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Articles for Category Tag - USO

UK Landowners Revise Wayleave Agreement to Help Rural Broadband

20th June, 2018 (2 Comments)

The Country Land and Business Association (CLA) and National Farmers Union (NFU) have today updated their existing wayleave framework for ISPs, which was first agreed in 2013 (here) and has now been revised to help “speed up rural broadband roll-out” and reflect recent changes in UK law.

Ofcom CEO – The £6bn Cost of Truly Universal UK Mobile Coverage

20th June, 2018 (11 Comments)

The CEO of Ofcom, Sharon White, yesterday told the Connected Britain event in London that to provide good mobile network (4G etc.) coverage across virtually all of the UK landmass would cost up to around £6 billion and is likely to require some form of cross subsidy.

Ofcom Invites UK ISPs to Supply the New 10Mbps Broadband USO

19th June, 2018 (35 Comments)

Ofcom has today formally invited UK ISPs to express their interest in becoming suppliers for the new Universal Service Obligation (USO), which from 2020 will make it possible for anybody in a slow speed area to request a minimum broadband download speed of 10Mbps+ (1Mbps upload).

House of Lords Trash Government’s 10Mbps UK Broadband USO Again

6th June, 2018 (91 Comments)

The House of Lords was yesterday given the opportunity to debate the Government’s new 10Mbps Universal Service Obligation (USO) for fixed line broadband (implemented from 2020). Perhaps unsurprisingly they trashed it, while also calling for a “more ambitious” minimum speed of 30Mbps.

BT Claim Broadband Investment to Boost Northern Ireland by £1.2bn

4th June, 2018 (20 Comments)

A new “independent” DotEcon study, which was commissioned by BT, has predicted that last year’s agreement to invest an additional £150m of state aid into improving the availability of “ultrafast broadband” (100Mbps+) across Northern Ireland could result in economic, social and environmental benefits worth £1.2bn.

ONS 2018 Study – 4.5 Million UK Adults Have Never Used the Internet

31st May, 2018 (7 Comments)

The Office for National Statistics has today published their latest annual 2018 Internet Access report, which reveals that 8.4% (4.5 million) of UK adults have never used the Internet and that’s down from 9% (4.8 million) last year. Sadly issues of age and disability continue to be the key barriers to adoption.

Scotland’s Rural Minister to Quit if R100 Broadband Target Missed

30th May, 2018 (3 Comments)

The Scottish Government‘s Rural Economy Secretary, Fergus Ewing, has pledged to quit if he fails to deliver on the new £600m R100 project, which aspires to make “superfast broadband” (30Mbps+) ISP networks available to “every single premise in Scotland” by the end of 2021 (here and here); March 2022 as a financial year.

UK Ranks 7th in 2018 EU Broadband Connectivity Progress Report

18th May, 2018 (16 Comments)

The European Commission has publish their 2018 Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI), which uses data from 2017 and 2018 to reveal the United Kingdom’s progress toward the EU’s Digital Agenda goals (e.g. NGA 30Mbps+ broadband for all by 2020). This year we remain ranked 7th out of 28 member states.

Kent UK Plan Vouchers and £4.5m BT Deal to Help Rural Broadband

11th May, 2018 (4 Comments)

The Kent County Council has unveiled how it will aim to improve local coverage of fixed line “superfast broadband” (24Mbps+) networks beyond the current 95%, which will involve a £4.545m (gainshare) extension of the existing BT (Openreach) contract and a new ‘Kent Voucher Scheme’.

BT Cut 13K Jobs, Raise £3.7bn to Boost FTTP Broadband and Mobile UPDATE

10th May, 2018 (66 Comments)

BT has released their Q1 2018 (calendar) results, which sees them increase FTTP and Mobile infrastructure investment via an annual capex allocation of around £3.7bn (excluding BDUK) and report that 1.56 million UK premises are now covered by their G.fast and FTTP based “ultrafast broadband” (100Mbps+).

Ofcom 2018 Study – Average Home Broadband Speeds Hit 46.2Mbps

9th May, 2018 (9 Comments)

Ofcom has published their annual study of fixed line home broadband ISP speeds across the United Kingdom, which reveals that the average download rate has risen from 36.2Mbps last year to 46.2Mbps now, while uploads hit 6.2Mbps (up from 4.3Mbps). Sadly the gap between urban and rural areas persists.

Ofcom’s Spring 2018 UK Mobile and Fixed Broadband Coverage Stats

30th April, 2018 (7 Comments)

The telecoms regulator has today published an update to last year’s annual Connected Nations report, which uses more recent data from 2018 to provide the latest coverage statistics for UK mobile and fixed line broadband networks. For example, “full fibre” (FTTH/P) now reaches 4% (1.2 million premises).

Northern Ireland to Consult on £150m Ultrafast Broadband Boost

25th April, 2018 (1 Comment)

Last year the Conservative UK government agreed to hand £75m per year (over two years) to “help provide ultra-fast broadband” (100Mbps+) across Northern Ireland, which formed part of a political deal with the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) in order to secure the support of their 10 MPs.

Scotland Officially Hits 95% Fibre Broadband Coverage Target

17th April, 2018 (9 Comments)

The Scottish Government has today announced that 95.5% of homes and businesses across Scotland should be able to order a “high speed fibre broadband” (FTTC/P) based internet line, although this figure drops to just 92.7% when considering those able to access “superfast broadband” speeds of 24Mbps+.

Scotland Seeks Fair Funding and Criticises UK 10Mbps Broadband USO

16th April, 2018 (11 Comments)

The Scottish Government‘s Rural Economy Secretary, Fergus Ewing, has called on the UK government to correct the “grossly unfair” 10Mbps Universal Service Obligation (USO) for broadband, which appears to be in conflict with Scotland’s own £600m plan to deploy 30Mbps+ broadband to nearly all homes.

Openreach Start Removing LR-VDSL Broadband from UK Trial Areas

11th April, 2018 (40 Comments)

Openreach (BT) has confirmed that they will imminently begin withdrawing their Long Reach VDSL (LR-VDSL) broadband technology trial from several deployments across the UK, which at one point had been touted as way of helping to deliver on the government’s 10Mbps broadband USO.

Councils Complain About England’s Below Average Broadband Speeds

6th April, 2018 (17 Comments)

The County Councils Network (CCN), which highlights itself as the “national voice” for England’s 37 county councils, has today claimed that 72% of the country’s counties are below the national average download speed of 45Mbps and 27% have average speeds below Ofcom’s 30Mbps+ definition of “superfast“.