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The Starlink (SpaceX) service, which offers ultrafast broadband speeds to the UK and globally via a massive global constellation of satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), has secured regulatory approval to launch 7,500 more satellites (albeit not quite the 22,000 they had originally wanted); these will sit at lower orbits, use more radio frequencies and deliver faster speeds.

Just for context. Starlink currently has around 9,400 satellites in Low Earth Orbit (c.6,000 are v2 / GEN2 variants) – mostly at altitudes of c.340-525km. Residential customers in the UK usually pay from £55 a month for the ‘Residential Lite’ unlimited data plan directly from Starlink (kit price may vary due to different offers), which promises downloads of up to 250Mbps (175Mbps average) and uploads of c.15-35Mbps. Faster packages exist at greater cost, while cheaper, albeit more restrictive (data capped), options also exist for roaming users (e.g. £50 per month for 50 GigaBytes of data).

Under the latest grant (via PC Mag) from the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC), SpaceX will now be authorised to “construct, deploy, and operate an additional 7,500 Gen2 Starlink satellites, bringing the total to 15,000 satellites worldwide” (19,400 if we include earlier clearances for GEN1 satellites). The expansion will enable SpaceX to “deliver high-speed, low-latency internet service globally, including enhanced mobile and supplemental coverage from space“.

FCC Chairman Carr said: “This FCC authorization is a game-changer for enabling next-generation services. By authorizing 15,000 new and advanced satellites, the FCC has given SpaceX the green light to deliver unprecedented satellite broadband capabilities, strengthen competition, and help ensure that no community is left behind.”

The decision allows SpaceX to:

➤ Upgrade the Gen2 Starlink satellites with advanced form factors and cutting-edge technology.

➤ Operate across Ku-, Ka-, V-, E-, and W-band frequencies, supporting both Fixed Satellite Service (FSS) and Mobile Satellite Service (MSS).

NOTE: This also allows Starlink to communicate using the 1980-2000 MHz (Earth-to-space), 2000-2020MHz (Earth-to-space), and 2180-2200MHz (space-to-Earth) frequencies outside the U.S. with up to 7,500 satellites.

➤ Waive obsolete requirements that prevented overlapping beam coverage and enhanced capacity.

➤ Add new orbital shells at [even lower] altitudes ranging from 340km to 485km, optimizing coverage and performance (supporting this recent news).

NOTE: In the 340 km. 345 km. 350 km. 355 km. and 365 km orbital shells. SpaceX is authorised to operate in up to 72 planes per shell with up to 144 satellites per plane. In the 480 km and 485 km orbital shells, SpaceX is authorised to operate in up to 56 planes per shell with up to 120 satellites per plane.

➤ Provide direct-to-cell connectivity outside the United States and supplemental coverage within the U.S., paving the way for next-generation mobile services.

According to the FCC: “The Gen2 Starlink Upgrade satellites, including an increased number of satellites, will allow for higher capacity to serve additional customers and gigabit speed service, including symmetrical download and upload speeds.”

The focus above is clearly on enhancements being made to existing launch plans of their second generation (GEN2) satellites. But it should be noted that SpaceX has also developed a larger and more sophisticated GEN3 satellite for future launches (summary of GEN3 details and here); albeit only once their Starship rocket is finally ready (expected in H1 this year), as they need to be able to launch 50-60 GEN3s per flight for commercial viability.

Each one of their GEN3 satellites are designed to provide over 1 Terabit per second of downlink capacity (1,000Gbps+) and over 200Gbps of uplink capacity to customers on the ground. But in the meantime, it makes sense for SpaceX to continue launching GEN2 satellites with additional enhancements to help it keep up with demand and remain competitive as new rivals emerge (e.g. Amazon’s Leo).

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Customers of alternative broadband provider Wildanet, which has built a new Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network across rural parts of Cornwall and Devon in South West England, have reported a number of different services outages on the network following the impact of last night’s Storm Goretti event.

In a brief statement, posted at 8:28pm last night, the provider said: “We are aware of service interruptions at multiple Wildanet Service Locations. These are related to Storm Goretti. We are actively working with 3rd parties to resolve these issues, please check back for updates.”

At the time of writing, the ISP has not provided any further updates, although some of those affected have informed ISPreview that they’re still offline. One of the confirmed incidents appears to include the outage of an FTTP broadband cabinet in the village of Germoe, which is impacting 152 subscribers but appears to have been caused by a power cut linked to Storm damage (here); possibly a damaged overhead power cable or pole. 

Openreach’s services in the same area still appear to be largely online, so it may be that Wildanet’s power backup solution (if one exists) was not sufficient to cover the event (credits to one of our readers, Badger, for the extra feedback). We have contacted Wildanet for an update, although the National Grid doesn’t expect a resolution until 9am on Sunday (estimated). It’s unclear if any of the other service disruptions are related to power cuts.

Wildanet currently holds the following Project Gigabit broadband roll-out contracts for Cornwall Central (Lot 32.03) and South West (Lot 32.02) – both awarded in January 2023 (here) – and the Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly (Lot 32) contract – awarded in April 2024 (here). The three contracts combined are worth £77m and should help to extend gigabit-capable broadband to over 37,000 additional premises in the county.

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Aviva-backed alternative gigabit broadband operator Truespeed, which has only just merged with County Broadband to create a single full fibre operator covering 177,000 premises (RFS) and 41,000 customers in England (here), is reportedly in talks with Freedom Fibre about the possibility of consolidating into an even larger network.

Just to recap. The newly merged Truespeed currently focuses upon serving rural premises in parts of Devon, Wiltshire, Somerset Cambridgeshire, Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk with their new Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network. But over the past couple of years they’ve also had to deal with the same challenges as many other altnets (i.e. rising build costs, high interest rates and growing competition) – resulting in some job cuts, a build slowdown and greater focus on commercialisation (here and here).

Much as ISPreview pointed out after Truespeed and Country Broadband confirmed their plans to merge in July 2025, the combined network is still relatively small in terms of premises passed and was thus likely to become a target for other consolidators in the future.

This brings us to Freedom Fibre, which has already done some consolidating of its own with the VX FIBER deal in 2023 (here). But they’ve since faced similar strains to Truespeed (here, here and here), which also included the need to scale-back and withdraw from some of the government’s Project Gigabit contracts.

Nevertheless, Freedom Fibre has so far built their own FTTP network to cover 350,000 premises (inc. 25,000 customers) across various parts of England and North Wales, albeit primarily parts of Cheshire, Greater Manchester, North Wales, Staffordshire, Suffolk, Essex and North Shropshire. Suffice to say that there’s no overbuild between Truespeed and Freedom Fibre, although they do come quite close in the northern part of Bristol.

According to Sky News, Truespeed and Freedom Fibre are now in discussions over the possibility of reaching a future merger agreement, which could in theory create a single full fibre network that covers around 530,000 premises and 66,000 customers. This would give the combined business a stronger position within the market, but further consolidation in the future still seems likely to help grow more scale.

At present these are just talks, and we don’t yet know whether they will result in a deal. Such an agreement would make sense, even if it does turn out to be another stepping stone toward an even bigger consolidation further down the line. Sky states that all of the parties declined to comment.

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Macquarie-backed telecoms provider KCOM, which have deployed their own full fibre broadband (FTTP) network across 305,000 premises in parts of East Yorkshire (primarily Hull) and Lincolnshire (England), has revealed that customers in the Hull area consumed 2,500,000 GigaBytes (GB) of data traffic on Christmas Day 2025 (500,000GB more than usual) – it’s “busiest day ever for online traffic“.

During the whole of Christmas week, KCOM said their broadband network carried a whopping 24.2 PebiBytes (PiB) of data (we aren’t sure why they’ve opted to use PiB instead of PetaBytes, but each to their own). During the same week, KCOM customers streamed 10.9 PiB with YouTube (2.3 PiB) and Netflix (2.2 PiB) proving the streaming services of choice as viewers logged on to watch Stranger Things and various other shows.

Rounding out the Top Ten of the streaming services on KCOM’s network over Christmas were TikTok (0.9PiB), Sky Streaming [Sky Glass, Sky Stream] (0.9 PiB), Amazon Prime (0.6 PiB), BBC’s iPlayer (0.6 PiB) Disney+ (0.6 PiB), ITV Player (0.5 PiB) and Facebook video (0.5 PiB).

The biggest gaming console winners on Christmas Day were the Sony PS5 and Microsoft Xbox, with tens of thousands of users downloading new games and content updates. Gaming and related software updates accounted for 3.4PiB of data transfer, with 60% coming from KCOM’s unique local caches (i.e. popular data that gets stored closer to end-users in their network), making it a faster and more reliable download process for Hull users.

The biggest surges in data traffic came at 10am and 10pm on Christmas Day, with a lull coming at 2pm as families sat down to their Christmas dinner before tuning in to see the King’s Speech.

Richard Schäfer, KCOM CEO, said:

“It’s been a huge Christmas for streaming services across the KCOM region and the amount of data that families are using is truly astounding.

As the UK’s most reliable network*, our full fibre network dealt with the huge amount of surfing, streaming and gaming which enabled families to sit back and enjoy their Christmas specials, season finales and box sets seamlessly.”

The bumper Christmas period comes on the back of a steady growth in data traffic on KCOM’s full fibre network since September 2025. During that time, the ISP has seen a 15% increase in demand for data usage across its network.

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The South Yorkshire Digital Infrastructure Team, which primarily works under the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (SYMCA) to accelerate the rollout of fixed gigabit broadband (1000Mbps+) and 5G mobile networks, has today celebrated having surpassed their target of reaching 95% of homes and businesses in the region with gigabit lines.

The figure was officially achieved in early November 2025, thus besting the target that had been set in the South Yorkshire Digital Infrastructure Strategy, which aimed for 95% coverage by the end of 2025. The figure also exceeds the national UK coverage level for gigabit connectivity, which currently sits just shy of the 90% mark (here).

So far the vast majority of these coverage improvements have flowed from commercial deployments, such as via networks from Openreach, Virgin Media (inc. nexfibre), CityFibre, Netomnia (Brsk) and Pine Media etc. But the government’s prior Superfast Broadband (SFBB) programme also contributed some full fibre (FTTP) coverage, while the latest £5bn Project Gigabit scheme aims to extend gigabit broadband “nationwide” (c.99% of premises) by 2032 (here).

South Yorkshire’s Mayor, Oliver Coppard, said:

“These days getting online and staying connected isn’t a luxury; it’s vital. Whether we’re working from home, running a business or getting online for a doctor’s appointment, we all rely on a decent internet connection. That’s why we’ve been working to fix it and get more people across South Yorkshire than ever access to the fastest internet there is. It’s about building a fairer, more connected South Yorkshire that’s fit for the future.”

Ofcom currently predicts (here) that gigabit coverage will reach anywhere between 91% to 97% of the UK by January 2028.

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The member‑owned not-for-profit London Internet Exchange (LINX), which handles a large chunk of UK and global data traffic through their switches via around 900 members (broadband ISPs, mobile operators etc.), has today announced their new service profile and fees for 2026.

The 2026 update includes a few changes, such as the ability for networks to now consume 10Gbps of peering on a 100GE port, which should make the step-up to 100GE even easier. LINX have also increased the service bandwidth included in the monthly membership fee from 2Gbps to 4Gbps over a 10GE port.

The first service of up to 4Gbps will now also be included free of charge at each LINX operated location in the UK, US and Africa – “that’s 36Gbps of potential service included“. The services applicable include Peering, Microsoft Azure Peering Service, Private VLAN, or a Closed User Group.

Megan Atkins, CCO at LINX, said:

“We listen to the feedback from our members and monitor the changes in our industry to judge how best to increase value to the community.”

For many of our members, this enhancement offers a direct reduction in operational networking costs and a simplified path to expanding services.”

See the 2026 service fees here.

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The telecoms regulator, Ofcom, has this morning confirmed that the United Kingdom will become the “first country in Europe” to adopt a proposal that allows low power indoor WiFi signals and outdoor mobile broadband (4G, 5G etc.) networks to “share” access to the Upper 6GHz radio spectrum band (6425 to 7125MHz).

Ofcom has already made the Lower part (5925 to 6425MHz) of the 6GHz band available for WiFi, such as under the latest WiFi 6E and WiFi 7 standards (here), yet the Upper part has remained the subject of some debate. Mobile operators want to harness it (licensed) to deliver faster 5G and future 6G based data speeds, while others argue it should go toward licence-exempt consumer WiFi. Existing users of the band (e.g. fixed services, satellite, radio astronomy etc.) have also expressed concerns over the risks from interference.

Suffice to say, both sides of the debate have been able to field strong arguments. However, rather than pick a side, Ofcom has instead spent the past few years exploring the middle-ground option of “hybrid sharing” (details). This could potentially enable, with some performance caveats (i.e. co-existence without causing interference is a challenge), the use of both Wi-Fi and mobile in the same Upper 6GHz band.

Ofcom’s approach works by dividing up the upper 6GHz band, with Wi-Fi prioritised in one part and mobile in the other, with clear technical conditions and controls attached to limit the risks from interference. The new consultation finalises the regulator’s proposals, although implementation will be a slow process.

David Willis, Ofcom’s Group Director for Spectrum, said:

“Today’s announcements reaffirm the UK’s position as a leader in Europe in getting the most out of the airwaves we all rely on.

Sharing Upper 6 GHz would be a win for businesses and homes across the country who want both better Wi-Fi and mobile networks that are fit for the future. And our decision on lower 6 GHz will boost broadband services across the UK.

Our plans open the doors to further economic growth and investment, while supporting the delivery of crucial innovations like 6G in the future.”

What Ofcom have decided – in brief

• We will authorise, under a licence exemption, use of outdoor and higher power Wi-Fi devices (up to 36 dBm EIRP) in the Lower 6 GHz band (5925–6425 MHz) provided they are under the control of an AFC system.

• As a result, we will require implementation of an AFC system by third parties. We are separately consulting on the details necessary to implement that AFC system.

• Whilst we are consulting further on approaches to enable Wi-Fi in the Upper 6 GHz band (6425–7125 MHz), we will proceed with making low power Wi-Fi client devices available across the Upper 6 GHz band, provided they are connected to an authorised Access Point (“AP”, for example a Wi-Fi router). This decision should allow client devices to be made available for possible future use of the band, thereby helping faster adoption. Use in the band, in practice, will only become possible once we have made a decision on the proposals below to enable Access Points in Upper 6 GHz.

• We will adopt a sub-national licencing approach for mobile in the Upper 6 GHz band in the “mobile priority” portion of the band. We intend to award mobile licences in “high density” areas of the UK and expect to implement a local licensing arrangement (for example, on a first come, first served basis) outside of these high density areas. We will consult further on the specifics of this in spring 2026.

What Ofcom are proposing – in brief

• To implement prioritised spectrum sharing in the Upper 6 GHz band, with:

➤ A “Wi-Fi- priority” portion in the bottom 160 MHz of the band (6425–6585 MHz).

➤ A “mobile priority” portion in the upper 540 MHz (6585–7125 MHz).

• To make the Wi-Fi priority portion available on the same basis as spectrum in the Lower 6 GHz band. This includes indoor and very lower power Wi-Fi, and also outdoor and higher power Wi-Fi provided this is under the control of an AFC system.

• To enable early access for Wi-Fi in the mobile priority portion of Upper 6 GHz. In response to feedback from the February 2025 consultation, we propose to only allow this access for Wi-Fi which is under the control of an AFC system. This will ensure that we can clear Wi-Fi out of the way, in the locations and channels where mobile deploys later on.

Fully implementing all of this is clearly going to take some time, particularly when it comes to the mobile (4G, 5G and 6G) side of things. Ofcom’s approach is partly being linked to wider European efforts to harmonise use of the same band via a similar policy (expected in 2028). But in any case, the regulator doesn’t anticipate hardware support in mobile equipment until around 2030.

On the WiFi front, the need for a new AFC database will also slow down the implementation a bit. AFC works by automatically identifying frequencies that can be used by Wi-Fi without impacting existing services, therefore keeping the administrative burden of spectrum management low. The AFC system is currently in use in this band in the US and Canada, and is under consideration in other countries.

Depending upon your perspective, Ofcom’s approach may seem like either a good or bad move, since neither mobile nor WiFi will be able to fully benefit from the Upper 6GHz band in every location. But we’ll need to see how much of an impact it has in the real-world before really being able to judge.

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Customers of broadband ISP Virgin Media (O2), such as those who take a Pay TV service via one of their TV 360, Stream or v6 Box platforms, may like to know that from today they will also gain free access to Premier Sports Rugby, the 24/7 rugby channel.

The channel is said to offer access to the “most comprehensive club rugby coverage available across the UK“. Virgin TV customers can now enjoy access to the Investec Champions Cup, United Rugby Championship (URC), EPCR Challenge Cup, Top14 (France), Major League Rugby and Japan Rugby League One, plus much more available via channel 553.

David Bouchier, Chief TV and Entertainment Officer at VMO2, said: “We’re offering every Virgin TV customer even more value with access to Premier Sports Rugby at no extra cost. As the only Pay TV operator to provide this, we are demonstrating our commitment to give our customers the very best access to the content they love, and to further enhancing our sports offering with coverage of the world’s biggest club competitions at their fingertips.”

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Network access provider Openreach (BT) appears to have closed access to all underground structures within the Aldershot exchange (ACM) area in Hampshire (England), which occurred yesterday after they identified “suspected toxic gases” within the local underground network.

The move means that Openreach’s engineers, including those working for rival broadband and phone networks that share some of the same infrastructure, are currently prevented from doing any telecoms work (e.g. network expansion, major repairs etc.) in underground structures within this area. Suffice to say, the safety of engineers must come first.

The restrictions do not currently impact engineering work on their above ground and overhead network (telecoms poles and street cabinets), which means that some new service provisions and general repairs should be able to proceed. Openreach are currently in the process of investigating the area to identify exactly what type of gas is involved and hopefully also its source, which will then inform their next steps.

Regular readers of ISPreview may well point to the huge disruption that was caused by an underground petrol leak in the village of Bramley (Surrey), which has taken several years to tackle (here). The hope is that the situation in the town of Aldershot won’t be anything like as protracted and serious as that (hopefully it’s isolated to a small area and is a temporary issue), which does seem unlikely as Bramley was particularly extreme.

ISPreview has asked Openreach if they’re able to provide an update and will report back shortly.

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News

Siemens and NVIDIA are broadening their strategic alliance to develop an ‘Industrial AI operating system’, which they aim to make the heart of AI-powered manufacturing

Siemens and NVIDIA said they are widening a strategic partnership to build what they described as an “Industrial AI operating system” that combines NVIDIA’s AI infrastructure with Siemens’ industrial hardware and software.

The companies announced the expansion at CES 2026, saying they would target the complete industrial products and production lifecycle, from product design and simulation to deployment and operations.

The programme will reportedly begin with the deployment of an AI-driven, adaptive manufacturing site at Siemens’ Electronics Factory in Erlangen, Germany, slated to start in 2026. This, the companies said, will serve as a blueprint for further AI factories.

According to the announcement, factories would run an “AI Brain” integrating software-defined automation, industrial operations software and NVIDIA Omniverse libraries to analyse digital twins. This would allow operational changes to be tested in a virtual environment first, then delivered across the site in near real time.

“Together, we are building the Industrial AI operating system – redefining how the physical world is designed, built, and run – to scale AI and create real-world impact,” said Roland Busch, President and CEO of Siemens AG.

“Generative AI and accelerated computing have ignited a new industrial revolution, transforming digital twins from passive simulations into the active intelligence of the physical world,” added Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA. “Our partnership with Siemens fuses the world’s leading industrial software with NVIDIA’s full-stack AI platform to close the gap between ideas and reality — empowering industries to simulate complex systems in software, then seamlessly automate and operate them in the physical world.”

The partnership involves a significant coupling of the companies’ technologies, with Siemens expanding support for NVIDIA CUDA-X libraries and AI physics models, while NVIDIA will provide infrastructure, simulation libraries, models, frameworks, and blueprints. The result, the companies hope, will be the delivery of larger, more accurate simulations more quickly. They also hope to advance “generative simulation” with technologies such as NVIDIA PhysicsNeMo and open models to produce autonomous digital twins capable of real-time engineering and optimisation.

Siemens also plans to add AI-assisted features to its existing tools, such as layout guidance and debug support to improve engineering productivity.

A number of customers, including  Foxconn, HD Hyundai, KION Group, and PepsiCo, are already evaluating the companies new capabilities, according to the company press release.

Financial details of the deal were not revealed.

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