September 21, 2000 - September 26, 2000

News - September 26,2000

VisualDepth Press Release Update

By:mark.j @ 6:08:PM - Comments (6) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Well you all known VisualDepth by now, not least after our final investigation was published a month ago. Today they have finally issued a press release; as usual with ISPr we give you the full un-cut version:

**This E-Mail has been sent to Net4Nowt and ISP Review Only**

As promised news is due to be released regarding the future of Visual Depth's Unmetered Service before the end of this month. The news shall be sent in the form of an e-mail to all Visual Depth customers along with the Press.

I’m afraid the news does not include any promising news for a replacement service, but does include information regarding current customers contacting us and how to obtain refunds. As previously stated we are in talks with many telecommunication companies and we have been offered many types of deals. However, so far we have been unable to find a telecommunication company who is able to provide a service to allow us to operate under our low prices.

We shall continue looking for a telecommunication operator who can allow us to operate such a service at such a low price. However, so far the service could not be operational without customers paying approximately £20 per month. Over the next two weeks we will be working harder than ever to find the correct telecommunication operator for the job to enable us to continue offering such a low priced service.

The service we shall operate will be as follows (This is our demands from the operator and may be varied slightly, however shall be kept the same where possible to obtain a high quality service): -
Complete Unmetered Access 24-7 for £74.99 per year or £9.99 per month
2-4 hour cut off limit
A low modems to users ratio
Access to 30,000 newsgroups
30MB Web Space
5 E-Mail Accounts
10% Discounts at Eliteplay.com

The news e-mail shall be sent before the end of this week.

Many Thanks,

Martin Case

(Managing Director)

Visual Depth - See The World Our Way

http://www.visualdepth.com

We've said enough on VisualDepth to last a lifetime, so if any of you (the readers) have something to say about them then post a comment.

Banks Fail Net Test

By:mark.j @ 1:38:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

You'd think that modern day banks would take customer support as a 1st priority and many often do. The problem is this same support doesn't seem to migrate onto E-Mail very well; a problem shared by more than just banks:

IT consultancy Vanson Bourne said most mainstream UK banks listed the internet as one of the most important banking channels for the future, yet still failed to show sufficient customer support for their internet facilities.

Out of 30 banks tested in the survey, 20 failed to reply to an internet-based enquiry within 24 hours, including 10 which failed to reply at all. Vanson Bourne said that half of those that did reply failed to give a satisfactory answer, but even less than half were able to reply when questioned further or when an answer needed more in depth research.

According to the survey, small banks and regional building societies, such as the Co-operative Bank and Birmingham Midshires, offered the most customer support over the internet. Even internet only banks did not produce incredible results, with the mainstream high street banks offering the least response.

The article, which can be seen over @ UK.Internet, brings to light one of those points people rarely notice. This is usually because we are all so used to slow E-Mail replies that two-four days waiting is common.

Of course it's not just a problem with banks, it's a problem with everything on the Internet. Very few businesses reply within 12hours and almost nobody will reply in under that time period, yet a phone call takes moments and requires ever so slightly less effort.

Perhaps people are so used to the term 'Electronic Mail' that they believe it has nothing to do with being faster than snail mail, it's just more convenient? Either way this needs to be looked into.

Net Fails To Reach Older Adults

By:mark.j @ 1:27:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Yet another survey article from Yahoo News this afternoon, this time it's about adults on the Internet:

"A survey from the National Statistics office published on Tuesday showed 55 percent of Britons had never ventured into cyberspace, with low-income groups missing out most.

Men were more likely to have used the Internet than women, the survey showed, with 52 percent of men having used the web compared with just 39 percent of women.

Britain's ruling Labour Party has warmly embraced the Internet revolution and seeks wider access for all, a goal which may become achievable as the Internet is rolled out on television networks in coming months.

But older generations remain distinctly lukewarm, reflecting in part a lack of confidence in using the new technology but also, perhaps, a lack of interest in using it.

The survey found that only six percent of adults aged 75 and over had bothered using the Internet, while in the 16 to 24 age group the figure was 69 percent."

Energis join Telco's against BT

By:mark.j @ 1:22:PM - Comments (2) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The network provider behind some of the fastest UK ISPs, Energis, has joined the team of rival Telco's to do battle with BT over its handling of the LLU (local loop unbundling). In fact more than that, Energis has been identified as the ringleader:

The Mail reports that CE, Mike Grabiner, is forming a "council of war" to take on BT in the courts.

Colt Telecom, Kingston Communications and Thus have all been fingered as telcos ready to take legal action against BT for its foot-dragging over Local Loop Unbundling (LLU).

The law firm, Clifford Chance, is understood to have been consulted to represent those telcos who've reached the end of their collective tether although reports suggest that such action would be only as a "last resort".

However according to The Register, BT aren't going to have any of it and go on to boldly state:
"Telcos have had a free lunch over NTS (Number Translation Services) and now they're looking for a free breakfast and a free dinner too."

It's a difficult situation and that's an understatement, it's not just about the LLU process, but also about the delays, which are BT and Oftel's fault. Such stalling causes obvious financial problems for third party Telco's and ISPs.

Still one thing’s clear; BT could have produced a less directly offensive statement that's only likely to anger them further.

New Reviews @ ISPreview

By:mark.j @ 1:07:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

A little later than usual due to large amounts of ISP news taking up most of our time, but here are three new ISP reviews for September.

Ace Internet - http://www.ispreview.co.uk/reviews/ace/
abs2net - http://www.ispreview.co.uk/reviews/abs2net/
NTL World - http://www.ispreview.co.uk/new/reviews/ntlworld.shtml

ISPreview has been at the reviewing game for well over a year now and think it's about time we gave our methods a speed boost. Over the years we've found several key problems when reviewing ISPs:

1) They keep changing services & costs etc.
2) The speeds tend to vary.
3) More and more ISPs are dieing.
4) Modem speed test are a waste of time due to instability on the BT system, they do not provide a realistic show of network throughput because of this.

At current it takes one person a week to review an ISP simply because we need average speed results, the actual writing only takes a few minutes. Obviously with ISPs changing so much it can take awhile to find out what's different and quickly becomes an impractical task.

However we've found that speed only varies when there are serious problems, as such we plan to redefine the way we review ISPs and the rating system a little, although end results will be the same. It's still early days, but could have the potential to see us doing 6-8 reviews a month rather than the current 3-4.

So instead of talking about things such as the speed, we'd simply give it a rating and small/unique definition. The actual written part would be cut in half so as to be easily maintained. Don't expect any changes for a while until we know precisely how to order the output.

UK Internet Behind Germany

By:mark.j @ 10:13:AM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Thankfully we're not talking about unmetered access as one way or another the UK is ahead in that department. What we are talking about is big business:

A survey released Tuesday by PricewaterhouseCoopers found that over one third of Europe's top 150 Internet firms were based in Germany. The UK is home to less than one quarter.

Over half of Germany's dot-com firms are in profit, compared to 26 percent in the UK. Ten percent of the companies surveyed were likely to run out of cash within a year.

Obviously you can blame unmetered access for the low UK profits, but why so many companies have situated themselves in German isn't clear. While we hunt around for an economist that might have the answer, you can read the rest over @ ZDNet.

Infonet Satellite Broadband

By:mark.j @ 10:06:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

While the likes of ADSL and Cable Modems slowly spread their roots, many also forget about Satellite access. A company called Infonet is to introduce a service called BroadEdge that enables the delivery of IP-based streaming data.

That's video content and CD quality music to you and me; the service will be designed for small businesses and disparate branch offices (ones that can't get ADSL/C-Modems):

Jan Stevens, director of Broadband Solutions at BroadEdge said: “This is an alternative to xDSL. It delivers high quality streaming content to regions where they can’t access via terrestrial such as Eastern Europe and South America.”

Infonet has invested $2.5m to offer this broadband service, which will also offer two-way links via its terrestrial IP ATM network. Technology has been licenced from STM Wireless Inc., another investor in BroadEdge. The service will provide 56Kbps dial-up access and a 48Mbps downstream channel that will be shared by content providers and ISPs. The reason for the massive difference between up and downstream speeds is due to the necessity of using a conventional phone line to dial the satellite, before it can stream down the content. Infonet will also be able to use the technology to provide caching functionality for its terrestrial users.

The system is due to go live in the UK and the rest of Europe and Asia by the first half of 2001. Trials are already taking place in America as we speak. This isn't the first such system we've heard about, there's actually another called EuroSky and should be in our broadband list.

Usually the drawback to such systems has been the cost of having a satellite receiver installed for the downstream data + the needed adaptors. Checkout the rest @ NetImperative.

BlueYonder goes YouBlunder

By:mark.j @ 9:49:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The Telewest Cable Modem service Blueyonder is a difficult system to approach because it works slightly different for every user you meet. This is usually the result of shared bandwidth; many people often end up with extremely slow speeds, depending on location.

Well one customer has had enough, as Michael reported to us this morning. The unknown user has made a website, that much like http://www.foxglove.co.uk, is a humorous take on Blueyonders:

http://www.youblunder.co.uk/

Makes for an entertaining break in the usual news stream.

News - September 25,2000

Viatel Backup AOL's Net Front

By:mark.j @ 4:39:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

According to several small newspaper items and website pieces, the Viatel Telecom provider claims it has agreed to provide dial-up Internet access in the United Kingdom to America Online (Worlds Biggest ISP, we won't say TOP).

The New York-based Viatel plans to extend its services to AOL across the whole of the EU. In the UK Viatel already owns and operates a 20-city fibre-optic network that enables it to provide voice, data, Internet, and mobile communications services.

UK Expensive For Leased Lines

By:mark.j @ 4:33:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

It's something we've known for years, that while technologies such as Cable Modems and ADSL broadband grow, the price of leased lines remains solid. Despite the fact some of them can be almost the same speed and still cost x4 as much:

EU competition commissioner Mario Monti has said that the price for high bandwidth leased lines in the UK could be too high.

The statement came as the commissioner launched a public hearing looking into preliminary findings following an investigation by the EC into leased line prices.

Monti said: “Leased lines are a vital element in the creation of e-Europe. If prices do not fall further, innovation and investment will be stifled and consumers will suffer, as access to the internet will remain too expensive.”

Perhaps next they'll look at the costs of ISDN line rental in the UK? We can only hope, checkout the rest @ NetImperative.

Redstone Jump Ahead With Broadband

By:mark.j @ 4:24:PM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Redstone Telecom is a name many recognise and trust in the industry and today that recognition looks to jump a step further. They've come up with a better way of offering DSL (SDSL, not ADSL) through the local loop unbundling process:

The company says that it has applied for access on a total of 1,250 BT local exchanges in a bid to rollout a synchronous broadband service to SMEs. It plans to offer its service as a distance co-location or to house its equipment in street cabinets close to the local exchanges rather than within them.

According to Tim Johnson, analyst at Ovum, this could put it at an advantage over the other operators who are currently jockeying for physical space in BT’s local exchanges. However he warned: "It depends on how successful they are at finding alternative locations."

The decision to provide SDSL could also put Redstone at an advantage because SMEs will be able to expect connections almost equivalent to an E1 line. He said: "It is a good solution and we expect to see a lot of it about." The research firm believes this DSL standard should quickly become the technology of choice for broadband services to SMEs. SDSL also does not have a voice channel, so the entire line is dedicated to data and VoIP connections.

1,250 exchanges out of the 5,000 total is quite some percentage and their methods look sound. You can read the rest over @ NetImperative and we think it's well worth a look.

If all goes to plan then the UK could jump to the next generation of broadband through Redstone and leave BT hanging in the dust cloud with ADSL.

Games-World.Net Go Unmetered

By:mark.j @ 4:09:PM - Comments (10) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

After being on the road for 6 hours it's a welcome change to get back to some sort of normality (ISPr). That was until one of our readers (MaStEr_}{) informed us of Games-World.Net's new unmetered offering. It's being supported by Intensive Networks and you can find tariff details here:

https://secure.intensive.net/freedial/showplans.ihtml

Now comes the interesting part:

Package name/Cut Off/Set-up £/Intensive Monthly £/BTSurftime £

-Weekends and Evenings (3 hour drop) £10.0 £4.5 £5.1 1p per min outside these times
-Weekends and Evenings (no drop) £10.0 £10.0 £5.1 1p per min outside these times
-Any Time (1 hour drop) £10.0 £7.5 £17.02 na
-Any Time (2 hour drop) £10.0 £15.0 £17.02 na
-Any Time (4 hour drop) £15.0 £20.0 £17.02 na
-Any Time (No drop) £30.0 £80.0 £17.02 1 Fixed IP address
-Any Time (No drop) Dual Channel £60.0 £160.0 £17.02 1 Fixed IP address, Bonded Dual Channel not guaranteed, due to BT network.

So in other words it's easily the most expensive package next to Demon Internets future offerings. Also take not that BT and Intensives fee's (intensive indeed) are both monthly and need to be combined.

That means a no Cut-Off package for up to 64Kbps ISDN is going to set you back a suicidal £97.02 per month! A single 64Kbps port into BT under FRIACO only costs around £30! That's BTSurftime for you. We are going to offer our own no-cut-off package soon and it'll set you back £30 per month under FRIACO =).

So join up if you will but at those prices perhaps it's better to give BT a bribe and get ADSL installed hehe.

UPDATE:
Forgot to mention that the reader also pointed this out:

Further reading into there T&C reads, "This service will commence on the day that it is executed and will continue for an initial period of one year. After the initial period it will continue unless terminated by either party on three months prior notice, such notice not to be given before the expiry date of one years from the date of this order."

In other words once you signup you have to keep the service for 15 months oh my god what a joke :(

BT Doesn't Dictate Oftel's Policy

By:mark.j @ 9:34:AM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Here we go again, once more the Financial Times has a rather interesting article this morning, this time they are claiming that BT dictates Oftels policy to them over broadband net access. As you'd expect Oftel have rejected such accusations and go on to state:

"To suggest that British Telecommunications is dictating any of my actions is a travesty of the facts," David Edmonds of Oftel wrote. Oftel has also been facing high levels of criticism over its methods for unbundling the local loop (LLU) [See Below].

The Financial Times claims it has some rough evidence to back up the claims, a senior official from the Treasury last week said BT was calling the shots. As well as that, Edmonds also denies that he has lost the confidence the European Commission and the British government.

We don't know about the EC, but the Government have gone on record as being "unhappy" with Oftel and what about consumers? It's fair to say that in the now turbulent market of telecommunications, the consumers are stuck smack bang in the middle of a war zone.

"I do not for a moment feel that I have lost the confidence of Brussels or Whitehall," Edmonds commented. "I am happy to be judged by my record.". When looking to the future the past is important, but it's what’s happening in the present we are concerned about, not the past.

BT Facing Legal Action?

By:mark.j @ 9:18:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Surprise, BT has found its way into the thick of things yet again and guess what, this time its over the local loop unbundling (LLU). We've heard a lot of those who pulled out of the LLU were considering legal action over BT's seemingly Anti-Competitive stance.

Today the Financial Times is reporting that iomart (backers of Madasafish ISP) who recently got hold of 20 exchanges from the total 361, is planning such action. Obviously for BT, letting rivals into its local loop increases competition and they claim the delays/way its being handled is Anti-Competitive.

"If this does not get sorted out soon, we will take legal action against BT on the basis that its behaviour is anti-competitive, either as part of a wider industry group or on our own," Angus MacSween, chief executive of Iomart said.

No escape for Oftel though as Angus goes on to say, "We are also considering whether to take action against Oftel (the telecoms regulator)". Other groups considering a joint action or at the very least a legal stance on the same line are Colt Telecom, Kingston Communications, Energis, Thus and possibly RSL.

BT is clearly aware of the situation as one of FT's sources claims, "All sorts of people are saying that they are reserving their legal positions". BT itself has started playing the risks down, "If any legal action were taken, we would have to see what the grounds were. The whole issue has been surrounded by a lot of sabre-rattling".

As everyday passes it looks more and more like a growing anger against BT could mutate into rather more dangerous legal action. Lets just hope BT and Oftel don't use that as an excuse to delays LLU further and get sued even more =).

C.U.T on Oftel Ombudsman

By:mark.j @ 9:01:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Once again the mighty C.U.T (Campaign for Unmetered Telecommunications) showers its pages with focused viewpoints and this time its Oftel's turn.

Last week Oftel stated it had plans to introduce an extension (Ombudsman), which would allow consumers to complain directly about Telco's (BT etc.). A lot of issues and concerns were highlighted by the proposal and of course C.U.T have decided to put their views over:

It was not said at the time that an EU directive (Article 26) is forcing OFTEL's hand but, in any case, we are in favour for two reasons:

*OFTEL, for now, both regulates the telecommunications industry and deals with consumer complaints against the industry. The second soaks up time and resources to a frightening extent; given its current troubles, anything that focuses OFTEL on what matters in the long term is welcome.

*A single point of contact for complainants, with the power to impose solutions, publish rulings and exact restitution if they are not obeyed, is desperately needed.

Consumer issues, if not resolved quickly, often ping-pong inconclusively between telecommunications operators, Citizens' Advice Bureaux, Trading Standards, OFTEL, MPs and whoever else. The only reliable way to force a resolution is to resort to the law, which many people are either wary of doing or unable to afford.

The article is far too long to find a quote which truly embodies what it's trying to say, however this is one everybody should take a glance over. Oftel’s proposal is welcome, but we'll have to see just what they plan to do before commenting further.

Video-Over-IP

By:mark.j @ 8:50:AM - Comments (3) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

A lot of people are already aware of the growing trend to use voice-over-ip technology, well now PSINet and Global Videocom have set out a standard for video-over-ip.

Aimed at large business/companies and thus higher speed broadband, don't expect it to hit homes for awhile yet, even then we doubt BT would support it for residential clients:

The ASP service offers multi-user access to live video and audio streaming over IP at 700Kbit per second bandwidths and real-time document sharing facilities. Users access the service via a browser interface located on a PSINet-hosted secure web portal.

The service, launched at PSINet’s Docklands data centre, will roll out to PSINet locations in Los Angeles, Virginia, Amsterdam, Geneva, Sydney and Tokyo over the next year.

The service comes in two packages – with a Multiple Control Unit (MCU) at a single location, giving access to an unlimited number of users for £20,000 per year, or for an individual user accessing the service from multiple points in PSINet’s network for £350 per month.

The service has yet to migrate into Britain but it does at least represent the first step to a global video conferencing standard, in a matter of speaking. You can read the rest over @ NetImperative.

News - September 24,2000

Freechariot Update to Last Post

By:Ross14 @ 9:03:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

As we mentioned in the news post below, Freechariot commented in the email about the status of them as a company:

Freechariot believes that everyone in the UK should be able to surf for information, get educated and communicate on the net for free. On this, Freechariot will not shift, even with pressure from some of our investors. Furthermore, we are the only ISP in full service in the UK that offers free local phone calls as standard.

We have made a few changes and are now sure that we will not only sustain our offers but that we will be profitable within a reasonable time. To cover the different end users in the market, we now have 2 new products to add to the main one that we presently offer.

The full freechariot portfolio:

Ø The existing free unmetered 24/7 service for those who make phone calls and want to transfer all their telephone traffic to us. Offer includes free off-peak local phone calls.

Ø A new unmetered “independent 0800” offer – where members do not have to transfer their line or make calls with us - £16.50 plus vat per month.

Ø A new “use-as-you-like” offer – for those who do not use the net too much and do not want commitment – 0.9p per minute.

Our capacity is under utilised at 20%. Membership is presently at around 10% of the set 6-month target, so we are still accepting new members. We will get this up to 30,000 and then consolidate and expand. We are organising a member’s award evening at a major venue in November where we will show our appreciation to our founding members.

We will contribute to Tony Blair’s vision of full free Internet access for all, in the following ways:

Ø Encourage individuals and companies to set up managed resale unmetered services on our network.

Ø Invite companies to set up Virtual Internet services with us.

Ø Consider applications from all those willing to work hard as affiliates.

So there you have it. Freechariot are moving on with their attempts to bring full free access to the net along with free local calls - in the long term. And as they mention, it will make a profit in the later stages - something most people thought would never happen.

Freechariot: "Pipe Down."

By:Ross14 @ 9:00:PM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Freechariot seem to make a habit of sending out regular emails with their own views of the UK unmetered market and they have done so yet again. This time though it's more of an update on their own status as a company.

They mention that "It is time therefore, for all of us to pipe down, lower our expectations, and find ways of working together to make free internet access work for all our benefit."

ISPr totally agrees on this remark. We must stop asking for more than is possible at the moment, it will come to us in the long or even short term but we shouldn't press too much on companies to offer what is financially unviable @ present. Friaco is on it's way and so is the unbundling of the local loop. The future is bright for unmetered net access in the UK!

Read the news post above from this one to view the latest news from Freechariot themselves as a company and changes to their ISP.

GABT.. If your a Gamer and Hate BT..

By:zeon @ 3:53:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Are you a Gamer? and Do you hate BT? Then goto:

http://www.planetunreal.com/soundoff/gabt/

ISPreview Weekly Update

By:mark.j @ 9:27:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

From a news point of view its certainly been a busy week, we overran the 10 items main page limit on several days running, not rare but not common either. All this coverage from around the net of local loop unbundling certainly seems to be heated.

There's not much else to say right now as full concentration has been moved to reader reviews and the article comments system. We're also listening to some clever requests by readers and how to implement those, although more on that in a few weeks.

On top of all that everybody’s waiting to see just whether ISPs will finally get their FRIACO hardware on 1st October 2000. FRIACO has certainly caused a few problems, AOL have set a new price tag to match/beat and it looks like most aren't even close.

Finally if you own a PocketPC (WinCE3) or a WindowsCE v2.11 PalmSize PC with a 'Fit To Screen' compatible browser then our AvantGo channel is slowly taking shape. At the moment it's not good enough to be properly implemented into AVG, but if you have the above then test this URL:

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/avantgo.shtml

You can add it into AVG, but it won't look quite the same as the direct URL. This channel is not yet compatible with WinCE v1 PsPC's, HPC's or PalmPilots. We plan to re-design the general news layout this coming week and that should help it fit perfectly to all screens.

PalmPilot users can help by trying to load the URL and taking a screenshot of the output on their device, as none of us owns a PP.

Freeserve ADSL Installation Winners

By:mark.j @ 8:43:AM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Three people have E-Mailed us to say that the results of Freeserves Free ADSL Installation competition are now coming in. One out of the three who contacted us won, the other two can take heart in the fact that winning means little. Why? Well at the rate BT are installing ADSL you'll be an old man before it gets to wherever you are, urban or rural!

News - September 23,2000

UK Most Expensive in Peak Net Access

By:Ross14 @ 3:15:PM - Comments (4) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

According to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), UK Businesses and consumers are paying the highest telephone charges for Peak Rate Net Access in the developed world.

The report, which looks into internet access in OECD countries, found that the average cost to users who access the internet for around 20 hours a month fell by 23% at peak times and by 20% off-peak in the last 12 months. The cost of accessing the internet for 40 hours fell 27% at peak times and 24% off peak.

However it found that the UK is charging well over $50 for 150 hours for peak hour internet access per month, compared with other OECD countries, such as the US, Mexico and Australia which are well under. However for off-peak hour usage, the price tends to be much lower than these countries with the exception of the US.

The number of OECD countries providing unmetered internet access has also doubled to 10 since the beginning of the year. Unlike the British and Germans, Australians, Canadians, Mexicans, New Zealanders and Americans now have access to unmetered access that does not depend on the amount of time they spend online or whether they access at peak or off-peak times

We would tend to argue with this study as consumers and businesses can now access the net at peak times for only 2p per minute with BT Internet/Click and 1p with Onetel.Net.

Net Access at Peak times is only expensive if you want it to be.

Source: netimperative

TheFreeInternet Increase Charges

By:Ross14 @ 3:08:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Just a small news bulletin to mention that the unmetered ISP from Excite and Cisco, TheFreeInternet, has increased the annual charge from £50 to £89.99.

The yearly re-newal fee has also risen to £89.99.

There has been no press release from TheFreeInternet yet explaining this cost rise but the usual reason should apply - it wasn't financially viable @ £50.

ISPreview Site Update

By:mark.j @ 10:47:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

A couple of comments got removed from news items yesterday after the server died during an edit, bah. Still if anybody knows of a CGI/Perl coding group that could make us a good and dynamic User ISP Reviews/Article Comments system, please E-Mail me.

As we said in one of our recent weekly updates, the coders we wanted to work with had vanished. Now also the coders who were supposed to be finishing up our 'automated ISP listings' have also done the same.

We've had some offers, but like to have a good set of options and to find the best deal/quality, as you do. So if anybody can E-Mail suggesting a good and established (not likely to be so slow or vanish =]) CGI/Perl group, then give me a bell, thanks.

UPDATE
Hmmm well yes the bug occurred again and we've rooted around in the comments code and found it's a new bug from the original source. Author has been contacted and we are hoping to have a fix shortly, otherwise we'll have to remove comments for a while.

AOL Unmetered Doing The Impossible?

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

Since AOL announced their low cost and no cut-off 24/7 unmetered package there has been quite a buzz surrounding them. The problem is there have been questions about how AOL can implement FRIACO before other ISPs if it's not yet been rolled out?

AOL seems to think it'll be able to subscriber customers "within a few weeks", although this seems impossible without FRIACO to back it up? However an article @ VNUNet today appears says more than has been written down in the article itself:

The ISP claims it has signed up more than one tenth of its current membership base to the £14.99 a month unmetered service since Monday. AOL won't disclose its exact user base, but said "many tens of thousands" of subscribers are eligible for the first phase of sign-up.

Matt Peacock, a spokesman for AOL UK, said: "Getting our members on board is a pretty fast process. We will continue to switch our existing members to unmetered through October and expect the service to be available to everyone in a few weeks."

It certainly seems strange that AOL would be able to get so many people onto the service within a few weeks. The next official FRIACO rollout date most ISPs have been given is 1st October 2000, although many seem to be expecting it around December 2000 at the earliest.

The situation is confused still further when both AOL and BT go on record as saying:

But according to both BT and AOL, Friaco is available. BT has said that more than 50 per cent of local exchanges are Friaco- enabled with all expected to be enabled by the end of November.

Clearly something's amiss, if BT themselves claim FRIACO is already widespread on exchanges, then why do the ISPs claim the opposite? The good news is we think we know why, FRIACO may be enabled, but BT has yet to deliver the ISP side services.

It all sounds very anti-competitive to us, clearly if AOL has the ISP side technology to bring the service to life then why don't other ISPs? Fair enough AOL along with C.U.T helped develop FRIACO, but one way or another this will be seen as Anti-Competitive in a fast growing industry. What do you think?

News - September 22,2000

iomart (Madasafish) get into LLU

By:mark.j @ 2:53:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Chances are news of the Local Loop unbundling saga will continue to be prominent on most major news sites for quite awhile. Each day brings new twists and turns and finally we have our first real success story.

Iomart, a Glasgow based ISP/Telco, has got the rights to install its own ADSL systems into some of the first exchanges on offer under LLU (Local Loop Unbundling):

The e-outfit - which is behind the ISP Madasafish, will focus initially on the Scottish market - will begin installing its kit in BT exchanges in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Dundee early next year.

It claims this is just the first phase in a wider UK programme.

In a statement Angus MacSween, iomart CEO, said: "As a licensed telco with no legacy to protect, we can move swiftly to offer our customers the full potential from this new broadband technology."

This comes on the same day that a newspaper followed by some online sites expressed concern that Madasafish (one ISP wing @ iomart) had jumped in head first with unmetered and may sacrifice services by doing so. It's not clear whether iomart has managed to get all 361 exchanges or just a small portion. You can find the rest @ The Register.

CallNet - Going.. Going.. GONE!

By:mark.j @ 2:45:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

That's right folks, if you couldn't guess by the subject, CallNet's ISP wing is finally up for sale. An article on The Register points out that Stoy Hayward has been called in by the company to negotiate a trade sale of the ISP:

CallNet said it took the decision in the "interest of shareholders and all stakeholders".

Administrator, Malcolm Cohen, told Reg this morning that there had already been some interest in the company, although he would not divulge any further detail.

Do I hear £5, that's £5...£5 to the man in the dark suit that say's, "I do the opposite of whatever people tell me". We've E-Mailed off our own bid of 50pence and hope to have a reply soon =), how valuable to you think the somewhat defunct ISP is? In the right hands it could have a second chance, but would the consumers take it?

Online Privacy Manual

By:mark.j @ 10:11:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Intelligent net users rarely worry themselves about security to any great degree, they will use self-configured firewalls and a whole slew of passed on knowledge to keep them secure. But what about the rest, the other 75%, the users who casually surf the net unaware of what's going on around them all the time?

Well the US Congress has the answer, an online manual designed to show you the good from bad and downright ugly:

Unsure how on-line businesses track you and how you can thwart them? A bit foggy on re-mailers, identity managers, permission marketing, proxies, encryption? Well you wouldn't be alone. A new Congressional guide to privacy notes that among heavy Internet users a full twelve per cent don't even understand what a cookie does; and these ubiquitous little items are only the most basic weapons in the commercial privacy-busting arsenal.

Thus the US Senate Judiciary Committee, headed by political heavyweight Orrin Hatch (Republican, Utah), has laid it all out in remarkable detail in a new guide entitled "Know the Rules, Use the Tools". It's a good primer for those who don't know how to protect their on-line privacy with the tools already available.

"Companies are able, because of recent technological advances, to collect a vast amount of personally identifiable information about online consumers, often without that consumer's knowledge or consent," the authors observe.

The guide can be found HERE and you can read the rest of the article over @ The Register. This also goes rather well with our Internet Safety & Security article, that includes a link to one of several sites that has recently developed a special program to block websites from 'stealing' personal information.

Everybody should download the guide as it really shows you just what lengths people we go to in order to make a sale. Don't forget that any details logged belonging to your ISP are not classified as personal information, only names, computer names, locations, addresses etc. All of which can physically be stolen without much hassle, scary huh?

UK.Internet Exposes Freeserve Flaw

By:mark.j @ 9:58:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The popular Internet news site UK.Internet has this morning exposed a flaw in Freeserve's signup system that could have meant customers being over charged:

Users upgrading to Unlimited Freeserve Time are emailed a link to a web page. This alters settings on their software - but only changes the default connection on the web-browsers. Microsoft's Outlook Express will continue to dial the local-call rate service, unless it is altered manually.

Although the final page of the automated set-up includes the line: "If you use Outlook Express, then please see Help for important information," this is near the bottom of the page - and the Help page's warning of the need for a manual change also requires a fair bit of scrolling.

If undetected, unmetered users - who pay £10 a month, although this can be offset against a Freeserve telephone service - will find themselves paying rather more. The ISP benefits from this by taking a cut of all local rate phone calls made.

It's a fairly obvious thing and something regular net users would notice, but most users aren't quite so knowledgably and often miss the problem. That's one of the issues with these automated client configuration systems, they never quite do what you want them to - always do it manually is our advise.

AltaVista Get Sued

By:mark.j @ 9:50:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

AltaVista continues to pay for there lies this week; nearly a month after their unmetered plan was finally exposed as a fake. Apparently The Free Internet Group (FIG) have now decided to take legal action, they were deeply involved in supplying the ISP access itself, or were until it crumbled:

AltaVista is due in the High Court today to defend its claim against alleged breach of contract brought by British ISP, the Free Internet Group (FIG).

FIG started legal proceedings in June claiming it has lost profits of £215 million over three years from advertising, sponsorship, premium rate telephone services, click revenue, registration and renewal fees, and other income due to the alleged breach of contract.

FIG claims it was contracted to provide flat-fee unmetered net access for AltaVista UK but that the Webco pulled out of the deal.

We can't help but wonder if FIG are the same as TheFreeeInternet who do the Excite0800 system. It doesn't really make sense since ClaraNET were doing the networks, so just what was FIG specifically supposed to be doing?

Either way it's another pounding set back for AV that had let slip of possible plans to try again with an unmetered package. Checkout The Register for more.

Oftel To Be Scrapped

By:mark.j @ 9:43:AM - Comments (6) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

If you've purchased the Financial Times this morning then you might have noticed yet another article about Oftel. As usual it complains of their slow speed to unbundle the local loop. The interesting bit is where they say the government is considering abolishing Oftel.

Considering there's no shortage of Oftel this, BT that news we'll leave it as such. When you hear about the same group in bad tone every single day it drives you mad =)... so no change there then. We’ll bring more news on the possibility of them being abolished when there is credible evidence to support such a claim.

News - September 21,2000

08002go Update 3

By:zeon @ 6:28:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Another update from 08002go:

"Dear members,

As you can see, it is the 21st September 2000 and we have not yet gone "live".We will be going "live" soon just watch our www.08002go.com site. Members and Pre-registrants will be advised automatically. Now, rather than just tell you a date that may or may not be spot on the
target, we have decided to tell you all just what is happening. We are almost ready to go "live" in fact, we could have done so today, but SERVICE is of paramount importance to us.

We at www.08002go.com are not interested in having a business where
everyone is unhappy with our service. The reason most of you have been messed about by large (and small) ISPs' over the past year, is there has been little or no planning in their attempts to provide you with an Un-metered service.

We make no apologies being late with going "live" as we are testing and re-testing our service to make sure we get it right the first time for all of us. We have even changed the system to make it easier for you. To give you comfort you only have to be with us on a month by month basis rather than trying to fix you to a twelve month contract. We know that after the first month you will be so impressed with the www.08002go.com service you will want to stay with us.

You all have special reasons for wanting Unmetered Access to the Internet and our intentions are to give the service you want and deserve. The so-called competition out there are very worried already,and will be more so,when we roll out our service, because of the loss of customers they will experiance. But then that is what competition is all about. We just wonder if some of the insinuating comments on the "Forum Page"(we've hadour share) are from competitors who really do not want us to succeed. Of course we do welcome criticism, because no one gets everything right.

You have all seen what short term commercial gain has done for you in the past "Absolutely Nothing" We on the other hand, are committed to long-term Service.(this, of course, makes commercial sense anyway). We are here now and here to stay. We are not going away. A little delay today gives us all a great future for tomorrow.

The only real apology we would make,is that our e-mails are far to long for the press to print, but we are working on that.

Keep sending us your comments, we love to see them or just pop your
questions on our Forum page: http://pub26.ezboard.com/b08002go

It still remains to be seen if they live up to all the stuff they talk about in their e-mail we remember another company (Visual Depth) similar information out. It's good to see that they have started a forum as it gives a more public front.

Ex-Breathe Users To Sue?

By:mark.j @ 3:59:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

A lot of consumers signup to 24/7 ISPs expecting to physically get 24/7 access, although that's rarely the case. In fact the economics of British unmetered access are not designed for that anyway. If you do get true 24/7 access then it's likely to cost more than most.

Well now so called 'Abusers' of the Breathe ISP have decided to take a stand, the interesting thing is they do have a viable case. One that, if won, could have industry wide implications:

Clive Dakers, the customer in question, said: "I have been informed by a solicitor that I would have a case in the courts if I sued Breathe for breach of contract."

He said that Breathe's case was based on the fact that some 500 heavy users were booted off for endangering other users' access. But on legal advice, users have a strong case to suggest that Breathe's decision was for purely financial reasons.

Breathe denies that the decision was financial, however. Ian Twin, a spokesman for the ISP, said: "Only people who were not using the service for consumer activity were targeted." The ISP said it was protecting the access rights of other users, adding that it had not yet received any writs from lawyers acting for disgruntled users.

Sadly one person isn't likely to cause any real waves and it'd be a 50/50 chance anyway. Most people would never contemplate legal action simply because it's a waste of time for so little money, an adage that big companies often use to their advantage.

Although everything's connected, if a person does use the system so much as to clock up an internal ISP bill of up to £1,000, then it can effect others if enough do it. More users, more engage tones, slower speeds and etc. etc. We’d also be interested to see what evidence they have that the service is not being used for consumer activity by such people.

Yet for Breathe to deny this has anything to do with finances is playing right into the ex-customers hand. It's certainly a difficult matter, but one somebody somewhere needs to address. Find the rest @ UK.Internet.

Comments Problem Still There =(

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

Well yes, we tried to get rid of the 'Missing footer/comments' problem on some news posts yesterday, it doesn't seem to have worked =(. It doesn't happen on all items and the admin error message continues to read, "This comment page was created by an old version of *****, and comments cannot be removed from this page.".

Normally with such an error you'd assume there was an old file left, but since we completely got rid of the old system and triple checked then that's not the case. As well as that the fault is almost random, although we may have identified one common attribute, but can't reveal that for security.

The only thing left to consider is a timing fault in the posting code, so we've removed the banners and stat systems from the bottom (often cause conflicts in CGI processes). This will take effect from this post onwards, we'll be watching to see if the bug occurs again =).

NEW Unmetered ISP (FRIACO) Vroom2!

By:mark.j @ 10:54:AM - Comments (4) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

While reading today’s C.U.T article you couldn't have failed to notice the mention of 'Ecosse Telecommunications', who they state as another Telco also adopting the FRIACO mould.

Well we did a tiny bit of hunting and found their unmetered package is called Vroom2 and costs £49.99 inc. V.A.T per year. If you register before the 1st October-2000 then you get £5 off. Although if you want to register then there's no online system and so you must call: 0800 164 0800.

The website isn't particularly inspiring to say the least and doesn't exactly appeal, although they are a legitimate Telco as far as we can see. The service comes with:

-Unlimited email (5 email boxes per account)
-Access to over 30,000 newsgroups
-Free unified messaging service with voicemail, faxmail and SMS messaging.
-Freephone technical helpline.
-Free CD Rom to help set up your dial-up access codes for Vroom2 and all the software you require to use Vroom2.

Beware, even though cut-off details and such can't be seen, one T&C line signifies that they might well exist and states:
"The service is not intended to be a permanent connection to the internet"

Signup at your own risk, we cannot endorse this ISP as too little is known about it and the Telco behind it, accept that they exist.