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Tag Archives: digital inclusion

Marches “broadband” round-up

Welsh Assembly member Russell George, who is chair of the Assembly’s Economy, Infrastructure &Skills Committee, is hosting a Broadband Summit to be held Monday 20th March 2017. Mr George has been a long-term campaigner for improved broadband coverage in North Powys and at the summit community leaders and representatives from across the area will be […]

Stoke to provide residents with cheap broadband

Some 15,000 households in Stoke-on-Trent (population: 251,000) don’t have an internet connection at present, but Stoke-on-Trent City Council wants to change that, according to yesterday’s Sentinel, by offering cut-price broadband deals. The local authority estimates estimates this “digital divide” is costing the Potteries’ poorest families up to £21 mn. per annum and is looking to […]

Get online at J3

Your ‘umble scribe has today received an email from Kurt James, Neighbourhood Partnership Co-ordinator at Bristol City Council, announcing an event next month in east Bristol. Bristol Libraries is organising a free (as in beer. Ed. 😀 ) digital skills workshop next month in collaboration with the Ashton, Easton and Lawrence Hill Neighbourhood Partnership and […]

Commission wants to deploy thousands of wifi hotspots

As part of the strategy to create a single European digital market, the European Commission is preparing to invest €120 mn. to promote access to wireless connectivity in public places under the heading of Wifi4EU. According to Le Monde Informatique, this could see up to 6,000 publicly accessible wifi access points deployed, whilst the Commission’s […]

Labour commits to open source

Yesterday the Labour Party’s digital democracy manifesto (PDF) was launched by embattled party leader, Jeremy Corbyn, The Register reports. For ordinary citizens perhaps the most significant feature is its universal service commitment. We will deliver high speed broadband and mobile connectivity for every household, company and organisation in Britain from the inner city neighbourhoods to […]

Caernarfon secures £10K for town centre wi-fi

Caernarfon‘s Business Improvement District (BID) has secured £20,000 of funding for improvements, today’s Daily Post reports. Of this total, some £10,000 “will pay to develop a town wi-fi which would give visitors a chance to get online“. Measured against the town’s population, the wi-fi scheme represents an investment of just over £1 per head.

Somerset villages get 1 Mbps “broadband”

Residents of the Somerset villages and hamlets of Ashton, Badgworth and Stone and Chapel Allerton are currently enduring “broadband” speeds as low as 1 Mbps. The Weston Mercury reports that the villagers recently held a meeting to discuss the situation and discovered they were eligible to apply for a grant scheme to improve their connectivity. […]

Midlands broadband round-up

First the good news. Yesterday’s Sentinel reports that the north Staffordshire villages of Talke (home of Reginald Mitchell, creator of the Spitfire. Ed.) and Talke Pits will be amongst the next 30 communities to benefit from 200 Mbps ultrafast broadband as part of Virgin Media’s £3 bn. network expansion in the UK. Commenting on the […]

Rio’s largest favela has its own wifi provider

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, […]

Campaigner accuses government of rural internet con

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 […]

Everest Base Camp has better internet than English villages

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 […]

EU broadband prices down, but speeds still lagging

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 […]

Bristol does well in broadband speed stakes

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 […]

Free wi-fi coming to Shrewsbury and Telford hospitals

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. […]

Best “superfast” broadband coverage in UK claimed for Bristol

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, […]

Government’s fast broadband programme ‘feeble’

UK residents can hardly fail to have noticed that a general election is taking place next Thursday, 7th May. As is usual with elections, the record of the previous administration, the Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition, the UK’s first peacetime coalition since that of January 1919 to October 1922, is coming under intense scrutiny from all quarters. […]

‘Superfast’ broadband bypasses Somerset village

Villagers in Heathfield, just five miles from Taunton in Somerset, have been told they must wait years for their dire broadband speeds to improve despite ‘superfast’ fibre optic cable lying under land nearby, the Western Daily Press reports. Villagers endure speeds as low as 0.7 megabits on download, and 0.36 upload. Neighbouring communities are getting […]