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Articles for Category Tag - Building Digital UK

20 Tory MEPs Call on UK Culture Secretary to Get a Grip on Broadband

27th October, 2012 (4 Comments)

Some 20 Conservative members of the European Parliament (EP) have written a new letter to the UK government’s culture secretary, Maria Miller, that calls on her to “get a grip” on the much delayed broadband roll-out and conduct an “urgent review” to boost its speed, funding, scale and scope.

Official Government Response Shuns Lords UK Superfast Broadband Inquiry

24th October, 2012 (6 Comments)

The UK government’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has released its official response to July’s controversial Lords Inquiry into the UK government’s superfast broadband strategy, which called for a more competitive national fibre optic network to be built. But anybody expecting to see big changes will be disappointed.

BT Has No General Plan to Disguise UK Superfast Broadband Street Cabinets

23rd October, 2012 (67 Comments)

BTOpenreach, which manages access to BT’s national UK telecoms network, has confirmed to ISPreview.co.uk that it has no general plans to disguise street cabinets. The confirmation follows an earlier suggestion by the government’s culture spokesman, Viscount Younger, that “plans [were] afoot to camouflage” the big green FTTC boxes.

Legal Challenge to UK City Broadband Funding Could Bring Improvements

23rd October, 2012 (0 Comments)

The UK country manager for Brocade, a global network solutions provider, has suggested that BT and Virgin Media’s legal challenge against the use of public money (State Aid) to improve broadband services in the city of Birmingham might actually “improve the scheme’s chances of success“.

Rural Ewelme Village Secures UK Rural Community Broadband Funding

22nd October, 2012 (1 Comment)

The civil parish village of Ewelme in southern Oxfordshire (England) has won a decade long battle to secure faster broadband connectivity after the UK government’s £20m Rural Community Broadband Fund(RCBF) preliminarily approved plans for a new network.

BT and Virgin Media UK in Legal Challenge to Birmingham Broadband Funding

22nd October, 2012 (6 Comments)

National UK telecoms operators BT and Virgin Media have “disappointed” Birmingham City Council (BCC) after they launched a shock legal challenge against the city’s £10m publicly funded (State Aid) plan to expand the reach of “ultrafast” (100Mbps+) broadband ISP and public wifi services by 2015.

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?

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.

BSG Study is Optimistic About Initial UK Demand for Superfast Broadband

11th October, 2012 (4 Comments)

The Broadband Stakeholders Group (BSG), a government think-tank, has published a new study that examines the predicted demand for superfast broadband ISP products. The good news is that it “gives cause for optimism and confidence“, with the UK comparing well on the international stage, but big challenges remain.

15,000 More Jobs in Scotland Thanks to Broadband Investment

11th October, 2012 (0 Comments)

The Scottish Government has predicted that its £200m+ investment strategy to bring “world-class digital access” to all of Scotland by 2020 will result in the creation of 15,000 new jobs across the economy. It will allegedly also help job seekers, older people and those with disabilities gain access to employment.

EU Requests Minor Changes for Broadband Delivery UK State Aid Clearance

8th October, 2012 (1 Comment)

The European Commission’s (EC) competition boss, Joaquín Almunia, has confirmed that the Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) office, which is responsible for managing the country’s national superfast broadband strategy, will shortly be given permission to distribute State Aid funding to related projects around the country.

Wales UK Given GBP20 Million Broadband Funding Boost

3rd October, 2012 (0 Comments)

The Welsh Government has today announced a further £20m to help the existing investment of £425m deliver faster broadband ISP services, which will initially see 96% of homes and businesses in Wales being given access to download speeds of up to 80Mbps (FTTC) by the end of 2015.

UK Government Sacks Man Who Questioned BT Superfast Broadband Costs

2nd October, 2012 (38 Comments)

The government’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has allegedly sacked the author of an internal discussion paper that questioned some of the costs of BT’s financial model for delivering superfast broadband (FTTC) services into the “final third” of mostly rural parts of the UK.

Cumbria UK to Spend GBP2.5m Promoting Superfast Broadband to Businesses

1st October, 2012 (2 Comments)

The Cumbria County Council, which last month awarded its £70m contract (external investment) for rolling out superfast broadband (25Mbps+) services to BT, will also spend £2.5m on a new “integrated business support programme” to promote related products to local businesses. But is it necessary?

Analyst Warns UK Cities Must Pick BT for Superfast Broadband or Risk Failure

25th September, 2012 (8 Comments)

The director of Informa Telecoms & Media’s global broadband and TV research, Rob Gallagher, has warned that any UK cities which win State Aid to boost their superfast broadband availability must pick “safe bet” BT to do the job or risk being left with no ISPs and “networks based on technologies that failed to keep pace with the wider market“.

Suffolk Council UK Awards GBP40m Superfast Broadband Contract to BT

24th September, 2012 (4 Comments)

The Suffolk County Council (SCC) has today confirmed that its £40 million contract to make superfast broadband (25Mbps+) services available to 85-90% of local homes and businesses by 2015 has unsurprisingly been awarded to BT. Just 2% of the “hardest to reach premises” will be left with sub-5Mbps speeds.

ITU Report Ranks UK 12th in the World for Fixed Line Broadband Penetration

24th September, 2012 (0 Comments)

The International Telecommunication Union‘s (ITU) Broadband Commission has released its first global report into the state of mobile and fixed line broadband ISP deployment worldwide, which includes a country-by-country breakdown that tracks progress towards achieving the UN’s four primary digital development targets.