Welcome:   How fast is fast?

As the private sector urges the government to get a move on so the UK can get super fast broadband of 100mbps, Ofcom says "super fast" means only 24mbps:

The plan to place a 50p levy on phone users has been shelved by Labour after it failed to make it into the Finance Bill due to be released this week. This has created uncertainty about how future broadband access will be funded. The levy was designed to give Ј150m per year to support the roll out of broadband to areas where the private sector was failing to provide the service. Some experts believe that the levy could be permanently shelved, particularly if a Conservative government get in after the election. Labour have indicated the levy will be reintroduced in the summer. If there is a hung parliament then it is expected the levy could face opposition, delaying it for more than 12 months. BT have commented that they are frustrated by the hold up, but they are not surprised. They have said they will continue with their roll out program, but have said they will require some public funding to extend their roll out in the future.

The BT exchange which was shut down due to flooding last week has now been drained and customers are being reconnected. Customers from parts of London and further afield were affected by the flooding. The flooding was caused by an electrical fault which led to a fire. BT had made suggestions to their customers to use a neighbours or a friends phone if they needed an emergency service.

The Scottish Chambers of Commerce have suggested that the government needs to prioritise new digital links, in a new manifesto ahead of the election. The report showed that in some rural locations there was no third generation mobile coverage and that some businesses were unable to access broadband. This is despite a roll out of services by the Scottish Government having started ten years ago. The report said that speeds of 11.5Mbps as a minimum would be required in the next 5 years to handle future needs and that this was as vital as any transport links or tax rates to keeping Scotland competitive.

Elfed Thomas the chief executive of the i3 Group has recently stated that the UK should be more ambitious when it came to the launch of super fast broadband services. Experts widely believe the super fast refers to speeds of more than 100Mbps, while Ofcom has suggested that anything above 24Mbps is "super fast". Thomas said that 24Mbps will quickly become outdated as video on demand and IPTV become commonplace. He said that the UK should follow the lead of other countries.

Virgin Media has once again topped the cable.co.uk list of broadband providers in terms of speed. Virgin offered speeds of 8.4Mbps throughout March, while O2 was only able to offer 6Mbps which placed them second. BT came in third with 4.3Mbps and Sky and Talk Talk came in fourth and fifth places.

David Attenborough is to star in Sky's first 3D production. Flying Monsters 3D will be a documentary fronted by the legendary Attenborough and will highlight the pterosaurus which lived more than 200m years ago. It will be shown at IMAX theatres. Sky 3D which is the first 3D channel to be launched in Europe ,was started over the Easter weekend. It began with sporting events and will soon add movies, documentaries and entertainment.

Talk Talk has described parts of the new digital economy bill as dangerous, in particular those parts which force internet providers to block websites which feature copyright infringing material. Andrew Healey from Talk Talk warns that this measure could be interpreted as including sites such as You Tube or even search engines. He says there is no protection for the ISP if they are taken to court by the website owners who feel they have been wrongly blocked. Talk Talk's own research has shown that if the bill is introduced 80% of those aged 18-34 will simply use undetectable methods to download files. † [last update: 08.04.10]

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