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Articles for Category Tag - Building Digital UK

UPD Public Accounts Committee Still Critical of BT and BDUK Broadband Rollout

28th January, 2015 (47 Comments)

The Public Accounts Committee, which holds some responsibility for examining the Government’s public expenditure, has today hosted a third session in order to examine if any progress has been made on their prior recommendations for the joint state aid supported BT and Broadband Delivery UK rollout of superfast broadband.

BDUK Superfast Broadband Rollout is Ahead of Schedule and Made Savings

28th January, 2015 (22 Comments)

The National Audit Office has, in anticipation of today’s Public Accounts Committee event, published a useful report into its views on how effective the joint BT and Broadband Delivery UK scheme has been in terms of its costs, coverage and competition. The report finds that BT’s Phase 1 deployment is running “ahead of schedule” and BDUK predicts total savings of approximately £72m by 2017-18, which could be reinvested.

BDUK Gifts Northern Rail GBP750k for On-board Train FREE WiFi Upgrade

28th January, 2015 (12 Comments)

Commuters travelling on Northern Rail’s trains from Leeds and Bradford (England) can now access free on-board wireless Internet (WiFi) connectivity thanks to a new scheme that has been funded by £750,000 from the Government’s Broadband Delivery UK programme. This appears to be the first on-train scheme that BDUK has funded.

Progress in Tackling Warwickshire’s Slow Exchange Only Broadband Lines

27th January, 2015 (1 Comment)

The Government’s Broadband Delivery UK programme is increasingly starting to tackle the historic curse of BTOpenreach’s pure copper Exchange Only Lines (EOL) and the latest example of this comes from several remote rural villages in the English county of Warwickshire.

UPDATE Norfolk Sign BT Deal to Expand Fibre Broadband Coverage to 90%

27th January, 2015 (10 Comments)

The Better Broadband for Norfolk project in England, which currently aims to make BT’s superfast broadband (FTTC/P) service available to 80% of local premises by the end of 2015, has today signed a second (Phase 2) contract worth £17.9m that will extend the services reach to 90% of the county’s homes and businesses.

BT Moot Free FTTP Broadband Trials for New UK Housing Developments

26th January, 2015 (24 Comments)

BTOpenreach are currently reviewing their approach to the provision of Superfast Broadband (24Mbps+) at major housing developments and, as part of this strategy, the operator is evaluating a series of “free trials” for their 330Mbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) technology across the United Kingdom.

Worcestershire UK Cheers BDUK and BT Fibre Broadband Uptake Surge

26th January, 2015 (19 Comments)

The £20m Superfast Worcestershire scheme in England, which is using state aid to help BT deploy “high-speed fibre broadband” (FTTC/P) services to 90% of local premises by June 2016, appears to have seen take-up of related services skyrocket since its seemingly dismal showing of 3.2% in September 2014.

Gloucestershire and Herefordshire Reveal H1 2015 Fibre Broadband Upgrades

23rd January, 2015 (1 Comment)

It’s been awhile since we ran any coverage on the £56.6m Fastershire project (still the best name ever), which aims to make BT’s “fibre broadband” (FTTC/P) network available to around 90% of premises in Herefordshire and Gloucestershire by the end of 2016 (148,000 premises). But the good news is that we now have the roll-out plan for the first half of 2015.

Another Tale of BT and UK House Developers Not Building Good Broadband

22nd January, 2015 (75 Comments)

Residents of the new Woodilee Village estate between Lenzie and Kirkintilloch in Scotland, which includes 900 contemporary homes built by CALA, Charles Church, Miller Homes and Springfield, are campaigning for better broadband connectivity after they were left with “up to” 2Mbps download speeds (plus uploads of 300-400Kbps) and told that they’d have to fork out £15k to £30k for an upgrade.

Westminster City Council Calls for Better Business Broadband

21st January, 2015 (13 Comments)

The Westminster City Council in central London has added its voice to the growing calls for local businesses to be given access to better broadband connectivity, which comes after it was earlier revealed by Ofcom that only 47% of the city’s premises have access to “superfast broadband” (30Mbps+) speeds.

UPDATE “Luton” Best and “Hull” Worst, UK Cities for Superfast Broadband

19th January, 2015 (15 Comments)

The Centre for Cities, which claims to be a non-partisan / independent think-tank that dedicates itself towards understanding and improving city economies, has published its annual 2015 Cities Outlook report to reveal the United Kingdom’s best and worst performing cities across various criteria. One of the criteria they judge is superfast broadband penetration.

UK Devon and Somerset Broadband Extension Contract Goes to Tender

16th January, 2015 (2 Comments)

The £94m Connecting Devon and Somerset project in England, which is currently working with BT to make “superfast broadband” (24Mbps+ capable FTTC/P) service available to over 90% of local premises by the end of 2016 and possibly 95% through a new contract, appears to have moved on from its earlier funding woes and prepared a tender.

Remote Scotland Communities Demand Broadband Rollout Clarity

16th January, 2015 (54 Comments)

Alistair Carmichael, the MP for two of north Scotland’s most remote island communities (Orkney and Shetland) and the UK’s Secretary of State for Scotland, has called upon the Scottish Government and BT to publish a more detailed roll-out plan for the on-going deployment of “fibre broadband” (FTTC/P) connectivity on the islands.

Ed Vaizey Dodges Question on 2018 Superfast Broadband Rollout Delay

15th January, 2015 (17 Comments)

During an interesting exchange in the House of Commons today the Government’s Communications Minister, Ed Vaizey, successfully managed to dodge a question about the likelihood of the Government’s 95% superfast broadband (24Mbps+) coverage target, which is due to complete by 2017, seemingly slipping into 2018 or possibly later.

UPDATE FSB Claim Half of Rural Small Businesses Dissatisfied with Broadband

15th January, 2015 (15 Comments)

The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has today warned of a “two-speed digital economy” after it published the results of new research, which found that 49% of rural small businesses are dissatisfied with the quality of their broadband service and this falls away significantly to just 28% for similar firms based in urban areas.

8 Pilot UK Superfast Broadband Projects Ready to Begin Deployment

14th January, 2015 (19 Comments)

The Government’s pick of eight pilot projects for their £10m Innovation Fund, which was setup last year to “test innovative solutions” for delivering superfast broadband (24Mbps+) services to the final 5% of the United Kingdom (i.e. the most difficult to reach rural areas), will officially begin deployment during early 2015.

Coventry, Solihull and Warwickshire Detail 2015 “Fibre Broadband” Rollout

13th January, 2015 (0 Comments)

The state aid supported CSW Broadband partnership, which is working to make BT’s “fibre broadband” (FTTC/P) network available to 92% of Coventry, 96% of Solihull and 91% of Warwickshire in England (overall 91% will receive “superfast” speeds of 24Mbps+) by spring 2016, has published its roll-out plan for most of 2015 (Phase 4).