Home » UK ISP News Archive » Article Tag: Europe (382 Posts)

Articles for Category Tag - Europe

Farmers Angry After UK Considers Diverting their Subsidies to Broadband

22nd July, 2013 (11 Comments)

The UK government’s Environment Secretary, Owen Paterson, has caused anger among farming communities by proposing to divert more than £300 million a year of their subsidies from Europe’s controversial 60bn Euro Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and to use it for improving rural broadband access.

FTTH Council Criticises Poor Superfast Broadband Progress in Europe

17th July, 2013 (27 Comments)

The FTTH Council Europe, which campaigns for the adoption of a fully fibre optic telecoms and internet infrastructure, has heavily criticised Europe’s “lacklustre performance” after a recent progress update showed that the EU was still a long way from achieving their Digital Agenda targets for superfast broadband.

Leaked EU Laws and Police Raid on ISPs Raise Net Neutrality Concerns

15th July, 2013 (0 Comments)

The European Commission’s recent promise to “guarantee” Net Neutrality by ensuring that broadband ISPs and mobile operators give citizens access to the full and open internet, “without any blocking or throttling of competing services” (here), has been called into question after a draft of the new regulation was leaked.

Nearly Half of EU Internet Users Would Swap ISP for Faster Broadband

8th July, 2013 (0 Comments)

The European Commission (EC) has revealed that 45% of EU citizens would upgrade their broadband connection or swap ISP entirely to get faster internet speeds. Separately another 40% said that they found it difficult to access internet content and services due to “insufficient speed or download capacity“.

UPDATE2 EU Mobile Broadband and Phone Roaming Prices Get Cheaper

1st July, 2013 (3 Comments)

The price of making a mobile phone call, sending a text message or surfing the internet from your Mobile Broadband connection while roaming abroad within Europe has today dropped another level after last year’s regulatory changes continued to impact both retail and wholesale costs.

EU Impose New Personal Data Rules on UK Phone and Internet Providers

25th June, 2013 (0 Comments)

The European Commission (EC) has this week implemented new rules to help telephone and broadband providers (ISP) know what to do when their customers’ personal data is either lost, stolen or otherwise compromised. But companies that encrypt your data won’t have to tell you if it’s been stolen.

UPDATE EU Study of Real Broadband ISP Speeds Shows Mixed UK Results

24th June, 2013 (5 Comments)

Europe has published its first study into the actual broadband internet speeds experienced by 9,104 homes across the continent (30 countries and over 250 ISPs), which reveals that the average peak time download rate for DSL (ADSL) services is just 7.19Mbps (Megabits), rising to 33.08Mbps for Cable and 41.02Mbps for fibre optic (FTTC/H).

Edinburgh Proposes Revised £10m Broadband Plan After EU Funding Fail

19th June, 2013 (2 Comments)

The City of Edinburgh Council (Scotland) has submitted a revised plan for improving the city’s telecoms infrastructure, which comes after EU competition concerns prevented a majority of the £10.7 million allocated through the government’s £150m Urban Broadband Fund from being used to build a new fibre optic broadband network.

EU Scoreboard Shows UK Superfast Broadband Penetration Improving

12th June, 2013 (5 Comments)

The European Commission has published its annual Digital Agenda Scoreboard 2013, which reports that 95.5% of EU homes are covered by broadband access (99.8% in the United Kingdom) and 53.8% can get a 30Mbps+ capable superfast broadband connection (70.3% in the UK). But “ultra-fast” connections (100Mbps+) still have a way to go.

New Safeguard to Guarantee Open Internet Access without Restrictions

4th June, 2013 (7 Comments)

The Vice-President of the European Commission (EC) responsible for the Digital Agenda, Neelie Kroes, has proposed a new EU “safeguard” to ensure that broadband ISPs and mobile operators give every citizen a “guarantee of access to the full and open internet, without any blocking or throttling of competing services“.

UK Opposes EU Measures for Cutting Broadband Deployment Costs

29th May, 2013 (0 Comments)

The House of Commons has advised the President of the Council of the European Union that it objects to the European Commission’s proposals to cut the cost of broadband related civil engineering tasks (e.g. digging up roads to lay new fibre optic cable) because the measures “do not comply” with the principle of subsidiarity.

Nottinghamshire UK Secures Extra EU Superfast Broadband Funding

21st May, 2013 (0 Comments)

The Nottinghamshire County Council (NCC) has managed to secure an addition £2.7 million in funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), which will help its efforts to make superfast broadband available to over 90% of local people by around 2016.

Europe Seeks One Telecoms Regulator to Rule Them All – Replace Ofcom

21st May, 2013 (6 Comments)

The European Commission’s Digital Agenda boss, Neelie Kroes, will next month unveil her plans for a single telecoms market that is expected to propose the semi-abolishment of national regulators and the creation of one regulator to govern the whole of Europe (telecoms policy).

The Whole of the EU Could Get Superfast Broadband for GBP69 Billion

21st May, 2013 (6 Comments)

A new report from Point Topic has claimed that the cost of making superfast broadband (30Mbps+) available to 100% of the UK and Europe could be just £69 billion (EUR 82bn), which is considerably less than the original estimate of up to £228 bn (EUR 270bn). The catch is it would be hybrid-fibre (FTTC/N) and not true fibre optic (FTTH/P).

Europe Clears £51m Superfast Broadband BDUK Rollout in Cumbria UK

20th May, 2013 (2 Comments)

The European Commission’s (EC) competition authority has officially granted Major Projects Approval to the £50.8m state aid supported Connecting Cumbria project in North West England, which aims to roll-out BT’s superfast broadband (FTTC/P) services to over 93% of the county by the end of 2015. Oh and the speed target is now 240Mbps? Oops.

BT Adjusts PIA to Meet Latest BDUK and EU State Aid Broadband Rules

17th May, 2013 (14 Comments)

BTOpenreach has launched a new “Plus” variant of its Physical Infrastructure Access (PIA) product, which allows rival ISPs access to use BT’s underground cable ducts and telegraph poles. The updated solution has been designed to meet the latest EU rules governing the use of state aid to improve UK broadband infrastructure.

Northumberland UK Win GBP2.74m from EU for Better Business Broadband

10th April, 2013 (9 Comments)

The European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) appears to have awarded a grant worth £2.74 million to help over 2,600 small and medium sized businesses in Northumberland (North East England) gain access to superfast and ultrafast broadband ISP connectivity via a “range of incentives“.