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EE’s 4G Cup Final trial helps keep the football flowing

EE TRIALLED its new 4G Broadcast at this year’s FA cup final to give a select group of football fans a
unique view of the match.
Half a billion people watched the 2015 FA Cup Final from around the globe. But this year a select 20 guests inside the stadium saw the game differently on their tablets.
Using a custom built app and 4G-powered mobile broadcasting for HD viewing they were able to watch the game from whichever camera they liked and choose when to view action replays.

Watching the best football action
It’s not just the massive worldwide audience that broadcasters have to cater for. There are almost 90,000 spectators inside the arena too. With that many people watching on devices in a confined area there can be congestion, and video content can buffer.
EE consider themselves to be pioneers of both 4G broadband and television technology. So it’s no surprise that EE used Wembley Stadium as a test for 4G Broadcast.
Instead of unicast streams being transmitted to different users individually, content is made available to everyone in a given area. That means the number of people connecting to it won’t interfere with the quality or speed of the viewing.
At the Wembley trial, viewers could switch between camera angles and between live footage and replays at any time (although during their 4-0 defeat Aston Villa fans were probably not enamoured with an action replay option).
There’s not even been a price set for it yet. But 4G Broadcast has obvious advantages over traditional streaming in places where there’s a crowd, from busy train stations to pop venues to sporting fixtures.

Available soon at a shop near you
At the moment 4G Broadcast is only on trial and not available to the general public.
And although some of the latest handsets already include the necessary hardware to decode signals, firmware and software must still be loaded first.
However in the not too distant future, devices will no doubt be mass produced with everything viewers need to enjoy 4G Broadcast pre-installed.
Although EE ran the trial, they had to collaborate with other tech companies such as Qualcomm, Huawei, EVS and Intellicore to bring the live feeds and action replays to their network.
It’s not the first time EE have worked with these partners. They demonstrated 4G in collaboration with BBC Research & Development, Huawei and Qualcomm at the public Commonwealth Games Showcase in the Glasgow Science Centre.
The demonstration here showed off something called a 4G Congestion Meter, which enables people to see how congestion affects the mobile network in real-time.

Different match, different network, same experiment
EE aren’t the only mobile network to explore the exciting potential of 4G Technology in a crowded football arena.
Vodafone Spain and Valencia CF joined forces to offer spectators five simultaneous channels of HD content when the Mestalla Stadium played host to Celta de Vigo.
Similarly to the Wembley EE experience, Vodafone delivered exclusive video content using its 4G Broadband network infrastructure in the stadium to a select group of fans on their mobiles.
Olaf Swantee, CEO at EE says it won’t just be mass live music and sporting events where viewers will enjoy an enhanced 4G Broadcast experience. He predicts, for example, that in the near future it will make live television available to mobile audiences in a way that “we have never seen before.”
The prediction is that 4G Broadband will soon be available to all. It’s not easy to give a precise time. But with the massive resources being invested into mobile technology the world may not have too long to wait.

What next?
The answer is blindingly obvious and simultaneously bewildering.
5G.
Because even as 4G Broadcast is being made ready to launch companies across the globe are investing into the next generation of mobile phone.
It will run up to 100 times faster than 4G, and connect inanimate devices to its network. So it could enable amazing things to happen, like a fridge ordering another bottle of milk before it runs out, or a train directing commuters to empty seats.
Ericsson, Samsung and Huawei are already working to launch a trial around 2018.
And it will revolutionise and improve mobile technology like never before.
Until, that is, 6G launches sometime around 2040.

Inflexible insurers can’t provide flexible pensions
PROHIBITIVE administration costs have led to a major insurer reversing its decision to provide flexible drawdown pensions.

The Government may have reformed pensions, allowing people to access them like a bank account, but what use is that if the finance industry won’t play game?
Friends Life, part of Aviva, has made a u-turn, to the dismay of their customers; advising investors their pension options are limited and do not include flexible drawdown.
Originally customers had been told they would be able to take money from their funds as often as they needed if they were 55 or older.
But as reported by the Telegraph, Friends Life have said their pension books are of such a “complex nature” it would require “a lot of manual and time consuming work” for them to adapt them to options like flexible drawdown.

Friends Life options
Customers of Friends Life who had been expecting more choice as a result of the Government’s pension freedoms, now have limited options.
While the Government’s reforms had promised those nearing retirement the choice to access their pension funds more flexibly, Friends Life customers are now limited to:

• Cashing in their entire pension but being exposed to tax liabilities of up to 40% tax on three-quarters of the fund.
• Swapping their pension pot for a guaranteed lifetime annuity.
• Transferring their pension to a more flexible provider, but being exposed to high fees that could run into the hundreds or even thousands of pounds.

Mike Wade, a Friends Life customer on the cusp of retirement, is quite aggrieved. “When I read about the u-turn in the paper it made me quite angry as I had transferred tens of thousands of pounds into my Friends Life pension the previous week.
“Now it looks like I am going to have to pay penalty fees for uplifting the whole fund and moving it somewhere that will allow me to take advantage of the flexibility the government had intended me to have.”

Could, but won’t
Although George Osborne promised the “biggest and most exciting change” to the pensions system in a century, companies are under no legal obligation to offer people flexible access to their pension.
But however annoyed customers may be that their retirement plans have been frustrated the insurers are completely within their legal rights. They aren’t obliged to offer the new flexible pension options.
It’s clear at the moment that the degree of benefit from the changes customers experience depends on their choice of insurer.
For example, Aegon, Scottish Widows, Standard Life and Phoenix have promised that they will allow over-55s to dip into their pensions as and when they like, taking their 25% tax-free lump sum too.
But both Legal & General and LV= have not been so flexible, and refused customers “bank account style” access to their pensions.
Worryingly, even if an insurer has already inferred that they will provide customers with flexible pension options there is no guarantee they will.
For example, the Telegraph discovered Friends Life had initially told customers applications to make partial withdrawals had only been delayed. It wasn’t until two months later that it was revealed they weren’t offering a flexible drawdown option.
Another concern is whether Friends Life will set a precedent for other pensions providers to follow suit.

Start of a landslide?
If more pensions providers decide not to offer all the options available under the reforms, not only would that impact on individual savers, but there could also be a negative impact on other financial companies.
For example, many people have already put down deposits on buy-to-let properties in anticipation they’ll be able to fund the purchase with their pension.
But if they’re denied access to their money, not only will they lose out, but so will estate agents and property companies.
Buy-to-let broker Landlord Mortgages said an industry wide U-turn would affect the future of some financial service companies.
Tim McPhail, head of pensions research at independent financial adviser Hargreaves Lansdown, went further, estimating the cost of the u-turn “at several hundred millions in wasted effort” and saying it could even undermine people’s confidence in pensions.
But Friends Life may yet reverse their decision.
A spokesperson from the company has already told the Telegraph, “we apologise to those customers who wish to partially withdraw their savings through the new pension freedoms as we are not offering this service at the moment. We are planning to offer partial withdrawals in due course”.

Same energy, different brand. But what’s the best price?
CUSTOMERS need to be told who’s offering the best energy deals, Ofgem says.
The energy regulator is bringing in rules to make it easier for people to find out the lowest
prices.
From September, suppliers will have to inform customers of their cheapest tariff, whichever brand names their energy is sold under.
Ofgem are also trying to encourage more companies to sell energy under their own brand by giving them the flexibility to set their own tariffs – so not only will customers find energy prices clearer, they will find them lower too.

Make it clear
Ofgem has told suppliers who sell their energy on to other companies, also known as “white labels”, that they must make it clearer to customers who provides the best prices.
Current arrangements between suppliers and resellers often don’t aid price transparency. For example, not only does British Gas supply the energy that Sainsbury’s Energy sells to its customers, it even provides the call centres and sales teams for Sainsbury’s.
Yet the tariffs of the two companies are somewhat different. Sainsbury’s Energy’s cheapest deal saves customers more than £60 a year than the best on offer from British Gas.
It’s a similar story with SSE and M&S Energy.
SSE’s cheapest deal costs an average of £1,115 a year. But the supplier is under no obligation to tell them they could do better by switching to M&S Energy, paying an average of £1,079 a year.
Yet it’s the same energy from the same source. M&S Energy simply re-package and supply SSE’s product.

At a glance price checks
When the rules come in, people will be able to see at a glance on their bills and other regular communications from their supplier, if and where they can find a better deal.
From September suppliers will have to include two messages on bills showing people how they can save money, based on their current personal use of energy.
One explains how much they could save if they switched to a similar tariff supplied by their current supplier.
That means they would be comparing costs with the same sort of service, with a similar contract (fixed or variable prices) and the same online or offline account management.
The second message won’t compare like with like. Instead it will point out where savings could be made by switching to the supplier’s cheapest tariff regardless of the nature of the contract, and regardless of the brand the same energy is being sold under.

Encouraging competition
Not only do Ofgem want to make it simpler for customers to see if there’s a better deal to be had, they also want there to be more genuine choice.
So under Ofgem’s new rules white labels will have the same flexibility to set prices or offer bundles as the energy supplier. Each will be able to set their own four tariffs, distinct from their partner suppliers.
The intention is to make it easier for new companies to enter the energy market, and for this extra competition to help bring down prices.
Rachel Fletcher, Ofgem senior partner, is an enthusiast of selling energy through white label brands. She says it has “potential” to increase choice and encourage customers to shop around using well-known brands.
But she adds that it’s important people have the “complete picture” about all their potential supplier’s tariffs.
Understandably some of the existing energy suppliers aren’t happy.
They’ve already been obliged by the authorities to make their pricing less complicated.
British Gas, for example, claimed this new ruling wasn’t appropriate because products and services “would not be comparable”; SSE want to keep the existing brand-specific pricing because it “reduces the risk of customer confusion”.

The pros and cons of selling on services
Ofgem recognises that white labels bring value to the energy market with genuine benefits for customers.
That’s because the differences between them and the companies they buy their energy from aren’t purely cosmetic.
As well as lower prices the white label company may provide a prompter reaction to service calls, for example. Or they may promote unique discounts or special offers such as shopping vouchers.
People might feel more reassured when they buy from a name they already know and trust too, like Sainsbury’s or M&S.
By catering for the different needs of particular customers, these companies provide people with more choice. If they perform particularly well in a specific area, they may spur the entire industry to do better.
For example, research by Which? in November 2013 on telephone response times revealed British Gas and SSE performed significantly worse than Sainsbury’s Energy and M&S Energy. But their performance more than matched them in October 2014.
And yet there are few price advantages in different companies selling the same energy.
Suppliers and secondary companies tend to collude on the price of their tariffs. So M&S and Sainsbury’s didn’t choose the prices they would charge on a whim. They agreed them together with British Gas and SSE respectively.
That means there just isn’t the same pressure to lower prices that an independent supplier might bring.
If the advantage of energy suppliers selling on their services is purely about providing more choice, the drawback is that it also brings more confusion.
Ofgem’s ruling won’t completely remove that confusion, but come September, customers will be able to tell at a glance – at their fuel bill or the supplier’s website – whether they can get the same energy for a better price.
Whether to change company or not is up to them.

Ofcom brings broadband providers up to speed
BROADBAND customers will be allowed to cancel their contracts at any time if their broadband speed is slower than promised under new rules.
At present, customers have to continue to put up with poor speeds once they’re beyond the first three months of their contract, or pay what could be a high fee to move to another provider.
Now a strengthened version of Ofcom’s Code of Practice on broadband speeds, coming into effect in October this year, will allow customers to exit their contract at any time without penalty.

Quickly does it
For many people, ISPs become associated with two broadband speeds: the one they promise to provide, and the one their users actually get.
Now the industry regulator Ofcom has ruled that they must be the same.
And they’ve given people new rights to be released from their contract if their provider doesn’t deliver the broadband speed they estimated at the time of sign up.
Problems with broadband speeds can be caused either by the provider or issues within a user’s own home.
For example, a device might be set up incorrectly, wiring in the home could be damaged, the outside line connection damaged, or the provider’s traffic management system could be operating inefficiently.
So the provider must have an opportunity to resolve an issue before a customer can sever their contract.
The new ruling is line with the Government’s aim of making UK broadband quicker – they want 90% of UK households to have “superfast broadband” by the end of the year.
That may still be an ambitious target. Currently only one in three UK households receives speeds that fast even though the average UK broadband speed is now 22.8Mb, up from 18.7Mb in May 2014 – at 4.1Mb, the largest absolute rise in broadband speeds Ofcom has recorded.

How slow can it go?
As well as pushing for faster, more reliable, speeds the new Code insists people must be better informed before they buy.
Providers are already obliged to provide customers with estimated line speeds before they buy. Salesmen are trained to explain exactly what customers will require to get those speeds. They even advise people if there are limits on the service to be provided and how performance may suffer.
However, at present, they normally advertise broadband at the headline speed. Under the new ruling they’ll also have to display the minimum guaranteed access line speed (MGALS) too.
This is the speed for the bottom 10% of users on a similar service: for example, if there are 1,000 homes receiving broadband in a given area it’s the 900th fastest that sets the MGALS.
Somewhat unambitiously, it’s this speed that will be the benchmark: only if a customer’s connection falls below that, and the provider cannot resolve it, will the customer be entitled to pack up and move providers without penalty.

Ofcom’s six month review of contracts
Ofcom has simultaneously launched a six-month monitoring and assessment programme to address communication providers that make it hard for customers to cancel or switch.
Unfair cancellation and termination arrangements are a perennial problem that has required frequent Ofcom interference over recent years.
ISPs have been accused of creating obstacles for customers who want to exit their contracts without fuss. These include difficulties in securing the Portability Access Code (PAC) that people need to move to a new provider and long call waiting times when phoning up to try to cancel.
The problems are so widespread and complaints so numerous that Ofcom accuses providers of “systematically making it difficult” for customers to exit their contract.
Recent history makes it hard to predict what steps Ofcom will take next.
They have attempted to address fixed term telecoms contracts and problems with contracts that are automatically renewed before, and the regulators have also been criticised themselves for not doing enough by the Government before.
Changes are being introduced to make it easier for customers to switch too.
For those switching from one Openreach-reliant provider to another – anyone but Virgin, essentially – a single simple migration system is replacing the three currently in place.
All people will need to do to switch is give their new provider their existing telephone number and postcode. The rest of the details will be sorted out between the providers, old and new.
And ISPs won’t be allowed to obstruct the process, or offer customers special offers or discounts when they want to switch.

Voluntary code of practice
Ofcom Codes of Practice are only voluntary and providers have a track record of sometimes failing to observe them.
New Ofcom chief executive Sharon White puts the delivery of first class communications firmly in the hands of the providers and says it’s their “responsibility”. Customers will be hoping that the ISPs agree.
However only time will tell if the communications industry will raise its levels sufficiently to meet Ofcom’s preferred standards.