Government confirms scrapping of broadband tax in Budget
The Government has confirmed that it will scrap the broadband tax that had been proposed by the previous Labour Government – even before it is introduced. Labour had proposed charging 50p for every...
View ArticleOfcom introduces new code of practice to enable consumers to transfer ISP...
Ofcom – the communications regulator – has introduced a new code of practice that gives consumers the right to transfer away from an Internet service provider without penalty if the Internet access...
View ArticleBroadband in more than seven in ten UK homes
More than seven out of every ten UK homes now have a broadband connection through BT or Virgin’s networks. According to those companies’ latest figures, 19 million UK premises use broadband. At 71%,...
View ArticleBroadening the band…
The best broadband in Europe by 2015? That’s the commitment made by the Government in its plans for the future of infrastructure in the UK, with the hope that the UK will be the home of the best...
View ArticleWi-Fi going underground
BT is trialing Wi-Fi availability at Charing Cross Tube Station for London Underground users to access the Internet from their smart phones or laptops. The six-month trial, if successful, will lead...
View ArticleTime for TalkTalk and Tiscali to phone a friend…
Ofcom has ruled that TalkTalk and Tiscali have breached the General Conditions of Entitlement (which apply to all communications networks and service providers), which prohibit communications providers...
View ArticleOfcom decides no abuse of dominant position by BT
Ofcom has published its decision in relation to the investigation of BT and its pricing for residential broadband between June 2002 and December 2004. The investigation stemmed from an initial...
View ArticleASA rules against Virgin for over-doing ‘broadband con’ advert
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has ruled against Virgin Media following a complaint by BT and Sky in relation to Virgin’s online advertising campaign which accused rivals of ‘conning’...
View ArticleOfcom reports that broadband speeds less than advertised
Despite the Advertising Standards Authority recently ruling that a Virgin Media advertising campaign criticising other broadband service providers for misleading the public could not appear again in...
View ArticleITU report ranks UK fourth for broadband speeds globally
A report by the International Telecommunication Union (part of the United Nations) has ranked the UK fourth out of 38 countries for fixed-line broadband Internet access speeds. It was also reported...
View ArticleNew ISP guidelines for advertising “unlimited” and “fast” broadband
The Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) and the Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice (BCAP) have, following a consultation, published guidance for Internet Service Providers (ISPs) on the...
View ArticleOfcom tells BT to reduce Openreach prices
Ofcom, the UK’s telecoms regulator, has told BT’s Openreach division, which deals with wholesale telcoms, to reduce the prices that it charges to other services providers that make use of its lines....
View ArticleOfcom targets ‘slamming’ offenders and to make switching easier
Ofcom, the UK’s telecoms regulator, has proposed a set of measures to allow broadband and landline customers to switch providers more easily and to better protect them from being switched to another...
View ArticleRural Broadband Disaster
The Government’s rural broadband initiative was a great idea. Like so many great ideas it has been wasted and withered by lack of imagination by supposed prudent contracting and procurement procedures...
View ArticleThe final nail in the coffin…
I have written before about the wasted opportunity that the rural broadband projects in the UK have offered (click here). Instead of turning into a hotbed of innovation and development, the whole thing...
View ArticleTelefonica 02 UK Limited & Others v British Telecommunications plc and Ofcom...
Introduction This is the much vaunted and much expected appeal from the CAT’s decision of last year on o8X. The leading Judgment was given by Lord Justice Lloyd, whom in other telecommunications...
View ArticleBroadband state aid – A Tale of One City (and various bits of countryside)
Virgin Media and BT are challenging a decision of the European Commission to approve (from a state aid point of view) Birmingham’s plans to upgrade the City’s fibre optic systems, thus improving the...
View ArticleRural broadband flops
The real losers in the debacle that has become rural broadband installation in the UK are not the alternative telecoms companies that might have developed to the great benefit of the United Kingdom by...
View ArticleTalkTalk Telecom Group Plc v Ofcom (BskyB Intervening)
I was commenting to a colleague only a day or so ago that you don’t see so many dissenting judgments in the Court of Appeal these days. Having said that of course, one immediately appeared as a...
View ArticleMobile termination rates – enforcement of additions by Ofcom
Thirty two businesses in the UK have authorisation to terminate calls on an Electronic Communications Network (“ECN”), which is mobile in nature. That is to say thirty two businesses have the right to...
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