Sixty per cent of US households accessed the Internet via broadband in 2008, according to a report published by analyst firm Strategy Analytics, compared to 95 per cent of South Korean households. This number puts the US in 20th place out of 58 leading countries worldwide. Five of the top ten scorers in the Strategy […]

UK communications minister Lord Carter has defended plans to levy a £6-a-year tax (E7.1) on every phone line to raise up to £1.5 billion to help pay for the next generation of super-fast internet networks, as the most transparent way of investing in a critical part of Britain’s infrastructure. Having looked at the investment plans […]

BT is to examine expanding its superfast broadband network to cover 90 per cent of homes after ministers published plans to subsidise the roll-out of high-speed internet access across the country.CEO Ian Livingston told the Financial Times the government's planned broadband tax meant BT could investigate going far beyond its existing commitment to provide a […]

Communications market research firm Infonetics Research has released the first quarter) editions of its Cable Broadband Aggregation Hardware and Subscribers and Broadband CPE and Subscribers reports. Jeff Heynen, Directing Analyst at Infonetics Research, said that on the heels of record-high revenue in 2008 ($1.23 billion), the cable broadband hardware market held steady in the first […]

Virgin Media and Universal Music have unveiled plans for a digital music service designed to bring about a rapid and permanent change in the way UK consumers buy and listen to music. The service will enable Virgin Media broadband customer to both stream and download as many music tracks and albums as they want from […]

The European Commission is recommending that rules governing the emerging next-generation broadband services – specifically, those around competitor access to infrastructure and wholesaling of broadband access – should be developed through a "common approach" across the continent. If national telco regulators find that a dominant telco has significant market power over the faster lines, they […]

According to research from The Diffusion Group US cable networks are becoming much more active in regards to online video distribution strategies, even at the cost of straining relationships with their Pay-TV platform partners. “Cable networks have libraries filled with high-demand video content, but in many cases the content can only be enjoyed via Pay-TV […]

Against the backdrop of a maturing broadband market and a challenging economic environment, Western European broadband is in relatively good health, according to a report published by analyst firm Strategy Analytics. Sixty-one per cent of Western European households had broadband connectivity in their homes at the end of 2008; this number will grow to exceed […]

France’s highest legal authority struck down a key provision of the controversial law that would have cut off Internet access to people who repeatedly download copyrighted content illegally. The council rejected the core portion of the measure, under which a newly created agency, acting on the recommendations of copyright owners, would have been able to […]

BT has told video streaming sites that they will have to contribute to the cost of upgrading its broadband networks if they want consumers to enjoy a good level of video quality in future. BT Retail MD John Petter told the FT: "We can't give the content providers a completely free ride and continue to […]