Sweden asks Chinese ship to return for investigation after Baltic Sea cable damage
News The investigation was launched after two cables were severed in the Baltic Sea last week Swedish Prime Minster Ulf Kristersson has requested that a Chinese ship return to Swedish waters as part of an ongoing investigation into the damage of two subsea cable systems in the Baltic Sea last week. Last Sunday, the 218km BCS East-West Interlink cable, which connects Gotland, Sweden, and Lithuania, was damaged and taken offline. The next day, the C-lion-1 cable between Helsinki, Finland, and...
Sky Threatens Legal Challenge to Vodafone and Three UK Merger
Sky (Sky Mobile, Sky Broadband etc.) has today warned the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) that they could launch a legal challenge (appeal) if the proposed merger between mobile network operators Vodafone and Three UK is allowed to proceed, unless significant changes are made to the proposed competition remedies. The merger itself, which would see Vodafone retain a 51% slice of the business and CK Hutchison (Three UK) hold 49%, has repeatedly been promoted by the operators as something...
Australia regulator dishes out midband spectrum for private networks
News The newly allocated area-wide licences (AWLs) will allow organisations to build their own private wireless networks This week, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has announced the allocation of 47 area-wide licences (AWLs) for 3.8 GHz spectrum. This midband spectrum is some of the most highly prized by mobile operators for delivering 5G services, offering an excellent balance of capacity, speed, and coverage. Applications for the licences opened in May and...
384,890 Customers Take Utility Warehouse’s UK Broadband Services
Energy and communications provider Telecom Plus, which trades as Utility Warehouse (UW), has today published their latest Half Year Results (H1 2025) to 30th Sept 2024 and revealed that their broadband ISP grew its total UK customer base to 384,890 (up by 10.09k since H2 2024) and their mobile base hit 526,167 (up by 59.95k). The company is currently home to a total of 1,078,318 residential and small business customers (up from 1,011,489) across their various services and have previously set...
Virgin Media and Nexfibre Near Completion of Upp’s UK FTTP Integration
UK ISP Virgin Media (O2) has today confirmed to ISPreview that they and network operator nexfibre have nearly completed the integration of Upp’s full fibre (FTTP) broadband network. Most of the operator’s premises have already been transferred to nexfibre, but we’re told that the remaining properties should be completed next month (December). Just to recap. Upp was originally established as a £1bn project to deploy a new Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) based broadband ISP network across 1 million...
O2 UK Complete 4G and 5G Upgrades for 1,500 Postcodes in Derby
Mobile network operator O2 (Virgin Media) has today announced that they’ve completed a project to upgrade the capacity of their 4G and 5G based mobile services across “over” 1,500 postcodes in the city of Derby (Derbyshire, England), which should mean “faster” mobile broadband speeds and greater reliability. The work, which began at the start of 2024, forms part of O2’s ongoing effort to invest £2m a day into their mobile network, which enables them to deploy new technologies and keep up with...
Elevate Wholesale to Integrate Vorboss’s Full Fibre Network in London
Network operator Elevate (formerly Telcom and Luminet) has today announced that they’ve signed a strategic deal to expand their UK wholesale reach in London by adding access to Vorboss‘s 100Gbps capable full fibre network to their platform, which is focused on serving businesses across the city centre. The agreement means that Elevate Wholesale®, the channel partner division of Elevate, will now be able to reach “tens of thousands more London business premises” than they could before via their...
Starlink’s Direct to Cell 4G Mobile via Satellite Service Achieves Global Cover
Elon Musk’s SpaceX has announced that Starlink have now launched enough Direct to Cell (DtC) capable broadband satellites to be able to deliver “robust” global coverage of their new 4G mobile roaming service. But the first commercial products won’t be able to launch until final regulatory approval is gained. At present Starlink‘s network has a staggering 6,740 satellites (c.2,600 are v2 Mini / GEN 2A) in orbit – mostly at altitudes of c.500-600km – and they’re in the process of adding...
Full Fibre Broadband Reaches Remote UK Island of Iona for the First Time
Engineers working for Openreach (BT) have started to extend the operator’s new 1.8Gbps speed Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP network to the beautifully remote Inner Hebrides island of Iona, which is sometimes described as the birthplace of Christianity in Scotland and sits just off the Ross of Mull on the country’s western coast. The tiny island is home to a local population of around 177, although this is often boosted by seasonal workers who swell the community during the summer...
Openreach Name Top 10 Kent UK Areas for FTTP Broadband Cover
Network access provider Openreach (BT) has today revealed the top ten locations for coverage of their Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network in Kent (England), which sees the coastal town of Minster on the Isle of Sheppey top the table with “almost” 90% of all residents able to upgrade. Openreach added that they deployed Subtended Headend (SHE) technology for two of the island’s exchanges (i.e. basically mini exchanges), installing ultrafast broadband optical signal boosting equipment....