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Articles for Category Tag - Politics

Report Criticises BT, Sky, Virgin, Vodafone and Others for Confusing UK Social Tariffs

24th August, 2026 (18 Comments)

A new study has highlighted how some of the UK market’s largest fixed broadband ISPs, including BT, Sky Broadband, Virgin Media and Vodafone, appear to be failing in their commitment to making cheaper Social Tariffs easier to access (available to those on state benefits). Instead the providers were found to make the tariffs and their details hard to find and often with unclear contract terms or pricing.

Project Gigabit BDUK Funded Digital UK Broadband Map

August 2026 Contract Progress of UK Project Gigabit Broadband Rollout

24th August, 2026 (0 Comments)

The Government’s Building Digital UK (BDUK) agency has today published their August 2026 update on the delivery progress of contracts awarded under their £5bn Project Gigabit broadband rollout scheme. The update reveals that some 296,770 contracted premises (up from 287,510 in Jul 2026) have so far been covered out of a planned total of 846,770 (35% complete).

TFW Ffeibr’s Railway Full Fibre Network Connects to Europe’s Largest Data Centre Campus

22nd August, 2026 (0 Comments)

Not‑for‑profit Network operator TfW Ffeibr (TFW Fibre), which is an arm’s-length initiative owned by Transport for Wales (TfW) and thus the Welsh Government, has announced that their railway based full fibre broadband and Ethernet network has been used to link South Wales directly into one of “Europe’s largest data centre campuses” – connecting Cloud Centres and Vantage Data Centres.

£70m High Speed Broadband Project in Wales Gets New Supplier After Error

21st August, 2026 (4 Comments)

The Welsh Government (WG) has revealed that an “unforeseen administrative error” meant they neglected to name one of the approved suppliers for their £70m (public subsidy) Extending High Speed Broadband (EHSB) project when the original list was announced earlier this year (here). The supplier, BB4W Ltd (Broadband 4 Wales), has now been added to the framework.

TV Broadcasters, Banks and UK Telecoms Providers Unite to Get Everyone Online UPDATE

20th August, 2026 (11 Comments)

Britain’s major banks, charities, TV broadcasters, broadband and mobile providers have today united to back a new report from the Connection Project, which calls for “coordinated action to ensure everyone” can get online and take part in a modern economy. But this is not the first time we’ve seen coordinated action on the subject.

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New National Planning Policy Framework Lends Support to Broadband and Mobile

18th August, 2026 (2 Comments)

The Government has published its new National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) for England, which finally appears to have laid the foundations for planning authorities to give “substantial weight” to the benefits of “maintaining or improving network coverage, capacity, reliability and resilience” of modern gigabit broadband and 5G mobile networks.

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Government Hands £13m to Boost Wi-Fi on UK Trains and Satellite Broadband

18th August, 2026 (4 Comments)

The UK Space Agency has this morning announced that they’ve spread £13m of public funding across 16 new projects under the ARTES (Advanced Research in Telecommunications Systems) programme, which covers everything from deploying on-board Wi-Fi on remote Scottish railways to improving the availability of 5G and future 6G mobile networks – typically via satellite-based internet connectivity.

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Government Prepares £20m Phase 2 of Schools Gigabit Broadband Rollout

15th August, 2026 (0 Comments)

The Government’s Department for Education (DfE) has launched an early market engagement exercise to identify organisations that might be interested in supplying the second phase of their gigabit broadband roll-out programme for Schools, which has been allocated £20m of public funding to reach around a further 800 schools across England.

Government Issues UK Mobile Emergency Alert Over Wildfire Risk

14th August, 2026 (49 Comments)

The UK government may have surprised a few people just after 7pm tonight after using the Emergency Alerts service via mobile network operators to send out a national warning about the “very high risk of wildfires nationally“, which advises people across the country to avoid undertaking any activity that could start a fire.

150 Government Funded 4G Mobile Mast Upgrades Now Live Across UK

14th August, 2026 (0 Comments)

The UK Government has published a progress update on their part of the industry-led £1bn Shared Rural Network (SRN) project this morning, which reveals that a total of 150 publicly-funded rural 4G (mobile broadband) mast upgrades have now gone live across the United Kingdom (up from 140 in June 2026).

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Kearney’s Global Telecom Health Index Ranks UK 33rd out of 34 Countries

11th August, 2026 (14 Comments)

Management consulting firm Kearney has today published their latest annual Global Telecom Health Index, which ranks 34 countries across various metrics in order to measure and compare the health of the telecoms (broadband, mobile etc.) sector on a country-by-country basis. Overall the United Kingdom placed near the bottom on a rank of 33rd.

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New Rules to Tackle Fake Discounts Set to Benefit UK Consumers in 2027

10th August, 2026 (5 Comments)

The new UK Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, yesterday pledged to bring forward the introduction of several planned measures to help consumers exit bad contracts, stop misleading price promotions and to generally tackle “subscription traps“. Some of the new measures will now be introduced from January 2027, rather than next Spring, but others require further consultation.

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Report Warns Against Future TV Plan to Shut Down UK’s Tall Tower Network

10th August, 2026 (16 Comments)

A new report from the National Preparedness Commission (NPC), which is said to be an independent and non-political body focused on preparing the country for a major crisis, threats and incidents, has warned that the UK’s proposed plan to switch-off terrestrial TV signals in favour of broadband internet-based streaming “risks … over-concentrating communications on internet-based networks“.

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Gov Help Expand Gigabit Broadband to 60,000 Homes in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire UK

6th August, 2026 (0 Comments)

The UK Government has this morning announced that their publicly subsidised Project Gigabit broadband roll-out contracts, signed with alternative network ISP Quickline, have so far enabled over 60,000 homes and businesses in hard-to-reach areas across Yorkshire and Lincolnshire to access faster internet speeds.

Swansea Bay City Region Update on Broadband and Mobile Coverage

5th August, 2026 (0 Comments)

The Swansea Bay City Region’s Digital Infrastructure Programme, which includes various broadband and other digital infrastructure upgrades as part of the much wider £1.3bn region deal, has today posted an update on both fixed broadband and mobile network coverage across the area covered by their programme.

GoFibre Boost Speeds and Update on FTTP Broadband Rollout in North East Scotland

3rd August, 2026 (0 Comments)

Edinburgh-based UK ISP and alternative network builder GoFibre has today provided a progress update on their roll-out of a new full fibre (FTTP) broadband network across North East Scotland, which reflects the £105m (public subsidy) Project Gigabit contract they signed a year ago (here). The provider’s packages have also recently introduced a symmetric speed boost.

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Study Claims 1 Mill Rural UK FTTP Premises At Risk of Openreach’s “uneconomic overbuild”

31st July, 2026 (20 Comments)

Consulting firm Cartesian has released a new report on the state of the UK’s fibre full broadband market, which unsurprisingly highlights how challenging it is for alternative networks (altnet) to create sustainable business models. The study also claims that c.1 million rural FTTP premises could see uneconomic overbuild if Openreach is required to meet a high exchange coverage threshold for copper switchover.