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Articles for Category Tag - Politics

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UK Government Project to Test ZBLAN Optical Fibre Cables Made in Spaaace

9th February, 2026 (0 Comments)

The UK Space Agency has today awarded contracts to three companies to investigate the possibility of producing advanced materials in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), which includes one project (SkyYield) that aims to design a payload to process ZBLAN fluoride glass in microgravity (i.e. a specialist optical fibre that can transmit light with up to 100 times less signal loss than traditional silica fibre).

Wessex Internet Revise Dorset and Somerset UK Project Gigabit Broadband Rollout

7th February, 2026 (8 Comments)

The UK Government (DSIT) appears set to revise their Project Gigabit contract with rural UK ISP Wessex Internet for Dorset and South Somerset (Lot 14.02), which originally aimed to build a full fibre (FTTP) broadband network to cover “around” 21,400 hard-to-reach premises. But the contract value has now been increased to £38.2m and fewer premises are set to be reached.

New Coop Mobile MVNO Service Launches on the Channel Islands

5th February, 2026 (0 Comments)

A new mobile virtual network operator service has just launched on the Channel Islands called Coop Mobile, which some readers might recall is partly the product of last year’s £48m deal to build a new “world-class” 5G mobile broadband network across the islands (reflecting Sure‘s acquisition rival Airtel Vodafone).

Gigaclear Makes Progress on Cotswolds Project Gigabit Broadband Build

30th January, 2026 (5 Comments)

Rural broadband ISP Gigaclear, which has so far deployed their full fibre (FTTP) network to cover 612,000 UK premises (inc. 160,000 customers), has just put their new network live in the Cotswolds village of Kemble. The deployment forms part of Project Gigabit’s £10.81m East Gloucestershire (Lot 18) contract to upgrade 3,547 premises in hard-to-reach areas.

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Concerns Over UK Funding Shortfall for Gigabit Broadband Raised in Parliament

29th January, 2026 (18 Comments)

The Conservative MP for Bridgwater, Sir Ashley Fox, this week informed other Ministers that Openreach (BT) had raised “concerns that there is a shortfall in funding from the last spending review“, which he said meant there is a “risk that the Government do not meet their 99% gigabit-coverage target by 2032“.

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Gov to Streamline England’s Building Controls for Fibre Broadband and Mobile UPDATE3

28th January, 2026 (1 Comment)

The Government appears to have responded to recent concerns over the Building Safety Regulator’s (BSR) approval processes, which are known to have been causing delays and increased costs for broadband and mobile operators trying to deploy new digital infrastructure into large buildings (MDUs etc.). But a new consultation is proposing changes that may address some of the issues.

BBC Considers Linking Online iPlayer TV Accounts to UK Home Addresses

27th January, 2026 (73 Comments)

The endlessly vexed question of TV licence fee evasion has come up in the press again after it was today reported that the BBC were considering a change to the iPlayer video streaming service. The change would essentially involve linking people’s online BBC accounts to their home addresses for the first time (i.e. to see if anybody is using the service without a licence).

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Jan 2026 Contract Delivery Progress for UK Project Gigabit Broadband Rollout

26th January, 2026 (7 Comments)

The Government’s Building Digital UK agency has published their January 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 202,270 contracted premises (up from 183,380 in Dec 2025) have so far been covered out of a planned total of 1,002,500.

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House of Lords Votes to Ban UK Children from Using Internet VPNs

26th January, 2026 (64 Comments)

Last week saw the House of Lords pass a vote that would, if approved by the Government, introduce an amendment to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill (CWSB) that aims to “prohibit the provision” of Virtual Private Network (VPN) services to children (under 18s) in the UK. The goal is to stop children allegedly using VPNs to bypass age verification systems.

Utility Warehouse Join Charter to Protect Vulnerable UK Users in Digital Phone Switch

23rd January, 2026 (0 Comments)

Energy and communications provider Utility Warehouse (UW), which offers broadband, mobile, energy and insurance services to UK consumers, has become the latest telecoms provider to sign the Government’s Public Switched Telephone Network Charter – committing them to protect “vulnerable customers” (e.g. those with telecare devices) when upgrading old phone lines to IP-based digital equivalents.

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ISP Commsworld Win Contract to Build West Lothian Council’s Fibre Network

22nd January, 2026 (0 Comments)

Business UK broadband ISP Commsworld has today announced that they’ve secured a 15-year contract, worth £8.5 million, to deliver a new Wide Area Network (WAN) for West Lothian Council in Scotland. The work will upgrade the council’s existing service with a brand-new fibre optic network and provide a 10-fold increase in available bandwidth.

Jeff Bezos to Launch 2nd Satellite Broadband Service with 6Tbps Speeds, TeraWave

22nd January, 2026 (6 Comments)

Talk about confusing. The founder of internet retail giant Amazon, Jeff Bezos, has announced that he intends to launch a second mega constellation of 6Tbps (Terabits per second) symmetric speed capable broadband satellites, albeit via his Blue Origin rocket company, called TeraWave, which seems to conflict a bit with the existing Amazon Leo project.

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Openreach Expands Scotland’s Project Gigabit Broadband Rollout Contract UPDATE

21st January, 2026 (4 Comments)

The UK Government’s Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) has issued a contract modification notice for Openreach’s £157m (public subsidy) Project Gigabit broadband roll-out contract in Scotland (Call off 6), which originally aimed to reach 65,070 premises in remote rural areas. But the change means it will now be expanded to tackle 77,639 premises.

Ofcom Sets Out Current Progress and Future Plans to UK Prime Minister

21st January, 2026 (5 Comments)

The UK telecoms, media and internet content regulator, Ofcom, has this week written to the Prime Minister (Keir Starmer), Chancellor of the Exchequer (Rachel Reeves) and Secretary of State for Business and Trade (Peter Kyle), among others, to update them on how its work is “contributing to innovation, investment and growth in the UK“.

Mobile Operators Push for UK Planning Reform Again to Improve 5G and AI

21st January, 2026 (12 Comments)

Industry trade body Mobile UK, which represents EE, O2 and VodafoneThree (Vodafone and Three UK), has warned that the UK’s ambition to become an “AI superpower” will struggle without “high quality 5G Standalone (5GSA) networks acting as the ‘nervous system’“. But it warns that we “lag behind other leading nations” in this area and must reform the planning system.

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BDUK Updates on Project Gigabit Broadband Contract for Cheshire UK

20th January, 2026 (3 Comments)

The Government’s Building Digital UK (BDUK) agency recently provided a small but useful update on their stalled £43m (public subsidy) Project Gigabit broadband roll-out contract for Cheshire (Lot 17), which was originally held by Freedom Fibre until they “mutually agreed to terminate” it in March 2025 (here). But Openreach (BT) may now be set to take it on.

BT and EE to Shift Legacy UK Customers to Pounds and Pence Pricing Policy

16th January, 2026 (24 Comments)

Broadband and mobile giant BT (EE) has today announced that they’re following the UK government’s latest guidance, which requested that they “proactively move customers onto price changes with clear pounds and pence pricing amounts instead of inflation-linked rises“. But the risk is that this may result in some customers being hit by much bigger mid-contract price hikes in the future.