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Articles for Category Tag - Politics

Government Hails Alternative UK Rural Broadband Pilots a Success

3rd February, 2016 (22 Comments)

The Government has today published a new report on the “successful” outcome of their recent Market Test Pilots, which were setup in 2014 to help trial alternative network solutions (fibre optic, satellite, wireless etc.) for bringing superfast broadband (24Mbps+) to remote rural areas.

Europe Confirms Move to Harmonise 700MHz for Mobile Broadband

2nd February, 2016 (1 Comment)

The European Commission has today moved to follow by Ofcom’s example and ensure that more radio spectrum will be made available for Mobile Broadband (3G, 4G and possibly 5G) services in the 700MHz band (694-790MHz) by 30th June 2020 “at the latest” (in all EU countries).

UK Government to Debate Broadband Not-spots on Wednesday

1st February, 2016 (16 Comments)

The UK Government’s Minister for the Digital Economy, Ed Vaizey MP, will on Wednesday hold a “not-spot summit“, which will bring broadband ISPs, mobile operators, politicians, the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) and Countryside Alliance (CA) together in order to debate how best to close the remaining gaps in fast broadband coverage.

UPD Science and Tech Committee Warns of UK Internet Snooping Bill Costs

1st February, 2016 (1 Comment)

The cross-party Science and Technology Select Committee (House of Commons) has today warned that the Government’s controversial new Investigatory Powers Bill (IPB) could cost significantly more than claimed and needs to be clearer about what it expects ISPs to actually do.

BDUK Extends UK Rural Broadband Subsidy Scheme to Wireless ISP

29th January, 2016 (21 Comments)

In an interesting development the Government appears to have extended its £60m 2Mbps for all rural broadband (USC) subsidy scheme to include fixed wireless ISP Quickline in Lincolnshire (England), which is big change from the initial focus on Satellite based solutions.

BT Openreach Under Fire for Being Slow to Connect New Build UK Homes

28th January, 2016 (21 Comments)

It’s a familiar story, you buy a newly built house only to find that it could take months before BTOpenreach get around to connecting you to even a basic broadband or phone service and then when it does go live the service could be slow. Meanwhile the property developer blames BT and vice versa.

Government Praises WarwickNet’s Northamptonshire Broadband Rollout

28th January, 2016 (5 Comments)

Last year’s effort between the Federation of Small Businesses and WarwickNet to identify and roll-out a superfast FTTC / FTTP broadband service to business parks and industrial estates in Northamptonshire (England) has won rare praise from the central UK Government.

Aberdeen Eyes Broadband Boost from GBP250 Million City Deal

28th January, 2016 (9 Comments)

The UK Government has today signed a new City Deal, which will pump up to £250 million into Aberdeen (Scotland). Most of the investment will go towards propping up the city’s gas and oil industry, as well as expanding its harbour, although some will be used to further boost digital connectivity.

UPDATE UK Gov Consults on New Broadband Supplier Procurement Process

26th January, 2016 (0 Comments)

The Government has launched a consultation to help it decide upon a new procurement approach for future state aid supported broadband deployment projects under the national Broadband Delivery UK programme, which is unable to sign new contracts until an agreement can be reached.

BAD NEWS for BT as 121 Cross-party UK MPs Call for Openreach Split

23rd January, 2016 (101 Comments)

The Government itself might still have big doubts about the merits of splitting BT from control of their national phone and broadband network (Openreach), but a new report backed by 121 cross-party MPs has supported separation to boost performance and competition in the UK telecoms market.

UK Rural Broadband Satellite Subsidy Scheme Gets Off to a Slow Start

19th January, 2016 (6 Comments)

Perhaps unsurprisingly the Government’s new Satellite broadband subsidy scheme, which aims to help 300,000 of the most remote rural premises in the United Kingdom (note: Wales has a different scheme) to get a better connection, has got off to a slow start with only £8,400 spent of the £60 million funding.

UPDATE UK Government – No Consensus on Deploying FTTP Broadband

18th January, 2016 (54 Comments)

The Central Government has disappointed those calling for ultrafast pure fibre optic broadband connections (FTTH/P) to be rolled out across the United Kingdom by rebuffing the idea as part of its response to a European Commission consultation on connectivity needs post-2020.

Council of Europe Sets Out Net Neutrality Guidelines for Broadband ISPs

14th January, 2016 (1 Comment)

The Council of Europe has today issued a set of “network neutrality guidelines” that call for mobile and broadband providers to treat Internet traffic equally, without discrimination or restriction, and for member states (e.g. UK) to support this via the “development of national legal frameworks“.

UPDATE Government Close to Achieving 90% UK Superfast Broadband Goal

8th January, 2016 (23 Comments)

The Government’s Broadband Delivery UK project takes a lot of flak, but this often overlooks some of the good progress that has been made. New data now appears to confirm that the original 90% coverage target for “superfast broadband” (24Mbps+) availability is finally within touching distance.

UK Competition Regulator to Examine BT’s Superfast Broadband Prices

6th January, 2016 (5 Comments)

Opposing appeals by both BT and TalkTalk against the approach taken last year by Ofcom’s new “margin squeeze” test, which is designed to keep the incumbent operator’s FTTC “fibre broadband” prices under control, have today been referred to the Competition and Markets Authority.

Dumb Internet Filters Risk Making UK Libraries Less Useful

5th January, 2016 (1 Comment)

The growing use of controversial Internet filters (censorship) in the United Kingdom is nothing new and many Libraries have implemented them, but a new study suggests that this approach could be damaging public access to the very information that libraries are supposed to provide.

Wales UK Expands Flexibility of Superfast Broadband Voucher Schemes

5th January, 2016 (3 Comments)

The Welsh Government has today announced that their two voucher schemes, which are designed to help homes and businesses in disadvantaged areas gain access to faster broadband connectivity, are being expanded to further increase the number of people who can make use of them.