Pubblicato il rapporto Digital Britain

E' stato appena pubblicato il rapporto Digital Britain che trovate qui. Ecco alcuni primi commenti

Using this definition and the latest official statistics available we estimate that the digital economy generated around £125 billion in gross value added (GVA) in 2007 representing  around 10% of UK GDP. In the same year, the digital economy employed over 2.1 million people, representing around 6% of total UK employment

L'economia digitale ha rappresentato in UK il 10% del PIL e il 6% dell'occupazione (segno che c''e un alto valore aggiunto, che sono occupazioni pregiate)

It is anticipated that around 50% of the UK population should be able to receive next generation access (NGA) broadband by the end of 2012 rising to 60-70% depending on consumer demand for higher speed broadband services. Unaided, the market is unlikely to  deliver NGA to the final third of the population.
The government is considering a number of options, including a supplement in the region of 50p a month on fixed lines which would raise money for a ‘Final Third’ fund that would be used  to secure roll out to the final third of the UK population.

2Mbps come servizio universale entro il 2012, ma per raggiungere il 30% della poopolazione che non avrebbe mai broadband, si pensa a istituire un fondo con una maggiorazione di 6 sterline all'anno per abbonato di rete fissa (probabilmente qui sara' bene tirare dentro anche gli abbonati alla rete cellulare e altri wireless: un utente, una levy. mi piacerebbe conoscere il parere di FC)

Radio spectrum needs to be allocated efficiently across technologies and users if its full  economic and social value is to be realised. This requires effective and sustained competition  between different users of radio spectrum. Under current circumstances, liberalising certain  bands of spectrum would give some mobile network operators a competitive advantage over  others. This may serve to discourage some operators from rolling out next generation mobile  services. This could lead to a reduction in competition resulting in a net welfare loss to the UK  and weaker incentives for innovation.
The government is considering a number of options. In particular, it is looking to impose a time limited cap on the amount of spectrum that any operator can hold at one time below 1 GHz8

Lo spettro deve essere suddiviso tra un ampio numero di player, non favorendo gli operatori mobili esistenti, anzi, mettendo dei massimali, perche' ci sarebbe perdita di benessere e si rallenterebbe l'innovazione.

Proprio come qui. uguaglio uguaglio.
Se non si fa il censimento, non si sapra' REALMENTE quali sono le aree digital divise in italia e nemmeno chi ha realmente investito di tasca propria. I nostri fondi a chi andranno ? a newcomers ? a quelli che hanno gia' fatto N coperture wireless alternative ? o ai 3 (4) operatori cellulari ?

Ofcom will be responsible to monitor and enforce the policy. Specifically they will be required
to place obligations on ISPs to require them:

• to notify alleged infringers of rights (subject to reasonable levels of proof from rights-holders) that their conduct is unlawful; and 
• to collect anonymised information on serious repeat infringers (derived from their notification activities), to be made available to rights-holders together with  personal details on receipt of a court order.

If Ofcom is satisfied that the obligations and targeted legal action scheme has proved to be insufficient to dissuade serious infringers, then it will have a power to require ISPs to impose specified technical measures against infringing individuals.

Sul P2P si parla di obbligo agli ISP di notifica e  di raccolta di informazioni anonimizzate e di dare ad Ofcom i poteri per intervenire con sanzioni tecniche (propozionali, non discriminatorie, trasparenti, oggettive, giustificate, e compatibili con gli ordinamenti...)

Le cose rilevanti, in materia, mi sembrano 2: ecco la prima:

However, the theoretical impact of P2P downloading on sales is disputed. Even though some  file-sharers will have substituted legal purchases for illegal downloads, there are positive  spillover effects from file-sharing that may increase sales of the creative content industries.
These positive spillovers would be lost when implementing legislation. There are two main spillover effects:

• Sampling effects: File-sharing enables consumers to learn about new music, films or  videogames by exploring and sampling new content at a zero cost. When consumers discover new content that they like they may decide to purchase it legally
• Network effects: A product has network effects when consumers value a product more  when the number of users increases. For example, on-line gamers benefit from the fact that more users are playing a videogame. Since file-sharing increases the number of users, the experience of videogaming improves and the willingness to pay for new games increases as well.  This may lead to an increase in the number of legal units purchased.  

Si dice che il P2P potrebbe avere degli effetti benefici per il mercato che potrebbero essere persi.

La seconda:

Approximately 450 ISPs have an average turnover of less than £1 million each. If capital costs are high, these  would have a disproportionately high impact on such businesses compared to the impact on  the 6 largest ISPs. For example, assuming that fixed costs are £80k per ISP, fixed costs would  represent nearly 10% of the turnover for an average SME in the first year of implementation of  the legislation. This compares with a nearly negligible effect on larger ISPs.  A de minimus exclusion of ISPs from the obligation is being considered to alleviate this problem, but more information is required in order to make an informed decision.

in UK ci sono 450 ISP!
ma non e' questa la "notizia", ma che, per non dargli un peso ingiustificato, potrebbero essere esentati. ci poterbbe essere una soglia dimensionale, per cui quelli sotto soglia attirerebbero abbonati ma una volta arrivati in soglia dovrebbero mettere in atto gli strumenti di notifica e di raccolta statistiche.

Anche in questo caso, una previsione a favore dei piccoli e del mercato. Come da noi, uguaglio uguaglio.