IT News
Wed, 23/06/2010 - 08:09 | David
Chancellor George Osborne ditched the 50p broadband tax, calling it "archaic".
Proposed by Labour last year, the tax would have charged everyone with a landline an extra 50p a month to help fund the roll out of broadband across the UK.
In keeping with previously made promises to scrap the tax, Osborne said the "landline duty is an archaic way of doing this".
Thu, 17/06/2010 - 10:07 | David
NASA is warning of a space storm coming around the year 2013 that could cause widespread damage to technology across the world and everyday electronics and communications could be severely disrupted once the sun awakes from a “deep slumber” around 2013.
Researchers say that devices from computers to Sat Navs may be damaged when magnetic energy from solar flares reaches unprecedented levels, potentially causing widespread economic devastation.
Fri, 11/06/2010 - 17:49 | David
Google has promised 50% "fresher" search results as it introduces a new index system called Caffeine.
First announced last summer, Caffeine is Google's latest way of keeping track of changes ono the web, so it can offer more relevant and recent search results.
Mon, 07/06/2010 - 17:20 | David
Another four Welsh communities will have broadband access by the end of the summer, as BT continues to upgrade networks in rural parts of the country.
The project, which is co-funded by the Welsh Assembly, will see Beulah and Ystrad Meurig in Ceredigion, and Cil-y-Cwm and Llanfynydd in Carmarthenshire, connected by the end of the summer.
Tue, 20/04/2010 - 10:45 | David
Hot off his recent victory at the first televised political debate, Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has called for the Digital Economy Bill to be repealed. He responded to a question on the way the bill was rushed through, during an interview with online student service The Student Room.
“Considering the manner it was pushed through, without proper scrutiny, the lack of MPs in attendance at the bill’s hearing and also taking into account that some ministers have demonstrated considerable lack of technical knowledge on the consequences of the proposed legislation… will you reconsider the Digital Economy Bill,” the students asked.
Mon, 29/03/2010 - 12:47 | David
Ofcom, the toothless UK government quango, has admitted that ISPs are routinely flouting its Voluntary Code of Practice on Broadband Speeds.
Under the terms of the code - which came into effect in December 2008 - ISPs are meant to provide customers with an estimate of their maximum line speed at the point of purchase.
However, a mystery shopping exercise conducted by the regulator shows that ISPs are often failing to volunteer the information. Eighty five per cent of Ofcom's mystery shoppers were provided with an estimate of their line speed, but the shoppers had to prompt the salesperson in 42% of those cases, which means less than half of broadband providers are volunteering the required information.
Thu, 25/03/2010 - 07:30 | David
Recent announcements have been made in IT policy regarding broadband to all of the UK funded by Labour’s 50p broadband tax on landline telephones, which it will use to fund the rollout of super-fast broadband to 90% of the country by 2017. If this pledge is met it will hopefully benefit many small rural businesses in areas like Pembrokeshire.
However, there wasn't much else yesterday's Budget to cheer the IT sector.
Fri, 19/03/2010 - 12:33 | David
The controversial Digital Economy Bill has passed through the House of Lords and is now set for a lightning-fast passage through the Commons.
The bill could be debated for as little as half a day in the Commons, as politicians attempt to rush the legislation through ahead of the General Election.
The lack of scrutiny is particularly worrying, say campaigners, given that the controversial clause 17 - which potentially involves Ministers tampering with copyright law and ISPs being forced to block access to sites carrying copyrighted material - has been set aside to be settled in the Commons.
Thu, 11/03/2010 - 14:09 | David
Microsoft has admitted another vulnerability in older versions of its Internet Explorer browser, with attacks already taking advantage of the problem.
The flaw only affects IE6 and IE7, not IE8. Naturally, Microsoft has again advised users to upgrade to IE8.
Sat, 06/03/2010 - 09:41 | David
A dozen rural community groups have banded together to get the Government to roll out broadband to the countryside.
The Final Third First group highlights the fact that a substantial number of the population living in rural areas only have access to 28.8 or 56Kbits/sec dial-up connections.
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