Here is what our companies are doing to make staying in touch more sustainable:
World-wide communications
The internet and mobile telecommunications have contributed to the creation of a connected world where people can communicate with one another from opposite ends of the earth. Virgin Media, based in the UK, is making its contribution to the development of an interconnected, digital world through the provision of broadband, TV, phone and mobile services.
Virgin Mobile has a wide presence around the world operating out of Australia, Canada, France, India, South Africa, UK and the US, and these operations provide mobile services to 13.2 million customers worldwide. In this way Virgin Mobile has played its part in providing some of the 3.3 billion mobile accounts which were active across the globe at the end of 2007 and which is set to increase to 4.8 billion by 20204
.
Combating problematic online behaviour
The internet provides quick and easy access to an infinite array of online services and entertainment but its ‘unmanaged’ status has also made it a versatile and powerful medium for illegal behaviour. Virgin Media routinely removes or blocks access to any website brought to its attention as containing potentially illegal material, such as images of child abuse or incitement to racial hatred. It also works routinely with the police, law enforcement agencies and other legally-recognised bodies to support investigations into online criminal activity on its network.
4. International Telecommunications Union (www.itu.int) 5.
Internet Watch Foundation - IWF (www.iwf.org.uk)
6. Child Exploitation and Online Protection Agency - CEOP (www.ceop.gov.uk) 7. Now standard across all of its current cable products. 8. UK Council for Child Internet Safety - UKCCIS (www.dcsf.gov.uk/ukccis/)
Virgin Media was one of the founder members of the Internet Watch Foundation5
, which identifies and enables
it to remove or block access to websites containing illegal images of child exploitation. Virgin Media also works closely with the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Agency6
, providing the information needed to conduct investigations free of charge.
Some policy makers and interest groups are going further by calling on ISPs to take action against sites that, while not strictly illegal, feature content that is ‘harmful’ to children such as graphic violence. Virgin Media has a PCguard Total service7
which includes Anti-Spyware,
Identity Theft Protection and Parental Controls to help parents protect their families. It is also a member of the newly created UK Council for Child Internet Safety8
where
it aims to be active in discussions around the responsibility of ISPs to take further action.
The growth of sophisticated file sharing applications represents a significant threat to creative industries, particularly those relating to music and film. Virgin Media has been a progressive voice in this debate, working collaboratively with rights holders, their representative bodies, other ISPs and policy-makers.
Virgin Media doesn’t see heavy-handed legislation as a solution. Instead it wants a simple, pragmatic legislative framework for implementation, enforcement and cost sharing that provides certainty to ISPs and their customers and promotes the availability of content online.
Ultimately, Virgin Media believes the answer lies in providing consumers with offers that provide rational and affordable alternatives to unlawful file sharing and reflects its customers’ desire for on demand content in flexible formats. That’s why it recently announced a new partnership with Universal Music to provide a ground- breaking new unlimited MP3 music download subscription service to its broadband customers.
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Virgin Media has committed to an initial CO2 reduction target of 15% below its 2007/08 baseline by 2015.
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