Category: Regulation

While the recent input from the EU does not change the fact that BT are meeting the current margin squeeze test between wholesale and retail pricing, it may have implications further down the road.

We wonder are calls for a USO on broadband and indication that the various broadband projects are not going to reach 100% superfast coverage ever?

The previous Ofcom Strategic Review ten years ago created Openreach and set the ground for the explosion of LLU services but with the Internet being central to many more daily activities the stakes are perhaps even higher for the next review that is starting.

The latest National Audit Office report on the BDUK phase 1 progress has just been published and estimates that the UK will hit 90% superfast broadband coverage by the end of 2015.

While everyone apart from perhaps the terrorists and criminals want the Police and Intelligence services to be able to do their job, sneaking in law changes to increase the online surveillance of the whole population and not just people involved in a specific case is back on the agenda.

5G is a buzzword that is almost as popular as selfie sticks have been at tech trade shows, but the reality may not actually be mobile 10 to 50 Gbps connections.

We have been here before with the old Margin Squeeze Test that existed before 2004, and Ofcom has acted to ensure that retail price competition means that competitors to BT should always be cheaper.

Ed Richards at Ofcom has seen many changes in the last eight years and steps done in less than two weeks, his replacement has now been announced.

It will upset a fair few people but the original comments made by Jeremy Hunt some years ago about best broadband in Europe of the major countries is dangerously close to being a reality.

Relish is the most successful incarnation of UK Broadband yet that has previously tried to compete in the UK with roll-outs in Swindon but seems to be gaining some traction in the central London area.