Report lays out UK digital future

[shaithis]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8102756.stm

The main points outlined in the report include:

• a three year plan to boost digital participation

• universal access to broadband by 2012

• fund to invest in next generation broadband

• digital radio upgrade by 2015

• liberalisation of 3G spectrum

• legal and regulartory attack on digital piracy

• support for public service content partnerships

• changed role for Channel 4

• consultation on how to fund local, national and regional news

Mostly seems like fluff, apart from the bolded bit.......there goes another bit of our privacy.

[Agent]

Like it will change anything, apart from waste more money.

They'll end up taking someone to court, only for them to lose the disk containing all the evidence the day before, while it was actually their nextdoor neighbour that was doing the downloading over Wi-fi anyway.

They've missed the boat anyway. Most services are moving to 128bit encryption. Good luck on them monitoring that.

[dangel]

Oh good god OFCOM are going to make a pigs ear out of this. Still there's a complete lack of detail at this stage so they obviously haven't got a clue what they're going to do yet.

[kalniel]

Presumably legal and regulatory frame work means exactly that - it's not any kind of enforcement at the moment, just actually looking at the legal situation which is long overdue as our copyright laws are archaic.

You could also view it like this (theoretical situation):
Q: How do you eliminate 75% of piracy?
A: Make 75% of what used to be piracy legal, and compensate the industry with ISP top ups.

[handscombmp]

I'm more suprised at this...

Currently Britain stands at about seventh in global broadband league tables, below nations such as Korea, Japan, Sweden and Norway.

I thought that most of europe was better than us.

One thing that would also make me happy would be to get rid of download limits and make it so my internet isn't slow in the evening.

Who cares if i can get 50mbs if my download speed is only 1mbs unless i'm downloading at 3 in the morning.

[GoNz0]

what the funk, i have to pay 50p per month so some pikey can get free intenet ?

[kalniel]

One thing that would also make me happy was to get rid of download limits and make it so not just my internet is slow in the evening.

Fixed

[Agent]

what the funk, i have to pay 50p per month so some pikey can get free intenet ?

eh?
The article doesn't even contain the word "free" in it? I'm not quite sure what you're referring to here.

[GoNz0]

on the news they were on about bringing internet to everyone, even those that cannot afford it.

next thing we will be taxed a £1 a month to help buy people laptops !

[Giraffe]

It's typical Britain: aiming for 2 meg when most countries are looking towards 100 meg.

Bet there's no mention of minimum speed being 2 meg, so I'll see no improvement.

As for a tax on ISPs for music, I don't see why I should pay for something that I don't want.

[handscombmp]

As for a tax on ISPs for music, I don't see why I should pay for something that I don't want.

I pay for my music but if i'm being taxed for people that download it illegally i may start downloading illegally so i'm at least paying for what i'm using.

[kalniel]

on the news they were on about bringing internet to everyone, even those that cannot afford it.

next thing we will be taxed a £1 a month to help buy people laptops !

Or 20p of each pound we earn to do all sorts of things including helping people who don't earn any money! What is the world coming to!

[Phage]

I've got an issue with the numbers.
According to Deloittes The average cost per house for installing fibre would be around USD 1,000.
http://www.deloitte.co.uk/TMTPredict...-sovereign.cfm
Given that the UK had approx 22m households in 2001
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/census2...es/housing.asp
We should expect a total cost of $22bn or £14.7bn.
This charge isn't a band-aid on an elephants arse. It's more likely just another indirect tax heading straight for the 'General Revenue' account. They'll be plenty more like this as the Govt of the day looks to raise money any way it can.

[kalniel]

I've got an issue with the numbers.
According to Deloittes The average cost per house for installing fibre would be around USD 1,000.
http://www.deloitte.co.uk/TMTPredict...-sovereign.cfm
Given that the UK had approx 22m households in 2001
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/census2...es/housing.asp
We should expect a total cost of $22bn or £14.7bn.
This charge isn't a band-aid on an elephants arse. It's more likely just another indirect tax heading straight for the 'General Revenue' account. They'll be plenty more like this as the Govt of the day looks to raise money any way it can.

They aren't looking to install fibre in every household.

[dangel]

They aren't looking to install fibre in every household.

Sadly not, because that would actually be meaningful!

[Phage]

I undertsand that. But they should be. And the prices for string any sort of cable are similar...The points I was making are 1) This isn't going to raise enough cash for a <strike>2nd house</strike> good lunch, never mind a new network of whatever format. 2) Anything less than a leapfrog to a fibre-to-thecurb is pretty much a waste of time.