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Articles for Category Tag - Building Digital UK

House of Lords UK Superfast Broadband Inquiry Publishes Written Evidence

18th April, 2012 (115 Comments)

The House of Lords Select Committee Inquiry into the UK governments superfast broadband strategy, which launched in mid-February 2012 (here) and closed for responses on 13th March 2012, has now published a full summary of all the written evidence submitted.

BT Bid for all Broadband Contracts as UK Gov Shun Universal Service Obligation

17th April, 2012 (11 Comments)

The UK government’s Communications Minister, Ed Vaizey, has confirmed that BT are officially bidding on all 8 of the currently active superfast broadband procurement contracts (more will follow). Separately Vaizey said that “the time is not right” to introduce a legal Universal Service Obligation (USO) for broadband.

Support for Governments GBP150 Million Urban Broadband Fund Divides UK

16th April, 2012 (4 Comments)

The results from 872 respondents to our latest monthly reader survey has revealed how more than half (51.7%) support the government’s plan to spend £100 Million (Urban Broadband Fund) on improving superfast broadband services in some of the country’s largest cities, yet only 10% felt that £100m would be enough to do the job properly. A further £50m has since been added, but this will only help “smaller cities“.

Lack of Fast Broadband is NOT Just a Problem for UK Rural Areas

11th April, 2012 (8 Comments)

The lack of good broadband ISP connectivity, despite what some people might think, is most definitively not an issue that has confined itself to the United Kingdom’s many rural areas. Indeed over the past few years this has become quite a common misconception, not least because there is a lack of hard data to map the problem with any real accuracy.

BT Confirms 97 Percent of Lancashire UK to Get its Superfast Broadband

3rd April, 2012 (10 Comments)

BT and the Lancashire County Council (LCC) have announced that 97% of homes and businesses in the UK county will be able to receive the telecom operators superfast broadband (FTTC , FTTP) ISP services by the end of 2014 (subject to the timing of State Aid approval) after both parties agreed the new £62.5 million project.

Brocade Calls for UK Superfast Broadband Plan to Refocus on Data Centres

26th March, 2012 (0 Comments)

Brocade, a global networking solutions provider, has warned that the current drive to deliver superfast broadband services to 90% of the UK population by 2015 desperately needs to “shift in focus” away from home connectivity and onto data centres. The firm claims that failure to do so would risk creating “too much demand” before appropriate infrastructure is in place.

Rutland UK County Council Awards Superfast Broadband Contract to BT

23rd March, 2012 (4 Comments)

The Rutland County Council (RCC) has awarded the contract for its Digital Rutland project (Local Broadband Plan), which mirrors the UK governments goal of making superfast broadband (24Mbps+) ISP services available to 90% of premises by 2015, to BT (subject to EC State Aid approval).

UPD2 UK ISPs Give Mixed Reaction to Budget 2012 Broadband Commitments

22nd March, 2012 (1 Comment)

Yesterday’s Budget 2012 announcement (detailed summary) from the UK government appears to have drawn a mixed reaction from Internet Service Providers (ISP) and related organisations. The budget revealed which 10 cities will get “ultrafast” broadband services and better mobile / wifi connectivity through the £100m Urban Broadband Fund (UBF) and added a further £50m to support similar efforts in “smaller cities“.

UPD Budget 2012 Confirm Final 10 UK Cities for £100m Ultrafast Broadband Fund

21st March, 2012 (12 Comments)

The UK governments Chancellor, George Osborne MP, has this afternoon presented his annual Budget 2012 announcement to the House of Commons (Parliament) and confirmed which 10 cities can now expect to get “ultrafast” broadband ISP services and “high speed public wifi” through the £100m Urban Broadband Fund (UBF). A further £50m has today also been allocated for a second wave of “smaller cities“.

Former BT CTO Tells Inquiry the UK Needs £15bn to do Broadband Properly

21st March, 2012 (3 Comments)

The former Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of BT, Dr Peter Cochrane, has told a Lords Select Committee Inquiry into the UK governments superfast broadband strategy that the country would need to invest “at least £15bn” if it wanted to upgrade the national telecoms infrastructure properly and deliver a truly fibre optic (e.g. FTTH) service to everybody.

PM David Cameron Reiterates UK Governments Broadband Commitments

20th March, 2012 (12 Comments)

The UK Prime Minster (PM), David Cameron, has laid the groundwork for tomorrows Budget 2012 announcements by giving a special speech on national infrastructure to the Institute of Civil Engineering (ICE) that reiterated the governments various commitments for improving the country’s broadband internet access services.

Internet Access Contributes More to UK GDP than any other G20 Country

19th March, 2012 (5 Comments)

The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), a global management consultancy firm, has reported that broadband internet access and the online industry contributed 8.3% (£121bn) to the UK economy (Gross Domestic Product) in 2010 and will grow by 11% each year for the next four years to hit £221bn by 2016.

Ofcom UK Publishes More Detailed Broadband Availability Data for England

15th March, 2012 (5 Comments)

Following a request from the UK governments Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), Ofcom, the communications regulator, has today published some of its “early” 2011 Infrastructure Report broadband data at a “more detailed geographical level“.

UK CLA Calls for 2Mbps Broadband to be a Universal Service Obligation

15th March, 2012 (4 Comments)

The Country Land and Business Association (CLA), a lobby group for land owners across England and Wales, has told the UK governments House of Lords Select Committee on Communications, which recently launched an inquiry into the country’s superfast broadband strategy (here), that it must provide a Universal Service Obligation (USO) for broadband of at least 2Mbps (Megabits per second) in rural areas.

UK Government Admits Broadband Availability Maps Exclude Wireless Services

14th March, 2012 (5 Comments)

The governments Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) office, which wants 90% of people to be within reach of a superfast broadband (24Mbps+) service by 2015, has confirmed that its maps of national broadband availability (example) could be seriously flawed because they often exclude wireless networks (WiFi, WiMAX etc.) and instead focus on fixed line ISP connectivity.

UK Concedes that Scotland Did Not Get a Fair Share of Broadband Funds

12th March, 2012 (2 Comments)

The Scottish Government’s Cabinet Secretary for Infrastructure and Investment, Alex Neil (SNP), claims that the UK’s central government (Westminster) “have now conceded that we did not get our fair share” of funding to assist with the rollout of faster broadband internet access services in rural areas.

ISP Exwavia Fears UK Government to Fine Rural Farmers for Lack of Broadband

10th March, 2012 (4 Comments)

Welshpool-based ISP Exwavia, which uses wireless (WiFi) technology to deliver broadband internet access speeds of up to 14Mbps (Megabits per second) into isolated parts of rural Wales (UK), has warned that farmers could soon be hit by a new wave of fines and penalties if they do not start using the governments related online services (e.g. Taxation, Electronic Sheep Database etc.).