Jasper Hart
Committee chair cites ‘litany of failures’ from DCMS as cause
The UK government is likely to miss its revised target to provide 85 per cent of the country with full-fibre broadband by 2025, according to a report from the Public Accounts Committee, the parliamentary spending watchdog.
In a report released on 8 January, the committee said that the government’s failure to achieve this target will exacerbate digital inequality at a crucial time, as families with connectivity issues have to contend with the latest national lockdown.
The government’s 85 per cent target was revised down from the Conservative Party’s 2019 General Election pledge of 100 per cent last November in Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s spending review. Additionally, of the £5 billion earmarked for the rollout, only a quarter is budgeted to be spent by 2024.
Looking at the many predictions for IT in 2021 currently doing the rounds, high-level themes that emerge include: continuing widespread remote working and online collaboration; renewed focus on customer experience (Cx) and employee experience (Ex); accelerated adoption, and wider geographical distribution, of cloud services; further developments in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML); and greater emphasis on cybersecurity and business resilience.
SEE: (TechRepublic)
With the (very) welcome advent of COVID-19 vaccines in December 2020, it s a good time to look forward to the working practices that will evolve in this environment in 2021 and specifically, the devices and services that will make life productive for remote workers.
The moon will soon have better 4G than many places on Earth
Can I sign up to go to the moon? It might be easier than trying to get a better 4G here on planet Earth.
January 6, 2021 11:05 GMT (03:05 PST) | Topic: Smartphones
The moon is getting a 4G network thanks to a $14.1 million contract awarded by NASA to Nokia. That means that soon our lumpy, rocky celestial constant companion will have better 4G coverage than some places on earth.
And as it turns out, I happen to be living in one of the places in the UK with the worst overall 4G coverage.
O2 has joined the Government’s scheme to provide free mobile data to disadvantaged schoolchildren during lockdown, as other firms have increased the allowance they offer.
The company said it would offer 40GB of free data a month to pupils as part of the scheme, double the 20GB that the scheme launched with.
The Department for Education (DfE) Get Help with Tech scheme is already being supported by EE, Vodafone, Three, Sky Mobile, Smarty, Tesco Mobile and Virgin Mobile – with Three and Smarty both confirming they are now offering unlimited data to students.
The measures from network operators come following renewed calls for technology firms to do more to help pupils forced to study at home because of new lockdown restrictions, but unable to afford or access an adequate internet connection.
Little progress made on rural broadband coverage
23 December 2020 |
Around 190,000 homes and firms do not have a decent broadband connection, the report says
The government has been criticised for delivering little progress on 4G and broadband coverage in rural areas, with only minor improvements made.
A quarter (27%) of UK households now have access to gigabit broadband, according to Ofcom s new annual Connected Nations report.
However, a small but significant number - mainly in rural areas across the UK - continue to experience sluggish speeds.
The telecoms regulator said that about 190,000 homes and firms do not have a decent broadband connection, defined as a download speed of 10 Mbits per second.