A new report issued by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has recognised broadband connectivity to be as “essential as water and electricity” for an individual’s home environment. The global report found that internet connectivity is vital to a person’s quality of life, with a reliable connection described as an essential utility.
New residents in housing complexes or apartments have historically faced problems when attempting to establish a fibre broadband connection in their homes, and the problem does not appear to be slowing down.
According to telecoms regulator Ofcom, full fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) broadband has now reached 5 per cent of all UK premises. In its latest Q2 2018 report, Ofcom found 1.4 million premises across the country now have access to full fibre broadband. This is a 5 per cent increase to the statistics in the Connected Nations research report published in December 2017.
Openreach will be soon rolling out the new 1Gbps Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) ultrafast broadband to the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral in North West England. Currently, around 99 per cent of The Wirral have access to superfast broadband with speeds of 30Mbps+ with the existing Fibre-to-the-Cabinet (FTTC) network.
To assist with improving the reliability of activation dates for consumers, Openreach (BT) is making changes to its provision process of delivering ultrafast broadband lines for new Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP).
Research has shown that the UK falls behind 34 other countries in terms of strong broadband infrastructure and speeds, and has faced a number of obstacles in rolling out high-speed fibre optic services throughout the country.
Local businesses in Staffordshire are being encouraged to take advantage of a government scheme that can help them pay for superfast broadband, which can boost their business. Mark Winnington, Staffordshire Council’s economic growth leader, says the scheme can help small and medium sized businesses in the county to boost efficiency and productivity.
A number of broadband providers have been required to cut down their advertised connectivity speeds as a result of new marketing laws that were introduced in May this year.
The UK’s output per worker is at 16.6 per cent below the average of the other G7 nations in 2016, recent statistics from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) have revealed. The financial sector was one of the few to show some form of productivity growth, although it was still much lower than prior to the beginning of the economic crisis.
Local coverage of FTTC/P-based superfast broadband networks with speeds of above 24Mbps have been extended to 95.7 per cent of the premises with the Superfast Staffordshire project - just shy of the 96 per cent or more target goal for the end of 2018.
Ultracomms card payments solutions company based in Fareham, Hampshire, has warned businesses across the UK to tighten its security measures in light of the recent Dixons Carphone data breach.
Research conducted by cybersecurity company BullGuard has shown that 72 per cent of the nation fear that their private data will be stolen when they submit their financial information and emails to companies. Two thirds also assumed that their data has already been taken without their realisation.
A study has found that 5G connectivity will help the UK overcome its current digital divide. Prepared by the Centre for Cities think-tank and titled “Delivering Change”, the report shows significant digital divides across the UK and calls for collective and collaborative efforts to deliver 5G as soon as possible.
Dixons Carphone has confirmed a data security breach that has resulted in 5.9 million bank cards and 1.2 million personal data records being targeted by cyber criminals.
Yahoo UK has been awarded a £250,000 fine from Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) as a result of a 2014 data breach.
Research undertaken by M-Lab, a partnership between Google Open Source Research and Princeton University's PlantLab, shows the UK has slipped from 31st to 35th place in the global broadband league tables and now is behind 25 other European countries.
Mobile and remote working is causing data security issues for the UK's small businesses, with 18 per cent convinced their remote workers do not care about data security.
A study based on 2,000 homeowners has found that the average British home contains £34,000 worth of 'wasted space', which equates to about 15 per cent of a typical British dwelling.
The UK has been named the most breached country in Europe, with 37 per cent of firms experiencing a data breach in 2017. Conducted by cyber security firm Thales, a recent survey of 400 senior security managers revealed that the number of breaches experienced by UK companies increased by 24 per cent on the previous year, up from 43 per cent to 67 per cent.
Consumer champion Which? is offering consumers advice about how to ensure their complaints are taken seriously and dealt with properly by broadband providers. The issuing of the advice has coincided with the release of new research showing that the average household experiences three broadband outages over the course of a month.
Telford and Wrekin Council in Shropshire, in partnership with Openreach, has announced the completion of a £5.6 million project that saw the rollout of FTTC based superfast broadband across 98 per cent of the homes and businesses in the region.
The latest report from the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) on the volume of data security incidents recorded in the first quarter of 2018, shows a growing problem.
Only around half of UK households actually receive the broadband speeds they pay for, which are advertised by their providers. This is according to consumer champions Which, who found that the average speeds received by households on 38Mbps contracts was actually just 19Mbps.
The rolling out of superfast broadband in the City of London has been big news, but provider Openreach, says it is struggling to get the permissions it needs to complete the work.
Superfast mobile broadband technology could be just around the corner for the UK’s phone-owners as plans accelerate to launch the next-generation 5G network in 2019 - according to BT’s CEO. Gavin Patterson, the CEO of the BT Group, said that their mobile-operating group EE is planning to launch a “commercial product” in the next 18 months.
Cyber criminals are still using cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks and other oft-overlooked methods of entry to gain access to compromised users, a new study has found.
A group of some 56 MPs have written to the Digital Secretary asking for more to be done to improve both broadband speeds and mobile connectivity in rural areas.
The number of days between a company discovering a data breach and disclosing it to stakeholders is decreasing but is still too high to comply with the requirements of the GDPR, a new report finds. According to an analysis carried out by Risk Based Security, the average time it takes for a business to report a data or security breach is still 37.9 days.
A new survey has revealed that 73 per cent of British businesses are unaware of their lawful obligations with regards to processing data ahead of the introduction of GDPR regulations on 25th May.
BT’s infrastructure arm Openreach has announced plans to extend its current trial for its Single Order Ethernet Access (SOGEA) product, which will allow users to take up a standalone FTTC broadband line without any phone services attached.
The world’s businesses are still at a high risk of attracting ransomware-based attacks, according to a new report. Despite the frequency of such events falling off towards the end of 2017, new research undertaken by security firm F-Secure finds that there has been another marked increase in ransomware events this year.
Broadband provider CityFibre has been bought by a consortium of investors including West Street Infrastructure Partners, an arm of Goldman Sachs, and Antin Infrastructure Partners.
European law enforcement report that they have successfully shut down a popular attacks-for-hire website and arrested its administrators.
A team of scientists from the Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) have discovered a way to borrow technology from ADSL and VDSL (FTTC) networks in order to boost fibre optic (FTTH/P) line speeds. The Dutch researchers have examined a range of techniques, including implementing adaptive modulation techniques, to look at how the limitations of optical fibre cables can be overcome.
London-based internet service provider Community Fibre has secured some GBP18m in funding from the National Digital Infrastructure Fund (NDIF), which is backed by the UK government.
BT network operator Openreach has announced that it is considering the withdrawal of its Wholesale Line Rental (WLR) service by the year 2025, the system that underpins many of the country’s traditional copper phone lines (PSTN/POTS).
A new survey has estimated the financial impact of a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack at £35,000 – but there could be far deeper lying impacts on a company.
Scottish Rural Economy Secretary, Fergus Ewing, has spoken out against UK broadband funding plans that will “short change” Scotland.
A new report has found that alternative network service providers are providing superfast, “full fibre” services to more than 1 million homes and businesses across the UK, suggesting that the market is open for new innovators.
Low-cost airline company Ryanair is poised to take a large chunk of its online operations to the public cloud after signing an enormous deal with Amazon Web Services (AWS). Ryanair has aimed to close the “vast majority” of its datacentres for some time, targeting a final date of 2021 for them all to be closed.
As the green data centre movement gathers pace, multinational tech giant Apple has claimed that 100 per cent of the energy that is used at its enormous Waukee, Iowa facility is renewable.
More than 150 million users of diet and fitness app MyFitnessPal have had their accounts hacked after a major security breach, according to an official announcement. Run by American sports and fitness apparel manufacturer Under Armour, the app revealed that the user names, encrypted passwords and email addresses of at least 150 million of their subscribers were stolen in February.
The government has announced a final deadline for implementing rules that will make superfast broadband available to all homes and businesses in the UK by 2020, according to reports this week.
Social media site operator Facebook could be facing a multi-trillion dollar fine on the back of an investigation by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) into the tech giant’s role in the Cambridge Analytica data scandal.
Thousands of households in Scotland are this week welcoming news from Virgin Media that they will have access to ultrafast broadband.
A £35 million project to bring ultrafast Gigabit-capable FTTH broadband to the Isle of Wight’s businesses and homes has been agreed, with completion pencilled in for 2022.
A new report has highlighted the potential dangerous consequences of a series of processor flaws that first appeared earlier this year, warning that such vulnerabilities could be exploited further.
Around 77 per cent of UK companies are failing to prepare themselves for possible cloud outages, according to a recent study conducted by Veritas Technologies'.
New research has found that staff at NHS trusts are putting sensitive patient records and data at risk of cyber crime on a daily basis, though not through any fault of their own.
Philip Hammond’s latest Spring Statement has reconfirmed the government’s commitment to the UK’s tech businesses, with funding and support confirmed for new 5G networks, full-fibre broadband services and digital skills projects.
