Government backs Ofcom against EU regulator plan

wrong decision

Although many in the UK resist european ideas, this is one we should not dismiss so easily.

If for no other reason than the fact that Ofcom does not represent the consumer in any realistic way, they are another quango there to so that we can be told we have a voice.

At least our european chums are not ready to be sold out to big business as seems to the standard practice in the UK.

If it were not for europe we would still be paying silly roaming rates, and if we want to see better roaming data rates, perhaps a regulator at the international level that the telcos are at would be a good thing.

Doesn't bother me as off to live in mainland europe anyway, you can keep you toothless ofcom.

Useless

I, for one, welcome our new EU telecoms overlords.

Especially seeing how worse than useless our domestic regulator is.

Hmmmm

I am still very unsure which (if either) is the right way to approach spectrum allocation. Do we even need a GSM style carve up if we can all channel hop as required ? Some informed comment would be handy here kids.

I would have thought that...

the pathetic and ineffectual attitude of Ofcom over the Phorm issue in particular and phone and internet scams in general, as well as the mis-selling of broadband by UK ISPs, is all the evidence needed that we *DO* need an EU wide regulator.

Lets face it, Ofcom are less than useless when it comes to regulating the UK telecomms industry. If they can't do it properly, we, the consumers, need someone who *can*. If that's some overbearing Euro-bureaucrat organisation then so be it!

Where is the middle ground?

It always seems to me these things become religious. For some things and uses of spectrum a degree of continental co-ordination makes a lot sense but we really do not need a mega regulator controlling every KHz. I care if my phone stands a chance of working in as many ways as possible and I care if my TV signal gets interfered with from Belgium but do I really care if French police use the same frequency and technology as Greek Police for their in car data links?

And don't get me started on the explosion of staff numbers since Ofcom took over from Oftel, the ITA, Radio Authority etc!!!

spectrum

the spectrum covers much more than mobile phones look at the mess over TV in the UK changing from a system thats works to one that at best is flacky Digital TV and radio is not stable vision and audio break up ofcom have really made a c***e up by forcing people to change for change sake. mines the one with the transmitter in the pocket

I think we should have unlimited EU regulation.

Limited to 2 days a week or 3 complaints whichever comes first.

Mines the one with the unlimited supply of money in the pocket.

Please stop this stupidity ...

Please stop the stupidity of referring to the bunch of politicians who meet in Westminster as our Government. Our Government are in Brussels, at the Berlaymont Building. The bunch in Westminster have given away most of their powers to Brussels, including the telecoms regulatory function, as we will see once the Irish have done as they have been told, and voted in favour of more Europe. The provincial government in Westminster are even trying to stealth the EU's instructions to break up England into its 9 artificial EU Regions.

All this Westminster "argument with the EU" stuff is just for domestic show, to hide the reality from the voters. Notice how Camoron has now said that if the Lisbon Constitution is adopted before he gets into power "well then, sorry folks but there will be nothing the Tories can do about it". Sorry and all that!

Incompetents always fight against the possibility of getting something BETTER

We ALL know how incompetent OFCOM is. We can all GUESS how incompetent all the other UK regulators are.

We don't know how incompetent an EU body would be, but it needs to be given a chance.

For a start, the EU body might be less inclined to do something incredibly STUPID, like auctioning off spectrum and letting the winning bidder KEEP those licenses in perpetuity, even if that bidder is not the most competent body to operate that spectrum.

The UK government is only endorsing the incompetence of its own regulators and is only worried that an EU body might be able to expose that incompetence.

As UK citizens, we need the right to appeal to both UK and EU regulators and to accept the ruling of whichever body gives the better rights for everybody's benefit.

the rent boys dont matter, multi national cash is always welcome to the Govt

"spectrum

By mikePosted Wednesday 11th June 2008 10:17 GMT the spectrum covers much more than mobile phones look at the mess over TV in the UK changing from a system thats works to one that at best is flacky Digital TV and radio is not stable vision and audio break up ofcom have really made a c***e up by forcing people to change for change sake. mines the one with the transmitter in the pocket"

the fact is Mike, its not chance for changes sake, its for making as much money as they can get, and that means that no small or even medium sized UK companys owned by Uk people,run by Uk people, employing Uk people, can ever hope to buy any of this freed up wireless frequences to be put to good use in any consumer inovations such as last mile (not mearly 300 feet, independent of BT/VM telecoms etc) wireless community fixed fee broadband as one single example.

-----------------------

"Hmmmm

By Anonymous CowardPosted Wednesday 11th June 2008 08:58 GMT I am still very unsure which (if either) is the right way to approach spectrum allocation. Do we even need a GSM style carve up if we can all channel hop as required ? Some informed comment would be handy here kids.

"

yes you can channel hope for todays kit, but thats not the point if you as an end user want real inovation , to increase your mobile data throughput, they Need to combine these seperate digital freqs into a bigger chunk, they cant do that and get top price for the total alloted.

this is not good for any form of small/medium UK based business to use,i wont say Own because no matter what the current Govt or compays say, these wireless freqs are the property of the the UK people, and we should be getting far more say in what we want them used for....

taking al the analogue Tv freqs and only barely giving them enough back to run the current PAL DVB-T spec is a crime, they need to ensure that theres far more to use in the future for several full UK wide tech trials for HD and other innovations etc they can then rake in for profit on a seperate freqs set aside for the perpose....

we need to have permanant and ongoing Uk wide digital Tv, broadband, and other high tech experaments and for that we need a set of several wireless freqs that any Uk companys can ask to use and run their trials on, simple really...

if we have these freqs set aside instead of selling them off to any US/EU mega companys that have the cash or can raise it off their mates/bankers etc, and the end users have acces to this kit that have these tuners,wireless chips and RJ45 wired ports in all the generic kit sold, we could be far advanced and exporting this tech to other countrys instead of being the rent boys we are becoming in todays US owned companys board of directors.

UK cable beig a case on point, the EU market place is wide open, you can pop online and buy a PC cable card for DVB-C nice and cheap, you cant actully use in in the UK though as the Virgin Media company dont allow you to plug it in and use your payed for subscription card in it to watch your payed for DVB-C Tv on your PC or LAN stream the digital feed over your wireless LAN.

its the same for stand alone 3rd party cable STBs ,its the same for cable modems,

so your open EU free market place and rules dont help you in the slightest when it comes to choice of cable usage, the same will happen for the wireless freq sell off, if you have the cash to buy the airwaves and are a non Uk super company your fine, if your a smal/mediam Uk company or end user your stuck with whatever you can rent off them companies in the futeure if they see fit to supply you with an item...

a reminder of the past deeds and failed promised

replace the fibre with the wireless anologue sell off and realise we never learn from the past lies in this country.... it seems.

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/2971-openreach-to-deploy-fibre-to-the-home-in-ebbsfleet-valley.html

"Posted by 1stagre about 1 year ago

As part of her election manifesto in 1979 Margaret Thatcher promised to rewire the UK telephone network with fibre.

Don't hold your breath! "

"Posted by andrew ( staff member) about 1 year ago

An old Guardian article provides more information on the Margaret Thatcher issue

http://business.guardian.co.uk/economicdispatch/story/0,12498,1207132,00.html

"In the mid-1980s the talk was all of wiring up every home with fibre optic cables with virtually unlimited capacity.

...

But Margaret Thatcher rejected that on the grounds that it simply extended BT's monopoly and opted instead to generate more competition for BT by establishing a cable TV industry. "

"