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Carlisle-based broadband internet provider Grain, which in July 2025 secured a £225m funding boost (here) and has so far extended their point-to-point full fibre (FTTP) network to cover 270,000 UK premises (aiming to reach 600,000 in the future), has refreshed their packages for 2026 and launched optional WiFi Extender and Static IP enhancements.

Prices for Grain’s broadband packages currently start at just £9.99 a month for the first 6 months (then £19.99 for 12 months) for their symmetric speed 250Mbps package on an 18-month term, which includes free installation and a wireless router. Faster speeds (up to 1000Mbps) are available at extra cost.

However, the provider has just introduced three optional product add-ons, which can be added to your chosen package at extra cost.

Extract from Grain’s Announcement:

We’ve launched these new products so you can personalise your broadband. Simply choose the speed you need, then upgrade to Boost, Gaming or Pro to make it your own.

Boost package – Includes a Wi-Fi extender from only £3 more, ideal for improving coverage in every corner of your home.

Gaming package – Includes a static IP from only £3 more, ideal for smoother online gaming, hosting and remote access.

Pro package – includes a Wi-Fi extender and static IP from only £5 more, perfect for wider Wi-Fi coverage and rock-steady connectivity.

Personally, we think it might be a little confusing for some consumers to describe the mere addition of a Static IP address as being a “Gaming package“, since some people may be expecting a bigger boost to their online gaming experience and often a Static IP alone won’t have much impact on that (albeit handy for things like port forwarding, given how Grain use CGNAT by default etc.). Note: Grain doesn’t currently appear to have fully deployed IPv6 yet.

Despite this, it’s worth pointing out that Grain previously charged £5.99 extra per month for customers to add a Static IP, but that was only available upon manual request and didn’t form part of their online order system. The above is thus effectively a price cut to £3 per month, which is most welcome, albeit not strictly a “new product“.

One last point to make is that Grain, not unlike some other ISPs, has provided no useful technical or performance details for their optional “Wi-Fi extender“, which makes it unclear how fast it is or what approach they’re using (repeater or mesh etc.). The website does link to a Wi-Fi extender page, but this doesn’t add much detail.

We really wish internet providers would make it easier for consumers to find more details on the hardware they bundle, as some of us, especially gamers and IT people, do like to know what it is we’re actually getting.

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One of the UK’s largest alternative full fibre broadband networks, Netomnia (Substantial Group), has confirmed to ISPreview that they plan to merge their two retail internet providers into a single brand. The move means that Brsk’s operations will now become part of YouFibre and adopt the same branding – reflecting the strong performance of the latter brand.

In case anybody has forgotten. Netomnia (YouFibre) and Brsk originally operated as separate companies – both with their own full fibre networks and vertically integrated retail ISPs. But this changed in June 2024 after the two operators, which shared a connected investor in the shape of Advencap, announced their intention to merge and create one of the market’s largest altnets (here).

Netomnia’s combined network with Brsk currently covers over 3 million premises as ready for service (up from 2.8m in Q3 2025) and is home to a total customer base of 450,000 (up from 400k) – take-up of 15% (up from 14%). Crucially, their network coverage has now hit the 3 million premises milestone mentioned in the note above (i.e. still expanding coverage by c.1 million premises per year).

Since the merger Netomnia has continued to operate YouFibre and Brsk as semi-separate retail ISP brands, although they’ve steadily been coming closer together (e.g. adopting similar routers and similar pricing, albeit with some variation) and reducing duplication. Despite this, YouFibre has remained the biggest of the two, while Brsk’s recent data breach probably didn’t help on the reputation side of things (here).

Suffice to say that we weren’t too surprised when industry sources started informing us that Netomnia had notified staff that the Brsk brand and operations would be merged into YouFibre, which is often what happens post-merger. The operator has now officially confirmed this development to ISPreview.

Jeremy Chelot, Group CEO, said:

“Since bringing the businesses together in 2024, we have seen unbelievable growth and a clear alignment around our shared strategy and values. Both ISP businesses have built strong reputations with a similar proposition and service standard however, moving forward under a single brand is a natural progression that allows us to focus our investment, build on the trust we have earned, and create an even stronger platform for long-term growth. Most importantly, it enables us to serve our customers with greater clarity, scale and confidence.”

Giorgio Iovino, co-founder of Brsk, said:

“I’m incredibly proud of the contribution that Brsk has made to the UK broadband market over the last 5 years.

We have built a strong reputation as one of the UK’s most credible and customer-focused broadband challengers. Thank you to all our teams and partners that have got us here. It’s time for the next chapter in our journey and that is to move from a regional player, join forces with YouFibre, to become a true national challenger brand.

With our aligned service propositions, shared target audiences and a deeply aligned customer-first culture, the combination creates a powerful force in the UK broadband market.”

The business will continue to be led by Group CEO, Jeremy Chelot, and joint Managing Directors, Ryan Battle (Marketing and Sales) and Giorgio Iovino (Customer Experience and Field Services). The leadership team is said to remain focused on delivering its core mission of providing “fast and fair broadband for its customers … [and to] become a true national challenger brand“.

Netomnia states that there will be “no immediate changes” to Brsk customers’ contracts, plans or pricing, points of contact, or day-to-day operations. A phased transition to the unified brand will take place over H1 2026 (our sources say it will begin from 1st March), ensuring a “smooth and considered experience for Brsk customers“. But some questions remain, such as over whether or not YouFibre will adopt Brsk’s Netgem based pay TV solution.

The news comes shortly after Netomnia was linked to a possible future c.£2bn merger with bigger rivals (here), which appears to be attracting competing interest from CityFibre and VMO2 (nexfibre). But it remains unclear whether or when a deal with either party may be reached. Netomnia, due to its size and competitive position, is somewhat regarded as one of the altnet market’s potential kingmakers for consolidation.

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Network access provider Openreach (BT) has today revealed that broadband usage across their UK network increased by 4.8% in 2025 (down from 10.5% in 2024) to total 108,599 PetaBytes (PB) of data (up from 103,590PB), with December once again being the busiest month – 10,317PB of data was gobbled (up from 9,707PB last year).

The single busiest day of 2025 on Openreach’s network, which is harnessed by hundreds of broadband and phone providers across the country, occurred on 30th November 2025 as a massive Fortnite (video game) update was released to gamers. Users gobbled a total of 388PB on this day. Peak daily hours across their network tend to still be between 8pm to 10pm.

Naturally, the ever-increasing coverage of Openreach’s new multi-Gigabit speed capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) based broadband network is playing a major role here. The operator states that data usage on their full fibre network “exploded” by 40% last year, overtaking older fixed broadband technologies (ADSL, FTTC etc.) in late October.

The average Full Fibre customer on their network is currently said to be chewing through 22.1GB a day. Just for some added context, Ofcom recently revealed that the average monthly data usage per connection is now 583GB (GigaBytes) across “all technologies” (up from 531GB), which rises to an average of 738GB for full-fibre connections (oddly this is down a bit from 766GB); roughly in line with Openreach’s experience.

The reason why Openreach has put all this out on a Sunday is because today (11th January 2026) also represents the operator’s 20th Birthday. In 2006, BT created Openreach as a then “functionally separate” division within the group, prompted by Ofcom’s market review to ensure fair access to BT’s network for all communications providers. The regulator would later return in 2016 to turn functional separation into legal separation (here).

Clive Selley, CEO of Openreach, said:

“As we celebrate 20 years of Openreach, this is a historic moment for UK broadband. In two decades, we’ve gone from dial-up speeds to building the nation’s digital backbone – and today, Full Fibre is the network of choice for millions.

People are upgrading for speed they can rely on, connections that don’t drop out, and the capacity to support everything from remote work to smart homes.

This progress is thanks to our engineers – past and present – whose skill, dedication, and problem solving have connected communities in every corner of the UK. Their work has brought the benefits of better broadband to homes and businesses, and this milestone shows how far we’ve come and how ready we are for the future.

Whether you’re streaming, gaming, or running a business from home, Full Fibre gives you the performance you need, not just for today but for whatever comes next. My message to everyone is simple: upgrade to Openreach Full Fibre.”

Back in 2006 the UK was already well into the process of moving from dial-up to ADSL based copper (inc. aluminium) broadband lines at speeds of “up to” 8Mbps. But today around 8 million UK homes and businesses use Openreach’s Full Fibre, with 21 million premises able to connect (rising to 25m by Dec 2026 and then possibly 30m by 2030). Speeds of up to 1.8Gbps are possible and set to reach 8.5Gbps in a forthcoming pilot (here and here).

Some Key Openreach Dates since 2006

• 2006: The creation of Openreach and open market – to make sure all communications providers could access its network fairly.
• 2006: ADSL (not VDSL) still predominantly used.  Up to 8Mbps ADSL, then Up to 24Mbps ADSL2+
• 2008: First FTTP deployment in Kent; major investment announced.
• 2009: Trials of Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) began. Up to 40Mbps VDSL2
• 2011: 5 million premises able to order fibre to the cabinet broadband. Up to 80Mbps VDSL2 from 2012 – BT Makes its 80Mbps Superfast FTTC Broadband Upgrade Available to ISPs – ISPreview UK
• 2017: Openreach became a wholly owned subsidiary of BT and legally separate company, with its own staff, management, purpose and strategy.
• 2017: Openreach announces Fibre First investment. Up to 330Mbps GPON
• 2019: Openreach launch 500Mbps and 1Gbps – GPON – Openreach Prices New UK Consumer 550Mbps and 1Gbps FTTP Tiers – ISPreview UK
• 2020: Openreach completes first Full Fibre city (Salisbury).
• 2024: Openreach launch 1.8Gbps – GPON – Openreach Confirm UK Launch of 1.8Gbps and 1.2Gbps FTTP Tiers UPDATE – ISPreview UK
• 2025: Openreach hits 20 million milestone footprint for full fibre
• 2026: 25 million milestone (in progress)

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Mobile and internet provider Vodafone Business this week launched their Winter Sale Offers, which means that new small business customers can get 12 months half price on all their Business Broadband Plans. But the offer will only be available to order until Wednesday 4th March 2026.

The discount means that, for example, a new business customer taking their 910Mbps speed package on CityFibre’s network (Openreach and Community Fibre also available at different costs) will pay just £20.75 per month for the first 12-months. All packages also include unlimited usage, free installation and a wireless router.

The catch is that – across a 36-month business term (24-month terms are also available at extra cost) and using the above example – they still apply a mid-contract price hike of £2.92 +vat from April every year, which does make the contracted monthly pricing structure quite tedious: Price increases to £23.67 from April 2026, then £44.42 on 9th January 2027, then £47.33 from April 2027 and £50.25 from April 2028.

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Low-cost mobile operator iD Mobile (Currys), which harnesses Three UK’s (VodafoneThree) national 4G and 5G network via a virtual operator (mvno) partnership, has moved to shun the growing sea of recent mid-contract price hikes from rival broadband and mobile providers by confirming their “commitment to Fixed Price SIM-only plans with no annual price rises” for another year.

As usual, all of iD Mobile’s plans come with access to 5G, unlimited calls and texts, free Data Rollover and inclusive Roaming in 50 destinations worldwide as standard (there’s a 30GB data limit on roaming, if your UK allowance is 30GB or more). Customers can take a cheaper 24-month term or optionally also take shorter 12-month and 1-month (no contract) plans, but the latter comes at extra cost.

Naturally, iD Mobile aren’t merely doing this to make a moral point, but also to highlight their latest batch of SIM Only and handset offers for January 2026. We’ve summarised all of these below using our affiliate links (some of these are exclusive promotions).

Latest SIMO deals:

• 20GB of data on a 1 month SIM for £6 per month

• 40GB of data on a 1 month SIM for £7 per month

• 60GB of data on a 1 month SIM for £8 per month

• 99GB of data on a 1 month SIM for £9 per month

• Unlimited data on a 1 month SIM for £15 per month 

Latest Android deals:

• Get the Pixel 10 128GB with 100GB of data for £23.99 per month and £9 upfront cost. Plus, claim a pair of Pixel Buds 2s when purchased before 7^th Jan, or whilst stock lasts.

• Get the Samsung S25 256GB with 100GB data for £28.99 per month and £79 upfront cost. Plus, claim £180 cashback with this offer.

• Get the Samsung S25 Ultra 512GB with unlimited data for £44.99 a month and £49 upfront cost. Plus claim £250 cashback.

Latest iPhone deals:

• Get the iPhone 15 with Unlimited of data for £25.99 per month and £9 upfront cost

• Get the iPhone 16 with 500GB of data for £28.99 per month and £9 upfront cost

• Get the iPhone 17 256GB with 100GB of data for £29.99 per month and £159 upfront cost

• Get the iPhone 17 Pro Max 256GB with 100GB of data for £44.99 per month and £129 upfront cost 

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The Scottish Government (SG) has revealed that 96,347 premises have now benefitted from their £697m Reaching 100% (R100) project with Openreach (up from 93,800 in Nov 2025), which is rolling out full fibre (FTTP) broadband to remote rural areas. The next areas set for upgrade include Hoy in Orkney, Kilmartin in Argyll and Bute, and Inchture in Perth and Kinross.

The R100 scheme aims to reach another 113,000 premises – split across three contracts – in areas that lack access to “superfast broadband” (30Mbps+) by March 2028. The most challenging LOT 1 (North Scotland and the Highlands) area is expected to cover around 61,000 premises by 2027/28, while LOT 2 (Central Scotland) was due to reach 32,000 by 2023/24 and LOT 3 (South Scotland) targeted 22,000 by 2024/25 – the latter two have largely already been achieved.

Just for some wider context. At the end of 2025 some 84.18% of premises in Scotland could access a gigabit-capable (1Gbps download) broadband ISP network and this falls to 74.45% when only looking at FTTP technology (here). Ofcom predicts that Scotland’s full fibre (FTTP) coverage will reach somewhere between 81-93% by January 2028, rising to 87-94% for gigabit-capable broadband (FTTP + Hybrid Fibre Coax / cable).

However, it should be noted that the 96,347 figure also includes vouched funded projects and some additional build (overspill), which catches the extra premises that Openreach picks up while working within the same areas on the R100 build (we don’t know how big this is for each area).

The R100 roll-out is still ongoing, but we should point out that Openreach (BT) and GoFibre have separately also recently secured several public subsidised Project Gigabit broadband roll-out contracts for Scotland (here, here and here), which will extend FTTP to an additional 139,000 premises in remote rural areas (focusing on the bits that R100 fails to reach) via an additional public subsidy total of around £288m.

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The Starlink (SpaceX) service, which offers ultrafast broadband speeds to the UK and globally via a massive global constellation of satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), has secured regulatory approval to launch 7,500 more satellites (albeit not quite the 22,000 they had originally wanted); these will sit at lower orbits, use more radio frequencies and deliver faster speeds.

Just for context. Starlink currently has around 9,400 satellites in Low Earth Orbit (c.6,000 are v2 / GEN2 variants) – mostly at altitudes of c.340-525km. Residential customers in the UK usually pay from £55 a month for the ‘Residential Lite’ unlimited data plan directly from Starlink (kit price may vary due to different offers), which promises downloads of up to 250Mbps (175Mbps average) and uploads of c.15-35Mbps. Faster packages exist at greater cost, while cheaper, albeit more restrictive (data capped), options also exist for roaming users (e.g. £50 per month for 50 GigaBytes of data).

Under the latest grant (via PC Mag) from the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC), SpaceX will now be authorised to “construct, deploy, and operate an additional 7,500 Gen2 Starlink satellites, bringing the total to 15,000 satellites worldwide” (19,400 if we include earlier clearances for GEN1 satellites). The expansion will enable SpaceX to “deliver high-speed, low-latency internet service globally, including enhanced mobile and supplemental coverage from space“.

FCC Chairman Carr said: “This FCC authorization is a game-changer for enabling next-generation services. By authorizing 15,000 new and advanced satellites, the FCC has given SpaceX the green light to deliver unprecedented satellite broadband capabilities, strengthen competition, and help ensure that no community is left behind.”

The decision allows SpaceX to:

➤ Upgrade the Gen2 Starlink satellites with advanced form factors and cutting-edge technology.

➤ Operate across Ku-, Ka-, V-, E-, and W-band frequencies, supporting both Fixed Satellite Service (FSS) and Mobile Satellite Service (MSS).

NOTE: This also allows Starlink to communicate using the 1980-2000 MHz (Earth-to-space), 2000-2020MHz (Earth-to-space), and 2180-2200MHz (space-to-Earth) frequencies outside the U.S. with up to 7,500 satellites.

➤ Waive obsolete requirements that prevented overlapping beam coverage and enhanced capacity.

➤ Add new orbital shells at [even lower] altitudes ranging from 340km to 485km, optimizing coverage and performance (supporting this recent news).

NOTE: In the 340 km. 345 km. 350 km. 355 km. and 365 km orbital shells. SpaceX is authorised to operate in up to 72 planes per shell with up to 144 satellites per plane. In the 480 km and 485 km orbital shells, SpaceX is authorised to operate in up to 56 planes per shell with up to 120 satellites per plane.

➤ Provide direct-to-cell connectivity outside the United States and supplemental coverage within the U.S., paving the way for next-generation mobile services.

According to the FCC: “The Gen2 Starlink Upgrade satellites, including an increased number of satellites, will allow for higher capacity to serve additional customers and gigabit speed service, including symmetrical download and upload speeds.”

The focus above is clearly on enhancements being made to existing launch plans of their second generation (GEN2) satellites. But it should be noted that SpaceX has also developed a larger and more sophisticated GEN3 satellite for future launches (summary of GEN3 details and here); albeit only once their Starship rocket is finally ready (expected in H1 this year), as they need to be able to launch 50-60 GEN3s per flight for commercial viability.

Each one of their GEN3 satellites are designed to provide over 1 Terabit per second of downlink capacity (1,000Gbps+) and over 200Gbps of uplink capacity to customers on the ground. But in the meantime, it makes sense for SpaceX to continue launching GEN2 satellites with additional enhancements to help it keep up with demand and remain competitive as new rivals emerge (e.g. Amazon’s Leo).

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Customers of alternative broadband provider Wildanet, which has built a new Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network across rural parts of Cornwall and Devon in South West England, have reported a number of different services outages on the network following the impact of last night’s Storm Goretti event.

In a brief statement, posted at 8:28pm last night, the provider said: “We are aware of service interruptions at multiple Wildanet Service Locations. These are related to Storm Goretti. We are actively working with 3rd parties to resolve these issues, please check back for updates.”

At the time of writing, the ISP has not provided any further updates, although some of those affected have informed ISPreview that they’re still offline. One of the confirmed incidents appears to include the outage of an FTTP broadband cabinet in the village of Germoe, which is impacting 152 subscribers but appears to have been caused by a power cut linked to Storm damage (here); possibly a damaged overhead power cable or pole. 

Openreach’s services in the same area still appear to be largely online, so it may be that Wildanet’s power backup solution (if one exists) was not sufficient to cover the event (credits to one of our readers, Badger, for the extra feedback). We have contacted Wildanet for an update, although the National Grid doesn’t expect a resolution until 9am on Sunday (estimated). It’s unclear if any of the other service disruptions are related to power cuts.

Wildanet currently holds the following Project Gigabit broadband roll-out contracts for Cornwall Central (Lot 32.03) and South West (Lot 32.02) – both awarded in January 2023 (here) – and the Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly (Lot 32) contract – awarded in April 2024 (here). The three contracts combined are worth £77m and should help to extend gigabit-capable broadband to over 37,000 additional premises in the county.

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Aviva-backed alternative gigabit broadband operator Truespeed, which has only just merged with County Broadband to create a single full fibre operator covering 177,000 premises (RFS) and 41,000 customers in England (here), is reportedly in talks with Freedom Fibre about the possibility of consolidating into an even larger network.

Just to recap. The newly merged Truespeed currently focuses upon serving rural premises in parts of Devon, Wiltshire, Somerset Cambridgeshire, Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk with their new Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network. But over the past couple of years they’ve also had to deal with the same challenges as many other altnets (i.e. rising build costs, high interest rates and growing competition) – resulting in some job cuts, a build slowdown and greater focus on commercialisation (here and here).

Much as ISPreview pointed out after Truespeed and Country Broadband confirmed their plans to merge in July 2025, the combined network is still relatively small in terms of premises passed and was thus likely to become a target for other consolidators in the future.

This brings us to Freedom Fibre, which has already done some consolidating of its own with the VX FIBER deal in 2023 (here). But they’ve since faced similar strains to Truespeed (here, here and here), which also included the need to scale-back and withdraw from some of the government’s Project Gigabit contracts.

Nevertheless, Freedom Fibre has so far built their own FTTP network to cover 350,000 premises (inc. 25,000 customers) across various parts of England and North Wales, albeit primarily parts of Cheshire, Greater Manchester, North Wales, Staffordshire, Suffolk, Essex and North Shropshire. Suffice to say that there’s no overbuild between Truespeed and Freedom Fibre, although they do come quite close in the northern part of Bristol.

According to Sky News, Truespeed and Freedom Fibre are now in discussions over the possibility of reaching a future merger agreement, which could in theory create a single full fibre network that covers around 530,000 premises and 66,000 customers. This would give the combined business a stronger position within the market, but further consolidation in the future still seems likely to help grow more scale.

At present these are just talks, and we don’t yet know whether they will result in a deal. Such an agreement would make sense, even if it does turn out to be another stepping stone toward an even bigger consolidation further down the line. Sky states that all of the parties declined to comment.

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Macquarie-backed telecoms provider KCOM, which have deployed their own full fibre broadband (FTTP) network across 305,000 premises in parts of East Yorkshire (primarily Hull) and Lincolnshire (England), has revealed that customers in the Hull area consumed 2,500,000 GigaBytes (GB) of data traffic on Christmas Day 2025 (500,000GB more than usual) – it’s “busiest day ever for online traffic“.

During the whole of Christmas week, KCOM said their broadband network carried a whopping 24.2 PebiBytes (PiB) of data (we aren’t sure why they’ve opted to use PiB instead of PetaBytes, but each to their own). During the same week, KCOM customers streamed 10.9 PiB with YouTube (2.3 PiB) and Netflix (2.2 PiB) proving the streaming services of choice as viewers logged on to watch Stranger Things and various other shows.

Rounding out the Top Ten of the streaming services on KCOM’s network over Christmas were TikTok (0.9PiB), Sky Streaming [Sky Glass, Sky Stream] (0.9 PiB), Amazon Prime (0.6 PiB), BBC’s iPlayer (0.6 PiB) Disney+ (0.6 PiB), ITV Player (0.5 PiB) and Facebook video (0.5 PiB).

The biggest gaming console winners on Christmas Day were the Sony PS5 and Microsoft Xbox, with tens of thousands of users downloading new games and content updates. Gaming and related software updates accounted for 3.4PiB of data transfer, with 60% coming from KCOM’s unique local caches (i.e. popular data that gets stored closer to end-users in their network), making it a faster and more reliable download process for Hull users.

The biggest surges in data traffic came at 10am and 10pm on Christmas Day, with a lull coming at 2pm as families sat down to their Christmas dinner before tuning in to see the King’s Speech.

Richard Schäfer, KCOM CEO, said:

“It’s been a huge Christmas for streaming services across the KCOM region and the amount of data that families are using is truly astounding.

As the UK’s most reliable network*, our full fibre network dealt with the huge amount of surfing, streaming and gaming which enabled families to sit back and enjoy their Christmas specials, season finales and box sets seamlessly.”

The bumper Christmas period comes on the back of a steady growth in data traffic on KCOM’s full fibre network since September 2025. During that time, the ISP has seen a 15% increase in demand for data usage across its network.