2007/11/15

Review of the wholesale broadband access markets 2006/07 | Ofcom

Review of the wholesale broadband access markets 2006/07 | Ofcom

The consultation relates to broadband in the UK. Ofcom has segmented the UK into areas where BT or Kingston Commuications (KCOM) are the only providers of broadband and then were there are other operators in the exchanges.

The breakdown is: -

* those geographic areas covered by exchanges where KCOM is the only operator (“the Hull area”).

* those geographic areas covered by exchanges where BT is the only operator (“Market 1”);
those geographic areas covered by exchanges where there are 2 or 3 Principal Operators AND exchanges where there are 4 or more Principal Operators but where the exchange serves less than 10,000 premises (“Market 2”).

* those geographic areas covered by exchanges where there are 4 or more Principal Operators and where the exchange serves 10,000 or more premises (“Market 3”).

Ofcom has decided that it is a requirement to provide Network Access on reasonable requests, requirement not to discriminate unduly, requirement to publish a reference offer, requirement to notify terms and conditions, requirement to publish technical information, and requirement to have accounting separation.

The most significant bit is that in Market 3 areas Ofcom has decided that (in terms of broadband) BT no longer has significant market power (SMP) and it will be revoked in those areas.

2007/11/14

Raising Confidence in Telephone Numbers | Ofcom

Raising Confidence in Telephone Numbers | Ofcom

Ofcom introduced the 03 range (which are charged at local rate) to encourage companies to migrate from 0870 numbers. To this end, Ofcom were going to mandate the anyone using 0870 services would have to pre-announce the call rate before the call was connected to make the consumer aware of any charges. This was to have taken place in Feb 2007.

Ofcom have been made aware that some automatic emergency services (alarms etc) make use of 0870 numbers and these would be adversely affected by the pre-announcement (they would time out and therefore the call would not complete).

Ofcom are working with the affected service providers and hope to bring in the new regulations in the spring of next year.

Wireless Telegraphy Licence Exemption - Automotive Short Range Radar | Ofcom

Wireless Telegraphy Licence Exemption - Automotive Short Range Radar | Ofcom

Ofcom are consulting on the use of automotive short range radar that operates in the 24GHz band (21.65 to 26.65 GHz), following an EU directive to make this band available.

Automotive equipment may interfere with radio astronomy systems which also use this band, so Ofcom wish to have exclusion zones around radio astronomy sites and equipment must automatically or manually deactivate around such sites.

The consultation closes on 31St Decemeber 2007.

2007/11/13

Numbering Policy | Ofcom

Numbering Policy | Ofcom

In March 2007 Ofcom mandated that all next Sexual Enterntainment Services must use numbers starting with a 098 prefix and this came into force on Thu 08/11/07. Existing services running on 0909 and 0909 can continue to use these ranges, though no new 0908/0909 numbers will be allocated.

On Monday 09/11/07 Ofcom also opened up the 0902 and 0903 number ranges for PRS (premium rate services) which can be applied for using the S9 “The Numbering Application Form”.

Ofcom also announced that the new 03 number range is being used and there have been over 13 million numbers allocated to more than 80 providers. 03 numbers are expected to replace 084/087 numbers for public organisations etc.