Advertising watchdog to crack down on broadband pricing after finding customers were often left confused May 4, 2016 The advertising regulator, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), is cracking down on broadband price claims. The changes, which will come into force on 31 October 2016, force companies to include line rental in the final price shown to customers. Earlier this year the ASA found many customers were confused by the way prices were presented, with [...]
TalkTalk reveals plans to scrap separate line rental charge in UK industry first May 3, 2016 TalkTalk, the telecoms company that was last year the victim of a high profile data leak, has announced it will soon stop separating out line rental from broadband prices. The move, which will come into force in the Autumn this year, comes ahead of a crack down by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) on price transparency this week. The fiercely competitive [...]
Week ahead: Data and results set to keep UK investors busy as PMIs and supermarket results come thick and fast May 3, 2016 First quarter earnings season as well as a constant flow of economic data is set to keep investors busy all this week. The FTSE is coming off the back of a disappointing session after it closed down 80.51 points at 6241.89 on Friday following underwhelming results from some of the UK’s top banks. This week that [...]
BT has hiked prices for thousands of TV, phone and broadband customers April 29, 2016 If you're a BT customer, get ready to sweat a bit as you open that bill. The company has hiked prices for thousands of customers – while promising its users that service is about to improve. The telecoms giant said line rental and the cost of its BT Sport package will both rise by £1, while the [...]
Want to work in the tech sector? These are the UK’s highest-paying tech firms April 29, 2016 Thinking of going into finance? The tech sector just might pay better, if new research is anything to go by. It turns out that not only do tech giants such as Apple, Amazon and Google offer great benefits – free lunches, flexible holiday allowances, egg freezing – but the salaries they pay rival anything a bank can throw [...]
Virgin Media pledges fibre broadband expansion to one million premises by 2019 April 27, 2016 Virgin Media has announced that it will be rolling out fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) broadband for one million homes and businesses over the next few years. The plans are part of Virgin Media’s £3bn expansion to grow its overall network by four million premises by 2019. Rivals BT and Sky are currently trialling FTTP or deploying it in smaller [...]
As government talks up Channel 4 privatisation, analysts name Netflix, Viacom, BT and Discovery as potential suitors April 27, 2016 Netflix, Viacom, BT and Discovery have all been tipped as potential suitors for Channel 4 by media analysts. The government is currently considering selling off the channel, which is privately funded but publicly owned. And culture secretary John Whittingdale yesterday talked up the prospect of privatisation, saying it could leave the channel "better off". Read more: Why Channel 4's [...]
EE to create 600 jobs in UK, bringing all customer service roles onshore, as it pledges to fill 4G gaps “to the very edges of the UK” April 25, 2016 Mobile operator EE has announced plans to buck a trend – creating 600 customer service roles onshore, meaning all customer calls will be answered in the UK and Ireland by the end of the year. The move, which comes just weeks after the completion of BT's £12.5bn takeover of the firm, creating the biggest telecoms group in [...]
BT Tower goes up in flames for the Queen’s birthday – kind of April 21, 2016 Camden Council has taken a rather unique approach to celebrate the Queen's 90th birthday this evening – it's projected flames onto the screen at the top of the iconic BT tower. While the screen had been showing a more traditional, and less frightening, birthday message throughout the day, the "beacon flames" started burning at 8.30pm and [...]
Sky’s share price falls as churn rate picks up despite adding 177,000 new customers as it reports revenue growth April 21, 2016 Sky has reported strong growth for the third quarter as it experiences "good trading" across all its markets but its churn rate picked up, pushing its share price down over 4.4 per cent. The figures Sky reported revenues to have risen five per cent to £8.72bn over the nine months to the end of March. Operating [...]