Survey Claims 71% of UK Broadband Users Find Changing ISP Tedious
A new survey of over 1,000 adults across the UK, which was conducted by research and consulting firm Cavell, claims to have found that the majority of UK consumers (71%) still find the process of changing broadband ISP to be frustrating, complicated or intimidating. Just 28% said they found it “easy“. According to Cavell’s 2024 UK Consumer Broadband Report, younger adults aged 18-24 were the ones who, perhaps conversely, found the switching process most complicated, with 33% highlighting...
RootMetrics Benchmark Names EE BEST UK Mobile Network for H1 2024
Mobile benchmarking firm RootMetrics (Ookla) has today published their H1 2024 study of UK mobile networks (calls, texts etc.) and mobile broadband performance, which once again sees EE (BT) come top against rivals at Vodafone, Three UK and O2 (Virgin Media). EE also “edged past” Three UK to deliver the “best 5G experience“. As usual, the new study made use of the “latest” 5G Samsung smartphones (model not disclosed) – purchased off the shelf from operator stores – to test both 4G and 5G...
B4RN Join UK Gov Charter to Protect Vulnerable Home Phone Users
Rural focused alternative UK broadband network B4RN, which is a community benefit ISP that has rolled out a 10Gbps speed full fibre network to 25,000 premises (inc. 13,000+ customers), has joined the government’s charter for protecting vulnerable people from harm during the upgrade to digital (IP / VoIP based) phone lines. Just to recap. At the end of 2023 the government and several major broadband ISPs launched a new charter (here), which set out the “new measures” they would all agree to...
Three UK Discounts 5G Home Broadband to £22 with First 6 Months at £11
New customers looking to take one of Three UK’s unlimited 5G or 4G based Home Broadband packages may like to know that the operator has just discounted them from £24 to £22 per month on a 24-month term. In addition, you can also get the first six months of service at half price for just £11 (oddly, this only shows up when going to the checkout). The package includes Three’s latest 5G Hub MC888 router (or a 4G router if you aren’t covered by their 5G network), although it should be noted that...
Welsh Government Suspends ABC Broadband Voucher Scheme
The Welsh Government (WG) has chosen to “pause” their long-running Access Broadband Cymru (ABC) grant scheme, which offered funding to help rural homes get a faster broadband service installed in areas of slow connectivity. But given the greater focus on gigabit-capable connections, ABC was starting to look a bit dated. The ABC scheme has been running for quite a few years and offered vouchers to homes in poorly served areas that aren’t currently planned to benefit from either commercial or...
Lycamobile loses £51 million VAT dispute with HMRC
News The decision comes after auditors were unable to sign off the MVNO’s 2022 accounts Lycamobile has lost a major dispute with UK tax authorities over its unpaid VAT, according to a report from the Financial Times. Lyca Mobile is one of the world’s largest Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs) and provides services using EE’s network in the UK. The dispute is related to the unpaid VAT placed on customer “bundles” over the last seven years, amounting to £51 million. Earlier this year,...
Five UK altnets PIA Coalition to take on Openreach
News The group calls for a more equitable access to Openreach’s infrastructure Five UK altnets – nexfibre, AllPoints Fibre, Community Fibre, Gigaclear, and the newly merged Netomnia and Brsk – have established a new ‘PIA (Physical Infrastructure Access) Coalition’ to push for fairer access to physical infrastructure operated by Openreach. The coalition will call on Ofcom do more to ensure a level playing field for access to Openreach passive infrastructure in its upcoming Telecoms Access...
Competition Watchdog Delays Three UK and Vodafone Merger Decision
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has announced that it will need an additional 8 weeks to reach a conclusion on their Phase 2 investigation of the proposed mega-merger (here) between mobile operators Three UK and Vodafone. As a result, the deadline has been extended from 18th September 2024 to 7th December 2024. The merger, which would see Vodafone retain a 51% slice of the business and CK Hutchison (Three UK) hold 49%, has previously been promoted by the parties as something that...
Broadband ISP Aquiss Introduce Multi Gigabit UK CityFibre Plans for Businesses
Shropshire-based UK ISP Aquiss has today announced that they’ve expanded their range of CityFibre based Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) packages by introducing symmetric speeds of up to 2.5Gbps for business customers (they already had some of these for residential subscribers). All of Aquiss’ business packages are supplied with unlimited usage, true static IPv4 and IPv6 assignments as standard and have no in-contract price rises. Next Business Working Day SLAs ensure quicker fix times. All...
Intel cuts 15,000 jobs as it seeks $10bn cost savings
News Punishing financial results are forcing the company to take “bold action” Intel has this week revealed that it is laying off over 15,000 workers, saying it will cut 15% of its workforce in efforts to streamline the business. The company says the cuts are part of a drive to save $10 billion in costs by 2025, which will be achieved through various streamlining measures and spending reductions. R&D and marketing spend will be cut by more than a billion dollars through to 2026, while...