The Vat reduction was passed on by most major ISPs at the end of last year with the notable exceptions of TalkTalk and Sky, and it looks likely to stay that way for the time being.
TalkTalk initially told SamKnows it had not immediately passed on the reduction because it was working on increasing its £4
At the end of Q1 2008 OFCOM reported 16.2 million residential and SME broadband connections, a figure that probably exceeds 17 million today. This is about half the total number of fixed line telephone connections.
Sky report some 9 million subscribers to their TV service, and O2 are listed by OFCOM as having the largest number
Gordon Brown appears to be contemplating throwing money at the impending unemployment crisis by “creating” 100,000 jobs through investment in a range of infrastructure projects.
In a Guardian interview the Prime Minister talks of broadband as the modern equivalent of the roads, bridges and dams constructed in the USA under Roosevelt’s “New Deal” programme some 75 years
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 BBC is bringing the download version of the iPlayer (as opposed to the streaming video version) to Mac and Linux users by using Adobe’s AIR cross platform technology. AIR allows flash type content delivery in a standalone executable outside the web browser and will also provide the Digital Rights Management (DRM) required to time-limit
The boardroom comings and goings at Phorm continue as the UK Chief Executive, Hugo Drayton, left today ‘by mutual consent’.
A new role of UK managing director has been handed to Nick Barnett, who was Phorm’s commercial director. At the same time former Turner Broadcast Systems (Europe) president, Nan Richards, joins at Deputy Chief Executive Officer
No sooner had the ink dried on the multiple column inches devoted to Virgin Media’s 50Mbps service launch, then Be announced results of a 48Mbps trial near Paddington, London.
Although the full results of the trial are not to be released until the start of next year, a statement from Be pointed out that managing director,
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
Virgin Media have launched their 50 Mbits/s downstream cable service, which will will be rolled out country-wide over the next six months. About half of the UK population live in areas served by Virgin’s hybrid fibre/coax cable network. Price for the standalone service is £51/month compared to £36/month for the XL 20 Mbits/s service (currently
BT’s trial of the controversial targeted advertising platform, Phorm, has ended with both parties reporting success and a commitment to ‘move towards deployment’.
The trial began two and a half months ago to establish if the technology could be used on real life which, Phorm claims, it has shown it can.
“The trial achieved its primary objective
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
Phorm is refuting suggestions that strategic differences have caused four senior board directors to quit and is also denying the departures show it is giving up on the America market.
Despite the departing American-based chairman and chief operating officer being replaced by non executives directors based in London, a spokesman for the company is adamant that
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
The Australian Government should shortly be receiving bids for a national “super fast” broadband network with a minimum speed of 12 Mbits/s reaching 98% of the population. The contract should be awarded next spring with work starting late next year with a 5 year rollout and is based on a Fibre to the Node (FTTN
OFCOM has added consumer guides on Slamming and Unsolicited calls to their website. These two areas generate over 1,000 calls per month to OFCOM from consumers.
The unsolicited calls guide includes silent calls made by automatic dialler systems where the recipient is connected to an operator but hears silence if no operator is available.
Slamming is the
The EU’s plans to slash mobile broadband roaming charges from next July has met with mixed reactions from the telecommunications industry with some saying the new rules are draconian and others, such as 3, saying they do not go far enough.
The measures, approved by EU telecommunications ministers yesterday, will limit the amount one operator can
Next Monday is shaping up to start off one of the most interesting weeks the broadband market will have seen all year as ISPs grapple with how to pass on the 2.5% reduction in VAT (which equates to a 2.13% reduction in the total price when VAT is included).
Whilst none will go in to specifics
The NextGen ‘08 conference held earlier this month in Manchester brought together a range of opinions and speakers on the subject of Next Generation Access (NGA). The presentations can be downloaded as pdf files from the web site and make interesting reading.
Francesco Caio presented the findings of his recent Next Generation Access Review which concluded