ICO Confirms it’s Still Investigating Lyca Mobile UK’s 2023 Data Breach
In a small update, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has confirmed to ISPreview that their investigation into the September 2023 cyberattack and data breach of mobile network operator Lyca Mobile (here) is still “ongoing“. But the ICO declined to answer why it was taking so long to reach a conclusion. The original attack, which disrupted Lyca Mobile’s systems and connectivity services across the UK for a period of time, also resulted in hackers being able to access “at least some of...
Some Vodafone UK Broadband Users Struggling to Claim Switching Credit UPDATE
Telecoms provider Vodafone UK has confirmed that they’re “working hard to resolve” a problem that appears to be making it difficult for some of their new home broadband customers to claim the operators offer of up to £100 in “switching credit” for inward migrations. This is offered to those who incur Early Termination Charges (ETCs) when leaving their existing ISP. New customers who believe they may be eligible to claim the Switching Credit, due to having left their previous ISP before the end...
Netomnia Builds UK FTTP Broadband Coverage to 2.08 Million Premises
Alternative network operator Netomnia (inc. Brsk and YouFibre) has today announced that they’ve successfully expanded their 10Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP network to cover 2.08 million UK homes and businesses (RFS) on time (up from 1.82m on 30th Sept 2024). Customers have also grown to 238,000 (up from 190k). The altnet is now focusing on reaching their next target on time too, which was set last year during the Brsk merger (here) and aims to expand their full fibre...
UK Still Trails Most of EU with Poor Level of 5G Mobile Availability
New data from Ookla, which operates the popular Speedtest.net internet connection benchmarking service, has revealed that the United Kingdom still places near the bottom of the table in Europe for 5G mobile availability (mobile broadband) on a score of just 42.2% (i.e. the percentage of users with 5G devices spending most of their time connected to 5G networks). By comparison, the Nordic operators have much to celebrate. In Q4 2024, Nordic countries claimed three of the top five positions in...
Ofcom cracks down on mid-contract price rises
News The new rules are designed to make pricing easier for customers to understand Starting today, UK telecom providers must clearly display any future price increases in plain monetary terms at the point of sale, following new regulations introduced by Ofcom. The rules are designed to eliminate confusion around mid-contract price hikes, and help customers make better-informed choices. In the past, telecom companies often linked price rises in their contracts to inflation rates, leaving...
EXA Infrastructure enters into agreement to acquire Aqua Comms
Press Release EXA Infrastructure has announced today that it has signed binding agreements to acquire Aqua Comms – a specialist operator of Transatlantic and intra-European subsea infrastructure. EXA Infrastructure, a London based portfolio company of I Squared Capital – a leading independent global infrastructure investment manager, operates over 150,000km of digital infrastructure across 37 countries, including 20 cable landing stations that provide critical connectivity to subsea systems....
Three UK Provide Brief Progress Update on 3G Mobile Switch Off
Mobile operator Three UK, which was previously aiming to complete the process of switching off their old 3G (mobile broadband) network by the end of 2024 (here), has told ISPreview today that the “vast majority” of their 3G sites were switched off in September 2024. But a “small number” of sites are still live to avoid customers losing service. As part of the process, most mobile operators have generally been compensating for the 3G switch-off in some areas by introducing upgrades to newer 4G...
Zen Internet Claim a Third of Brits Unaware of Analogue Phone Switch-off
A new Censuswide survey conducted on behalf of broadband ISP Zen Internet, which involved 2,000 nationally representative UK consumers aged 16+, has revealed that 34% of respondents are still “unaware” of the upcoming switch from the old Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) to IP-based digital phone (VoIP etc.) services. Just to recap. The big switch-off was last year delayed to 31st January 2027 in order to give broadband ISPs, phone providers, telecare operators and consumers more time...
BT Scrap Pilot to Convert Openreach UK Broadband Cabinets to EV Chargers
Only a few months have passed since BT’s awkwardly named UK digital incubation team, Etc., “powered up” their first Electric Vehicle (EV) charger under a 2-year pilot, which was one of potentially tens of thousands that could have been established by repurposing Openreach’s old broadband street cabinets. But it’s now being powered down and the whole scheme shelved. Just to recap. The pilot scheme had been in the works since mid-2023 (here), although the process of actually getting it underway...
Neos Networks Helps LightSpeed Expand UK FTTP Broadband Network
Alternative network operator and ISP LightSpeed Broadband, which has built a gigabit-capable (FTTP) network across 250,000 premises in the East of England, has today signed a new agreement that will enable them to expand their services by gaining access to Neos Networks dark fibre, 100Gbps and 10Gbps optical links, and backhaul services etc. Neos currently runs one of the biggest (34,000km long) business fibre networks in the UK – spanning 550 exchanges, 90+ data centres and 676 Points of...