Anger After CityFibre Builds UK Broadband Cabinet on Private Garden
CityFibre has been criticised by a homeowner in Southend-on-Sea (Essex, England) after the operator accidentally built one of their new full fibre broadband ISP street cabinets, without permission, on a private garden. But then, after attempting to rectify their mistake, “left the garden in ruins – an unsafe and hazardous mess“. Just to recap. The operator, which has already extended their FTTP network to cover 4 million premises across the United Kingdom, officially announced the completion...
Virgin Media O2 and Ontix Expand 4G Mobile Small Cells in Birmingham
Mobile network operator O2 (Virgin Media) has continued with their effort to boost 4G mobile (mobile broadband) capacity across the UK, which today sees them working with Ontix to expand their roll-out of small cells into new areas of Birmingham – primarily around Soho Road and Handsworth. Small cells are akin to mini shoebox sized mobile (radio) base stations, which have been designed to deliver limited coverage (usually up to around 100 metres) and thus tend to be more focused on busy urban...
FarrPoint Find UK Councils Prioritise Gigabit Broadband, Ignore Data Centres
Consultancy firm FarrPoint has today published their third annual (2025) survey of digital leaders at councils across England, Scotland and Wales. The results reveal that expanding the coverage of gigabit broadband remains the top priority for most local authorities. But on the flip side, only 4% of surveyed councils are developing a dedicated data centre strategy. The report – FarrPoint Digital Connectivity Survey 2025 (PDF) – found that most respondents chose gigabit broadband (1000Mbps+) as...
O2 UK Reveals First Insights from AI Granny Created to Waste Scammers Time
Mobile operator O2 (Virgin Media) launched a “human-like” AI (Artificial Intelligence) ‘Granny’ called Daisy in November last year (here), which was designed to answer calls in real-time from fraudsters and keep them busy (away from customers) for as long as possible. Since then, the bot has chatted with over 1,000 scam callers, and it’s learnt a few things. Fraudsters will often robotically call masses of mobile and home phone numbers, but they usually only commit any actual human resources...
LONAP Internet Exchange Cuts UK Pricing of Port Fees
The London Access Point (LONAP), which is a not-for-profit Layer 2 Internet Exchange Point (IXP) based in London that was first established in 1997 and works with various different members (broadband ISPs, CDNs, mobile operators etc.), appears to have responded to recent price cuts at LINX (here) by refreshing some of its own fees. In a brief notification to members, LONAP said they were “pleased to announce a reduction in port fees”, which would be effective from 1st April 2025. The...
Nigerian regulator approves pumping up mobile tariffs up by 50%
News The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has not yet confirmed when the changes will take effect The NCC has this week authorised a 50% hike in telecom tariffs, impacting call rates, internet bundles, and SMS costs across all mobile networks in the country. The decision has been taken “in response to prevailing market conditions,” the commission said. “These adjustments will support the ability of operators to continue investing in infrastructure and innovation, ultimately...
OpenAI, SoftBank, Oracle, and MGX partner for $500bn AI ‘Stargate Project’
News The joint venture will reportedly invest $100 billion “immediately” to deploy AI date centre infrastructure This week, OpenAI has announced the ‘Stargate Project’, a new joint venture set to invest $500 billion into AI infrastructure over the next five years. The new joint venture is a partnership between OpenAI, SoftBank, Oracle, and MGX, in which SoftBank will reportedly have financial responsibility, while OpenAI will have operational responsibility. Masayoshi Son, billionaire founder...
Olivia Trusty has been nominated to serve on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) by President Donald Trump.
News By: Brad Randall, Broadband Communities The policy director of the U.S. Senate Committee on Science, Commerce, and Transportation has been nominated to serve as an FCC commissioner. Olivia Trusty’s nomination was first announced by now-President Donald Trump on Truth Social last week, a social-media platform owned by Trump Media. “She has fought tirelessly to grow the economy, empower innovation, and reignite the American Dream,” Trump’s Jan. 16 post stated. He said Trusty would work with...
Virgin Media UK and Nexfibre Expand Full Fibre to 8,000 Northallerton Homes
Network operator nexfibre, which shares some of their UK parentage with retail broadband ISP partner Virgin Media (O2), has today announced that they’ve made their 2Gbps speed Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network available to more than 8,000 homes in the market town of Northallerton (North Yorkshire, England) for the first time. The deployment is interesting because the town was already home to two competitive gigabit-capable full fibre broadband networks via both Openreach and Zzoomm. In...
Openreach Expand FTTP Broadband to Half of Scotland – 1.45 Million Premises
Network access provider Openreach (BT) has announced that their UK Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) based broadband ISP network now covers over 1.45 million properties in Scotland (half of all premises), which has also delivered a strong take-up rate of 38% and at a total build cost of £435 million. The vast majority of their full fibre build in Scotland – costing an average of £300 per premises passed (unchanged from 2023) – reflects commercial investment, although they’re also covering some...