Openreach has today announced Stop Sell lists (Tranche 26) across 112 full fibre telephone exchanges which means legacy analogue services can no longer be ordered where Full Fibre is available to over 75% of premises in these locations. This applies to new connections, upgrades, and most provider switch situations is designed to redirect customers towards […] The post Openreach Stop Sell — Tranch 26 appeared first on thinkbroadband.

The push to get customers off of the WLR/FTTC products onto full fibre or failing that a SOGEA service has been completed at Aquiss. The Bridgnorth based Internet provider has announced its final customer has left the old FTTC service and the vast majority are now using full fibre. This is a journey that started […] The post Aquiss has switched off its last FTTC connection appeared first on thinkbroadband.

Those attending Connected Britain 2026 at London Excel had the opportunity to listen to Lutz Schüller the Virgin Media O2 CEO being interviewed on the second day of the conference in a fireside chat. In light of the CMA Interim Report and reactions to the BT Group/TalkTalk/Platform X transaction neither of which were public knowledge back […] The post Virgin Media O2 CEO talking at Connected Britain 2026 ahead of CMA report appeared first on thinkbroadband.

The good news Wales has reached 90.37% Gigabit coverage (i.e. full fibre or Virgin Media O2 cable is available) taking the nation past a major milestone. Actual full fibre coverage is not far behind at 88.62% because of the amount of overbuild of the old cable network in Cardiff and Swansea by Openreach and the […] The post EXCLUSIVE: September 2026 update on broadband availability across the UK, nations and regions appeared first on thinkbroadband.

Richard Tang, CEO of Zen Internet, produces an interview series with a series of business leaders, and his latest guest is Katie Milligan, CEO of Openreach. The conversation included Openreach’s fibre rollout, competition and regulation, the future of Altnets, AI and efficiency, Project Gigabit and the copper switch-off. Full-fibre Rollout & Regulation Openreach is continuing […] The post Richard Tang interviews Katie Milligan, CEO of Openreach appeared first on thinkbroadband.

Lutz Schüler, Virgin Media O2 Chief Executive Officer, has penned an open letter to Lisa Nandy MP, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport with the CEO’s concerns about the purchase of TalkTalk and Platform X by BT Group. We’ve included the full text, rather than screenshots to make it more accessible to people. […] The post Virgin Media O2 CEO writes to Secretary of State over TalkTalk acquisition by BT Group appeared first on thinkbroadband.

CityFibre has released its results for the quarter ending 30th September 2026. The alt-net has an over 1.1 million customers connected to the network and 260,000 have been added in the last 12 months. With their self declared RFS footprint this gives a take-up figure of around 22% rising to 26% if looking purely at […] The post CityFibre preparing for acquisition drive appeared first on thinkbroadband.

It has taken since 4th July 2026 for this latest point increase in full fibre coverage across the UK, a period of 3 months and 2 days. This is a long way from the peak of the fibre rush when each point of coverage was happening every 3 to 4 weeks. Full fibre rollouts have […] The post Full Fibre availability across UK increases to 86% of premises appeared first on thinkbroadband.

Under the remit of the Online Safety Bill Ofcom has announced it is to investigate Instagram Instants with it looking at whether an appropriate content risk assessment and children’s risk assessment was carried out prior to the products launch. Instagram Instants launched on 13th May 2026 and this allows you to share photos or video […] The post Ofcom to investigate Meta over Instagram Instants appeared first on thinkbroadband.

Virgin Media O2 has issued a statement on the TalkTalk/PXC purchase by BT Group “This has all the characteristics of a stitch up masked as a rescue deal in the public interest. Just days after the competition regulator proposed potentially blocking a logical deal between nexfibre and Netomnia that would accelerate fibre investment and create […] The post Virgin Media O2 reacts to BT/TalkTalk deal calling it a stitch-up appeared first on thinkbroadband.

Using powers granted under Section 42 of the Enterprise Act 2002 the Secretary of State Lisa Nandy has issued a Public Interest Intervention Notice. The short non civil service language version is that the CMA will look at the acquisition and will consider their position based on the outcome of that in 2 weeks. This […] The post Secretary of State registers interest in BT acquisition of TalkTalk and PlatformX appeared first on thinkbroadband.

Following rumours of an impending deal last night of TalkTalk creditors seeing an improved deal (The Times; paywall) for BT to acquire TalkTalk, this morning it has been announced that BT Group has acquired TalkTalk’s consumer business as well as PXC, its wholesale business. This follows the businesses entering administration. This deal is good for […] The post BREAKING: BT Group acquires TalkTalk & PXC appeared first on thinkbroadband.

Vodafone TV launches, bringing Netflix, HBO Max and Freely Vodafone has launched a new TV service that offers different plans from £10 per month, providing access to Freely. For an Extra £7/month, customers can subscribe to Vodafone TV Essential, combining Netflix and HBO Max with Freely. Vodafone Mobile customers can also take the Vodafone Entertainment […] The post Weekly Brief – 2nd October 2026 appeared first on thinkbroadband.

The Competition & Markets Authority has been considering the proposed acquisition of Substantial Group (aka YouFibre/brsk) by nexfibre and its Interim Report has been published. The report is a brief 9 pages but we’d expect the fully report to be more substantial but for all those who may be substantially affected by the merger there […] The post CMA interim report identifies lessening of competition risk in nexfibre/Youfibre merger appeared first on thinkbroadband.

BT Group is reportedly considering buying TalkTalk’s consumer and wholesale businesses. According to the Financial Times which broke the story, BT chief executive Allison Kirkby met government officials to discuss a potential deal and whether the possible takeover would lead to an in-depth competition investigation which may arise due to BT Retail’s existing significant market share. […] The post BT reportedly seeking takeover of TalkTalk consumer and wholesales businesses appeared first on thinkbroadband.

It looks like the TalkTalk saga is definitely reaching a peak with the result either being a successful rescue or around 1.5 million customers learning what a provider of last resort means. Sky News is reporting the private equity group Epiris is pressuring Openreach to waive or write-off payments that are due to Openreach to […] The post Private equity asks for financial favours from Openreach over PXC and TalkTalk appeared first on thinkbroadband.

G.Network is pushing the advantage of its XGS-PON network they’ve built in various parts of London by launching 2.5 Gbps and 8.5 Gbps options for residential customers. The HomePro3 service offers 2.4 Gbps download and 2.4 Gbps upload speeds on a tempting £34.50 a month for 3 months but rises to £69/month thereafter. The HomePro10 […] The post G.Network launches 8.5 Gbps full fibre service in London appeared first on thinkbroadband.

Sky News is reporting that current Ares Management is a leading contender to take control of the TalkTalk consumer division. The situation with TalkTalk has been an ongoing subject of various bids/takeovers but this reported £200 million deal might turn into something more concrete on Thursday. Over time various blocks of TalkTalk customers have been […] The post Protracted TalkTalk speculation might see progress on Thursday appeared first on thinkbroadband.

This morning, Ofcom has published its decision in relation to the “Incremental New to Openreach” customer offer, which would have given broadband providers £9.50 a month credit for 2.5 years for eligible full-fibre connections. The final decision which was published today follows a consultation in July concluded that the discount would not be fair and […] The post Ofcom blocks “New to Openreach” offer appeared first on thinkbroadband.

Addresses where full fibre has been rolled out and was available to order (RFS) for a while but is subsequently withdrawn are known as transients in our system and there are at least 42,000 addresses like this across Great Britain for the Openreach FTTP network. Transients are not purely an Openreach problem, as we see […] The post Passed and was Ready for Service and not now increasing for Openreach full fibre appeared first on thinkbroadband.

TalkTalk in the final stages of the sales process for its businesses TalkTalk has issued a strategic update to investors with the disposal of its PXC and TalkTalk Consumer businesses. It is reported that it’s now in the final stages of its sales process and expects both transactions to conclude imminently. Octopus Investments had been […] The post Weekly Brief – 25th September 2026 appeared first on thinkbroadband.

BDUK has published its September 2026 update for contracted and built premises for the Project Gigabit contracts across England and Wales. Our interactive maps have been updated to show the latest figures, along with the history of each areas. There are fluctuations in some of the figures, reflecting changes in data submissions and in some […] The post September 2026 update for Project Gigabit released appeared first on thinkbroadband.

Sky already sells a 5 Gbps in areas where CityFibre is available, which using Sky supplied figures is 14% of UK homes, so the launch of a 1.6 Gbps service utilising the Openreach network is about offering better speeds to a much wider audience. “We’re proud to offer Full Fibre 1.6 Gbps to millions of […] The post Sky launches its 1.6 Gbps full fibre tier using Openreach network appeared first on thinkbroadband.

AI is already starting to play a noticeable role in how UK consumers interact with broadband, mobile and other telecoms services, according to an Ofcom report on Consumers using AI in telecoms. Eight per cent of adult UK internet users have used AI in relation to their telecoms in the past year, with 6% using […] The post 8% of UK Adults Already Using AI to Manage Telecoms Services appeared first on thinkbroadband.

The £5.4bn Project Gigabit programme has created more than 3,000 jobs and apprenticeships across England, according to new figures from DSIT. The figure has been sourced from operators involved in the programme that have contractual ‘social value’ commitments with roles they are required to report. It does not include projects in other areas of the […] The post Project Gigabit credited with creating more than 3,000 jobs and apprenticeships appeared first on thinkbroadband.

The 31st January 2027 is rapidly approaching and the start of Autumn will hopefully mean more of those who’ve done nothing to prepare for the PSTN switch-off. As a measure of last resort Openreach has today outlined that those with a PSTN service running on 31st January 2027 will see the telephone part of their […] The post Openreach will endeavour to protect broadband as PSTN closure looms appeared first on thinkbroadband.

The Social Market Foundation, a cross-party think tank published a report yesterday calling on the BBC to be funded by a broadband levy instead of the license fee. The current licence fee structure is not popular with the public, and there is a wider review of the BBC Royal Charter due soon. The report sponsored […] The post Think tank calls for £11/month broadband levy to fund the BBC appeared first on thinkbroadband.

Ofcom is investigating Vonage Business Ltd and Voxbone SA in relation to telephone numbers that are part of blocks held by the two companies being misused by people engaging in scams. It needs highlighting that Vonage and Voxbone are not being investigated for running scams at all, but rather as the holder of large UK […] The post Ofcom investigating two telecom firms over phone number misuse appeared first on thinkbroadband.

The Virgin Media website and O2 websites appear to be suffering from issues that started around 4:30pm 23rd September 2026. The O2 website was slow to load and may be working as we type this, but the message on the Virgin Media indicates problems with them displaying their broadband deals. We don’t know what other […] The post Virgin Media O2 site experiencing issues appeared first on thinkbroadband.

After the work involving Openreach, Affinity Water and Lightsonic the water company Southern Water has deployed the Lightsonic leak detection system. The system monitors the Openreach underground full fibre network and uses AI to help detect water leaks to within a 10 metre accuracy. The detection is based on acoustic data recorded from the passive […] The post Southern Water deploys AI driven fibre optic leak detection system appeared first on thinkbroadband.

The latest promotion from Community Fibre runs until 14th October 2026 and is essentially doubling the speeds of various packages. All these packages are for new customers and are based on a 24 month contract, with a £3 price increase each April. 12 month contract options are available where an entry level tariff of 35 […] The post Community Fibre offering Gigabit full fibre for £21 a month to new customers appeared first on thinkbroadband.

We are all used to Ofcom investigating sites that have not implemented age verification but Ofcom has just started an investigation into Pornhub that is owned and run by Aylo. The basis of the investigation is to determine whether the site is complying with its duties to prevent children encountering pornographic content. The trigger for […] The post Ofcom opens compliance investigation into Aylo aka Pornhub appeared first on thinkbroadband.

The altnet Trooli has added a 5 Gbps symmetric speeds package to its broadband line-up with a price of £44.99 a month if you take out a 24 month contract. “The way households use broadband has changed. Demand for speed and capacity is only going to increase; families may be streaming, gaming, working and making […] The post Trooli launches its Ultra package with 5 Gbps download and upload speeds appeared first on thinkbroadband.

The official position on Gigabit coverage is that it is available to 88% of homes and businesses in the latest DCMS/BDUK report on the progress of Project Gigabit across the UK based on January 2026 data. 88% is impressive given it was 20% in May 2020, but a reminder that a large chunk of the […] The post DCMS publishes Project Gigabit report from January 2026 appeared first on thinkbroadband.

Broadband Altnet Netomnia which runs alternative full fibre infrastructure across the UK and especially in the Manchester area has recently evicted an intruder from their network. Following internal alarms of customer ONTs (the boxes on the walls of homes where full fibre connections terminate) losing signals last Sunday, an engineer was sent to investigate and […] The post Altnet Netomnia evicts squirrel from box on fibre pole appeared first on thinkbroadband.

The latest postcodes and addresses to see full fibre arrive under the Kent Project Gigabit contract may not be massive at around 20 postcodes added in the last week to our maps but it shows CityFibre is still delivering. The latest addresses going live are around Teynham which sits midway between Faversham and Sittingbourne. While […] The post More Project Gigabit full fibre from CityFibre has gone live appeared first on thinkbroadband.

To help people visualise what is and is not available in their part of the UK, we have over the weekend added the most recent Ofcom Connected Nations data to our broadband maps. The postcode resolution data for Gigabit availability in each postcode, has been plotted with six levels of colour banding ranging from Ofcom […] The post Ofcom Connected Nations Gigabit data now on thinkbroadband maps appeared first on thinkbroadband.

ITS confirms 9 towns and cities are now ready for service ITS broadband is now available in 9 towns and cities after the company announced plans to expand its full fibre service into 13 new locations. Businesses in Aberdeen, Bath, Bournemouth, Chester, Coventry, Huddersfield, Loughborough, Plymouth and Swansea are now able to order services, with […] The post Weekly Brief – 18th September 2026 appeared first on thinkbroadband.

The data BDUK collected from broadband networks in May 2026 to inform the Project Gigabit rollouts has now been published and the data has been added to our maps. The interactive layer for OMR data has been updated to work with the May 2026 data, and previous maps for Jan 2026, Sept 2025, May 2025, […] The post BDUK publishes May 2026 Project Gigabit OMR data appeared first on thinkbroadband.

Community Fibre was no slouch before today offering 5 Gbps for £56.70 a month, and now the first customer on the XGS-PON network that Community Fibre has in London is up and running on an 8.5 Gbps service. The 8.5 Gbps download and 8.5 Gbps upload XGS-PON service is not cheap at £300 a month […] The post Community Fibre installs first 8.5 Gbps XGS-PON residential service in London appeared first on thinkbroadband.

GoFibre broadband, an independent Scottish altnet, has announced that they have begun fibre build to almost 1,000 homes and businesses across Aberdeenshire. The firm has announced that the build is underway in St Fergus, Inchmarlo, Kincardine O’Neil, Collieston, and Newburgh, and also Kingswells in Aberdeen. The company will be offering speeds of up to 1Gbps […] The post GoFibre announces Aberdeenshire build to nearly 1,000 homes and businesses appeared first on thinkbroadband.

A bit of fun or a table highlighting the scale of work left if the WLR switch off is to complete by end of January 2027. There is little time left for homes and businesses that are using a copper based telephone line (Wholesale Line Rental/WLR) service to switch to a VoIP (Digital Voice) or […] The post Openreach publishes league table highlighting task ahead of old phone system switch off appeared first on thinkbroadband.

The last BDUK update in August 2026 suggested that Fibrus has delivered 37,060 premises with the option of full fibre out of a contracted total of 53,540 premises. Today sees a small change notification issued for the contract in relation to addresses where wayleaves or other third-party permissions, while the number of premises that will […] The post Third party permissions cause changes to Project Gigabit contract for Cumbria appeared first on thinkbroadband.

AI is the darling of the moment, but it does have practical uses and while many worry about it coming for their job, if used right it can help firms to do more and utilise staff. Of course, some firms are going to see AI as a chance to get rid of support teams and […] The post Openreach AI use reducing cancelled full fibre orders appeared first on thinkbroadband.

While the integration of the FibreNest ISP into OFNL is being reported as complete from checks of 10 FibreNest locations only 2 are showing availability to OFNL based Internet providers. FibreNest was a single retailer ISP ran by the house builder Persimmon, OFNL (Open Fibre Networks Ltd) has been building full fibre on new build […] The post Integration of FibreNest into OFNL Alt-net now becoming visible appeared first on thinkbroadband.

The Openreach rollout of full fibre to 25 million premises by the end of 2026 is said to be on track by those speaking for Openreach, but in terms of verified Ready for Service (RFS) the current pace is suggesting we can report on that figure between 29th January 2027 and 19th March 2026. Openreach […] The post EXCLUSIVE August 2026 update on Openreach full-fibre roll-out appeared first on thinkbroadband.

A quick roundup of broadband news from the last week we haven’t otherwise covered. Airband was sold to Voneus for just £4.6m after racking up £312m of creditor claims Aberdeen Group stands to lose more than £228m of secured debt and its equity after administrators sold the Airband business from administration to Voneus for £4.6m. […] The post Weekly Brief – 11th September 2026 appeared first on thinkbroadband.

Shareholders of Virgin Media O2 (VMO2) are looking to reduce costs at the company as its debt pile has grown to over £22.5bn. Liberty Global and Telefónica have, according to the FT, asked the company to find a mix of reductions through job cuts and reducing operating and capital expenditure. Financial markets have been adjusting […] The post Virgin Media O2 needs to find £600m in cost reductions appeared first on thinkbroadband.

In a fireside chat on the 10th September 2026 at Connected Britain, the Virgin Media CEO Lutz Schüler was talking with Karen Egan of Enders Analysis. There was a few things said in the chat, that are pertinent to the whole market, and with Virgin Media O2 as a large broadband retailer and big player […] The post Virgin Media O2 CEO says no more fibre if Netomnia deal does not happen appeared first on thinkbroadband.

A pilot programme has been announced by Lincolnshire County Council to provide Starlink satellite broadband to parts of its County Farms Estate. This will target rural properties where fibre broadband is not yet available. The council has announced the pilot as part of the ‘Back British Farming Day’ initiative, and says it hopes to help […] The post Lincolnshire County Council to run Starlink broadband pilot on rural farms appeared first on thinkbroadband.