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Articles for Category Tag - Politics

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Connexin Begin Rollout of FTTP Broadband in Nottinghamshire and West Lincolnshire

5th November, 2024 (5 Comments)

Alternative UK broadband ISP Connexin has today issued a short progress update to state that they’re about to enter the build phase on their £58.6m (state aid funded) Project Gigabit contract for rural parts of Nottinghamshire and West Lincolnshire (Lot 10), which aims to expand their full fibre (FTTP) network to cover 34,320 hard to reach premises.

CMA Give Provisional Green Light to Vodafone and Three UK Merger UPDATE2

5th November, 2024 (56 Comments)

The Competition and Markets Authority has today appeared to give a “provisional” approval to Vodafone and Three UK’s recently tabled commitments (here) under their proposed merger (here), which were intended to placate concerns that the deal could result in a “Significant Lessening of Competition” (SLC) in the mobile market. But it will require changes.

Scottish Government Launches New Digital Connectivity Website

1st November, 2024 (0 Comments)

The Scottish Government (SG) has launched a new Digital Connectivity website, which is now directly integrated into the main government website and appears to replace the old Digital Scotland (Superfast Scotland) site. The new site continues to cover the SG’s various broadband (e.g. R100), mobile, IoT and green data centre projects.

Devon and Somerset UK Broadband Project Scales Back Airband Rollout UPDATE

31st October, 2024 (33 Comments)

The state-aid supported Connecting Devon and Somerset (CDS) programme has suffered yet another problem with one of their rural broadband contracts, which occurred today after they announced that their full fibre roll-out deal with Worcestershire-based Airband was being “scaled back” following its underperformance.

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Autumn UK Budget 2024 Commits £500m to Broadband and Mobile UPDATE4

30th October, 2024 (6 Comments)

The new Chancellor of the Labour Government, Rachel Reeves MP, has today announced her first Autumn 2024 Budget and confirmed that she would commit “over £500m of funding next year” for “improving reliable fast broadband and mobile coverage across our country, including in rural areas“.

October 2024 Progress Update on BT’s 10Mbps UK Broadband USO

29th October, 2024 (10 Comments)

UK ISP BT has published the final biannual progress update for 2024 on their delivery of Ofcom’s somewhat maligned 10Mbps Universal Service Obligation (USO) for broadband. The ISP has so far helped to build a USO connection to over 8,248 premises (up from 7,954 in April 2024), with 215 further builds in-progress (down from 265).

Over 50 MPs Call on UK Gov to Defend Rural Broadband Funding

25th October, 2024 (0 Comments)

The Country Land and Business Association (CLA), which represents thousands of landowners (farmers and businesses) across England and Wales, has joined with over 50 MPs to “seek clarity” from the Government over the future of Project Gigabit broadband funding and what proportion of the spend will be going toward rural vs urban areas.

Historic UK Fibre Tax Case Resurfaces After VOA Criminal Summonses UPDATE

25th October, 2024 (10 Comments)

A historic legal case, which challenged the fairness of the Government’s Valuation Office Agency (VOA) and how it was choosing to tax fibre optic broadband cables between different UK network operators, has reared its head again after several criminal summonses were issued for members of the VOA, HMRC and others for alleged “perjury and fraud“.

New UK Petition Calls for “Loyalty Tax” on Broadband Contracts to be Banned

24th October, 2024 (24 Comments)

A new petition, which has already been signed by over 56,200 people across the UK, has called on Ofcom to tackle the issue of “loyalty penalties” by changing the rules so that existing broadband ISP customers can access the same offers as new ones and that any end-of-contract price increases be “limited to a maximum of 30% of their current contract price“.

CityFibre Start FTTP Broadband Build for East Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire

24th October, 2024 (13 Comments)

CityFibre has begun the build phase of their £58m state-aid supported Project Gigabit broadband rollout contract for Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire & East Berkshire (LOT 26) in England (here), which will see them expand their full fibre (FTTP) network to cover 34,000 of the hardest-to-reach premises (150,000 if you include their complementary commercial build).

Parliament UK Building at Dusk in London 2021

New UK Data Use and Access Bill to Aid Utility Maps and ISP Comparisons

24th October, 2024 (3 Comments)

The UK government has today unveiled details of their new Data Use and Access Bill (DUAB), which aims to deliver a £10bn economy boost by “unlocking the secure and effective use of data for the public interest“. The measures will also support personalised market comparisons for utility pricing and a new digital map of underground broadband cables and pipes on a “statutory footing“.

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Telecoms May Benefit from Gov’s New British Infrastructure Taskforce

19th October, 2024 (6 Comments)

The UK Government has launched a new British Infrastructure Taskforce (BIT), which is intended to attract more private investment by encouraging businesses to help design future infrastructure policy. In theory, this could be of some benefit to broadband and mobile (digital infrastructure), although the announcement doesn’t give specifics.

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Acrimony as UK Parliament Debate Use of Telegraph Poles for Broadband

18th October, 2024 (27 Comments)

The vexed question of whether it’s always right to use “telegraph poles“, which are far from popular with many UK communities, when deploying the new generation of gigabit broadband ISP networks came up for debate in parliament yesterday. MPs broadly called for change and stronger rules are coming “early” in 2025, but whether they will be enough remains to be seen.

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ITS Technology to Build New 50km Newcastle-under-Lyme Fibre Network

17th October, 2024 (1 Comment)

The Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council in Staffordshire (England) has recommended that the ITS Technology Group, which operates wholesale full fibre broadband and Ethernet networks (“Faster Britain“) across urban parts of the UK, be appointed to build up to 50km of a new fibre network to help reach poorly served areas.

MS3 Guy Miller and Zen Internet Richard Tang

MS3 Begin Trial to Run FTTP Broadband via KCOM’s Poles in Hull UK

14th October, 2024 (19 Comments)

The CEO of alternative broadband operator MS3, Guy Miller, has confirmed to Richard Tang (CEO of ISP Zen Internet), in a new interview, that they’ve just begun a trial with KCOM in Hull that will allow them to deploy their full fibre (FTTP) lines by harnessing some of the incumbent’s existing poles and ducts – potentially reducing community complaints.

Gov Publishes Evaluation of the UK Fibre in Water Broadband Project

14th October, 2024 (13 Comments)

The UK Government (DSIT) has published an evaluation report into the c.£6.2 million “Fibre in Water” trial (Project TAWCO), which tested the deployment of fibre optic (FTTP) cables through a live water mains (used for drinking water) but, as we previously reported (here), ended up being stalled due to several issues.

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New Digital UK Map of Underground Cables to Enter Public Beta in 2025

8th October, 2024 (10 Comments)

The Government has announced that their new National Underground Asset Register (NUAR), which is a digital UK map of underground pipes and cables (broadband, water etc.) that is partly designed to help reduce accidental damage, will finally be made available as a public beta service by spring 2025.