News

British ISPs 'could make up to £200m from legal downloads'

The UK music downloads market could generate up to £200m a year for internet service providers such as BSkyB and Virgin Media within three years, according to a new report. British music industry trade body the BPI estimates that the UK’s major ISPs - BT, Virgin Media, BSkyB, O2, Orange and TalkTalk - could make between [...]

France Télécom Needs 'Radical Change' After Suicides, Report Says

France Télécom’s new management must move quickly “to take charge and encourage radical change” if it is to put an end to a suicide crisis, according to a study commissioned by the company. The team of Stéphane Richard, who formally succeeded Didier Lombard as chief executive on March 1, has a “few weeks” to install a [...]

Internet access is 'a fundamental right': BBC World Service survey

Almost four in five people around the world believe that access to the internet is a fundamental right, a poll for the BBC World Service suggests. The survey - of more than 27,000 adults across 26 countries - found strong support for net access on both sides of the digital divide. Countries such as Finland and Estonia [...]

Italy's biggest telecoms firm faces an uncertain future

There could not be a better warning of the risks of getting involved with Italy's national phone company: in late February Telecom Italia said an investigation into alleged large-scale tax fraud and money-laundering involving Sparkle, its wholesale voice and broadband unit, and a rival broadband firm, Fastweb, had forced it to delay the announcement of [...]

EU asks who will pay for high-speed Internet

The EU plans to revise rules governing access to the Internet and telephones throughout the bloc. Yesterday (2 March) the European Commission launched a consultation asking whether money for wider broadband coverage should come from the public purse or from industry coffers. In the consultation, the Commission will be asking whether Internet access should be a [...]

EU to tackle radio spectrum access

At an EU summit in late March, the EU will talk about how the bloc can reallocate radio spectrum to catch up with US broadband coverage. But the issue is hotly contested, a situation which an EU consultation launched yesterday (4 March) will seek to resolve. The European Parliament and the European Commission will jointly host [...]

US Microsoft 'to sell phone on Verizon by summer'

Microsoft is aiming to launch two phones that will be sold by top US mobile operator Verizon Wireless in late spring or early summer, a person briefed on the matter said yesterday. The phones would be targeted at heavy users of social network sites, according to the person who asked not to be identified as [...]

Strain on HTC From Apple Suit Is Likely to Be Long-Term; Google Backs HTC

Apple’s patent lawsuit against HTC will not cause major problems for the Taiwan technology company in the short term, analysts said Wednesday. But it could strain its relations with partners in the crucial U.S. market and test its leadership, adding to its challenges in the increasingly competitive smartphone field. About half of HTC’s revenue comes from [...]

Ofcom to investigate UK net neutrality

Ofcom is to launch a consultation into network neutrality later this spring, the UK telecoms regulator has announced. Traffic management techniques and policies have become widely implemented across Europe, Ofcom chief Ed Richards said on Wednesday at the Cable Congress conference in Brussels. That trend, coupled with recent EU legislation, means that national regulators must examine [...]

U.S. to fund broadband plan through existing programs

The U.S. National Broadband Plan set for release this month will not call for additional spending beyond the existing programs, a move likely to garner support from lawmakers, a Federal Communications Commission official said on Wednesday. The highly anticipated blueprint will be “revenue neutral” overall because spectrum auctions will compensate for any needed spending, said the [...]