Vodafone UK to Donate 75,000 Free Mobile Data SIMs for Wimbledon
Mobile network operator Vodafone has today announced that they will donate “up to” 75,000 free mobile data (broadband) and calling SIMs, as part of this year’s Wimbledon Championships (tennis), to help both digitally excluded people and sports clubs to cross the digital divide. The reason why the figure is being expressed as “up to” is because the number of mobile SIMs that Vodafone chooses to donate will, for some reason of marketing, be based on the fastest serves recorded by IBM during...
Wessex Internet Open Wiltshire Base for Gigabit Broadband Build
Rural-focused broadband ISP and alternative UK network builder Wessex Internet, which is deploying a gigabit speed full fibre (FTTP) service across parts of Dorset, Wiltshire, Hampshire and Somerset in England, has opened a new base in Codford to help supply their ever expanding rollout efforts in Wiltshire. The civil engineering yard will employ at least 15 people, including ploughing and drilling teams who will build the fibre cable network, engineers who are qualified to work with overhead...
Rural UK Full Fibre Altnet ISPs County Broadband and Truespeed Likely to Merge
Several credible sources have now informed ISPreview that two well established alternative network providers – County Broadband and Truespeed, both of which have been rolling out gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) lines across remote rural parts of England for several years, are allegedly preparing to announce a merger agreement. At present Truespeed, which is mostly focused upon serving rural premises in parts of Devon, Wiltshire and Somerset, has already covered over 100,000...
O2 UK Claim Completion of Phase One of Rural 4G Mobile Rollout Project
Mobile network operator O2 (Virgin Media / VMO2) has reported that they’ve “completed the first phase” of the £1bn industry-led Shared Rural Network (SRN) rollout, which was achieved by expanding their 4G (mobile broadband) coverage to a total of 227 rural communities in “partial not-spot areas” across the UK. The SRN – supported by £501m of public funding and £532m from operators – involves both the reciprocal sharing of existing masts in certain areas and the demand-led building and sharing...
Broadband ISP BeFibre Raises Out of Contract UK Prices by £5
Merseyside-based ISP BeFibre, which harnesses FullFibre Ltd’s national full fibre (FTTP) broadband network, has today increased their out-of-contract prices by £5 per month across the board. But the good news is that there’s no change for new offer customers, who will still enjoy the same first 12 or 24-month term discounts as existed before. The change means that somebody who, for example, takes out their entry-level 150Mbps (symmetric speed) package on a 24-month term with free installation...
Openreach Toughen Whereabouts Stance for Altnet UK Broadband Engineers
Openreach (BT) has begun the process of toughening up their stance on compliance with their “whereabouts” rules. This could see them taking further contractual action against alternative UK broadband networks (altnets) that struggle to reach the necessary 90% performance threshold, which might eventually include restrictions on network access. Just to give this the necessary context. Openreach’s regulated Physical Infrastructure Access (PIA) product, which enables rivals to run their own fibre...
BT Does Deal to Share Rural UK Mobile Masts with O2 and Vodafone
BT (EE) has confirmed to ISPreview that they’re in advanced talks over a new agreement with rivals, including at least O2 (Virgin Media) and Vodafone, that will give them the ability to access some of EE’s mobile masts in remote locations. The deal may help to improve 4G (mobile broadband) coverage in Partial Not-Spot areas and tackle delays. The deal relates to the £1bn industry-led Shared Rural Network (SRN) project, which is supported by £501m of public funding and £532m from operators. The...
MWC Shanghai: maximising the value of 5G advanced with AI
Insight On day two of this year’s Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Shanghai, we heard from Li Peng, Corporate Senior Vice President and President of ICT Sales & Service at Huawei, as he shared his insights on how AI can be used to help monetise the 5G experience Providing differentiated and personalised offerings is essential to be able to monetise 5G properly, but this is the same with monetising any industry. Li highlights how we can draw useful insights from the aviation industry… Back...
Scientists Push Record 402Tbps Speed Down Standard Fibre Optic Cable
A new world data speed record has just been set after a team of Japanese researchers from the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), using a standard commercially available optical fibre, managed to reach a transmission rate of 402.2Tbps (Terabits per second) over a distance of 50km. The new record, which marks a significant improvement on the previous record of 321Tbps that was set in October 2023, was achieved by constructing the first optical transmission...
Altnet UK Broadband ISP Zzoomm to Cease New FTTP Build from End of Q2
Oxfordshire-based alternative broadband ISP Zzoomm, which recently revealed that their 2Gbps Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network had covered 200,000 premises (RFS) across 23 towns in England (here), has today reported their end of year results (Dec 2023) and confirmed that they’ll cease new building work from the end of this month. The operator, which has thus far been fuelled by an equity investment of £100m from Oaktree Capital (here) and a £100m debt facility via an international banking...