Broadband News

BT, TalkTalk and Orange have taken the unprecedented step of joining forces with consumer groups to urge the government to ditch Lord Mandelson’s plans to cut off suspected illegal downloaders.

Mandelson’s disconnection plans were revealed last month and are in stark contrast to a more placatory approach outlined in Lord Carter’s earlier Digital Britain report. It outlined a process through which content owners and ISPs could discuss a means of tackling the problem. In the report, Ofcom was given until 2012 to decide whether technical measures (such as disconnection) were needed.

However, this has since been deemed too long a time frame by Mandelson’s Department for Business Skills and Innovation and, instead, the latest suggestion is persistent illegal downloaders should be disconnected and the cost of investigating and pursuing offenders split equally between ISPs and content owners.

Four points of discussion

The letter in The Times today is signed by the heads of TalkTalk (Charles Dunstone), BT (Ian Livingstone) and Orange (Tom Alexander) as well as notable consumer rights champions at Which?, Consumer Focus and Open Rights Group.

The signatories agreed with the Government that the creative industries play ‘an important role in the UK, and assured that they do not condone illegal filesharing. However, the concerned parties urge caution from the Government on how to combat illegal filesharing.

The letter includes four suggestions.

Firstly, a move to disconnections should only be approved after a thorough ‘objective assessment’ by Ofcom.

Second, there should be no ‘kangaroo court’ and so consumers should ‘presumed to be innocent until proven guilty’.

Third, punishments should be proportionate. The signatories suggest that disconnection is too hard and curtails a person’s right of expression.

Fourth, investigating potential illegal downloaders and processing their cases will present a large burden on ISPs and, by definition, their customers. The signatories suggest this is an unfair way to finance policing illegal because the vast majority of broadband users do not engage in illegal downloading activity.

Mandelson 'out of touch'

In addition to the letter published today, Charles Dunstone (pictured), CEO of TalkTalk, made very clear to SamKnows his view of Lord Mandelson’s intervention.

"Lord Mandelson and some of the large content players are increasingly out of touch with consumers. It is disappointing that they have jointly decided to pursue the 'nuclear option' of disconnection without testing less aggressive measures first.

“I am calling on the major content providers to get back round the table with us, consumer groups and other ISPs to devise a plan we can jointly agree on and take to government.

“TalkTalk will continue to fight tooth and nail for consumers' rights and against the application of extra judicial technical measures on our customers."

Last week Digital Britain minister, Stephen Timms, insisted the government was listening to all views in the current consultation process but had decided that the current time frame, outlined in the Digital Britain report, was not quick enough to tackle a problem which needs action sooner rather than later.