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Articles for Category Tag - Politics

Gov Eligibility Conflict Disrupts Some UK Gigabit Broadband Builds

27th January, 2024 (15 Comments)

A tricky conflict over eligibility for gigabit broadband vouchers and state aid subsidised contracts via the UK Government’s £5bn Project Gigabit scheme, which is overseen by the Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) agency, appears to be disrupting the roll-out of full fibre (FTTP) networks in some rural parts of the country.

Competition Watchdog Investigates Vodafone and Three UK Merger UPDATE

26th January, 2024 (47 Comments)

In an expected development, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority has today launched a formal Phase 1 investigation into the proposed mega-merger (here) between mobile operators Three UK and Vodafone, which will slash the number of mobile operators in the market from four to three and may impact upon competition, consumer prices, jobs and security.

O2 UK Highlights New Masts to Boost Shetland 4G Mobile Cover

24th January, 2024 (7 Comments)

Mobile operator O2 (Virgin Media) has today highlighted the deployment of a new mobile mast to boost 4G (mobile broadband) coverage on the remote rural Shetland island, which sits far away off the north coast of Scotland. Several more masts are due to follow under the £1bn Shared Rural Network (SRN) project.

Scottish Government to Evaluate £600m R100 Broadband Project

24th January, 2024 (4 Comments)

In an unsurprising development, the Scottish Government recently issued a new contract notice to help it commission an evaluation study of their £600m Reaching 100% (R100) “superfast broadband” (30Mbps+) rollout programme with Openreach (BT), which will aim to assess the project’s Value for Money.

Clarifying Scotland’s R100 Broadband Rollout Progress UPDATE

19th January, 2024 (8 Comments)

Yesterday the First Minister of the Scottish Government, Humza Yousaf, revealed that the £600m Reaching 100% (R100) broadband upgrade project with Openreach (BT) “remains on track to complete build … by 2028” and had so far covered “more than 36,100 premises“. But in October 2023 the figure was stated as 42,000, so which is correct?

Fibrus-Trainee-Engineers-via-Project-Gigabit

Job Losses as UK Full Fibre ISP Fibrus Start Redundancy Process UPDATE

19th January, 2024 (21 Comments)

In a perhaps unsurprising development, given recent news, Infracapital-backed broadband ISP Fibrus, which is building a new full fibre (FTTP) network across Northern Ireland and parts of North England, have begun a redundancy consultation that is expected to result in an unspecified number of job losses among their civil engineers.

price-rise-uk-broadband-and-mobile-households

Jan 2024 Inflation Figures Reveal UK Broadband ISP Price Hikes

17th January, 2024 (22 Comments)

The Office for National Statistics has published their latest UK inflation figures, which saw the Consumer Price Index fall to 4% (down from 10.5% this time last year) and the Retail Price Index reach 5.2% (down from 13.4%). As a result, we now know how big the annual inflation-linked price hikes will be from most of the major UK ISPs.

Government Confirms Gigabit Broadband Covers 80 Percent of UK

15th January, 2024 (21 Comments)

The Government has today confirmed that 80% of the United Kingdom now has access to a gigabit-capable broadband ISP network, which marks good progress on their way to achieving at least 85% coverage by 2025, and then “nationwide” (c.99%) coverage by 2030. But most of the progress so far has been fuelled by commercial builds.

Devon UK Use BT Broadband Gainshare to Tackle Council Deficit

15th January, 2024 (8 Comments)

The Devon County Council (DCC) in England has confirmed that it plans to use £7.8 million returned by BT, which relates to the clawback (gainshare) mechanism in past rural broadband upgrade contracts, to help plug the local authority’s financial deficit – instead of reinvesting it into further broadband upgrades.

BT and EE Explore Starlink to Boost UK Broadband and Mobile

15th January, 2024 (10 Comments)

National telecoms giant BT (EE) has reportedly entered into talks that could eventually see them harnessing SpaceX’s global constellation of Starlink ultrafast low-latency broadband satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), which could be used to help improve both internet and mobile connectivity to remote areas.

A Look at UK Domain and IP Address Seizures in the Criminal Justice Bill

12th January, 2024 (16 Comments)

The new UK Criminal Justice Bill (CJB), which was first tabled in parliament toward the end of last year, includes a number of interesting new powers that can force Regional Internet Registries, Local Internet Registries or Internet Service Providers (ISP) to suspend internet domain names and IP addresses used for criminal purposes.

Fibrus Grow FTTP Broadband Cover in Cumbria to 36K Premises

11th January, 2024 (6 Comments)

Infracapital-backed broadband ISP Fibrus, which is building a 10Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network across Northern Ireland and parts of North England, has revealed that their deployment in Cumbria has now reached 36,000 premises (including nearly 12,000 across the town of Workington).

MS3 Error Sees Broadband Poles Installed in Historic Monument Area

11th January, 2024 (18 Comments)

Fibre optic network builder MS3 has apologised after a mistake resulted in several of its new telecoms poles being erected within an area of Hedon (East Yorkshire) that has Scheduled Monument status. The government-linked Historic England agency said consent had not been granted ahead of the work.

Jeremy Hunt UK MP Standing Outside Next to Lake

Questions After UK Chancellor Says CMA May Probe Mid Contract UK ISP Price Hikes

11th January, 2024 (46 Comments)

The UK Government’s Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, has, in a new ITV interview with MSE’s Martin Lewis, raised a few questions after he proposed to ask the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to probe mid-contract prices hikes by broadband ISPs and proclaimed that the network costs for providers “don’t go up at all.“

New UK BT Group CEO Allison Kirkby to Start Job on 1st Feb 2024

8th January, 2024 (10 Comments)

Broadband, mobile and technology giant BT Group (inc. Openreach, Plusnet and EE) has this afternoon revealed the start date for their future CEO, Allison Kirkby, who will now officially replace Philip Jansen in the role on 1st February 2024. Allison was named as the group’s new CEO last year (here), albeit without a solid handover date.

AltNet UK Broadband Engineers Unfairly Accused of Exposing Sites to Cyber Attack UPDATE2

2nd January, 2024 (38 Comments)

A major UK newspaper has suggested that some alternative broadband operators, many of which are deploying new gigabit-capable full fibre ISP networks, are being “lazy” by failing to hand over information about “when and where they are working on BT’s network“, which allegedly risks “exposing hospitals and banks to cyber attacks“.

BT Miss Deadline to Remove All Huawei Kit from UK Core Network UPDATE

2nd January, 2024 (54 Comments)

Telecoms giant BT (EE), and possibly several other UK network operators, have reportedly missed the 31st December 2023 deadline to remove Huawei’s equipment from their network cores. This puts them at risk of being fined up to 10% of their revenue or £100,000 per day for every day that they fail to comply.