If you’ve ever complained about your broadband costs , then you’ll be happy to hear that Ofcom, the telecoms regulators, are trying to introduce price cuts.
In a statement issued today, the regulators proposed that Openreach, the BT division providing wholesale access to other communications providers, lower their prices.  Ofcom said that they hoped that the resultant savings would “ lead to real-term price reductions for consumers.”

Companies which either rent lines from BT wholesale or use BT’s Local Loop Unbounding (LLU) service, through which broadband providers install their own equipment in Openreach’s exchanges, would see costs go down.  For LLU, this is expected to be between 11.6 and 14.6% annually, while wholesale rental would go down in price by between 1.4 and 4.2% annually.

Increased competition
Ofcom said in their statement that they has already seen increased competition in the telecommunications industry result in lowered prices for customers, both across the landline and broadband markets.
Of the nations’ 19 million broadband lines, over 70% are with providers other than BT. Prices have fallen by an average of 52% since 2005.

BT concerned
BT in their own statement welcomed Ofcom’s recognition of the investments they have made in the UK’s  communication industry, but said that it was ‘critical they receive fair return….to continue…investment.” They added that they questioned some of Ofcom’s conclusions and are expected to bring up their concerns during the consultation process.

Ofcom themselves will publish their final findings in August. Any savings that result, unfortunately, will take  a bit more time to appear on the bill – price cuts won’t be introduced until 2014.

You read more about this story on the BBC website

Personal data collected by Google's UK Street View cars has been deleted.

The UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), which has been criticised for not taking a more hardline stance against Google, confirmed the deletion.

The first batch of wi-fi data, which included snippets of e-mails, URLs and passwords, was deleted in November.

But legal wrangles in other countries meant that the remaining data, all of which the firm said was collected in error, took more time to erase.

"We can confirm that the UK data has now been deleted, and that this has been independently certified," said Google.

The deletion was carried out by US forensics firm Stroz Friedberg.

The ICO welcomed the announcement and said that it had been sent a copy of the report confirming the deletion.

"This is inline with the requirements of the undertaking issued by the ICO and signed by Google last month," said a spokesperson.

The ICO has come under fire for not taking action against the firm, which first admitted to collecting information from unsecured wireless networks in more than 30 countries in May 2010.

For more on this please click on here which you will be directed to the BBC news website.

Every community in the UK will gain access to super-fast broadband by 2015 under plans outlined by the UK Government.

The private sector is to deliver broadband to two thirds of the UK. Other, mainly rural, areas will receive public funds to build a "digital hub" with a fibre optic internet connection.

The government has earmarked £830m for the scheme, with some of this money coming from funds given to the BBC to pay for the switch to digital TV.

A recent study by the regulator Ofcom revealed that fewer than 1% of UK homes have a super-fast broadband connection, considered to be at least 24Mbps. However, the government does not define the minimum speed it hopes super-fast services will achieve.

At the heart of this is a plan to create a "digital hub" in every community by 2015. Communities and local operators would then be expected to take on the responsibility for extending the network to individual homes. The coalition has earmarked £50m of the £830m to pay for trials - particularly in difficult-to-reach areas - to see how it can ensure that super-fast fibre optic broadband reaches these communities in the timescale.

Then read on!

You may have heard of the term ‘domain alias’ but never really known what it means. A domain alias (or tandem, as it’s sometimes also called) is when more than one domain name leads to the same website.

For example, if the domain ‘www.test1.com’ is your chosen Takeaway Website name and you then add the domain alias of ‘www.test2.com’ to your account as well, both addresses would take your visitor to ‘www.test1.com’.

With Mr Site you can add up to six additional domain aliases – these can be names you have purchased from Mr Site or if you have bought domains with other providers, you can either move the domain for Mr Site to host or keep the name with its current registrar and ask them to ‘point’ it at your Takeaway Website.

If you’d like to buy your new domain from Mr Site, click on the ‘Buy’ button from the Main Options pages. Then from the drop down list next to ‘What purchase would you like?’ select ‘Purchase a new domain’. Now, type in your new domain into the box when prompted and if it’s available to purchase, Mr Site will ask you what you’d like to do with it – choose ‘Work in tandem’ and this will place the domain name as an alias alongside your Takeaway Website domain name.

If you have purchased the domain name from another registrar, you will need to contact the Mr Site support team so they can place the domain name as an alias on your account – you can talk to them on Live Chat (just click on the Live Chat icon in the top right hand corner of the Main Options page) or email support@mrsite.co.uk 

Flexible screens for e-readers could be available soon thanks to a project from Taiwan's Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) and licensee AU Optronics, one of the world's largest LCD screen makers.

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