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The Government’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond MP, has today given his first major Budget 2017 speech and announced several improvements for broadband connectivity in the United Kingdom, including boosts for 5G Mobile and another £200m for “full-fibre” (FTTH/P) networks.
Akamai has published their final ‘State of the Internet’ report for 2016 (Q4), which reveals that the global average fixed line broadband download speed is now 7Mbps (up 12% from 6.3Mbps in Q3) vs 16.3Mbps in the United Kingdom (up 10% from 14.9Mbps). The UK’s country ranking also climbed to 16th.
Inmarsat’s plan to improve broadband connectivity on aircraft appears to have taken a hit today after rival Satellite operator ViaSat accused the London-based ISP of “misusing spectrum” and gaining an “unfair competitive advantage” by “creating a monopoly for European in-flight connectivity.”
Budget ISP Plusnet has further reduced the price of their unlimited “fibre broadband” (FTTC) packages today, with their ‘up to’ 38Mbps service being cut to £25 a month for 18 months (£32.98 thereafter) and their 76Mbps option dropping to £30 for the same period (£37.98 thereafter).
Cityfibre has suspended one of their civil works contractors, KNNS, in the city of Edinburgh (Scotland). The action occurred after a dashcam video emerged that showed one of their fibre optic engineers sitting exposed in a manhole on a busy 30MPH street, with only two small traffic cones for protection.
The Superfast Worcestershire (England) project with BT (Openreach), which is currently working to make “superfast broadband” (24Mbps+) services available to “more than” 95% of the county in 2017, has announced that an extra 3,000 premises will benefit from a £3.7 million expansion.