BROADBAND BREAKFAST INSIGHT: Major new expansion by wholesale infrastructure provider CityFibre in U.K., giving more credence to the “open access” model that is beginning to be deployed globally. Under such a model, one entity owns the fiber infrastructure, with another selling retail internet access services to customers. Frequently, there is yet another entity that provider… Keep Reading
Broadband Breakfast Insight: Unlike the United States, the UK has a system of “structural separations” – at least in theory – where the provider of the wholesale networks (Openreach) is to be separated from its sister-provider of retail broadband services (BT). This article recounts some of the controversies that have now come to a head.… Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, October 19, 2015 - The Federal Communications Commission on Friday announced that it had launched an investigation into the broadband pricing plans of local exchange carriers AT&T, CenturyLink, Frontier and Verizon Communications for so-called "special access services" of business data.
A coalition of competitive carriers and non-profit organizations dubbed Competify has been urging the inquiry, and praised Friday's order by the agency's Wireline Communications Bureau.
"The incumbents use inherently anticompetitive lock-up plans – which only an entity with immense market power could impose – to charge businesses and anchor institutions excessive access rates that harm competition, restrain the deployment of competitive facilities, and impede the transition to next-generation services," according to a statement released by the group.
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WASHINGTON, March 17, 2013 – A recent wrap-up of global broadband news included the following items: Islands of Sicily The telecommunications company BT has announced plans to fund a 3.7 million Euro plan to “bring high-speed fibre broadband to the isles of Sicily,” according to digitalspy.com. The initiative will facilitate unused fibre-optic cables that have… Keep Reading
LONDON, November 1, 2010 - The United Kingdom’s first widely available 100 megabits per second fiber-to-the-home broadband service will be launched in December by the country’s dominant cable television operator Virgin Media, leading to a war of words with arch rival BT, the country’s former incumbent telecommunications carrier. Keep Reading
LONDON, July 13, 2010 - The United Kingdom government is under pressure to increase funding for deployment of superfast broadband in rural areas following several public surveys confirming widespread support for positive discrimination in favor of the country’s remote communities. The “outside-in” approach of starting with rural areas first is supported by 62% of the population, according to the latest survey of 453 respondents by ISPreview.co.uk, an independent site dedicated to information about broadband services and providers. Furthermore 44% of all respondents wanted to go straight for fibre optic deployment in rural areas in a single hit, while only 20% agreed with the U.K. government’s plan to provide universal access at a basic rate of 2 Mbps first, with the aim of completing this by 2012. Keep Reading
LONDON, June 17, 2010 - The recently elected U.K. government plans to extent the scope of fiber unbundling by compelling gas, electricity and water utilities as well as the incumbent operator BT to open up their ducts to ISPs for fiber-to-the-home deployment. Keep Reading
WASHINGTON, June 7, 2010-The European Commission has approved U.K. regulator Ofcom’s proposals to require virtual unbundling of British Telecom’s fiber network. However, it requests that the full unbundling happen as soon as possible. Keep Reading