News

Macquarie-backed UK ISP KCOM, which is the dominant telecoms operator in Hull and is also expanding their full fibre (FTTP) broadband network further into East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire (England), has today celebrated their 120th anniversary and revealed that their network, which is home to 150k customers, now covers 305,000 premises (up from 297k in March 2023). In case anybody has forgotten, KCOM announced a second network roll-out programme in September 2022 (here), which was due to expand...

Mobile network operator O2 (Virgin Media) has today expanded upon their existing partnership with Hiya by integrating the company’s AI-powered scam detection service to help combat fraud and nuisance calls, which sees them claiming to be the “first and only UK mobile operator to provide this service to customers at no extra cost“. The news isn’t all that surprising because VMO2 announced, in February 2024, that they’d become the second major UK telecoms provider, after BT (EE), to adopt Hiya’s...

Mobile giant O2 (Virgin Media) has announced that, while working alongside the government-backed 5G DRIVE project, they’ve been able to deliver reliable mobile network coverage to 31 “iconic tourist destinations” that were previously “not spots” for mobile signals (i.e. 21 in Wales, 5 in England, and 5 in Scotland). The 5G DRIVE (aka – Diversified oRAN Integration & Vendor Evaluation) project represents a consortium, including partners such as O2, wavemobile, Cisco, Ori and WMG at the...

Alternative network provider Freedom Fibre has today issued a short progress update on their £24m (state aid) Project Gigabit contract for North Shropshire – Lot 25.02 (here), which will see their full fibre (FTTP) broadband ISP network being expanded to cover “around” 12,000 hard-to-reach rural homes. In case anybody has forgotten, the original announcement stated that the first properties could start to go live from October 2024 and that the 3-year deployment was then expected to complete by...

News  The government has announced a trio of new projects, supported by the UK Space Agency, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), and the European Space Agency, aiming to provide reliable, high-speed internet for some of the UK’s hardest-to-reach areas  This week, the UK government has announced new satellite projects aimed at delivering broadband to some of the country’s most remote communities. These projects typically combine the use of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and...

The Government’s Building Digital UK agency has published its latest quarterly November 2024 progress update on the £5bn Project Gigabit broadband rollout scheme, which now has “over” 30 live contracts in place across England and Wales – supporting planned deployments of gigabit-capable broadband to around 1 million premises. Just to recap. Project Gigabit aimed to extend broadband ISP networks capable of delivering download speeds of at least 1000Mbps (1Gbps) and uploads of at least 200Mbps...

Bangkok, Thailand – November 27, 2024 – Compax Software Development PTE Ltd., the software arm of Compax Digital Group (“Compax Digital”), and Thailand’s AGTR Group Co., Ltd., (“AGTR Group”), announce the formation of MVNO.SERVICES Co., Ltd., a new joint venture designed to transform Thailand’s mobile service sector. MVNO.SERVICES will leverage on Compax Digital’s cutting-edge technology suite with AGTR Group’s extensive expertise in MVNO operations and local market insights, to launch a...

News Allera will be replaced by telecoms veteran Claire Gillies from April next year EE CEO Marc Allera has announced that he will step down from the role at the end of March next year, having spent nine years with BT Group. In a statement, Allera said he was “proud to have led an incredible team through enormous change in the market” over the past nine years. “In that time we have transformed every aspect of our operations to deliver great service to our 25m customers across the UK, with...

News Change is in the air at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) with a new review of rules around submarine cables, the first such review since 2001. That, and comments from President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to be FCC chair signal a new scrutiny toward the government’s approach to broadband infrastructure.    Carr says ‘important discussion’ needed about BEAD’s future FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr said the commission will have to have an important discussion about the future of...

The Independent Networks Co-operative Association (INCA) has today revealed the list of winners from their annual 2024 INCA Awards event, which aims to recognise and celebrate the top alternative networks (altnets) and ISPs from across the UK. Suffice to say that it was a good night for Brsk (Netomnia), Ogi, Quickline, Wessex Internet and others. As usual, the winners were all decided by a panel of five “independent” industry judges (here), which included a mix of people from various network...