In a briefing thrown at an international meeting on dark fibre, the UK Shadow minister for arts, Ed Vaizey has taken the battle to the Labour camps by stating that Labour’s business rates levy policy has resulted in inflicting great damage to the telecoms in the United Kingdom. Later, in another briefing given to Computer Weekly, Vaizey hit out at the business rates regime saying that it was a potential disincentive to the rollout of a competitive and superfast next generation broadband network, since it dated from 1601.

His (Conservative Party’s?) political view is profound and vivid in his lament that hardly any body has come forward to shoulder the responsibility for the rates with authority, even as the responsibility for the business rates was being shared between one too many departments of the government, including the business, skills and innovation department that held the charge of the communications aspect, the DCLG (the communities and local government department) that held the charge of the rating policy, the treasury that is headed by the minister who also takes care of the Digital Britain implementation, and the VOA (valuation office agency).

Vaizey’s remark that they saw the policy being shared amongst a bewildering range of quangos and government bodies, and the claim that came alongside that this was something that he intended to fix, sows the seed of speculation that he might be the man that the Conservatives would assign with the telecommunications department once it gains power. Moreover this one view of the shadow arts minister, obviously overshadows the commitment of the de jury Digital Britain minister as well as that of the de facto minister that are seen going through the motions at present.

Vaizey scores further over his counterpart (s) by playing down the proposals by the Valuation Office Agency to levy the WiMAX and WiFi networks that the proposal was still damaging even though the VOA had claimed that it was simply an extension of the policy that exists. Besides, he also revealed that the Conservative Party was against the government’s plan to slap a 50 pence a month levy on the UK fixed telephone lines. He has cited the view put forward by the TalkTalk chief Charles Dunstone – that the scheme of the government was likely to impede the superfast next generation fibre broadband rollout in the rural UK, for the private investors might anticipate the availability of public funds – to flay the Labour 50p monthly broadband tax plans.

Vaizey also made clear the stance of the Tories that they were looking ahead to an investment scheme that participated every one, and not just BT. He said that this meant that the network of BT should be opened up for other broadband providers as well to run fibre. His further proposals that they would not be tied down to a particular broadband technology, and the most ideal way to boost investment was to encourage competition in the liberal markets, accentuates one aspect. That encouragement of competition would be the prime Tory line.

The shadow arts minister further emphasizes this view by stating that though the fact that the investment in the sector of telecommunications was driven by competition, was also clear that a crucial part in market outcomes was played by the policy and regulation of the government. This is clearly a warning to none but the prominent fixed-line broadband provider operating in the United Kingdom, BT.

Vaizey’s insight on the technology part is also remarkable, perhaps a yard ahead of that of his rivals, Stephen Timms and Lord Mandelson. He acknowledges the significance of the availability of dark fibre in the rollout of the next generation broadband rollout in the UK in the competitive market of his dreams. The essence of the part is in his following statement that they wanted the telecoms regulator Ofcom to perform a complete review of how could dark fibre be delivered to the UK broadband market.

Vaizey’s view that dark fibre backhaul might be of much use in supporting the LLU (local loop unbundling) as the latter could sustain profound network competition in the next generation broadband internet access provision, along with another that for its realization, innovative solutions such as a direct access to digital subscriber loop (DSL) card management or the lesser access to cabinet shelves or racks would be required, sounds quiet reasonable as well as supportive to the main cause.

One part that Vaizey seemed to be conveniently overlooking was the universal broadband speed, which has been a concern for most of the broadband consumers in the country at present. This was also the pitfall that Lord Carter had recognized, but lately and rudely neglected by Mandelson. Nonetheless, the promising show by Vaizey certainly provides food for thought for the broadband experts of the country as well as dreams for the UK ISPs (except BT) and the end users. The sole question that remains unanswered is what would be the role of Jeremy Hunt there?

Would Lord Mandelson push through with his disconnection plans to deal with the illegal filesharing problem that has been rocking the broadband internetsegment in the United Kingdom lately?

As a matter of fact, a pro-broadband website catering for the UK folk has reported UK broadband provider TalkTalk as saying that it was dismayed to learn that despite a great amount of criticism, the government was resolved to push ahead with its service disconnection plans – which the ISP define as ill conceived – for the persistent illegal content downloaders of the internet.

The broadband provider that is renowned all over the UK for its cheap business broadband packages has declared that it was resolved to carry on with its policy of resistance towards any attempt to make it disconnect the service to its customers, unless a recognised tribunal or the court itself direct it to do so.

TalkTalk disparaged the stance of the government saying that the proposed plans whatever they were, were erring in principle and would not practically work. It denounced the plans saying that they abide with the line ‘guilty until proved innocent’.

The internet service provider is of the opinion that the proposed steps would trigger an increased number of PC and WiFi hijacking,. Besides placing innocent broadband internet consumers at the risk of being penalised inadvertently.

The last man in the world who would not let go a chance to celebrate the victory of a so called moderate is the broadband expert at Broadband Suppliers, Chuck Doherty. He has highlighted his celebratory mood with a statement that Obama’s contribution to nuclear disarmament and multilateralism is the thing that claimed the prize for him, despite his short nine-month tenure.

This view of Doherty is apparent in the stance of the Norwegian Nobel Committee thatObama was chosen by it for the covetous prize, for his tremendous efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and co-operation between peoples, and particularly his efforts to rid the world of nuclear arms.

However, Doherty does not restrict himself exclusively to this line. “Before say a few years, one could not even imagine this colourful journey of coloured American to presidency, and beyond to the Nobel prize. It has been magnificent. Still I cannot be at peace without saying that somewhere, I have this strange feeling that if his performance as the American president cannot be judged owing to his short tenure, could not be the striking contrast posed by the aggression of George Bush, his predecessor against his soft diplomatic advancements that had hit the Nobel jury flat for him?”, opined Doherty.

“If I can call this the Bush effect, something akin to that can be witnessed here as well in a very short time. Here refers to the UK broadband sector, and the players here are none other than the current business secretary of the UK, Lord Mandelson and the former telecommunications minister Lord Carter”, predicts Doherty. “Particularly, when weighed against a euphoric backdrop of the ringing of success bells for the universal broadband concept put forward by the Digital Britain report published in June by the then outgoing telecoms minister Lord Carter. Since then, Lord Mandelson who took over the charge virtually from Carter, has played his cards reasonable well, but for an estimation mistake in the hasty anti-filesharing legislation proposal by him.”

Doherty affirms that he had always thought that Mandelson had rooted his eye on the communications, technology and broadcasting portfolio that is said to be under the culture department, headed by Ben Bradshaw, even when Carter was firing on all cylinders with his Digital Britain propsals, and today Mandy is making sure that no errors are being made. According to him, the business secretary that seems resolved to impose the 50p broadband tax on the phone lines in the country, besides calling for the BBC funds to finance the 2Mbps broadband for all plan, has also reached a considerable extent in resolving the radio spectrum distribution dispute between the five leading mobile broadband networks in the country.

And once the 2Mbps broadband for all plan is successfully executed, Mandy will definitely be in a position to claim the prime post after the forthcoming elections, providing Labour wins. At least, such a development could help Mandelson gain that elusive elected MP status for himself. And all thanks to who, the man that presented the whole thing and deserted the field, posing himself as a weakling.”, said Doherty.

That says Mandelson will be another soul that would be secretly thrilled at the Nobel prize announcement for Obama, with an expectation that Carter does the same thing for him that Bush had done to Obama.

It is believed that this meeting might influence the formulation of the digital economy bill that is due for autumn. The legislation is expected to implement a few of the significant points put forth by Lord Carter, the former communications minister, in his Digital Britain report of June. It is also believed that Mandelson is keen on bringing forth fresh laws against the illegal downloaders of the copyrighted content that also point to penalties such as cutting off their broadband connections.

The current pattern of conciliating the mobile operators hat Mandelson is aspiring to follow, looks much similar to the one proposed by Lord Carter in his Digital Britain report. As a matter of fact, Carter had maintained the view that universal broadband rollout of 2Mbps broadband speed in the country could only be realised with the help of the big five mobile operators of the UK, and he had not only tried to strike a consensus among them, but had even gone to the extent of trying out the way of intimidation.

Mandelson too seems to have realised the need of the big five mobile networks to come into the scene, to fulfill the government’s promise of a 2Mbps broadband connection to all homes in the UK. Here, the problem Mandelson is likely to face is of taming the two previleged operators – O2 and Vodafone – that combinedly own the 900MHz radio spectrum, which was granted to the duo when they started their operation in the early part of the eighties.

Mandelson knows this fact as well as the operators that the 900MHz spectrum is ideal for bridging gaps left by fixed line broadband providers in the rural areas, particularly for the capability of this spectrum to carry signals over long distances. Further, today there may not be many in the country who might not be knowing that the rest three operators do not have this, and a comprehensive mobile broadband covering up of the gaps in the rural regions obviously called for a redistribution of the spectrum between the big five at least.

However, there are also a good number of people who think that Mandelson’s proposed meeting with the CE s of the five mobile operators of the UK – Vodafone, O2, 3 UK, T-Mobile and Orange – was nothing more than a face saver. According to Chuck Doherty of Broadband Suppliers, the people in the UK were likely to explode on Mandelson and the Labour in a quite short time with scathing crticism, over their inexplicably excess enthusiasm shown in the anti-piracy legislation proposal, leaving the profounder requirement of ’2Mbps broadband for all UK homes’ high and dry.

Meanwhile, the views of an insider on the matter that the proposed Mandelson-operators meeting for Tuesday was designed to bang a few heads together, is also ponderable. He cites a probability that any conciliatory measure such as extending the networks’ licences to indefinitely operate 3G services (that would save them billions of pounds) could invoke criticism mainly from the fixed line ISPs on the grounds that this money could be used to fund the rolling out of next generation broadband services.

In a recent interview given to the Guardian, Robinson said about his newly launched party’s immediate plans that it would launch a campaign for legislation that keeps pace with the technology. Incidetally, the main slogan of the Pirate Party that sounds, freedom of information and speech, freedom from excessive surveillance, and freedom to non-commercial file sharing, is also quite interesting in the circumstances. Robinson also stresses the fact that his party was struggling for what can be called, an access to the culture of the people that is a public right.

Robinson opines that libraries were set up in the past to share, while technology today allows engagement in altruistic sharing. Meanwhile, the music and movie industry is viewing the issue from a different angle. According to the figures published by BPI, the official site of the British Record and Music Industry, the industry annually lost GBP 200 million due to the activities of an estimated 7 million filesharers in the United Kingdom. Apparently in line with the published woes of the music and movie industry, the government has proposed fresh powers for the telecoms watchdog Ofcom, to demand information on filesharers from broadband providers.

This week has been an eventful one with the government announcing its plans those were all about harsher penalties for the illegal filesharers who did it on a regular basis. A few months back, when Lord Carter was holding the communications minister’s office, the government had discouraged an Ofcom proposal of curbing illegal filesharing using coercion, citing the fact that the measures would be not in place until 2012, since the process was a lengthy one. However, after Lord Carter’s stepping down as minister, the department under the new minister Stephen Timms have taken a u turn on the approach, reaching a view that a deadline of 2012 would be too long to wait once the action was found necessary, since the piracy triggerred pressure compounding on the creative industry was considerable.

Meanwhile, it is also ponderable that the Pirate Party simply wanted the copyright laws to be fair and balanced, and did not want to abolish it. Robinson said that at the moment when dominant businesses complained that they stole handbags, they wanted to talk about what copyright was about. Robinson complains that modern copyright has elevated certain firms to the position of cultural gatekeepers, deviating from its main objective of encouraging the creation of art. He argued adding that copyright was not serving the needs of the public, public domain or the artists, but was solely serving the requirements of the music labels.

The Pirate Party chief believed that not just the influential lobbyists served to outflank the advocates of copyright reform, but also the stars along with the entertainment executives that were strong and artful enough to access the government members. Robinson cited the incidents of Tony Blair hosted by copyright campaigner, Sir Cliff Richard in Barbados, and the recent get together of business secretary of the UK, Lord Mandelson – who is apparently behind the anti-piracy legislation proposal – , and Hollywood music and movie industry mogul, David Geffen at Corfu, an Italian luxury spot.