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Articles for Category Tag - Politics

Residents of St Kew in Cornwall UK Start Petition for Superfast Broadband

3rd January, 2014 (19 Comments)

Locals residing in the Cornish parish of St Kew, which includes various smaller hamlets and villages, have launched a new petition that calls upon the joint BT and EU funded £132 million Superfast Cornwall project to extend its faster broadband connectivity into the area.

£9m EU Boost for Rural Projects and Broadband in Greater Lincolnshire

30th December, 2013 (1 Comment)

The European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) has allocated £8,782,191 to the Local Enterprise Partnership area of Greater Lincolnshire in England, which among other things could be used to fund small-scale renewable and broadband infrastructure improvements in rural areas.

£7m New Homes Bonus to Help Broadband in Basingstoke and Deane UK

30th December, 2013 (1 Comment)

The Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council has announced plans to invest up to £7 million from the central UK Government’s New Homes Bonus scheme to help support the building of new housing projects by funding the construction of new community facilities or better broadband connectivity.

UK Intellectual Property Advisor Threatens Fresh Piracy Legislation on ISPs

28th December, 2013 (17 Comments)

The UK Prime Minister’s new Intellectual Property Advisor, Mike Weatherley (Conservative MP for Hove and Portslade), has threatened fresh legislation against broadband ISPs that “knowingly facilitate illegal downloading practices” and do not take steps to stop it. But it’s unclear what could be changed that hasn’t already been tried.

UK People Want Superfast Broadband More than New Airports and HS2

28th December, 2013 (5 Comments)

A new survey of 2,011 British citizens (aged 16-75) by the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) has reported that 43% saw more economic benefit in extending the reach of superfast broadband to all premises in the UK than they did from building new Nuclear Power plants, airports or high speed trains.

UPDATE BBC Find UK ISP Filters Fail to Block Porn and Catch Legit Websites

19th December, 2013 (5 Comments)

An investigation by the BBC’s Newsnight programme has unsurprisingly discovered that the new generation of network-level Internet filtering (censorship) technologies, which are being adopted by all of the major broadband ISPs, often catch legitimate websites in their net and can also fail to block porn. Big SHOCK? Nope.

UPD Super Switch on Day for the National Broadband Delivery UK Scheme

18th December, 2013 (36 Comments)

The Government has flushed out a bit of new PR spin today by labelling the 18th December 2013 as “Super Switch on Day“, which apparently marks how the first BT Street Cabinets in a number of local Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) projects have finally gone live with “fibre broadband” (FTTC/P) services.

Government Publishes Cyber Security Principles for UK ISPs

12th December, 2013 (1 Comment)

The Government has today published a series of “aspirational” and “voluntary guiding principles” that have been designed to help improve online security for customers of the country’s major broadband ISPs. Better late than never?

Point Topic Backs Smaller ISPs to Fix UK Rural Superfast Broadband Woes

9th December, 2013 (9 Comments)

London-based broadband analyst firm Point Topic has told ISPreview.co.uk, as part of our exclusive interview, that hybrid fibre optic (FTTC, DOCSIS etc.) services are the best way of getting affordable superfast Internet access to 95% of the country by 2017 and that smaller (altnets) ISPs should play a “major role” in connecting the final 5%.

ISP to Expand Faster Wireless Broadband in Rural Northamptonshire UK

7th December, 2013 (2 Comments)

Northamptonshire ISP VillageBroadband, which typically serves residents and businesses in the rural hamlet of Strixton and its neighbouring villages (Wollaston and Denton), has said that it expects to expand their coverage and double in size, all with no help from the Government’s Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) scheme.

Broadband Connection Voucher Scheme Goes Live in First UK Cities

7th December, 2013 (11 Comments)

The Department for Business, Innovation & Skills has announced that the Government’s Connection Vouchers scheme, which uses part of the £150m Urban Broadband Fund (“Super-Connected Cities“) to help SME businesses install superfast broadband (30Mbps+), has finally started to go live in 22 cities across the United Kingdom.

UK Home Office Sets Out Plan to Force ISPs into Blocking Extremist Websites

4th December, 2013 (11 Comments)

The Government’s Home Office has today published a new report from the Prime Minister’s Task Force on Tackling Radicalisation and Extremism, which proposes to force broadband ISPs into helping identify and block websites that contain “extremist content“.

UPDATE UK Gov Touts £10m Competitive Fund to Boost Rural Broadband

4th December, 2013 (10 Comments)

The Government’s Treasury has today announced a new £10 Million “competitive fund” that aims to “test innovative solutions to deliver superfast broadband services to the most difficult to reach areas“, which sounds a lot like another attempt to do what DEFRA’s £20m Rural Community Broadband Fund (RCBF) has often struggled to achieve.

Labour Reveals Plan to Slash “rip-off” UK Phone Bills and Cut Line Rental

30th November, 2013 (43 Comments)

The Labour Party has proposed a new multipoint point plan that it believes could help to cut the cost of consumer phone and calling bills across the United Kingdom, which includes a pledge to force BT and other operators into cutting the cost of line rental. But some of the measures are already expected.

MEPs Support “Broadband Ready” Label for Homes and Cheaper Civil Works

29th November, 2013 (2 Comments)

Europe’s ITRE Industry Committee yesterday approved a draft law that could help to cut the cost of civil works (e.g. digging up roads to lay new fibre optic cable) when deploying new broadband infrastructure. Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) have also called for a voluntary “broadband-ready” label on new homes.

BT Based RCBF Funded UK Rural Broadband Schemes Still Going Ahead

28th November, 2013 (3 Comments)

The Government’s £20m Rural Community Broadband Fund (RCBF), which has been stalled for months because BT and local councils have controversially refused to share vital service speed and coverage (SCT) data with bidding altnet ISPs, is still alive in Northumberland (England). Naturally BT is running the project.

Northamptonshire UK to Offer Secured Business Loans for Superfast Broadband

26th November, 2013 (3 Comments)

The Northamptonshire County Council has today announced the Superfast Northamptonshire Access to Finance (SNAF) initiative, which will complement the local authority’s existing investment of £16.26m with BT under the national Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) scheme by offering secured loans to businesses.