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Articles for Category Tag - Politics

David Davis MP Pressures KCOM to Help Resolve FTTP Poles Dispute

12th October, 2023 (19 Comments)

The MP for Haltemprice and Howden, David Davis, has called on ISP KCOM, MS3, Connexin and other alternative broadband network operators in East Yorkshire (England) to help resolve the “unsightly mess of unnecessary street furniture” (a reference to recent protests against poles) by fairly sharing access to existing ducts and poles.

Competition Authority Consults on Vodafone and Three UK Merger

11th October, 2023 (20 Comments)

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has today opened up a consultation for feedback on the proposed mobile mega-merger between Three UK and Vodafone (here), which would reduce the number of mobile operators in the market from four to three and may thus impact upon competition, consumer prices, jobs and security.

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Which? Launch Campaign to Ban Mid-Contract Broadband Price Hikes

6th October, 2023 (56 Comments)

Consumer magazine Which? has today launched the “Right to Connect” campaign, which accuses UK mobile and broadband providers of “duping consumers with their sneaky mid-contract price hikes” and is instead calling on the regulator, Ofcom, to “ban this practice” and deliver generally “clearer and fairer pricing“.

Wessex Internet’s North Dorset Project Gigabit Broadband Network Goes Live

5th October, 2023 (0 Comments)

Broadband ISP and network builder Wessex Internet has today announced that the first customers have gone live as part of their first £6m Project Gigabit contract with the UK government, which is deploying a new full fibre (FTTP) network to 7,100 uncommercial premises in rural parts of North Dorset (England).

Ofcom Sends UK Cloud Market to the Competition Watchdog UPDATE

5th October, 2023 (6 Comments)

The UK communications and media regulator, Ofcom, has today formally referred the public cloud infrastructure services market, which is dominated by Amazon (AWS) and Microsoft (Azure), to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) for further investigation after uncovering “features that could limit competition“.

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UK Joins Global Coalition to Develop Next Gen Telecoms

5th October, 2023 (2 Comments)

The Government has this morning announced that the UK is to join the Global Coalition on Telecommunications (GCOT) and commit £70m to the Future Telecoms UKRI Technology Missions Fund (TMF) Programme. Both of which are intended to help research and develop the next generation of telecoms, broadband and 6G networks etc.

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Ashford Borough Council in Kent Reports on Broadband Progress

3rd October, 2023 (0 Comments)

The Ashford Borough Council (ABC) in Kent, England, has published a review of the local area’s progress on improving broadband and have identified, perhaps unsurprisingly, that “more needs to be done” to ensure that all local residents and businesses benefit from access to “fast and reliable internet connections“.

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Havering Seeks Gigabit Broadband Network for Council Flats

3rd October, 2023 (2 Comments)

The Council for the London Borough of Havering has this week announced that they are “seeking expressions of interest from broadband suppliers” to help extend the benefits of gigabit-capable connectivity (FTTP) to over 4,900 council-owned flats in the area, which are currently only served by “old copper broadband lines“.

Gov to Review UK Rural Broadband Options and 10Mbps USO

2nd October, 2023 (24 Comments)

The UK Government has today launched two interesting new consultations, including one that is seeking views on a looming review of the legally-binding 10Mbps+ Universal Service Obligation (USO) for broadband and another that will help better understand how to improve broadband for “Very Hard to Reach” areas.

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SMF Proposes New Approach to UK Broadband Social Tariffs

28th September, 2023 (29 Comments)

A new report from the Social Market Foundation (SMF), which is a British cross-party think-tank, has recommended that companies providing essentials (broadband, energy, water and transport) are made to offer Social Tariffs to vulnerable customers “in a consistent manner” in order to ensure all eligible users can benefit.

EU Reveal 2023 Broadband and 5G Connectivity Progress vs UK

28th September, 2023 (9 Comments)

The European Commission has published their annual ‘Broadband Coverage in Europe’ study, which reveals how the EU’s fixed broadband and 5G mobile networks compare across all of its 27 countries, plus Norway, Iceland, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. We take a closer look to see how the UK is fairing.

Global Mobile Operators Call for More Graceful Evolution of 6G Mobile

26th September, 2023 (6 Comments)

The NGMN Alliance (Next Generation Mobile Networks Alliance), which is an open forum founded by mobile operators from across the world (e.g. BT, Vodafone, Tele2 etc.), has today taken a more “proactive” stance on influencing the development of future 6G mobile broadband tech by pushing for a more “graceful evolution“.

CityFibre Update on Project Gigabit FTTP Build Progress in England

21st September, 2023 (15 Comments)

CityFibre has announced that they’ve awarded their “first round of contracts” to civil engineering firms under their state-aid supported Project Gigabit broadband rollout contracts in Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, Hampshire and Suffolk. The deployments will bring full fibre (FTTP) lines to a total of 715,000 extra rural properties.

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Autumn 2023 BDUK Update on UK Project Gigabit Broadband Rollout

21st September, 2023 (22 Comments)

The Building Digital UK agency has released their latest September 2023 progress update on the Government’s £5bn Project Gigabit broadband rollout scheme, which is now running live contracts and procurements worth over £2bn in state aid (up from £1.4bn in July) to help extend coverage to an extra 1.1 million hard to reach premises.

Security Concerns Dominate UK Parliament Debate on Vodafone and Three Merger

20th September, 2023 (31 Comments)

A meeting in the House of Commons (Parliament) was held yesterday that saw MPs from various different parties debate the proposed merger of Three UK and Vodafone (here), which highlighted how the dominant concerns for MPs centre around issues of national security, job losses and the risk of higher prices for consumers.

Scotland Consult on Gigabit Broadband for All New Build Homes

20th September, 2023 (8 Comments)

The Scottish Government has launched a consultation on new proposals that closely mirror those recently introduced across England (here and here), which would effectively mandate that property developers ensure their new build homes are constructed with support for gigabit-capable broadband connections.

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Internet Censorship Galore as UK Online Safety Bill Becomes Law

19th September, 2023 (86 Comments)

Get ready, it’s going to be a rocky ride. The UK Government’s new Online Safety Bill (OSB) is finally set to become law after passing through both houses of parliament today, largely unopposed. The goal is to tackle “harmful” content online, but the result may be a regime that has a chilling effect on freedom of expression.