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Articles for Category Tag - Politics

Worcestershire UK Councillors Row over Money for Broadband Advertising

7th February, 2015 (15 Comments)

The Government’s recent move to launch a major multi-million pound advertising campaign in order to raise awareness about superfast broadband availability under the national Broadband Delivery UK programme (here) appears to have angered some opposition councillors in Worcestershire (England).

UPDATE Cumbria’s Fibre GarDen FTTP Broadband Rollout on Knife Edge

4th February, 2015 (7 Comments)

The community owned Digital Dales (Fibre GarDen) project, which is supposed to be building a 100Mbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network across the rural villages of Garsdale and Dentdale in Cumbria (England), is in doubt again after councillors put the plan to a vote.

UK Government Moot Using Public Sector Networks to Help Boost Broadband

3rd February, 2015 (2 Comments)

The United Kingdom is crisscrossed by a variety of different Public Sector Networks (PSN), which are used to supply councils, Network Rail, universities (JANET), security / military services and so forth. But many of these networks are not fully utilised and the Government intends to harness this to help improve broadband for homes and businesses.

DEFRA UK Report Calls for 10Mbps Universal Broadband Commitment

3rd February, 2015 (15 Comments)

The Commons Select Committee for the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) has today published the results of their inquiry into the roll-out of faster broadband Internet access to rural areas, which among other things calls for the current Universal Service Commitment (USC) speed of at least 2Mbps (Megabits) to be increased to 10Mbps.

Ofcom Tweak Commits Mobile Operators to 90% UK Landmass Coverage

2nd February, 2015 (14 Comments)

As expected Ofcom has started to put the recent coverage agreement between Mobile Network Operators (MNO) and the Government into practice by introducing a new licence variation(s) that commits Three UK, EE, O2 and Vodafone to provide voice coverage across 90% of the United Kingdom’s landmass by the end of 2017.

UPDATE Lords in 2nd Attempt to Sneak UK Internet Snooping Law into Bill

31st January, 2015 (11 Comments)

The former Metropolitan Police Chief, Lord Blair, with support from Lord Carlisle, Lord King and Lord West, has once again attempted to sneak a controversial new Internet Snooping law into the Counter-Terrorism and Security Bill (CTSB) after initially withdrawing it last Monday.

UPDATE 39 England Growth Deals Gain £1bn Funding Boost to Help Broadband

29th January, 2015 (5 Comments)

The government has today announced that they intend to invest a further £1 billion into 39 Local Growth Deals with businesses and local authorities across England, which among other things will help to roll-out superfast broadband connectivity to even more homes and businesses.

Cornwall UK Confirms Growth Deal for 99% Fibre Broadband Coverage

29th January, 2015 (1 Comment)

The Government’s Minister for Rural Affairs, Dan Rogerson (LibDem), will later today launch a new Growth Deal for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly in England that will confirm the Local Authorities existing plan to push “fibre broadband” coverage from the current target of 95% to over 99%.

UPD Public Accounts Committee Still Critical of BT and BDUK Broadband Rollout

28th January, 2015 (47 Comments)

The Public Accounts Committee, which holds some responsibility for examining the Government’s public expenditure, has today hosted a third session in order to examine if any progress has been made on their prior recommendations for the joint state aid supported BT and Broadband Delivery UK rollout of superfast broadband.

BDUK Superfast Broadband Rollout is Ahead of Schedule and Made Savings

28th January, 2015 (22 Comments)

The National Audit Office has, in anticipation of today’s Public Accounts Committee event, published a useful report into its views on how effective the joint BT and Broadband Delivery UK scheme has been in terms of its costs, coverage and competition. The report finds that BT’s Phase 1 deployment is running “ahead of schedule” and BDUK predicts total savings of approximately £72m by 2017-18, which could be reinvested.

UPDATE3 Lords Sneak UK Internet Snooping Law into Bill – Minus Safeguards

23rd January, 2015 (14 Comments)

Opponents of the Government’s plan to revive the twice failed Internet Snooping law, which would force ISPs into logging a much bigger slice of everybody’s online activity and also make it more accessible to security services, are crying foul after dirty politics resulted in 18 pages of new law being snuck into the Counter-Terrorism and Security Bill (CTSB) at the last minute.. and without the promised judicial oversight (safeguard).

Blow for UK Mobile Coverage Plans as Landowners Win Access Charges Fight

22nd January, 2015 (1 Comment)

The Country Land and Business Association, which represents thousands of landowners from across England and Wales, appears to have partially won its recent complaint against the Government’s proposal to regulate the price that landowners can charge telecoms operators for access to their land.

Westminster City Council Calls for Better Business Broadband

21st January, 2015 (13 Comments)

The Westminster City Council in central London has added its voice to the growing calls for local businesses to be given access to better broadband connectivity, which comes after it was earlier revealed by Ofcom that only 47% of the city’s premises have access to “superfast broadband” (30Mbps+) speeds.

YouGov Find UK Support for Tougher State Internet Snooping Law is Split

19th January, 2015 (12 Comments)

A new YouGov survey of 1,647 adults across Great Britain, which was conducted at the end of last week, has indicated that 53% of people support calls for a tougher Internet Snooping law that would log and supply more of your private communications data (e.g. email, website, Skype access logs etc.) to the security services. But happily most oppose the recent calls for a ban on encryption.

Remote Scotland Communities Demand Broadband Rollout Clarity

16th January, 2015 (54 Comments)

Alistair Carmichael, the MP for two of north Scotland’s most remote island communities (Orkney and Shetland) and the UK’s Secretary of State for Scotland, has called upon the Scottish Government and BT to publish a more detailed roll-out plan for the on-going deployment of “fibre broadband” (FTTC/P) connectivity on the islands.

Ed Vaizey Dodges Question on 2018 Superfast Broadband Rollout Delay

15th January, 2015 (17 Comments)

During an interesting exchange in the House of Commons today the Government’s Communications Minister, Ed Vaizey, successfully managed to dodge a question about the likelihood of the Government’s 95% superfast broadband (24Mbps+) coverage target, which is due to complete by 2017, seemingly slipping into 2018 or possibly later.

UPDATE FSB Claim Half of Rural Small Businesses Dissatisfied with Broadband

15th January, 2015 (15 Comments)

The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has today warned of a “two-speed digital economy” after it published the results of new research, which found that 49% of rural small businesses are dissatisfied with the quality of their broadband service and this falls away significantly to just 28% for similar firms based in urban areas.