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Articles for Category Tag - Building Digital UK

Cityfibre FTTP Splicing Close Up Picture 2022

CityFibre Win Three Major UK Project Gigabit Broadband Rollout Contracts

1st July, 2023 (48 Comments)

The UK Government’s £5bn Project Gigabit broadband rollout scheme has announced that CityFibre have secured three major build contracts for Hampshire, Norfolk and Suffolk in England. The combined award is worth £488m (£318m state aid and £170m private) and will see the operator extend 10Gbps capable FTTP to 218,000 premises (500k inc. commercial build).

Network map of United Kingdom. Country digital connections map. Technology, internet, network, telecommunication concept. Vector illustration.

2023 H1 – UK Full Fibre Broadband Coverage Rises to 53 Percent

1st July, 2023 (15 Comments)

The latest biannual summary of UK fixed broadband coverage for H1 2023 has found that “full fibre” (FTTP) ISP networks have surged to reach 52.77% of premises (up from 45.13% in H2 2022) and 76.22% are within reach of “gigabit” speeds (up from 72.66%). Read on for details of England, Wales, Scotland and N.Ireland.

Scotland’s R100 FTTP Broadband Build Tops 24,000 Premises

30th June, 2023 (3 Comments)

The Scottish Government has, in response to a Freedom of Information Request, published a useful progress update on their £600m Reaching 100% (R100) project with Openreach (BT), which reveals that 24,194 premises have now been covered by their rollout of a new “superfast broadband” (30Mbps+) capable ISP network.

Farmers See Modest Improvements in Mobile and Broadband Cover

26th June, 2023 (0 Comments)

The National Farmers Union recently published the results of their latest annual survey of 814 members across England and Wales, which among other things found that 36% can now access “supefast broadband” (24Mbps+) speeds (up from 20% two years ago), while 80% had access to 4G on their mobiles and 10% could get 5G.

Openreach Slowly Nears Completion of Devon and Somerset FTTP Contract

21st June, 2023 (17 Comments)

The state aid supported Connecting Devon and Somerset (CDS) programme in England has today issued a progress update on their £6m Fibre Extension Programme (FEP) contract with Openreach (BT), which was originally due to cover 2,000 rural premises with Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband by the end of 2021.

Housing Search and UK Broadband Under Magnifying Glass

H2 2022 – Full Fibre Broadband Covers 98% of New Build UK Homes

21st June, 2023 (1 Comment)

The latest H2 2022 study into the broadband coverage of UK new build homes reveals that 98.3% of houses constructed by the end of 2022 were covered by a fixed Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network (unchanged from H1 2022), which falls slightly to 98.1% when only looking at the latest early data for 2023.

MP Tim Farron Calls on Gov to Probe U-Turn on B4RN’s Cumbria FTTP Build

20th June, 2023 (11 Comments)

The Liberal Democrat MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale, Tim Farron, has once again gone to bat for UK broadband ISP B4RN after the Building Digital UK (BDUK) agency unexpectedly pulled the rug out from under one of their rural gigabit voucher based full fibre builds in Cumbria (i.e. the project for Warcop, Sandford, Coupland Beck, Bleatarn and Ormside).

BDUK Change Stalls One of B4RN’s Rural FTTP Builds in Cumbria UPDATE

14th June, 2023 (13 Comments)

Residents in the Eden Valley (Cumbria) villages of Warcop, Sandford, Coupland Beck, Bleatarn and Ormside have been left angry after the Government’s Building Digital UK (BDUK) agency, which had been due to supply gigabit vouchers to help them get a new full fibre (FTTP) network installed, put their project into limbo.

UK Gov Updates on Rural Satellite Broadband Trial and New Pilots UPDATE

12th June, 2023 (13 Comments)

The Government has revealed some new details about their previously announced trial (here) to deliver “high-speed broadband” via Satellite ISP solutions to Shetland. At the same time, they’ve also launched a new Smart Infrastructure Pilots Programme (SIPP) and signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Telecoms Diversification with Australia.

Government Appoints UK’s First Rural Connectivity Champion

7th June, 2023 (22 Comments)

The Government (DEFRA & DSIT) has followed this week’s publication of its new Unleashing Rural Opportunity paper (here) by announcing that it has appointed the MP for Barrow and Furness in Cumbria, Simon Fell, to be the UK’s first “Rural Connectivity Champion” to support rural areas in accessing faster broadband etc.

Openreach 2023 Engineers Threading UK Fibre

Q1 2023 Openreach Progress Update on Wales FTTP Build Contract

7th June, 2023 (11 Comments)

The Welsh Government (WG) has released their Q1 2023 progress update on the £52.5m Phase 2 Superfast Cymru contract with Openreach (BT), which confirms that a total of 36,869 extra premises (up from 35,770 in Q4 2022) have now gained access to their gigabit speed Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP network.

Project-Gigabit-Broadband-Map-for-Northern-Ireland-2023

85,504 Premises in N.Ireland Need Help to Get Gigabit Broadband

6th June, 2023 (4 Comments)

The Building Digital UK agency and Department for the Economy (DfE) have published a new Public Review (PR) consultation for Northern Ireland, which reveals that some 85,504 premises might need state aid help under the £5bn Project Gigabit broadband rollout scheme in order to access 1Gbps speeds.

Gov Launch New £7m Fund to Test UK Rural Broadband Solutions UPDATE

6th June, 2023 (8 Comments)

The UK Government will today launch a new £7 million fund as one part of their wider Unleashing Rural Opportunity strategy, which will be used to “test out new ways” of bringing together satellite, wireless (FWA and mobile) and fixed line broadband ISP solutions to help “support farmers and tourism businesses” in rural areas.

Fibrus Put First Homes Live on Project Gigabit Build in Cumbria UK

31st May, 2023 (2 Comments)

Broadband ISP Fibrus has today announced that the first homes to be reached via their £108m Project Gigabit broadband rollout contract in Cumbria (here) have just been connected, which occurs only six months after the formal announcement. A total of 60,000 hard-to-reach premises are expected to benefit by completion.

Broadway-Partners-Engineering-Van-and-Tractor-in-UK-Countryside

New BDUK Change Stalls Some FTTP Broadband Builds in Powys UPDATE

30th May, 2023 (5 Comments)

Residents in the rural Powys (Wales) village of Llangedwyn – including neighbours in Llanfihangel (and possibly others) – have complained after their long-awaited rollout of a new full fibre (FTTP) broadband network, which was due to be built by Broadway Partners, was put on hold due to the UK’s £5bn Project Gigabit scheme.

Guest Editorial – Progress on Trial to Run Fibre via the Water Mains

27th May, 2023 (0 Comments)

The UK Government’s Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) has today revealed their progress and learnings from the first phase of the £6.2m “Fibre in Water” trial, which aims to test the deployment of fibre optic (FTTP) broadband cables through a live water mains (used for drinking water).

BT Slows FTTP Build as Cover Grows to 10.27 Million UK Premises UPDATE

18th May, 2023 (46 Comments)

BT Group has today published their latest Q4 FY23 (quarterly) results to March 2023, which saw Openreach’s Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP network grow to cover 10.274 million premises (up by 702k in the quarter vs 810k last quarter) and EE increase their 5G Ready customer base to 9.12 million (up from 8.5m).