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Articles for Category Tag - Ofcom Regulation

Ofcom Owes UK Mobile Operators £220m in Licence Fee Dispute

20th May, 2019 (2 Comments)

The UK High Court of Justice has ruled that Ofcom must pay back £220m to mobile operators as part of restitution for the regulator’s handling of a licence fee hike to the 900MHz and 1800MHz (3G and 4G) spectrum bands (i.e. £82.4m to EE, £54.4m for Vodafone, £54.4m for O2 and £26.9m for Three UK).

Ofcom Encourages UK ISPs to Self-Assess Traffic Management Practices

16th May, 2019 (0 Comments)

Ofcom has closed an enforcement programme that was setup to examine the Traffic Management practices of broadband ISPs and mobile operators, which was done to test compliance with the EU’s Open Internet Access (net neutrality) and Roaming Regulations. Instead they’ve published a framework to help providers “self-assess proactively.”

Ofcom Force End of Contract Notices for UK Broadband and Mobile

15th May, 2019 (13 Comments)

Ofcom has today set out the final details of their new end-of-contract notification system (sent by text, email or letter) for UK customers of broadband ISPs, Pay TV, landline phone and mobile operators, which is designed to help tackle the so-called “loyalty penalty” and will keep consumers informed about the best available deals.

Mobile Operators Strike UK Network Sharing Deal for Rural Coverage

13th May, 2019 (12 Comments)

Mobile operators EE (BT), Vodafone, O2 and Three UK have confirmed a new agreement that could help to boost the rural coverage of their 2G, 3G, 4G and future 5G networks. Under the deal a new infrastructure company will be established to help build masts in remote areas. Now they just need Ofcom to agree.

Ofcom 2019 Report – Avg. Home Broadband ISP Speeds Hit 54Mbps UPDATE

8th May, 2019 (20 Comments)

The national UK telecoms regulator has today published their 2019 study of fixed line home broadband ISP speeds, which reports that the average download rate has risen from 46.2Mbps last year to 54.2Mbps now and uploads hit 7.2Mbps (up from 6.2Mbps). But the gap between urban and rural areas has worsened.

Ofcom Finds Full Fibre Broadband Available to 7% of UK Premises

2nd May, 2019 (23 Comments)

Ofcom has published a Spring 2019 update to last year’s Connected Nations 2018 report, which uses more recent data to provide the latest coverage statistics for UK mobile and fixed line broadband networks. The key change is that “full fibre” (FTTP) coverage has risen to 7% (i.e. over 300K premises in the last 4 months, nearly 1.8 million total).

Ofcom Shame TalkTalk and Tesco for Broadband and Mobile Quality

30th April, 2019 (2 Comments)

Ofcom has today published their 2019 survey of UK service quality, call waiting times, complaints and install times among the largest broadband ISPs and mobile operators. Overall TalkTalk attracted the lowest satisfaction for home broadband (79%) and Tesco Mobile did the same for mobile (90%).

Lords Report Propose Fixes for Poor UK Rural Broadband and Mobile

27th April, 2019 (48 Comments)

A new cross-party report from the House of Lords Select Committee on the Rural Economy has warned that rural communities across the UK are still being “ignored and underrated,” with many still suffering from poor fixed line broadband ISP and mobile network connectivity. But they also recommend some possible solutions.

Google, UK ISPs and Gov Battle Over Encrypted DNS and Censorship

22nd April, 2019 (31 Comments)

The UK Government, broadband ISPs and the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) are set to meet on the 8th May 2019 in order to discuss Google’s forthcoming implementation of encrypted DNS (DoH – DNS over HTTPS), which politicians fear could break their internet censorship plans.

Ofcom UK Tweaks 3.4-3.6GHz Licenses to Help 5G Mobile Services

18th April, 2019 (14 Comments)

The UK telecoms regulator has provisionally proposed to accept a request by Three UK, EE, O2 and Vodafone to vary a number of spectrum access licenses for the 3.4GHz, 3.5GHz and 3.6GHz bands in order to facilitate new Active Antenna Systems (AAS), which could help the future roll-out of ultrafast 5G mobile broadband networks.

Wireless ISP Lothian Broadband Networks Plan Full Fibre Rollout

12th April, 2019 (1 Comment)

Fixed wireless ISP Lothian Broadband Networks, which serves remote rural parts of East Lothian and Mid Lothian in Scotland with speeds of 35Mbps for homes, has hinted at tentative plans that could see them both expanding their wireless service and also building a new “ultrafast” Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network.

Ofcom Consults on the Future of UK Phone Numbers and Porting UPDATE

11th April, 2019 (21 Comments)

The UK communications regulator, Ofcom, has launched a shotgun blast of three new consultations today that cover how the fixed line broadband ISP and phone market will need to change as consumers are migrated from old analogue telephone services (PSTN) to new digital Voice-over-Internet-Protocol (VoIP) platforms.

Big UK Broadband ISPs Have Big Concerns About DNS over HTTPS

11th April, 2019 (22 Comments)

A significant change is on the way that could improve the security of the internet’s Domain Name System (DNS) by adopting DNS over HTTPS (DoH), although this could also create lots of new problems for broadband ISPs and mobile operators (e.g. disrupting UK Government required censorship systems) that may be hard to overcome.

Ofcom Probe BT’s Conduct During Tender for N.Ireland PSN Contract

4th April, 2019 (3 Comments)

The UK communications regulator, Ofcom, has today opened a new investigation that will examine BT’s conduct during the tender for the recent £50m Northern Ireland Public Sector Shared Network contract, which will consider whether or not the operator kept within the Significant Market Power (SMP) rules.

Mast Sharing or Rural Roaming – Solving UK Rural 4G Mobile Coverage

1st April, 2019 (16 Comments)

The Country Land and Business Association, which represents 30,000+ landowners (farmers and businesses) across England and Wales, has said that “forcing mobile operators to adopt rural roaming” may be the only way to deliver significantly better 4G coverage in rural areas. But operators now favour a barter system of mast sharing.

New Cost Cap on UK Calls to 118 Directory Enquiries Goes Live

1st April, 2019 (7 Comments)

Surprisingly around a million people in the UK still use premium 118 Directory Enquiries numbers (e.g. elderly users). Last year Ofcom took action to stamp out excessive charges for such numbers, which had seen some operators charging £20 for a 90 second call. But from today such costs will be capped.

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Automatic Compensation Goes Live for UK Broadband ISP Customers

31st March, 2019 (11 Comments)

Ofcom’s new system of automatic compensation will tomorrow be introduced, which requires major UK ISPs to compensate consumers (cash or bill credits) for a total loss of broadband connectivity (i.e. if the outage lasts longer than 2 working days), missed appointments or delayed installs.