Technical phrases like ‘Signal to Noise Ratio’ and ‘Non-Line of Sight (NLOS)’ have very specific definitions.   But sooner or later these technical terms turn up in common parlance to mean something quite different.  Good listeners are said to have multiple antenna systems.  NLOS was spotted recently describing someone with unconventional ideas; thinking around an issue rather than along straight lines. 

No-one could accuse Ofcom of straight-line thinking.   Having gone along with the DTI to oppose, or at least delay, the European Commission’s determination to force through lower mobile call charges, Ofcom ‘welcomed’ the latest regulation that brings down the cost of using your mobile from abroad by perhaps 50%.   Ofcom declared that ‘this decision by European policy makers would be a good thing for all UK consumers’. 

In a week when it was all change at the top of government it was indeed encouraging that Ofcom should both welcome European regulation and highlight their primary purpose in life; looking after the interest of consumers, which, in Ofcom-speak, includes both citizens and businesses. 

Families will not, however, notice any benefit during this year’s holiday season.  The new rules don’t apply until ‘back-to-school’ week in September.  Even then the good news for travellers may not be blindingly obvious.   You’ll now only be paying 38 pence per minute to call home from abroad and be charged 19 pence per minute just to receive a call.  Businesses may still regard high charges as a tax on enterprise mobility but mobile operators will be really suffering.  They’ll have to learn to get by with profit margins down to a mere 300%. 

Emboldened by seeing the European Commission regulating to curb excesses (including a fine imposed on Telefonica for wholesale market abuse) MEP’s have turned their spotlight on the dismal patchwork of broadband coverage in Europe’s more-rural areas.   In line perhaps with green policies, their spotlight has a low-energy bulb.  The MEP’s seem unable to be quite so bold as the Swiss government’s declaration of a Universal Access Obligation for broadband.   Nor can they do much about State Aid rules; these require evidence of significant market failure before remedial catch-up investment is allowed from the public purse.   And, of course, they  shouldn’t go picking winners but remain strictly technology neutral regardless of international pressures from manufacturers for global harmonisation. 

With many national regulators most certainly not welcoming the interference, the best that our MEP’s could come up with is a plea to nations to understand the importance of broadband for health-care and education.  They point out that it is precisely in under-served regional areas that the broadband infrastructure is of maximum public value for societal development.

The UK’s new government re-branding of the DTI as Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, and an entirely new Department for Innovation (and other Useful Stuff) might provide opportunity for change.  Despite the best efforts of our multiple antennas, the Signal to Noise Ratio still seems far too low.   Meanwhile the gap between vision and reality, between consumer expectations and any real top-down interest in meeting them, remains subject to strictly enforced rules on Interference Mitigation. 

If we are going to do different things (like proper broadband) we’ll have to do things differently.  The MEP’s views might encourage Local Authorities to find just enough wriggle room to build out public network infrastructure based on the underlying needs of society.  Keep bouncing these ideas around and one day it may be described as a common-sense approach that exploits multipath and political spectrum efficiency to achieve a NLOS outcome.

This article was first publised in the July/August edition of NetworkingPlus magazine.