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UK Government Admits Broadband Availability Maps Exclude Wireless Services

14th March, 2012 (5 Comments)

The governments Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) office, which wants 90% of people to be within reach of a superfast broadband (24Mbps+) service by 2015, has confirmed that its maps of national broadband availability (example) could be seriously flawed because they often exclude wireless networks (WiFi, WiMAX etc.) and instead focus on fixed line ISP connectivity.

UPD NextGenUs UK CIC Runs Out of Money for Rural Broadband Initiative

14th March, 2012 (4 Comments)

NextGenUs UK CIC, a community focused broadband developer that hoped to bring superfast internet services to rural areas via a mix of fibre optic and wireless (WiFi) connections, has issued a general notice to creditors and customers informing them that the group has effectively run out of money. NextGenUs claims to have “exhausted all serious discussions with potential investors” and are “unable to secure any other viable sources of finance“.

BE Wholesale UK Renames to O2 Wholesale and Launches Ethernet Products

14th March, 2012 (0 Comments)

Broadband ISP supplier BE Wholesale, the wholesale business division of home internet provider BE Broadband, has officially joined the brand of its parent company O2 UK (Telefonica) by renaming to O2 Wholesale. Consumer ISP BE Broadband has been quick to clarify that the change “doesn’t affect us or our members at all“.

UPD Ofcom Back T-Mobile and Orange Rollout of 4G Mobile Broadband in 2012

13th March, 2012 (0 Comments)

The communications regulator, Ofcom, has today “provisionally” proposed to allow mobile operators T-Mobile and Orange UK (Everything Everywhere) to deploy a new generation of 4G (Long Term Evolution / LTE or WiMAX) superfast Mobile Broadband services over their existing 1800MHz radio spectrum. The group first put in a request to re-purpose the spectrum for 4G use during January 2012 (here).

EU Telecoms Regulators Find ISP Blocking of P2P and VoIP is Common

13th March, 2012 (2 Comments)

The Body of European Regulators of Electronic Communications (BEREC), which is composed of the heads from 27 national regulators (e.g. Ofcom in the UK), has published its preliminary findings on internet Traffic Management practices by broadband ISPs and mobile operators in Europe. The practices were found to “vary widely” between countries and providers with some exceptions, the blocking of VoIP (e.g. Skype) and P2P (BitTorrent – File Sharing) traffic is common.

UPD2 BT Confirm UK Launch Date for 80Mbps Superfast FTTC Broadband Upgrade

12th March, 2012 (53 Comments)

BTOpenreach, which is responsible for providing UK ISPs with equal access to BT’s local and national telecoms and internet infrastructure, has confirmed that its new ‘up to’ 80Mbps (Megabits per second – download speed) superfast Fibre-to-the-Cabinet ( FTTC ) broadband speed upgrade will officially be introduced from “early” April 2012. The maximum upload speeds will also rise to 20Mbps.

UK Concedes that Scotland Did Not Get a Fair Share of Broadband Funds

12th March, 2012 (2 Comments)

The Scottish Government’s Cabinet Secretary for Infrastructure and Investment, Alex Neil (SNP), claims that the UK’s central government (Westminster) “have now conceded that we did not get our fair share” of funding to assist with the rollout of faster broadband internet access services in rural areas.

Mitchells and Butlers Pubs Gain FREE WiFi Internet from O2 UK

12th March, 2012 (0 Comments)

Mitchells & Butlers, a leading operator of restaurants and pubs in the UK, has today signed a new three year agreement with mobile provider O2 for the provision of a free wireless internet (WiFi) service at 1,600 of their outlets around the country. This includes 13 different brands, such as Harvester, Toby Carvery, Vintage Inns, Browns, All Bar One and O’Neill’s.

UK Study Finds Lower Home Broadband Penetration in Unbundled LLU Areas

12th March, 2012 (4 Comments)

New Ofcom (UK telecoms regulator) commissioned research from Imperial College London (ICL) claims to have discovered that the process of freeing up an incumbent operators (e.g. BT) telephone exchange so that rivals can install their own kit inside, which is better known as Local Loop Unbundling (LLU), actually results in “lower penetration levels” (about -2%) for residential broadband access than areas without unbundling (i.e. BT only).

AAISP Identifies another Low Cost IPv6 Capable Broadband Router

12th March, 2012 (2 Comments)

The Director of broadband ISP Andrews & Arnold UK (AAISP), Adrian Kennard, reports that a forthcoming firmware upgrade for the Zoom X7N wireless ADSL2+ modem router should make it work properly with the latest Internet Protocol v6 (IPv6) standard and PPPoA. Crucially Zoom’s kit, much like Technicolor’s TG582n, is a low cost router; something the market has been lacking for awhile.

SES Satellite Service Renamed from ASTRA2Connect to SES Broadband

12th March, 2012 (0 Comments)

Worldwide satellite operator SES (ASTRA) has renamed its internet service subsidiary ASTRA Broadband Services and their familiar ASTRA2Connect product to SES Broadband Services and SES Broadband respectively. The new names are said to be “in line with SES’ new Corporate Identity“.

PlusNet Calls for More UK Customers to Join its 80Mbps Broadband Trial

12th March, 2012 (5 Comments)

UK ISP PlusNet has said that there are still “plenty of spaces open” on its trial of up to 80Mbps (Megabits per second) Fibre-to-the-Cabinet (FTTC) broadband technology, which was made available to all residential subscribers last month (currently 100 staff and customers are taking part). Results so far are said to have been “very positive“.

ISP Exwavia Fears UK Government to Fine Rural Farmers for Lack of Broadband

10th March, 2012 (4 Comments)

Welshpool-based ISP Exwavia, which uses wireless (WiFi) technology to deliver broadband internet access speeds of up to 14Mbps (Megabits per second) into isolated parts of rural Wales (UK), has warned that farmers could soon be hit by a new wave of fines and penalties if they do not start using the governments related online services (e.g. Taxation, Electronic Sheep Database etc.).

Golden Eye Tests Broadband ISP Piracy Evidence in UK Court vs O2

9th March, 2012 (6 Comments)

Despite the repeated failure of similar schemes, Golden Eye International, a dubious firm that claims to hold numerous film copyrights and is linked with the UK’s Ben Dover porn brand, has today gone to court in an attempt to extract the customer details for around 9,000 internet connections (IP addresses) from ISP O2 UK (Telefonica). If it wins then thousands of users, specifically those whom it accuses of “illegal” online piracy, could expect to receive threat letters (“speculative invoicing“) that demand payments of £700 to settle the offence.

BT Says UK FTTC Superfast Broadband Can Do 100Mb After EU Said it Can’t

9th March, 2012 (11 Comments)

The Vice President of the European Commission’s (EC) Digital Agenda strategy, Neelie Kroes, suggested in a speech to the Cable Congress of the European Cable Communications Association (Brussels, Germany) yesterday that it was “not possible” for Fibre-to-the-Cabinet (FTTC) technology to “really provide 100 Megabits” superfast broadband ISP speeds. Naturally BTOpenreach, which is using the same technology for its national UK rollout, disagrees.

Configuration Change Downs Orange UK Mobile Broadband Network

9th March, 2012 (1 Comment)

Mobile operator Orange UK (Everything Everywhere) has admitted that an unspecified “configuration change” was responsible for yesterdays sporadic national outage of its Mobile Broadband (3G) services. The issue, which lasted most of the day for some customers, did not appear to affect T-Mobile’s shared network and was finally resolved during the early afternoon.

Majority of UK Local Authorities Meet Governments Broadband Deadline

8th March, 2012 (4 Comments)

The UK governments Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has today announced that all but two local authorities (councils) have managed to submit their draft Local Broadband Plans (LBP) on time, which aim to help make superfast broadband (25Mbps+) ISP services available to 90% of the country by 2015 (the last 10% will get at least 2Mbps). In addition 40% of local authority projects have been given the green light to proceed with procurement.