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Articles for Category Tag - Politics

Chancellor’s Meet with UK Regulators Delivers no Surprises for Broadband Prices

29th June, 2023 (31 Comments)

Consumers hoping for some respite from spiralling price hikes on their broadband ISP and mobile operator bills will have to keep waiting. Yesterday’s meeting between the Chancellor of the UK Government, Jeremy Hunt, and the heads from all of the UK’s major regulators, including Ofcom, appears to have produced nothing new.

Lords Committee – UK Gov Needs Credible Plan to Tackle Digital Exclusion

29th June, 2023 (6 Comments)

A new Lords Committee report has today become the latest to try and tackle the age-old problem of Digital Exclusion (i.e. getting everybody online and ensuring they have the right skills). The Committee finds that the scale of the problem is a “direct consequence of political lethargy” and highlights the UK Government’s “lack of a credible plan.”

Ofcom Cautions BT in New Report on Openreach’s Independence

27th June, 2023 (26 Comments)

Ofcom has published their annual 2023 monitoring report into Openreach’s independence from BT, which found that the commitments made by the operator “have generally proved to be successful“. But the regulator warns against complacency and cautions BT’s CEO, Philip Jansen, against repeating some of his recent remarks.

Farmers See Modest Improvements in Mobile and Broadband Cover

26th June, 2023 (0 Comments)

The National Farmers Union recently published the results of their latest annual survey of 814 members across England and Wales, which among other things found that 36% can now access “supefast broadband” (24Mbps+) speeds (up from 20% two years ago), while 80% had access to 4G on their mobiles and 10% could get 5G.

Major UK Broadband and Mobile Providers Commit to Recruit More Women

23rd June, 2023 (0 Comments)

The UK telecoms regulator, Ofcom, has today joined forces with BT, Sky Broadband, TalkTalk, Openreach, Three UK, Virgin Media O2 and Vodafone to agree a new pledge that commits them all to help get more women into senior technology positions – across a historically male-dominated sector.

Chancellor Calls on UK Utility Firms to Pass Cost Savings on to Consumers

23rd June, 2023 (14 Comments)

The Government’s Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, will next week meet with the heads from all of the UK’s major regulators as part of a drive to help bring down inflation by encouraging utility providers (i.e. energy, water, broadband and mobile) to ensure they’re passing on any wholesale costs savings to consumers.

Survey Claims Brits Stung by £539m of Unexpected Mobile Roaming Charges

22nd June, 2023 (19 Comments)

A new Opinium survey of 2,000 UK adults, which was commissioned by Uswitch, has claimed that British people have had to fork out approximately £539m in “unexpected roaming” costs over the past 12 months since most mobile operators reintroduced EU roaming charges.

CityFibre Secure Wayleaves to Build FTTP to 1 Million UK Social Homes

22nd June, 2023 (4 Comments)

Network operator CityFibre has today announced that they’ve secured enough legal UK land and property access agreements (wayleaves) to connect over 1 million homes owned by local authorities and housing associations to their new gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP network.

Openreach Slowly Nears Completion of Devon and Somerset FTTP Contract

21st June, 2023 (17 Comments)

The state aid supported Connecting Devon and Somerset (CDS) programme in England has today issued a progress update on their £6m Fibre Extension Programme (FEP) contract with Openreach (BT), which was originally due to cover 2,000 rural premises with Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband by the end of 2021.

Housing Search and UK Broadband Under Magnifying Glass

H2 2022 – Full Fibre Broadband Covers 98% of New Build UK Homes

21st June, 2023 (1 Comment)

The latest H2 2022 study into the broadband coverage of UK new build homes reveals that 98.3% of houses constructed by the end of 2022 were covered by a fixed Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network (unchanged from H1 2022), which falls slightly to 98.1% when only looking at the latest early data for 2023.

Report – Mobile Broadband Can Help to Fight UK Digital Exclusion

19th June, 2023 (1 Comment)

A new report from trade body Mobile UK, which represents Three UK, EE (BT), O2 (VMO2) and Vodafone, has helped to highlight how mobile connectivity can tackle the digital divide and encourage more people online. But it also highlights the need for “better Government policy” to complement such efforts.

Price rises arrow with bag of UK pounds sterling GBP

New UK Ad Rules to Tackle Mid-Contract Broadband Price Hikes UPDATE2

15th June, 2023 (22 Comments)

The UK Committees of Advertising Practice (CAP and BCAP) – sister bodies to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) – have today set out new guidance for how broadband ISPs and mobile operators should communicate mid-contract prices hikes to consumers, which will make such policies clearer and more transparent.

Vodafone-UK-and-Three-UK-Merger-Illustration

Vodafone and Three UK Sign Agreement for Mobile Mega Merger

14th June, 2023 (73 Comments)

Mobile network operators Vodafone and Three UK (CK Hutchison) have today confirmed that they’ve reached a formal merger agreement, which is said to be worth an estimated £15bn and will see the former party owning a 51% slice of the business (CKH will hold 49%). But they’ll still have to satisfy the regulators, and that may require concessions.

Labour MP Stephanie Peacock sees Hyperoptic team in Pimlico

Hyperoptic’s Anti-Mid Contract Price Hikes Campaign Backed by Labour

14th June, 2023 (15 Comments)

The UK Labour Party’s Shadow Digital Minister, Stephanie Peacock MP, has this week given her support to full fibre broadband ISP Hyperoptic in its ongoing campaign to stop mid-contract price rises by rivals, which often increases consumer prices well above the current level of inflation (hikes of 13-15% hit many consumers earlier this year).

UK Gov Updates on Rural Satellite Broadband Trial and New Pilots UPDATE

12th June, 2023 (13 Comments)

The Government has revealed some new details about their previously announced trial (here) to deliver “high-speed broadband” via Satellite ISP solutions to Shetland. At the same time, they’ve also launched a new Smart Infrastructure Pilots Programme (SIPP) and signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Telecoms Diversification with Australia.

fibre optic uk network cable flay glowing - 123rf

New UK Measures to Tackle Dumping of Optical Fibre from China

9th June, 2023 (12 Comments)

The Trade Remedies Authority (TRA), which is an arm’s length body of the UK government that exists to tackle unfair import practices and unforeseen surges of imports, has today recommend the introduction of new trade remedies to protect the country’s optical fibre industry from “harm caused by low-priced imports from China“.

Government Appoints UK’s First Rural Connectivity Champion

7th June, 2023 (22 Comments)

The Government (DEFRA & DSIT) has followed this week’s publication of its new Unleashing Rural Opportunity paper (here) by announcing that it has appointed the MP for Barrow and Furness in Cumbria, Simon Fell, to be the UK’s first “Rural Connectivity Champion” to support rural areas in accessing faster broadband etc.