Virgin Media signs 3-year telly deal with BT Sport
BT has inked a three-year wholesale deal with Virgin Media to allow the cable company to serve BT Sport television channels to its customers.
Financial terms of the agreement were kept secret.
It comes just days before the kickoff of the new Premier League season and is a clear move to gently lean on pay-TV behemoth BSkyB.
BT …
Facebook reassures adland: We've got s**tloads of users
Facebook has been defending its user metrics after some recent market reports unfavourably suggested that fatigue had set in for some of the 1.15 billion folk accessing the free content ad network.
A representative at the company emailed its advertising partners – Facebook's real customers – with some smelly old stats from …
BRUCE WILLIS (ad) DIES HARD (in Sky broadband telly fib ban)
Hollywood action hero Bruce Willis has been sensationally banned from appearing on the UK's small screen ... in misleading ads touting Sky broadband.
Blighty's advertising watchdog, the Advertising Standards Authority, ruled the telco's telly adverts featuring the Die Hard star were somewhat economical with the truth.
One …
AOL boss: Soz about that 'Abel, you're fired!' Patch showdown
AOL boss Tim Armstrong has apologised for publicly humiliating the ailing company's former hyperlocal network creative director, after he sacked the exec during a tense conference call with employees about the fate of local news platform Patch.
The whole exchange was recorded, presumably by another disgruntled member of staff, …
'Abel, you're fired!' Hear AOL supremo axe exec during conference call
AOL boss Tim Armstrong appears to have axed a senior exec on the spot for pointing a camera at him during a conference call with about 1,000 Patch website staff.
While in the middle of threatening the troubled hyperlocal news network with redundancies, Armstrong suddenly turned to Patch's creative director Abel Lenz and let him …
Facebook to gobble voice-recog outfit, not so chatty on price tag
Facebook plans to buy speech recognition and translation app maker Mobile Technologies for an undisclosed sum.
The free-content ad-network said on Monday that it had agreed to acquire the outfit, adding that MT's "amazing team" is "behind some of the world's leading speech recognition and machine translation technology".
Once …
Facebook's No 2 banks $91m after BIG shares sale
Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg, who is second in command at the free content ad network, sold a big chunk of shares in the company just days after stocks finally hit a higher value than they were assigned at the firm's initial public offering (IPO).
US regulatory filings released late last week show that Sandberg offloaded a further …
Watchdog drags Home Office to naughty step for dragging feet on FOIs
The Home Office may face sanctions if it fails again to reply to Freedom of Information (FOI) requests on time, the Information Commissioner warned today.
The department - run by Home Secretary Theresa May - will be monitored by the watchdog to see how fast it responds to FOIs received between 1 July and 30 September this year …
Ofcom: Making a switch between ISPs will soon be much easier
Ofcom is bringing in new measures to finally make it much easier for broadband and landline customers in the UK to drop one telco in favour of another provider.
In the past, subscribers were required to do loads of legwork to make the switch, which often meant they were much more reluctant to ditch their existing ISP – even if …
Cameron demands Brits BOYCOTT angry-troll-infested websites
Prime Minister David Cameron has told Brits to "boycott" websites that allow trolls and bullies to publish reams of nasty abuse and threats with wild abandon.
His comments came after the father of 14-year-old Hannah Smith claimed his daughter, who had been bullied on Lativan-based ask.fm, had killed herself to escape the online …
Tough luck, bumpkins! Blighty broadband speed gap misery worsens
Speedy broadband networks in cities continue to infuriate country bumpkins who are running out of patience with their painfully slow internet connections.
Sadly, the gap between broadband speeds for urban dwellers and people living in the sticks is set to widen.
Communications watchdog Ofcom said today the UK's average fixed- …
Facebook turns tables on profile stalkers with News Feed tweak
Facebook has tweaked its News Feed ranking algorithms in a bid to get users spending more time gazing at memes and cat pictures.
Mark Zuckerberg's free-content ad-network admitted that the way it had ranked updates posted on Facebook "isn't perfect". Indeed, some have long complained about how the company curates friends' " …
UK plods cuff another bloke in Twitter violence threat probe
A 32-year-old man has been arrested by cops investigating violent threats against high-profile women on Twitter.
Scotland Yard said in a statement that the unnamed suspect was manacled at an address in Bristol this morning and is now being quizzed at a nearby police station.
He was cuffed on suspicion of committing an offence …
Horrific moment curvy mum-of-none Mail Online spills everyone's data
Middle England will be shocked to discover that the Daily Mail's website, the world's most read online newspaper, has only gone and admitted to a shameful data security cock-up.
The publication - which is known for displaying loads of pictures of tits and ass online normally alongside an equal amount of outrage about tits and …
Two more counties to get gov-funded bumpkin broadband from... guess?
BT won two more government-subsidised contracts to rollout rural broadband on Monday when it scooped up deals in Oxfordshire and Worcestershire.
The telco giant will spend £11m in Oxfordshire installing fibre-to-the-cabinet technology; the local council will cough up £10m and a further £4m will come from the state. The work will …
Oi, trolls, BEHAVE! Twitter tweaks rules to tackle abusive twits
Twitter's UK operation has been forced to apologise to a number of high-profile women who were targeted with abuse by users of the micro-blogging site.
The company has said it will hire more staff to help block people who are breaching Twitter's rules by using the service to harass others.
It also reiterated that netizens need …
Jimbo Wales: ISP smut blocking systems simply 'ridiculous'
Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has attacked "absolutely ridiculous" network-level porn-blocking systems that are being introduced by the UK's biggest telcos over the course of the next few months.
Tory MP Claire Perry, who has pushed hard for content to be filtered by ISPs, took to Twitter on Sunday to moan about the comments …
Virgin Media blames scruffy students for HUGE drop in cable subscribers
Virgin Media reported flat second quarter revenue this morning as it presented its first results since falling into the clutches of US cable giant Liberty Global.
The telco attributed its tiny 0.6 per cent sales growth (£1.03bn) during the period ended 30 June to VM's decision to jack up prices for its cable business earlier …
Police probe IDIOTIC Twitter bomb threats slung at journalists
Twitter's trolling heatwave intensified on Wednesday night when a number of journalists were targeted with terrifying bomb threats.
Reprobates used anonymous Twitter handles - whose accounts now appear to have been suspended - to send messages to Guardian features writer Hadley Freeman, Independent columnist Grace Dent and Time …
Wall St 'Likes' Facebook again: Shares edge up to pre-IPOcalypse price
It's been 14 months since Facebook debuted on Wall Street and the company has finally rebounded to its initial public offering share price of $38.
On Tuesday, the free content ad network's stock rose 7 per cent to $37.96 - just a whisker away from its 18 May 2012 IPO price tag.
Facebook saw its shares hit repeated snags: first …
BT's new broom turns out to be carving knife: Retail wing sliced in half
BT's soon-to-be new boss Gavin Patterson made the first big management decision of his reign today - and split the telecom giant's retail division into two distinct wings: consumer and business.
Patterson, who will formally take over from outgoing chief exec Ian Livingston as BT's chief exec in September, hopes the slice'n'dice …
Plods probe death threat tweets to MP - but WHO will rid us of terrible trolls?
Twitter UK was in damage-limitation mode overnight after high-profile British women were bombarded by sick threats and abuse - and the trolling made front-page headlines.
Labour MP Stella Creasy complained to police on Monday evening after receiving a death threat from an anonymous tweeter. Scotland Yard said this morning: …
Microsoft introduces warning on child abuse image searches
Microsoft is warning Brits who use its Bing search engine to hunt down child abuse content that they are attempting to view illegal material online.
The company debuted the pop-up message on Bing in the UK following pressure from the Prime Minister David Cameron, who has been pressing internet firms to do more to help prevent …
Banknote campaigner's Twitter rape threats ordeal: Bloke, 21, cuffed
A 21-year-old man was arrested on Sunday after a feminist campaigner was repeatedly sent abusive messages - including rape threats - on Twitter.
Scotland Yard said in a statement to The Register that the suspect was cuffed in Manchester over claims of harassment. The Met added:
The arrest is in connection with an allegation of …
Kids LIE about age on Facebook, gasps Brit ad watchdog
Britain's advertising watchdog has spotted the blindingly obvious: kids are giving false ages to allow them to sign up to Facebook and other social media sites.
Mark Zuckerberg's free content ad network states that users have to be 13 or over to have a Facebook account. However, the company does not closely control this …
Sky falling: 119,000 Brits flee O2, Be after Murdoch broadband gobble
One in five O2 and Be broadband subscribers abandoned the home internet service after it was bought by BSkyB - according to figures shown to the City this morning.
At the end of last month, BSkyB's total broadband customer base stood at 4.9 million having gobbled up about 400,000 subscribers following its acquisition of O2 and …
London Mayor shows off GIANT BLUE COCK in busy square
Mayor of London Boris Johnson has unzipped the flies on the latest work of art to be commissioned for Trafalgar Square's fourth plinth: a giant blue cock that proudly stands at 4.72 metres high.
The unkempt, shock-headed Tory couldn't resist a bit of willy-waving in the direction of Prime Minister David Cameron either, by sagely …
BT's not at home to Mr Profit, but its lordly boss probably isn't too fussed
The past few weeks over at BT Towers have been busy, fraught and disruptive. But there was no ray of sunshine in the telecom giant's latest financial results out today.
The company reported flat revenue growth and a significant decline in pre-tax profit this morning for the quarter that ended on 30 June.
It pulled in total …
Curses! Reddit plan for fat old beardy to 'smell hot pop girl Taylor Swift's hair' FOILED
A campaign to get a fat, "creepy", and apparently over-aged bloke to win a contest to have his picture snapped backstage with country music popstrel Taylor Swift has backfired.
The radio station - Boston's Kiss 108 FM - running the competition issued a terse statement that brought the race to pose alongside the Grammy Award- …
Royston cops' ANPR 'ring of steel' BREAKS LAW, snarls watchdog
A system of police cameras that slurped the comings and goings of Brits living and working in the small Hertfordshire town of Royston has been found to be "unlawful" for collecting "excessive" information, the UK's data watchdog ruled today.
The local cops' Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) scheme had been dubbed "the …
ISPs: Relax. Blocking smut online WON'T really work
Since the start of this year it has become clear that the government was shifting away from its hands-off approach to censoring content online by leaving ISPs to work out an agreed code that would prevent regulatory intervention.
So-called Active Choice - whereby a subscriber gets to choose whether or not to block websites …
BT slammed for FAILING to explain why its broadband investment has shrunk
BT's policy supremo was mauled this afternoon by MPs demanding to know why the telecom giant's investment in the UK's government-subsidised broadband deployment had dramatically shrunk.
The company is the only telco to have won any of the taxpayer-funded Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) contracts to roll out high-speed internet …
You, Google. Get back here and bend over again - EU antitrust chief
Brussels' antitrust chief has demanded Google once again rejigs its web search business - or risk a fat fine for breaching EU competition law.
Joaquin Almunia told reporters today that he has asked the advertising giant "to present better proposals, or improved proposals" to address accusations that it abused its dominant …
PRISM scandal: Brit spooks operated within the law, say politicos
Claims that Britain's intelligence agency GCHQ circumvented UK legislation by using America's controversial PRISM programme to access the content of private communications are false, parliamentarians concluded today.
The Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC), which is chaired by Tory politico Malcolm Rifkind and made up of …
PM writes ISPs' web filter ads for them - and it must say 'default on'
Britain's four biggest telcos are under pressure from the Prime Minister to describe their forthcoming network-level internet filters as "default on" by 22 July, The Register understands.
A well-placed industry source told us today that Tory leader David Cameron will make an announcement about the web content controls next …
Internet Villain face-off: Spy queen Theresa May v Twit-hate Turkish PM
And so to Piccadilly, London, where the great, the good and the downright drunk and rowdy gathered for the 15th Internet Service Providers' Association awards - which this year saw the title of Internet Villain handed to Mr Censorship AKA Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Erdogan.
But Britain's Home Secretary Theresa May - whose …
EU competition inspectors RAID European telcos
The competition wing of the European Commission confirmed today that it was investigating alleged antitrust practices among a number of telecoms giants operating in the 28-member-state bloc.
It declined to comment on which countries and companies were subjected to unannounced inspections on their premises at the beginning of …
BT: Ofcom's planned wholesale price cap? Just a smidge too tight
BT should slash its wholesale prices for competitors that access the former national telco's copper network, comms regulator Ofcom said today.
Operators such as BSkyB and TalkTalk could then pass on those "real-terms" cost cuts to their customers, the watchdog added.
Ofcom is proposing that BT's Openreach biz, which is subject …
BT earmarks super-speedy 300Mbit/s broadband for 50 exchanges
BT is planning to offer a 300Mbit/s Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband service to 50 exchanges by the end of this year.
The national telco has not said which exchange areas will get the FTTP service, which will cost subscribers £50 a month.
The telecoms giant claimed it would be punting the fastest download speeds of all …
Universal Credit: ONLY 6 job centres to get new dole system in October
The UK government's controversial plans to cut and shut benefit payments into one system was defended today by Work and Pensions Secretary of State Iain Duncan Smith.
Just as Duncan Smith took his seat for a relatively easy grilling from the Work and Pensions Select Committee, his department put out a statement about the …
UK.gov's digi-by-default plan slammed: Show us the savings - MPs
A letter that demands answers to a wide range of concerns expressed by MPs about the government's digital-by-default has landed on Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude's desk.
The Science and Technology Select Committee's chair Andrew Miller fired off the missive (PDF) to Maude, after gaping holes were spotted in evidence …
Run for your (private) lives! Facebook's creepy Graph Search is upon us
Facebook will roll out its Graph Search in North America more than six months after the free-content ad network debuted the beta feature to a lucky few.
The company said everyone who uses the US English website version of Facebook would be able to access Graph Search, which allows people to look up information about friends of …
Health minister asks elderly patients what they think of data-sharing
The NHS turned 65 today, which has led to some quarters drawing an unfavourable analogy between the health service and a patient who has just reached retirement age.
It may be an irritating bit of anthropomorphism to describe the taxpayer-funded body as a living, breathing thing, but it doesn't stop ministers from questioning …
UK data cops to Google: You've got three months to sort out privacy
Google has been ordered by Britain's data watchdog to make changes to its privacy policy within the next three months, or else face a possible fine for failing to comply with the Data Protection Act.
The Information Commissioner's Office said late on Thursday:
We have today written to Google to confirm our findings relating to …
Spending watchdog SAVAGES rural broadband push
The government's crashingly expensive rural broadband deployment project has failed to demonstrate that it represents value for money to Britain's taxpayers, the National Audit Office concluded today in a scathing report.
Just last week, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, which is steering the Broadband Delivery UK ( …
Twitter to let ad pals TRACK COOKIES on micro-blogging site
Twitter needs to make more money from advertising - to do that it has decided to follow the lead of other free content social media networks by targeting its users' cookies to create tracking profiles for its ad partners.
The privately-held micro-blogging site said in a blog post that it would, for now, be displaying promoted …
EU chucks €18m at research for stupidly fast networks
The European Commission has inked a €18m research deal with Japan to fund six separate projects that will examine ways of improving networks to allow them to carry more data.
Brussels' officials said there was a "pressing need for new and more efficient networks in light of a massive online data explosion that is expected to …
EE turns up speed knob EVEN FASTER on 4G spectrum
Britain's temporary 4G monopolist EE promises to "double" its network speed in twelve cities from tomorrow as the company attempts to achieve superior offerings and differentiate itself from rival operators who are set to swamp the market in the autumn.
The company's boss Olaf Swantee admitted that EE wanted to "stay one step …
Broadband rivals 'pleased' over Ofcom's market shake-up plans. Maybe too pleased
Rival British telcos BT and TalkTalk have both said they were "pleased" this morning with regulatory proposals submitted by communications watchdog Ofcom on the future of the country's fixed broadband wholesale market.
However, the ISPs reasons to be cheerful were starkly different as Ofcom laid out its plans to bring in new …
Nominet resurrects second-level namespace plan: 'Before you say no...'
Dot-UK registry Nominet has bounced back with another effort to bring second-level namespaces to life, after the Oxford-based company's previous proposal was largely greeted with indifference by Blighty businesses.
Now the outfit is once again pushing to introduce a shorter suffix imbued with what it described as "the trust of …
