In continental Europe ‘public/private partnerships’ rolling out very high speed broadband (VHSB) access networks to consumers are the latest rage, with local governments pushing their own subsidy initiatives and seeking to secure cover from European Commission rules on state aid. These initiatives raise basic questions about the future of the telecommunications industry, including whether the supply of network infrastructure will be led by demand for applications or by the will of politicians, subsidies at hand

H3G has removed roaming charges for customers roaming onto its own overseas networks. While reducing roaming prices can be partially, or even fully, compensated for by elasticity effects, removing them altogether has far more limited direct compensations, especially when consumers are on bundle tariffs

Marks & Spencer’s plan to make itself the world’s most 'sustainable' retailer is an extremely ambitious proposal to make the company carbon neutral, reduce its own landfill waste to zero, and change its supply chain to improve its position as an ethical retailer

Carphone Warehouse’s core distribution business was firm, showing no signs of being harmed by Vodafone withdrawing its new contract business in the UK

Apple has introduced its long-awaited iPhone, with sleek looks and a host of innovative touches, to be launched in the US exclusively with Cingular in June and Europe by the end of 2007

BT has gone further than expected in setting a “medium term” goal of 2-3 million customers for BT Vision, remaining vague on when it will be achieved. Giving away the PVR and a cheap self-install option, due later in 2007, are essential to achieve this target

Radio groups implement further cutbacks and increased centralisation to combat shrinking audiences and revenues

In our view, commercial radio requires more than a marketing plan and cost cutbacks – a renaissance of creativity and inward investment are needed for radio to compete more effectively with the increasing diversity of personalised audio content available online

Television advertising revenues fell by nearly 7% and radio advertising by more than 4% in 2006 according to latest market estimates. We expect declines of around 4% for both media in 2007