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Articles for Category Tag - Politics

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Quickline Secure £250m Funding to Boost UK FTTP Broadband Rollout

1st August, 2024 (2 Comments)

Broadband ISP Quickline, which is deploying a new gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) and fixed wireless (5G FWA) network across parts of the North East and Midlands of England (mostly rural), has today secured a £125m term loan and £100m debt guarantee from the UK Infrastructure Bank (UKIB), alongside a £25m term loan from NatWest.

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Business ISP Commsworld Win £35m Glasgow City Network Contract

1st August, 2024 (1 Comment)

Edinburgh-based UK business ISP Commsworld has this morning announced that they’ve secured a new contract worth £35m+ over 5-years to provide network services to Glasgow City Council (GCC) in Scotland, which forms part of an effort to upgrade from the council’s “ageing legacy networks” to fibre optic and 5G services.

Tax Tribunal Backs HMRC Over £51m Lyca Mobile UK VAT Dispute

31st July, 2024 (14 Comments)

Mobile network operator Lyca Mobile, which is a virtual operator (MVNO) on EE’s platform in the UK, is facing a significant financial hit after a Tax Tribunal ruled in HMRC’s favour over a £51m dispute related to the VAT treatment of customer “bundles” (those sold over a period of 7 years). But the operator can still appeal.

Study Claims Poor Broadband and Mobile Drives People Out of UK Rural Areas

31st July, 2024 (9 Comments)

A new Strand Partners survey of 4,000 members of the UK public, which was commissioned by broadband and mobile providers Virgin Media and O2 (VMO2), has claimed that over a third of rural residents (or 66% of “young people“) are likely to be considering a move away to a town or city in the next 12 months. Poor internet connectivity is one of the key drivers for this.

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Quickline Win Yorkshire and Lincolnshire Gigabit Broadband Rollout Contracts

25th July, 2024 (5 Comments)

The UK government’s £5bn Project Gigabit broadband rollout scheme has today awarded two new contracts – worth a combined £190m – to ISP Quickline, which will see them extend their 10Gbps capable full fibre (FTTP) network to almost 108,000 extra premises in hard to reach rural areas across Lincolnshire, the East Riding of Yorkshire and North Yorkshire.

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Study Finds No Mobile Operator in Powys Surpasses 50% for Good Coverage

24th July, 2024 (7 Comments)

Mobile UK network analyst firm Streetwave has published the first results from their work with the Growing Mid Wales (GMW) programme, which uses bin lorries to map local network (4G, 5G etc.) coverage and broadband performance. Overall, none of the mobile operators provided “Good Coverage” across more than 50% of Powys’ road network, but EE does come top (49%).

R100 – Openreach Bring FTTP Broadband to 57K Extra Premises in Scotland

23rd July, 2024 (12 Comments)

Network operator Openreach (BT) has issued a progress update on their state aid supported £600m Reaching 100% (R100) project with the Scottish Government, which has now extended their gigabit-capable full fibre (FTTP) broadband network to more than 57,000 of Scotland’s hardest to connect homes and businesses.

Ofcom UK Hit BT with £17.5m Fine for 999 Call Handling Fault UPDATE

22nd July, 2024 (17 Comments)

The national regulator, Ofcom, has this morning hit BT with a fine of £17.5m for being “ill-prepared to respond to a catastrophic failure of its emergency call handling service last summer” (here), which readers may recall occurred after a technical fault (“complex software issue”) resulted in 14,000 emergency calls being disrupted. The disruption lasted for 10.5 hours.

Preston City in Lancashire Establish Digital Infrastructure Cooperative

22nd July, 2024 (1 Comment)

The Preston City Council (PCC) in Lancashire (England) recently announced that it will be the founding member of a new Preston Digital Cooperative (PDC) organisation, which seeks to promote digital inclusion across communities in the city through the deployment of new digital infrastructure (e.g. free broadband WiFi) and enhancing digital skills.

Chair of Government’s Building Digital UK Agency Resigns

19th July, 2024 (17 Comments)

The Government (DSIT) has just confirmed that the Chair of their broadband and mobile centric Building Digital UK (BDUK) agency, Simon Blagden, resigned from his position yesterday “with immediate effect“. The details of Simon’s departure have not been made public, but it’s perhaps not surprising given the recent change of Government.

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Ofcom UK Approve Plan to BAN Some Mid-Contract Broadband Price Hikes UPDATE2

19th July, 2024 (25 Comments)

The UK telecoms regulator, Ofcom, has today finalised their earlier proposal to BAN phone, mobile, pay TV and broadband ISPs from doing mid-contract price hikes that are linked to inflation and percentage changes. The plan is to introduce this change from 17th January 2025, before the next round of annual price increases typically hit.

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Opensignal Finds UK is a Top Country for Broadband Reliability

18th July, 2024 (0 Comments)

Network benchmarking firm Opensignal has today published the results of a new study that explored the differences in broadband reliability between urban and rural areas across 18 countries. The study reveals that, among other things, the Nordics, the United Kingdom and Canada all score highly for connection reliability.

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Ofcom UK Update Information Gathering Policy to Reflect New Powers

18th July, 2024 (3 Comments)

The UK telecoms and media regulator, Ofcom, has launched a new consultation that will update and extend their information gathering policy, which largely reflects the fact that they’ve gained new powers to extract information from companies and broadband providers etc. to support their work.

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King’s Speech Reveals Plans for New UK Cyber Security and Planning Reform Laws

17th July, 2024 (15 Comments)

The State Opening of Parliament – often referred to as the “King’s Speech” – took place today, which saw the new UK Government set out their agenda for the coming session. The speech included mentions of several bills that could potentially support the expansion of gigabit broadband and 5G mobile networks, as well as toughen cyber security and Digital Verification Services.

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CGI and Starlink Spread Broadband to Remote Norfolk UK Industrial Sites

17th July, 2024 (0 Comments)

A collaboration between IT consultancy firm CGI and the Norfolk County Council (NCC) in England has leveraged a hybrid approach to help bring “ultrafast” broadband speeds to several remote industrial sites in the county, which uses a mix of wireless networking and Starlink’s Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites.

UKIB Boost Wildanet’s Cornwall UK FTTP Broadband Rollout with £35m UPDATE

16th July, 2024 (0 Comments)

The UK Infrastructure Bank (UKIB), which was setup by the previous government to help crowd-in private investment for infrastructure projects, has today committed £35m to help alternative network provider Wildanet accelerate their rollout of gigabit-capable full fibre broadband across South West England.

Welsh Government Sees Opportunity to Review Gigabit Broadband Plan

13th July, 2024 (16 Comments)

The First Minister of Wales, Vaughan Gething (Labour), has jumped on the recent 2024 General Election result by indicating that it gives them a “window of opportunity” to re-engage with the new Labour-led UK Government – in the hope of “putting right what’s gone wrong” with Project Gigabit‘s broadband roll-out plan. But big changes risk big delays.