Campaigners urge Ofcom to put wires underground

From our mailbag: Friends of the Lake District (FLD) is a registered charity, established in 1934, with the objects of protecting and conserving the landscape of the Lake District and Cumbria. A specific concern for FLD is the visual intrusion of overhead wires and poles (landlines) particularly in designated areas i.e. ...

Who are the users generating content?

Any reader of CommsWatch will be more than familiar with the growth of user-generated content on the Internet. But who is generating this content and how widespread is the trend? Ofcom's recent publication "The Communications Market 2006" is a rich source of data to be mined and provides some ...

Digital divide still there

The latest ONS figures on Internet connectivity are no cause for complacency. They suggest that the proportion of homes in Great Britain (excluding Northern Ireland) connected to the Net is 57%. No UK figure is given but, since Net take-up in Northern Ireland is lower than for most of the ...

Another great event - Brussels (8-9 Nov)

The 7th Annual Telecoms Regulation & Competition Law conference. I was there last year and it was very informative. This year's lineup looks impressive as well.

Ofcom thank you for smoking

Was it just me, or was yesterday's broadcast bulletin released by Ofcom -- the one where Tom & Jerry are caught smoking -- eerily similar to the scene in 'Thank You For Smoking' where they discuss digitally editing old Hollywood movies to remove the cigarettes? The Telegraph (Hugh Davies) had the ...

Upcoming Media and Communications Policy Events

Hey folks, in the immortal words of Jim Anchower, it's been a long time since I rapped at ya... If you are planning your autumn schedule, I just wanted to highlight some of the upcoming events we have listed down on our sidebar: 19-20 Sept (London) - Mobile Content World. The ...

Mobile Dead Zone

A web site which encourages mobile phone users to register their complaints against each operator by identifying intersections and landmarks where their phone continually drops off has been launched in the UK. "Dead Zones", a "Wiki" of mobile phone coverage complaints, aims to create an open forum for mobile phone ...

The Times slams Stephen Carter’s candidacy for ITV post

Yesterday's Times had an op-ed piece commenting on the idea that Stephen Carter might take the top post at ITV. The Times said in part: It is . . . far too soon for [Stephen Carter] to switch to running a business that he has recently been regulating. The nature of ...

Question: Who is the Chuck Norris of telecoms engineers?

Answer here. I wish T-Mobile would hire this guy - I get no mobile signal in OX7!

New Telecoms/Media Source

Found a nice new source of telecoms/media information today, when I saw that Investment Banking firm Near Earth LLC had announced the launch of its new online library. Near Earth will publish a continuing series of whitepapers related to the Satellite, Media & Telecommunications industries that can be downloaded from ...

About OfcomWatch

Mission - OfcomWatch is an informal group blog commenting on the processes and practices of the Office of Communications (Ofcom) and related media and communications regulation issues both in the United Kingdom and around the world...

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May 9th 2008
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Ofcom pluralism book: Tim Suter on impartiality in broadcasting

I thought one of the more engaging articles in Ofcom's recent book on pluralism was written by Tim Suter. In his piece Suter questions the notion that rules on due impartiality are coherent and future-proof. He writes in part: 'The fact that the requirement for impartiality stretches back to ...
May 6th 2008
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UK no. 1 in broadband international league table…

According to the OECD's most recent statistics, the UK is number 1 in the international league table of people videoing their destruction of ADSL wireless routers: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgBNc8Z0Zxk[/youtube] What is it about BT Home Hubs that drive people to violence?
May 4th 2008
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The GMTV phone-in scandal: Was Ofcom too soft?

On Friday, Ofcom denied my FOI Act request to uncover how much money GMTV refunded to victims of its wrongdoing. Ofcom stated that the information was subject to exemption 44 under the FOI Act and also stated 'Ofcom have not conducted any follow up and therefore we do not ...
May 2nd 2008
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OfcomWatch Friday Film Festival: Tiscali under scrutiny…

Here's an instant classic: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cBVAu927mw[/youtube]
May 1st 2008
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Rapture responds to OW post about Ofcom appeal…

This is Rapture thing is getting a bit tired. Isn't the fundamental problem here that satellite television carriage is just really expensive and under-capitalised firms who want to reach the public are better off just maintaining a web presence? I had the unfortunate task in my earlier job ...

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