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Articles for Category Tag - Politics

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2026 Kings Speech – New UK Cyber Security Laws and Broadband Rights for Leaseholders

13th May, 2026 (4 Comments)

The State Opening of Parliament – often referred to as the “King’s Speech” – took place today, which once again saw the new UK Government set out their agenda for the coming session. The speech included mentions of several bills related to telecoms network security and broadband connectivity, which we’ve summarised a bit below.

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Ofcom Prep New UK Telecoms Security Reporting Rules for Mobile Networks

12th May, 2026 (0 Comments)

The UK telecoms regulator, Ofcom, has today proposed changes to “improve the consistency of security compromise incident reporting” (i.e. when broadband or mobile networks are disrupted by cyberattacks). The changes will, for example, change how outages are reported for mobile networks in rural areas, which recognises that outages in urban and rural areas affect users differently.

Amazon Leo Claims Satellite Broadband to Boost UK Economy by £2bn

12th May, 2026 (0 Comments)

The Amazon Leo (Project Kuiper) service, which is building a huge constellation of ultrafast internet satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) for the UK and globally, has published the results of a new study – commissioned by itself – from Oxford Economics that forecasts how LEO broadband services could boost UK economic output by £2bn and support more than 24,000 jobs by 2035.

Fibrus Covers 1,593 Premises Under N.Ireland Project Gigabit Broadband Build

11th May, 2026 (2 Comments)

Alternative network ISP Fibrus has issued a progress update on their £34.6m (public subsidy) UK Project Gigabit broadband roll-out contract in Northern Ireland, which began at the end of 2025 (here) and aims to cover 9,333 of the hardest to reach rural premises. The provider has just passed its first milestone by covering 1,593 of the contracted premises.

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Openreach Expand FTTP Builds for Three Project Gigabit UK Broadband Contracts UPDATE2

8th May, 2026 (2 Comments)

The UK government has posted contract modifications for three of Openreach’s Project Gigabit contracts – Call Off 1 (Lancashire, West Berkshire, Staffordshire, Surrey, Hertfordshire, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire), Call Off 5 (Essex and North East England) and Call Off 3 (North Herefordshire, North Wales, Shropshire and South West Wales). The move expands their planned deployments of full fibre broadband ISP networks into rural areas.

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Tech and Civil Society Groups Warn Against Blanket UK Internet Restrictions

5th May, 2026 (2 Comments)

The Open Rights Group, Index on Censorship, Mozilla, Tor Project, Big Brother Watch, plus many other technology and civil society groups, have signed a new statement that urges UK policymakers to reconsider their approach to online safety legislation – warning that proposed age-gating measures and access restrictions threaten to fragment the open internet and erode the rights of all users.

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Quickline Expand Rural Project Gigabit Broadband Build in Yorkshire UK

1st May, 2026 (0 Comments)

The Government has published a Project Gigabit contract modification notice for Quickline’s deployment of gigabit broadband across ‘West and Parts of North Yorkshire’ (Lot 8) in England. The change expands the number of contracted premises due to be covered by full fibre (FTTP) to 28,952 (up by 2,642) and increases the public subsidy to £65.47m (up by £3.195m).

Streetwave UK Study Compares Mobile Coverage Across 12 Scottish Councils

30th April, 2026 (1 Comment)

Network analyst firm Streetwave has today published the results from a new study, which compared real-world mobile network (4G, 5G) coverage and mobile broadband performance across the 12 Scottish councils that have commissioned surveys. Glasgow tops the tables, while Argyll and Bute sit at the bottom.

Biannual April 2026 Progress Update on BT’s 10Mbps UK Broadband USO

29th April, 2026 (12 Comments)

Internet provider BT has today published the biannual (April 2026) progress update on their delivery of Ofcom’s somewhat limited 10Mbps Universal Service Obligation (USO) for broadband. The provider has so far helped to build a USO connection to over 9,089 premises (up from 8,553 in Oct 2025) – using FTTP, with 461 further builds in-progress (up sharply from 186).

internet censorship forbidden written on keyboard - 23208292 - 123rf

Gov Intend to Restrict Social Media for Under 16s Even Without Full UK Ban

28th April, 2026 (18 Comments)

The government’s Education Secretary, Bridget Phillipson, has revealed that – regardless of the outcome from their current consultation on a proposed internet Social Media ban for children under the age of 16 (here) – they will still “impose some form of age or functionality restrictions” even if they stop short of a full ban.

Godshill Locals Frustrated After Removal from Gigabit Broadband Contract UPDATE

28th April, 2026 (1 Comment)

The Godshill Parish Council (GPC) in the New Forest National Park of Hampshire (England) has revealed that UK ISP Wessex Internet has “taken the decision to cancel the planned build” of a new gigabit-capable broadband network in the rural area, although there’s some confusion over the reason for this move.

Public Accounts Committee Launch Inquiry into Regulation of UK Broadband

27th April, 2026 (0 Comments)

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC), which is responsible for examining the value for money of UK Government projects, programmes and service delivery, has announced the launch of a new inquiry that will examine the effectiveness of current regulation when applied to the water, energy and broadband internet connectivity sectors.

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Streetwave UK Find Peak Time Gaps in Southwark’s Mobile Broadband Capacity

24th April, 2026 (4 Comments)

Network analyst firm Streetwave has today shared the results from a recent study they conducted, which tested the mobile broadband coverage and speed of 4G and 5G networks (EE, Three UK, Vodafone and O2) in the Central London district of Southwark. The results found performance drops significantly at high footfall locations during peak times.

Project Gigabit BDUK Funded Digital UK Broadband Map

April 2026 Contract Progress for UK Project Gigabit Broadband Rollout

23rd April, 2026 (7 Comments)

The Government’s Building Digital UK (BDUK) agency has today released their April 2026 update on the delivery progress of contracts that have been awarded under their £5bn Project Gigabit broadband rollout scheme. The update reveals that some 250,000 contracted premises (up from 227,310 in Mar 2026) have so far been covered out of a planned total of 1,047,200.

Telecoms Operators Accused of New Tactic to Reduce Rents on UK Mast Sites UPDATE

22nd April, 2026 (1 Comment)

A new report has claimed that telecoms infrastructure providers in the UK’s mobile network sector are using “new tactics” to secure more favourable lease renewals on mast sites. The tactic is said to be enticing landowners to negotiate without professional representation (i.e. risking agreements that reduce rents or overlook key protections).

BT Expect to Fix Subsea Fibre Optic Cable Break on Orkney by Tomorrow UPDATE

17th April, 2026 (6 Comments)

The UK telecoms operator, BT, has confirmed that the subsea cable repair ship (Pierre de Fermat) they contracted to resolve the recent fibre optic break between Evie on the Orkney Mainland and nearby Westray, which disrupted local broadband and 4G mobile connectivity, is set to be fully resolved on Saturday (18th April).

SNP 2026 Manifesto Dangles Possible Subsea Fibre Cable to Shetland Islands

16th April, 2026 (4 Comments)

The Scottish National Party (Pàrtaidh Nàiseanta na h-Alba) has today published details of their 2026 Manifesto for the 7th May election, which among other things calls on the UK Government to “introduce affordable broadband social tariffs” and pledges to commission a feasibility study on the idea of running another subsea fibre link to the Shetland Islands.