BSkyB ( Sky Broadband ) are offering new customers who subscribe online to their £18 per month triple-play bundle of Sky TV (entertainment pack), Sky Talk (Free evening & weekend UK landline calls) and Sky Broadband Base (2Mbps + 2GB usage allowance) package a free £50 voucher to spend in Marks and Spencer’s (M&S). The promotion is available until 25th March and subscribers can expect to receive their voucher within 45 days of activating Sky TV viewing.

Supermarket chain Tesco has stealthily re-launched its own branded range of broadband and phone bundles. Prices now start from just £19 per month and include download speeds of up to 24Mbps, line rental, inclusive evening and weekend calls and "Unlimited downloads" (Fair Usage Policy).

Tesco Broadband with inclusive evening and weekend calls
* Up to 20Meg Download speed
* Unlimited downloads (FUP)
* No set up fees or hidden costs
* 1 Clubcard point for every £1 you spend
* Friendly UK call centre
* Inclusive wireless router
* Tesco Line rental
* Inclusive UK landline calls evening & weekends
* Total you pay per month £19 (online billing)

Tesco Broadband with inclusive anytime calls
* Up to 20Meg Download speed
* Unlimited downloads (FUP)
* No set up fees or hidden costs
* 1 Clubcard point for every £1 you spend
* Friendly UK call centre
* Inclusive wireless router
* Tesco Line rental
* Inclusive UK landline calls anytime
* Total you pay per month £23 (online billing)

We note that both packages are subject to a minimum 18 month contract.

Broadband provider SurfAnyTime (SAT) has extended the price cut on its £19.99 per month INFINITE ADSL2+ package until June 2010. The service offers download speeds of 'up to' 24Mbps (1.3Mbps upload), a 1 month contract period, FREE activation/migration and truly unlimited downloading without shaping.

Additional Features

•Free static IP address
•Routed IP addresses (extra cost)
•Server-side email anti-virus protection
•Email anti-spam prevention
•Unlimited POP3 email addresses
•Webmail
•Giganews USENET Access
•250MB of webspace
•Personal in-house support - no outsourced call centres

SAT boasts that at least one of its customers is already using the package to download a staggering 515GB per month. However usage of that scale is unlikely to be economically sustainable for all customers. Elsewhere we note that the discount also applies to SAT’s business tariff at a reduced price of £24.99 per month.

UK ISP PlusNet has introduced a special new voucher code that will allow anybody who uses it to gain 4 MONTHS FREE broadband service. Interested subscribers just need to enter the code 4MONTHSBB during signup. We do not know when this code will expire.

Packages start at just £5.99 per month for the Plusnet Value service, which includes 10GB of monthly usage allowance, up to 8Mbps download speeds, 24/7 support, a free wireless router, free connection, email, firewall and spam protection. A 12 month contract term applies, though this can be waived if you pay a £30 set-up fee.

Faster 20Mbps download speed options with bigger usage allowances (80GB) are available from £11.99 per month.

The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has called on the government to force UK ISPs into delivering a "minimum and guaranteed" speed of 8Mbps direct to business premises. The move follows a new FSB-ICM survey of 1,300 small firms, which found that 24% are dissatisfied with their broadband service.

Of those small firms that are dissatisfied, 63% said they are unhappy with the speed and reliability of their connection. Another 30% said the area they live in has an unreliable broadband connection and 13% said they would consider moving business premises to an area with faster broadband.


The FSB fears that small firms are being promised a service from their broadband provider which is not being delivered. They have today called on the Government to ensure that good broadband infrastructure is put in place and have requested the following changes.

The FSB is calling on the Government to:

• Stop the passing the buck on faults as stated by the Lord Corbett of Castle Vale and Lord Erroll between BT and ISPs when it comes to dealing with faults on customers' lines. A rigorous form of line testing must be put in place to ensure that faults known to affect broadband services are detected. Providers must maintain all line plant and exchange equipment up to an expected standard and good engineering practice must be applied to all repairs. All broadband faults must be fixed within 48 hours of first being reported.

• The telecommunications ombudsman must be able to rule directly against all service providers and there must be no exemptions. Customers should be able to cancel all contracts ie 12, 18, or 24 month contracts at any time without penalty if their service does not meet expectations.

• ISPs must be obliged to deliver a minimum and guaranteed connection speed of 8Mbits/sec download speed end to end, with guaranteed and consistent upload speed. There must be a minimum level of service stipulated in writing and notification of any traffic management that may be applied to the broadband connection. It is essential that IP throughput is not subject to 'traffic management' restrictions or 'throttling' for the service the customer requires.

• Small businesses must have confidence in the speed and reliability of their broadband provision. Ofcom must ensure providers give accurate information on connection speeds (IP throughput that is useable by the customer) and ensure there is one UK wide standardisation and technical specification of the method of transmission on that fibre for all network providers. Local authorities must also play a vital role in infrastructure provisioning and maintenance, especially under and beside the main roads.

We agree with a majority of the points, although it's hard to see how anybody could guarantee speeds of 8Mbps over most existing broadband technology. Certainly you could do that with a leased line or future fibre optic connection but the FSB does not define a specific technology.

There are plenty of good business broadband ISPs around that offer strong Service Level Agreements (SLA), quality and support. However some technologies, such as ADSL (up to 8Mbps) or SDSL (up to 2Mbps), are restrained by their own physical limitations and issues, such as line length, local interference and poor wiring, which is outside of the ISPs control.

Broadband provider TalkTalk UK has warned that the majority of music fans will switch to alternative ways of accessing copyright-protected content for free if using peer-to-peer (P2P) services leaves them vulnerable to disconnection. The ISP reports that 80% (577) of those aged 18-34 in its new Opinium survey said they would switch to using methods which are undetectable.

TalkTalk believes the poll shows that the Digital Economy Bill, which is currently making its way through Parliament and might become law before the election, will not achieve its aims of reducing illegal filesharing and protecting the revenues of the content industry.

There is a large and growing array of non-P2P tools and services available, including applications which scan thousands of internet radio stations and download the desired tracks in a wholly undetectable way. There are also methods which effectively conceal users’ IP addresses, not to mention block lists, proxy servers, private FTPs and VPN's.

The provider is also concerned that the temptation to hack into other peoples home wireless Wi-Fi networks to download content will also grow if the Digital Economy Bill becomes law in its current form. This could lead to many more innocent people being wrongly accused of copyright theft and facing disconnection despite having done nothing wrong.


Earlier this week it emerged that copyright infringement in France had increased by 3% in three months after its controversial three strikes Hadopi law was introduced. However countries such as Sweden have seen a much more positive, in a commercial sense at least, impact to the imposition of tougher rules.

When self-confessed file sharers were asked what fraction of their illicitly accessed content they would buy legally if P2P services were no longer available to them, 66% said it would be 2% or less. In fact four in ten wouldn’t pay for a single track they had already downloaded for free.

The Conservative Party has just published its new 'Technology Manifesto' (.PDF), which reiterates everything that Tory Shadow Chancellor, George Osborne, told the BBC One Andrew Marr Show last month (here). It includes a commitment to deliver "100Mbps broadband across most of the population" by 2017 but still does not clarify what "most" actually means.

It also makes the claim that "this is up to 50 times faster than Labour’s planned broadband network," which appears to compare their 100Mbps plans with the government’s 2Mbps USC. However as we all know by now, the 2Mbps USC is completely separate from Labour's target of reaching 90% of the country with a "next generation broadband" network by 2017. On the other hand Labour has not defined a specific speed for this.


To summarise; the Conservative's will force BT and possibly its competitors to open up their underground cable ducts, allowing rivals to install their own fibre optic cable without having to dig up extra roads. Nothing new with this either, they’ve said it a few times now.

Regulation on fibre optic will also be relaxed, although there's still no specific position on whether or not they will reduce the controversial Fibre Tax. Furthermore they will also use part of the BBC’s TV Licence fee (3.5% - the 'Digital Switchover' budget) to help fund the rollout of 100Mbps into rural areas.



By contrast Labour has two schemes. The first sets aside £250m and aims to make minimum broadband speeds of 2Mbps available to everybody in the country by 2012 (USC). The second proposes to put a new 50p +vat per month tax on all fixed phone lines in the country, earning £175m per year. This would fund the rollout of Next Generation Access (NGA) networks to 90% of the country by 2017.

A recent survey of ISPreview readers (here) showed that the 50p tax solution was hugely unpopular, with just 11.7% of respondents believing it to be the best way forward. 32% favoured the conservative plan to use part of the BBC's TV Licence fee, 24% wanted the Fibre Tax to be cut and a further 24% felt that private investment alone was the best fix.

It’s clear that more people appear to be behind the Conservative plan than the Labour alternative, although we’d still like to see more specifics and clarity on the ideas being put forward above, especially with regards to the Fibre Tax. It would be interesting to know where the Liberal Democrat party stands in all this but to date they have not responded.

On the bright side, at least both of the main government candidates actually have a position of NGA. That's a marked improvement from the last election when neither appeared to care about broadband.

Both new and existing customers of Eclipse Internet should have a smile on their faces today after the ISP revealed a major refresh to its broadband packages, doubling usage limits for both Business and Home products. In some cases, such as for the £19.95 per month 'Home Select' package, the usage allowance has gone from 10GB (GigaBytes) per month to 50GB! Prices for a couple of packages have also fallen, but only by a little.

The ISP’s Home Office package usage limit has risen to 10GB, Business Bronze to 50GB and Business Silver to 100GB. The Business Gold usage remains "unlimited". The home service improvements see Home Select, designed for everyday use, social networking applications or downloading music, increase from 10GB to 50GB while the Home Pro package, designed for serious gamers and film addicts, jumps from 50GB to 100GB.


The Home Select package, with its 50GB allowance, is now significantly more attractive because it is a BT based service and NOT an unbundled (LLU) one. This means that it is available to the whole country, although those outside of 21CN / WBC areas may have to put up with slower 'up to' 8Mbps speeds until their exchange is upgraded.

Home Lite - £11.95 per month
* up to 24Mbps Download Speed (1Mbps upload)
* 2GB Monthly Usage Allowance
* FREE webmail – get unlimited POP3 email, with AntiSpam and AntiVirus included as standard.
* 12 Month Contract

Home Select - £19.95 per month
* up to 24Mbps Download Speed (1Mbps upload)
* 50GB Monthly Usage Allowance
* FREE router
* FREE PC backup
* FREE webmail – get unlimited POP3 email, with AntiSpam and AntiVirus included as standard.
* 12 Month Contract

Home Pro - £29.95 per month
* up to 24Mbps Download Speed (1Mbps upload)
* 100GB Monthly Usage Allowance (Free overnight usage)
* FREE wireless router
* FREE PC backup
* FREE phone calls
* FREE webmail – get unlimited POP3 email, with AntiSpam and AntiVirus included as standard.
* 12 Month Contract

To help monitor usage limits see Eclipse's Traffic Controller feature on their website. The new packages are available now for both new and existing customers. The price on Home Lite has changed from £12.21 to £11.95 and the Home Pro package has moved from £30.60 to £29.95 per month.

The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) has today been ousted as the true source of Amendment 120A (Clause 18). The controversial 120A was rushed into the Digital Economy Bill (DEB) at the last minute, without sufficient debate or consultation, and could lead to mass internet censorship in the UK; websites such as YouTube are potentially at risk of being blocked.

Amendment 120A would force broadband ISPs into blocking any site deemed to contain "a substantial proportion" of content that infringes copyright. However the wording and method leaves far too much room for interpretation. It has also been widely criticised for giving rights holders cart blanch to have websites blocked because they know ISPs would not spend money to defend other peoples work in court.

The new amendment came about because Clause 17, which would have given the governments Secretary of State (i.e. Peter Mandelson) freedom to adjust copyright law at any time of his choosing and without much debate, received significant opposition and was to be dropped. Ironically 120A has proven just as controversial.

Now the Open Rights Group (ORG) has leaked the BPI's draft alternative amendment to Clause 17, which matches nearly word for word the new 120A. Suffice to say this represents an unsettling, if not altogether surprising, turn of events.


Those who doubt the similarities need only take a brief look at the document itself, which can be downloaded below. To be fair it does look as if the lords cut out some of the most disturbing elements, such as one that could have reproduced Clause 17. Sadly the main thrust has stayed intact.

BPI's Proposed Clause 17 Alternative (MS Word .DOC Format)
http://www.openrightsgroup.org/assets/files/word/Potential_Alt_Clause_17.doc

It is of course perfectly reasonable for anybody to propose an amendment, after all we do live in a democracy. However the fact that something as obviously significant as the BPI's 120A managed to make it in, almost word for word and with no wider consultation, is highly questionable; inappropriate wholesale law making at its finest.

Related News:
3 March, 2010 - UK Digital Economy Bill Amendment to Block Copyright Infringing Sites
4 March, 2010 - UK ISPs React Angrily to Bill that Blocks Copyright Infringing Sites
10 March, 2010 - UK ISPs and Internet Firms Slate Government Plans to Block Piracy Sites

UPDATE - 1:06pm

Lib Dem and Conservatives peers are due to make several changes to 120A today, which will be put to the vote on Monday.

1. Accused website owners will be able to appeal against the blocks.

2. Judge's could order Rights Holders to pay the legal costs and any related compensation for asking ISPs to block a site.

3. Rights Holders would need to inform the website they want to block before actually asking for the block to be made. This would act as a kind of "Notify and Remove" procedure, much as should already happen.

However it’s not clear what kind of appeal process is being proposed as it lacks detail.

Cable giant Virgin Media UK has announced a new 6 month trial that involves using telegraph poles to deliver ultrafast 50-100Mbps Cable Modem (DOCSIS) broadband services to the rural Berkshire village of Woolhampton. Cable carried over the telegraph poles will also carry Virgin's TV service, including 5,000 hours of catch-up TV and on-demand (VoD) content.

The use of telegraph poles, which is cheaper than digging up the roads, to deploy a Next Generation Access (NGA) network is nothing new. However the fact that Virgin is doing it in a rural area that could previously only get BT’s slower copper network is perhaps more significant.


The trial is part of Virgin's recently announced plans to bring NGA services to people who currently live beyond the reach of fibre optic networks. Virgin has already announced plans to extend its fibre optic network, which today passes 12.6 million homes, to 500,000 new homes and has identified more than 1 million homes in parts of the UK that stand to benefit from deployment over telegraph poles.

Virgin notes that the Government is currently considering a change to planning guidelines, which is needed to enable large scale overhead deployment. BT also has its own plans for using telegraph poles to deploy its own 'up to' 100Mbps FTTH / P products over the next two years.

In the meantime, the Woolhampton trial will provide valuable insight into the technical, operational and commercial viability of this type of solution and build on what Virgin Media has learned from a trial in Cornwall started in 2009. The Cornish trial brought NGA to the villages of Hatt and Saltash by running underground fibre optic cable to BT's local street cabinets (similar to BT's own 'up to' 40Mbps FTTC solution).

Virgin Media believes that using overhead poles as well as underground ducts could, in some cases, significantly improve the viability of delivering next generation digital services to rural communities. As a bonus they also get to step on BT's toe.

Broadband provider Vtesse Networks has today announced its intention to deploy a pilot wireless internet service in Hertford town centre during the spring. The service aims to provide net access to those with mobile wireless devices, including Blackberry's, iPhones, smartphones, netbooks and notebook (laptop) computers.

Vtesse claims that users of its system will enjoy a considerably better service than the often "overloaded" and "disappointing" performance offered by comparable 3G Mobile Broadband products from the UKs five (soon to be four) major mobile operators.

In Hertford at least, the mobile internet users within Vtesse service zones will connect through Vtesse wireless ( Wi-Fi ) Hotspots directly onto Vtesse’s national fibre optic network, which it hopes should "[guarantee] the best possible experience".


The pilot itself has been designed to assess just how much demand there is for similar services and if it is as high as predicted then the service could be rolled out to wider areas. Pricing, which has yet to be defined, will be designed around any usage patterns established during the pilot.

Users interested in joining the pilot service should email hertfordshire@vtesse.com in the first instance outlining how wireless broadband in the town centre would help them better achieve their personal and business goals. The best 100 applications will be invited to use the service without charge for the period of the pilot.

The European Parliament has approved a common resolution that calls for openness over Europe and the USA's Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) negotiations. ACTA is a treaty that has been in the works for over two years and seeks to establish international standards on intellectual property rights enforcement, such as against those suspected of unlawfully downloading copyright content through their ISP.

In recent months fears have grown that ACTA could bypass the democratic system and impose new measures that might lead to graduated response, criminal sanctions, US-style 'Notice and Take Down' and force broadband ISPs, indirectly, into generalised monitoring of Internet traffic and services. This has been fuelled by the apparent secrecy of the whole process.

The new resolution, supported by five major political groups, urges the European Commission (EC) to establish transparency on ACTA by releasing negotiation documents. It strongly asserts the role of the Parliament in the EU, warning that the EP will not hesitate to call on the European Court of Justice to defend its co-legislator powers.


The Written declaration 12/2010 itself was initiated by the Members of European Parliament Françoise Castex (S&D, FR), Alexander Alvaro (ALDE, DE), Stavros Lambrinidis (S&D, GR) and Zuzana Roithova (EPP, CZ). The parliament fears that ACTA could radically harm Net neutrality and civil liberties by turning ISPs into a private police force to tackle online file-sharing. The main points of this declaration are as follows.

The Written Declaration

1. Takes the view that the proposed agreement should not indirectly impose harmonisation of EU copyright, patent or trademark law, and that the principle of subsidiarity should be respected;

2. Declares that the Commission should immediately make all documents related to the ongoing negotiations publicly available;

3. Takes the view that the proposed agreement should not force limitations upon judicial due process or weaken fundamental rights such as freedom of expression and the right to privacy;

4. Stresses that economic and innovation risks must be evaluated prior to introducing criminal sanctions where civil measures are already in place;

5. Takes the view that internet service providers [ISP] should not bear liability for the data they transmit or host through their services to an extent that would necessitate prior surveillance or filtering of such data;

6. Points out that any measure aimed at strengthening powers of cross-border inspection and seizure of goods should not harm global access to legal, affordable and safe medicines;

7. Instructs its President to forward this declaration, together with the names of the signatories, to the Commission, the Council and the parliaments of the Member States.

It remains to be seen how much of an impact this will have, with many consumer groups and European ISPs also warning about the threat faced from ACTA.