EXCLUSIVE: April 2026 Update on Broadband Availability Across the UK, Nations and Regions
The May 2026 Thinkbroadband update shows UK gigabit broadband availability reaching 90.62% nationwide, with Wales climbing to 88.14% and overtaking the South East’s 87.89%. Full‑or‑part fibre coverage now exceeds 99% in every region, while premises with two or more FTTP options have risen to 68% across the country. Growth has slowed as Openreach’s rollout peaks later in each quarter, resulting in modest month‑to‑month changes. Northern Ireland remains the leader with 97.26% gigabit coverage.
Scam Warning — Don’t Let Random People Use Your Internet Connection
A forum post solicits a U.S. homeowner to host a travel router that would route a foreign content creator’s traffic through a residential IP. The request masks the creator’s non‑U.S. location and hints at illicit activity that standard VPNs or...
Community Fibre — 25% Off Promotion for May 2026 (but 2027 Increase up From £2 to £3/Month)
Community Fibre, the London‑focused ISP owned by Altnet, rolled out a 25% discount promotion from May 7 to June 3, 2026, with free installation and mandatory 24‑month contracts. The deal reduces the 2.5 Gbps standard plan to £32.25 (~$41) per month and the...
£15 a Month Gigabit Service From DIGI UK Surfaces in Letchworth and Hitchin
DIGI UK, the European low‑cost broadband player, has launched three fiber plans in the UK, starting at £15 (~$19) per month for 1 Gbps, £20 (~$25) for 2.5 Gbps, and £25 (~$32) for 10 Gbps. The service is currently available only in the Hitchin and Letchworth...
More Standalone 5G for Wales as O2 Switches on Its 5G+
O2 has begun rolling out its standalone 5G+ network across Wales, covering nine major towns, 18 smaller towns and 133 villages. The launch reaches roughly 800,000 residents—about a quarter of the Welsh population—with a minimum of 90% signal coverage. Backed...
Vodafone to Buy CK Hutchison’s 49% VodafoneThree Stake for £4.3bn
Vodafone has agreed to buy CK Hutchison’s 49% stake in the UK VodafoneThree joint venture for £4.3 bn (about $5.5 bn), valuing the combined business at roughly £13.85 bn ($17.7 bn). The transaction is slated to close in the second half of 2026, pending...
Weekly Brief – 1st May 2026
Truespeed and Freedom Fibre have completed their merger, creating Freedom Truespeed Group with 70,000 customers across 412,000 premises. Freedom Fibre will continue as the wholesale network while Truespeed and LilaConnect remain the consumer‑facing brands, ensuring service delivery stays unchanged. In...
Altnet Platforms Drive Partner Demand at Zen
Zen Internet announced a 52% year‑over‑year demand surge through The Fibre Hub, its wholesale platform that bundles Openreach services with multiple altnet partners. The hub now offers connectivity from CityFibre, Freedom Fibre, Trooli, ITS and MS3, giving smaller partners a...
£3 Million Added to West and Parts of North Yorkshire Gigabit Contract
The UK Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) has allocated an extra £3,195,012 (about $4.1 million) to the West and North Yorkshire Project Gigabit contract, raising its total value to £65,470,012 (≈$83.8 million). The amendment adds 2,642 premises, bringing the rollout scope...
Q1 Results for Virgin Media O2 Show Broadband Losses Decreasing
Virgin Media O2 reported Q1 2026 results showing a sharp slowdown in broadband churn, with net losses dropping to 5,300 customers versus 42,800 a year earlier. Average revenue per user fell 1.6% to £46.50 (about $59.50) per month, and total...
Starlink Drops ‘Demand Surcharge’ in South East but £75/Month Minimum Package Remains
Starlink has eliminated the £195 demand surcharge that previously limited new fixed‑line broadband orders in London and the South East. The service now offers a Residential Max package at £75 per month (≈$94) in London, while the rest of the...
APFN Announce Mark Walker as New CEO
AllPoints Fibre (APFN) announced that Mark Walker will assume the role of chief executive officer on 1 June 2026, succeeding Managing Director Ronan Kelly. Walker arrives with senior experience at Virtual1, TalkTalk’s B2B wholesale division and as chief commercial officer at PXC,...
Lightning Fibre Appoints Bertrand Mazieres as New CEO
Lightning Fibre, the Eastbourne‑based regional ISP, announced Bertrand Mazieres as its new chief executive. Mazieres leaves Openreach after nearly a decade, most recently serving as Director of Commercial and Marketing. He will replace Stefan Stanislawski, who has been acting CEO...
Ofcom Launches Investigation Into BT
Ofcom has opened a formal investigation into BT’s EE and Plusnet units to determine whether they fully complied with statutory information requests made in December 2023. The regulator is scrutinising data that fed into its 2025 Comparing Customer Service Report,...
Godshill Residents Left in Lurch as New Forest Gigabit Contract Adjusted
Godshill, a village in the New Forest, has been removed from the UK Government’s Project Gigabit contract, leaving 159 homes without a guaranteed full‑fibre connection. The original timeline promised service by the end of 2026 from Wessex Internet, but the...
10 Year Deal for Solar Energy to Help Virgin Media O2 Reach Net Zero Goals
Virgin Media O2 has entered a ten‑year power purchase agreement with Egg Power for electricity from the Grange Solar Energy Farm in Suffolk, slated to begin operations in 2027. The 70 MW solar project, complemented by a battery energy storage system,...
Ofcom Writes to Broadband Providers Following Anthropic Mythos AI Concerns
Ofcom’s Group Director for Infrastructure and Connectivity, Natalie Black, has written to UK broadband providers warning of the rapid escalation in AI capability, specifically citing Anthropic’s Claude Mythos Preview model. The AI Security Institute flagged Mythos as markedly more adept...
Weekly Brief – 24th April 2026
BT repaired the subsea fiber linking Evie and Westray in the Orkney Islands, restoring broadband service after an abrasion‑induced break. The fix involved replacing 8 km of cable and rerouting the line to a less rocky seabed to mitigate future damage....
Project Gigabit Contract Upate April 2026 – Updated
British Digital Infrastructure (BDUK) released its April 2026 Project Gigabit tracking, showing that 23.8% of the 1.05 million contracted premises – roughly 250,000 homes and businesses – now have fibre installed. The data, dated 22 April, reflects month‑to‑month changes, with Openreach adding 14,460 builds...
Mobile Networks Could Reduce Speed or Introduce Surge Pricing to Help with Energy Costs
UK mobile operators Vodafone Three, Virgin Media O2 and EE warned the government that rising energy costs could force them to curb network performance or introduce surge pricing. They propose measures such as throttling data speeds, reducing signal strength, and rationing access...
Trooli Full Fibre Network Now Available to PXC Residential Partners
PXC, the former TalkTalk Wholesale spin‑off, has added the Trooli full‑fibre network to its portfolio of alternative networks. Trooli covers roughly 450,000 premises across the South East, East England and parts of Scotland, complementing the 300,000 premises already served by...
Virgin Media O2 Announces 5GSA Coverage Across Surrey
Virgin Media O2 has launched 5G Standalone (5G+) across Surrey, delivering coverage to 33 large towns, 48 smaller towns and 194 rural villages – roughly 1.2 million residents – at no extra charge for compatible devices. The rollout is part of...
Ofcom Investigations Started for Telegram and Two Teen Chat Sites
Ofcom has opened formal investigations into Telegram and two teen‑focused chat services, Teen Chat and Chat Avenue, to assess compliance with the UK Online Safety Act 2023. The probe into Telegram follows a tip from the Canadian Centre for Child Protection...
Chard, Somerset Now Has Nexfibre Full Fibre with 2 Gbps Options
Chard, Somerset has gained nexfibre full‑fibre service offering 2 Gbps symmetric speeds for an extra £6 per month (≈$7.70). The village already hosts Openreach fibre, but nexfibre adds XGS‑PON technology to the mix. Across the UK nexfibre now covers nearly 2.5 million...
Weekly Brief – 17th April 2026
Broadband operators reported several key developments this week. In Orkney, the repair ship Pierre de Fermat replaced 8 km of damaged subsea cable and plans to restore service by 18 April, while also rerouting the line to lower future risk. AST SpaceMobile...
Full Fibre Availability Increases to 84% of UK Premises
Full‑fibre (FTTP) availability in the United Kingdom rose to 84 % of premises, marking the fastest quarterly jump in a year—just 40 days to move from 83 % to 84 %. The surge was driven primarily by Openreach’s aggressive rollout, which overlapped with alternative‑network...
VodafoneThree Gets Green Light for Satellite Smartphone Connectivity
Ofcom approved VodafoneThree's request to provide satellite direct‑to‑device connectivity in the UK, using its 900 MHz spectrum. The licence variation follows O2's earlier satellite launch and includes regulatory updates to exempt the band for D2D use. VodafoneThree plans summer 2026 trials...
Openreach Take on North Shropshire and West Herefordshire Project Gigabit Contracts
Building Digital UK (BDUK) announced that Openreach will step in as the replacement provider for two Project Gigabit contracts after the original network builders withdrew. In North Shropshire, Openreach inherits a £24 million (≈$30.7 million) contract to connect 8,500 premises, while in...
EXCLUSIVE April 2026 Update on Openreach Full-Fibre Roll-Out
Openreach reported a record‑breaking rollout in April 2026, adding 608,354 new FTTP premises and averaging 19,634 connections per day. The cumulative footprint reached 22,360,468 premises as of 12 April, positioning the network to achieve roughly 25 million ready‑for‑service locations by October‑November 2026....
Ofcom Launches Consultation on 6GHz Spectrum Sharing
Ofcom has opened a consultation to expand mobile use of the upper 6 GHz band in 88 high‑density areas while preserving Wi‑Fi priority in the lower 160 MHz. The proposal splits the spectrum, giving Wi‑Fi priority from 6425‑6585 MHz and mobile priority from...
Telecoms Consumer Charter — Sky Broadband Change Calls Into Question What Exactly Is the Point?
Sky Broadband has replaced its explicit £3‑per‑month price rise (about $3.80) with a vague "price may change" clause, testing the limits of the government‑backed Telecoms Consumer Charter. The voluntary charter, signed by major operators, promises consumers certainty and bans unexpected...
Weekly Brief – 10/04/2025
Openreach has rolled out half a million Zyxel‑manufactured optical network terminals (ONTs) built from 95% recycled plastic and shipped in zero‑plastic packaging, marking a major step toward greener broadband infrastructure. In the UK, BT continues to address a fault on...
North Lanarkshire Council Seeking Provider for Full-Fibre Rollout to Social Housing
North Lanarkshire Council has launched an expression of interest for a broadband partner to deliver a full‑fibre rollout across its social‑housing portfolio. The programme, valued at £40 million (approximately $51 million), aims to provide 1 Gbps‑capable service to roughly 36,000 properties. The council...
Gigaclear Lenders Take Control of Indebted Altnet
Gigaclear, the UK’s largest rural fibre altnet serving about 160,000 customers across 26 counties, has been taken over by its lenders after its debt neared £1 billion (≈$1.25 billion). The National Wealth Fund now holds the biggest share, alongside NatWest and Lloyds,...
Community Fibre — Double the Speed Promotion Returns
Community Fibre has relaunched its Double the Speed promotion, doubling advertised download rates for its standard broadband packages while keeping monthly fees fixed through April 2026. Customers can lock in 200 Mbps for £19/month (~$24), 600 Mbps for £21/month (~$26), up to 2 Gbps...
Automatic Compensation Payments for Telecoms Faults Rise with Inflation
Effective 1 April 2026, the Ofcom‑backed automatic compensation scheme for major UK telecoms raised its payouts to reflect inflation. Customers now receive £10.34 (≈$13) per day after two days of reported service loss, £32.31 (≈$41) for missed appointments, and £6.46 (≈$8) for...
Openreach Has Installed 500,000 Zyxel ONT to Reduce Plastic Waste
Openreach has installed more than 500,000 Zyxel optical network terminals (ONTs) across the United Kingdom, each built with 95% recycled polycarbonate plastic. The devices support the GPON rollout, delivering up to 1.8 Gbps per connection while reducing the amount of virgin...
Train Wi-Fi Is Just Awful — Our Journey From Cardiff to London
A recent test of Great Western Railway’s onboard Wi‑Fi on the Cardiff‑London route revealed severe performance issues. Latency jitter regularly spiked above 400 ms, with occasional spikes nearing 800 ms, and packet loss disrupted connections. Average throughput hovered around 1 Mbps, roughly 1 %...
EXCLUSIVE: March 2026 Update on Broadband Availability Across the UK, Nations and Regions
The latest UK broadband data shows gigabit availability climbing to 90.49% of premises, a 0.32‑point increase driven largely by Openreach’s aggressive FTTP rollout. Wales’ commercial and government‑backed full‑fibre projects are set to push the nation above the South East in gigabit...
Hawick Now Has Three Full Fibre Options as Nexfibre Rolls Out
Hawick now has three full‑fibre broadband options as Virgin Media O2 joins GoFibre and Openreach through the nexfibre XGS‑PON rollout. The nexfibre footprint is currently smaller than the existing FTTP networks but is expected to expand. Nearby Jedburgh already benefits from...
Reports of Hyperoptic Outages in Southeast London and Kent Yesterday
Hyperoptic experienced a multi‑hour outage on Monday, April 6, affecting customers in Southeast London and Kent, including Lewisham, Deptford, Greenwich, Woolwich, Dartford and Northfleet. The disruption lasted several hours on the Bank Holiday before services were restored later that evening. Users...
Virgin Media O2 Switches on 5G+ in Brighton and East Sussex
Virgin Media O2 has activated its 5G+ standalone mobile service across Brighton and the wider East Sussex region. The rollout covers 14 major towns, 16 smaller towns and 252 villages, expanding O2’s high‑speed network footprint. The expansion is part of...
Welsh Government Selects Extending High-Speed Broadband Suppliers
The Welsh Government has appointed three suppliers—Airband, Fibrus and Openreach—for Lot 1 and Airband, Fibrus and Wifinity for Lot 2 of its Extending High‑Speed Broadband (EHSB) scheme. The program, funded with a reclaimed £70 m budget (approximately $90 m), targets roughly 29,000 hard‑to‑reach premises...
CityFibre Launches Nationwide 8.5Gbps Wholesale Product
CityFibre has launched an 8.5 Gbps wholesale broadband product across its UK‑wide full‑fibre network, making symmetric ultra‑fast speeds available to all ISP partners from 21 April. The rollout leverages the company’s XGS‑PON infrastructure, which already serves 4.36 million premises and aims for an...
Weekly Brief – 27/03/2026
Starlink has introduced a promotional $32/month (≈£25) satellite broadband plan, offering a $13/month discount for new customers who sign up before the end of April 2026. CityFibre is piloting BUKO’s traffic‑management system in Worthing, using sat‑nav data and Meta platforms...
Nexfibre Offering 2Gbps Connectivity to UK Youth Centres
nexfibre has partnered with charity UK Youth and Virgin Media O2 to deliver free full‑fibre broadband at speeds of 1 Gbps or 2 Gbps to youth centres across the United Kingdom. The pilot at Brentswood Hub in Haywards Heath marks the start...
Devon Residents Urgent to Sign up for Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme
Devon residents are being urged to apply for the UK government’s Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme before its August deadline. The scheme offers up to £4,500 (≈ $5,700) per eligible home or business, but vouchers require at least two premises, leaving isolated...
BT Reports over 3 Million Households Switched to Digital Landlines
BT announced that more than three million UK households have transitioned from the legacy Public Switched Telephone Network to digital landline services, marking a critical milestone in the nationwide PSTN phase‑out. The company plans to complete the switchover by the...
New Features — Broadband Quality Monitor (BQM)
ThinkBroadband has upgraded its Broadband Quality Monitor (BQM) with two data‑export features. Users can now download a single CSV containing twelve months of ping‑latency data, replacing the previous one‑day limit. A separate daily CSV for the prior day becomes available...
Ofcom Fines 4chan for Non-Compliance with the Online Safety Act
Ofcom fined 4chan £520,000 for breaching the Online Safety Act by lacking age‑verification, failing risk assessments, and not updating its terms of service. The regulator set a compliance deadline of 2 April 2026, after which a daily penalty of £800 will apply....