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Articles for Category Tag - Building Digital UK

Pembrokeshire Celebrate Passing 60 Percent Gigabit Broadband Cover

19th November, 2024 (1 Comment)

The Pembrokeshire County Council (Cyngor Sir Penfro) in Wales has celebrated the news that 60% of local premises can now access gigabit-speed full fibre (FTTP) broadband (up from just 5% in 2019). But this is still well behind the UK’s current level of gigabit coverage, which stands at over 85%, due largely to the remote rural nature of the county.

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Gov Reopens Gigabit Broadband Vouchers in Part of Derbyshire UK

15th November, 2024 (2 Comments)

The Government’s Building Digital UK (BDUK) agency made a change this week that has re-opened their Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme (GBVS) for parts of Derbyshire in England, which means that local homes and businesses in poorly served rural areas can apply for grants worth up to £7,500 to help get a much faster broadband ISP network installed.

Northern Ireland Tenders for £81m Project Gigabit Broadband Rollout

12th November, 2024 (0 Comments)

The Building Digital UK agency and Department for the Economy (DfE) have this week begun the supplier procurement phase of their future Project Gigabit broadband roll-out for Northern Ireland, which values the contract at up to £81m (state aid) and could potentially achieve almost universal coverage of 1000Mbps+ broadband speeds.

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Future of TV as Gov Predict 99.65% of UK to Have Superfast Broadband by 2030

8th November, 2024 (39 Comments)

The UK Government has today published an interesting new report examining the ‘Future of TV distribution‘, which among other things looks at the changing viewing habits and platform choices of modern TV viewers and then attempts to predict what will happen by 2040. The report also delves into the related issue of broadband ISP speeds and take-up.

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Connexin Begin Rollout of FTTP Broadband in Nottinghamshire and West Lincolnshire

5th November, 2024 (5 Comments)

Alternative UK broadband ISP Connexin has today issued a short progress update to state that they’re about to enter the build phase on their £58.6m (state aid funded) Project Gigabit contract for rural parts of Nottinghamshire and West Lincolnshire (Lot 10), which aims to expand their full fibre (FTTP) network to cover 34,320 hard to reach premises.

Devon and Somerset UK Broadband Project Scales Back Airband Rollout UPDATE

31st October, 2024 (33 Comments)

The state-aid supported Connecting Devon and Somerset (CDS) programme has suffered yet another problem with one of their rural broadband contracts, which occurred today after they announced that their full fibre roll-out deal with Worcestershire-based Airband was being “scaled back” following its underperformance.

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Autumn UK Budget 2024 Commits £500m to Broadband and Mobile UPDATE4

30th October, 2024 (6 Comments)

The new Chancellor of the Labour Government, Rachel Reeves MP, has today announced her first Autumn 2024 Budget and confirmed that she would commit “over £500m of funding next year” for “improving reliable fast broadband and mobile coverage across our country, including in rural areas“.

Over 50 MPs Call on UK Gov to Defend Rural Broadband Funding

25th October, 2024 (0 Comments)

The Country Land and Business Association (CLA), which represents thousands of landowners (farmers and businesses) across England and Wales, has joined with over 50 MPs to “seek clarity” from the Government over the future of Project Gigabit broadband funding and what proportion of the spend will be going toward rural vs urban areas.

CityFibre Start FTTP Broadband Build for East Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire

24th October, 2024 (13 Comments)

CityFibre has begun the build phase of their £58m state-aid supported Project Gigabit broadband rollout contract for Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire & East Berkshire (LOT 26) in England (here), which will see them expand their full fibre (FTTP) network to cover 34,000 of the hardest-to-reach premises (150,000 if you include their complementary commercial build).

Parliament UK Building at Dusk in London 2021

New UK Data Use and Access Bill to Aid Utility Maps and ISP Comparisons

24th October, 2024 (3 Comments)

The UK government has today unveiled details of their new Data Use and Access Bill (DUAB), which aims to deliver a £10bn economy boost by “unlocking the secure and effective use of data for the public interest“. The measures will also support personalised market comparisons for utility pricing and a new digital map of underground broadband cables and pipes on a “statutory footing“.

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Telecoms May Benefit from Gov’s New British Infrastructure Taskforce

19th October, 2024 (6 Comments)

The UK Government has launched a new British Infrastructure Taskforce (BIT), which is intended to attract more private investment by encouraging businesses to help design future infrastructure policy. In theory, this could be of some benefit to broadband and mobile (digital infrastructure), although the announcement doesn’t give specifics.

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Acrimony as UK Parliament Debate Use of Telegraph Poles for Broadband

18th October, 2024 (27 Comments)

The vexed question of whether it’s always right to use “telegraph poles“, which are far from popular with many UK communities, when deploying the new generation of gigabit broadband ISP networks came up for debate in parliament yesterday. MPs broadly called for change and stronger rules are coming “early” in 2025, but whether they will be enough remains to be seen.

GoFibre’s Project Gigabit Broadband Rollout for Teesdale and Northumberland Tweaked

16th October, 2024 (3 Comments)

The government’s Building Digital UK (BDUK) agency has revealed that they’ve made some tweaks to the state aid funded Project Gigabit broadband roll-out contracts for Teesdale (Lot 4.01) and North Northumberland (Lot 34.01), which were both awarded to alternative network ISP GoFibre (BorderLink) during 2022 (here and here).

Gov Publishes Evaluation of the UK Fibre in Water Broadband Project

14th October, 2024 (13 Comments)

The UK Government (DSIT) has published an evaluation report into the c.£6.2 million “Fibre in Water” trial (Project TAWCO), which tested the deployment of fibre optic (FTTP) cables through a live water mains (used for drinking water) but, as we previously reported (here), ended up being stalled due to several issues.

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New Digital UK Map of Underground Cables to Enter Public Beta in 2025

8th October, 2024 (10 Comments)

The Government has announced that their new National Underground Asset Register (NUAR), which is a digital UK map of underground pipes and cables (broadband, water etc.) that is partly designed to help reduce accidental damage, will finally be made available as a public beta service by spring 2025.

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Gigabit Broadband Coverage Reaches 85 Percent of UK Premises

7th October, 2024 (26 Comments)

New independent data has revealed that 85.06% of premises across the United Kingdom can now access a gigabit-capable broadband ISP connection (1000Mbps+), which is up from 80% at the end of 2023 and means the first target under the Government’s £5bn Project Gigabit programme has likely been achieved. The figure drops to 70.84% when only looking at full fibre (FTTP) lines.

Central London UK Broadband Picture 2024 - 123rf

MP Criticises UK Gov Proposal to Spend Rural Broadband Money in Cities

7th October, 2024 (10 Comments)

The Shadow Technology Secretary, Andrew Griffith MP, has warned the new UK Government against a “shocking waste of taxpayers’ money” by potentially shifting public funding, which is currently earmarked for the rural-focused Project Gigabit broadband roll-out, and using it to help upgrade parts of major towns and cities (e.g. central London).