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Articles for Category Tag - Politics

BT Take Flak for Missed Appointments, FTTP and UK Broadband Maps

16th March, 2016 (45 Comments)

The on-going cross party Culture, Media and Sport Committee inquiry into UK digital infrastructure produced another interesting evidence session yesterday after BT and sibling Openreach were both grilled over the country’s broadband quality, 1,000 missed appointments per week and USO plans etc.

Salford UK Council Deploy FTTP Ultrafast Broadband to Housing Blocks

16th March, 2016 (0 Comments)

Thousands of residents in Salford (Greater Manchester, England) look set to benefit after fibre optic ISP Hyperoptic announced that the local council had become the first in the UK to roll-out their 1Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network across its housing portfolio.

Ed Vaizey MP Praises “fantastic” B4RN 1Gbps Rural Broadband Network

15th March, 2016 (2 Comments)

The Government’s Digital Economy Minister, Ed Vaizey, has turned a veiled criticism of Lancashire’s (England) Broadband Delivery UK programme (Superfast Lancashire) into some welcome praise for the alternative and community-built B4RN (Broadband 4 the Rural North) project.

ABTA Warns Brexit Could Hike EU Mobile Roaming Prices for UK Users

15th March, 2016 (2 Comments)

The cost of making calls, sending text messages and going online via your Smartphone’s Mobile Broadband (3G, 4G) connection when in Europe could rise if the United Kingdom votes to leave the EU later this year, claims a new report from Deloitte and ABTA – The Travel Association.

Opposition Grows as UK ISP Internet Spying Bill Hits Parliament

15th March, 2016 (0 Comments)

The Draft Investigatory Powers Bill, which among other things aims to force broadband ISPs into logging a much bigger slice of your online activity and to then share it with the security services, will today receive its second reading and the battle lines have already been firmly drawn.

UPDATE Government Claims 90 Percent UK Superfast Broadband Cover

10th March, 2016 (19 Comments)

Blink and you’ll miss it. Without any fanfare the Government’s Digital Economy Minister, Ed Vaizey, appears to have officially confirmed that 90% of the United Kingdom can now access a “superfast broadband” service, thanks partly to Phase 1 of their Broadband Delivery UK programme with BT.

Ed Vaizey Slams BT Service Quality and Seeks End to Separate Line Rental

10th March, 2016 (16 Comments)

The UK Government’s Digital Economy Minister, Ed Vaizey MP, has taken a break from praising the progress of BTOpenreach’s “fibre broadband” (FTTC/P) roll-out in order to criticise them for their “absolutely woeful” customer service. At the same time he also called for ISPs to stop advertising line rental with a separate price and called for clearer broadband speeds.

Gloucestershire Council Suspend Broadband Funding for the Cotswolds

5th March, 2016 (4 Comments)

At least part of the on-going effort to roll-out superfast broadband (24Mbps+) services in the Cotswolds, which is a rural area that predominantly straddles both Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire, has been halted after Gloucestershire Council suspended £500,000 of its joint funding.

Government and Corbyn Spar Over a “Gigabit Britain” Broadband Future

3rd March, 2016 (52 Comments)

The leader of the UK Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn MP, has claimed that broadband connectivity in the United Kingdom is being held back by “government foot-dragging and ideological dithering,” which he suggests can only be improved by pushing more public money towards fibre optic services.

Problems Remain – Government Publishes Revised ISP Internet Spying Bill

1st March, 2016 (9 Comments)

After receiving strong criticism from three major reports, the Government has today appeared to rush out a revised draft of their controversial Investigatory Powers Bill (IPB), which hopes to force broadband ISPs into logging and monitoring a much bigger slice of your online activity.

UK Government to Tackle Small Print and Tedious Contract Terms

1st March, 2016 (5 Comments)

One of the biggest consumer frustrations with signing up to any new broadband, phone or other service is the mass of small print and complicated contract terms that sit in the way, which most of us probably skip or at least skim through. But now the Government want to tackle this.

Ed Vaizey MP Admits UK Mobile Infrastructure Project Was a Flop

1st March, 2016 (10 Comments)

The Government’s Digital Economy Minister, Ed Vaizey, has finally gone on record to confirm that their £150 million Mobile Infrastructure Project (MIP), which was set-up to improve mobile phone network coverage in areas where there is currently none, has failed.

UK Declines in European Ranking of Mobile and Broadband Connectivity

26th February, 2016 (6 Comments)

The European Commission has published their 2016 Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI), which sees the United Kingdom’s country ranking for mobile and fixed line broadband connectivity fall from 4th to 6th place; mostly because other countries are improving at a faster pace.

Government Opens Review to Improve Business Access to Broadband

24th February, 2016 (33 Comments)

The UK Government Departments for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS) have today jointly launched a new review that aims to specifically look at increasing the level of “affordable and high quality fibre broadband” available to businesses.

Swansea Propose Better Broadband as Part of GBP500m City Deal

24th February, 2016 (1 Comment)

The city and county of Swansea (Wales) has today proposed a new £500m City Deal to the Government that could improve local health, business, energy and broadband services, not least by supporting a new transatlantic fibre optic cable with North America.

HS2 Select Committee Calls for Train Project to Improve UK Broadband

23rd February, 2016 (13 Comments)

The High Speed Rail Committee has published its final report and called on the Government’s expensive High Speed Two (HS2) project, which aims to build a new rail link between London and the Midlands, to do more to improve broadband connectivity along the route.

BT Set to Avoid Openreach Split as Ofcom Opts for the Middle Ground

21st February, 2016 (70 Comments)

The UK telecoms regulatory will publish the outcome of their ‘Strategic Review of Digital Communications‘ on Thursday and unsurprisingly there have been some leaks, which appear to confirm our expectation that Ofcom will NOT move to split BT from control of its national phone and broadband network (Openreach).