Regulator Ofcom UK has announced strict new mandatory rules designed to stop the mis-selling and slamming of landline services, which will come into effect from tomorrow. Telecoms companies and ISPs that fail to comply are likely to face fines of up to 10% of their turnover.

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BT Wholesale has confirmed 148 new telephone exchanges (999 total) which will bring its 'up to' 24Mbps ( ADSL2+ ) Wholesale Broadband Connect (WBC) service to more than 16.2 million UK homes and businesses by winter 2010. The new exchanges represent a further 6% of UK homes and businesses, bringing the total of enabled and to be enabled named exchanges to 61% (coverage is currently nearing 55% for the end of March).

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Analyst firm Point Topic has released a new map of the United Kingdom (UK) that breaks the country down into its various political constituencies. The map shows how much it would cost in extra government money (subsidy) to rollout a next generation broadband network to each area.

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Business ISP Vaioni has introduced a range of cheaper Ethernet services across the UK. Prices start from £387 +vat per month for a full 10Mbps and £678 a month for 100Mbps on a 12 month contract. These prices are apparently dependant on which zone an address falls within, but price variation between zones is small.

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The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has called on the government to force UK ISPs into delivering a "minimum and guaranteed" speed of 8Mbps direct to business premises. The move follows a new FSB-ICM survey of 1,300 small firms, which found that 24% are dissatisfied with their broadband service.

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The Conservative Party has just published its new 'Technology Manifesto' (.PDF), which reiterates everything that Tory Shadow Chancellor, George Osborne, told the BBC One Andrew Marr Show last month (here). It includes a commitment to deliver "100Mbps broadband across most of the population" by 2017 but still does not clarify what "most" actually means.

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Cable giant Virgin Media UK has announced a new 6 month trial that involves using telegraph poles to deliver ultrafast 50-100Mbps Cable Modem (DOCSIS) broadband services to the rural Berkshire village of Woolhampton. Cable carried over the telegraph poles will also carry Virgin's TV service, including 5,000 hours of catch-up TV and on-demand (VoD) content.

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The growth rate of next generation Fibre-to-the-Home ( FTTH ) 100Mbps broadband services in Europe, specifically those of the EU36 countries (including Russia), has increased markedly from 19% in June 2009 to 29% in December 2009 (Q4). There are now some 3.5 million EU FTTH subscribers and the service can already reach 25 million homes and buildings.

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