Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Openreach (BT) has today revealed that their roll-out of a new 1.8Gbps speed Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP network in Cardiff (Wales) has reached 140,000 premises (i.e. around 80% of properties across the city). The build is still very much ongoing, although less than two in five who could upgrade to the new network have done so.

The network operator, which has previously stated that their average per premises build cost continues to hover around the £280 mark across the UK (roughly £1.2bn per year), said that work is still ongoing to expand their FTTP network both in and around the city. Some of the most active areas of build include Llanishen, Pentyrch, Creigiau, Llanrumney, Llandaff, Penarth, Taff’s Well, Culverhouse Cross, Dinas Powys and Llanedeyrn.

The new service, once live, can be ordered via various ISPs, such as BT, Sky Broadband, TalkTalk, Vodafone and many more (Openreach FTTP ISP Choices) – it is not currently an automatic upgrade, although some providers have started to do free automatic upgrades as older copper-based services and lines are slowly withdrawn.

Martin Williams, Openreach Partnership Director for Wales, said: “We believe that this new network will give businesses an edge and provide families and home-workers with future-proof connectivity. Openreach is committed to delivering a great service that helps the community thrive, supports people to work from home easily, and keeps them connected to loved ones and opportunities.”

However, it’s worth reminding readers that Openreach aren’t the only gigabit broadband network in Cardiff, with Virgin Media (inc. nexfibre), Ogi, Elevate (formerly Telcom), Hyperoptic, OFNL / Fibrenest and the community orientated Michaelston-y-Fedw CIC project also being present (some only with limited coverage).

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Abingdon-based alternative network provider Gigaclear, which is built a full fibre broadband network that covers 580,000 premises (RFS) across rural parts of England (inc. 130,000+ customers), has introduced a new discount that reduces the monthly price of their 500Mbps (469Mbps avg.) package to just £22 per month.

The 500Mbps package itself (affiliate link) typically offers symmetric speeds, unlimited usage, an included Linksys wireless router, “FREE Smart WiFi Mesh” device and attracts an 18-month minimum contract term. But it’s not free to install and there’s a £30 one-off activation fee to pay.

New customers should be aware that the deal is only available to order until 2nd June 2025 and, after the contract concludes, the package price returns to £57 a month.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

The BT Group has today published their biannual full year (H2 FY25) results to March 2025, which reveals that Openreach’s full fibre (FTTP) network added 2.2 million premises to their UK coverage in H2 (up from 2.1m in H1) to cover 18.08m (4.9m in rural areas) and will accelerate its rollout by 20%. But broadband line losses to rivals hit 243k in the last quarter (up from 208k).

The group’s consumer divisions – including BT, EE and Plusnet – reported being home to a total of 8.198 million broadband connections (down from 8.234m in H1), which included 3.202m FTTP customers (up from 2.775m). BT’s business divisions similarly had 588k broadband connections (down from 609k) and 127k of those were FTTP lines (up from 112k). BT Wholesale also supplied a total of 697k broadband lines to other ISPs (up from 691k) and 93k of those were FTTP (up from 82k).

However, despite their Openreach division suffering another loss of broadband lines to rival networks, the network access provider continues to accelerate their roll-out of Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) technology and has pledged to up its build rate by 20% – reaching up to five million premises passed during the year to March 2026 (it’s currently at 4.3 million). This will help to hit their 25m target on time and push past it.

In terms of consumer mobile connections, EE reported total mobile customers of 13.863m (up from 13.875m), including 10,806m using 5G (up from 10.468m). BT also reported that their fixed broadband consumers gobbled an average of 446.1GB (GigaBytes) of data per month (up from 436.5GB), which falls to 17GB for EE’s post-paid mobile users (up from 16.7GB).

Elsewhere, some 62.9% of BT’s fixed consumer base take a “superfast broadband” product (down from 66.8% in H1) and 32.6% (up from 28%) have adopted one of their “ultrafast” products, which these days largely reflects FTTP cannibalising customers from slower (FTTC and ADSL) packages. ISPreview also noted that 24.6% of BT’s customers are now taking both mobile and broadband (converged), which is up from 23.1%.

Finally, BT confirmed that EE’s 5G Standalone (mobile broadband) network had so far been rolled out across 50 major UK towns and cities, covering over 40% of the population.

Financial Highlights – BT’s Half-Yearly Change
* BT Group revenue = £10,232m (up from £10,138m in H1 FY25)
* BT Group total reported net debt = £(19,816)m (decreased from £(20,267)m)
* BT Group profit after tax = £299m (down from £755m)

Openreach’s Network

The table below offers a breakdown of fixed line network coverage and take-up by technology on Openreach’s UK network, which covers the totals for all ISPs that take their products combined (e.g. BT, Sky Broadband, TalkTalk, Zen Internet, Vodafone etc.).

The rollout of their FTTP lines continues to grow, with 2.2 million premises being added to their network coverage in H2 and that’s up from 2.1m in H1. As for take-up, some 5.53 million FTTP broadband connections have been made on Openreach’s network (up by +1m from 5.53m), which equates to a take-up of 36.13% (up from 35%). The rapid rollout of a new network usually suppresses take-up figures, thus Openreach continues to do extremely well to buck that trend.

However, the above changes also highlight the challenge alternative networks are facing, although rivals have managed to peel plenty of consumers away from the industry giant’s older network – Openreach’s total broadband lines fell from 20.549m to 20.09m in the half and that’s down by 450k (vs 377k in H1).

Allison Kirkby, CEO of BT Group, said:

“BT Group delivered strong progress against its strategic priorities in FY25, as we stepped up the pace of build of the UK’s leading next generation networks. We set new record build and connect highs: our full fibre network now reaches more than 18m homes and businesses, with more than 6.5m already connected, and we were awarded the country’s best mobile network for the 11th year in a row recognising EE’s clear leadership in 5G. We also accelerated the pace of simplification and transformation, agreeing asset sales, improving customer satisfaction across all of our brands and business segments, and delivering over £900m of annualised cost savings.

Although revenue declined year-on-year driven mainly by lower international sales and handsets, strong cost control and a step-up in focus and transformation resulted in growth in both EBITDA and normalised free cash flow, allowing us to increase our dividend for FY25 by 2% to 8.16p per share.

The momentum in, and impact of, our full fibre programme is such that we are now raising our build target by 20% to up to 5m UK premises in FY26, keeping us comfortably on track to reach 25m by the end of 2026, while maintaining our cash flow guidance. We are now only one year away from our inflection to £2bn of normalised free cash flow, our target for FY27, and remain on track to deliver £3bn by the end of the decade.

With the leadership team now in place to take our strategy forward, I am confident that as we build and connect at pace, our transformation will accelerate and deliver a better BT for all of us – our customers, our colleagues, the country and our owners.”

Take note that BT now only publishes detailed results biannually for H1 and H2 (financial quarters), thus they release very little data for the other two quarters and that similarly means we will only be able to do two detailed reports – like the one above – twice every year.

Just a quick reminder. BT introduced a new metric in 2023, which predicted that their total labour force would shrink from 130,000 to between 75,000 and 90,000 by 2030 (inc. subcontractors). The operator also predicted that Openreach’s FTTP coverage would grow to between 25-30 million premises and deliver take-up of between 40-55% by that same date. The latest report includes a quick progress update on this.

BT Group’s Progress Against Strategic Metrics:

• FTTP premises passed increased by 4.3m to 18.1m; target of 25-30m

• Openreach take-up increased to 36% and retail take-up increased by 0.8m to 3.4m; targets of 40-55% and 6.5-8.5m respectively

• 5G UK population coverage increased to 85% and 5G retail connections increased by 1.7m to 13.2m; targets of >98% and 13.0m-14.5m respectively

• Total labour resource decreased by 4k to 116k; target of 75-90k

• Group Net Promoter Score of 29.5; target of 30-35

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Ofcom has today published their 2025 study of UK broadband, phone and mobile service quality, call waiting times, complaint levels, fault repairs, compensation and install times for the largest providers. For example, TalkTalk attracted the lowest satisfaction for broadband (77%) and Plusnet (BT) secured the highest (91%).

The regulator’s report – published once every two years – is based on data that they have gathered via a combination of consumer research (survey of people and social media posts etc.), submitted complaints and some other statistics that have been obtained directly from broadband, landline phone and mobile operators.

Overall, some 84% of fixed broadband ISP consumers claimed to be satisfied with their service (up from 82% two years ago), which compares with 88% for mobile (up from 87%) and just 73% for landline phone (down from 77%). Subscribers to Plusnet reported the highest levels of satisfaction with broadband (91%), while TalkTalk scored the lowest (77%).

In terms of mobile satisfaction, Vodafone secured the lowest score (84%), although this is generally still pretty good, while giffgaff and Tesco mobile did the best (both on 94%). The full results can be found below, and you can skip past this if you’d rather read about the service provision or repair performance of the major fixed line broadband ISPs.

Otherwise, this also reveals that KCOM had the longest call waiting times (7 mins and 53 seconds) of all broadband providers when contacting support, while O2 did the same for mobile operators (3 mins and 27 seconds). By comparison, Vodafone kept broadband customers hanging on the phone for the least amount of time (25 seconds) and the same was true of Lebara for mobile (just 15 seconds!).

We should add that just 23% of broadband customers, and 14% of mobile customers, said they had a reason to complain about their service or provider in 2025. However, satisfaction with how complaints are handled continues to be an industry-wide issue.

Ian Macrae, Ofcom’s Director of Market Intelligence, said:

“It’s encouraging to see industry rally to our call to improve things for their customers.

Call waiting times have come down for many providers and satisfaction with complaint handling is on the up. And we’re seeing competition in action, with smaller players challenging some of the bigger, well-established providers.

But there’s further to go. Not all companies have made the same progress and it’s still taking the industry too long to fix things when they go wrong. Our rules have made it easier than ever to switch provider, so if companies don’t act they may find customers voting with their feet.”

Next, we’ll have a look at fixed line service provision and repair times, as well as fault levels and the annual impact of Ofcom’s system for automatic compensation scheme.

New Service Provision and Repairs (Fixed Lines)

Ofcom’s study also examined how long it takes providers to deliver a new broadband or landline phone service to customers, as well as how long they may take to repair. Overall, 73% of all landline and broadband orders were delivered by the date agreed with the customer (down from 80% last year).

On average, it took 11 days to complete a new landline or broadband order (either a new service, home move or a change to service), which is an increase of 1 day since last year. Vodafone completed the lowest proportion of orders by the date agreed, at 60%. BT and EE each completed 69% of orders by the date agreed in 2024. Sky Broadband, TalkTalk and NOW TV (NOW Broadband) all completed more than 90% of orders by the date agreed.

Virgin Media was the quickest both to provide a service overall (4 days) and to provide a new service to a new customer (8 days). Elsewhere, ADSL services were installed most quickly, taking an average of 11 days to complete, while FTTC services took an average of 13 days (down from 15 days in 2023) and FTTP took 14 days (down from 15 days).

Across the major broadband and landline providers, in 2024 there were, on average, 44 faults of any kind a month per 1,000 customers, down from 47 in 2023. This includes any landline or broadband fault that took place, as opposed to only those that resulted in a total loss of service. Vodafone had the highest number of faults per 1,000 customers (56 faults per month), while KCOM had the lowest (16 per month).

However, it should be noted that not all faults resulting in total loss of service were the ISPs fault, and a lot of issues can occur within the customer’s domain (i.e. problems with in-home wiring or disconnections between devices).

Meanwhile, the average time to switch provider is 14 days, which is largely because Ofcom’s prior rules specified a similar minimum transfer period for most switches between providers (this is partly to allow time for checking, which reduces the risk from SLAMMING – being switched without your consent). The regulator’s new One Touch Switch (OTS) system eventually aims to do all of this in just 1 day, but it hasn’t been live long enough to impact this report.

Automatic Compensation Performance

Finally, we examine the impact from Ofcom’s automatic compensation (here) system after its fifth year of operation (97% of landline and 91% of broadband customers are covered by this), which compensates consumers by £9.98 per day for delayed repairs following a loss of broadband (assuming it isn’t fixed within 2 working days). Missed appointments can also attract compensation of £31.19 and a delay to the start of a new service would be £6.24 per day.

In 2024, signatories to the automatic compensation scheme paid £63m to consumers when things went wrong with their broadband and/or landline service, which is down from £67m in the previous year. A total of around 1 million payments were made across all three service issues (excluding compensation paid outside the scheme), which is down from 1.2m in the previous year.

Ofcom seems this as an encouraging sign “indicating fewer instances where things have gone wrong for customers“, which may be at least partly related to the rising take-up of full fibre lines.

Ofcom’s Service Quality Report 2025
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/../service-quality

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Mobile network operator Three UK has today completed their trial of OpenRAN (O-RAN) technology in the city of Glasgow (Scotland). The test, which marks one of the UK’s first deployments of the technology in a dense urban environment, delivered “impressive results” with both 4G and 5G data speeds doubled at peak times.

The advantage of O-RAN (Open Radio Access Network) technologies is that they standardise the design and functionality of radio access kit and software, thus increasing the number of companies able to supply operators via vendor-neutral hardware and software-defined technology, while also boosting interoperability and potentially cutting costs.

In this case, Three UK’s trial, which installed compact O-RAN small cells on street furniture (street lights, CCTV poles etc.), was designed to test the viability of deploying OpenRAN in a complex city setting. So far, most operators, like Vodafone, have been deploying it across more rural or suburban locations.

Part of the SCONDA project, which is backed by the government (DSIT), this trial marks a milestone for O-RAN in the UK. “It’s the first time the technology has been tested in a high-footfall urban environment, building on earlier trials which had only taken place in rural locations,” said Three UK. The operator added that both 4G and 5G speeds doubled at peak times, with 5G speeds reaching up to 520Mbps (Megabits per second).

Iain Milligan, Chief Network Officer at Three UK, said:

“This is the UK’s first Open RAN trial to tackle the real-world complexity of a dense urban environment. Urban deployments bring a different level of technical and operational challenge compared to rural environments. We’ve had to navigate integration with legacy systems, security layers, and evolving software – all while delivering measurable improvements for customers. The trial results are encouraging and provide a strong foundation for further scaling and optimisation of Open RAN in cities.”

Following the successful trial of 18 live sites in Glasgow, the project will now move into its final deployment phase — expanding to a total of 34 Open RAN small cell sites across the city centre.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

The UK government has today unexpectedly announced that alternative network operator FullFibre Limited (Fibre Heroes), which recently completed its merger with Zzoomm (here) and confirmed further job losses (here), has “mutually agreed to terminate” their state aid supported Project Gigabit broadband roll-out contracts for the Derbyshire Peak District and Herefordshire.

Just to recap. The combined full fibre (FTTP) broadband network, which currently covers 600,000 premises (ready for service) and “over” 70,000 customers (up from 65k+ in January 2025) across England, secured both the £23.4m West Herefordshire and the Forest of Dean (Lot 15) contract – aiming to cover 7,900 rural premises – and the £10.7m Peak District (Lot 3.01) contract – aiming to cover 4,400 premises – back in April 2024 (here).

The first premises under these were due to go live by the end of 2024, with Lot 15 expected to benefit areas such as Hay-on-Wye, Hereford, Kingstone, Ewyas Harold and Ross-on-Wye. By comparison, Lot 3.01 was due to help connect towns and villages such as Matlock, Birchover, Buxton, Ashover and communities in the Hope Valley.

However, in a brief statement released by BDUK a few moments ago, a spokesperson for the agency said:”BDUK and FullFibre have mutually agreed to terminate the Project Gigabit contract for West Herefordshire and the Forest of Dean. BDUK is now moving swiftly to put in place alternative plans with other suppliers to connect premises that were due to be covered by this contract.” An identical statement was issued for the Peak District.

At the time of writing we don’t yet know why this has occurred (we’ll be seeking a comment), although the development follows only a few short months after another network operator, Voneus, similarly dropped out of the smaller £12m (state aid) Project Gigabit broadband roll-out contract for Mid West Shropshire (here) and Freedom Fibre then did the same for Cheshire (here).

Smaller altnets are currently known to be under a lot of strain from high interest rates, rising build costs and competition. The outcome is also starting to call into question the credibility of awarding so many Project Gigabit contracts to smaller players, although it should be said that many other altnets are continuing to deliver on their promises to the scheme.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Alternative broadband operator Freedom Fibre, which has already grown their gigabit full fibre broadband network to cover 315,000 UK premises (Nov 2024) across parts of England (Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Suffolk and Essex), has chosen VeloxServ to support its wholesale B2B (business) connectivity offering.

The strategic partnership will also enable VeloxServ to extend its reach to even more businesses across Greater Manchester, Stoke-on-Trent, North Shropshire, and Cheshire, supported by Freedom Fibre’s full-fibre (FTTP) network. The company already offers businesses a mix of internet connectivity, server hosting, and data centre colocation services.

Craig Messer, MD of VeloxServ, said: “Our latest strategic partnership with Freedom Fibre reinforces our focus on providing our ISP partners with as wide a range of high-quality and competitively priced connectivity products as possible across the UK. Both organisations are firmly committed to supporting UK businesses to thrive by fulfilling their digital potential and we look forward to our close collaboration as Freedom Fibre’s network continues to evolve and we continue to enhance our growing reputation as the independent wholesale connectivity aggregator of choice backed by exceptional customer service.”

The service that Freedom Fibre provides is typically offered via wholesale to a variety of supporting broadband ISPs, such as TalkTalk, iDNET, Home Telecom, Fusion Fibre Group, Squirrel Internet, Yayzi etc.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

People covered by Quickline’s new full fibre (FTTP) UK gigabit broadband ISP network, which by the end of 2025 will have covered 200,000 premises in rural parts of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire (up from 65,000 premises in Nov 2023), may like to know that they’ve launched a new 100Mbps entry-level package today.

Until today, the cheapest package available to consumers covered by their FTTP network was a 200Mbps (symmetric speed) service, which cost from £29 per month on a 24-month minimum term (currently with the first 3 months of service being just £1 a month) – including a “free” router and installation. The provider also promises no mid-contract price rises and a 30-day money-back guarantee.

However, Quickline has today introduced a new entry-level package called “Fibre Start“, which is priced at just £22 per month and offers download speeds of 100Mbps (50Mbps uploads). The rest of the details are the same as their other packages, although this is clearly an attempt to be more aggressive on price and thus pull customers away from established rivals.

Original article Total Telecom:Read More

Podcasts

Felix Dialoiso, well versed in the complexities of municipal regulations, says building underground fiber doesn’t come without struggles.

Fiber builds, especially underground ones, don’t always go according to plan.

It’s a fact that Felix Dialoiso, a founding partner at Harbor Link, knows all too well.

Dialoiso, who says he’s had to deal with the checkerboarding of regulations across municipalities in Harbor Link’s footprint, said patience is required when dealing with communities who may be hard to work with.

He said building relationships continues stand apart as a recipe for success.

“When we negotiate with different municipalities, states, or cities, we give them a plan,” he said, adding that many of his team members have tremendous reputations at supporting Harbor Link’s vision.

Dialoiso’s company, which is constructing a 60-mile fiber network connecting Baltimore, and the Washington D.C. metro area, said it’s important to ask community leaders how they can support a community’s future needs.

“It’s one of my strengths that I’ve just developed over the years,” he said.

Additionally, Dialoiso said he’s “not giving away the farm.” But he also allured to the fact that he’ll make concessions if he’s expressed a long-term commitment to a given community.

Listen to the full interview with Dialoiso on Spotify here.

Or click here to listen on Apple Podcasts.

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Learn more about Broadband Communities Summit 2025 in Houston.

Original article Total Telecom:Read More

News 

Vodafone has released its FY25 preliminary results, showing the group moving to streamline operations and refocus on growth markets 

Vodafone has pledged £1.5 billion in network investment in the UK this year, the first portion of the £11 billion promised to regulators in order to secure approval for the company’s merger with Three UK.  

The merger with Three UK, which is expected to complete in the first half of next year is forecast to bring £700 million in annual cost savings and deliver massive investments into the company’s 5G infrastructure. 

“We will have the best spectrum, the best network and the largest customer base in mobile,” said Vodafone Group CEO Margherita Della Valle on a media call.  

“Since I set out my plans to transform Vodafone two years ago, Vodafone has changed. Clearly there is much more to do, but this period of transition has repositioned Vodafone for multi-year growth,” she continued. 

The announcement came alongside Vodafone Group’s latest financial results, which saw revenue rise 2% to €37.4 billion, while organic service revenue climbed 5.1% to €30.8 billion, driven by strong performances in Africa, Türkiye, and the UK. 

However, results were slightly dampened by a 5% decline in Germany, the company’s largest market, where regulatory issues and strong market competition impacted performance. A €4.5 billion impairment charge in Germany and Romania pushed Vodafone to an operating loss of €0.4 billion for the year. 

In the UK, however, Vodafone saw service revenue grow 4.5%, supported by continued investment in customer experience and broadband rollout.  

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