 Whilst the politician squabble over a 50p broadband tax, people across the UK are resorting to starting their own broadband companies:
The residents of Lyddington have raised more £37,000 to offer super fast broadband to 200 homes after BT said it would not be able to give them the service. The village have named their service Rutland Telecom and will offer speeds up to 40Mbps. The villages joined together with a local ICT firm which was reselling BT's broadband. BT have said they were delighted to help Rutland Telecom achieve their goal and hope that they allow other service providers to access its network. Similar schemes are being launched elsewhere in the country.
Experts are predicting that the new Kin handsets from Microsoft will lead to more teenagers and children accessing the internet than ever. The handsets are designed for gaining easy access to social networking sites while on the move. The home-screen constantly updates and combines online services, the phone and PC. James Sherwood from mobilechoices.co.uk commented that the handset will be popular with young people.
The Labour Party manifesto has suggested that the 50p a month tax for the broadband roll-out could still go ahead. They say that a "modest levy" is to be considered to allow all homes and businesses to have access to a super fast broadband. They also made it clear that they stand by their plans to make 2Mbps available to all homes by 2012. They say they will work with the BBC and other broadcasters to encourage the population to take up broadband. The broadband tax was scrapped last week due to time restrictions before the dissolution of parliament.
The Conservative manifesto meanwhile, has stated that they would not have a 50p landline tax but would hope to fund the rise of fast broadband through private enterprise. They say that they want the UK to become a European hub for digital and creative industries. They point out that establishing a super fast broadband in the UK would create 600,000 jobs. They have said that they would require BT to allow the use of their assets and may use part of the license fee to get broadband to areas which will not be covered by private investment. They do not say what speed they expect to deliver, but support the Labour commitment to 2Mbps.
Virgin Media has launched a technical support service for its customers and have named it The Digital Home Support Service. It will replace the current Virgin Media PC Helpline an will give advice on software and hardware issues. Broadband customers can also download a desktop application to their PC which will run a PC health check. Jon James from Virgin commented that more and more customers are interested in Virgins service due to the high speeds they can offer and they want to help customers make the most of their PCs and fix any annoying problems. He also points out that the service is the best value in the UK.
In a poll of more than 100,000 consumers O2 have been given a satisfaction rating of 77%, followed by BE Broadband on 73% and Virgin Media with 68%. AOL came in at the bottom of the list with just 56% satisfaction rating. Michael Phillips from Broadbandchoices.co.uk commented that O2 is known for being fast reliable and that their customer and technical support is a big reason why they have come in top. O2 are currently offering their customers three months free broadband for those who sign up to their standard, premium or pro packages.
Ofcom have released a terms of reference document to show how it will deal with illegal file sharers. ISP's will be expected to notify subscribers of any allegations made about their file sharing and will have to keep a list of notifications which have gone unchallenged which can then be passed to copyright owners. This will require a court order however. A robust appeals system will also be set up by Ofcom to allow customers to object if they believe the notification to be inaccurate. Ofcom will also have to provide reports to the Secretary of State to show that levels of file sharing is falling. The code of practise is expected to be adopted within 8 months. Ofcom are working with ISP's to draw up the final details. † [last update: 15.04.10]
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