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Articles for Category Tag - Politics

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Study Claims 1 Mill Rural UK FTTP Premises At Risk of Openreach’s “uneconomic overbuild”

31st July, 2026 (20 Comments)

Consulting firm Cartesian has released a new report on the state of the UK’s fibre full broadband market, which unsurprisingly highlights how challenging it is for alternative networks (altnet) to create sustainable business models. The study also claims that c.1 million rural FTTP premises could see uneconomic overbuild if Openreach is required to meet a high exchange coverage threshold for copper switchover.

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Wessex Internet Tweak Dorset and Somerset UK Project Gigabit Broadband Contract

29th July, 2026 (0 Comments)

The Government’s Building Digital UK (BDUK) agency has posted another contract modification notice for Wessex Internet’s Project Gigabit contract in Dorset and South Somerset (Lot 14.02), which slightly reduced the planned roll-out of full fibre broadband (FTTP) by 1,047 premises and shrinks its value by £702,296 (public subsidy).

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BDUK Update Figures for Openreach’s Project Gigabit Broadband Contracts

29th July, 2026 (4 Comments)

The Government’s Building Digital UK (BDUK) agency has updated the latest contract values and contracted premises figures for their Project Gigabit broadband roll-out contracts with Openreach (BT), which takes account of recent changes to show that all of the contracts combined are now worth £850m and will bring FTTP to around 358,000 premises.

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Alternative UK Full Fibre Networks Call on Prime Minister to Focus on Broadband

23rd July, 2026 (4 Comments)

The Independent Networks Co-operative Association (INCA), which represents many of the UK market’s alternative broadband networks, has this afternoon become the latest industry organisation to press the new UK Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, and his leadership team to “give broadband and telecoms the political attention and clear ministerial ownership they deserve“.

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Government Responsibility for UK Broadband and Mobile Returns to DCMS

23rd July, 2026 (1 Comment)

After a few days of conflicting messaging, the Government in Westminster did yesterday confirm that responsibility for all things broadband and mobile related – this includes programmes covered by the Building Digital UK (BDUK) agency and related aspects – has been shifted back to a re-named Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). But now the ‘D’ stands for Digital (I guess.. DDCMS?).

Virgin Media O2 Calls on Ofcom to Weaken UK Net Neutrality Rules for Mobile

22nd July, 2026 (14 Comments)

Broadband and mobile giant Virgin Media and O2 (VMO2) has today attempted to reignite the Net Neutrality debate, again, by calling on Ofcom to soften their guidelines in order to “unlock innovation and new mobile network investment“. The rules were originally established to prevent unfair blocking or slowing of access to legal websites and other internet services by comms providers.

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July 2026 Contract Progress of UK Project Gigabit Broadband Rollout

20th July, 2026 (11 Comments)

The Government’s Building Digital UK (BDUK) agency has today released their July 2026 update on the delivery progress of contracts awarded under the £5bn Project Gigabit broadband rollout scheme. The update reveals that some 287,510 contracted premises (up from 271,460 in Jun 2026) have so far been covered out of a planned total of 838,490 (34% complete).

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Government Offers £42m to Develop UK LEO Satellite Broadband and Comms Tech

20th July, 2026 (2 Comments)

The government’s UK Space Agency has today opened up the third funding round under their 4-year £160m Connectivity in Low Earth Orbit (C-LEO) programme, which is offering £42m to develop new satellite technologies and components to help supply “high-speed internet, communications and data services” around the world.

Concern for Telecoms as New UK Prime Minister Scraps Tech Department UPDATE

20th July, 2026 (11 Comments)

The incoming UK Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, is reportedly planning to abolish the Government’s central Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), which also oversees broadband and mobile connectivity (telecoms) – partly via the Building Digital UK (BDUK) agency. The proposal plan could see DSIT’s functions being spread across other departments.

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The End of Ground-based Astronomy – UK Gov Responds to Broadband Satellite Fears

20th July, 2026 (3 Comments)

The UK Government’s Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) has confirmed to ISPreview that they’re “actively engaged in international efforts to find solutions” to the problem raised by a recent study, which warned that ground-based telescopes might soon become useless if the number of satellites in Earth’s orbit exceeds 100,000 (i.e. those with below naked eye visibility).

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Wiltshire Council Praise Wessex Internet’s Rural Gigabit Broadband Build Progress

18th July, 2026 (0 Comments)

The Wiltshire Council in the South of England has praised rural broadband ISP Wessex Internet for exceeding 40% of its connectivity targets under their £18.8m (public subsidy) Project Gigabit contract for South Wiltshire (Lot 30), which has so far expanded full fibre broadband to reach 7,500 premises in hard-to-reach areas.

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Vodafone Says UK Ranks Poorly in Study of Ten Major Mobile Markets

16th July, 2026 (1 Comment)

Broadband and mobile provider Vodafone has published their new Mobile Market Index (MMI), which benchmarks the UK against nine international peers (inc. USA, Germany, France, Spain, South Korea, Australia, Norway, Singapore and Hungary) to assess the environment facing Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) in each.

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Gov Sets Out More Detail of UK Social Media Curfews and Restrictions for Under 18s

14th July, 2026 (6 Comments)

The Government has tonight set out more details of how they intend to implement their recently announced internet Social Media ban for children under 16 (original news), which among other things includes new details on overnight curfews and breaks in infinite scrolling for under 18s.

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Wessex Internet Complete Full Fibre Rollout Contract in Devon and Somerset UK

14th July, 2026 (0 Comments)

Rural broadband ISP Wessex Internet has today announced that they’ve completed their publicly funded deployment of full fibre broadband under the Connecting Devon and Somerset (CDS) programme, which has seen 4,190 hard-to-reach rural homes and businesses across South Somerset in England gain access to their gigabit speed network.

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Trade Deal Between UK and Switzerland to Bring Free Mobile Roaming

14th July, 2026 (6 Comments)

Yesterday saw the UK Government sign one of its largest services-focused trade deals to date, this time with the beautifully mountainous Central European country of Switzerland, which among other things included an agreement to support surcharge-free international mobile roaming.

LSBUD and UK Government Collaborate to Make Telecoms Street Works Safer

10th July, 2026 (1 Comment)

The LSBUD (Line Search Before You Dig) organisation, which provides an online asset search facility to UK civil engineering firms for underground pipes and cables, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Government (DSIT), which is responsible for the National Underground Asset Register (NUAR), to develop a collaboration framework for improving safe digging practices.

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Building Controls Updated to Fix Stalled Fibre Broadband Rollouts for Big Buildings UPDATE

9th July, 2026 (7 Comments)

The Ministry of Housing (MHCLG) and UK ISP Association (ISPA) have today unveiled crucial changes to address the current problem with the Building Safety Regulator’s (BSR) approval processes in England, which are known to have caused big delays and increased costs for broadband and mobile operators trying to deploy full fibre networks into large buildings (MDUs etc.).