Ofcom warns consumers will be squeezed by caps and contention as media services rocket

UK Internet users are increasingly familiar with the issues surrounding broadband, according to industry regulator Ofcom, but remain unclear on two that can noticeably affect the level of service, contention ratio and usage caps. According to Ofcom's market report for 2005, 90 per cent of broadband users have never heard of contention ratios and 70 per cent believed their service to be uncapped, despite the fact that both are almost ubiquitous. The regulator acknowledges that at present neither has a significant affect on the 'user experience', except for a small minority of users who download large amounts of data, largely because service providers have gradually increased network capacity to cope with growing demand for bandwidth. ...more

Women rush to the online sales, pushing men aside

It had to happen. Women now spend more money on online shopping than men. According to a report by retail consultancy Verdict Research women spent an average of ?495 online last year compared to ?470 for men. ...more

Australian legislators call for Internet censorship

Australian legislators have called for all Internet content to be filtered by ISPs before it is relayed to their customers. Sixty-two members of the ruling coalition have signed a letter calling for a restriction on pornographic, violent and other 'inappropriate' material. Internet users would have to opt in, by applying to their ISP, to receive the blocked content. ...more

UK winner announced for Europe's IT awards

The Syngene division of Synoptics Ltd has been named as one of the 20 winners of this year's European Information Society Technologies Prize (EISTP). The EC and the European Council of Applied Sciences and Engineering (Euro-CASE) have announced 20 winners yesterday, three of which will be awarded a Grand Prize worth ?200,000 (?125,000). The EISTP is awarded to "groundbreaking products representing the best of European innovation in information technology", said a statement on the EU Web site. ...more

Music industry canvasses mobile makers for iTunes rival

Record label bosses are pinning their hopes on mobile phones to weaken Apple's dominance of the music downloads market. Executives are concerned that they have yielded too much power to Apple, which has about 70 per cent of the worldwide market. Apple CEO Steve Jobs has used his position of strength to resist the labels' desire to maximise revenues, by charging more for some downloads and less for archive material. ...more