News

Edinburgh-based UK ISP GoFibre (BorderLink) has today confirmed that they’ve “completed” their roll-out of a new full fibre (FTTP) broadband network across the rural Northumberland village of Harbottle, which is home to over 250 people and forms part of their £7.3m Project Gigabit delivery contract (here) to cover 3,750 hard-to-reach premises in the county. The announcement means that around 90 additional premises are now ready to connect to their new FTTP network, which adds to the over...

Abingdon-based rural ISP and full fibre network builder Gigaclear has today celebrated a “record year of growth in 2024” after adding 40,000 new customers (up almost 50% in the year) to total over 130,000, while also extending their network coverage to 580,000 premises as ‘Ready for Service’ (up by 100k in the year). Nathan Rundle, CEO of Gigaclear, said: “Our mission is to bring the fastest full fibre broadband to rural Britain so I am delighted to report that we have connected more hard to...

Contract-free UK mobile provider VOXI, which is a virtual network operator (MVNO) sibling of Vodafone, has today announced the introduction of eSIM (Electronic SIM) support to their mobile service for both new and existing customers who take one of their SIM Only mobile plans. Just to recap. The eSIM standard is an alternative to physical SIM cards, which works by essentially embedding an electronic SIM into your device (Smartphone) that could – once fully implemented – make it easier and...

News  Shareholders are scrambling to keep the company afloat   TalkTalk has reported deepening financial woes, with losses reaching £72 million in the six months to August 2024, up from £47 million in the same period last year, according to its latest accounts which have been seen by The Telegraph.   Revenues also fell 6% to £700 million, reflecting a shrinking customer base and the  sale of its business division for £95 million last year.  Analysts warn that TalkTalk could lose up to 250,000...

News  The news comes after BT signed a separate ESN contract last week  IBM and Samsung are set to secure a £895m contract to deliver user services for the UK’s new Emergency Services Network (ESN), leaving BT and its Italian partner Leonardo out of the deal, according to a recent Telegraph report.  The Home Office’s decision marks a key step in the long-delayed and over-budget ESN project to modernise communication systems for police, fire, and ambulance services in the UK.  BT had been...

Broadband ISP and mobile operator Vodafone UK has this morning announced a new “strategic alliance” with Gigs, which provides a kind of operating system for mobile services that can help startups and large tech companies across the country to launch their own virtual mobile operator (MVNO) style services. The move, which follows close behind last week’s complementary partnership with eSIM Go (here), is aimed at “drastically lowering the barriers to entry and reducing operational overhead” for...

Broadband ISP and mobile operator Virgin Media and O2 (VMO2) have today announced that the recent introduction (here) of their new “next generation” Converged Interconnect Network (CIN) has already helped to improve its mobile network across the UK, not least by connecting 1,000 mobile sites to its proprietary 10Gbps fibre optic backhaul network. In case anybody has forgotten, the new CIN essentially brings their fixed line (FTTP, DOCSIS etc.) and mobile networks (4G, 5G etc.) together in a...

Internet benchmarking firm Opensignal has today published their “definitive” 2024 Fixed Broadband Experience report, which gauges the performance of various internet service providers across the UK and then separately across 12 of its regions (inc. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland). Overall, Virgin Media came top in the national scores, but the regional results are different. Just for context. Opensignal leverages crowdsourced data collected via end-users on their benchmarking app and...

The latest Q3 2024 Global Call Threat Report from Hiya, which also works with broadband ISPs and mobile operators (BT, EE, O2, Virgin Media etc.) to help detect and block SPAM and fraud calls, has revealed that residents of the UK receive 4 spam calls per person each month (up from 3 spam calls last quarter) – albeit one of the lowest rates in Europe. Overall, the latest report found that 3% of all UK calls were classified as “fraud calls” (unchanged from Q2), while 25% were “nuisance calls”...

The One Touch Switching Company (TOTSCo), which is the industry-led company that is helping to implement Ofcom’s solution for easier and quicker UK consumer switching between broadband and phone providers (One Touch Switching), has revealed more details about its efforts to introduce support for business connections too. The current OTS system is a largely automated Gaining Provider Led (GPL) process, where the customer contacts their new (“gaining“) ISP to start and manage the process on...