The Government released its latest report on the progress made by the Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) programme. Thanks to this, superfast broadband is now available to over 2.4 million premises in the UK (an increase of 500 000 more premises since December 2014). This, according to the report, equates to nearly 8000 premises covered per £million of BDUK expenditure.
According to Ofcom’s “Adults’ Media Use and Attitudes Report??? published yesterday, UK adults (aged 16+) spend on average 20.5 hours per week online. This is twice as much time compared to 10 years ago (9.9hours).
It looks as if UK broadband is at a crossroads – 2015/2016 could mark a big year with exciting change and exponential investment in broadband infrastructure. BT and Virgin Media are powering ahead with infrastructure roll out, and newer mobile broadband technologies like 4G and Wifi-calling are gaining traction.
Yesterday the European Commission unveiled their proposals on the Digital Single Market, one of President Jean-Claude Juncker’s top 5 priorities.
Their primary goal is to create a market where “individuals and businesses can seamlessly access and exercise online activities under conditions of fair competition, and a high level of consumer and personal data protection, irrespective of their nationality or place of residence???.
The Broadband Stakeholder Group has today published its work programme for 2015/16.
Broadband Genie, the independent broadband comparison service, has named Plusnet as the best broadband provider for a third consecutive year in its 2015 Home Broadband Survey.
Plusnet, along with Relish and Sky also received awards from the judging panel that included the BSG’s CEO, Matthew Evans. (more…)
The Broadband stakeholder Group is happy to be a partner at the Enterprise Apps World in London, 24-25th June 2015. The event will give you the knowledge to help you solve your business’ challenges in mobility, app development, cloud and analytics.
Enterprise Apps World, co-located with Cloud World Forum, is back by popular demand for 2015. Now in its second year, Enterprise Apps World has been developed to address the demands of the global enterprise market to fully understand and safely invest in the B2Employee and B2Customer applications market. Enterprise Apps World brings together CIOs, CTOs, Heads of IT, Security, Mobility and App Developers and provides visitors with the information they need to fully invest, develop, deploy and manage successful enterprise mobility strategies in 2015.
This instalment of the series will be in London, co-located with the well-established Cloud World Forum, and will welcome 8000+ attendees, 3000+ visitors from enterprises and 300+ speakers across 16 streams of content. Enterprise Apps World offers unprecedented opportunities to network with decision makers and budget holders as well as with the real users of the technology, to help you establish your organisation as a leading player and thought-leader in the rapidly growing market place.
More information is available here.
With just over 20 days to go until the next General Election, the main political parties have now published their manifestos and whilst the result is still up for grabs it looks like policy on digital connectivity is pretty settled.
The second Lloyds Bank Business Digital Index was launched last week in association with management consultancy Accenture. Its headline finding was that for SMEs and charities, there is a “slow and not universal move to becoming more digital???. The report found that attitudes and awareness are the biggest barriers to greater digital adoption, confirming the findings of the BSG micro-business survey conducted last year.
Ofcom have today published their annual plan for 2015/16 which sets out their 11 priorities, the most high profile of which is their recently announced Strategic Review of Digital Communications.
The main motivations for people to connect to the internet are: shopping (the UK ranks first in the EU for E-commerce), finding a job, connecting socially, and engaging with Government services… so nothing too important then!
The ever increasing importance of the internet – and the increasing cost, either to the individual or the State, of being offline has led to an expectation that everybody is or should be online. However, a research report recently published by Plum Consulting (and commissioned by EE) estimates that around 7.4 million people are still offline. 86% of which are aged over 55.
The #Budget2015 had a few more nuggets about broadband and telecoms that previous statements with an ambition for ‘ultrafast’ broadband to nearly all premises and a new Universal Service Obligation for broadband. (more…)
Ofcom announced yesterday the launch of its strategic review of digital communications, a decade after the first review was completed. The regulator will be considering whether current competition and investment infrastructure in the digital communication sector are fit for consumers and businesses’ current and future needs.
In November last year, Three and EE announced an agreement with CityFibre to roll-out “dark-fibre??? backhaul connections for mobile masts in the city of Hull. I attended an event last Friday to hear about the progress made in the delivery of the initial phase of this project, the first of its kind in the UK.
It is hard to overestimate the importance of digital connectivity in today’s society. Expectations of users – be they citizens, consumers, businesses or Government itself – are increasing as the cycle of the extraordinary becoming the ordinary speeds up. Whether it’s the commuter watching iPlayer on the train, a farmer uploading cattle movement forms, or architects storing large files in the cloud, we increasingly expect to do what we want at a time and a place of our choosing. This pull factor is matched by the increasing necessity of users to be online – from small businesses filing VAT receipts, to the discounts available online, to the increasing digitalisation of Government. In order to fulfil our potential as the world’s most advanced digital economy we will have to deliver fast, reliable broadband at near universal levels.
