Broadband, Mobile & Energy News: Weekly Roundup 24/08/18

We’ve got another roundup of the week’s mobile, energy and broadband stories for you:

Hard of Hearing Customers Given Helping Hand by EE

Mobile operator EE has announced that it will improve its service for deaf customers through a partnership with the charity Action on Hearing Loss.  Amongst other policies, AoHL will conduct assessments of EE’s call centres and help to develop best practices for supporting customers with hearing loss.  EE has employed the use of the Next Generation Text relay service for customers without the ability to hear on the telephone, and employs British Sign Language interpreters on their Customer Disability Team.

EE has also announced that it will tailor some mobile plans towards hard of hearing customers, including reducing unnecessary voice minutes in favour of a greater data allowance and a range of accessibility features, in a move which the company claims demonstrates how they intend to “better align with how customers with hearing loss prefer to communicate.”

The move comes in response to a damning report that castigated the UK’s leading ISPs and mobile operators for their lack of help for hard of hearing customers.

James Rowe, AoHL’s executive director, responded positively to EE’s changes: “We are very pleased to be partnering with EE as they provide some of the best support for the one-in-six people in the UK who are living with deafness or hearing loss.  It is very encouraging to see a company like EE proactively taking steps to make sure that their customers living with deafness and hearing loss are not being financially disadvantaged and are able to access phone packages that are better suited to their needs.”

Major Challenger Bulb Gets Large Investment

Start-up gas and electricity supplier Bulb has announced that it has received £60 million of funding from two important international technology investment firms, DST Global and Magnetar.

The firm has recently become a major player in the UK supply market, attracting over 300,000 households, or 1% of the UK market, in the last three years alone.  Bulb prides itself on supplying 100% renewable electricity and 10% of its gas from biomethane or recycled matter.

Tom Stafford, Managing Partner at DSR Global, said: “We are delighted to partner with Hayden [Wood] and Amit [Gudka, Bulb’s co-founders] as they build an internet and technology driven business to reduce cost for consumers, improve the quality of service and promote the use of renewables in the UK energy market.”

The investment will allow Bulb to expand quicker, taking on more staff and branching out into other areas of the market, while allowing it to retain its cheap and competitive energy tariffs.

Labour’s ‘Digital License Fee’ Plans Slammed by ISPs

The UK Internet Services Providers’ Association (ISPA) this week has slammed Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s proposal to introduce a new ‘Digital Licence Fee’ as a way of retaining income while getting rid of the TV licence fee.  The fee would not be paid by customers, but by the broadband providers themselves.

Mr Corbyn said: “A digital licence fee, supplementing the existing licence fee, collected from tech giants and Internet Service Providers, which extract huge wealth from out shared digital space, could allow a democratised and more plural BBC to compete far more effectively with the private multinational digital giants like Netflix, Amazon, Google and Facebook.”

It is uncertain whether Corbyn is referring to the Internet Service Providers themselves – companies like Virgin Media, TalkTalk etc. – or content providers, such as Netflix, Amazon (Prime), and so on.  In both cases, and proportionate tax based on usage would inevitably lead to higher prices for customers, negating the lack of licence fee.

In a statement, the ISPA argued as such: “Today’s call by the Leader of the Opposition, Jeremy Corbyn, to impose a levy on Internet Service Providers to help fund a ‘digital licence fee’ runs the risk of undermining broadband investment and could lead to increased prices for all consumers.”

Hinkley Worker Fall Leads to Prosecution

The Energy supplier EDF is to be prosecuted by the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) after a worker suffered an injury from a fall at its Hinkley Point B plant in Somerset last year.  Defending alongside partner engineering firm Doosan Babcock Ltd. (the worker’s employer) the ONR is bringing a case based on the UK’s Health and Safety Laws, with proceedings starting 12^th September at Bath Magistrates’ Court.  The worker was hurt after ‘falling from height’ in 2017, according to a preliminary report.

EDF’s Hinkley Point B nuclear power station is due to be decommissioned in 2023, being replaced by the Hinkley Point C plant next door.

The ONR issued a statement on the case, saying that “the incident was a conventional health and safety matter and there was no radiological risk to workers or the public.”  Doosan Babcock said that it was co-operating fully with the investigation and that it would provide any assistance needed to the ONR.  EDF has yet to issue a response.

Gov Announces £9bn Business Boost Thanks to Superfast Broadband Expansion

This week the Government has announced that their Broadband Delivery UK service has provided a boost to local businesses worth an apparent £9 billion increase in turnover.  The independent report, entitled ‘The Evaluation of the Economic Impact and Public Value of the Superfast Broadband Programme’, also found that public investment has led to the creation of nearly 50,000 new jobs in local areas and a twelvefold dividend in investment by the Government and local authorities.

A main target of the Government’s current broadband policy is to increase service in rural areas that are deemed ‘commercially unviable’, especially more isolated areas of Scotland and Wales with small populations.  Broadband can now be accessed by 95.39% of UK premises, and around 5 million new homes and businesses have access to superfast broadband – the target for superfast alone being 98% of UK properties in the next few years.

Margot James, the Minister for Digital, said: “Our rollout of superfast broadband across the UK has been the most challenging infrastructure project in a generation but is one of our greatest successes.  We are reaching thousands more homes and businesses every week, that can now reap the clear and tangible benefits that superfast broadband provides.  We are helping to ensure the downfall of the digital divide.”

Ben Rich

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