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Business online safety

EUROISPA paper on Online Child Exploitation

EUROISPA has published a position paper on online child exploitation. The paper contains three key arguments:
1. Full support for professionally operated hotline:

  • Governments should concentrate on developing a clear legal and judicial framework.
  • The public must play an essential role in the reporting to the police or local hotlines of suspected child sexual abuse material as ISPs cannot in any way monitor the Internet.
  • Hotlines’ network should be further developed within the European Union and promoted abroad.
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Business security

EC proposals to improve cybersecurity

The European Commission today unveiled two new measures as part of its fight against cybercrime.  The first measure proposes new criminal offences relating to

  • the use of malicious software (botnets etc) for committing offences,
  • illegal interception of informations systems

and strengthens penalites for such crimes. The EU also proposes an improvement of European criminal justice/police cooperation by strengthening the existing structure of 24/7 contact points, including an obligation to answer within 8 hours to urgent request and the obligation to collect basic statistical data on cybercrimes.

The world is in dire need of general improvement in respect of international cooperation. The UK has it’s own Police Central eCrime Unit but the

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Business competitions

Lemon Drizzle Cake competition results – read all about it

Faye Hemingway is congratulated by Trefor Davies for winning the Timico Lemon Drizzle Cake Competition
Faye Hemingway is congratulated by Trefor Davies for winning the Timico Lemon Drizzle Cake Competition

As I write this post the rain is lashing against my office window trying to break the glass and play at the Ryder Cup Golf Tournament has been suspended due to the weather. Inside Timico Towers though the drizzle has been of a different sort.  This month’s eagerly anticipated cake competition was, yes you guessed it, Lemon Drizzle Cake.

It always worries me that in arranging these competitions I might find myself in the embarrassing position of not getting any entries. The team has not yet let me down and the standard of entries has been getting higher and higher with each new competition.

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broadband Business

Superfast Broadband Coming to Cornwall and Scilly Isles

BT announced today that Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly are set to become one of the best connected locations in the world under an ambitious £132 million BT and Cornwall Council project, supported by European funding. It will bring superfast broadband to the vast majority of businesses in this area by 2014. The project will benefit tens of thousands of local businesses, create 4,000 new local jobs and protect a further 2,000.

It is expected that other ISPs will be able to offer services using the infrastructure in the same way that they buy off BT Wholesale today. Operational details of this have yet to be announced. Rollout will be announced on a rolling basis, agreed by the project partners in consultation with internet service providers.

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broadband Business internet

FTTP Broadband Installation – First Photos of Trials

Photos of BT FTTP broadband installation. Really!

As a participant in the BT Fibre To The Premises  trials I am pleased to bring you pictures of real life fibre installations in action. There is more to a FTTP broadband installation than a traditional ADSL line which utilises existing copper cabling.

There are three splices to be made.  One at the cabinet and two at your premises (inside and out). A splice is traditionally a fairly complex and expensive operation – because of the kit and skill-set required.  However you can see from the photo that today’s equipment is far more portable and thus suited to a mass market rollout when the time is right.  Note you still need a bloke to hold the umbrella 🙂 Presumably there is someone off camera heating up the urn as well :).  Thanks to BT Wholesale for the photos.

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broadband Business internet

FTTP Broadband jfdi Country Style

Photo is of villagers in Ashby De La Launde digging their own trenches in preparation for fibre installation.  This is one way of circumventing the enormous civil engineering cost of lighting the UK with fibre.

Villagers in Ashby De La Launde Lincolnshire digging their own trenches in preparation for FTTP

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broadband Business

Phase 6 Exchanges for FTTC Announced by BT

Hot off the press this afternoon is the much awaited schedule for the BT FTTC Phase 6 rollout with exchanges being delivered up to December 2011.  I know this is a hot one for many readers so hopefully your exchange is on the list.

Mine isn’t. I’m thinking of putting a POP into my garage in Lincoln because I don’t like being left out myself 🙂

Anyone interested in hopping on the back of this should register their interest in a comment 🙂

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Business piracy

£636758.22 £191,027.47 £500,000.00

£636,758.22 is apparently the amount of money ACS Law claim to have made out of hounding broadband subscribers for payment for “alleged” Copyright Infringement.

Based on a commission of 30% £191,027.47 is what the firm would have made out of these unsavoury antics.

£500,000.00 is the fine that ACS Law could be hit with for revealing their victims’ details on their website.

It is easy to see why ACS Law wanted to keep going after its victims. Shed no tears. Feel compassion for the many people whose lives have been affected by ACS Law. I wonder whether the firm will survive.  Their website is down as I write…

Others have written intelligently about ACS Law so there is no point in my regurgitating it.  Broadbandgenie has been close to this one all along – see their commentary here.

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Business piracy Regs surveillance & privacy

BT TalkTalk judicial review results expected this week #DEAct

Andrew Heaney of TalkTalk tells me that they are in theory expecting to hear the result of the Judicial Review into the Digital Economy Act  this Thursday.  He didn’t seem hugely optimistic that this date would actually be met.  I guess considering the obscene haste with which the DEBill/DEAct was rushed through we should reasonably expect the judge to take his time on this one and make sure he gets it right.

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broadband Business ofcom

How to Get BT to Deliver Superfast FTTC Broadband to Your local area – jfdi city style.

The answer to the question of how to get BT to deliver FTTC broadband is cash, though it doesn’t necessarily have to be your own cash.

As a grown up business BT only rolls out fibre to commercially viable areas. This is clear. There is no case for investment in areas where farmhouses are miles apart and it takes weeks to dig trenches to lay ducts to provide superfast broadband so that rural folks can provide details online of stock movements and check when the next market day is in town.

This is not a gripe. In fact I like to think that readers of this blog go away enriched, fortified and looking forward to the next time they need a reason to come back – perhaps the next cake baking competition results. They don’t want to read whinging prose. They need edification. Satisfaction.

Also BT business cases don’t just apply to rural areas. Only 500 or so exchanges are currently planned to be Superfast FTTC broadband enabled in the UK. My hometown of Lincoln isn’t one of them. It’s all about economics.

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Business internet ofcom piracy Regs surveillance & privacy

Education, education education??? #DEAct

A recurring theme of today’s DEAct conference is the fact that this whole exercise is seen by government and Rights Holders as a process of education. They are trying to influence behaviour (target is 70% reduction in file sharing) and not specifically going after individuals.

The issuing of Copyright Infringement Reports and notices to ISP customers suspected of unlawful activity is intended to be a shot across the bows.  A message to say “this is not a good thing that is going on”.

The problem that RHs have historically had is that the cost of taking suspected infringers to court has not only been prohibitive but also fraught with risk in that the chances of them losing the case are quite high. Proving certainty of

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Business ofcom Regs surveillance & privacy

Ofcom to get another 3 months to finish #DEAct Code of Practice

At the DEAct conference in London today Rachel Clark, Deputy Director, Communications and Content Industries Dept for Business Innovation and Skills, told us that the deadline for Ofcom to complete its work on the Code of Practice has been put back 3 months to the end of March 2011.

She considered that this was still a difficult deadline to meet but at least it is an admission of the fact that Ofcom has been struggling with the enormity of the task in hand.

Interestingly the meeting comprised around 70 – 80% Rights Holders representatives. I thought this seemed disproportinate but actually only 6 ISPs are seriously being affected in the initial phase. More concerningly is the fact

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Business mobile connectivity spam

08452860706 keyword has attracted 346 visits to trefor.net in September

The search keyword  08452860706 has attracted 346 visits to trefor.net this month.  This was a surprise because the most popular keywords by far relate to FTTC.

08452860706 takes people to a blog post concerning mobile spam from a company called DXI Easycall. It would appear that this problem is fairly prevalent and presumably unpopular.

These visitors, none of whom have visited the site before,  don’t stay long though – 21 seconds compared with the site average this month of 1 minute 44 seconds.  Just long enough I guess to find out the culprit and move on.

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broadband Business online safety

ONS’s “Social Trends Spotlight On: e-Society” (Internet Access)

A few statistics jump out of the page of the Office Of National Statistics (ONS) report entitled Social Trends Spotlight On: e-Society.

In 2010 73% of UK households have internet access. If we take the 2009 statistic that only 90% of these had “broadband” then we can assume that around two thirds of the country has broadband. Coincidentally 64% of children aged 5 to 15 had used the internet for schoolwork or homework at least once a week. One might interpret this as saying that the 1/3 of children without broadband were unable to access the internet for schoolwork. I realise that is a bit too simplistic but is certainly does highlight a problem.

87% of French people are “very worried” that their child might become the victim of online grooming.  This is in marked contrast with the UK where the number is only 32% (Slovakia is 10%!).  There are a few ways of reading this:

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Business piracy Regs surveillance & privacy

Digital Economy Act – problems lie ahead #DEAct

With all the current debate going on regarding cost sharing and the Digital Economy Act it is interesting to look into the future to try and see the mess there is going to be when people start getting warning notices and then wanting to appeal against them.

Ths clip below is from The Herts Advertiser24 a local paper in St Albans. It concerns a teenager taken to court for downloading indecent images of children and animals. The teenager had been using Limewire to download porn but had not realised that his PC was being seeded with other images and did not in fact know they were there.

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broadband Business

FTTC Broadband Exchange Rollout Update

Just posted the most recent schedule for FTTC broadband exchanges. It’s a few weeks overdue and the next one seems likely to come out next month but it does add 46 exchanges to the previous list.  Otherwise it is mostly schedule updates.

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broadband Business

Pigeon Versus Broadband Publicity Statistics #trefandrory

The pigeon versus broadband race last week generated a phenomenal level of interest. It must be said this is an illustration of the power of the BBC – although of course the fun nature of the event itself must have helped.

The race, which involved near constant media exposure throughout the day, was covered on BBC Radio 2,3,4,5, BBC1 News at 6.30 and 10pm, BBC Scotland, Humberside, World Service and Lincolnshire (they are the only ones I know of). The first radio interview was a 6.15 am and the last, Radio 5 Live, was at around 6.50pm

It was the 5th most popular item on the BBC website on Thursday – by 6.18pm it had had 92,357 story views, competing mainly with the Pope’s

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Business Regs surveillance & privacy

Julian Huppert MP is a good lad

I’ve just read this transcription of an interview given to broadbandgenie.co.uk by LibDem MP Julian Huppert.  It is a sensible commentary on the process that led to the Digital Economy Act and worth a read.

I have not met Julian Huppert yet but hopefully he will be around for the Parliament and Internet Conference next month. JH was responsible for an early day motion on the DEAct.

We need more MPs like Julian who “get” technology issues.

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Business datacentre

2,200 properties in the Newark area lose elecric power – communications services OK

2,200 properties in the Newark area have lost elecric power due to a substation failure.  I’m told it will take a couple of hours before “normal service is restored”.

That’s cool.  I can hear the reassuring sounds of the backup generator humming away. Comms are still up but the microwave oven in the kitchen, which is not a key service and therefore not supported on the jenny, has a half cooked meal in it. Customer services are still functioning. 

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Archived Business

Sunday Times Techtrack 100 features Timico for 4th year running

The 2010 Sunday Times Techtrack 100 came out yesterday featuring Timico for the fourth year running. The Techtrack is really the domain of young small companies that can easily demonstrate high compound annual growth. Six years into the game Timico is really no longer a startup and each year it is going to become harder to maintain the rates of growth.

Having said that it is always nice to be recognised and this is our fourth year in the Table so we must be doing something right. (Good 🙂 )

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broadband Business

Rory and Tref Pigeon Versus Broadband Race – The Highlights

Short amateur video of the Rory and Tref pigeon versus broadband stunt from last week.

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broadband Business

Pigeon Versus Broadband – Rare Video Footage

This rare video footage was uncovered from the archives this lunchtime when I was looking for some photos to send to the Skegness Standard who want to cover yesterday’s Rory and Tref pigeon versus broadband race.

You will note the firm but fair grip that must be excercised on the racing pigeon prior to launch.

Catch that pigeon! #trefandrory #roryandtref

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broadband Business internet

Pigeon Versus Broadband Update Rory and Tref

The great Pigeon Versus Broadband race began when the birds were set off at 11.05, and they clocked in at the loft 1hr 15 minutes later. At that time the broadband upload to YouTube was only 24% complete, and then only after having to reset it as the connection was dropped.

The distance according to Google maps was 75 miles and according to Unikon pigeon specialist Ray Knight the straight line flight path was 65 miles I believe (I am assuming they flew in a straight line).

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broadband Business

Pigeon vs broadband trailer on the BBC

Audio of a trailer intereview I did with the BBC last night talking about the rerun of the South African broadband versus pigeon race but in the UK this Thursday.

Update 17.20 15th Sept

There is a fair bit of media interest in this event with live radio interviews for BC Humberside and BBC Lincolnshire for tomorrow’s breakfast shows, mid morning and drivetime on BBC Lincolnshire as well as extensive  TV coverage on Look North. The BBC main news website is also covering the event.

Look out for the  rory&tref  hashtag on twitter during the day.  Rory and Tref are the two pigeons that will be carrying the microSD cards (Rory Stewart is the MP for Penrith).  Check out the Cumbrian Rural Broadband event he is organising here.

On a side note we will know the exact time of arrival of the pigeons back in the loft because they will be RF ID tagged. I am expecting a convincing  avian victory.

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Business Regs surveillance & privacy

BIS announces 75:25 cost sharing proposals for DEAct

The Department for Business Innovation and Skills has today finally published its response to the Digital Economy Act  (DEAct) cost sharing consultation. As expected, the Government has gone for a 75:25 rights holder to ISP split for costs of both notification and the appeals process. The Internet Service Providers’ Association (ISPA) and others argued long and hard for a beneficiary pays principle, which suggests that in fact the BIS postition should read 100% Rights Holder pays. That was always going to be a difficult one to win considering the whole dubious history of the DEAct.

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Business Regs surveillance & privacy

UK Music piling on lobbying – DEAct consultations delayed

The consultation on the Initial Obligations Code required as part of the Digital Economy Act has been delayed. Originally due out at the end of July it missed this date and because it has to be issued whilst parliament is sitting was not therefore published during the summer break.

This is currently slipping week by week presumably whilst the government tries to make its mind up regarding the content.  I am also told that potentially the Cost Sharing part of the DEAct might need to be referred to the European Commission which would mean a three month delay. It looks likely that the launch of the Code of Practice which has to be done in January 2011 will be a softly softly low key affair. I can’t imagine that the CoP will be in a usable state at that time.

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Business internet net neutrality Regs

ISPA Council beefed up with some heavy hitting members

I went to the bi-monthly Internet Service Providers Association (ISPA) board meeting today. ISPA has four new council members representing BT, Eclipse Internet, Everything Everywhere and O2.

That these large organisations are keen to participate in the running of the ISP industry Trade Association is a reflection of the amount of legislative activity going on surrounding the internet in the UK.

I’d go so far to say that government attempts to regulate the internet are currently at an unprecedented level – I guess as our daily lives move into the cloud this is not a surprise but should not be seen as inevitable.

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Business voip

HD Voice Peering Federation launches in UK

Next Gen interconnect carrier XConnect has in the UK today launched The HD Voice Peering Federation, a High Definition Voice initiative. This is something that was discussed at the Internet Telephony Service Providers’ Association (ITSPA) HD Voice workshop I chaired back in June. Whilst it is still early days should provide a good breeding ground for high quality voice interconnects amongst VoIP service providers.

Without such an initiative HD voice services would forever be high (quality) walled gardens with no contact with the outside world.

The initiative is supported initially by vendors Polycom, Broadsoft and Dialogic and has signed up Simwood,

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Archived Business

developer wanted Linux Perl Bash Ruby Python PHP5 SVN symfony Doctrine OOP

developer wanted Linux Perl Bash Ruby Python PHP5 SVN symfony Doctrine OOP.

Junior position with great career potential in fast growing market leader. Suit someone with a couple of years experience or a grad with nouse. Must be a geek.

More on website here, give me a call, send email or leave comment on this post – it will not get published.

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Business internet mobile connectivity voip

Orange HD voice – when will the whole world go HD?

Mobile operator Orange has hit the headlines today with the launch of its HD voice service. Trials for this service, which uses the Adaptive Multi-Rate Wideband codec (AMR-WB – otherwise known as  G722.2), began in June this year in the south of England.

The service is initially only for Orange HD handset to Orange HD handset.  This is quite easy to do as “on-net” HD calls using the same codec don’t require transcoding and also do not therefore enter into the black art world of interoperability. 

HD voice has been the subject of discussion amongst the VoIP community in the UK this year.  A fair few vendors

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