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From: Jayne Cole CEO
Sent: Friday, April 28, 2017 4:10 PM
To: Jayne Cole CEO
Subject: The Digital Economy Act 2017
Dear Colleagues
The Digital Economy Bill has received Royal Assent 27/04/17
The Act will be of interest everyone as it includes the legal right to a fast broadband connection. We are aware that many of our Councils/Clerks/Councillors and their residents connections are limping along. This is regardless of the millions invested in infrastructure across the region.
I am sure we all welcome regulations that also hold providers to account. With automatic compensation when you are left without a connection and if this is not fixed in a timely way.
Below is an overview of the new provisions and at the end is a link to the Act:
The Act includes includes provisions which will:
give every household a legal right to request a fast broadband connection
give consumers and businesses better information about communication services, easier switching and automatic compensation if things go wrong
cut the costs for new infrastructure and simplify planning rules
enable stronger enforcement of direct marketing laws
create civil penalties for online pornographers who do not verify the age of their customers, and ISP level blocking of non-compliant sites, and;
help protect consumers from “bill shock” by requiring mobile network operators to offer a bill capping facility
During the passage of the Bill through Parliament, a series of useful provisions have been added, including;
powers to ensure that the Crown guarantee of BT pensions has the necessary flexibility to allow BT and Openreach to be separated
powers to tackle the problem of “bots” in the online secondary ticketing market,
an extension of the public lending right to cover e-books, and;
provision to ensure that on-demand television is accessible to people with disabilities.
http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2016-17/digitaleconomy.html
Very best wishes
Jayne
Jayne Cole
Chief Executive Officer
Local Council Public Advisory Service
6 Aragon Court
Clare
Suffolk
CO10 8FA
Tel: 01787 829576
TMob: 07443009607
