October 30, 2000 - November 3, 2000

News - November 3,2000

Important Forum Post

By:mark.j @ 1:13:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

There's a very important forum post I've just done that requires those interested in helping to change the ISP industry for the better to go and read it:

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/ubb/Forum1/HTML/000297.html

We're giving you a chance to help re-structure the way ISPs are governed and act, please follow the rules mentioned in the posting.

Vinton Cert Attacks R.I.P

By:mark.j @ 12:56:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

One of the first people to help the Internet come of age is Vinton Cerf, a man who has today spoken out against RIP and speaks of it as a dangerous new piece of legislation - we agree:

Speaking at the Compsec conference in London yesterday he commented: "Oh my god. A lot of us in the US are very worried about the RIP Bill, it has raised some of the same concerns as Carnivore."

He said that he acknowledged that it was a matter of balancing an individual's right to privacy with the need to protect society as a whole, but was worried about the circumstances in which it comes into force.

"As the online population grows the issues of personal privacy and corporate security will become more and more important," he said.

The article @ The Register shows that even the original founders of the Internet can't seem to get a word in. When governments want to and no matter what people say, they'll continue to keep their ears closed. Such is the case with R.I.P, only the most unpopular of the three leading parties has actually stood up against it (Lib Dem).

LineOne To Get Sold Off

By:mark.j @ 12:42:PM - Comments (4) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Speculation has arisen in the last few hours that LineOne could go up for sale very soon. Who could forget the unmetered ISP that offered the impossible and eventually paid the price, literally:

Bloomberg claims that United News & Media Plc and BT are to start showing a bit of leg next week to woo some interest in the ISP.

One of the reasons, it seems, is that not only does LineOne apparently leak money, it's also deemed to be "too small" to compete effectively in an increasingly competitive market. Although with 1.3 million registered users, how big does it have to be to compete?

Current estimates value the ISP at £340 million - half what it was estimated to be worth a year ago.

The Register goes on to draw a few simple conclusions and comparisons, however you can't help but look puzzled at the bit, which reads:

"it's also deemed to be "too small" to compete effectively in an increasingly competitive market"

The ISP has 1.3Million subscribers and is worth £340,000,000! How many UK ISP's are there? 600 odd? It's one of a very few with such a colossal subscriber base (global, not UK specific) and to be worth so much. In fact some of the best ISPs are quite small, FreeChariot, ConnectFREE etc.

So to be realistic, if you're talking about being competitive then for the UK it doesn't really matter what size you are as there's competition in all corners of the ISP world.

Nildram & ADSL Latency Problems

By:mark.j @ 11:52:AM - Comments (5) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Thanks to Arbitor for informing us of a serious problem which is supposed to effect other ISPs as well and BT claimed to have fixed, although Nildrams status page say's otherwise:

Mon Oct 23 17:22:46 2000
Users with ADSL connections are currently experiencing spikes in the latency of their traffic about once every 10 seconds. This will be noticed particularly by on-line gamers. It looks like a router config problem, and is on BT's side. We are currently raising a fault with BT on this.

Mon Oct 23 22:12:28 2000
BT have traced the problem to a faulty link on their network, and have shut that link down for now. Things now appear to have stabilised, but we will continue monitoring to make absolutely sure.

Tue Oct 24 14:05:04 2000
Unfortunately, this problem is continuing to affect some users, so we have raised a new fault with BT (ref: PS73941). We've also heard that this problem is affecting other ISPs, so looks like something pretty serious at the BT end of things

Thu Oct 26 14:30:00 2000
BT have finally responded, and say the problem was caused by a fault on a GSR (Cisco Giga Switch Router) and has now been fixed. We've asked them to keep the ticket open for a few more days so we can test things thoroughly.

Thu Oct 26 17:15:02 2000
The problem is continuing to occur, so back over to BT...

Wed Nov 1 22:16:58 2000
We've continued to chase BT on this issue, and they are still giving us the runaround, and no explanation whatsoever. We've also heard that other ISPs offering ADSL are suffering from the same problem. We'll keep pushing BT for an answer. In the meantime, apologies to all those who are affected by this.

Before ADSL even arrived people had and continue to have problems with BT's ISP wing, BTInternet. By this we mean that BT would take an age to acknowledge a problem existed, they'd then claim it to be fixed when it clearly wasn't. This same process would repeat and several months later finally end up being resolved properly.

This latest problem proves BT treats its own resellers in a very similar way, when will they learn? When will this problem get fixed and who else suffers from it?

BT Speeds Up ADSL Installations

By:mark.j @ 9:52:AM - Comments (11) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Kind of following on from the article below, it probably wouldn't matter if 100% of the UK could get ADSL by December because we'd still have to wait a year to get it installed, or would we? According to BT, ADSL installations will be sped up to three times as fast as they are now by March 2001.

Steve Andrews, president of broadband for BT said: “We have recently hired 50 people for our broadband operations unit and plan to recruit 50-100 more.” Andrews explained that the unit resolves the manual IT teething problems associated with ADSL installations.

He added that, as has been reported in the press, BT has experienced some difficulties with the installations including databases not updating correctly to give the customer the capacity at the exchange.

Hamish MacKenzie, senior research analyst at IDC said: “This announcement was an admission that things have not been going well so far and they [BT] recognise that there is an issue here. They could have and should have taken the initiative to get things up and running long before now.”

NetImperative's article brings a sigh of relief that BT are finally starting to speed things up with broadband. Now if only the article below is true then there could well be hope for ADSL yet.

Full ADSL Coverage By December 2000?

By:mark.j @ 9:44:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

One of our readers (Nik) sent us an E-Mail about how he had got connected to BTOpenworld's ADSL service, but it's the last bit our eyes opened at:

Well Mark, I did indeed get my BOTH installed this Wednesday and it flies. Took the engineer all of 10 mins to do install, me 10 mins of software install and then........4 hours of nothing. Yep nada. Could connect but couldn't get any data! Rang the help line, queued for 40 mins was told I had the wrong drivers and I should get them from the web! Checked disk and found I had the right drivers! Rang help line again, another 50 min wait. This time explanation was the all BTO servers were flooded. Tried again an hour or so later and bang, there she flew!! Managed to download 120 meg in just under and hour! Apparently according the engineer I am the 19th person in Swindon (150,000 population) to get BTO so I don't think contention will be an issue for a while!!

Also found out from the engineer that there are plans to get all exchanges in the UK upgraded to ADSL by end of December. He got an e-mail update from his team manager while he was at my place, so I thought i would share this info with you!

Please bear in mind that BT are known for getting their wires crossed and spreading confused or miss-information. As such there's a good chance the engineer concerned is completely wrong, although we thought it might add a glimmer of hope to some. We'll put one of the staff onto BT and see what can be found out.

News - November 2,2000

1,300 NTL Staff Jobs Cut

By:mark.j @ 6:54:PM - Comments (3) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

According the CableNews, NTL are to make a colossal cut of 1,300 jobs in order to improve savings:

It was inevitable that ntl would eventually decide to make cost savings by cutting regional duplication across the many franchises acquired in the last few years. The announcement today that ntl had completed a consolidation review following the acquisition of CWC ConsumerCo last year and another 10 acquisitions in the past two years, with the intention of making significant cost savings, therefore comes as no surprise.

This is unlikely to be comforting for the estimated 1,300 ntl staff who will be made redundant over the next 15 months, representing about 6 percent of the company's UK workforce. The cuts will come across all divisions - except in customer services - and affect both management and support staff, with smaller regional offices being the most affected as departments are combined in central locations.

Specifics on the cuts are extremely thin on the ground and you wouldn't expect much detail on such a thing anyway. Either way those in NTL must be starting to feel the heat under their collars.

ISPs Go Quite Over LLU

By:mark.j @ 2:49:PM - Comments (12) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

What once had ISPs and third party Telco's enraged now seems to be a subject most are keeping quite about. The ever-delayed process of LLU has previously been a hot spot for anger against the mighty Telco.

However with the introduction of recent measures by Oftel (Shared DSL Access, lowering of call costs and third party line rental etc.) things seem to be quietening down, so have they found some sort of new found respect for BT?:

Clare Cook, research manager for Rhetorik, the network research company, said there appears to be a trend for ISPs to appreciate the work BT has done on unbundling the local loop: "Originally people thought it would happen overnight and they pointed to Germany as an example. Now they genuinely understand the work that is going onbehind it. I think also that the recent reports of a possible BT break-up will make BT far more approachable, and it will make it easier for people to know who [at BT] they are dealing with."

The new, less critical attitude towards BT follows on from Oftel’s shared access proposal, which will receive feedback from ISPs this month with a final ruling due in December. Oftel’s ruling will allow ISPs to offer their customers access to DSL without having to pay multiple line charges to BT. UK ISPs will therefore be able to offer a more price-competitive wholesale DSL package to their customers.

NetImperatives article doesn't seem to have much foundation, only information from the opinions of a loan individual. In fact the only example/proof that ISPs and Telco's are starting to settle down comes from Bulldog, not one we've heard of before.

We decided to do some ringing around to find out if this was really the case. In doing so we found the overall view of ISPs and third party Telco's remains much the same, they are still bitterly angry, yet pleased Oftel is starting to take 'SOME' notice.

However the general opinion is that BT could do more and that Oftel is still failing consumers by not helping encourage this. The reason its all gone quite is because they've said everything they had to say and are now waiting to see what happens.

UK Remains The Biggest Net Community

By:mark.j @ 2:33:PM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

According to new research out today from NetValue, the UK is the most connected country in Europe with 29.6% of its population online. A figure, which was closer to 25% around July of this year, quite an improvement:

This contrasts with Germany’s 25.7% of households, and 17.5% in France.

The internet usage results for September showed that 71.6% of internet users accessed the internet from home, with 42.7% connecting while at work.

However, UK users remain conservative in their use of the internet, owing in part to the scarcity of broadband access: email still represents the most popular activity for those going online, with 60.6% using the internet for communicating with others.

The article @ NetImperative goes to show just how much of an impact the increase in online business and unmetered/broadband access is having in the UK. We wonder how many of those people are unsatisfied with their provider? Now there’s a question to ask.

One2One Breathe Heavily On WAP

By:mark.j @ 2:22:PM - Comments (4) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Thanks to Richard who having signed up for Breathe's unmetered WAP trial was sent a rather interesting E-Mail regarding One2One coverage:

Dear 0800 WAP user,

Thank you for signing up to the breathe free WAP calls promotion. We hope that you are enjoying your free trial. Our records show you are a One2One customer and we regret to inform you that we have been advised by One2One that data calls to freephone numbers on their network are actually charged at 5.9p per minute and not free as we had understood (and as published on their website).

We have requested that they amend their tariff data accordingly and also update their customer services department who are still advising even now that these calls are free.

Anyhow, the bottom line is that you are going to be billed by One2One for using a freephone number, which doesn't seem that fair. As breathe has promised you free WAP calls, (and probably should have done more checking!) we intend to maintain our promise of free WAP calls until the end of November by reimbursing you at the rate of 5.9p (incl VAT) for every minute you use. We have access to your WAP call records and can easily ascertain your WAP usage.

You will receive an email to this address towards the end of November, detailing exactly how the reimbursement will take place. In the meantime, if you have any concerns, please email guidance@breathe.com or call 0845 330 1329 - our customer service staff will be happy to help you.

We apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused you and we hope that you continue to use the breathe free WAP trial.

The breathe team

This is most certainly a rare thing to see any ISP provider do, so those on One2One might do well by investigating Breathe for WAP access themselves.

Freeserve Upgrades Update

By:mark.j @ 10:33:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Came across this one while cleaning up the last few days of pure E-Mail hell whilst I was offline. It's a cut and paste of the service update from Freeserve that might interest some of you.

Tuesday, October 31st 2000, 11:00

As stated in our service update on Thursday 19th October, we are currently undergoing an extensive programme to implement further capacity upgrades to our network over the next few months.

The impact of this work is that Freeserve members will experience a gradual improvement in service levels as we complete capacity upgrades on a weekly basis. Members who currently have problems connecting to our service should experience a significant improvement in the next nine weeks.

This week we have completed the following work as part of our capacity upgrade programme.

4,000 additional modems have been installed on our core network. The final testing will be completed over the next few days and they will be fully operational by the end of this week. The modems can be used by No Ties, Off Peak and Unlimited Freeserve Time members.

We are continuing our programme of moving Off Peak traffic onto a dedicated Internet only network (CVX IP network). Last week we successfully implemented an additional 2,160 modem ports onto the CVX IP network. This will benefit all members, as migrating Off Peak traffic onto this network will free up capacity on our core network for Unlimited and No Ties members.

We apologise to those members who are experiencing difficulties connecting to Freeserve and we will continue to post the most up to the minute information on this site.

Lets hope things get better for the end of the month or FS could well be labelled the worst ISP for 2000, not a good thing for publicity.

Telewest Buys EuroBell

By:mark.j @ 10:23:AM - Comments (2) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Telewest are easily one of the better cable providers in the UK, if not the best, although that said they themselves are far from perfect (SurfUnlimited). Today it has been revealed that Telewest wishes to extend its reign by purchasing EuroBell (another Cable Co.) from Deutsche Telekom.

With a price tag of around £200,000,000, EuroBell doesn't come cheap, but it will give them vastly extended coverage into the south of England. In this part of the country EuroBell already has 171,000 residential and 10,500 business subscribers.

Not long ago NTL acquired Cable & Wireless, could this latest move by Telewest help turn the cable competition into a battle between two SUPER SUPPLIERS?

No UK Satellite Internet Access

By:mark.j @ 10:04:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

As you know we started a hunt for detailed information on UK Satellite Internet access and along the way found some very sad news. Europe Online and EuroSky are no more and in fact as is typical with us, they seemed to close on the very day we started collecting information about them =).

Both of these providers were linked and there are other Satellite systems, sadly the other systems are vastly more expensive. However there is light at the end of the tunnel because Europe Online has re-vamped itself:

Europe Online is changing!

We are delighted to introduce a whole new look to our Broadband Website together with an exciting range of new features…

All aimed at providing you with the opportunity to discover through your PC, the converged world of Internet and digital TV:

We have a whole new streaming center providing a growing range of live streams of well-known TV channels combined with productions from our own studio.

The download centre offers an ever-expanding choice of films, music, videos, games, and much more from our rapidly growing digital library.

Additionally our download channels have been dramatically expanded to provide much more delivering capacity on a scheduled basis and offline with no additional online costs.

Our new E-Lert and E-Mail service offers the opportunity to check your e-mails without the need to “dial in”.

We will notify you offline as soon as you receive a new e-mail – including sender’s name and the subject. Also as a Europe Online subscriber you will automatically be given an e-mail address such as username@europeonline.com.

You will have five e-mail addresses and 10 Mb e-mail.

Discover the new Europe Online and enjoy the beginnings of the converging world of digital TV and Internet.

Costing 15Euros per month (not including dish + Mpeg2 card etc.) the new system can be found @ http://www.europeonline.net . However you can no longer use the download only option, which was why we liked it, although there is rudimentary (not so fast) Internet access still there.

Of course whether you want it or not the old problems still remain, all Satellite services seemed to be marketed by 5 year olds. There simply isn't enough detail and clear information for an average person to know how to get online. We hope to address this soon, but it'll take time.

News - November 1,2000

Nildram - Get Surftime

By:rich.p @ 9:55:PM - Comments (2) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Thanks to Andrew for informing us that Nildram are due to launch a surftime based service. From GetSurftime.co.uk, The Nildram Surftime site:

Nildram will be launching a new service based on the BT Surftime package very shortly. We are currently awaiting our BT Surfport connection going live and will be publishing prices and launch date on the website as soon as we can. Please bear with us whilst this is done - in order for everything to work correctly at launch we need to spend time establishing our systems and carrying out training.

24-7Freecall Kick Update

By:rich.p @ 6:49:PM - Comments (16) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

We have now spoken to support. They confirm that the reason users have been kicked off was for use of pinging software. As this could count as a number of things such as an application checking it was still connected to the internet or an e-mail checker which are quite legitimate it seems a bit odd to just kick users off. Perhaps a warning would be better. Support advises people who got the e-mail, to reply to it demanding an explanation stating their username. We hope to get a proper explanation from 24-7Freecall management soon.

Edmonds Keeps Oftel Post

By:mark.j @ 4:06:PM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

In what's likely to be a highly controversial move for the government, David Edmons has been re-appointed Director General of Telecommunications (head Oftel man):

David Edmonds, Director General of Telecommunications and head man at Oftel has been reappointed to his post, despite industry wide consternation at the way in which Oftel has handled BT and its monopoly.

Patricia Hewitt, Minister for Telecommunications said that Mr Edmonds would be kept on as Director General for another three years from April 1, 2001. In the statement she said: "Since his previous appointment, Mr Edmonds has been successful over the past two years in stimulating a more competitive, forward looking telecoms regulatory regime."

However industry consternation has surrounded Oftel’s handling of various issues such as unmetered internet access but also the unbundling of the local loop. It has been accused of allowing BT to drag its feet in the provision of the last mile to competitors.

The article @ NetImperative isn't likely to bring a smile to the faces of those who believe it's time for a serious shake up with the regulator. We'd draw your attention to the highlighted quote and ask, where's the evidence of this?

Any idiot could make a market more or less competitive just like a person could add .001 to the number 1 and make 1.001. However when the goal is 10, 1.001 is not a satisfactory improvement - follow?

PrimeTime For Net Users

By:mark.j @ 4:01:PM - Comments (3) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

In a survey that any old Webmaster could have told them the answer to many years ago, NetImperative have posted news on how people go online mostly at primetime:

TV primetime has become the most popular time for UK consumers to go online, according to new research from Nielsen/NetRatings published today.

The survey found that just under 50% of active internet users in September went online between 6pm and 9pm.

In fact it's so blindingly obvious you wouldn't even need a survey or stats, the cheapest calls and many unmetered packages start after 6pm. Then around 9pm everybody hops off down to the pub, gets back to TV or does something else in general.

BTOpenworlds USB Problems

By:mark.j @ 3:44:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Surprise, yes it's another article related to yet another BT rip off, we mean spin off! Sorry. Remember all those problems with BTOpenworlds USB adaptors and not getting connected, well apparently it was all down to the drivers.

The interesting thing is BT have decided their initial estimate of the problems scale was exaggerated:

A spokesman for BT's broadband outfit said that only a third of those people using the USB service were affected.

Earlier, BTOpenwoe said 75 per cent of punters suffered the problem.

Although BTOpenwoe has reduced its estimate of those hit by the gaffe, it's still someway off Alcatel's own assessment of the problem.

The article @ The Register is just typical of most things related to BT, it's always information that nobody can agree with or on - confused.

467 Page BTSurftime Bill (£1,450)

By:mark.j @ 3:37:PM - Comments (5) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Lets be honest, when any of us get our BT bill how many truly understand the mishmash of cross and miss-referenced pages that's known as 'itemisation'? Believe it or not there was a time when things were much worse; yes it's true.

Now imagine the surprise of one poor woman when she received her quarterly bill only to find the BTSurftime number she had dialled was being charged for! It's perhaps not so much the total price, more the sheer size of the bill itself that's scary:

Nick Everitt from Burton-on-Trent is so incensed with the monster telco he's even contemplating turning up on BT's doorstep and "burning the few shares that me and the wife own in this godforsaken company".

According to Nick: "I received a quarterly bill of 467 pages in September (sent by Parcel Force no less) with charges of £1,450.06 - and all for dialling a BT Surftime free access number. It reduced my wife to a 'sobbing her heart out' mess when she opened the parcel."

"More than six weeks later and despite me chasing them up at every opportunity, it's still not sorted out. They have proven to me during this time that they are without doubt the most totally incompetent, disjointed and plain stupid organisation it has ever been my misfortune to deal with," he said.

The Register's article shows something that could reduce even the toughest of men to tears. As it happens BT did eventually reduce the bill, although it's still far from being acceptable. Ironically this is one of the reasons we dislike Surftime, because nobody actually tells you whether it's live or not (the BT bit).

It's also a very disjointed product, having to put money for one product into two locations isn't going to sync properly. Invariably billing issues will arise, I myself was charged £57 for Surftime and I never even joined the thing =).

This seems to be just the latest in a day-to-day show of sheer stupidity and down right insensitivity by the bloated Telco to consumers and business alike.

ISP Review Site Update

By:mark.j @ 1:03:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

As another month ticks over on our calendars we update all the usual sections to bring things into sync. First up we have last month’s survey, which asked:

Do we need OFTEL to be removed/replaced?
Yes 78.1% (336 Votes)
Perhaps 12.7% (55 Votes)
No 6.7% (29 Votes)
Abstained 2% (9 Votes)

Total Votes: 430

Doesn't exactly look like Oftel is winning in the consumer confidence stakes does it, 78.1% is quite a high result for any one answer. This months survey touches an issue we'd all like to get clear facts on, so PLEASE be as honest about your answer as possible - this is important:

How long do you spend online each day?

You can place your vote on the bottom right of this pages nav column, should be fairly obvious. Our Top 10 has also been updated and by request '24-7FreeCal'l has been stricken from the list and in comes 'Cloud Nine' to take its place.

The complaints page has seen the most action with BTInternet putting itself firmly back into the page and IGClick, 24-7Freecall, Freeserve and RedHotAnt being the most complained about of all ISPs.

The Worst ISP page has been updated with 'Freeserve' making it for the third time in a row as the worst. If things don't improve by next month then Freeserve could steal the crown from RedHotAnt and will likely become the most complained about ISP for 2000! Right now the recent RHA complaints rise puts them neck and neck.

Finally we come to the Readers Top 50, where the current Top 10 ISPs voted by the public look something like:

1 - Care4Free
2 - Euphony
3 - StrayDuck
4 - TheFreeInternet (Excite 0800)
5 - Vispa Internet
6 - NTL
7 - Compuserve
8 - UKRTC
9 - IC24
10 - Madasafish

It's always an interesting thing to see how people are voting for ISPs, although we can rarely comprehend the results =). Perhaps instead of basing the ranks on ratings (1 to 10) we could base it on the amount of votes AND ratings = score (check Top50 to see what we mean). Give me an E-Mail if you think this is a good or bad idea.

Help ISP Review - Broadband Satellite

By:mark.j @ 11:06:AM - Comments (5) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

While working on the new and quite innovative broadband section we hit a snag, nobody seems to know exactly what hardware to use and where to buy it from for Satellite ISPs. This very same question has been asked by several readers over a period of time and it's probably a contributing reason to why Satellite Internet simply isn't popular.

ISPs such as EuropeOnline and EuroSky (broadband list) are two such systems, lets concentrate on EuroSky to keep things simple. With EuroSky you dial in using your modem and normal ISP + Details for £9.99 per month (technically metered). However when you want to download (FTP/Web Browser etc.) you put in the Satellites proxy server and it uses a 2Mbps stream to get the information.

Wonderful, accept for the fact the ISPs refuse to supply the needed hardware. Not to mention they don't actually recommend any hardware, where to buy it or even how to install it - doh! - Amazing marketing. These are three key questions we're hoping at least one or two people can help us find the answers to.

So if ANYBODY has experience in these matters then please do give me an E-Mail ASAP, thanks.

Still No 128Kbps ISDN From RHA

By:mark.j @ 9:50:AM - Comments (10) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Despite ISDN already costing the world on its own, finding an unmetered ISP, which supports 128Kbps and works is a bit like walking in one-foot high piranha infested waters - painful. RedHotAnt seemed to be one of a few that could cope with such an endeavour, however it may not last:

When the new number came online you could still access the multilink protocol on the beta line despite the site saying otherwise. However not long after it was disabled and RHA appeared to be very uncertain about when it might come back on.

Now those who joined in the hope of getting 128K are screaming to know why it remains dormant. As usual we can't get a reply out of RHA, so can only post this item to let you know we are trying. It also serves the purpose of letting RHA know some of their customers aren't so happy.

World Online Announce Improvements

By:mark.j @ 9:00:AM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

World Online seem to be passing through a green light when they revealed their third-quarter results. Apparently revenue has increased by nearly 3% and subscriber numbers boosted a further 12% to 4,200,000:

The merger with Italian ISP Tiscali, which World Online announced in September, should be completed by the end of the year. The portal also has plans to operate its broadband service in ‘most markets’ by 2001.

According to NetImperative this is mostly down to new advertising deals and the Tiscali merger.

C.U.T Raise Dial-Up Issues With Oftel

By:mark.j @ 8:49:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

C.U.T (Campaign for Unmetered Telecommunications) have once again updated this morning with a small news piece on their most recent submission to Oftel. You may remember Oftel as having launched an investigation into the UK's Dial-Up market and so C.U.T decided to get their 60cents in (as have we just recently):

However, at the moment we mention two problems discussed before, namely the lack of a central clearing house for telecommunications complaints and the lack of supervision of Internet Service Providers, and hope that raising the issues formally now will encourage OFTEL to invite the participants in the full consultation to consider them.

You can read their HTML (PDF also on C.U.T) submission here:
http://www.unmetered.org.uk/reference/resp_011100.htm

We've also got our own little submission to put forward, although there are a few extra things we’ll add before finishing it.

ISPreview Site Update

By:mark.j @ 8:43:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Vigilant users will have noticed I've been next to invisible since around Midday Sunday. This is because living in the south of England we were one of the worst hit spots and have been without power for going on three days. In case you hadn't noticed, this was all because of that colossal storm we had on Sunday night.

A few tree's decided it'd be funny to take shots at our house, some of the roof went Hangliding and a serious accident on the motorway helped prevent the power fixing operation. As such this is the first morning I've been able to get online and typically find myself swamped =) (E-Mails/work etc.).

As such in order to minimise the workload I'll only respond to urgent or important E-Mails, if you sent something technically trivial then send it again NEXT WEEK, thanks. This may or may not delay the launch of our freecall ISP. However it will delay some of the changes I wanted to introduce this week, so sorry if that happens.

Aside from that it's good to see the staff covered me while I was unexpectedly away, although I was surprised to see the newer staff members didn't chip in as much as they could have. Well done anyway guys.

24-7Freecall Kicking Users!

By:rich.p @ 8:27:AM - Comments (38) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

After yesterdays maintenance work some people received this e-mail:

"Dear Subscriber,
Please note that you are in breach of our terms & conditions, we refer specifically to clause 8. Accordingly, within 24 hours your account will be terminated.
Yours faithfully
24-7Freecall Limited

Clause 8 in the 24-7Freecall Service Terms:

8. The service is for residential use only and may be operated only from domestic residence. OPERATING THE SERVICE FOR COMMERCIAL USE IS EXPRESSLY FORBIDDEN.

There is also another Clause 8 in the Standard T & C's:

8. Termination
8.1 The ISP will be entitled to terminate a Contract immediately:
(a) if the ISP discovers that the User or any Co-User has been creating, downloading or uploading any of the material specified in Condition 3.6 or if the User has been in breach of any of these Conditions or any law, code or regulation applicable to the Internet or users; or
(b) abuse of the system. Such abuse to be defined as but not limited to "pinging" of the system in order to keep the lines open during a period of inactivity.
(c) upon providing the User with 24 hours notice by e-mail.
(d) if the User fails to pay any charges under the Contract when due.
8.2 The User may terminate a Contract by discontinuing use of the Services.
8.3 In the event of termination by the ISP of a Contract the ISP may retain all payments made hereunder and may deny the User access via the Services to any material or data stored on the Internet. The User shall within 7 days of termination remove from the User's equipment the Software and the ISP's material. [destroy or return to ISP?]

It is unclear which part they are referring to in the e-mail. As the service is priced at around £20/month and they state:

"You can connect and use the Internet for as long and as many times as you like."

This seems to mean that they cannot kick people for staying on too long. It also seems unlikely that the people who have received the e-mail have broken any of the above T & C's. So why are these people being kicked? Comments..

News - October 31,2000

Has 24-7Freecall Improved?

By:rich.p @ 7:17:PM - Comments (20) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The initial reaction early this morning was that the downtime maintenance work last night hadn't fixed anything, but the servers went down again mid morning and all the post on the forums now seem more positive. So how is it for you? Comments....

BT's Unexpected Visitor..

By:Ross14 @ 6:26:PM - Comments (20) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

BT had a shock visit from a Blind Man this week after he went to their Offices to complain about a second line that they had installed without consent - and they ended up calling the police:

"BT called in the police to evict a blind man from one of their offices after he went to complain that the telco had installed and charged him for a second phone line without his consent.

Derek Hornby, 46, from Lancashire, was lead away by police after refusing to budge.

Hornby told the Sunday Times: "I was faced with a situation where I could have been carted off to the cells. I was not so much agitated but frightened. I felt like I was being treated as a criminal."

BT has apologised and offered to reimburse him, but Hornby wants compensation as well."

This is yet another shameless act of BT - come on, how can you install a second line without consent, or was it because the poor man was blind..?

Kingfisher Wants Out!

By:Ross14 @ 6:22:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The British Retail company Kingfisher wants to sell it's 35% stake in loss-making ISP Libertysurf, according to a report in today's Guardian newspaper.

"Kingfisher, the British retail conglomerate, wants to offload its 35 per cent stake in loss-making LibertySurf, the French ISP modelled on Freeserve, according to "whispers", reported in today's Guardian.

So where do these whispers come from? It looks like the City, where Kingfisher chief executive Sir Geoff Mulcahy was doing the rounds last week - apparently promoting the company's proposed demerger into two separate businesses.

Mulcahy it seems is unhappy with the losses that continue to pile up at LibertySurf - expected to cost Kingfisher £40 million and is looking for "a corporate way out", according to an unnamed dealer quoted in The Guardian.

A sale of the stake - even at a bargain basement price - would lift Kingfisher's share price and reassure investors nervous about the demerger."

We can't really blame Kingfisher. If they want there stock price to go up, then they must sell off their stake in Libertysurf, because realistically, this ISP is already dead and buried.

Source: The Register

Greater Protection for Online Shoppers

By:Ross14 @ 6:14:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

New laws came into force today to protect shoppers even further when shopping on the net. Vnunet.com has more on the story:

Revised laws to protect online shoppers finally came into force today, giving customers seven days to decide whether or not they want to keep goods bought over the internet.
The European directive gives so-called e-shoppers an automatic right to cancel an order and claim a refund within 30 days of any money paid - even after goods are dispatched. Customers have a seven-day cooling-off period to decide whether or not they want to keep the goods purchased.

Unless agreed beforehand, consumers can also claim a refund for goods not dispatched within 30 days. Previously, customers had to return goods before cancelling any contract with a retailer.

Internet traders now have to alter their websites to notify customers of their right to withdraw from a contract, and provide shoppers with a cancellation form.

There are some exceptions to the law, notably for contracts involving accommodation, transport, catering or leisure services, such as holidays and concert tickets.

Other exceptions include contracts where goods deteriorate rapidly, CDs, videos and computer games where the packaging has been opened, newspapers, magazines and gambling services.

Anything really that protects online shopping even further is good, and we welcome todays news.

Wireless Broadband for £9.99 a month

By:mal.d @ 2:55:PM - Comments (5) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

With several companies starting trials for cheap, low-end broadband packages, Luxemburg based Tele2 has announced the rolling out its own 150 kbps wireless service currently targeted at small businesses and home users in built up areas fed up with waiting for the various other broadband providers.

The Only problem is that users will have to live within line of sight of one of Tele2's base stations, and will have to cough up £49.99 to get one of the company's laptop-sized receivers stuck on their roof. But this is still cheaper the £150 charged for BT's Openworld ADSL product.

The plan is to set up four or five base stations in the lucky cities, each covering up to 15 kilometres. And it aims to pip BT to the post by entering areas before BT launches ADSL in them - first in line are Manchester, Cambridge, Edinburgh and Bristol.

The full article can be found at The Register. This package sounds quite ideal for the many people who live in urban areas who can't get wired services (i.e. ADSL & cable) to reach their part of the building.

News - October 30,2000

EU Domains - Next Year

By:Ross14 @ 6:44:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

It may not be hugely popular news, but by mid 2001 .eu domains should be freely available.

The European Commission, which has long coveted a top-level .eu domain, has now said it will be introduced in the middle of 2001.
The Interim Steering Group responsible for the matter reconvened a few days ago and has announced a preliminary timetable, although many details remain to be resolved.

There is already much talk of the new top-level domain for Europe becoming a rival to the powerful .com, giving Europe a competitive boost. However, critics are replying that, similarly, the euro was supposed to rival the dollar, and has since sunk to 83 cents.

It may be good news for business, but only certain countries are able to sell the domain - and the good news is that the UK is one of those able to. Other countries who are not so lucky, such as Switzerland, who are not a member of the EU, are lodging a complaint over the decidion to exclude them from .eu domains.

Source: uk.internet

AOL France Woes

By:Ross14 @ 6:34:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

It seems that the U.K ISP's aren't the only ones having trouble with so called 'hoggers' of unmetered internet access, read on:

"America Online is blaming recent service problems in France on the "passion" of its online customers -- in particular a minority of subscribers who are hogging the service, making the most of their 99F (roughly £10) per month for "unlimited" access.

On subscriber-accessible pages, AOL France explains that it "underestimated the passion for the new fixed prices and more particularly the intensive use of the service by a minority of subscribers who monopolise most of the total time spent online."

The Internet service provider admitted some blame, but also fingered certain users whom the company feels are mostly responsible for the problem.

AOL said it will "set up technical measurements to manage traffic fairly during peak hours."

These so called 'measurements' are automatic log-off techniques that will kindly ask the user to log-off from the service if they have been using it for too long in peak hours. They are also trying to stop hefty downloads and online streaming, and instead promoting the 'traditional surfer friendly' image.

It just seems to be a problem with ISP's these days, worldwide, they just can't seem to get their heads around heavy users, like myself, who love to use the net for anything upto 18 hours a day.

Source: ZDNet

24-7Freecall Fix

By:rich.p @ 6:33:PM - Comments (24) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

24-7Freecall will hopefully finally fix the problem with their dialup systems tonight. This is from the status page:

"Please note that our dial up service will NOT be available between 1.00am and 3.00am on the 31st October 2000. We have take down the dial up services for emergence repairs. We apologise for the disruption of the service and hope to restore full service."

If all goes well 24-7Freecall should return to being a good service.

IGClick Update

By:rich.p @ 6:22:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

This is an update to the news we reported on Friday about IGClick dropping 128kps access. Here is the e-mail IGClick are now sending out:

"Dear Customer,

Further to our upgrade, which has been taking place during the past two weeks, we will be able, within the next 7 days, to offer an increased service.

However, it has become increasingly apparent that a significant number
Of IG accounts who are in fact business users have been using the
residential service as a continuous connection. This is a flagrant abuse of our Terms and Conditions, and as such we are currently removing these accounts from our service.

It appears that a high percentage of our ISDN clients have been charged the incorrect tariff. The correct tariff is listed below:

ISDN
1st Line (64K) £50.00 + £30.00 = £80.00
2nd Line (128K) £50.00 + £30.00 = £80.00

Some customers have been charged at £80.00 inclusive, whilst others
charged at £80.00 for the first line and £30.00 for the second line.

We must insist that the correct tariff is charged and request that all
of our ISDN customers e-mail us with the following options:

1. If having paid only £80.00 and you wish to have 64K connection only, we will reduce your access to 64K.

2. If having paid only £80.00 and you wish to continue to access our
service using 128K connection, please confirm that you wish us to change your account/direct debit accordingly for the 2nd Line at £80.00.

3. Having paid £110.00, we can either refund £30.00 to you and revert to a 64K connection, OR confirm a further £50.00 to secure dual channel access (128K connection).

As most of our customers are aware, each port is a single user.
Therefore, each line is a separate account and charged accordingly.

We request that you e-mail (TO:sales@igclick.net SUBJECT:ISDN) your
reply as our accounts department is situated at a different location.
Alternatively you can contact by telephone on 01322 337779. Calls made
to our Sales department (0845 601 2583) will be referred to our
national call line above.

To complete our upgrade, we must limit your response date to 01/11/2000. After which date, all ISDN lines not confirmed, will be reduced to 64K access.

Thank you for your attention in this matter.

IG Accounts Division"

Now everyone who wants to use 128k access will have to pay an extra £80. Yet another example of an ISP changing the original offer that people signed up for. According to IGClick you should be able to get a 100% refund but whether they will pay out is another thing. We should have more information for you tomorrow.