that NSA 5G networks delivered an upload rate of 10.33Mbps, while 5G SA achieved slightly higher at 12.78Mbps. Not exactly earth-shattering stuff on the upstream front.

In terms of latency performance, the average UK latency times on 5G SA networks were just 36ms, which compares with 46ms on NSA.

The good news is that some countries have implemented clear coverage obligations linked to 5G SA and others have seen a boost from network consolidation, such as in the UK at both operator level (e.g. VodafoneThree’s commitments) and government level (e.g the UK’s 5GSA target for 2030). Ookla highlights how such countries often show “substantially higher SA adoption and performance than countries with fragmented or reactive policy approaches“.

Despite these advances, further progress is still required. In many countries the planning system remains a constraint, with approval timelines for new masts, small cells, and other infrastructure representing a bottleneck that, if addressed, Ookla says “could materially accelerate deployment“. The UK is making progress on this front (here and here), although it has taken a long time.

Finally, the report also highlighted some early evidence to suggest that 5G SA networks may reduce battery drain vs NSA networks, which is a claim we’ve seen before. The battery consumption analysis employed a proprietary Ookla methodology that passively analyses battery level readings collected from Android devices via Speedtest background scans. The methodology filters out periods of device charging and statistically anomalous intervals, isolating valid discharge measurements.

In the UK sample, devices connected to 5G SA on the EE network recorded a median discharge time approximately 22% longer than those on 5G NSA. On O2 UK, the SA advantage was also evident, with SA devices lasting around 11% longer than their NSA counterparts. In practical terms, these percentage gains translated to differences of up to around 3 hours in median battery endurance between the two architectures, depending on the operator.