Home » UK ISP News Archive » Article Tag: Ofcom Regulation (1895 Posts)

Articles for Category Tag - Ofcom Regulation

UPDATE2 Origin Broadband – Anger Over Notice of Digital Region Closure

12th August, 2014 (25 Comments)

South Yorkshire ISP Origin Broadband appears to be taking some flak from disgruntled customers over their handling of the imminent Digital Region (DRL) network closure and a 30 day notification email, which was first sent to subscribers in the middle of July 2014.

BT Openreach Allow UK Customers to Feedback on Engineer Performance

9th August, 2014 (11 Comments)

Broadband and phone engineers working for BTOpenreach and external contractors, which maintain BT’s national UK telecoms infrastructure, will soon take part in a new trial that allows residential customers to give feedback on their performance after a visit. The results probably won’t be made available to the public.

UK Superfast Broadband Coverage Hits 78% as Uptake Reaches 26.7%

7th August, 2014 (9 Comments)

The UK telecoms regulator has today published their annual 2014 Communications Market Report, which reveals how Next Generation Access (NGA) “superfast broadband” (30Mbps+) services are now available to 78% of the United Kingdom (up from 73% last year) and take-up has increased to 26.7% (up from 17.5% last year).

ISPA UK Sets Out Proposals to Improve Consumer ISP Complaint Handling

5th August, 2014 (4 Comments)

The Public Affairs Manager for the UK Internet Service Providers Association (ISPA), Andrew Kernahan, has today set out what sort of changes they’d like to see in order to improve Ofcom’s Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) process for handling serious consumer complaints against broadband providers. Would you support a pay to complain system?

UPDATE EE Confirm UK 4G Rollout Delay – Blames Ofcom Licence Fee Hike

1st August, 2014 (5 Comments)

Mobile operator EE (Everything Everywhere) has confirmed to ISPreview.co.uk that their new “superfast” 4G (LTE at 1800MHz, 800MHz and 2.6GHz) based Mobile Broadband network will not reach its originally predicted UK coverage target of 98% (population) by the end of 2014 and will instead fall short at 90%.

Ofcom Revises Huge UK 3G and 4G Mobile Operator Licence Fee Hike

1st August, 2014 (1 Comment)

The UK telecoms and media regulator has, following concerns from some of the major Mobile Network Operators, today launched another consultation on their controversial and Government-backed plans for a massive hike in annual licence fees for the 900MHz and 1800MHz radio spectrum bands. But the revised fees are still high.

BT Openreach Publishes Very Basic UK Key Performance Indicators

30th July, 2014 (1 Comment)

BTOpenreach, as part of its new commitments to Ofcom, has this week moved to make more information available about the performance of their work to maintain BT’s national UK telecoms and broadband network (e.g. repair and new service installation appointment times etc.), although it’s all very basic.

Broadband Customers Win Most of their ISP Complaints

24th July, 2014 (12 Comments)

A new survey conducted by Which? on 3,621 members of the public has revealed that 68% of consumers who escalate their complaint against a service or utility provider (e.g. broadband, phone, energy, water etc.), such as by using an independent ombudsman, win their case. But sadly 60% of those who attempted to resolve a complaint directly were left dissatisfied

Low UK Incomes Still Holding Back Home Broadband Adoption

22nd July, 2014 (5 Comments)

A second study from the UK telecoms regulator today, which looks at the affordability of communication services, reveals that the majority of consumers view phone, mobile and Internet connectivity as “essential” and (86%) “never had difficulties meeting the costs” of such connectivity. But the story is different for those on lower incomes.

UK ISP Adult Internet Website Blocking Report Finds Limited Take-up

22nd July, 2014 (3 Comments)

Ofcom has today published a new report that looks at the measures adopted by four of the largest broadband ISPs (BT, Virgin Media, TalkTalk and Sky Broadband) to help parents “protect children from harmful content online” by offering network-level filtering (censorship) systems to block adult sites. But adoption by new subscribers is fairly limited and there have been a number of errors.

BT Openreach UK Delays Start Date for Cheaper FTTC Migrations

21st July, 2014 (6 Comments)

Consumers hoping to benefit from cheaper migration fees (reduced from £50 to £11 +vat) between FTTC superfast broadband ISPs on BT’s national UK telecoms network will need to wait a little longer before they can benefit after BTOpenreach corrected the start date to 31st July 2014.

Ofcom Moot New Broadband ISP Switching Process for KC and Virgin Media

17th July, 2014 (2 Comments)

The UK communications regulator has launched another mini consultation (Call for Input) on the long road to introducing their new broadband and phone switching process, which once live could now be expanded to more fixed-line operators than just those operating off BT’s national copper telecoms network (e.g. KC and Virgin Media’s cable network).

BT Openreach Confirm Final UK Phone and Broadband Prices for 1st July

28th June, 2014 (3 Comments)

BTOpenreach has posted a lengthy list of price changes that represent the final outcome of Ofcom’s Fixed Access Market Reviews (FAMR), which are due to take effect from 1st July 2014 and include everything from the expected line rental adjustments to cheaper fault fixing engineer visits (Special Fault Investigation) etc. The list is quite extensive.

Ofcom Reports Sharp Rise in EE Home Broadband Complaints for Q1 2014

27th June, 2014 (2 Comments)

Ofcom’s quarterly consumer complaints report for Q1 2014 reveals that gripes about “service faults, billing and issues with changing provider” have triggered a sudden surge in complaints against EE’s fixed line home broadband packages, which means they’ve overtaken BT to become the most complained about of all the largest ISPs. Meanwhile TalkTalk continued to be the worst for fixed phone lines.

Ofcom UK Impose New Quality of Service Rules Upon BT Openreach

26th June, 2014 (10 Comments)

The national telecoms regulator has today confirmed that BTOpenreach, which maintains BT’s UK phone and broadband network, will from 1st July 2014 be officially required to meet tougher quality of service standards (i.e. faster installs, quicker repairs and making available more information about their performance to the public). Shorter contracts and cheaper FTTC switching are also coming.

UPD Ofcom Tackle BT’s Fibre Broadband Prices But Kill TalkTalk Complaint

19th June, 2014 (6 Comments)

The national UK telecoms regulator has today dropped TalkTalk’s “margin squeeze” complaint against BT’s superfast broadband (FTTC) prices, but has moved to promote competition in the market by launching a new consultation that would force BT to “maintain a sufficient margin between its wholesale and retail superfast broadband charges” and thus allow other ISPs “profitably to match its prices“.

Ofcom Probe ISP UKFSN and Start ADR Complaints Enforcement Programme

18th June, 2014 (5 Comments)

The UK telecoms regulator has re-started its monitoring and enforcement programme to check whether broadband and phone providers are giving consumers the required access to an approved Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) complaints handler. As part of this they’ve also begun an investigation of the UK Free Software Network (UKFSN), a small ISP run by Jason Clifford.