Archive for the ‘digital communications’ Topic
Publication: All that’s digital isn’t gold: The challenges and risks of the digital age
Published: 18 June 2012
Widespread access to the internet and the new technologies that are built upon it are making powerful new approaches to consumer empowerment possible. We are seeing extraordinary advances in our ability to communicate with each other, that will have a more profound and transformative effect on society and the economy than previous advances in communications technology.
Publication: Get it, together – The case for collective switching in the age of connected consumers
Published: 2 May 2012
The architects of our energy, financial services and telecommunications markets shared the expectation that individual consumers would act as the engines of competition. Consumers would, it was assumed, maintain vigilance on how their current arrangements fare in relation to the other offers available to them in the market and, if an offer that better suits [...]
News: UK bumps along the bottom in global copyright survey
Published: 23 April 2012
Consumer Focus, The Coalition for a Digital Economy (Coadec), the Open Rights Group, the Libraries and Archives Copyright Alliance (LACA) and the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP), are calling for reforms of the UK’s copyright law to be speeded up. The call comes after the latest survey by Consumers International1 reveals that [...]
News: Ofcom’s £750,000 fine of Homeserve for silent and abandoned calls
Published: 19 April 2012
In response to Ofcom’s £750,000 fine of HomeServe for silent and abandoned calls, Adam Scorer, Director of Policy and External Affairs at Consumer Focus said: ‘Silent and abandoned calls are an annoyance and can often cause distress to the people who receive them. While they are usually caused by glitches in the technology rather than [...]
News: Prospect of lower phone bills for travellers to the EU welcomed by Consumer Focus
Published: 29 March 2012
Responding to the likelihood of lower mobile phone roaming charges announced by the European Commission today, Marzena Lipman, European policy manager at Consumer Focus said: ‘Moves to tackle excessive roaming charges are really good news for anyone travelling in the European Union. Mobile and data charges have been notoriously high for too long and stories of [...]
News: Talk is cheaper after Ofcom wholesale price move says watchdog
Published: 7 March 2012
In response to Ofcom’s announcement on BT wholesale landline and broadband prices, Adam Scorer, Director of Policy and External Affairs for Consumer Focus, said: ‘Talk should be cheaper for consumers from April, as the cost of their landlines and broadband will fall as a result of these moves by Ofcom. Lower wholesale charges should mean telecoms [...]
News: Faster broadband must be followed up with honest advertising
Published: 2 February 2012
Responding to Ofcom’s new research on UK broadband speeds, Adam Scorer, Director of Policy and External Affairs at Consumer Focus, said: ‘It’s good news that customers are getting faster broadband speeds. But there is still often a very clear gap between the maximum speeds advertised by suppliers and what people actually receive. People don’t expect [...]
The downsides to digital
Published: 17 January 2012
Digital channels are increasingly being used to deliver products and services to the public, across all sectors. But what does this mean for the consumer? Where do risks lie – new ones, or variations on old themes? From privacy loss to disengagement with the ‘real’ world, to new scams, to abuses of market power…what are the areas that concern people?
Publication: Learning the copyright lessons – copyright licensing schemes in the UK education sector
Published: 1 December 2011
In order to stimulate the ongoing debate on how to update copyright licensing, Consumer Focus and the National Education Network (NEN) are publishing this report on copyright licensing schemes in the educational sector.
News: New internet access figures published by ONS
Published: 16 November 2011
Responding to new internet access figures published by the Office for National Statistics, Jonathan Stearn, spokesperson for Consumer Focus, said: ‘After a disappointing start to the year, it’s good news that there has been a noticeable fall in the last few months in the number of people who have never used the internet. However, as [...]
