June 2010

A portion of the BBC licence fee is set to be used to help pay for the construction of high-speed broadband networks in rural areas.

UK Chancellor George Osborne confirmed in the Budget that the Con-Lib government would not implement the former Labour administration's plan for a £6 annual tax on fixed-line telephones to part-finance new broadband infrastructure in rural areas. Instead, the government is preparing to help pay for superfast broadband networks in the countryside by using a portion of the BBC licence fee earmarked for assisting the transition from analog to digital television. The chancellor said the government would "support private broadband investment, including to rural areas, in part with funding from the digital switchover underspend within the TV licence fee." Ministers are willing to consider using some of the BBC's £3.6bn annual licence fee to pay for broadband infrastructure because they are keen to ensure that high-speed networks are not confined to urban areas.

Canadian politician Bruce Hyer has tabled a law in the Canadian Parliament that would make it illegal to lock mobile phones to a specific network for phones sold outside of contract, and would force networks to unlock subsidized phones once they are out of contract. "Mobile phone customers should have the freedom to choose whether they want to be locked into a company's cell network or not." Hyer said. "Right now, most consumers don't even know they can't switch to another network without throwing out their phone and buying a new one, or trying to unlock their handset at some expensive aftermarket shop. Many resort to trying to download complicated instructions off the Internet, but these can result in dead phones if used improperly."

Cubans' ability to communicate with one another and the world remained well below the norm for the Caribbean and Latin America in 2009. Despite the legalization of mobile phones in 2008 there were just 1.8 million phone lines in the country, or 15.5 lines for every 100 inhabitants, which was the lowest in the region, according to the United Nations International Telecommunications Union. Some 800,000 of the phones were mobiles. Computers numbered 700,000 or 62 per 1,000 residents, compared with more than 160 per thousand residents in the region, and many were in government offices, health and education facilities. There is no broadband in Cuba and the relatively few Internet users in the country suffer through agonizingly long waits to open an e-mail, let alone view a photo or video. This also hampers government and business operations.