7. The UK government aims to make superfast broadband services of 25Mbps+ available to 90% of the country by 2015, with the last 10% gaining a download speed of at least 2Mbps. What are your thoughts on this? For example, do you think that this commitment goes far enough and is the budget (£530m until 2015, potentially rising to £830m by 2017 if necessary) big enough?
Fluidata (Piers Daniell):
Considering we are looking at many billions to get nationwide fibre coverage I think the investment is definitely in the right direction. If anything it has made the big players stop and think about the 2 million or so extra subscribers they could be serving. However I do believe that the “build it and they will come” philosophy is wrong and that most people currently have made alternative plans so adoption will be slow.
It is right to offer it, though, and will give more people the option of setting up businesses or working from home. It probably won't help much in terms of entertainment but really that should be paid for by the media companies and not government - it won't help the economy with more people sitting at home watching TV. I also believe the way the money is being spent, i.e. locally, is the right choice and a good idea to ensure each area gets the right product for their local economy.
8. The Broadband Stakeholder Group, several major broadband ISPs and mobile operators have recently banded together to produce a Voluntary Code of Practice (vCOP) for broadband Traffic Management transparency, which is currently being piloted. The move is designed to make it easier for customers to find out whether or not their ISP is restricting internet traffic, when, what types and by how much.
However some fear that the code will not be effective unless all ISPs signup and agree to publicise full details to show how their Traffic Management solutions will affect customers. What are your thoughts on the code and is it needed?
Fluidata (Piers Daniell):
I think there are a lot of unknowns when it comes to traffic management and ISPs should be much more open in their policies and how it affects the service. It would help customers to make a more informed choice and understand if the service they are ordering is fit for purpose or not. I don't think all ISPs have to adopt it but if the BSG can successfully promote it to the consumers it is designed to protect then it will push more ISPs to use it.
I think also its relevance will only become greater as services such as Google TV, Apple TV and YouTV take hold and customers realise there is a lot of traffic management happening in the background on their networks. People do vote with their feet so the ISPs that deliver an inferior product and aren't open about traffic management will suffer. Thankfully our customers understand the need to pay a premium for an uncontended service so we don't need to employ any kind of traffic management in our network.
9. The UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) recently set out new guidelines for clearer broadband ISP advertising of internet access speeds and "unlimited" style usage allowances (here). Many consumers feel as though ISPs have intentionally misled them over service performance and capability. Where does your own ISP stand in this debate and what would be the best solution?
Fluidata (Piers Daniell):
Our account managers are trained to do a lot of research for each service they deliver to ensure customers' expectations are met. We deliberately keep contract terms as short as possible because we know if we are doing our job right customers will stay with us, but likewise a customer who isn't getting the speed they expect shouldn't be tied into a contract if something else will do the job better. Why keep an unhappy customer? It is very difficult to guarantee speeds but like the whole debate on FTTC or Virgin Cable being advertised as fibre to the home, when it clearly is not, the marketing departments are being too liberal with their campaigns.
There is a nice saying that where there is mystery there is margin and I assume they are using this to great effect. I think consumers though are being more aware but I would like to see more guarantees i.e. if the product doesn't give you something then you can cancel the service. The problem for ISPs is all the free hardware and activation costs as they have to pay for these somehow and can't if the customer cancels early.
END.
We are directly involved in a pilot which sees FTTC being rolled out as well, but even without any government support there are already some very interesting networks that most people have not heard of which we are hoping to bring onto the platform and hence make available to the public.
Obviously this whole platform would be invisible to the consumer/business buying access to the network as it is really there for the network builder and ISP. But hopefully it brings an important benefit to helping the rollout of rural and even urban networks.
On the point of BT - they do have a wholesale platform but this only sells BT products and services. The difference with this platform is that it sells all the networks simplifying integration and hence driving the commercial model. Hopefully helps clear up matters a bit more?
The description is a bit confusing as BT already operate wholesaling so you can indeed stay with Talk Tal kor Sky regardless of whether they have LLU or not as BT provide wholesale everywhere they cover.