Political Monitor 28/08/2020

28 August 2020

Broadband

Scotland announces £15m investment to boost connectivity

Last week the Scottish Government announced £15 million of funding to help 23,000 low income households gain proper internet access. The funding, which is part of the Connecting Scotland programme, will prioritise disadvantaged families with children and young people leaving care. These families will get a device and twelve months unlimited data as well as technical support to get online safely and securely. Households will also be assigned a Digital Champion who will provide six months of training and support over the phone.

Government calls on Councils to support infrastructure rollout

Central Government called on Local Councils to better support the rollout of mobile and broadband connectivity. The announcement highlighted Cambridgeshire and Kent as examples of local authorities working effectively to encourage next-generation gigabit broadband networks. Alongside the announcement, Government published:

1. Updated land valuations guidance to clarify how local authorities should seek to comply with the duty to obtain ‘best value’ from negotiations; and to reflect tribunal determinations on valuation that have been published since the 2017 Code reform.
2. A plain English guide to 5G explains the facts to help local politicians deal with queries from the public and to combat any misinformation that is spreading online.

DfE publishes data on COVID devices for vulnerable children

As part of its COVID-19 efforts, the Government launched a programme to make available devices (laptops or tablets) to disadvantaged and vulnerable children via local authorities or academy trusts. So far, just over 220,000 devices and 50,000 routers have been made available. The full update can be found here.

Latest figures on best and worst broadband customer service revealed

Ofcom’s latest annual customer service report which looks at how the largest telecoms providers performed last year has been released. The full report which includes figures on customer complaints received, value for money and overall customer satisfaction can be found here. Some key points include:

• Overall, 85% of broadband customers say they are satisfied with their service, this was unchanged since the previous year.
• 12% of broadband customers say they had a reason to complain about their service or provider, in line with 2018.
• People were more likely to be happy with how their complaints were handled than in 2018 (up to 53% from 49% in 2018).
• Among the major fixed telecoms providers, the average number of broadband complaints to Ofcom per 100k customers fell in 2019.
• Compared to 2018, home broadband customers were more likely to be satisfied with how their complaint was handled, up four percentage points to 53% in 2019.

Cyber Security

MPs criticise ICO for failing to protect people’s rights

A cross-party group of 20 Labour, Liberal Democrat, SNP and Green MPs has criticised the Information Commissioner’s office (ICO) for failing to stop the Government from disregarding fundamental privacy rights during the pandemic. The MPs wrote to Elizabeth Denham, the head of the ICO, saying that a more proactive enforcement of the Data Protection Act, which is based upon Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), is needed. The letter, which has been co-ordinated by privacy organisation the Open Rights Group list data protection issues with the Test and Trace scheme and contact tracing app, saying the ICO could have done more to prevent the Government’s failures.

Online Safety

Children’s privacy in focus as regulatory sandbox re-opens

The ICO has announced it will be reopening its free to use regulatory sandbox which aims to support organisations using personal data to develop innovative products and services. The ICO wants this year’s projects to focus on one of two themes, children’s privacy or data sharing. They are particularly interested in hearing from innovators concentrating on the issues posed by the implementation of the Age Appropriate Design Code. More information on this can be found here.

Ofcom

Ofcom publishes latest data on Covid-19 news and information

Ofcom has released results from week twenty of its News Consumption Survey which has been ongoing since late March. The survey includes figures on the prevalence of misinformation and its trends throughout the pandemic. Preventing the spread of misinformation and disinformation online is central to the Online Harms legislation expected later this year. Some key findings from week twenty of the survey include:

• 27% of respondents said they came across false or misleading information about Covid-19, a gradual decrease from a peak of 50% in weeks three and five.
• There was a decrease in respondents coming across ‘theories linking the origins or causes of Covid-19 to 5G technology’ with only 15% of respondent reporting seeing it in week twenty compared to 50% in week three.
• A quarter (25%) of respondents said that seeing false or misleading information has made them think twice about the issue.
• 45% of respondents that use social media said that they have come across “news/ info that have warnings/ notices from the platform attached, saying that the info may be untrustworthy/ untrue”.
• Of those that came across these warnings about content, half (51%) reported clicking through to view the flagged content anyway.

ISPA events

ISP Business Model Webinar Series

This September, ISPA will hold its ISP Business Model Summit event which this year will take place over a series of 3 separate webinars exploring areas of growth for ISPs. These include case studies from industry experts on the following topics:

• ‘Enhance your customer value proposition + ISPA AGM’ (24th September)
• ‘Run more cost effective networks’ (1st October)
• ‘Increase your network security’ (8th October)

All webinars will be held at 2pm. If you would like to RSP, please email admin@ispa.org.uk