UK: Switch Your ISP in "One Touch"

UK Broadband providers should work harder now on customer satisfaction, as unhappy subscribers may switch their provider in "One Touch".

Ofcom announced that "Earlier this summer the process of switching between providers who use the Openreach telecoms network - such as BT, EE, Sky and TalkTalk - became simpler and smoother.

A new 'one touch' process now places the responsibility for the broadband or landline switch entirely in the hands of the company to which the customer is moving .. Under the new system, consumers no longer need to cancel their contract with their old provider. Instead, the whole switching process is handled by their new supplier on their behalf.

Once the switching process is under way, the consumer receives written confirmation from both the old and new provider. If the consumer changes their mind, they can cancel the switch".

See "Easier broadband switching" - here.

Ofcom Report on Traffic Management Detection Methods

While  "Unlike some countries, All ISPs Voluntary Signed for the Net Neutrality Code"[here],  Ofcom, the UK regulator, had to find ways for detecting the use of traffic shaping practices used by ISPs and commissioned study that was published recently - "A Study of Traffic Management Detection Methods & Tools" (here).

Ofcom explains that "As consumers use more 'bandwidth hungry' Internet services such as video, existing access networks are likely to experience congestion problems. One way for Internet service providers (ISPs) to manage congestion is to increase the capacity of their networks. Yet, even in the longer term, congestion problems are still likely to persist as demand continues to rise; in particular on wireless networks. Alternatively, ISPs can adopt traffic management (TM) techniques to alleviate network congestion. 

[See also - "[UK] Ofcom Research on Transparency of Traffic Management" - here]

Potential TM points in the UK broadband infrastructure (wireline)
Source: "A Study of Traffic Management Detection Methods & Tools" (here). 

.. It is envisaged that a practical TM detection mechanism could be a useful part of the regulatory toolkit for helping the communications market deliver online content and services that meet consumer expectations. For example, such a mechanism could potentially help to increase transparency for consumers, visibility for the regulator, and benefits for online service providers.

The report provides a comparative analysis of the identified methods and tools, for example,
in terms of:

• Their efficacy in detecting and quantifying the presence of TM in a given network;
• The impact on the network and the consumer in terms generated traffic volume, quality of experience, etc; and
• The need for a given tool or methodology to be integrated within, or executed outside a given ISP’s network infrastructure.

This literature review was commissioned by Ofcom to better understand the techniques that could be potentially used to detect traffic management"

See "Traffic Management Detection Methods & Tools" - here.

UK Experts: Need to Control Internet Demand, Due to Power & Fiber Shortage

    

Adam Withnall report to The Independent that "Britain could be forced to introduce internet rationing, after an expert warned it could consume the country’s entire power supply within 20 years. 

Experts said we were close to “filling up” the nation’s network of optical fibres for the first time ever, with the demands of popular video-streaming websites like YouTube and Netflix putting an unprecedented strain on communications infrastructure .. 

..devices such as PCs and TVs included, internet transmission already accounts for between 8 and 16 per cent of Britain’s power
 

Andrew Ellis [pictured], professor of optical communications at Aston University, said rationing internet use or charging more so that more cables can be installed may need to be considered. Unless action is taken, optical fibres could reach their limit within eight years". 

See "Britain may be forced to ration the internet, expert warns, as web use could consume 100% of nation's power supply by 2035" - here.

UK: LTE Performs Better than 3G!

Finally, a prove that the huge investment in LTE pays off!

   

A new research by the British regulator, Ofcom, finds that "Overall, 4G networks performed much better than 3G networks in five sample towns and cities tested - Edinburgh, Leeds, London, Newcastle and Poole/Bournemouth - where both 4G and 3G networks have been rolled out. In these areas, 4G networks delivered an average download speed of 14.7Mbit/s (compared with 5.9Mbit/s on 3G) and took 0.72 seconds to load a web page (compared with 1.04 seconds on 3G).

Source: Ofcom

Average download speeds, by provider, Q4 2014 Source: Ofcom

"For web browsing speed, the research measured the time it took to load a standard web page. Web browsing is one of the most popular activities on 4G. Across all 4G networks tested, average web browsing speed was 0.72 seconds"

Average web browsing speeds by provider, Q4 2014 (lower is better) Source: Ofcom

See "Ofcom today published research into 4G and 3G mobile broadband performance" - here.

[UK]:"Unlike some countries", All ISPs Voluntary Signed for the Net Neutrality Code

The Broadband Stakeholder Group (BSG) announced that "all of the UK’s leading Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have now signed up to a voluntary Code of  Practice in support of the Open Internet.

The Open Internet Code [here] was launched in 2012, building on previous work on the transparency of traffic management. EE, Virgin Media and Vodafone have recently signed up to the Open Internet Code, meaning that all major ISPs, operating across both fixed and mobile networks, are now signatories.

Matthew Evans [pictured], CEO of the BSG which facilitated the code, said: “Unlike some countries where net neutrality has become a controversial topic for discussion, the UK benefits from a fiercely competitive market and high levels of transparency – which together offer the best assurance of an Open Internet. The Code now provides an even stronger and more effective foundation, whilst also allowing for an environment where new business models for internetbased services which benefit consumer choice can thrive.”

The signatories of the code are: BT, BSkyB, EE, KCOM, giffgaff, O2, Plusnet, TalkTalk, Tesco Mobile, Three, Virgin Media and Vodafone. 

By agreeing to the code, they confirm that they will:

1. Ensure that full and open internet access products, with no blocked services, will be the norm within their portfolio of products.
    
2. Provide greater transparency in instances where certain classes of legal content,applications and/or services are unavailable on a product. These products will not be marketed as “internet access” and signatories will be obliged to ensure that any restrictions are clearly communicated to consumers.
    
3. Not target and degrade the content or applications of specific providers.Content providers are able to raise potential cases of targeted and negative discrimination with ISPs. If they are not satisfactorily resolved, these issues will be lodged with the BSG  who will share them with Ofcom and government. This initiative, which the BSG was asked to undertake on behalf of the Government, builds on the transparency code of practice published in 2011 which ensures that clear, understandable and comparable information on traffic management practices is available to consumers.

See "Remaining ISPs commit to the UK’s Open Internet Code" - here.

Sky [UK]: Streaming Viedo Drives Christmas 2014 Peak Traffic to Double

Sky Broadband announced that " Britain’s “connected Christmas” continued in 2014 after it analysed usage on its network, which reaches over 5 million homes across the country. The amount of data crossing Sky’s network peaked at 2Tbps – equivalent to about 1 million families streaming Disney’s Frozen in HD at the same time – and 100% up on last year. 

On Christmas Day over half of Internet traffic was from streamed video services including Sky’s On Demand service. 

Comparatively, on the famed Black Friday weekend Sky’s network saw a lower demand as customers took to shopping online instead of streaming videos.

Usage on Christmas Day surpassed the levels seen from Christmas 2013, with a steady increase in traffic on the day between 8am and 12noon as families switched on to spread some Christmas cheer. The Sky Broadband network then saw traffic drop between 1pm and 3pm as families across Britain tucked into their turkey side-lining any new devices. Post lunch data traffic then started to increase again, reaching an evening peak at 11pm, as the family settled to stream the latest Box Sets, browse the Christmas sales beating the crowds and share pictures of their present haul". 

See "Sky Broadband peaks from Christmas Day" - here.

UK: 4G vs. 3G QoE Tested

Ofcom published its first research into "..consumers' experience of mobile broadband in the UK since the 4G auction in 2013. The research measured the performance of 4G and 3G services on smartphones from the four main mobile operators - EE, O2, Three and Vodafone - in Birmingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, London and Manchester". 

Using smartphones, some 210,000 tests of 4G and 3G mobile broadband were carried out both indoors and outdoors across the five UK cities between March and June 2014 .. The research compared the performance of 4G and 3G services overall and highlighted variations between operators across four key measures: Download speed, Upload speed, Web browsing speed and Latency". 

See "4G and 3G mobile broadband speeds research" - here.

[UK]: Cable Service is Faster than Fiber!

According to a new research by the UK regulator, Ofcom, the "average broadband speed delivered by cable services is now faster than that of fibre - In the six months to May 2014, the average speed delivered by cable broadband reached 43.3Mbit/s, overtaking the average speed for fibre connections for the first time (42.0Mbit/s)"

Average broadband speeds for fixed broadband connections,
all connections including ‘up to’ 2Mbit/s and less, by technology
Source: Ofcom

Key findings from Ofcom's research show that between November 2013 and May 2014:

• the average actual UK broadband speed increased by 5% (0.9Mbit/s) to 18.7Mbit/s;

Average UK broadband speed:
May 2014 Source: Ofcom

• take-up of superfast services (those with a headline speed of 30Mbit/s and above) increased from 24% to 28% of connections, while average superfast speeds remained stable at 47Mbit/s;
   
• the extent to which speeds were maintained during peak evening times varied significantly between broadband packages, ranging from 76% to 96% of maximum speeds"

Finding regarding providers:

• "Virgin Media's ‘up to' 152Mbit/s cable service, which launched in February 2014, achieved the fastest download speed over a 24 hour period, averaging 141.9Mbit/s
   
• This was followed by BT's ‘up to' 76Mbit/s fibre package, which delivered an average download speed of 62.0Mbit/s
   
• EE's ‘up to' 38Mbit/s package experienced the greatest degradation in speeds during peak times. The average speed for this type of connection between 8pm and 10pm was 27.2Mbit/s - 76% of the maximum speed (35.8Mbit/s). Five per cent of consumers on this package received average peak-time speeds that exceeded 90% of their maximum speed
   
• In comparison, customers on Sky's 'up to' 38Mbit/s package saw the least degradation in average speeds. Speeds achieved during evening peak-time (34.5Mbit/s) were 96% of the average maximum speed (35.9Mbit/s)"

See "Average cable broadband speed overtakes fibre" - here.

Telefonica O2 Shines in Spirent's UK QoE Study

A new "Independent Review of Mobile Voice and Data Services Commissioned by Telefonica O2" by Spirent finds that ... Telefonica provides the best QoE for data services in the UK in almost every aspect of the test! 

Spirent's Datum QoE
Analytics Application

"The study included over 47,000 calls and 170,000 data tests over a three month period from May to July [using Spirent's User Experience Analytics System, Datum] :

• .. the web browsing speeds for Telefonica O2 on the 5 tested websites ranked 1st out of 4 measured networks at an average time of 2.7 seconds, with the lowest ranked network at 3.4 seconds
   
• the file download speeds for Telefonica O2 and one other network were jointly ranked 1st out of 4 measured networks with average speeds of 11.3 Mbps and 11.6 Mbps, respectively, and with the lowest ranked network at 6.4 Mbps (the difference between the top 2 measured networks was not statistically meaningful, leading to a joint ranking)
   
• the file upload speeds for Telefonica ranked 1st out of 4 measured networks at an average speed of 5.5 Mbps with the lowest ranked network at 3.0 Mbps
   
• the web browsing success rate for Telefonica O2 ranked 2nd out of 4 measured networks at 97.9%, with the highest ranked network at a 98.6% success rate and the lowest ranked network at 96.4%
   
• the file download success rate for Telefonica O2 ranked 2nd out of 4 measured networks at 98.6%, with the highest ranked network at a 99.5% success rate and the lowest ranked network at 97.4%
   
• the file upload success rate for Telefonica O2 ranked 1st out of 4 measured networks at 99.2%, with the lowest ranked network at 97.6%.

Spirent's Datum QoE Reports

 

See "Spirent Releases User Experience Study of Britain’s 4G Mobile Services' - here.

UK: How do ISPs Implement Network Based Parental Control Service?

Ofcom has "published a report for Government outlining measures the UK's largest internet service providers have put in place to help parents protect children from harmful content online. This follows an agreement between the Government and BT, Sky, TalkTalk and Virgin Media, the four largest fixed line internet service providers (ISPs), announced in July 2013 [see "UK to Enforce Opt Out Network Based Web Filtering on All ISPs" - here]. Each ISP committed to offer new customers 'family-friendly network-level filtering' by the end of December 2013 [see "UK ISPs for Safer Internet" - here]" 

"The report finds that the four ISPs now have a network level family friendly filtering service .. There are a number of filtering categories common to all four ISPs. Suicide and self-harm, pornography, file sharing, crime, drugs, violence and hate are covered by each provider's classification systems .. All of the ISPs offer some additional services alongside the network family-friendly filters, some including internet security services aimed at protecting the subscriber from issues like viruses or malware. All offer device level filtering or security software for installation on individual computers

All of the ISPs have commissioned third parties to perform the categorisation of 

internet content and services: 

• BT and Virgin employ Nominum
• Sky uses Symantec 
• TalkTalk uses Huawei [see "Huawei's SIG: Policy Enforcement and URL Filtering" - here], although Symantec was also initially involved.

The filtering solutions rely on two basic technologies:

• Filtering by Uniform Resource Locator (URL) blocking: the filtering of sites or services based on their web address – either addresses covering whole websites (http://www.example.com) or individual sections or pages on those sites (http://www.example.com/adultpictures). This involves the ISP checking some or all of the URLs which an opted-in subscriber requests against the list of sites or pages to be blocked. If there is a match, the subscriber request is not fulfilled – typically a page with the message “this site is blocked because it is classified as…” may be delivered instead.

• Filtering by Domain Name System (DNS) alteration: the DNS translates domain names (“www.example.com” into IP addresses “192.0.32.10”), to allow a subscriber’s content request to be correctly directed – this is the first stage in requesting a website or service. When used for filtering, the ISP’s DNS server will not provide the IP address for domains on the list; it may instead direct the subscriber request to an information page with “this site is blocked because it is classified as…”.

Each of Virgin Media, BT and TalkTalk has adopted a slightly different version of URL blocking; Sky’s filtering system is exclusively based on its DNS servers. The use of URL blocking allows a more granular classification of online content and services: Sky’s system will always block whole domains, while BT, Virgin Media and TalkTalk can target specific parts of a domain.

See "Ofcom publishes report on internet safety measures" - here.

UK: ISPs will Alert Subscribers on Copyright Infringement

The UK has a new plan for reducing copyright infringement, as probably the older plans did not work - UK Culture Minister Vaizey:'SPs have their role to play to help consumers find legitimate content'"- here and "[UK]: Major ISPs Asked to Build 'Downloaders Database'" - here:

 "Representatives from the UK's creative industries and major Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have come together with the support of government to launch Creative Content UK, a ground-breaking new partnership that will boost consumer awareness of the wide array of legitimate online content services and help reduce online copyright infringement.

Creative Content UK will comprise two key components. 

• The first, which will launch before Spring 2015, will be a major multi-media education awareness campaign, led by content creators and part-funded by government, that aims to create wider appreciation of the value and benefits of entertainment content and copyright. 

• The second component is a subscriber alerts programme that will be co-managed and co-funded by ISPs and content creators and due to begin at a later date. Participating ISPs will alert and advise subscribers when their accounts are believed to have been used to infringe copyright. Account holders will receive an alert from their ISP, advising them unlawful filesharing may have taken place on their connection and offering advice on where to find legitimate sources of entertainment content.

.. Creative Content UK founding partners include the Motion Picture Association (MPA), the BPI (British Recorded Music Industry), and the four main internet service providers: BT, Sky Broadband, TalkTalk and Virgin Media, with the prospect of other ISPs joining at a later stage .. The campaign will aim to inform and encourage consumers - ranging from the next generation of digital users to 'silver-surfers' – about the huge range of entertainment content that is available from legal and licensed sources; giving them greater confidence when buying and using content online and providing additional guidance about internet safety.

John Petter [pictured], CEO, BT Consumer, said: “BT is very pleased to be able to support this important announcement today. The UK has a world-leading creative sector which plays a vital role in promoting the nation’s economic prosperity. BT is committed to supporting the creative industries by helping to tackle the problem of online piracy while ensuring the best possible experience for its customers. That’s why we’ve worked very hard with rights-holders and other leading ISPs to develop a voluntary programme based on consumer education and awareness which promotes the use of legal online content.”

See "UK Creative Industries and ISPs Partner in Major New Initiative to Promote Legal Online Entertainment" - here.

Zen Internet: Unlike Other UK ISPs - We do not Shape Traffic

A post to Zen Internet's (UK) blog states that "All ISPs manage the data running across the network – the traffic – to some extent, but some larger ISPs are more intrusive. In some cases they throttle speeds, deliberately slowing down connections when users exceed what the ISP terms acceptable use. In others, they use a technique called Deep Packet Inspection to monitor usage and throttle the connection when you’re using specific bandwidth-intensive applications, such as Peer to Peer file-sharing.

.. At Zen, we think this is wrong. We don’t use traffic shaping or deep packet inspection in any form. We feel that our customers deserve services that are open, honest and easy to understand. That’s why our products use a fully transparent system of allowances, where customers simply pay for blocks of additional usage when they go over their generous monthly allocation, and where unused blocks can be held back for another month".

However, we understand that broadband usage patterns are changing. More of us are doing more online through more devices. That’s why we doubled the usage allowances across our product range and why we invest heavily in the network to ensure we can provide reliable speeds and quality of service.

See "No throttling, no squeezing: The Zen approach to Traffic Management" - here.

UK ISPs for Safer Internet

TalkTalk announced recently that "Mother and daughter, Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Janet Ellis today (13th May) launched Internet Matters, a world-leading child internet safety organisation founded by the UK’s four major broadband providers; BT [see "BT Launches DNS-based Parental Control; Does it Log Traffic?" - here], Sky, TalkTalk [see "TalkTalk Launches Free, Opt-in, Parental Control/Malware Detection Service" - here] and Virgin. 

The not-for-profit organisation sees the ‘big four’ put aside competition and join forces for the first time, to help parents safely navigate the internet with their children. The move will cement the UK’s position as a world-leader on child internet safety, advising parents to ‘learn about it, talk about it, deal with it’".

Related posts - "UK Government: No Need ("appetite") for Network Based Parental Control" - here and then "UK to Enforce Opt Out Network Based Web Filtering on All ISPs" - here.

The site's parental control page explains that "Broadband providers offer the ability to set network level parental controls on your home broadband network. They restrict access to particular programmes or sites, limit access times, and importantly filter out inappropriate content like pornography. They work on every device that is connected to your broadband network". 

See "Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Janet Ellis launch Internet Matters child internetsafety portal" - here.

[Sandvine] NA Cord-Cutters Stream 3 Hours of Video a Day

Sandvine's recent “Global Internet Phenomena Report 1H2014” (based on data from a selection of Sandvine’s 250-plus communications service provider (CSP) customers spanning North America, Europe, Middle East and Africa, Caribbean and Latin America and Asia-Pacific) finds that:

• Just over two years after its launch, Netflix has become the second largest driver of traffic on fixed access networks in the UK and Ireland .. Netflix is now the second largest source of traffic during the peak evening hours, accounting for over 17.8% of downstream fixed access traffic
   
• North American subscribers who exhibit “cord cutting” behavior (top 15th percentile of video users) are dominating network usage:
• Consuming on average 212GB a month, more than seven times the 29GB of a typical subscriber; [see "Comcast: 'we have no plans to announce a new data usage policy"- here]
• Viewing the equivalent of 100 hours of video each month
• Accounting for the majority (54%) of total monthly network traffic

"Recently AT&T made some pretty big waves at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) by announcing their intention to offer sponsored data to their subscribers [see "[Rumors]: AT&T "Sponsored Data" is Based on Openet's PCC " - here] . At Sandvine, we’ve been talking about ways operators could often innovative service plan for a number of years, in fact we first talked about it in our 1H 2012 Global Internet Phenomena Report.

As we predicted, it now looks like the near future is here, and 2014 will see the beginning of sponsored connectivity roll-out globally. This new model represents a complete new revenue stream for operators and great potential benefit for subscribers as well". 

See "Sandvine Report: Netflix’s British Invasion" - here.

[Guest post]: How Mobile Operators Can Address the War on Porn?

By Michael Rodgers*, Senior Strategist of Products, Openwave Mobility

UK Prime Minster David Cameron recently raised the stakes in his “war against porn” by asking Internet providers to apply stricter filters on adult content.

Child safety has been cited by many political insiders as one of the reasons behind the UK’s push towards stricter content laws. Cameron’s vision which also includes controls on Google search, is that the country’s households should “opt-in” to access to adult content.

The new measures would initially be automatically applied to new customers then expanded to existing subscribers through providers actively contacting their customer base regarding filtering options. The UK’s biggest Internet providers have all agreed to Cameron’s filter scheme meaning that 95% of UK homes will be filtered by the end of the year.

However, with nearly two thirds of the UK’s 12-15 year olds’ owning smartphones filtering only home networks will not fully shield them.

The reality is that very few parents know what their children and teenagers browse on their mobile phones, with the majority of youngsters knowing far more about the device’s capabilities than the parents footing the bill. Many parents are vigilant with their children’s laptop use, limiting it to “public areas” like lounges where screens can be easily glanced at, but unfortunately mobiles are often neglected. It’s nearly impossible to know what teenagers are viewing on their small touch-screen devices without assistance.

If the UK puts the responsibility of content-filtering onto mobile operators too they will be forced to figure out a comprehensive, cost-effective, solution that doesn’t aggravate their customers. Content-filtering solutions will need to incorporate:

• URL Categorization 

• Content Blocking

• Captive portal with end-user sign-up: by default adult content is blocked, and access has to be requested)
   
• User repository: to keep track of who signed up and user age

A simple way for operators to filter adult content would be automatically through their price plans. By enabling automatic parental-controls / content-filtering on shared and family plans for example, operators could discreetly protect younger users without parents having the additional task or responsibility of setting it up. Using the UK approach of needing to opt-out of the filters would ensure comprehensive protection for those who need it. Although such shared plans are relatively new in the UK market with EE having just released its “Shared 4GEE” plan last month, this would immediately work well in the US market where shared plans are more established. However, in the UK market where it is common place for parent to set up individual plans for their children and teens, offering a “Young Adult” plan with automatic filtering would be an easy and simple way for UK operators to protect younger users.

The UK is not alone in its movement in filtering adult content over the Internet. North American mobile operators are currently looking at ways to contain explicit content when browsing on devices. Although the operators are concerned about protecting vulnerable users, there is also an element of business ROI behind the move. It is estimated that the traffic from adult content currently accounts for 10-15 percent of the total traffic on mobile networks in the US. By reducing this type content more network capacity will be available and provides operators with another effective tool to manage network congestion.

As child-safety on the Internet is becoming more of a priority for governments as well as parents, mobile operators need to proactively begin addressing this issue now. Offering price plans that automatically filter inappropriate content, will not only provide an additional level of care that operators provide their subscribers, it will help differentiate their price plans in a competitive market with a “family-friendly” options. Acting on the issue now will enable operators to revolutionise price plans and help them stay ahead of the curve, demonstrating a willingness to take ownership of child-protection. This is especially vital when so many parents are unaware that such protection exists in mobile Internet world.


___________

*Michael Rodgers is a senior product marketing strategist at Openwave Mobility with over 20 years of experience in mobile telecoms, primarily focused on product management and marketing of mobile data infrastructure and value-added services products. At Openwave Mobility, Michael is currently responsible for marketing the company’s policy and charging product portfolio with a key focus on helping mobile operators innovate on data pricing models.

Prior to Openwave, Michael spent six years with Ericsson where he held a variety of positions including technical consultant, systems engineering and product management/marketing roles.

Michael holds a BSc, Science Physics & Chemistry from Trinity College Dublin, an MSc, Physics Opto-electronics and MA, Music technology from Queen’s University Belfast.

LSE: No Need to Punish Copyright Infringers

A report by Bart Cammaerts, Robin Mansell [picutred] and Bingchun Meng from the Department of Media and Communications, The London School of Economics and Political Science finds that "The experiences of other countries that have implemented punitive measures against individual online copyright infringers indicate that the approach does not have the impacts claimed by some in the creative industries".

See also "LSE: 'The use of peer-to-peer technology should be encouraged'" - here.

".. A 2013 report by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre on online music consumption in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK looked at clicks and visits to legal and illegal services. It showed that digital music ‘piracy’ did not displace legal music purchases in digital format and that the majority of music consumed illegally would not have been consumed if it was not freely available. It observed that, in France, HADOPI may have affected consumer choices and also that France had the highest content streaming rates compared with other countries, indicating the fast pace of changes in technology and online digital content services".

The lesson for the UK? - "We recommend a review of the DEA [UK's Digital Economy Act - see "UK: "3 Strikes" Regulation Expected in 2014"- here] and related legislation that strikes a healthy balance among the interests of a range of stakeholders including those in the creative industries, Internet Service Providers and internet users. Fitting the digital sharing culture and new forms of cultural production into a copyright enforcement model that is out of touch with today’s online culture will only suppress innovation and dampen growth".

See "Copyright & Creation A Case for Promoting Inclusive Online Sharing" - here.

[UK] Ofcom Research on Transparency of Traffic Management

The nice consumer guide issued by Ofcom on UK ISP's Traffic Management practices (see "[UK]: Ofcom Consumer Guide for Traffic Management" - here) was based on a research initiated by Ofcom.

Back in April Ofcom announced that "During 2013/14 Ofcom’s work on consumer information will address areas where we believe information provided by the market is insufficient. Examples of this will include: .. Traffic management practices: we are doing further work to consider the transparency of information on traffic management" (see "Ofcom Checks Traffic Management Practices" - here). More background in "Consumer research into the transparency of traffic management information provided by ISPs" - here.

The research was done by Kantar Media and published in "Transparency in internet traffic management"

The key findings related to traffic management are:

• Traffic management policies play little role in consumers’ ISP selection decisions, with only 1% claiming to have considered this for their fixed and/or mobile broadband purchases.
   
• There is a widespread lack of awareness about traffic management information. Roughly 1 in 10 internet consumers were aware of the term and meaning of traffic management, with less than a third (29%) being aware that traffic management processes were currently in use by internet providers.

• Once traffic management processes were explained 6% of internet users claimed they would consider traffic management in their future ISP selections, while the qualitative research indicated it would be of most interest to those who are currently experiencing internet related problems during peak times, particularly among households with multiple internet users
   
• Of the 9% of consumers who were aware of their ISP’s traffic management policy, 73% claimed that the information on traffic management provided was easy to understand.

[UK]: Ofcom Consumer Guide for Traffic Management

 

I am following the UK traffic management regulation since the early days of this blog (see "DPI Deployments - Part4: UK - Everybody is Doing it !" - here), as the UK ISPs are more transparent in their disclosure (voluntarily or by regulation - see "[UK]: Self Regulation doesn't Satisfy Ofcom; Publishes Minimum Disclosure Level" - here) compared to ISPs in other countries.

On top of all that, Ofcom published a new consumer guide, explaining consumers what is traffic management and exposing ISPs policies. They used the common comparing Broadband Traffic Management to motorways, serving variety of cars and

"With 46 million people in the UK having access to broadband and many using it for data heavy activities such as streaming and downloading, the internet is becoming increasingly busy.To ensure that networks operate efficiently, ISPs can restrict or ration traffic on their networks, or give priority to some types of traffic over others. This is known as ‘traffic management’.

"Each ISP has its own traffic management policy and so when choosing a provider you should check their policy meets your needs. Below you will find links to policies of the largest providers. If your ISP is not on this list, visit your provider’s website or speak to their customer services department: BT, Karoo, Plusnet, Sky, TalkTalk, Virgin Media (National and Cable), O2 (Home broadband and mobile broadband), EE (Handsets, broadband and mobile,broadband), Three, Vodafone."

See "New consumer guide on internet ‘traffic management’" - here.

[UK]: Major ISPs Asked to Build "Downloaders Database"

I thought that fighting music sharing is no longer an issue, as reasonably priced legal services are very successful - but it turns out that the record industry is still thinking of a new ways to stop downloaders. The recent one is BPI that represents the UK’s recorded music industry.

Dave Neal report to The Inquirer that "Four UK internet service providers (ISPs) have been invited to help create a database of allegedly illegal downloaders for music record labels and film companies. Four firms - BT, Virgin Media, Bskyb and Talktalk - have been asked to provide information on a voluntary basis.

Virgin Media spokesperson Emma Hutchinson said that "what they're currently proposing is unworkable"; BT said that it was open to suggestions that would not harm its users' rights to privacy".

See "Media companies want a downloader database" - here.

[UK]: Broadband Transparency Improves

Transparency is very important to the UK regulator (see "Ofcom: Getting Ready for Speed Advertising Guidelines"-  here; "Self Regulation doesn't Satisfy Ofcom; Publishes Minimum Disclosure Level" - here and "Transparency for Unlimited and "up-to" Service Speeds" - here).

Ofcom seems to be happy with its regulation efforts and is saying now that "UK consumers are receiving better information about the broadband speeds they can expect to receive from a new supplier, according to Ofcom research published today. Ofcom has carried out mystery shopping into whether internet service providers are giving consumers relevant information about expected broadband speeds .. Mystery shopping revealed a speed estimate in the form of a range was provided in four out of every five calls (80%), up from 68% in 2012" (see Comparison of ISPs’ compliance with speeds information requirements below). 

Just need to see that the information provided before joining the service reflects the actual service level.

Source: Ofcom

See "Consumers receiving better information on broadband speeds" - here.