Home » UK ISP News Archive » Article Tag: Northern Ireland (363 Posts)

Articles for Category Tag - Northern Ireland

Value for Money Concerns Raised Over N.Ireland Broadband Projects

17th June, 2021 (10 Comments)

The Northern Ireland Audit Office (NIAO) has today published a new report into two recent state aid supported broadband rollout projects in Northern Ireland, which questions whether they delivered value for money, highlights a lack of contract bidding competition for BT and warns about a reliance on the contractor to self-certify its costs.

Pound sterling broadband voucher by 123rf (100296328)

Website Woes Cause Problems for UK Gigabit Voucher Scheme

6th June, 2021 (5 Comments)

The UK Government’s new rural-focused Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme is said to have faced “significant challenges” due to issues with the stability of its website, which DCMS told ISPs had resulted in temporary site outages and “issues with automated supplier payments and reporting.” But only “some users” were affected.

Openreach Boost Rural FTTP Broadband Build to 6m UK Premises

28th May, 2021 (98 Comments)

Openreach (BT) has today announced that, as a result of the BT Group raising their rollout target for 1Gbps+ Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP technology, they now expect to reach 6.2 million UK premises across rural villages and market towns (up from the previous target of 3.2m) by December 2026.

Ofcom Spring 2021 – Full Fibre Covers 21% of UK and Gigabit 37%

12th May, 2021 (9 Comments)

Ofcom’s latest Spring 2021 update for UK broadband and mobile networks has revealed that “full fibre” (FTTP) coverage has grown to 21% (up from 18% in Sep 2020) and 37% or 10.8 million homes are within reach of a gigabit-capable (1000Mbps) network (up from 27%). But sadly 4G coverage has not improved and there’s no mention of 5G.

BT Make Changes to Improve 10Mbps UK Broadband USO

6th May, 2021 (40 Comments)

UK ISP BT has issued their second biannual report into the progress they’ve made toward delivering the 10Mbps Universal Service Obligation for broadband, which reveals they’re building USO connections that cover nearly 5,000 homes and have introduced a new cost sharing system to help communities afford an upgrade.

Virgin Media Grows N.Ireland Full Fibre Cover by 13,300 Homes

22nd April, 2021 (1 Comment)

Broadband ISP and Pay TV provider Virgin Media UK has today announced that a further 13,300 homes in parts of Northern Ireland, specifically Newry, Markethill, Camlough and Bessbrook, have just benefitted from the ongoing expansion of their gigabit speed capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network.

Small Full Fibre Rollout Expansion for Project Stratum in N.Ireland

15th April, 2021 (0 Comments)

The Building Digital UK programme is reportedly preparing to approve a small funding boost for the Project Stratum deployment in Northern Ireland, which will see the chosen supplier (Fibrus) build their gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP network to a couple of thousand extra premises.

Openreach Plan FTTP Broadband for 100000 Extra N.Ireland Premises

13th April, 2021 (2 Comments)

Openreach (BT) has today announced that they will invest a further £100m+ (capital expenditure) over the next 12-months into Northern Ireland. The funding will help to expand the availability of their 1Gbps Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP network to another 100,000 premises, as well as to maintain their existing network.

EE Adds 35 New UK Locations to their Ultrafast 5G Mobile Cover

8th April, 2021 (21 Comments)

Mobile operator EE (BT) has confirmed that a further 35 towns and cities across the United Kingdom have started to go live on their new 5G ultrafast mobile broadband network, which brings the total location count to 160. Some of the biggest additions include York (Yorkshire), Dundee (Scotland) and Swansea (Wales).

broadband vouchers ultrafast gigabit uk full fibre by 123rf

New UK Gigabit Voucher Scheme Terms Add Satellite and Caveats UPDATE

6th April, 2021 (16 Comments)

As part of their £5bn Project Gigabit programme the UK Government will this week (8th April) start a new rural focused £210m gigabit broadband voucher scheme. A quick look at the new Terms and Conditions for this reveals some key changes, such as the inclusion of satellite, a £100k funding cap on project changes and other caveats.

Anger as New Gigabit Broadband Vouchers Exclude Some Villages UPDATE

26th March, 2021 (21 Comments)

The Government’s new £210m UK Gigabit Voucher scheme, which is due to launch on 8th April 2021 and will help to spread 1Gbps capable broadband into some of the most remote rural areas, is facing somewhat of a backlash from communities that may find some or all of their homes being excluded under the new eligibility criteria.

Gov Starts GBP5bn UK Gigabit Broadband and Voucher Schemes UPDATE

19th March, 2021 (53 Comments)

The UK Government has today revealed new details of how their £5bn gigabit broadband roll-out scheme will work and rebranded it as “Project Gigabit“. As part of that they’ve also confirmed £210m for an extension of their rural Gigabit Voucher scheme and £110m to connect up to 7,000 rural GP surgeries, libraries and schools.

EE, O2, Three UK and Vodafone Sign Deal to Fix Mobile Notspots

11th March, 2021 (22 Comments)

The Government has confirmed that EE (BT), O2, Three UK and Vodafone yesterday signed a “key agreement” as part of the £1bn Shared Rural Network (SRN) project, which sets out a contract for how the four operators will work together to build new sites that deliver 4G based mobile broadband coverage across “total not spots.”

First Broadband Customers Live on N.Ireland’s Project Stratum

9th March, 2021 (15 Comments)

The Northern Ireland Executive (DfE) has today announced that the first customers have now gone live on the new gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP network, which is being built with state aid support from the £165m Project Stratum programme.

EE UK Set to Expand 4G Mobile Cover to 579 Rural Areas in 2021

24th February, 2021 (9 Comments)

Mobile operator EE (BT) has today announced that, as part of the £1bn Shared Rural Network (SRN) industry project, they will expand their 4G (mobile broadband) network in 579 rural areas during 2021 in order to improve signal coverage (333 in England, 132 in Scotland, 76 in Wales, and 38 in Northern Ireland).

Farmers See Small Improvements in UK Mobile and Broadband

10th February, 2021 (9 Comments)

The National Farmers Union (NFU) has published the results from their annual (2020) survey of 430 members, which found that just 20% of farmers had access to fixed “superfast broadband” (24Mbps+) speeds (up from 17% last year) and 11% have no indoor mobile signal at all (better than the 15% recorded last year).

O2 Study Predicts £187.7m 4G Boost for Rural UK Businesses

10th February, 2021 (9 Comments)

A new study commissioned by O2 UK has predicted that the first phase of the new £1bn Shared Rural Network (SRN) project with Vodafone and Three UK, which will see all three mobile operators working to build and share 222 new 4G (mobile broadband) masts (here), could increase the turnover for rural businesses by £187.7m per annum.