Top 10 telecommunications stories of 2013 so far
4G, mobile, broadband and the handling of data all feature in a busy first six months in the telecoms industry
Mobile operators had been in a bitter war of words prior to 2013 in the battle for 4G spectrum, while in the broadband arena, BT had been storming ahead by signing up local authorities across the country to provide fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) broadband services to certain regions.
Both 4G and fixed-line broadband services are important for consumers, businesses and the UK economy, but questions about the necessity for 4G, the benefits of fibre-to-the-cabinet and the absence of fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) remain.
With those questions in mind, let's countdown the top 10 telecommunications stories of 2013 so far.
10 - 4G auction bidding battle commences
After much delay and anticipation, the 4G auction bidding process finally kicked off on 23 January. The bidding process involved EE, HKT (a subsidiary of mobile operator PCCW), Three, MLL Telecom, Vodafone, O2 and a new subsidiary of BT: Niche Spectrum Ventures.
Each bidder was competing to win combinations of the 28 spectrum lots available from across both the 800MHZ and 2.6GHz bands; a combination of high and low frequencies is needed for a comprehensive 4G coverage.
The bidding process would occur in rounds, involving an "opt-in" round, a "clock stage" and a "supplementary bids" round.
But the communications regulator, Ofcom, said it would not give any updates on the bidding activity until after the auction is over.
An Ofcom spokesperson told Computing at the time, that the process should be completed within the first quarter of 2013, adding that in the second quarter of 2013, new 4G services would be launched, with the services expected to go live in May or June. Although the process was completed in the first quarter, we are still yet to see any new 4G services being launched with the second quarter driving to a close.
9 - Vodafone 4G delayed until September
Vodafone had been upfront about its delay. At the end of May, it said that it would launch its 4G mobile data service at the "end of the summer", which could mean it goes live with 4G as late as September.
This would mean that EE would have had a 10 month head start in launching 4G for its customers, but Vodafone's CEO Vittorio Colao was bullish about Vodafone's prospects.
"We are convinced our own 4G will be better performing," he said.
"We want to be able to launch it when it's really ready. End of the summer means when there is going to be a good commercial window for launching it," he added.
Meanwhile O2 and Three are expected to launch 4G services at the end of the year.
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Top 10 telecommunications stories of 2013 so far
4G, mobile, broadband and the handling of data all feature in a busy first six months in the telecoms industry
8 - BT's bogus FTTH stance is short-changing UK consumers and economy, says lobby group
Non-profit organisation Fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) Council Europe kicked of the year by slamming BT for claiming that the UK does not have the demand to justify rolling out a FTTH product nationally.
BT is using its existing copper lines to give homes broadband speeds of between 80Mbit/s and 1Gbit/s - this is using fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) rather than the faster, but more expensive FTTH product. BT does aim to make FTTH available on demand to over two-thirds of the UK by 2016, while the product is already available to people who live in FTTC areas.
The director general of the FTTH Council, Hartwig Tauber, slammed BT for continuing to insist that FTTC is a good enough product for the majority of its customers.
"[The lack of a demand] is a standard argument we hear from incumbents. They always use this and say they have piloted it somewhere and they don't see demand, but the FTTH Council did a study where we looked at ‘real' fibre operators in Europe that have been going for more than four years and found that they had no issues with demand - in fact they have take-up rates of 40 to 60 per cent," he told Computing.
Tauber suggested that operators like BT misuse the term "fibre" in selling their products, which helps to ensure that customers are satisfied with the product that they are currently using.
"The word 'fibre' is used in BT's FTTC product, which gives the end user the feeling it's a fibre connection, but it is a misuse of the term," he said.
"People don't know what they are really getting," he added.
7 - Vodafone pays no UK corporation tax for the second time
Vodafone paid no UK corporation tax for a second year running, despite its revenues exceeding £5bn in Britain, according to its annual report which was published on 6 June.
The mobile telecoms firm claimed that its investment in spectrum licences and infrastructure in the UK - and interest payments - counted the firm out of corporation tax liabilities in the year to 31 March 2013 - although it paid over £2.5bn in tax overseas.
"Individuals and companies have legal obligations to pay tax; but those obligations do not extend to paying more than the amount legally required," Vodafone said in the report.
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Top 10 telecommunications stories of 2013 so far
4G, mobile, broadband and the handling of data all feature in a busy first six months in the telecoms industry
6 - Three goes down and then up again
In the past few years, mobile operators have had network outages that have left customer outraged. At a time when 4G services are being touted as the next big thing, it is a surprise that mobile operators can still incur troubles with their 3G networks.
Three was the latest culprit, leaving many of its customers without access to the internet, emails or social media networks such as Facebook or Twitter - although voice calling and text messaging remained intact.
The company then fixed the problem on 4 June, but later went down for the second time in 24 hours.
Three customers were critical of the customer service the company provided during the outage, with users dialling 333 for information being put through to a recorded message, while the @ThreeUKSupport Twitter handle knocked off at 5.30pm on the dot on the day.
5 - EE's 4G fails to excite as biggest UK mobile network makes £249m loss
In February, EE revealed that it made a loss before tax of £249m in 2012 - more than double the £113m it lost in 2011.
EE's loss and refusal to disclose how many of its net additions had signed up specifically for 4G suggested that its head start with 4G services in the UK had not yet proved overly successful.
4 - EE one per cent of overall customer base on 4G is "good progress"
Back in April, EE finally revealed its take-up of 4G services - claiming that 318,000 showed a "strong 4G take-up".
After five months of trading, EE said it was on target to reach its goal of one million 4G customers by the end of 2013 - but the figure represented only 1.2 per cent of EE's 26.4 million users.
However, EE rejected claims that the figures were unimpressive, telling Computing that:
"Take-up has been excellent and compares very favourably with other 4G launches around the world (10 per cent of postpaid base after 24 months). We are seeing strong demand and a base of 318,000 customers within the first five months is a very good return."
3 - 4G spectrum auction to be investigated by the National Audit Office
Ofcom's auction of the 4G communications spectrum had finally finished but not without more controversy. The National Audit Office said in April that it would investigate the auction amid claims that the process did not generate the intended revenue.
The auction had raised £2.3bn as mobile phone carriers such as O2, Vodafone, BT and Three were successful in their bids to acquire portions of the UK's high speed data spectrum that had previously only been occupied by EE.
The Office for Budget for Responsibility (OBR) had forecast that a total of £3.5bn would be raised, while estimating a possible maximum of £6.3bn.
Although BT and Vodafone later topped up their bids in order to secure preferred locations in the frequency bands, the money raised by the auction still only sat at £2.37bn.
[Turn to the next page to see the top two telecoms articles of the year so far]
Top 10 telecommunications stories of 2013 so far
4G, mobile, broadband and the handling of data all feature in a busy first six months in the telecoms industry
2 - Government slammed for no show at FTTH conference
Criticism of the government's role in its rollout of high-speed broadband across the country has been ongoing, with some suggesting that Whitehall should have implemented FTTH services rather than FTTC services across the country. And on 20 February, Chi Onwurah, Labour MP for Newcastle Central and shadow minister for the Cabinet Office, slammed the government for not attending the FTTH Council's Conference 2013 - stating that Whitehall officials "did not know enough".
She said: "I can only assume that they looked at FTTH and thought it was only for a small group of techy geeks.
"Digital infrastructure and FTTH, in particular, is a key part of our future and politicians should be thinking about it. The FTTH Council has always had an uphill struggle with politicians on the importance of FTTH," Onwurah said.
1 - The sharing of telecoms data: EE and Verizon
Telecommunication records held by telecoms operators have long been touted as a way for the likes of O2 and BT to create closer customer relationships. The data could also be passed on to third parties with consent by the customers, for a fee - a monetising tool, in a time when organisations are always on the lookout for ways in which they can exploit things that they already have in their possession.
An EE spokesperson told Computing that the allegations were misleading but admitted that anonymised and aggregated information was being shared.
"We would never breach the trust our customers place in us and we always act to comply fully with the Data Protection Act," the spokesperson said.
The same could not be said of Verizon in the US, which the Guardian said was collecting information about every mobile phone call that US citizens make, including duration, location, and the number on the other end.
The information is then handed over to the US government's National Security Agency (NSA) in accordance with a top secret court order issued at the end of April.
The NSA is reportedly collecting details of every single telephone call made using Verizon's systems, including within the US but also between customers in the US and all other countries, regardless of any suspicion of criminal activity.
Revelations of the NSA's Prism programme have since put up a smoke screen on the Verizon story, but it is perhaps even more important to US citizens that their calls are being traced, than the NSA collecting foreign communication data as part of Prism.