Broadband Britain has become almost as big a political battleground as Broken Britain as the race for the upcoming election gathers steam. The Conservatives have unveiled plans to deliver “super-fast broadband” to the majority of UK homes by 2017, part of which could be funded by the BBC licence fee.
In yesterday’s Guardian, Shadow chancellor George Osborne said that an incoming Tory government would deliver speeds of up to 100Mbps and that the UK could be the first European country to have super-fast broadband speeds.
Private investment would be allowed to pay for better cabling for the broadband expansion and as a backup, the BBC - whose iPlayer has driven demand for faster broadband - has put aside 3.5% of the licence fee to fund the project.
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Posted by Emily on February 2nd 2010 in BT Broadband, Carphone Warehouse, Digital Britain, TalkTalk, Virgin Media
The great file sharing debate just went Bono shaped. The U2 singer has waded into the Digital Economy Bill debate with his usual diplomatic panache, pointing the finger of blame at the doors of the ISPs.
In a piece for last Sunday’s New York Times, Bono wrote “We’re the post office, [the ISPs] tell us; who knows what’s in the brown-paper packages? But we know from America’s noble effort to stop child pornography, not to mention China’s ignoble effort to suppress online dissent, that it’s perfectly possible to track content.”
His comments have been branded as ‘outrageous’ by TalkTalk who of all the UK ISPs has been the most vocal in its opposition of the Digital Economy Bill.
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Posted by Tom on January 5th 2010 in Be Broadband, Digital Britain, TalkTalk
A lot has happened in the UK broadband market in 2009. Here’s a quick round up of the some of the big changes in broadband that have taken place over the last 12 months.
Tiscali gets bought by TalkTalk
Poor old Tiscali spent 2008 looking for a buyer without success and its woes continued into 2009. Despite many ISPs sniffing around hoping to steal a quick march on BT, nobody was willing to dig deep in their wallets. With deals collapsing at the last minute and its parent company losing millions of Euros on the continent times looked bleak for Tiscali’s UK arm. Then TalkTalk came to the rescue at the eleventh hour and swept Tiscali of it’s feet.
Speeding Up
2009 has seen a lot of speeding. BT, Orange and PlusNet all revved up their top download speeds to 20Mbps and 24Mbps in the case of Eclipse Internet. BT also released the Broadband Accelerator speed booster pack allowing customers to benefit from a more reliable broadband experience.
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Posted by Tom on December 21st 2009 in BT Broadband, Be Broadband, Carphone Warehouse, Digital Britain, Eclipse Internet, Mobile Broadband, Next Gen Broadband, O2 Broadband, PlusNet, TalkTalk, Tiscali, Virgin Media
The gloves are now off. Andrew Heaney of TalkTalk has posted a petition at petitions.number10.gov.uk, calling for an urgent reconsideration of the so-called ‘Pirate Finder General’ legislation proposed by current Secretary of State Peter Mandelson. The petition reads:
We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to abolish the
proposed law that will see alleged illegal filesharers
disconnected from their broadband connections, without a fair
trial.
The proposed laws see the Government attempting to clamp down on illegal filesharing. Under the proposals announced in the Digital Economy Bill, ISPs such as TalkTalk would have to forward warning letters from copyright holders to subscribers suspected of illegal filesharing and that a list of warnings received by each subscriber be maintained.
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Posted by Tom on November 23rd 2009 in Digital Britain, TalkTalk
TalkTalk’s Don’t Disconnect Us campaign appears to have taken a blow from the benches, as Lord Mandelson seems set on forging onwards with his ‘ill-conceived’ plans to allow content providers to force ISPs to disconnect customers suspected of illegally sharing files.
Yesterday the business secretary said that “It must become clear that the days of consequence-free widespread online infringement are over,” and confirmed plans to disconnect persistent offenders. The government will decide in spring 2011 whether to introduce a three strikes policy, with disconnection being used as a “very last resort” for “persistent rule breakers”.
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Posted by Tom on October 29th 2009 in Digital Britain, Next Gen Broadband, TalkTalk
The controversial ‘broadband tax’ which would cost subscribers an extra 50p a month - or £6 a year - looks set to be made law before the election is due to be called next year.
Treasury Minister Stephen Timms said today at a British Computer Society debate that “My aim is that we should legislate for that this side of a general election.” He added that the new tax would raise £150m to £175m a year, which would be used to develop next-gen broadband networks.
Developments could see 21st Century broadband speeds being taken into rural areas and other similar broadband ‘not spots’ where speeds of 1Mbps are scarce.
Do you live in a broadband not spot? Do you think this broadband tax will help, or do you think that it’s a waste of money? Are the investments made by BT and Virgin Media in next-gen broadband enough? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.
Source: [Guardian]
Posted by Tom on September 23rd 2009 in BT Broadband, Digital Britain, Next Gen Broadband, Virgin Media
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