In Brief: Britain to study national broadband access

Technology

Britain's Office of Communications is embarking on a study of broadband providers. Specifically, Ofcom will be examining how easy it is for users to switch from one provider to another without sacrificing connectivity.

"Current migration systems -- using established industry procedures -- have evolved to meet the needs of a relatively young market. However, as competition -- and switching -- grows, it is important to ensure that transfer processes are sufficiently robust to support the increased complexity and mass-market scale associated with next-generation broadband access, particularly over unbundled local loops. Ofcom will therefore seek to build on work already underway to assess current migration processes, and will consider whether those existing systems are sufficient to meet the future needs of consumers and industry," the agency stated in a news release.

As such, the agency will be working with Internet providers to study how customer accounts and connections are currently acquired, terminated and handed over to a competing provider.

Copyright 2006 by United Press International

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