Telecoms Tech

Three of the largest Belgian internet service providers (ISPs) have not been paying “copyright levies” according to authors’ association Sabam, whilst still offering access to protected materials.

The last few weeks for both BT and TalkTalk have been interesting for UK telecoms - some may say slightly pathetic - but a lot is at stake for the broadband companies’ financial future.

Last month, Neelie Kroes used her MWC 2013 speech to call for a single Telecoms market, which as Vice President of the European Commission for the Digital Agenda holds some amount of weight, so how has the industry reacted?

Google has started to install its Fiber TV and broadband service in Hanover Heights, Kansas City, KS, giving residents in the US state internet of up to 1 gigabit per second (Gbps).

This isn't a typo: within a year, people in China could apply for fiber-to-the-home service from China Mobile.

Alternative TELCOs have called on the European Commission to lower wholesale charges and have warned that unless the “copper gravy train” is put to an end, broadband services will revert to the monopolies of before.

The race is on to deliver fibre-optic broadband to households around China. But the road is beset on all sides by challenges and the targets will be tough to attain. Our Beijing correspondent Dr Lin Sun reports on China's progress into the broadband elite.