August 31, 2000 - September 7, 2000

News - September 7,2000

Energis Go Debt Collecting

By:mark.j @ 9:07:AM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

As one of the UKs bigger and better Networking and ISP service sellers, you'd expect them to keep a good track on where their money goes. After the recent 2Million bill from good old EzeSurf, Energis are obviously keen to make up for the loss by collecting old debts.

The Register is reporting that Freedom Telecom is today’s target:

Energis is set to commit infanticide on one of its own fledgling businesses.

Documents seen by The Register suggest that the telco is about to issue a winding up petition against Freedom Telecom for an outstanding debt.

How much Energis is owed was not disclosed.

However, Freedom Telecom was funded last year to the tune of £5 million from partners including Energis and, according to one report, the industrial group Siemens.

It's understood that Energis is willing to accept intellectual property relating to Freedom's telephony service rights and hardware to settle the debt.

Energis refused to comment except for this short statement from a spokeswoman: "Freedom are an Energis customer, we are looking at the relationship in some detail."

"The details of the contract are commercially confidential, so I'm afraid I cannot comment on this customer any further," she said.

As anybody would tell you debt is not a fun thing, for either side, although personally we hope Energis collect because they are a good provider. Unless, of course, good old EzeSurf (Don’t believe what he says) Matt was really telling the truth about having paid all the bills and thus not knowing of the 2Million to be paid? Guess we’ll never know.

News - September 6,2000

ADSL In-Store Trials

By:Ross14 @ 6:23:PM - Comments (4) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Well, when we first heard of this we thought it was a joke, but PC World are really gonna be giving hands-on trials @ selected stores in London, and hopefully in other stores thereafter.

"The retailer is offering free in-store trials of the long-awaited asymmetric digital subscriber Line (ADSL) technology. Selected stores in London will be the first to offer free demonstrations of the FreeservePlus ADSL technology this month to both consumers and businesses.

ADSL expands the capacity of existing BT telephone lines, bringing high-speed multimedia into homes and small businesses without the need for separate telephone lines.

The software provides 24-hour internet connection with no dial-up delays, claimed a PC World spokeswoman. "The software also allows for simultaneous use of the telephone for fax or voice," she said.

Up to 20 PCs at a time can be connected to a single ADSL business service, she added.

Potential buyers will be able to see the product in action. ADSL boasts speeds many times faster than a standard modem.

Peter Keenan, PC World group marketing manager, said: "Business and home internet users are being offered the chance to get free advice as well as demonstrations of ADSL so that they understand the full range of benefits it can offer."

It's a good initiative as many people don't fully understand the implications and benefits of ADSL. Me and the rest of the guys @ ISPr would love to see just how fast downloads and surfing really are on ADSL - sure many of you would too!

Source: vnunet.com

NTL Upgrade Delayed

By:Daniel @ 1:26:PM - Comments (9) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The NTL upgrade hasn't all been completed due to a bug in the OS:

"The upgrades due to be carried out to the ntl Internet backbone last night have now been delayed for several days. The delay has been caused by a newly discovered bug in the JunOs operating system used by the new Juniper core routers. ntl will need to spend 2 days testing a new release of the software before it can be used.

Justin Leese, Director of Data Networks and Customer Support at ntl Networks was able to provide the following explanation:

Juniper have made us aware of a bug they have discovered in the JunOs operating system relating to Gigabit Ethernet interfaces

Hopefully this will only introduce a 24-48 hour delay to the cutover but we'll have a clearer idea after when we try out the new software in the lab tonight and tomorrow."

At least they have done most what they promised and lets hope this is not another delay.

Source: Cable News
Thanks to James Goodman for sending us the email.

ONDigital Prep Set-Top Box

By:mark.j @ 8:36:AM - Comments (10) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

ONDigital are well known in the UK as the only digital terrestrial TV provider through their set-top boxes. So it wasn't any surprise to us when back in May'2000 they announced an Internet Set-Top box. NetImperative have just done a rather nice update, but is this box really any good?

ONdigital is gearing up for a massive marketing campaign to promote its new television-based internet service, which will be offered to new and existing subscribers from 18 September.

The ONnet package will be available for £5 a month, including the cost of a cordless keyboard, a set-top box, video and voice email. ONdigital has also struck a deal with BT so that customers can surf for 1p per minute at evenings and weekends and 2p per minute at peak times.

Chief executive Stuart Prebble said ONnet will enable Britons who do not have a PC to gain access to the internet: “For the millions of people who have been left behind or excluded by the internet revolution, ONnet is the easiest way to get online. Why spend hundreds of pounds on a computer when you can access the internet on the TV that already sits in your living room?”

The £8m marketing campaign, created by ad agency BMP, kicks off next week with a series of television ads and a nationwide poster campaign. It will also include online activity.

ONDigital seem to love charging people over the hilt for these sorts of things. What's so hard about including the system in a new type of Set-Top box combining TV and Internet? Why do we have to pay a monthly fee, why not pay the fee for the box and use a free 0845 ISP for the rest?

What ONDigital don't seem to realise is that there are already better and cheaper boxes out there that even allow you to connect to an unmetered ISP! Worse still is that they don't realise how impractical yet another set-top box is going to be. There's only so much power you can get out of a plug and many don’t have the space under their TV's.

So is it worth it? Why should it be when you can get another box from Argos and connect it to an unmetered connection? What ONDigital needs is some competition, every new market needs competition, but ONDigital don't have any for digital terrestrial.

News - September 5,2000

ISPA Warns LineOne

By:mark.j @ 8:27:PM - Comments (9) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Remember LineOne? They offered an unmetered service and then suddenly withdrew it while leaving people with nowhere to turn. Well the ISPA is going to rule on whether LineOne was in breach of their agreement very soon and it could mean bad news for LineOne:

LineOne will find out on Friday whether it broke the Internet Service Providers Association's (ISPA) code of practice when it ditched unmetered Net access in July.

According to ISPA's guidelines, if LineOne is found to be in breach of the rules it could be ejected from the industry group.

LineOne maintains it did nothing wrong and conducted itself properly when it decided to call time on its unmetered service in July because it was losing money hand over fist.

The ISP blamed the demise of unmetered access on a number of punters who hogged and abused the service.

Ohhhh scary, they might eject LineOne from the ISPA.. ooohh =), no it may not help any of us, but it sure isn't good news for LineOne. Read The Register for more juice.

Back from ECTS & Connect25 News

By:mark.j @ 8:23:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Youch... 8:10pm and after a lengthy and boring train journey I'm finally back in the good old south of England. Being quite tired and with a lot of work ahead to finish up the Speedy3D ECTS Coverage I'll not bother with ISPr updates tonight. For those of you into PC Gaming or console gaming etc. then keep an eye on http://www.Speedy3D.com, exclusive video from the likes of Red Faction and Tribes2 (Lengthy video) etc. are coming soon.

Anyway that aside and our friendly friends from Net4Nowt have put up a tiny article about http://www.connect25.co.uk. An ISP a lot of you have concerns over, because of the questions surrounding them we can't possibly recommend such an ISP. If/When we get a free trial then we will, however until such a time we suggest you avoid Connect25. No ISP that uses Freedomain providers (they claim it is part of a bigger deal) for their domain and doesn't accept credit cards (fraud prevention) should really be trusted. Always play it safe, remember that.

Freechariot Information

By:zeon @ 2:53:PM - Comments (26) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Freechariot have a bit of information on their policy regarding heavy users:

"We have noticed that a small number of our members make a disproportionate amount of calls to the net compared to phone calls made. For example, there are a few members, who made no phone calls but cost us up to £80 in Internet calls. There is even the case of a couple of users who spend about £2.00 on phone calls and nearly £150 for calls to the Internet - that is about 180 hours of internet calls for each of these two users per month.

Someone has to put in, for these users to take out. If the above proportion continues, we would either have to put restrictions that affect all or ask these type of users to leave. The fact remains that we will keep the service going and we will resist any pressure from a few users to make changes that will affect the freedom of all users.

The company is not against heavy users, they are included in our planning, the proportion just has to be reasonable. It is our responsibility to reduce the cost of the Internet calls to a reasonable wholesale value. For a user who makes £150 on Internet calls and £2 on phone calls, no matter how low we get the wholesale unmetered cost of calls to the net, it will not be justified by the amount made from £2 of phone calls.

ISPreview agrees with what Freechariot have said this is the policy we think most ISPs that charge a reasonable monthly subscription should follow.

Update:
After looking at some of your comments we feel it should have been a bit clearer. What we agree with is that heavy user are ok for ISPs, as long as they make some calls on the service and pay a reasonable monthly charge. There will always be heavy users, as some people do use the net alot but are not abusers. An example being people with disabilities that find the net a good thing to use. What ISPs shouldn't do is what Breathe did.

NTL Update

By:zeon @ 2:11:PM - Comments (10) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Cablenews:uk have a couple of articles about NTL. They have one article about some possible cable modem pricing:

"Three options were presented for service speeds, and several example prices given for each speed.

128kbps: £5 or £15 per month.
512kbps: £25 or £30 per month.
1mbps: £35, £40, or £45 per month.

Three set up options were also mentioned:

£149 for cable modem + £25 installation (same as current pricing).
£149 for cable modem, free installation.
£25 installation charge with cable modem included as part of the monthly charge."

Read the full Article HERE

The second article was about the NTLworld service:

"According to reports from international cable news site CableToday, ntl have now almost cleared the backlog of disks for the service."

Read the full Article HERE

It looks as though NTL have nearly cleared the backlog. So do you have your disk?

News - September 4,2000

Planet Inferno

By:Daniel @ 4:10:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Ben Briscoe of Planet Inferno has asked me to tell you that if you are still accessing the http://www.planetinferno.ezesurf.co.uk then please access the site by using the domain (http://www.planetinferno.co.uk) as he has changed his host.

BTInternet ISDN Problems Fixed

By:mark.j @ 10:51:AM - Comments (14) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

ISDN users don't exactly seem to be having a good time of things, what with 24-7Freecalls problems, RedHotAnt following close behind and now BTInternet. Still with the unfortunate (normally they are good) exclusion of 24-7Freecall, both BTI and RHA are trying to fix things.

BTInternet recently introduced some new protocols and this in turn effected ISDN connections for some people, however according to Andy they have now been fixed:

For those of you having problems connecting via ISDN, here is BT Internets solution if you are getting error 619.

"...A number of days ago, BT Internet introduced some new protocols for the ISDN connection. This has caused a number of problems when connecting with Windows 2000. To get around the problem, you need to disable Negotiate Multi-Link for Single Link Connections. This can be found in the PPP settings of the network tab under the dial-up network properties..."

It has taken BTInternet 4 days to find this problem - so much for testing new services.

We don't agree with the last comment, 4 days (remember we also had a weekend) to find/fix a problem is actually quite quick for an ISP, more so for BTI.

Freeserve Leave FTSE100

By:mark.j @ 9:48:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

http://www.the-times.co.uk is reporting that today is likely to be the one where we say a 'Good Bye' to Freeserve from the FTSE100:

FREESERVE, the Internet service provider controlled by Dixons, the electrical goods retailer, is almost certain to head a list of five companies to be ejected from the elite FTSE 100 this week.

Falling share prices and constant bid talks that go up and down like a roller coaster are to blame. You can only play with the market so much before they won't trust you anymore.

ECTS Coverage

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

Don't forget that I'm covering ECTS Live over @ http://www.Speedy3D.com , back on Tuesday but you can get a look at what I'm up to over there. Any ISPreview specific findings will be placed here; however after yesterday I'd say there isn't anything.

Back soon..

News - September 3,2000

British Gas Enter Telecoms Market!

By:Ross14 @ 9:29:PM - Comments (5) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Net4Nowt have once again beat us to some interesting news regarding good old British Gas.

Starting from Mid-October, they are going to be offering a single bill for fixed line, mobile and Internet services, all payable to BG.

"It aims to have one million telephone subscribers by the end of 2001, and is investing 150 million pounds in the new Manchester-based business creating 800 jobs.

British Gas said its customers would save up to 33% of local calls, 50% on national calls and up to 75% on international calls compared to standard residential rates charged by the national carrier British Telecommunications.

"Nearly eight million households (one in three) in the UK don't realise they have a choice of phone supplier and millions more are not benefiting from the savings on offer," said Ian El- Mokadem, Director of Marketing and Strategy at British Gas.

Analysts have said British Gas's 23 million strong UK customer base and national brand recognition makes it a formidable new competitor in the household telecoms sector, where former monopoly BT still carries 80% of home calls."

Well, if it brings down the cost of telephone calls, then we strongly like this idea by British Gas. It'll be interesting to see though how much the calls will really cost. But, the big question still lays, who will be providing the net access - NTL?

FoxGlove Again

By:mark.j @ 7:26:PM - Comments (6) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

We Just noticed that Net4Nowt have seen the http://www.foxglove.co.uk unmetered ISP that we revealed to be fake nearly two weeks ago. So just as a reminder, this is a FAKE ISP, but well worth a visit because that's the whole point =). It's a rough satirical take on the whole unmetered industry, pull up for a laugh or continue on past if so required.

RedHotAnt Fixing ISDN

By:mark.j @ 7:23:PM - Comments (11) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Finally that percentage (including me) that have been experiencing numerous ISDN problems should find SOME of them fixed by Monday. Not long ago we contacted RedHotAnt regarding these issues and since then they have confirmed and been busy trying to fix them, or so we're told.

The general replies some of our ISDN using readers have been getting are that the first of several problems, packet loss (sometimes up to 90%) should be sorted by Monday.

Any other problems will hopefully be fixed come next weekend, we hope. In the past RHA haven't exactly been accurate with dates so put about as much faith in that as Northern Ireland politics.

CUT on Unmetered Agony

By:mark.j @ 7:14:PM - Comments (2) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The Campaign for Unmetered Telecommunications has updated yet again, this time with their perspective on the unmetered situation which thankfully isn't different from what we already knew.

Moreover, for those ISPs which continue to offer low cost unmetered access, consumers are experiencing long delays in getting registered onto the service only to find in many cases that it is difficult to get online and that service quality is poor. As a result, UK consumers are extremely angry at being misled by ISPs who have failed to deliver on their promises of quality unmetered access at a reasonable price.

UK ISPs have blamed their problems on the fact that they were offering a flat rate unmetered service, but the cost of that service was based on 0800 NTS rates that required a metered payment to BT. ISPs estimates of unmetered usage were way too low compared to actual usage and ISPs have blamed a minority of consumers who have used unmetered services to an extreme extent driving up the costs enormously.

C.U.T obviously echoing what everybody is feeling right now, although they do make the mistake of putting the cart before the horse and over selling FRIACO before we know everything about it:

However, the unmetered agony of both consumers and these ISPs will continue until true unmetered services based on FRIACO are deployed across the UK. It appears that both MCI Worldcom and Energis will soon be offering FRIACO based rates to their affiliated ISPs. CUT hopes that the long wait for true unmetered access in the UK will soon be over. Only then will the agony end.

Will it? So what of the announcement by officials that FRIACO (FRIACO Hybrid) would only be workable/economical for urban areas? Sounds like CUT could be putting their own project ahead of the facts, but then since nobody will tell people what's going on, who are we supposed to believe?

Sadly CUT isn't able to help clear up people’s doubts thanks to more information blocks by big business and other officials. Although we doubt even FRIACO Hybrid could be worse than BTSurftime, bring it on and let consumers decide - just make sure it's better.

Jack Straw Is Watching!

By:Daniel @ 2:14:AM - Comments (9) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

A couple of British ISP's may move their email servers offshore to avoid RIP which gives the authorities unprecedented surveillance powers.

"RIP gives law enforcers powers to monitor email communications using hardware installed at ISPs. They also have the power to demand that encrypted messages are turned into plain text.

ISPs are similarly as they have to implement RIP compliant technology at some cost to themselves.

If ISPs offer users email services that sidestep legislation it will be a severe embarrassment for Jack Straw's administration: not least because it confirms previous arguments that criminals could evade the law with considerable ease."

Too be honest the RIP won't really bother all of us legit folks. But people who are conducting illegal activity over the internet will be affected. So watch out, Big bro......errrr Jack Straw is watching.

Read the full article over at ZDNet

Cyberbulldozing!

By:Daniel @ 1:04:AM - Comments (10) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Michael Mahoney has emailed us telling us about the impact of Cableinet changing their name to blueyonder.

"It is apparent after seven months, that Telewest has done nothing to remedy the abuse that I am receiving due to their use of the domain name they purchased in late January or early Februay, 2000, BLUEYONDER.CO.UK, which is confusingly similar to mine, BLUEYONDER.COM, that I have owned and used since 1996.

Since Telewest launched it's 'blueyonder' name change, I have been
subjected to escalating abuse and harrassment. My privacy and that of Telewest customers has been violated, my wife's and my small businesses are being negatively affected and our lives have been severely disrupted.

ATT and Microsoft are majority shareholders on Telewest PLC in the UK. Telewest, to the best of my understanding, was set up by John Malone, former head of TCI Cable. Being a TV cable, telephone and internet provider, Telewest is the ideal test bed for ATT and MS to implement and refine new software and systems.

I was approached Jan. 25, 2000 by a broker representing Telewest, to
sell them my domain name, BLUEYONDER.COM

I have owned and operated BLUEYONDER.COM since 1996 and used BLUEYONDER in connection with my graphic design business since 1995.

No satisfactory agreement was reached, and I did not sell my domain name to them.

Telewest bought the domain name BLUEYONDER.CO.UK from a jeweler in the UK, and began changing the name of it's internet service from CABLEINET.CO.UK, as well as the name of it's servers, to BLUEYONDER, using the CO.UK extension.

In discussions with Philip Jansen, Marketing, Simon Read, Telewest's legal council, and other TW representatives, the negative effect that a large service provider signing up thousands of customers using a domain names confusingly similar to mine, would have on my wife and my businessess was discussed. The upshot was that they would use the name regardless of the impact on me, and their opinion was that each of their FIVE FINAL OFFERS was adequate to compensate me. Telewest then withdrew it's offer to me.

Since the launch of their name change, I have received and continue to
receive in ever escalating volume, thousands of emails meant for
Telewest engineers, employees, partners and customers.

I also have received email from Telewest customers telling me that they were assigned blueyonder.com addresses, and Telewest engineering staff using my domain in their email addresses.

Email meant for me has apparently been diverted to the UK since Jan 28, 2000, including confidential emails from my legal council.

In addition, Telewest released and distributed a customized version of
Internet Explorer on CD to it's customers that has links to my domain,
BLUEYONDER.COM

I have coined a new bit of technojargon to describe this somewhat
inverse cybersquatting situation.

CYBERBULLDOZING
When a giant corporation deliberately uses a domain name
so confusingly similar to that of a small business, that the
small business is plowed under with unwanted email.

Imagine all the unwanted emails this person gets! We love the new word, remember you saw it here first.

News - September 2,2000

0800 WAP Calls

By:Ross14 @ 6:40:PM - Comments (5) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The Joe Network Ltd who is a provider of WAP services has launched a freephone 0800 mobile access service called Joe0800 for business and consumer users.

"The company claims that its independent gateway – provided by small ISP Boyannet - offers a subscription-based service to users of Orange, One2One and Virgin mobiles. The service has two pricing bands - Joe Public (400 mins/£9.95 per month) and Joe Professional (800mins/£19.95 per month). A caller ID logs a user’s call times. The company says that it will be offering free WAP phones on the Orange network within the next two weeks.

However, industry forums are skeptical as to the reach of the service. Currently BTCellnet & Vodafone customers pay an additional per minute charge to call 0800 numbers, while certain One2One tariffs also charge, and Virgin is planning to cease offering free 0800 calls in October this year. This is mainly due to the rise in ‘virtual telcos’ such as One.Tel, which offer cheap calls via an 0800 number. The mobile operators are understandably unwilling to loose their main revenue streams to these smaller telcos.

A comparison can be drawn to the current debacle concerning unmetered access to the internet. A spokesperson for Joe Network admitted that: “The major telcos may try to block us, but that would be particularly disappointing. The idea here is simply to promote WAP and encourage development.” He continued: “We can detect which network a customer is using, and will not charge someone who cannot use the service.”

It's really a good idea and could work in the long run. Deals will probably be cut with BTCellnet and Vodafone to provide free access to the numbers Joe0800 provide. We're not sure if it's a good deal or not as we're not familiar with WAP calls from mobiles. Comments...

Source: netimperative.com

ISPreview Weekly Update - Early

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

Ok so it's not Sunday, but you see this little chump muffin (no I don't either) has to report on ECTS'2000 (London Olympia 3rd - 5th September) for Speedy3D. As such I'll be somewhat busy, good news is I'll still be able to update news but E-Mails may take longer to get around to. I suggest you send any ISP news to the usual members or 'sendnews' address, as I won't really have time to do it myself.

There's never much about ISPs @ ECTS, although you never know, so don't expect anything outside of a few pictures and videos from the show =). Before getting into the actual update I'd really like to thank Zeon (Richard) along with myself (yeah so what?) for coping with so much work and media related stuff this week! It wasn't easy.

So what’s been happening? Well anybody that’s been reading the site should know. This week was purely about content, updating sections, adding new stuff and reporting on all that lovely ISP news (oooh EzeSurf). Behind the scenes we've been slowly penning out the first two stages our of ISPr Freecall service, of which is being aimed at 1,000 ISPr readers only (small is good). More news on that soon.

If I ever get through the pile of mail after ECTS next week then we might also make a few more changes to the main page. The member status item has already gone as it held up page loading a couple of seconds. The Unmetered list will get a revamp and update, not to mention our RIP petition will also close next week and be sent in.

The new primary focus (article wise) of ISPr is to uncover exactly what's happening with FRIACO. We'll be trying to contact BT, Oftel and other related parties in order to mow over the political rubbish and bring the facts to bare.

That's just about it for now, although to say that AllAdvantage have gone and given 'Get Paid To Surf' users a 15 hour cap with even lower hourly pay. Not to mention they've also put a hold on more accounts for the second month, fun. As such our current system of choice would be PaysU, at only 0.12Pence an hour it's not much, but at least it works and is UK based.

Blueyonder Upgrade

By:Daniel @ 12:33:AM - Comments (6) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Blueyonder have sent the following to all their customers about an upgrade to their network:

"As part of an ongoing initiative to improve the network supporting our Dial up and High Speed products, Telewest is pleased to announce the following enhancements to our blueyonder Internet services:

Network Capacity Upgrades
Network capacity upgrades will be implemented in order to address the identified issues with latency and speed. We will be migrating the existing SurfUnlimited dial-up and blueyonder hi-speed traffic from its existing national Internet backbone (which is currently constrained to 34Mbit/s and 155 Mbit/s), to a new Internet IP National Network that has been brought into service throughout 1999 and 2000.

When the traffic is migrated to the new Internet IP National Network our Internet traffic will be handled by a network of over 30 high-capacity gigabit routers.

Our new Internet National Network backbone bandwidth is 155 Mbit/s and will be increasing to 622 Mbit/s by the end of the year.

Dial Access
Following a full evaluation and testing phase, we have selected a new modem rack supplier. The first new modem racks installation has taken place at Hayes and Slough, and further deployments will be scheduled to meet the required dial-up capacity. The new equipment offers many advantages, such as increased diagnostics and scalable modem capacity."

So finally they will be sorting out the internet access, this should all be done by october.

Kingston Communications Update

By:Daniel @ 12:21:AM - Comments (10) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

We have received an email from Conor Tourton informing us that Kingston Communications are making a big mistake:

"Karoo, KC's internet arm has provided unmetered access to its service for nearly 2 years now to people in the Hull area. Anyone who is in the area covered by Kingston Communications, i.e 01482 dialling codes has been able to dial into an 01482 POP number for £14.99 a month. Due to KC offering unmetered local calls for a 5p connect charge you could stay on 23hrs 59mins a day for 5p.

This new deal is alot worse. Under the old deal you could stay connected virtually 24/7/365 for £16.49 a month (£14.99 subscription and 5p per day x 30
days).

I think that the service they are rolling out is only available to KC telco customers.

So now customers will be paying more fir unmetered than before. In light of recent events it probably wasn't profitable to keep the prices as they were.

Ex-Eze Staffs ISP

By:Daniel @ 12:12:AM - Comments (40) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The following is an announcement an ex-ezesurf staff sent me:

"Due to a great amount of support and encouragement by the ex-customers of Ezesurf, we have decided to seriously look into the possibility of starting up our own freecall ISP. We are in the process of contacting possible providers for the freecall service, and will keep you all informed of every step of our progress. We also have many new ideas that will possibly help to strengthen this new ISP against the big forces in the UK internet market without using Surftime. We hope to be able to bring you something that works as soon as possible. Thanks to all the customers of Ezesurf, and for their emails of support... Kevin, Richard and Kenny."

Would you join the ISP if they brought one out? Post your comments...

Ezesurfs Liability

By:Daniel @ 12:09:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Planet Inferno has put up an article about refunds from ezesurf. Although it's short, it is informative.

Click here to see the Article

"Their T&C's certainly make things clear. The most important term is defined by the description: the 0808 access is provided as a bonus to the shares, and can be withdrawn at any time. This would point clearly to the idea that any claims of fraud are void."

News - September 1,2000

Kingston Unmetered

By:mark.j @ 7:21:PM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

While we watch those ISPs that couldn't keep up, die, a new breed of unmetered master class has started to rise from the ashes. Kingston Communications are hoping to become one of them, here's the PR (Thanks to Mr Anonymous =]):

Changes to Karoo Xtra and HelpDesk, plus New Residential Services

Residential Untimed and Unmetered Services

The Kingston Communications Group is a leader in the provision of untimed Internet access with the Karoo Xtra service and we have gained valuable experience in the process. A number of companies in
the industry have tried different approaches to provide this standard, but many have, unfortunately, not been successful.

However, a new model of unmetered access is now emerging, which is cost effective for both the customer and the telephone operator. Kingston Communications feels that it is right to adopt this. In addition, we have been listening to comments and ideas from our Karoo Xtra customers. Some want unmetered access throughout the day, without having to pay for untimed local calls, no matter how many times they logon. Others only want access in the evenings and weekends.

Consequently, Kingston Communications Limited is pleased to announce a number of new services from 1 October 2000. Like Karoo Xtra, these new services are only available to residential customers.

Karoo AnyTime will offer unmetered Internet access, 24 hours a day, seven days a week for just 29.99 (including VAT) per month. This
monthly fee is made up of two elements, both of which go to KCL: a 19.99 charge as the telephone operator and 10.00 as the ISP. This service will be particularly suited to residential customers who are heavy users of the Net or want to surf when it suits them. There are no call charges for this service.

Karoo FreeTime will offer unmetered Internet access on weekday evenings and at weekends for just 9.99 (including VAT) per month. This monthly fee is made up of two elements, both of which go to KCL: a 5.99 charge as the telephone operator and 4.00 as the ISP. There are no call charges for this service during these periods. Calls made outside of these periods will be charged at just 2p per minute. This service will be particularly suited to residential customers who like to use the Net in their free time.

Karoo Xtra will be retained within this new structure and its price will be raised to 25.00 (including VAT) per month. Calls will continue to be charged at the KCL local untimed call rate.

Karoo Xtra customers need take no action if you want to stay with Karoo Xtra. Your monthly Direct Debit will be automatically increased to 25.00 on or after 1 October 2000.

If you want to move to either of the other two services, then please telephone our Customer Services Internet team on (01482) 602444. The staff will be pleased to transfer you and adjust your payment accordingly.

You should be able to find more information from the website (http://www.kingston-internet.net), we left out the last part as it wasn't relevant and went on and on.....

The whole structure looks like BTSurftime to us, at least it's exactly the same system from the way it's worded, and costed. The package is only available if you are a KCL customer.

C.U.T Speak Up For Unmetered

By:mark.j @ 7:09:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

It's been a long time (2nd July to be exact) since the Campaign for Unmetered Telecommunications updated their site, strange considering all the recent happenings. Still the good people at CUT have seen their way to an update and hope to use it for dispelling fears that Unmetered is doomed, DOOMED I TELL YOU.. DOOMED.. sorry:

In part. Kicking BT has become a national pastime: indeed, delays to a completely acceptable version of FRIACO - caused by the negotiations between BT and participating bandwidth operators becoming immensely contentious and drawn out - have not helped. Our opinion is that some ISPs launched PSTN-based services so as to be first to do so, in full knowledge that they were not sustainable indefinitely, yet expected that FRIACO would come along 'soon' and bail them out.

But launching unviable products on the expectation that something not certain to take place would make them viable, and also grossly underestimating demand for those products, was hopelessly naïve. Certainly it is commercially to your advantage to be first - as long as your service is credible.

Thanks to John for forking past CUT and seeing that news item, they basically say what we along with the other sites have been trying to. Unmetered isn't doomed, but the industry is screwing around with it so much that a natural air of confusion has arisen. They finish with:

Certainly some of the basic mistakes made by ISPs, such as underestimating usage, could have been avoided had potential users only been consulted in advance.

Finally, we hope that becoming aware of the tremendous pent-up demand for Internet use - the hard way - will concentrate minds.

We quite agree, like we said in The Guardian on Thursday, the best way to avoid problems is to stay informed (ISPreview =]).

30.8% of the population is online

By:mark.j @ 4:25:PM - Comments (7) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

According to THIS article on the NetImperative, the British online population continues to grow at a staggering rate:

The UK is still leading Europe in terms of internet penetration, with 30.8% of the population now online, according to NetValue.

Internet users in Germany represent 24.7% of the population, and in France, 16.6%, according to the research for July. However, UK users actually connect to the internet on fewer days per month than their German counterparts, spending an average of 9.2 days connected, as opposed to 9.6 in Germany. The duration was an average of 6.3 hours a month.

Home internet use has increased in Europe, with the UK statistics at just over 10m. Of these users, 40.5% were women. This is a good 5% over women’s internet stake in France and Germany.

Looks like being one of the first country’s in Europe to really push for freecall access is starting to have an obvious effect. Not least that, but also the large amount of discounts for web users dominating TV campaigns in recent months has helped.

It wasn't long ago that the figure was 25%, that's a 5.8% jump in the last few months, wonder what it'll be come X-Mas?

BT Delay FRIACO ISPs AGAIN!

By:mark.j @ 11:14:AM - Comments (13) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

It's happened again, BT has a legal obligation to supply the FRIACO package, but as usual anybody trying to use it wouldn't be able to anyway. At least that's what the ISP http://www.nocallfee.com claims:

Dear all you disappointed customers,

1. We are ready. :-)
2. Our Network is ready. :-)
3. Energis our Carrier is ready. :-)
4. One of the largest company's in the UK IS NOT. BT :-(

So what can we say or do, NOTHING, yes we could all start suing and cause a mountain of work plus delay the whole loop for ages or we sit tight and just wait and try not to go out of our tiny minds.

FACTS:
1. Energis are the only subscriber to BT FRIACO2 0845 number on which
Netbauds/NoCallFee.com Is providing this unmetered internet access product to YOU with the added bonus of our superior contention ratio.

2. Energis have a legal contract with BT to provide this service.

3. BT have to deliver ASAP due to Commercial pressure from wannabe law suits, loss of earnings etc.

4. We are told this is a matter of days before we are switched on, but can we be sure well after the now 2 missed launch days 14/08/2000 & 1/09/2000 we can only pass on to you the facts that are in place at this time and as we progress I will email you with any advances.

Please be patient this service is and will be happening soon :-)

Our phones will be going mad today so I would appreciate if you could email me any questions and I will respond ASAP.

As before NO MONEYS WILL BE PROCESSED UNTIL YOU HAVE YOUR SERVICE.

If any of you our stuck for an Internet connection we are happy to provide you with a free Internet connection up to 128k ISDN please just email me a user name and password and I will send you the dial up number (this will be charged at your normal local rate).

If you want to vent any frustration then it's better to vent it at BT, it's their fault we have to pay such high charges anyway and their fault they can't introduce the lower priced systems ON-TIME. One ISP/Telco has already started initial proceedings against BT, more are likely to follow if this keeps up.

World Online Update

By:zeon @ 8:24:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

After seeing the rather worrying headline on Reuters we contacted Derick Martin, MD of World Online Telecom to get a better idea of what World Online were doing. The Reuters article was written after a press conference in which World Online were showing how their unmetered model was working and what would happen in the future.

Derick assures us that there will be no sudden changes and that any change will be in the customers best interest and made with the help of the customers. The main problem that World Online can't sustain their current access model forever because they would loose too much money. In the future they will use a combination of FRIACO packages together to reduce their costs.

Lineone Plans

By:Ross14 @ 7:49:AM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The troubled ISP Lineone has updated it's website with the latest news on their new unmetered package that they promised to launch.

"LineOne will be launching a great new off-peak Internet calls
package with BT Surftime on 14th September 2000."

They also ask you to bookmark this web address - http://www.lineone.net/freeinternet/offerend.html - as this is where the new offer will be presented first.

It's a shame really that it's just an off-peak package, and is on BT Surftime which has been plagued with problems.

There is still no pricing info from Lineone yet, so your guess is as good as ours, probably around the £5.99 mark.

Thanks to Drillman for the email.

News - August 31,2000

Freechariot Go Back Stabbing!

By:Ross14 @ 8:40:PM - Comments (7) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Yes, you read that headline correctly, once again the very free ISP Freechariot has decided to comment on the AltaVista fiasco along with a few back-stabbing sentences against AOL. It's quite a long post so read on:

"Finally Alta vista does come clean about the service that never was. They stated that they were not competent and never planned the service properly and wanted all to just be forgiven as they pocket the proceeds of higher advertising income from their supposedly ill-planned jaunt into unmetered ISP territory.

At Freechariot, we are sorry we are not buying it. Alta vista tried to destroy the industry with their self-serving announcement that guaranteed them increased traffic. The procrastination that followed for 3 months while they lied their way to maintaining falsely generated traffic and finally the revelation couched in toddler speak to generate forgiveness. The icing on this cake is the blame they try to pass on the biggest scapegoat in town BT.

Alta Vista benefited from this lie and should be held accountable for the ill-gotten gains they have derived from it. They are liars who have done their utmost to steal the feel-free factor from the needed reduction in the cost of internet connection that is required by the great people of this country. Freechariot challenge them to prove that they have not done this horrible deed so as to take a short cut to larger market capitalisation and larger portal traffic numbers.

Another big kid in the park that should put up or shut is AOL. Freechariot is tired and fed up with their constant moan about BT. We guess that AOL would like to make the internet surfers of the UK believe that they are the champion of the masses. AOL has done more than most to keep the average surfer in the dark regarding hidden charges to the net, with their hardheaded maintenance of access charges in addition to call charges.

No self-respecting businessperson will believe that BT should spend billions of pounds on infrastructure so as to hand it over for cheap to the likes of AOL. The same AOL that is so rich in cash and shares that they bought Time Warner. The same company, that is still busy buying up content-producing companies worldwide. The same AOL that spend so much building proprietary software that makes sure its members does not freely surf the web or see competitors’ sites.

AOL seems to forget that BT is a business that has responsibility to its staff and shareholders. BT therefore is not under any responsibility to throw money away without proper planning just so that the likes of AOL can have an easier ride.

AOL should either provide an unmetered product on the basis of the present set-up, build its own infrastructure (they sure do have the money), or just plain stop moaning (as if they have been appointed the defenders of the UK surfers’ rights)

Every time there is a discussion on unmetered service in the UK, there is AOL with the same line on whose fault it is – BT, all the time. It will be hilarious if it is not so transparently self-serving.

Freechariot started planning for free unmetered calls to the net and free local phone calls at about the same time that AOL are supposed to have been planning for its unmetered service and with a whole lot less resources. We have since produced a genuine firm offer that is the best in the market without much fuss and with a whole lot less cd-roms shoved at the unsuspecting people of the UK.

We are a genuine UK company that does not believe that BT should throw money away so that other companies can sit easy and make money on their back unless it makes good business sense for BT and their shareholders. BT does not have a free ride, there is only one free ride in town and it is Freechariot.

If AOL and Alta Vista want to see how it is done without fuss and moan in the strong tradition of the British people, they should call us up and get some tips on how to set up."

Some very strong points made by Freechariot there. FreeC seem to like to make big (and strong) announcements such as this quite alot, and they do make alot of good and valid points.

Thanks to Keith for the email.

FRIACO, Fact or Fiction?

By:mark.j @ 7:24:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

You'll likely see a full article on the subject here next week, however until then lets have a bit of 'people discussion' and exercise the British rite to moan =). Lets face it, the British wouldn't have to complain so much if we had business and regulators (ehumm guess who) that worked with us rather than against.

Trust me, there is a point to all this and like a snail, it'll present itself after following the slimy trail. Back in May Oftel claimed that thanks to C.U.T the first truly unmetered system (FRIACO) was on the cards and ready to run.

To have a true 1:1 ratio on such a service would have cost a user nearly £35 per month, so a normal ISP might have charged around £20 per month for an ever so slightly higher one. Not bad considering you'd get a low ratio and the ISP would of ended up with minimal additional charges.

Of course anything above 64Kbps would instantly cost double (ISDN 128), but then that's to be expected. Under the above layout you could have used a lengthy cut off period (4hours) or maybe even none at all, so why haven't we see such a system yet? Well actually we have, 24-7Freecall may not use the design above but it's about right.

The thing is that's only one ISP, yet Telco's and ISPs claim the system was still too expensive? This is because the people (you and I) wanted a cheaper system, perhaps closer to £10 or £15 per month. However if we were to apply the FRIACO mould to an ISP like RedHotAnt (as it is now) then it would actually cost you about £15 anyway!

Just whats gone wrong here? The reality is that FRIACO hasn't existed for Telco's to physically Opt-in on until just recently. Nor you or I have had a chance to voice our opinions or concerns because nobody ever showed us an ISP using FRIACO, so how could we? FRIACO came about in May, but it hasn't been available as Oftel decided to REVIEW it again. We never really asked for that, the Telco's did, according to Oftel anyway.

We think people would agree that £15 per month is a good price to pay and yet it puts minimal burden on the ISP. However Oftel took the system in for review to make it cheaper and instead caused it to go partly metered and limited to urban parts of the UK. This in turn means that ISPs would have to charge a higher monthly fee to offset any loses, yet BT still claims the original FRIACO has been available since May?

We'll leave it at that because we want some comments, after I get back from ECTS'2000 in London next week (Tuesday, going on Saturday) we'll be asking ISPs and Telco's just what the public isn't being told. What are these 'Technical Issues', why didn't Telco's try to accept the system, what's the reason for the FRIACO backtrack?

After this careful look at the unmetered industry we simply can't quite fit the pieces together. Mostly down to the limited information available in the public domain.

World Online Unmetered Trouble

By:mark.j @ 6:13:PM - Comments (8) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

World Online are regarded by many as a solid unmetered ISP despite the need to move Telco's in order to make use of their service. However Net4Nowt have today revealed that the large consumer ISP could be loosing a lot of money by offering the services at such a low price:

"We have to look at how the model is working, at pricing and conditions," said David Watson, Internet telecoms specialist at World Online.

While Internet providers such as World Online have been offering access at a fixed price for unlimited use, they were facing a BT bill which depended on the number of hours people were surfing the web.

"Unmetered pricing against a metered cost base doesn't work... We may be capping calls, put the price up for peak (hours) or improve our customer base," Watson said.

World Online is losing money by offering unmetered Internet access to consumers, but the company declined to say how much.

It offers unmetered access around the clock for £14.95 a month, including telephone line rental for which BT charges around £9 a month.

BT itself offers 24 hours-a-day unmetered Internet access for £19.99 a month, called SurfTime, on top of normal telephone line rental."

All this, combined with the now heightened level of uncertainty after the revised FRIACO Hybrid actually took a step in the WRONG direction, has forced WOL to reconsider their position. £14.99 per month + line rental is an extremely good offer to anybody that understands the costs involved.

It'd be a shame to see World Online go, although it doesn't appear as if that's what they have planned. One thing is looking more likely; a possible price rise is certainly on the cards. So there you have it, more proof that the bureaucratic feet dragging by BT and Oftel is hurting business more than ever.

More on RHA ISDN Problems

By:zeon @ 1:58:PM - Comments (24) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Nathan, an ISPreview reader has sent us the reply he received when asking RHA about ISDN problems:

"I sent a message to Ian Begg @ RHA to query this, and to my surprise I got an overnight response! Here's his reply:

"There are problems with isdn, not sure why but it only seems to affect some connections, all tech support who use ISDN dont have these problems. The techs are looking into this with the telecoms but havent heard how they are getting on yet, they will have to carry out tests on all our modems and shouldnt be too long before we they have a fix. I had a similar problem last night but mine was the same for all isp's I use a 56k modem), rebooted then it was okay for a while until connection speeds dropped to 0, dont know why this happened. We are looking into this problem and will post on our web site any news with the problem, sorry but this is all I can do for now until I have any more info."

It looks like the new lines that have been put in aren't coping with ISDN very well. We'd like to hear from RHA ISDN users with a good connection...

Demon Internet Delay Unmetered

By:mark.j @ 1:32:PM - Comments (9) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Thanks to David for informing us that Demon Internet have done the same as Vispa did today and delayed their unmetered product:

There have been many headlines in recent days about ISPs failing to deliver unmetered Internet access deals. There are several issues behind the headlines, including the commercial reality of a poorly thought-out business model or an inability of the network to cope with the huge increase of use that this type of service creates.

At Demon we are proud - justly - of our long record of delivering quality, well-planned products and services to our customers.

We are continuing to make considerable investment in our network to ensure that the service we launch is viable and capable of coping with any increases in demand. This will require further investment in network infrastructure.

This means that the new Premier Connect and Premier Connect Plus services will now be launched on Monday 9th. October.

We believe that you will agree that it is important to all our customers that when we launch our Demon Premier Connect, "Surftime" compatible products, we do so in the knowledge that our service will continue with the same high quality that you expect.

Our Demon Premier Connect products have been designed to reduce your total cost of Internet access. If you require an always-on service, we recommend that you look at our high quality ADSL options when these become available at your exchange, or our leased line service. If you are looking for an unmetered call service then our Demon Premier Connect, "Surftime" compatible products may be more suitable.

We will provide further information via the usual channels as the launch draws near.

If you wish to enquire about any of our ADSL services, please call 0800 027 0563 or email directsales@demon.net. Leased line information is available from 0800 027 3737.

Malcolm Muir
Demon Internet

Interestingly Demon is delaying a service based on Surftime, the only reason any other ISPs have delayed is because they don't believe FRIACO Hybrid is workable. This tends to suggest that either Demon are just stalling for time to see if they can use FRIACO instead or have some more obvious network problems of their own.

Still, the phrase better late than never does spring to mind, if a delay makes things better then a delay it is. However Demon subscribers may not be sticking around long enough to find out.