A lot of chatter around the European Competitive Telecoms Association (ECTA) conference in Brussels earlier this month focused on the spectacular work in reducing broadband prices, driving investment and encouraging entry and innovation – in France. OfCom agrees: look at the price/speed/investment comparisons in this chart series by Ed Richards introducing Phase 2 of the [...]
Today’s Guardian celebrates Ofcom’s 1st birthday with a review of the regulator’s first year, and makes the following comment:
“Although it seems Ofcom is engaged in an ever-growing number of reviews and consultations, its modus operandi resembles the creative processes of Rolf Harris. Like the antipodean artist, Ofcom has been working on different parts of the [...]
As everyone knows, Ofcom completes its first year as the UK�s media and communications regulator on December 29. So how did the regulator perform? Here are my thoughts:
What strikes me as the dominant theme after the first year of the new regulatory scheme is the enduring power of both BT and the BBC. This is [...]
ComReg, the Irish telecoms regulator, has announced on Wednesday a significant reduction of the Local Loop Unbundling (LLU) Process Charges that Irish incumbent Eircom charges other operators. The charge is reduced to �58 from the current charge of �121.52, with the reduction to take effect on 1 February 2005. This [...]
For those of us who had problems keeping up with the rapid developments in British broadband this year, yesterday�s 2004: the year of British broadband on the Register might help put things in order.
Amit Rainhartz
Ofcom has given today its Christmas present for holders of WT Act licences: the introduction of spectrum trading. This is seen as an important part of securing the optimal use of spectrum and will enable licences holders to transfer all or part of their rights and obligations under the licenses to another party.
Next in the [...]
For those of you comms lawyers obsessed with Microsoft but not paying attention to other matters, see the decision in context in The Register’s 2004 patents round-up. Nice of them to also mentino Creative Commons UK!
Ofcom today announced the completion of its own role in the statutory process for the Capital Radio plc and GWR Group plc proposed merger.
The assessment of key competition aspects of the proposed merger has been undertaken by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT). The OFT will announce its conclusions today.
Change of Control ruling
Ofcom has [...]
BT giveth and BBC taketh away – though in fairness Cult didn’t have much Eric and Ernie anyway…
The OFT today issues 14 documents relating to the Modernisation Regulation – including updated guidelines on application of concurrency between its powers and those of OfCom.
Competition lawyers in communications can enjoy their Christmas week here.
Maybe OFT has outdone OfCom on a publication splurge before Christmas?!
For those who want to check on the progress of the UN Secretary General’s Working Group, which reports to the World Summit in Tunis next autumn, here’s their website and work programme.
Note that spam recurrs like … well, err … spam. But it’s such a fundamental challenge to a global, end-to-end anonymous network that it [...]
So following my Happy Hannukah posting on 6th December, OfCom releases its LLU charges and the second of the Christmas gifts is given. That should also deliver the first, more broadband penetration…eventually.
And 3G – well, new licences – the third gift – this one for BT.
Before we start talking about ‘Mystical Meg OfComWatch’, we need [...]
The PSB Phase 2 comments are posted on Ofcom’s website. They are here.
Admittedly, I’m no expert on how regulators should make information available to the public, but Ofcom often does a poor job on responses to consultations. I think the problem is not Ofcom’s intentions, but the system design. You know: [...]
The Times reports
“THE phone company 3 is planning legal action against the Government to recover some of the �1 billion it was forced to spend on the launch of its next generation mobile network.
It is the only phone operator to have reached the stringent market penetration targets set by Ofcom [ed - I think [...]
The House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport committee published its report on the BBC today – A Public BBC. The committee has been gathering evidence over the past few months.
This report will feed into the DCMS’ BBC Charter Review process, and its recommendations will help to shape the Green Paper on the BBC’s [...]
Today on The Independent, Gavyn Davies discusses the �rights and wrongs� of consensus over the BBC�s Charter renewal. He agrees with the �strong belief, typified in recent Ofcom reports, that the future role of commercial broadcasters in providing public service broadcasting (PSB) in the UK will be a shrinking one� and therefore �the responsibility placed [...]
The FCC has voted to allow wireless internet access on airplanes.
“We are pushing the frontiers in order to bring the information age to all corners of the world,’ said Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell on Wednesday after a unanimous vote approving the new technology for U.S. airlines. ‘We want it on the land, in [...]
Ofcom today announced final connection and rental charges for Local Loop Unbundling (LLU) services. The charge reductions follow previous consultations on 13 May 2004 and 26 August 2004 and will come into effect from 1 January 2005.
Ofcom has now completed its Review of the Wholesale Local Access market which started in May this year, when [...]
As part of an initiative by the European Regulators Group (ERG), the telecoms National Regulatory Authorities (NRAs) of the EU member states have recently sent questionnaires on International Roaming to the Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) in their respective jurisdictions. The ERG is the independent body set up by the EU Commission to advise on electronic [...]
The House of Commons held a Westminster Hall debate yesterday on the future of regional broadcasting. There was heavy criticism of Ofcom and its proposals for regional non-news coverage.
There was also a good section on the lack of information provided by the minutes of Ofcom board meetings – something which has been annoying us [...]
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