ISP News Archives for April 30, 2014

Satellite operator Avanti has signed a new partnership deal with ISP Avonline that should result in the latter being able to introduce a range of new broadband services and a “promise” to give all Avanti-based customers a minimum average download speed of 9Mbps and an upgrade to a “fibre alternative” when it becomes accessible.

The communications regulator has today set out its approach and priorities (e.g. future 5G mobile broadband) for managing and sharing (e.g. white space technology) the country’s radio spectrum up to the year 2025. As part of this, Ofcom has also published an Interactive Spectrum Map to show how different frequencies are used in the United Kingdom.

BT’s consumer ISP division has confirmed that their new and re-contracting broadband subscribers will continue to benefit from free access to BTSport TV content for a second season and the operator also revealed that around 5 million UK homes now view the service (3 million come direct from BT and the rest via wholesale partners).

Virgin Media has reported that new registrations to its public WiFi hotspot service at 137 London Underground Tube stations were up by 50% yesterday as commuters navigated their way around the capital during the strike.

A rough estimate released by BT Wholesale earlier this year has predicted that the operators total “fibre broadband” (FTTC / FTTP) network footprint will increase to reach 80% of the United Kingdom by Spring 2015.

A series of complaints by Sky (Sky Broadband) has caused the Advertising Standards Authority to ban a direct mailing promotion for Virgin Media’s broadband, TV and phone bundles, which omitted material information regarding the differences between the two services and failed to make adequately clear the basis of a £214.95 savings claim.

Samba, a virtual mobile network operator that used the Three UK platform and which claimed to offer the country’s first free Mobile Broadband service, has suddenly closed down after first launching two years ago (here). Perhaps unsurprisingly the operators “unsustainable data costs” have taken the blame.

The UK Advertising Standards Authority has once again had to ban two adverts for O2’s mobile Internet data roaming tariff (O2 Travel) after it claimed to offer “a day’s data for £1.99 … whatever you get up to on the continent“, which failed to mention the small matter of a 15MB usage cap.