Latest News from the world of Broadband http://www.broadband-finder.co.uk en-gb Sat, 18 May 2013 12:52:39 +0100 Sat, 18 May 2013 12:52:39 +0100 support@broadband-finder.co.uk (Broadband Support) 120 BroadbandFinderFeeds v2.0 http://www.broadband-finder.co.uk http://www.broadband-finder.co.uk/images/broadband-finder-logo.gif http://www.broadband-finder.co.uk Broadband - All the deals all the time 269 45 http://pictures.directnews.co.uk/liveimages/x_959_801562498_0_0_7024593_300.jpg
The European Union (EU) has outlined new proposals for broadband permits that will save Europe €60 billion euros (£50.8949).

As well as this, the plans will ensure all new buildings benefit from high speed internet access, meaning that residents from across the continent can take advantage of faster speeds.

According to the European Commission, civil engineering will represent up to 80 per cent of the cost of deploying high-speed networks, while the new plans could save companies between €40 and €60 billion.

The plan is for an EU regulation to ensure that all new buildings have to be pre-equipped with high-speed broadband, while there would also need to be better coordination between utilities to ensure that network cables could be installed along with water, electricity and gas infrastructure.

The European Competitive Telecommunications Association (ECTA), which represents new companies such as BT and Verizon Business, believes the move will help to boost the continent's telecommunications landscape.

Tom Ruhan, the chairman of ECTA, said: "The proposals to reduce the costs of deployment of fiber networks are very welcome.

"Over 70 per cent of all fibre-to-the-home investments in Europe are made by alternative operators that thus share the highest investment costs proportionally."

A representative from Vodafone also commented on the plans, noting: "We welcome the commission's proposals which are pragmatic and urgently needed if Europeans are to benefit from widely available and competitive next-generation mobile and fixed broadband network."

Efforts are being made to improve broadband speeds across the UK, with the Superfast Cornwall Project one of the schemes that is aiming to provide better services.

It received an international award from Frost and Sullivan, picking up the 2012 European Growth Leadership Award in Rural Deployments accolade.

The scheme picked up the honour after the Superfast Cornwall initiative led to the creation of 4,000 jobs, while safeguarding 2,000 others.

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Broadband CPE enjoyed its strongest year yet in 2012, according to one organisation.

Infonetics Research found that, even though global broadband CPE revenue declined three per cent in 2012's fourth quarter, the year was a standout one for CPE devices, as revenue jumped by 13 per cent to $7.7 billion (£5 billion).

The strongest growth was recorded in the cable CPE segment, where revenue jumped 26 per cent year-over-year.

On the other hand, DSL CPE shipments fell by four per cent in 2012, while VDSL CPE shipments increased 39 per cent, soaring to 29 million units.

Huawei is the broadband CPE market share leader for quarter four in 2012 and the full year 2012, while ZTE came in second place.

As well as this, ARRIS gained the top revenue share spot in the DOCSIS 3.0 CPE segment, which is based on strong EMTA shipments to a host of north American operators.

In the FTTH CPE segment, Infonetics expects ongoing vendor market share shifts in 2013, which is based on handling shipments in China.

Across the world, there were 57 million FTTH subscribers in 2012, while cable broadband subscribers reached 111 million.

Jeff Heynen, directing analyst for broadband access and pay TV at Infonetics Research, said: "Broadband CPE enjoyed its strongest year yet in 2012, benefiting from a combination of ongoing technology shifts and the need to support legacy broadband services and subscribers.

"Cable operators are gaining significant traction with DOCSIS 3.0 in North America, Europe, Korea, and Japan, and they're in the early stages of rolling out video gateways that combine DOCSIS CPE with video transcoding capabilities."

Mr Heynen explained that the gateways enable cable companies to deliver a whole-home, multi-screen service to customers, while "hearty growth" is expected for devices over the next few years.

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Newtown in Powys has been recognised as a Google eTown, despite it previously existing as a broadband notspot.

Google looked into the strength of online capabilities at 1,300 towns throughout the UK, with those that collected the highest scores in each region given eTown status.

Businesses in Newton were also named top in Wales for those that are most actively embracing the internet, with Powys also set to benefit from superfast broadband in 2013/14.

It was announced in January as one of 14 areas that would be able to take advantage of superfast connections over the next two years.

Speaking to the BBC, Graham Morgan, director of the Newtown-based Mid Wales Chamber of Commerce, noted that businesses he had spoken to were surprised that Newtown had collected the accolade.

"The Welsh government hope to have superfast broadband in place by 2013 or 2014 as Newtown's been identified as a priority area. The eTowns status is good news for those businesses looking to relocate to cheaper premises knowing that Newtown is actively embracing the web," Mr Morgan explained to the news provider.

Newton came in first place in Wales' as the Google eTowns award and 11th Britain.

Dan Cobley, managing director at Google UK, also commented on the news of Newtown picking up eTown status.

"The internet is going to contribute massively towards our future economic growth, and many businesses rely on the web to grow.

"These eTown awards are designed to recognise and reward those areas leading the way forward in e-commerce, and Newtown should be extremely proud to be one of the UK's top e-commerce towns," Mr Cobley told the news provider.

Recently, Ofcom analysed the UK's broadband industry in a new report for the government.

It gave the government a chance to measure progress towards the country's aim of obtaining the best superfast network of any major European country.

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Zen Internet has topped a new poll to find the best broadband providers in the UK, coming out on top in a number of categories to set it apart from the opposition.

Which? members gave Zen Internet an overall 85 per cent approval rating against criteria including speed, reliability and value for money, ensuring it beat off stiff competition from its rivals.

Survey participants were also asked to rate their broadband provider's customer service, level of technical support and ease of setup, to establish the ways in which any queries and technical issues were solved and how quickly this was done.

In order to be considered for the 'Recommended Provider' award, each of the ISPs required an overall customer score of at least 70 per cent, with Zen Internet's score up one percentage point on the 84 per cent it received in the previous Which? study, conducted in July 2012.

Be Broadband came second in the poll, with a rating of 82 per cent, while Plusnet was third with 76 per cent.

The figures do highlight that Be and Plusnet are gaining ground on Zen, with Be jumping ten percentage points this year compared to the 72% it scored in 2012 and PlusNet rising three percentage points from 73% last year.

In a separate Which? survey for broadband and home phone providers, Zen Internet (87 per cent) also topped the chart, seeing off competition from suppliers including Utility Warehouse (80 per cent) and Plusnet (78 per cent) to triumph in the category.

It is the latest feather in the cap for Zen, which recently unveiled plans to make a £4 million investment in its fibre broadband infrastructure over the course of 2013.

The Rochdale-based organisation estimates demand for fibre broadband services will increase significantly over the next few years and so is aiming to ensure its infrastructure is able to meet demand for superfast download speeds.

The firm is aiming to generate £50 million in turnover during 2013, but potential earnings could reach £100 million a year by 2016 if the company fully embraces next-generation solutions, managing director Richard Tang said.

Posted by Brian Palmer

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Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) has said that its cities scheme will be operated on competitive lines.

The Local Government Chronicle has reported Robert Sullivan, chief executive of the group, as telling councillors that the rules for the programme will be competitive, amid worries that BT was monopolising the project.

Ministers will make "critical decisions" regarding the impact local government will have on funding superfast broadband in cities, Mr Sullivan told councillors from the Local Government Association (LGA).

Such discussions will be linked into negotiations with the European Commission about how the urban scheme will comply with rules relating to state aid.

At the meeting, councillors suggested they were being scapegoated for delaying the delivery of connections in rural areas.

LGA chairman Sir Merrick Cockell told Mr Sullivan: "One message you could take back related to BT, and especially because it has a monopoly, is that we think it is outrageous that it passes the blame for delays to local government.

"We have heard that at the highest level BT are playing this tune to the government."

Sir Merrick explained that BT's approach is "schizophrenic", suggesting that the firm was trying to win major contracts with a number of local authorities at the same time.

However, Mr Sullivan had a lot of praise for local councils, commending their efforts to provide funds for rural broadband.

He stated that authorities have matched the BDUK contribution in all cases, while some have gone beyond it in cases.

Mr Sullivan described these achievements as a "testament to the foresight" of local councils.

Recently, Northamptonshire County Council and BT agreed a new deal to bring better broadband to the area.

The project will expand on existing commercial fibre investment and provide world class fibre broadband speeds to 53,000 Northamptonshire homes and businesses, with the work being backed by the BDUK scheme.

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Rumford premises are set to benefit from superfast broadband after the final stage of a new project was given consent.

Digital Rutland is a joint scheme run by Rutland County Council and BT. It has picked up approval from Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK), meaning that all of the region's ten exchanges will be upgraded to fibre broadband, according to the Stamford Mercury.

The majority of homes and businesses will be able to access speeds of up to 80Mbps, with the authority injecting over £2.3 million into the project.

This includes a £820,000 grant from BDUK and £800,000 from BT.

Engineers will begin planning the work in the coming weeks, then the likely speeds for individual areas will become apparent.

After the planning process is over, survey work will begin to upgrade exchanges in Oakham, Uppingham, Belton, Cottesmore, Empingham, Manton, Morcott, North Luffenham, Thistleton and Whissendine.

Some 17,000 homes and businesses in the county will be able to benefit from connections from a broadband provider of their choosing by the end of 2013.

Deputy leader of Rutland County Council Terry King told the news provider: "We are absolutely delighted that work can now get underway to bring fibre broadband to towns and villages across Rutland.

"Digital Rutland is pleased to confirm that every exchange in Rutland will be upgraded and I’m sure this will be welcomed by our local community who we know are very supportive of this project."

Mr King added that Digital Rutland will become "increasingly visible" over the course of the next few months.

He stated that it will not be long until the first homes and businesses can experience the perks of faster internet speeds.

Superfast broadband will enable consumers to stream high-quality music and video, while webpages will load at a much quicker pace.

As well as this, downloads will be completed more quickly, meaning web users can listen or watch the media they want within a shorter space of time.

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Work has begun to allow Forest of Dean communities to benefit from the Fastershire project, which will bring better broadband to homes and businesses.

The project will be carried out thanks to a partnership between BT and Gloucestershire County Council, with engineers planning and building the new fibre network in Cinderford, Coleford, Longhope and Lydbrook.

Once the work is finished, roughly 15,000 homes and businesses will be able to take advantage of faster broadband, with the first customers set to be connected during the autumn.

Thanks to the Fastershire project, hundreds of engineers from BT's Openreach business will lay roughly 2,500 kilometres of optical fibre cable along with roughly 800 new fibre broadband cabinets in the Gloucestershire and Herefordshire project area.

As a result of the deal, 90 per cent of homes and businesses should be able to take advantage of fibre broadband by the end of 2016, with the authority aiming to provide access to 24Mbps speeds or above for all who want them by 2018.

Furthermore, the £56.6 million project aims to ensure that all areas receive 2Mbps connections as a minimum by the end of 2016.

Councillor Mark Hawthorne, leader of Gloucestershire County Council, said: "I'm delighted we can now announce the first communities to benefit from this important project.

"We have made this significant investment in the county's broadband infrastructure so that businesses and communities of all sizes can grow - this is about improving broadband access for all and I look forward to seeing the first cabinets go live later this year."

Bill Murphy, BT's managing director for Next Generation Access, also commented on the news, saying that now is "an exciting time for Gloucestershire".

Fibre broadband will enable people to run a number of bandwidth-hungry applications simultaneously, whereas higher volumes of data can be sent and received more efficiently.

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Northamptonshire County Council and BT have agreed a new deal to bring better internet services to the region.

The project will further develop existing commercial fibre investment and will offer world class fibre broadband speeds to 53,000 Northamptonshire homes and businesses via the government's Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) scheme.

It will also work towards the council's hope of making 2Mbps connections available to all premises once the roll-out has finished.

Thanks to the project, it is expected that around 3,000 Northamptonshire business premises will be able to benefit from fibre infrastructure by September 2015.

Work on the initiative will begin immediately, with the first locations expected to be enabled with fibre later this year. The three-year deployment will begin with a planning and surveying period, before Openreach begins work on the ground.

In September 2011, the authority carried out an Economic Impact Assessment, finding that the improvements in broadband could provide 1,700 extra jobs by 2026/7 and £110 million in additional annual GVA (gross value added).

Andre Gonzalez De Savage, Northamptonshire County Council cabinet member for infrastructure and public protection, said: "This is undoubtedly one of the biggest projects we’re involved with which will make an enormous difference in bringing prosperity to the county.

"Having widely available superfast broadband is essential if we are to compete in the digital global economy and I’m delighted that we’ve reached such a significant stage of this initiative."

BT will put forward £8.1 million to the project, whereas separate contributions of £4.8 million will come from BDUK and Northamptonshire County Council.

Communications minister Ed Vaizey described the project as "fantastic news" for Northamptonshire, adding that superfast broadband will create roughly 1,700 new jobs.

"The UK already does more business online than any other European country, and widespread access to superfast broadband will provide a tremendous boost to the Northamptonshire local economy," Mr Vaizey noted.

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The South of Scotland Alliance is aiming to improve broadband connectivity in Dumfries and Galloway and the Borders.

The group is carrying out a survey among communities to identify where demand for next-generation broadband is at its highest, as Selkirk is currently boasting services below the quality of other locations such as Duns and Lauder.

Speaking to the Selkirk Weekend Advertiser, Selkirkshire councillor Michelle Ballantyne explained that businesses, individuals and communities can benefit from faster and more reliable broadband connections.

However, she noted that many digital providers tend to focus their work on infrastructure where they see the most demand and the highest potential profit.

"We have a commitment to rolling out broadband by the Scottish government and indeed Scottish Borders Council has put £8.4million of capital towards ensuring that we get a bit more coverage, but nevertheless the choice of areas will still be influenced by the perceived demand.

"The online survey is designed to measure the level of interest and help decide where the rollout will be concentrated to start with," Ms Ballantyne explained to the news provider.

She described next-generation broadband as making a "tangible" difference, allowing pages to load quicker, resulting in a better online experience for web users.

"It takes two minutes to go onto the South of Scotland website and register your interest.

"It costs nothing and doesn’t commit you to anything, but if enough people do it we will send a message that Selkirk is wanting next-generation broadband now and that our wee town is awake and ready to be connected," Ms Ballantyne noted.

People can register their interest for the scheme by visiting www.surveymonkey.com/s/SOSBroadbandRegistration.

Recently, it was announced that superfast broadband is to be fitted in an extra 35,000 homes and businesses in Edinburgh.

It will be funded by extra investment in communities that are already taking part in BT's £2.5 billion commercial roll-out of fibre broadband.

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A number of London boroughs have expressed concerns over government plans to eliminate powers relating to the positioning of broadband cabinets.

Proposals from the government will make it simpler for businesses to overrule community decision-makers and fit new cabinets, and London Councils has warned that the plans could see costs being passed onto boroughs, potentially endangering road users.

The organisation represents the capital's 33 local authorities and is fiercely against any plans that will reduce planning controls for the technology.

Councillor Chris Roberts, London Councils’ executive member for planning, said: "We all want to support the rollout of broadband, but this must not compromise the ability of elected councillors to ensure our streets are both safe and attractive.

"However, boroughs already have insufficient powers to control the visual appearance of their communities. If the government is serious about localism, it should realise that greater, not lesser, planning powers are needed for local communities to deal with the actions of irresponsible telecoms companies."

London Councils believes that councils and communities are currently up against poor planning protections and poor consultation from telecoms companies.

It believes that further weakening of legislation and greater faith in telecoms companies could mean there is even less community support for broadband infrastructure.

Furthermore, London Councils is worried that the changes could mean extra costs for local government.

This news comes after PCPro revealed that a number of London councils are working on a procurement plan to bring public Wi-Fi and mobile phone signal networks to public spaces in the city.

It has been reported that the scheme could deliver free Wi-Fi access to residents via a system of transceivers attached to lamp posts, bus shelters and other street equipment.

Geoff Connell, director of IT for Newham Council, told the news provider that the move could enable councils to generate revenue by selling access to its assets.

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The average speed of home broadband now stands at 12Mbps, a new study has found.

Research from Ofcom discovered that this figure has increased by a third since the most recent report in May last year, while it has trebled in the space of the last four years.

More consumers are also looking to upgrade their broadband packages to superfast services capable of 30Mbps or more, with the increasing need for online video and more web-enabled devices in households forcing this trend.

By November 2012, over three-quarters of the country's UK home broadband users were subscribed to packages with advertised speeds that were more than 10Mbps, while the proportion of superfast connections labelled as superfast rose 13 per cent, marking a five per cent rise from the previous year.

Superfast services are becoming quicker, as average speeds have jumped from 35.8Mbps in May 2012 to 44.6Mbps in November 2012.

It is also becoming cheaper to upgrade to faster connections, as these can cost as little as £5.

The average download speed of a UK residential cable broadband connection jumped by 10.4Mbps to 28.3Mbps in the six months to November 2012, which was helped by Virgin Media's ongoing speed upgrade programme that is set to be completed by the end of June 2013.

Ed Richards, Ofcom's chief executive, said: "Our research shows that UK consumers are adopting faster broadband packages to cater for their increasing use of bandwidth-heavy services such as video streaming.

"The increase in the average number of connected devices in UK homes is also driving the need for speed."

The research also examined upload speeds, which are vital for consumers who hope to share large files or use real-time video communications.

It was found that the average upload speed across the country is 1.4Mbps, showing a rise from the 0.3Mbps average seen in May.

Ofcom's research found that average download speeds often fall in busy periods when a large number of connections are being used, with capacity constraints often being to blame.

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Lincolnshire's businesses and communities are set to benefit from fast fibre broadband thanks to work from Lincolnshire County Council and BT.

The authority has signed a deal with BT to build on the county's existing telecoms infrastructure, meaning that a minimum of 88 per cent of all premises will be able to access superfast connections by April 2016.

It is hoped that all other homes and businesses will be able to benefit from broadband of at least 2Mbps, bringing broadband to every location in Lincolnshire for the first time ever.

The contract is the largest of its kind in the East Midlands and the sixth biggest on a national scale.

Thanks to the project, more than £48 million of public and private sector money will be invested in boosting the county's broadband infrastructure, with this cash including £11.2 million from the county council, £4 million from district authorities and £14.3 million and £18.8 million from national government and BT respectively.

BT was chosen for the work following a competitive selection process, with work on the project expected to begin soon. The first superfast connections are anticipated to be available in January 2014.

The roll-out will begin with a period of planning and surveying before Openreach starts work at ground level.

Bill Murphy, managing director of next generation access at BT, said: " This is great news for Lincolnshire. We’re already seeing the positive impact that faster, fibre broadband is having on businesses and residents in the county and now, thanks to this partnership, the benefits will be felt much wider, helping boost the local economy."

Communications minister Ed Vaizey also commented on the news, noting that it will be fantastic for broadband to be available everywhere in Lincolnshire for the first time.

He added that Britain already does more online business than any other European country, and these upgrades will give Lincolnshire's economy "a tremendous boost".

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Superfast broadband's arrival in Skegness will help to bring a number of benefits to the area, one local businessman believes.

Laurence Davis, chief executive of the Fantasy Island resort, believes that Ingoldmells' inclusion in a new wireless technology scheme will provide the area with greatly improved internet speeds.

Speaking to the Skegness Standard, Mr Davis stated that the future of the resort is geared towards embracing digital technology, which was challenging to achieve before the scheme was approved with £300,000 of European Regional Development Fund money.

Thanks to the pilot, internet users in Ingoldmells, Chapel St Leonards, Willoughby and Sloothby will be able to access services of up to 50Mbps by this autumn, with the connections being provided by AB Internet.

"The arrival of superfast broadband has enabled us to do things that would not have been possible otherwise.

"We are spending well over a million pounds at Fantasy Island this year and intend to spend around the same next year on projects that will create jobs and improve the resort. Had we not known that broadband would be arriving, I think our criteria for investing would have been put off for at least a couple of years," Mr Davis noted.

He explained that the pilot scheme will give businesses in the area the chance to interact with the public and "drive footfall".

The region's first Domino's Pizza restaurant is expected to open later this month and will be dependent on the arrival of a reliable broadband connection.

Many areas of the UK are set to benefit from better broadband connections in the near future, including Suffolk, where the Better Broadband for Suffolk Programme is aiming to connect more than 1500 business and residential properties.

Workers at Openreach, BT's local network division, are now carrying out surveys across a number of locations, with a higher number of green fibre cabinets ordered.

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A project has now begun to roll out superfast services to 90 per cent of Berkshire by 2015.

A public consultation has begun to discover where services will be lacking quality in the future, with the government planning to pledge £1.43 million for the scheme, which will need to be matched by the authority's six unitary authorities.

Commercial companies across the UK are aiming to expand coverage over the course of the next three years, though it is believed that 47,000 businesses and homes will still not be able to use superfast broadband services.

In January, broadband providers were asked to clarify the regions of the UK they currently serve or are planning to cover, with the consultation aiming to determine if there are any other organisations planning to provide superfast services over the next three years.

Colin Batchelor, Superfast Berkshire’s project manager, said: "Expanding superfast broadband will further develop the vibrant economic environment that is a cornerstone of the county’s prosperity.

"This consultation is key to finalising the plan that, in tandem with commercial providers, will roll-out superfast broadband to the vast majority of premises in Berkshire. I urge all those with relevant information to respond as soon as they can."

Councillor Jan Gavin, Reading’s lead member for community engagement, also commented on the news, expressing his delight that Reading is supporting the project.

"Improving superfast broadband coverage in Berkshire is vital to our continuing economic growth as a regional centre and an increasingly important part of everyone’s everyday life," Ms Gavin explained.

The consultation document can be found online through the Superfast Berkshire website, though responses need to be submitted by March 28th.

Recently, a study by Ofcom looked at the UK's broadband industry, with the watchdog suggesting that the country's industry is performing well.

Ofcom's European Broadband Scorecard analysed the connections of countries across the continent, with Britain boasting the same broadband take up as France and Germany.

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Upgrades to Suffolk's broadband network have begun ahead of schedule, enabling more properties to benefit from faster speeds during autumn.

The Better Broadband for Suffolk Programme aims to allow a number of properties in the area to benefit from faster internet speeds, with the early roll out of services hoping to connect over 1500 business and residential residences.

Engineers from Openreach, BT's local network division are now conducting surveys across a number of locations and a higher number of green fibre cabinets have been ordered.

Although the exact location of the cabinets is yet to be announced, it is likely that the technology will be situated on the edge of existing broadband coverage areas and in more rural destinations, with more details expected to be released following the survey.

Councillor Mark Bee, Suffolk County Council’s leader and chair of the Better Broadband for Suffolk programme, said: "Through the process of agreeing with BT how the programme will be rolled out, it became clear that there were a number of quick wins that we could deliver which would mean people benefit earlier than expected.

"We’ve therefore pushed ahead with the programme and I’m delighted with the outcome. Whilst the exact areas are still to be confirmed, they are most likely on the edge of existing fibre coverage areas and in more rural locations."

As part of the roll out plans, individuals are expected to benefit from faster speeds by the end of 2013, and the work is expected to be completed before 2016.

By this point, Suffolk County Council is devoted to guaranteeing every property in Suffolk will be able to access speeds of at least 2Mbps, whereas 85 per cent will be able to benefit from superfast connections.

The Better Broadband for Suffolk Scheme is a partnership between Suffolk County Council and BT.

Overall, more than £40 million will be invested in the county's network over the next 15 years.

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Superfast broadband is to be installed in another 35,000 homes and businesses in Edinburgh.

This work will be funded thanks to extra investment in communities already featured in BT's £2.5 billion commercial roll-out of fibre broadband, with the latest expansion set to benefit 16 areas in the city.

Fountainbridge, Craiglockhart, Stockbridge and Murrayfield have already been upgraded, while Leith, Liberton, Wester Halies and Davidson's Mains are expected to receive the improved connections later in 2013.

Thanks to the work, the total number of premises with access to broadband in Edinburgh will reach nearly 178,000 by the end of spring 2014, with around 64,700 already able to benefit from the services.

As well as this, roughly 2,000 homes and workplaces in West Lothian and 800 in East Lothian are expected to take advantage of the extra coverage.

Brendan Dick, BT Scotland director, said: "This is another important step forward for Scotland’s capital city. High-speed digital connectivity is vital to our long-term success.

"BT’s investment in fibre broadband allows communities to create new opportunities, growth and future potential. Anything you can think of doing online, you can do better with fibre broadband. It is a vital part of households and businesses making the most of the amazing opportunities increasingly offered by the internet."

Councillor Frank Ross, convener of the Economy Committee at the City of Edinburgh Council, also commented on the upgrades, explaining that it is "great" to see the footprint of superfast broadband spreading throughout the city.

Mr Ross noted that it is essential to be well connected in order for businesses to be able to effectively compete and create jobs.

"Whether you’re working in an office, improving your education at home or just wanting to download a film or programme online, high-speed fibre broadband is ever more essential to everyday life," he stated.

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The culture secretary has backed the government's decision to invest in urban broadband.

Maria Miller said the Con-Lib coalition would not be altering its approach to the technology, explaining to the Daily Telegraph that the government would be looking to speed up the deployment and uptake of superfast broadband.

Although the government has come up against criticism for funding upgrades in areas where private sector providers are active, Ms Miller is standing by the existing methodology.

She believes the project is a key part of Britain's aims for economic prosperity.

"We’ve already replanned the majority of those projects and we will forge ahead to show the incredible benefits superfast broadband can have to whole communities," she stated.

Ms Miller explained that the market is not working perfectly, as complete and contiguous coverage is not being delivered, meaning there are opportunities for intervention in rural or urban areas.

"Making sure there’s complete reach and making sure there’s ubiquitous access to high speed – that’s a real USP for Britain," she stated.

Ms Miller went on to say that e-commerce is a driving force for the country, noting that it is making up eight per cent of GDP.

"We’re not trying to get people to learn the benefits of the internet; they already know that, so trading up to superfast broadband is a much easier transition.

"Make no bones about the fact that we will be doing everything we can to encourage more competition, We cannot allow legal proceedings to get in the way of new services becoming available to customers," she told the news provider.

Britain's broadband networks are set to be boosted by the news that Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) has launched a consultation with suppliers to outline how they could take advantage of next generation access broadband networks.

It has offered a number of options, including three possible commercial models such as designing and building NGA broadband infrastructure.

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KFC has signed a deal with The Cloud to roll out free Wi-Fi for customers.

The technology will be rolled out across 458 of its stores in the UK, as the business aims to appeal to more people by promising free internet services.

All hardware for the system will be provided by The Cloud, which will take three months to deploy and more venues are expected to sign up after this time period.

A sign on process will be used for the service through a branded landing page, containing information about the restaurants and menus, along with special deals for visitors to capitalise on.

Nathan James, senior manager of brand experience for KFC in the UK, said: "We are operating in a highly competitive industry and are always looking for ways to improve our restaurants.

"As more and more of our customers are using smart devices, we know internet connectivity is fast becoming a key part of the restaurant experience."

Mr James went on to say that diners want to be able to browse, access social networks and search for retail outlets to plan their day or access KFC-related information and offers.

"The new Wi-Fi service offers exactly this and helps ensure we provide an enjoyable dining experience," he noted.

Vince Russell, managing director of The Cloud, also commented on the news, noting that the ability to access fast internet on the go is "increasingly important" to British consumers.

"Beyond allowing customers to get online, there are great opportunities to use Wi-Fi to improve the customer experience and ultimately boost customer loyalty and sales.

"Fast and reliable Wi-Fi paves the way for new technologies such as mobile payments to reduce queue times, QR codes to discover more about a product, as well as targeted advertising of specific products and offers," Mr Russell noted.

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Openreach has created more than 1,000 engineering jobs to help with installing fibre broadband in customers' homes.

Some 400 apprenticeships are to be developed, with a further 200 being reserved for personnel in the armed forces, adding to the 1,500 extra engineers who were recruited during the last year.

Thanks to these plans, there will be more than 6,000 people working on the roll out. Openreach is hoping to extend the benefits of fibre broadband to regions that would not otherwise be able to benefit from the technology.

The apprenticeships will provide young people with a training scheme lasting for two and a half years. A focus will be put on installing new fibre broadband to customers' homes during the first year, before learning about the full range of engineering tasks.

Once the training is over, the apprentices will attain a BTEC Level 3 Diploma and Certificate in ICT Systems and Principles.

As part of their qualification, apprentices will be given the chance to complete academic studies in Maths, English and ICT.

Openreach will work with the Ministry of Defence and the Careers Transition Partnership to appeal to further people who are set to leave the armed forces.

Over 2,000 staff from the armed forces have been recruited in the past two years, and the business is hoping to find an extra 200 under the latest recruitment programme.

BT chief executive Ian Livingston said: "BT’s investment, together with the government’s BDUK programme, will cement the UK’s position as one of the leading broadband nations in Europe.

"We remain highly confident that fibre can be provided to more than 90 per cent of UK homes and businesses, making the UK a global digital leader."

Mr Livingston went on to say that faster broadband will help to fuel the UK economy, which the new job positions will help to facilitate.

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A new undersea cable scheme is aiming to bring superfast broadband to the Isles of Scilly.

Fibre optic cables that have been unused on the seabed of the Atlantic Ocean for around three years are to be diverted to the Isles of Scilly in a £3.7 million scheme to provide quicker broadband speeds to residents and businesses.

The work makes up part of the £132 million Superfast Cornwall Initiative, which is being carried out between the European Regional Development Fund, BT and Cornwall Council.

It hopes to lead to the delivery of quicker broadband across Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly in 2014, with the project already supplying high-speed fibre broadband to over half of all Cornish homes and businesses.

The first Isles of Scilly customers are expected to be connected during the first half of 2014, while a cable ship is expected to move two cables that had previously been used for communications between Britain, Ireland and Spain.

Nigel Ashcroft, Superfast Cornwall programme director for Cornwall Development Company, the economic development company of Cornwall Council, said: " The project to deliver fibre optic broadband for the Isles of Scilly will be one of the most important steps forward for the islands for many years.

"It will be truly life-changing for businesses on the isles, enabling them to be better connected to existing customers and colleagues and opening the door to doing business in more markets across the world."

Mr Ashcroft believes hat superfast broadband will promote economic growth on the islands by assisting existing firms to become more efficient, which will allow them to seize new market opportunities.

Ranulf Scarbrough, Superfast Cornwall programme director for BT, said that BT's engineers have created a "highly innovative and environmentally-friendly" scheme to bring fibre broadband to the islands.

Mr Scarborough described the project as the most ambitious initiative of its kind ever carried out in Britain.

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Ceredigion's Welsh Liberal Democrat MP Mark Williams has questioned the roll out of Superfast Cymru.

Mr Williams told the Tivyside Advertiser that he has worries over the criteria used by the Assembly Government during the roll out of the project.

He asked the secretary of state in last week's Wales Office questions whether he was conscious of how the roll out was prioritised and was told that further enquiries would be made.

At the House of Commons, Mr Williams explained that the roll out of superfast broadband is the Assembly's responsibility.

"I am yet to receive a satisfactory explanation from the Assembly Minister as to how the priority for roll out was decided, and hope the Secretary of State may be able to receive a more satisfactory responsible about the criteria used.

"I am disappointed Ceredigion has been put into the second phase of roll out. As a rural area with many parts that are hard to reach I would have thought this would more than qualify Ceredigion for the first phase of roll-out," he stated.

Mr Williams explained that Ceredigion now has to wait an extra two years for work on the project to begin, despite there being "little explanation" for the delay.

His comments come after parts of Bangor were announced to be the first areas in Wales to be able to capitalise on high speed fibre broadband.

The work was completed as part of the Superfast Cymru project, which is being operated by the Welsh government and BT in a bid to introduce connections in Wales to regions that are not being covered in private sector plans.

On February 22nd, Welsh government business minister Edwina Hart unveiled the first new broadband cabinet to emerge from the agreement.

Engineers are set to lay roughly 17,500 kilometres of optical fibre cable and install around 3,000 new fibre broadband cabinets.

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Ofcom has assessed the UK's broadband industry in a new report for the government.

The European Broadband Scorecard gives the government the chance to measure progress towards the country's aim of having the best superfast network of any major European country by 2015.

The watchdog has agreed to collate and release the Scorecard by using the latest data available.

It analyses the UK's position within the European Union's five leading economies of France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK.

Britain generally performs well among major economies in the continent on measures of coverage, take-up, usage, price and choice.

The UK currently has the same fixed broadband take up as France and Germany at 32 connections per 100 people, while it stands in third position in the EU5 for superfast broadband coverage, meaning it is slightly behind Germany and Spain.

As well as this, Britain's internet usage is the highest in the EU5, as 81 per cent of individuals are online.

The UK also has some of the lowest fixed and mobile broadband prices, leading the EU5 in eight metrics out of 12.

Ofcom admitted that coverage and the take-up of superfast broadband has risen significantly since much of the European-comparable data was obtained.

It explained that many operators are starting to accelerate their fibre roll-out, while cable broadband speeds are being increased and the government is deploying publicly funded superfast connections in rural areas.

Earlier this year, Ofcom announced plans to address mid-contract increases in broadband packages.

It has begun a consultation on how to protect consumers from cost increases in fixed contracts for landline, broadband and mobile services.

The watchdog has proposed stepping in to enable consumers to leave agreements without penalty if an increase in cost is implemented within the term of the contract.

Ofcom also wants providers to be clear when it comes to potential price rises, enabling consumers to make an informed choice ahead of signing a deal.

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Broadband provider BT has been criticised by residents in Orford after homes and businesses in the area were unable to access the internet for seven days.

Locals have complained to the Coastal Scene about the problem, which began on February 13th and was not resolved until the following Tuesday.

Speaking to the news provider, Liz Ferretti from Gedgrave admitted that her connection has "never been great" and is "still not perfect".

"The first time I spent a good hour and a half on the phone with BT trying to find out what was going on. A few days later when nothing improved I phoned again and they hadn’t even logged that I had a technical fault.

"That’s what has been so annoying. It took them days to acknowledge there was a serious issue," Ms Ferretti continued.

She explained that BT kept suggesting it was her router, despite the fact that other homes were having identical issues.

"You would think if they were receiving a lot of calls from the Orford area informing them of difficulties there would be a way for them to flag it up so they could identify a wider problem," she noted.

Philip Reed, a freelance writer and editor, also told the news provider of the troubles caused by the connectivity issue, stating that he was asked to wait 24 hours for improvements after initially dealing with the issue.

"What annoys a lot of us is that we are paying the same as the rest of the country - as you would in Ipswich and London - yet we are receiving an inferior service," Mr Reed explained.

Recently, BT announced a partnership with Barclays that will see it offer free public Wi-Fi in a selection of its UK branches.

It will make Barclays the first UK high street bank to offer free internet access for customers throughout the country, allowing banking to be carried out more easily.

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Lord Sugar has announced his departure from the role of YouView chairman.

He explained that his work is "complete" at the company after his two-year spell as chairman.

The service provides 70 freeview channels and is a joint venture between the BBC, ITV, BT, Channel 4, Channel 5, TalkTalk and Arqiva, providing entertainment packages for a high number of Britons.

The web-connected service is free of charge and combines a selection of Freeview digital channels alongside on-demand content such as iPlayer. It is also accessed through a set-top box.

Lord Sugar stated: "When I joined YouView in 2011, my brief from the shareholders was to use my experience in the electronics industry to get the product to market and into the homes of consumers.

"Having done that successfully, my job is complete and I will now focus my time and attention into my other businesses."

YouView recently announced its Remote Record App, which is available on the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch and provides listings for more than 70 digital TV and radio channels for the next seven days.

The system allows YouView customers to record their favourite TV programmes on their set-top box while on the move.

Richard Halton, chief executive officer of YouView, said: "We are really excited about our new YouView App – it gives customers a new way to find the content they love and the flexibility to record programmes on the go.

"This is just the first stage in our companion device strategy, offering even more value to UK consumers, and we plan to extend the functionality of this app as part of our on-going development of the YouView proposition."

The YouView service has record, pause and rewind functionalities, along with a simple search feature and the app is compatible with all YouView set-top boxes.

As well as this, the software can securely connect up to five mobile devices.

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Sky has announced that it will buy Telefonica's 02 and Be Broadband businesses.

An initial total of £180 million will be paid to Telefonica, while an extra £20 million is expected to be put forward after customers have switched to the group.

As a result of the transaction, Sky is expected to become the second biggest broadband provider in the UK.

Telefonica's UK consumer broadband and fixed-line telephony customers, which currently total over half-a-million, will turn into Sky customers once the deal has been finalised.

After the deal is completed, 02 and BE consumers will be migrated to Sky's fully unbundled network.

Jeremy Darroch, Sky’s chief executive, said: "Sky has been the UK’s fastest-growing broadband and telephony provider since we entered the market six years ago. From a standing start in 2006, we have added more than 4.2 million broadband customers. The acquisition of Telefónica UK’s consumer broadband and fixed-line telephony business will help us accelerate this growth.

"We believe that the O2 and BE consumer broadband and telephony business is a great fit, with customers used to high-quality products and strong levels of customer service."

The acquisition will be funded from existing cash reserves and is set to be accretive to earnings per share in the second full year of ownership.

It Is expected that the deal will be completed by the end of April 2013, though this is subject to regulatory clearance.

Ronan Dunne, chief executive of Telefónica UK, also commented on the deal, saying: "As we focus on delivering best-in-class mobile connectivity, including next generation (4G) services, we believe this agreement is the best way of helping our customers get the highest quality home broadband experience."

News of this deal comes after Sky revamped its broadband and TV deals.

With the company's Awesome Foursome deal, consumers can benefit from Sky+, Sky TV, Sky Go and Sky Broadband.

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A contract is yet to be delivered to provide next generation broadband services in the Highlands and Islands.

It was expected that a deal would be finalised between Highlands and Islands Enterprise and BT six months ago, but this is yet to happen, reports the Buteman.

HIE's strategic engagements manager Claire Ross told Argyll and Bute MP Alan Reid this week that the scale of the project meant the process of completing terms was "difficult and time-consuming".

In response to this, the news provider has reported Mr Reid as saying: "Delivering broadband throughout the Highlands and Islands is vitally important and it’s disappointing that signing this contract has been delayed yet again.

"It was supposed to have been completed and signed last August, then it was supposed to be before the end of last year, then it was supposed to be early in 2013."

Mr Reid went on to say that the UK government provided Highlands & Islands Enterprise with money for broadband infrastructure two and a half years ago and that it is "high time" it was spent to bring broadband to communities which do not have it.

"I have asked Highlands & Island Enterprise for an explanation for these repeated delays and called on them to pull out all the stops to get work started as quickly as possible," he stated.

Elsewhere in the UK, parts of Bangor will be the first areas in Wales to benefit from high speed fibre broadband.

The work will be carried out through the Superfast Cymru project, which is being run by the Welsh government, with BT bringing the connections to areas which are not currently being covered by work in the private sector.

Hundreds of homes and businesses in the area are expected to benefit from the technology.

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Gigaclear has announced that it will install a 100Mbps network in Frilford and Frilford Heath in Oxfordshire.

Residents and a number of small business owners will be able to benefit from the services from April 2013, allowing people to truly capitalise on the breadth of opportunities offered by the internet.

Bruce Ballard, managing director of Paddock IT solutions, runs a small business from his home in Frilford Heath, and said he is looking forward to using a massively improved service at a lower cost.

"I choose to work from home because it is cheaper and affords me a better quality of life. The company's servers are based here and three other members of staff connect to them using a virtual private network.

"The company provides remote IT support to its customers and their servers are occasionally based here too. Broadband speeds are really important to us," he continued.

Mr Bruce went on to say that ADSL over copper technology is used at the moment, but admitted that it performs badly due to the high amounts of upstream traffic.

He said that suitable alternatives were previously either unavailable or expensive, before adding that Gigaclear's service will provide more than enough to accommodate the company's needs.

Gigaclear chief executive Matthew Hare said: "Many small business owners living in rural locations such as Frilford and Frilford Heath elect to avoid the commute and the cost of separate business premises by operating from home.

"The challenge is getting adequate upload and download speeds without paying prices that would make even large organisations wince."

He added that business consumers can benefit from a range of access products at a reduced cost.

Mr Hare previously spoke to GrowthBusiness about Gigaclear's progress, admitting that it plans to increase its roll out of fibre-to-the-home networks to a number of rural areas in Britain.

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Potential broadband providers have been invited to bid for a superfast broadband contract in Dorset.

The Dorset Echo has reported that Dorset County Council is aiming to achieve investment of £19 million in public funds to guarantee that rural communities are not left without satisfactory services.

There are roughly 87,000 homes and businesses which would not be able to benefit from superfast broadband without the project.

Speaking to the news provider, Robert Gould, the council's representative for the environment, said that the investment represents an "important milestone" for the project.

"We are already seeing benefits in the towns where commercial providers are already upgrading their networks. But Dorset contains huge rural areas which would be left behind without this project.

"We have £9.44million from the government and, with our partners, are investing a further £9.44million of local public funds," Mr Gould went on to say.

Councillor Deborah Croney, leader of North Dorset District Council, also told the news provider that the project team has strived to adopt the right approach to the work.

It is expected that providers will invest an extra £19 million of their own resources in the Dorset network.

"The approach we have taken aims to ensure all rural areas will have access to faster speeds and most areas will have superfast speeds. We now need to consider all the options to make sure we push superfast as far as it is possible," Ms Croney went on to say.

Elsewhere, better internet services are expected to be introduced to the Isle of Wight following work from BT.

An additional 5000 homes and businesses on the island are set to feature in the company's £2.5 billion commercial roll-out of fibre broadband.

Thanks to the work, the total number of premises with access to fibre broadband on the island will reach roughly 50,000.

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Residents in a number of South Gloucestershire areas are set to benefit from broadband upgrades.

The local council is to cover the gaps left by the commercial rollout of standard and superfast connections, with public money set to be used to invest in areas including Almondsbury, Didmarton, Falfield and Pining, reports the BBC.

South Gloucestershire Council will pump £2.2 million into the project following its partnership with Wiltshire Council.

The Almondsbury telephone exchange covers one of the areas which failed to figure in BT Openreach's commercial rollout, which is aiming to cover two-thirds of Britain by 2014.

As a result of the exchange's lack of connectivity, many residents of the town suffer from speeds below the national average, making it harder for them to take full advantage of the services made available through the internet.

Stephen Horton led the campaign for better broadband in Bradley Stoke and told the BBC that the upgrades represent good news for the area.

"This is something people in Bradley Stoke have been asking for for five or six years,

"Finding out we're within the intervention area is good news I suppose, but there are still other questions to be answered, like are we going to get the superfast variant?," Mr Horton told the news provider.

Local councillor Robert Jones has also urged BT to prioritise Bradley Stoke for the roll out of the technology.

"I am delighted that Bradley Stoke residents will be among those to benefit from this funding. The responsibility now lies with BT to deliver on the contract and I urge them to prioritise Bradley Stoke and confirm as soon as possible the timescales and phasing involved in the superfast roll out," Mr Jones told the news provider.

Recently, BT also announced a new partnership with Barclays that will allow it to provide free public Wi-Fi in a number of British branches.

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Broadband Delivery UK has launched a consultation with suppliers to outline how they could benefit from next generation access broadband networks.

It has outlined the possible arrangements suppliers and city authorities could put in place to benefit from state funding when making next generation access (NGA) networks available for consumers.

BDUK has outlined three possible commercial models that suppliers could pitch to the city authorities, with the first of these involving designing and building NGA broadband infrastructure before handing back ownership to cities to enable authorities to sell services on an "open access basis".

On the other hand, the group has suggested that suppliers could design, build and operate an NGA network independently before agreeing contracts with communications providers on an open access basis.

As part of this model, suppliers would own the infrastructure, while the nature of open access would need to be determined after negotiations with the European Commission.

The third commercial approach suggested by BDUK would see suppliers own and operate an NGA network, with them providing active services and enabling other companies to do so on equivalent terms.

"The results of this consultation and wider engagement will inform DCMS and cities on: options recommended and used by cities within their implementation planning and projects; discussions with the European Commission on the development and acceptance of an urban state aid umbrella notification; and development of DCMS supporting activities and arrangements for UBF (urban broadband fund) scheme," the document stated.

In recent weeks, Hertfordshire and Gloucestershire agreed to team up to launch Britain's first co-operative county council plan to bring faster broadband to rural areas.

It is hoped that the £56.6 million project will bring world-class broadband communications to the regions within four years.

The work aims to provide fibre broadband access to 90 per cent of homes and businesses by the end of 2016

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The first places to benefit from superfast broadband as part of new plans for Surrey have been announced.

Around 15,000 homes and businesses are to benefit from the services thanks to work from Surrey County Council and BT, which will work to introduce the high speed service by the end of September.

These will be served by 14 exchanges, including Abinger, Betchworth, Bramley, Chobham, Dawes Green, Dunsfold, Elstead, Godstone, Newdigate, Nuffield Ridge, Oakwood Hill, Oxted, South Godstone and Wormley.

Other regions of Surrey will also benefit from the technology, ensuring that nearly every business and home will be able to benefit from superfast broadband before the end of 2014.

The government has asked counties to aim for 90 per cent coverage by 2015, meaning Surrey is well in front with almost 100 per cent connectivity.

Surrey's rollout of high speed broadband could benefit the local economy with as much as £28 million a year, while Fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) connections offer download speeds of up to 80Mbps and maximum upload speeds of 20Mbps.

From this Spring, BT will also begin to roll out its ultrafast fibre on demand service, which will provide speeds of up to 330Mbps available in areas enabled with fibre broadband.

Last September, the county council selected BT to develop a high-speed network in a £35 million deal.

The agreement will ensure the authority achieved its aim of providing superfast connections for up to 20 per cent of homes and businesses.

Bill Murphy, BT's next generation access managing director, said: "This is a very exciting day for Surrey. Revealing the first communities set to get fibre broadband as a direct result of the partnership is a real indication of how well the plan is progressing.

"The council has far-reaching and dynamic plans for the people who live and work in this county and BT is delighted to be on this journey too. Rolling out fibre broadband to places which are not part of our commercial roll-out is a challenging engineering project."

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Peninsula Enterprise has been commissioned to provide a superfast broadband business support project.

Superfast Business Cornwall will offer business support to a number of businesses in the Duchy, giving them the chance to harness the opportunities of superfast broadband and linked technologies.

To help local firms, two specialist digital business enablers will work intensively with businesses, giving them access to 19 days of prolonged support, including a range of national and regional expertise by specialist IT suppliers.

Businesses that are eligible for the project will also be able to apply for matched funding to enable them to undertake large transformational information and communication technology projects, which will aim to improve their access to new markets.

Adam Chambers, chief executive of Peninsula Enterprise, said: "The opportunities that superfast broadband can provide businesses in Cornwall are transformational and we are delighted to be involved.

"This service is an exciting addition to the work we are already delivering successfully in the county, namely: Export Cornwall – UKTI Convergence Service, UK Trade and Investment Programme and the Rural Focus Service."

Sebeail Fowell, project and partnership manager for the programme, also commented on the news, explaining: "The Superfast Business Cornwall service will help businesses access invaluable knowledge, expertise and funding to enable them to exploit all the opportunities that superfast broadband can provide.

"We look forward to working closely with partners, stakeholders and Superfast Cornwall to deliver this exciting service."

This news comes after the Institute of Directors (IoD) claimed that faster internet services would lead to more jobs, investment and increased productivity.

The organisation has suggested that faster connections would boost productivity at 83 per cent of companies and persuade 13 per cent to hire new staff.

As well as this, the study found that 25 per cent of business leaders are satisfied with their mobile internet speeds

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A number of London councils are in the closing stages of a procurement plan to provide public Wi-Fi and mobile phone signal networks to public spaces throughout the city.

PCPro has reported that the scheme could deliver free Wi-Fi access to residents via a system of transceivers attached to lamp posts, bus shelters and other street equipment.

Geoff Connell, director of IT for Newham Council, is one of the representatives involved in the plans and told the news provider that the move would allow councils to generate revenue from selling access to its assets, while giving consumers free internet access.

Such a wireless network could then connect back to the internet via hubs on wired-up lamp posts and other council property.

Thanks to the plans, better mobile signals could be provided with small cell technology to add capacity to networks in busy areas where services are hindered by high data demands.

Small cells boast a range of between 10m and 200m, meaning carriers can improve capacity in busy areas.

Mr Connell believes the tendering process could be finished within two to three weeks, before initial services are up and running within a year.

Organisations involved in the negotiations include major mobile companies and internet service providers, with the services expected to run on a similar model to the way that Virgin's London Underground web access operates.

"The boroughs are basically saying 'We have these assets such as lamp posts and street furniture that's available' and suppliers are bidding to use those for wireless services," Mr Connell told the news provider.

News of these plans comes after a study by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport analysed the social, economic and environmental effects of broadband investment.

The report found that access to better connections had a positive impact on national economies, while international trade was also boosted significantly.

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Parts of Bangor will become the first areas in Wales to benefit from high speed fibre broadband.

The work will be carried out as part of the Superfast Cymru project, which is being run by the Welsh government and BT and will bring the connections throughout Wales to areas which are not covered by the private sector's plans.

Last Friday (February 22nd), Welsh government business minister Edwina Hart unveiled he first new broadband cabinet to emerge from the agreement.

The technology was installed in High Street in Bangor and will serve hundreds of homes and businesses in the area, with the first of these set to benefit from the services by the spring.

Further cabinets have also been fitted in other areas of the city, with engineers set to lay around 17,500 kilometres of optical fibre cable and fit roughly 3,000 new fibre broadband cabinets.

"Superfast Cymru will transform the broadband landscape across Wales, making the country one of the most connected countries in Europe. High-speed broadband is essential to ensure residential properties to access the services and opportunities provided by digital technologies.

"Access to next-generation broadband is also vital to businesses across Wales, helping them to become more efficient and competitive. This investment demonstrates our commitment to supporting the Welsh economy and investing in the infrastructure it needs to flourish," Ms Hart explained.

She went on to say that it was heartening to see the number of apprentices being employed through the project, meaning vital employment opportunities are provided for young people in the challenging economic environment.

Elsewhere in Wales, a number of schools are benefitting from better broadband services, with around £39 million of public funding being used to ensure students in the country have better access to broadband.

The Welsh government has announced the Learning in Digital Wales Grant, which aims to improve connectivity levels in schools by 2014.

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Ofcom has alerted the European Commission of proposals to decrease prices for high speed data links.

This technology will help to support UK businesses and mobile and broadband providers, though the plans are subject to comments from the European Commission, which include new price controls on BT.

These aim to substantially reduce the cost of newer products that are based on modern Ethernet technology for a host of businesses, which will help to meet the growing demand for fast data services from schools, universities, providers and consumers.

Ofcom has proposed that BT's high-bandwidth, wholesale leased line services at speeds higher than 1Gbps should be regulated in all parts of Britain besides London and Hull.

When it comes to Ethernet products with speeds up to and including 1Gbps, Ofcom's draft decision is to broadly maintain existing regulation, such as charge controls and a requirement for BT to provide access on a non-discriminatory basis.

As part of the draft decisions, BT's prices for leased lines based on older technology will be expected to rise modestly in order to reflect higher costs in the market.

A drop in Ethernet charges will also provide customers with a cheaper alternative, as well as an incentive to migrate to more efficient options.

In addition to maintaining and extending regulation on BT, Ofcom is proposing to impose lighter regulation in London, where BT is up against greater competition from other firms.

It is also hoped that the draft measures will promote competition in the sector, which will help to ensure that Britain has a backbone of high-speed business networks capable of supporting not only companies.

Leased lines also offer vital high-speed connections between schools, universities, libraries and other public bodies.

However, the draft measures must be considered by the European Commission before they can advance to the next step.

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Consumers find a number of broadband, TV and home phone bundles too difficult to understand, research shows.

A study by Freeview and Post Office Home Phone and Broadband has found that 72 per cent of people find the small print of deals so tough to understand that they couldn't read it fully, while 42 per cent received higher bills than they expected.

More than a third (39 per cent) said they rarely watch any of the TV channels they pay for, while nearly half do not know how long their current agreement lasts for.

As well as this, nearly half of respondents were put off from signing up to a new supplier because they could not work out the best alternative, whereas one in ten abandoned switching all together because they found the process too complicated.

Professor Black, director of the centre for information design at the University of Reading, has commented on the findings, noting that small print type sizes fall well below the size recommended for eligibility, while many terms include external links to other web pages.

The study also indicated that consumers are clearly becoming tangled in lengthy agreements as, on average, people stay with one provider for over five and a half years, while 58 per cent have never switched.

Guy North, marketing communications director at Freeview, said: "This report has shown just how many people may be paying over the odds for TV channels in excess of their needs.

"With over 95 per cent of the most-watched TV programmes available subscription-free, people could be making considerable savings in the long-run by choosing an alternative to pay TV. We encourage people to carefully consider what they are entering into when taking out a bundle."

Hugh Stacey, head of Post Office Home Phone and Broadband, also commented on the study, claiming that the small print can "tell a different story" than what is seen at first glance when it comes to broadband deals.

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A study by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport has looked into the social, economic and environmental impacts of broadband investment.

Consisting of 51 pages, the report found that access to better connections has a positive impact on national economies, boosts international trade, allows more people to work from home, saves paper and reduces carbon emissions, among other benefits.

It was also found that rural communities who would otherwise have fewer opportunities are helped by the technology, while broadband is even linked to "higher levels of wellbeing".

The report puts across a strong consensus that broadband has positive impacts for national economies, while net-enterprise creation and job-creation impacts can be positive at a local level and vary by sector.

It also found that broadband access has far-reaching positive social impacts in a number of areas, including shopping, learning, health, access to employment and interactions with government.

The social impacts of superfast broadband are also likely to include a rise in the amount of time spent consuming video entertainment, along with an increase in the use of video.

For regions with poor connectivity levels, improvements in broadband speed will help to lower the extent of adverse impacts of web usability, the report also found

However, questions were raised regarding the topic of the impact broadband has on enterprise creation and employment.

"Several researchers suggest that broadband deployment leads to higher employment and more enterprises, but critics argue that business process improvement and increased productivity would rarely go hand in hand with increases in manpower," the report stated.

These findings come after research from the Institute of Directors (IoD), which found that faster internet services could generate more jobs, investment and improved productivity.

The group has suggested that quicker connections could boost the productivity of 83 per cent of companies, while such technology would also encourage 13 per cent to hire more staff.

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An extra 34 locations in North Yorkshire are to be included in the roll out of superfast broadband.

This means thousands more homes and companies can take advantage of the faster speeds, with Camblesforth, Hemingbrough and South Milford among the destinations where these improved services will be available, reports the Selby Times.

These upgrades are being delivered by Superfast North Yorkshire (SFNY), which has announced that this latest stage of the roll out will help create jobs and provide a significant boost to the local economy.

Howard Ferguson, MP Nigel Adams' parliamentary secretary welcomed the news, telling the news provider: "This is quite exciting as it is bigger than the list indicates. The objective is to cover the whole of North Yorkshire by 2014 and there will be more announcements like this made over the next 12 months as it rolls out. It’s very encouraging."

Mr Ferguson went on to say he has been working with Mr Adams to feed back any issues with existing broadband that residents have.

Carl Les, chairman of SFNY, also told the news provider that the improved connections will make a big difference.

"Investment in fibre and faster broadband speeds will be a key part of our economic revival as we finally shrug off the effects of the downturn and create a better, more prosperous future."

Better broadband speeds were recently provided for farmers in North Yorkshire, with communications minister Ed Vaizey explaining that the government's £530 million scheme aims to supply better connections for people in rural areas.

It was rolled out in the county earlier this month and Mr Vaizey told the Farmers Guardian that he hopes regulations will be changed to make it easier for planning permission to be gained for cabinets that offer superfast accessibility.

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A rise in internet traffic should prompt operators to consider rural LTE as an option for their broadband services, one group believes.

Operators and policymakers should pay attention to the necessary levels of traffic as well as headline access speeds when they evaluate the plausibility of replacing legacy copper with LTE in less profitable regions.

Analysys Mason's Fixed Internet Traffic Worldwide: forecasts and analysis 2013-2018 report has predicted that fixed internet traffic in Western Europe will increase at a CAGR of 42 per cent between 2012 and 2017.

Meanwhile, in Central and Eastern Europe, the CAGR will stand at roughly 50 per cent, while emerging economy regions will see it reach closer to 60 per cent.

In many countries, fixed internet traffic will be quicker than mobile data traffic growth.

There are multiple reasons for the rise in internet traffic, including an absence of const constraints, faster internet access, connected TV and over-the-top services.

The importance of broadband is such that it has an impact on whether people move house or not.

A study by Halifax found that just under a third of homeowners believe their broadband signal would determine whether they would move to a certain area or not.

Some 40 per cent of people aged 18 to 24 admitted that accessibility would affect their decision.

Analysys Mason believes that rapid growth in traffic should be reflected in policy as well as in commercial roll-outs.

It explained that, the stronger the fixed traffic growth, the stronger the case is for fixed networks in the final third of the NGA mix.

"Rural customers are not the same as people that elect to take a mobile broadband service as a replacement for a fixed one, and there is no reason why rural users would want to consume less than their urban counterparts," the organisation stated.

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Fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) broadband is too expensive to roll out across homes and businesses.

This is according to Point Topic, which believes that alternatives are required to ensure better connectivity for users.

A study by the organisation found that the technology is not the first choice for next-generation superfast networks, as it delivers speeds faster than 30Mbps.

In recent years, cable has advanced as networks across Europe have mostly been converted to the Docsis 3 standard, enabling speeds as high as 100Mbps.

However, VDSL services have also emerged in recent years, offering another option for companies and residents.

In its research for the European Commission, Point Topic revealed that 58 per cent of homes were able to purchase 30Mbps broadband or better by the end of 2011 if they wished.

On the other hand, comparable figures for France and Sweden saw the percentage drop to 39 per cent and 51 per cent respectively.

Point Topic believes that the FTTH Council should begin recognising that there are a number of technologies available to deliver superfast broadband in the whole market.

Oliver Johnson, CEO at Point Topic, said: "Fibre all the way is superfast but it’s also super-expensive. Operators would need a level of subsidy to achieve complete coverage with fibre that’s way above any commitment the EU was prepared to make.

"Even if the CEF had stayed intact it was going to be shared with other solutions. Once again the UK will be near the bottom of the list, with FTTH coverage and customers both well under one per cent.

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BT has announced a partnership with Barclays that will see it offer free public Wi-Fi in a number of UK branches.

The deal will make Barclays the first major UK high street bank to provide free internet access for customers in its branches across the country, making banking easier for customers by giving them the chance to access the internet.

The Wi-Fi hotspots will be rolled out across 1,500 of the bank's branches in Britain, giving people the chance to enjoy a richer, more seamless banking experience.

Any wireless-enabled PC, tablet or smartphone can be used by the bank to connect to the internet and carry out their banking actions faster than if they were using 3G.

The project has started following initial trials by the broadband provider in three Barclays branches, with the technology being rolled out to more than half of the 1,500 properties.

Customers can now use the service at these branches, while the rest will go live during February and March 2013.

The technology will be provided and managed by BT as a "white label" service and customers will see the connection entitled as "BarclaysFreeWifi". To connect to the service, customers just need to accept the terms and conditions.

Ashok Vaswani, chief executive officer of Barclays Retail and Business Banking, said: "We’ve been listening to our customers about how we can make banking easier for them, and they tell us they like the idea of mobile banking but would often value being shown how it works.

"We are always keen to show our customers how easy our mobile apps are to use, so we are now rolling out free Wi-Fi across our Barclays branches, and our front line staff say this will help them give product demos using our customers own mobiles and tablets."

These new services come after BT's Youbiquity study revealed that free in-store Wi-Fi was high on the most-wanted list for UK consumers in Britain, Germany, Spain and USA.

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Funding for developing high-speed broadband across the EU has been cut by €7 billion (£6 billion), sparking mass criticism and outrage from broadband campaigners.

The cuts, which were announced last week, have been criticised by campaigners who argue that they will not only kill connections which are needed by businesses and homes but will prevent further investment and growth in the wider sectors within Europe.

The European parliament may intervene and block the plans.

The budget for rural broadband had been slashed from €8.2 billion (£7 billion) to a mere €1 billion (£862 million); cuts that were pushed for by David Cameron, according to The Guardian.

The budget will be coming to a vote in either March or April, leading to predictions that the plans may be reversed.

Brian Condon, a director of the Community Broadband Network, said: “It's a giant leap backwards. In the UK, broadband policy is being dictated by the big players, which is characterised by two things: incrementalism and centralisation.”

The Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) had initial plans to provide speeds of up to 100mbps for at least half of the population in Europe by 2020, with the rest on at least 30mbps. However with these new cuts, these plans may not see the light of day.

BT has already announced that the cuts will not affect the broadband services in the UK due to the BDUK being protected through a number of government spending schemes.

In a statement, BT said: "BT had no plans to make use of CEF and its reduction should have no impact on existing or planned funded projects. We support the European Commission's ambitions to encourage widespread broadband deployment.

"The UK is seeing the fastest roll-out of any European country and this progress will continue."

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Oxfordshire Council is planning to invest £13.86 million in bringing faster broadband services to the county.

After consulting with local residents and businesses, who agreed significantly with the scheme, the council will aim to provide faster and reliable broadband services by 2015.

In the study, 21 per cent of the 6,032 residents asked stated that they had an internet connection of less than 1mbps, whilst 99 per cent of businesses and a full sweep of families agreed that they would accept a broadband upgrade if it was available in the county.

Even half the sample stated that they would pay double what they currently do now if it meant that they would receive faster connections.

This huge interest by the public will undoubtedly reveal to the council that the investment is worthwhile.

A lot of the data came from Leafield, located near Witney, which had the most responses from a single village or parish, with 123 being involved in the sample.

An official statement is expected to be given in spring, later this year, whilst improvements to roads and infrastructure may begin at the end of the year if plans are approved. The broadband provider is yet to be decided.

The council is currently discussing with a variety of communication providers so that they can work together to carry out the network upgrades within the region.

Oxfordshire Council is hoping to find a parish broadband representative in order to help the rural towns and villages connect to the internet more easily.

Whilst there are currently 253 people registered to cover 173 parishes, the parishes still do not have an official representative.

For more information about how you can become a ‘broadband champion’ for your parish or village, email the local authority.

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Faster internet services would provide more jobs, investment and improved productivity.

This is according to the Institute of Directors (IoD), which has suggested that faster connections would improve the productivity of 83 per cent of companies and encourage 13 per cent to hire new staff.

The research found that just 25 per cent of business leaders are satisfied with their mobile internet speeds, while 57 per cent are happy with their fixed-line download speeds, though this figure drops to 50 per cent for upload speeds.

However, findings suggest that satisfaction rates are markedly lower for IoD members who are doing business in rural areas, as just 34 per cent of these representatives are satisfied with their fixed-line download speeds.

Only 13 per cent of rural business managers are satisfied with the reliability of their mobile internet service, while 46 per cent are dissatisfied.

IoD believes that increasing internet speeds would encourage 56 per cent of bosses to offer more flexible working opportunities, while 31 per cent would feel more persuaded to make more investment in their business.

Openreach came under criticism form IoD members, as 42 per cent of them who have dealt with the company were dissatisfied. In rural areas, just 23 per cent of those who dealt with Openreach were happy, whereas 46 per cent deemed the services unsatisfactory.

Corin Taylor, senior economic adviser to the IoD, said: Fast, reliable internet connections are essential to a modern business – but far too often our existing infrastructure falls short. Increasing internet speeds would encourage many employers to invest in expanding their businesses and taking on more staff, giving the economy a welcome boost.

"The digital age is about flexibility and efficiency, but rural businesses in particular are missing out on those advantages."

Openreach is aiming to provide fibre broadband to two-thirds of British premises by spring 2014.

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BT has announced an expansion of its superfast broadband plans for homes and businesses in the Isle of Wight.

An extra 5000 homes and businesses on the island are set to be included in the company's £2.5 billion commercial roll-out of fibre broadband in Britain.

Shanklin is one of the areas that will be upgraded by the end of spring 2014, with the work providing more investment to ensure the technology is more widely available in areas which already have it or are set to obtain it.

As a result of the move, the total number of premises with access to fibre broadband on the island will reach around 50,000, as over 34,000 can already benefit from the service.

John Weaver, BT’s South East regional director, said that this new investment is a vote of confidence in the future success of the Isle of Wight.

"It will be an important part of our economic revival as we finally shrug off the effects of the downturn and create a better, more prosperous future.

"Fast, sophisticated communications are the cornerstone of a successful community, helping local people to build their skills and knowledge and encouraging the creation of new businesses and jobs," he noted.

Mr Weaver continued by saying that the technology will help to transform online education, training and leisure for households, while also boosting the competitiveness of local firms.

Councillor David Pugh, leader of the Isle of Wight Council, also commented on the news, noting that the services will help to connect more people to better internet services.

"Connecting more homes and businesses to better, faster broadband is a key part of our vision to promote growth, maintain and create jobs and attract new investment from the private sector onto the Isle of Wight - and we are working hard to make high-speed fibre broadband available across the entire Island," Mr Pugh noted.

Openreach, BT's local network business, is hoping to make fibre broadband available to two-thirds of UK homes and businesses by the end of 2014.


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BT has announced the latest locations to benefit from its high speed fibre broadband.

The latest phase of its £2.5 billion roll out will see 1.2 million premises benefit from the services, meaning the total footprint announced by the company will reach a total of 19 million premises.

Openreach, the company's local network business, will upgrade 99 new exchanges with the technology before or during spring next year, with the technology serving around 600,000 homes and businesses.

Many of these are spread throughout Scotland, the Midlands, the North East and North West of England, while an extra 600,000 premises will gain access to fibre broadband thanks to infill work.

The broadband provider has confirmed roughly 1,700 exchanges throughout the UK, making up the bulk of the country's commercial fibre footprint.

Openreach will deploy a combination of fibre-based technologies, including fibre-to-the-cabinet(FTTC) and fibre-to-the-premises appliances.

Mike Galvin, managing director, NGA, Openreach, said: " The UK is making great progress with super-fast broadband and this latest phase of work will keep up the momentum. Speeds are increasing all the time with the UK second only to Japan within the G8.

"I am sure that communities across the UK will be pleased to see that they are factored into our commercial plans and I now look forward to working with councils to identify further areas that we can enable with their support."

Mr Galvin went on to say that engineers are working "round the clock" to hit a target of reaching two-thirds of premises by spring 2014, putting plans 18 months ahead of the original timetable.

Fibre broadband can enable families to download a movie, watch a TV replay service, surf the internet and play games simultaneously.

BT's footprint on the UK is enormous, with the company laying out more than 50,000 kilometres of fibre cables throughout the country.

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Thirty per cent of people believe that good broadband signal will likely affect their decision on whether to choose a house or not, according to research from Halifax.

In a recent study, just under a third of the sample said that broadband signal would determine whether they would live in a specific area or not. 32 per cent of those people lived in urban areas whilst 25 per cent were in rural towns and villages. Gender and age were also influential factors, with 40 per cent of those aged 18 to 24 and 34 per cent of men, compared to 26 per cent of women, stating that broadband providers would alter their decision.

Martin Ellis, economist at Halifax, said: “A strong broadband connection is an increasingly important factor when choosing where to live. We are living in the digital age and as such more people are choosing to work from home, but as well as this, it's a part of our everyday lives with web browsing and streaming television commonplace.

"As a result we find people are increasingly prepared to pay a premium for homes with a good broadband signal, and this is likely to remain a factor when choosing where to live."

The figures further revealed that one fifth of people would be prepared to fork out more money for good signal. Of those considering paying more, 67 per cent would pay up to three per cent more for a house, whilst 22 per cent would pay between four and ten per cent extra. With the average cost of a home in the UK now being £162,932, this means that nearly a quarter of people would be willing to pay £16,293 more on average to buy a house which will guarantee them good broadband.

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Be Broadband is giving UK households the opportunity to enjoy a 50 per cent discount on broadband services.

The provider is offering half-price broadband on its 12-month packages for a whole year, meaning there are significant savings to be made.

Be Broadband - a subsidiary company of O2 - is running the promotion until February 28th, meaning there is still more than a fortnight to take advantage.

Customers signing up using the 'NEWYEAR13' discount code qualify for the broadband deal.

The promotion applies to three broadband packages - Be Value, Be Unlimited and Be Pro.

Be Value is priced at £17 per month and offers up to 10Mbps download speeds and 1.1Mbps uploads.

Alternatively, Be Unlimited offers up to 16Mbps download speeds and 1.1Mbps uploads for £22 per month.

Be Pro is priced at £27 per month, for which consumers receive up to 16Mbps downloads with a 1.9Mbps upload limit.

All of the broadband deals offer unlimited data, subject to a fair usage policy.

Consumers can also bolt on home phone services to their broadband deal.

For £11 per month, they are able to take advantage of inclusive calls to UK landlines on evenings and weekends.

Alternatively, for £14 per month they can enjoy unrestricted use of their landline 24/7.

Last week, it was revealed that one Be Broadband customer has been asked to find another service provider following excessively high data usage.

The man admitted using more than 1TB of data during January, contravening the firm's fair usage policy.

This is designed to ensure all consumers can fully enjoy their online experience.

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One Be Broadband customer has been asked to find another broadband provider after excessively high usage of the company's services.

The man has confessed to using more than 1 terabyte of data during January, which is significantly higher than the level of use from the average customer.

However, he claimed that he was not asked to lower his usage before Be said he would be disconnected. Be deemed that his use of the network during January last year was having an adverse effect on other users in the region.

Be's Fair Usage Policy warns customers against excessive use of the network, as such an approach can detrimentally impact other members of the exchange.

The company has also warned that, in extreme cases, it may terminate a customer's services if they do not take action following their initial warning letter.

The man in question explained: "I have used a lot of bandwidth the last few months but after seven years of being a loyal customer I would have thought I would at least get a warning or something.

"I wasn't given a chance to amend my usage. The person was very polite at least and offered to help me find another ISP."

As a result of the disconnection, the consumer has said he now hopes to switch to BT's Infinity offering, even though it will not reach his area until March 31st.

Be justified its Fair Usage Policy by saying that it is designed to protect other people's web experiences and prevent use that is not in compliance with its terms and conditions.

The company recently announced that it is offering a half-price discount on any of its 12-month packages.

All consumers need to do is use the "NEWYEAR13" discount code when they sign up for their broadband deal.

The offer will be available until February 28th.

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Rural businesses that are looking to familiarise themselves with superfast broadband services can find out more in activities announced by Nottinghamshire County Council.

The workshops hope to provide businesses with a clear understanding of the technology, along with the benefits it can bring, including e-commerce and digital trading.

Nottinghamshire County Council is set to invest a total of £8.5 million into the services by 2015, along with an expansion of new digital infrastructure in areas where funding cannot be provided by the telecommunications market.

The "Demand Stimulation for Broadband" project will be delivered by North Nottinghamshire College and the NE Group under a County Council contract.

The project is being jointly funded by the County Council and the local LEADER programme.

Councillor Keith Girling, chairman of the Economic Development Committee, said; "We are in a digital era. It is absolutely vital that all businesses are aware of the fantastic opportunities that doing business online can offer to them and their customers.

"Whilst many Nottinghamshire firms are already harnessing the opportunities that the internet and good connectivity can provide, there are others who are missing out, putting themselves at a disadvantage."

Mr Girling went on to say that he hopes the demand stimulation programme will help Nottinghamshire firms develop their online activity, leading to jobs and economic growth.

Mike Kilraine, director of employer engagement at North Nottinghamshire College in Worksop, commented on the news, saying that the programme's objective is to raise awareness of the benefits and opportunities for enterprises via the delivery of superfast broadband.

News of these workshops comes after East Midlands Trains announced that it will provide free Wi-Fi services to rail passengers at 30 of its stations.

The technology will be provided by The Cloud and cover stations including Nottingham, Sheffield, Derby and Leicester.

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