Image via Wikipedia A recent Ofcom report shows the UK leading the world in its use of digital communications, yet trailing behind in 21st position out of 30 for Broadband speeds. News – UK prime in most digital areas but not broadband The UK is one of the world’s most advanced countries in terms of digital communications, an Ofcom report says. The telecoms regulator said people in the UK watched more TV and sent more texts than people in many other countries, … UK broadband [...]

Broadband Speeds in the UK Ofcom recently released a report which represents the most thorough examination of broadband speeds ever performed within the UK. The data they collected was taken from over 60 million speed test results accumulated by 1600 broadband customers and it paints a relatively bleak picture of the UK broadband market as it stands today. The findings basically revealed what many people already knew to be true, that broadband speeds vary wildly depending on a number of factors and in the most [...]

Rolling contracts allow BT to automatically renew your contract with them for a further 12 months *without* your explicit consent. Their normal contract, however, allows you to leave when the 12 months is up. Which one did you sign up to? Because If you miss the annual reminder and try to leave BT for a cheaper alternative phone call supplier, you are stuck unless you pay for the privilege to leave! This is damaging to competition in the deregulated telecoms industry, and so far, OFCOM [...]

It used to be that BT owned a monopoly on landlines, since they built up the infrastructure to supply them. A landline is the final connection from the BT Exchange to your premises, also known as the Local Loop. On 1st August 2006 Ofcom allowed other telecom companies to supply landline services. This is also called Local Loop Unbundling, or LLU. Other providers can now rent the LLU from BT and supply it to the customer themselves, usually at cheaper rates and sometimes as part [...]

  Cheap phone calls for home and business have been possible for many years (originally called Least-Cost Routing, or LCR), and recent OFCOM legislation has made the process even easier than ever. LCR needed the manual re-programming of your company telephone switchboard, which was sometimes a chargeable task and not without unexpected hitches. There were also small plug-in dialler boxes which were unreliable, got unplugged or had power inadvertently turned off. Both methods “routed” your phone call off the main BT network, onto another carrier [...]

On 1st August 2006, Ofcom, the UK Telecoms Regulator, ended the formal controls on the cost of phone line rentals and calls from BT. This leaves all phone companies (including BT themselves) free to set their own retail prices for consumers. So now you, not the regulator, are free to decide whether you think a phone company is good value or not, and can choose the right deal for you. Then keep checking it's delivering what you want, at the right price!