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Articles for Category Tag - Politics

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BDUK Updates on Project Gigabit Broadband Contract for Cheshire UK

20th January, 2026 (3 Comments)

The Government’s Building Digital UK (BDUK) agency recently provided a small but useful update on their stalled £43m (public subsidy) Project Gigabit broadband roll-out contract for Cheshire (Lot 17), which was originally held by Freedom Fibre until they “mutually agreed to terminate” it in March 2025 (here). But Openreach (BT) may now be set to take it on.

BT and EE to Shift Legacy UK Customers to Pounds and Pence Pricing Policy

16th January, 2026 (24 Comments)

Broadband and mobile giant BT (EE) has today announced that they’re following the UK government’s latest guidance, which requested that they “proactively move customers onto price changes with clear pounds and pence pricing amounts instead of inflation-linked rises“. But the risk is that this may result in some customers being hit by much bigger mid-contract price hikes in the future.

Survey Claims Quarter of UK Broadband Users View £4 Price Hike as Unmanageable

15th January, 2026 (34 Comments)

Over the past few months a number of broadband ISPs have announced an increase to their annual mid-contract price hikes policy of £4 (BT, Virgin Media and TalkTalk etc.). But a new Opinium survey of 2,000 UK adults, which was conducted during December 2025 for Uswitch.com, claims to have found that 24% of broadband users view such a rise as “unmanageable“.

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BDUK Publish Several Studies of UK Mobile Coverage and Performance

15th January, 2026 (1 Comment)

The Government’s Building Digital UK (BDUK) agency, which oversees their gigabit-capable broadband and mobile network expansion programmes, has just published three new studies that examine the wellbeing and social benefits of the 4G Shared Rural Network (SRN) project, as well as the benefits and challenges of 4G mobile in rural Scotland, and finally some additionality research for mobile suppliers.

R100 Gigabit Broadband Rollout Reaches 96,347 Premises in Scotland

10th January, 2026 (0 Comments)

The Scottish Government (SG) has revealed that 96,347 premises have now benefitted from their £697m Reaching 100% (R100) project with Openreach (up from 93,800 in Nov 2025), which is rolling out full fibre (FTTP) broadband to remote rural areas. The next areas set for upgrade include Hoy in Orkney, Kilmartin in Argyll and Bute, and Inchture in Perth and Kinross.

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South Yorkshire Celebrates Hitting 95 Percent Gigabit Broadband Coverage

8th January, 2026 (2 Comments)

The South Yorkshire Digital Infrastructure Team, which primarily works under the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (SYMCA) to accelerate the rollout of fixed gigabit broadband (1000Mbps+) and 5G mobile networks, has today celebrated having surpassed their target of reaching 95% of homes and businesses in the region with gigabit lines.

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Ofcom Warn BT of Possible Investigation Over Troubled UK Digital Phone Switch

7th January, 2026 (20 Comments)

The UK telecoms regulator has responded to recent concerns that BT’s switch to broadband-based Digital Phones may have left some vulnerable customers without access to a working service. Ofcom warns that they could potentially “step in” and investigate the operator (such things sometimes lead to a significant fine), but it’s not yet clear if they will.

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Cross Party Report Calls for Breaking Monopolies and Tougher Ofcom to Boost UK Broadband

7th January, 2026 (9 Comments)

A new report from the Digital Communities All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) has warning that the “ongoing lack” of mobile (4G/5G) and broadband coverage in parts of the country (urban, rural and coastal) are “undermining national ambitions“. The solution, they suggest, could be found in planning reform, breaking down monopolies, stronger regulatory scrutiny by Ofcom and more strategic investment.

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Survey Warns a Third of UK Adults Use VPNs to Bypass Internet Porn Age Checks

7th January, 2026 (26 Comments)

A new survey of 1,469 adults, which was conducted by the child protection focused Lucy Faithfull Foundation, has “warned” that 45% of adults who don’t want to verify their identities to access porn – a requirement of the UK’s Online Safety Act (OSA) – have turned to using sites without age checks. In addition, 29% have used Virtual Private Networks to bypass age checks on sites that have them.

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Gov Look to Boost EE’s 4G Based UK Emergency Services Network via Satellite

5th January, 2026 (7 Comments)

The UK Space Agency (UKSA) has reportedly invited interested suppliers, such as Starlink, to engage on the possibility of harnessing Direct to Device (DtD) based signals from broadband satellites to help resolve coverage gaps in the Government’s massively late and over-budget 4G based Emergency Service Network (ESN); currently being delivered by EE (BT).

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UK ISP BT Criticised Over Failure of Broadband Battery Backup During Power Cuts

2nd January, 2026 (74 Comments)

Broadband provider BT (EE) has been criticised by a resident of the remote Outer Hebrides (Scotland) island of Scalpay after they found that the Battery Backup (BBU) device, which the ISP provided for their internet and Digital Voice (phone) service, failed to work in two out of three recent power cuts. A bit of a problem as the house also gets no mobile signal.

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2026 New Year Honours for Building Digital UK’s Strategy Director

30th December, 2025 (0 Comments)

The UK Government has published their annual New Year Honours List for 2026, which this time saw Matt Agar, Strategy Director for the government’s Building Digital UK agency within DSIT, being named an “Officer of the Order of the British Empire” for “services to Digital Infrastructure and Broadband“.

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Consolidation Tracker for Alternative UK Gigabit Broadband Networks

29th December, 2025 (13 Comments)

The past couple of years have been awash with news and predictions about rising consolidation within the UK’s market for alternative fixed broadband networks (altnets). But keeping track of so many developments can be difficult, so ISPreview has decided to start a new tracker, which monitors related announcements since 2020 onwards.

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2025 vs 2024 – UK Broadband and Mobile Speeds vs the World

27th December, 2025 (16 Comments)

ISPreview is today ending 2025 by taking our annual look back to see how the United Kingdom’s position, in terms of the top 50 fastest countries for fixed broadband and mobile speeds (4G, 5G), has changed since 2024. Overall, the UK’s global rank for mobile speed is now 59th (down from 53rd last year), while our ranking for fixed broadband is 44th (unchanged).

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100 Government Funded 4G Mobile Mast Upgrades Now Live Across UK

23rd December, 2025 (18 Comments)

The UK Government’s Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) has tonight revealed that a total of 100 government-funded rural 4G (mobile broadband) mast upgrades have now gone live across England (28 masts), Wales (44) and Scotland (33) as part of the industry-led £1bn Shared Rural Network (SRN) project. But more are set to follow by 2027.

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North Yorkshire Council to Take NYnet Broadband Scheme National Across UK

23rd December, 2025 (3 Comments)

The North Yorkshire Council (NYC) in England has announced that NYnet, which is the NYC-owned company that – alongside funding from the local authority, UK government (BDUK) and private investment (network operators) – helped the council to spread faster broadband connectivity across the region, is “set to be expanded nationally“.

Dec 2025 Contract Delivery Progress for UK Project Gigabit Broadband Rollout

19th December, 2025 (8 Comments)

The Government’s Building Digital UK agency has published their December 2025 update on the delivery progress of contracts that have been awarded under their £5bn Project Gigabit broadband rollout scheme. The update reveals that some 183,380 contracted premises (up from 167,770 in Nov 2025) have so far been covered out of a planned total of 1,002,210.