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Government document reveals Channel 4 might be privatised
The UK government is considering whether to privatise Channel 4, just one month after the culture secretary John Whittingdale promised it wasn't. Photographer Steve Back snapped a document being taken into Downing Street, which is clearly legible and confirms the controversial discussions. Addressed to two unspecified secretaries of state, it reads: "Work should proceed (to) examine the options for extracting greater public value from the Channel 4 Corporation (C4C), focusing on privatisation options in particular."
Thanks Gov: free WiFi to be installed in 1,000 public places across the UK
If you're anything like us, free WiFi is essential to your enjoyment of basically every situation. Luckily, providers like The Cloud, O2 and BT, as well as independent hotspots, have you covered most of the time. Plenty of dead zones still exist, though, but the government is aiming to patch a few of these by installing 1,000 hotspots in public buildings across the UK by March 2015. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has announced that museums, galleries, libraries, sports venues, transport hubs, civic centres and other public places will benefit from the roll-out, with some hotspots already up and running. The project is part of the government's "SuperConnected Cities" investment programme, but not all participating cities are on the shortlist to receive free WiFi. Still, there are already plenty of reasons to visit Newport as is.
UK government and industry heavyweights set up 5G Innovation Centre, want to go one better
The UK is almost ready to flip the switch on its first LTE network, but it's determined to be at the forefront of the next-generation, setting up a "5G Innovation Centre" at the University of Surrey. The government announced it's putting up £11.6 million (around $18.6 million) in funding, but another £24 million (around $38.5 million) will be coming from an industry group comprising the likes of Huawei, Samsung, Telefonica, Rohde & Schwarz, Fujitsu and others. The money will allow research to go beyond concept and theory, with the aim that all partners work together to develop and standardize 5G technology, which the university has been looking into for a number of years already. They will focus on energy and spectrum efficiency as well as speed, and although it's early days, 10Gbps has been banded around as a per-tower target, translating to roughly 200Mbps for each connection. Unfortunately, we've also got a number to kill your geek buzz -- it's upwards of a decade away. Still, at least you've got a long time to think about which case you'll be picking up for your 5G-ready Galaxy S XV.
UK planning second snooping bill, proxy servers to sell out shortly
The UK Government revealed on April Fools' Day that it's planning to offer law enforcement agencies unprecedented access to private communications. British Cellphone operators and ISPs will be required to harvest packet data -- containing the parties to all calls, emails and social media communication, as well as the time and duration of each message. The proposals will be officially unveiled on May 9th, as part of the Queen's Speech, despite a similar bill being opposed by the current administration whilst it was in opposition. It has already drawn bitter criticism from backbench members of the Government, civil liberties advocates and privacy experts, who believe the move is fundamentally flawed. It's currently timetabled to be added to the statute books by 2013, unless, you know, common sense gets in the way.
