Wales - House of Commons committee calls for elimination of not-spots and slow-spots in broadband

The Welsh Affairs Committee of the House of Commons notes that:

the UK and Welsh Governments must work together and use all means available to bring broadband services in Wales up to speed with the rest of the UK, and eradicate broadband "slow spots" and "notspots" as a matter of urgency.

Its report on broadband in Wales sets out its views in detail.

Committee Chairman, David T.C. Davies MP, is quoted as saying:

Access to fast internet connection is essential to businesses and the economy in Wales. Broadband will become an increasingly important generator of economic success and a means of addressing social exclusion. It is hard to believe, but in mid-2012 there are still some areas of Wales where people have no connection at all. It is impossible to see how businesses or the economy can develop in these areas.

Sweden - Lessons from Sweden by Benoît Felten about fibre deployment in cities

Benoît Felten of Diffraction Analysis has published a note on Lessons from Stockholm and a more detailed paper on SSRN. .

Scotland - A document has been published on the delivery of public services under the "digital future" brand

The Scottish Government has published a document on "delivery of public services".

Scotland's Digital Future - Delivery of Public Services, jointly introduced by Scottish Ministers and COSLA, is a key part of the public service reform programme.

It signals a way in which public bodies can collaborate to ensure that services – whether at national or local level – can be truly joined up to meet the needs of the users of our public services, the citizens of Scotland.

This strategy sets out a vision for Scotland where digital technology provides a foundation for public services that meet the needs of the user – that means responsive services where organisations are working together across sectors.

It is available in PDF and a variety of more exotic file formats

Shetland - BT has announced a fibre optic link to the mainland, with 10 Gbps service for businesses in Lerwick

The Shetland Times reports BT is to invest £8 million in a fibre optic connection to Great Britain. It will use capacity on the SHEFA cable (from UK to the Faroes).

BT is also offering businesses and public agencies a new Ethernet service in Lerwick to purchase broadband speeds of up to 10 gigabits per second, vastly more than anyone currently requires.

For the rest of Shetland’s broadband users they can expect nothing faster than they currently receive, unless they live in Lerwick, where BT is promising speeds of up to 20 megabits per second.

This was announced at the Northern Isles Digital Forum.

UK - A report on different groups of young people who discontinued their use of the Internet

Nominet has published a report.

This developed a typology of discontinued Internet use by young people:

• primarily due to reasons of access and cost;
• poorer quality of access to the Internet than they have experienced in the past;
• poorer quality of access to the Internet AND not seeing the Internet as important for finding out or learning new things;
• a combination of access, cost, skills and interest;
• some challenges with all five factors: psychological, cognitive, physical, socio–cultural and material.

4G - EverythingEverywhere (a.k.a. T-Mobile & Orange) will launch in September, followed by 3UK (HWL)

OFCOM has agreed that Everything Everywhere (the joint venture of Orange and T-Mobile) can use its existing 2G spectrum in the 1800 MHz band for 4G or mobile broadband services.

Ofcom’s decision to make 4G available this year is great news for the UK. Consumers will soon be able to benefit from the much greater mobile speeds that 4G will deliver. 4G will drive investment, employment and innovation and we look forward to making it available later this year, delivering superfast mobile broadband to the UK

OFCOM said:

Following a consultation, Ofcom has concluded that varying EE’s 1800 MHz licences now will deliver significant benefits to consumers, and that there is no material risk that those benefits will be outweighed by a distortion of competition.2 Delaying doing so would therefore be to the detriment of consumers.

Everything Everywhere is also to launch a new brand alongside Orange and T-Mobile.

Other operators will be able to bid for spectrum for 4G services in an auction later this year.

Vodafone, which must wait for the auction, is quoted by the Daily Telegraph as complaining bitterly:

We are frankly shocked that Ofcom has reached this decision

The regulator has shown a careless disregard for the best interests of consumers, business and the wider economy through its refusal to properly regard the competitive distortion created by allowing one operator to run services before the ground has been laid for a fully competitive market.

As part of the deal to create Everything Everywhere it undertook to competition regulators to dispose of some of its spectrum. According to IT Pro it has now sold that two lots of 1800 MHz spectrum to 3UK (Hutchison Whampoa Ltd). This will, in time, allow 3 to offer its own 4G services.

Seychelles - Fibre will now reach close to 90% of homes in this Indian Ocean island group

Total Telecom reports that the 84,000 people of the Indian Ocean Republic of Seychelles are benefitting from the undersea cable and local investments.

Cable & Wireless Communications on Tuesday announced that its subsidiary in the Seychelles has completed the rollout of a nationwide fibre-to-the-curb (FTTC) network.

It seems a little odd to discuss curb (or kerb) in a tropical island.

Nonetheless:

The FTTC network will be supported by the newly-launched Seychelles East Africa System (SEAS) subsea cable network, the first undersea cable to serve the Seychelles. The 2,000-km cable links the Seychelles' main island Mahe with Dar Es Salaam in Tanzania.