May 17, 2000 - May 22, 2000

News - May 22,2000

NTL Comments - Please Sir

By:mark @ 9:56:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

ISPreview has been wondering, given NTLs already unimpressive track record, what do you (any NTL users) think of them taking over all these other big companies (Freeserver, C&W etc.)? We saw THIS article over at the register yesterday and have to admit to being quite shocked by so many complaints.

So we are very interested in hearing the opinion of anyone who uses or is involved with NTL, please post in the comments of this news. Specifically we are interested in their unmetered Internet, however we welcome any other comments about various services and support for future reference, thanks.

Whysurf go unmetered

By:mark @ 9:47:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

In this day and age it's not uncommon for unmetered ISPs to swarm down upon unsuspecting crowds, well Net4Nowt have once again shown grace in unearthing Whysurf; yet another unmetered:

"Whysurf.com will be providing 24/7 unmetered access hopefully by the end of the month. The service will have a one-off fee of £60 plus £20 for the year's subscription. Payments will be accepted by credit and debit cards.

In addition to the unmetered access, they will provide free calls to anyone in the USA via your PC. For £20 per month you can make unlimited calls using your PC to anyone in the UK, Europe, South Africa and Australia."

They go on to mention about there being an initial tap of 50,000 subscribers and a few more details. For the rest we suggest you nip over to Net4Nowt, enjoy.

News - May 21,2000

NTL in running to buy Freeserve?

By:Ross14 @ 3:29:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

An article in the Sunday Times newspaper has said that NTL are in the running to buy Freeserve.

Although this news has been published in the Sunday Times and Yahoo News, an NTL spokesman commented that the story "was entirely speculative" and added "that it never commented on speculation."

If NTL were to takeover Freeserve, it would probably mean good news for the 1.9m users who surf with Freeserve and NTL customers alike. Ah well, we'll just have to wait and see what really happens.

Source: Yahoo! News

Blueyonder update

By:Daniel @ 2:28:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Opal from #ukcable on efnet has told us this intresting bit of news

"Telewest representitives tell customers that the rumoured speed increases are set to be at more than double current expected figures. One guy on the newsgroups was telling us how he was told "You can expect the increases to be in Mb, not Kb"

TV reporter slates Blueyonder in a Telewest vs BT deathmatch ! According to a UK TV show, BT's ADSL is consistantly quicker than a Telewest cable modem. Tests were unfair, however, as BlueYonder is in general use, while ADSL is currently only in it's beta stages (and is therefore not suceptable to the performance hit incurred from general usage)"

This is unconfirmed with telewest and we have contacted them about it. We hope it does increase but many users are demanding an increase in the upstream.

VisualDepth Clear Up

By:mark @ 11:19:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

As we hoped, one of our readers was quickly able to clear up the 'confusion' surrounding two issues with http://www.visualdepth.com :

"I also asked VD about their Ezesurf involvement, they apologised for the mistake and stated this was supposed to read EzSurf. EzSurf apparently DO NOT have a web site and are a US based company who have recently set up a small network in the UK therefore looking for an ISP to use and route through.

This made things much clearer for me and I'm sure it will clear things up for you as well, I can understand the mistake they made and I think we should forgive them for this. May I also mention that I am a VERY happy customer of the Visual Depth service and I am VERY impressed with the level of service they provide. I have used the service for a few days now and have never not been able to get through. I also tried ISDN using my friends computer and this also worked and was very fast at 128K."

So as you can see it was a simple miss understanding and one which has been swiftly resolved. In the same comments there were also mentions by another VD users that 128Kbps didn't work, however others have said it does.

Best explanation is that the problem is just 'one of those things', we'll keep monitoring the situation but it's worth pointing out that we fixed our 128Kbps ISDN issues with other ISPs by re-installing everything recently =). So far VisualDepth is having a good streak of service, we will review them soon.

VisualDepth Confusion

By:mark @ 10:36:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

We have to say that over the last couple of weeks several E-Mails have been forwarded back and forth through our mail and some sent directly. It all started when http://www.visualdepth.com issued a service statement that implicated 'EzeSurf' as having some involvement in their service:

"The delays are not entirely our fault and have been caused by some of our associates. Our service routes through British Telecom and Ezesurf, however the Dial Up Access is not held by either of these two services but we are backed by them therefore giving them certain responsibilities. These responsibilities have not been kept therefore causing a delay in the sign up process. However, we can guarantee that once users are signed up on the service they will be given nothing far from Excellent service."

EzeSurf swiftly responded by forwarding an E-Mail to them with a CC attached to us, we stayed quite awaiting a reply and as yet have not yet received one. In the letter EzeSurf were very quick to say that they had no involvement whatsoever with VisualDepth, we happen to believe them.

We would have published this earlier but we thought it fair to give VD some time to reply to EzeSurf. The best reason we can think of is that VD might use 'Planet On-Line' as their network backbone, if so then it'd be the same as EzeSurfs but still not be Eze's problem.

On top of that we have had some complaints that 128Kbps ISDN access no longer works, so could some of our readers please post comments on whether it does or doesn't for us? Also could somebody find out what network (backbone) they use and post in the comments as well. Any help to clear these issues up would be appreciated; getting a reply from any unmetered ISP is painstaking to say the least.

Sunday Times Unmetered Article

By:mark @ 10:11:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

As some of you already know, the 'Sunday Times' have published an article about unmetered Internet access that draws some interesting conclusions. Despite also including us in the article, the information found makes for a curious and Interesting read:

"What I want is a straightforward deal that offers fast, reliable access in return for a monthly flat fee. Strangely enough, it has been left to the tiddlers to offer this kind of common-sense product. In March, RedHotAnt (www.redhotant.com) announced unmetered access for £50 for the first year. Later, Ezesurf ( www.ezesurf.co.uk) chipped in with free net access, apparently for life, if you bought £39 of shares in the company.

Ever curious, I signed up for both. The first thing we should all understand about this business is that none of this makes sense. If you go online regularly, weekdays and weekends, you are running up a sizable phone bill, usually through BT. None of the deals being bandied about at the moment begins to cover the real cost of the service to the ISP you choose."

The problems with doing an article for a major Newspaper is that it can take two or three weeks to get anything physically published. At the time the 'Excite0800' (TheFreeInternet) ISP was doing extremely well, since the last week problems have started to occur.

So for all you 'Sunday Times' readers paying a visit today, please ignore our recommendation for 'TheFreeInternet', the moment they used TV to advertise - services went down hill (wonder why? hmmmm hehe).

"I asked Mark Jackson, the editor-in-chief of ISP Review, which service he would sign up for right now. Freeserve and Excite's 0800 service (www.thefreeinternet.net) came top of his list. But if you can, he says, wait until July, when the smoke should have cleared a little."

This actually serves to highlight the exact problem with the current unmetered ISP market. One moment they could be fine and we'd all be signing their praise, the next it's 2K-ps and web page loading that's as interesting as a royal precession.

So far any ISP that's used TV to advertise has gone down hill, we can predict an ISPs next move about as well as you can predict the evolution of man. So at least our 'July' statement manages to stand =), you can read it all HERE.

Work @ ISPreview - Update

By:mark @ 9:50:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Wow, we had more people wanting to write for us than there are in England. It'll take a few days to look at all the apps, then I'll have to discuss them with some of the other staff and we'll see which two or three best fit the bill.

It's fair to say that those who gave proof of experience are the most likely to be accepted, with one or two possible exceptions. Some of you were also interested in wanting to know more about what you'd have to do, so I'll try to explain in the replies next week.

In essence it's just looking for relevant news and posting it, there's a little more to it than that but nothing overly complicated.

ISPreview Weekly Update

By:mark @ 9:25:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

As another week passes, ISPreview continues to recover after quite a stressful server move, things are at least getting back to normal. Before we get into what's happening and what's going to happen, don't forget to pickup the 'Sunday Times' and check the 'Culture' section, we should be in it (albeit a tiny piece).

On to the good stuff, first up we have the ISP Listings and they are getting their third overhaul in 4 months. The sections will be split into 'Standard Commercial','Standard Free (0845)' and 'Freecall ISPs' (unmetered denotes 24/7, Freecall is more general). We will leave the old ones up for now, but from Monday the pages will start to change. It will take time to get the new commercial/free listings up so please bare with us.

Now onto the 'Mailing List', we finally got some software that will allow us to send the list out in HTML format for extra pizzazz. Don't worry if you're behind the times and only use TEXT, we'll have a second list specifically for TEXT Mailings.

We noted that around 60 E-Mails in the old list are now dead, so it looks like we'll start a whole new one just to be safe. The new one will also ask for a few more details to help customize the output for individuals. These changes are still in the works and should occur sometime this coming week; we'll have to install a whole new system first.

After that the concentration remains on updating old sections and fixing problems left by the server move. We will also upload updated reviews for all the ISPs done so far, this is to bring them in-line with the new awards/marking system we introduced two months ago. We'll take the time to update the reviews themselves for those ISPs that need it.

Now I'd like to introduce a VERY special friend of mine, he's called 'Isper' and is our 'acting mascot', acting because he might change:

Don't be surprised if you notice the little fellow around the site doing this or that, he'll be acting as a sort of 'helper' for some of our pages (more on that in weeks to come). Despite his notable looks Isper is actually a kind and gentle creature, it simply looks that bad after a Friday night on the tiles =)

That just about covers things for this week, there's other stuff going on behind the scenes, however it's not really relevant to you, our readers.

*Update*
For those people that don't purchase the Sunday Times the article can be found on their website. HERE.

News - May 20,2000

Work @ ISPreview

By:mark @ 11:24:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

ISPreview is on the look out for some extra news writers (just a couple) who can cover areas related to ISPs and the Internet that we usually don't have time to. We'd prefer news people to be over 16 (helps with knowing English skills) and to have some past experience in web sites (examples required).

Please contact me personally HERE and don't use a 'Free Mail' account to do it, we don't accept apps from them for obvious reasons.

*Update*
Couple of you didn't realise that we are not offering a 'commercial employment' position, ISPreview is built up of people that write reviews and news for free, like a lot of other sites. So take into account that you really must enjoy writing news items or small articles or this isn't going to be any fun at all for you.

AllAdvantage Increase Hours

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

Please ignore this news post if you are in any way offended by 'Paid To Surf' programs. We've just learnt that AllAdvantage plan to up the hour limit from 24 to 40, so now you can earn around £18 without any Referrers. Several months ago nobody would have cared, now you can sign-up with AA and pay off your unmetered bill. Technically meaning all you pay for is the electricity, clever =).

If you do sign-up then don't forget about us (Ref: GUI-645 / also included in the links) =), although we aren't bothered. The extra hours may be given to 'current subscribers' on trial first, although such details are not yet known. Expect to see more about this come 'September'.

Complaints Updated

By:mark @ 10:41:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Finally did it, we've updated the complaints page with ALL the complaints for various ISPs recieved in the last week and a half (older ones could be out of date, so we left them). You can view it here or just click the link above:

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/new/complain/complain.shtml

Freeserve Unmetered Problems

By:mark @ 9:06:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

We are having a few problems with our 'Complaints' page at the moment; as such we'll mention the problems in the news a little more until it gets sorted. As you all know, Freeserve recently launched its unmetered package and we have already received several complaints:

"The freeserve service, if it deserves to be called that. simply has to be the worsed i have ever come across. e.g. random cut offs, (thats when you can get connected in the first place). the sheer amount of times you have to re-dial to get even the slowest imaginable connection. I even had my phone line checked for noise levels by BT to see if it was my line at fault. I never get an answer from support either by phone or e-mail."

Another avid reader went on to point out some 'all to similar' failings in Freeserve's new unmetered package:

"I would just like to say that freeserve's customer support line is the worst i have ever experienced. There isn't even a queueing system - its just engaged all day. i have just signed up to freeserve time and you can't even ring to tell them they have given you an incorrect access number, so there's money down the drain."

Things to note out of all this are that Freeserve seems to have given quite a few people incorrect service details. If anybody would like to sing their praise or just complain a little more, then please feel free to do so in our comments =).

A New Worm - LOVEBUG

By:mark @ 8:55:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Yahoo News have been up to their old tricks again and got a scoop from 'Reuters' about the new 'ILOVEYOU' variant style virus/bug:

"A slow-spreading new computer virus, harder to detect than the "love bug," wormed its way through the some of world's computer networks and prompted U.S. law enforcement officials to open an investigation and warn computer users to steer clear of suspicious e- mails.

U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno issued a warning about the new computer scourge, and the FBI-led National Infrastructure Protection Center said the agency has opened a criminal investigation. The department said it had reports that about 1,000 machines had been infected.

The FBI has opened an investigation into "a new, more destructive variant of the love letter worm," she told a regular weekly news briefing.

"If you receive an e-mail with a .Vbs file extension, do not open it, even if it comes from a trusted source. Delete the e-mail from your system," Reno said.

Some said the fears were overblown, however, noting that the worm had not travelled as far as anticipated and had not infiltrated any ISPs (Internet service providers).

Network Associates Inc., the largest security company late Friday downgraded the threat of the new computer virus to a "medium" risk from the "high risk" rating it got earlier in the day."

The article goes on to explain about the forms it comes in and why it's not just a simple rip-off of the other. Best advice is to always check the 'Subject header' of the E-Mail you receive.

Most people you know will have particular styles of 'subject headings', if it seems abnormally different and has an attachment then be wary. More news on all those lovely TV stations out there, especially the BBC whom won't let us have a tape of our appearance on 'BBC News' =(

Buzzline Sign-up/Support Delays

By:mark @ 8:41:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Thanks to 'Richard' for letting us know there are a few problems up with 'Buzzline' at the moment (would you have guessed otherwise?), he received this from support staff:

"Subject: Confirmation of your application.

Thank you for your application for the Buzzline 0800 Internet service, your order will be processed as soon as possible.

Due to the huge response we have received, there will be a delay in sending out activation e-mails.

A number of people have been ringing or emailing us to ask when their
account will be activated. Replying to these is tying up staff who could otherwise be connecting users.

Please accept our apologies and bear with us during this busy time, we are connecting people as fast as we can.

admin@buzzline.co.uk"

Some people have noted that the T&C's from Buzzline look remarkably similar to those of RedHotAnt. While it seems clear the company's are NOT the same (physically), it'll be interesting to see if they follow a similar rout of service for the initial few weeks =).

Also worth a note is the fact we don't consider it uncommon or 'out of place' anymore for an unmetered ISP to have sign-up delays, it's just one of those things.

News - May 19,2000

BT Dying?

By:zeon @ 5:55:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The Register has an interesting article that discusses points such as BTs Profits and Sir Peter Bonfield. Here's a snip:

"When Pete gave a speech saying that most people would have to go to night school to get Internet access because it would too expensive, his total inability to see the way the market was moving as prophetic."

You can read the full article HERE

Links Section Update

By:mark @ 9:41:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

With the exception of 'none ISP Related Links', our link section is going to be updated. We will remove all sites that haven't linked us back and add in all sites that link to us. So if you want to be added then drop a comment and we'll make a note to add you later, most sites we link to get a lot of extra hits =)

Site Time

By:mark @ 9:20:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Yes we are aware that the top right clock is incorrect, this is the servers fault and not ours. Their 'Local Time' seems to be somewhat, well, messed up.

MS Bugs up ILOVEYOU Fix

By:mark @ 8:57:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

While not directly ISP related, we feel this news from 'The Register' is an important read for anybody concerned about the 'ILOVEYOU' virus and its fixes:

"Microsoft's remedy to the ILOVEYOU virus may cause more problems than the original virus.

As we reported Tuesday, Microsoft posted three patches as an answer to the Outlook email virus and its copycat cousins.

"Microsoft has reported several cases of functionality failure surrounding the Outlook updates. The most significant of these involves the updates' installation procedures," reports Windows web site EntMag.

Also affected are the updates themselves, users of Palm and Windows CE synchronisation software, recipients of PowerPoint presentations, users who route documents from Word, and a long list of third party software. According to Microsoft itself, there is no uninstall procedure and if the patch installation goes awry - as Microsoft has admitted has happened 'in some cases' the recommendation is to uninstall and then reinstall the Microsoft Office suite from scratch.

Only users of Outlook 97, Outlook 98, Outlook 2000 or Exchange Server are affected. The full list of glitches can be found here."

ISPreviews advise is to simply invest in a good Virus Checker such as AVP which, is very adapt at keeping your system safe from more than just viruses. MS have a knack for producing more bugs with their fixes, so it's always wise to find third party alternatives to their solutions =).

AOL Votes to Merge

By:mark @ 8:47:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

It's unlikely that the Internet faring community out there could have failed to notice the big AOL & Time Warner deal growing steadily closer. It now looks like the two giants have agreed on a date for the final vote, to merge or not to merge - that is the..:

"America Online and Time Warner said their shareholders will vote June 23 on the proposed $124 billion (83.6 billion pound) merger of the Internet and media giants.

The world's biggest Internet services provider, AOL, will hold its shareholders meeting in Vienna, Virginia. at 10 a.m. (3 p.m.) while Time Warner shareholders will gather in New York City at the same time, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The two companies agreed in January to join forces in a company that will be called AOL Time Warner if approved by shareholders and federal regulators.

The deal, which company executives expect will close in the fall, was initially valued at about $164 billion but declines in the stock prices of the two companies has shaved about 24 percent off the value of the deal."

Thanks to 'Yahoo News' for that little nibble of information. The merger is likely to bring a lot more than just money to the owners pockets, customers of the AOL service should see improvements as well; It's not yet clear what type of improvements.

News - May 18,2000

Buzzline Issues

By:mark @ 9:02:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

It doesn't take long for your average joe ISPreview reader to investigate an ISP we have mentioned and turn up some interesting information. Contrary to what you may have read on one or two other news sites, the T&C's do hold some things that require a closer look:

"Looked into Buzzline (your article today). They state no advertising but T&C expressly provides right to sell on names to third parties and to display adverts on site. "..from time to time for the purposes of promoting its own and third party services and goods to you by way of advertisements and offers. These advertisements will be based on the information that you have supplied to us and will relate to areas in which we think you will be interested""

Thanks to Trevor.M for that, so if you sign-up for Buzzline then don't be surprised if your E-Mail and snail mail swiftly become filled with spam, although it doesn't end there =(

Service Levels:
"3. The level of the service will be determined according to the ISP."

In the past ISPs whom use the phrase above more often than not end up in some sort of service trouble. However there are also other issues:

"More worrying though, their secure server sign-up form appear to direct to a Rapidsite address. The actual form is a basic mail form program which sends a txt email to sales@buzzline.co.uk thus:

To: sales@buzzline.co.uk
From: [email]
Subject: Application

Title [title]
First Name [required-first]
Last Name [required-second]
Address1 [required-address1]
Address2 [address2]
City [required-city]
County [required-postcode]
Telephone [telephone]
E-mail [email]
Cardname [required-cardname]
Cardnumber [required-cardnumber]
Cardtype [required-cardtype]
Issuenumber [issuenumber]
Issuedate [issuedate]
Expirymonth [required-exmonth]
Expiryyear [required-exyear]
Wherehear [wherehear]"

Not being ones to put an ISP down before it's even up on its feet (hehe no really), but we do like to keep you guys informed just the same. It's worth pointing out that a lot of ISPs have so called 'nasties' in their T&C's, yet half the time these remain dormant or harmless.

Just remember, it's your money and your choice. If you give us your money then it's our choice =)

NTL Cable Modem Rollout

By:mark @ 6:11:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

UPDATE:The NTL part of this post is apparently wrong, we'll leave it up for the links anyway =)

Thanks to http://www.barrysworld.com for the news that NTL has revised there Cable Modem Rollout schedule. You can find the changes here: http://www.ntl.co.uk/cablemodems/soon.asp

On a side note, we have been informed by one of our sources that 'Blue Yonder' (Cable Modem group for Telewest) will start pricing at £50 per month. They plan to reduce the prices to £40 once into launch, however this is unconfirmed information.

Buzzline Unmetered 24/7 LAUNCHED!

By:mark @ 5:01:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

We just recieved this Press Release from yet another new unmetered ISP thats gone live:

BUZZLINE LAUNCHES THE BEST VALUE 24/7 UNMETERED

FREEEPHONE INTERNET SERVICE IN THE UK

We at Buzzline.co.uk are determined to bring quality of service and unrivalled value for money to the world of free access ISPs. We believe that the only kind of service to offer is one that allows users to connect at anytime of the day or night without having to worry about their phone bill. To this end we are offering our service at a price of only £40 for the first year and £20 per year thereafter.
The key points of our service are:

-Freephone unmetered 0800 Internet Access – there are no charges for calls to the internet.
-Access 24 hours a day 7 days a week – no restrictions on when connection is made.
-Incredibly low flat rate subscription of £20 per year (plus one-off joining fee of £20 in the first year).
-10 meg web space.
-Unlimited POP3 e-mail accounts – Everyone in the family can have their own e-mail account - even the pets at no extra charge.
-News Group access.
-Built-in Virus detection.
-Technical Support free via e-mail, or at national rate via telephone
---------------------------------------------------------------

CUSTOMERS ARE !NOT! REQUIRED TO:
-Change telephone companies.
-Display advertising while they surf.
-Buy shares.
-Pay any more than £40 for their first year’s internet access with us.
---------------------------------------------------------------

URL: http://www.buzzline.co.uk

Seems like a good deal, however you never can tell with these things and their 'Best Value' statement may say more about them then we yet know. Time will tell.

The new 192

By:Daniel @ 1:32:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

We have just found that in the Pc Format magazine that they have found someone who found the new automated directory enquires. Unfortunately it only serves Ipswich, mansfield and Hemel Hempstead. If you want to try it anyway call 0800 328 0192.

Sunday Times

By:mark @ 12:20:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Can somebody remind me what page and segment the 'Doors' section of the Sunday Times resides in? This is because we should be in it yet again this weekend and every time I search the paper, I can never find it =).

On a side note, there's a lot going on behind the scenes here @ ISPreview, so make sure to read this weeks update on Sunday. Not much ISP news today, have any then send it over =)

Can FreeServe Hold The Fort?

By:mark @ 9:19:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Once again Yahoo News has published an interesting piece of news about Freeserve. Currently a target for takeover speculation, Freeserve are pondering whether they should stand or kneel in revelations about their future:

"Britain's biggest Internet service provider Freeserve, the target of takeover speculation, has said it is looking at whether it is big enough in a consolidating European market.

"We are actively thinking through at the moment whether we have the scale to do the things we want to," Chief Executive John Pluthero told Reuters.

"For the next wave we are plenty big enough ... but it is difficult to predict too far out in this market at the moment."

Electrical retailer Dixons Group intensified the spotlight on Freeserve, of which it holds 80 percent, when it said earlier this month it was considering what to do with its stake, which it is allowed to start selling from the end of next month. Pluthero said Dixons had not yet made up its mind.

Analysts suggested a bigger European ISP such as Germany's T- Online might be keen to buy up the UK market leader to get hold of the 1.9 million users it has won since pioneering no-fee Internet access in 1998.

Tuesday's announcement of a $12.5 billion (8.4 billion pound) takeover of Lycos by Spanish ISP Terra Networks further fuelled interest in who might be the next European Internet company to join in the consolidation."

That's only a tiny cut of the full article, which can be viewed @ Yahoo News in all its glory. The question for consumers is quite simply, what would this mean if FreeServe were to be taken over? We'd all like to think it would mean better services and speeds, however you can never be sure; Comments please.

BTs Yearly Profits Steady Out

By:mark @ 9:09:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Yahoo News is reporting that BT's yearly profits have defied previous forecasts and fallen only slightly:

"LONDON (Reuters) - BT has announced a smaller-than-expected fall in full-year profits, sparing its shareholders a repeat of its disastrous third-quarter announcement.

Pre-tax profits fell 32 percent to 2.942 billion pounds in 1999/2000 while profits before exceptional items dropped 5.3 percent to 3.1 billion pounds. Analysts were forecasting around 2.853 billion pounds.

But the company said price cuts continued to weigh on revenues in the fourth quarter, reducing turnover on its fixed network by 6.8 percent.

Falling UK call prices and an increase in lower margin wholesale business with other operators were among the reasons for the fall in group profits. BT also blamed the drop on rising interest costs and international investments.

"Prices are falling, competitors are introducing all sorts of products and we've got to fight back," Chief Executive Peter Bonfield said on CNN television. BT's response would be to increase its innovation and marketing and cut costs.

Turnover rose 20 percent to 21.903 billion pounds and earnings per share before exceptional items fell 2.3 percent to 34.2 pence."

Despite being far less than analysts had forecast it shouldn't be ignored that this is still a loss. Such profit losses are expected for the simple reason that BT kept their prices so high for to long. This meant that when the population decided it was time for free unmetered access, BT simply couldn't make the jump.

Hopefully BT should steady out within 3 or 4 years as it adapts to the new Internet industry and lower call prices. If we were share holders then we'd be a little worried =).

News - May 17,2000

PurpleNet To Launch 24/7

By:mark @ 2:05:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

It's not yet clear, but PurpleNet plan to launch a 24/7 Unmetered package in the very near future. Internal rumour has it that they plan to make use of the BTSurftime package, although they are not completely holding by this yet.

PurpleNet are well known for Cloning exactly what ClaraNet do and then going a step further, as an example they recently introduced the following additional freecall packages:

"PurpleNet has introduced a revolutionary service called fREEdial. It is a new Internet Call Plan which offers free calls to the Internet for a fixed monthly subscription. fREEdial has been introduced as a service for those Internet users who wish to take control of their 'Internet' phone bill. Choose from any of our hourly block plans.

With fREEdial, unmetered Internet access is finally a reality. There are four plans to choose from, fREEdial 10, fREEdial 30, fREEdial 80 and fREEdial 150. fREEdial 10 and fREEdial 30 are ideal plans for home users. fREEdial 80 and fREEdial 150 is more suited for heavy Internet users. All free call plans offer free call time to the Internet on evenings and weekends. To get the full low down on fREEdial read our FAQ's."

The packages from 'fREEdial 30' are new and priced very similar, if not the same, as ClaraNets. We wouldn't be surprised if the moment Clara introduces their 24/7, P-Net swiftly follow suit.

Following anothers business practice is certainly sneaky, that's not to say PurpleNet is a bad ISP though, we don't know that yet. They expect to have their new 24/7 up in around one month.

Forum Posts Fixed

By:mark @ 1:52:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

That annoying bug that in the forums, where new posts appeared at the top instead of streaming down, has be squashed! Hurray, you can now all post forum notes without loosing the logical order =)

NOTE: This is effective from new posts only, nothings perfect as the forum update refused to fix everything.

FantasyISP Goes Live

By:mark @ 1:41:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

UPDATE: Whoops, they go live Saturday and not yet so please visit them at the weekend =).

Our beloved affiliate site 'Fantasy ISP' has re-launched itself after several months of inactivity due to a change in systems and leadership. Fantasy ISP allows you to create your own 'virtual ISP' project, sadly it's only a game and not for real. However there's prizes to be had for those that come up with the best system! =)

Personally some of the real ISPs out there could benefit from playing this game =), anyway don't let me tell you:

"Welcome to the new Fantasy ISP! If you ever thought your ISP is slow, has more problems than someone in Eastenders and there services are the worst ever then why not prove you can do better? Now with Fantasy ISP you can. Setup your own ISP, and for a month you can control what happens and how it happens, add new services and features at a click of a button. The winner is the ISP with the most money at the end of the month."

Nip along if you fancy a try at a game that makes Quake3Arena look tame, ok fat chance! hehe.

ISPreview Update

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

Still busy reinstalling software and fixing other issues for sites on this server, all taking a lot of time. Not to mention I can't seem to access the news system from IE5, so that's more annoying than words can say.

On a lighter note we thought you might like to know that ISPreview will be at ECTS'2000 this year. We may or may not have a stall with ISP details, however it's unlikely as our job their is actually for a magazine and not the website.

CompuServe Crash

By:mark @ 9:35:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

One of the worlds biggest ISPs after the likes of AOL, CompuServe, has suffered a serious system failure according to 'The Register':

"CompuServe customers across Europe were left without Net access this morning after the ISP suffered technical problems.

The scale of the problem is not known. Nor is it known at this stage how many people were affected, although the company did say it would issue further details when they became available.

The problem first cropped up at around 09:30 (BST) but was rectified by midday.

A spokeswoman for CompuServe said: "Some people were unable to get online. The problem was due to a minor systems error. We don't know how many were affected.""

You can read the rest HERE, ISPreview hopes CompuServe are now back on their feet. It's not nice to see any ISP have such serious problems.

RedHotAnt Refusing Refunds

By:mark @ 9:26:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Just as RedHotAnt is on the UP, some users have decided to call their losses and get out for fear it will happen yet again in June.

However as many who may have tried to get a refund will know, it's not as easy as it may seem:

"I have experienced all of your quoted problems but did actually receive an e-mail reply to a complaint! This was to the effect that: "as you have now used the service, no refund is available".

I am very seriously wondering what the County Court might have to say about that?"

Thanks to 'Mick' for the news and we'd all be quite interested to hear what the county court would have to say as well. If you don't get the service then you have every right to a refund, comments please.

intY go unmetered

By:mark @ 9:21:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Will those Net4Nowt people never stop showering us with newsy goodness, hope not! They've also managed to get some information on 'intY', a business ISP that plans to offer unmetered:

"Aimed at small businesses, intY will be offering its customers the option of unmetered access.

From this Summer, they will be using the BT SurfTime package to provide its users unmetered access at a cost of around £30 per month."

BTSurftime(2) is set to launch this June, could this finally mean an end to those bogged down unmetered ISPs or simply produce more of them? Read the rest @ Net4Nowt and post your comments here.

Totalise can grow

By:mark @ 9:17:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Net4Nowt has been up to their old tricks again and managed to get some Interesting information on the Totalise ISP:

"Totalise Telecom, the telecommunications subsidiary of Totalise plc, has been granted a standard ISVR (International Simple Voice Resale) telecoms licence from the DTI. The licence allows Totalise to connect directly to the BT network, without having to operate via a third party and will allow it to offer a range of new services with increased cost-effectiveness.

The telecoms licence puts Totalise on an equal footing with major communications providers, such as Telinco UK Ltd, and sets it apart from other ISPs in the UK. Visit Net4Nowt for the rest as usual!

Peter Gregory, CEO of Totalise, comments, “The new licence marks an important stage in Totalise’s development as we move from being just another ISP to an Internet company offering a wide range of services and solutions. With our own licence we do not have to rely on a third-party telecoms operator and we can look at offering services like ADSL, unmetered Internet access and WAP much sooner.”"

The future sounds good for 'Totalise' and we look forward to yet another unmetered ISP, hopefully one that doesn't have lots of problems like the rest.