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BT Retire 20CN IPStream Connect Broadband Services at 425 UK Exchanges

11th May, 2012 (14 Comments)

BT has informed UK ISPs that its legacy broadband retirement programme will, from November 2012, stop accepting new provide orders for its older 20CN based IPStream Connect products (e.g. mostly up to 8Mbps ADSL technology); albeit only at telephone exchanges where the latest 21CN based Wholesale Broadband Connect (WBC) solution exists as an alternative.

Spectrum Interactive Offer FREE Wireless Internet in London with a Catch

11th May, 2012 (0 Comments)

Communications provider Spectrum Interactive has announced that they are opening up their wifi hotspots in London (England, UK) to offer free internet access, albeit with a small catch. Users will only be granted access to FREE Street Wi-Fi if they first select a free promotional offer from one of the service partners.

Europe Finally Approves Cheaper Mobile Broadband Roaming from July 2012

10th May, 2012 (2 Comments)

The European Parliament (EC) has today voted unanimously (578 in favour, 10 opposing and 10 abstentions) to adopt new rules that, effective from 1st July 2012 (all EU Member States), will make it significantly cheaper to surf the internet from your Mobile Broadband connection while roaming abroad within the EU. The price of mobile voice calls and text (SMS) messages will also fall.

UK Dominates European Mobile Web Traffic as World Usage Triples

10th May, 2012 (0 Comments)

Website monitoring service Pingdom has used data from StatCounter to reveal that mobile web traffic (internet) worldwide, such as that which comes from Mobile Broadband and Smartphone connections, has almost tripled over the past two years. The UK was also found to have the highest share of mobile traffic, as part of total web traffic, in Europe at 10.71%.

DEFRA Open UK £20m Rural Community Broadband Fund for More Bids

10th May, 2012 (3 Comments)

The UK governments Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) has today opened up their £20 million Rural Community Broadband Fund (RCBF), which is designed to help lift thousands of farms and rural businesses into the modern internet age, for a second round of bids.

ISP BT Top 6.28M Broadband Customers as FTTC Passes 10M UK Homes

10th May, 2012 (36 Comments)

National UK telecoms giant BT has released its latest results to 31st March (Q1-2012), which saw their retail broadband ISP subscriber base add +136,000 customers (down from +146k in Q4-2011) to hit a total of 6,280,000. Elsewhere its FTTC superfast broadband service has now passed 10 million homes and businesses (almost 40% of the country), well ahead of their original Q4-2012 target.

BT Explains the Challenges to Delivering Self Install Superfast Broadband

10th May, 2012 (25 Comments)

Earlier this week we reported on how BT had launched a new trial that could pave the way for consumers to install their own superfast broadband (FTTC) services, without the need for an engineer visit (here). Sadly there are still some significant technical challenges to overcome, which BT has today been kind enough to discuss with ISPreview.co.uk.

UK ISP Allpay Promises FREE Internet for Every Herefordshire Housing Tenant

9th May, 2012 (8 Comments)

A new deal has been announced that will result in every Herefordshire Housing tenant being given access to a free wireless broadband service within the next five years. The service itself will be delivered by local wifi ISP Allpay Broadband.

UPD Power Outage Hits BT Phone and Broadband Services in Eastbourne UK

9th May, 2012 (6 Comments)

Approximately 20,000 BT broadband and phone customers in the Eastbourne and neighbouring Brighton area (dial code 01323), including local schools and hospitals, have today suffered a serious loss of connectivity after a power outage struck the local Eastbourne telephone exchange this morning at around 9:39am.

Queens Speech Confirms Expansion of UK CCDP Internet Snooping Law

9th May, 2012 (5 Comments)

As expected the UK government has used today’s Queens Speech (State Opening of Parliament) to outline the revival of a £2bn plan to expand the reach of existing ISP based internet snooping laws (data retention) to log a much bigger slice of your online activity (e.g. Skype and Facebook access); regardless of whether or not you ever committed a crime.

ASA Bans Virgin Media Advert for Misleading UK Fastest Broadband Claim

9th May, 2012 (4 Comments)

The UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has banned a technology magazine advert for Virgin Media’s 50Mbps superfast broadband service after BT complained that its claim to offer the “UK’s fastest broadband” was misleading. Several other ads were also banned because they failed to include the cost of Virgin’s Phone Line service.

UK ISP TalkTalk Calls on Ofcom to Push BT for Cheaper Superfast Broadband

9th May, 2012 (4 Comments)

Internet provider TalkTalk, which established itself in the UK market by offering extremely cheap home broadband services over their unbundled ADSL2+ (LLU) network, has called on Ofcom to develop a new regulatory framework that would effectively force BT to cut the wholesale / rental cost of superfast broadband services to ISPs from 2015.

UPDATE Anonymous DDoS Attack Knocks the Virgin Media UK Site Offline

9th May, 2012 (11 Comments)

The website of UK cable operator Virgin Media looks to have been targeted by the Anonymous activist group, which has launched a serious Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attack against the provider. The move is believed to be in retaliation after the ISP responded to a court order (here) that required it to block broadband customers from accessing The Pirate Bay piracy site.

UK Government Complicates Superfast Broadband Definition with 30Mbps Target

8th May, 2012 (11 Comments)

The UK governments Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) office has quietly complicated its existing definition of “superfast broadband” (24Mbps+) by bringing it more into line with Europe’s Digital Agenda target of 30Mbps by 2020 (minimum download speed / Megabits per second), but the subtle change could prove tricky to apply.

BT Openreach Trial Brings Self Install Superfast Broadband a Step Closer

8th May, 2012 (41 Comments)

BTOpenreach, which is responsible for managing access to BT’s national UK telecoms and internet access network, has moved the prospect of a self install superfast broadband service (i.e. no engineer required) one set closer today by announcing a technical trial of Microfilters for its 40-80Mbps Fibre-to-the-Cabinet (FTTC) lines.

Tiny Suffolk UK Hamlet of Shingle Street Gets Superfast Wireless Broadband

8th May, 2012 (0 Comments)

The small coastal hamlet of Shingle Street in Suffolk (England), which is home to a total of just 25 houses, has been delivered into the modern digital age after a local campaign (Wilford Bridge Broadband Project) succeeded in getting Buzcom to deploy its superfast wireless (wifi) broadband service (FibreWiFi) across the area.

Web Filtering Firm Smoothwall Warns UK Not to Force Net Censorship on ISPs

8th May, 2012 (3 Comments)

Smoothwall, the UK’s largest supplier of school based website filtering (blocking) solutions, has warned the government not to force broadband ISPs into imposing default internet censorship of adult websites upon their customers. The firm claims that such systems are a “very blunt instrument” and don’t stop young people who “actively seek” such content.