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Ofcom wants to know what you want to know

Ofcom is asking the public what information it would like to know, and how it should go about sharing it. But the UK regulator won't be sharing anything that upsets the mobile network operators, so no change there. When it comes to wireless communications Ofcom has all the data: locations and frequencies of transmitters, how …

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Richard Sloan
Megaphone

Ofcom

We would like to know why they aren't doing anything to remove the problem of broadband-by-power-line devices like the ones BT are giving away of interfering with HAM and CB radio, and why they still won't let us use SSB on CB radio when pretty much the rest of the world does with no issues.

We would like to know why they refuse to give FM broadcast licences to anyone who isn't a large commercial station even if they have the money to pay for it, and want to offer local community broadcasting but get turned down because they won't turn a profit - but they are letting people broadcast church services over CB under the "CADS" scheme which Doris who is 86 with blue hair and housebound is unlikely to be able to tune in on.

We would like to know why they refuse to allow people to operate a countrywide commercial radio station such as those that Virgin, Atlantic 252 and Planet Rock wanted to do, heaven forbid they might draw people away from BBC radio blandness...

We would like to know where the money from the outrageous fees they charge for FM broadcast licences and things like specturm allocation actually goes to.

Is that a good start?

Pete 2

Q: what is the actual cost incurred for a phone call.

We know what the operators charge for (say) a 1 minute call. What I'd like to know is how much money does that 1 minute call actually cost them. How much do they pay out to other operators, what costs of theirs go up - that wouldn't get paid or go up if the call wasn't made. And what proportion of the call goes to paying their debts, overheads, shareholders and infrastructure costs.

And the same for a text message, MMS and 1MByte of data transmission, please.

Dawid Lorenz

Omh, why is this such a secret?!

That's a shame that there no official and freely available database of GSM/3G transmitters in the UK. Ofcom's Polish equivalent released that data quite a while ago, and they post reagular, monthly updates (!) with locations (including GPS coordinates) of sites where they have released a permission for a BTS/NodeB for given operator. That doesn't mean mobile operator actually do have a working transmitter in place, but it's pretty much accurate. It's no-brainer that Google Maps mashups has been put online nearly instantly after releasing such data, including mine: http://mapa.btsearch.pl. I'd really like to do the same for the UK at some point, just give me a data and it's going be up-and-running in no-time.

I simply don't understand why is this such a secret anyway, base stations are clearly visible in most cases and are fairly easy to identify their owner (assuming appropriate software in mobile phone and a hint of extra-terrestial knowledge ;). Having said that, with enough man-power and willingnes, it basically possible to create an Ofcom-and-any-mobile-operator-independent list of transmitters all over the UK - so what gives?!

C'mon Ofcom. Give us a data, please.

Anonymous Coward
FAIL

No they don't

Having sent several FOI request to Ofcom, asking about their testing of compliance to their Broadband Code of Practice, and got a snotty letter back saying they didn't have to tell me.

i.e.. They've done fuck all, but don't want the public to know.

This latest announcement is just spin, they're not fit for purpose and the public is starting to know it.

Anonymous Coward
FAIL

I bet they want to know...

how long they have left in this world.

Amongst the many jobsworths in the civil service/tax payer funded holiday camps, they should be some of the first to go.

Tony Paulazzo

Are

they the group who've been taking kickbacks off various companies and utterly failing in their remit to protect the consumer - good old 'old school ties' buddies....

Unlimited: 1. limitless or without bounds; unrestricted

Ergo, every ISP offering unlimited broadband has been outright lying to their customers, surely a job for Ofcom.

I just got a lovely email from BT informing me my broadband usage exceeded 100 GBs last month and so they're going to restrict my speed for a month during peak hours - 5pm to midnight. When I phoned them to complain, they said it was unlimited, I could continue downloading, just at reduced speeds during those hours, and that actually, I'd been over the 100GBs for the last three months and been throttled for those three months, and I must admit I'd not noticed - but still, it's the wording. I pay (inc. phone line), £45 a month for unlimited broadband, I don't pay for unlimited (may be restricted during peakhours) broadband, but at least if that was the wording I would be better informed, not a fair use policy buried on page 20 of the T&Cs.

/rant.

kingwahwah
Coat

....how terrified they are of the tories getting in

^^100gb a month! When do you get the time to watch all those movies!

Sunray18
Go

Searcheable User Database

Thats what i'd like to see released into the public domain. Similar to the old UK scanning directory. That and, the UK's Postcode Address File With GPS location data. Then we can really develop some cool apps!

Harry
FAIL

You can ask ofcom ONE question ...

What percentage of OFCOM staff were actually ELECTED by ordinary members of the public ?

I suspect the answer is NONE, which is why we have these idiots continually turning blind eyes to unacceptable practices like big advertising claims that are substantially negated by contradictory smallprint.

If ofcom staff still can't get around to understanding that suppliers should be required to publish their GUARANTEED bandwidth and prohibited from publishing misleading "up to" information at all, then what chance do we have that they will tackle other much-needed jobs like ensuring every company publishes a phone number that they guarantee will be answered by a person, not a machine, prohibiting call queuing other than on freephone numbers etc etc etc ...

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