OFCOM has issued guidance to communications providers on how it thinks the law applies to the extra charges consumers may have to pay on top of their usual bill. A Youtube video aimed at consumers is also provided on the web site.
This seeks to clarify OFCOM’s view of how the law applies to things like charges
The EU Council last week agreed the Economic Recovery Plan, which includes an element referring to broadband infrastructure :-
on the basis of a list of specific projects which will be presented by the Commission, taking into account a suitable geographical balance, the mobilisation of the possibilities, in the context of the Community budget, for strengthening
The European Commission’s recently announced Recovery Plan includes a €5 billion injection of unspent EU funds “to improve energy interconnections and broadband infrastructure”.
A little more detail is available in the FAQ where it is stated that “The strategy will be supported by public funds in order to provide broadband access to under-served and high cost
Openreach look likely to receive permission to increase some wholesale prices, subject to the outcome of an OFCOM consultation launched today.
The objective of the increases is to allow Openreach to achieve an economic return on its local loop telephone lines when sold either as a wholesale telephone service or as an unbundled loop. Previously it
A new Ofcom code of conduct comes in to effect today, requiring participating ISPs to provide potential customers with an accurate estimate of the speed they will achieve, rather than give a general, vague promise of ‘up to’ the maximum speed possible.
The ISPs which have signed up to the code (representing 95% of the market)
Project Kangaroo was dealt a potentially fatal blow today when the Competition Commission unveiled preliminary findings which agreed with critics that it could curtail competition in the video on demand (VOD) industry.
The proposed online television service has been set up by BBC Worldwide, Channel 4 and ITV, allowing the country’s largest broadcasters and commissioners to
After defending the proposed Kangaroo multi-channel IPTV catch-up service to the Competition Commission, Ashleigh Highfield has resigned to join Microsoft.
The chief executive’s departure will come as a major blow to the proposed online television service for which the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 are hoping to get clearance from the Competition Commission. Highfield, who had
Local government is going to be the lynchpin to rolling out future generation broadband networks, according to BT. It believes that local authorities are the key to unlocking pent-up demand for faster connections to hospitals, libraries, government offices and schools which will, in turn, make investing billions in fibre more attractive.
Following on from this month’s
Providing a nationwide network of next generation broadband could cost as much as £29bn, according to the influential telecommunications industry body, the Broadband Stakeholder’s Group (BSG). If that leaves ISPs and broadband users wondering where the investment is coming from, the long awaited ‘Caio report’ (PDF download) suggests that it’s unlikely to be coming from
Remarks by the Chair of Ofcom’s Consumer Panel that ‘next generation’ broadband should skip a generation to prioritise those without broadband today have been met with a muted response from the two companies that could potentially build the required nationwide network.
Neither BT nor Virgin Media was able to answer positively SamKnows’ question of how people
A flaw in the way web addresses are served to computers, which allows criminals to redirect traffic to scam sites, is just starting to be used to trap international bank customers in to parting with account details. However, problems are unlikely to spread to the UK where it appears the flaw has been patched by
The gaming industry is coming after illegal downloaders and the bad news for ISPs is it appears the sector is not trying the educational route taken by the music industry.
Lawyers working for American developer, Topware Interactive, creators of Dream Pinball, have not only successfully prosecuted a UK woman for £16,000 worth of damages for illegal
The BBC is changing a number of aspects of their iPlayer TV and Radio service. Originally conceived as a download “catch up” service using P2P services it is now largely used in streaming mode, no doubt reflecting the technical ability and attention span of the viewing population.
The changes include a new “high quality” option which
BT is still due to press ahead with its ‘technical trial’ of Phorm, despite a letter from the European Commission to the government asking for reassurance, before the end of the month, that the system does not contravene EU data laws.
Despite the caution in Brussels, the broadband provider will “soon” be inviting 10,000 of its
OFCOM has given consent for BT to offer free / discounted phone services to up to 300 homes on the Ebbsfleet development. These will be provided using optical fibre to the home (FTTH) and the consumer will have an adaptor to connect normal telephones to the IP based fibre connection.
This permission is a technicality to
The elegantly named Department for Business Enterprise & Regulatory Reform is consulting on how best to address illicit P2P file-sharing via a 3-month online consultation.
We recently covered the Memorandum of Understanding between six large ISPs, BERR and the BPI however this consultation looks beyond that to questions like “what about the other ISPs” and “what
P2P (peer to peer) traffic is seldom out of the news either because its most popular use is for pirating copyright material or because ISPs are throttling it to reduce the impact on their network.
In the USA a bit of deep academic thinking has gone into seeking ways of addressing the traffic issue, while potentially
The ice cold relationship between the music industry and the ISPs it expects to police the internet is showing signs of thawing, but only a little and only after the threat of government legislation.
The six leading ISPs have agreed to send out educational letters to subscribers the BPI believes have been downloading music illegally. BT,
BT reiterated its intention to roll out behavioural targeting technology from Phorm at its AGM this week as protesters outside the event admitted they were disappointed with the turn out of privacy campaigners.
However, there are three developments which will mean the furore over Phorm will not go away any time soon.
Mid week, and coinciding with
BT have today announced plans to roll out a £1.5bn investment in fibre based high speed broadband offering a range of services with top speeds of up to 100Mbps. Headline speeds of “more than 1,000Mb/s in the future” are also mentioned in the BT announcement.
The full press release sets out the financial details and explains