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Articles for Category Tag - Politics

Gov Prep Phase 2 of £5bn UK Project Gigabit Broadband Rollout

27th April, 2023 (7 Comments)

Planning is reportedly underway for the next phase of the UK Government’s £5bn rural Project Gigabit broadband rollout scheme, which would see more public funding from the existing commitment being set aside to help reach digitally disadvantaged premises (remote and urban) that the initial scheme has so far been unable to tackle.

EE UK Put Two New 4G Mobile Masts Live on Orkney in Scotland

26th April, 2023 (1 Comment)

Mobile operator EE has successfully deployed two new 4G (mobile broadband) mobile masts at Rackwick (Hoy) and Stronsay on Orkney, one of north Scotland’s most remote island communities, as part of the Scottish Government’s £28.75m 4G Infill Programme (S4GI).

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New Bill to Boost Consumer Protection on UK Broadband and Mobile

25th April, 2023 (6 Comments)

The Government will today introduce their new Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer Bill (DMCCB), which among other things also promises several new protection measures that could benefit customers of broadband ISPs and mobile operators (e.g. clearer contract information and making it easier to exit a contract).

Gloucestershire UK Working to Boost Rural Broadband Grants

25th April, 2023 (0 Comments)

The Gloucestershire County Council (GCC) in England appears to be making progress on their plans to introduce a series of new digital and broadband grant schemes across the county, which will aim to help connect those who live in areas that currently lack access to “superfast broadband” (30Mbps+) connectivity.

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BT Win Scotland Wide Area Network Contract Worth up to £350m

24th April, 2023 (38 Comments)

The Scottish Government (SG) and NHS National Services Scotland (NSS) have today awarded BT (EE) with a contract worth up to £350m over the next 6-years, which will see the UK telecoms giant become the sole provider to deliver public sector connectivity across Scotland via the Scottish Wide Area Network (SWAN).

Three UK Coughs to Problems with Emergency Alert Test UPDATE

24th April, 2023 (74 Comments)

Mobile operator Three UK appears to have been one of the worst affected yesterday after many of their customers (including yours truly) did NOT receive a notification during the Government’s nationwide test of their new Emergency Alerts service, despite using supported kit. A smaller portion of users on Vodafone, O2 and EE also had problems.

Ofcom – Only 220,000 UK Homes on Cheaper Social Broadband Tariffs

24th April, 2023 (11 Comments)

Ofcom has today published their latest UK consumer affordability report, which finds the take-up of cheaper social broadband ISP and mobile tariffs for those on state benefits has increased to 220,000 households (up from 136,000 six months ago). But that still represents just 5.1% of households on Universal Credit (4.3 million).

Smart Data Council Looks to Tackle Broadband ISP Loyalty Penalties

17th April, 2023 (17 Comments)

The UK’s Department for Business and Trade (DBT) has today launched a new “Smart Data Council“, which aims to help cut consumer bills, such as by finding ways to make it easier for consumers and businesses to find the tariffs best suited to their needs, or reduce the “loyalty penalty” that customers face when switching providers.

FSB Warn Unreliable UK Broadband Hurts Small Rural Businesses

13th April, 2023 (4 Comments)

A report from the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) – ‘The Growth Belt: Supporting Rural Small Businesses’ – has today highlighted the way rural businesses are struggling against a backdrop of mounting energy costs, poor transport links, and “unreliable broadband“.

ISP GoFibre Start Project Gigabit Broadband Rollout in Rural Teesdale

12th April, 2023 (3 Comments)

Rural broadband ISP GoFibre (BorderLink) has announced that they’ve entered the building phase of their Government state-aid supported £6.6 million Project Gigabit contract, which was awarded in September 2022 (here), to upgrade more than 4,000 hard-to-reach Teesdale premises in Northern England with 10Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) technology (Lot 4.01).

Wessex Internet Win Rural New Forest Gigabit Broadband Rollout Contract

11th April, 2023 (11 Comments)

The seventh contract awarded under the UK’s £5bn Project Gigabit broadband rollout scheme – worth “nearly” £14 million – has today been awarded to ISP Wessex Internet, which will upgrade connectivity for “around” 10,500 hard-to-reach homes and businesses across rural parts of the New Forest in Hampshire (England).

UK Set Ambition to Deliver Standalone 5G to All Populated Areas by 2030

11th April, 2023 (29 Comments)

The UK government (DSIT) has today announced that, as part of the new Wireless Infrastructure Strategy (WIS), they have set out an ambition to “blanket the country with the fastest, most reliable wireless coverage available” – with the plan being for “all populated areas to be covered by ‘standalone’ 5G (5G-plus) by 2030“. The update also includes support for satellite broadband in rural areas and more trials of flexi permits.

Examining the Lack of Gigabit Broadband in Some UK Urban Areas

8th April, 2023 (31 Comments)

Most people tend to assume that the problem of slow broadband ISP connectivity is one that predominantly affects rural areas, which is matched by a presumption that commercial operators (Openreach, Virgin Media etc.) will quickly blanket big UK cities and towns with the fastest speeds. But such assumptions are not always correct.

LetterOne Challenges Gov Order to Sell UK Full Fibre Network

7th April, 2023 (13 Comments)

The investor behind Upp’s £1bn project to deploy a new Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP network across 1 million premises in the East of England by 2025 (here), LetterOne, has launched a legal challenge against the UK Government’s order for L1 to sell its entire stake in Upp in order to “prevent, remedy, or mitigate the risk to national security” (here).

New Digital UK Map of Underground Cables Starts to Go Live

5th April, 2023 (21 Comments)

The Government’s new National Underground Asset Register (NUAR), which is a digital UK map of underground pipes (water etc.) and cables (broadband, power etc.) that could help reduce accidental damage, has started to go live for several initial areas under its first deployment phase – covering North East England, Wales and London.

Ofcom Set to Refer UK Cloud Market for Competition Probe

5th April, 2023 (6 Comments)

Ofcom’s ongoing probe into internet-based UK cloud services, which tend to be dominated by big providers like Amazon (AWS) and Microsoft (Azure), has uncovered practices and features that “could limit competition” and is proposing to refer the market to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) for further investigation.

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Over 350 Public Sites in the Midlands to Get Full Fibre Broadband

30th March, 2023 (8 Comments)

The Nottinghamshire County Council (NCC) in England has been chosen to lead a new £8m “GigaHubs” project that will rollout a gigabit-capable full fibre broadband network to reach a total of more than 350 public buildings (schools, council offices, hospitals etc.) across the Midlands.