November 3, 2000 - November 10, 2000

News - November 10,2000

Direct Connection Gets ADSL

By:mark.j @ 10:09:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

If you're a net pensioner (been around online awhile) then the ISP Direct Connection (Dircon) will be an old and familiar face. In the days past when 0845 was king and unmetered barely even a pipe dream, Dircon offered some of the best speeds and services on the net.

Now the famed ISP, somewhat squashed by the tide of unmetered and broadband products, has stepped on the ADSL bandwagon itself. Although at present it's only for SME's:

The company, which was bought by the Netscalibur Group in July, has launched the service based on BT’s wholesale ADSL product.

The package is very similar in price to many of the other business packages on the market. Direct ADSL 500 (500kbps downstream) costs £100 per month. Direct ADSL 1000 (1Mbps downstream) costs £160 and Direct ADSL 2000 (2Mbps downstream) is £210 per month. All three packages incur a £270 installation fee.

According to Direct Connection, the company will eventually add services such as setting up the network, provisioning of a local area network and firewalls. Following the acquisition by Netscalibur, the company will also roll out European wide ADSL services.


netimperative.com also make some price comparisons between other providers of a similar nature and find Dircon to be placed around the middle. One of the cheaper options, yet still not quite as cheap as BTOpenworld - very few are.

IGClick Frustration Continues

By:mark.j @ 10:03:AM - Comments (5) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

It seems nobody can get an honest and realistic answer out of IGClick over their ever growing service problems. Those few of the thousands that can get through are often given vague, repetitive and very useless excuses. Another poor man has sent 11 E-Mails dating back since September and has yet received no reply!:

please can you arrange for tim hughes or a manager to ring me asap. I have tried to get through all week without any success, and i am beginning to feel that igclick are pushing the limits of what can be called reasonable behaviour with regards to the actual operation of the connection and the supposed support that goes with it. To introduce a 50p per minute support operation at a time when the service is so unpredictable and faulty is extremely close to being an act of bad faith.

Basically extorting money from customers to make up the shortfall in a poorly conceived business model. If honesty were used in the first place then reasonably minded adult customers would have more sympathy. Please please please arrange for a call asap.


The trend of angry customers can also be seen gathering pace on our IGClick Forum and complaints continue to rush in via E-Mail each day.

It's hard to see whether there are any specific complaints as we seem to get something for everything, NOT A GOOD SIGN. So since we can't get through to them we'll post a message on this public website and hope they respond:

IGClick,

It's clear to us your customers are suffering a variety of problems from dead servers (E-Mail) to engage tones, slow speeds and a general unhappy feeling over your recent service and T&C changes.

Could you please respond to us and explain CLEARLY and in DETAIL exactly what all the problems are, why they are being caused and what you intend to do about them.

Thanks


Now would be a good time to place any bets on whether we get a reply or not =), however current advise is to stay away from IGClick until we say otherwise.

BT Light User

By:Daniel @ 12:37:AM - Comments (30) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Watching watchdog last night i noticed the following mentioned on there.

It said that people are signing up for the bt light user scheme and then routing their calls to another phone provider, such as how callnet used to work. BT are trying to stop this and will ban you from doing it, if you phone them up it takes around a week to unban you.

News - November 9,2000

Debt Laden BT Gets Ready To Split

By:mark.j @ 2:48:PM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Yet more details have today arisen from BT over their latest losses and further confirming the now 'factual' information that they intend to split (MicroSoft Style). Since last year BT's profits are now known to have fallen from £1.66Billion to £1.03Billion, which is a colossal change:

In a bid to reduce its £30 billion debt, the monster telco confirmed that the sale of 25 per cent Yell - its phone directories outfit - would go-ahead by year end.

It also plans to flog up to 25 per cent of BT Wireless, it's mobile phone operation. It also intends to sell 25 per cent of its network, creating a new company called NetCo. BT Ignite - its business-focused e-business operation - is also going to be made ready for sale.

It also plans to tighten its "market focus" and dispose of assets outside Western Europe and Japan.


The article @ The Register shows it's not all bad, in the past splits have actually helped to improve things once a business reaches a certain size. Usually this improvement is focused on the consumer end, although that remains to be seen knowing BT's past.

AOL Nabs LittleWoods (Index!)

By:mark.j @ 2:40:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Following on from AOLs earlier announcement that ASDA would be helping to market AOLs new unmetered product, now Little Woods has been coaxed onto the list as well:

The deal, which follows a similar agreement with supermarket chain ASDA which was announced yesterday, will see Littlewoods distribute co-branded software for the service through its stores and catalogues. The distribution will cover all of Littlewoods’ 275 retail stores and its Index Extra and Littlewoods Catalogue Club home shopping channels.

In return AOL UK will promote the Littlewoods range of clothing and home furnishing goods across its UK subscription service and web-based brands.


netimperative.com's news is interesting because we can't help but fear AOL may have drastically miss-understood demand and could fall on its face after a few more months. A virtually limit less £14.99 per month package is great, yet even under FRIACO this presents serious financial issues and burdens.

More so when you consider AOL’s system is designed to keep you online, it’s not a direct Internet access product. They could well have moved ‘full’ unmetered into the UK market quickly due to their experience in America, which could pose problems as the UK is far from stable (unmetered) right now.

DGFT Lets MS Take Telewest Stake

By:mark.j @ 2:30:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

According to CableNews, The Director General of Fair Trading (DGFT) has finally allowed Microsoft to take up a 23.6% stake in Telewest - Britain's second-largest cable operator:

"The DGFT has also advised me that, having carried out an investigation into the complex issues raised by the case, he has seen no evidence that Microsoft's stake in Telewest gives rise to sufficient competition concern to recommend a reference to the Competition Commission."

Quite what impact this will have on Telewest remains open to debate, although if the DGFT has cleared it we can't see anything too big ahead.

Orange - Free WAP Weekends

By:Ross14 @ 11:05:AM - Comments (8) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The Mobile Operator Firm Orange has announced that it will be offering free WAP Weekends to all pre-pay and contract subscribers until Feb 28, 2001.

Orange has reportedly stated that subscribers registered before July this year should check what dial-up numbers they are using, as if they are not 0973-100500 or 0973-100501 they could well end up paying for the otherwise free service. Customers must also request for the service to be enabled via customer services.

This move seems of little use to business users, who would mainly be online during the working day. However, WAP take-up by consumers has been sluggish, and such ventures stand to encourage WAP usage in the lucrative young adopter markets.


With similar services from breathe.com and Joe0800, this now brings better and brighter news to WAP Users. We will almost certainly see a similar offer by a few other Mobile Networks like BTCellnet or One2One.

Source: netimperative.com

AOL Questions Oftel Over LLU

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

Just when you thought it was safe to be a previously questionable Telecom regulator, the might of AOL comes down and starts sitting on your face. This time it's over Monday’s announcement by Oftel of the LLU prices, which AOL reckons is fine for narrowband, but death for broadband:

AOL argues that while Monday's announcement will make narrowband among the cheapest in Europe it will put broadband at the high end of the price scale. Oftel intends to charge rival telcos £118 per year for every loop they rent from BT, with a £95 connection charge and a £1,433 fee for connecting their loops in the local exchanges.

These figures are very much the raw infrastructure costs making it virtually impossible to extrapolate consumer pricing.

While AOL is happy that the costs will make narrowband services cheaper, making broadband accessible to a mass market has always been one of the key goals of local loop unbundling. "What ISPs want to know from local loop unbundling is does price promote competition and allow new entrants to make a margin," says an AOL spokesman.

According to AOL's calculations the cost of a circuit will be £9.83. It is difficult at this stage to estimate how many users ISPs will put on a circuit, in turn making it difficult to translate this figure into a consumer price but AOL reckons it will put the UK "at the high end of the price spectrum in Europe".


ZDNet's article is interesting and quite well detailed, yet does present a very real possibility. Ultimately we won't know much more until LLU is completed and we can see the prices Telco's start to put out.

News - November 8,2000

BT Ignite to use Internet to cut voice call costs

By:Rob.W @ 11:46:AM - Comments (3) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

BT Ignite is to realise the potential of the Internet to offer packages to cut voice call costs. This will be aimed at cutting the cost of calls to overseas as well as to the next-door neighbour.

Widespread use of the internet to dramatically reduce the cost of voice phone calls moved a step closer yesterday when BT Ignite announced the beginning of commercial trials in the corporate market.
The company plans to launch a service in the middle of next year which will allow consumers to make calls from a computer to a conventional handset. In theory, the cost of a call anywhere in the world could be the same as the cost of accessing the web.

BT has entered a pilot scheme with Open, the interactive television business owned by BSkyB, for a series of services restricted to its own staff using internet protocol. The company expects calls to be of the same quality as mobile phones.

Craig Boundy, vice-president of internet services for BT Ignite, said costs would fall sharply in the medium term.


Read the full article over at GuardianUnlimited

Although the trial is aimed at the corporate market, it will be useful for the home consumer market to keep an eye on goings on, as it will no doubt become a cheap alternative to voice calls in the future, if trials are successful.

Voice over Internet programs are making a come-back in recent times. Even ICQ now has a NetPhone built into the latest build. BT Ignites offering will be a bigger operation and as explained the article, will bring down prices sharply.

AOL Unmetered Update

By:Rob.W @ 10:56:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

It has been reported that AOL are to start a deal with supermarket chain ASDA to distribute AOL Unmetered CD's.

AOL UK is to rollout its £14.99 per month unmetered access service following successful trials among its existing membership.

The company, which claims the service was the first to be based on the FRIACO wholesale tariff when it launched in September, is to make the package available to non-AOL consumers and has linked with supermarket chain ASDA to distribute CDs for accessing the service.

AOL is also to extend its free trial service under which customers can get their first month’s subscription free plus 50 free hours of connection time, after which they will be transferred on to the unmetered package.


The article over Netimperative picks up on some interesting details which is going to be welcome news for families, especially those cut-off recently from the Freeserve Time.

ISPr Site Update - Unmetered List

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

We have something quite special for our readers this morning; Richard (Deputy Editor) has totally re-designed our unmetered list! The new list has been done so as to add things people were asking for and remove the bits nobody really cares about.

It's certainly going to be a little more high-maintenance than the old one, yet aside from that it's a lot better. There may still be the odd bits here and there that need changing so bare with us and we hope you like it.

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

Final BT Surf & Talk HH Prices

By:mark.j @ 9:47:AM - Comments (7) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

We've seen a lot about HomeHighway pricing for the BT Surf & BT Talk packages BT announced barely weeks ago. However just recently they seem to have updated the pricing page, so we'll copy and paste what we saw:

BT Talk Together is available for an inclusive fee of £102.10 ex. VAT per quarter (£119.97 inc. VAT), which includes the following (Operative Date:01.12.2000):

- Line Rental (for one line, equivalent to up to two Highway channels)
- The call prices specified in Tables 1a, 1b, 2, 3 and 4, which include a zero pence per minute charge for the first hour of each Local Geographic call at evenings and weekends except those to Internet Service Provider numbers (conditions apply).
- Call Allowance of £15.321 ex VAT per quarter (£18.00 inc. VAT)
- Friends & Family Overseas
- Connection of new and additional HomeHighway lines at £127.65 exc.VAT (£149.99 inc. VAT)
- Conversion of existing PSTN line to HomeHighway at £42.12 ex VAT (£49.50 inc. VAT) per line.
- Customers will pay the standard line rental fee for the additional lines on the same account.

BT Surf Together is available for an inclusive fee of £102.10 ex. VAT per quarter (£119.97 inc. VAT), which includes the following (Operative Date:01.12.2000):

- Line Rental (for one line, equivalent to up to two Highway channels)
- The call prices specified in Tables 1, 2, 3 and 4, plus a zero pence per minute charge for call at evenings and weekends to SurfTime number ranges.
- Call Allowance of £17.898 ex VAT per quarter (£21.03 inc. VAT)
- Friends & Family Overseas
- Connection of new and additional HomeHighway lines at £127.65 exc.VAT (£149.99 inc. VAT)
- Conversion of existing PSTN line to HomeHighway at £42.12 ex VAT (£49.50 inc. VAT) per line.
- Customers will pay the standard line rental fee for any additional lines on the same account.
- Customers will pay the standard SurfTime fees for SurfTime if they choose to have it on any additional lines on the same account.

BT Talk & Surf Together is available for an inclusive fee of £114.86 ex. VAT per quarter (£134.97 inc. VAT), which includes the following (Operative Date:01.12.2000):

- Line Rental (for one line, equivalent to up to two Highway channels)
- The call prices specified in Tables 1a, 1b, 2, 3 and 4 (which includes a zero pence per minute charge for the first hour of each Local Geographic call at evenings and weekends except those to Internet Service Provider numbers - conditions apply), plus a zero pence per minute charge for calls at evenings and weekends to SurfTime number ranges.
- Call Allowance of £15.321 ex VAT per quarter (£18.00 inc. VAT)
- Friends & Family Overseas
- Connection of new and additional HomeHighway lines at £127.65 exc.VAT (£149.99 inc. VAT)
- Conversion of existing PSTN line to HomeHighway at £42.12 ex VAT (£49.50 inc. VAT) per line.
- Customers will pay the standard line rental fee for any additional lines on the same account and the standard SurfTime fees for SurfTime if they choose to have it on any of the additional lines on the same account.


We hope this helps some of you who we know still have questions and all the usual BT restrictions apply to those above. However if you take a closer look and comparison of the prices there are a few strange differences.

BT Split Expected Soon

By:mark.j @ 9:38:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Only a few weeks ago rumours started to surface that BT had plans to split up its departments (Microsoft style), however this was quickly said to be incorrect to quite a harsh tone. Yet this morning the Wall Street Journal has fresh evidence that a split will indeed occur.

Apparently the company's debt load is a central element of the plan, BT's debt is expected to swell to £35 billion in 2001 from £18.3 billion since June 30-2000.

The centrepiece of BT's overhaul seems to be a plan to sell to public investors between 20% and 25% percent of BT Wireless, the conglomeration of mobile-phone interests, including Cellnet and operations in Germany, Ireland and the Netherlands.

They are also expected to announce a plan to separate the core fixed-line business, which includes switches, cables and other infrastructure, from its retail-selling arm, which markets voice and data offerings.

One way or the other it now looks like a much more real possibility BT will indeed split, perhaps a good time to buy a few shares in the wireless part?

BTOpenworld Gets Behind OnDigital

By:mark.j @ 9:27:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

It's no secret OnDigital recently launched their OnNet package, although in a world getting use to unmetered, OnNet's 0845 style offering could be the reason only 20,000 people have signed up. Either way it's now said BTOpenworld have agreed to step in and help offer the services, but just what could this mean?

BTOpenworld is to provide a Net access service via TV for UK broadcaster ONDigital.

Under the agreement, BTOpenwoe becomes the virtual Internet service provider (VISP) for ONdigital's Web TV service, ONnet, launched in September.


The article @ The Register is interesting, but don't get your hopes up because initial plans are only for narrowband. However it does raise the potential for broadband in the future and that has some very exciting possibilities. Could terrestrial digital be getting ready to go head to head with TV/Cable Co's via ADSL?

UK 2nd Most Online Country In The EU

By:mark.j @ 9:16:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

A new survey out today by NetValue shows the UK as having the second highest penetration rate in Europe after Denmark. The penetration is not the number of people online, but the physical coverage by population size:

The study of internet usage across Europe in September shows that more than 50% of households in Denmark are connected to the web. In the UK, nearly 30%, equivalent to 7.1m, households are connected.

Behind the UK came Germany with 25.7%, and France with 17.5%.


netimperative.com's little summary shows the Internet is becoming increasingly more established around Europe.

Cloud Nine Announces 128K Support Trials

By:mark.j @ 9:04:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

For the last few days we've been discussing 128Kbps Dual Channel ISDN with Cloud Nine, who currently don't support it. However today it looks like our persistence and Cloud Nines willingness to help has paid off:

Statement from BT:

"SurfTime packages are line based thus customers will be able to combine both Highway and ISDN 2 channels, for 128k access at the same price, assuming that their ISP provides this service."

You can now announce that we are testing 128Kb access for Static IP (ie Network Connect) customers. It is not "officially" supported on Surfport but we are having 100% success at the moment connecting where we use static IP connections and if these tests are successful, and given the above statement from BT which is backed up by the statement on their new looking site at:

http://preview.traffic.co.uk/btsurftime_new/faqs.html

See Question 9 - we hope to be making a Network Connect 128 service available (pricing to be determined).


That could well mean Cloud Nine will start to offer a true 128Kbps package for those with ISDN. Seeing their current pricing we'd expect it to priced competitively against the obvious opposition. Hope this helps some of you who keep asking us the same questions =).

News - November 7,2000

Off Peak Freeserve Time Price Increase

By:Ross14 @ 6:35:PM - Comments (4) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

It seems that Freeserve have decided to put the price tag up on their Off Peak Freeserve Time Option on the Surftime Package.

Instead of the original £5.99, it will now cost £8.99 - which is still cheaper than most Off-Peak Surftime Options.

The good news is customers who joined on or before the 1st Nov 2000 will continue to pay the £5.99 until notified by email from Freeserve.

This really isn't much of a surprise. Freeserve were probably making very little profit from the original £5.99 that they set.

BT Joins The VoIP Bandwagon

By:mark.j @ 4:29:PM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

According to the general online news source, Reuters, BT is set to be the next inline to make use of VoIP (Voice Over IP). Although it has no plans to be as radical as C&W by completely changing their network, it does want to do something easier.

VoIP has been around for years, however it usually requires the use of two computers, BT plans to make it so only the caller uses the computer and the receiver uses a conventional phone. Ironically even this isn't especially new; there is software, which allows this to be done through other Telco's.

Called SurfTalk, BT's service will make VoIP technology widely available and threaten phone companies ability to charge high rates for international calls. They plan to charge an as yet undetermined per-minute rate, although the more familiar with the technology will likely find a cheaper way know how expensive BT can be.

In the more distant future VoIP is likely to replace the current phone system as we know it and allow cheap calls on a global scale, even for those without computers. This also presents the very real possibility of cheap and usable videophones; don't expect that anytime soon though.

At present videophones are extremely poor and fail to take advantage of newer compression techniques such as Mpeg4, thus making their quality almost worthless for the high price tag (£700 - £2,000).

BT's £210,000,000 Cisco Order

By:mark.j @ 2:05:PM - Comments (5) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

£210,000,000 is more than most of us will ever see in our lifetimes, but when it comes to BT trying to expand their 'Ignite' backbone then no cost is to be spared.

Cisco Systems have won a deal worth up to £210,000,000 to help expand British Telecommunications Internet network. The agreement will help expand the capacity of BT Ignite's Internet backbone by nearly 100 times over a period of two years.

Just imagine the unmetered ISP you could create with that much cash =).

Freeserve Internet Mouse Pad

By:mark.j @ 1:55:PM - Comments (2) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Just when you think you've seen it all somebody goes and does something completely different. Today it's Freeserve's turn as not content with offering a slow to improve unmetered ISP service, they've come up with a net friendly Mouse pad.

The new product, which will be sold exclusively through Dixons’-owned electrical stores, is intended to sit alongside PCs and give PC users an easier way of using the web.

The push of a button on the new Freeserve First Click Internet Power Pad, as the new product has been called, will take users direct to favoured websites or allow them to directly dial their Freeserve internet connection.

The pad is being launched with 50,000 units at a cost of £29.99 at Dixons’-owned stores, including Dixons, Curry’s, PC World and The Link. The pad may also be available bundled with PC packages.


The article @ netimperative.com is certainly interesting, but until we've actually seen the product it'll remain a mystery as to how it actually goes about working? All sounds a bit too much like somebody trying to repeat those 'special net keys' you get on modern keyboards to us.

AOL Unmetered Problems

By:mark.j @ 10:23:AM - Comments (13) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Do you use AOL? Have you been allowed to swap to their new £14.99 unmetered option? If so, how is it?

Those are some of the questions we'd like answers to as several people tell us AOL's new unmetered service is starting to affect the ISP, despite not being publicly available just yet (only to long time registered users).

Could this be the first sign of AOL becoming a victim of its own success? Post a comment or E-Mail and tell us how they are - thanks.

More IGClick Changes

By:mark.j @ 10:00:AM - Comments (3) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

It seems customers are growing continually angry with IGClick over the way they remove services and change previous promises. The service itself isn't exactly perfect for many at the moment and now one of our readers, Mike, has highlighted some new FAQ changes:

Page: www.igclick.net/ResidentialFiles/faq.htm

What are the details of Direct Access to the Internet product?

Before:

Completely FREE access to the Internet and to the IG CLICK service for just £30.00 inc. VAT per year. As many e-mail addresses as you need and an unlimited file transfer size facility. Telephone Help Line available 24 hours, 7 days and week charged at local rate per minute.

After:

Completely FREE access to the Internet and to the IG CLICK service for just £30.00 inc. VAT per year. (based on a single channel analogue user) As many e-mail addresses as you need and an unlimited file transfer size facility. Telephone Help Line available 7 days and week.

Will there be any limitations to the service?

Before:

There are no limitations to the service. There a cut-off period of 2 hours
for those users who leave it idle on there machines.

After: Removed completely

What are the charges for our help line service?

Before:

You are charged on a lo-call rate number. Not on a premium rate number!

After:

You are charged on a national rate number for Sales & Enquiries. For
Technical Support there is a Premium Rate number of 50 pence per minute.


This is one of the trends we hope to have stopped in our suggestions to Oftel, lets hope they don't remove anything further.

News - November 6,2000

BTOpenworld Pledges To Improve

By:mark.j @ 4:57:PM - Comments (9) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

In a rather unusual move for any BT subsidiary, BTOpenworld (Broadband ADSL ISP Provider) has apologised for the problems experienced by consumers trying to get ADSL installed and the ISP service itself.

In a bid to appease concerns BTOpenwoe claims it will improve communications with its customers and post regular updates on its site to keep people fully informed.

It is to quadruple the number of helpdesk staff and introduce a new freephone 'service issues' line to handle enquiries.

It is also claims to be setting up a more efficient and faster way to handle customer calls.


The article @ The Register seems strangely well timed with several recent and promising announcements from Oftel, all are helping to redeem at least some of BT's lost credentials. However the more realistic people might say BTO should have been doing this from day one and that now is a little late.

Tiscali Aims @ WOL

By:mark.j @ 12:57:PM - Comments (3) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Its been known for awhile that Tiscali have their sights firmly set on Europe wide media and ISP group, World Online. However while browsing through the Financial Times this morning we found out things have just taken another step.

Tiscali now plans to launch their official bid for World Online very soon, no exact date or time has been given - could be today. Apparently they have already received commitments for 62.1% of WOL shares, including the 8% owned by U.S. chipmaker, Intel Corp.

The purchase would create the second largest ISP in Europe – a super ISP.

BT & Oftel's LLU Prices - UPDATE

By:mark.j @ 12:49:PM - Comments (3) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

According to a new article on netimperative.com , the LLU prices have been outlined, but are NOT set in stone. Instead they are up for discussion until the 4th December 2000, after that the final ones will be announced on the 31st. They also have some details on the prices themselves:

It has proposed that the annual rental will be £118 per end-user line, with a £95 connection charge. Carriers will also have to pay an annual rental charge of £21 for an internal tie cable per 100 lines connected to their equipment in each local loop exchange, with a £1,433 connection charge.

Until now operators have not been able to calculate how much they are likely to pay to rollout their services. Nigel Pitcher, marketing director at IP backbone services provider Fibernet, which is hoping to rollout a broadband network said: "Like all carriers, it’s been hard to model the cost of the overall business without taking the principle contributions into account."


At current the annual line rental for general third party Telco's is closer to £135, so £118 means Telco's taking advantage of the new prices will be forced to charge around the same as BT anyway. Interestingly £118 is what they should be charging those not even involved in LLU, although they don't.

Either way we can't help but feel that LLU is starting to look a little overrated, the sweeping reforms and promised lower prices are beginning to look a little poor. Will we just end up seeing Telco's that are more like BT clones than their own company? Who knows, although that’s probably the idea.

Vispa TakeOver Rumours - FALSE

By:mark.j @ 12:40:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

For some reason we've seen a few posts around claiming that Vispa Internet/Connect were either being taken over or taking another ISP over themselves. Vispa recently launched their ADSL services and before that put any unmetered offer on hold pending the finalised FRIACO situation.

An insider apparently spread the rumours, however after having contacted one of the head honcho's we can say this is not the case:

"Nice rumour.....I can confirm that Vispa has NOT been taken over, we have had offers in the past, but we have turned them all down."

Cloud Nine Preps ADSL

By:mark.j @ 12:35:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Just as the last weekend set in Cloud Nine were kind enough to mention about future ADSL offerings:

We are expecting to add ADSL offerings within the next 75-90 days - going to make an announcement shortly on the web site. I am told that we are just about to sign up for BT's wholesale deal. We are in the process of opening a second NOC in early January (just made the offers on the space) and I will certainly be happier to offer 'always-on' ADSL services once the second NOC is open.

It'll be interesting to see how competitive or not their option is, since ADSL is currently quite a difficult area to gauge.

Oftel Sets LLU Charges

By:mark.j @ 9:47:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The slightly improved Telecom watchdog, Oftel, has today announced its proposed charges for Telco's (operators) seeking to make use of BT's exchanges through LLU. The charges will be set until April 2002 when they will be re-reviewed.

There are currently next to no details on this, although we'd expect the Financial Times to carry something and will be checking that out. For now we have a quote from Oftels director, David Edmonds:

"I am confident that these charges are at a level that will encourage competition in the provision of broadband services"

Any pricing structure would have an impact on those presented to the consumer, so it's ain all our interests to have a good result.

News - November 5,2000

ISPreview Weekly Update

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

Ever since the power went out last Sunday (storms) and then re-appeared on Wednesday I've been up to my neck in E-Mails and backlogged work. The good news is that it’s finally cleared for the weekend and I can take a well-earned break. As such not much has been done this last week, although next week should be different.

Richard should have finally finished the new unmetered list for next week and it's only a matter of time before the new 'general' automated ISP listings are FINALLY completed. By that we mean the system, there's still around 600 ISPs to add after that :-) hmmm :-(.

Due to the storms 'ISPr FreeCall' didn't go live either, however it will do early next week so long as our supplier keeps pace. Although being a private system it'll only be mentioned to those on the FreeCall list.

Not much else to say, it's been very much a catch up week, but don't be surprised if yet more website changes occur next week as we test some new ideas.

News - November 4,2000

Telco's Accept 'Oftels' Line Sharing Idea

By:mark.j @ 10:05:AM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Not long ago the Telco watchdog, Oftel, put forward a clever idea to help LLU and broadband access along. This system involved line sharing so that one Telco could share with another and thus further open up competition. The initial response from Telco's and ISPs has come in and things are looking good:

The move may further open up competition in the broadband market by allowing more competitive pricing models.

Shared access allows operators to lease only the higher frequency spectrum of the local loop for broadband services, so consumers can use internet services from a competing operator, while still using the voice services of the incumbent local loop provider, such as BT.

The benefit here is that both services are available through an existing phone line, with no need for another line to be installed.


The article @ UK.Internet shows Oftel are finally starting to push competition in a much more realistic way. However the end result of all this has yet to be seen, so judgment is reserved until then.

BT's ADSL Exchanges Getting Fixed

By:mark.j @ 9:59:AM - Comments (5) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Chances are that after reading the subject title for this news you never even knew there was anything wrong with them anyway. BT has now admitted that the rollout of ADSL is not up to scratch and didn't exactly go according to plan:

At a review meeting with ISPs yesterday, execs at BT Broadband admitted that they had "capacity problems" at some 118 (of the 619 ADSL-enabled) exchanges which "caught us unaware".

However, The Register understands that most of the capacity issues are not serious and are as a result of "network systems not being aligned".

As of yesterday, the number of exchanges that experienced problems had come down to 70. This number is expected to fall rapidly.


The Register goes on to talk about other problems with BT's ADSL offerings and draws a few comparisons. Either way this latest one has the potential to affect any ISP offering ADSL that has customers within the effected regions.

We wonder if this latest set back will slow the new speed up BT has planned for it's ADSL roll-out and installations?

WorldCom Back In LLU

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

WorldCom is the leading Telco/ISP who not long ago pulled out of LLU in September due to the way it was being handled and the slowness of the process itself. However such a move has been reversed today as they claim to be very much involve in the process of LLU (Local Loop Unbundling):

Phil Reynolds, UK director of regulatory affairs at WorldCom says that that company, in conjunction with the rest of the operators involved in the process, is working with BT to develop the operational information systems that will be needed to manage the provision and maintenance of ADSL lines once the loop is unbundled. He said: “We are still very interested to ensure it is a competitive environment when we get in there.

However the company has not yet decided whether to make use of wholesale services offered by other operators that plan to go ahead with their ADSL rollouts once the local loop is unbundled or to do it themselves.


netimperative.com goes on to state that WorldCom is still not completely back, they are waiting to see the results of complaints sent to Oftel related to the handling and process of LLU itself. Until an answer is known they will keep any strategies firmly under wraps.

Cloud Nine Respond to ISDN128 Issues

By:mark.j @ 9:26:AM - Comments (20) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

We all know BTSurftime doesn't properly support 128Kbps Dual Channel ISDN, although there are a couple of ISPs that risk it. However unless they state it as working then when you connect to the second channel you could find yourselves being charged the standard BT call rates for that one channel.

In recent months ISPs such as Games-World.Net, Demon.Net and more recently, Cloud Nine, have launched BTSurftime packages. Just about all of them say 128Kbps will be supported in the future, however you could be paying for the calls if you connect on the second channel - ISP dependant.

Either way we decided to see what Cloud Nine had to say about their 128Kbps ISDN support, being the newer and hopefully most informed of BTSurftime using ISPs:

BT tell us that the kit is capable of supporting dual-channel but we suspect their network connections aren't up to the possible demand levels so they are stalling. We are trying to get them to do one of two things:

1) Open the 2nd channel initially on say 0845 services (we had to stop it previously because on our old platform the PPP multi-link was causing hang-ups on the Cisco's with static IP numbers).

2) Open the 2nd channel on Surfports even if the customer has to pay call charges on the 2nd channel.

They are telling us that as soon as they are over this first hump they will make 128Kb available, probably Feb/Mar.

We are trying to get them to do it sooner, so I guess the answer is 3 parts:

1) No not at this moment.
2) We are trying to get BT to agree some relaxation
3) By Feb/Mar BT say they will support it.

I hope that answers your questions. I will keep you up to date with developments.

Best Regards


So until BT finally gets around to offering dual channel ISDN over BTSurftime then we suggest you avoid connecting to it. However this varies depending on ISP so it's always wise to check first, some do let you use 128Kbps, but it's not always perfect and may charge you at normal rates for the second channel.

By subscribing to BTS you’re effectively paying for one line (two channels = two lines bonded [HH]), so it’s technically more up to the ISP whether dual channels even work, let alone be charged or not.

ClaraDSL Update

By:mark.j @ 9:14:AM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

After yesterdays ClaraNet post the marketing manager, Nick Wells, was kind enough to remind us of a post on their website:

Mark

I just read your piece on Claranet's ADSL service, and noticed at the end of the piece that you mentioned that you were still waiting for news on the Freetime Anytime deal. We posted an announcement on our website a little while back on the service, which was as follows:

"Plans to launch FreeTime AnyTime, our 24/7 unmetered Internet access package have been delayed. The launch of FreeTime AnyTime is dependent on the availability of FRIACO (Flat Rate Internet Access Call Origination) - a wholesale product from British Telecom. Our latest information indicates that this product may not become available until December 2000 at the earliest.

Claranet is committed to providing a high quality, sustainable service for our customers. As a result, we are currently investigating alternative ways in which to offer an unmetered 24/7 product. Updated information will be posted on the website.
"

I think in fairness your estimate in terms of timing is accurate, and as soon as we can tell you any more then we'll be in touch.

Best regards

Nick Wells


Thanks to ClaraNET for the update, we look forward to hearing some more accurate and informative details come December.

News - November 3,2000

ClaraNet's Consumer DSL Service

By:mark.j @ 3:09:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Here's an interesting piece of information we picked out of ClaraNet's newsletter, which was sent out only moments ago:

We're pleased to announce that we are now taking orders for our new ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) package aimed at users connecting from a single pc.

ClaraDSL Solo incorporates all the usual Claranet features including 50Mb web space, unlimited email addresses, access to Claranet's 50,000 news groups, access to IRC and gaming servers and 24 hour support at local rates.

With ClaraDSL Solo, you can take advantage of permanent high speed Internet access and the ability to view real-time audio and video, as well as keep your telephone line free to make and receive normal phone calls.

For more information about ADSL, visit our web site at
http://www.clara.net/adsl/


No word on ClaraNet’s 24/7 Unmetered option, which was touted for an Autumn release and has yet to surface. This could mean we might not see it until December or early next year now.

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