An apparent leak late Sunday suggests that Vodafone may be interested in buying T-Mobile's British division. Reported sources for FT have the former either buying the smaller UK carrier or else establishing a joint venture. The deal would be possible thanks to T-Mobile's widely rumored dire financial state, which may have left the company with little choice but to look for a partner.
British cellular carriers O2 and Vodafone are being asked by the government to share their 3G spectrum as part of an effort to supply rural broadband. Although the two providers are currently the exclusive holders of the 900MHz band for faster wireless data, officials at the independent regulator Ofcom are asking the two to allow at least one other carrier to share the space and build out coverage in those areas that aren't already served.
British telecom regulator Ofcom today put into effect a new set of guidelines meant to improve the state of Internet access in the UK. The voluntary system requires Internet providers who agree to the terms to give users a better idea of the real-world maximum speeds of the Internet connections and also guarantees that customers can step down their service plans without suffering a penalty fee.
The British music and film industries finally received the cooperation they have been seeking from Internet Service Providers in helping them fight illegal file downloading. A report on Thursday has six of the country's largest Internet providers sending warning letters to subscribers suspected of illegal file downloading and sharing. The decision to do so is commonly believed to be spurred by the British government, which announced earlier this year that it would impose its own laws forcing them to police how their services are used had they failed to cooperate voluntarily.
Ofcom, the UK communication industry's independent regulator, is planning to make a voluntary standard for Internet providers to follow when advertising their maximum connection speeds. More than 90 percent of the country's ISPs agreed to complying with the new code, which would give customers a more accurate comparison of performance between companies when shopping for a new provider.
British telecoms regulator Ofcom today confirmed that national carrier O2 has met its minimum targets for a rollout of 3G Internet service in the country. The cellular provider is said to have supplied at least 80 percent of the UK's population with the faster wireless Internet service. O2's buildout helps the company avoid the equivalent of a $79.6 million fine if it failed to expand its coverage area by the end of June, six months after the official goal of December 31st, 2007. Of the five carriers authorized for 3G, only O2 has taken as much time to reach its necessary target, Ofcom says.
Britain's telecoms regulator Ofcom on Friday confirmed that it would hold a new auction for wireless space in the country. Partly echoing the just-completed FCC auction in the US, the UK agency will allow portions of spectrum in the 2GHz and 2.6GHz spaces to be used for different wireless services. This is likely to involve fourth-generation data services such as "evolutions of 3G technology" or WiMAX, Ofcom says.
People are still paying too much for roaming data use in other countries, says Ofcom, the official regulator of media and telecommunications in the UK. The group is pressuring cellular carriers to reduce their charges within the European Union, which can sometimes be prohibitively expensive; Ofcom chief Ed Richards notes that last summer, the average roaming price for 1MB of data was £4.11. "It could cost tens of pounds to download a single PowerPoint presentation," Richards has told the Financial Times.
