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Articles for Category Tag - Politics

Impact of COVID-19 on the UK Full Fibre Broadband Rollout

28th March, 2020 (8 Comments)

The rapid spread of COVID-19 (Coronavirus) has had a significant impact upon the United Kingdom and we thought it might be useful to take a quick look at how it’s impacting the national roll-out of Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP networks, as well as to try and answer a few common questions.

COVID-19 – YouTube Cuts Video Stream Quality to Standard Def

20th March, 2020 (9 Comments)

Internet video streaming giant YouTube has today announced that it will follow Netflix (here) by reducing the quality of their streams across the EU in order to help broadband ISPs deal with rising levels of network use. But unlike Netflix they’ve “temporarily” switched “all traffic in the EU to standard definition by default.”

COVID-19 – UK ISPs Being Urged to Offer Free Broadband

20th March, 2020 (11 Comments)

The Government is understood to be in “very early talks” with UK internet access providers over how they could better support people during the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) crisis, which has resulted in many people and families needing to work from and stay at home. One option could be to offer free broadband.

10Mbps UK Broadband Universal Service Obligation to Go Live UPDATE3

19th March, 2020 (98 Comments)

The UK Government’s new legally-binding Universal Service Obligation (USO) for broadband – supplied by ISPs BT and KCOM – will tomorrow go live. The aim is to ensure that anybody living in a digitally disadvantaged area can request a “minimum” download speed of at least 10Mbps (1Mbps upload), but there are caveats.

Ofcom’s Plan to Measure the 4G UK Mobile Coverage Obligation

18th March, 2020 (4 Comments)

The telecoms regulator, Ofcom, has today revealed some more details about the new £1bn Shared Rural Network (SRN), which aims to extend UK geographic 4G mobile coverage to 95% by the end of 2025, and explained how they will assess the compliance of O2, Vodafone, Three UK and EE (BT) with those commitments.

Government Push Gigabit Broadband into New Build UK Homes

17th March, 2020 (11 Comments)

The UK Government’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) has today unveiled new legislation, which will effectively make it mandatory for property developers to ensure that almost every new home is built with support for “gigabit-speed” (1Gbps) broadband ISP connections “fit for the future.“

Virgin Media Scoop £24m Greater Manchester Full Fibre Project

16th March, 2020 (3 Comments)

The Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) has officially chosen UK ISP Virgin Media to deliver on their Local Full Fibre Network (LFFN) project, which aims to deploy “up to” 2,700km of new Gigabit speed fibre network to serve 1,700 public sector sites across the city-region (up from the 1,300 originally proposed).

A girl in a protective medical mask at work. Viral disease. Epidemic.

Broadband ISP Execs Join BT CEO in Self Isolation for COVID-19

15th March, 2020 (8 Comments)

The bosses of several other UK broadband ISPs and organisations, including Gigaclear, Cityfibre and Openreach among others, have now gone into self-isolation at home for at least 7 days after meeting the CEO of BT Group, Philip Jansen, last week. Initially it was thought that this only effected the chiefs of major mobile operators.

Budget 2020 Reiterates £5bn Pledge for UK Gigabit Broadband UPDATE

11th March, 2020 (11 Comments)

The Government’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak MP, has today issued his first 2020 budget and reiterated their plan to invest £5bn of public money to help spread “gigabit-capable” broadband ISP networks across the UK by the end of 2025, as well as to push it into new build homes.

Operators Sign £1bn Deal for 95% Geographic UK 4G Cover by 2026

9th March, 2020 (11 Comments)

Mobile operators BT (EE), Vodafone, O2 and Three UK have today reached a final agreement on costs to support the Government’s £1bn Shared Rural Network (SRN) plan, which will work to extend geographic 4G mobile (mobile broadband) coverage to 95% of the UK by the end of 2025. But one aspect may have been watered down.

Cityfibre Confirm 62 UK Areas for £4bn FTTH Broadband Rollout

6th March, 2020 (37 Comments)

Full fibre builder Cityfibre has today confirmed that an additional 36 UK cities and towns have been added to their 1Gbps Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) broadband roll-out programme (total of 62), which working with ISPs like Vodafone and TalkTalk aims to eventually cover 8 million premises by 2025 or a bit later.

£3.5m Deal Sees 3000 Tees Valley Premises Get FTTP Broadband

5th March, 2020 (11 Comments)

The Tees Valley Combined Authority (TVCA) has announced an investment of £3.5m with Openreach (BT) under the existing Digital Durham project, which will see the UK operator extend their 1Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP network to cover another 3,000+ homes and businesses by late June 2021.

Boris’s Gigabit Broadband for All UK by 2025 Aim Faces Inquiry

5th March, 2020 (31 Comments)

A cross-party group of MPs (select committee) has today launched a new inquiry, which will examine how “realistic” the Government’s challenging “ambition” is for ensuring that every home and business in the United Kingdom can access a “gigabit-capable broadband” service by 2025. It will also look at the role of 5G mobile.

1Gbps Full Fibre Goes Live in Rural Llanddewi Rhydderch, Wales

4th March, 2020 (15 Comments)

Sixty homes in the tiny rural Monmouthshire (Wales) village of Llanddewi Rhydderch have finally gone live on a new 1Gbps Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network, which has been installed by Broadway Partners (UK ISP Broadway Broadband) and is intended to complement their existing Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) trial.

Full Fibre Penetration Places UK Bottom of OECD Countries

3rd March, 2020 (16 Comments)

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has found that 9 OECD countries out of 37 in total now have high-speed “full fibre” (FTTP) broadband making up 50% or more of their fixed internet connections, although sadly the UK is near the bottom of this table. But we’re growing fast.

SSE Enterprise Telecoms Forms UK Water Utility Group to Boost Fibre

3rd March, 2020 (2 Comments)

SSEEnterprise Telecoms (SSEET), which manages a large fibre optic network that runs across the United Kingdom, has launched a new independently chaired Technical User Group (TUG) that aims to bring together 5 of the country’s top water companies to help “improve nationwide connectivity“, as well as reduce pollution and flooding.

O2 Seeking to Become UK’s First Net Zero Mobile Network

3rd March, 2020 (11 Comments)

Mobile operator O2 has today announced that it aims to become the UK’s “first net zero mobile network.” As part of that they’ve pledged to remove carbon emissions from their entire business and network by the end of 2025, whilst also working with supply chain partners (e.g. Smartphone makers) to cut emissions by 30%.