Germany sets aside €1bn for fibre broadband expansion
News To date, around 4.3 million connections have been made possible through federal gigabit funding The German Federal Ministry for Digital Affairs and Transport (BMDV) has launched its 2025 Gigabit Funding programme. Starting this month, €1.2 billion will be available to support infrastructure projects and a pilot programmes to close connectivity gaps in underserved areas. This year’s funding round is centred on the 2025 infrastructure funding programme, which includes both a standard...
Boldyn takes first steps in Germany with Smart Mobile Labs acquisition
Press Release Boldyn Networks (Boldyn), one of the largest shared network infrastructure providers in the world, cements its position as a leading global mobile private networks player through the agreement to acquire Smart Mobile Labs (SML), Germany’s market leader in bespoke private 5G networks and turnkey applications. The addition of SML will immediately expand Boldyn’s footprint, placing the business with a track record of over 110 mobile private network (MPN) implementations across the...
VMO2 deploys more small cells in Birmingham with Ontix
News The tiny base stations will boost 4G mobile capacity in the city centre Birmingham is set to get a 4G boost this week, with Virgin Media O2 (VMO2) announcing their latest 4G small cell deployments in the city in partnership with Ontix. Small cells are tiny base stations designed to be deployed in areas of high footfall in order to add capacity to existing mobile networks. Their small size and shorter range mean that these base stations are typically deployed closer to street level, often...
EE Miles Ahead of O2, Three UK and Vodafone for 5G Mobile Availability
Network benchmarking provider Ookla, which operates the popular Speedtest.net internet connection testing service, has kindly furnished ISPreview with some additional data that reveals the past and present levels of UK 5G mobile (mobile broadband) availability across EE (BT), Vodafone, Three UK and O2 (Virgin Media). Some of the results may surprise. Just to be clear. The figures for 5G availability reflect the percentage of users with 5G devices spending most of their time connected to 5G...
Broadband Altnet Toob Ranks 4th in Sunday Times 100 Tech List
Hampshire-based network builder and UK ISP toob, which has deployed a gigabit speed full fibre (FTTP) network across parts of South England and also harness some of CityFibre’s network, has placed 4th in the latest 2025 Sunday Times 100 Tech – a ranking of Britain’s fastest-growing private technology companies. The list is split into a top 50 for software companies and a top 50 for hardware companies, with toob being ranked 4th in the hardware list for annual sales growth of 270.73% (total...
ITS Technology Launch 5Gbps Speeds via FTTP over Ethernet Service
The ITS Technology Group, which operates various wholesale full fibre broadband and Ethernet networks (“Faster Britain“) across urban parts of the UK for businesses and ISPs, has today introduced both 2.5Gbps and 5Gbps symmetric speed tiers on their “FibreLight” FTTP over Ethernet (EoFTTP) service. Just to recap. The operator’s XGS-PON-enabled (10Gbps capable) network is currently said to “pass” approximately 465,000 businesses (inc. commercial premises), and they often claim to “reach the...
nPerf Name EE as the UK Fastest Mobile Network in 2025 Benchmark
Internet connection benchmarking firm nPerf has this morning published the results from their annual 2025 crowdsourced study into UK mobile broadband (4G, 5G) performance, which sees EE being named as the country’s best and fastest operator for mobile data performance. But Three UK still holds the top spot for 5G-only performance. The latest nPerf study is based on 91,281 tests carried out – between January and December 2024 – exclusively by end-customers of the various mobile network...
Shire Fibre Seek Code Powers to Support Shropshire UK Full Fibre Rollout
A new alternative broadband network provider and ISP called Shire Fibre has today surfaced with a tentative plan to build their new Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network across poorly served parts of Shropshire (England), starting with the small market town of Craven Arms (population of 2,300) and surrounding areas. In order to do this, they’re first seeking Code Powers from Ofcom, which are typically sought to help speed-up deployments of new fibre networks and cut costs, not least by reducing...
BT Urges Critical Infrastructure Providers to Get Off UK Copper Network
Telecoms giant BT has today “urged” providers of Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) to “move off” the “outdated copper network” as it is becoming “increasingly unstable“. BT claims its own data shows that 60% of CNI customers in the UK currently have no plan in place to start migrating off the legacy analogue network. Just for some context. Sites or networks designated as CNI are those facilities, systems, sites, information, people, networks and processes, necessary for a country to...
TIM triumphs in latest round of €1 billion government dispute
News A court ruling has upheld a previous decision ordering the Italian government to pay TIM €1 billion in relation to an illegal licence fee collected in 1998 An Italian appeals court has rejected the Italian government’s request to suspend a €1 billion payment that it owes Telecom Italia (TIM) after a long license fee dispute, the Italian incumbent has announced. The Italian telecoms sector was liberalised in 1997 and, the next year, TIM was forced to pay a license fee of around €500...