December 31, 2000 - January 8, 2001

News - January 8,2001

A Reason For Regulation - TFI

By:mark.j @ 9:56:AM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Somewhat unrelated to last weeks TheFreeInternet.Net (TFI) shenanigans, one of our readers (Tania) sent us a message that served as a stern reminder of exactly why we need some proper ISP regulation - AND NOW!:

I joined The Free Internet a couple of weeks before Xmas, after Breathe closed its free service.

I had difficulty signing to TFI and had to send several emails to them, to which none were replied to. I finally called them at their rate of £1 per minute to obtain a reference number I required. They told me that they could not give me the information over the phone or by email, so I had to wait a week for the post.

When I finally connected, it was useless! It was difficult to get online and cut out regularly when you eventually got on.

I requested a refund immediately, but as before, I did not get a reply to my 3 emails. I sent a final note to them threatening to reveal their practices to BBC's Watchdog. They replied the next day!!! They refused to give me my money back, as I had used their service according to them. I am taking legal action.

If you've barely had a chance to use the service and then when you do it ends up being awful, why on earth should you be denied a refund? We're pretty sure there is something in our Statutory Rights or Trading Standards that says this is illegal.

If TheFreeInternet would like to get in touch with us then we'd like to hear their side of the story, thanks.

News - January 7,2001

RHA All Gone?

By:rich.p @ 6:58:PM - Comments (7) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

It looks like RHA are finally starting to close down as this has now appeared where there support information is:

"All support for RedHotAnt is provided by Internet Support Network - ISN please visit their site for online support pages.

Alternatively you can call the automated support number below and leave a voicemail or access basic technical help.
Technical Support: 0870 011 8080 Calls charged at National rate

There are now no real people to answer the support lines for RHA. On another not totally unreleated note the address on Free4all(Same company as RHA) site is:

JAK Group LLC
2444 Wilshire Boulevard
Suite 303
Santa Monica
Los Angeles
California 90403

It either looks like they moved to the US or this is a Level 3 mailing address.

ISP Review Weekly Update

By:mark.j @ 10:49:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

For our first week back things have been quite hectic, a lot of work and quite a few site changes. Of course it doesn't stop there, as focus will now switch to the automated ISP listings and Broadband section.

The final adjustments to the automated ISP listings are being made and if completed on time then we might see the system online by Thursday or Friday. The system won't mean that much to any of you accept for regularly updated ISP listings, the unmetered list will remain manual.

The broadband section will follow a month after and we'll then move on to developing the final system (discuss nearer the time). We also hope to rehash the links section next week, although we're still not entirely sure how =). You will may notice some new content, such as more interviews from before X-Mas which, missed the original deadline.

There seems to be a lot of trouble contacting our web host at the moment, DevilNet, this is causing a lot of problems and makes us think they might die sometime soon. So we're on the hunt for a good web host and I mean good/well priced.

ISPreview won't be moving (we're too big), although when the re-design is done we might (Easter/Early Summer). The new host is really for new projects that I can't name. So if anybody knows a Linux/Unix based host that allows a lot of web space, 8GB or more bandwidth per month and domain/sub-domain flexibility, then give us a bell. No we don't want another 'Fasthosts' fiasco, they were pretty poor =). Oh and don't be fooled by the old 'Unlimited' thing, that's false advertising.

Aside from all that we'll continue along the normal rout and expect some good stuff next week.

Telewest & Thus To Merge?

By:mark.j @ 10:23:AM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The Sunday Business Newspaper has today reported that troubled Telco, Thus, may well be in line for a Telewest take over. Apparently Telewests Chief Executive Adam Singer was impressed with Thus's strong franchise among businesses and sees a link as an option once the stock market has stabilised.

If it were to happen then Telewest would seek an all-share takeover, which means that holders such as Scottish Power (50%) would also loose their stake. Thus has seen a lot of loss in its value over the last year and so a takeover would help, but what exactly (detail) do Telewest get out of it?

News - January 6,2001

Breathe Refunds To Creditors/Subscribers

By:mark.j @ 10:30:AM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

We already know some staff at Breathe have lost their jobs, however some good news is that they seem to be prepping for refunds. One of our readers (Andrew) received an E-Mail from them and here is just part of the attached word document that came with it:

Dear *****************@breathemail.net

As you may be aware, Michael Horrocks and Steven Pearson of PricewaterhouseCoopers were appointed as joint administrators of breathe.com on 15 December 2000. We are currently continuing to trade the business in order to achieve a sale as a going concern, accordingly your account with breathe.com will continue as normal in the immediate future, with the exception of breathe freely.

breathe announced on 8 December that it would close its breathe freely un-metered access service with effect from 10 December 2000, as the business model was no longer viable. Any amount that you feel may be due to you in respect of the subscriptions paid to breathe freely represents an unsecured claim in the administration. As you are a creditor of breathe we attach a letter, addressed to all creditors, for your information.

If you were writing to establish an alternative dial-up connection through breathe, you have two options. You can use our existing breathe anywhere service, which is free to join and internet calls are charged at normal local rates. Information on this service can be found at http://www.breathe.com/help/freely.html. Alternatively, you are invited to join our new breathe easy service, which offers Internet access at one pence a minute at all times. To join breathe easy please go to http://www.breathe.com/easy/

Our technical support help-lines will continue to offer a customer service on 09067 112209 (50p a minute at all times). Do not reply to this email, if you require technical assistance please email guidance@breathe.com

The E-Mail and attachment was sent in bulk and we assume it has gone to all customers, although only time will tell. We suggest people start contacting Breathe if they feel they should get a refund. The money for refunds is likely to come from some of the company’s existing assets, such as modem terminals etc.

TFI Axe 400 Subscribers

By:mark.j @ 10:20:AM - Comments (2) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Following on from the last group they axed during late 2000, TheFreeInternet (TFI) has gone and chosen to take another 400 subscribers off the service for abuse.

Unlike last time TFI is looking less at commercial activities on a residential system and more at actual abuse:

Mr. Clarke said that they have many members who are online for many hours a day. However he emphasised that their accounts are “not and never will be 'in danger' of suspension.”

He added, “When this happens the ISP involved is always accused of 'putting profits first' in this instance the proposed can only be of benefit to all who use our services properly. You will note that thefreeinternet.net has very clear warnings on the sign-up page and in the T & C's in red.”

TheFreeInternet provide 24/7 unmetered Internet access for an annual fee of £89.99. There is also a 1-hour cut-off period.

Apparently some members have found a way around the 1 hour cut off and managed to stay online for up to 24hours a day. This in turn causes a lot of problems and TFI have chosen to take this direct action because of it. Currently TFI houses 80,000 subscribers and you can read more @ Net4Nowt.

News - January 5,2001

BT Suffers Phone Outage

By:mark.j @ 3:15:PM - Comments (7) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Consumers find faults on their telephone lines almost everyday, although you rarely expect such a thing to happen @ BT's HQ. Still today is a day for surprises and it seems as thou their head office has been cut off, if you pardon the pun:

It's not known exactly how long one of the world's largest telecommunications companies has been out of action - we can't get to speak to anyone there at the moment 'cos their phones are down.

Nor do we know the scale of the problem, except, when we tapped in random number extensions it came up with the same reply: "This number is temporarily out of order. We are sorry for any convenience."

A BT operator confirmed the line had a fault and another just managed to stop herself saying "there is a prob..."

We noticed this not long ago ourselves, whilst trying to reclaim the £102 BT owes us for charging BTSurftime to an account where we never even asked for it. More @ The Register.

RedHotAnt To Close?

By:mark.j @ 12:31:PM - Comments (5) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Ever since the last update on RedHotAnts site there has been a lot of confusion over what it actually meant, as a reminder:

Please note that we are not accepting any more subscriptions, which will assist in maintaining the reliable and efficient service to our current users.

However we stress that this action will not affect any users who already possess a RedHotAnt account, (i.e. users who subscribed in 2000); these accounts will remain active until the end of their annual subscriptions.

We will therefore not be accepting renewals to the RedHotAnt Service.

We hope that our current loyal customers continue to enjoy the RedHotAnt service until their expiry dates and we apologise for any inconvenience that may have been caused.

Instead of commenting on it straight away when we first published it, we chose to wait and do a little investigating. The confusion arises with the two contradictive lines:

Please note that we are not accepting any more subscriptions, which will assist in maintaining the reliable and efficient service to our current users.

Following that they say:

We will therefore not be accepting renewals to the RedHotAnt Service.

In turn this means that they won't accept more subscriptions and those subscriptions will come to an end at the appropriate annual date they started. The lack of new subscriptions also puts a big block in front of any future/new services because that'd be accepting new subscriptions.

All this is in direct contradiction to a statement made earlier in the year where they said new packages and prices would come into play and the old ones would stop. However in the same statement they also said that current subscribers would be allowed to keep the same price/package through renewal (we'll dig it up later).

RHA's support also seems to be giving out contradictive information; one man on their phone support said people would be allowed to renew their subscriptions. In contradiction E-Mails have been sent out to some members who asked the same question and got the following:

Dear Customer,

I refer to your attached email concerning >our recent statement on our RedHotAnt homepage, and apologise for any >confusion that may have been caused.

We will not be re-inviting renewals, however your account will remain active until the date of your renewal.

We hope you continue to enjoy the wealth of services on offer until your account completes the initial annual subscription.

Regards,
RedHotAnt

Another support E-Mail follows the same line, although ends with:

This means that your account will be stopped on the date of your renewal, and we will not be continuing it.

I apologise for any mis-understanding that was caused.

This wouldn't be news if it wasn't for the fact that RedHotAnt haven't said they are closing and issued a statement earlier in the year that said the opposite to all this. On top of that they still haven't got 128Kbps ISDN back online, despite saying it'd be done before January 2001.

So without giving themselves the allowance of new subscriptions and not referring to anything specific, does this mean they will slowly close down over the next year? Or is it just a very serious fault in miss wording and they will accept new subscriptions, but only for another style of account - not yet announced.

We haven't managed to get a comment out of RedHotAnt, although hopefully seeing the confusion that has arisen they will now issue something. Hopefully, RHA aren’t exactly known for responding to the public.

More on VisualDepth Refunds

By:mark.j @ 11:20:AM - Comments (5) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

We've been continually reporting on the status of VisualDepths refunds and the somewhat fake excuses they come up with for not paying out. It's a little late for apologies if you consider that their service died during mid Summer 2000.

That said and Net4Nowt have managed to extract a small update, which is about the only thing to come out of VD for awhile:

A spokesman for Visual Depth said they are dealing with the situation as quickly as possible and are slowly paying out. But due to lack of funds, they are struggling.

He also added that there is still 2-3% of customers who are waiting and all refunds will be completed sometime during January.

On the subject of their latest unmetered offer which according to one of their press releases; "We hope the first batch of customers to be connected to the service before 25th November", is still planned to go live soon which will be using the Flat Rate Internet Access Call Origination (FRIACO) product from BT Wholesale.

The package VD has planned is easily one of the more economically suicidal options, although come November 2001 it might well be practical. That said and would you trust them? They've also redesigned their website recently: http://www.visualdepth.com .

Freeserve Problems Continue

By:mark.j @ 11:13:AM - Comments (3) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The last time anybody heard or saw anything from Freeserve related to the updating/upgrading of their servers was on the 20th December 2000. Since then things have improved slightly, but only by so much that people can just about logon.

According to Freeserve they were set to work through the holiday period and improve things, although if you call them up the blame ends up being firmly placed on BT's shoulders. We recently named them the worst ISP for 2000 where we estimated there were some 350-400 total complaints through the year.

At present slot speeds, disconnections, and server issues seem to be the main order of the day. Although it's very difficult to emphasise just how bad these problems are unless you use the service. With FS set to move over to a FRIACO system in the new year, people are already questioning whether things will have improved enough by then.

Free Dot Net Update

By:mark.j @ 10:57:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Net4Nowt have managed to get some more details out of the Business Online Group who back ISPs such as TFI and Free Dot Net:

5) The contract between Business Online Group Plc and thefree.net for provision of services expired 30/9/00 and was not renewed.
6) Business Online Group continued service to thefree.net to allow migration to another host
7) Business Online Group handed back all data and equipment belonging to thefree.net at the request of that company's directors in December in order, we were told, to expedite migration to another service
9) We are also unable to contact any employee or director of thefree.net.

The 0845 number continues and we doubt BOL would remove it because it helps them earn money from the calls. However the fact that even BOL can't find the staff from FDN does not present such a good picture. Right now only the FDN have the hardware and software with all the other details such as E-Mail.

UK LibertySurf Set To Close

By:mark.j @ 10:45:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

It looks as if another unmetered ISP, LibertySurf, is set to close, although not for the usual reasons and some would argue the unmetered part closed long ago; we'd agree. According to the French Newspaper, other branches in Spain and Sweden look set to follow.

The ISP was under pressure to reduce spending as its resources had fallen to around 260 million euros (164.94 million pounds) from 363 million six months ago.

The ISP, which closed its non-strategic Danish and Dutch operations last June and has long been seeking a partner to boost its European presence, said this week it was in talks with various parties which may or may not lead to a deal.

Liberty Surf shares were down 5.23 percent at 6.88 euros in early trade, somewhat signalling that it's about time LibertySurf moved on. With the problems its had in the UK we doubt anybody will be upset to see it go, bar the staff of course. So much for their advertising campaign, can none of these ISPs see ahead into the future with some accuracy?

South West Net Press Release

By:mark.j @ 10:34:AM - Comments (4) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Only a day after we reported on the new unmetered ISP South West Net, they have sent us a full press release for the package:

.COM's STRUGGLING! .CO.UK's DOING WELL!

Today 28/12/00 sees the launch of the latetest service from swest.co.uk. Free, unmetered internet call access from ANY UK telephone line.

South West Net (www.swest.co.uk) has been operating since July 1999 as a FREE (no monthly charges) Internet Service Provider. In fact they were the first FREE ISP in the South West of England at that time. Well, they have done it again, being the first to release FREE call access as well!

They are registering 500 users per month, with priority being given to their existing swest users. Since release they have already had three times more subscriptions than initially predicted and may be extending that allocation in January 2001 to 1500 per month.

Their service is unique, in the fact that your free-call to connect to their service can be made using any telephone company e.g. BT, NTL, Eurobell etc. Making it an excellent choice for people on the move. Although the website itself is geared towards the South West, the service offers Nationwide local or free telephone rate access, 24 hours a day, 7 days per week.

Although a small player in the Unmetered calls sector, this enables swest to take on the likes of Freeserve, particularly as all southwestnet's equipment is co-hosted by ISP specialists, which enables them to keep overheads to a minimum, while still providing a more than adequate service. He charge for 12 months FREE call access is just £69.99, which is very competitive, given the freedom of the service.

South West Net was acquired some 6 months ago by the Multimedia
Communications (a division of UK2U), which drives a successful Internet
Advertising Banner Campaign between its core sites, including www.swest.co.uk and www.uk2u.co.uk one of the newest search engines in the UK.

For further details contact :-

SOUTH WEST NET
url(s) http://www.southwestnet.co.uk
http://www.swest.co.uk

This looks like one ISP to watch, not to see whether it'll fail so much as to see whether it'll succeed. The closest rival with a similar scheme is Connect25 and they seem to be doing ok so far, although this economical model has classically been known to cause problems later on.

It’s also worth pointing out that their original PR had a ton of grammar and spelling mistakes, something not uncommon, but certainly not good in a commercial business.

Further Domain Delays

By:mark.j @ 10:24:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

It'd be fair to say that the digital empire has gone stir crazy over the addition of new domain name extensions. It's a chance to register those popular words and names on an original extension, the problem is that it might be awhile yet =(:

The target date for finalisation of the administration process was originally December, but Icann said that the festivities of the holiday season mean that contracts won't be signed until the end of January and it was not ready "to announce anything yet".

The registry's responsible for the new domains plan to roll out names within four to six months of the contracts being finalised, but then there is Icann's 60 day sandbox period for trademark owners to grab their names before they become available to the public. This means that consumers might not be able to apply for the new domains (.aero, .biz, .coop, .info, .name, .museum and .pro) until September.

So if you're thinking of getting in on the act then it looks like you'll still be thinking about it in almost a year’s time, see you then! More @ UK.Internet.

BTOpenworlds Music Frenzy

By:mark.j @ 10:07:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The broadband and online portal service, BTOpenworld, has chosen to introduce a way for users to download secure music files. The system will use Windows Media technology instead of the more common MP3:

The trial represents a marketing opportunity for artists, and bands including Badly Drawn Boy and St Etienne have signed up through PlayLouder to allow BTopenworld users to download their music for free in a secure digital format that expires after a set period.

The trial lasts until January 12th, although the current music choices may not appeal to everybody and could present a false reading. You can find more @ netimperative.com.

News - January 4,2001

New CompuServe Version6 Software

By:mark.j @ 4:35:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Although UK CompuServe users won't see Version6 for a few months yet, the UK does classically follow the USA where they are about to launch it. Boasting improved e-mail, instant messaging, toolbars, media player and online shopping; version6 is set to improve CompuServe somewhat.

"What we are trying to get to is to make it very easy to use and cater to that value person. The features used most often are IM (instant messaging) and e-mail," Davidson said. "We aren't putting a lot of focus on broadband and anywhere applications because our consumer is not there. They don't have as much money to spend and are not as tech savvy so there isn't a lot of focus there. That's where AOL goes," he added.

That said and CompuServe has always been around half a year to one year behind AOL in terms of price, service options and connection. Many of their customers in the UK are still hoping to see an AOL style unmetered package arrive, they could be waiting awhile.

Online Population Update

By:mark.j @ 10:28:AM - Comments (3) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The online information site, emarketer.com, has updated with an item that takes a graphical look at how many people are online in the UK. We pulled the following image because it shows who is most online around the country and we haven't seen that before in this form:

The rest of the article goes into more depth related to the digital divide between poor and wealthy people.

LibertySurf Merger - Belgacom

By:mark.j @ 10:22:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The French based ISP LibertySurf, which not long ago withdrew its more built up unmetered options, is rumoured to be close to a possible merger deal. The ISP, also based in the UK through Kingfisher, is in talks with several groups, one that includes Belgium's state-controlled telecoms group - Belgacom.

Speculation about the possibility of a Belgacom bid allowed Liberty Surf shares to shrug off the general malaise affecting hi-tech stocks and close almost 9% higher on the day.

Liberty Surf yesterday refused to be drawn on the identities of the companies with which it was holding talks or the prospects of an alliance materialising.

"Following media reports referring to talks with a telecoms group, Liberty Surf would indicate that, while talks are going on with different partners, they could either reach or not reach a conclusion," the company said in a statement.

You can find more on this topic in yesterday and today’s Guardian Newspaper, although no deal is likely to improve the UK side of things.

Free Dot Net Vanishes

By:mark.j @ 10:02:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

We've been hearing about the ISP Free Dot Net (http://www.thefree.net) for some time now and how they haven't been operating properly since just before Christmas. Sadly we weren't able to investigate for that very same reason; it was the Christmas period.

It started off with just the E-Mail going down, then the FDN websites followed and support contacts went dead as well. VNUNet have also tried to contact FDN without success:

The firm is understood to have contracted out the management of its servers to The Free Internet, also based in Brentford, which offers unmetered internet access for £89.99 a year.

However, The Free Internet said it stopped providing services to Free Dot Net before Christmas. A spokeswoman refused to give any further details of the relationship between the two, saying only that they used to operate from adjacent offices but no longer do so.

Customers have been unimpressed by losing their email facilities over the festive period, although they have able to access the internet through an 0845 number.

Quite what is happening we don't know, although the signs aren't exactly promising. We suspect the only reason they keep the 0845 number open is because they gain a commission from it. We'll be keeping a very close eye on this subject.

News - January 3,2001

NTLWorld Off-Net Price Increase - More Details

By:rich.p @ 1:10:PM - Comments (10) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

NTL have now got round to posting some sort of official price increase notification in ntl.annouce newsgroup:

"There are some important changes to our Off-net pricing this year. These new rates will become effective from February 1st 2001 and apply across the board to both new and existing customers. They are:

1. ntlworld and TV Internet customers.
The minimum monthly spend required for free internet access will increase from £10 to £15.

2. Additional adaptors.
The price of an additional adaptor will rise from £5 to £10 each.

3. International Option
Call rates to certain countries will be reduced in order to make our rates even more competitive. These rates will be advised shortly. There will be no price increases.

4. The £10 set-up fee will remain for new customers.

5. The call connection charge stays at 3.5p.

6. UK call rates and call rates to mobiles remain unchanged. With the
International Option, some International call rates will fall."

We also asked NTL this question:
When will existing customers be told about the NTLWorld Off-Net price rise?
--
NTL is in the process of preparing a mailing to all existing customers to inform them of the changes. The aim is to have the information with customers by 17 Jan to give two full weeks notice.
--

This just about rounds up the information on the price increase. The price of good consumer 56k access is now set at £15 with packages from BT + NTL at almost the same price. The advantage of NTL is that you can make calls up to £15 and not be charged.

South West Net Unmetered

By:mark.j @ 1:00:PM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Another new unmetered ISP has sprung up called South West Net (http://www.swest.co.uk), although judging by the web site it looks more than a little wary:

For The First 500 South West Net Members!

As promised (and only a week behind schedule!!!)

South West Net is proud to introduce it's new unmetered dial-up servce.

Our service is unique in the way it can be used from ANY telecommunications provider e.g. Eurobell, BT, NTL

We will provide you with a new user name, password, and unique Free-phone dial-up number.

Our connection is currently available to the first 500 modem users only! With plans to expand the service by February

The cost per year is £69.99

Applications are on a first come - first served basis

You can find more details and Sign-up HERE, although be very cautious if you choose to use this ISP, we do not endorse it. They also block multiplayer gaming, streaming, servers (ones you make, FTP etc.) and have a one-hour cut off.

This service seems too small to be a unique ISP and so we expect it's a VISP from another provider. Checkout Net4Nowt for more comments.

Site Update - More Forum Changes

By:mark.j @ 11:26:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Just a quick update; we've further 'Streamlined' the forum during yesterday evening as per reader request. It was getting a bit confusing and so we've merged some together and got rid of a category. This also improves loading time.

Please be aware that if the forum goes a bit mad at anytime today then that's just us adding some new features in.

Update:
We've just added a survey at the bottom of the forum, it asks how many hours do you spend online a day? We did this before, but here it is again =).

LLU - The True Costs Involved

By:mark.j @ 11:10:AM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

We've been saying it for awhile ourselves, that too many people seem to be under the assumption LLU (Local Loop Unbundling) will bring a huge difference in prices to the consumers.

The reality of the situation is that LLU means very little, BT will still be in ultimate control and lead the way, while Oftel will do very little:

The promise of unbundling is out of kilter with reality, says Tim Johnson, analyst with research firm Ovum. "It is crashing up against reality and at the end of the day BT owns the network and while you can force them to make it available you still have to allow them to make a small profit."

With operators having to pay BT a yearly fee of £122 for each telephone line they take off the telco there is little profit for other operators, says Johnson, predicting a fresh glut of telcos quitting the process. "The price of rental means they will not make much profit. A lot of people on the list for unbundling will quietly drop out of it." Meanwhile BT will not find itself out of pocket. "BT has managed to persuade Oftel in its direction. It won't take long for them to make up on rentals the cost of connections," he says.

The current slump in telecoms shares will not help, Johnson adds, and anyone expecting unbundling to herald a new age of cheap broadband will be disappointed. "People will price up to what BT charges. BT will be price leader. The regulator will not be putting pressure on for prices to come down," he says.

In an Interview over @ ZDNet not long ago, Oftel's chief claimed within two years ADSL would cost £25 per month (roughly) for residential level access. However even under LLU the chances of that becoming a reality for any Telco are remote and 'wishful thinking'.

The real point of LLU is to give Telco's the ability to 'Control' a true stake in the market. The overall effect on prices will be just as minimal as a typical BT discount scheme that nobody understands anyway. More @ ZDNet.

BT Not a Villain - ISPA

By:mark.j @ 10:57:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The Internet Services Providers Association (ISPA) gives out awards each year and one of those is known as 'Villain of the UK Internet Industry'. Now you'd have thought BT would win, yet an interesting rule and one cleverly sponsored, means they won't:

BT will escape being branded as the villain of the UK internet industry at the 'Internet Oscars' next month, after small print ruled it ineligible for the category.

The telco has just ended one of its most troubled years to date, which included criticism from rivals over the delay of unbundled local loops and the delay of its wholesale unmetered internet service.

Nevertheless, BT has not been shortlisted for the internet villain category in ISPA's internet industry awards. The reason is that BT will be sponsoring the category and under the rules of ISPA's awards "companies cannot win an award that they have sponsored".

I don't think we have to add much more to that do we? Although it does make you wonder exactly who is likely to win now? FreeServe? Checkout VNUNet for the full item.

Internet = Commercial Failure

By:mark.j @ 10:50:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Despite many of the more public/large online stores claiming a huge increase in sales and profits over the Christmas period, new research suggest that things aren't so rosy on the commercial side:

The Net's vibrant commercial functions would have been at their height during the holiday shopping season during November and December, so the researchers chose to measure its vital signs at that time.

The results were less than inspiring. Fifty-one million people used e-mail during the season to make holiday plans; thirty million people sent e-greeting cards to loved ones and friends; but only twenty-two million people actually bought gifts on line, the study estimates.

Furthermore, even those people who do buy products on line did the majority of their holiday shopping in the real world, perhaps because a lot of people consider it fun.

Perhaps it's because a lot of people know from experience that ordering online via the Internet for Christmas is best done in November. Otherwise deliveries can take time or products might not be in stock, so at least if you go to a shop then you know it's there for certain.

Of course that's the problem with statistics, they’re just numbers that show you what's happening for a specific period. Research done on those numbers will always be a 'best guess' scenario, neither ever actually tells you the real reasons. More @ The Register.

EXCLUSIVE - CloudNines New (Potential) Prices

By:mark.j @ 10:42:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

This is an exclusive on what CloudNine are hoping to do with their MySurftime (unmetered) packages in the future.

At present CloudNines MySurftime unmetered wing are looking to change from BTSurftime to BT's FRIACO alternative, SurfPort24, but are also considering FRIACO:

The real reason I am writing is to update you on discussions we have been having with BT about Surfport 24.

Cloud Nine are looking to bring a FRIACO offering live ideally from April this year. Since we are used to dealing with BT anyway and have actually found the Surfport platform to be very reliable (despite the obvious 64Kb limitation) we thought it would be interesting to find out about their Surfport24 offering. Our only concern is the commitment on BT's part to bringing their Surfport24 offerings live as quickly as possible and the Surfport/Surftime delays don't inspire us greatly.

We will be talking with other TELCO's to see if there are more competitive offers available but as I said we have been generally happy with the stability of the Surfports (more so than similar offerings that we have used in the past from other Telco's), having achieved better than 99.9% availability on these since October.

So, crystal ball gazing, what would we be able to offer if we went down the Surfport 24 route. Based on current BT pricing we would basically replace our existing Surftime packages with a like for like Surfport24 product. There are some substantial savings here as well as the convenience of single billing by the ISP providing the service.

If we went down the Surfport24 route we would be looking at the following tariff:

HomeSurf Lite Offpeak - £12.99 per month - restricted to dialling evenings/weekends. (Currently £13.51 + £5.99 to BT for Surftime - saving £6.51 per month)

BusinessSurf Lite - £21.99 per month - 24 hour dial-only access (currently £13.51 + £19.99 to BT for Surftime! - a saving of £11.51 per month)

BusinessSurf (inc. full business hosting package) - £35.99 per month - 24 hour dial, unlimited email addresses, 100Mb web space, ASP, Frontpage 2000, daily visitor stats, search engine notification, etc, etc (currently £26.14+19.99 to BT for Surftime - a saving of £10.14 per month)

Network Connect - prioritised bandwidth, fixed IP No, SMTP incoming, etc - £57.99 (currently £47 + £19.99 to BT for Surftime - a saving of £9 per month)

Basically, anyone who has purchased a Surftime package (or indeed does so between now and April) would be able to move over to our new tariff structure and start saving even more. Customers who have taken annual contracts will get a pro-rata rebate on a new 12 month contract.

As usual, Cloud Nine will not be pitching for the low end of the market. We are more concerned with providing a higher quality, lower modem ratio service for the discerning home worker/surfer or for business users needing reliability and performance.

Anybody who has used CloudNine (we recently reviewed them) will know their service is exceptionally good and reliable. Low ratios, lots of bandwidth and no annoying cut offs make it an excellent investment for your money.

As such it'd be an amazing step forward for them to lower the prices in the way they propose, not only would it make C9 more affordable, but cheaper for those already on it. We also asked what kind of discount the other residential packages might see:

"As regards the other residential services, we are looking to pass on a saving of approximately £10"

While none of this is set in stone we can still be sure that one way or another, C9 will be lowering prices. The best bit is that the discounts will come from changing systems and at no sacrifice to quality.

Small RedHotAnt Update

By:mark.j @ 10:24:AM - Comments (11) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

RedHotAnt have put a small update on their site this morning and it's probably worth a mention:

Welcome to RedHotAnt

Please note that we are not accepting any more subscriptions, which will assist in maintaining the reliable and efficient service to our current users.

However we stress that this action will not affect any users who already possess a RedHotAnt account, (i.e. users who subscribed in 2000); these accounts will remain active until the end of their annual subscriptions.

News - January 2,2001

Another Broadband Round Up

By:mark.j @ 3:04:PM - Comments (6) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Tis the season to do round ups of just about anything that's been news in 2000, so it comes as no surprise that now even ZDNet have done a broadband round up. Unlike netimperative.com's, this one looks at all the mediums, although focuses on Cable and ADSL:

Once again the cable operators seemed ahead of the game. Ntl trialled cheaper broadband which went nationwide with a pricetag of £19.99. A report from NetValue claimed that the UK was much slower to take up broadband than many other countries, with only one percent of households broadband enabled.

There was only so long BT could hold out against the criticism and in November it finally acted to triple the number of users being connected. It apologised for the delays and other problems people were experiencing with installation. It also promised to introduce a computerised system to deal with ADSL orders and hire consultants to identify other problems with the process. In an interview with ZDNet, Oftel director general David Edmonds looked forward to universal broadband for £25 a month within two years.

ADSL - The Road Through 2001

By:mark.j @ 2:54:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

netimperative.com have just put up an interesting article/news item on how they see the progress of ADSL so far and during the next year. It looks at issues of costs, coverage and of course, Local Loop Unbundling:

The new year will see BT handing over two trial local exchanges in Battersea, London and Manchester to operators in order to install their ADSL equipment in the coming weeks.

This follows the release of two in Edinburgh and Leeds last month. These are the first four of the 600 exchanges that will be made available to operators - 190 will be available for operators to physically co-locate and 410 will be available in adjacent buildings.

The release of such exchanges is one step in BT’s increasingly complex ADSL rollout strategy for both its wholesale services and provision of the unbundled local loop.

ISPreview FreeCall Changes

By:mark.j @ 12:47:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Due to somewhat of a mutual agreement, the current ISPr FreeCall offering is being handed back to FreeChariot (accounts will remain active, but we will no longer support the package/publicise it). For our part FreeChariot have been a good ISP to work with, although problems with billing and other service issues have made us question the overall package quality.

We also found the £18.80 per month price tag with its very limited usage to be somewhat over priced by comparison to closer competition. On the FC side they have been forced (by directors) into allowing VISPs that only bring in subscription numbers of an unattainably high value in such a short period.

Instead we've both agreed to let the current offering go, this will allow us to pursue some more flexible offerings in the future. We've always wanted to offer a flexible package that doesn't have any imposed (public or not) usage limits and so thanks to FRIACO2 then that's what we'll be doing.

It’s been an interesting experience offering an ISP and we kept up our end to a 'T'. We'll do it again in the future, but this time with a different/quality provider, of which there are now many. We simply didn't think the £18.80 option could survive with its limits. It's better to get out now and plan ahead then to stay on a train going down the wrong track.

Vispa Launches VispaCall Telco

By:mark.j @ 10:17:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

You may remember that over a month ago we brought you the exclusive news that Vispa were to launch a Telco service. Today they have sent us a full and official press release for the services launch:

For Release 9 a.m. GMT
January 2nd, 2001

VISPA LAUNCHES VISPACALL TELECOMMUNICATION SERVICES

January 2nd 2001
Admit it, we all like saving, especially when it concerns money. Well sit back and let VispaCall start the process with your phone bill.

We have spent many months investing in equipment, conducting canvassing and market research as well as establishing and developing partnerships with key companies and services all with the aim to offer massive savings on phone call charges.

Just look at the savings possible with VispaCall

A 10-minute call to Australia would cost £4.17 with BT at the current time. With VispaCall that same call would only amount to 60p. That's a massive 86% saving!

Calls to all European countries, both landline and mobile come with huge savings, starting from a 19% saving to Greece on a mobile through to a whopping 91% saving to Norway on landline. The savings are there, whatever your needs!

UK based calls also see delightful savings. National rate daytime calls can see as much as 63% savings, ideal for people who have friends outside BT's local 35 mile calling distance circle. Savings to selected mobile networks are also available from between 10% and 20%

With all the above information taken into an account, a customer of
VispaCall could see a saving of £250 a year based on annual BT phone call charges of £540. Many will agree money well saved for use on other life's luxuries.

Our working partnerships

VispaCall have already integrated themselves into the Vispa group, working alongside our sister and holding company Vispa Internet Limited to offer its users savings as shown above, as well as being committed to supporting the telecommunication requirements of the growing Internet Service Provider (www.vispa.net) over the coming months.

Let the savings begin!

For more information on VispaCall and it's services:
http://www.vispacall.co.uk/

For a bog standard Telco those discounts actually look very favourable, although with Internet phones growing into the market and cheaper Telco's arriving, it may not last. For now at least it's a worthy competitor to BT, let’s hope Vispa treat the Telco market as well as they have the ISP.

RedHotAnt Close Subscriptions

By:mark.j @ 9:41:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

If you didn't already know then RHA (RedHotAnt) have stuck true to their words and closed for new subscriptions under the current price/system. Normal support should also be back today and RHA will probably be back in the near future with a slightly more expensive offer as stated previously.

RHA seem to be recovering well from a year that saw them dead or unworkable through the majority of months. It'll be interesting to see how things go for them in 2001, lets hope that a fresh start gives them the extra boost. Unlike others, RHA have at least managed to sick with it.

News - January 1,2001

ISP Reviews - An ISP For 2000 - Update

By:mark.j @ 3:31:PM - Comments (6) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Nearly two weeks ago we announced our shortlist of 10 ISPs that had been proposed for the best of 2000 award, you can see the original item HERE. After reading E-Mails, listening to forum banter and looking at all the ISPs, we've managed to round down to three potentials:

1) AOL (UK)
2) CloudNine (MySurftime)
3) Madasafish

From here we're not entirely sure which should win as each of the three has its own merits in one area or another. As such we're giving the readers a last minute chance to comment on either of the three above.

ISP Review Monthly Site Updates

By:mark.j @ 3:09:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

As usual another month starts and we see a New Year begin, so today’s site updates have taken a little longer because of that. Firstly the Top 10 has been updated, although nothing specific changed. We've also put the Worst ISP for January 2001 as IGClick and the worst ISP for 2000 is Freeserve (SUPRISE! - Not).

The complaints page has been cleaned up as we've started a fresh for 2001, right now only a few ISPs are listed. The unmetered list has seen a small update and the current Ranking (Top 10) for the Readers Top 50 looks like this:

1 Care4Free
2 X-Stream
3 Demon Internet
4 RedHotAnt
5 IC24
6 Connect25
7 StrayDuck
8 ClaraNet
9 FreeUK
10 UKRTC

The header and footer files for the site have also been updated for all relevant systems around ISP Review that aren't able to use SSI directly. Plus we've got the answers to last month’s survey (poll):

What do you value most in a freecall ISP?
Service Speed 40.1% (253 Votes)
Heavy Usage Support 26.9% (170 Votes)
ISDN 128K Support 17.4% (110 Votes)
Cut Off Time 10.3% (65 Votes)
General Services 3.4% (22 Votes)
General Support 1.5% (10 Votes)

Total Votes: 630

The new survey (poll) asks the question:
What do you do most while online?

On top of all that the forum has been given some new features:
-Ability to see how many people have viewed a topic.
-Now shows newest person to register.
-Now shows total posts.
-Shows last person who replied to a topic.
-Small layout/format changes.

Finally we've integrated our general chat system into ISPreview instead of a floating window, this makes things easier to manage. There hasn't been much in the way of news today for obvious reasons, although we expect normality to return slowly from tomorrow.

News - December 31,2000

!HAPPY NEW YEAR From ISP Review!

By:mark.j @ 6:39:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Well ok it's not quite 2001 just yet and no Jesus hasn't risen, and yes computers are just as stable as they were last year. That said and we'd like to wish EVERYBODY, whatever religion or persuasion, a Happy New Year!.

PS"We added a new forum in for 'Mobile Computers & Phones' as requested. So feel free to chat about WAP or PocketPC's as much as you dare."