Alternative network provider Cityfibre has today announced that they’ve connected the first homes to their new 10Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP network in rural parts of Norfolk, which is being built as part of their £114m state aid supported Project Gigabit contract (Lot 7) with the Government.

CityFibre currently aspires to cover up to 8 million UK premises with their new FTTP network (funded by c.£2.4bn in equity, c.£4.9bn debt and c.£800m of BDUK / public subsidy) – representing c.30% of the UK, but it remains unclear precisely when this will be achieved. The original goal was for the end of 2025, although their current build + M&A plan may get them up to c.6m (if it all goes well).

The operator has also won several contracts under the Government’s £5bn Project Gigabit broadband rollout scheme, which aims to help extend 1Gbps (download) capable networks to reach at least 85% of UK premises by 2025 (we’re currently at over 84%), before aiming to achieve “nationwide” coverage (c. 99%) by 2030. This is focused on upgrading the final 10-20% of hardest to reach premises (usually those in rural areas).

According to CityFibre, the first homes under their Norfolk contract have now gone live in the neighbouring rural communities of Newton St Faith and Horsham St Faith. The connections mark an important milestone for CityFibre, which is planning to deploy their 10Gbps-capable full fibre networks to over 1.3 million “subsidised and commercial premises” in hard-to-reach homes through the wider Project Gigabit programme.

CityFibre’s Norfolk contract (Lot 7)

£114m Project Gigabit investment (state aid)
£43m CityFibre investment (commercial)
Connections for 62,200 rural homes and businesses (state aid supported part)
Locations including Buxton, Castle Acre and Horning will be among those to benefit.
A further 8,000 premises in the north west of the county are being reviewed for inclusion subject to survey in the next six months.
Survey work completed anticipated December 2023
Build commences anticipated January 2024
Build completion anticipated December 2028

Sir Chris Bryant, UK Digital Infrastructure Minister, said:

“This government is committed to kickstarting economic growth and improving the lives of working people. Delivering reliable connectivity is a critical part of that mission.

By investing in broadband upgrades, we’re improving internet speeds in rural communities like Norfolk, helping people stay connected to their loved ones and opening up new opportunities for businesses.”

Simon Holden, Group COO at CityFibre, said:

“Project Gigabit is a real victory for residents and businesses across Norfolk and will future-proof digital infrastructure for years to come, as well as delivering faster speeds, greater reliability and a much better digital experience to people today.”

CityFibre is based in London and is owned by funds managed by Antin Infrastructure Partners and Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Mubadala Investment Company, Interogo Holding and Newlight Partners.

Mobile network operators Vodafone and Three UK (CK Hutchison) have today responded to the recently raised competition concerns over their proposed mega-merger by setting out a series of commitments, which they hope will satisfy the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) enough to approve the deal.

Just to recap. The merger would see Vodafone retain a 51% slice of the business and CK Hutchison (Three UK) holding 49%. The agreement was promoted as something that would be “great for customers, great for the country and great for competition,” while also resulting in a major £11bn investment to upgrade the UK’s 5G mobile (broadband) infrastructure and network coverage.

However, the CMA’s investigation (here) found that reducing the number of primary mobile operators from 4 to 3 would result in a “Significant Lessening of Competition” (SLC) that gave rise to various concerns at the retail and wholesale level, such as from consumers being more at risk of higher prices and reduced quality. Virtual operators (MVNO) would similarly have fewer network (MNO) partners to choose from, which feeds into this.

The competition regulator also questioned how much benefit an expanded 5G SA roll-out would really have and warned that, without a legally binding coverage pledge, the operators could still miss their targets and not face any consequences. Not to mention that the merged entity would be placed into a dominant position of spectrum ownership (i.e. giving them a significant advantage over rivals).

Speaking of which, some concerns were also raised about the difficulty of unpicking existing network sharing arrangements, such as between EE (BT) and Three UK. BT complained this could occur due to the merged entity gaining access to their Commercially Sensitive Information (CSI), relating to investment plans etc.

Finally, and somewhat contrary to previous statements made by Vodafone and Three UK about being “sub-scale, unable to cover their cost of capital, and constrained in their ability to invest and compete effectively“. The CMA found that both operators were in fact “viable and competitive businesses and that they would continue to invest in their networks absent the Merger“. The CMA therefore believes that if the merger did not go ahead, both would in fact “continue to compete with each other, as well as with other mobile operators, in a broadly similar way as today.”

In the past, regulators have often opposed such deals, but in recent years both the government and regulators have softened their stance, which is partly due to a 2020 ruling by the European Court of Justice (here) – this found that having only 3 operators still made for a competitive market. But crucially, that judgment was recently over-turned on appeal to the EU’s highest court (here) and a final conclusion has yet to be reached.

Finding a Remedy

The CMA then proceeded to set out a number of potential remedies, which might enable them to approve the deal. As part of the response to that, Vodafone and Three UK have today set out a series of commitments that they’d be willing to make (a few of these have been proposed before), which they hope may be enough to satisfy the competition concerns to secure approval – many of these echo the CMA’s earlier demands.

Joint Statement by Vodafone and Three UK

Vodafone and Three disagree with the CMA’s Provisional Findings. Our merger will be pro-growth, pro-customer, pro-investment and pro-competitive for the UK. It is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to transform UK digital infrastructure with £11 billion of network investment.

We continue to constructively engage with the CMA and remain confident that we can work with them to secure approval. Our response to the Remedies Notice contains several additional commitments, which we believe comprehensively address the issues they have raised.

In short, the mobile operators are proposing to make their network coverage commitments (e.g. 5G SA) legally binding – overseen and enforced by Ofcom. Furthermore, they’ve also tabled a proposal that would protect retail pricing for certain consumers (albeit only for a very limited period), divest some of their radio spectrum frequency to O2 (VMO2) and plan to provide a new reference offer to wholesale customers (virtual mobile operators / MVNO).

Proposed Commitments

➤ Our £11 billion network investment commitment will ensure UK customers enjoy one of Europe’s most advanced networks and it will level the playing field with the two larger players to drive competitiveness. We are happy for Ofcom to monitor and enforce this commitment.

➤ The merger will extend the network quality benefits well beyond the merged company’s own customer base, by extending it to VMO2’s direct and MVNO customers. This agreement will deliver better quality, enhanced capacity and greater coverage to over 50 million mobile customers across the country. On approval of the merger, Vodafone and Three have also agreed to sell spectrum to VMO2, helping to create a better alignment of spectrum holdings in the UK market.

➤ For retail customers: we will maintain tariffs at £10 or below for two years from the completion of the merger for value-focused customers on the SMARTY brand, social tariffs on both the SMARTY and VOXI 4 Now brands, and continue measures to protect registered vulnerable customers; and

➤ For wholesale customers: we will provide a reference offer that encourages MVNOs – the fastest growing part of the market – to access our additional network capacity to offer great deals to retail customers.

The last two commitments above are the newest editions, although the pledge to only protect certain retail prices does seem quite weak, particularly given how cheap some of the MVNO providers on Three UK’s network are across tariffs in the £20 to £10 range as well (e.g. unlimited data plans are often priced around £15-£16 per month via Smarty and iD Mobile, but how long will that continue post-merger? Vodafone’s equivalent plans are much more expensive).

Some of the proposed commitments, such as on retail pricing, appear similar-ish to what O2 and Three UK proposed in 2016 as part of their infamously failed (i.e. blocked by regulators) attempt to merge (here). But the regulatory and competition landscape is not the same today as it was then. Not to mention that the costly challenge of upgrading national networks to support 5G has also proven to be a significant pain point, which could be solved by such mergers.

In the past, regulators often opposed such deals, but in recent years both the government and regulators have softened their stance, which is partly due to a 2020 ruling by the European Court of Justice (here) – this found that having only 3 operators still made for a competitive market. But that judgment was recently over-turned on appeal to the EU’s highest court (here) and a final conclusion has yet to be reached.

Quite how the CMA will respond to this package of commitments is unclear, although we do think that Vodafone and Three UK could go further on the issue of retail pricing (the CMA may yet push for that). Ofcom will also be needed to judge whether the proposed divestment of spectrum to O2 is enough to placate concerns, as spectrum ownership is a very finely balanced area and EE won’t want to be put at a disadvantage.

The deadline for a final outcome is currently 7th December 2024, so there’s still time for negotiation to find a solution.

UPDATE 12pm

The full response is available here, but at 94 pages long you might need to take a day off just to get through it all.

Eastbourne-based alternative UK broadband ISP Lightning Fibre, which has built a new full fibre (FTTP) network across parts of Sussex and Kent in England, have today begun to “trial” a new 50Mbps (symmetric) package that costs just £15 per month for 24-months. But it’s only available to people born before 23rd September 1958.

The new package aligns to the current state pension age, which is 66 years old for both men and women. But unlike their similar Social Tariff (same speed and price, but only a 1-month term), this one is “not means tested” and is only available to order until 30th November 2024 by residential customers.

The trial appears to be part of a reaction to the new Government’s recent decision, which means that 2.5 million pensioners will no longer receive the winter fuel allowance, as now only those receiving Pension Credit or other means-tested benefits will receive the payment. But up to 1 million pensioners do not receive pension credit, despite being eligible.

Rob Reaks, Lightning Fibre’s CCO, said:

“Our social tariff has been available for some time, for households in receipt of means tested benefits, but this new tariff gives older people the opportunity to access affordable full fibre broadband even if they do not receive government support through benefits or pension credits. Initially, this is a limited trial but we hope to bring it back and roll it out in 2025.”

Existing customers can also switch to the new package, but one catch is that you’ll need to do so via the phone (01323 380260), as the trial package isn’t available to order online.

Alternative broadband ISP Connexin, which is currently aiming to deploy a new full fibre (FTTP) network across 500,000 premises in East Yorkshire and beyond (England), has today become one of the UK’s fastest residential providers with the launch of a new 5Gbps (symmetric speed) package called “Fibre 5000“.

The premium package is being aimed at “heavy internet users … [with] exceptionally high data demands“, such as content creators and video professionals, as well as businesses or individuals with staggering amounts of data who rely on cloud services for their data storage, computing or backups etc.

The new Fibre 5000 broadband package includes a “free” u6T (Calix) router, which boasts a 10Gbps capable LAN and WAN port to “futureproof the needs of the most demanding user and delivers the ultimate Wi-Fi experience for gaming, streaming and data transfers with blazing speeds.” But sadly, it’s not a WiFi 7 device.

The package itself costs £124.99 per month for 24-months (£149.99 thereafter) and includes “free” installation, which at this price puts it more into the territory of a business style service.

Shadi Halliwell, MD of Consumer at Connexin, said:

“We are delighted to offer Hull the fastest broadband speeds available in our region and one of the fastest in the UK. As technology continues to evolve, we will see a persistent increase in data consumption and the need for higher broadband speeds. By investing in ultra-fast broadband today, we are helping home and business users prepare for tomorrow’s ever-increasing demands. Fibre 5000 will give individuals a brilliant opportunity to futureproof their homes and businesses.”

At present we don’t know exactly how many premises Connexin has covered with their network, but the majority of it is in Hull where their fibre optic lines compete with the likes of KCOM and MS3. However, this is not the fastest consumer available broadband package in the UK, since for that honour we’d have to look at the likes of B4RN and YouFibre (Netomnia), which have 8-10Gbps class packages.

The BT Group has confirmed that they recently received their first upfront prepayment of £105m for the sale of leftover copper cables, which had been extracted from their legacy UK exchange network (broadband and phone lines) as part of the operator’s gradual move to replace those with newer fibre optic lines.

Just to recap. The group’s £15bn investment to roll-out Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) based gigabit broadband ISP lines across the UK, which is being handled by Openreach, will ultimately be followed by the extraction of their older copper lines. BT has previously said that it is “confident” of being able to “recover” an estimated 200,000 tonnes of copper from their old legacy network through the 2030s.

The first major step in this is the operator’s national Exchange Clearance Operation (ECO) programme, which is a BT Group initiative rather than an Openreach one and the copper being recovered will be from BT kit in the exchange, although it all feeds into the same overall task.

BT’s most recent Annual Report (June 2024) noted how the operator “continued recovering old or end-of-life network equipment to reuse or recycle, much of which was through our Exchange Clearance Operations programme. This year, we recovered 3,300 tonnes. We also agreed a deal with a leading bank and global recycler EMR to support the extraction and recycling of copper cable from our network until 2028.”

According to The Guardian, BT has now received £105m after entering into a forward agreement to sell copper granules created from the operator’s surplus copper cables, and more such payments will follow as the progress continues.

A spokesperson for Openreach said:

“As we look to recover and reuse scarce resources like copper in line with our commitment to sustainability, we estimate that as we replace old copper networks with fibre, we’ll be able to recover up to 200,000 tonnes of copper through the 2030s – in line with customer migrations.”

Estimates suggest that the group’s copper cables could, once fully extracted and sold, be worth up to £1.5bn by completion. But this does depend upon the quality of the copper, as well as ever-fluctuating market prices and additional costs (the high cost of extraction, middlemen fees etc.). After costs, BT may well get back a lot less than £1.5bn, although they’ll eventually also see some savings from a reduction in copper theft and related repairs from their network (fibre optic lines have no value to criminals).

Finally, it’s worth noting that Openreach will eventually only need around 1,000 “fibre” (FTTC, FTTP etc.) exchanges – Openreach Handover Points (OHPs) – and thus the operator is currently in the early stages of preparing for their Exchange Exit Programme, which will close around 4,600 UK exchanges that would not make economic sense to maintain. The first 100+ exchanges are due to close by 2030, but the rest will follow through the early 2030s.

The withdrawal of copper lines and exchanges is a slow process because it will take time to gradually migrate consumers and businesses over to the new network, which is a hugely complex process – one that requires existing customers to be supported (often for a few years after FTTP has arrived) so as to avoid disruptions in vital services.

The UK telecoms regulator, Ofcom, will tomorrow (1st Oct 2024) begin enforcing new roaming rules that require mobile network operators, such as Three UK, Vodafone, EE and O2 (including their many virtual / MVNO partners), to protect consumers who travel abroad from mobile BILL SHOCKS on data (broadband), call and text charges.

Just to recap. The regulator previously found (here) that the quality of information being provided by mobile operators on roaming charges could be “inconsistent and unclear“. In addition, Ofcom noted that 19% of holidaymakers are unaware they could face extra charges when using their phone abroad, and a similar proportion (18%) said they do not research roaming charges before travelling.

However, Ofcom lacks the power to stop mobile operators from charging customers for using their services when travelling, so instead they will tomorrow begin enforcing new rules and guidance that require all UK mobile operators to tell their customers when they start roaming, how much it will cost them and any action they can take to limit their spend. Many already do this, albeit to varying different degrees.

The new rules also tackle the issue of “inadvertent roaming“, which is where mobile phones inadvertently roam to a network in a different country even though the customer is not physically in that country, such as when UK customers on the English coast inadvertently roam on to French networks (Ofcom says 14% of UK mobile customers experience this both when abroad or still in the UK).

What Changes Have Ofcom Made?

Requiring providers to send roaming alerts so that customers can make informed decisions and are protected from unexpected bills

Providers must notify customers when they start roaming (both in the EU and rest of world destinations). The notification(s) must provide clear, comprehensible, accurate information so a customer can make informed decisions when roaming and:

• enable customers to understand any charges that apply to using roaming services, any fair use limits and the time period that applies to any time-limited charges. The new rules give providers some flexibility in how they communicate the information to their customers;

• inform customers that they can specify or modify a mobile bill limit and direct them to information on how to put in place or amend such a limit; and

• direct customers to free to access, clear, comprehensible and accurate additional information on roaming.

While regulatory protections are already in place to ensure that customers are given pricing information and the option to set a mobile bill limit at the time they contract for mobile services, the roaming alert is intended to ensure customers are provided with timely, clear and accurate information at the point of roaming. It should ensure they can make an informed decision about the use of roaming services and are aware of their right to specify or modify a mobile bill limit, helping to protect customers from harms such as unexpected roaming bills.

Providers must protect customers against the impact of inadvertent roaming

The requirements on roaming alerts should ensure that customers are alerted to the fact that they are roaming, including where this is inadvertent. However, considering the potential for harm and to help protect customers from the impacts of inadvertent roaming, we have decided to bring into force the inadvertent roaming rules we consulted on. These will require providers to:

• have measures in place to enable customers to reduce and/or limit expenditure related to inadvertent roaming while they are in the UK (e.g. treating Ireland usage as UK usage).

• provide clear, comprehensible and accurate information to customers about the above measures and also how to avoid inadvertent roaming in and outside of the UK, particularly in border regions.

This approach takes account of providers’ current practices such as treating certain roaming usage as UK usage, which protects customers from the impact of inadvertent roaming while in the UK. This will particularly benefit customers in Northern Ireland who can experience inadvertent roaming on a regular basis.

Guidance setting out expectations and examples of good practice

We are issuing guidance to accompany the new roaming rules to provide greater clarity to providers on what we expect and how we are likely to approach investigating compliance as well as to promote good practice. This includes examples of roaming alerts and steps that providers are already taking to help customers in Northern Ireland protect themselves from inadvertent roaming (e.g. treating Ireland usage as UK usage).

A new survey of 3,045 UK internet users, which was conducted by Broadband Genie between 1st January and 26th April 2024, has revealed that 89% of respondents have never updated the firmware of their home router and 86% have never changed the device’s administrator password (falling to 72% for those who have never changed their WiFi password).

The survey also found that 75% have never checked to see what or who is linked to their router and 52% have never changed or updated any of their router’s settings (this is up from 48% in 2022). The study goes on to claim that leaving the router set to its default password “allows hackers to easily identify which make and model of router the target is using,” although a lot of ISPs these days supply long randomised passwords that have no specific structure for identification.

In addition, routers that have been supplied (bundled) by your ISP are often setup to auto-update their firmware, which means that the customer doesn’t need to perform any specific actions in order to ensure that their device is kept up-to-date. But it’s still wise to check with your broadband provider and confirm what their policy is.

The main exception tends to be third-party devices, such as those purchased separately, which often do require a manual action to check for recent firmware. But one issue here is that not all device manufacturers make such firmware updates accessible or easy to find, while others may only offer very limited support and could thus risk leaving security vulnerabilities unpatched – sometimes even on relatively modern kit.

As part of this study the comparison site also asked respondents, specifically those who had never changed their router’s factory settings, why they had never done so. The majority (75%) said they didn’t understand why they would need to.

The fact that your router is often the single most important device in your home network for security should be incentive enough to ensure that you’ve set a strong password and not simply used the one supplied by your ISP, which may or may not be effective or properly randomised. The rule is to never assume it’s going to be secure out of the box. Clearly more effort needs to be put into raising awareness about such issues.

At this point it’s worth noting that the Government’s Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure Act (PSTI), which came into effect on 29th April 2024 (here), included their new Secure by Design policy. This introduced tougher security standards for device makers and the ability to hit those that fail to comply (both retailers and manufacturers) with financial penalties.

Some examples of the changes include banning easily guessable default passwords (“admin“, “123456” etc.), as well as prompting users to change the default password, not to mention improved support for security issues and a requirement for related network products to state how long they will be supported by vital security patches (firmware updates) etc.

Some of the Improved Security Protections

➤ Common or easily guessable passwords like ‘admin’ or ‘12345’ will be banned to prevent vulnerabilities and hacking.

➤ Manufacturers will have to publish contact details so bugs and issues can be reported and dealt with.

➤ Manufacturers and retailers will have to be open with consumers on the minimum time they can expect to receive important security updates.

The changes touched everything from consumer broadband routers to Smartphones, TVs, game consoles, internet-connected fridges and smart doorbells etc.

The Comms Council UK, which represents the United Kingdom’s national Unified Communications and Voice-over-Internet-Protocol (VoIP) phone industry, has this afternoon announced the winners of their 16th annual 2024 awards event at a ceremony at The IET in London.

Eli Katz, Chair of Comms Council UK Council, said: ““It’s been another fantastic CCUK Awards ceremony, congratulations to all the winners and highly commended companies. The Awards continue to highlight the importance of our sector as unified communications powers the UK. The spirit of innovation and competition continues to be strong right across the sector, as demonstrated by our Women in Telecoms Group founders Tracey Wright and Katie Baron. They realised that more needs to be done in our industry to support women in their roles and champion them and help reach leading positions in the sector. They greatly deserve their Outstanding Achievement award for starting this group and making it the force that it has become in our industry.”

The winners are usually independently reviewed by several judges, although we couldn’t find a list of the panel members. As usual, there was also no category for consumer VoIP / IP phone services, although the SOHO (Small Office / Small Home) category does get a little bit closer to that.

Comms Council UK Award Winners 2024

Best Communication Provider – SME
VoIPstudio

Best Communication Provider – Enterprise
Bandwidth

Best Enterprise Service
8×8, Contact centre as a service (CCaaS)

Highly Commended
CallTower, Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) and Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) Solutions

Best SOHO Service
bOnline

Highly Commended
Voipfone

Best Multi-national Service
Pure IP

Highly Commended
8×8

Best Comms Device
Snom Technology – M500 series

Highly Commended
Yealink W73P DECT Phone System

Best Comms Application
PolyAI, Customer-Led Voice Assistants

Highly Commended
Kerv,Compliance Cloud

Best Innovation
PolyAI Customer-Led Voice Assistants

Highly Commended
Vonage Conversational Commerce

Best Industry Enabler
Netaxis – Fusion

Highly Commended
NetSapiens International

Outstanding Achievement Award
Tracey Wright and Katie Baron – Founders of Women in Telecoms Group

The States of Guernsey, which governs the English Channel Island of Guernsey (British Crown dependency), yesterday voted to do something extraordinary by temporarily suspending local competition law in order to allow the dominant telecoms and broadband operator, Sure, to acquire Airtel Vodafone. The reward is a £48m deal to deploy 5G services.

Normally it would be unthinkable for a government to suspend its competition laws in order to allow a specific merger to go through, but Guernsey is a small island in the English Channel, which doesn’t always have the same luxury of choice or flexibility as those in major countries. On the other hand, this is still a radical approach to take and time will tell whether it is the right one.

The expectation is that this will allow Sure to make a significant investment of up to £48m in a “world-class 5G mobile network” for the islands (the deal covers Jersey too). But the move will also require Sure to make several legally binding commitments to help protect local competition, which among other things includes a requirement to launch a new virtual (MVNO) mobile operator with the Channel Island Co-Op (Coop Mobile) – expected to be setup within 12-months.

Sure Group CEO, Alistair Beak, said:

“Today’s decision is great news for Sure and Airtel customers and the future of telecommunications services in Guernsey and Jersey. We are grateful that Deputies have recognised the numerous strategic, economic and social benefits of our acquisition of Airtel.

The approval granted today paves the way for a significant investment of up to £48m in a world-class 5G mobile network for the islands. We have made several legally binding commitments to ensure Sure and Airtel customers, as well as the wider community, benefit significantly – in the form of high-speed data services, improved coverage, and greater value for money; all while maintaining competition in the market through the commitment to launch the Channel Islands Coop as a new operator.

The investment in world-class digital infrastructure will support our increasingly digital lives, connecting our island communities to a better future and contributing to economic growth.

Having secured approval in Jersey earlier in the year we can now move forward and complete the transaction in the coming weeks. In the meantime, Sure and Airtel Vodafone will continue to operate as two separate companies.

I’d like to thank everyone on our team who has worked so hard on the acquisition so far.”

Sure has also agreed not withdraw any Sure and Airtel tariffs that are active as at the date of clearance of the merger. This is designed to protect today’s prices for consumers for the 36 months following completion of the transaction, after which time Coop Mobile should be fully established and competing with Sure and JT.

Sure is separately also working alongside the States of Guernsey on a joint £37.5m project (£12.5m of public investment) to build a new Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network across the whole of Guernsey (30,000+ premises) by the end of 2026 (end of 2025 for build completion and 2026 for copper retirement), which in May 2024 revealed that it had covered 18,000 premises (inc. 10,000 customers) and that’s up from 9,000 a year earlier. Customers can order packages via Sure, JT and Airtel.

Broadband ISP and mobile operator EE (BT) has discounted their top 1.6Gbps (110Mbps upload) Busiest Home Bundle for new customers covered by Openreach’s new FTTP network, which includes their latest WiFi 7 router (Smart Hub Pro), by an extra £5 per month. This reduces its monthly rental to £64.99 per month on a 24-month term with free setup.

The same discount has also been applied to their premium ‘Made for Gamers‘ package, which offers the same features as the above tier but also adds some extras, such as Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and optimisations for fans on online multiplayer games. As a result, this package now costs £74.99 per month on a 24-month term, instead of £79.99.

At the time of writing we’re not sure how long this price point will run for, but such offers usually last for a week or two. However, customers should be mindful of EE’s new pricing policy, which like other major ISPs will increase the price you pay by £3 extra per month from 31st March each year.