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Articles for Category Tag - Ofcom Regulation

Ofcom UK Explores Hybrid Sharing of 6GHz for Wi-Fi and Mobile

6th July, 2023 (5 Comments)

The UK telecoms regulator, Ofcom, has today proposed an alternative way of solving the debate over whether WiFi or mobile broadband (5G) should benefit from the extra capacity (i.e. faster speeds) available in the Upper 6GHz radio spectrum band (6425 to 7125MHz) – “hybrid sharing“.

BT Reveal Cause of 999 Emergency UK Call Handling Outage

30th June, 2023 (25 Comments)

Broadband and telecoms giant BT has revealed that last Sunday’s outage and disruption to their 999 emergency services number, which resulted in 11,470 unique emergency calls being “unsuccessfully connected“, was caused by a “complex software issue” that had never previously been seen through their testing regime.

Chancellor’s Meet with UK Regulators Delivers no Surprises for Broadband Prices

29th June, 2023 (31 Comments)

Consumers hoping for some respite from spiralling price hikes on their broadband ISP and mobile operator bills will have to keep waiting. Yesterday’s meeting between the Chancellor of the UK Government, Jeremy Hunt, and the heads from all of the UK’s major regulators, including Ofcom, appears to have produced nothing new.

Lords Committee – UK Gov Needs Credible Plan to Tackle Digital Exclusion

29th June, 2023 (6 Comments)

A new Lords Committee report has today become the latest to try and tackle the age-old problem of Digital Exclusion (i.e. getting everybody online and ensuring they have the right skills). The Committee finds that the scale of the problem is a “direct consequence of political lethargy” and highlights the UK Government’s “lack of a credible plan.”

Ofcom UK Launches Investigation into BT’s Weekend 999 Failure

28th June, 2023 (3 Comments)

As expected, Ofcom has today formally launched an investigation into telecoms giant BT, which follows the significant UK-wide disruption to emergency call services that occurred as a result of a fault on their 999 service during Sunday 25th June 2023.

Ofcom Cautions BT in New Report on Openreach’s Independence

27th June, 2023 (26 Comments)

Ofcom has published their annual 2023 monitoring report into Openreach’s independence from BT, which found that the commitments made by the operator “have generally proved to be successful“. But the regulator warns against complacency and cautions BT’s CEO, Philip Jansen, against repeating some of his recent remarks.

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Openreach Falls Behind on Ofcom UK Quality of Service Targets UPDATE

27th June, 2023 (3 Comments)

The UK telecoms regulator, Ofcom, has today opened an investigation into the Quality of Service (i.e. minimum standards for repairs and new line provision) targets that they impose upon some of Openreach’s (BT) broadband and Ethernet products, which comes after the regulator found that the operator had fallen short in several areas.

Major UK Broadband and Mobile Providers Commit to Recruit More Women

23rd June, 2023 (0 Comments)

The UK telecoms regulator, Ofcom, has today joined forces with BT, Sky Broadband, TalkTalk, Openreach, Three UK, Virgin Media O2 and Vodafone to agree a new pledge that commits them all to help get more women into senior technology positions – across a historically male-dominated sector.

Chancellor Calls on UK Utility Firms to Pass Cost Savings on to Consumers

23rd June, 2023 (14 Comments)

The Government’s Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, will next week meet with the heads from all of the UK’s major regulators as part of a drive to help bring down inflation by encouraging utility providers (i.e. energy, water, broadband and mobile) to ensure they’re passing on any wholesale costs savings to consumers.

Report – Mobile Broadband Can Help to Fight UK Digital Exclusion

19th June, 2023 (1 Comment)

A new report from trade body Mobile UK, which represents Three UK, EE (BT), O2 (VMO2) and Vodafone, has helped to highlight how mobile connectivity can tackle the digital divide and encourage more people online. But it also highlights the need for “better Government policy” to complement such efforts.

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Ofcom to Only Conduct UK Customer Service Surveys Every 2 Years

15th June, 2023 (8 Comments)

Earlier this month the UK telecoms regulator, Ofcom, proposed to stop publishing its annual summary of fixed home broadband ISP speeds (here). But they’ve today followed that by proposing to also reduce the frequency of their Comparing Customer Service (CCS) tracker surveys to every other year.

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New UK Ad Rules to Tackle Mid-Contract Broadband Price Hikes UPDATE2

15th June, 2023 (22 Comments)

The UK Committees of Advertising Practice (CAP and BCAP) – sister bodies to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) – have today set out new guidance for how broadband ISPs and mobile operators should communicate mid-contract prices hikes to consumers, which will make such policies clearer and more transparent.

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Vodafone and Three UK Sign Agreement for Mobile Mega Merger

14th June, 2023 (73 Comments)

Mobile network operators Vodafone and Three UK (CK Hutchison) have today confirmed that they’ve reached a formal merger agreement, which is said to be worth an estimated £15bn and will see the former party owning a 51% slice of the business (CKH will hold 49%). But they’ll still have to satisfy the regulators, and that may require concessions.

NIO Net Planning to Build New FTTP Broadband Network

2nd June, 2023 (3 Comments)

A new alternative network builder called NIO Net LTD (NIO Group) has revealed that they intend to build and operate both a Fibre-to-the-Premise (FTTP) and Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) network, which they’ll then wholesale out so that retail broadband ISPs can sell related packages on to homes and businesses.

Ofcom to Stop Publishing UK Home Broadband ISP Speeds Study

1st June, 2023 (28 Comments)

The UK telecoms regulator, Ofcom, has today proposed to stop publishing its annual summary of fixed line home broadband ISP speeds after the next report is released later this year (due Q4 2023). Mainly because they deem that it’s no longer needed as the market has changed.

Shetland Telecom to Seek Code Powers Ahead of Possible Fibre Expansion

1st June, 2023 (12 Comments)

The Shetland Islands Council (Scotland) has given the green light for Shetland Telecom, which is the arms-length network operator that the council set up some years ago, to apply for Code Powers – ahead of a possible move to expand their full fibre broadband network to reach the remotest homes and businesses.

Ofcom to be Notified of More UK Network and Internet Disruptions

31st May, 2023 (0 Comments)

The telecoms regulator, Ofcom, has today updated their Network and Information Systems (NIS) guidance by lowering their thresholds, which will require UK Operators of Essential Services (OES) – such as top-level domain name registries, DNS providers and internet exchanges (IXP) – to inform them of less severe outages.