Posts by Mike Scott 1

UK networks have 'no plans' to bring roaming fees back after Brexit

Getting back to the original topic... In the short term none of the network will charge. But you can be sure, after a while they will find an excuse to start a £1 a day or somesuch levy for enhanced services or somesuch. Once one network goes, they all will.

...any economic cost?

UK.gov commits to rip-and-replacing Blighty's wheezing internet pipes

Who will remember this in 15 years?

So the NIC suggested 6 years, the government 15... Not exactly ambitious. Leaving it to market forces that will not fill in the gaps.

Another an successfully kicked down the road and out of sight.

Dudes. Blockchain. In a phone. It's gonna smash the 'commoditization of humanity' or something

I've tried...

I've tried to understand this thing and work out it's value, but I've failed.

Maybe it's me...

UK chancellor puts finger in air, promises 15 million full fibre connections by 2025

Typical of this government... They seem to think that by saying something will happen, then it will happen, without them needing to take any other action.

BT bets farm on consumers: Announces one network to rule 'em all

National digital infrastructure should not have to be encumbered by historical employee pension commitments. That needs resolved and taken off the table, as much as technical delivery.

10Mbps for world+dog, hoots UK.gov, and here is how we're doing it

Re: You could perhaps make it a bit progressive

You need to define 'middle of nowhere'. i'm 300m from a fibre enabled exchange but because of some ludicrousness connected by EO to another exchange 4km away. I should be expected to stump up to upgrade a line that shouldn't go that way?

Folks in the 'middle of nowhere' pay the same taxes - local and national - as everyone else, but receive considerably fewer public services. Should that always be the way?

They will want their payback in some unreasonably short time frame, rather than it being regraded as national infrastructure with a payback of 10+ years. Short term-ism rules.

Openreach hiring thousands more engineers

I may well apply pen to paper... However, I would have thought that a circa 30% increase in line rental charge for no immediate improvement - or even proper commitment to improvement - of service, would attract the attention of the regulator, on behalf of consumers.

Who uses a landline in this day and age? People that don't have a 'perfect' 4G signal as you are fortunate to do.

Yep... So £7 per month whether I get an upgraded line or not? Do I still have to pay this even though I'm on a crappy EO line and will likely be that way in 2020 and probably beyond?

Where are OFCOM when you need them...

UK.gov urged to ensure punters can 'still roam like at home' after Brexit

Roam like home, at home...

Maybe WHICH should ask a more useful question.. Why not have 'roam like home' when at home in the UK, and eliminate many of the mobile not-spots that affect those with poor mobile coverage? Given that switching networks works so well for visitors to the UK, why can't is be enabled for those of us that live here? Oh yes, the networks don't want to...

Administrator PwC chops Maplin staff

I actually shopped in a Maplin store last week, for the first time in about 10 years. Uniquely, I urgently needed a HDMI to DVI converter and knew I could likely get it at the shop 3 miles from the office. There were 3 staff in the shop, and at least while I was there just me as a customer. There was also mountains of stock - And high value stuff too, home automation, cameras, lighting etc.

I got the bit I needed - at £12 probably twice the price on Amazon where I would usually shop, but I needed it then and there. A business cannot sustain itself on that kind of purchase. That is why they are doomed.

Brexit to better bumpkin broadband, 4G coverage for farmers – Gove

I think Duk's nippiness was more directed at farmers he thinks he is having to subsidize being a townie, rather than the precise spec of his BB.

Lets have everyone move to the cities and see how long the country lasts.

Or the NHS because apparently it isn't going there either...

Anyway the farmers have been told they won't notice a fiscal difference for 10 years - Lets see how that works out.

TalkTalk to splash £1.5bn laying full fibre on 3 million doorsteps

Yep, areas with fibre get more fibre. Areas that don't, well don't.

Good for the digestion in those areas, the rest of our guts can rot.

Openreach ups investment plans: Will shoot out full fibre to 3 million premises

So are they saying that money that was originally earmarked to provide fibre infrastructure in rural areas, is now going to be used to provide better fibre connections to urban dwellers that already have it? Are those not in the 95% about to be forgotten about altogether?

UK.gov pushes ahead with legal right to 10Mbps

USO watered down

So I’ve read through the comments, and it seems - although to be confirmed when they clarify what they said today - that the USO has effectively been watered down, to yes you can have 10M big at a price we choose to quote. A few thoughts:

Who is going to determine whether the quoted price is fair? In locations where BT is the only provider they can quote what they they like.

A number of folks have commented, quite reasonably that come connections will be expensive to provide - on the other hand, lots and lots are cheap to provide.

How long a timeframe do BT expect to pay for thier investment. Even if a connection costs £10k, billing of £50 per month gets that back (and I accept there are other costs to consider) in 16 years - for national infrastructure that doesn’t sound so bad to me.

I'll still believe it when I see it.

OFCOM must be getting new teeth for Christmas, because they'll need them rather the gums they have now.

Brit MP Dorries: I gave my staff the, um, green light to use my login

But MP's are very special don't you know...

Apparently - and I'm sure someone will be along to clarify in a moment - staff in Westminster are governed by Civil Services rules around security etc. MPs are not, because they are 'special'. It's all none sense. If I were a Westminster staffer I would be refusing to use anyone else's login to check mail or whatever, and have the IT team give a system that enabled proper, traceable and secure handling of internal and external messages - I'm sure such a thing must be avialable... Geez, the amount of money spent of government IT and they can't manage that.

Why does no one want to invest in full fibre broadband, wails UK.gov

Re: Some falsehoods

If only...No LLU on my exchange only line... no options apart from BT. All the more galling to see special offers continually advertised, which are not available.

Re: Some falsehoods

I would happily pay that. It is less than I'm paying BT for <5Mb.

I hear what you are saying, but it would be preferable if more consumers could make the choice to take a better service, rather than be stuck on the minimum possible the telco can get away with providing.

That's what we need.. another review to tell us how pitiful the state of the national infrastructure is. That will really set the jet burners under a proper improvement program, driven by an active and competent regulator, empowered by a decisive government, and delivered by organisations focused on quality and customer service to deliver long term profits and shareholde rvalue. We can dream. All we will get next summer is a report telling us things havn't improved, the UK is sliding down the comparative tables, and something really really must be done... Perhaps another review. And so the cycle recycles.

Mythical broadband speeds to plummet in crackdown on ISP ads

ISPs are already dodging numbers by using phrases like 'fastest ever', which is entirely meaningless, but good enough to convince the average consumer it's just dandy. Expecting service providers to be honest? It'll never catch on.

Digital minister: We're still talking to BT about sorting crap broadband

Life must be easy with such a simplistic view of how a country works

Why should I - Isn't that what I pay £500 a year for?

As a rural dweller I can say I agree with you to a degree. I live 3 miles from the exchange we are connected to, less than a mile to another which for some reason BT refuse to move us to. We need to temper our expectation. I'm not asking for 100M, I'd be happy with reliable 10M, but there seems little prospect of that. Do you think it would be cheaper to rehouse me rather than have BT run some cable along to the pole that runs 10 yards from the house?

As for your f*** the country dwellers attitude, where do you think your food comes from?

Perhaps the correspondent should have to walk up that hill with a bucket to collect water each day... Thats how a country works. People in rural areas receive few services than urbanites, but in exchange certain services have a USO.

I'm on the edge of a village, which has FTTC for some residents, and exchange only lines for others. I'm by no means in the middle of nowhere, but pay, including rental £40.99 per month for 5M up, 500K down, with no LLU options, just BT, and absolutely no prospect of any improvement. I am heartily sick of continuous broadband adverts promising blistering speed for 20 quid a month, and BT having a virtual monopoly in this area that is doing nothing but making profit, and not delivering the USO it is obliged to. Now the government is seemingly going to let them get away with it.

Oh well, more money to spend on football, rugby, cricket rights.... What a way to provide national infrastructure.

True Telecom busted by Ofcom for 'slamming', misselling and more

Pretty obvious and clear breaches - Why did the investigation take a year? That seems to have given the directors the time to admin and phoenix the company. Seems that OFCOM are still running are 2400baud...

Prosecute driverless car devs for software snafus, say Brit cyclists

Re: Fair enough, but...

Taking this example ... Cars are very expensive to repair these days. A teenage cyclist is larking about with his mates, and crashes into your perfectly legally parked car, perhaps even on your drive - How do you react? Cheerfully call your insurance company and loose your no claims bonus, or dig into your pocket to pay for potentially thousands of pounds of repairs?

Re: Fair enough, but...

Correct - and if they don't have it, whether there has been a claim made on it or not - they can be prosecuted.

BT boss: Yeah, making a business case for 5G is hard

I live in an area of Scotland riddled with not spots for all the providers. This could be resolved virtually overnight by switching on automatic network roaming - Just as visitors from overseas experience. Too complicated, a disincentive to network rollout, unfair cry the telcos... Stuff them - They have had plenty time to complete the rollout of 3G (still don't get it at home) and 4G (still get one bar at work half a mile from a major airport, elsewhere a dream).

Complete a decent level of service on 3 and 4G before starting 5. Because the first place 5G will start is the best 4G areas.

Openreach boss says he'd take a burning effigy on the chin

Re: £7Bn Pensions defecit?

So the provision of critical infrastructure is now being stymied by the pension scheme deficit of the prime telecoms provider. How has this been allowed to happen? The cumulative failure of regulators and governments. The UK looks more like a banana republic every day.

Automatic for the people: Telcos forced to pay for giving you crap services

Why do the most high tech businesses take the longest to execute changes to billing and customer services? This is all window dressing, and will be caveat-ed by so many exemptions and exclusions it'll end up worthless, if anyone can remember in 2019 it comes into action.

BT agrees to cream off less profit from landline-only customers

Re: broken market, broken regulator

As well as gouge those on non-LLU exchanges.

No options or opportunities to receive anything except full whack BT prices for their worst level of service.

Dyson to build electric car that doesn't suck

£2Bn won't even touch the sides of making a credible vehicle, or anything much beyond a C5. I appreciate his ambition, but would have thought he would be better OEM'ing his motor and barrery technology to companies that know how to build cars.

UK.gov unveils six areas to pilot full-fat fibre, and London ain't on the list

Possibly... But the economic benefit would take years to measure, and in any case is very intangible to measure. However I'm sure the usual numbers will be plucked out of the air to prove that '£39.2million was added to the Aberdeenshire economy by having full fibre in 2018' - all tosh. The uptake could be measured by making it available and counting the orders - that doesn't need a pilot.

Writing from Aberdeenshire, in our pollution free nirvana, albeit with no mobile signal, patchy DAB and rubbish - but painfully expensive EO ADSL uploading at 150K - I wouldn't have thought £10m will make much of a noticeable difference. What is to trial, is the technology not well understood? This will just give the broadband providers an excuse to wait for the result of the pilots, and divert them from getting on and making a reasonable difference for a reasonable number of people.

British broadband is confusing and speeds are crap, says survey

Re: Hefty Sums?

On my BT exchange only line, I get one choice - Expensive and slow.

Jocks' USO block shock: BT's 10Mbps proposals risk 'rural monopoly'

Part of the fear expressed by Fergus is that if BT deliver 10Mb, then they will deliver just that, but that will be it for the next 10 years, with no further infrastructure investment to develop as in other areas. As a Scottish rural (but by no means remote) dweller (and full disclosure not a Tory) I appreciate this point. At the moment I pay BT (because of no competition on an EO line) nearly £500 per annum for sub 3Mb service (and 150Kb up), so not exactly getting anything comparable to properly connected areas. Oh and no usable mobile data service either...

Universal Service Oh... forget the Obligation. BT offers to stump up £600m for 10Mbps

So why are BT making this kind offer?- Well I suspect it isn't to make things better from consumers, it is for themselves. Seems like they are giving themselves an extra 2 years to do something they were being forced to do earlier.

I'm on the receiving end of this dither, on a good day we get 4Mb up, 150Kb down, with no prospect in sight of improving our EO line. For some bizarre reason our line is about 3Km long, where there is a perfectly good fibre enabled exchange 200m the other way. What really sticks in the throat is the lack of economical alternatives, and being marooned on full price line rental, and full price 'ultimate' broadband ADSL. If they could even do the decent thing and make that half price, or £1 per Mb, it would help my mood. However, I'm pretty sure I'll still be grumbling away in 5 years time on the same rubbish service, after this followed by others at 6 monthly intervals are rolled out.

Demon splurges details of 3,600 customers in billing email

Prosecute them...

This kind of thing is just going to keep happening unless and until some organisation is prosecuted under data protection legislation and fined the maximum amount possible. We keep being told how much identity fraud is costing the country, and how much police forces are spending to fight it. Demon's crime may be the result of carelessness, but it is a crime none the less and they should have to pay the penalty - Say £1000 per set of details, £360K should get thier attention...

Apple says jailbroken iPhones endanger cell towers

Funny if it backfired on them....

Apple might decide to keep thier stupid traps shut in future if the FCC slapped a ban on selling iPhones until the clearly vulnerable and insecure OS is modified so that the network isn't at risk...

I have and iPhone (un-jailbroken) and it's just fine, but honestly you just wish they would shut up sometimes and stop looking like a bunch of arses.