Government sells off its final stake in Royal Mail – but only institutional investors need apply October 12, 2015 The government has announced plans to sell off its final stake in Royal Mail, two years after it began privatising the company – but true to form, only institutional investors will get a chance to buy the shares. In a statement today, it said had begun the process of selling off its remaining shareholding, which [...]
BBC backs PLC-style board and abolishing BBC Trust for external regulation October 7, 2015 The BBC will back a radical overhaul of the way it is run that would see the BBC Trust abolished and ultimate accountability handed to an external regulator, leaving Auntie to be run by a traditional executive board. The public broadcaster will publish its arguments for the shake-up today, in a detailed formal response to a [...]
Bad customer experience is costing mobile operators £1.6bn October 7, 2015 Bad customer experience is costing UK mobile operators as much as £1.6bn, as nearly half of Britons have suffered a bad experience with their phone company. If you’ve ever been spitting mad at your phone company, you’re far from alone. Some one in 10 Britons have had a customer experience bad enough it made them [...]
Ministers reject plea that Lord Burns carry on as Channel 4 chairman September 29, 2015 Lord Burns is to step down as Channel 4 chairman after ministers overruled a recommendation by the media regulator that he stay on to steer the broadcaster through the BBC Charter Review next year. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) rejected a suggestion from Ofcom that Burns should be granted a year-long extension, [...]
Mobile operators hit back at Ofcom plans to increase fees, claiming they threaten to increase consumer prices and hinder investment September 24, 2015 Mobile phone users could witness their bills increasing after Ofcom tripled fees for operators to use certain airwaves, providers have warned. The charge relates to the fees mobile operators Vodafone, O2, EE and Three pay for licences to provide 2G, 3G and 4G services and will come to a total of £199.6m each year, up [...]
ITV knuckles rapped over airing The Enfield Haunting advert during pre-watershed Britain’s Got Talent ad break September 23, 2015 ITV has had its knuckles rapped over the airing of an advert for Sky Living drama The Enfield Haunting during an episode of Britain's Got Talent. The advert for the series, which was based on claims of poltergeist activity in the north London suburb between 1977 and 1979, had been cleared by Clearcast with an [...]
BT promises faster and wider broadband internet coverage as fight kicks off between TalkTalk boss Dido Harding and BT CEO Gavin Patterson September 23, 2015 A war of words broke out between the UK’s telecom firms again yesterday, as TalkTalk boss Dido Harding accused BT chief executive Gavin Patterson of “grandstanding” with a series of pledges to improve broadband service unveiled yesterday. The BT boss said the company wants to “forge an ultrafast future for Britain and stand ready to [...]
Britons’ telecoms consumer complaints revealed: Vodafone’s mobile prices and EE’s broadband most criticised September 22, 2015 Vodafone is the most complained-about mobile operator, new figures from industry regulator Ofcom show. More than one in every 7,500 customers had complaints about the UK’s third-biggest operator. Most, 34 per cent, saw red over the prices, but ironically, the second-biggest reason for complaining was how the operator handled complaints. Britons’ consumer complaints have been [...]
Channel 4 bids to retain Lord Burns as chair September 21, 2015 Channel 4 is reported to be in talks with government officials and the media regulator, Ofcom, in a bid to retain Lord Burns as its chairman beyond the end of his second term in January. Discussions are taking place between Ofcom and the department for culture, media and sport (DCMS), according to Sky News, which [...]
Is your phone operator the worst? Ofcom names and shames the most complained about providers September 15, 2015 Telecoms regulator Ofcom has today named and shamed the broadband, mobile, and landline providers who received the most complaints in the first quarter of 2015. Landline provider complaints per 1,000 customers (Source: Ofcom) Ofcom, which receives about 300 complaints a day from telecoms consumers, said EE was the biggest culprit when it came to [...]