Forgot your password?
Win a place at the 2010 Mobile World Congress Barcelona
The Digital Communications KTN, working in association with UK Trade & Investment (UKTI), is pleased to announce a competition open to UK-based SMEs with an innovative new mobile or wireless solution or product. On offer are five free places to showcase your solution or product on the UKTI stand, located on the Avenida at the Mobile World Congress, Barcelona from 15 - 18 February 2010. This is your chance to introduce your high technology product to the more than 60,000 key industry decision makers that are expected to attend.
BT to roll-out faster broadband
BT Broadband is boosting the speeds of millions of its customers to up to 20 megabits per second at no extra cost.
Councils to develop new ways to keep their citizens better informed
Interactive consultation on planning applications are just one of the innovative ways ten councils around the country are making it easier for people to get information about their local council services, Communities Secretary Hazel Blears announced today (Monday, 6 April). A mix of councils in rural and urban areas are sharing £620,000 to pilot schemes that provide better local information for an estimated one million people, ranging from crime maps in Gloucestershire to a website for parents and carers of disabled children in Cambridgeshire.
Australia to get faster broadband
The Australian government has announced a massive project to extend broadband internet systems across the country.
Next generation broadband launches in the North West with Corridor Manchester
Today sees the official launch of Corridor Manchester, a new pilot scheme which will provide 500 businesses and 1,000 homes in the city with internet connection speeds that are up to 100 times faster than their current levels. The £500,000 project is funded by the NWDA and co-ordinated by the Manchester Digital Development Agency (MDDA).
Faster and cheaper broadband: Commission study shows significant fall in prices in 2008 in Europe
European consumers paid less for their fixed broadband internet access (DSL, cable modem, fibre) in 2008 than a year ago according to a study released today by the European Commission. However, there are significant differences between Member States in broadband retail prices and cost structure for similar products. EU rules should be consistently applied in a telecoms single market for all businesses and consumers equally.
Margaret Eaton on impact of superfast broadband on citizens and councils
In this Local Gov TV interview Margaret Eaton, Chair of the LGA, discusses how citizens and councils can benefit from universal access to high-speed broadband as recommended in Lord Carter's recent Digital Britain report.
Delivering Digital Britain - Next Gen Roadshows
Earlier this month the government published its interim Digital Britain Report. The first objective focuses on 'Upgrading and modernising our digital networks – wired, wireless and broadcast – so that Britain has an infrastructure that enables it to remain globally competitive in the digital world'. The report goes on to list a series of actions including 'The Government will help implement the Community Broadband Network’s proposals for an umbrella body to bring together all the local and community networks and provide them with technical and advisory support.'
Closing the UK's digital divisions
With broadband available on a monthly basis for less than £10 and laptops being given away free with some packages, there seems little reason for people not to be online.
Plans target Digital Britain push
Government plans to boost the digital and communications industries, which contribute more than £50bn a year to the UK economy, are due to be outlined.
Every house to have fast broadband
In an upcoming report from the communications minister Lord Carter, every household will be promised the infrastructure for high-speed broadband access.
Can broadband save the economy?
After the depression of the 1920s, US president Roosevelt started a public works programme which saw billions of dollars pumped into a series of projects, including the building of roads, airports and dams in an effort to reignite the economy.
Why would you need 50Mbps broadband?
You might want 50Mbps - especially if you're getting something more like the 3.2Mbps that thinkbroadband.com says is the average in the UK - but need and want are two different things. Virgin Media said on Monday that it is to start rolling out that next-gen speed to cable (not copper-wire ADSL) customers next year, meaning that they'll be able to download TV shows, films and music at blistering speeds: a 1.1GB film should download in around 15 minutes.
Broadband: Gap between best and worst performing countries in Europe narrowing
Broadband penetration in Europe continues to grow, from 18.2% in July 2007 to up to 21.7% in July 2008, according to a report published today by the European Commission. The report also shows the gap between EU countries narrowing, from 28.4 percentage points in July 2007 to 27.7 this July. With 17 million fixed broadband lines laid in a year, today's figures show high-speed internet in the EU is more widespread and faster, while mobile broadband is starting to take off, with 6.9% penetration. Three quarters of broadband lines in the EU have download speeds of 2 millions of bits per second (Mbps) and above, a speed that supports TV over the Internet, for example.
The numbers on fibre to the home just don't add up
In 1990 I went to the headquarters of a cable company in London. You might imagine that it was a gleaming temple to the new age of superfast broadband (a word that in those days was barely used outside laboratories). Instead it was a poky set of rented rooms up the top of some crumbling stairs in a Soho building. Being a cable company in the 1990s was a shortcut to bankruptcy: it cost so much to dig up the roads to install the fibre-optic cable, and then to hire staff to persuade customers to sign up to the services (in those days, just TV and phone; there was no internet), that most companies simply keeled over from debt. Thus the cable business contracted from dozens of operators to a handful, and then to one - NTL - which still struggled with its debts, and was reversed into by Virgin Media.
Closing the UK's digital divisions
With broadband available on a monthly basis for less than £10 and laptops being given away free with some packages, there seems little reason for people not to be online.
So we're internet freaks in the UK. But for how long?
To stay ahead in our adoption of mobiles, games and the internet we need to find a way to leapfrog our own telephone network
Super-fast broadband, bit by bit
The network that powers the next generation of broadband is going to be radically different from the one we currently have.
Silver Surfers Stole the Show at Westminster on October 23rd
Anyone tempted to label the over-50s as Luddites should have been at Portcullis House on October 23rd, 2008, when Bernard Featherstone of Eccles was awarded 2008 UK Silver Surfer of the Year Award. Runners-up: Judith Taylor, 80 of St Albans; Les Nicholls, 88 of Liverpool; Simbo Ogunyemi, 66, from SE London and Stuart Hill, 59, from Middlesbrough, were applauded, too.
We own chunks of the banks, now what about broadband?
For those of us passionate about reducing Britain's digital divide, these are the best and worst of times. The worst of times, we all know about: a gaping hole in the public accounts means little money available for good works that don't have immediate electoral appeal.
Win a place at the 2010 Mobile World Congress...