Weekly Brief — 19th September 2025

Postcode Subscriptions (New feature)

As a reminder, we launched a new feature called Postcode Subscriptions which allows you to watch broadband availability information for up to five postcodes, and be notified when there’s a change. This feature has been long overdue and should help you keep an eye out for any new altnets. We hope to add features allowing you to also watch adjacent postcodes without needing to add them manually.

As usual our weekly brief includes some news items we didn’t write up as separate articles but which you may wish to read:

Ofcom Report on Digital inclusion

Ofcom’s latest report updates the 2025 stats on UK home broadband take-up and takes a closer look at how people without home internet use landlines and TVs. While broadband is widely available, around 5% of UK adults still don’t have it at home, mainly as they don’t see the need, or in some cases, can’t afford it. Many of these households still use landlines or Freeview and are far less likely to have a smart TV. With older systems being phased out in favour of internet-based services, there’s a growing risk that these groups will be left behind. The data suggests people who are older, live alone, rent social housing, or are in lower income brackets are the most likely to be offline

Survey finds buffering a major irritant for Brits

Sky commissioned research into frustrations of the UK population which includes transport delays, “slow walkers” and buffering (slow) internet pages being the top three most annoying things cited. Sky is promoting its new Gigafast+ packages delivering speeds of up to 5 Gbps (although to what extent it addresses buffering can be debated as sometimes it’s not just the speed of your connection; also we’re not sure what the difference between #2 and #9-10 is sometimes..

Top 10 things that frustrate impatient Brits: –

1. Transport delays (e.g. plane, train, bus delays) – 42%
2. Slow or buffering internet – 41%
3. Slow or bad drivers – 37%
4. Slow service (in any capacity) – 34%
5. Slow walkers – 33%
6. Queuing – 33%
7. Pedestrian traffic (e.g. people taking up the whole path or someone stopping in the middle of a path) – 29%
8. Waiting for or missing a delivery – 28%
9. Film or TV show buffering part way through – 25%
10. Waiting for something to download or update – 25%

Fibrus Broadband launches £50k fund for sports clubs

Altnet Fibrus Broadband has launched its Play it Forward Fund for the third consecutive year, offering £50,000 in grants to grassroots sports clubs across Northern Ireland and Cumbria (the areas it provides service in). Aimed at encouraging physical activity and reducing screen time among children, the fund provides up to £1,000 per club to improve facilities or purchase essential equipment and kits. Since its 2023 launch, the fund has awarded £100,000 to support local clubs, including over £60,000 to 63 clubs in Northern Ireland. In 2024, this included Elite Taekwon-Do NI which used the fund to add equipment and capacity.

We are committed to playing a role in improving the health and wellbeing of children and young people, so investing in local communities is very important to us. Our Play It Forward Fund is just one way we try to give back to the communities which we serve. “I’m delighted to see a new batch of clubs, like Elite Taekwon-Do NI, benefitting from our sports fund. Since launching, we’ve had a fantastic response with applications increasing year on year. We know how important these clubs are to the local community but equally know how difficult funding can be for them to keep the lights on and grow. We’re incredibly proud to play a small part in bettering the community in which we operate and would encourage any clubs thinking of applying to do so.

Linda McMillan, Chief People Officer, Fibrus