Communication Breakdown
Communications from the world of, er, communications. And other stuff.
Wednesday 27 June 2007, 11:13 AM
3G auctions weren't 'economic activity'
In a surreal end to an epic struggle between the mobile operators and the EU, the European Court of Justice has ruled that "the award by the State of 3G mobile telecommunications licences by auction does not constitute an economic activity".
To recap, the operators all shelled out billions of pounds on their 3G licences, but didn't really have the business case (or decent handsets) to recoup that money for a good few years afterwards. Understandably, they then tried to claim back some of that money from the Treasury. Their argument went vaguely along the lines of: "Hang on, surely some of the money we payed was VAT? We should have that back. Please."
Last year they were definitively told to get lost, but yesterday's ruling by the ECJ must feel like salt being rubbed in the wound. I'm not usually one to feel sorry for mobile operators, but it must be somewhat galling to be told that a multi-billion-pound auction "does not constitute an economic activity"!
Tuesday 26 June 2007, 11:53 AM
It's convergence gone mad!
Blimey, no-one can accuse BT of not diversifying. Once a boring old phone company, it has since become an ISP, an IT services company and now... a bank. Sort of.
The BT Credit Card has "competitive rates", apparently, but it also gets you money off your phone and broadband bills (at the whopping rate of a penny off for every £2 you spend on the card, although if you spend more than £250 that becomes a penny a pound). Available from today.
Is this what they mean by "convergence"? What's next, a handy bundle containing WiMax connectivity, carbon credits and dental insurance? Where will it all end...?!
Monday 25 June 2007, 5:24 PM
PlusNet's Polished mirror
PlusNet has always been quite good at catering to various segments of the market, but even they have stopped shy of introducing a foreign-language internet provision service within the UK - until now.
Today the ISP launched a mirror version of its normal website, but in Polish. Over to the company's product director, Neil Armstrong: "With the Polish community in the UK now numbering more than 750,000 people – two per cent of the global Polish population – we’re addressing their needs in a way that makes sense for them. We have had a strong Polish contingent working within PlusNet for over two years which has enabled us to launch a service that focuses on the community’s needs, in their native language of course."
It's all absolutely fascinating. I've never heard of any ISP offering a service within the UK that wasn't in English (or any other language generally considered to be native to these isles). And, if PlusNet's offering is the first, for it to be in Polish is extraordinary, considering how the Polish population in the UK has only really shot up in the last few years. Is there not an ISP that offers a Bengali service? Urdu?
I may be underinformed, so correct me if you know better...
Friday 22 June 2007, 12:03 PM
Mislead for speed
OK, so we all know that paying for an "8Mbps" broadband connection will not, in all likelihood, get you 8Mbps (due to a variety of reasons, not all the ISPs' fault). But it is a point worth driving home, just in case we get desensitised to the idea of advertisers being economical with the truth.
A moneysupermarket.com survey has shown that only 1 in 5 consumers get the broadband speed they signed up for. Amazingly, only 30 percent - out of a possible 80 percent - feel they have been misled. Like I say, perhaps these days we just expect it...
Thursday 21 June 2007, 4:16 PM
Relief over radio mic spectrum
A lot of people involved in live entertainment and events were probably raising a glass or two to Ofcom last night after the regulator announced new proposals for the radio frequencies used by wireless microphones.
This has all got to do with the so-called digital dividend, which is what will happen when all the analogue signals get switched off in favour of digital (a process which will happen gradually over the next five years or so). That switchover means a whole lot of spectrum will go up for auction, a process that generally favours the rich. There had, understandably, been general dismay within the stage/concert/church/event industries over the idea that the frequencies used for wireless mics would end up going to the highest bidder - and quite possibly used for something else.
What's wrong with using a digital wireless signal, you might say. Well, in a word: latency. A stage production like Lord Of The Rings or whatever would be well and truly stuffed if it wasn't co-ordinated to a split-split-second degree, and you can only do that reliably with analogue.
Funnily enough, the responses that Ofcom received in its initial consultation over the issue tended towards the "are you mad?" variety. So the new options look a bit like this: a) the spectrum could still go up for auction, but bidders would have to keep using it for what it's currently used for, know what they're doing and make it available to those who need it; or b) Ofcom chooses, through a "beauty contest", some organisation to manage the spectrum. Either way, charities, religious organisations and community groups get guaranteed access, and everyone else gets as fair a shot as they do now.
All together now: Phew. Now all that remains is for the final plan to take shape - something that will happen after the consultation on these new proposals shuts at the end of August. Those with something to add know who to call.
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