News

Internet provider Andrews & Arnold (AAISP) this month became the latest ISP to introduce symmetric broadband speeds capable of harnessing the top 2.5Gbps (2500Mbps) tier on CityFibre’s growing Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network, which is currently available to around 4 million premises across the UK. But for now it’s only a trial with limited availability. The ISP is currently somewhat limited by CityFibre’s own availability of their new XGS-PON based full fibre network (progress...

Ofcom has today published the “first edition” of its new online UK safety codes of practice for “tech firms” (e.g. social media) and smaller websites under the government’s Online Safety Act (OSA). Providers now have 3 months to ensure they’re able to tackle “illegal harms” (content), such as terror, hate, fraud, child sexual abuse and assisting or encouraging suicide. On the surface, it all sounds sensible and well-intentioned. After all, it’s widely understood, and few could disagree, that...

Business focused UK broadband ISP bOnline today claims to have launched a new “industry beating” full fibre broadband (FTTP), Voice-over-IP (VoIP) and unlimited calls package for small businesses that costs from just £29.95 ex. VAT a month (this is said to represent a 33% drop over its equivalent previous monthly pricing). The press release states that, after 6 months, the monthly charge will increase by £7 to £36.95 a month, although bOnline state that this still represents a 17.8% drop over...

The UK telecoms regulator has today set out their expected timetable for the long-in-gestation plan to auction off a large chunk of millimetre wave (mmW) radio spectrum frequency in the 26GHz and 40GHz bands, which will be used by mobile operators to deliver faster 5G (mobile broadband) services. But you’ll have to wait until October 2025. At present EE (BT), O2 (Virgin Media), Vodafone and Three UK already have access to several 5G bands between 700MHz and 3.8GHz. Such frequencies reflect the...

The Government’s Building Digital UK agency has published its annual performance report (accounts here), which provides breakdowns of how many premises in the United Kingdom have received gigabit-capable broadband coverage as a result of their public subsidy (i.e. funding provided under the prior “Superfast Broadband” programme and the current £5bn Project Gigabit scheme). The data itself doesn’t carry any particular surprises, but it does provide some additional context that we don’t normally...

Customers of internet provider Home Telecom, which is part of the wider Telecom Acquisitions (TAL) group that also includes several other UK ISP brands (No One, Leetline, Fleur Telecom, Eclipse Broadband etc.), have this week begun to receive emails notifying them of a change that will make their “annual price increase simpler“. The email itself, which was also sent to customers on some of Home Telecom / TAL’s other ISP brands, didn’t include much in the way of detail and largely just...

The Lifford Gardens and the Sands Residents Association, which represents part of Broadway in Worcestershire (England), has lost its Judicial Review case against the local council’s decision to allow the deployment of a new FTTP broadband network using wood poles. The Birmingham High Court ruled that the council had acted lawfully. ISPreview first covered all this in June 2024 (here and here), which gives the full context. But to recap, the case focused upon FullFibre Limited’s network build...

Some customers of new UK mobile operator, Ymobile (Ycorp), which only launched one month ago while pledging to offer a “simpler, more streamlined and environmentally friendly” alternative to traditional mobile networks (here), have suddenly been told that their service will be “terminated” in January 2025. The operator, which promoted itself as being the United Kingdom’s “first data-led, eSIM MVNO“, claimed to be powered by Three UK’s national 4G and 5G network via a virtual operator (MVNO)...

The UK telecoms regulator has today proposed, following evidence submitted by BT (EE), to reduce the total amount paid by the mobile network operators to use the 900MHz, 1800MHz and 2100MHz radio spectrum bands – used to support 2G, 3G and 4G mobile (mobile broadband) services – by around £40m per year. The cost of Annual Licence Fees (ALF) is often a highly divisive subject for the likes of EE, Vodafone, Three UK and O2. Mobile operators often complain that hikes in this area can mean price...

Gigabit broadband ISP Hyperoptic, which has built a full fibre broadband (FTTP / B) network to cover “more than” 1.73 million UK homes in parts of 64 towns and cities (mostly MDUs), has been fined £50,000 by the Westminster Magistrates Court in London after they were found to have carried out unsafe street works. The successful prosecution was actually pursued by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, which occurred after the Council’s Street Works Compliance Inspector witnessed (Jan...