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Articles for Category Tag - Politics

The Rural UK Better Broadband Subsidy Scheme is No More

31st October, 2019 (1 Comment)

The UK Government’s Better Broadband Subsidy Scheme, which offered grants worth up to £350 to rural homes and businesses that were unable to get at least a 2Mbps download speed (i.e. helping to get a faster ISP connection installed), will unsurprisingly NOT be extended for another year beyond 2019.

UK Mobile Operators Blamed for Scotland’s Slow 4G Infill Scheme UPDATE

31st October, 2019 (11 Comments)

The Scottish Government‘s £25m 4G Infill Programme, which began in March 2018 and aims to improve rural mobile coverage (mostly across the Highlands and Islands region) by building a network of 45 new masts (here), has so far not built any new sites and only 3 are expected to begin construction in the “very near future.”

Hints of a Bidder Shortlist for £165m N.Ireland Broadband Project

30th October, 2019 (11 Comments)

BT (Openreach), ISP Fibrus and private investment firm Granahan McCourt Capital (GMC) have all reportedly been linked with bids for Northern Ireland’s £165m Project Stratum, which aims to ensure that most of the 98,000 premises still awaiting access to “superfast broadband” (30Mbps+) can get it.

Mobile Operators Face Huge Fines if they Fail UK Coverage Target

29th October, 2019 (6 Comments)

The Government’s Culture Secretary, Nicky Morgan MP, has revealed that Mobile Network Operators (Three UK, Vodafone, O2 and EE / BT) could face huge fines – worth up to 10% of their annual turnover – if they fail to meet their new 4G / 5G geographic UK coverage obligations by 2026.

KCOM and Digital Scotland Shortlisted for EU Broadband Awards

29th October, 2019 (0 Comments)

KCOM’s £85m rollout of a new FTTP broadband ISP network in Hull, as well as Digital Scotland‘s £442m (public and private investment) work with Openreach (BT) to spread “fibre broadband” (FTTC/P) to 940,000 extra Scottish premises, have today both been named as UK finalists for the 2019 European Broadband Awards.

BDUK – Possible Build Scenario for UK Full Fibre Broadband Rollout

29th October, 2019 (22 Comments)

The Government’s (DCMS) Building Digital UK team recently proposed an interesting build scenario for the future £5bn – state aid funded – project to roll-out gigabit-capable “full fibre” (FTTP) broadband ISP networks, which as predicted suggests that the build phase probably won’t begin until late 2021.

Stoke-on-Trent Build Citywide 1Gb Full Fibre Broadband Network

25th October, 2019 (2 Comments)

The City of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire UK has announced a new project worth £19.2m with Swedish operator VXFIBER (including subsidiary LilaConnect), which aims to create a publicly-owned and operated, open-access and gigabit-capable, 60 mile long full fibre broadband network with “citywide” coverage by spring 2021.

Government in £1bn Deal for 95% Geographic UK 4G Mobile by 2025

25th October, 2019 (11 Comments)

The Government has today announced a new £1bn deal with Three UK, Vodafone, O2 and EE (BT) to establish a new Shared Rural Network (SRN), which will see the mobile operators working cooperatively together in order to extend the geographic coverage of 4G (mobile broadband) services to 95% of the UK by 2025.

Mayor to Spread Full Fibre Over London by Going Down the Tube

24th October, 2019 (11 Comments)

The Mayor of London UK, Sadiq Khan, has today announced a new £10m project that aims to boost “full fibre” broadband coverage in the city by running optical fibre cables using the Tube network and public buildings. The work is considered to be the “first step” in their effort to “support faster connectivity for 400,000 homes.”

£3m Reinvestment to Extend Openreach FTTP Over Highlands

24th October, 2019 (31 Comments)

The Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) has announced that a reinvestment of £3m from BT will soon enable Openreach to build more “ultrafast broadband” capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) ISP networks across the rural region of Scotland, although it’s unclear how many extra premises will benefit.

North Yorkshire UK Starts Build of £15.1m Full Fibre Network

22nd October, 2019 (1 Comment)

The North Yorkshire County Council (NYCC) has announced that they’ve started the build phase of their £15.1 million project to deploy a new Gigabit capable “full fibre” network, which will be used to help connect some 370 public sector sites (e.g. council buildings, hospitals etc.) across the county over the next 18 months.

Wales in £4m Boost to Support 5G, WiFi and Fibre Research

17th October, 2019 (0 Comments)

The Welsh Government has confirmed £4 million to support the Digital Signal Processing (DSP) Centre of Excellence at Bangor University, which among other things will look at ways to harness existing fibre optic technology in the 5G network to “improve capacity, flexibility, functionality and services.”

Culture Secretary Confirms 2025 UK Gigabit Broadband for All Aim

17th October, 2019 (11 Comments)

The Culture Secretary, Nicky Morgan MP, has confirmed that the Government is still focused upon delivering “gigabit-capable” broadband to all by the end of 2025. The target appeared to be cast into doubt earlier this week after a briefing on the Queen’s Speech (here) adopted the vague wording “as soon as possible.“

Welsh Government Publish Review of Superfast Broadband Project

17th October, 2019 (5 Comments)

The Welsh Government has quietly published an evaluation report into their Superfast Cymru project with BT (Openreach), which put around £225m of public funding toward an extended roll-out of “fibre broadband” (FTTC/P) in order to help cover poorly served parts of the country. Overall it’s a positive outcome.

ISP UK Internet Porn Ban Stalled and Shifted to Online Harms Bill

16th October, 2019 (6 Comments)

Confusion reigns today after the Government confirmed that its controversial new internet Age Verification (AV) system, which was due to be implemented by commercial websites and “apps” that contain pornographic content (broadband ISPs would be forced to block sites that fail to comply), “will not be commencing.” But there’s a catch.

Small UK Businesses Demand Action to Improve Broadband

16th October, 2019 (7 Comments)

A new report from the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has demanded action from the UK Government after they surveyed 1,136 small businesses. The results found that 30% of such firms still receive ISP download speeds of less than 10Mbps (rising to 39% in rural areas) and nearly half struggle with “unreliable mobile signals.“

2019 Queen’s Speech Sets Out UK Gigabit Broadband Plans UPDATE

14th October, 2019 (12 Comments)

The Queen has today carried out the annual State Opening of Parliament, which as per usual included a list of policy plans that the Government intends to put forward over the coming years. As expected this included some planned legislation for broadband and internet safety related matters.