ISPA Conference 2017 – What lies ahead for the UK Internet Industry
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ISPA's 12th Annual Conference is taking place on Wednesday 8th November at the iconic BT Tower, London. It is ISPA’s largest and most high profile policy event and comes at a crucial time for the sector. Delegates will gain market insight, analyse and debate the pressing regulatory, legal, policy and technological issues including Openreach reform, Government support of full fibre, barriers to broadband roll out, online safety and cyber security. The conference will explore the changing landscape, assess what impact it will have on ISPs and provide delegates with the opportunity to debate how providers should react to stay competitive in challenging market conditions. The sessions topics are:
- Better broadband / removing barriers Is Government on the right track with its support strategy for broadband rollout?
- What do consumers expect from ISPs and how are these expectations likely to change?
- Cyber security with NCSC
- Rights and Responsibilities Online
For more information and tickets click here
Broadband SG Meeting
A productive meeting of the broadband subgroup was held on 14th September to discuss various developments in the area, including the Local Full Fibre Network Programme and the Government’s Bill for five years of rates relief for new fibre after its recent passing through the House of Commons. There was a fruitful discussion about barriers members face in rolling out broadband infrastructure and how ISPs can best work with local authorities and landowners across the country in deploying infrastructure. The regulatory and voluntary USO proposals from Government and BT respectively were discussed with valuable insight from new member Openreach. Further discussion centred around the possibility for a new business broadband workstream and ongoing work by Ofcom on revising the voluntary broadband speeds code of practise.
The next meeting will be held at 2pm on Thursday 19th October. If you wish to attend please contact admin@ispa.org.uk
Response to Ofcom cyber guidance and NIS
ISPA responded to two consultations on cyber security this month. The first was published by Ofcom regarding the updated security guidance for Communications Providers (CPs). This covered increased steps to mitigate and manage cyber security risks and the formalising of the incident reporting process. ISPA’s response called for a principles based approach to be taken to cyber security regulation which was founded on flexibility, necessity, proportionality and harmonisation. ISPA also responded to the Department of Digital Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) consultation on the Networks and Information Systems (NIS) Directive which, as EU law, must be adopted into domestic legislation by May 2018. The consultation sets out security requirements for Operators of Essential Services across a number of vital sectors, including digital infrastructure, as well as creating a new categorisation for ‘Digital Service Providers’. ISPA’s response focussed on setting appropriate thresholds so as to avoid bringing into scope smaller providers not intended to be affected.
ISPA represents industry at Gigabit Voucher Scheme Working Group
ISPA attended a DCMS working group meeting on the design of upcoming Gigabit Voucher Scheme. The meeting provided a good opportunity for the industry to provide input into the design and we subsequently engaged with members to update them about the key features of the scheme and to collate further feedback for the team at DCMS.
ADR Workshop
ISPA hosted a consumer regulation workshop on Alternative Dispute Resolution with Ombudsman Services and ITSPA members on 28th September. Ombudsman Services explained how their ADR service works and provided tips on how to deal with customer complaints efficiently. The slides and guidance are available to ISPA members on request.
Openreach joins ISPA
ISPA is delighted that Openreach have joined the association.
ISPA membership offers many benefits, find out more and join at: https://www.ispa.org.uk/join/
Event Partnerships
INCA is holding its annual conference in Newcastle at the Crowne Plaza Hotel on 15/16 November. Further details can be found here.
Other events
ISPA is a media partner of free event Cyber Security Europe on 4th and 5th October in London. We also offer a 15% discount to our members for FTIP – Future Tech IP Summit on 27th November in London and have at least £200 off tickets for the 2nd Edition Operational Challenges for GDPR Implementation in Banks event, taking place between 20th and 22nd November in London. More details on ISPA partner events is here.