Two stories relating to our old friend "Busby"...
UK Telecom Watchdog OFTEL has ordered BT to slash its charges to rival telecoms companies for connecting users to the Internet. BT must use its slapped wrist to cut charges by a full seven per cent.
It means that ISPs in competition with BT’s own BT Internet service will save money and either increase their profits or pass savings on to increasingly impatient consumers.
Oftel claims the move will cut the cost to regular surfers. "Operators should ultimately be able to pass some or all of this saving on to their customers," says David Edmonds, the watchdog’s director general of communications. He said, [the] "Cuts in BT's charges will mean UK consumers will continue to enjoy some of the cheapest prices in Europe for Internet access."
News source: The Inquirer
Meanwhile, on the DSL front, PlusNet has called on BT to cut the cost of its wholesale DSL service by £10 a month when the telco's CEO honours his pledge to make a "substantial cut in the cost of wholesale broadband services".
PlusNet, maintains that unless the wholesale price comes down to between £15-£18 a month service providers will be unable to meet a retail price of around £25 a month, passing on any cost saving to customers when the cut is finally announced by BT.
"We want to see BT stimulate the market by cutting the monthly rental by at least £8 to £10, and lowering the activation fee to below the £25 mark," said Alistair Wyse, Technical Director for PlusNet.
News source: The Register
UK Telecom Watchdog OFTEL has ordered BT to slash its charges to rival telecoms companies for connecting users to the Internet. BT must use its slapped wrist to cut charges by a full seven per cent.
It means that ISPs in competition with BT’s own BT Internet service will save money and either increase their profits or pass savings on to increasingly impatient consumers.
Oftel claims the move will cut the cost to regular surfers. "Operators should ultimately be able to pass some or all of this saving on to their customers," says David Edmonds, the watchdog’s director general of communications. He said, [the] "Cuts in BT's charges will mean UK consumers will continue to enjoy some of the cheapest prices in Europe for Internet access."
News source: The InquirerMeanwhile, on the DSL front, PlusNet has called on BT to cut the cost of its wholesale DSL service by £10 a month when the telco's CEO honours his pledge to make a "substantial cut in the cost of wholesale broadband services".
PlusNet, maintains that unless the wholesale price comes down to between £15-£18 a month service providers will be unable to meet a retail price of around £25 a month, passing on any cost saving to customers when the cut is finally announced by BT.
"We want to see BT stimulate the market by cutting the monthly rental by at least £8 to £10, and lowering the activation fee to below the £25 mark," said Alistair Wyse, Technical Director for PlusNet.
News source: The Register
After more than two years of bitter legal battles, the labels asked a federal court last month for a monthlong time-out to concentrate on a settlement with the once-controversial start-up. Both sides said at the time they were close to finding common ground.
But that legal "stay" expired Sunday without the two sides reaching agreement. Both sides said Tuesday that the litigation would continue without a renewal of the time-out period.
"Given the current state of settlement negotiations, it didn't make sense for the record companies to agree to Napster's request to keep the litigation on hold," said Recording Industry Association of America General Counsel Cary Sherman.
Napster said it hadn't asked the courts for an extension, but that it did plan to continue settlement talks.
"Napster is continuing our settlement and licensing discussions with the major labels and we remain confident that agreements can be reached in the near term," Napster Chief Executive Konrad Hilbers said in a statement.
A representative of the RIAA, the trade group spearheading the lawsuit on behalf of the music labels, could not immediately be reached.
Napster has been negotiating with each of the Big Five record labels, hoping both for an end to the lawsuit, which closed its original file-swapping service, and for the rights to distribute major-label content through its new subscription service.
That's no small goal, even for companies not facing a lawsuit potentially worth billions of dollars. No other music start-up has been able to win licenses from all five of the major labels. Hilbers has said that he would consider launching without all five, but has said he expects to settle with all of them.
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