Not only has BT Retail declared itself the first UK Internet Service Provider to reach the five million customer milestone, it’s also revealed it’s ahead of schedule when it comes to installing its next-generation broadband network

Consumers receive about 60 percent of average advertised broadband speeds.

Like just about every other country in the world France has a digital master plan – to bring broadband to the entire country by 2010 – but there wasn’t any money to make it happen, until this week.
President Nicolas Sarkozy has confirmed that a €35 million scheme to inject more public money into the economy [...]

Back in 2006, Northern Ireland proudly claimed to be the first region in Europe to benefit from 100% broadband coverage. This was achieved by equipping all telephone exchanges with DSL, and providing satellite broadband to anyone too far from the exchange to get speeds of at least 512 kpbs. The cost to the [...]

BT is to supply an up to 10Gb network to the MediaCity UK development at Salford Quays which will host the BBC’s new offices, as well as the University of Salford and Northwest Vision and Media.
BT claims this will make the new media cluster as well connected as similar media hubs in Dubai and Singapore. [...]

Businesses are driving fibre deployment across Europe at a far greater rate than governments. In fact, corporations and public institutions could even hold the key to widening the UK’s next generation footprint.
That is the conclusion of Lee Myall, UK Regional Director for Interoute, a telecommunications company which claims to have more than 57,000km of ‘lit’ [...]

A change of government, the economy in recession, and a national deficit that’s twice as large as originally thought – it’s hard to imagine a set of circumstances less conducive to spending public money on capital-intensive fibre infrastructure. And yet the Greek government’s ambitious plan to build a €2.1 billion fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) network is [...]

Leaked Government documents appear to reveal that the 50p levy on fixed lines intended to fund Britain’s access to super-fast broadband could cost consumers more than previously thought. Accordingly, not only will Value Added Tax (VAT) come in the equation, but we also now appear to have confirmation that households with more than one phone line will be charged separately for each one.

After Swindon unveiled its “Digital City” initiative last week, even Wiltshire residents may be now wistfully looking over to South Yorkshire as the heart of its new Digital Region project goes live. While it may not boast free Internet access, it is promising a “guaranteed” 25Mbit/s service and that its users will “get what they pay for.”

The people of a remote village that they describe as “England’s last wilderness” have started digging the trenches that’ll grant them Next Generation Access (NGA) to broadband, meaning it’ll be far from being the country’s last NGA not-spot. Meanwhile, it’s emerged broadband is increasingly becoming a deal-breaker when it comes to selling homes in rural areas.

The Queen’s been giving Her annual address to Parliament, formally unveiling what will be the current Government’s final legislative programme. In doing so, she announced that a new Digital Economy bill would be published on Friday and what the key elements will be – and there’s no mention of the infamous 50p levy on landlines being implemented.

The Digital Britain minster’s been speaking in Scotland, promising superfast broadband will bring an array of social, economic and health benefits to consumers and businesses across the country. In order to achieve this, Stephen Timms says £200 million’s been set aside to supplement market-led growth and spend on “areas that have little or no service.”

100Mbps broadband in Hong Kong costs just US$13/Month.

TalkTalk CEO, Charles Dunstone, is to tell the Government its proposed 50p levy on copper phone lines to fund ‘next generation’ broadband will backfire.
Far from providing a fund which will bring fibre to communities who are likely to miss out on commercial roll outs, Dunstone claims the extra 50p per month will cause more than [...]

As progress is made on one of the Digital Britain proposals, it’s emerged that if the current Government loses the next election another will be abandoned “as soon as possible.”

The European Commission has given the green light to the largest ever government-backed fibre-to-the-home project in Europe.

Belgium is the first country in Europe to require the installation of duct for fibre in new homes.

BT has announced the roll out of its (up to 100Mb) fibre to the home (FTTH) network will reach twice as many homes as previously estimated.
BT Openreach, which is overseeing the fibre roll out, estimated last year that 1m households would have access to the fibre to the home (FTTH) network by 2012. It now [...]

Mobile phone operator O2’s just announced it’s going to start trialling what’s being billed as a 4G network – and it could reach speeds of 340 Mbit/s. Meanwhile, BT’s revealed its first fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) at a UK “brownfield” site. Both are slated to begin next year.

Broadband in the UK is “not fit for the future” and is only meeting the needs of today, according to a new joint study. According to research from the University of Oxford’s Said Business School and the Universidad de Oviedo, the UK’s only twenty-fifth in the world when it comes to broadband quality – and Digital Britain may not be enough to change that.For its authors, “the broadband gap is being redefined as a quality divide.”