ISP News Archives for October 14, 2014

A new study from Global Wireless Solutions has discovered what most UK rail commuters already knew, that Mobile Broadband connectivity on the train is more often than not a pile of poop. Indeed 30.3% of mobile Internet tasks and 1 in 7 voice calls attempted on commuter train routes failed during testing. But Vodafone and EE put in the best performance.

High street retail giant Argos has joined forces with Go ON UK and ISP TalkTalk in order to make 10,000 free tablet computers and one year’s worth of free broadband connectivity available to those who take part in a workshop at one of over 120 participating stores, costing £20 per person (ah.. so it’s not completely free then).

The Gloucester City Council is currently developing a plan to upgrade their existing CCTV infrastructure, which will include support for supplying a free public WiFi wireless Internet network in the city centre.

Mobile operator Vodafone has announced that customers of their ‘Red’ 4G (LTE) based mobile voice and Internet services in the United Kingdom will now also be able to make use of the same connectivity in 23 destinations worldwide.

The joint £94m BT and Connecting Devon and Somerset project in England has successfully used a “pioneering new” 4 kilometre microwave radio link to help supply capacity for an FTTC (up to 80Mbps) equipped Street Cabinet in the remote Devon village of Northlew, which would have otherwise required the installation of an expensive fibre optic cable.

The Digital Scotland project has today announced the next 67 locations (80,000 homes and businesses), including 15 new communities in the Highlands and Islands region, that will benefit from the £410m scheme which aims to make BT’s “fibre broadband” (FTTC/P) services available to 85% of premises in Scotland by the end of 2015 and rising to 95% by the end of 2017.

The war over domestic grade business broadband prices continues as BT Business have today launched their own offer, which cuts the price of their superfast “Fibre Broadband” (FTTC) packages for new customers by £5 +vat per month on their 24 month contract options.

One of BT’s off-duty business improvement coaches, Martin Jones, claims to have spotted an Openreach Street Cabinet in the Gloucester city centre area that has apparently been painted by the well-known graffiti artist, Banksy, whose work can often sell for a small fortune. Uh oh.