Thursday, April 27, 2017

How Thatcher killed the UK's superfast broadband before it even existed | TechRadar

How Thatcher killed the UK's superfast broadband before it even existed | TechRadar: "But, in 1990, then Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, decided that BT's rapid and extensive rollout of fibre optic broadband was anti-competitive and held a monopoly on a technology and service that no other telecom company could do.

"Unfortunately, the Thatcher government decided that it wanted the American cable companies providing the same service to increase competition. So the decision was made to close down the local loop roll out and in 1991 that roll out was stopped. The two factories that BT had built to build fibre related components were sold to Fujitsu and HP, the assets were stripped and the expertise was shipped out to South East Asia.

"Our colleagues in Korea and Japan, who were working with quite closely at the time, stood back and looked at what happened to us in amazement. What was pivotal was that they carried on with their respective fibre rollouts. And, well, the rest is history as they say.

 "What is quite astonishing is that a very similar thing happened in the United States. The US, UK and Japan were leading the world. In the US, a judge was appointed by Congress to break up AT&T. And so AT&T became things like BellSouth and at that point, political decisions were made that crippled the roll out of optical fibre across the rest of the western world, because the rest of the countries just followed like sheep." 'via Blog this'

EU telecom watchdog plan dead on arrival

EU telecom watchdog plan dead on arrival: "The Berec guidelines were hailed as closing perceived loopholes in EU legislation on the openness of the internet, which had worried digital activists.

 Berec consists, somewhat confusingly, of Berec - which does not have the status of agency - and the Berec Office - which is an EU agency, but the smallest of its kind.

Last September, the commission proposed that the two entities should be merged and given the status of an EU agency.

 The commission said Berec is receiving ever more tasks in the move towards a Digital Single Market in Europe.

"It seems appropriate and necessary to build on this experience by turning both together into a fully fledged agency," the proposal noted.

The EU executive also proposed that Berec's annual budget should be increased from around €4 million to some €14 million, and to increase its staff from 27 to 60.

 The commission's plan can only become law if it receives the support from the European Parliament, and the Council of the EU, but both institutions are reluctant." 'via Blog this'