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Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Sky - half price installation & £10 online credit
September is a great time to sign-up with Sky Broadband. From 17th - 30th September and for any Sky package taken out (not just broadband), installation is half-price (£15) and new customers will recieve a £10 credit when signing up online.
The Sky Broadband network is now available to 70% of the UK, bringing significant savings to those wishing to bundle their Sky TV with telephone and broadband. Sky Broadband offers speeds of up to 16Mb and when bundled, offers an effective broadband price of between Free and £10 per month, along with a free wireless modem (worth £50) and a years subscription to McAfee Internet Security.
Sky BroadbandLabels: general-broadband-news, sky-broadband
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
New Orange broadband services launched
Orange have today launched three new broadband deals - Home Max (£24), Home Select (£20) and Home Starter (£12). Home Max and Home Select are unlimited 8Mb wireless broadband deals featuring the Orange Livebox wireless modem, along with a second line for voip telephone calls. The extra £4 cost of Home Max gives inclusive telephone line rental and inclusive evening and weekend UK calls.
Priced at just £12 per month, Orange broadband Home Starter offers download speeds of 2Mb with a monthly download linmit of 6Gb. This broadband deal also includes evening and weekend UK landline calls.
Further information:
Orange BroadbandLabels: general-broadband-news, orange-broadband, wireless-broadband
Monday, September 10, 2007
AOL Broadband giving away 160,000 free laptops
AOL Broadband has recently announced an exciting Free Laptop Offer, where 160,000 Dell Laptop PC's will be given Free to 160,000 subscribers to AOL Wireless Broadband plus. Whilst this offer is limited to 160,000, AOL reported that 50,000 people registered for a free laptop before the official launch date at the beginning of September.
Whats included?
- Free Dell laptop (Intel Celeron 540 processor), 1GB memory, 80GB hard disk
- Built in Wi-Fi and Microsoft Vista Home
- Free Netgear Wireless router
- Wireless broadband connection up to 8Mbps
- 40GB download limit
- Free connection / migration
- 24 month contract
- £19.99 a month, subject to taking AOL Talk Pay As You Go subscription
- £10 surcharge for those not connected to an AOL broadband unbundled exchange
- Upgrades to laptop available
- Delivery charge of £14.99 on laptop
- Evenings and Weekends call package raises price to £22.49 a month
- Talk Unlimited gives a total of £24.99.
- Opt out of the compulsory calls bundle for £29.99
The obvious question that many are asking is - what's the catch? It is likely that AOL will cover the costs associated with this offer via telephone call revenue and it has been suggested that Dell are offering some subsidies in return for the anticipated PC upgrade fee's as subscribers opt for improved memory, upgraded processors etc.
AOL Wireless BroadbandLabels: aol-broadband, general-broadband-news, wireless-broadband
Wednesday, September 05, 2007
AOL launches new wireless broadband packages
AOL has recently updated it's broadband offerings, with the removal of the old Platinum and Silver packages in favour of their new Wireless Broadband and Wireless Broadband Plus.
AOL's new wireless broadband packages both offer speeds of up to 8Mb, a free wireless router, free connection and free security, along with inclusive weekend and evening talk options (at no extra cost). Another key change to AOL broadband has been the removal of their unlimited downloads feature in favour of download limits of 10Gb (Wireless) and 40Gb (Wireless plus). Both AOL Wireless and AOL Wireless Plus require customers to sign an 18 month contract.
AOL Wireless is priced at £14.99 per month, although customers who fall outside of AOL's LLU network will need to pay an extra £5 per month. Non AOL LLU customers subscribing to AOL Wireless Plus are required to pay a £10 subsidy.
For further information on the new AOL Wireless Broadband packages:
AOL Wireless BroadbandLabels: aol-broadband, general-broadband-news, wireless-broadband
Monday, September 03, 2007
BT - UK’s most popular supplier of broadband
Following the Epitro survey in July that identified BT as having the UK's best performing ADSL broadband service, it's only natural that today, BT should become the UK's first broadband provider to pass the four million customer mark. This significant milestone further strengthens BT Broadbands claim to being the UK's most popular supplier of broadband.
In June 2002, BT Retail could lay claim to just 172,000 broadband customers and it has taken just five years to accelerate this figure to four million...that's one new broadband customer joining BT every 40 seconds or 2000 new customers each day, with the last one million customers joining BT in the last 10 months alone!
BT Retail chief executive Ian Livingston said: “Four million customers is a great achievement in such a short time. Broadband has proved to be one of the most popular new services ever seen. It is already delivering next generation television, inclusive free phone calls in High Definition sound and great value mobile calls. Broadband can provide so many more services than just Internet surfing and it has become central to many people’s lives and businesses. Customers want to take advantage of the potential of broadband and need a high quality, reliable service – that’s why BT is the UK’s most popular broadband service.”
BT Total BroadbandLabels: bt-broadband, general-broadband-news
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Sky Broadband reaches 70% of UK
British Sky Broadcasting Group PLC's results for the 12 months ended 30th June 2007 reported that the Sky Broadband LLU network (local loop unbundled) now covers 70% of UK households. This coverage was achieved a full six months ahead of plan. At the end of the year the Company recorded 716,000 broadband customers.
Sky BroadbandLabels: general-broadband-news, sky-broadband
Thursday, June 28, 2007
BT Total Broadband offers free digital vault
As more of our lives become digital, so secure and safe digital storage grows in importance so that precious / business critical files and photos cannot be lost at the mercy of unexpected PC hardware failure.
In answer to these growing concerns / needs, BT Total Broadband customers now benefit from an inclusive 5Gb of digital storage and auto backup with all BT Total Broadband products. The auto backup facility is included free of charge for six months with Option 1 and Option 2, whilst with Option 3 the auto backup is a permanent feature.
BT Digital Vault allows BT Total Broadband customers to store all their digital files (movies, music, photographs, files etc) in one secure online digital storage facility, which can thereafter be accessed from any PC.
Emma Sanderson, director of value-added services at BT Retail, said: “Our research has shown that many consumers are not safely storing their precious photos and files, not thinking about it until it is too late and they have lost everything. Now we are making it easy for BT Total Broadband customers to securely store, backup and share their digital valuables in one place online.”
BT Total BroadbandLabels: bt-broadband, general-broadband-news
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Reduce broadband bills with the BT credit card
BT has launched an innovative reward scheme via a unique credit card that offers BT customers an annual discount of up to £75 on their BT telephone / broadband bill. The BT credit card is automatically linked to BT customers telephone / broadband accounts, such that every time the BT credit card is used, a discount is applied at up to 1p per pound spent.
Gavin Patterson, MD of Consumer, BT Retail, said: “The BT Credit Card will be an obvious choice for millions of BT customers. Our research shows that our customers want a competitive credit card which rewards them for everyday spend and gives them automatic discounts on their BT bill for services they regularly use such as the phone and broadband. This is another innovative benefit available to our customers.”Labels: bt-broadband, general-broadband-news
Monday, March 05, 2007
Be Broadband is 127% faster
Be Broadband has announced that it's customers are enjoying broadband speeds that are on avaerage, a staggering 127% than their nearest competitors, with Be Broadband's fastest member recently reporting download speeds of 24.57Mb (results via Thinkbroadband.com).
Graham Wilson of Wishaw, North Lanarkshire was Be's fastest (24.573 meg). Living just 443 metres from his exchange, Graham said: ‘Speeds are phenomenal, from a good download location speeds between 22 and 24 meg are easily obtainable, Pings to gaming servers are low and this helps give me the winning edge over competitors.’
More than 49% of Be members enjoy connection speeds in excess of 12 meg, which is over five times the average UK download speed recorded in the Thinkbroadband.com speed test round-up*. 25% of Be members enjoy speeds of over 16 meg and across the entire membership the average upload speed is 1.125 meg.
‘This means the UK is one of the fastest places in Europe for broadband and demonstrates how advanced the Be network has become.’ said Dana Pressman, Managing Director of Be Unlimited. ‘Since launching in 2005 we have focused on our goal: to provide the best possible broadband products that technology will allow.’
To compare the latest Be Broadband deals & enjoy speeds up to 24Mb:
Be Unlimited BroadbandLabels: be-broadband, general-broadband-news
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
24Mb broadband reaches 33% of UK households
Be Broadband (wholly-owned by 02) has recently unbundled exchange number 500, potentially bringing Be Broadband's innovative and technically-advanced UK broadband networks to 33% of UK households at up to 24Mb!
‘We don’t think of broadband as just something to throw in for free. Proper broadband takes continual innovation and focus,’ said Matthew Key, CEO of O2 UK. ‘We are working at unbundling 200 more exchanges by June and we are already testing new technologies that will enhance the network and our speed.’
Demonstrating this ethos of innovation was Be Broadband's recent launch of 'Annex M', increasing upload speeds to a potential of 2.5Mb for Be business broadband users - this being the fastest upload speed currently available to UK broadband users. Annex M will soon be available to Be home broadband users - another first for the UK.
Be was the first Internet service provider to adopt the ADSL2+ technology. Depending on distance and quality of the copper line from the telephone exchange and other environmental factors ADSL2+ can provide speeds of up to 24 meg – 3 times faster than the fastest speed currently offered by BT and many other large ISPs.
By the summer, Be Broadband is expected to have reached 800 exchanges, thus giving a potential coverage of 50% for potential broadband speeds of 24Mb and with the rest of the population will be covered off via a wholesale deal with BT.
Further Be Broadband information:
Be BroadbandLabels: be-broadband, general-broadband-news
Thursday, February 01, 2007
Top five ADSL broadband providers
Orange has re-entered the top five ADSL broadband providers in the UK,
joining BT broadband, Pipex broadband, Demon broadband and Virgin.net broadband at the top of the table in terms of technical broadband performance.
The fourth quarter Internet Performance Indicator (IPI) Report from Epitiro – the UK’s leading Customer Experience Management (CEM) provider for Internet access services – identifies BT as the best performing broadband provider. BT have held the top position for the last three quarters.
Epitiro’s customer experience monitoring and competitor benchmarking service, monitored the services from the ten largest competing consumer ADSL broadband providers, collecting 622,147 real-time data samples from eleven locations around the UK. This means that from 1st October to 31st December 2006, each broadband service was tested over 60,000 times on average.
“Our testing has shown that in terms of technical performance, BT and Pipex are still maintaining their position in the top five,” said Gavin Johns, Managing Director of Epitiro.
Overall Ranking - Q4 2006
1 - BT broadband
2 - Pipex broadband
3 - Orange broadband
4 - Demon broadband
5 - Virgin broadband
Increasing Speed Through 2006
Epitiro’s research has found that the industry average connection and HTTP download (web browsing) speeds have increased steadily through 2006, with the average consumer ADSL connection speed for the fourth quarter at 5.73 Mbps per second.
“ISPs are increasing their speeds, which is good news for bandwidth-hungry users,” said Epitiro’s Gavin Johns. “Speeds have increased from 3.82 Mbps per second in the third quarter due to new ADSL Max entrants into the ten largest broadband providers. However it’s unlikely that many ADSL Max services will perform at their full capacity of 8Mbps. The speed of broadband service reduces the further the customer’s connection is from their local telephone exchange.”
Individual Category Rankings
Epitiro’s Consumer ADSL IPI Report measures ten performance metrics, averaging performance in each to compile the top five rankings. Plusnet achieved the highest connection speed for the second quarter running. BT offered the fastest HTTP download speed, which normally reflects the speed of general web browsing. BT also provided the fastest FTP downloads from users’ personal webspace. Pipex
provided the fastest FTP upload speed. As well as upload and download connection speeds, ISP-I measures connection reliability and time to connect to ensure the full customer experience is captured.
“A broadband connection isn’t just about speed,” explained Gavin Johns. “The
connection has to be available when you need it and, with the growth of VoIP, Internet gaming and videoconferencing, it has to be able to deal with lots of different online activities.”
Virgin’s services had the lowest packet loss rate. All ISPs experience some packet loss, but a high rate of loss can lead to problems streaming video and audio. Interestingly, the percentage of packet loss - whilst remaining low - more than doubled in the past quarter. Virgin also had the lowest percentage of connection failures in Q4, suggesting that their consumer ADSL customers had the highest degree of uptime of the sample group. Orange broadband provided the fastest ping time, generally desirable to users that require frequent data updates from the Internet back to their computer, such as online gamers.Labels: bt-broadband, general-broadband-news, orange-broadband, pipex-broadband, plusnet-broadband, virgin-broadband, virgin-media-broadband
Thursday, January 25, 2007
Ofcom research on smaller ISPs
Ofcom today published research into the niche Internet Service Provider (ISP) market. The research focuses on smaller ISPs, typically those serving companies with fewer than 30 employees or a small number of residential customers. The research was commissioned during 2006 following requests from industry stakeholders.
The smaller ISP market has a collective turnover of £1.15 billion per year. It comprises nearly 700 service providers serving 30% of UK business customers and 5% of UK households. Based on interviews with more than 300 smaller ISPs, the research shows that:
- Niche ISPs offer a broad range of services from internet connectivity and web-hosting to consultancy;
- More than half (54%) of niche ISPs surveyed claim their approach to service provision, offering personalised products rather than standard packages, give them an advantage over larger ISPs;
- Around 9 in 10 (90%) of niche ISPs have 30 employees or fewer;
Niche ISPs are relatively geographically dispersed; more than half are based outside London and the South of England.
The research will help inform Ofcom's policy work including the ongoing Wholesale Broadband Access Market Review which assesses the obligations on BT Group plc to provide other ISPs with wholesale broadband services such as IPStream.
www.ofcom.org.uk/research/cm/nicheisp/Labels: general-broadband-news, ofcom
Sunday, January 21, 2007
Broadband is cheaper than dial-up Internet access
According to analysis carried out by SimplySwitch.com (a price comparison service), broadband prices are now lower than those for dial-up Internet access. Dial-up Internet access has been effectively priced out of the market by the flood of Internet users taking up faster and more convenient broadband services. Currently over 40% of UK households connect to the Internet via broadband and it's no wonder, considering that 8Mb broadband access is 143 times faster than 56 Kbps dial-up, allowing users to download larger files, to watch streamed videos online and access a whole new Internet experience.
Based on a survey conducted by Google during March 2006, the average Briton now spends two and a half hours online each day. Based on this data, SimplySwitch.com calculated that if a user were paying for their Internet access via pay-per-minute dial-up, they would save money by switching to broadband. Similarly, for someone paying a flat rate for unlimited dial-up Internet access, in most cases a cheaper broadband alternative would be available, often with inclusive free telephone calls bundled with the broadband package. For example, a Tiscali dial-up customer paying £14.99 per month could save £33 per annum by transferring to the Tiscali 1Mb broadband service for £9.99 per month (first three months, then £12.99), along with free weekend calls. Savings were also shown with equivalent services from AOL and NTL / Telewest.
Karen Darby, founder of SimplySwitch.com, comments: "The advantages of switching from dial-up to broadband are obvious. With an 8Mb connection, broadband is 143 times faster than dial-up*. You can download far larger files, watch videos online, use a wireless connection and you’ll even save money as well. Anyone who ditches dial-up will see a vast improvement to their online experience.
"One of the major barriers to switching is that many people still believe broadband requires the installation of extra cables. This is not the case as 99.8% of UK households have ready access to broadband through their existing telephone landline**. Basically, if you currently have a home telephone, and don’t live in an isolated area, you should have access to broadband. Unlike when changing broadband suppliers, you won’t need a MAC (Migration Authority Code) to switch from dial-up to broadband and, if you use a service like SimplySwitch, the whole process is free and takes less than five minutes.”
Check out the UK's best broadband dealsLabels: aol-broadband, general-broadband-news, tiscali-broadband
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
ISP Finalists - Best Consumer Broadband
ISP Finalists Announced For The 9th Annual UK Internet Industry Awards - The 2007 ISPAs
The Internet Services Providers' Association (ISPA UK) - the UK's leading Internet trade association - can today reveal the finalists in the ISP Division of The 2007 ISPAs - The 9th Annual UK Internet Industry Awards in association with Epitiro.
Kate Allen, Director of Amnesty International UK, will be the keynote speaker at The 2007 ISPAs. Ms Allen will address the Internet industry, Government and media representatives about the power of the Internet to help campaign for human rights, and Amnesty's IRREPRESSIBLE.INFO campaign, which is fighting to defend freedom of expression on the Internet.
For those categories related to broadband and other Internet related services, the finalists at The 2007 ISPAs are:
Best Dial-up
Biscit
ntl:telewest
Orange
Waitrose
Zen Internet
Best Consumer Email
Biscit
Madasafish
Namesco
Seriously Internet
Tiscali
Best Business Email
Biscit
Entanet
Exa Networks
Namesco
Zen Internet
Best Streaming
Astream
Groovy Gecko
Keen Computers
Mydeo
Streaming Wizard
Best Internet Telephony
Entacall
Keen Computers
Lumison
Seriously Vocal
Tesco
Best Wireless ISP
BOZII
Community Internet
The Cloud
West Somerset Internet
Best Portal
ntl:telewest
Madasafish
SidNet
Tiscali
Virgin.net
Best Consumer Broadband
Be Unlimited
Eclipse Internet
Entanet
Namesco
Seriously Internet
Best Business Broadband
Datanet
Eclipse Internet
Entanet
Kingston Communications
Namesco
Best Consumer ISP
Biscit
ntl:telewest
Orange
Tiscali
Virgin.net
Best Business ISP
Claranet
Datanet
Entanet
UKFast
Zen Internet
ISPA UK has been organising The ISPAs since 1999 to celebrate innovation and best practice in the Internet sector.
Board members from the Internet industry and Government representatives will gather to recognise the industry's achievements over the past year.
The ISPAs scheme is renowned for its independence and objectivity, reinforced for the fourth year by ISPA's research partner Epitiro. ISPA commissioned Epitiro to conduct tests and monitor the Internet services of entrants in the ISP Division over a three-month period. Following analysis of the data, the shortlists were selected for the coveted awards in the ISP Division.Labels: biscit-broadband, business-broadband, general-broadband-news, nildram-broadband, ntl-broadband, ntl-telewest-broadband, orange-broadband, telewest-broadband, tiscali-broadband, virgin-broadband
Thursday, January 04, 2007
ISPA Announces Internet Hero, Villain And IWF Nominees
The Internet Services Providers’ Association (ISPA UK) – the UK’s leading Internet trade association – today reveals its nominations for the ‘net’s heroes and villains of 2006.
The ISPA Council have nominated individuals or organisations that have helped or hindered the Internet Industry, to receive either the Internet ‘Hero’ or ‘Villain’ award at The 2007 ISPAs – the 9th annual UK Internet Industry Awards in association with Epitiro
The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) Award is selected by the IWF, an organisation created to combat child abuse images and criminal material online. It will recognise an individual or organisation that has fought against child abuse content online
The nominations for the IWF Award, sponsored by Imtech Telecom are:-
- Annie Mullins , Vodafone’s Global Head of Content Standards
“For protecting users, with particular emphasis on young users when accessing new content services through mobile telephones and her continuing work in child protection and welfare issues.”
- BT
“For developing and implementing the world’s first Internet system to block URLs of websites that were publishing potentially illegal child abuse content.”
- Home Secretary’s Task Force for Child Protection on the Internet
“For providing a hugely successful multi-agency forum to enable a vast array of experts to contribute towards policies and good practice documents to make the internet a safer place for children.”
- John Carr, NCH Internet Consultant
“For his work on the “digital divide”, seeking to ensure all children and young people can benefit from the wonderful opportunities presented by new technologies.”
- Nicholas Lansman, Secretary General, ISPA UK
“For his involvement in the process that established the Internet Watch Foundation in 1996 and his longstanding support of the notice and take-down service provided by the IWF; as well as his steering of the Internet Crime Forum (ICF) and active participation in the Home Office Child Protection Task Force.”
This year’s ‘Hero’ nominees, sponsored by UKFast, are:- - Annie Mullins, Vodafone
"For her work with the Home Office Task Force on Protection of Children on the Internet and the European Union's Safer Internet Programme."
- OFCOM
"For arguing that Europe's Television without Frontiers Directive should not be applied to the Internet, as it would stifle creativity and investment in Internet video as well as requiring Government regulation for little benefit.
- Simon Watkin and the Home Office team
"For standing up to the European Union and recognising the need to reimburse ISPs for the additional costs that are incurred in meeting data retention requirements, helping to maintain effective industry liaison and recognising the need for Government to work with industry and not against it."
- Stephen Carter, Former Ofcom Chief Executive
"For over seeing the Strategic Review of Telecommunications and building a good working relationship between the Internet industry and Ofcom since his appointment in 2003."
- The EU
"For considering legal action against protectionist barriers planned by France, Italy, and Austria that would potentially ban foreign online gaming and investigating nine other EU member states."
This year’s Villain nominees, sponsored by Abbotsbury
Software, are:- - Commissioner Vivianne Reding and European Commission
"For foisting the most arcane set of rules yet seen for prior registration of .eu domains, requiring UK registered companies to submit legal affidavits to justify the authenticity of their
business."
- e360 insight
"For attempting to use a court in Illinois with no UK jurisdiction to obtain a Restraining Order on Spamhaus, a company that provides dependable real-time anti-spam protection for Internet networks."
- Peter Black, Executive Chairman Next Generation Networks UK
"For making the Next Generation Networks UK body, an independent body looking at next generation networks and services, too elitist and not allowing smaller ISPs to be involved."
- The British Phonographic Industry
"For applying pressure on Cable & Wireless and Tiscali to reveal the names and addresses of customers who the BPI believed to be file sharing, with poorly prepared evidence."
- The US Government
"For imposing prohibition like restrictive legislation against legitimate European gaming sites."
The winners from the above nominees will be awarded their titles at
The 2007 ISPAs alongside
14 other categories, entered by the UK’s leading Internet companies.
Winners will be presented with a coveted ISPA Award at a gala dinner held at the London Marriott Hotel in Grosvenor Square on the 15th February
2007. Labels: general-broadband-news
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