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Ofcom sets anti-piracy policies for UK’s ISPs

While the Internet makes it easier to access the latest news and information, some unscrupulous individuals have taken to using it for illegal purposes. These include the illegal downloading of music and movie files, infringing on the rights of the original copyright holders.

Just a few weeks ago, the UK High Court issued a ruling which stated that UK Internet service providers should set up a block that would cut off access to The Pirate Bay, which is one of the largest torrent websites on the Internet. The site indexes hundreds of thousands of torrents which allow users to download the content illegally.

Now Ofcom is following suit with the announcement of its own set of anti-piracy policies for these ISPs called the Initial Obligations Code of Practice. The date for the publication of the policies have not yet been announced.

However, this code will detail what ISPs are supposed to do to deal with issues of piracy. The code explains technical measures and actions that the providers should undertake against file sharers, such as firing off warning letters and notices of broadband service disconnection.

The DCMS stated: “The point upon which we lost in both cases has meant that we have had to re-set how the costs of the process will be apportioned. This in turn has led to the Initial Obligations Code being delayed. However, we anticipate that the code will be published in June 2012.”

The Internet Service Providers’ Association said that while it had reservations about the implementation of such anti-piracy measures, they announced that they will be working hand in hand with the government and with Ofcom.

An ISPA spokesperson stated: “We understand… that a number of important practical details still need to be agreed,” a spokesman for the industry group said. “ISPA has a concern about the costs but welcomes the clarification that BT and TalkTalk achieved through their judicial review.”

Open Rights Group: Filters on mobile are censoring ‘innocent’ content

The Internet makes it easier to access a wealth of information. On the downside, it allows minors easier access to pornographic content and materials. A month ago, MPs called on Internet service providers to set up better porn filters in order to protect children from accessing such content.

Claire Perry, the MP who serves as the chairwoman of the Independent Parliamentary Inquiry on Online Child Protection, said: “Our inquiry found that many children are easily accessing internet pornography as well as websites showing extreme violence or promoting self-harm and anorexia. This is hugely worrying.”

Some service providers have responded to the call for better filters, including TalkTalk with their HomeSafe filters. On the other side of the spectrum stands the Open Rights Group (ORG), which is saying that these filters have taken to censoring “innocent” content on mobile, as well.

ORG has just released a report which explained that over sixty websites were wrongly blocked by the filters that were programmed to filter out adult content. These included personal web blogs, community websites, and political commentaries.

Peter Bradwell of the Open Rights Group, who wrote the report, said: “Child protection filters can actually affect many more users than intended and block many more sites than they should. These blunt blocks effectively add up to a system of censorship across UK networks.”

He continued: “Default-on blocks can have significant harmful and unintended consequences for everybody’s access to information.”

To respond to ORG’s report, Hamish MacLeod, chairman of the Mobile Broadband Group, explained that this wasn’t the case. “Even allowing for the ORG missing a few, 60 misclassified websites does not amount to anything that could reasonably be described as ‘censorship’, particularly when mobile operators are happy to remove the filters when customers show they are over 18 and will re-classify websites when misclassifications are pointed out to them.”

MacLeod added: “This is how the small handful of websites that get referred to mobile operators each year are already dealt with.”

Rutland’s households to get superfast broadband by 2013

The government is aiming to improve the overall broadband infrastructure of the UK with the launch of its Broadband Delivery UK project. Through the BDUK, the government hopes to:

- Provide universal broadband access with speeds of at least 2Mbps across the entire country
- Bring next-generation broadband technology to ninety percent of the UK by the year 2015

In line with this, Rutland has just signed a £3 million contract with provider BT Broadband in order to bring superfast broadband to households and business establishments in the area. The agreement launches the Digital Rutland programme, which aims to provide high speed Internet services to over 97% of Rutland’s users.

Deputy Leader of Rutland County Council, Terry King, stated: “Broadband coverage in Rutland is poor and in some areas very poor, which is why we need a solution like this for the whole county addressing ‘not spots’ and areas the market will not penetrate.

“This will provide benefits for the wider community such as developing education through e-technology and giving residents access to new models of care and social interaction.”

Rutland was awarded with £710,000 from the BDUK funding. BT Broadband will be adding £800,000 to the project’s funds, which totals £2.2 million including the funds contributed from Rutland’s council.

Users encouraged to support Shropshire broadband compaign

The government has been hard at work to improve the country’s current broadband networks. Through the Broadband Delivery UK project, the government hopes to provide universal broadband access with speeds of at least 2Mbps to the entire country. Aside from that, the government hopes to bring next-generation broadband technology to at least ninety percent of users by 2015.

Users in Shropshire are bent on getting some of this funding and some private investments to set up superfast broadband for their area. In line with this, residents of Shropshire are being called to participate in a campaign to drum up support by month’s end to entice private investors to get involved in the cause.

The Shropshire Council is looking towards the private sector to add support to the £8.2 million funding that it has set aside for the cause. A spokesman explained that ”more public support will mean a greater likelihood of securing more external funding.”

Martin Taylor-Smith, who is the authority’s cabinet member responsible for information and communication technology, stated: “Whatever happens, this project will result in better broadband for Shropshire. People are starting to get the message. We have now hit the 4,000 mark, but we would love to get a lot more than that.”

TalkTalk to begin offering mobile contracts in 2013

TalkTalk is expanding its offerings to include mobile contracts, beginning next year. The service provider broke the big news in a statement that it released late last week. Aside from the contracts, TalkTalk will be improving the backhaul of its networks in the coming years.

TalkTalk currently offers pay-as-you-go mobile plans and deals. In the statement, the operator announced: “Our mobile base continues to grow with over 70,000 customers now taking mobile in addition to their phone and broadband service. We plan to launch a handset proposition later this year in addition to our existing SIM-only and data products.”

TalkTalk also stated that they were looking to increase its current fixed-line network by upping its capacity by more than a hundred times over. The provider added: “Over the next five years, we plan to increase our network capacity by over 100 times. Primarily this will take the form of cost efficient backhaul scaling against a sustainable exchange footprint.”

“In addition we will continue to optimise our network for video content, security and access to cloud services.”

10.8 million fibre broadband connections predicted for 2016

Most business establishments have already expanded operations into various domains on the world wide web. It only makes sense for the nation’s fibre broadband connections to keep increasing in the coming years, to reach the projected figure of 10.8 million by the fourth quarter of 2016.

This forecast was made by telecoms analyst firm Point Topic, who said that the UK will be host to over 25.9 million broadband lines by the end of that year, with the connections established from fibre optic cables.

Ofcom had just recently made the confirmation that over 63% of the United Kingdom’s households already have access to superfast broadband services. These are defined to be ”having a potential headline access speed of at least 20Mb, with no upper limit.”

The results from Point Topic’s study injects a wave of enthusiasm in the state of UK’s broadband. The firm released a statement: “As BT and Virgin Media build scale in premises passed and end users signed to their superfast broadband services some of the UK’s alternative network operators are beginning to find their niche. Clearly not all altnets will be successful and questions remain concerning the long-term viability of alternative network operators as significant players in the country’s superfast broadband future.”

“Nevertheless there are circumstances in which their varied and localised approaches look set to bring superfast broadband to individual communities that have often been struggling with access to even the most basic of broadband services.”

Ofcom to ISPs: Come clean on your broadband speeds

All of the UK’s Internet service providers are governed by the ASA’s rules when it comes to their advertisements. These guidelines were updated in September of 2011 to reiterate the boundaries that these ISPs had when it came to highlighting their services.

In related news, Ofcom has just called on these service providers to come clean in their sales calls with customers. Ofcom recently did a mystery shopping phone exercise and reported pretty dismal results.

The regulator reported that ISPs failed to provide potential customers with a quote on their speeds in 41% of all sales calls. This is clearly a breach of code that was set up last year in order to protect consumers. TalkTalk was found to be the worst offender, as they were found to offer a quote, unprompted, in only 47% of their calls. BT Broadband came in second, by offering a quote in just 48% of calls. These are nearly ten percentage points lower than the average across all providers of 59%.

Through a spokesperson, BT has said: “Ofcom has suggested we should make a minor change to mention the speed quote earlier in the sales conversation, which we are happy to do and will implement straight away. Overall, Ofcom found that the level of compliance with the code has improved since our previous mystery shopping exercise in 2009.”

TalkTalk also added: “ ”No one enters a contract with us without receiving a speed estimate tailored to them. Anyone can log onto our website and get an accurate speed estimate, based on the capabilities of their phone connection.”

The providers that fared well in the mystery shopping exercise are Karoo and Sky, which provided quotes in 76% and 72% of their sales calls, respectively.

Responding to the study, Marzena Lipman, policy manager at campaign group Consumer Focus, commented: “The most common problem for broadband consumers is ending up with a slower broadband speed than they expected. So, while it’s good news there have been improvements, it is disappointing that this research shows many providers still aren’t being as up-front with their customers as they should be.”

Amble, other local towns get a broadband boost

BT Broadband has been pushing forward aggressively with their projects as part of its £2.5 billion investment. The Internet service provider recently pushed past another milestone as part of the scheme, announcing that it was now providing superfast broadband to over 10 million homes and establishments in the UK.

TalkTalk’s national broadband programme is also underway, with the recent installation of over  £50,000 worth of broadband equipment in Amble as part of its Next Generation Network (NGN). The operator’s NGN also covers other areas in the county, such as Warkworth and High Hauxley.

Tristia Clarke, who is the commercial director at TalkTalk, stated: “TalkTalk believes residents need a break in these tough times. If all homes within the Amble, Berwick and Lynemouth exchanges signed up to TalkTalk Essentials these areas could be £1,916,992 better off. Local residents can make their home better off with six months’ free phone and broadband from TalkTalk, saving up to £154 a year versus BT’s 18-month contract.”

TalkTalk has already shelled out over £600 million nationally for the rollout, which will cover 93 percent of the country when deployment has been completed. By setting up their own equipment at the exchanges, TalkTalk will be able to provide its users with better and more innovative services.

Government might be facing a £1.1bn funding gap for broadband

The government launched the Broadband Delivery UK project with the goal of improving the broadband infrastructure in the country. BDUK aims to bring universal broadband access with speeds of at least 2Mbps to all the premises in the UK, while providing next-generation broadband technology to at least 90% of the country by the year 2015.

However, the London School of Economics recently released a report where it asserts that a £1.1 billion funding gap might mean that the government’s goals for broadband will probably not be met. Furthermore, the report explains that the government should do more to try to safeguard the UK economy despite the underinvestment.

“The government target of 100% coverage by basic broadband by 2015 is likely to be met, but it is less clear when the government targets of 90% coverage by superfast broadband, and 100% coverage by fast broadband, are likely to be met.”

Paolo Dini, one of the report’s authors, added that the UK government should set aside more funds for broadband, considering the economic benefits that it could bring about. ”In this year’s budget the government allocated £200bn for transport infrastructure and £50m to broadband. That doesn’t seem quite right.”

The assertions from the report that the goals of the government project wouldn’t be met were expressly dismissed by a spokesperson for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. “We are confident of completing the roll-out by 2015. All local authorities except two met the government’s timeline by submitting their initial broadband plans on time.”

The spokesman continued: “We have always been clear this investment will not meet the full cost but will help make it economically viable for telecoms companies to roll out broadband to areas that would otherwise be left behind.”

BT launching initiative to highlight Cornwall as a leader in innovation

BT Broadband has been extremely aggressive at rolling out fibre broadband over the last few months. The Internet service provider recently announced another milestone in its £2.5 billion broadband investment, saying that 10 million homes in the UK now have access to superfast broadband.

Following that, BT Broadband has revealed that it will launching a new initiative to build Cornwall’s reputation for driving innovation and research, called the Superfast Cornwall Labs. This will be a collaboration between BT and a variety of organisations, including University College Falmouth, the Cornwall Development Company, and various Cornish businesses.

As part of the project, three PhD student placements will be created at the Combined Universities in Cornwall in the following areas of research: healthcare, creative industries, and remote public e-services.

Superfast Cornwall programme development director for Cornwall Development Company, Nigel Ashcroft, stated: “Superfast Cornwall’s roll-out of faster broadband is already setting the standard for rural communities across Europe, but our aims and objectives go much further. We also want to be a leader in innovation and for our businesses, households and communities to be able to make the most of this exciting technology.

“The Superfast Cornwall Labs banner will bring together a wide variety of innovative thinking in the county, ranging from superfast broadband workshops for householders, businesses and public sector organisations to projects, such as University of the Village and Vconect.”

The Superfast Cornwall partnership is aiming to provide fibre broadband to 80% of the areas in Cornwall and in the Isles of Sicily by the year 2014. Wireless and satellite alternative technologies will be used to supplement the fibre services.

Ranulf Scarbrough, Superfast Cornwall programme director for BT, said: “We have already seen exciting, pioneering work in Cornwall, such as deploying many new optical fibre technologies for the first time in the UK and, in St Newlyn East, the first live customer trial of next generation 4G mobile broadband technology. And we plan to do a lot more.”