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VodafoneThree (Vodafone and Three UK) has today announced an exclusive new multi-year partnership with high street retailer Currys, which will see the newly merged operator becoming the retailer’s sole mobile network operator (distribution deal) and also expanding their offering to “include mobile broadband” (Fixed Wireless Access).

Just to recap. Vodafone already has a retail partnership with Currys, which was last updated in January 2023 and saw their offering go beyond mobile and introduce home broadband and connected devices for around the home. But the new agreement expands this to include the newly merged company and will see the operator offering mobile services, home and mobile broadband under the Vodafone brand via Currys, as well as VOXI mobile.

The announcement clearly states that “VodafoneThree will be the exclusive mobile network operator (MNO) for Currys,” which is interesting since Currys is also the owner of Three UK based virtual operator (MVNO) iD Mobile (the fact it’s based off Three UK may avoid a clash with this deal). Some of Currys investors have, however, previously indicated that they would like iD Mobile to be sold in order to better “realise shareholder value” (here).

Jon Shaw, Consumer Operations Director at VodafoneThree, said:

“I am delighted that we can announce a new exclusive partnership with Currys just weeks after the creation of VodafoneThree. This new wider ranging partnership will allow Currys and VodafoneThree to explore greater opportunities in home and mobile broadband, for consumers and businesses across the UK. It’s an exciting time as we build the UK’s best network, with millions of customers already starting to benefit from unrivalled access to roam across each other’s networks at no extra cost.”

Ed Connolly, Chief Commercial Officer for Currys, said:

“Signing this multi-year agreement with VodafoneThree demonstrates the strength of our long-term partnership. We’re confident in our shared commitment to providing customers with quality, flexibility and value across mobile, home broadband and mobile broadband too. This agreement will allow customers to continue using the improved coverage, speed and reliability of the VodafoneThree network in the UK. Our mobile offering is growing, it’s working for our customers, and it’s working for us too.”

Currys currently has nearly 300 stores across the UK, while Vodafone has over 400 stores.

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New ISP Carnival Internet UK, which was launched in May 2025 (here) and is being backed by global tech company Dotlines (Dotlines UK), has today announced that they’ve partnered with Brixton-based charity Community TechAid to help “tackle digital exclusion and e-waste“.

With a small team of staff and a network of volunteers, the Community TechAid charity typically repairs and redistributes technology to individuals in need, ensuring access to essential digital resources. The ISP, which donates 1% of its customers’ bills to charitable initiatives, will help to support the charity via fundraising, device donations, sponsorships, and employee volunteering opportunities.

Olly Sedden, Director of Product, Commercial and Marketing at Dotlines UK, said: “This partnership with Community TechAid aligns with our mission to ensure digital access is a right, not a privilege. By donating a percentage of all our customers’ bills from our high-quality broadband, we can support the repurposing of devices to those that need them most; not only doing our bit to help bridge the digital divide but also leading the way in sustainable and socially responsible business practices from day one.”

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Network testing firm Ookla (i.e. Speedtest.net, Downdetector.co.uk) has today revealed that mobile operator Three UK delivered the fastest 4G and 5G mobile broadband speeds during last weekend’s Glastonbury Festival, which saw the operator produce a median average download of 347.66Mbps. But O2 (Virgin Media) were the slowest on 67.66Mbps.

The median mobile download speeds on Three UK were found to be “at least twice as fast” as those on any other operator, and the network also topped Ookla’s Quality of Experience (QoE) measures – reflecting the typical performance for web browsing, video calling, and gaming throughout the event.

However, despite Three UK delivering the fastest speeds, the study noted that festival-goers were still “least likely to experience poor performance” on EE’s network throughout Worthy Farm. At the 10th percentile, which captures the slowest 10% of outcomes when signal was weakest or congestion highest, EE still recorded the fastest download and upload speeds of any operator.

One critical thing to point out here is that all network operators will be working to deliver event specific coverage and capacity for major festivals like this. Ookla has thus included data to show the difference between festival vs pre-festival performance, which shows quite a diverse set of results.

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SpaceX has revealed to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that it deorbited 472 Starlink ultrafast broadband satellites – burning them up in Earth’s atmosphere – during the six-month period from December 2024 to May 2025 (2.6 per day), which marked a significant increase from previous period of six-months when just 73 met a fiery demise.

At present Starlink has around 7,900 satellites in Low Earth Orbit (c.4,300 are v2 Mini / GEN 2A) – mostly at altitudes of c.500-600km – and they’ll add thousands more by the end of 2027. Residential customers in the UK usually pay from £75 a month, plus £299 for hardware (currently free for most areas) on the ‘Standard’ unlimited data plan (kit price may vary due to different offers), which promises UK latency times of 28-36ms, downloads of 103-258Mbps and uploads of 15-26Mbps. Cheaper and more restrictive options also exist for roaming users.

However, smaller LEO satellites, such as those from operators like Starlink, OneWeb (Eutelsat), Amazon (Kuiper) and others, are designed to have a relatively short lifespan (e.g. Starlinks are designed to last for 5 years) – like absurdly expensive consumables. After that they will be directed back down by operators to burn up (incinerate) in our atmosphere or – if they fail (no operator control) – they’ll be pulled down by gravity and atmospheric drag in the space of a few short years.

Suffice to say that, given the rise in launch rates over recent years, it is inevitable that Starlink will suffer a notable rise in retirements as the years roll by (particularly of their GEN1 / first generation spacecraft). But independent evidence from earlier this year had already indicated that SpaceX was deorbiting more Starlinks than expected (here) and the latest official data (credits to PC Mag) confirms that trend.

For example, most of the deorbited Starlinks (430) were indeed GEN1, but they were also less than 5 years old and the rest belonged to the second-generation (GEN2) network. Suffice to say that it’s not clear quite why so many Starlinks have been de-orbited at this time, although a small portion will have done so due to failure and some would have been reaching the end of their life. But the others remain a mystery.

Most such satellites burn up without incident in the atmosphere, although there have been exceptionally rare cases where chunks of metal did survive all the way back down to the surface (GEN2/3 satellites are now designed to be better at disintegration during atmospheric re-entry). Some scientists also remain concerned about the release of potentially harmful chemicals into the atmosphere, which they fear might damage the sensitive ozone layer etc.

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Alternative network provider Wildanet, which has spent the past few years building a new Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) based gigabit broadband network across rural parts of Cornwall and Devon in England, has today announced the launch of its first 2Gbps speed package for consumers.

The new service is said to have been made possible by the completion of key elements of Wildanet’s full fibre rollout, together with a “major upgrade to its core network infrastructure“, which has increased capacity from a 10-Gigabit backbone to a 100-Gigabit ring system – providing multiple backup routes that allow data traffic to be automatically rerouted in the event of a fault.

The new 2Gbps package costs £85 per month on a 24-month minimum term, although it’s worth noting that this is not a symmetric service and thus upload speeds are limited to 400Mbps (hardly a major issue). The service also includes unlimited data usage and free installation.

Simon Hughes, Wildanet Chief Commercial Officer, said:

“The launch of this service isn’t just about faster speeds – it is about setting a new benchmark for broadband quality in Cornwall and showing what is possible when you invest in future-ready infrastructure.

Digital connectivity in Cornwall has often lagged behind other areas in the UK, which is precisely why Wildanet was formed. With two gigabit Full Fibre now available, it is a clear statement that we’re putting the county on a par with, and in many cases considerably ahead of, the rest of the country.”

In order to further strengthen reliability, Wildanet said they maintain dual connectivity to London’s Telehouse main internet exchange, via two separate wholesale providers – National Grid Telecom and PXC – ensuring higher levels of service continuity and resilience. The announcement notes that Wildanet’s network uptime reached 99.98% in 2024 and has already achieved 99.99% so far in 2025, which they claim to be “performance levels that surpass many of the UK’s major national broadband providers” (although uptime isn’t always the most useful of metrics for individual users).

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Network benchmarking firm Opensignal, which uses crowdsourced speedtests from users of its apps and services, has examined the 15 most popular start-up hubs in Europe and warned that the leading city – London – still has a major weakness when it comes to the performance of local mobile connectivity (4G and 5G).

According to DEEP Ecosystems’ Start Up Heatmap Europe 2025 study, London currently ranks top of the table – – putting the United Kingdom’s capital city ahead of rival giants like Berlin, Paris, Amsterdam, Munich, Barcelona, Zurich, Madrid, Vienna and Copenhagen.

However, Opensignal notes that while London is the most popular European city for start-up hubs, people shouldn’t expect a good mobile experience while they’re there. “Londoners have the slowest speeds and the worst experience when using over-the-top voice apps,” said the firm.

For example, London had one of the lowest rankings for video streaming experience (68.1 out of 100) and it came bottom for voice app experience (77.1 out of 100). On top of that, London also delivered the slowest mobile broadband download speeds of 52.7Mbps and the slowest uploads at 9.8Mbps.

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Mobile network operator giffgaff, which is owned by Telefónica and naturally uses O2’s virtual operator (MVNO) platform (they’re also trialling FTTP broadband via nexfibre and Virgin Media – here), has announced that its CEO – Ash Schofield – has decided to step down, and they’ve begun the hunt for his replacement.

Ash is currently due to remain in the role until the end of this year to support the transition to a new CEO. Recruitment for Ash’s successor is already underway with the ambition to have someone in place before the outgoing boss departs, after which time Ash will move into a temporary strategic board advisory role.

Ash has led giffgaff since 2018 and has had a long and seemingly successful career within VMO2 for 26 years, but he is apparently now seeking a new challenge.

Ash Schofield said:

“The decision to step down hasn’t been an easy one, but it’s the right time for me. I’ve seen giffgaff grow to over four million members while staying true to its values and its members. I’ve had an incredible journey with giffgaff and Virgin Media O2 spanning over two decades, but it’s time to pass the baton and find myself a fresh challenge.”

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The UK communications regulator has today published a shotgun blast of new satellite broadband consultations, which cover everything from changing satellite gateway fees to introducing another new gateway licence for Amazon’s future Project Kuiper network. Ofcom has also proposed short duration licences for mobile (4G/5G) networks in the lower 2.3GHz band.

We’ll start with Amazon’s Project Kuiper, which is already in the process of building a global mega-constellation of 3,236 compact satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) to deliver affordable ultrafast home broadband and mobile (4G, 5G) services (here). Ofcom has already granted several licences for this (here) and they’ve today proposed to grant another one (here).

The new one is for an NGSO Earth Station Licence for a terrestrial gateway site in Bude (Cornwall), which is needed in order to help Kuiper provide “high-speed, low-latency broadband services” to households, businesses and other customers in the UK, as well as backhaul connectivity to telecommunications carriers. We see no reason why this would be rejected, so it’s likely to be approved in a few short months time (consultation is open until 29th July 2025).

Satellite Gateway fees

Ofcom’s next consultation considers a change to satellite gateway fees (i.e. gateways reflect the components in satellite networks that connect the data beamed via spacecraft to the internet). The regulator states that in recent years there has been a “significant growth in demand for spectrum from the satellite sector” as it provides connectivity to an increasing number of households and businesses.

However, increasing demand means that NGSO gateways can contribute to spectrum scarcity (both for other satellite users and fixed services), which is why Ofcom says they’re now proposing (here) to use Administered Incentive Pricing (AIP) rather than flat fees for NGSO satellite gateway licences.

The regulator claims this “will encourage users to think carefully about their spectrum needs, incentivise the highest value uses, and in turn promote economic efficiency and growth“. But most operators would say they do that already and so will probably view this as a way of increasing their costs.

“We already use this approach for satellite gateway licences for geostationary systems (GSO), and we are proposing to update our AIP fee formula to promote efficient use of spectrum. We are also currently considering making Q/V and E spectrum bands available for satellite gateways, and the consultation proposes how we would calculate fees in these bands,” said Ofcom. The consultation will run until 9th September 2025.

Short duration licences in the lower 2.3GHz band

Finally, Ofcom has today opened another new consultation on introducing short notice, short duration licences for outdoor and indoor use in the 2320-2340MHz band for use by the Programme Making and Special Events (PMSE) and Shared Access (SA) communities. But it would also allow other users wishing to deploy a short duration network in spectrum supported by mobile technology to rapidly secure a licence to use this spectrum on a short-term basis.

“This provides further support for innovative new spectrum users, and could open up opportunities to use mobile technologies (e.g. 4G and 5G) for news-gathering and broadcast of major events … We envisage that this new licence could support a range of use cases, including use of 5G cameras for breaking news stories, sports coverage, pop-up mobile coverage and private network demonstrator events,” said Ofcom. The consultation will run until 2nd September 2025.

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Mobile and broadband ISP EE (BT) has today added the new ‘Stream Mode’ feature to their existing WiFi Enhancer service, which works by claiming to “intelligently prioritise a customer’s favourite streaming apps, helping customers enjoy smooth, high-quality streaming … even when the entire household is online.”

Just to recap. The Wi-Fi Enhancer service is an app-controlled feature that enables you to prioritise traffic to your connection (e.g. you can currently choose for it to prioritise traffic for gaming or work), which can be handy in larger households with multiple users and devices. This is included as standard with EE’s “Made for Gamers” and “Busiest Home” FTTP broadband bundles, or as a £5 per month 30-day rolling add-on on other packages. A Smart Hub Plus or Smart Hub Pro router is also required.

By comparison, the new ‘Stream Mode‘ feature is designed to expand upon this idea by prioritising traffic from “leading streaming apps” (e.g. Amazon Prime Video, TNT Sports on discovery+ etc.), which EE said should “minimise buffering and improve viewing quality throughout the home“.

In addition, for creators and gamers, EE states that Stream Mode should also help with uploads to platforms like Twitch and YouTube, “making live streaming and content sharing faster and more reliable“. But we could really do with seeing some more technical details on precisely how it’s achieving this.

Luciano Oliveira, EE’s Director of Product, Home & TV, said:

“With Stream Mode, we’re giving customers even more control over their broadband experience. Whether its binge-watching boxsets or watching live sport, Stream Mode puts streaming apps in the fast lane, so customers can enjoy uninterrupted entertainment, even when the whole household is online. It’s all part of our mission to create a smarter, more personalised, WiFi experience, and it’s only available on EE.”

In theory this sounds like a good feature, although strictly speaking it shouldn’t really be necessary on a modern and ultrafast or gigabit speed Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband connection, provided the ISP is doing their job to provide every customer with a good quality connection and establishing strong peering/routing arrangements.

The fact that you can activate this for the “whole household” also makes it sound like EE’s default connection is inferior. The approach makes us wonder exactly what sort of tweaks the provider is actually applying in order to prioritise traffic and why other customers are not able to benefit from this by default (there’s a net neutrality argument).

On the other hand, this is a hard thing to benchmark, and we’ve not seen any solid independent studies to show that Stream Mode will actually make a tangible difference, at least not a difference that you couldn’t achieve by simply taking a faster broadband speed (or even by switching ISP to one that doesn’t require this for you to get the best connection).

In any case, Stream Mode is being launched via a “phased roll out” to eligible EE home broadband customers in the “coming weeks“, assuming you’re making use of WiFi Enhancer of course.

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Debt troubled broadband ISP TalkTalk today claims to have taken “another step forward” in its “mission to become the UK’s most recommended Wi-Fi provider” by adopting a new AI-powered customer service automation platform from NiCE (tough ask in the current climate), which is called CXone Mpower.

The internet access provider sees the new solution, which aims to help them combine multiple existing operating systems into one unified platform, as being part of its wider transformation plans that it says are aimed at “simplifying its business and revolutionising customer experience” (cost-cutting may also be a factor).

Just to be clear, this is more of an internal change than a customer facing one, although subscribers might see some benefits. The new platform will support front-line support agents by “streamlining end-to-end customer service processes” and – through built-in AI technology – “equip them with intelligent automated writing tools and the most relevant answers in real-time“.

Neil Smith, Chief Operating Officer at TalkTalk, said:

“We are transforming our approach to customer service to meet the expectations of today’s digitally connected customers. Partnering with NiCE will give us a powerful and practical customer service platform powered by AI, enabling us to provide faster resolutions and a better customer experience.”

Darren Rushworth, President of NiCE International, said:

“We are extremely thrilled to be working with TalkTalk at such a pivotal point in their customer service transformation. By unifying operations with CXone Mpower, TalkTalk is eliminating inefficiencies and setting a new benchmark for AI-driven customer service in the UK telecom industry. Their commitment to innovation ensures they remain at the forefront of delivering seamless, scalable, and automated customer experiences. This will be a game-changer for TalkTalk, its customers and employees.”

The goal of such platforms is usually to cut down on the more laborious/repetitive work and thus free up human teams to focus more on other areas, or to tackle a greater number of issues in any given day. In theory, this means “faster response times” and “more accurate resolutions” for customers, although it remains to be seen whether this is something customers will notice.

Still, it makes a change from all the recent doom and gloom stories that seem to emanate from the group’s recent financial woes.