Author: Mark Jackson | 4 Comments

BT has pledged to make superfast broadband (FTTC) ISP speeds of up to 80Mbps (Megabits per second) available to over 90% of Rutland’s (England, UK) 17,000 homes and businesses by the end of 2013. The plan was announced today during a contract signing event between BT and Rutland County Council (RCC), which was held at the historic Oakham Castle.

Author: Mark Jackson | 0 Comments

A group of Japanese scientists working out of the Tokyo Institute of Technology (TIT) have managed to push wireless (wifi) data rates of between 2-3Gbps (Gigabits per second) over the unregulated T-rays band of the electromagnetic radio spectrum (300-3000GHz).

Author: Mark Jackson | 0 Comments

The governments Office for National Statistics (ONS) has released its latest Internet Access Quarterly Update (Q1-2012), which found that a total of 42.16 million UK adults have gone online (83.7% of the population, up from 83.5% in Q4-2011 and 82.9% in Q3-2011). As a result the number of adults who have never used the internet declined to 8.12 million (16.1%).

Author: Mark Jackson | 1 Comment

Orange UK (Everything Everywhere) recently reported its latest financial results to 31st March 2012 (Q1), which revealed that their total base of fixed line Home Broadband subscribers has remained static (no growth or decline), for a third consecutive quarter, at 713,000.

Author: Mark Jackson | 4 Comments

The UK governments Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has confirmed that Ofcom is expected to publish its final Initial Obligations Code of Practice proposal for tackling internet copyright infringement (piracy) by customers of broadband providers in June 2012, which is a much delayed requirement of the controversial Digital Economy Act (DEAct).

Author: Mark Jackson | 1 Comment

The UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has upheld a complaint by one of TalkTalk’s UK customers against a broadband speed checking facility on the ISPs website, which was found to deliver a “misleading” estimates of expected performance because it didn’t go far enough to make clear that the speed consumers received was “likely to be lower than the estimated” range.

Author: Michael Cross | 0 Comments

Home phone and internet provider TalkTalk UK has today moved to make its current 12 months half price broadband and calls bundle promotion even more attractive by including a £25 Tescos Gift Card voucher into the deal for new subscribers to its ‘Essentials‘ and ‘Plus‘ packages.

Author: Mark Jackson | 6 Comments

The UK communications regulator, Ofcom, has today released the results from its latest mystery shopping research, which was designed to assess ISP compliance with the regulators Voluntary Code of Practice on Broadband Speeds. The study found that ISPs provided a speed estimate to consumers, without prompting, in 59% of all calls (rising to 93% after prompting, which is up from 85% in 2010).

Author: Michael Cross | 5 Comments

Internet provider ICUK has today become the latest ISP to launch a new range of up to 80Mbps (FTTC) superfast broadband packages for home and business users. On top of that the UK provider has also introduced a truly fibre optic 100Mbps service, which makes use of the latest Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) technology.

Author: Mark Jackson | 32 Comments

BTOpenreach, which manages access to BT’s national UK telecoms infrastructure, has confirmed its intention to begin offering the “fastest wholesale broadband speeds currently available” via a new “premium” 330Mbps (Megabits per second) capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) service from 11th June 2012. The first pricing and a new 220Mbps option have also been revealed.

Author: Mark Jackson | 3 Comments

Shetland Telecom, which was established by the Shetland Islands Council (SIC) to help deliver superfast broadband services across 90% of the remote Shetland Islands (North of Scotland, UK) by March 2016, has successfully connected its first “test customers” to the link in the form of two cute Puffins (Tammie and Norie).

Author: Mark Jackson | 4 Comments

The Open Rights Group (ORG) and the LSE Media Policy Project have today published a new report that examines the impact of internet censorship on mobile networks and list some of the legitimate websites that often get unfairly blocked by adult content filters (aka – over-blocking). The study is important because similar measures could soon be forced upon fixed line broadband ISP subscribers.

Author: Mark Jackson | 0 Comments

Business ISP Timico has launched a new range of up to 80Mbps download speed (20Mbps uploads) capable superfast “Fibre Broadband” packages, which are based off the latest Fibre-to-the-Cabinet (FTTC) technology and come with a FREE Connection (normally £99 +vat).

Author: Mark Jackson | 26 Comments

The B4RN (Broadband 4 Rural North) project, which recently began work on a new service that aims to connect thousands of rural homes in northern Lancashire UK via a unique 1Gbps (Gigabits per second) capable FTTH broadband ISP network (here), has posted a lovely new video of their fibre optic infrastructure being built.