Political Monitor 10/01/2020

10 January 2020

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Broadband

Parliamentary Question on Broadband connections in rural communities

Responding to a question by Mark Menzies MP (Con) asking what fiscal steps were being taken to improve broadband connections in rural communities, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Rishi Sunak MP, said that the Government has committed over £1billion to the rollout of next generation digital infrastructure and £5bn to support gigabit broadband in the hardest to reach areas.

Parliamentary Question on rural not-spots

Minister for Broadband, Matt Warman MP, responded to a question from Seema Malhortra MP (Lab) regarding broadband not-spots. Warman stated that almost all premises were able to get broadband, with only 155,000 estimated by Ofcom to receive service levels below the USO threshold (10 Mbps download speeds and 1 Mbps upload speeds). He highlighted the broadband USO which will allow requests from March 2020, and the £5bn Government commitment to improving broadband in rural areas.

Ofcom

Ofcom publish draft Annual Plan for 2020-21

Ofcom published its draft Annual Plan for the next financial year, which is open for consultation.

Ofcom will ensure that technical conditions for the priority spectrum bands are appropriate for mobile, including 5G services. A consultation is expected for Q1.
They will address what regulation may be necessary following the implementation of the EEEC. A statement and consultation on switching is expected for Q1.
Ofcom plan to publish a report in 2020/21, on the separation between Openreach from BT and its impact on the 2016 Strategic Review of Digital Communications.
A progress report on the Fairness Commitments will be published in Q3.
The Government has proposed for Ofcom to act as an interim regulator for VSPs until a future online harms regulator is appointed. They will outline milestones upon confirmation of this.
Ofcom will continue to engage with communications providers to carry out the TBEST scheme (a threat intelligence-led penetration testing scheme).

Ofcom publish Wholesale Fixed Telecoms Markets Review

Ofcom published the Wholesale Fixed Telecoms Market Review (WFTMR) this week, which pulls together the previous business and residential focussed market reviews into a single review. This review is open for consultation until 1^st April 2020, with the new regulation taking effect in April 2021 until 2026.

The review brings together the various previous consultations from Ofcom over the last year, including on Geographic markets, initially outlined in March 2019. The only area that Ofcom finds BT not to have Significant Market Power (SMP) is the Central London area for leased lines. Across wholesale local access, leased lines and Inter-exchange connectivity (IEC) BT is found to have SMP.

In the review Ofcom propose to regulate Openreach’s ‘leased lines’ in a similar way to residential broadband products, by varying their approach geographically to reflect the level of current or prospective competition. These areas comprise of:

Area 2 – WLA and LL market areas where there is already some network competition
Area 3 – WLA and LL market areas where there is unlikely to be material commercial deployment by rival networks.

Ofcom’s remedies for Area 2 include keeping charge controls flat in real terms, only imposing charge controls on entry level products and allowing Openreach to charge more if the connection is delivered over full fibre, to incentivise investment. Across Area 2, Ofcom propose to prohibit geographic discounts and increase the required notice period for Openreach to notify changes to terms and conditions from 28 days to 90.

In non-competitive areas (Area 3) Ofcom propose to allow Openreach to recover its costs to build a new fibre network with prices dependent on whether Openreach commits to building fibre/has already build fibre

Ofcom propose to move regulation from copper to fibre on an exchange area by exchange area basis. When Openreach has deployed ultrafast services to 75% of the premises within an exchange area, for those premises where fibre is available, they propose to remove the obligation to provide new copper services. Where full ultrafast coverage is reached charge controls will be removed from copper and a charge control applied to fibre

Within the WFTMR consultations is another separate consultation on Duct and Pole Access which Ofcom are looking to implement before 2021. Openreach has proposed a simplified model for charging for underground lead-ins based on a single annual rental charge, on a nationally-averaged usage basis.

Ofcom publish update on fairness to consumers agenda

Ofcom published an update on the progress made in their work to “help customers get fair treatment and fair prices.” They further announced the launch of new “scorecards” to help consumers compare companies when looking for a provider. This is a joint initiative with the banking, water and energy sectors through the UK Regulators Network (UKRN) to improve information for consumers about utilities.

In their update on the consumer work completed in the last year, Ofcom highlighted the end-of-contract notifications coming into force next month, the launch of their “Fairness for customer commitments”, guidance on protecting vulnerable customers, as well as work around broadband speeds code of practice and automatic compensation.

Ofcom Publishes Connected Nations Annual Report

Ofcom released its Connected Nations annual report which measures progress in broadband and mobile services in the UK. The report finds that broadband and mobile coverage has improved throughout the UK, but many areas still suffer from poor coverage. However, the areas with reduced or no coverage are mostly sparsely populated rural areas. Consequently, whilst only 66% of the UK landmass has good outdoor 4G coverage from all four operators, this covers 96% of UK premises. The report highlights that the issue of poor access in rural areas should be improved by the Government’s commitment to helping coverage reach rural areas.

Including coverage from fixed wireless providers, only an approximated 155,000 homes are unable to access a suitable fixed broadband service. From March 2020, these homes will be able to request a decent connection from BT under the Broadband USO.

To help prevent network incidents from occurring Ofcom will continue to work with industry and Government as well as focusing on cyber security through their Security and Resilience Assurance Scheme.

Online Safety

‘Vital’ new reporting portal boosts global fight against online child sexual abuse material

The IWF has announced the launch of an online reporting portal to help people overcome the ‘taboo’ of reporting child sex abuse. Two portals, one in Arabic and one in French, will enable individuals to anonymously report abuse material, which will be monitored by trained IWF analysts in the UK. Valentina Picco, the IWF International Development Manager said, the portal challenges one of the biggest taboos in Africa and means that people ‘wherever they are in the world, have somewhere safe where they can feel confident reporting online child sexual abuse material’.

New AI technique to block online child grooming launched by Home office

The Home Office and Microsoft have launched a new tool that uses AI to identify and block child grooming conversations online. ‘The Home Office and Microsoft have launched a new tool that uses AI to identify and block child grooming conversations online. Project Artemis’ will be licensed from 9th January, free of charge, to SME technology companies for use on their platforms.

The technique will automatically flag conversations which could be taking place between groomers and children and pass on details to the relevant law enforcement agency. The prototype was first developed by engineers from Microsoft, Facebook, Google, Snapchat and Twitter, who analysed thousands of conversations to understand the language patterns used by predators online. Companies such as Kik, Roblox and Microsoft then worked as part of a cross-industry group to develop the technique further. Licensing and adoption of the new tool will be handled by Thorn, a charity which focuses on harnessing technology to protect children online.

Subgroups

Broadband Subgroup

The Broadband Subgroup will meet at 3-4.30pm on Tuesday 21^st January at ISPA’s Offices in London. The meeting will be used to discuss the consultations recently published by Ofcom on the EECC and Market review, as well as lobbying on the Wayleaves Bill following its introduction to Parliament last week. For more information, or to attend the subgroup please contact Emma (Emmas@ispa.org.uk).

ISPA Events

Parliament and Internet Conference – 27^th February 2020

Now in its 14th year, the all-day Conference will once again bring together over 200 senior representatives from Government, parliament, academia, and industry to discuss the most pressing policy issues facing the Internet.
The event is hosted by Vicky Ford MP on Thursday 27th February at Portcullis House in London from 9am-5pm.

The conference includes various keynote speeches and three panel sessions:

Working together to build and deliver world class communications infrastructure with Openreach
Regulating the digital world of the future with Sky
Securing networks and adapting to emerging cyber threats with Raytheon

Tickets are by invitation only, if you would like to attend, please contact team@parliamentandinternet.org.uk

To find out more about the event, please visit http://parliamentandinternet.org.uk/
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