Italy’s Antitrust Authority has opened proceedings against Telecom Italia and Fastweb for possible uncompetitive practices regarding their joint fibre optic venture Flash Fiber. Flash Fiber aims to build fibre-optic networks in FTTH architecture in Italy’s 29 biggest cities already covered by FTTC by 2020. The two companies plan to invest over €1 billion in the […]
Evasion of the TV licence of Italian state broadcaster RAI has fallen dramatically from 30 per cent to 4 per cent since the fee was inserted into electricity bills from early 2016. According to the head of Italy’s Inland Revenue Agency (Agenzia delle Entrate), Rosella Orlandi, the introduction of a combined TV licence fee and […]
The US Chamber of Commerce’s Global Intellectual Property Center has released its fifth annual International IP Index, The Roots of Innovation, rating 45 world economies on patents, trademarks, copyright, trade secrets, enforcement, and international treaties. The economies benchmarked in the 2017 Index account for 90 per cent of global gross domestic product (GDP). “Just as […]
Pakistan’s PEMRA broadcasting regulator says it has conducted enforcement raids against cable and DTH re-broadcasters and viewers who are distributing or watching Indian TV channels in the country. Specifically, the raids were carried out in the Sukkur and Khairpur districts. BBC Monitoring says the PEMRA raids were conducted in different areas of the two districts […]
Spain’s Cuerpo Nacional de Policía (National Police Force) has successfully raided a store in a shopping centre in the Málaga resort of Calahonda, owned by an ISP suspected of hosting a large-scale illegal IPTV streaming business, thanks to a collaborative effort with Premier League and content security specialist Irdeto. Investigations revealed that the ISP in […]
Research by independent consumer switching advice site Broadband Genie has revealed the majority (81 per cent) of the British public support the government’s latest crackdown on adult websites as part of the Digital Economy Bill, which will require operators to verify a user’s age before allowing them to access the content. Adult websites in the […]
Australia’s national broadband network (nbn) has reached a significant roll-out milestone, with four million premises now Ready for Service (RFS). This landmark means that the nbn network is now available to more than one third of all Australian premises. By the end of December 2014 nbn had made 778,824 premises RFS. In the following two […]
With Andrus Ansip, EC Vice-President in charge of the Digital Single Market, describing it as “a new important step” in breaking down barriers in the Digital Single Market, Europeans will soon be able fully to use their online subscriptions to films, sports events, e-books, video games or music services when travelling within the EU, following […]
Journalism might be the first draft of history (as well as a lot of less honourable or important things) but, even so, it is too early to be bringing a name to our current era. But there can be little doubt that in the fullness of time, The Age of Unpredictability will be a candidate. […]
Five people have been arrested in a crackdown on the sale and distribution of illegal TV set-top devices in the North West of England and Wales. The multi-agency day of action on February 8th saw the Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT), Greater Manchester Police, City of London Police’s Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) and the […]