UK ISP Home Telecom Adopt New Pricing Policy for Mid-Contract Hikes
Customers of internet provider Home Telecom, which is part of the wider Telecom Acquisitions (TAL) group that also includes several other UK ISP brands (No One, Leetline, Fleur Telecom, Eclipse Broadband etc.), have this week begun to receive emails notifying them of a change that will make their “annual price increase simpler“. The email itself, which was also sent to customers on some of Home Telecom / TAL’s other ISP brands, didn’t include much in the way of detail and largely just...
Court Sides with Wychavon Council in Judicial Review of Broadband Poles
The Lifford Gardens and the Sands Residents Association, which represents part of Broadway in Worcestershire (England), has lost its Judicial Review case against the local council’s decision to allow the deployment of a new FTTP broadband network using wood poles. The Birmingham High Court ruled that the council had acted lawfully. ISPreview first covered all this in June 2024 (here and here), which gives the full context. But to recap, the case focused upon FullFibre Limited’s network build...
Confusion as New UK Mobile Operator Ymobile Suddenly “Pauses” Service
Some customers of new UK mobile operator, Ymobile (Ycorp), which only launched one month ago while pledging to offer a “simpler, more streamlined and environmentally friendly” alternative to traditional mobile networks (here), have suddenly been told that their service will be “terminated” in January 2025. The operator, which promoted itself as being the United Kingdom’s “first data-led, eSIM MVNO“, claimed to be powered by Three UK’s national 4G and 5G network via a virtual operator (MVNO)...
Ofcom UK Propose to Cut Mobile Licence Fees for 900MHz and 1800MHz by GBP40m
The UK telecoms regulator has today proposed, following evidence submitted by BT (EE), to reduce the total amount paid by the mobile network operators to use the 900MHz, 1800MHz and 2100MHz radio spectrum bands – used to support 2G, 3G and 4G mobile (mobile broadband) services – by around £40m per year. The cost of Annual Licence Fees (ALF) is often a highly divisive subject for the likes of EE, Vodafone, Three UK and O2. Mobile operators often complain that hikes in this area can mean price...
Hyperoptic Fined £50k in London for Unsafe Fibre Broadband Build
Gigabit broadband ISP Hyperoptic, which has built a full fibre broadband (FTTP / B) network to cover “more than” 1.73 million UK homes in parts of 64 towns and cities (mostly MDUs), has been fined £50,000 by the Westminster Magistrates Court in London after they were found to have carried out unsafe street works. The successful prosecution was actually pursued by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, which occurred after the Council’s Street Works Compliance Inspector witnessed (Jan...
Streetwave Make Maps of UK Mobile Coverage and Performance Available
Network analyst firm Streetwave, which is currently conducting various UK surveys to study the coverage and speed of 4G and 5G mobile (broadband) networks across the UK using bin lorries and private vehicles, appears to have responded to some of ISPreview’s suggestions by making interactive visual maps of their findings available for free to the public. Over the past year Streetwave have been harnessing waste (bin / refuse) collection lorries to map mobile network / broadband coverage and...
Zen Internet UK Finally Launch 1.6Gbps FTTP Broadband via Openreach
Rochdale-based UK ISP Zen Internet appears to have finally started to make their new Openreach powered 1.6Gbps broadband package available to retail customers, which follows some months after they made the new tier available at wholesale to other partners (here). But there’s still no sign of any 2Gbps packages on the CityFibre side of their network. The new top tier package costs £65 per month (plus a one-off £15 set-up charge) for estimated downloads of 1,600Mbps (115Mbps upload) on an...
Alncom Teach Kids in Northumberland How to Build FTTP Broadband
Rural broadband ISP Alncom has today informed ISPreview that they’ve completed the roll-out of a new FTTP broadband network to the rural villages of Craster and Embleton (inc. surrounding areas) in Northumberland (England), covering 1,057 properties. But as part of that they’ve also been teaching local school children how to build the network. The network project, which has also connected the local village halls with free connections and public WiFi, was part-funded by BDUK’s Gigabit Broadband...
ISP Zen Internet Warn UK Businesses Unprepared for Phone Switch-off
A new survey conducted by broadband ISP Zen Internet claims to have revealed that UK businesses are still “alarmingly unprepared” for the transition to IP-based digital phone (VoIP etc.) services. This is occurring with the phased shutdown of the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) and Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN). Just to recap. The big switch-off was recently delayed to 31st January 2027 in order to give broadband ISPs, phone providers, telecare operators and consumers...
Major Yayzi Network Migration Triggers Super Slow UK Broadband
Internet provider Yayzi Broadband has been causing a spot of bother for quite a few of their customers this week after their plan to roll-out an “incredible network upgrade” resulted in a protracted period of service disruption as users were migrated, which saw broadband speeds plummet to single digits (Mbps), as well as other connectivity problems. The migration, which was announced a month ago (here), had been aiming to “deliver lower latency, improved peering, and a smoother overall...