Home » UK ISP News Archive » Article Tag: Ofcom Regulation (1792 Posts)

Articles for Category Tag - Ofcom Regulation

UPDATE2 ViaSat and Inmarsat UK Fight Over Satellite Broadband for Airplanes

8th March, 2017 (1 Comment)

Inmarsat’s plan to improve broadband connectivity on aircraft appears to have taken a hit today after rival Satellite operator ViaSat accused the London-based ISP of “misusing spectrum” and gaining an “unfair competitive advantage” by “creating a monopoly for European in-flight connectivity.”

techUK Plugs 5 Recommendations for Helping the UK to Deliver 5G Mobile

7th March, 2017 (5 Comments)

A new report from techUK, which is an industry group for many of the United Kingdom’s key technology companies, has proposed five recommendations that Ofcom and the Government should adopt in order to make the upgrade to future ultrafast 5G Mobile technology a success.

Ofcom Force BT to Cut UK Standalone Line Rental Costs by “at least” £5

28th February, 2017 (17 Comments)

The United Kingdom’s national telecoms regulator has told BT to slash the cost of their line rental service by “at least” £5 per month for landline-only customers, which would affect more than 2 million of the operators’ customers (i.e. those who don’t take line rental as part of a BT Broadband bundle).

Poor Service Costs UK Phone, Broadband and Mobile Providers £2.68bn

15th February, 2017 (4 Comments)

The annual report from Ombudsman Services, which is one of Ofcom’s Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) handlers for consumer broadband, phone and mobile complaints, has revealed that UK people made 55 million complaints during 2016 and 13% were telecoms related.

Ofcom Corrects its Investigation of Plusnet’s Wrongful Broadband Billing

14th February, 2017 (1 Comment)

The UK telecoms regulator has corrected a mistake with an earlier investigation, albeit while once again finding “reasonable grounds to believe” that Plusnet had incorrectly billed customers of their broadband and phone services between 26th May 2011 and 3rd September 2015.

BT Openreach Complete “Independent Board” with Final Appointments

14th February, 2017 (5 Comments)

BT’s network access division, Openreach, has today announced the completion of an “independent majority” on their newly formed board with the final appointment of Liz Benison as a non-executive member. Liz is currently the CEO of public services provider Serco in the UK and Europe.

Ofcom Refines their UK Choices for Future 5G Mobile Spectrum Bands

8th February, 2017 (0 Comments)

The UK telecoms regulator has today posted an update on their quest to identify the best radio spectrum bands for use with future 5G based Mobile Broadband technology, which alongside the EU appears to have short-listed 700MHz, 3.4-3.8GHz and the higher frequency 24.25-27.5GHz (26GHz band).

UK Residential and Small Business Broadband Lines Top 25 Million – Q3 2016

8th February, 2017 (0 Comments)

The latest Telecoms Market Data Tables from Ofcom have confirmed that the United Kingdom is home to a total of 25,087,000 fixed home and small business broadband lines (up by +229K in Q3 vs +206K in Q2 2016), with nearly half (44.32%) being Next Generation Access (NGA) services.

BT Openreach Make Digital Infrastructure Mapping Tool Available to Rivals

6th February, 2017 (27 Comments)

Openreach (BT) has today announced the launch of their new Digital Mapping Tool, which the operator claims will “make it easier” for rival alternative network ISPs to plan and build their own fibre optic broadband infrastructure by harnessing BTOR’s existing network of cable ducts and poles.

Ofcom Withdraw KCOM Notification for Emergency Services Outage in Hull

3rd February, 2017 (5 Comments)

The UK telecoms regulator has had to retract a notification that it sent to KCOM last year, which found “reasonable grounds for believing” that the operator had “failed” to take sufficient measures to maintain uninterrupted telephone access to emergency services.

UPDATE BT Openreach Setup New “Independent Board” with Key Appointments

1st February, 2017 (50 Comments)

The lack of a final agreement with Ofcom over Openreach’s future structure and position in the broadband market hasn’t stopped BT from progressing with their own plan for governance change. This has today resulted in the appointment of the network operator’s first “independent” board members.

BT Openreach Sets UK ISP Dark Fibre Access Trial for August 2017

24th January, 2017 (3 Comments)

Openreach (BT) has informed Ethernet offering ISPs that they intend to run a provision trial of their new Dark Fibre Access (DFA) product between August and September 2017, which is right before it’s officially due to launch on 1st October 2017.

Ofcom’s Space Spectrum Strategy Aims to Foster UK Satellite Broadband

19th January, 2017 (0 Comments)

The national telecoms regulator has today set out their new ‘Space Spectrum Strategy’ and top of the to-do list is a commitment towards “enabling growth” in Satellite Broadband, such as by providing greater access to spectrum (e.g. facilitating access to spectrum used by the public sector).

UPDATE Ofcom UK Fine EE £2.7m for Overcharging 40,000 Mobile Customers

18th January, 2017 (8 Comments)

The telecoms regulator has today hit Mobile Network Operator EE (BT) with a fine of £2.7 million after they were found to have overcharged around 40,000 subscribers for calls to the company’s own “150” customer services number. It’s not the first time EE has had to pay off an Ofcom fine.

Ofcom Grant EE’s Request for 4G LTE in its 2100MHz Licence to Help ESN

10th January, 2017 (5 Comments)

The telecoms regulator has today granted a request by mobile operator EE (BT) for two new licence variations, which would for example enable them to use 4G (LTE) in the unpaired frequencies of 1899.9 – 1909.9MHz (Spectrum Access 2100MHz licence) and support the new Emergency Services Network.

UPD Ofcom Mistake Forces Delay to Plusnet Incorrect Billing Investigation

6th January, 2017 (3 Comments)

Ofcom has had to retract last year’s notification to Plusnet, which provisionally found that the UK ISP may have incorrectly billed customers of their fixed line broadband and phone services (here). This is due to a mistake with the regulator’s “legal enforcement powers.“

Ofcom – Highest Level of SME Dissatisfaction Stems from Fixed Broadband

5th January, 2017 (11 Comments)

The telecoms regulator has quietly published a new survey of 1,501 small and medium sized businesses (0-249 employees), which reveals that the vast majority (82%) feel well catered for by communication services but the “highest levels of dissatisfaction” remain with fixed-line broadband services.