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Articles for Category Tag - Politics

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Government May Reclassify UK Broadband as Defence Spending

17th June, 2025 (15 Comments)

A major newspaper has today claimed that the UK government’s imminent National Security Review (NSR), which is due to be published next week, will expand the definition of national security spending to include everything from a third runway at Heathrow Airport to food prices and rural broadband provision (e.g. the £5bn Project Gigabit scheme).

Wessex Internet Founder James Gibson Scoops King’s Birthday Honours

14th June, 2025 (0 Comments)

The annual King’s Birthday Honours (2025) have just been published, which includes a couple of people from the United Kingdom’s telecommunications sector, such as the founder of alternative rural broadband ISP Wessex Internet, James Gibson Fleming, who scooped an MBE for services to community, charity and businesses in Dorset.

Liberty Global Boss Claims UK Gov Wants it to Rescue Broadband Altnets

13th June, 2025 (66 Comments)

The boss of Liberty Global (Mike Fries), one of the parents behind UK broadband provider Virgin Media (O2) and associated network builder nexfibre, has reportedly claimed that the UK Government’s Business Secretary, Jonathan Reynolds MP, expressed that he was “anxious” for them to step in and rescue struggling alternative networks.

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Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme Tweaks UK Eligibility Criteria

13th June, 2025 (13 Comments)

The Government’s Building Digital UK (BDUK) agency has tweaked the eligibility criteria for their Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme (GBVS) again, which among other things now requires that a home or business must have existing available broadband download speeds of less than 1Gbps in order to be eligible (previously it was 100Mbps).

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Falkland Islands Government Clears Way for Starlink Broadband

12th June, 2025 (12 Comments)

The Falkland Islands Government (FIG) has, after plenty of confusion earlier this year (here), finally agreed to introduce a number of key changes that will allow both residents and businesses on the remote Falkland Islands, which is a British Overseas Territory, to finally be allowed to use Starlink’s (SpaceX) ultrafast LEO satellite broadband network.

INCA Summarises its Response to UK Gov’s Digital Inclusion Action Plan

12th June, 2025 (3 Comments)

The Independent Networks Co-operative Association (INCA), which represents many of the country’s alternative broadband operators, has today set out how it believes the UK should deliver on the government’s recently proposed Digital Inclusion Action Plan (DIAP) to help get more UK people using the internet and improve digital skills.

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New Subsea Cable Link Being Explored for the Shetland Islands

12th June, 2025 (3 Comments)

Network operator VodafoneThree UK has today announced that they’ve begun a “feasibility study” to explore the possibility and cost of deploying a new subsea fibre optic cable system to help transform broadband and mobile connectivity in the Shetland Islands – a remote subarctic archipelago that resides some way north of Scotland.

VodafoneThree Sign Outside UK Office Building in June 2025

VodafoneThree Outline Future UK Network Plans and 4G to 5G Speed Boosts

12th June, 2025 (55 Comments)

VodafoneThree, which reflects the now finalised c.£16bn merger between Vodafone and Three UK (here), has this morning set out a set of post-merger plans for their 4G / 5G mobile (mobile broadband) network coverage, performance and branding. Starting with a 20% average speed boost on 4G for Three and SMARTY customers, and a new broadband partnership with CommunityFibre.

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Gov’s 2025 Spending Review Delays UK Gigabit Broadband Target to 2032 UPDATE

11th June, 2025 (13 Comments)

The UK Government’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, has today delivered her 2025 Spending Review, which included a few bits of new information and updated figures for telecoms. But as well as confirming £1.9bn for broadband and mobile projects (existing commitments), it also appeared to reflect a delay to the gigabit broadband roll-out from 2030 to 2032.

As Funding Deal Looms, CityFibre Says Talk of Sale to VMO2 Unfounded

10th June, 2025 (24 Comments)

Network operator CityFibre, which has so far deployed their gigabit-capable full fibre broadband (FTTP) lines to cover 4.3 million UK premises (RFS), have said that recent newspaper “speculation” around the possibility of the business being acquired by Virgin Media (O2) are “unfounded“. The operator added that they were now close to securing a much-needed financing deal.

Boldyn Networks and ITS Tech to Build New Full Fibre Networks in London

10th June, 2025 (6 Comments)

Digital infrastructure firm Boldyn Networks, which has helped to deploy a number of open access UK mobile and fibre optic broadband networks, has today announced that they’re working with network operator ITS Technology to deploy a new full fibre network across parts of four London Boroughs (Bromley, Lewisham, Merton, and Wandsworth).

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Streetwave to Map 4G and 5G Mobile Coverage Across North Scotland

10th June, 2025 (0 Comments)

The Scottish Futures Trust (SFT) has announced that they’ve appointed network analyst firm Streetwave to harness fleets of bin lorries to help “accurately” map 4G and 5G mobile broadband coverage and performance, which will focus on the North of Scotland (i.e. Moray, Aberdeenshire and Highland Council areas).

Welsh Gov Update Plan for £70m Extending High Speed Broadband Project

9th June, 2025 (0 Comments)

The Welsh Government (WG) today issued an update on their long awaited £70m (state aid) “Extending High Speed Broadband” (EHSB) project for Wales, which now intends to help upgrade around 25,000 to 30,000 poorly served premises (down from the original aspiration of c.84,000) in areas that can’t yet get “superfast” speeds of 30Mbps+.

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Landowners Lobby UK Government for Higher Rents on 5G Mobile Masts

9th June, 2025 (9 Comments)

A group of land and property owners, including the British Property Federation (BPF) and National Farmers Union (NFU) among them, have written a new letter that calls on the UK government to suspend earlier reforms that made it easier and cheaper for mobile and broadband operators to deploy their infrastructure on private land.

Scotland Stops £43m Gigabit Broadband Tender for Fife, Perth and Kinross

7th June, 2025 (5 Comments)

ISPreview has uncovered that the Scottish Government (SG) have stopped their tender for a supplier to deliver on the proposed £43m (state aid) Project Gigabit broadband roll-out scheme in Fife, Perth and Kinross (Lot 4 – Scotland). This had been expected to help expand full fibre (FTTP) connectivity to an estimated 28,441 premises in hard-to-reach rural areas.

INCA Calls on Lords to Address UK Broadband Woes for Remote Working

6th June, 2025 (19 Comments)

The Independent Networks Co-operative Association (INCA), which represents many of the UK’s alternative broadband operators, has today proposed several priority recommendations to help address – as part of a Lords Select Committee inquiry – the gaps in critical broadband infrastructure that could be holding back home-based working.

GoFibre Connect 500 Customers to FTTP Broadband in Barnard Castle

3rd June, 2025 (3 Comments)

Edinburgh-based UK ISP GoFibre has revealed that their roll-out of a new Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network in the County Durham market town of Barnard Castle, which forms part of their £6.6m state-aid supported Project Gigabit contract to cover 4,000 hard-to-reach premises in rural Teesdale (here), has now connected over 500 customers.