December 6, 2000 - December 10, 2000

News - December 10,2000

Vispa's Web Hosting Services

By:mark.j @ 11:06:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

It's not exactly relevant to ISP services directly, however Vispa have just sent us a press release for some new web hosting services. Of course we all want to know more about the unmetered offer, but that'll have to wait =(:

VISPA LAUNCHES IMPROVED HOSTING SOLUTION

December 11th 2000

Vispa Web Plus is the ideal package for small businesses, sole traders and professionals who want to get the most from their web site, but at the same time I don't want to make a huge investment. The Connect WebPlus package is a low cost, but packed full of superb features to take your web site to the next phase.

Signup to WebPlus and we will provide you with a free .co.uk domain name with unlimited email addresses, and thanks to Yac.com you can receive both Voice and Fax to email via your own personal number.

WebPlus does not stop there, as every account is provided with they’re own CGI-bin allowing you to create and run your own perl scripts, and with PHP support your site can be more interactive than ever.

With Vispa WebPlus you get the following:

Unlimited Internet access charged at a local rate and upgradeable to our unmetered solution in the coming months
1 FREE co.uk Domain Name Registration
Unlimited Email addresses (anything@yourfreedomain.co.uk)
15Mb Webspace for both Personal or Business use
CGI-Bin allowing you to create and run your own scripts
PHP 3/4 Support
Voice and Fax to email services (provided by Yac.com)
Microsoft Frontpage 2000 Extensions
Full Newsfeed with over 51,000 newsgroups
Pre-Installed CGI Scripts
IRC Servers
Support for V.90, X2, Standard modems and ISDN up to 128k
Full 24 Hour Monitoring and Backup Generators.

All this is available for £7.50 (inc vat) a month.

For more information on the Connect WebPlus package:
http://www.vispa.net/

For modern day hosting it actually seems quite expensive, limited web space and they haven't even mentioned the bandwidth limits (no such thing as unlimited).

News - December 9,2000

World Online Upgrade News

By:Ross14 @ 6:57:PM - Comments (2) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

World Online have posted an update on their website to notify all users of an upgrade to their service:

World Online has upgraded its internet service. The upgraded system has more capacity and will bring you better connectivity to the internet, an enhanced email service and additional facilities.

To take advantage of these improved facilities you must change your dial-up and email settings. It is important that you change your email settings first.

If you are using a screaming.net mail account and username, as well as changing your dial up number and email settings you will need to change you username and Account Name.

More updates also include an upgraded news server but everything needs to be changed by 1st January 2001:

We suggest that you make these changes as soon as possible as from January 1st 2000 any call to the current dial-up number will be charged for. Any free time-online will only include internet calls to the new dial-up numbers.

You can use the automatic configuration files to update everything or do it yourself by going to http://www.worldonline.co.uk/myaccount/

*Update*
Anyone who was on the old beta test 1690 number now can't access the new number. We are told that the problem should be fixed on Monday.

UPDATE: OnDigital Transmitter Upgrade

By:mark.j @ 10:46:AM - Comments (16) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Just a quick word to the wise for all those living on the central south coast of Dorset and under the 'Row ridge TV Transmitter'. If you have digital terrestrial TV (OnDigital) then our transmitter finally gets upgraded on Monday.

All those on the outer reaches should now be able to get the full range of Free-To-Air Channels instead of just Channel5. Now if only OnDigital had been clever an invented a way to attach different channels to channel numbers - but noooo...

UPDATE

There's been some funny goings on in the comments for this one, so to clarify and not that it needs it =).

Firstly the Rowridge Transmitter is the one for the area mentioned and if you're on another then you're obviously further out. Either that or you'll be picking up a weaker signal. You can see what transmitter you use by going to a specific Teletext page on Channel3 and it reads the name to you.

You can also find out your transmitter by hunting down the BBC's transmitter page. Rowridge itself is based on the Isle Of White as far as I'm aware and in doing it covers the south coast around it. However those on the left and right sides (Bournemouth/Poole [West] - Others [East]) will not get all the channels and have dire reception.

Thus the upgrade is designed to fix this capacity issue and should improve reception for those living on the outer edge of the range - ME =). We all clear on this now? All information has been taken from official data last updated in August, do far no delays are expected.

Government Investigates Mobiles

By:mark.j @ 10:41:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

According to Reuters it looks like the government have set aside a cosy £7,000,000 back for research into mobile phones and the potential health hazards.

The country's Chief Medical Officer Liam Donaldson said leaflets advising people to keep calls short and to discourage children from using them will also be included with each new phone.

"It is essential that we provide people with the evidence on this issue to allow them to make an informed choice about using their mobile phones," said Donaldson. Although there is no irrefutable medical evidence about health risks the government is taking a precautionary approach.

Nearly half of Britain's population, more than 25 million people, own a mobile phone. A quarter of users are under 18 years old. Although ISPr has always joked about RSI from mobile phones, ironically RSI is actually a proven medical condition from using them too much, yet there's no pamphlet for that is there =)?

We think WAP could be the first service to kill via RSI =).

News - December 8,2000

VisualDepth Refunds - Or Not

By:mark.j @ 5:06:PM - Comments (4) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

VisualDepth will go down in history as the ISP world’s equivalent of BT as far as lies and misleading information go. Two months ago they claimed customers would be able to collect a refund, however since then nothing as happened - one reader states:

I was wondering (as are my friends) if you have heard anything from Visualdepth as they still haven't offered any of their users their refunds on their last service as they promised. It's been over 2 months since they anounced they were offering refunds.

Sadly I'm afraid we haven't had any contact with VD and the doctor.... the e-mails you send to them tend to go unanswered. If you've had a refund or are still waiting for word on it, then post a comment here or in the forums. Trading Standards pop by ISPr now and again, hopefully they'll pick up on it.

Cable & Wireless Crash Connections

By:mark.j @ 4:58:PM - Comments (2) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

We'll just cut to the chase on this latest 'The Register' item as I'm current in news overload state, there's only so much news a human can do =):

A planned maintenance program last night involved taking down the ISP's primary LINX connection but disaster followed when the secondary link connection failed due to a memory crash on a Cisco router.

This failure pushed traffic into the US, but this part of the network was in turn unable to cope with the load. This led to a catastrophic failure, or in telco-speak, a "major instability in our core network".

BT Sends ADSL Customers To The Council

By:mark.j @ 4:55:PM - Comments (11) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

According to The Register, some BT Openworld/ADSL customers are being sent on a happy jaunt over to the East Coasts Council:

A Reg reader made this discovery after dialling the number for BT service enquiries, 150, and dutifully going through menus until he was eventually able to speak to an attendant. He was told to contact the telco's ADSL team and given the freephone number 0800 783 6480.

This turned out to be the East Coast council's housing services complaints hotline, which it transpires is taking more calls about ADSL than blocked drains. It's received between 10-15 calls about ADSL of the last few weeks, all of which, of course, are costing the cash-strapped authority money to field.

Ok, so perhaps it's not such a happy jaunt and BT denies this has ever happened - of course. But then again they also denied they cut 128KBps Dual Channel ISDN to ISPs and thus subscribers and that unmetered dial-up access was cost effective! Are we smoking something or is it just BT’s fault again, again, again - echo.. echo..

Breathe Cancels Unmetered Service

By:mark.j @ 4:22:PM - Comments (19) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Following on from LineOne, Breathe is about to become the next BIG media shocker as according to netimperative.com, they're going to close the unmetered ISP offer:

The company, which axed about 500 users for ‘excessive use’ of its unmetered service in July, has decided to end the service completely this Sunday when subscribers will either be cut off or passed on to its traditional ISP provider.

The company said the decision was made due to the unviability of the unmetered business model and added that “a small number” of its users would suffer as a result.

However, the decision comes just two months before BT is expected to offer its new FRIACO (Flat Rate Internet Access Call Origination) service, which will allow ISPs to pay for call times on an unmetered basis.

The first thing you'll notice is that netimperative.com has got it wrong, FRIACO2 launches early next year, FRIACO is already here. Yet Breathe's reasons for closing the service are questionable, they don't even believe FRIACO is good enough:

However, Breathe said FRIACO, which is expected by telecoms regulator Oftel to be made available by BT next February, would still require that users pay monthly fees in order for it to be profitable.

In a statement, Breathe said: "Developments in the wider unmetered access market indicate that the only sustainable model for such services is based round FRIACO. This imposes a regular monthly subscription fee on the ISP who, in turn, has to pass this cost to end-users. This has resulted in a general market-wide correction of unmetered tariff offers now that the economics of such services have become clearer"

Now to be honest, it looks as though Breathe are one of a few ISPs that seem to be truly expecting the impossible and giving consumers a false view of the market. Many seem to forget that it wasn't so long ago ISPs charged £10 per month for metered usage, it's unrealistic and mad to expect the to industry alter in the way Breathe would like.

Paying £15 per month for no cut-off unmetered (AOL/Freeserve etc.) is the next big set of changes and that's fair for what you get. In effect it's Breathe's fault for introducing a service they couldn't sustain unless the market changed - that's a risk, which was bound to backfire.

So in other words we don't abide by their excuse, at some point you have to draw the line and say that's a reasonable cost and that's unrealistic. £14.99 per month for a no cut-off ISP at present is a miracle and just where we'd like to see the industry level out.

However we'd also say that FRIACO2 is flexible (FRIACO1 isn't), so as long as you planned it then there's no reason an ISP like Breathe couldn't survive and profit.

BT's Lies Continue - A CloudNine Encounter

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

Remember a few weeks ago when BT removed dual channel (128Kbps) from all its Surftime ISPs, well since then CloudNine (http://www.mysurftime.co.uk) have been hard on their heels as per our request.

Today Emeric (CloudNine) has shown us evidence that BT are failing to even admit they've now removed 128Kbps?! This several weeks after they went on record saying they had, or as Emeric says:

QUOTE From BT: "Bt do not impose restrictions on the isp as to what speed a customer can run at"

They could have fooled us!!

Cloud Nine are becoming seriously concerned about the whole attitude of BT to this matter. We cannot even get to speak to our Account Managers about this issue at the moment. BT are supposed to have been fixing up a conference call for us with the Product Manager for Surfports but this has failed to materialised despite repeated promptings. There is a feel of deliberate BT stalling about this whole issue and we are quite unclear about whether or not they are delibreately creating confusion about this issue (the note below would certainly indicate that this is the case).

Were the note below an isolated incident then we may be prepared to put it down to an untrained employee but we are hearing the same thing from people who have spoken with BT representatives. This is the first time, however, that we have managed to obtain a statement from a BT employee that amounts to an outright lie in black and white. Through this statement BT have deliberately attempted to undermine our commercial crediblity and that of ALL other ISP's affected by their draconian action. They are trying to imply that it is OUR actions and not THEIRS that is causing this problem. That is
a LIE and it has to be nailed once and for all! We ALL know that BT quite deliberately, and without prior notification, removed 128Kb capability from all ISP's running Surfports in one co-ordinated action a couple of weeks ago.

It is our opinion that by their actions BT are deliberately slowing down the provision of quality unmetered services whilst they try and obtain commercial advantage for themselves and associated companies. We are seeing this across the whole spectrum of Internet service delivery - be it Surtime, FRIACO or ADSL. This is clearly unacceptable and possibly even unlawful and we are collating all evidence of this "misinformation" campaign for an official Oftel complaint submission. Furthermore, any such a submission will
inevitably include evidence of how they deliberately stalled in the delivery of the Surfport/Surftime services.

We would be grateful if anyone would contact us with any similar instances of BT obfuscation and downright lies as relating to 128Kb bonded provision. Please email these to surftime@cloud-nine.com. We would be particularly interested to hear if any customers of BT are able to gain 128Kb ISDN Surftime access.

If you could search out all ISPreviews BT related posts, you'd probably find a trend of misinformation being spread at all levels from BT's staff. Whats most worrying is that Oftel have tackled a lot of issues, but never looked at BT's honesty towards clients and consumers.

If you're an ISP and have suffered from BT in a similar way or even a consumer and have evidence as such then please contact Emeric about it, the more people the better. Please note that this is for more important issues, not trivial matters, which don't concern Oftel as much. Finally, here's the BT E-Mail itself:

From: bt******@bt.com [mailto:bt******@bt.com]
Sent: 05 December 2000 11:17
To: *****@******.com
Subject: RE: Customer Contact (KMM**********)

Hi, Thank you for your e-mail,

I am sorry that you are having difficulty with your isp supporting 128kps. Bt do not impose restrictions on the isp as to what speed a customer can run at. The capabilty is available to run at 128kps. It is at the discretion of a service provider as to what they will allow within the free access or whether they would charge you for the second channel when bonding. Bt do not influence this decision.
We are unable to contact isp's on behalf of a customer. Any liasing is done directly between yourself and your service provider.

Thank you

Kind Regards
M Reed

With the exception of the very last line, everything else they have said in that E-Mail is a blatant lie. It’s gone too far this time, BT has to stop spreading outdated and or false information as it's doing harm to the ISPs. Won't somebody please do something to stop this?

EU Crack Down On Crime - CyberCrime

By:mark.j @ 2:11:PM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

CyberCrime by definition covers a mixed array of issues such as child pornography, piracy, hacking and much more. Today UK.Internet has published news that the EU is set to gather and form a new agreement to help stamp it out:

The European Union has made a timely announcement that it will unveil plans on how to clamp down on online crime, just as a report is published revealing that the world has been slow to react to the threat of cybercrime.

Next week the EU will lay down the law on how European countries can co-operate to control the lawless land of the internet. The Union claims that a co-operative European cybercrime force will be the only solution to beating fraud, child pornography and deception on the web.

Raising awareness and improving international relations are the keys to success, said the EU: "The Commission is going to provide guidelines for better co-operation between member states in order to solve cybercrime."

Even with new monitoring technologies it's incredibly difficult to sort through what are potentially billions of people online around the world. Not to mention how on earth they plan to cope with those outside of the European boarders.

Just like any crime, cyber crime will always be there, but we have to admit that it's good to see they've finally recognised it as a serious problem - especially for online consumers.

Freeserve AnyTime Stays Put

By:mark.j @ 2:04:PM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

According to The Register there were a lot of Freeserve customers worried that the unlimited 'AnyTime' package might be dropped after the new 'Wanadoo' deal. However it sounds more like they have it confused, the new FRIACO system is the same deal but under a new system and differing price:

Soon-to-be French-owned Freeserve has given assurances that it has no plans to ditch its Unlimited Freeserve Time product - even though it is being run at a loss.

The news should come as some relief to Net users (although maybe not to the ISPs new owners) who feared they would be forced to accept Freeserve's new - and more expensive - unmetered Net access product, Freeserve Anytime.

Both products offer 24/7 access to the Net including, the cost of calls to the Net, for one fixed price.

To be honest we don't think using the words 'More Expensive' are appropriate for a 24/7 option that only costs £12.99 per month. Expensive is a very specific word, Freeserve's new offer is not expensive in any way shape or form, it is a higher price, but it's almost unmatchable by anybody else - RANT ENDs.

Quarter4 NTL Cable Modem Updates

By:mark.j @ 1:07:PM - Comments (2) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

It's not as if there's even a countable amount of weeks left in 2000, that said and NTL have today put forward initial details of their fourth quarter 2000 drive - according to CableNews:

At the heart of ntl's short term plan for cable modems is the 'Quarter 4 Drive', with which the company aims to get 20,000 customers subscribing to its cable modem service by the end of 2000. In order to make this target more achievable, the recently announced rental option and 'Copper' 64Kbps service were launched. ('Copper' is currently only available in ex-CableTel franchises.) The document received by cablenews:uk also confirms that the Motorola SurfBoard is the modem used in all rental cases.

Interestingly, two new (and frequently rumoured) service levels are detailed, although subscription premiums have not yet been determined. A 'Bronze' service, running at 128Kbps downstream, 64Kbps upstream; and 'Gold', running at 1Mbps downstream, 256Kbps upstream will join the existing 'Copper' and 'Silver' services. No start date is mentioned, however since the existing cable modem offer expires on December 31 it will be interesting to see what packages ntl offer in 2001.

So it looks like the competition in broadband cable modems continues to intensify between Telewest and NTL. Who will be the victor depends more on service quality than cost, an area NTL is still lacking in.

The CallNet0800 Effect

By:mark.j @ 11:04:AM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Some people often forget that even ISPs do more than just provide Internet services direct to their customers, much like many other businesses they will also have roots elsewhere. CallNet0800 was one such ISP, it had connections with several PC developers such as Evesham Micro.

Of course when CallNet0800 died, their unmetered/freecall offer to Evesham died with it and this is the untold problem that one reader has had:

I bought an Evesham Micro top-of-the-range (read 2000UKP worth) PC in April this year. It came with free internet access too, which was the decider when I was trying to choose between an Evesham or Mesh (similar spec machine, but no free access option). Even though Mesh did an interest free option and was 100UKP cheaper, I thought - I'll make the money back no probs with the free access in the first year....I normally spend a good 20UKP per month on Internet related stuff....

Needless to say, the free access with Evesham (F1 Racing was handling the access) was gone within 3 months as it was pulled. Not sure if F1 decided it wasn't viable and went tits up or what.

Anyway, I have had no luck trying to sort out replacement free access. Initially I was told end of September by a Customer Services person at Evesham. I waited until today (7Dec00), then decided to mail again.

Please see the mail attached below from Evesham. As far as I am concerned, this still is not free access. I've ended up paying for my access, and now I'm told that the new deal only gives me 30 min per day free, then I have to pay "the special rate of 1p". Special? I get it cheaper with standard BT due to the Friends & Family stuff.....

What has this got to do with you guys at ISP review???

Well, have you had any mails from similar disgruntled Evesham people?? What have they done??

Truth be told, we'd like to see him get 1p per minute on-peak with BT under Friends & Family - nope it's not possible without paying for BT Together packages - even then it's a tough call.

However this just goes to show the impact an ISP that dies can have and why you should always checkout sites like ISPr before jumping into any ISP related deal. If anybody else has suffered from this in the past then post a note in the comments and speak of your experiences - thanks.

Compuserve Unmetered

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

Net4Nowt seem to have caught wind that now Compuserve could finally be entering into the unmetered fray, as usual several months after everybody else, which is there style:

CompuServe are currently trialling nine different packages including a 24/7 unmetered access option which may be priced at £19.99 per month. Also another package which includes 15 hours of unmetered access with additional access charged at 1p per minute all for £4.99

They are expected to make an announcement within the next couple of months as to which unmetered access options they will be offering. Customer services said that they will be emailing existing customers with further details nearer the time.

Compuserve has always been better know as AOLs disabled brother, although recent security concerns with AOL could now make them more attractive. Best for newcomers, old time net users should avoid and stick with pure dial-up.

News - December 7,2000

Government MP's To Grill BT

By:mark.j @ 4:49:PM - Comments (3) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

We'll have a side of pork with that and some BBQ source on the side, at least that's what BT's Chief Executive Peter Bonfield might want to avoid. According to Reuters, members of parliament are going to give BT a grilling because of the belief that he is holding up the development of high-speed Internet services - [sarcasm mode] - Surely not?:

Bonfield will appear before Parliament's cross-party Trade and Industry Committee on December 19 to reply to criticism from telecoms regulator David Edmonds, who has slammed the company for delaying the opening of its exchanges to competitors.

Edmonds was scathing of BT last month when he appeared before the committee, which is investigating unbundling of the local loop, the process that will allow BT's competitors to install broadband Internet equipment in its exchanges.

Competitors including Cable & Wireless Plc and Kingston Communications Plc will give evidence just hours before Bonfield, promising to give the industry's dispute over unbundling its most public airing yet.

Well if they can't realise BT are holding it up by now then we doubt it'll make any difference whatever their findings. Either way it’s always good to see another Peter on the BBQ, but only if he’s a BT Chief Executive =).

Tiscali Wins WorldOnline Bid

By:mark.j @ 4:41:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

This is fast becoming one of the most jam-packed news days in a long while and following on from Freeserve yesterday, today Tiscali (Italian ISP) have finally won the Bid for WorldOnline according to Reuters:

Tiscali said on Thursday it had won its bid for World Online, creating Europe's third-largest Internet service provider with around 3.5 million active subscribers. The all-stock 3.4 billion euro (2.11 billion pound) bid garnered 96.1 percent of World Online shares and will create a combine with services in 16 countries and a cash war chest of about 1.5 billion euros.

Tiscali shares dipped 3.3 percent to 25.80 euros by 1142 GMT as analysts were divided on the benefits of ISPs being affiliated with a major incumbent. They felt Tiscali would face an uphill struggle to create a profitable pan-European player, given competition from market leader T-Online of Germany and Spain's Terra Lycos, plus a new rival formed by French Wanadoo's takeover of Freeserve on Wednesday.

"We don't own any Internet companies. We don't believe independent ISPs are a good buy, despite the drop in share price of about 70 percent," said Marco van Son, fund manager at SNS Securities.

"We think only the ISPs connected to large telecom incumbents and U.S. companies will survive."

Some very interesting thoughts there, although we'll have to wait and see whether any of them hold true. These guys do make a living predicting the markets, so they obviously know something.

ISP Power Problems? Just Build A Plant!

By:mark.j @ 4:35:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

ISPs in the British city of London haven't exactly been pleased of late; power blackouts have become increasingly common due to the massive growth in the Internet. Now one ISP has taken the ultimate step and decided to build there own power plant! Accord to The Register:

Leading disaster recovery specialist turned ISP Guardian iT has announced it will build its own power plant in London to bypass the city's power problems. The 24MW plant will be built next to the group's planned data storage centre near Heathrow airport, reports the FT.

The new market of huge data storage centres due to the Internet growth has caused a huge increase in demand for electricity, particularly in London. Unlike California - which suffered blackouts and electricity restrictions - London is still working fine, but Guardian iT has obviously decided to follow the US suit and build a power plant before it has to.

Also, since the group is spending about £20 million on the centre, the power plant is a good insurance policy - although it will actually cost more - around £25 million. It will be gas fired and run by PowerGen. Guardian iT's poor interim profits were blamed on the cost of entering the IT market.

It's nice to know that at least one ISP out there has that kinder money to spend on insuring their service improves. However we doubt this will be a growing trend =).

Telewest Gamers Unhappy

By:mark.j @ 4:30:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Telewest's broadband and dial-up unmetered offerings haven't exactly been know for their speed today Gamers (multiplayer) fans using the service brought that to the attention of The Register:

Under pressure from network gamers, one of whom alerted The Register to the issue that has affected users for almost a month, Telewest has issued a statement to subscribers. This statement lays out the extent of the problems and promises a program of upgrades to fix the problem.

In the statement, Gary Jennings, of the Internet Operations division of blueyonder, said: "We are currently experiencing various issues with packet loss. This is affecting some aspects of the overall service, in particular it is affecting UDP [User Datagram Protocol] based applications such as gaming and real-time chat when the traffic to these services is passing through the areas affected."

Telewest spokesperson, Rachel Turner, said that it working hard to fix the problems, which she admitted were effecting some aspects of the service.

The full article outlines in much more detail what they're doing, so it's certainly worth a visit to see what all the fuss is about. Despite Telewests mass of previous and current problems, we have to say that most customers who visit ISPr seem strangely content.

Net Industry Asks For Government Backing

By:mark.j @ 4:23:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

netimperative.com have been reporting on today’s Internet Business Exhibition, in which delegates unanimously voted that the Prime minister should make some firm guides for universal broadband coverage by 2005:

Government issues were high on the agenda. Over 66% of some 275 delegates who voted said Prime Minister Tony Blair should make a pledge to ensure universal broadband access by 2005 in Labour's manifesto for the next election.

Just over two thirds of delegates (68.4%) said that the Government target to wire the UK online by 2005 should mean that everyone has broadband access to the internet. Only 18% thought it should limit its target to providing IT facilities in libraries and schools.

Delegates were also asked to rate how much certain issues are hampering the growth of e-commerce in this country. Telephony and dial-up costs were rated the highest, followed by security, lack of technical skills and in last place the effects of the RIP bill.

2005 does look like quite a realistic and perfectly achievable date, if anything it's later than expected. Although this also means another thing, that there may be people who want broadband and can't get it for at least another three years =(.

Comundo ISP (Lycos) Details Updated

By:mark.j @ 4:17:PM - Comments (2) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Many months ago we heard about Comundo, which was the ISP for Lycos and at the time details and prices were a little iffy. We're not even sure if you could call this an unmetered ISP, that said and it does give you discounts and 30% off BT voice calls without changing provider (30% seems common these days):

Comundo is the great new ISP from Lycos that gives you:

*30 minutes free internet every day! (no telephone charges).
*NO subscription charges.
*30% discount on all your telephone calls.

It doesn't matter if you're already online or a first time Internet user Comundo offers you unbeatable value. There are no joining fees or minimum usage requirements. What's more Internet calls following the 30 minute free allowance are charged at just 1p per minute.

Registering with Comundo is easy.

When you register you will be asked to pay £19.99, which is fully refundable against voice calls on your first 4 telephone bills. You will receive a welcome pack within 5 days. This will include your Comundo CD and phone dialler, which plugs into your BT phone socket.

So what are you waiting for? Just follow the simple steps to register online or call 0800 0720084.

So by way of an update there you have it, nothing hugely special but interesting none the less:
http://www.comundo.lycos.co.uk/register

FreeChariot Cease Independent Offer

By:mark.j @ 4:08:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Freechariot have just informed us that they will no longer be offering their FRIACO based BT Independent unmetered offer from today. They have reached their pre-set subscriber base and will now concentrate on future offers (FRIACO2 we hope) and improvements to their Telco end.

The service will still be available through VISPs (Note: our offer is private and special, so nobody else will have the advantages we do =]) and Freechariot has left plenty of capacity for specifically this. Under the new system any VISP accept ours will be limited to 1hour cut offs and 100hours max per month (3+ hours per day average).

This does not affect existing subscribers in any way shape or form, you heard it here first.

Gameloft.co.uk Join With LineOne

By:mark.j @ 10:59:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Like it or not, the popular online phenomenon of multiplayer gaming (LAN/Network gaming) is fast becoming big business. So big in fact that these days almost every new game has such an option and it's drawing millions of people in at a time (exception of most console games).

That said and today the gaming orientated Gameloft.co.uk joined forces with the up-for-sale LineOne ISP to create a better site and more multiplayer servers - here's the full PR:

Gameloft.co.uk Launch co-branded games site with LineOne

London, England - GameLoft.co.uk, the celebrated UK video games portal, today announced that it has signed a partnership deal with LineOne - a leading UK Internet destination portal and access provider.

In a deal that will go live in early December, the partnership will see GameLoft and LineOne running joint servers with the full GameLoft site available via LineOne's dedicated gaming area, 'Play Zone'. GameLoft content will be accessible directly on LineOne (www.lineone.net), and visitors to www.GameLoft.co.uk will be passed onto the co-branded site.

For the full story, links and screens go to:
http://www.noblepr.co.uk/Press_Releases

- end -

Global Cell phone Users Will Hit 1.25Billion!

By:mark.j @ 10:50:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

According to Reuters, the number of mobile phone users worldwide is expected to rise by a 16% average every year to reach a total of 1.25 billion by 2005:

The figure would account for 27 percent of the entire world population, the Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association said.

The total number of users in 1999 was 461.34 million, up 50.9 percent from a year earlier, it said.

Backed by rapid advances in mobile phone technology, 83.7 percent of Europe, 76.0 percent of North America and 13.9 percent of Asia are expected to own cell phones in 2005, it said.

Of course with any luck the new generation of owners will finally have some hybrid Palmtop mobiles to play with, rather than the god-awful WAP nightmare. Of course you also have the looming medical concerns, which we have to say are strangely comparable to the tobacco industry and smoking - hmmm.

Could we be doing the arrogant thing again and waiting until it's obvious they kill us before anything changes, or is it all just false? Personally if you actually send E-Mails then it's more likely to be death by extreme RSI of the wrist =).

WorldOnline Goes Broadband By X-Mas

By:mark.j @ 10:43:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

As many of our regular readers will know, the UK wing of World Online's ISP has always made it known that unmetered dial up is the stepping stone to broadband. That said and it might not be if BT could actually scale its prices correctly.

That said and it doesn't come as a surprise that WOL have now announced the launch of their ADSL services before X-Mas. Of course you'll have to be in a covered area and an existing customer for that, newcomers will be forced to wait according to UK.Internet:

The company said the service would be available in December for a flat rate of £39.99 per month including line rental and free installation.

Existing users of the World Online internet service will receive the offer first, with non-subscribers expected to wait until the local loop unbundling allows World Online to extend the reach of its network.

The company said that it plans to sink more than £50m into its UK broadband offering and will begin reviewing the broadband pricing scheme as soon as the service takes off.

It's also nice to see that WOL are continuing their low price trend with the £39.99 per month price tag, directly competitive with the cheapest - BTOpenworld.

UK Telecoms are The Cheapest - Says Oftel

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

Before you all (thinking it's a pantomime) jump up to say, "Ohhhh NO it ISN'T!", take a moment to remember that this is mainly looking at voice calls - not Internet calls. That said and according to The Register, Oftels latest report has indeed found that for the most part we're now the cheapest in the EU.

With Telco's such as FreeChariot, BT's new Off-Peak offers and Surfing Rabbit running the gauntlet of free local calls you can't deny that we're ahead:

Oftel has just completed an international benchmarking study that compares the UK to France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, and the US states of Ohio and California.

The study found that UK consumers benefit from some of the lowest prices in Europe. It also compares well with the US, often cited as one of the most competitive market places.

According to the winged watchdog:
* the UK continues to have the lowest prices for residential off-peak and peak metered Internet access.
* only California has cheaper residential unmetered Internet access for residential customers.
* the UK has the cheapest unmetered Internet access for businesses in Europe. However, for metered business Internet access, the UK is the second most expensive of the countries considered.
* only Germany has significantly lower prices than the UK for mobile services, which is largely attributable to bigger handset subsidies in Germany.

The study took into account pretty much all areas and you'll notice the peak unmetered ISP offerings aren't mentioned =). However in all this we have to ask, the UK isn't just made up of BT, but do the real people (you and I) actually know about the other offers?

It's not as if anybody accept BT and the odd other giant ever bothers to advertise themselves in the public eye such as TV and Magazines/Newspapers. Yet it's usually the smaller groups who offer the most, isn't it?

Opera Browser = FREE

By:mark.j @ 10:21:AM - Comments (4) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

This may not be hugely relevant and to be honest you're better off with IE5/IE5.5 anyway, at least for ISPr and most other sites. That said and there’s long been a commercial and viable alternative to both IE and NS on Microsoft systems, Opera.

Today saw the release of Opera v5 and it's now free for windows, well that’s if you can bare to see a banner at the top all the time, if not then go pay $39 for it to go away (overpriced).

Its user interface is more confusing and bulky, but it does have some advantages, such as multiple windows open up inside the program and not your desktop - no clogging up the task bar.

You can download it here:
http://www.opera.com/download/

Realistically there aren't a whole lot of advantages in the browser and IE always renders D/HTML better. That said and its now pretty much free and worth a try.

News - December 6,2000

Activator 'HSI' Broadband

By:mark.j @ 5:36:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The loveably Barrysworld have plundered some more news on a new broadband satellite system called Activator, as the site itself says:

High Speed Internet access and Broadband Multimedia have arrived! - Available Q4 2000

Activator - 'HSI' delivers super-fast High Speed Internet access with download speeds of up to 4Mbits / second via best of breed digital satellite technology. Now you can control how much bandwidth you want, when you want it.

Important Note: Phase 1 limited to 5,000 users

Of course as anybody familiar with satellite technology knows, you don't actually get 4Mbits and in fact not even close. Or as barrysworld put it:

Looking at the costs page on their site however, the cost for their satellite delivery system only entitles you to 128Kbits/s for free, and you pay for `skySlices` for more bandwidth up to 5p/2p peak/offpeak a slice for the touted 4MB bandwidth, and offpeak for them doesn`t start till 8pm. Other small print around the site talks about pay-per-play competitions and banner advertising.

If you are thinking of using this site or their services, read everything very carefully as there seems to be a lot of small print on various pages. Nice graphics on the website though. Many of the services are due to go live towards the end of this year and during Q1 2001.

To be honest we'd always advise anybody to stay away from satellite because it's not capable of coping with lots of users and is more 'shared' bandwidth than ADSL or Cable Modems - you don't even want to know how their contention ratios would look for 4Mbits =).

At the end of the day the best you'll get is ISDN 128KBps speed or as low as 56Kbps depending on usage. So much so that it doesn't really warrant the title of broadband as far as consumer level access is concerned. Not to mention the hardware is hugely expensive.

Freeserve & Wanadoo Deal Confirmed

By:mark.j @ 5:04:PM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Following on from today’s earlier news, multiple sites have now confirmed that a deal between Freeserve a French ISP Wanadoo has been done. Or as VNUNet states:

France Telecom's internet service provider Wanadoo is poised to take over Freeserve in a £1.65bn deal.

In a statement issued today, the companies said the offer will be made on the basis of 0.225 of a new Wanadoo share for each Freeserve share held.

Based on the closing price of Wanadoo shares last night, this values each Freeserve share at 157p, well below the 600p per share price tag muted during takeover talks with German ISP T-Online in June this year.

The deal will create one of the world’s biggest media/ISP providers ever seen, although we'll have to wait and see what the real impact of this venture might be. Those who took shares out after the earlier news may want to hang onto them =), even we got a few in.

AltaVista Dead In the UK - Now USA

By:mark.j @ 4:59:PM - Comments (2) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

It seems as though AltaVista started a seriously dangerous series of events earlier this year when they failed to produce an unmetered ISP in the UK. Since then deals have failed, stock fallen and a general air of instability surrounds them. Yet make no mistake, this is by no means confined to the UK - according to The Register:

The company's subscription free service in the US funded by ads is to be pulled on 10 December.

The company said it was forced to take the action because "the company who provided the service and telecommunications infrastructure, 1stUp.com, is going out of business".

What AltaVista fails to mention in an otherwise bleating letter to its customers is that 1stUp.com is part of the CMGI company - the same as AltaVista.

With the likes of Lycos, Yahoo and MSN taking the lead in similar markets, could AltaVista's days be numbered?

RedHotAnt's Power Outage

By:mark.j @ 4:10:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

If you don't already know then today RedHotAnt was hit with a serious power outage that took out most of their services:

6th December 2000 15:03
There are a number of services currently unavailable on the RedHotAnt network. This is directly due to a massive power outage at our backbone provider's co-locate facilities earlier in the day. Normal service should be resumed by early evening.

We apologise for any inconvenience caused.

This post has typically caused the usual flood of e-mails concerned that it might be RedHotAnts final breath, although since RHA don’t communicate with customers you can’t even have such a rumour =). A quick bit of checking and this problem is authentic, so no panic alarms required – we don’t think.

Madasafish's Discount Telco Scheme

By:mark.j @ 4:01:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The Iomart backed ISP Madasafish have just sent us the full press release on their recently launched Telco package. Note that it doesn't include Internet calls. When comparing to other offers of a similar nature you should remember to include that most others have a monthly charge for such discounts:

Madasafish Launch Discount Voice Call Tariffs

iomart-powered ISP, Madasafish (www.madasafish.com) have launched cut-price phone call tariffs that offer up to 30 per cent savings on BT rates.

For a one-off set up fee of £10, Madasafish Telephone Service customers can make savings of almost a third on local, national and international calls and savings of five per cent on mobile calls.

The Madasafish Telephone Service is UK-wide and available to all BT customers without the need to change telephone number.

Madasafish, best known for its funky blend of music, movies and online games, makes its venture into voice in partnership with Rocom Ltd, supplier of the UK's widest range of telecoms solutions, and Madasafish parent company, iomart Group plc, the AIM-listed integrated telecommunications and internet services company.

After signing up for the Madasafish Telephone Service via the Madasafish home page (www.madasafish.com) customers are sent a single line routing unit to plug into their phone and start taking advantage of the discount call rates. The routing unit automatically switches calls through the Madasafish Telephone Service.

Customers will receive two telephone bills; one from iomart for the discounted voice calls, and the other from BT for line rental and services such as operator calls and premium rate number calls.

Keith Fowler, iomart Voice Services Product Manager said: "The Madasafish Telephone Service offers a simple, unconfused tariff structure at very competitive rates. With no monthly fee for the service and no minimum call charge, the Madasafish Telephone Service adds up to a very attractive package. Given the first class infrastructure on which the Madasafish Telephone Service is based, we are confident we can offer levels of service resilience unparalleled in the competitive UK telecomms market."

James Waggott, Rocom Business Development Manager added: "We are delighted to be involved in this exciting venture with Madasafish. The addition of voice services to the Madasafish portal further strengthens their already impressive portfolio of internet features. For us, this partnership is an excellent opportunity to develop new business and work with one of the most innovative ISPs around."

END

In being honest we’d have to say that the discount(s) mentioned are perhaps a little late, due to a recent Oftel ruling the price of local calls will have to come down by around 30% anyway (no additional charge). This is due to in Q1/Q2 next year and as such the Madasafish offer could find itself outdone within a very short period of time.

That said and it may make a nice alternative to the less phone hungry users after a quick-fix discount- http://www.madasafish.com .

ClaraNets 24/7 AnyTime Update

By:mark.j @ 10:20:AM - Comments (3) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

One of our forum members who also uses ClaraNET was able to spot the following post in their (ClaraNET) systems newsgroup:

We are trying to tie up a deal at the moment. Friaco is available but the pricing is such that delivering a high quality service with competitive pricing is not straightforward.

We are working on a product which we hope will be both and there are negotiations in progress, details of which I cant discuss yet.

So the honest answer is that I don’t know yet.

steve
--
Steve Rawlinson
Claranet Ltd

At present ClaraNET is planning to launch the AnyTime 24/7 package come early next year (February). Although to be realistic we'd now expect them to be looking at FRIACO2, at least the timing does seem to coincide quite well.

Whatever they do we're confident it'll be good because despite some service limits and iffy pricing, ClaraNET has always been good.

Freeserves FAQ Outlines Usage Limit

By:mark.j @ 10:01:AM - Comments (5) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Thanks to MAT for pointing out the fact that while the T&C's don't make usage limits clear, for some reason the FAQ's have recently been updated and do:

Q. What conditions apply to my use of Unlimited Freeserve Time?

A. Your use of the Service is subject to the terms of use at the time you register and as subsequently amended. In particular, we would draw your attention to the fact that the Service is provided for residential, not business use, and that limitations on network capacity may mean that your use of the Service is restricted, or in extreme cases terminated if in our reasonable opinion such use makes abnormal demands on the network which could materially affect the quality of the Service. (By way of illustration, use in the excess of 11 hours per day comes within that category).

Does that mean if you go over 11hours on one single day then you'll find yourself getting the boot? It's still not completely clear. Either way they have at least been honest with the limit, although perhaps half a year too late.

EU Helps Speed Up Internet Spread

By:mark.j @ 9:55:AM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

According to some news spotted on Reuters this morning, the EU has finally passed the law that requires members of Europe to unbundle the local loop (LLU) by the 1st January 2001. Make no mistake; just because we haven't referendumed ourselves into Europe yet, the UK is just as obliged to follow the legislation - no escape for BT:

"First, it will complete the liberalisation of telecommunications markets in Europe ... Secondly ... this proves that EU institutions are able to act at Internet speed when necessary" They claim.

The law requires what is called "unbundling of the local loop", or the liberalisation of the last mile of copper wires connecting individuals to the telecoms network, by the start of next year.

Six EU states - Germany, Finland, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden and Austria - already grant access to local loop networks, although a Commission spokesman said the new law goes further than any national law in requiring so-called "full and shared" opening of the loop.

Other countries have been rushing to fall into line with the draft EU legislation, which will automatically supersede national laws.

This has to be one of the fastest pieces of legislation we've ever seen, in only the space of a few months it's been passed into law. That said and it's already taken the EU half a year too long to realise we needed such a thing in the first place.

The chances of BT making the deadline are a little like that of living long enough to see the sun explode. However this is still good news, although we couldn't help but laugh at their first quote; clearly none of them use modems.

The 'Net' Car

By:mark.j @ 9:43:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

This may be one of the most frightening prospects in recent memory, an internet connected car developed by Bunnyfoot. According to UK.Internet, the net car will allow you to concentrate on the road while reading the latest news and e-mails out to you:

The specially adapted car, rather quirkily dubbed the Bunnymobile, is equipped with speech controlled browser technology and connects to the internet through a Wap-enabled mobile phone. Text-based website content and emails are read out to the driver in a voice not dissimilar to that of Professor Steven Hawkins.

Rob Stevens, business director at Bunnyfoot, said: "We expect this technology to be of particular benefit to the busy executive car commuter or sales representative. It allows motorists to turn their car into an extension of their office."

It's perhaps not so frightening as similar systems that can also control your car - hacker heavens, but somehow E-Mail and web just don't gel with today’s modern road vehicles. Having said that, 10 years ago you wouldn't have seen a group of drunken women in the local pub, today you do, or perhaps that's just our pub?