Home » UK ISP News Archive » Article Tag: Politics (3106 Posts)

Articles for Category Tag - Politics

Rural UK Landowners Angered by New Mobile Network Coverage Deal

13th January, 2015 (6 Comments)

The Country Land and Business Association, which represents tens of thousands of landowners across both England and Wales, appears to have reversed its earlier support for the Government’s plan to improve geographic mobile network coverage (2G, 3G and 4G). At the heart of the problem is a change to regulate the price that landowners can charge telecoms operators for access.

Ofcom – Few UK Children Know How to Disable ISP Internet Filters

12th January, 2015 (4 Comments)

The UK telecoms regulator has today published its 3rd survey into the use and effectiveness of Internet safety measures, such as the network-level filtering (Parental Control) tools that were last year introduced by all of the largest broadband ISPs to help block “adult content” from young eyes.

Connect 8 Campaign Hopes to Bring Fast Broadband to South Oxfordshire

9th January, 2015 (42 Comments)

A group of eight rural villages in southern Oxfordshire (England), which includes Howe Hill, Britwell Hill, Cookley Green, Greenfield, Park Corner, Pishill with Stonor, Russells Water and Swyncombe, have clubbed together in order to launch the Connect 8 campaign that hopes to persuade BT to improve their broadband connectivity.

Kingsmere Residents Put up Posters to Warn of Slow Broadband Speeds

6th January, 2015 (23 Comments)

Residents of a new Bovis Homes development called Kingsmere, which is located adjacent to the busy market town of Bicester in Oxfordshire (England) and claims to be “well on its way to establishing itself as a new modern village“, have become so frustrated by the slow sub-2Mbps state of local BTOpenreach based broadband speeds that they’ve setup posters to warn potential buyers.

The Top Broadband ISP Technology and Internet Policy Changes for 2014-15

2nd January, 2015 (12 Comments)

The past year has been all about technology and deployment, with the Government’s Broadband Delivery UK scheme dominating via its efforts to push BT’s 80Mbps capable Fibre-to-the-Cabinet (FTTC / VDSL2) service out to even more areas, but a lot more than that has happened. ISPreview.co.uk highlights some the key Internet technology, policy and anti-piracy developments of 2014 and predicts what might occur in 2015.

Better Broadband to Boost England’s Rural Countryside Economy

31st December, 2014 (60 Comments)

The Government’s Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) has predicted that productivity and jobs in rural parts of England will grow faster than urban areas over the next 10 years (2025), which is largely down to the on-going boost from faster broadband / mobile connectivity and better transport links.

Home Builders Worried by High-Speed Ready Broadband Requirement

23rd December, 2014 (17 Comments)

A senior member of the Home Builders Federation (HBF), whose members in England and Wales deliver around 80% of the new homes built each year, has warned that a new requirement for all new buildings to be “high-speed broadband ready” from 2017 onwards could “seriously damage” future construction.

Dorset UK Scraps Costly Kcom Built Fibre Optic Public Sector Network

22nd December, 2014 (3 Comments)

Rising costs and a lack of uptake have forced Dorset County Council to give up on their Dorset Public Sector Network (DPSN), which became operational via Kcom (KC) in 2012 and has since exceeded its budget by £340k. Another £200k per year could be added to this overspend until the agreement ends in 2018.

UPDATE Berkshire Bodges Phase 2 BDUK Superfast Broadband Tender

19th December, 2014 (4 Comments)

In a curious development the West Berkshire Council in England has withdrawn a major tender that was issued to help find a supplier for Phase 2 of their Superfast Berkshire project, which is currently working with BT to roll-out a “high-speed fibre broadband” (FTTC/P) network to “around” 91% of local premises by the end of September 2015.

UPDATE Mobile Operators Agree £5bn Deal to Extend Geographic Cover to 90%

18th December, 2014 (16 Comments)

The Government has agreed to drop its controversial push for a National Roaming policy to resolve “partial not-spots” in favour of a new commitment by Three UK, Vodafone, O2 and EE to extend their geographic network coverage (voice and text) of the United Kingdom from 80% today to 90% by 2017. Sadly data (3G and 4G – Mobile Broadband) coverage will only be pushed to 85%.

Ofcom UK Appoints HM Treasury’s Sharon White to CEO Role

16th December, 2014 (1 Comment)

The United Kingdom’s telecoms and media regulator, Ofcom, has today announced that Sharon White will in late March 2015 take over the position of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) from Ed Richards, who steps down at the end of this month. The regulators Strategy and Technology Director, Steve Unger, will cover the intervening period as acting CEO.

UPDATE Superfast Broadband Delivery UK Project Starts TV Advertising

15th December, 2014 (9 Comments)

As expected the Government’s Broadband Delivery UK programme, which with BTOpenreach’s help hopes to make fixed line superfast broadband (24Mbps+) services available to 95% of the population by 2017, will tonight launch a major new TV advertising campaign in the hopes of boosting take-up

The Light at the End of Shropshire’s BDUK Broadband Funding Woes

11th December, 2014 (12 Comments)

A new report from the Shropshire County Council (SCC), which examines the various options available for providing “fibre broadband” to those areas that aren’t currently projected to received it, has shown that the local authority is still struggling to match the Government’s £11.38m Phase 2 Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) funding.

UK Rural Services Network Calls for Broadband Policy Improvements

11th December, 2014 (5 Comments)

The Rural Services Network, which is devoted to improving services in rural communities across England and remains the only rural Special Interest Group at the Local Government Association (LGA), has published its manifesto for the 2015 General Election and called on a future government to make several key improvement’s to the UK’s broadband roll-out strategy.

Cumbria Councillors Raise Concern over Rural Village FTTP Broadband Rollout

11th December, 2014 (3 Comments)

The community owned Digital Dales (Fibre GarDen) project, which recently secured funding to build a new up to 100Mbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network across the rural villages of Garsdale and Dentdale in Cumbria (England), has been questioned by a group of opposition Conservative councillors who are concerned about the projects deliverability.

UK Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act Faces Judicial Review

8th December, 2014 (3 Comments)

The High Court in London has today granted permission for a Judicial Review of the United Kingdom’s controversial and semi-recycled Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act (DRIP), which is the law that among other things governs how much information the security services can collect from Internet and phone providers.

Worcestershire UK Criticised for Low BDUK “Fibre Broadband” Take-up

5th December, 2014 (20 Comments)

The £21m Superfast Worcestershire (England) scheme shows why councils might be nervous about revealing the take-up figures for their state aid supported roll-out of BT’s “Fibre Broadband” (FTTC/P) network. A Freedom of Information (FoI) request has revealed that the county’s uptake for related upgrades is just 3.2% and naturally political opponents have been quick to criticise.