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Articles for Category Tag - Politics

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Gov Help Expand Gigabit Broadband to 60,000 Homes in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire UK

6th August, 2026 (0 Comments)

The UK Government has this morning announced that their publicly subsidised Project Gigabit broadband roll-out contracts, signed with alternative network ISP Quickline, have so far enabled over 60,000 homes and businesses in hard-to-reach areas across Yorkshire and Lincolnshire to access faster internet speeds.

Swansea Bay City Region Update on Broadband and Mobile Coverage

5th August, 2026 (0 Comments)

The Swansea Bay City Region’s Digital Infrastructure Programme, which includes various broadband and other digital infrastructure upgrades as part of the much wider £1.3bn region deal, has today posted an update on both fixed broadband and mobile network coverage across the area covered by their programme.

GoFibre Boost Speeds and Update on FTTP Broadband Rollout in North East Scotland

3rd August, 2026 (0 Comments)

Edinburgh-based UK ISP and alternative network builder GoFibre has today provided a progress update on their roll-out of a new full fibre (FTTP) broadband network across North East Scotland, which reflects the £105m (public subsidy) Project Gigabit contract they signed a year ago (here). The provider’s packages have also recently introduced a symmetric speed boost.

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Study Claims 1 Mill Rural UK FTTP Premises At Risk of Openreach’s “uneconomic overbuild”

31st July, 2026 (20 Comments)

Consulting firm Cartesian has released a new report on the state of the UK’s fibre full broadband market, which unsurprisingly highlights how challenging it is for alternative networks (altnet) to create sustainable business models. The study also claims that c.1 million rural FTTP premises could see uneconomic overbuild if Openreach is required to meet a high exchange coverage threshold for copper switchover.

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Wessex Internet Tweak Dorset and Somerset UK Project Gigabit Broadband Contract

29th July, 2026 (0 Comments)

The Government’s Building Digital UK (BDUK) agency has posted another contract modification notice for Wessex Internet’s Project Gigabit contract in Dorset and South Somerset (Lot 14.02), which slightly reduced the planned roll-out of full fibre broadband (FTTP) by 1,047 premises and shrinks its value by £702,296 (public subsidy).

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BDUK Update Figures for Openreach’s Project Gigabit Broadband Contracts

29th July, 2026 (4 Comments)

The Government’s Building Digital UK (BDUK) agency has updated the latest contract values and contracted premises figures for their Project Gigabit broadband roll-out contracts with Openreach (BT), which takes account of recent changes to show that all of the contracts combined are now worth £850m and will bring FTTP to around 358,000 premises.

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Alternative UK Full Fibre Networks Call on Prime Minister to Focus on Broadband

23rd July, 2026 (4 Comments)

The Independent Networks Co-operative Association (INCA), which represents many of the UK market’s alternative broadband networks, has this afternoon become the latest industry organisation to press the new UK Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, and his leadership team to “give broadband and telecoms the political attention and clear ministerial ownership they deserve“.

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Government Responsibility for UK Broadband and Mobile Returns to DCMS

23rd July, 2026 (1 Comment)

After a few days of conflicting messaging, the Government in Westminster did yesterday confirm that responsibility for all things broadband and mobile related – this includes programmes covered by the Building Digital UK (BDUK) agency and related aspects – has been shifted back to a re-named Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). But now the ‘D’ stands for Digital (I guess.. DDCMS?).

Virgin Media O2 Calls on Ofcom to Weaken UK Net Neutrality Rules for Mobile

22nd July, 2026 (14 Comments)

Broadband and mobile giant Virgin Media and O2 (VMO2) has today attempted to reignite the Net Neutrality debate, again, by calling on Ofcom to soften their guidelines in order to “unlock innovation and new mobile network investment“. The rules were originally established to prevent unfair blocking or slowing of access to legal websites and other internet services by comms providers.

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July 2026 Contract Progress of UK Project Gigabit Broadband Rollout

20th July, 2026 (11 Comments)

The Government’s Building Digital UK (BDUK) agency has today released their July 2026 update on the delivery progress of contracts awarded under the £5bn Project Gigabit broadband rollout scheme. The update reveals that some 287,510 contracted premises (up from 271,460 in Jun 2026) have so far been covered out of a planned total of 838,490 (34% complete).

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Government Offers £42m to Develop UK LEO Satellite Broadband and Comms Tech

20th July, 2026 (2 Comments)

The government’s UK Space Agency has today opened up the third funding round under their 4-year £160m Connectivity in Low Earth Orbit (C-LEO) programme, which is offering £42m to develop new satellite technologies and components to help supply “high-speed internet, communications and data services” around the world.

Concern for Telecoms as New UK Prime Minister Scraps Tech Department UPDATE

20th July, 2026 (11 Comments)

The incoming UK Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, is reportedly planning to abolish the Government’s central Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), which also oversees broadband and mobile connectivity (telecoms) – partly via the Building Digital UK (BDUK) agency. The proposal plan could see DSIT’s functions being spread across other departments.

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The End of Ground-based Astronomy – UK Gov Responds to Broadband Satellite Fears

20th July, 2026 (3 Comments)

The UK Government’s Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) has confirmed to ISPreview that they’re “actively engaged in international efforts to find solutions” to the problem raised by a recent study, which warned that ground-based telescopes might soon become useless if the number of satellites in Earth’s orbit exceeds 100,000 (i.e. those with below naked eye visibility).

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Wiltshire Council Praise Wessex Internet’s Rural Gigabit Broadband Build Progress

18th July, 2026 (0 Comments)

The Wiltshire Council in the South of England has praised rural broadband ISP Wessex Internet for exceeding 40% of its connectivity targets under their £18.8m (public subsidy) Project Gigabit contract for South Wiltshire (Lot 30), which has so far expanded full fibre broadband to reach 7,500 premises in hard-to-reach areas.

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Vodafone Says UK Ranks Poorly in Study of Ten Major Mobile Markets

16th July, 2026 (1 Comment)

Broadband and mobile provider Vodafone has published their new Mobile Market Index (MMI), which benchmarks the UK against nine international peers (inc. USA, Germany, France, Spain, South Korea, Australia, Norway, Singapore and Hungary) to assess the environment facing Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) in each.

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Gov Sets Out More Detail of UK Social Media Curfews and Restrictions for Under 18s

14th July, 2026 (6 Comments)

The Government has tonight set out more details of how they intend to implement their recently announced internet Social Media ban for children under 16 (original news), which among other things includes new details on overnight curfews and breaks in infinite scrolling for under 18s.

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Wessex Internet Complete Full Fibre Rollout Contract in Devon and Somerset UK

14th July, 2026 (0 Comments)

Rural broadband ISP Wessex Internet has today announced that they’ve completed their publicly funded deployment of full fibre broadband under the Connecting Devon and Somerset (CDS) programme, which has seen 4,190 hard-to-reach rural homes and businesses across South Somerset in England gain access to their gigabit speed network.