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Articles for Category Tag - Politics

Pound sterling broadband voucher by 123rf (100296328)

BDUK Reopens Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme to Devon UK UPDATE

11th February, 2025 (12 Comments)

The Government’s Building Digital UK (BDUK) agency has made a change today that re-opens their Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme (GBVS) for parts of Devon in England, which means that local homes and businesses in poorly served rural areas can apply for big grants to help get a much faster broadband ISP network installed.

Ofcom Refines Thinking on Cost of Adding Power Backup to UK Mobile Sites

10th February, 2025 (34 Comments)

The telecoms regulator, Ofcom, has today published the results of a recent study it conducted into the costs of improving power resilience at UK mobile network sites (masts etc.). This finds that the cost of ensuring “almost everybody” could maintain access to the emergency services for up to 4 hours, in the event of a power cut, would be approx. £1bn.

Falkland-Islands-Map-by-123rf-ID85212321

Confusion on the Falkland Islands Over Status of Starlink’s Broadband

10th February, 2025 (16 Comments)

Good news, SpaceX’s global Starlink broadband network is currently listed as finally coming to the poorly served Falkland Islands, which is a British Overseas Territory, sometime in 2025. Bad news, the service is already being used by hundreds of local customers and the company has just started to cut them off.

First Hints of New UK Gov Measures to Tackle Broadband Pole Complaints

10th February, 2025 (33 Comments)

The UK Government will shortly attempt to deliver on their pledge to “end the deployment of unnecessary telegraph poles” (here) by publishing an updated Code of Practice for broadband operators to follow, which will set out new guidance on the divisive issue. We now have a good idea of what that new code will include.

Streetwave Mobile Performance in Brent on O2 UK

Streetwave UK Launch Map of Mobile Coverage and Speeds in Brent

8th February, 2025 (0 Comments)

Network analyst firm Streetwave, which is currently conducting various UK surveys to study the coverage and speed of 4G and 5G mobile broadband networks using bin lorries and private vehicles, has published another free and interactive visual map of their results – this time for the London borough of Brent.

Cityfibre Purle Optical Fibre Cable and Engineer

Gov Expand CityFibre’s Project Gigabit Broadband Rollouts in 9 UK Contracts UPDATE2

6th February, 2025 (5 Comments)

The Government’s Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) has published contract modification notices for CityFibre’s state aid funded Project Gigabit broadband roll-outs across four regions – Hampshire (Lot 27), Suffolk (Lot 2), Cambridgeshire (Lot 5) and Norfolk (Lot 7). The changes increase the level of committed public funding and often also the contracted scope.

Quickline Helps Produce UK Kids Cartoon Book About Rural Broadband

6th February, 2025 (0 Comments)

And now for something completely different. Rural broadband ISP Quickline, which is rolling out a gigabit-capable full fibre (FTTP) and 5G powered fixed wireless access (FWA) network across rural parts of England (Yorkshire and Lincolnshire), has helped to launch a new children’s book that explains the work network operators do and educates on safety etc.

Scottish Government Seeks Feedback on R100 Fibre Broadband Build

5th February, 2025 (0 Comments)

The Scottish Government has launched a new evaluation survey that calls for feedback from those who have benefitted from their £600m Reaching 100% (R100) project with Openreach (BT). This is rolling out full fibre (FTTP) broadband to remote rural areas and has now built to a total of 70,000 premises or 75,000 if you include vouchers.

Freedom Fibre Update on Project Gigabit Broadband Build in Shropshire UK

First Homes Live on Freedom Fibre’s Shropshire UK Project Gigabit Broadband Build

5th February, 2025 (0 Comments)

Alternative network operator Freedom Fibre has today announced that the first homes have gone live on their new full fibre (FTTP) broadband ISP network in North Shropshire (England), which is being delivered as part of their £24m (state aid) LOT 25.02 Project Gigabit contract (here) to cover “around” 12,000 hard-to-reach rural homes.

fibre optic cables and computer keyboard 2020 via 123rf

New West of England Digital Office Looks to Boost Broadband Investment

3rd February, 2025 (1 Comment)

The West of England Combined Authority, which is led by Mayor Dan Norris and represents the local authorities of Bristol, South Gloucestershire, and Bath and North East Somerset (BNES), has today invested £2.5m to deliver a “Digital Office” that it hopes will “unlock” a £1.3bn annual boost to the region’s economy “powered by private investment in better broadband and mobile connectivity“.

satellite_broadband_LEO_MEO_constellation_uk_space by 123rf

Government Invests £16m to Help Develop LEO Broadband Satellite Tech

3rd February, 2025 (1 Comment)

The government has today released a further £16m of public funding from the UK Space Agency’s £160m Connectivity in Low Earth Orbit (C-LEO) programme, which will be used to develop new satellite technologies that can enhance global connectivity by providing “high-speed internet access” (broadband) to remote and underserved areas etc.

O2 SRN 4G Mobile Mast in Remote Glencoe Scotland UK PR 01072024

Gov Reportedly Looking to Cut Support for £1bn Rural UK 4G Mobile Rollout

2nd February, 2025 (16 Comments)

A major newspaper has reported that the Government may be looking to reduced their funding commitment for the £1bn industry-led Shared Rural Network (SRN) programme and its efforts to extend 4G mobile (mobile broadband) coverage into remote rural areas. The move could significantly cut the number of mobile masts due to be built with public funding.

Quickline-BDUK-contract-engineers-in-Stokesley-PR-310125

Quickline Connect First North Yorkshire Homes Under Gigabit Broadband Contract

31st January, 2025 (2 Comments)

Rural focused UK ISP Quickline has today announced that they’ve connected the first homes under their £73.5m state-aid supported Project Gigabit roll-out contract for North Yorkshire (Lot 31). This will see their gigabit-capable broadband network extending to cover an additional 36,300 premises in some of the hardest-to-reach areas of the county.

UK Remains Top of G7 Focused Digital Connectivity Readiness Index

30th January, 2025 (7 Comments)

Consultancy firm FarrPoint has published the first 2025 edition of their Digital Connectivity Readiness Index (DCRI), which ranks the G7 countries by the quality and coverage of their digital infrastructure (broadband, 5G etc.), as well as other areas like digital skills and online security etc. Overall, the United Kingdom continues to rank top and has improved its scores.

SRN 4G mobile mast funded by UK government PR 300125

30 Government Funded 4G Mobile UK Mast Upgrades Now Live

30th January, 2025 (13 Comments)

The boss of Digital Mobile Spectrum Limited (DMSL), which represents the four major mobile operators (EE, O2, Vodafone and Three UK), has today confirmed that a total of 30 government-funded rural 4G (mobile broadband) mast upgrades have now gone live across the United Kingdom via the industry-led £1bn Shared Rural Network (SRN) project.

Neos Networks to Lead Gigabit Broadband Upgrade in Notts and Derbyshire UK

29th January, 2025 (2 Comments)

The Nottinghamshire County Council (NCC) has today appointed Neos Networks to lead their £1.2m D2N2 Gigahubs project, which will work alongside Openreach (BT) and Netomnia to deploy a new full fibre gigabit broadband network to connect “up to” 28 public buildings (schools, NHS sites etc.) across rural parts of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire.

Competition Watchdog Finds UK Cloud Market “not working as well as it could”

28th January, 2025 (0 Comments)

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has today published the “provisional findings” of their investigation into the UK’s public cloud infrastructure services market, which is currently dominated by Amazon (AWS) and Microsoft (Azure). The probe found that “competition is not working as well as it could” and is now shifting its focus to look at remedies.