Broadband News, Comparison, Analysis and Data

It has been a long time since we looked at the state of new home statistics and starting in 2023 it looks like the UK has been hitting 99% full fibre availability in new-builds. Previously we used to present data based on calendar year, but we re-worked the analysis to shift to financial year, so […]

Low Earth Orbit satellite broadband services have changed the game for remote areas and mobile services on board planes, vessel and more. They provide economical, fast and low-latency connections, a world apart from previous generation satellite services which were expensive. Among these, Starlink is a major player directly, however increasingly we are seeing aggregators delivering […]

The UK Government announced widely expected bans for young children using social media, and limitations on uses by 16 and 17-year olds. These are due to come in next spring and will affect platform such as TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat and X but will exclude messaging services like WhatsApp and Signal. There’s much left […]

Over 760,000 residents in 434 towns and villages now have access to 5G Standalone (5GSA) after Virgin Media O2 enabled access to their 5G+ service. Ipswich, Bury St Edmunds, Felixstowe, Lowestoft, Haverhill, Sudbury and Newmarket all have access to faster mobile services from O2 now. The company claim that they offer the largest 5GSA network […]

The Telecoms Consumer Charter aims to build on the legal obligations imposed on all broadband providers by getting providers volunteer to be fairer and clearer with their customers, without all the extra work and cost of even more Ofcom legislation. Hyperoptic has been announced as signing up to the charter joining BT Group, Virgin Media […]

InfraVia Capital, which jointly owns nexfibre with Virgin Media O2’s shareholders Liberty Global and Telefónica, has warned (via The Times, paywall) that there could be a risk to investment in broadband if Openreach is allowed to monopolise this market. The company has said that its plans to invest to reach up to 20 million premises […]

Building on previous legislation such as the Online Safety Act 2023 and the Children’s Well Being and Schools Act 2026, the heavily trailed social media ban has now been officially announced. The timeline is that the plan is to bring everything to Parliament before Christmas 2026 and come into force in Spring 2027. The restrictions […]

A few brief bits of news from this week. Extending High Speed Broadband Framework Agreement for Wales signed The contracts for the Welsh Extending High-Speed Broadband (EHSB) scheme have now been signed. This is a project with two Lots defined to split contracts into projects with more than 1,000 premises and those with fewer than […]