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September 3, 2010 – 6:09 pm
Last week BT signed up its 15 millionth user to its high speed network.
It is now 10 years since broadband was first introduced in the UK and it is now used by almost three quarters of the UK’s homes and small businesses. Britain can now boast a higher take up rate than any other developed nation due to widespread availability and low prices.
It was Virgins predecessors NTL and Telewest who first offered broadband services in 2000. BT became serious about broadband services in 2002 when prices were slashed by former chief excecutive Ben Verwaayen after broadband equipment was installed in local telephone exchanges.
BT was signing up almost 5,000 new customers each day although that rate has slowed down in the last couple of years due to a price war in the fixed broadband market.
Virgin Media serves 4.2 million customers over its cable network although last week it was revealed that 9 million people in the Uk have still never used the internet. Almost two thirds of the 15 million customers using BT’s network are using a rival internet provider such as Sky or Talk Talk who use BT’s infrastructure.
BT is now investing a further £2.5 billion to roll out fibre broadband to 2 thirds of the UK.
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August 29, 2010 – 6:01 pm
The Advertising Standards Agency are upholding claims that one of BT’s ”Adam and Jane” adverts is misleading. The adverts has now been banned
The advert showns ‘Jane’ loading web pages onto her laptop using BT’s latest service. Meanwhile’ Adam’ is shown with an estate agent who apologises for the slowness of his connection. Whilst this is happening a voice is heard to say ”BT is rolling out up to 20 meg speeds to give you consistantly faster broadband throughout the day even at peak times”
17 complaints were made saying the advert was misleading including complaints from some of BT’s competetors including Sky, Talk Talk and Virgin.
ASA say that they have not seen sufficient evidence to support the claim that BT’s new broadband service was consistantly faster than its existing 8 Mbps service and therefore the advert is misleading.
Ofcom recently looked at ’up to’ speeds and BT and othere service providers were all found to have average broadband speeds very much lower than the ‘up to ‘ speeds that they advertise. BT’s average speed was found to be less than half of the 20 Mbps advertised.
BT are said to be very dissappointed with the ruling .
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August 12, 2010 – 2:42 pm
Orange has announced that they will offer Free broadband for 3 Months to mobile customers when they take out a Home Max broadband package on a 18 month contract.
The deal for existing customers allows them to sign up for home broadband at a cost of just £6.50 per month, after 3 months at no cost.
Non mobile customers will get £6.50 off the normal monthly price of £9.50 for the first 3 months ,paying just £3 per month.
Home Max offers a download speed of 20Mpbs, unlimited monthly downloads, free eveing and weekend UK calls and free Livebox wireless router. Line rental is £10.50 per month.
All Orange customers can save £19.50 using this offer. UK Broadband is very reasonably priced and is almost half the price that it was 5 years ago.
Last month Orange announced its integration with T Mobile and is now the UK’s largest Telecoms company. They are now known as Everywhere.
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July 28, 2010 – 5:40 pm
3 Mobile Broadband has come top in a recent poll organised by YouGov.
There were twelve categories in the poll and 3 came top in 10 of them, including value for money, ease of use, relibility, quality of service and billing.
Around two thousand mobile broadband users were surveyed and asked to rate the service received from their provider.
The top connection speed advertised by 3 is 7.2 Mbps and it covers approx 95 % of the UK. It can also boast that it has the largest share of the UK mobile broadband market with 35 %.
It was reported that Joe Parker, the Director of 3 mobile broadband, considers it a great honor to be voted top of the poll by its customers. The company is happy to be providing the service that its customers demand.
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July 17, 2010 – 1:40 pm
Tory Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt says it will take until 2015 before every home in Britain has at least a 2Mbps broadband connection.
The Labour governments target for universal broadband coverage was 2012 but Hunt has now said that this is not pactrical. He reportedly told a gathering of telecoms operators ‘ I have looked at the provision the governement has made to achieve this by 2012 and I am afraid the I am not convinced that there is sufficient funding in place,so while we will keep working towards that date , we have set ourselves a more realistic target of acheiving unversal 2 Mbps access within the lifetime of this parliament’
Currently 99% of homes can get some form of broadband connection but almost 2 million homes cannot get speeds of 2Mbps. Broadband services were launched over 10 years ago and still almost 160,000 rural and remote households cannot get broadband at all.
Hunt has made it clear that he wants Britain to have the best superfast broadband in Europe by 2015 and that is it vital the next generation of broadband networks, offering speeds of up to 40Mbps,is made available to virtually every household.
However BT has warned that it is not economically viable to offer superfast broadband accross the whole of the country. BT have estimated that up to £2 billion of state funding would be needed to achieve universal fibre optic broadband in the future. BT itself has committed to spending£2.5 billion to extend its new fibre optic network.
Hunt has suggested opening up the water mains and sewers to cut the cost of building new networks although he does agree that the commercial operators cannot work alone and help is needed from the governement.
Labour had all0cated about £250 million from the digital switchover fund to pay for universal broadband along with a 50p per land line tax. The tax was abolished in the Tory June budget.
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July 8, 2010 – 4:52 pm
Virgin Media is gearing up to offer speeds of 400Mbps using overhead cables. They hope that the network will reach another million customers.
Virgin already has 400Mbps- ready modems and routers in the pipeline and Jon James Virgin Media’s Director of Broadband said that 100Mbps will be available by the end of the year.
400Mpbs is fast enough to download an album in almost a second and in around 2 minutes a high definition movie could be downloaded. Mr James says that consumers now want more out of their connections. This will give more capacity to customers and there will be a steady series of upgrades to follow. Cloud computing will be coming to the living room.
Kevin Baughan Director of Technical Strategy at Virgin Media has reportedly said”It would take peoples IT problems away. Homework, photos,films would all live in the cloud and people wouldnt have to worry about the capabilities of their machines.”
It has been discussed for a long time but Virgin are now going to do it.
Virgin Media is planning to roll out broadband via existing overhead cables. They have already tried this in Woolhampton in Berkeshire where they provided residents with speeds of up to 50 Mpbs by building their own poles.
Mr James said that no one can match Virgin Media on speed and that BT’ Infinity’s 25Mbps average speed is kind of the limit.
BT has denied that there is any great need for speeds to accelerate any time soon although they accept that there will be a demand at some point in the future and they are investing £2.5 billion in faster broadband.
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July 6, 2010 – 11:27 am
O2 has confirmed that the new iPhone 4 will only be on sale to its existing customers inthe first month due to a shortage of supplies.
Further more only customers who have subscribed to mobile broadband, home broadband or mobile services before 24 May will be able to purchase the smartphone in the first few days.
New customers will have to wait at least a month to get the new phone.
O2 was reported to say” We want to make sure that out existing customers are given priorty so until at least the end of July only existing O2 customers will be able to get an iPhone 4 from us.Whether you are an existingO2 mobile customer looking to upgrade, or one of our broadband customers looking to move your mobile to O2, our iPhone stock is reserved exclusively for you ”.
O2 will sell the new 16GB iPhone for £209 w ith a monthly subscription of £30 on a 18 month contract. With a 24 month contract and a monthly subscription of £25 the phone will cost £279.
O2 recently announced that ‘unlimited’ mobile broadband contracts would end for smartphone users from 1 st October but as a promotion, new customers will get unlimited data until 1st October and will need to buy bolt ons when their usage exceeds the monthly download limit of 750MB.
The new smartphone was launched by O2 on 24 June. Orange and Vodaphone will provide mobile internet services for the iPhone but Virgin have yet to announce their deals.
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June 13, 2010 – 2:56 pm
The new coalition Governement has published a policy document which outlines a new plan to rollout superfast broadband accross the UK.
However the Labour Governement’s plan to impose a 50p tax on every phone line had been scrapped and instead part of the TV licence fee will be used. The coalition hopes that the private sector, BT and other telecommunication companies will also help with funding. The Tories had always been against the 50p tax although the Liberal Democrats generally supported it. It was thought that most broadband companies were unsure about the tax plan as they feared that it would discourage the private sector from investing in the broadband scheme.
Broadcaster Jon Snow reportedly said at a Westminster Media Forum recently that he beleives that the TV licence is a regressive tax which can’t survive. He said ‘ Everyone thinks it is a tax so why is it not called a tax.’
So in effect everyone will still be paying for the next generation of super fast broadband but hopefully at no extra cost.
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May 30, 2010 – 12:18 pm
Google is said to be working with Sony and Logitech to bring broadband to our TV screens.
Google TV will allow us to to move back and forth from our favourite programme to surfing the the web in just a click.
Now that a very high percentage of us source out entertainment from phones and computers Salahuddin Choudhary, Googles Product Manager, believes broadband TV will boost televisions credibility.
A wireless QWERTY remote will be available from Sony for use on enabled devices and Logitech will produce a HDTV cam with video calling. It will be installed in Blue-ray players and companion boxes and will include Google Chrome for easy access to both TV and the web.
It is hoped that it will be available near the end of this year and web developers have instructions to start getting their sites ready for the changes.
Interesting and also exciting . Sure to be a success.
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May 23, 2010 – 5:37 pm
Orange and T-Mobile first announced plans to merge last September and they have now chosen to name the merged company Everything Everywhere. However the original two brand names will still be used when dealing with customers.
It is expected that T-Mobile will launch fixed line services and Orange is considering adding TV to its residential broadband services.
Everything Everywhere will be used in advertising by both Orange and T-Mobile as a tag line rather than the company behind the two brands. It will be a description of the holding company and the name will pop up now and then to describe the two companies as a whole but any new shops opened could be called Orange , T-Mobile brand or a combination of the two.
Everything Everywhere has 27,000 mobile phone masts accross the country and has 713 retail stores and 20 concessions in HMV stores. More stores will be added with 50 new HMV concessions. As phones become ever more complicated the company will need a greater local presence to help customers with their new gadgets. Chief executive Tom Alexander also hopes to increase the 173 Wi-Fi hotspots that T-Mobile already owns in airports, railway stations and on the Heathrow Express, West Coast Mainline, and London to Brighton route.
T-Mobile , unlike Orange and rivals O2 and Vodafone, has never had a residential broadband offering and it is hoped that this will be rectified at some point in the future.
Also planned is broadband TV for Oranges’ 850,000 residential customers.
The only cloud on the horizon is the possibility of job losses for Everything Everywhere’s 16,500 staff as the merged company currently carries out a cull of middle management.
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May 17, 2010 – 2:11 pm
Oftcom has revealed findings in a mystery shopper test conducted in March this year.
BT and Sky were found to be the two least likely Internet Service Providers to inform new customers of the maximum speed achievable on their line when signing up for an internet connection
O2 came top in this catogory in the test by informing 58% of callers with the information. BT provided the information without prompting to only 28% of callers and Sky to 39%.
However when prompted by the callers O2 came out worse by providing only 80% of the shoppers with the maximum speed information. Pulsnet, after prompting, provided 93% with the requested information. They came top in that category.
Overall Ofcom said that 15% of mystery shoppers failed to obtain a likely speed for their line , with 42% having to prompt the provider for the information. In addition 40% were told that the speed was an estimate and 31% were warned that a number of factors were involved in the actual speed.
Ofcom is planning to work with Internet Servics Providers to tighten the Voluntary Code of Practice on Broadband Speeds by creating a universal speed measuring test in an attempt to ensure UK customers are provided with more consistant and accurate information.
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May 4, 2010 – 2:04 pm
Orange has abondoned its own broadband network in a deal with BT. Orange has handed over its fixed line network to BT after spending millions of pounds installing its own equipment in a bid to improve services to its customers.
It is thought that Orange would need to make substantial investment to maintain its broadband network but feel that the BT deal will allow them ” to take advantage of future technology developments” such as home and TV entertainment. Constant investment is needed to stay up to date.
In a report in the Times Bruno Duarte, vice-president of strategy said the reason for the change is because of dwindling demand for its broadband services. However they do need to remain in fixed line broadband and using BT’s network will almost double its broadband reach.
Orange is the 5th largest fixed line broadband provider and has around 840,000 customers. This figure was however around 1 million a year ago. It is hoped that the deal will allow Orange to become more competitive in the broadband market.
Orange recently joined forces with T-mobile and has nearly 30 million mobile phone customers.
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April 19, 2010 – 3:16 pm
BT has been unable to deliver high speed broadband to the UK village of Lyddington so the residents have raised £37,000 to launch their own network.
Several telecom companies had said it was uneconomical to provide fast services to the village ,but Rutland Telecom can now offer the residents of Lyddington speeds of up to 40Mbps
The Rutland Telecom scheme was a joint effort between villagers and a local ICT company that was reselling BT’s broadband.
Dr David Lewis , Managing Director of Rutland Telecom was reported to have said” We found that any company could do, on a smaller scale, what Carphone Warehouse has done and take over BT’s network.”
They approached Openreach, the BT spin-off responsible for the UK’s network, to supply fibre optic cable to a street cabinet in the village. It was quite a slow process and the Ofcom regulator did intervene regularly , but after 2 years the network is up and running and already has 50 customers. The telephone lines of these customers are now completely cut off from the local BT exchange and running independantly.
Rutland Telecom have now been approached by 40 other rual community groups interested in a similar network for their own areas.
It was reported that BT said that they were delighted to help Rutland Telecom although they added that they hoped that other service providers would be allowed access to the new network.
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April 7, 2010 – 5:53 pm
The 50p per month broadband tax planned by the Government has been scrapped in a last minute rush to get key legislation through before Parliament is dissolved next week.
The other two taxes to be scrapped are tax releif on holiday homes and the 10% tax increase on cider.
The £6 per year tax which would have affected all households with a land line was expected to raise roughly £170million per year in a bid to bring high speed broadband to rural areas that companies such as BT and Virgin Media could not reach.
The Conservatives planned to scrap the tax if they win the General Election. They have plans to use some of the TV license fees set aside for digital switchover. The tax has been labelled unfair as the people paying the tax would not benefit from it.
The future of super fast broadband for all is now un-certain although if Labour win the election next month it may well be re-instated.
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March 25, 2010 – 12:37 pm
Virgin is to run a six month trial in a bid to deliver fibre optic high speed broadband over telegraph poles.
The trial will take place in Woolhampton in Berkshire and should deliver 50Mbps broadband. Fibre optic cables are generally run through underground ducts although some companies have also experimented with running cables through sewer networks.
Virgins’ Chief Executive Neil Berkett reportedly said ”’The trial would allow the firm to understand the possibilities of aerial deployment and may provide a new way to extend next generation broadband services’.
The Government hopes to ensure that everyone in the UK has access to a broadband speed of 2Mbps by 2012 and high speed broadband by 2017 and they have earmarked £200m to extend broadband coverage to 15%of homes here in the UK who currently do not receive broadband at 2Mbps.
Virgins are trying to bring broadband to people who currently live out of reach of their current network.
