 Whilst speeds of possible broadband are touted by providers, the government considers whether it's even possible to sustain:
A report from the Business, Innovation and Skills committee, which is made up of MP's from all political parties has suggested that the 50p tax on fixed line telecommunications is unfair. The group, which includes Labour MP's has said that it will levy a disproportionate cost on those who will not benefit from any future improvements to broadband. The levy has been named The Next Generation Levy and is only expected to make around £175m per year, which has been criticised for not being anywhere near enough. The committee wants to take the market driven approach, which has been suggested by the Conservatives. The House of Lords are currently considering the introduction of the levy.
A 22 year old university student has been left with an £8,000 broadband bill after Orange charged him for using his dongle overseas. William Harrison was in France for 6 months during which time he used the dongle for daily chats via Skype to his family and friends in the UK, unaware of the overseas charges. The EU has recently told mobile phone operators that they must put in place mechanisms to prevent these types of bills being charged. The new rule says that users must be warned when their bill reaches £44, but it does not come into effect until March 1. Unfortunately this is too late for Mr Harrison who now is faced with a bad credit rating while he pays off the bill.
A report from the Governments Cyber Security Operations Centre has warned that the UK's reliance on the web could lead to a "catastrophic" cyber attack. It said that the growing use of the internet to provide public services would mean that the impact of a loss of service would damage the economy and public well being. The report pointed out that attacks from other countries are easy to organise and carry out and that it would be difficult to find the culprits.
Virgin Media has announced it will begin to roll out a 100Mbps broadband service by the end of this year. It will also be expanding its trials of a 200Mbps service to Coventry. Neil Birkett from Virgin commented that the 100Mbps service will give customers the ultimate broadband experience and will mean that the UK will be comparable to other leading broadband nations. He also says that there is nothing that can't be done with regards to fibre optics. The move has been compared to BT's promise to roll out 40Mbps and appears to put BT firmly in the back seat.
Fibrecity are to launch the UK's very first network capable of 1Gbps download speeds. The network being laid in Bournemouth sewers will offer basic packages of around 25 to 100 Mbps, however one of the ISP's offering the service will allow quick bursts of 1Gbps for downloading movies or other applications. Each customer will be allowed 10 free 1Gbps bursts per month for one hour at a time. The package will be known as Velocity 1 and will cost just £10 per month plus £10 line rental. The speeds on offer are faster than any which have been offered to date in the UK.
Ofcom has released a report titled Fibre Capacity Limitations in Access Networks which discusses whether fibre optics will suffer from the same problems which affect other types of communications. They say that the practicalities of deployment, architectural choices and performance constraints will lead to limited capacity, despite assertions that fibre optics are limitless. Fair usage policies are also likely to affect future capacity as they are used to manage the flow of data. The report does say however, that at current demand the amount of bandwidth available is more than enough.
People who enjoyed their favourite shows the first time around can now watch them again for free online, thanks to the new Seesaw platform. With 3000 hours of TV from the BBC, Channel Four and Five, the service features shows such as The Young Ones, Doctor Who and old episodes of The Apprentice. The platform was launched by Arqiva and according to the controller John Keeling, the current content could be the tip of the iceberg.
In response to a petition regarding the cutting off of broadband services for those who share file illegally, the Government appears to have relented. In a statement from Number 10, the Government said that cutting off service would in most cases be disproportionate to the crime, except in extreme cases. However the Digital Bill still does allow for suspension of service and it is not clear if this will be changed by the petition.
A new service has been launched for people who don't know their dongle from their router. Broadband Computer Company has responded to the frustrations of older computer users and those who are technophobes by offering a laptop aimed at novice users. The laptop is Linux based and contains a number of everyday programs such as email, internet, image editing and word processing. The operating system is very simple and has a dedicated button on the keyboard for each function. The system requires a £39.95 monthly subscription which must be taken out for two years, but this does included telephone support and broadband access. † [last update: 25.02.10]
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