Category: Regulation

If you are confused over what the UK's policy on file sharing is to be, then it is no real surprise with the mixed messages of late.

The EU Parliament has dropped a proposed changed in the Telecoms Package relating to protection of consumers from being cut off for unlawfully sharing files online. Amendment 138 sought to safeguard the rights of individual users against being cut off or having their access restricted.

The plans in Finland for a Universal Service Obligation (USO) appear to stretch further, looking at actual throughput at peak time, not just the connection rate. Also, it has emerged providers will be responsible for funding the proposals.

A survey commissioned by TalkTalk has found that 5% of wireless networks are open, without any security to restrict its use to authorised users. 41% of a total of over 1,000 wireless networks were 'vulnerable to unauthorised use', mostly due to use of deprecated (obsolete) WEP encryption rather than the stronger WPA or WPA2 type.

In an interview with the Financial Times this morning, Jeremy Hunt, shadow culture secretary said that if the Conservatives win the general election, they would be scrapping the proposed 50p per month levy on phone lines which would under current plans be used to fund next generation broadband in mostly rural areas.

Does it matter whether the UK chooses between a commitment or an obligation for broadband service?

Will VoIP providers be the ones to benefit from the proposed 50p month levy on metallic phone lines?

The European Commission has set out guidelines for state funding of broadband projects within the 27 countries of the European Union to try and help foster a coherent and consistent practice.

The ASA has upheld a complaint against a Sky broadband advert which it deemed to be misleading

Ofcom believe that the success of LLU and WLR have lead to BT no longer holding significant market power in the fixed-line telephony market.