Maybe EU telecoms commissioner Viviane Reding wasn’t completely wide of the mark when she warned Spain over internet disconnections. Although the Spanish government says it has dismissed the idea of disconnecting individuals caught downloading illegal content from the internet, it has come up with new ways of severing communications services.
An estimated 3-4 million people [...]

We’re all used to UK ISPs rounding on upcoming legislation designed to lay the foundations of a Digital Britain – but now some even bigger web businesses are getting in on the act. Google, Facebook, Yahoo and eBay are all calling for the Government to abandon Clause 17 of its Digital Economy Bill, which it’s argued could give dark Lord Peter Mandelson – or any future Secretary of State – unwarrantable powers to change British copyright law.

Mobile operator 3 says that, due to poor 3G coverage in some areas, some of its customers are unable to even carry out basic web surfing – and it’s revealed how its going to do something about it. Meanwhile, rival firm Virgin Media has unveiled its new “super fast” modem for mobile broadband, featuring a potential top speed that’s double that of its existing offering.

The owner of a pub that doubles as a Wi-Fi hotspot has paid out £8,000 after someone illegally downloaded material subject to copyright laws on their premises. Meanwhile, a new survey shows that as many as one in five wireless users could be vulnerable to Wi-Fi hijacking across Britain.

Businesses are driving fibre deployment across Europe at a far greater rate than governments. In fact, corporations and public institutions could even hold the key to widening the UK’s next generation footprint.
That is the conclusion of Lee Myall, UK Regional Director for Interoute, a telecommunications company which claims to have more than 57,000km of ‘lit’ [...]

It is not only campaigners who are concerned by the anti-piracy measures included in the Digital Economy Bill, legal experts are also at a loss to explain how the government can sanction giving future ministers seemingly limitless powers.
Patrick Gardiner, Media Partner at international law firm, Eversheds, believes that Lord Mandelson is probably trying to ‘future-proof’ [...]

Even though the Spanish government has reportedly already dismissed this option.

How to achieve universal broadband in a country of over 300 million people occupying around 10 million square km?

The Queen’s been giving Her annual address to Parliament, formally unveiling what will be the current Government’s final legislative programme. In doing so, she announced that a new Digital Economy bill would be published on Friday and what the key elements will be – and there’s no mention of the infamous 50p levy on landlines being implemented.

First Finland, now Spain, will make broadband access at 1 Mbps a legal right.

BT Group and O2’s parent company Telefónica have both just released their results for the past quarter. With O2 UK now having breached the half-million mark in terms of its broadband subscribers, BT Retail has revealed it now has almost ten times as many people on its books.

Hollywood movie studios are, for the first time, pressing Congress to pursue a ‘three strikes’ policy against internet pirates which could ultimately lead to disconnection for persistent offenders.
The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has written to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) which is currently drafting proposals for Congress on how American broadband policy should [...]

Net neutrality takes a huge step closer to becoming law in both Europe and the US.

One of the UK’s biggest ISPs says a late amendment to an European Union agreement on telecoms regulations means it’ll now be “almost impossible” for film studios and music labels to force ISPs to disconnect customers who are suspected of illegal files-sharing without obtaining a court order first. The so-called “Internet Freedom Provision” – deemed by the EU to “strengthen the rights of Internet users” – is part of a package of measures that could come into force as early as next year.

Swedish government plans 100 Mbps broadband to 90% of homes and businesses by 2020.

The BBC has released figures detailing the anticipated cost of developing Canvas, an open platform standard for combining IPTV and Freeview it hopes to roll out commercially towards the end of next year.
The corporation estimates that the total cost of development up to launch, and for its first four years, will be just under £100m (£98.6m). [...]

A new poll’s revealed more money is being spent on legal downloads by illicit file-sharers than law-abiding folk. According to the Digital Music Survey, fifteen per cent of the British population uses peer-to-peer software – and nine per cent will even admit to doing so in order to obtain copyrighted material they haven’t paid for. At the same time, it’s been shown that shutting down a major P2P site may only lead to a boom in alternatives as file-swappers try to fill the vacuum.

A new BitTorrent program could be good for consumers and even, for a change, internet service providers. The news comes as UK ISP Entanet prepares to implement traffic-shaping measures – citing the heavy demand put on its network by peer-to-peer file-sharers as one of the reasons.

TalkTalk CEO, Charles Dunstone, is to tell the Government its proposed 50p levy on copper phone lines to fund ‘next generation’ broadband will backfire.
Far from providing a fund which will bring fibre to communities who are likely to miss out on commercial roll outs, Dunstone claims the extra 50p per month will cause more than [...]

Now the Government’s put a timetable in place for its plans to disconnect persistent online pirates, one ISP is considering a counter-attack that could see more than individual file-shares up in court. TalkTalk says it may resort to legal action if Lord Peter Mandelson continues with his plans – and it’s not the only one unhappy with the business secretary.