Love Your Internet

After years of contention and thousands of Brits returning from their holidays to receive unexpectedly high mobile phone bills, new EU legislation (which came in to force on the 1st July), capping the charge of roaming charges for calls and text messages and the wholesale of mobile broadband has been welcomed by consumers and industry commentators alike. However despite 3 and Vodafone recently announcing price drops for using their mobile broadband  services abroad Rob Webber, Commercial Director at comparison site Broadband Expert believes that mobile broadband consumers are still receiving a raw deal.

Webber explains that many Brits have already run up huge bills whilst using mobile broadband devices abroad including one customer who received a bill for in excess of £20,000 earlier this year. According to Webber, whilst Vodafone may currently be leading the way in making mobile broadband usage abroad more affordable, it is still prohibitively expensive particularly for any activity involving downloading large amounts of data. Webber explains that downloading an episode of EastEnders whilst abroad inside the EU could range from around £65 to £1,600, dependent on which mobile broadband provider you are with.

When viewed on a single citizen basis the Digital Britain report release recently by the government will significantly improve best practises in public sector IT and has been warmly welcomed by Socitm, the body that represents IT professionals in this area.

The IT website, publictechnology.net and reported that services within the public sector will become more accessible, sustainable and efficient than every before with the proposals from the government to deploy universal broadband throughout the country and has been applauded by Socitm.

In response to the recently release Digital Britain report the author of the Socitm response and the head of policy at Socitm, Martin Ferguson said “We welcome the overall focus of the report and its recognition of the strategic role played by the government in stimulating and developing the infrastructure for a Digital Britain. And its timing, given the need to meet ever increasing demands on public services at a time of huge budgetary pressure, is absolutely right.”

In order to improve the best practises from and single citizen point of view and to help implement the findings from the Digital Britain Report he has said that he is looking forward to working side by side with the government.

The plans by the government for a universal deployment of broadband services throughout the country and the improvements to the best practise implemented for all the people in the UK from an individual point have all been outlined in the Digital Britain report.

The report has, however, received mixed views from both the pu

Recent research from a popular broadband news site has shown that around one third of all consumers that currently use broadband services fail to take advantage of the saving that could be made by combining their digital TV or home phone package with their broadband service.

Even though many users could make a saving of over £230 every year it was found that as many as 30 percent of the 10 000 respondents that took part in the survey failed to bundle their digital TV or home phone package with their broadband service. It was also found that the number of respondents that were not certain whether broadband bundles would save them money came to 29 percent with the number saying they didn’t think that bundling services would save them cash coming to 12 percent.

A spokesman for the site carrying out the survey said “Events of the past year have prompted a flurry of cost-cutting so it is surprising to see so many consumers continuing to pay separate suppliers for their broadband, home phone and digital TV - it is also a surprise to see that the same proportion did not actually know if a bundled package represents better value. The price of bundled packages has been steadily driven downwards as the major provider’s battle it out for market share and households subscribing separately for their three services could save £230 or more per year through taking out a bundled package. Of those respondents who did not subscribe to a bundled package, a large proportion (60%) had not shopped around for a better broadband deal in the last 4 years. We would encourage these consumers to get online and compare providers to see what bundled packages are available to them - they will almost certainly find they can enjoy superior services for much less than they are currently paying, with the added benefit of only having one monthly bill to keep track of.”