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Articles for Category Tag - Politics

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Mobile Operators Face Higher Rents for UK Masts on Rural Land

23rd August, 2024 (11 Comments)

A recent ruling by the Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) in London means that UK mobile and broadband operators will effectively have to pay landowners of rural greenfield mast sites significantly more to place their masts, with the typical rental for such sites being expected to rise from £750 to £1,750 per year.

The 4G Mobile Infill Project in Scotland Benefitted 2,211 Premises

22nd August, 2024 (3 Comments)

The Scottish Government (SG) has revealed that their £28.75m 4G Infill Programme (S4GI), which completed earlier this year (here) after spending several years improving mobile voice and data (broadband) coverage by building 55 new masts in remote rural areas, has benefitted 2,211 homes and businesses.

Government Appoints Interim Chair of Building Digital UK Agency

22nd August, 2024 (6 Comments)

The new Labour-led Government (DSIT) has this afternoon announced that they’ve appointed Hazel Hobbs to act as the “interim” chair of their broadband and mobile centric Building Digital UK (BDUK) agency, starting on 1st September 2024. She replaces Simon Blagden, who resigned “with immediate effect“ a month ago (here).

Study Reveals State of Mobile Broadband Coverage in Ceredigion, Wales

22nd August, 2024 (7 Comments)

Mobile network analyst firm Streetwave has revealed that only EE (BT) and Vodafone UK were able to provide “Good Coverage” across more than 50% of Ceredigion’s road network in Wales. The data reflects the next batch of results from their work with Growing Mid Wales (GMW), which uses bin lorries to map local network (4G, 5G etc.) coverage and broadband speeds.

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Opensignal Study Warns Three UK at Risk if Vodafone Merger Fails

21st August, 2024 (25 Comments)

Network benchmarking firm Opensignal has published new analysis of the “competitive headwinds” facing Three UK in the mobile market, which finds that the operator’s struggles are “driven by a low subscriber base and high churn resulting from many factors“. But it also warns that the situation could get worse if the proposed merger with Vodafone is rejected.

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Mobile UK Claim Half of People Would Welcome Mobile Mast on their Street

19th August, 2024 (37 Comments)

A new survey of over 1,000 adults conducted by industry trade body Mobile UK, which represents mobile operators Three UK, EE (BT), O2 (Virgin Media) and Vodafone, has claimed that 51% of respondents are not bothered or would welcome a new mobile mast on their street to help improve service performance and reliability.

BT Warn UK Lift Operators Not to Leave Users Trapped by Analogue Phone Switch Off

19th August, 2024 (6 Comments)

The CEO of telecoms and broadband provider BT Business, Bas Burger, has written a new letter to critical national infrastructure customers this week, including the likes of lift operators and medical equipment, which warns them of the need to switchover to a digital phone solution before the old analogue (PSTN) service is switched-off.

New UK Gov Reiterates Call for Limits on Building Broadband Poles UPDATE

17th August, 2024 (24 Comments)

The new Labour-led UK Government has somewhat echoed the previous administration today by calling on broadband operators to “end the deployment of unnecessary telegraph poles” when rolling out new gigabit-capable networks. But they have “at this stage” rejected the idea of removing Permitted Development (PD) rights for poles.

ISP Wessex Internet Puts FTTP Live in 2 Hampshire UK Villages

16th August, 2024 (3 Comments)

Rural broadband ISP Wessex Internet, which is rolling out a gigabit speed Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network across rural parts of Southern England, has today revealed that homes and businesses in the Hampshire villages of Sway and Brockenhurst are now going live on the new network.

Mobile Operator Lyca Mobile UK Handed Winding Up Petition by HMRC UPDATE

15th August, 2024 (20 Comments)

Troubled mobile operator Lyca Mobile, which is a virtual network operator (MVNO) on EE’s platform in the UK, appears to have suffered a blow this week after the tax authority, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), filed a winding-up petition in the courts against their UK business on Monday. But Lyca says it was “issued in error“.

Openreach CEO Appeals to UK Gov to Fix Planning, MDU Access and Permits UPDATE

14th August, 2024 (12 Comments)

The CEO of network access provider Openreach, Clive Selley, has today called on the new UK Government to help introduce “simple” fixes and reforms that would enable them to expand their gigabit-capable full fibre (FTTP) broadband ISP network into areas and properties that are still “missing out on upgrades” due to “red tape“.

Openreach Win UK Project Gigabit Broadband Contracts and Help 312k Premises

13th August, 2024 (21 Comments)

The Government claims to have kicked off a “renewed push” today to “reach full gigabit [broadband] coverage by 2030“, which they’ve done by announcing that Openreach (BT) has secured several contracts under the £5bn Project Gigabit scheme. This could eventually be worth up to £800m (state aid) and may upgrade 312,000 premises in remote rural areas of Scotland, England and Wales.

HS2 Claims HS2 Could Boost UK Mobile and Rural Broadband

8th August, 2024 (3 Comments)

New analysis published by High Speed 2 Ltd, which is a non-departmental public body that is wholly funded by the UK Government’s Department for Transport (DfT), has claimed that the HS2 rail project could help “thousands of properties” across 538 postcodes to gain access to “ultrafast broadband speeds” and better mobile connectivity.

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AssetHUB Claims 100,000km of UK Fibre May be Left Underutilised

8th August, 2024 (16 Comments)

Asset reuse specialist AssetHUB has today claimed that an estimated 100,000km of publicly funded full fibre broadband cables in UK rural and hard to reach areas, allegedly worth over £1.4bn (total state aid), could be “left underutilised due to a lack of visibility” and “despite open networking being a condition of receiving taxpayers’ money“.

UK Broadband and Mobile Providers Balk at Ofcom’s Call for Battery Backup

7th August, 2024 (24 Comments)

The UK telecoms regulator, Ofcom, has published some of the responses they’ve received from fixed broadband ISPs and mobile operators to their consultation on enhancing network resilience in order to “reduce the risk of network outages“ (here). Suffice to say that many operators are balking at the costs of deploying national battery backup.

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Landowners Score Key Win in Battle Over UK Mobile Cell Sites and Rents

6th August, 2024 (1 Comment)

A new ruling by the Scottish Lands Tribunal, which could have significant industry-wide ramifications, has re-opened the contentious issue of land ownership and rent reductions on UK mobile masts (inc. rooftop sites), such as those that may occur when mobile or wireless broadband operators attempt to renew an existing lease at a much lower rent.

Scotland Partly Pauses R100 Gigabit Broadband Voucher Applications

6th August, 2024 (1 Comment)

The Scottish Government (SG) has confirmed to ISPreview that they will be introducing a “temporary pause” on Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme (SBVS) applications for gigabit-capable projects covering multiple premises, which is intended to ensure the “best use of public funds” and to help “deliver an optimised roll out schedule“.