The mobile provider, Vodafone, has settled its differences with the retailer, The Carphone Warehouse, after its decision in 2006 to switch to the other High Street retailer, Phones4U, in an exclusive deal for Phones4U to offer Vodafone phone contracts.

However, it may be a sign of these difficult times in the retail sector that Vodafone has decided to make up with The Carphone Warehouse in an attempt to secure more business in the UK market.

The Carphone Warehouse did continue to sell pay as you go phone and also upgrades for Vodafone, but as from Tuesday, all of the eight hundred or so stores will be selling Vodafone contract phones and mobile broadband services.

At the same time, Vodafone has continued with its agreement with Phones4U to sell Vodafone contract and pay as you go phones.

This virtually doubles the retail outlets where Vodafone products can be found.

Some industry experts are complaining about the “Broadband Tax” proposed by the government as a way to beef up the UK’s broadband network and help to meet the ‘broadband for all pledge’ of a minimum of 2 Mbps for all households.

BT is saying that the 50p per month levy on all landlines is simply not going to be enough to raise enough cash in order for fibre to be rolled out around the country.

According to the Digital Britain report published by the communications minister Lord Carter, the 50p per landline tax should generate around £1.5 billion.

This is enough to enable the so called final third of the UK to receive a fibre broadband connection.

BT estimates that this money will only provide a fibre connection to around 80% to 85% of the country.

The EU will be working on a strategy for high speed broadband, as a state of the art broadband network will play a crucial role in the economic recovery of Europe, according to the EU communications commissioner, Viviane Reding.

It is believed that the deployment of these fibre broadband networks could increase the amount of civil works projects and therefore could trigger an increase in employment in these areas.

Once parts of the network are completed this will then make business broadband services faster, increasing productivity and making the business more competitive, and therefore secure the future of that business.

However, according to the network provider NetServices, the proposals contained within the Digital Britain report will not give much advantage to businesses.

It seems that although the next gen broadband will roll out slowly, governments and leaders would do better by consulting with the end user.

Next week will see the start of BT’s fibre based broadband trials.

These will take place in Muswell Hill, London and Whitchurch in Wales.

Around thirty thousand homes will be connected to over a hundred street cabinets that have been fitted with the latest fibre to the cabinet (FTTC) technology.

This service is boasting a top speed of up to 40 Mbps, but speed depends on how far the homes are from the cabinet and the average speed is likely to be around 15 Mbps.

This technology was trialled not far from the BT research centre in Ipswich, but the test in Foxhall was on a much smaller scale.

Consumers are concerned that the BT rollout is way behind that of rival fibre broadband provider Virgin Media, but according to BT, it only expects the take up of fibre broadband services to be around 20% to 25%.

The internet service provider O2 has launched a new service for its broadband customers called “O2 Tech Support”.

This is a service designed to rival similar services like the “Geek Squad” and the “Tech Guys”.

Customers will be able to get a wide range of technical help from experts, which is supposed to take the stress out of technical issues that occur in the home and in businesses too.

Most technical issues are covered, including broadband, computers, software and installations of such services.

The O2 Tech Support service in available at o2.co.uk and, as with the rivals in this field, it is a chargeable service.

The O2 Tech Support service comes as a minimum three month term from £7.34 per month, or on a “Pay as You Use” basis from £14.69, with which O2 offers a “No Fix - No Fee” promise.

Anyone signing up for the O2 broadband service this month will be in line for a bonus, as the internet service provider will be giving all new customers two months free broadband.

This offer is open until the end of the month and includes all of the O2 broadband packages including, Standard, Premium, Pro and also the Access Package.

All of these deals are on a 12 month long contract.

According to the company, new customers can save between £12.23 and £22.02 per month, meaning that those users on the higher end package could find themselves saving a huge £44 on the total cost of their broadband.

Last month O2 ran a deal on mobile broadband, but that one only lasted a short while.

Speedy consumers could have got their hands on a USB dongle E160 for just £14.97, but only if they were quick.

The History Channel UK is changing its name to AETN UK from immediate effect.

The channel is a joint venture between the UK satellite broadcaster British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) and the US cable broadcaster A & E Television Networks (AETN).

The change was announced at a press meeting, when the new name was revealed for the first time.

According to the company, the new name and branding reflects the growth of AETN UK’s channels and helps to keep the corporate identity intact.

The group has grown from one channel back in 1995 to the current seven channels.

These are also expanding into other regions of Europe, with the History, Bio, CI and Military History brands launching throughout Northern Europe, Central Europe, Africa, Greece and the Middle East.

Solaris Mobile, along with its shareholders Eutelsat Communications and SES Astra, has announced that following an investigation into its S band payload, it has been found that there are some significant issues over non-compliance with its original specifications.

Solaris Mobile is convinced that these issues offer enough grounds for the firm to claim for the full insured value of the payload and to that effect the insurance claim has already been filed.

The technical issues are bad enough to allow the company to seek compensation, but having done so it will be able to use certain elements of the payload, such as TV services through Ku Band.

However, the issues mean that it is able to provide some but not all of the planned services and thus will still comply with the commitment made to the EU according to the European Selection and Authorisation Process (ESAP).

UK TV viewers will be getting 3D TV in their homes within two years, according to Claudio Aspesi from industry analysts Sanford Bernstein.

This means that by 2011 the early stages of proper 3D TV could be being fed by satellite into the homes of UK viewers.

This will be slow at first, but as with the introduction of HD TV, once it gets a hold there will be no stopping it.

3D is already being pushed out by filmmakers with James Cameron’s 3D film “Avatar” coming out in 2010.

This is the one that people are waiting for, and if the response is good, and there is no reason why it should not be, then this will open up the floodgates for 3D TV.

MPs from the Commons Business and Enterprise Committee are going to open up an inquiry into the UK’s broadband speeds.

This is the MPs’ idea of following up the recently published Digital Britain report produced by the communications minister.

There is a lot in the report to cover and there are some issues being raised by consumer groups, industry experts and from the industry itself.

These include the broadband tax on phone lines, the minimum 2 Mbps broadband service for all homes and if the report can survive a change of government.

The committee has asked for evidence to be supplied in writing from interested parties.

This will have to be with the committee by the 25th September to be considered by the MPs.

They will be publishing a report shortly after that date.