The primary suggestion by Ofcom is that broadband providers must take initiative when it comes to setting up new customers with the service, by empowering the new providers to offer a seamless, uninterrupted service. The company has also warned that simplification of the process may lead to a higher incidence of ‘slamming’, whereby people get their broadband switched to a different provider without giving their permission. Ofcom are currently investigating the issue of people’s reluctance to switch, and coming up with a series of potential solutions to make the broadband market more fair and competitive.

Currently, nearly half of broadband provision is tied up with other services including phone line rental, digital television and mobile services, making it even harder for consumers to change providers if they are dissatisfied with the service which they receive.

A spokesperson for the company commented: “There are a lot of different switching processes in the communications market, some the industry came up with, some the previous regulators sorted out – so it’s not surprising that people don’t find it easy to switch. There needs to be some level of consumer protection in there, but the process needs to be simple enough for people to take advantage of competition, better services and cheaper prices.”

A spokesperson for ThinkBroadband added his view: “The proposal is not without its potential pitfalls, one of which could be a rise in high-pressure sales tactics from providers. We welcome the review by Ofcom of the switching process as it is clearly causing frustration for consumers. However, any improvements on the current systems should ensure that the consumer is able to make an informed decision about switching.”

“What we need is a system similar to that used by banks which permits the transfer of direct debits and standing orders from one bank to another. A similar process for communications services could include details of any services within the bundle, including those which cannot be transferred, and consumers could then make a decision on how to proceed.”

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The Central African Republic is the most expensive, while Macao in China is the cheapest, costing just 0.3% of the average monthly income. Niger is also expensive when it comes to accessing communications services, based upon figures for landline and mobile connections.

Dr. Hamadoun Toure, a spokesperson for the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), issued a statement: “I believe technologies such as broadband could be used to accelerate progress on the goals and help countries achieve them. Mobile phones have proliferated throughout Africa and the world. Unfortunately many observers will say that we run the risk of not meeting the goals. But I think the focus should be on how we meet the goals. I am putting ICT [Information and Communication Technologies] as an opportunity of meeting the goals.”

“In particular, broadband and connectivity could be used to develop e-health and e-education programmes. Broadband would allow people in rural and remote areas to access state of the art health facilities and doctors. You will also be able to ensure that students around the world will have access to the best universities at their fingertips. That can only be done if [connectivity] is accessible and affordable.”

Claire Godfrey, the senior policy advisor for Oxfam, stated: “Technology could help accelerate progress on the MDGs, but the root causes of poverty must be addressed first, including access to clean water, adequate food, free healthcare and education. Rich countries’ governments need to meet their aid commitments, with sustainable, well-targeted and predictable aid and they need to help poorer countries to make health care and education free”

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Analysis by Ofcom suggests that up to 97 percent of UK customers are not benefiting from the speed of broadband which they imagine they are paying for. There is a disparity, according to Ofcom, between the ISP’s claims about speeds, and what is actually being delivered to consumers.

In a bid to mitigate the disparity, Ofcom are rewriting the rules governing broadband provision and are calling for legislation which tightens the provision of broadband. According to Ofcom, on average, homes in the UK are getting faster broadband, as it has gone from 4.1Megabits per second (Mbps) to 5.2Mbps. Despite this improvement, speeds are still not reaching the advertised capacity. By using advertising language such as ‘up to’ for broadband speeds, providers are being misleading.

Ed Richards, the chief executive of Ofcom, commented “The survey revealed a growing gap between what people were sold and the reality of their broadband service. The gap between the average headline speed and actual speed has increased in this period even though the actual speed has risen. In 2009, when actual speeds for broadband were 4.1mbps, the average that those services were being advertised for stood at 7.1Mbps. In 2010, when people are generally getting 5.2Mbps out of their broadband, ISPs are claiming they will support speeds up to 11.5Mbps. Selling broadband is tricky because of the many factors that can influence the speed that a consumer experiences.”

“It is not a homogenous product. There are challenges of wiring, line length and interference and so on. It’s not as simple as taking an absolute standard product. It’s a complicated product, more complicated than anyone imagined.”

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Jeremy Hunt, Culture Secretary, has stated that the deadline of 2012 was unrealistic, as there were insufficient finds to achieve the project. BT have also voiced doubts, as the aspirational project would incur costs of billions of pounds, the majority of which would have to be obtained through public funding.

BT’s ‘Openreach’ Chief Executive commented: “Last month, I announced that we were supporting a universal service level of 2 Mbps as the very minimum that should be available. I have looked at the provision the Government had made to achieve this by 2012. And I’m afraid that I am not convinced that there is sufficient funding in place. So, while we will keep working towards that date, we have set ourselves a more realistic target of achieving universal 2 Mbps access within the lifetime of this Parliament.”

Despite some excellent pans for revolutionizing digital access and transforming technology, the government does not have the funds to achieve the projects. With the exception of an estimated £175m allocated for digital switchover, cost cutting is on the agenda, as evidenced by the recent review of governmental websites.

The Culture Secretary has suggested that some of the funding allocated for the digital switchover could be diverted in to broadband projects, but the only real solution to achieving the project was to obtain funding by industry investors within the UK, providing financial backing and technological advice. With around five million houses requiring an upgrade to superfast broadband, the project will be both costly and ambitious.

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The media giants are promising a more efficient service, which promises to shake up the broadband industry and create healthy competition for fast performance.

In addition, Virgin will be supplying modems optimised for 400 Mbps performance, and routers to accommodate the new speedy service. Future plans for the company include making the Virgin Media network available through new overhead cables, to an additional million consumers.

With the new speed, people will be able to download a full music album in a matter of seconds, or a film in under a couple of minutes. In his statement, Jon James said: “We have a big fat dial to give more capacity to customers and there will be a steady series of upgrades. Consumers are beginning to want more out of their connections. The crunch point is coming. There is a step-change in what people are trying to do with their broadband connection.”

Cloud computing, which enables shared resources, software and information to be provided on-demand, like electricity, is the future of high-speed connections and data transfer through broadband. Virgin Media are planning to make this service available to all homes, rather than keeping it in the realm of business services. A spokesperson for Virgin commented that the new service would remove issues people experience with IT currently, as photographs, films and documents could be accessed via the cloud.

This service, combined with the growing trend for home working, teleconferencing and 3D gaming, are all placing pressure on the broadband to provide faster, more efficient services to satisfy users.

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Rather than implementing the tax, the government are choosing to leave the roll-out of broadband to private investment. He also confirmed that money would be made available to assist rural areas to access broadband.

When Labour first announced their plans to place a tax upon broadband usage, the Conservatives were strongly opposed to the idea. The plan was then dropped from the Finance Bill agenda. George Osborne commented; I am happy to be able to abolish this new duty before it is even introduced. Instead, we will support private broadband investment, including to rural areas, in part with funding from the Digital Switchover under-spend within the TV Licence Fee.”

The Liberal Democrats were in favour of creating funds for broadband roll-out in rural areas, but this planned change by Labour came under criticism from the Tories. The plan was dropped prior to the dissolution of parliament. Despite this, the UK coalition government appears to be supporting ongoing enhancements in broadband provision.

Jeremy Hunt, Culture Secretary, has announced that he intends to make Britain the best provider of superfast broadband services in Europe. One of the ways he is considering to achieve this is by making companies which currently supply fuel and water to allow fibre to be laid within the existing ducts, to enhance service provision. This is hoped to be a cheaper alternative than digging up roads to lay new ducts.

Ed Vaizey, the new broadband minister, will oversee the roll-out of next generation broadband and has been asked to provide all homes with 2Mbps minimum speed by 2012.

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O2, Orange and Vodafone will all supply the more expensive iPad that Apple will be releasing, this model will include both Wi-Fi and 3G mobile internet capabilities.

For anyone out there thinking that they may be able to put their current iPhone sim-card into the iPad, think again. Apple have been quite cheeky and have made the iPad work via a micro sim-card so users will have to sign up with a network in order to use 3G services on their tablet.

None of the networks have given any information about what sort of price plans they will be offering, this information is likely to be released along with the iPad pricing system on the delayed date of May 10th.

T-Mobile customers need not be too disheartened as the company have announced that talks with Apple are ongoing and that customers will be updated when more information becomes available.

All of the networks are planning to tie the iPad price plans with the current price plans provided for the iPhone meaning that a customer already on an iPhone contract will be given a micro-sim for use with their iPad costing them an additional monthly fee on top of their current contract.

Apple, however, favour the idea of a pay as you go system allowing users to pay only for the amount of broadband access they use rather than having to rely on contracts, this should in turn make the networks offer both options.

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However, BT has admitted that most of these connections will not technically be ‘fibre to the premise’ connections, rather ‘fibre to the cabinet’ connections where fibreoptic cables are hooked up to junction boxes on roads. ‘Fibre to the premesis’ connections are likely to be installed mainly in urban areas.

The new BT networks will be offered on a wholesale basis, which means that competitors like Sky and Carphone Warehouse will eventually be able to lease these high speed connections from BT and offer their own services through them.

The government has made high speed internet access a priority over the last few months, with the Digital Britain report even going so far as to pledge universal broadband access, at speeds of at least two megabits per second, across the UK by 2012.

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Out of the 66 countries whose broadband signal was ranked, Britain came an embarrassing 25th, putting us behind the likes of less developed eastern-block countries like Latvia and Bulgaria. The one comforting thing to come out of the report is that we are classified as ‘meeting current requirements’, which at least puts us ahead of countries like Brazil, Argentina, and China who have always had a combative relationship with the internet.

The fastest, as if you needed to ask, are Japan and Korea which are approaching the threshold of 1 gigabit a second. That’s right, I said One Gigabit a second. This speed will apparently be universal in Japan and Korea by 2012. Just to give you appoint of reference on exactly how fast that is, the worldwide average speed is 4.75 Megabit per second.

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Governments have been struggling to cope with the problem of file sharing and illegal downloading for years now and legislators are watching closely to see whether or not the law can be made to work. If so, it could have a huge knock on effect globally.

Under the current proposal, bans could range from two months to a full year, depending on the severity of the offences.

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Impressive as it is the trial has not been cheap, a whopping £1.5 billion pounds has been earmarked for the project. This represents the single largest investment in fast Broadband technology ever seen in this country.

A few very lucky computer users in Cardiff and North London will have the opportunity to test out the super fast internet speeds this summer ahead of the main roll-out.

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The think-tank has described the scale of the task as massive and has advised the government to seek cooperation between it, the regulator and the operators if it is going to have any success. This crossroads for the UK’s broadband  provision comes 10 years after the first broadband connection was established in the UK. Now analysts are predicting that adoption will reach 90% of all UK homes within another 10 years, making a success of it is critically important.

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Obviously there are still a great many rural and poor Chinese people who have little hope of ever using a computer, let alone the internet. For this reason, China is unlikely to get to the percentages of people online enjoyed by most western countries. Even so, if the number only ever rose to 30 percent that would still make it the largest domestic market in the world, with around 400 million eager consumers online.

The 298 million number represents a 41.9 percent spike from last year. In addition to the general proliferation of the internet in China, the Chinese authorities are putting the increase down to an explosion last year in the number of people accessing the internet via mobile devices like iPhones.

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So says a survey conducted by Harris Interactive and Intel, which quizzed 2,119 Americans about their Internet usage. The survey aimed to measure reliance on the Internet but ended up revealing some truly startling Stats.

It would appear that of all the discretionary spending that Americans engage in, Internet access is considered the most vital, above gym membership, shopping for clothes, dining out, and even cable television.

The ‘banner finding of the study’ was this: 30% of men and 46% of women would rather give up sex for two weeks than Internet.

These findings are all very amusing, though they also point to a growing shift in the importance of the Internet to people. There are numerous likely reasons for this though first and foremost are probably web 2.0 innovations like Internet TV and social networking that have transferred the Internet from a tool to aid your lifestyle to something approaching a lifestyle in its own right.

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