December 10, 2000 - December 14, 2000

News - December 14,2000

IGClick Problems Hit ADSL Customers

By:mark.j @ 10:39:AM - Comments (3) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

It would seem that IGClick may have cut more than the unmetered service, the ADSL part of their ISP was never mentioned in the update and has been offline for several days. One reader (Mike) writes:

following on from yesterdays announcement that IG click www.igclick.net are withdrawing unmetered internet access in favour of 0845 only access it has been reported from their ADSL customers that the service has been out of action for two days. calls to all numbers at their company are met with engaged tones or "number no longer in use" messages. have they done a runner with the money?? who knows.

Of course since nobody can contact the support department then nobody knows what's going on. Before all this happened Trading Standards had been refusing to investigate because IGC hadn't done anything they could act on (so we were told).

It looks like that refusal has cost lots of people money and now no service or support from other areas such as ADSL. Perhaps they could at least tell us they were acting now? It’s worth pointing out that the MD from the Dogma group stated this would happen when IGClick first started operation, we feared he might have been right.

Orange 0800 Charging

By:mark.j @ 10:26:AM - Comments (2) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

You may remember that Joe800, an unmetered WAP provider, yesterday went out of business because Mobile operators were starting to charge for 0800 use. One such operator was Orange, although according to The Register they decided not to tell their customers.

Thankfully they have decided to leave the system free, at least until January 2001 after a lot of problems and refunds for failing to mention they charged:

So, most importantly, what's the situation: Well, Orange will charge for all 0800 data calls from 1 January (although the date's not finalised). Note that 0800 voice calls will still be free, but WAP phones are included as data traffic so will be charged.

Ofcom Sheet Lacks Detail

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

As if you didn't expect it, netimperative.com has posted word of the first backlash against the Ofcom blueprint. Some industry officials have noted that there isn't enough detail in the paper:

According to Rob Hersov, Chairman of the British Internet Publishers’ Alliance and CEO of Sportal: “There’s a lot of gloss in this paper – there’s no real mention of how Ofcom will implement its powers, or what those powers will be. I don’t think they wanted to take on those issues in the run-up to the election.”

While Ofcom will have ultimate responsibility for monitoring and implementing the self-regulation and co-regulation of internet content and services, it is unclear exactly what form this will take.

For example, the paper does not specify what constitutes an internet broadcaster. Caspar Bowden, director of the Foundation for Information Policy Research, said: “News and current affairs can be received over internet and iTV. At the moment, if sites have political opinions on that’s fine, as it’s not considered a broadcast. As soon as you run a video clip on the site, does that then become a broadcast, with stricter rules? It’s still unclear.”

If you've ever operated your own website, and many have, then technically you're a media broadcaster. So under Oftel you could be regulated? Forget RIP and all the other anti-privacy acts, this really is a breech of freedom.

Of course it might not be how it seems, but this is exactly why people are angry, there just isn't enough detail! One wonders how this would be enforced for sites based on servers in countries that don’t have such governing.

News - December 13,2000

Round 2: 24-7Freecall Terminations

By:rich.p @ 10:17:PM - Comments (26) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

They have done it again! It appears around 1,000 users of 24-7Freecalls service have had their accounts terminated with this e-mail:

"Dear subscriber

We have reached the maximum number of subscribers that we can currently safely cater for without it adversely affecting the service for all users.

We will therefore not be accepting any new subscribers until we can
increase the capacity to cope with new users.

Sadly as a subscriber to 24-7Freecall your patterns of usage are
inconsistent with the levels that we can support at this time. Your usage is causing congestion on the network that is leading to problems for thousands of other users.

Regretfully your 24-7Freecall account has been terminated on 13th December
2000.

No refunds will be given.

You can email custcare@24-7freecall.co.uk with your concerns.

24-7Freecall
Customer Care

At £20 per month 24-7Freecall now seems rather expensive when compared to other ISPs. It seems it is only worth using if you surf less than 7 hours per day. More on this story tomorrow...

IC24 Extend 0800 - Kind Of

By:mark.j @ 4:03:PM - Comments (5) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The Net4Nowt crew have got wind of the fact that totally free unmetered ISP IC24 are allowing current subscribers to continue with the 0800 offer after X-Mas.

Their current 0800 promotion ends at the end of the year but existing customers will still qualify for the free access into next year.

Presently users receive totally free 0800 access between 8pm and midnight on weekday evenings as well as weekends between 9am and 5pm. Other times are charged as a local call.

How long that'll last is anybodies guess, although IC24 keep extending it on and on, not to mention they used to have a TV ad campaign. One wonders how on earth they are managing to sustain the service, it's as economically unviable as CallNet0800, maybe even more so.

Read Between The Lines - Oftel

By:mark.j @ 3:51:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The Register is today quoting the Trade & Industry Secretary’s interesting comments about the newly announced Ofcom. Although on the surface it's full of praise, they point to this:

"...the proposed reforms of the telecoms sector will offer regulatory stability combined with effective competition" - why would Byers say this if the telecoms sector had not been offered "regulatory stability combined with effective competition".

In effect, Byers is saying that the telecoms sector has not had regulatory stability and effective competition.

To single out Oftel - it's clear what Byers thinks of Oftel and its cosy relationship with BT.

A genuine mistake or is it exactly what he had meant it to say, well we guess it’s how it looks that matters and how it looks is obvious enough.

UK Still The Largest Net Population

By:mark.j @ 3:44:PM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

An update to previous reports by MMXI Europe shows that the UK is still ahead of Europe when it comes to the number of people online, according to netimperative.com:

The UK has the largest internet population in Europe, with take-up reaching 12.5m users in October, according to the latest MMXI Europe figures.

In second place is Germany, with 11.3m internet users, followed by France with 6m users and Spain with 4.5m. Although Sweden and Denmark have less people online, the level of internet penetration is higher than in other European countries.

We guess after Breathe and now IGClick have closed that those figures will be a little less today =). So much for having a merry Christmas, some people will be far from merry! That said and it's always good to see the UK taking a lead, this despite BT's continually anti-competitive stance.

0800 WAP Provider 'Joe800' Closes

By:mark.j @ 3:40:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

We guess that in some sense this makes the third ISP to close in so many days and on another level it's also an unmetered one. According to netimperative.com, Joe800 has chosen to stop its freecall WAP ISP as more providers are now CHARGING for 0800 use:

When the service launched in August this year, both Vodafone and BT Cellnet were already charging, and there were now-confirmed rumours that Orange and One2One would follow suit.

A spokesperson for Joe800 admitted that: “We did fear this would happen – the telcos have to protect their revenues – although it is disappointing that the little guy gets killed!” However, the company claims that a main function of the service was to give the big providers a ‘wake-up call’ – which worked to some extent, as both Orange and BT Cellnet launched either unmetered or heavily subsidised WAP airtime soon after the Joe800 debut.

Do you think it's right for Mobile providers to be charging for 0800 calls? Do the owners of those 0800 numbers even get any money from that? We think No and No again.

New Stuff @ ISP Review

By:mark.j @ 3:26:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

As we continue our content week(s) right up to Christmas, today follows on from Mondays ClaraNET interview with yet more additions. A review of the new unmetered ISP from CloudNine, MySurftime, and an article that takes a look back at the year that was - unmetered ISP related of course:

New Unmetered ISP Review - CloudNine (MySurftime):
http://www.ispreview.co.uk/reviews/cloudnine/

New Article - Year In Review (2000):
http://www.ispreview.co.uk/articles/yir2000

IGClick Suspends Unmetered Offer

By:mark.j @ 3:22:PM - Comments (25) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Why does this always happen in two's? Following on from Breathe.Net, IGClick have now chosen to suspend their unmetered offer for the reasons stated in this update:

Service Statement

To All IG Click Customers,

Having completed our recent upgrade it appears that our system cannot cope with the continuous abuse by a certain section of our customer base. We have unfortunately attracted a hardcore element of users who continue to repeatedly to abuse the service with blatant disregard for other customers on the network and detrimental to the service delivery plans of IG.

The extent to which this has continued has led to the level of service remaining totally unacceptable to our customers and ourselves, from the service we seek to provide.

As a company we feel that the only way forward is to suspend our 0808 service from 20th December 2000.

However, all IG Click accounts will be able to access the web/internet via our new 0845 number (local call charges apply). This we hope will enable us to return to the very high level of service our customers demand and at the same time this will discourage the sort of abuse that the service has been subject to over the last 3 months.

We apologise to our genuine customers who may feel that IG have let them down. IG can assure you that if we had a whole customer base of genuine users we would be able to continue with the 0808 (free dial) service.

We hope that we can count on your continued support in the future. All customers will be contacted shortly to give the new service details.

With Regards

IG Click Customer Liaison Officer

Of course just like so many other ISPs, IGClick never stated in detail what it counts as 'excessive use' and thus only has itself to blame. ISPs should start accepting the responsibility for offering a service no matter what the customers do, consumers are flexible and so ISPs have to be the same.

It's the old excuses all over again and most people have had enough of them, just what do they count as excessive use? If no limits are published then how are people to know? The arrogance of it! No word on refunds, especially after the recent price changes, it all sounds a little too 'EzeSurf' to us.

Whether they re-open the freecall system nobody knows, but no doubt customers are going to scream for some blood with this one. So another ISP suspends its service and blames the customers for using it, now that’s a contradiction! There must be more too it since most ISPs would have kicked the unruly.

Government Publicly Announces Ofcom

By:mark.j @ 10:25:AM - Comments (2) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

We've known for nearly a month now that Oftel was to be merged with several groups and ultimately create a 'Super Regulator'. However yesterday the plans were officially made public and this morning The Register covers the announcement in more detail:

Ofcom - as it is to be known - will be responsible for TV, radio and telecommunications, according to the Communications White Paper published today. It will have more power to promote competition among monopolies, state-owned organisations and companies.

It will also have far greater clout to ensure that those fingered for dragging feet and avoiding competition get a nasty slap.

This, in particular, will be of interest to the telecoms industry, which widely perceives the current regulator, Oftel, as being too soft on BT. Despite this, David Edmonds, head of Oftel, welcomed the news that the winged watchdog is to be put down.

Of course they've failed to mention some of the other areas Ofcom will now do, such as the Internet, something that's original for a public service. Setting about to regulate/govern such a thing is no easy task and as such Ofcom's scheduled launch is in 2002! A date, which many agree is far too late.

Minstral’s ADSL Backup - ISDN 128Kbps

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

According to netimperative.com, the business ISP Minstral Internet has come up with a clever way of keeping business 100% connected if ADSL crashes:

Mistral Internet, the business ISP, has introduced a backup option for its ADSL service, which it launched in October.

The backup consists of a managed Cisco router monitoring the ADSL router and line, which automatically switches to a 128K ISDN line to restore connectivity, if the ADSL connection crashes.

It's certainly a unique thing to do, although if you're a big business and that's a 2Mbit/2Mbit connection, switching to ISDN 128Kbps is likely to make it seem dead anyway =).

C.U.T Finalise USO Response To Oftel

By:mark.j @ 10:12:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The C.U.T (Campaign for Unmetered Telecommunications) have finalised their response to Oftel’s review of the Universal Service Obligation, better known as a review of the Universal Telecommunications Services. You can read the full five pages and Adobe Acrobat format right HERE:

We have made our final response to OFTEL's review of the Universal Service Obligation (USO) which mandates which minimum services BT and Kingston Communications must provide.

Although only five pages long our response covers a wide range of topics from light user packages to narrowband connection speeds; rather than provide a summary we suggest that it is not too painful to read in its entirety.

The Breathe.Net Insider

By:mark.j @ 10:07:AM - Comments (4) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

A supposedly inside source from Breathe.NET has contacted us to clear a few things up, although clearly some of his information is wrong. We doubt this is really from an insider and are just posting it out of sheer interest:

Couple of facts for you. First, there were never 50,000 breathe freely subscribers. At peak there were around 12,000. The conversion rate is high: that is, those who have phoned us and converted over to breathe easy at 1p per minute. Second, breathe is rather different to EzeSurf etc, since we're the fourth largest ISP in the UK, and a going, revenue-earning concern, unlike them. The cashflow issues are to do with development of ambitious new technology, not with the basic ISP business.

Now obviously we can't clear all of this up as we ourselves don't know the full facts, so it hangs in the balance about what, if any, is actually true. The most obviously incorrect thing is the person claiming Breathe to be the 4th largest ISP in the UK, this is 100% untrue as 50,000 is tiny; even 500,000 wouldn't make them the 4th - 7/8th maybe.

He also says the ISP only has 50,000 subscribers, most other news sites say 500,000 and so we don't know whether this is a typo or not. That said and we can't dispute the rest properly as we don't know ourselves.

Dual Connection NTL C-Modems

By:mark.j @ 9:57:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Ethernet has long been the medium of choice when connecting to a Cable Modem connection via NTL, however according to CableNews, that's all about to change:

ntl's supplier of cable modems, Global Direct, has begun shipping the new cable modem from Motorola; the SB4100. This new model features both the usual Ethernet connection and a USB interface.

ntl will not currently support the USB interface (an additional Ethernet cable is currently being supplied with all SB4100 modems), although this is planned once it has been "fully tested by our [ntl's] development team" - ntl.announce, 12/12/00. However, it is expected that the USB connection will work on the ntl cable system.

So in other words, you'll be able to use USB, but don't go dialling the support line if you have problems, as they won't help until it's supported.

News - December 12,2000

Fancy Buying Some Mud?

By:mark.j @ 5:40:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

We've decided to post this because it brightened up an otherwise stormy day, UK.Internet have found a sight that sells MUD! Yes that's right, MUD! In case there's some confusion, it's that brown stuff that helps most of the earth grow vegetation like as trees and plants - it's mud:

In the six weeks that the site has been up it has received more than 500 hits. Pileofmud.com offers such delights as the £2.99 'pauper pack' of common soil through to the more exotic executive selection at £19.99, offering a choice of quality topsoils. Also available is a video of mud being dug up and the History of Mud pamphlet along with mugs and mousemats plastered with the Pile of Mud logo.

All the gifts are wrapped and accompanied by a personalised greeting card. Jonathan Fagan, the 27-year-old Leicester-based owner of the company, said although it is a tongue-in-cheek concept, Pileofmud is still a genuine business. And if a customer really wants to start the mudslinging with a friend, Pileofmud will deliver a special 500 kilos of mud for the bargain price of about £5000.

Eerily similar to the site that tries to sell off pieces of the Moon and in fact the entire solar system, this one is just plain mad (didn't say mud) unless you're not from the UK. So if you can't quite work out what to get that overseas relative for X-Mas, why not send them some mud, they'll love you for it =) - honest!

Alternative presents could be bits of your old and dead great grandmother in a pictured frame or maybe even a 14,400modem from the Stone Age.

Online Fraud Paranoia Continues

By:mark.j @ 5:27:PM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

We often wonder how many times you can research the same thing and reach exactly the same conclusion over and over again; well according to UK.Internet the supply is infinite.

Another piece of research, relating to attitudes towards cyber crime and online fraud, has been put forward by PwC. Can you guess what they concluded? Well can you? Oh course you can because we've heard it all before:

Research from analyst PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) reveals that nearly all internet users are still reluctant to use their credit cards on the internet.

In fact, UK internet users are the most paranoid people in Europe, according to the research, with 90 per cent of them feeling uncomfortable at the prospect of giving up their credit card details - even on a secure server.

PwC said UK users are also reluctant to hand over other personal information such as names and addresses. This attitude stretches across Europe, with 75 per cent of consumers abandoning procedures that require them to input personal data, due to uncertainty as to how that data will be used. A majority of these users will not buy so-called high-value goods online for the same reason.

This comes in the wake of new EU initiatives that should help out cyber crime and the misuse of private information. Oh course despite all this we can expect the same research to be done again and again every other month. Still perhaps one day it'll actually reach the opposite conclusion, we live in hope.

Activator 'HSI' Satellite Update

By:mark.j @ 3:16:PM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

After the first item on the new broadband Satellite ISP, Activator, one of the heads came back to us in order to clear a few things up. In our experience Satellite ISPs have been more comparable to the speeds of 128Kbps ISDN at best, 33Kbps at worst.

The only way you usually get any real speed is by queuing a download, thankfully Activator seem to be doing things a little differently and were keen to explain:

The deal we have is that once a 34Mbits transponder becomes 33% utilised, a new transponder opens. Unlike EuropeOnline, who attempted to squeeze far too many users on one transponder. As with any broadband play, available bit rate services can be provided for pretty much free a la BT etc as they are offering zero Quality of Service. However, if you are to allocate a chunk of bandwidth for a specified period of time, it must be paid for (by someone).

The key, at this stage in the development of broadband deployment is carefully managing the load on the network. The beauty of broadcast infrastructure is that you can balance the load on the network by delivering rich content and services (subscribed for by the user) to the hard disk such that the "edge" of the network really is the edge. A consumer can interact with said content and services, which is served from their hard disk i.e. no bottlenecks, instant gratification etc

To achieve this you must turn the receiving appliance (the PC) into a trusted device. This allows you to deliver high value content and services, which are persistently protected and royalty collection guaranteed. This is what we do.

http://www.activator.co.uk/

Not long after the new broadband section launches we plan to review several such ISPs, Activator included. It's worth pointing out that whatever you do, Satellite Internet is not advisable for the first time net user. You should have some good knowledge of the Internet and hopefully satellites to get the best out of such services.

We'll take a closer look at Activator during the early part of 2001 and this will be covered more in our future broadband section.

Government Site Gets Swamped

By:mark.j @ 12:26:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Swamped, Drowned and Flooded are three words you could use as part of the pun laden subject header for this news item. According to The Register a government site set-up by the environment agency has been swamped to the point of death with information requests about the recent floods:

Extremely heavy rainfall last month put large areas of Britain under water. The rains eventually stopped, but the ground is saturated and a recent burst of rain has put more areas under threat. The Environment Agency helpfully put searchable maps up on its site to warn people if they were living in a risky area.

Tapping in your postcode will bring up a map of your area complete with possible dangers. It's a cracking service and we applaud the Agency for getting it together. However, as with such things, its practicality proved too much for the government's servers, leaving many unable to access the maps.

A notice on the site now says: "Note that the current high demand for our maps may mean that you are unsuccessful at your first attempt. Please try again later if so!" So much so that the Agency put out an all-staff email dissuading them from checking it out. Oh dear.

The site was first widely mentioned on primetime news through all the main channels, typically millions took a trip to view the site and it swiftly ended up being overloaded. It just goes to show that advertising your business/service on prime time TV can do as much harm as good.

Does anybody ever notice how all the unmetered ISPs advertised have had serious problems at one point or another (IC24, Breathe, Freeserve etc.)?

AOL Tries To Snag Sony

By:mark.j @ 12:18:PM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

If you're a fan of gaming as around 25% of the UK already is, then you'll be well aware of Sony’s new PlayStation2 system. It's a computer, DVD player and games console all rolled into one, and it’ll even give you net access.

Our interest under ISPr in the console is related to Net access, namely that it has support for future DSL broadband technologies. We say Future because DSL has yet to spread out. That hasn't stopped ISPs approaching Sony with related offers, much as The Register is reporting AOL have now done:

The snag here is a potential monopoly question - might Sony restrict access to its content to PlayStation punters and subscribers to its ISP? Similar concerns prompted both the European Commission and Federal Communications Commission investigations into AOL's proposed merged with Time-Warner.

An AOL deal with Sony would go some way to calming such fears about both companies. Both get to show they are opening their products to a rival content and Net access provider.

And there's a certain synergy here. Both Sony and AOL are prime competitors with Microsoft, and on the basis that your enemy's enemy is your friend, the two might well want to come together in an anti-Xbox/MSN axis.

It's an interesting idea, although what makes it more likely also makes it more improbable. There's far too much 'guess work' to say whether Sony would agree to it and AOL aren't the only ISP to approach them.

That said and Sony doesn’t have much of a foothold in the UK and so a third party agreement is certainly more likely. The question is; would you want an AOL account on your PS2?

Breathe - The Facts - The Fiction

By:mark.j @ 10:14:AM - Comments (9) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

More news nibbles keep cramming themselves into ISPreview about Breathe, mainly in the form of 60 odd complaints from readers who are worried they won't get there money back. Of course they should be worried because Breathe is an ISP much like EzeSurf, on the edge of liquidation.

The fact that it should have been obvious the lifetime fee of £50 was impossible to sustain is not a factor in this for customers that didn't know better. Although take more notice of the Terms & Conditions and you'll see they have many ways to get out of giving refunds.

Breathe has around 500,000 subscribers and that gives them a refund bill of between £2mn and £4Million pounds, depending on who is eligible. We can't tell you what they'll do, but we can give you some hints based on experience and the market:

1) If you've been with the service for awhile then the chances of you getting a refund are next to 0%, unless you had service problems during this time.

2) Those who joined the service in the last month/few days will almost certainly be refunded and should be no matter what Breathe says.

3) If a buyer is found for the ISP (this is there only hope) then you have the potential for new packages being offered to customers in limbo, however any refund situation would not be taken on-board with a new buyer - thus expect an announcement before then or not at all.

4) The ISPs problems are so great that finding a buyer is unlikely and there's a 50-50 chance they'll end up liquidating just like EzeSurf and CallNet0800 did before them.

At present Breathe aren't giving anything away, although whether they say it or not, they will undoubtedly be looking for a buyer. Last contact ISPr had and we heard they were looking into the refund situation, but had reached no conclusions as yet.

So it has to be the customers hope that they announce refunds before a buyer is found, it's highly unlikely any takeover operation would agree to accept the refund situation. One-way or another you'll NEVER see a £50 lifetime option again =).

From another perspective it may be Breathe's own fault for launching a service, which was clearly impossible to sustain, however that said and this is serious for both sides - customers and business. It's a company that's just realised it could be on the edge of death, nobody at Breathe will be very happy.

BT's Surf & Talk Together Press Release

By:mark.j @ 9:54:AM - Comments (3) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Despite the offers actually going live on the 1st December 2000, BT have only now sent out the consumer Press Release and here it is in full:

***************************************************
Our new unlimited local phone and Internet call packages are now available
******************************************************

GREAT NEWS! We have now launched our new unlimited call packages. To start enjoying the benefits, simply order on-line. Click here to place your order on
http://www.bt.com/rc/BTChoices/?cid=148/999600052255/151/1148151

There are three new packages in total, which are in addition to BT Line Rental and BT Together - so you now have five packages to choose from, all of which include many of the benefits of BT Together. Simply select the one that best suits the way you keep in touch.

Here's a quick guide to the new packages to help you choose:

Unlimited Talk... BT Talk Together
**********************************

* Unlimited local phone calls (up to one hour in length) any evening and all weekend
* Costs just GBP14.99 per month including line rental (just GBP5.00 more than standard line rental)

Unlimited Surf... BT Surf Together
**********************************

* Unlimited Internet calls any evening and all weekend (calls to SurfTime numbers only)
* Costs just GBP14.99 per month including line rental (just GBP5.00 more than standard line rental)

Please note that SurfTime participating ISPs may charge an additional fee.

Unlimited Talk & Surf... BT Talk & Surf Together
************************************************

* Combines the above two packages to give the best of both worlds
* Unlimited local phone calls (up to one hour in length) any evening and all weekend
* Unlimited Internet calls any evening and all weekend (calls to SurfTime numbers only)
* Costs just GBP19.99 per month (includes your line rental)

Please note that SurfTime participating ISPs may charge an additional fee.

******************************************************
Order on-line and start enjoying the benefits of unlimited calling
******************************************************

It couldn't be easier to start enjoying the benefits of our unlimited call packages. For more information or to order your chosen package, simply visit
http://www.bt.com/rc/BTChoices/?cid=148/999600052255/151/1148151

*******
TOP TIP
*******

As a registered bt.com customer, you can now view your calls on-line -
making managing your BT account easier than ever before with View My Calls. You can sort any itemised bill into a format that suits you - arranging calls by date, number, duration or cost. You could even sort by different call types to help you decide which of the new unlimited packages best suits the way you choose to keep in touch.
To manage your BT account on-line, visit
http://www.bt.com/rc/billing-payments/?cid=148/999600052255/151/1148151

Kind regards,

Fergus Crockett
Director of Consumer Markets

Please note that the prices for this service under ISDN are dramatically different and still rather unfairly expensive. You will need to check BT's pricing pages for full details on that or search our past news items.

News - December 11,2000

08002go Update

By:Ross14 @ 9:29:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

We recently sent an email to 08002go about why their services have still not launched. Well, we got a reply today and as usual here it is uncut:

Thank you for your questions.

The site is now live. We are just awaiting netbanx to issue the credit
card page which will appear on the registration page,

This will allow our members to enter their membership fee of £5.83.

We expect this to take just a few more days.

Don't worry, if you have preregistered you will receive an email telling you to enter your membership fee of £5.83 all other information will also be included.

Thank you.
info@08002go.com

So there you have it. They are planning to go live in the next few days, keep your fingers crossed!

RedHotAnt Close Loophole

By:mark.j @ 4:41:PM - Comments (3) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

For a long time RedHotAnt has had a rather annoying loophole that allowed two people to be logged into the same account at the same time (possibly more). Thankfully its now been plugged and this means that RHA have finally taken some practical action against a problem that continues to inflict most other ISPs.

We weren't sure about this until more reports came in and we tried it ourselves. However it has also raised continuing concern regarding their support for 128Kbps ISDN, which under HH is technically a simple multilink.

Several readers were recently told that the support for 128bps would be reinstated BEFORE January 2001. Today’s confirmation obviously casts new doubt over that statement by RHA support. On the good side of things RHA continue to improve, although not for everybody.

New Article @ ISP Review

By:mark.j @ 1:56:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

In the first of what should be several interviews and other content additions in the lead up to X-Mas, we put a few questions to ClaraNET about the state of unmetered access in the UK:

3) Unmetered ISPs finally seem to be settling down and a more realistic line of pricing is starting to appear, do you agree with this?

Absolutely. It got a little crazy earlier in the year with several ISPs offering cut price unmetered deals which they simply could not sustain. The pricing which is coming out now is more realistic and allows an ISP to be able to handle the uptake of customers without performance suffering, and make enough profit to make the service worthwhile from a business perspective.

http://ispreview.co.uk/articles/cn_interview2/

Telewest Ditches £1bn Residential Net Plan

By:mark.j @ 12:46:PM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Bad news for BT and the Government as The Register reports that Telewest have chosen to ditch their £1Billion DSL net plan for residential customers:

The company had planned to spend the billion rolling out high-speed digital subscriber line (DSL) services through BT's exchanges, but said yesterday that it would spend the money on updating its existing cable network.

A spokesman for the company said: "At the moment we don't see an economic model that makes it viable to offer DSL for residential use but it might work for businesses." The company would be better advised to concentrate on areas it already had, he said.

However we're glad this has happened, as it's better Cable Co's stick to being Cable Co's and avoid getting into the BT zone, somewhere nobody likes to be at present. Not to mention that Telewest subscribers will likely be overjoyed at this news, it should mean improved services and networking.

Breathe To Be Sold?

By:mark.j @ 12:38:PM - Comments (2) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Rumours abound as netimperative.com is reporting this morning, this time a major backer for the now defunct unmetered ISP Breathe was rumoured to have been looking for a buyer:

Having cancelled its unmetered access service last week, the company insists it is not interested in a “trade sale” after a report in the Sunday Telegraph said Chase was sounding out potential buyers.

However, more likely to cause Breathe problems following the cancellation of its service is that it refuses to comment on whether it will return the £50 ‘lifetime’ fee that unmetered subscribers paid when signing up this year.

A spokesman said Breathe would only advise customers to contact helplines and that cases would not be dealt with on a “blanket” basis. The company will not say how it will judge which of its users, who are thought to number less than 50,000, will be returned their £50.

Worrying times and we think those people who were kicked for overuse in the early days might be laughing away quite happily =). Breathe was one of the last really cheap (yearly) ISPs, it only leaves a few such as RedHotAnt, Connect25 and one or two others. This style of ISP has been the first to bite the bullet; the big and early investment of £50 was good, but ultimately not enough to sustain the service.

We can't help but question the lastability of others in the same boat; similar ISPs (RHA, Connect25 etc.) have already increased prices and cut services in an effort to compensate for usage. Of course it’s there own fault by not targeting the ISP appropriately for the economics involved.

OnDigital Transmitter Upgrade - UPDATE

By:mark.j @ 12:28:PM - Comments (2) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Following on from the general post on Sunday about the RowRidge upgrade for the IOW and central south England/Dorset. I'm sorry to say that the [insert profanity here] in charge of the upgrades have once again delayed the updates until the New Year =(. None of this is ISP related:

10/12/00 Many of the planned transmitter upgrades have now been delayed until the new year. There is no confirmation as to why although the details can be found on the transmitter page.

Not much in the way of detail, just big old TBA notices =(. So for a lot of people that means no more extra channels (free to air ones) until the New Year =(.

ISPr Site Updates

By:mark.j @ 11:22:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Because of the problem with our counter we've had to find a replacement, thankfully one has been found and it's a LiveCounter. In other words you can see when new people enter the site and this change is due to take place sometime today/soon.

However the new counter will be placed in the footer and this is for several reasons, firstly because it means the rest of the page will load faster. Secondly because it'll help avoid conflicts with other JS code in the header and we plan to integrate the site design into the forums soon.

The new changes should take effect today, I've re-coded the header, but the footer needs to be done. So don't be surprised if things seem a little different and or strange. Also watch out for some new content, likely starting today and every second day this week.

FreeChariot's Latest Press Release

By:mark.j @ 11:12:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

FreeChariot have sent us their latest Press Release with a kind of seasons greeting theme:

Press release

Two weeks to the very day, and Christmas will be upon us. It is so soon away the aroma of the Christmas turkey can almost be smelt. Christmas tree lights flickering on and off, with gifts for the family nestled down beneath the tree, ready to be rampaged by the owner to be.

Christmas means so much to people in different ways. For myself, this year it will mean spending time at home with my parents and then for Boxing Day the party of the whole family together in one household, with nibbles that last until February, and a Christmas pudding that no one wants to eat. However for distant relations, the Internet is cause for high praise, making speaking to family in America possible. So it comes at no better time to inform you of a telecommunications and ISP company called Freechariot, which offers FREE Internet access and FREE local phone calls 24/7 for anyone who is (A), alive, and (B) human.

So if you have forgotten about your Christmas shopping, the Internet can save the day again, and also the Internet makes sending E-mail Christmas cards a lot cheaper, and faster. And to sell the local phone calls…WELL WHY NOT, WERE BEING NICE OKAY!

Below is a list of the products Freechariot offers:

Product one – Free local voice calls at all times with just a one off subscription of £15.00. The line rental being £12.99 + VAT a month.

Product two – Free unmetered 24/7 Internet calls at all times, with free local calls on Sundays, plus 15% on savings on BT rates. With line rental of £12.99 + VAT. With a one off subscription of £15.00.

Product three - An independent 0800 unmetered Internet deal, for £15.00 +VAT monthly as usual 24/7. Alternately you can save by making an annual subscription of £150 +VAT. With this subscription you also receive 10,000 shares, and a free domain name if you desire.

Perhaps it's worth pointing out that FC still haven't got a working news server (Usenet/Newsgroups), although we understand it's being fixed. We are also aware of some very serious problems with their billing system, they plan to introduce a new one this week, billing system that is =).

Interestingly they also told us that their Independent 0800 deal was no longer on offer earlier, so god knows why it’s here.

This press release has also prompted us to make a small announcement, we will refuse/no longer publish repetitive press releases that don't contain anything new (as above). There's no point in publishing something that ultimately says the same thing time and time again.

Oftel Starts The Second LLU Stage

By:mark.j @ 10:39:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Up until now it’s been a case of Oftel prepping exchanges and sorting out who gets what from the first batch. However this morning netimperative.com claims that the second wave of LLU (Local Loop Unbundling) exchanges is about to be made open:

The operators submitted bids for space last Thursday and the Electoral Reform Society will allocate space based on the priority of their orders. According to Oftel, around 380 exchanges will be allocated in this tranche, which is around the same amount as allocated in the first tranche in September.

However this round will include the most popular exchanges, as opposed to September’s bidding process, which included the least popular exchanges and caused RSL COM, WorldCom and Global Crossing to pull out of the process.

None of those who pulled out of the first stage have said they will involve themselves in the second, although chances are good that WorldCom will try. Hopefully the second stage will go without the hiccups and anger towards the first, we'll know soon enough.

Rumour Central: BT To Kill HH For Good?

By:mark.j @ 10:33:AM - Comments (4) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

We'd probably advise people to take this with a pinch of salt and are hoping it's completely untrue, which it likely is. However one reader worryingly writes:

When i was at Live2000, I went over to the BTOpenworld stand and the guy said that BT would likely withdrawal HH completely. I didn’t take much notice of this at the time, but looking back at how he covered his tracks I’m starting to wonder if BT does want to pull HH completely.

Pulling of the duel bonding is a first step to ending HH completely and I`m wondering if its worth investigating.

The serious note to this is that if BT does drop HH then BTOpenworld has access to unfair information of which the competition does not know. Also this would break some laws, a) either thru general business law or b) Thru Oftel/telecoms acts.

If this were just the first such mail we had received then we wouldn't have even posted it, yet over the past month we've had three from very different sources. It's likely the man at Live2000 was just spitting the usual yarns and lets face it, every technology eventually gets pulled and or changed.

It's our belief that he was looking further ahead to around 2005, although the fact Home Highway (ISDN) prices haven't changed much often suggests a dieing technology about to be pulled. We seriously doubt this would happen anytime soon, but it's worth remembering that one day not even modems will work anymore.

News - December 10,2000

Tele2's Broadband Wireless Coverage

By:mark.j @ 1:21:PM - Comments (8) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Tele2, one of the first broadband wireless providers, seem to have recently updated their coverage page for early 2001:

http://www.tele2.co.uk

Still no coverage for most places, however Tele2 are planning further expansion as time progresses - how much is anybodies guess. However take note that while it's fast and costs from £9.99 upwards, there are serious issues with bandwidth limits, so much that it’s really only best for VERY light users.

ISP Review Weekly Update

By:mark.j @ 12:52:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Say goodbye to the last week of freedom before X-Mas because the next two weeks see the start of our large-scale interviews and reviews content coverage. It’s difficult to say how much there will be, but at least four reviews and two interviews are already completed for launch soon.

We haven't had much time to concentrate on anything else, it's now just two weeks until X-Mas and the workload is growing. We're not able to cope with ANYTHING else except the new content at this point and so sorry if we have to delay on some suggestions.

The only other thing we're ready to get moving on during the excessive workload are the new automated listings. As of this weekend they should now be completed, we'll do a final round of tests and then pay for it and install. From there it'll be integrated and we'll start adding ISPs - will take awhile.

Aside from that and you'll also notice that at about 1,427,000 unique visitors our counter suddenly stopped. This is apparently because the system said we're too big and caused them to loose loads of bandwidth. As such we're trying to find a fast/stable/server side alternative that can start from roughly where we left off.

It'd be a laugh if we could make 1,500,000 (unique visitors) by X-Mas =), that's god knows how many page impressions. As such the race is on for me to find a better alternative and there are a lot to choose from. In other words, bang goes any hope of having the Sunday off =(.

As a final note, if you're on ISPr Freecall then make sure to checkout the support forum update (mailing list update soon) if you got one of those billing E-Mails (they weren't meant for you in any way =]). So enjoy next week’s new content and reviews, we'll have some very interesting things for you to read.

BT's Lies Get Exposure

By:mark.j @ 11:42:AM - Comments (9) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

I'm not allowed to say anything much, but if you remember the post about BT's lies from a few days ago (128Kbps ISDN etc.), then you'll like this. There's enough information here to expose the truth and official complaints are underway - hopefully in time for Mr Bonfield's MP grilling.

We'll be publicising the information to highlight the issues as the process continues. I can't say anything more than that due to the now serious nature of this situation/investigation. Hopefully BT won’t be lying to ISPs for much longer.