2007/08/09

Decision to make The Wireless Telegraphy (Ultra-Wideband Equipment) (Exemption) Regulations 2007 | Ofcom

Decision to make The Wireless Telegraphy (Ultra-Wideband Equipment) (Exemption) Regulations 2007 | Ofcom

Ofcom will allow the use of UWB (Ultra-Wideband) equipment from 13th August 2007 when the exemption regulations come into force.

This is in accordance with European directives.

Any equipment will have to meet the published requirements and spectral masks.

This is a good step forwards and should allow new equipment to come on the market such as wireless HDTV distribution for in-home use and wireless USB.

2007/08/06

NOW up for sale

NOW the UK Wireless broadband operator from PCCW is up for sale. PCCW paid $14m for regional licenses which they are trying to convert to a single UK license (and to allow mobile use, which the licenses currently prohibit).

NOW have only 14,000 customers but losses of £23.3m. UK infrastructure is still expensive and providing a national network is unecomic unless there's huge scale involved or the company has a national network already.

Pipex was recently sold to Tiscali, though Pipex Wireless was excluded from the sale.

Both Pipex Wireless and NOW will compete for the same bidders.

BT has expressed an interested in the 2.5GHz spectrum, they may well make an offer for Pipex Wireless or NOW to gain their licenses.

Virgin attracts Liberty Global

Liberty Global may join the battle for Virgin Media with a bid of £11bn.

BSkyB asked to delay the court case with Virgin Media re the Sky channels which Sky withdrew over pricing, which means it wont be heard until next year at the earliest. Normally Virgin Media would have pushed to have the case heard as early as possible so they get the channels back and stop losing customers.

Unfortunately an in-court case could delay any sale pending the outcome. It's much better for Virgin Media to delay the case and let a sale go through, then deal with BSkyB.

Unfortunatey it's bad news for customers who aren't likely to get their Sky content back for a year.