The UK faces a digital exclusion dilemma, with lack of strategy and leadership leaving millions potentially unconnected. Baroness Stowell highlights the imperative of bridging this gap for global competitiveness. However, the effectiveness of suggested solutions remains debatable, and conversations around online safety further complicate the situation. With potential threats to end-to-end encryption, a revised approach to digital skills may be necessary.
Gigaclear commits to connecting rural communities in Yorkshire, extending its full fibre network to 16,000 homes and businesses. The move minimizes disruption, using existing Openreach infrastructure, and aims for service availability by year-end.
Hyperoptic announces over 100 layoffs, with plans to reassign 40 network build engineers to customer-focused roles amid growing competition and economic pressures in the UK fibre market. Industry consolidation seems inevitable as rival networks face similar challenges.
UK subscribers face controversy over recent price hikes, leading to the Committee of Advertising Practice issuing new guidance for telecom companies to prevent misleading consumers. The changes aim for transparency and fair advertising, but won’t take effect for six months.
UK’s latest telecommunications initiatives involve satellite broadband for remote Scottish regions, collaborating with Australia on telecoms diversification, and implementing advanced digital infrastructure such as smart lampposts, showcasing its commitment to becoming a global industry leader.
Recent survey reveals nearly 1 million UK residents disconnected broadband due to financial constraints, with low-income individuals most affected. Ofcom urges telecom companies to offer affordable social tariffs, but progress remains slow, raising concerns for internet access and affordability.
UK’s ambitious gigabit broadband and Net Zero goals face rural challenges; ACOME’s Nanomodule technology emerges as a game-changer, significantly reducing the cost of fibre deployment and helping meet environmental targets.
As home wifi performance lags behind ethernet, the UK is significantly impacted, with the need to adopt newer wifi technology standards emphasized. Despite advancements, older wifi generations still dominate globally and high prices hinder wifi 7 router adoption. ISPs must focus on improving the customer experience through increased wifi 6/6E routers and mesh networking products.
Following a period of public debate, the UK government has decided on new security requirements for telecom providers. It now intends to introduce the Electronic Communications (Security) Measures Regulations 2022 and an accompanying Telecommunications Security Code of Practice to Parliament before the regulations take effect. The new rules seek to better secure UK telecoms networks from cyberattacks. Once in effect, telecoms businesses will be expected to follow tight standards around network failure or the theft of sensitive data, with the regulatory agency Ofcom receiving additional powers to verify providers are adopting suitable and proportional security measures. The government declared that the new telecommunications security legislation, designed in collaboration with the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), will be among the toughest in the world and will provide the UK with much stronger measures. They will strengthen the UK’s cyber resilience by incorporating strong security practices into providers’ long-term investment…
NEC Corp., a major Japanese information technology company, has agreed to support the development of the UK’s fifth-generation wireless networks across the country, as reported by the British government. The announcement came after Japan and the United Kingdom signed a bilateral free trade agreement following Brexit. Details of the deal are currently unavailable. Since the UK has banned Huawei from deploying its 5G network and has decided to fully remove Huawei’s equipment altogether by 2027 because of potential security issues, the question of who can intervene to fill the empty space left by the Chinese seller has remained open. While European giants Ericsson and Nokia were obvious choices, other candidates also made an appearance. The UK government asked Japan to help deploy 5G networks in the country back in July. British officials then told colleagues in Tokyo that the Japanese technology companies NEC and Fujitsu could be the…
