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Articles for Category Tag - Politics

Scotland Tenders for £106m Gigabit Broadband Rollout in North East

31st May, 2024 (11 Comments)

The Scottish Government has issued a contract notice for the North East of Scotland (Lot 5) under the UK’s £5bn Project Gigabit broadband roll-out scheme, which is expected to expand related connectivity to an estimated 68,342 premises in hard-to-reach (rural) parts of Dundee, Angus, Aberdeenshire, Aberdeen City, Moray, Highland and Perth and Kinross.

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IX Wireless Agree to Move Wireless Broadband Pole After Allegedly Abusive Call

29th May, 2024 (5 Comments)

A woman in Burnage has been successful in getting broadband network operator IX Wireless to move one of their poles (masts). The move occurred after she complained that it had been installed “without warning” next to her house and that staff had allegedly become “really weird and abusive on the phone” when she complained.

PAC Warn Pace of Rural UK 4G Mobile Rollout Project is Unsustainable

29th May, 2024 (4 Comments)

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC), which is responsible for overseeing UK government expenditures to ensure they are effective, has warned that the current build pace of the £1bn industry-led Shared Rural Network project (i.e. extending 4G mobile (broadband) coverage to 95% of the UK by the end of 2025) “may not be sustainable“.

Vodafone Extends 4G Mobile to 250 UK Rural Locations Under SRN

28th May, 2024 (5 Comments)

Mobile operator Vodafone has revealed that, as part of their commitment to the £1bn Shared Rural Network (SRN) project, they’ve now expanded 4G (mobile broadband) services to a total of 250 extra rural sites across England, Scotland, Wales, and N.Ireland (up from 200 in April 2024). A mast located in Church Stretton (Shropshire) was the 250th to go live.

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Openreach Name 517 New UK Locations for FTTP Broadband Rollout

28th May, 2024 (79 Comments)

Network operator Openreach (BT) has today announced a HUGE update, which reveals the next batch of 517 new locations – covering 2.7 million UK premises – to benefit from their roll-out of a 1.8Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP network. The operator has already covered 14m premises, and this update largely completes their build plan to 2026.

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Freedom Fibre Win Rural Cheshire UK Gigabit Broadband Rollout Contract

23rd May, 2024 (3 Comments)

The UK government’s £5bn Project Gigabit broadband rollout scheme has today awarded the £43 million (state aid) regional contract for Cheshire (Lot 17) in England to alternative network provider Freedom Fibre. The deal aims to extend their gigabit capable full fibre (FTTP) network to 15,000 additional premises in hard to reach rural areas.

Fibre optic broadband cables connecting to a house by CoPilot AI for MJ - 210524

Report Proposes Changes to Boost UK Take-up of Full Fibre Broadband from Altnets

22nd May, 2024 (29 Comments)

The second of two reports from strategic consultancy firm Eight Advisory has today been published, which proposes a list of “actionable recommendations” for how alternative full fibre (FTTP) broadband networks (Altnet) and their ISP partners can boost customer take-up to reach their commercial and financial objectives.

Big Ben, London Westminster Bridge and Houses of Parliament - 123rf

Gov MPs Pessimistic Over UK 5G Mobile and Gigabit Broadband Targets

21st May, 2024 (8 Comments)

A new survey of 104 Ministers of Parliament, which was conducted by consultancy firm Cluttons and YouGov, has revealed that both Government (Conservative) and opposition (Labour) MPs are extremely pessimistic about the country hitting any of the current coverage targets for 5G (SA) based mobile and fixed gigabit broadband networks.

North Wales Growth Deal Makes Progress on 4G Mobile Upgrade Plan

20th May, 2024 (3 Comments)

The North Wales Economic Ambition Board (NWEAB) has approved the business case for their new 4G+ project, which is more widely investing £8.9m from the North Wales Growth Deal in order to improve the availability of mobile voice and data services, as well as full fibre broadband, to key commercial sites and transport networks.

Openreach Update as Analogue UK Phone Switch Off Delayed to 2027 UPDATE

17th May, 2024 (46 Comments)

In case anybody missed it after being buried in yesterday’s BT results (here). The plan to withdraw BT and Openreach’s old copper-based analogue line services (PSTN phones and WLR), which was due to complete by December 2025, has been delayed until 31st January 2027 in order to give broadband ISPs, telecare providers and consumers more time to adapt.

Bolton Council Take Enforcement Action Against IX Wireless Broadband Poles

16th May, 2024 (10 Comments)

The Bolton Council in Greater Manchester (England) has revealed that they’re taking enforcement action against broadband network operator IX Wireless, which is accused of installing antenna equipment on their pole (mast) erections without consultation or consent from the local authority.

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O2 Deploys 150th 4G Mobile Site Under UK Shared Rural Network

15th May, 2024 (9 Comments)

Mobile network operator O2 (VMO2) has today revealed that they’ve now rolled out enhanced 4G (mobile broadband) coverage across 150 rural sites (up from 100 in mid-Feb 2024) as part of their commitment under the £1bn Shared Rural Network (SRN) project, which aims to extend geographic 4G cover (aggregate) to 95% of the UK by the end of 2025.

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Gov Expanding Gigabit Broadband Vouchers to UK Urban Areas

15th May, 2024 (9 Comments)

Sources have informed ISPreview that the Government’s Building Digital UK (BDUK) agency has decided to extend the availability of their Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme (GBVS) to include urban areas. The scheme has, until now, only offered grants to help rural properties get a 1Gbps capable ISP connection installed.

Quickline CEO Sean Royce in Rural UK Field

Quickline Connect First Yorkshire UK Homes via UK Project Gigabit Broadband Deal

14th May, 2024 (0 Comments)

Broadband ISP Quickline, which is deploying a new gigabit speed full fibre (FTTP) and fixed wireless (5G FWA) network across rural and semi-rural parts of the North East and Midlands of England, has connected their first customer under the £60m (state aid) Project Gigabit roll-out contract that was awarded to them in February 2024 for West Yorkshire and York (Lot 8).

BT, TalkTalk, Virgin Media and Vodafone on UK Router Security and Upgrades

13th May, 2024 (31 Comments)

Last week we covered how Sky Broadband was responding to the UK government’s new internet and network security laws, which among other things prompted them to launch a new router upgrade scheme and be more transparent with customers about the state of security updates for their existing network kit. Since then, we’ve asked the other major ISPs how they plan to respond.

Government Security Review Clears Vodafone and Three UK Merger

10th May, 2024 (29 Comments)

The Government has concluded its national security probe of the proposed mobile mega-merger between Vodafone and Three UK (CK Hutchison) – conducted under the National Security and Investment Act 2021 – and decided to approve the deal, albeit with some relatively minor caveats.

Red Road Closed road sign in a UK city street. 123rf

Report Examines Why Openreach’s UK Full Fibre Take-up Beats AltNets

8th May, 2024 (38 Comments)

A new report from strategic consultancy firm Eight Advisory has examined the question of why the average consumer take-up across alternative full fibre (FTTP) broadband networks (Altnet) is currently still at 16%, while Openreach stands at c.34%, despite the collective footprint of the new challengers now equalling that of the incumbent.