CyberLaw Blog

Archive for the ‘Broadband’ Category

TalkTalk steps up attack on government: “

Dunstone claims broadband tax will disconnect 100,000

Charles Dunstone, the boss of TalkTalk and a Conservative Party donor, has launched an attack on the government’s plan for a 50 pence per month tax on every landline to fund rural fibre rollout.…

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(Via The Register – Public Sector.)

Average UK broadband just over half advertised speed: “

Half empty?

The average downstream speed received by UK households is just 57 per cent of the average advertised rate, according to Ofcom research.…

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(Via The Register – Comms.)

Millions face telephone tax under Government’s broadband plans for internet: A tax on phone lines could be introduced in an effort to try and extend the reach of super-fast broadband into the countryside.

(Via Tech and Web from Times Online.)

Virgin Media trials longer bandwidth throttling: “

And cutting weekend data allowances

Virgin Media’s heaviest cable broadband users will be hit with tighter bandwidth throttling at peak times, as the firm tries to cope with increasing demand across its network.…

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(Via The Register – Comms.)

Britain’s digital future unveiled: broadband for all and a crackdown on internet pirates

Internet users who illegally share copyrighted material such as music and films face prosecution under government proposals which will require service providers to spy on surfers.

The communications minister Lord Stephen Carter also called yesterday for every home to have access to a broadband service by 2012, either through a mobile phone connection or phone line that is fast enough to watch the BBC iPlayer.

‘There is no sector with the possible exception of energy that the rest of the economy relies upon more than this one,’ Carter said as he published his interim Digital Britain report. ‘The digital economy is the driving force of much of what we do and probably even more of what we will go on to do.’

In its 22 proposals, Carter’s report spans the communications landscape from the future of digital radio and local newspapers to the possible merger of Channel 4 with the commercial arm of the BBC or a private company such as Channel Five.

It also recommends the creation of a rights agency, funded by the ISPs and the media industry, that would set out a strategy for defeating illegal internet file-sharers, including the use of technologies such as digital watermarking of copyrighted content.

Since last summer the ISPs have been sending out warning letters to persistent illegal file sharers under a pilot scheme brokered by the government, but ministers believe more needs to be done to stem the tide of internet piracy and protect creative industries. A recent study by the University of Hertfordshire showed that only 10% of young people are deterred from file-sharing by a fear of being caught.

Legislation will be introduced, after the summer, that will standardise the current notification process and force the ISPs to collect information about ’serious repeat offenders’. The companies will then be able to prosecute offenders in court.

The rights agency will decide what level of illegal activity is required before an internet user can be spied upon. Carter, who will thrash out the full details of the agency with the industry before producing his final report in June, has ruled out making sharing of copyrighted material a criminal offence.

‘I don’t think this is as undoable as people have suggested,’ he said of a crackdown on file-sharers. ‘I don’t think anyone thinks that you are ever going to get this to zero but the question is can you get it from an epidemic to manageable proportions.’

Last year a leaked letter from Lady Vadera, the business minister, made it clear that the notification process should help to ’significantly reduce’ illegal filesharing in two to three years. ‘I would regard a reduction as ’significant’ if it had reduced the number by well over 50%, and we hope in the region of 70%-80%,’ she wrote.

Carter’s report also makes it plain that a long-term solution also involves the creation of ‘innovative legitimate services to meet consumer demand’.

Feargal Sharkey, the former Undertones frontman who now leads industry body UK Music, welcomed the fact that Carter’s report ‘recognises the scale of the challenges faced by the music and other creative industries in regards to unlawful file sharing. However, we do not believe that the form of intervention proposed – suing consumers – is the best way forward’.

Carter’s plans for universal broadband at about 2Mb per second also came under attack as being too timid. ‘Given that the national average access speed is 3.6Mbps, isn’t the scale of the government’s ambitions pitifully low,’ said Jeremy Hunt, the shadow culture secretary.

Independent analysts were also surprised by Carter’s plans. ‘We were very surprised that the government is only advocating a broadband network speed of 2Mb per second by 2012,’ said Richard Heap, head of telecoms, at BDO Stoy Hayward. ‘Given that a number of other ISPs offer speeds of up to 50Mb per second, this is akin to a snail’s pace and lacks ambition.’

Carter, however, said that many of the 1.75m rural homes that do not have broadband may get it through new wireless networks rather than a traditional phone line and it is harder to set a minimum speed requirement because of the way mobile phone networks operate at peak times.

‘At the moment there is no universal service obligation for minimum broadband,’ he pointed out. ‘We are saying there should be.’

Main points

Broadband for all Carter wants high-speed internet access for every home, over a fixed-line network or wireless connection, by 2012. The minimum speed would be 2MB, enough to download a film overnight or watch the London Olympics on BBC i-player. Telecoms firms will be legally required to build and fund a broadband network, though they could receive some public money.

Piracy crackdown Illegal downloads cost the entertainment industry millions of pounds. New laws will force broadband suppliers to hand over their customers’ details to music and film companies, making it easier for them to sue persistent offenders.

Channel 4’s future A second public service broadcaster will be created with Channel 4 at its heart, possibly by merging it with parts of the BBC’s commercial arm, BBC Worldwide. It will be required to show local and international news, documentaries and films – but it is still not clear if it will receive public money.

Content Carter accepted the findings of the Bryon review, which said a ratings system based on age guidelines should be introduced to make it easier to police the internet. It could mean that internet giants such as YouTube would be required to carry warnings so parents can block access to unsuitable material.

Radio revolution Digital radio as a technology is struggling to grow, but Carter rejected calls to switch off the analogue signal to encourage take-up. The FM services which have national reach will run alongside new digital stations until digital covers 90% of the UK or accounts for 50% of all radio listening.

Local news Carter asked the Office of Fair Trading to look at whether ownership rules should change to allow regional press and commercial radio to merge. Economies of scale would help meet the cost of covering local news, which is highly valued by the public

(Via Latest news, sport, business, comment and reviews from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk.)

Editorial: Broadband, a universal right

It is difficult to overestimate the importance of the decisions to be taken as a result of Lord Carter’s report on Digital Britain, an interim version of which was published yesterday. Britain is in an unprecedented recession and there is an urgent need to generate new jobs to fill the gap caused by the collapse of financial services. Our best chance is to exploit the digital revolution, not only because it is a vital ingredient of economic growth but because Britain has a competitive advantage – generating content for it.

Lord Carter’s report covers many activities, from illegal web downloads to providing a rival for the BBC – rightly seen as a cornerstone of Britain’s digital strength – in the provision of public service broadcasting. But his most important proposal is for broadband to be available for every home by 2012. This would happen at speeds of ‘up to’ two million bits of information per second (2 Mbps). That is roughly what is needed to do video conferencing or use the BBC’s iPlayer. Further into the future, the report urges the government to consider whether public incentives are needed to finance ‘next-generation broadband’ with speeds up to 10 or even 50 times faster – 100 Mbps – for more sophisticated uses.

The big question is whether the 2012 target of ‘up to’ 2 Mbps, which many users would regard as too modest for their current needs, is enough when parts of the world already have 100 Mbps and when the demand for services is exploding. The argument about bringing the huge capacity of fibre optics to the home, and who should finance it, has been going on for well over 20 years and it still has not happened, though it is now planned for new homes. The usual argument against fast broadband – that there would be no demand – has been blown apart by the video revolution. Bandwidth demands from the iPlayer alone have proved too much for the system at times. We know from innovations in the pipeline – including high-definition TV, remote medicine, remote education, life-sized video conferencing and the rapid growth of ever more sophisticated virtual worlds and multiplayer gaming – that the demand for bandwidth will be huge. If Britain is to succeed in encouraging industry to supply equipment and content then we cannot err on the side of caution.

The Broadband Stakeholders’ Association says the cost of upgrading to 20Mbps by running fibre to a box near the home would be £5bn, only a fifth of the £25bn cost of fibre right into the home. That will not deliver the national need for a very high speeds that other countries will be enjoying. The government is currently shelling out tens of billions of pounds to bail out the banks. In such circumstances it seems almost modest to invest £25bn to ensure that Britain has a digital infrastructure to give us an advantage in exploiting all the new services that will spring up during the rest of the century.

Building a network does not guarantee that it will be used. The government’s 2Mbps commitment to universal broadband by 2012 is not like BT’s obligation to deliver phone lines to every home. It is more like a statement of intent. At present some 60% of households in the UK have broadband. This is not bad by international standards, but it means that 40% do not have it, either because they cannot afford it or they do not want it. Lord Carter is suggesting steps to combat this, but it is not going to be solved by market forces alone. If it is not solved, an even bigger digital divide will open up between the broadband elite and the rest. The elite will have access not just to the instant knowledge and the best seats at major sporting and cultural events, but to the unfolding opportunities in education, health and the job market. This is unacceptable. Like water and electricity, broadband is fast becoming something that everyone is entitled to have

(Via guardian.co.uk Comment is free.)

Watchdog exposes broadband speed rip-off: “Millions of internet customers are getting less than half the broadband speed
they are paying for, restricting their ability to download music, film and
games.”

(Via Law News from Times Online.)

Victor Keegan: The government must invest in faster broadband: “Victor Keegan: Helping children access the net is great, but the government needs to invest in faster broadband to aid the UK economy”

(Via guardian.co.uk Comment is free.)

Comcast users get UK-style capping, throttling: “

Is 120 movies a month enough?

The Network Neutrality pigeons are coming home to roost, with Comcast formally announcing a British-style capping regime.…

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(Via The Register – Comms.)

BBC iPlayer upgrade prompts new ISP complaints: “

High definition network freezes out the little guy

The BBC is facing more criticism that the way it delivers iPlayer traffic will make it harder for smaller ISPs to survive.…

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(Via The Register – Comms.)