Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

Broadband and phone provider BT (inc. EE) has revealed that customers still using some of their older pay TV set-top-boxes, including both the TV Recordable Box (G4) and TV Box (Z4), will lose support for the popular Netflix video streaming app after 4th March 2026. The change is happening because of changes by the streaming giant, which will break compatibility with older hardware.

In a brief statement on the BT Community Forum, a representative for the provider said: “This is happening because Netflix is updating its app to create the best experience, and it will no longer be compatible with these boxes. The rest of our EE TV Boxes, including the 4K Recordable Box (G5) will continue to be supported.”

Further information can be found on EE’s related information page, which states that customers will need to upgrade to a newer TV box to continue watching Netflix on their TV (an option for this is being offered). “Your Netflix subscription won’t be affected, and you can continue to watch on supported devices,” said EE.

The main catch with upgrading to one of BT / EE’s more modern TV boxes is that any shows or movies saved on your current box won’t be available on your new one. Credits to CordBusters for spotting this development.

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Fixed wireless access ISP Highland Community Broadband (HCB) in Scotland, which has served the remote rural Ullapool area of the Scottish Highlands since 2017 (here), has revealed that its service is to be shut down on 30th April 2026 due to “increasing financial difficulty” with rising legal and maintenance costs.

The original network was established with funding from the community and originally sought to cover 1,434 residential premises across quite a wide area, albeit with the aim of connecting 650 customers by July 2017 and 850 by the end of 2017. Customers of the service (400+ of them remain) currently pay from £30 per month (plus £125 one-off for installation), which gets you unlimited downloads and speeds of up to around 50Mbps (variable).

However, the company’s most recent accounts to the end of 2024 revealed that their turnover had fallen sharply to £142.3k (2023: £186.7k) and they also made an operating profit of just £1.3k (2023: £43.6k), which shows the strain they were under. The company only had a single employee to its name for both 2024 and 2023.

According to The National, the admittedly very niche internet provider has been struggling to compete with recent advances in satellite (e.g. Starlink) and local 4G (mobile broadband) connectivity. Not to mention that Openreach has managed to expand their full fibre (FTTP) broadband network into a small part of the same area.

In a post on social media, Topher Dawson on behalf of HCB, said the firm had faced rising financial difficulty with backhaul costs, legal fees for new sites, and maintenance of electronic equipment (recently Storms have been particularly challenging).

Topher Dawson said:

“The network needs improvements and we tried to use the Scottish Government’s R100 voucher scheme to finance them. However this scheme and the UK Government Gigabit scheme seem designed for much larger companies, and in practice the goalposts kept moving.

…

EE and O2 offer home wifi based on mobile phone signal and now the Starlink satellite based system is offering 100 Megabit per second connections for the same price as we charge, £35 per month … None of these technologies were available when HCB was set up, so we have filled a vital gap.”

The provider is understood to have explored a sale of their network, but FWA providers in remote rural areas with maintenance cost issues and diminishing customer bases aren’t exactly the most attractive of prospects. The fact that Starlink has now started offering 100Mbps plans for as little as £35 per month was also a significant discouragement for any potential suitors.

On the flip side, the important thing to remember is that many of those served by this network do now have alternative options, so HCB did the job it set out to do and now the world around them is moving on. You can see the project’s original promotional video below.

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Network operator CityFibre, which have already deployed their 10Gbps capable full fibre (FTTP) broadband ISP network to cover 4.7 million UK premises (4.5m RFS), has today confirmed that over 400 roles – roughly a third of their workforce (1,400) – could be at risk of redundancy as part of their “shift [in] strategy from building to acquiring networks“.

The network operator, which has long aspired to reach up to 8 million UK premises (c.30% of the UK), previously cut a similar number of jobs during 2023 (here), which was then blamed on the UK’s “struggling” economy (i.e. causing rising costs for their business) and a later desire to focus on delivery of their Project Gigabit roll-out contracts with the Government – worth c.£860m in public subsidy.

Despite all that, CityFibre continues to carry a lot of debt (c.£3.7 billion net debt) and still faces many of the same pressures as other network operators (e.g. high interest rates, rising build costs and competition), which is why last year’s wholesale agreement with Sky Broadband (here) and the £2.3bn funding deal that followed was so crucial (here). The company’s latest results echo this and show a strong improvement in customer take-up.

At the same time, the network operator has continued to talk loudly about their plans for future growth via network consolidation, which has already seen them acquire several smaller network operators (Lit Fibre, Connexin etc.) and there’s long been talk of major deals to follow (e.g. talks are understood to have taken place with several altnets, such as Netomnia). This now seems to be driving the latest round of redundancies.

A CityFibre spokesperson told ISPreview:

“CityFibre has achieved a lot over the past decade, having built next-generation digital infrastructure to reach over 4.7 million UK premises and injecting much-needed competition and choice into the market. As we shift our strategy from building to acquiring networks, backed by our recent £2.3bn financing, the time is right to review how we operate so we are best placed to continue our success through this next phase of growth.

All of our people have helped to get CityFibre into a very strong position and we will support our teams as we take this step and ensure CityFibre becomes the long-term, sustainable competitor the UK needs.”

The operator has also informed ISPreview that these redundancies will not impact the delivery of their Project Gigabit broadband roll-out contracts with the government. A spokesperson said: “We remain committed to our role in Project Gigabit and will have the resources needed to deliver“. But that does suggest that their remaining commercial builds will be taking a backseat in favour of growth via consolidation.

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Belfast-based IT and internet provider Barclay Communications, which mostly serves business customers, has reportedly reached a new wholesale partnership that will enable them to reach businesses across Northern Ireland via Fibrus’ new full fibre (FTTP) broadband network.

According to a report on Business Eye, business customers of Barclay Comms will now benefit from “support to order, install and manage full fibre connectivity that was previously difficult or unavailable in many areas“. The move appears to largely reflect the 81,000+ premises that Fibrus reached as part of their £200m (public subsidy) Project Stratum contract in N.Ireland (here), although they also covered many more premises via their commercial build too.

The operator’s full fibre infrastructure currently covers over 450,000 UK premises and around 332,700 of those are in N.Ireland.

John Roulston, Sales Director at Barclay Comms, said:

“Many organisations know faster broadband exists but are unsure what they can access, who to speak to or how disruptive the process will be. By partnering with Fibrus, we can bring full fibre to more businesses and manage everything on their behalf. It means one conversation, a single supplier and ongoing local support, rather than multiple touchpoints and unnecessary complexity.

We are delighted that this partnership allows us to speak to more organisations across Northern Ireland and help accelerate their technology, WiFi and IT. Barclay Communications shares the same goal as Fibrus, which is to bring the highest speeds to businesses and support their growth.

Our teams will be notifying organisations when fibre is available through various campaigns and we encourage businesses to get in touch to find out more and check availability. To mark the launch, we are also offering six months’ free broadband, giving organisations the opportunity to reinvest those savings into their operations, people and future growth.”

Original article Total Telecom:Read More

News

The deal will see Corning expand its manufacturing capacity in North Carolina to meet demand

This week, Meta has announced an up to $6 billion multi-year agreement with glass specialist Corning to build the fibre optic cables used to connect AI data centres.

The deal, which will run until 2030 according to CNBC, will see fibre and optical solutions supplied to support Meta’s data centre projects across the US. This includes Meta’s flagship project, Hyperion, a five-gigawatt site in Richland Parish, Louisiana, as well as Prometheus, a one-gigawatt site in New Albany, Ohio.

“Building the most advanced data centers in the US requires world-class partners and American manufacturing,” said Joel Kaplan, Chief Global Affairs Officer at Meta. “We’re proud to partner with Corning — a company with deep expertise in optical connectivity and commitment to domestic manufacturing — for the high-performance fiber optic cables our AI infrastructure needs. This collaboration will help create good-paying, skilled US jobs, strengthen local economies, and help secure the US lead in the global AI race.”

Building large-scale AI data centres to support future demand is a cornerstone of Meta’s $600 billion AI infrastructure investment strategy.

The company currently has 26 data centres operational or under construction in the US, expecting to reach up to 20GW of capacity by 2030.

In turn, this investment will allow Corning to significantly expand its US facilities to meet demand, with Meta serving as an anchor tenant for the new expansion.

“The investment will expand our manufacturing footprint in North Carolina, support an increase in Corning’s employment levels in the state by 15 to 20 percent, and help sustain a highly skilled workforce of more than 5,000, including the scientists, engineers, and production teams at two of the world’s largest optical fiber and cable manufacturing facilities,” said Corning’s chairman and CEO Wendell P. Weeks.

Corning’s shares rose 15.6% following the news.

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The post Meta and Corning sign $6bn fibre deal to connect data centres appeared first on Total Telecom.

Original article Total Telecom:Read More

Press Release

Vodafone IoT has announced a new partnership with Skylo Technologies, Inc. to bring customers Non-Terrestrial Network (NTN) Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) satellite connectivity services.

In the initial phase, the two companies will work together to trial the technology with a view to offering a full commercial service in the near future. Skylo runs a global Non-Terrestrial Network spanning 36 countries across 70 million square kilometres of coverage.

Together, the companies will provide even greater coverage for Vodafone IoT’s customers and unlock new opportunities for businesses by providing an overlay solution to existing cellular connectivity for IoT devices. This collaboration underscores customers’ growing demand for seamless, scalable and secure connectivity.

Skylo and Vodafone IoT’s network cores will integrate – enabling customers to seamlessly switch between cellular and NTN connectivity from a single Vodafone SIM. With sectors such as asset tracking and energy services to environmental monitoring and fleet management set to benefit, this new hybrid connectivity model will supply industries with seamless multi-national connectivity. Furthermore, customers will be able to continue managing their IoT estates using Vodafone IoT’s Managed Connectivity Platform – for both their cellular and NTN connectivity needs.

Skylo’s network orchestrates across multiple constellations of satellites, and integrates directly into existing chipsets, modules, and operating systems. Skylo has certified modules from a robust global chipset and module ecosystem – serving as the foundation for a wide range of use cases.

Erik Brenneis, CEO of Vodafone IoT, said: “As we continue our mission to provide our customers with truly global IoT connectivity, today marks another significant step forwards. Our new partnership with Skylo will help us deliver ubiquitous connectivity for our customers and make a step-change in network access, reliability and resilience which together with enable the next wave of innovative IoT solutions.”

Parthsarathi Trivedi, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Skylo, said: “This trial is a critical step in bringing our 3GPP-compliant satellite connectivity to Vodafone’s IoT ecosystem. We are demonstrating how Skylo’s network can seamlessly extend Vodafone IoT’s reach into the most remote areas, adding millions of square kilometers of coverage. It’s about proving that ‘anywhere connectivity’ is no longer a future concept – it’s here, it’s standards-based, and it’s ready for global scale.”

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The post Vodafone taps Skylo’s satellite tech for IoT connectivity appeared first on Total Telecom.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

The endlessly vexed question of TV licence fee evasion has come up in the press again after it was today reported that the BBC were considering a change to the iPlayer video streaming service. The change would essentially involve linking people’s online BBC accounts to their home addresses for the first time (i.e. to see if anybody is using the service without a licence).

At present the iPlayer service uses somewhat of a soft approach to licence fee verification, which involves a basic check-box exercise (i.e. merely asking if you’ve got a TV licence or not) and passive checks via the use of UK-registered IP addresses (geo-checking), user-provided postcodes, and account data. But it doesn’t really do much to enforce this, and hasn’t previously linked online accounts to full UK home addresses.

According to Sky News, the BBC are now working on ways to use iPlayer to find households that haven’t paid for a TV licence, such as by linking BBC online accounts to home addresses. A TV Licensing spokesperson said: “We always look at ways to improve how we collect the licence fee. This includes using the data available to us to get a better understanding of viewing habits and use of BBC services.”

The issue has never stopped being a hot topic, although it’s currently much more relevant as the government continue to debate the future of the BBC’s funding and more people turn to other streaming platforms. Not to mention the issue of how TV services will be delivered in the future.

The UK Government have already committed to the future of Digital Terrestrial TV (DTT) until 2034, which is in keeping with how some broadcasters have warned that existing DTT infrastructure is “unlikely to be commercially attractive after the mid-2030s“ (here); this is because they can’t afford to distribute their content both online and via traditional infrastructures like DTT with costs rising (i.e. the less time people spend on DTT, the less cost-effective per viewer it is).

In the future we may all end up getting our TV and video content via broadband connections, which has its pros and cons (here and here).

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

British device manufacturer Manhattan TV has just become the latest such firm to announce the imminent launch of their next generation IPTV box – the Manhattan Aero, which is another one that includes support for the new broadband-based live TV streaming service – Freely. Best of all, it’ll only set you back £69.99 (RRP).

Until recently there weren’t any streaming set-top-boxes with support for Freely, but over the past few months we’ve seen new hardware enter the market, such as the Humax FHR-6000T (Aura EZ 4K Freely Recorder) and Netgem TV’s extremely popular PLEIO box and service (here).

The new Manhattan Aero 4K TV box appears to complement the above two through a simplified and cheaper solution. The box costs just £69.99 (RRP) but doesn’t support recording (PVR), although you can pause live TV for up to 15 minutes. You can also restart programmes from the beginning on supported channels, and scroll back through the TV guide to access catch-up content from the past seven days (like a lot of other STBs).

The Aero’s software is based off TiVo OS and also includes TiVo-powered voice search on the included remote, which also means you’ll get access to the usual apps (Netflix, Disney+, Prime Video, YouTube etc.) and another 400+ completely free streaming channels and a huge library of free on-demand movies and shows. This is on top of the 60+ live TV channels via Freely, with 35+ in HD.

On top of that, you get access to more than 75,000 hours of on demand content through integrated apps like BBC iPlayer, ITVX, Channel 4, My5, and UKTV Play. The device also supports WiFi 6 and Wired (LAN) for connectivity to your broadband router and is powered by an unspecified quad-core CPU, plus there’s the usual Power and HDMI ports (a 1.2m HDMI cable that supports resolutions up to 4K/60Hz is included). But there’s no port for a TV aerial, so this is very much a streaming only device.

The Aero box isn’t available to buy just yet, although it is due to go on sale during “Early February” and will come with a 2-year warranty and in-house UK technical support.

Original article ISPreview UK:Read More

New research from Point Topic has revealed that global fixed broadband lines grew by 1.46% or 22.42 million in Q3 2025 (up from 1.12% in Q2 2025) to total 1.56 billion connections. The subscriber growth rate of “full fibre” (FTTP/B) networks also remained strong in the UK at almost 7%, but this is down from 11.7% in Q4 2024.

Once again South and East Asia has continued to claim the largest share of global fixed broadband subscribers, having increased from 51.04% to 51.28% over the past quarter (they also accounted for 67.89% of all new lines added in the quarter), which is mainly due to China’s huge size. By comparison, the whole of Europe (inc. UK) only accounted for 17.13% of overall subscribers and 6.67% of quarterly net adds.

The data also confirms that, overall, both cable (hybrid fibre coax) and copper (ADSL, SDSL) based broadband connections continued to lose market share as full fibre lines cannibalised their customers. Between Q2 2025 and Q3 2025, copper-based broadband lines fell from 4.03% to 3.82% in Q3, while cable fell from 11.07% to 10.83% and hybrid fibre (FTTC etc.) fell from 8.45% to 8.21% over the same period.

On the flip side, full fibre FTTP/H/B lines saw their global market share increase from 72.61% to 73.09%, and it was a similar story for satellite (0.50% to 0.52%) and wireless networks (2.98% to 3.15%). “While the decline in legacy copper and part copper is not surprising, cable/HFC also appears to be on the way out in some markets,” said Point Topic.

The good news is that the United Kingdom continues to appear in the top table for country-specific quarterly growth of FTTP/B subscribers in Q3 2025, although our growth rate has slowed to nearly 7%. By comparison, the highest FTTH/B growth rates were found in Egypt (23.8%), Algeria (15.4%), Belgium (10.9%), South Africa (10.8%), and Greece (10.7%).

Top 10 markets by FTTH/B growth rates

The small market share of satellite solutions is also masking the fact that new services, such as Starlink from SpaceX, have actually delivered significant growth. Satellite broadband subscribers saw a boost of 38.2% year-on-year. The largest markets remain the US (2.4m), Canada (0.6m), Brazil (0.4m) and Argentina (0.4m); estimated.

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Infracapital-backed alternative broadband ISP Fibrus, which is building a full fibre network across parts of Cumbria (England) and Northern Ireland, recently revealed that their Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) infrastructure had now achieved a customer take-up of 30% (up from 28% in March 2025) – we make that roughly 135,000+ subscribers.

The operator’s full fibre infrastructure currently covers over 450,000 UK premises (up from 440k in Sept 2025), mostly in Northern Ireland where their roll-out has largely completed. But their most active build is currently focused on rural parts of Cumbria (they’ve already reached well over 100k premises in that county), which reflects a mix of both commercial build and publicly funded work via their Project Gigabit contract in the same region (Lot 28).

“We’re delighted to reach 30% customer take-up across our Full Fibre network – one of the highest rates among alt nets – a clear sign that more people are choosing faster, more reliable broadband built for modern life in the areas we serve,” said Fibrus in a brief statement earlier this month.

New customers to the service currently pay from £22.99 per month for an unlimited 159Mbps (34Mbps upload) package with an included router and free installation, which rises to just £34.99 per month for their top 982Mbps (310Mbps upload) tier on a 24-month contract term. Fibrus are currently offering the first 3 months of service for free, although service discounts may vary between different parts of their build.