The UK Government’s Secretary of State for Business, Grant Shapps, has ordered investment company LetterOne (L1T FM Holdings UK) to sell its entire stake in alternative broadband network provider Upp (formerly Fibre Me) in order to “prevent, remedy, or mitigate the risk to national security“. Upp is currently investing £1bn (£300m in equity and the […]
County Broadband Appoint New Contractor for Norfolk FTTP Build
Rural ISP County Broadband, which aims to cover 500,000 premises across the East of England with their new gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network by the end of 2027, has appointed civil engineering firm Highway Workforce to help conduct their ongoing rollout across rural parts of Norfolk in England. The provider, which is being supported by an […]
New AltNet Meliora Networks Plan to Build UK Full Fibre Network
A new alternative network (altnet) builder called Meliora Networks Limited has emerged on to the scene with a plan to rollout a hybrid Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) and gigabit-capable Full Fibre broadband network, which will focus on “areas of the UK that do not presently have access to next generation connectivity.” The details came to […]
EE UK First to Trial Freshwave’s Small Cell 5G Network in London
Mobile giant EE (BT) has officially become the first operator to make use of Freshwave‘s deployment of a new small cell based outdoor 4G and 5G mobile network in the central City of London area, which is currently in the pilot phase. O2 (VMO2) and Vodafone are expected to follow. We first reported on Freshwave’s […]
UK Gov Says Password Sharing on Streaming Services is Illegal
The UK Government’s Intellectual Property Office (IPO) announced an interesting new campaign in partnership with Meta yesterday, which among other things decided to label “password sharing on streaming services [e.g. Netflix, Amazon Prime etc.] … without paying a subscription” as breaking copyright law. That’s a lot of new criminals. The new anti-online piracy guidance states: […]
Starlink’s LEO Satellite Broadband Network Hits 1 Million Subscribers
Elon Musk’s SpaceX has announced that Starlink’s global mega constellation of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) based ultrafast broadband ISP satellites has managed to grow its customer base to over 1 million, which is double the 500,000 they reported just six months ago in June 2022. At present Starlink currently has around 3,320 LEO satellites in […]
Virgin Media O2 UK May Adopt Inflation Busting Price Hikes by 2024
Sources have indicated to ISPreview that broadband customers of UK ISP Virgin Media (VMO2) might face bigger price hikes in the future than usual, with the provider being tipped to adopt the same annual style of inflation busting RPI + 3.9% hikes as those of their mobile base (e.g. O2 sims). In recent years, much […]
BT Trial Cloud Based C-RAN 5G Mobile Technology in Leeds UK UPDATE
BT Wholesale – supported by EE and Three UK – is conducting a new “state-of-the-art” 5G (mobile broadband) technology trial in Leeds, where they’re deploying a Cloud Radio Access Network (C-RAN) that in future could be installed as individual street works or fitted in existing street-furniture (e.g. lampposts) to extend the signal. C-RAN, which is […]
ISP Community Fibre Gets £100m Funding Boost for UK FTTP Build
London focused broadband ISP CommunityFibre, which now covers 720,000 UK premises with their 10Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network (up from 675k in Oct 2022), has today confirmed that Macquarie Asset Management has provided £100 million of debt financing to help support the provider’s rollout. The operator, which also owns ISP Box Broadband – a full […]
ISP KCOM Pause Broadband Data Caps for Christmas and New Year
Hull-based network builder and UK broadband ISP KCOM, which serves much of East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, has announced that customers who still take packages with a capped data allowance will be able to enjoy unlimited usage over the Christmas and New Year period (19th December 2022 to 9th January 2023 inclusive). The operator’s full fibre […]