Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

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).

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

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.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

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.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

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.

Original article Total Telecom:Read More

News

The breach, which was reported earlier this month, jeopardised the data of 6.2 million customers

On Thursday, Dutch mobile operator Odido notified customers that the company had been hacked and their personal data may have been leaked.

The incident, which took place earlier in the month, saw data from 6.2 million customers compromised, according to an Odido spokesperson.

Both Odido’s direct customers and those of its mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) Ben NL were affected.

Customers’ names, addresses, phone numbers, and bank account numbers were among the data points leaked.

Odido emphasised that no passwords, call records, or billing data had been accessed, but urged customers to be vigilant about suspicious calls and texts.

In a statement, the operator said that an investigation into the incident was ongoing and it had reported the breach to the Dutch Data Protection Authority.

“The unauthorised access to the system was ended as quickly as possible,” said the Odido statement. “In addition, Odido has brought in cybersecurity experts to implement additional security measures in response to this incident.”

While Odido did not explicitly explain how the hackers had gained access to their systems, reporting from Dutch public broadcaster NOS suggests it may have been a case of social engineering.

According to anonymous sources speaking to the news agency, the hackers gained access to Odido’s systems by attempting to log into the accounts of customer service representatives that had fallen for phishing emails. The hackers then contacted these employees by phone, posing as Odido’s IT department, and manipulated them into approving a fraudulent login attempt.

The report suggests that the staff targeted may have been external call centre workers based outside the Netherlands.

Keep up to date with all the latest telecoms news with the Total Telecom newsletter

Also in the news
World Communication Award Winners 2025
Ofcom clears the way for satellite-to-smartphone services
LG Uplus’s AI voice call app glitch leaks user data

The post Hackers pose as IT department to break into Odido’s systems appeared first on Total Telecom.

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News

The participating companies pledge to follow the same standards of transparency, security, and data protection

Fifteen international tech giants have joined forces to launch the Trusted Tech Alliance, an initiative aimed at promoting transparency and trust across the tech sector.

The founding members – which includes the likes of Anthropic, Google, and Ericsson – are pledging to adhere to a set of shared principles to help foster a more open and reliable tech industry.

The initiative’s five founding principles, according to its website, are as follows:

• Transparent Corporate Governance and Ethical Conduct
• Operational Transparency, Secure Development, and Independent Assessment
• Robust Supply Chain and Security Oversight
• Open, Cooperative, Inclusive, and Resilient Digital Ecosystem
• Respect for the Rule of Law and Data Protection

These principles, the members say, will help ease cross-border collaboration at a time when geopolitical tensions are eroding international trust.

Tech companies are under increasing scrutiny over their origin and political independence, while governments are increasingly pushing for technological self-sufficiency and digital sovereignty.

“This is a period of time when many governments and countries are feeling pressure to create stronger technology borders, to focus more on their own digital sovereignty,” said Microsoft President Brad Smith in an interview with Reuters. “Our companies are working together to set this high standard to really make clear what the definition of trust is.”

The members will self-assess their compliance with these ‘high standards’, though Smith notes that provisions are also included for independent assessment.

The other founding members are Amazon Web Services, Cassava Technologies, Cohere, Hanwha, Jio Platforms, Microsoft, Nokia, Nscale, NTT, Rapidus, Saab, and SAP.

Keep up to date with all the latest telecoms news with the Total Telecom newsletter

Also in the news
World Communication Award Winners 2025
Ofcom clears the way for satellite-to-smartphone services
LG Uplus’s AI voice call app glitch leaks user data

The post Global tech giants combine to create Trusted Tech Alliance appeared first on Total Telecom.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Concerns are growing for one of the UK market’s smaller providers of retail internet services, Zone Broadband, which since earlier this month seems to have been attracting a rising number of complaints from customers who appear to have lost connectivity and are struggling to get any support from the ISP.

ISPreview first became aware of the issues over a week ago after some of our industry sources indicated that the ISP might be experiencing difficulties. A quick look at Zone Broadband’s reviews on Trustpilot during February 2026 reveal that there has been a jump in complaints, with various customers highlighting seemingly ongoing problems with a sudden, protracted connectivity loss and lack of support.

“My WiFi has been down for a week now. Tried calling several times I have emailed them several times, no one has got back to me,” said one recent review. “Terrible, Internet has been down for 4 days with no word from zone. They’re impossible to reach over the phone, it just rings out,” said another and another etc.

We attempted to contact Zone Broadband on 7th February about the issues and, much like the above complaints, have thus far received no response. A quick look at the provider’s Service Status page makes no reference to the recent issues and still includes a legacy entry for a seemingly unrelated October 2025 disruption on MS3’s full fibre network in East Yorkshire (take note that Zone also sell services over other networks, primarily Openreach).

In addition, the Companies House page for Zone Broadband currently highlights how their latest expected accounts are heavily overdue (they were due by 11th June 2025). The hope is that the ISP will be able to resolve whatever challenges they’ve recently been facing and reconnect any impacted customers asap, although without communication it’s difficult to know what action is being or has been taken.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Some customers of mobile and broadband ISP EE (BT), specifically those on their top 1.6Gbps speed full fibre (FTTP) package via Openreach’s national network, appear to have spent the weekend suffering from a significant reduction in download speed (some down to c.50-70Mbps), connectivity problems and a lack of effective support.

At present, EE’s premium 1.6Gbps speed broadband package (includes 120Mbps uploads) doesn’t have a huge number of subscribers, but some of those who are taking the service started complaining to ISPreview on Saturday morning about a significant loss of download speed. A few have also seen their upload speeds reduced to c.20Mbps, while others have found that the issue only impacts downloads.

In addition, a number of customers on the same 1.6Gbps package have also complained about problems getting connected to the service (PPPoE cannot authorise), although it’s unclear if this is directly related to the wider problems with service speed or merely an unrelated incident. But it’s hard to ignore the proximity of both events.

“EE are aware (I have just spoken to support on the phone), but they have yet to update their status page … I am meant to be on the 1600/120 profile, but currently seem to be limited by a 80/20 profile,” said Jim, one of ISPreview’s readers. “Since Saturday evening, there have been an issue with EE’s flagship 1.6Gbps product. Some users have no connection with CHAP related errors in logs, others appear ‘stuck’ at 70 Mbps (myself included),” added Chris, another impacted customer and reader.

Various related complaints can also be found on EE’s Community Forum (here and here), which echo the same problems and raise concerns about EE’s current lack of an official response. Customers who have contacted EE’s support department have allegedly been told that the issues should be resolved by the end of today, while others have been told it may take longer. One person was also informed that the speed issue related to a “software defect” of some kind, which sounds plausible.

ISPreview has already contacted EE for a comment, and we will report back when one arrives. Sadly, it’s not unusual for support teams, even at major ISPs, to be somewhat less effective at responding to such issues when they occur over a weekend (especially so around school holidays).