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Articles for Category Tag - Politics

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).

ISPA Discovers the Obvious – UK Politicians Debate Broadband a Lot

19th February, 2016 (0 Comments)

The Internet Service Providers Association (ISPA) has taken a look back at the number of times that “broadband” has been mentioned in Parliament since 2010 and discovered that there has been a 75% increase in references, which isn’t a surprise because that’s when Internet connectivity became a big issue.

UPDATE Centre for Policy Studies Calls for Ofcom to Initiate BT Breakup

17th February, 2016 (44 Comments)

The Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) has joined a growing chorus of people and organisations calling for BT to be separated from control of their national UK broadband and phone (Openreach) network, which the group suggests could “provide a market with a level playing field between all players.”

New UK Law to Force Age Verification on Internet Porn Sites

16th February, 2016 (3 Comments)

The government has launched a new consultation on proposals that would require “all” pornographic Internet content providers (e.g. websites) to introduce Age Verification Systems, with the hope being that this would prevent vulnerable children from accessing potentially damaging material. But children will probably find a way around it.

Shropshire and Herefordshire Moot Own Business Broadband Vouchers

15th February, 2016 (4 Comments)

The Herefordshire and Shropshire councils appear to have been so impressed by the Government’s recently ended Connection Voucher scheme (here), which gifted grants of up to £3,000 to help smaller UK businesses get a superfast broadband (30Mbps+) service installed, that they’re mooting a local replacement.

The Knives Come Out as BT Strikes Back at MPs Demanding Separation

13th February, 2016 (68 Comments)

Instead of going on a charm offensive BT’s CEO, Gavin Patterson, appears to have taken a more confrontational approach by privately writing to every (650) elected UK Member of Parliament and highlighting how he felt that many of their recent claims against the operator were “inaccurate and misleading“.

UPDATE Joint Committee Scalds UK Government’s ISP Internet Spying Bill

11th February, 2016 (6 Comments)

The cross-party Joint Committee, which was setup to review the Government’s controversial Investigatory Powers Bill (IPB) that aims to force broadband ISPs into logging and monitoring a bigger slice of your Internet activity, has criticised the bill and said that “significant” work will be needed to fix it.

Rural Norfolk UK Farmers Report Slow Broadband and Poor Mobile

10th February, 2016 (1 Comment)

A new survey of over 800 businesses and farmers in the Anglia region of England (e.g. Norfolk) has found that 57% suffer from “poor” or “very poor” mobile phone signals and 31% can only receive a basic home broadband connection that delivers a download speed of less than 2Mbps.

Intelligence and Security Committee Criticise UK Internet Spying Bill

9th February, 2016 (0 Comments)

The Intelligence and Security Committee has described parts of the Government’s new Draft Investigatory Powers Bill (IPB), which aims to expand the United Kingdom’s existing Internet spying laws to include every citizen, as being “inconsistent and largely incomprehensible.”

Leicester UK City Council to Deploy FREE WiFi Internet Connectivity

8th February, 2016 (1 Comment)

Residents, businesses and visitors to the most popular parts of central Leicester (e.g. the Clock Tower, Jubilee Square and outside the Richard III centre), which is a city in the East Midlands of England, will be pleased to learn that BT are planning to roll-out a free WiFi zone in the area.

EEF Claims UK Manufacturers are Overpaying for Broadband Connectivity

8th February, 2016 (4 Comments)

The EEF, which is a trade association that champions manufacturing and engineering in the United Kingdom, has claimed that over a quarter of small firms and half of medium-sized firms are paying “inflated” costs of more than £5,000 a year for broadband Internet connectivity.

Government and BT Deal to Put Superfast Broadband into UK New Builds

5th February, 2016 (20 Comments)

The Government has today unveiled a new agreement with BT (Openreach) and the Home Builders Federation (HBF) that aims to deliver “fibre based” (FTTC/P/H) superfast or ultrafast broadband connectivity into new build properties across the United Kingdom, either for free or co-funded.

Gigaclear and Hyperoptic Highlight Problems with UK Broadband and BT

4th February, 2016 (27 Comments)

Pure fibre optic ISPs Gigaclear and Hyperoptic have offered a unique insight into the current challenges with rolling out new ultrafast broadband infrastructure across the United Kingdom, not least in regards to the difficulties of going up against a state aid supported BT and the question of whether or not to separate Openreach.