Good news for those across the pond: Home internet in the UK is getting an upgrade. Two new regulations will now require most new housing construction projects to include gigabit internet, while pre-existing tenants will also have easier access to a high-speed connection.
The United Kingdom's Department for Digital, Culture, Media, & Sport announced the new laws earlier this week, with ministers having amended Building Regulations 2010 to include the first of two new laws—that new housing developers in England must future-proof new construction by including a gigabit internet connection.
[...] Likewise, the department says that the Telecommunications Infrastructure (Leasehold Property) Act of 2021 (TILPA) will help tenants in rental homes get access to faster internet more easily. This law allows a telecommunications firm to obtain a court order to enter a property if a landlord is unresponsive.
Previously, tenants were required to wait for the landlord's approval before a new internet connection could be installed, and the department says that telecommunication companies would receive no response from a landlord 40% of the time.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 16, @12:42PM (1 child)
Bring the telly licence fee to internet users.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday January 16, @05:03PM
Why?
Can't they just build "internet connection vans" that drive around?
Even better, can they remotely detect only illicit internet content?
While they're at it, how about internet sniffing piracy detection dogs? Trained specifically to find only pocket drives or thumb drives that have pirated sequences of bits on them?
How often should I have my memory checked? I used to know but...
(Score: 0, Troll) by VLM on Monday January 16, @03:23PM (4 children)
LOL at UK, no heat, no electricity, no food, no medical care beyond waiting lists and euthanasia, jobs pay Kentucky wages while real estate prices are silicon valley, but you'll get gigabit internet with all the power of authoritarian central control LOL.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 16, @03:33PM (1 child)
No freedom of speech but you can watch the Beeb in 8K.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday January 16, @05:04PM
That would seem to be sufficient to mitigate the complaints of the grandparent post.
How often should I have my memory checked? I used to know but...
(Score: 3, Interesting) by mcgrew on Monday January 16, @07:27PM
I think you're confusing Britain with Ukraine. Not a single word you spouted was truth, except that they pay a "TV Tax" for the BBC, as if the BBC has commercials and your internet bill isn't ten times as high as a British TV tax bill, which I only know about from Monty Python. Mad doctor: "Now they want to socialize MEDICINE!!!"
Fuck off, fascist.
Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 16, @11:53PM
'...no heat...'
Sitting here, toasting my feet...It's only -5°C out (41°F)
'...no electricity...'
Operational electric heaters: check
Firewall uptime: 92 days
NAS uptime: 140 days
No of active desktop PCs: 3
Xboxen: 1
WLAN routers: 3
Last Power Outage: 2+ years back (buried mains junction cable exploded)
'...no food..'
full freezer: check
full fridge: check
weeks supply of food in cupboards: check
two months supply of food for emergencies: check
(multi-fuel equipment for cooking of food in emergencies: check)
'...no medical care beyond waiting lists and euthanasia...'
Well, doesn't apply to me per se, have been, as they say, in rude health for decades, but a family member gets supplied free (and delivered to the door) a medication which costs the NHS about the equivalent of $11,000 USD per annum, same medication you leftpondians pay $7,000 USD per month for, and this medication is about a third of the cost of the previous one which, unfortunately, started heading down the 'serious side effects' road.
'...jobs pay Kentucky wages while real estate prices are silicon valley...'
Really? My 4 bedroom mid-terraced house is valued at $74,000 USD going by current exchange rates (If I told you what I paid for it 25 years ago, you'd weep...), on wages you may have a point but it's possible to live reasonably here on the equivalent of $1100 USD a month...I manage on a lot less than that.
'...but you'll get gigabit internet with all the power of authoritarian central control LOL.'
Ah, like the NRO and NSA don't exist your side of the pond...besides, if you want to talk authoritarian, your CIA have had the capability for decades to intercept and fuck with UK phone/internet traffic without oversight using their own UK facilities.
Oh, and If it's LOLs you'll be wanting, sitting here in the electrically powered warmth and glow of the room heaters, cleaning up some old scanned family photographs on the PC with the 31" monitor...dare I mention that I'm currently unemployed...now let me just go boil a kettle and make some tea and LOL at the videos of your leftpondian tent shanty downtowns.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday January 16, @05:05PM (4 children)
So to get internet installed, you have to get landlord approval?
What about for other basic utilities, such as electricity, water, sewer, natural gas? Trash collection?
How often should I have my memory checked? I used to know but...
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Monday January 16, @07:31PM (2 children)
In the US, yes. The building belongs to him and he can allow or prohibit anything he wants to. Just like you can't add glass packs to a rented car. Other countries? I have no idea, I don't live there.
Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday January 16, @09:04PM (1 child)
I get that. I think it would be advantageous to have an internet connection installed. Just as to have a telephone installed or electricity.
The 4 months without any response would suggest to me that I might want to see if I could find a better place to rent. If possible.
How often should I have my memory checked? I used to know but...
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Tuesday January 17, @12:29AM
Indeed. However, when I was renting the house I now own, I had fiber installed and the landlord didn't complain, despite the lease saying I couldn't.
I still haven't gotten around to putting that ceiling fan up yet, and I bought the place three years ago.
Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience
(Score: 2) by kazzie on Monday January 16, @08:16PM
Yes, if you're making alterations to the property (such as actually fitting a phone or fibre-optic line, or running a new gas line and fitting a meter). If the infrastructure is already there, then it's just a case of you making a contract with the service provider.
On reflection, I didn't ask my landlord's permission to replace our phone line with FTTP in our last rented property: I just asked the telecom operator to do it, and (as the billpayer) they were happy to do so at my request. I was on very good terms with the landlord, though, so they wouldn't have batted an eyelid to learn that we'd done it. (They chose to sell the property when we moved out, so they may never have noticed!)