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UK and European Leaders Support GBP7.5bn Superfast Broadband Boost

20th October, 2012 (6 Comments)

The European Council, which is represented by the leaders of each member state (e.g. UK Prime Minister, David Cameron), yesterday set aside its doubts and gave explicit support to the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) and its proposed investment of €9.2bn (almost £7.5bn) into the delivery of faster broadband services.

UPDATE The Broadband Delivery UK Office is Home to 75 Full Time Staff

19th October, 2012 (3 Comments)

The government’s Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) office, which is responsible to distributing £680m to help 90% of people gain access to superfast broadband ISP connections by 2015, apparently has 75 full-time staff working to implement its remit. But are they all needed?

SES Prep Self Installable 20Mbps Capable Broadband Satellite for EU and UK

19th October, 2012 (6 Comments)

Global satellite operator SES (SES Broadband) has confirmed that its new ASTRA 2F spacecraft, which was launched into orbit at the end of last month, will bring affordable internet download speeds of up to 20Mbps to rural parts of both the UK and Europe. On top of that it will also make self-installation a possibility.

Recycled Fibre Optic Network Brings 10Gbps Broadband to Manchester UK

19th October, 2012 (2 Comments)

An old 77km long fibre optic network that stretches across Greater Manchester, which was originally installed by Atlantic Telecom to support the 2002 Commonwealth Games (i.e. just before the operator went bust), has been brought back to life by another ISP.

Broadband Rollout to be Boosted as New Infrastructure Bill Reaches Parliament

19th October, 2012 (1 Comment)

The Growth and Infrastructure Bill (GIB), which among other things contains plans to help “fast-track” the deployment of superfast broadband (25Mbps+) services around the United Kingdom by cutting red tape in the existing planning system, has now gone before parliament.

UK 4G Operators Setup Digital Mobile Spectrum Group to Fix Freeview TV Woes

18th October, 2012 (3 Comments)

The UK’s primary Mobile Broadband operators have today setup a new company called Digital Mobile Spectrum Limited (formerly MitCo), which will work to ensure that 900,000 UK homes don’t lose Freeview Digital TV (DTV) services when the new 4G (LTE) products, via the 800MHz band, arrive next year.

Ofcom to Protect UK Consumers from Unexpected Broadband ISP Price Rises

18th October, 2012 (1 Comment)

The UK communications regulator, Ofcom, has today launched a new consultation that seeks to address the problem of unexpected mid-contract price rises, which can lead to broadband, phone and mobile customers paying significantly more than they originally signed up for.

BT Makes Progress with First UK Fibre Only Broadband Pilot in Deddington

18th October, 2012 (7 Comments)

BTOpenreach, which manages access to BT’s UK telecoms network, appears to be making good progress with its first Fibre-Only Exchange (FOX) trial in the rural civil parish village of Deddington (Oxfordshire). The project aims to replace the old copper line products with ultra-fast fibre optic phone and broadband (e.g. 100Mbps+ FTTP) services.

Consumer Focus Warn of Systematic Errors in UK Internet Piracy Evidence

17th October, 2012 (0 Comments)

Consumer Focus has warned Rights Holders that there is a very real danger of “systematic errors” causing damage to the Internet Protocol (IP) address based evidence that they intend to use against broadband ISP customers whom are suspected of engaging in internet piracy (copyright infringement).

Akamai Finds Global Broadband Speeds Average 3Mbps as UK Hits 5.7Mbps

17th October, 2012 (2 Comments)

Akamai has today published its latest quarterly State of the Internet Q2 2012 report, which found that the average global download speed has risen by 13% from 2.6Mbps (Megabits per second) in Q1 to 3Mbps now. Meanwhile the average broadband speed in the UK stands at 5.7Mbps (up slightly from 5.6Mbps in Q1).

Virgin Media to Keep FREE WiFi in London UK Tube Stations Until 2013

17th October, 2012 (2 Comments)

Cable operator Virgin Media UK has announced that its free wireless internet (WiFi) service at 72 London underground tube stations will remain free until the end of 2012. The service had originally been due to adopt a commercial (paid) model after the Olympic Games but this plan has now been delayed.

BT Openreach Moves to Tackle Disputes Over Missed Engineer Appointments

17th October, 2012 (4 Comments)

BTOpenreach, which manages access to BT’s national UK telecoms network, has this week introduced a new Disputed No Access process for all ISPs. This is designed to “repair appointments” where engineers have reported that they arrived at a home but were then unable to gain access, an account that customers sometimes dispute.

Growth Slows as Global Broadband Subscribers Total 624.1M in Q2 2012

17th October, 2012 (0 Comments)

Analyst firm Point Topic UK has reported that the total number of broadband lines globally reached 624.1 Million in Q2 2012 (quarterly growth of 2.1%), which represents a “significant decline” in growth versus the 2.7% increase seen during Q1. Thankfully superfast fibre optic (FTTx) based connections showed more promise.

FTTH Ultrafast Fibre Optic Broadband Connections Pass 175000 UK Homes

16th October, 2012 (45 Comments)

The FTTH Council Europe has released its latest global ranking of ultrafast Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) based fibre optic broadband ISP internet connections. Sadly the UK still doesn’t have enough true fibre connections to show in the main list but related services have now passed 175,000 homes.

Kroes Calls on National Governments to Help EU Get Usain Bolt Internet

16th October, 2012 (5 Comments)

The Vice President for Europe’s Digital Agenda project, Neelie Kroes, has called upon member states to have “the courage to invest” in ultrafast broadband services that will deliver “Usain Bolt Internet” speeds to everybody in the region by 2020. Otherwise we risk being “tied down by slow connections“, warned Kroes.

New York City USA Thrashes London UK for 3G Mobile Broadband Speeds

16th October, 2012 (3 Comments)

The latest RootMetrics study of Mobile Broadband speeds has revealed that Three UK delivers the fastest connection in London (T-Mobile was the slowest), where the average download speed is 2.265Mbps (Megabits per second). But mobile speeds in New York were on average found to be four times faster (8.5Mbps).

VIDEO Felix Baumgartner Space Balloon Jump Sees UK Internet Traffic Surge

16th October, 2012 (1 Comment)

Broadband ISP TalkTalk reports that internet traffic over its UK network spiked at 460Gbps (Gigabits per second) on Sunday evening (“significantly more” than normal) as customers went online to watch Austrian pilot Felix Baumgartner jump to Earth from a balloon (Red Bull Stratos) at the edge of space.