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A couple of Sky Broadband’s customers have recently notified us that their 900Mbps full fibre (FTTP) package on Openreach’s national network suddenly started delivering speeds of up to nearly 1.8Gbps, which is despite such a tier being unavailable to Sky’s subscribers. But those hoping for the launch of faster packages via the same network may be left disappointed, at least for now.

The download speed of 1.8Gbps is the fastest currently available to consumers via Openreach’s national network, although Sky only sell speeds up to an average of 900Mbps (1Gbps). Customers can get faster speeds on the CityFibre side of Sky’s network (up to 5Gbps), but that’s different.

Still, the fact that a tiny number of customers suddenly appear to see much faster speeds did initially seem to suggest that Sky Broadband might be preparing new packages for launch in the near future. Sadly, a spokesperson for Sky informed ISPreview that they weren’t currently running any trials that would explain it, although they did say this: “From time to time, there can be small anomalies in what we’re able to offer“.

ISPreview queried whether Sky had any plans to launch Openreach-based packages at speeds beyond the current 900Mbps (average) maximum within the next few months, but Sky told us they had “nothing further to share on this at the moment.” However, it’s perhaps not unrealistic to expect that this might change in 2027, particularly as Openreach may conclude their current pilot of speeds up to 8.5Gbps in that same year (here and here).

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Customers of broadband and mobile providers BT and EE (possibly also including Plusnet) appear to have been suffering from difficulties accessing their online accounts, official apps and webmail today, although the feedback appears to suggest that it might not be impacting every service, subscriber or platform in the same way.

The problems, which started just after 10am this morning (credits to Thinkbroadband for spotting) and also appear to be impacting some product ordering systems, are understood to reflect a Priority 1 service outage that ISPreview has been informed may stem from a supplier-side issue (this is impacting one of the group’s critical/shared platforms).

A notice seen by ISPreview suggests that full restoration could take anything from 12-20 hours, although we suspect it may be quicker than that for some services. The issue does not impact broadband and mobile connectivity itself, only the group’s own websites and apps.

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Customers of broadband and mobile provider EE (BT) will see a number of key changes over the coming weeks and months. According to ISPreview’s sources, the provider will finally add Disney+ (video streaming) support to their pay TV boxes and plans to launch a new loyalty programme for existing subscribers.

Quite why it’s taken the provider so long to add Disney+ support to their TV platform is unclear, although the good news is that it’s definitely coming sometime this summer. We’re also hearing that EE plans to complement their existing ‘Rewards’ scheme with a new programme during the same period, which we believe will be called “One Up“.

At present, we don’t have a lot of information about the new loyalty programme, but we understand it will only be available to customers that take both broadband and mobile from EE. Some of the expected rewards under this programme are likely to include free movies on EE’s pay TV service, as well as discounts on their tech store products and more.

Finally, we understand that EE will be expanding the flexibility of their existing Flex Pay service (handset finance agreements with mobile SIM plans), which currently enables customers “pay for your device in a way that suits you“. Customers can expect more choice of payment periods and the option to pay off at any point or trade-in. Further details should surface once EE issues an official announcement over the summer.

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The fifth annual 2026 UK Fibre Awards event took place last night at the London Marriott Grosvenor Square Hotel, which saw a number of broadband ISPs and full fibre network builders across multiple categories pick up awards for their achievements. Some of the winners included Quickline for ‘Best Rural Fibre Provider’ and Squirrel Internet for ‘Best ISP‘, among others.

The event, which is similar to many existing industry award ceremonies (e.g. the ISPAs and Connected Britain), is currently being backed by telecoms / ICT centric media and event organisation firm BPL Group (including BPL Business Media, Comms Dealer, IT Europa Media & Intelligence and Fibre Provider).

The winners for each category are typically chosen by a judging panel of eight industry and IT experts (here), including various senior managers, analysts and so forth. But there’s not much to reflect the consumer perspective in this group, and no technical testing is performed.

Winners of the UK Fibre Awards 2026

Best Rural Fibre Provider

Winner – Quickline Communications
commended – GoFibre

Best Urban Fibre Provider

Winner – Cambridge Fibre Networks
commended – MS3 Networks

Best Wholesale Platform

Winner – AllPoints Fibre
commended – Zen Internet

Take-Up Champion Award

Winner – Cambridge Fibre Networks
commended – 4th Utility | Rise

Best Customer Experience

Winner – Cambridge Fibre Networks
commended – Lightning Fibre
commended – Wessex Internet

Best ISP

Winner – Squirrel Internet
commended – 4th Utility | Rise

Best Hardware Supplier

Winner – Technetix Group
commended – Sterlite Technologies

Best Software Supplier

Winner – Buyapowa
commended – Strategic Imperatives

M&A & Investment Award

Winner – Truespeed
commended – Grain

Best Sustainability Programme

Winner – Omelcom
commended – giffgaff

Community Champion Award

Winner – Quickline Communications
commended – Lightning Fibre

Best Professional Services

Winner – GOS Consulting
commended – NETS International

Best Company to Work for

Winner – Virgin Media Business Wholesale
commended – L3 Optics

Best Training & Development

Winner – NETS International
commended – Cable Telecommunications

Marketing Team of the Year Award

Winner – Wessex Internet
commended – 4th Utility | Rise

Sales/Commercial Team of the Year Award

Winner – 4th Utility | Rise
commended – Connect Fibre

Delivery Team of the Year

Winner – Freedom Fibre
commended – Lightning Fibre

Executive Leadership Team of the Year Award

Winner – 4th Utility | Rise
commended – Ogi

Best Innovation

Winner – Strategic Imperatives
commended – Voiceflex

Best Overall Fibre Provider of the Year

Winner – MS3 Networks
commended – 4th Utility | Rise

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Internet provider YouFibre, which is the retail ISP arm of alternative network operator Netomnia (Substantial Group) and offers full fibre (FTTP) broadband speeds of up to 7-8Gbps, has today revealed that they’ve finally topped the 500,000 customer mark after completing the integration of Brsk’s base into their UK operations (up from 460,000 in Feb 2026).

YouFibre now serves customers across more than 150 UK towns – from Londonderry to Llanelli, Durham to Dover, Swansea to Stockton, and Scotland to the South West. Netomnia’s national network currently covers 3 million premises RFS (11th Jan 2026) and they expect to reach c.3.5m in the near future.

Netomnia has long held an ambition to extend their FTTP network to reach 5 million UK premises by 2027 (inc. 1 million customers by 2028), although that now seems likely to be a target that will be merged into nexfibre’s future roll-out plans (depending upon the CMA’s competition review).

Ryan Battle, Managing Director Sales & Marketing, said:

“Half a million customers is a number we’re genuinely proud of, but what means more is that nearly 90,000 of them took the time to leave us a review, with us maintaining an Excellent rating on Trustpilot. Broadband is one of those things people only notice when it goes wrong, so when customers go out of their way to say something positive, that tells us we’re getting it right. We’ve grown quickly, we’ve brought two brilliant brands together, and we haven’t compromised on what matters most: brilliant value Full Fibre, being fair, and delivering what we promise.”

Prices for YouFibre’s broadband packages start at £24 per month for symmetric speeds of 200Mbps on a 12 month fixed-price term and rise to £99.99 for their top 7Gbps tier. All packages include free installation and a Wi-Fi 7 router.

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The UK Government (DSIT) has today published its response to a planned revision of the Telecommunications Security Code of Practice (2022), which will update the code to reflect changes in what sort of specific security measures public telecoms providers (broadband, mobile etc.) must take in order to protect their networks from attack.

Just to recap. The original code was an extension of the wider Telecommunications (Security) Act 2021 (summary), which itself was originally introduced to restrict the use of Huawei’s kit in UK telecoms networks, while also imposing a variety of changes to make related networks safer from cyberattack.

The law and its supporting Code handed new powers to the Government and Ofcom, enabling them to intervene in how network operators run their business, manage supply chains, design and even operate networks. Fines of up to 10% of turnover or £100,000 a day can even be issued against those that fail to meet the required standards, albeit tiered to different sizes of provider.

However, the code is designed to be periodically updated as “new threats emerge and technologies evolve“, which is what the government proposed to do last year when it launched a related consultation (here). The government has now responded to that consultation with their planned revisions to the draft code (here) – see tracked changes (PDF).

Many of the changes are focused on providing additional guidance and clarity, particularly in relation to how operators should handle evolving technologies like mobile eSIMs, Small Cells, modern encryption and APIs etc. The code has also been updated to reflect the need for tackling hostile-state-linked attacks, while separately opting to partly roll back on the proposed addition of ‘Business Support Systems’ – respondents felt this was too broad and risked bringing a wide range of IT systems into scope that are not relevant to network security (business support systems are still technically covered, in certain circumstances).

The update also reemphasises the need to take a holistic, risk-based approach to the Code of Practice, which aims to encourage delivering a security approach that considers the Code in its entirety, rather than taking individual security measures in isolation. But this is still sometimes at odds with Ofcom’s compliance monitoring approach that drives some providers towards more of a ‘checklist’ approach.

Overall, most of the changes appear to be fairly small to modest, although we’ve only skimmed through what is quite a long and laborious read. The revised draft will now need to be laid before parliament before being formally introduced. The draft covers a much wider set of changes than we can easily summarise here, so those with an interest are advised to read it.

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Network access provider Openreach (BT) has today revealed that their Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP network has now passed an important milestone by covering 1.25 million premises (81%+) across Wales (up from 1m at the end of 2024), with take-up already said to be “approaching” the impressive 50% mark (across the UK it’s 38.27%).

All of this work supports Openreach’s wider investment of up to £15bn in deploying full fibre technology to cover 25 million UK premises by the end of December 2026 (currently on 23m). After that, there’s a further ambition to reach up to 30 million premises by 2030, but the build plan for the 2027-2030 period and final coverage target has yet to be confirmed.

Take note that the figure of 1.25m (81%+) above only reflects the coverage delivered by Openreach’s FTTP network, while the overall reach of full fibre in Wales is around 86%, which includes work by Virgin Media (inc. nexfibre), Ogi and Netomnia etc.

Openreach’s service, once live, can be ordered via various ISPs, such as BT, Sky Broadband, TalkTalk, Vodafone and many more (Openreach FTTP ISP Choices) – it is not currently an automatic upgrade, although some ISPs are doing free automatic upgrades as older copper-based services and lines a withdrawn.

Martin Williams, Openreach’s Partnership Director for Wales, said:

“This is an important moment for Wales and a clear sign of the progress being made to improve digital connectivity across the country.

Across the UK we’re seeing more people choose Full Fibre as it becomes available, and it’s encouraging to see that momentum reflected in Wales too, with more households starting to experience the everyday benefits – whether that’s working from home, studying, running a business or staying connected.

But these upgrades don’t happen automatically. Many homes and businesses could already benefit from better broadband today, and I’d encourage people to check what’s available where they live and speak to their broadband provider about upgrading.”

Separately to this, the Pembrokeshire County Council (PCC) has today celebrated reaching a major digital milestone with 75% of the county now able to access gigabit-capable broadband, which is up from just over 5% coverage in 2019. The announcement notes that 43.7% of gigabit coverage in Pembrokeshire is being delivered by alternative network suppliers, including Ogi, Voneus and local provider Dragon WiFi, albeit with Openreach still playing the biggest role.

Cllr Paul Miller, Deputy Leader of PCC, said:

“Reaching over 75% gigabit capable coverage is a major milestone for Pembrokeshire and demonstrates what can be achieved through partnership working. In 2019, large parts of the county were being overlooked for investment and just 5% could get gigabit speeds. Since 2019, working with partners across the sector, approximately 50,000 homes and business in Pembrokeshire have been connected and while we recognise there’s more to do before we hit 100% the progress so far, particularly given the rural nature of our county, has been incredible.”

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Openreach has confirmed that they intend to extend, again, their ongoing UK pilot of full fibre (FTTP) based broadband lines for “Uninhabitable Locations” for a further seven months. This pilot focuses on locations where the service is used to connect non-traditional end points, such as CCTV cameras, bus shelter signs, EV charging points, lift lines etc.

The pilot, which adopts a “Ruggedised” Optical Network Terminal (ONT) device for outdoor connectivity (pictured), originally began on 1st September 2024 (here) and was last year given a 12-month extension until 31st August 2026 (here). But the pilot, which was established to test the viability of the related order journey with Ruggedised ONT and estimated service costs, has now been extended again until 31st March 2027.

Openreach haven’t clarified why the pilot needs a second extension (see public briefing). However, fixing an ONT to the exterior of a building or structure does add complications, not least because you now need to consider the need for running power cables outside and adding extra protection for that, as well as the splice point of the fibre cable etc.

Otherwise, there are no changes this time around and the operator continues to say that they may still, optionally, “look to exit the pilot early” (i.e. if it’s able to meet their objectives sooner). ISPreview previously suggested that there may be scenarios where complex home or office installs might also benefit from a Ruggedised ONT deployment, such as for certain exterior installations. Openreach are known to be open to considering this for the future, but at present the focus remains on connecting uninhabitable locations/sites.

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Network operator and UK ISP CommunityFibre, which has built their 5Gbps speed full fibre broadband (FTTP) network to 1.4 million homes (mostly in London and the South East), has today announced their “lowest price ever” for 1Gbps broadband – dropping it to start from £20 per month for a limited time.

The package, which includes their latest Wi-Fi 7 router from Linksys, a 24-month contract term (shorter options available at extra cost), unlimited usage and free setup, is now being priced from just £20 per month. But mid-contract price rises will increase this to £23 from April 2027 (i.e. annual prices rise by £3 each year) and, at the end of your contract term, the monthly price will rise again by £4.

This new offer is said to only be available for a limited time and ends at 11:59pm on 6th July 2026. The ‘Premium’ version of their 1Gbps package – this adds guaranteed whole home WiFi coverage, a bespoke engineer set up and priority support – has also been discounted to just £25 per month (same annual price rises apply).

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New customers looking to join Sky Mobile, which is a virtual mobile operator (mvno) on O2’s network with nearly 4 million UK subscribers, may like to know that the provider recently launched a bunch of new discounts on their SIM Only plans. This includes one that drops the price of their 1GB data plan to just £1 per month on a 12-month term (normally £8).

The 1GB Plan (affiliate link) typically includes unlimited UK calls and texts, the ability to roll your spare data over for up to a year, 5G support and flexibility to change your mobile plan anytime you want. Customers can also request either a physical SIM or eSIM when they sign-up.

Sky Mobile has also introduced various other discounts (e.g. their unlimited data SIM is now £22 per month). But all of these offers will only be available to take until midnight on 18th June 2026.