ISPs BT, EE, Plusnet and Vodafone Tweak UK Broadband Pricing Policies
Several broadband and mobile operators, including Vodafone, BT, EE, and Plusnet, have this week notified of a small but useful tweak to their mid-contract price hikes policy, which means that new customers who sign-up will not be hit by the price increase that was previously due to start around the end of March 2025. In the past there have often been complaints from customers who signed up just before the introduction of an annual price hike, since it meant the monthly price they paid...
Openreach Reveal UK Price for 1Gbps Symmetric FTTP Broadband
Network access provider Openreach (BT) has just revealed how much they’ll charge ISPs for their new symmetric 1Gbps speed Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) based broadband package, which is due to launch on 1st April 2025 and will initially only be available to locations being covered as part of their rural Project Gigabit contracts (here). Just to recap. Openreach’s full fibre network has so far covered over 17 million premises (there are around 32.5m across the UK), but they aim to reach 25...
AST SpaceMobile secures $43 million US govt contract
News AST SpaceMobile has been awarded a $43 million contract to support the US Space Development Agency (SDA), expanding its role in government satellite communications The agreement follows successful in-orbit testing of AST SpaceMobile’s BlueWalker-3 satellite under a previous contract in February last year. The company will deploy its Block 2 BlueBird satellites, which feature large phased-array antennas spanning 2,400 square feet, to improve connectivity. The SDA, part of the US Space...
Mavenir and O2 Telefónica Germany renew cloud-native partnership
News Telefónica Germany has renewed its collaboration with Mavenir, signing a five-year contract extension to transition its 4G and 5G voice services to Mavenir’s cloud-native IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) technology O2 Telefónica Germany has signed a five-year contract extension with Mavenir to upgrade its 4G and 5G voice services with Mavenir’s cloud-native IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) technology. The deal strengthens Mavenir’s role in O2 Telefónica Germany’s network evolution, replacing...
SAIC and Huawei partner to develop new smart EVs
News This article was written by Grace Dawes, Editor of Movemnt Chinese state-owned automaker SAIC Motor and global tech giant Huawei have signed an agreement to create a smart new energy vehicles The two companies will reportedly work together on product definition, manufacturing, supply chain management and sales and services, to create intelligent new energy vehicles (NEVs) and jointly bring users a smart mobility experience. At present, SAIC has launched the “seven major technology bases”...
Alternative Cornwall UK Broadband Network Wildanet to Cut Jobs UPDATE
More bad news today as alternative rural broadband ISP Wildanet, which is busy deploying a gigabit speed full fibre (FTTP) network across rural parts of Cornwall and Devon in England, has revealed that “external forces” have pushed them into a period of restructuring that is expected to result in a loss of up to 35 jobs (roughly 18% of the workforce). The operator, which originally started life as a Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) provider in the same area, has recently been building a fibre...
KCOM to Close Mini Library Inside Classic Phone Box Due to Fire Risk
Hull-based phone and broadband ISP KCOM, which have deployed a full fibre (FTTP) network across 305,000 premises in parts of East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire (England), has taken the decision to close a tiny “community library” in Skidby, that was set up during 2020 inside the village phone box, because it posed a “serious fire risk“. KCOM, not unlike BT, are known to have converted or helped to convert a number of their classic cream-coloured K6 phone boxes to mini-libraries. In practice, this...
Sky Business to Boost WiFi and Broadband for 787 UK Caffe Nero Stores
Broadband ISP Sky Business (Sky UK) has announced a new multi-year agreement with Caffè Nero, the premium coffee house group, which will see them upgrade the digital infrastructure of 787 stores in The Caffè Nero Group (about 90% of their estate) across the United Kingdom. The deal is expected to introduce “next-generation connectivity solutions” to the stores, ensuring secure, high-speed connectivity for both customers and employees. This investment is said to enable frictionless...
Virgin Media UK Expand FTTP Broadband to 6,000 Homes in Falconwood
Network operator nexfibre and supporting retail broadband ISP partner Virgin Media (O2), which share some of the same parentage, have today announced that they’ve expanded the reach of their symmetric 2Gbps speed capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network to more than 6,000 homes in the Falconwood area of South East London for the first time. The area is currently already well covered by Openreach’s and CommunityFibre’s gigabit-capable FTTP broadband networks, not to mention some smaller...
Court Orders Big UK ISPs to Block Pirated Israel TV Streaming Sites
Most of the major broadband ISPs in the United Kingdom (BT, Sky Broadband, Virgin Media, TalkTalk, EE and Plusnet) have just been handed a new court order to block an Israel TV video streaming site, which was found to have been facilitating internet copyright infringement (piracy). At present such blocking orders, which in the UK flow from Section 97A of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act (CDPA), aren’t cheap to bring but have over the past 15 years or so become very common. Hundreds of...