Broadband network providers are expected to bid for six contracts worth a total of £39.5 mn. to improve broadband connections in Somerset and Devon, yesterday’s Somerset Live (formerly the Western Daily Press. Ed.) reports. The investment will provide broadband services between 30 Mbps (sometimes termed “superfast”) and “ultrafast” 100 Mbps to customers, mostly to rural […]
With the Olympic Games being held in Rio de Janeiro this summer, lots of eyes are being turned on the city. Some of those eyes are being turned on the city’s slums – known locally as “favelas” – with some surprising results. For instance, Techinsider has discovered that Rocinha, the city’s and Brazil’s largest favela, […]
Today the United Kingdom witnessed the annual, anachronistic, Ruritanian pantomime otherwise known as the State Opening of Parliament, an event performed by the unelected in fancy dress which marks the formal start of a session of the UK parliament. The substantial part of the ceremony is the delivery of the Queen’s Speech, written for her […]
It has emerged that so-called “superfast” broadband (defined in this instance as 25 megabits per second (Mbps) Ed.) will not be provided automatically to tens of thousands of remote rural homes, the Western Daily Press reports. A Government consultation document says it is likely that many people in such areas would not want to be […]
Stoke-on-Trent City Council is examining the possibilities of installing free public wifi in the city centre (Hanley), whilst Ludlow Town Council has ruled out free public provision due to lack of funds.
Today, 30th March, is Document Freedom Day, an annual celebration of the benefits of using open standards and open formats for the production and exchange of documents. Open standards are essential for interoperability and freedom of choice based on the merits of different software applications. They provide freedom from data lock-in and the associated vendor […]
Friday’s Western Daily Press reports that it has come to light that almost half of homes and businesses in rural areas described as “live” on broadband maps are not connected for fast speeds, i.e. a minimum of 24 Mbps. Forty-eight per cent of rural premises – believed to be some 1.5 million people – have […]
News emerged last week that Everest Base Camp in Nepal has better internet connection speeds than some villages in Somerset and Gloucestershire. Research by Cable.co.uk revealed that Brent Knoll in Somerset has a download speed of a mere 1.3 Mbps. This is easily beaten by Everest Base Camp’s satellite internet link which has an average […]
Boost of millions of euro for public sector digital services.
Unicef has a total of US $ 9 mn. to promote start-ups whose technology can improve young peoples’ lives. However, these must involve open source projects.
The British Infrastructure Group (BIG), a cross-party group of 121 Members of Parliament dedicated to promoting better infrastructure across the entire United Kingdom has today released a report (PDF) entitled “Broadbad“, which has determined that some 5.7 million broadband customers (of whom 3.5 mn. live in rural areas0 and 400,000 businesses experience “dire” connection speeds […]
The European Commission has just published three broadband studies examining speed, price and coverage. The first study, on broadband quality, concludes that subscribers are getting 75% of advertised download speeds. The second study, on prices, shows that broadband access has continued to become more affordable, whilst the third report, on broadband coverage, confirms substantial deployments […]
Back before Christmas, telecommunications regulator Ofcom published its Connected Nations infrastructure report (PDF) which examines connectivity in the UK in 2014 and 2015 and the media have just caught up from their festive torpor. According to Ofcom, “superfast” broadband (30 Mb/s and above) is now available to more consumers than ever before, with both industry […]
Today’s Shropshire Star reports that free wi-fi will be provided at Shropshire’s two main hospitals – the Royal Shrewsbury in the county town and the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford. The overall scheme will cost some £400,000 with funding provided by the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust and Telford and Wrekin Clinical Commissioning Group. […]
The Bristol Data Dome, which is housed inside At-Bristol‘s Planetarium, will be launched on Wednesday 18th November as part of the Festival of the Future City, the University of Bristol announces. Connected to a dedicated high-performance computer at the University of Bristol, the Data Dome is a pioneering development on Bristol’s digital scene with the […]
The good burghers of the Buckinghamshire market town of Chesham have good reason to rejoice, not just for living in the beautiful Chiltern Hills, but because they have the first smart pavement (highway engineers would call it a ‘footway’. Ed.) that provides superfast wifi to passers-by. Engineering and Technology Magazine reports that the wifi pavement, […]
In the middle of last week, the Shropshire Star reported that the Shropshire and Marches Campaign for Better Broadband in Rural Areas, which has been campaigning for the last 3 years for better internet speeds in isolated communities, might be wound up. The campaign has been endorsed by 50 rural town and parish councils in […]
The University of Bristol has announced that the SPHERE (Sensor Platform for HEalthcare in a Residential Environment) project was featured at the London launch of IoTUK – part of a £40 million government investment in the
Today’s Bristol Post features a report entitled “Bristol best in UK for superfast broadband coverage“. To quote from the Post piece: You might think the capital would have the best superfast broadband coverage in the country. But it is Bristol which tops the UK instead. Figures from thinkbroadband.com, complied [sic] by the Computer Business Review, […]
Bristol University is currently involved in two projects that will put Bristol at the leading edge of the smart city movement.