SamKnows

The Business and Enterprise Committee are to hold an inquiry into Broadband speeds in the UK.

The Digital Britain report is out at last and there was a proverbial rabbit in the hat for Lord Carter to pull out; a 50p per month tax on telephone line connections to raise roughly £150m a year to push back the geographic barriers of faster web access.
Other than that, the report was largely as

If you’ve not got time to read the full 245 pages of Digital Britain, Samknows.com is here to help you understand what it means for the country’s online future. Because it’s a special occasion we’ve got our first ever interview with Samknows co-founder Alex Salter.

A consultation has been announced into legislative approach for addressing the problem of illicit use of Peer-to-Peer (P2P) file-sharing technology to exchange unlawful copies of copyright material.

So, it’s finally out there for us to pore over. A little under an hour ago, Ben Bradshaw outlined the main points of Stephen Carter’s baby. If you want to watch the Culture Minister and his Tory counterpart duking it out on the green benches, you can see it here. And if, like us, you

Today’s the day (rumours abound that there may be a slight delay while a BBC Worldwide/Channel 4 Deal is finalised) that Lord Carter’s Digital Britain report comes out. Hurrah, about bloody time too, etc etc. We’ve been speculating about what’s going to be in there and, while not quite going so far as printing Digital

The Times is reporting this morning that Stephen Carter is to leave the Government. Although he refused to confirm the news — “I’m beavering away feverishly on my report, that’s my only preoccupation,” — it is thought that, once the final part of the Digital Britain report is released, on Tuesday, that he will

Communications regulator OFCOM has given BT Openreach the green light to operate active electronics in its access network.

At around the same time as Sir Alan tells one would-be Apprentice ‘you’re fired’ tonight, Phorm will be launching what it claims has always been the ‘missing piece’ in its ‘rounded offering’.
However, one can only imagine what the business guru would have to say to Phorm if he were there in person. With six months

Spotify has been pressured for months to seal its legitimacy and sign up for a PRS for Music licence and SamKnows can now reveal that the hugely successful music streaming service has agreed terms with the UK body which represents music writers and publishers.
Although Spotify’s Chief Technology Officer, Andreas Ehn, would only coyly reveal last

With the term “bandwidth throttling” almost becoming an expletive in the digital age, if you’re going to sling it around you better have a good reason. The BBC’s currently running an online article called “BT accused of iPlayer throttling” - and guess who’s behind the accusation?

OFCOM have today announced the conclusion of their review and consultation(s) on the price regulation framework applied to BT Openreach. This increases the price ceiling applied to the rental of copper loops by providers of local loop unbundled (LLU) services.

Vodafone and O2 can breathe a sigh of relief. A Government spectrum farming report has decided that neither company should be forced to give up any of its most valuable mobile broadband spectrum. However, the carrot of spectrum released by switching off analogue tv in 2012 remains in front of the pair to tempt them

Sky has launched a scathing attack on the BBC and the BBC Trust over the proposed Project Canvas which would see BBC, ITV and BT collaboration on a set top box which would bring online video content to the living room - essentially a Freeview box but with iPlayer-style functionality.
Sky’s response to the BBC Trust

The deal is done. Carphone Warehouse has bought Tiscali’s UK assets for £235m which it claims makes TalkTalk the largest residential broadband provider in the UK with a combined subscriber base of 4.25m.
SamKnows queried TalkTalk’s maths, given that BT claims to have 4.6m subscribers. TalkTalk’s rationale, it explains, is that of these BT users 700,000

The Home Office has been accused of “colluding” with behaviour advertising firm Phorm after correspondence between the two was published. The Government department has previously denied giving the company “any advice directly relating to possible criminal liability for the operation of their advertising platform in the UK.” Now it might have to change its

ISPs have reacted with guarded optimism to Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, pulling back on controversial plans to store all details of a subscriber’s web and email traffic on a single, unified database.
The ISPs are still legally obliged to record details of a person’s web viewing habits - including what IPTV they have consumed, which sites

BT has launched bundles of services following relaxation of constraints by OFCOM. Business and Residential bundles are offered, typically with 12, 18 or 24 month contracts and featuring various combinations of broadband, voice calls, line rental, TV and mobile services.
As an example an entry level home broadband service is discounted to £0 per month for

Hidden away in the depths of budget detail is a “Digital Britain” snippet:
“The Budget today announces that the Government will pursue Universal Service in broadband at 2 Megabits per second alongside further support to promote broadband take-up and basic digital skills.
The Budget also announces a review of the powers and duties of Ofcom to ensure

ITV’s Chief Executive Michael Grade’s warning that the British regulatory system could give American rivals an unfair advantage may be starting to be realised as both Hulu and TV.com admit to holding talks with UK broadcasters and content owners to launch their services here.
With the scrapping of Kangaroo, through which the BBC, Channel 4 and