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Articles for Category Tag - Politics

Scotland Tenders for £43m Gigabit Broadband Rollout in Fife, Perth and Kinross

28th January, 2025 (5 Comments)

ISPreview has spotted that the Scottish Government (SG) yesterday published a contract notice for the Fife, Perth and Kinross (Lot 4 – Scotland) area under the UK’s £5bn Project Gigabit broadband roll-out scheme, which is expected to expand full fibre (FTTP) connectivity to an estimated 28,441 premises in hard-to-reach (rural) locations.

Cross-Party Inquiry Examines Threats to Undersea UK Internet Cables

27th January, 2025 (0 Comments)

The Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy (JCNSS) has launched a new UK inquiry that will see cross-party MPs and Lords examine the growing threats to undersea fibre optic cables, which are described as being the ‘backbone’ of the world’s internet (broadband, mobile etc.) systems.

Police Arrest After Protestors Cut Vital Fibre Optic Cables in UK Cities

25th January, 2025 (34 Comments)

The City of London Police (CoLP) have arrested a 29-year-old man after a climate protest group claimed to have “[disrupted] the wifi systems of hundreds of insurance companies across the UK“, which they achieved by cutting key fibre optic cables in London (similar events are also said to have occurred in Leeds, Birmingham and Sheffield).

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FarrPoint Find UK Councils Prioritise Gigabit Broadband, Ignore Data Centres

23rd January, 2025 (3 Comments)

Consultancy firm FarrPoint has today published their third annual (2025) survey of digital leaders at councils across England, Scotland and Wales. The results reveal that expanding the coverage of gigabit broadband remains the top priority for most local authorities. But on the flip side, only 4% of surveyed councils are developing a dedicated data centre strategy.

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CityFibre UK Starts Project Gigabit Broadband Roll Out for Kent

20th January, 2025 (11 Comments)

Network operator CityFibre has today announced that they’ve begun the roll-out phase of their £112 million state-aid supported Project Gigabit contract for Kent (Lot 29) in England. This will extend their 10Gbps capable FTTP broadband ISP network to an additional 50,000+ premises in hard-to-reach rural areas.

Dorset UK Council Celebrate Completion of £23.6m Broadband Project

16th January, 2025 (4 Comments)

After 11 years and £23.6m of public investment, the Dorset Council in the South of England has today celebrated the completion of their Superfast Dorset project (now part of the wider ‘Digital Dorset’ scheme), which helped to extend “superfast” and “ultra-fast” broadband networks to an additional 85,000 premises.

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Ofcom Begin Process of Imposing Age Verification on UK Internet Sites

16th January, 2025 (52 Comments)

The UK telecoms and media regulator, Ofcom, has today moved forward with implementation of the government’s tedious new Online Safety Act (OSA) by publishing industry guidance on how websites and social media services should introduce “effective age checks“. The goal is to prevent children from encountering online porn and protect them from other harmful content.

Ofcom Enforce BAN on Some Mid-Contract UK Broadband Price Hikes

16th January, 2025 (19 Comments)

Ofcom will tomorrow begin enforcing a new rule that bans UK phone, mobile, pay TV and broadband providers from doing mid-contract price hikes that are linked to inflation (CPI or RPI) and percentage-based changes. The change will make pricing clearer for new customers, but some consumers could still pay more than under the old model.

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FTTH Council Europe Summarises Copper Switch Off Progress by Country

15th January, 2025 (3 Comments)

The FTTH Council Europe has published an interesting new report that looks at the progress being made across 27 EU member states (and the United Kingdom) in switching off older copper based broadband networks as part of adopting gigabit full-fibre infrastructure. The report finds a mixed picture, with Portugal, Spain and Sweden leading the way, while others lag far behind.

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BDUK Publish Early Evaluation of Gigabit Broadband Subsidy Scheme

13th January, 2025 (3 Comments)

The Government’s executive Building Digital UK (BDUK) agency and Ipsos UK have today published an “early process review” of the Gigabit Infrastructure Subsidy (GIS) programme under their £5bn Project Gigabit broadband roll-out scheme, which identifies what “worked well” and “less well” in terms of providing the GIS intervention to date.

Poor Broadband May Hamper Dorset Council’s Cost Cutting Drive Toward Digital

13th January, 2025 (0 Comments)

The Dorset Council in England recently set out its proposals for a £416m budget for 2025/26, which included major cost-saving measures of around £44m and some of that involves the greater adoption of digital technologies, as well as AI. But councillors have been quick to warn that “pockets” of poor broadband and a lack of digital skills, among some groups, could create problems.

Swansea Bay City Deal Seeks Support for Better Broadband Infill Project

10th January, 2025 (0 Comments)

The Swansea Bay City Deal’s Digital Infrastructure Programme has launched a new Prior Information Notice (PIN), which is seeking feedback from suppliers that might be interested in helping to provide “affordable” gigabit broadband to poorly served premises in the Swansea Bay City Region (Pembrokeshire, Carmarthenshire, Swansea, and Neath Port Talbot).

CityFibre Begins Project Gigabit Broadband Roll Out for Sussex

9th January, 2025 (4 Comments)

Network operator CityFibre has this morning announced that they’ve begun the roll-out phase of their £108m state-aid supported Project Gigabit contract for the West & East Sussex (Lot 16 & 1) area in England. This will extend their 10Gbps capable FTTP broadband ISP network to an additional 57,000 hard-to-reach rural premises.

Altnet UK Broadband Operator Freedom Fibre Signs Armed Forces Covenant

7th January, 2025 (1 Comment)

Alternative network provider Freedom Fibre, which are busy rolling out a 10Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband networks across different parts of England (North West and Midlands), has today announced that they’ve become the latest operator to sign the Armed Forces Covenant (AFC).

131,000 Premises to Benefit from New Project Gigabit Broadband Contracts UPDATE

7th January, 2025 (7 Comments)

The UK Government and Openreach (BT) have today confirmed their latest four UK contract awards – valued at £289m+ – under the Project Gigabit broadband roll-out scheme, which we leaked last week (here). Some 131,000 premises in rural parts of North and Southwest Wales, Shropshire, Herefordshire, Devon, Somerset, Essex, North East England and Worcestershire will benefit.

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Investors Share Views on UK’s Difficult Alternative Broadband Market

6th January, 2025 (22 Comments)

A new newspaper report has revealed what digital infrastructure investors think of the UK’s current market for alternative broadband networks (altnets). Suffice to say that, after a difficult couple of years, there still seems to be a fair mix of both strong pessimism and optimism for 2025, which perhaps reflects the different states of the market’s many providers.

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BT Win Four More UK Project Gigabit Broadband Rollout Contracts Worth £289m

2nd January, 2025 (17 Comments)

The UK government has today confirmed the expected news that BT Group (Openreach) have been formally awarded several new Type C (Cross-Regional) Project Gigabit broadband roll-out contracts. This will help upgrade internet connectivity across more parts (hard to reach rural areas) of Shropshire, Herefordshire, Wales, Devon, Somerset, Essex and North East England, and Worcestershire.