Virgin Media O2 UK Blocked 168 Million Suspected Fraud Texts Over Past 2 Years
Mobile operator O2 (Virgin Media) has today revealed that their UK network blocked 168 million suspected fraudulent text messages from reaching customers over the past two years (up from 89 million texts in 2023), with scams including fake TikTok job offers, and deals and discounts for popular brands. Most of the United Kingdom’s major broadband, phone and mobile network providers have already implemented various technical measures to tackle Nuisance and Scam calls and text messages (SMS)....
First Homes Live on Freedom Fibre’s Shropshire UK Project Gigabit Broadband Build
Alternative network operator Freedom Fibre has today announced that the first homes have gone live on their new full fibre (FTTP) broadband ISP network in North Shropshire (England), which is being delivered as part of their £24m (state aid) LOT 25.02 Project Gigabit contract (here) to cover “around” 12,000 hard-to-reach rural homes. In case anybody has forgotten, the original announcement in May 2023 stated that the first properties could start to go live from October 2024 and that the 3-year...
CityFibre UK Completes Primary FTTP Broadband Build in Bracknell
Network access provider CityFibre, which has so far built their 2.5Gbps speed Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP network to cover around 4 million UK premises, have today confirmed the completion of their “primary” £20m build in the Berkshire (England) town of Bracknell. The network deployment, which originally began with the help of civil engineering contractor VolkerSmart Technologies, first entered the construction phase during Spring 2021 (here) and was expected to reach completion...
Octopus Energy Users Offered £200 Amazon Voucher for Taking Cuckoo Broadband
Internet provider Cuckoo, which is the full fibre (FTTP) retail broadband ISP for the consolidated AllPoints Fibre (Fern Trading) network and also offers packages via Openreach and CityFibre’s networks, has today launched a new offer that rewards existing Octopus Energy customers – who switch to their service – with a £200 Amazon gift card. The deal is only available through ‘Octoplus’, Octopus Energy’s rewards scheme. In short, for a standard 24-month contract, customers signing up for full...
Ofcom Propose to Auction Upper 1.4GHz Band for UK 4G and 5G Mobile
The UK telecoms regulator, Ofcom, has today proposed to auction off a 25MHz (spectrum frequency) slice of the 1.4GHz band (i.e. the “upper block” of 1492 to 1517MHz) to mobile operators (EE, O2, Vodafone / Three UK), which will be able to use it for their 4G and 5G based mobile broadband services. At present both Three UK and Vodafone are already harnessing the lower part (40MHz) of the L-Band spectrum (i.e 1452-1492MHz) to boost their mobile data connectivity (example) – mostly as a...
UK ISP Sky Broadband and TV Confirms UK Price Increases for 2025
Customers of Sky UK’s (Sky Broadband, Comcast etc.) internet, phone and Pay TV products have today been told to brace for an average annual price increase of 6.2% (down from 6.7% last year), which will be introduced from April 2025. But customers who are unhappy about this will be able to exit their contracts penalty free. Sky has traditionally shunned the old inflationary (CPI + X%) linked price hike policies of their rivals, which in recent years has resulted in their annual rises being a...
Nokia and AT&T extend voice core partnership
News AT&T has announced an extension of its partnership with Nokia in a multi-year deal to improve its voice network As part of this upgrade, AT&T will add Voice over New Radio (VoNR) and move its Nokia IMS Voice Core to a cloud-based system. This will help the company roll out new services faster, cut costs, and improve automation. AT&T will also use Nokia’s Cloud Platform to simplify network operations and reduce the need for manual work. Additionally, Nokia’s Digital...
UK PM urges for more European cooperation as suspicious subsea activity increases
News The heavy reliance on undersea cables remains a major risk as over 95% of global internet traffic depends on them UK Prime Minister Sir Kier Starmer has urged European leaders for increased cooperation on subsea infrastructure defences at a European Council meeting in Brussels. The call comes after an increase in suspicious activity from Chinese and Russian vessels around key European submarine cables. Last month, A Russian spy ship was caught in the English Channel attempting to gather...
GoFibre Quirkily Compares its Rural Broadband Speeds to Major International Cities
Edinburgh-based UK alternative network ISP GoFibre has today published the results of a new study, which reveals how well (download speed) their new full fibre (FTTP) broadband network – present in parts of remote rural Scotland and Northumberland – compares with a selection of major international cities. It’s interesting, if a bit on the random side. Just to recap, GoFibre is currently busy rolling out their gigabit-capable broadband network across rural parts of Scotland, the Scottish...
RootMetrics Test Names EE as BEST UK Mobile Network for H2 2024
Mobile benchmarking firm RootMetrics (Ookla) has today published their H2 2024 study of UK mobile networks (calls, texts etc.) and mobile broadband performance, which once again sees EE (BT) continuing to win all the award categories, followed by Vodafone and Three UK. But O2 (Virgin Media) found itself at the bottom of the table. The new study made use of the “latest” 5G Samsung smartphones (model not disclosed) – purchased off the shelf from operator stores – to test both 4G and 5G...