Broadband News

Despite relatively new Ofcom rules designed to ease the process of changing services, Reuters has reported that consumers are still facing an uphill struggle when it comes to switching broadband providers.

In an important move last year, Ofcom gave broadband suppliers a five-day time limit on supplying customers with a migration authorisation code (MAC), a digit that allows broadband users to switch provider smoothly. The general consensus was that the procedure had been improved. However, a poll of 1,480 people who tried to change broadband provider in the past twelve months found that many customers were still struggling.

38% of broadband users in a uSwitch.com survey said that they were not supplied with a MAC with five days of request and 14% confirmed that they had failed to get a MAC at all. Year on year, before the Ofcom rule was enforced only 11% of those partaking in the survey said that they did not receive the MAC code.

Responding on the finds, Steve Weller, head of communications at uSwitch.com urged Ofcom to impose fines on providers who failed to deliver a MAC: “Despite the mandatory code of practice being introduced, providers are still dragging their heals at the customer’s expense.”

Speaking on the results, Ofcom said that the number of MAC-related complaints had fallen from 825 in March 2007 to 517 last month. However, it also expressed concern that many ISPs were still not delivering a 5-day MAC deadline.

“Ensuring that consumers are able to switch their broadband supplier quickly, easily and with minimal service disruption remains a priority for Ofcom,” it said in a released statement. “Industry players should now expect that Ofcom may process directly to individual notifications of contravention without any further warnings where our investigation of an ISP demonstrates sufficient evident of contravention.”

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The European Commission has passed approval over proposals by Ofcom to deregulate parts of the UK broadband market where there is a good level of competition between ISPs.

Viviane Reding, EU Telecoms commissioner aired her views that she hoped other member states would take a similar approach and build up strong market competition in their own countries.

In a statement confirming the acceptance of proposal from Ofcom, the European Commission said:

“The Commission confirmed that Ofcom’s proposals for regulating this sector are consistent with the rules set out in the EU framework - and that the decision to tailor regulation to local competitive conditions through the identification of sub-national markets is justified.

Ofcom’s proposals include the removal of regulatory obligations in areas of the country where strong competition is now a reality, in keeping with its commitment to regulate only where it is necessary. The area covered by this proposed de-regulation accounts for approximately 65% of UK premises”

Widespread concern is now being expressed among broadband consumers that the lack of rules imposed on ISPs could mean that different subscription prices could be enforced on different areas in the country.

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Union leaders have aired their views on Ofcom’s plans to sell-off UK airwaves, by accusing the office of “betraying the nation”.

The regulatory board is currently working on plans to hold a 2009 auction to sell off the spectrum freed up by the UK’s digital switchover process. However, the announcement has been met with strong competition, according to the BBC.

Airing his views on the Westminster eForum, Tony Lennon, the president of BECTU – a UK union for broadcasting, film, theatre and interactive media told fellow forum members that he was stunned by the move: “If Ofcom gets it wrong it will be a massive act of treachery,” said Lennon. “Effectively what Ofcom is doing is selling it of to the highest bidder. Allowing the people with the biggest cheque-books to decide is not the best way.”

Following negative response, Ofcom is currently consulting on the details for the auction process and a full summary is expected by June this year. The bad news for broadband is that there is widespread concern over using the spectrum for internet purposes.

Matthew Howett, an analyst at research firm Ovum explained: “If all the newly available channels at 700-800 MHz were bought for broadband access in rural areas it would mean at best about 250Mbps (megabits per second) of capacity consumed by possibly many hundreds or even several thousand users. So it won’t go very far and it has precious little future for system upgrade.”

A similar auction is currently being held in the US, so many are looking at developments there to gauge an idea of how the auction will take place in the UK.

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A new survey conducted by Epitiro’s ISP-I technology has found that O2, a relatively new company in broadband (setting up its service last October) as been marked as one of the top five consumer ADSL broadband providers in the UK.

Marked up for technical performance in the second half of 2007 in Epitiro’s ADSL Internet Performance Indicator (IPI) Report, O2 slotted into the chart just behind PlusNet, BT topped the bill with Tiscali and Orange also achieving top five status.

The results were compiled after six months of technical testing where 11 of the competing ADSL broadband providers were check every fifteen minutes from the end-users’ perspective. Particular attention was paid to collection information on connection speed, reliability of internet connection, and download, upload, ping and domain name service (DNS) performance.

Speaking on the survey, Epitiro’s Managing Director told Computeractive: “While many customers are choosing their service provider on price alone, an increasing number seem to be choosing their service on download speeds, and judging their selection of company on crude online speed tests. Both approaches could lead to disappointment. It’s important to remember that download speed is just one indicator of broadband performance. Other factors such as the reliability and quality of the network connection are just as important as speed when judging an internet service.”

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A report in today’s Times suggests that new action will soon be taken to punish persistent illegal downloaders. In the article it states that the government will be asking ISPs to seriously considering banning anyone from their service who they suspect of film and music piracy.

Taking action will involve a warning email being sent out to first-time offenders, a second download offence would cause temporary suspension of the internet connection and the third would result in a permanent suspension of an ISP contract. As a way to ensure that ISPs will take the new legislation seriously ISPs who failed to enforce the new rules would face prosecution.

Recently, the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) and International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) both accused ISPs of giving subscribers the freedom to download music and films illegally without any risk of getting caught or suffering any consequences. However, PlusNet has expressed their concerns over possible new legislation to Web User magazine: “The technical and commercial implications of ISPs proactively tracking all downloads and blocking copyright material would be too much for any ISP to bear and would have an adverse effect of the industry as a whole. In addition to this, we have an obligation to our customers to protect their personal data.”

Not all have been so wary though. Tiscali has spoken in favour of the possible new ruling and others could follow suit. A Tiscali spokesperson commented: “We do not want illegal material travelling across our network and more than the music industry and we have worked with the BPI to suggest a three-strikes policy that is workable for us and them.”

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