Posted by Admin on March 20, 2011 – 6:42 pm
This week O2 launched its superfast mobile broadband network for customers in key cities.
The 900 Mhz network will be serving London, Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds and other cities can expect to be connected in the next few months.
O2 is the first UK broadband provider predicted to deliver a 50 % increase in capacity to its excisting network. Mobile broadband customers who have compatable devices such as media tablets and smartphones should benefit from a 30% improvement in speed when receiving data and a 50% capacity boost in cities where the network is available. Before January the network was only available for 2G services.
Siroda carried out tests which concluded that O2 offered the best data services in 12 out of 13 cities between October 2010 and January 2011. Siroda, network specialists , found that O2 enabled customers to access web pages in 1.4 seconds which is three times faster than the slowest service provider.
Chief Technology Officer for O2 , Nigel Purdey, was reported to have said ” This 3G900 switch- on is the latest in a series of network enhancements for O2. We have acted quickly to bring the benefits of 3G over 900MHz spectrum to our customers and we’re thrilled with the results. Quite simply, on O2′s network , more customers can use more data and experience it quicker ”.
Posted by Admin on February 23, 2011 – 2:52 pm
2010 was a good year for Virgin Media. They attracted 76,600 new customers and in the fourth quarter reported net income moved £37.1m into the black.
Revenues were up 5.8% to £3.8bn although the number of new customers who signed up to TV fell to 12,100 in the fourth quarter. Total revenues reached £1bn in the fourth quarter , which was the first time that this had happened in any quarter.
Although Virgin media reported a net loss of £141.4m in 2010 this was a big improvement over the £357.8m loss reported in 2009 ( adjusted after the sale of Virgin Media TV and BSkyB last July).
Broadband subscribers were up by 44,100 which was considerably less than the 204,000 announced by Sky and 188,000 by BT. Neil Birkett of Virgin Media reportedly said that it was unfair to judge rival telecoms providers. He said” You can’t compare BT’s and Sky’s service to ours. We sell proper broadband.”
Virgin Media now has 1.5 million subscribers to HD which is approximately 39% of its customer base and it made a net income of £2.6 million in the fourth quarter from its 50% stake in UKTV. Virgin is said to be close to selling its stake to US broadcaster Scripps. Its mobile phone contract customers grew by 27.5% to 1.2 million.
The number of customers who subscribed to fibre optic broadband packages with speeds of 20Mbps or more rose by 40% which was a huge increase .
Posted by Admin on February 13, 2011 – 6:20 pm
Talk Talk gained 18.000 new subscribers during the second quarter of 2010 but according to the companies latest financial results 25.000 broadband customers were lost during the third quarter of 2010.
During November Ofcom the telecomms regulator confirmed that it had been investigating wether Talk Talk had mis- sold its fixed line phone services or switched phone lines without customers consent. This followed several complaints from customers. Ofcom also warned Talk Talk to stop issuing bills for services that it had not provided. Some customers who had cancelled their deals with Talk Talk had continues to be charged.
Talk Talk now seem to be getting their act together although they have announced job losses of 580 from their 4.500 staff due to a reorganisation. Dido Harding,Chief Executive, reportedly said’ We have made a good start implementing the new strategy we announced in November last year focusing on simplifing our business, improving our operating margins and delivering value for money products and services for our excisting customers.’
Talk Talk are taking registrations for its Fibre Optic Boost upgrade, which uses fibre to the cabinet technology to boost broadband speeds of up to 40Mpbs for both new and exsisting customers.
Posted by Admin on February 6, 2011 – 12:36 pm
Various towns in Kent are hopingto have access to super-fast broadband services within a year according to recent reports. This is all due to BT’s fibre based expansion which is currently being rolled out. The lucky Kent towns are Sheerness, Sandwich and Feversham.
Altogether 41 market towns will be receiving BT’s high speed broadband as a result of this expansion. This will apply to both businesses and residents which is excellent news.
Farningham has been reported to have the slowest broadband speed in the UK with an average of 1.30 Mbps. It would take residents 12 hours to download a film.
5.5 million UK residents and businesses now use BT’s internet services and their profits increased by 30% in the 3 rd quarter of 2010.
Posted by Admin on January 23, 2011 – 9:21 pm
BT has been told by Ofcom, the telephone regulator that they must reduce the prices that they charge other internet service providers to use its network. They must make reductions of somewhere between 10.75% and 14.75%.
The regulator was reported as saying” Ofcom expects competion between retail ISPs. who will benefit from lower wholesale prices, to lead to reductions in retail prices which benefit customers. The changes may also lead to better quality services by enabling ISPs to allocate more bandwidth per customer which could deliver faster broadband”
BT responded by saying ” It is key that the details strike the right balance between control and incentives to invest in rural areas. As the UK’s main investor in rural broadband, we will engage fully in the consultation process which follows to make our case”
The price cut will come into effect later in the year and is expected to benefit 12 pc of the UK. The reductions are however not good news for BT as they will reduce BT’s revenues by tens of millions of pounds per year.
BT had to open its network to its competors to meet the Governments promise to provide cheaper broadband to everyone in the UK by 2015.
Posted by Admin on January 16, 2011 – 1:44 pm
Londonderry is set to become the first city in Irelend and one of the first in the UK to be totally connected to fibre-optic broadband. By Autumn 2011 , 21,000 homes and 6,000 businesses are sheduled to be connected to fibre- optic broadband.
BT is to install £3 million worth of equipment in Londonderry in the run up to its inaugural year as City of Culture in 2013. The new broadband technology, which will provide the city with a super fast connection, has been heralded as an open access solution which will allow all broadband service providers to link in.
The City of Culture along with BT chiefs announced that it would take about nine months to build the infrastructure and make it ready for use. They confirmed that the cost would be about £3 million.
Londonderry’s Culture Company which is currently being set up hopes to attract a host of international names to invest in the city both before and after 2013 and confirm that there has already been huge interest from both private and commercial sectors.
Posted by Admin on January 5, 2011 – 1:47 pm
BT have announced the winners of their Race to Infinity Competition.
The competition which closed on 31 st December was designed to offer smaller communities the opportunity to show how much they wanted better services. Communities needed at least 1000 votes to qualify for the Race to Infinity. Each area was ranked as a pecentage by the amount of votes compared to the number of available phone lines. The top four areas completed the race with more than 100%
The top three in the race were Whitchurch in Hampshire, Caxton and Madingley in Cambridgeshire. Also sussessful were Blewbury in Oxfordshire , Innerleithen in the Scottish Borders and Baschurch in Shropshire.
The competition was for the top five areas but Baschurch did so well in the competition that BT decided to include it as well.
These communities would normally have expected to wait longer for faster broadband but they will now have the new high speed broadband packages up and running by early 2012.
Posted by Admin on December 22, 2010 – 6:27 pm
Talk Talk has accounced plans to provide its customers with a guaranteed minimum speed of 15 Mb in the New Year.
The internet provider will launch the new service in January 2011 for a small additional charge. Using BT’s fibre- to -the -cabinet technology speeds of up to 40Mb will be provided to enable customers to take advantage of its advanced online services. The new service will be offered as an addition to the consumers current service along with other options currently available.
Options available include a Mega download Boost, which can double a monthly download allowance to 
GB for just £4.99 per month. Also available is a IOO Mobile Minutes Boost allowing broadband and home phone customers to call mobile phones for free.
There are other deals offered by Talk Talk including Turbo, Anytime calls, Super Secure, International Calls and Calling Feature boosts all of which allow costomers to customise their own broadband service.
Posted by Admin on December 12, 2010 – 6:51 pm
The Government announced in its spending review that it will trial super-fast broadband as promised ,in North Yorkshire ,Cumbria, Herefordshire and the Highlands, with a contribution from the BBC of £300m .
The total cost of funding rural broadband is expected to be up to £530m. Money has been set aside from the digital switch over to help with the funding.
2 million households in remote locations who are struggling on dial up speeds will benefit although some parts of the UK will unfortunately still miss out although BT is trying to address the issue.
In Yorkshire the internet provider NYnet and North Yorkshire County Council have been selected to provide broadband at superfast speeds for up to 220,000 people in 27 market towns. They will work together to provide the broadband infrastructure needed for the future.
The Governement has also revealed in the Spending Review 2010 that they will hold spectrum anctions in 2011 or 2012 for next generation mobile broadband.
Posted by Admin on November 25, 2010 – 2:32 pm
BT has been conducting a nationwide suvey, which they are running as a competition called the Race to Infinity. The five winning areas will be upgraded to superfast fibre broadband by early 2012 at the latest. Businesses and homes have to show there is a local demand for fibre broadband by taking part in the survey.
BT is also commited to engageing with any community who didnt actually win one on the first five positions but where at least 75 per cent of busunesses and homes have voted for super-fast broadband.
In the lead so far is Caxton in Cambridgeshire and Malvern in Worcestershire where more than 1000 votes have been received. Overall more than 200,000 votes have already been cast since the idea was launched on 1 st October 2010. The competition will run until December 31st at bt.com/raceforinfinity .
However there is still some way to go and it seems that many local people are really enthusiastic about the competition and are becoming campaigners for their community.
By the end of 2010 BT will have made superfast broadband available to over 4 million premises, although they still have 12 million to reach as part of their plan to deliver fibre broadband to two third of the UK by 2015.
