The government is to increase its commitment to further contact with operators of the UK’s critical national infrastructure (CNI).
In the past, the government has relied on contacts with a few key players among the private-sector companies that own and operate up to 80% of the UK’s CNI.
But, in the light of increasingly sophisticated cyber threats, there are plans to improve information sharing about these threats and mitigation techniques, says Richard Nethercott, head of Logica’s global security practice and member of the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure’s (CPNI) risk …

Two telecoms firms, TalkTalk and Tiscali, have repaid nearly £2.5m to customers who were billed for services that had been cancelled.
The regulator Ofcom received more than 1,000 complaints but estimated some 62,000 could have been affected.
The customers had typically complained about aggressive demands for the payment of bills they did not owe.
TalkTalk blamed a new billing system introduced after it bought Tiscali in June 2009.
“We are pleased that Ofcom has recognised the significant steps we have taken to fix the billing issues,” a TalkTalk spokeswoman said.
Compensation
Ofcom said that the two …

Customers at South East Water will begin to see the company’s phone numbers change, with new ‘03’ numbers replacing the current numbers which begin ‘08’.
The Company’s new 03 numbers will begin phasing out old 0800 and 0845 numbers over the next 18 months.
Stewart Pattinson, Head of Customer Services, said: “This phone number change will help us improve our service to customers.
“We are seeing increasing numbers of our customers calling us from a mobile phone. With the old 08 numbers they could not use their free minutes or call packages to …

In 2008, Cable & Wireless announced a £100m deal with Tesco involving installation of a private GSM mobile network in Tesco stores and distribution centres across the UK. C&W’s FMC solution converges fixed line, mobile and data traffic over one IP network, offering free calls within the Tesco estate. When outside the range of the store’s picocell, the mobile terminal is able to roam seamlessly onto O2′s national network. A further 1,000 stores are to be rolled out by July of this year. This is the first new GSM mobile …

It is impossible to say whether the national communications regulator, Ofcom, delivers value for money, say MPs.
A public spending watchdog found that Ofcom said what it planned to do each year, but not what it aimed to achieve, nor how it would measure success. “This makes it impossible to assess whether Ofcom is delivering value for money,” the MPs said.
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) found Ofcom’s staff bill of £62m (against total operating expenses of £122m) had risen 34% despite headcount dropping 19% since 2002/3. The average salary at the …

Feb. 15 (Bloomberg) — Owners of European cable companies haven’t had it this good for years.
Marred before by debt and losses, European cable operators, many of whose executives will gather today at Cable Congress in Lucerne, Switzerland, face an industry set to grow more than 30 percent by 2014 from about 19 billion euros ($25.6 billion) now. That may spur owners to sell part or all of their holdings or ride the growth of digitization of European homes, which is ringing in profits for operators with high-speed technologies.
“This year will …

Cuba has welcomed the arrival of an undersea fibre-optic cable linking it to Venezuela as a blow to the US economic embargo.
The cable will transform communications in Cuba, which has among the slowest internet speeds in the world.
The new connection will make download speeds 3,000 times faster – at least for the small minority of Cubans who have internet access.
It should also make international phone calls much cheaper.
The 1,600km (1,000 mile) cable from Venezuela was financed by the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (Alba) – a left-wing …

Google and Twitter have launched a service which circumvents the ban on net services in Egypt.
The so-called speak-to-tweet system allows people caught up in the unrest to post messages without any need to use an internet connection.
The service, which is already live, allows people to dial an international telephone number and leave a voicemail message.
The message is then sent out as a tweet with the hashtag #egypt.
People can listen to messages by dialling the same phone numbers (+16504194196 , +390662207294, +97316199855) or going to a special Twitter page.
Last ISP
Google said …

David Cameron’s communications chief Andy Coulson has resigned after mounting pressure over whether he was aware of phone-hacking when he was the editor of the News of the World.
Mr Coulson announced he would leave his job with the Prime Minister within weeks.
He said continued coverage of events connected to his tenure at the newspaper made it difficult for him to “give 110%” to his role at Downing Street.
Mr Coulson, 43, has always denied any knowledge of phone-hacking activities at the paper but the issue dogged him throughout his time in …

In recent years phone books haven’t made as much of a thud on doorsteps. In fact, they seem quite small. Are these once hefty books getting thinner?
Phone books have long been used as more than just a tool for finding people. They’ve served as doorstops, booster seats and packaging filler.
Ripping the thick books in half used to be a classic trial for a strongman.
But, this year, more than 27 million people across the UK may notice that the books appear to be thinner. Why?
Each phone book now covers smaller geographic …