This is great news, considering that BT Broadband also announced last December 2011 that they were gearing up to provide superfast fibre broadband for Scotland as well.

Consumer Focus Scotland stated that if all of the commitments in the plan were met, then Scotland’s broadband speeds would be five times as fast by the year 2015. Infrastructure Secretary Alex Neil stated: “There is no doubt that digital is the way forward and we relish the challenge to put Scotland at the forefront of the digital revolution and make world-class digital infrastructure a reality.”

Many ministers have already set aside £185 million from public funds to aid in fulfilling the pledges and actions points detailed in the plan. Moreover, the government is also pushing to obtain additional funding from the private sector.

Annie McGovern, who is the digital expert at Consumer Focus Scotland, commented: “Consumers in Scotland want fast and reliable broadband services and to be able to keep pace with all the new fantastic technology developments the 21st century will offer. Having the right infrastructure in place is absolutely critical to doing this.”

Faster broadband speeds would be of great benefit not only to businesses and other establishments, but also to individuals as well. Neil added that faster broadband services is “vitally important, both for the economy and for people’s everyday lives”.

Technology firms also welcomed the announcement warmly. One of these was Microsoft’s Derrick McCourt, who is the firm’s regional director for Scotland. He stated: “I am delighted that Scotland’s Digital Future – Infrastructure Action Plan announced today not only identifies investment to create a word-class infrastructure for Scotland but recognises the need for a programme to increase take-up of digital services to deliver better outcomes for our nation.”

Late last month, subscription-based digital distribution service Netflix launched in the UK. It wasn’t much of a surprise, as this move had long been rumoured and predicted by many industry insiders.

In the UK, Netflix will be competing against BSkyB’s premium drama service and LoveFilm, which is a company owned by Amazon. However, Netflix Chief Executive Reed Hastings revealed that they considered the latter to be their primary competition: “Lovefilm is not the enemy. When you talk about big entertainment businesses, Sky Atlantic and Sky Movies are huge, and our advantage is we are much lower priced than the Sky packages, and it is all on demand — click and watch.”

However, BSkyB is now upping their game by announcing a new Internet TV service to go head to head with Netflix. The service will be launching in the first half of this year and will be geared towards the 13 million households in the UK that still do not subscribe to pay-TV services.

Sky made the announcement as they revealed further dips in the number of households that were subscribed to their television services. Sky’s chief executive Jeremy Darroch denied that their business was going to be affected by the presence of Netflix and the growth of LoveFilm in the country.

Darroch stated: “I don’t see it threatening our business at all. It’s further evidence that this is an exciting market and lots of people see opportunities in it. We have competed in the last few decades against all competitors.”

Sky’s new service will allow users to pay so they can view content on devices connected to the internet, such as their PCs, laptops, smartphones, games consoles and TVs. Richard Hunter, head of equities at Hargreaves Lansdown Stockbrokers, commented: “Amidst all the Netflix noise comes a reminder that Sky is not about to give up its crown lightly. The launch of its online offering further complements its existing technical reach alongside the potential for new customers.”

However, a notable snippet from the regulator’s press release stated that four in every ten users opted to remain on their current packages, even though they would be able to get access to faster speeds if they elected to switch to another provider or to another package at little to no extra cost.

If you think about it, this bit is pretty puzzling, because why would consumers willingly stay on when they can get more value and better services for the same amount of money elsewhere?

Perhaps picking up on this train of thought, the Communications Consumer Panel has called for action so that UK users will be able to compare the services being offered by various broadband providers. This call was made in response to the result from Ofcom’s study.

Communications Consumer Panel Chair Bob Warner stated: “It’s good news that average broadband speeds are improving. However, we remain concerned that many people with ADSL-based broadband connections continue to experience much lower average download speeds than the headline ‘up to’ advertised speeds. The Panel has already said that internet service providers (ISPs) should stop using misleading ‘up to’ speeds in their adverts.”

Ofcom’s study revealed that half of the consumers who paid for “up to” 8Mbps broadband connections were actually only able to access average download speeds of 3Mbps or less. Meanwhile, those who were subscribed to “up to” 20/24 Mbps connections got average speeds of around 5Mbps or less.

It is the belief of the Panel that the new CAP guidance is not enough. The guidelines requires that speed claims made by Internet service providers be achievable by at least 10% of its users. However, a significant portion of subscribers are very unlikely to access speeds that come close to what the provider has claimed.

Warner adds: “This additional qualifying information must be equally prominent to consumers when they are thinking about which broadband package to buy. Consumers can only make an informed choice if they can easily compare different packages and providers. We will be watching carefully to see if the new guidelines are effective.”

The average actual UK residential broadband speed from November 2011 was found to be 7.6Mbps. In November/December 2010, it was recorded to be 6.2Mbps, while it was 6.8Mbps last May 2011.

The regulator’s research revealed that the increase was due to users switching to higher speed broadband packages. In November of last year, 58% of UK residential broadband connections had a headlined or advertised speed that was above 10Mbps. This showed an increase of ten percent from 48% last May.

However, over four in every ten consumers have stuck it out with their current broadband packages that have speeds of 10Mbps or less, even though they can easily get access to faster connections with little or no additional costs.

Ofcom’s latest study indicates that the industry average speed based on the 10 percent availability criteria is 6Mbps for providers who advertise speeds of “up to” 8Mbps and 14Mbps for those who advertise speeds of “up to” 20-24Mbps. The study also revealed something that many already knew: fibre-based and cable broadband technologies were able to provide the fastest connections to subscribers.

The speeds provided by Virgin Media’s “up to” 50Mbps connections had the highest average download speeds that were recorded to be 49Mbps. BT’s fibre-based services, BT Infinity, came in at a close second, delivering average download speeds of 36Mbps. BT’s service, however, was the one that achieved the highest average upload speeds of 8.8 Mbps.

Ofcom Chief Executive, Ed Richards, stated: “It is encouraging that speeds are increasing and that consumers have a real choice of broadband service. There is a real opportunity for consumers to look at the packages and deals in their area in order to receive the best value, speeds and performance available to them.”

He adds: “We can look forward to further increases in UK broadband speeds over the next few years. Most households in the UK can now access superfast broadband services, and these services are set to get faster still as Virgin Media aims to double the speeds of most of its cable services and BT aims to double the speed of its fibre-to-the-cabinet service from 40Mbps to 80Mbps.”

For example, TalkTalk made some bold claims in one of their ads, claiming that they were the “UK’s safest broadband.” This got the attention of BT Broadband, who sent a complaint with regards to the ad. Two other members of the public also raised their concerns with regards to TalkTalk’s ad. This resulted in the ASA calling on the broadband provider to stop using the ad, explaining that the ad could lead to many misinterpretations since the majority of Internet users wouldn’t be able to understand what “network security level” meant.

Now it seems that the tables have been turned as BT Broadband is now in the ASA’s hot seat, no thanks to a recent claim that the broadband giant made. BT has claimed that it is “the UK’s most reliable wireless connection.” However, the ASA has ruled that the statement is misleading and must not be repeated without evidence or qualification.

In the statement, the advertising watchdog stated that the television advertisement gave the impression that BT provides the most reliable wireless experience versus all its competitors in the industry.

However, the firm has not proven that what its users experience when using its services is, in fact, the most reliable. This could only be said as true when it comes to BT’s Home Hub 3 router, which the ad does not explicitly mention.

The ASA’s ruling stated: “We considered that, although it was not BT’s intention, viewers were likely to infer from the context of the whole ad that the claim ‘the UK’s most reliable wireless connection’ meant that BT provided the most reliable wireless online experience. Because BT had not proven that the actual online experience was the most reliable, and because the ad did not contain a qualification to make clear that the ‘invisible network of competing signals’ referred to signals emitted from non-Wi-Fi devices, and the claim ‘the UK’s most reliable wireless connection’ referred to their Home Hub 3 router only, the claim was misleading.”

ASA went on to say: “The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told BT not to repeat the claim ‘the UK’s most reliable wireless connection’ in future unless they provided adequate evidence to substantiate it, or qualified the basis in which the claim was made.”

In fact, a survey conducted by Childwise revealed that kids these days are switching from “television to mobile Internet.” The survey showed that 61% of 7 to 16 year olds now have mobile phones that can be used to access the web. Moreover, it was revealed that these children made use of these mobile devices for an average of 1.6 hours a day.

It’s no wonder then that more and more Internet-based streaming services and applications are being launched to cater to this growing demand.

Next up on the list is the BBC iPlayer. The iPlayer can be accessed online and is also available as an app for various mobile device platforms. There was a bit of controversy in December of 2010 when BBC set out to reveal the list of Internet service providers who throttled users’ broadband connections when they attempted to stream content using the said player during peak times.

Now the BBC has announced that it will be launching the iPlayer on Sky later this year. This means that over five million subscribers of the provider will be able to stream BBC programmes when the player is made available on the satellite service.

The BBC iPlayer will be made available to Sky’s Anytime+ service and will be available for free to those with Sky Plus HD subscriptions.

BBC’s director general Mark Thompson stated that the move “can only be fantastic news for audiences.” The BBC further said that Sky’s plans to make Anytime+ accessible even to those without Sky broadband subscriptions was “an important development” in bringing the iPlayer to the satellite service.

Sky’s chief executive Jeremy Darroch stated: “We are delighted that the addition of BBC iPlayer will allow Sky customers to enjoy the best of the BBC whenever they want.”

BT, the commercial partner in rolling out faster broadband networks in Berkshire County, has earlier announced that the upgrade to the exchange will be delayed for a second time to December 2012. But the furor over the delay has forced the company to move the deadline forward to June 2012 on their infinity map.

However, the broadband roll out is a massive process, and until the folks at Finchamstead started getting faster networks, they cannot possibly expect a change in things. There is wide spread criticism against BT that they are moving things as if they are operating behind smoke and mirrors. As per Rachel McGuinness, who has been in the forefront of the campaign through her blog and tweets says the information she is getting from around is really confusing.

BT, on their part has said that they are pleased to have the date preponed. However, they have also said that since it is a part of a massive programme, the dates and deadlines of upgrade are always subject to change. Well, that is a sort of anticipatory bail, right?

When the state authorities have started rolling out their plan to make UK the country with fastest broadband network in Europe by 2015, they have urged the public to be patient since the programme is massive that it will take time to feel the effects.

However, the criticism on BT is important, since the bidding process for finding a commercial partner for different county councils to implement the networks are still on, and BT remains the lone bidder in more cases.

Putting apart these no-spots, more than 50,000 private and commercial properties receive broadband speeds of less than 2 Mb/s, as per an estimate. So it is important for them to get faster broadband networks.

Now everybody in Norfolk is joining their hands to make sure that their voice of demand is heard to the authorities. For the purpose, they have started a Say Yes campaign to spread awareness about the need to say yes when it comes to rolling out faster broadband networks in the county.

Dubbed Say Yes to Broadband, the campaign is trying to get more popular support through its website, and by using parish councils. The district council leaders are asking all their members, staff to ask in their parish councils about the need to raise voice for getting faster broadband.

The move will help improve the future prosperity of the region. This is the major point projected in the Say Yes to Broadband campaign. Certain councils like the Yarmouth Borough Council are spreading the awareness campaign through their intranet also. They have also started putting up posters, sending emails to encourage staff, elected members and the public to register their interest.

Norfolk county council has made a bid to Broadband Delivery UK in early 2011 for £ 15 million. The county council will contribute the same for the project. Now the process needs BDUK to conduct a bidding to find a potential private partner.

The campaign demands people to register their interest as a home or business, and makes it clear that registering the interest does not mean any obligation to subscribe to the service when it is rolled out. Registering interest will send a right word to the state authorities and the companies who are going to take part in the bidding process, think the campaigners.

If you happen to be from the place and not yet showed your allegiance, you may do it here.

A few months after the DEA was unveiled, these two ISPs were able to win a case to have a judicial review of the act. The main points of controversy of the act was a clause that gave the court the right to either block or disconnect any website or IP address that was suspected of participating in copyright infringement or persistent file sharing–all without holding a trial.

Now the case made by the two service providers is now being heard the UK Court of Appeals. The hearing is listed as: ”The Queen on the application of British Telecommunications Plc & Anr -v- Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills & Ors. Appeal of Claimants from the order of Mr Justice Kenneth Parker.”

BT Broadband and TalkTalk have already filed twice for their right to appeal the act. Their request was denied last Spring, but they were able to get the green light after trying again last October.

With regards to the matter, a spokesperson for BT had said: “Both companies continue to take the view that the regime represents a disproportionate interference with the rights of Internet service providers, subscribers and Internet users and with the concept of freedom of expression. The two companies have chosen to seek an appeal.”

If you’re a local but haven’t gotten tickets to see the Olympics yet, then you’d better get a move on. Or, if you’re a BT Broadband subscriber, then you might also try your luck to score some free tickets from the Internet service provider. Interested BT subscribers can join simply by registering online.

Here’s how you can get tickets to the Olympics:

To celebrate London 2012, we’re giving BT residential customers the chance to be at the London 2012 Olympic Games with our Record Breakers competition. Simply sign up below and you’ll be entered into the prize draw to win pairs of tickets each week.

You can also win tickets by matching one of the weekly records using your BT services.

Aside from the luck of the draw, you can also enter by “matching” records using BT services using your BT Home Phone, BT Wi-Fi, or BT Vision subscription.

BT stated: “You can try to match the record as many times as you want within the weekly competition. If it’s a sprint event you’re going for, you better make it quick.

Maybe middle-distance running is more your thing. Each week match the record by the total time you’re logged in to BT Wi-Fi hotspots and you could be in with a chance too. Equal the medal haul of an Olympian or Paralympian athlete with the number of On Demand programmes you watch, and the tickets could also be yours.”

BT Broadband is the official communications partner of the 2012 London Olympic and Paralympic Games. You can visit their site for more information: https://www.recordbreakers.bt.com/?s_cid=con_FURL_recordbreakers