The digital revolution is changing all our lives beyond recognition and today we shall set out how Britain must change with it. Whether it is to work online, study, learn new skills, pay bills or simply stay in touch with friends and family, a fast internet connection is now seen by most of the public as an essential service, as indispensable as electricity, gas and water.

Just as the bridges, roads and railways built in the 19th century were the foundations of the Industrial Revolution that helped Britain to become the workshop of the world, so investment now in the information and communications industries can underpin our emergence from recession to recovery and cement the UK's position as a global economic powerhouse.

Today the Government will publish its Digital Britain report, which firmly places the digital economy centre stage as it is core to our future industrial capability.

The UK's digital economy at present accounts for about 8 per cent of our national income....

From The Register

By Chris Williams 9th June 2009 10:17 GMT
The UK's first public mobile phone directory will launch later this month, loaded with millions of private numbers bought from marketing departments.
From June 18, callers to 118800 will be asked for a first name, a surname and a town*. If a match is found, they will be connected to that person's mobile for £1.
Connectivity, the start-up firm behind the service, says it will never give out numbers or other personal details, and will ask the recipient's permission before connecting the call. It also promises in its FAQ not to sell or pass...

From The Register
Best Buy leaked memo spills Windows 7 upgrade details
Move along from Vista, people. Nothing to see here
By Kelly Fiveash 8th June 2009 12:33 GMT
A leaked memo has revealed that Best Buy will begin pre-selling Microsofts Windows 7 operating system on 26 June in the US.
The retailer confirmed late last week the date people can start buying Vista-based computers and subsequently qualify for a free upgrade to Windows 7, when it lands in October.
Engadget has published a copy of the memo here. It outlines prices for upgrade versions of Windows 7 Home Premium ($49) and Windows 7 Professional ($99), both of which will be available via the Best Buy...

Well it will soon be that time of the year again for Big Brother 10.

Think its starts on Thursday 4 June.

Carphone Warehouse is to buy the UK assets of Italian internet service provider Tiscali for £236m.

Tiscali has about three million customers in the UK and had previously been in talks with BSkyB, but those broke down earlier this year.

Carphone Warehouse currently provides broadband services under its TalkTalk brand and also owns AOL UK.

Carphone chief executive Charles Dunstone said that the company would eventually just have a single brand.

But he added that Tiscali e-mail addresses would survive.

From The Regester
Carphone Warehouse linked to Tiscali buy-up (again)
Wake us when it's over
By Chris Williams 27th April 2009 14:51 GMT
Tiscali shares were given a boost today on the Italian stock exchange by reports that it is once again close to a deal to offload its UK operation to Carphone Warehouse.
Tiscali has been trying to sell its almost 1.8m subscribers for over a year, and Carphone Warehouse has been named as a suitor throughout. Italian papers said today its interest was renewed.
A deal would see Carphone Warehouse leapfrog Virgin Media to become the country's second largest broadband provider behind BT.
Sky and Vodafone reportedly pulled out of acquisition talks with Tiscali after balking at its £550m asking price. On Friday The Telegraph said Carphone Warehouse was now offering about £200m.
Tiscali's Italian owners now need the cash urgently to service its...

From BBC News, Technology
Yahoo pulls the plug on GeoCities
Yahoo is to close its personal web hosting site GeoCities later this year.
In a statement, the firm says it will no longer be accepting new customers and will focus on helping "customers build new relationships online".
Yahoo bought GeoCities for $3.57bn at the height of the dotcom boom in 1999.
At its peak, GeoCities boasted millions of active accounts, but it has since fallen out of fashion, with users migrating to social networking sites.
Yahoo says that existing GeoCities accounts will remain live for now, although it stresses that users should start looking for alternative sites.
"You don't need to change your service today, but we encourage anyone interested in a full-featured web-hosting plan to consider upgrading to our award-winning Yahoo! Web Hosting service," the...

From The Register
Darling supports broadband by raiding Granny's digital fund
By John Oates 22nd April 2009 15:41 GMT
Budget 09 Alistair Darling used today's Budget to back calls for Universal Service obligations to include access to a decent broadband network regardless of where in the UK your home or business is.
The Budget pledged support for universal access to a 2 Megabit broadband network.
This will be paid for by the underspending on the Digital Switchover Help Scheme - the money set aside for buying grannies DAB radios and Freeview boxes.
The government will ask the BBC Trust how to get hold of this money and use it to improve internet access. Details will be announced with the full response to the Digital Britain report expected in June or July,...

From The Register
Virgin Media switches to Gmail
Knacker's yard for in-house platforms
By Chris Williams 15th April 2009 08:58 GMT

Virgin Media will today begin moves to transfer its almost four million broadband subscribers to Google's email service.

The three existing in-house email platforms will be gradually decommissioned.

At first only new customers will be invited to join the new outsourced service. Once 20,000 are signed up and the system is working normally, Virgin Media will begin inviting existing customers to switch.

BT is preparing to axe another 10,000 jobs. The huge redundancy programme will be announced next month alongside a horrendous set of year-end figures that will include provisions of about £1.5 billion.

The results will mark one of the lowest points in BTs history since it was privatised in 1984. The share price has crashed to 81p, valuing the telecoms company at £6.3 billion. It will also seriously damage the legacy of Ben Verwaayen, BTs former chief executive, who left eight months ago and has since become chief executive at Alcatel-Lucent.

The dividend is likely to be cut by up to 60%, while profits will be further dented by a big contribution to address a pension deficit that will exceed £8 billion.

The redundancies, which result from an improvement in BTs efficiency, are in addition to the 10,000 job cuts made last year and will be spread around BTs 160,000 workforce.

BTs chairman Sir Mike Rake and his chief executive Ian Livingston know they have one chance to...

From PCW - News
Windows XP support runs out next week
Mainstream support for XP comes to an end on 14 April
Daniel Robinson, vnunet.com 07 Apr 2009
Windows XP will pass another milestone on the road to retirement next week when Microsoft withdraws mainstream support for the operating system.
While the company said that it will continue to provide free security fixes for XP until 2014, any future bugs found in the platform will not be fixed unless customers pay for additional support.
Mainstream support for XP will end on 14 April 2009, over seven years after the operating system originally shipped.
However, the passing of the deadline will place Microsoft in the unusual position of no longer offering mainstream support for its most widely used product. Windows XP accounts for about 63 per cent of all internet connected computers, according to March 2009 statistics...

From The Register
BT names first 29 exchanges for fibre rollout
Is yours on the list? By Chris Williams 23rd March 2009 11:23 GMT
BT has released new details of its fibre to the cabinet (FTTC) rollout, including a list of the first 29 exchanges to be upgraded to offer faster broadband in early 2010.
Engineers will run fibre optic cables between the exchanges and street side cabinets, closer to homes and businesses. Downstream speeds will be improved to up to 40Mbit/s, with up to 10Mbit/s upstream.
About 500,000 premises are covered by the list, which concentrates on densely populated urban areas. There are six Manchester exchanges and eight in London. Areas of Glasgow, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast will also be in the first wave of the £1.5bn programme.
Two exchanges in Wales and West...

From BBC News, Business
Ofcom tackles phone mis-selling
Mobile mis-selling complaints have been dropping recently
New plans to tackle mis-selling of fixed-line and mobile phone contracts have been published by the communications regulator Ofcom.
More than 1,000 complaints a month are made to the regulator by consumers whose telephone service provider has been switched without their permission.
Ofcom is planning simpler rules with could lead to firms being fined up to 10% of turnover if they mis-sell.
Mandatory new rules will also come in to clean up the mobile industry.
Complaints about cashback offers, when customers buy a handset up front and then are refunded the cash over the course of the contract, peaked at about 700 a month in late 2007.
Restrictive terms and conditions, which were often difficult to understand, meant...