Broadband Deals
Articles on the topic : Broadband News
Ofcom Urges Super-Fast Broadband Investment
After it gave BT the go ahead for its new super-fast fibre optic broadband network, Ofcom is now urging more providers to make an investment.
Ofcom is hoping to increase broadband speeds to an average of 40Mbps across the whole country over the next few years and wants further investment in broadband networks to make this happen.
When talking about the changes in the regulation policies regarding broadband networks, the chief executive of Ofcom, Ed Richards, said:
“It will deliver significant benefits to consumers and businesses with the prospect of new digital services delivered over the internet at high speed.”
One way in which Ofcom is making it easier for broadband providers to invest is by letting them set their own price for wholesale broadband.
Usually Ofcom would interfere and set policies on how much each provider should charge – an action that has prevented suppliers from gaining as much profit back from their investment as they’d like.
However, with Ofcom now wanting to encourage broadband network growth, the regulations have been changed to benefit more providers.
In supporting this, Mr Richards said:
“Our message today is clear. There are no regulatory barriers in the way of investment in super-fast broadband. We want to promote investment but will also ensure that there is fair and effective competition for the future.”
Ofcom also proposed to help support industry developments and to continually review the market. However, they have admitted that they do not know how successful private investment would be.
Overall it is hoped that the changes in the regulations will encourage further private investment in the advanced broadband networks that are required for high-speed internet access in every UK home.
Government’s 2012 Broadband Target Unrealistic
In light of the recent pledge made by the government to provide high speed broadband access to every home within the UK by 2012, Point Topic, a leading industry think-tank, has warned this could be an unrealistic target.
Speaking to the BBC, one of Point Topic’s chief analysts, Tim Johnson, said, “The scale of the task is massive and in order to achieve it there needs to be co-operation between government, the regulator and operators such as BT.”
Johnson continues, “Towns such as Basingstoke and Milton Keynes which people might expect to be well connected have “not spots” – areas where residents cannot get broadband services”.
To back up its doubts about the Digital Britain report, Point Topic have also created a map of where serious development and significant changes to the broadband infrastructure would need to be made to provide access to current not spot areas.
The main problem areas are rural locations. BT telephone exchanges do not cover these areas as they are too far away, while cable and fibre based services are also unreachable.
The government’s current plan to cover such areas is to offer mobile broadband and satellite access. However, mobile broadband is not overly reliable and experts such as Alex Salter, claim that mobile broadband is not and never will be as fast as fixed line broadband.
Alex, from the broadband measurement site “SamKnows”, says “There are issues with the network and services drop off when more people use it.”
One thing is for sure, if the government does plan to reach its target by 2012, then major changes in broadband infrastructure do need to be made.
Lord Carter Defends 2Mb Broadband Target
Lord Carter has for the first time defended his interim Digital Britain report and in particular his decision to set a 2Mbps minimum speed target for UK broadband.
The Digital Britain report which Lord Carter introduced at the end of January has publically come under fire from critics in the industry.
Darren Waters, who writes on the BBC News dot.life blog covered this earlier this month when he said “Many in the industry were hoping that Lord Carter would drive the adoption of high speed broadband by setting a much higher speed as the minimum for everyone”.
Until now Lord Carter has remained quiet over the criticism, however, he is now defending the report stating, “Those who say that a Universal Service Obligation of 2Mbps is a ludicrously low ambition miss the point”.
Speaking at a meeting which was organised by Nesta, the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts, he also defended his decision to make broadband available to all households in the UK.
“There is going to be 30% of the country not covered by traditional markets and I’m not prepared to leave them behind” said Carter. “It is not an option to say that we will find a mop-up solution in 10 years time.”
The full version of Lord Carter’s Digital Britain report is due to be published in May. He stated that the point of the interim report was to allow people to debate the plans and to come up with realistic solutions to the current broadband restrictions.
CHIS Calls For All ISP’s To Block Child Abuse Sites
CHIS, the Children’s Charities’ Coalition on Internet Safety, has called for further government action to ensure all of the UK’s ISP’s (Internet Service Providers) block access to child abuse websites.
Zoe Hilton, spokesperson for CHIS, whose membership includes the NSPCC, Action for Children and Barnado’s said “700,000 UK households can still get easy access to illegal child abuse image sites.”
Zoe continues, “We now need decisive action from the government to ensure the ISP’s (Internet Service Providers) that are still refusing to block this foul material are forced to fall into line. Self-regulation on this issue is obviously failing.”
Home Office Minister Alan Campbell said: “In 2006 the government stated that they wished to see 100% of consumer broadband connections covered by blocking, which includes images of child abuse, by the end of 2007.”
Alan continues, “Currently in the UK, 95% of consumer broadband connections are covered by blocking. The government is looking at ways to progress the final 5%.”
The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) supplies the list of blocked websites that the majority of broadband providers sign up to and use. The remaining ISP’s who have yet to do this are reported to doubt its effectiveness whilst others cite the cost of blocking the illegal material as a reason not to sign up.
95% Of UK Internet Connections Now Broadband
95% of UK internet connections are now broadband according to a new survey by the Office for National Statistics.
Broadband connections rose to 95.1 percent in December 2008, from 94.1 percent in September 2008 – with dial up connections dropping sharply as people continued to switch to broadband.
Interestingly though, there was a 0.3% drop in the overrall number of internet connections between September and December 2008, indicating that a minority actually cancelled their internet, as opposed to upgrading to broadband.
The new survey also revealed that more broadband connections were running at higher speeds. By December 2008, more than half of the UK’s broadband connections (59.6%) were running at over 2Mbps. In comparison to September 2008, this was an increase of just under 2% from 57.7%.
The number of broadband connections that were running lower than 2Mbps actually declined to 40.4 percent in December 2008.
Overall this new survey shows that broadband is more popular than ever with the market now close to saturation. Speeds are increasing and that is great news for the industry.
Finally, in these tough economic times, its worth remembering that changing broadband provider can save yourself a considerable amount of money.
Orange Offers ‘Free’ HP Laptops With Broadband
Orange has signed a 3 year agreement with Hewlett Packard (HP) to offer a range of ‘free’ HP laptops with Orange broadband.
The deal means Orange and HP will co-distribute and market a range of laptop notebooks and HP Mini netbooks with mobile or fixed Orange broadband access included.
The new laptop packages with Orange mobile broadband are already available on the orange.co.uk website. Prices start from £29.36 a month for the HP Compaq Mini 700 laptop with up to 3.6Mb Orange mobile broadband speeds and a 3Gb download usage allowance. A free Orange dongle is also included.
Olaf Swantee, SEVP of Orange’s communications services, said: “The demand for mobile broadband is a global phenomenon. Adding a select range of HP Notebooks and Minis to our successful portfolio of connected offers is just the kick-off phase.”
Senior vice president, HP PSG EMEA, Eric Cador added: “The partnership with Orange has created a new and important channel for HP as customers increasingly turn to the power of the mobile Internet.”
Eric continues, “Our vision is to make mobile Internet simple and always available for people wherever they are, giving customers an even better mobile experience by leveraging Orange’s and HP’s unique experience and knowledge.”
Demand for mobile broadband globally has seen Orange’s mobile broadband customer base increase to 23.2 million – an 81% increase from the previous year.
[UPDATE:12/09/2012] Orange has now discontinued its range of broadband and free laptop deals. Please visit our Mobile Broadband Free Laptop guide to compare the latest packages available from Vodafone and Three (3).
