Posts by George

Build your PDF and Excel reports with PHP

So last year...

This is not the best article on ElReg.

The new way surely has to be Zend Framework for PDF writing. PEAR works, but ZF is superb and well structured.

http://framework.zend.com/

Ofcom primes broadband afterburner

El Reg, any chance of a review of the document?

Thanks Chris for raising awareness of this process.

I for one, would like to reply, but in reality reading 115 pages is not going to happen.

I basically want to say to ofcom, put pressure on the Government to take control of the UK fibre to home, pay for it out of our taxes, and give a pledge that everyone in the UK who wants it can have fibre to their home -- almost a god given right, whatever the cost, where ever the person lives.

I reckon charging suppliers for the access to the fibre to the home will generate enough revenues to pay for itself one day, and keep up the maintainence on the network to keep it future proof. I know this seems an obvious solution as most people commenting are saying the same thing, and have been for decades. Lets see if we can raise enough awareness to try to make this happen?

Any how, how does this type of comment fit in with the 5 questions?

BT prepares for superfast broadband investment chinwag

RE: Lack of vision

Paul, from memory, back in the 90's BT actually wanted to do all the things you state, put fibre in to the house, do Video on demand etc... but the Conservative government at the time lead by M Thatcher decided that this would put BT into a rediculous and completely anti-competetive position owning the entire PSTN consumer base and stifling competition. Instead the Consevatives let in 2 rival (huh!) cable companies, where each had its own local monopoly. How this got through still surprises me!

I'm not a BT fan boy by any stretch, but the real problem with the UK infrastructure is all down to those decisions, and the strange ideas of what constitutes monopoly and competition. We have since strangled BT into submission, it was a world leader at the time, at the cost of competition, where the only company that is not allowed to compete is BT!

The costs of putting fire into (almost) every home can no longer be met by any one single company. I agree with you, the government should pay to put the fibre into *every* home, then lease the capacity back to the providers such as BT, Virgin, TalkTalk, ME! The revenues earned from the leasing of the capacity can be used to pay back the original costs and help to maintain the network... I take some heart from the statement from Mr Timms "...with industry and regulators will examine the case for public sector investment." Lets hope...