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May 24, 2001 - May 28, 2001

News - May 28,2001

Important ISP Review Site Update

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

Just to let everybody know that we took some time out today to move our newer Specific ISP Forum technology from v6.01 to v6.04e. This was actually a much bigger update than the version number suggests and means that all our own optimisations (Who's Online, Special Member Status Displays, Stars, Statistics etc.) have been lost.

Thankfully they'll be back as we build upon this latest code revision over the next week or two with new features and updated versions of the original improvements. So please excuse any strange behaviour during this period and we'll start the new additions from tomorrow.

This is of course the early stage of our forum merging process, in which we plan to bring the General and Specific ISP forums into one central place and technology. Expect lots of changes over the next two months from now on.

BTs Cable To Challenge NTL & Telewest

By:mark.j @ 4:01:PM - Comments (10) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

BT has traditionally kept out of the fibre optic cable operators market because it's never really had an established network or foothold in such an area. However an article in today’s Daily Telegraph newspaper claims BT might well consider offering TV & Internet services through such technology.

A spokesman for BT confirmed the former telecoms monopoly was looking at ways of increasing the range of services it offers to its 20 million customers and he noted BT was already involved in broadcast media through its Openworld Internet division. But he added that talk of a working group and a launch before the end of the year was purely speculative.

"It is true that the whole market is converging and we are looking at opportunities," the spokesman said. The heavily indebted group may even strike up a joint venture with BSkyB, Granada Media or OnDigital to secure programme content.

As yet nobody knows exactly how or to what extent (services) BT plans to infiltrate the cable market, although any such service would compete directly with NTL and Telewest.

Judging by BTs past history we seriously doubt they could truly compete, they always seem over charge on everything, even in areas where they're a minority.

Early GPRS Limitations Put Right

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

Many have been less than impressed with BTCellnets first true GPRS offerings and handset, however the company has announced that things should slowly improve over the summer months:

Although Cellnet's GPRS service offers permanent connections and peak data transfer speed of about 30kbit/s, the only available handset is Motorola's Timeport T260. IT Week testing found usability limited by a small screen and poor input capabilities.

But Motorola itself will help to fix that with handsets due over the next three months. "The Timeport was primarily about use as a modem," admitted Bob Schukai, Motorola director of marketing. "You need a handset to debug the technology and if it's been available for six or seven months the product already looks long in the tooth."

In all, Motorola will ship four handsets this summer: the Accompli 008 phone/ organiser with Java support; the Talkabout 192 mass-market product with games; the Timeport T280 with larger display than the T260 and organiser features; and the V66, Motorola's smallest GPRS phone.

The ZDNet item fails to mention whether these new models will incorporate any improvements for the overall speed of the service, although such a thing is highly unlikely due to being server-side. Ultimately we'll just have to wait and see before making any judgements, it's early days yet and as such GPRS is best left alone.

Telewests Transparent Cache Problems

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

BTOpenworlds ADSL subscribers will know something of transparent cache, although for sometime now Telewests Cable Modem service (blueyonder) has been suffering similar problems. Today DigitalSpy has reported that some subscribers have had enough and set-up the Up the cap! campaign:

Why this campaign?

This is a long-standing problem and even though customers have been reassured that people of the highest level are working on the problem Telewest seems no closer to finding a solution, obviously this is a cause of a great deal of frustration for customers and can slow down downloads a great deal leaving a service of around 300-400kbit/s!!!.

Many 3rd party caches that HSI users have been using to get around the problem are being closed (and quite rightly) to blueyonder customers who were leaching off these servers (and therefore bypassing the transparent caches) to achieve 'proper' broadband service speeds. This is simply a silly situation and is causing blueyonder MORE external traffic rather than the requests being fulfilled by the local caches.

So what's the answer?

Other than fixing the problem (yeah right!) one way is to set the cap on the cable modem service higher, even though there will still be this problem customers will receive the speeds they were used to in the good ol' days when it worked. This would not be unique; the largest supplier of broadband via a cable modem in the UK is ntl. ntl's successful "silver" cable modem is advertised at 512kbit/s but is actually capped at 600kbit/s. This is what we propose Telewest should do to provide a solution to the problem, perhaps not set at 600, that's not for us to dictate but at a rate blueyonder feel is appropriate to provide proper service whilst still using the cache's to conserve bandwidth.

So if you're a disgruntled blueyonder customer looking to get the best out of your connection then pay this site a visit and sign their petition.

BigBlueSky Updates Again

By:mark.j @ 10:52:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Thanks to all who kindly pointed out that the unmetered ISP BigBlueSky have once again made updates to their site. The latest spate of service updates regard clarification to the last lot and new price/cut-off information. As before we'll only post what's most relevant:

Price Increases
(Note: this applies to new customers, not existing customers)
As you will see, from the registration banner, that a price increase is imminent. On 07/June/2001 the cost of the connection charge will go up. All I can say at this time is that there is going to be an increase in the cost of the connection, to possibly £60/year, and so you only have until the 07/June/2001 to get the current price of £25. Consequently, if you know anyone who's not sure which ISP to go with, then this is the one... but hurry! As you read this, no price has been fixed, however, what I can say is that the amount of "£60" has been discussed at great length internally. We intend to have a vote on this next week, and other related items, such as time-out periods and what to do with "irresponsible" users!

They then go on to ask for feedback on ISDN, quite why we don't know unless they plan a dual channel package, otherwise the rules of ISDN are the same as that of a modem:

What are your thoughts on ISDN? Do you already have a connection? Do you know anything about it? What yearly flat rate do you think would be reasonable? You should send any comments to hms2000@bigbluesky.uk.net with the subject line "ISDN Comment"

We don't know of any ISPs who charge a different amount for ISDN as opposed to modems, unless it's dual channel access. Hopefully BBS won't make a serious mistake here. The final three updates regard business options, the cut-off and some service changes:

Session Time-Out Periods
More commonly referred to as the 'cut-off' period, this facility had to be enabled in order to do something about the customers who are staying connected for days on end. We know of many who have been [were] connected for up to 3 weeks continuously. "Just to see if it could be done" as one boasted to us. Well, this isn't fair to others who have trouble getting connected.

We need responses to this from existing customers and from potential customers. Please tell us of any way(s) to deal with them, and other related issues if you wish to make a comment. This is your ISP, tell us what to change and we will if it is within our control. Please send comments to hms2000@bigbluesky.uk.net with the subject of the email "Abuser Outcome". Ensure that the subject line is exactly as given... but please refrain from providing evil and bloody descriptions of how to deal with them.

Business use of Bigbluesky 0800 Access
Finally, for those of you using the bigbluesky 0800 connection for business... please do not complain that your business is suffering... read the terms and conditions first. If you are a business interested in using the bigbluesky 0800 connection, then call us on 01555 666900 and ask for Kenneth, we do have a package appearing soon that provides you with a separate 0800 number... connects first time... but will cost about £65. If he is in a good mood he may tell you about it before 04/June. Call our support lines and just let us know whether you are a business user of the 0800 connections. If you are decent about it and let us know... .before we find out... then you will not need to be considered an "Abuser". Ken, the floor manager is usually really good about this... he's a Scottish man with REAL common sense, not the kind of free download intelligence you get from the internet!

Locking BBS 0800 dial-up to a Home Phone Number
We have also had suggestions about locking the 0800 telephone number into a particular customer specified number (e.g. their home, or work... .I mean the other place of residence), so that the free connection can only be used from one specific telephone line. Send us comments on hms2000@bigbluesky.uk.net subject line "You Must Be Kidding Right?". We will look at them very seriously. Joking apart, we will look at them!

BBS is at least being honest, making no bones about the fact that if you want a stellar ISP then you should expect to go somewhere else and pay more money. We also like the way they appear to be listening to customer’s feedback, which is always a good thing.

Hopefully if BBS continues to charge the lowest industry prices then they will become a true landmark for others. So far no such ISP has lasted the distance and even those that changed soon died.

More On Low BTCellnet WAP Usage

By:mark.j @ 10:38:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Following on from last weeks report that barely anybody in the UK was actually making use of WAP anymore, yesterday more details surfaced specifically about BTCellnets usage figures. According to the Independent On Sunday newspaper customers of BT's Cellnet arm have sharply reduced their usage of the Internet from web-enabled WAP phones.

Citing internal BT figures, the paper said visits to the Genie mobile phone service operated by BT Wireless had fallen to £40.5Million in April, down more than 60% from levels in January.

The paper also said the number of minutes spent surfing the web dropped to 12Million from 36Million over the period, suggesting the use of BT's WAP services had been boosted by a three-month trial offer running over Christmas.

The paper said the figures raised fresh questions over the appeal of WAP, the take-up of third-generation mobile phone services and the £4.Billion pounds BT paid for its 3G license. No one at Cellnet could immediately be reached for comment.

Of course WAP is simply not comparable to 3G technologies, which have barely even begun testing in the UK and are still roughly three years away. Yet BT, like so many operators, will need to make sure they have something special on offer when it finally arrives, otherwise it'll go the way of the WAP.

Majestique Do Broadband Satellite

By:mark.j @ 10:30:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Majestique Internet aren't an ISP particularly well known for their startling array of services or ultra competitive prices, probably because they don't have them. However the ISP has taken a new turn with the launch of Majestique Satellite Internet, thanks to Keith for the info.:

With Satellite Internet you will be able to download files from the internet at 400kbit/sec (around 40-50kb/sec), This will work for Web Browsing, FTP'ing, Newsgroups and all other standard protocols this is almost as fast as ADSL and CABLE but at a third of the price of ADSL* and half the price of cable* and it's all done through your satellite dish without the need for an ADSL enabled exchange or cable access.

To use the Satellite Internet you will need a: PC with either Win98 / ME / NT / 2000 or Linux, 64Mb RAM, 100Mb free disc space. Modem or ISDN connection, PC DVB Satellite Card, 60cm Dish / Digital LNB aligned on Europe*Star 45 degrees East.

The costs are as follows:

Monthly Subscription: £15 + vat (payable direct to Satellite Internet Provider)

PCI Satellite Card and the Dish: £159.99 (payable by credit card to the supplier)

Installation of the dish: £65-£85 (depending on location and distance from dish to computer etc).

We have a list of registered installers for those that are not within our range.

The satellite feed is download only, and requires you have an account with a compatible internet provider for uploading ie: our new Anytime Services (see our accounts page)

Please Note: This service is supplied by a third party, Majestique Communications are not responsible for its performance nor reliability.

If you require more information, or want to purchase the equipment, please click here: Satellite Enquiry

* All prices including comparison quotes, are correct at time of uploading

Before you start jumping up and down it's worth pointing out that this is nothing more than another StarSpeeder.co.uk clone, not unlike SkyStorm.Net. In short you're probably better just going to StarSpeeder directly, then at least the company can be accountable for problems.

News - May 27,2001

ISP Review Weekly Update

By:mark.j @ 11:00:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

In case you hadn't noticed it's the bank holiday weekend and so once again everybody is taking it easy for a change. Sadly work never stops @ ISP Review and we're preparing to introduce some new systems and changes to existing ones.

Before that we've got some new content coming, such as a guide to choosing the right ISP and two or three new reviews. We'd also like to update some of the old reviews and scores may drop or rise depending.

Next up there's the Readers Top 50, which is out of design stages and some MySQL technology is now being tested. We hope to have the actual script in production for the end of the week, although it depends on certain server issues. The new system will only allow truly unique votes (details later) and have lots of lovely stats etc.

We're also preparing to migrate the forums into one and this requires us to upgrade existing technology. Thus many of the features (our own ones) in the 'Specific ISP Forum' will be lost for several days next week as we perform the upgrade. There may also be fundamental problems with forum operation, please ignore them as best you can.

Once the above two things are done we should be even easier to navigate and will be able to progress onto the final stages of ISP Reviews two-year running design plan. Have a nice bank holiday weekend and enjoy the sun if you can ever see it through these overcast clouds.

New Unmetered ISP Launches - 0800Dial

By:mark.j @ 10:38:AM - Comments (9) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Net4Nowt have managed to get wind of yet another new Unmetered ISP from the UK Fantastic Group, it's known as 0800Dial. The ISP offers the following two packages based off BTSurfPort24 through Affinity VIP:

Unmetered Internet access for the home...
For use at home, 0800 Dial provides unmetered access to the Internet at a cost you can afford. What's more, it's a cost that will not spiral away - £12.99 per month gives you unmetered Internet access with no call charges. That means that no matter how long you stay online, you know your Internet bill will be only £12.99 including VAT per month.

The Home User package includes...
-0800 dial-up access to the Internet
-28k, 56k modem and 64k ISDN connection
-At least 95% first-time connection
-24 hours-a-day, 7 days-a-week access
-15 free email addresses
-10mb of free web space

Cut-offs come into effect after 10 minutes inactivity and 2 hours absolute use. You may then reconnect immediately should you wish to do so.

Unmetered Internet access for the office...
For professional use, 0800 Dial provides unmetered access to the Internet at a cost you can keep within your budget. What's more, it's a cost that will not spiral away - £17.99 + VAT per month gives you unmetered Internet access with no call charges. That means that no matter how long you and your colleages stay online, you know your Internet bill will be only £17.99 + VAT per month for each account you hold with us.

The Business User package includes...
-0800 dial-up access to the Internet
-28k, 56k modem and single 64k ISDN connection
-99% first-time connection target
-24 hours-a-day, 7 days-a-week access
-15 email addresses
-10mb of web space
-No daytime 'no-use' cut-offs

From 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday, there are no 'no-use' cut-offs. Cut-offs come into effect after 4 hours of absolute use. Outside these times, cut-offs come into effect after 20 minutes inactivity and 4 hours absolute use. In both cases, after cut-off, you may then reconnect immediately should you wish to do so.

This looks to be one of the more competitive packages around and there's no mention of those annoying 12Month contracts. We'll be adding them to our forum and unmetered list on Monday or Tuesday, depending on what happens tomorrow being a bank holiday.

News - May 26,2001

ISP Review In FHM

By:mark.j @ 10:04:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

We're often mentioned in Newspapers such as the kind Sunday Times or .NET Magazine, however keep an eye out for the July edition of FHM =). Although it's probably not quite on the shelves yet, we did do a piece with them and it should be out soon.

For the record we'd like to mention that the article was done nearly two months ago and as is typical for magazines the information may be slightly out of date.

08002Go Update & Kicking Users

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

Thanks to all who informed us of 08002Go's latest site update regarding E-Mail problems and the ever unpopular topic of service abuse:

UPDATE, NEWS AND IMPROVEMENTS TO YOUR
www.08002go.com SERVICE

We had to suspend (but not disconnect) some users for misuse of our service. 67% of these users were not aware that they could not use the service on one or more lines, and all have contacted us and have had the suspensions lifted. All of you have been most understanding, and we all agreed that when you by a line from www.08002go.com for £9.98 per month, it can only be used for one service at time. Of course if you wish to have more lines in fact as many as you want this will cost a further £9.98 per line per month or the discounted yearly price of £99.96 (this gives you effectively two months free per year or 1,500 hours of air time FREE). For those who wish to pay for the years subscriptions we only accept payment by cheque. Also many have asked us that they would like to pay per year after the first month trials and of course you can do this at anytime you wish.

27% of these users had other people in error using the same password as themselves such as they accidentally gave a friend or relative their password for them to try our service and did not realise this was against the rules. This matter was quickly sorted out and the users service was quickly restored. 3% of these users had no intentions of ever paying us other than for the one line they purchased.

We felt this extremely unfair to you our honest paying members and especially when you found you could not connect to our service because other illegal people were attempting to use our service for nothing.

These people have been permanently disconnected and will not be able to use our service again and that's for everyone's sake.

2% of these users had their service suspended in ERROR and that was our fault (we are not too big to admit our mistakes, and to these members we apologise, we have fine tuned our search software so this will not happen again, SORRY) how many ISPs would admit to that. Everyone who this happened to has had their service reinstated.
1% of these users never contacted us and we must presume that they did not want to admit to using our and your service more than once at the same time but if however they wish to contact us we are only to pleased to talk to them, we are a fair Company and we also admit to making mistakes, but just look at the way the service is starting to settle down such as connection is almost instantaneous, we know we have the best contention rates in Europe for a 24/7 service, with superb modem speeds, and much, much more to come.

To the few members in certain areas who still have difficulty with their e-mails we are presently sorting this out for your service at www.08002go.com we are constantly improving our service as you can all see and the e-mail problem is next the work. It should be completed within the next five days. We have always said you will all have 'The Most Enviable I.S.P. Service In The World'

Keep us informed of any other improvements you think we should make if we use them we will give you a Prize? a Prize? a Prize? a Prize? a Prize? a Prize? a Prize? a Prize? a Prize? a Prize?

THE WORDS 'HONEST MEMBERS' & 'ABUSERS' AS USED IN MANY FORUMS:

1) We regard the term 'Honest Member' as simply this, if you buy from us a single line or multi lines at £9.98 each line to connect to the Internet and use the line or lines you have paid for, then, that's fine.

2) ABUSER are the users who buy one line from us and try to connect to multi lines or give someone their password to use the same connection, or do objectionable activities like pinging, then we regard this as 'Abuser of the Service' and it will be suspended. We do not go on and on like all other ISPs about the time you are on our service At present we still have the two hour cut off period (you can reconnect of course) until all the work has been done on www.08002go.com

Any doubts ring our help-line 0161-707-8474 Mon/Fri 9-5 pm. Not Available Sat/Sun or Bank Holidays

It's the bank holiday weekend and we're too tired to say anything, so comment amongst yourselves =).

BigBlueSky Address Price Concerns

By:mark.j @ 9:52:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Following the recent announcements from the unmetered ISP BigBlueSky, some readers had questions regarding any future price increase. Our resident ISP informant, Keith, shot off an E-Mail to get the answer:

Members like myself who paid £25 for life - Is there any plans to charge any more to these customers as I would have thought that the t&c's and also the sale of goods act would prevent you. People who paid £25 a year would also be affected by this. Any plans for existing members to be charged more????

The price being put up does not affect you. To try and solve the connection problem we have issued a temporary cut-off period of 2 hours, this is to try and clear our system of the heavy abusers and to let customers, such as yourself, get a chance to connect with us. There is now a full update on our website. We apologise for any inconvience caused.

Good news for existing customers, although what's interesting is that in their update the 2Hour cut-off is to be made official. However in these various correspondences they still refer to it as temporary, so what's the truth? When does a temporary 2hour cut off become permanent? History has shown that cut-offs do not stop heavy usage.

BTCellnets GPRS Speeds Fall Further

By:mark.j @ 9:46:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

We recently heard of the poor experiences had by corporate and business users with their GPRS connections, however it looks as if the consumer version could be even worse than GSM!:

Anite Telecoms has been monitoring GPRS from a user's perspective with its wireless data performance tool, WAM, which the company launched earlier this month. It has so far only recorded data transfer rates of 8kbit/s much lower than predicted.

Anite's business manager for WAM, Warren Saunders, said he was surprised to see that data transfer rates were lower than those predicted by companies offering the service. "We were amazed that the wireless data revolution, like WAP before it, is less than impressive," he said.

Saunders indicated that data transfer rates may be low because the service is in its infancy, and because of the nature of the system it uses. He said the fact that it is packet- rather than circuit-based meant there was a "negotiation going on" that governed the sharing of available bandwidth. This negotiation "would take some time to address".

If the ZDNet items 8Kbps doesn't scare you off because it should AT LEAST be closer to 30Kbps, just think of the added costs as well. At this point it's worth pointing out that 'Orange' (mobile Operator) already offer a wireless service faster than GPRS known as OHSD (Orange High Speed Data) @ 28Kbps.

They also do another technology for the new Nokia 9210 handsets that can take you close to 50Kbps; we've recently tried both and have been extremely impressed. GPRS may be the new standard, but other operators may have better alternatives of their own.

EU Tightens Online Privacy

By:mark.j @ 9:36:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Over the past few months we've been seeing wave after wave of draft bills, all of which could erode the individual’s online privacy rights to a bare minimum. Thankfully stiff criticism from the EU and pressure groups has prompted drafters of the world's first treaty against cybercrime to tighten provisions protecting privacy online.

The Council of Europe, a 43-state human rights watchdog, has amended the text to ensure police respect privacy rights when they follow digital trails to fight online crimes such as hacking, spreading viruses, using stolen credit card numbers or defrauding banks.

"The guarantees in the treaty have been reinforced," Peter Csonka, deputy head of the economic crime division at the Council's headquarters in Strasbourg, told Reuters after the Council posted the final text, version 27, on its website on Friday.

But the treaty, which has aroused heated debate in cyberspace since its draft text became public last year, ignored calls by Internet service providers (ISPs) for fewer costly requirements on preserving data that could be linked to a crime.

It still accorded police wide powers to chase suspected cybercriminals -- powers some critics say go beyond what is legal in some Council member states or in observer countries like the United States, Canada and Japan due to sign the treaty.

Progress has been made, but it still looks as if the individual net user will be getting quite a raw deal.

News - May 25,2001

ClaraNET Posts Unmetered 'AnyTime' Update

By:mark.j @ 4:05:PM - Comments (2) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Steve Rawlinson, lead tech guru @ ClaraNET, has updated his own personal website with word on the latest unmetered happenings @ ClaraNET. Being one of the most popular providers in the UK, ClaraNET have come under heavy criticism for not yet launching a competitive unmetered product:

We are finally due to get our first FRIACO circuits today. The coverage is not great but it will allow us to test the products and perhaps pursue deals with greater coverage when we are sure we can do a quality product competitively.

The new web hosting products are also likely to enter beta tesing today or Monday. A lot of work has been done on automating this system so that we can afford to bring the prices down to very competitive levels.

The systems department are due to move across the office shortly which means a lot more space and means we can recruit more people. We are currently six sysadmins and eight developers plus me (who doesnt do much of either any more). Mark Ivens runs the sysadmin team and Faye Pearson the developers.

ClaraNET seems to be making progress; although most snails could probably get to the stage they're without even moving. The fact they haven't actually begun testing says at least another month of waiting to us.

During early April 2001 the ISP claimed they'd have the services online during June 2001 sometime, perhaps July is now more realistic? Hopefully the quality of their final product will be more than others can offer, otherwise, why all the waiting?

BTCellnets Poor Business GPRS Takeup

By:mark.j @ 3:56:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Despite BTCellnet having offered businesses and corporate users a GPRS service since this time last year, take up has still only amounted to 500 handsets:

But most of those using the corporate service are application developers and IT companies. According to BT Cellnet's own figures, only 30 UK companies are using GPRS services on 500 handsets, including the Halifax, Oracle, Cisco Systems and Motorola.

Brian Winn, senior consultant at telecoms analyst Schema, said the primitive handsets and setup cost of GPRS are likely to deter many corporate users from adopting the technology just now.

"The setup charge strikes me as steep. It's out of the question if you are a small or medium-sized company," he said. "Until there is a handset that can really make use of that data rate, it's not going to be that attractive to anyone."

The VNUNet item goes into a lot of detail over the problems faced by those trying to adopt GPRS, primarily high costs and a lack of competitive options are the key factors. It's always the way.

Silicon Valley Babies Get E-Mail

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

The latest madness to come out of the North American IT industry is that of giving newly born babies an E-Mail address and domain name. The new program is being sponsored by a Silicon Valley hospital.

Sequoia Hospital has teamed up with Namezero.com Inc. to offer "tech-savvy" parents the option of launching their infants online long before they take their first steps, giving them e-mail and a personalised domain name shortly after they take their first gulps of air.

The service will provide "access to free email and URL forwarding, as well as online tips and resources for child care and parenting," Nemezero said in a statement.

"As our society's communications structure becomes increasingly centred around the Internet, the domain name is becoming an important form of identity, much like a social security number," Namezero President Bruce Keiser said.

"By registering a child's name at birth, parents are ensuring that the child will have it throughout their lifetime."

Of course Namezero somehow manages to neglect any mention to the fact that you'd still have to pay for all this, hmm a nice little earner then, quite literally =). Just think of the SPAM by the time he or she is old enough to check their Inbox? Ouch.

Tiscali UK Preps Large Job Cull

By:mark.j @ 3:44:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Tiscali's various UK subsidiaries are preparing themselves for what could amount to a large-scale cull of jobs across the board:

Employees of WorldOnline, LibertySurf and LineOne have already had meetings with their prospective bosses this week about their futures and are due to have a follow-up meeting. It's at this second meeting that employees will find out if they have a future with the new company or not. Those involved will face three options:

* Bugger off. Take our extremely generous redundancy package (three months salary tax free we've heard) and sling yer 'ook.
* You can stay. The bad news is we're demoting you. Less kudos and even less cash. Take it or leave it (resign).
* Think yourself lucky. You can stay in your current job on the same salary. Now show your gratitude.

The Register reports that Tiscali is effectively trying to merge three ISPs into one and that as many as 300 jobs could be for the chop. Now is not a good time to be employed under either of them.

NTL Finalises IBM Deal

By:mark.j @ 3:39:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Remember all those months ago when NTL put forward an outsourcing deal to IBM? If so then you may like to know that today that very £1.3Billion deal has been signed off and is now in effect:

Under the agreement, which ntl first announced in January, IBM will provide IT services for all of ntl's operations in the UK and Ireland until 2012.

The contract is projected to generate savings for ntl in excess of $450m (£317.3m) over the life of the agreement.

Effective immediately, 483 IT staff will transfer from ntl to IBM.

There's not much more @ ZDNet, although most of the details can be found somewhere in our January news archives. Looks like Big Blue could be fitting your Cable Modems.

Server Problems

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

We seem to be having some very annoying server problems today, for some reason a strange 'Password' popup box appears on every new page and we have no idea why.

There's no code on the site that could do this and so it's either a direct issue with server authentication or the result of our advertising networks external code going wonky (more likely).

We're investigating this and if you see the box (chances are you will) then just click cancel. We're as in the dark on this as you are, although it’ll probably solve itself =).

UPDATE:
The network has found the problem and it should be solved.

Broadband To Boom By 2005

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

While it may be longer than most would like, the fact still remains that by 2005 Broadband might actually become a profitable medium, but only if ISPs, Regulators and Telco's start working together:

Europe's rollout of high-speed, or broadband, Internet access may continue to be dogged by delays and bureaucratic bungling, but industry analysts see a silver lining -- namely, the £10bn of revenues the European broadband industry will be generating by 2005.

Telcos, cable companies and regulators have underestimated the complexity of rolling out broadband services, leading to a slower takeup than originally hoped for. In the meantime, other areas such as the US and Korea have hooked up a substantial proportion of the population to technologies such as ADSL and cable-modems.

Even so, within four years there will be more than 50 million broadband connections in Europe, generating revenues of nearly $15bn (about £10bn) according to figures released on Thursday by research firm IDC.

The ZDNet item is interesting, although it's still a long time to wait and along the way businesses will continue to loose money.

Lucent Tests 40GBps Speed Technology

By:mark.j @ 10:01:AM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Most hardcore Internet users would drool at the chance to use a 2Mbit Internet connect, so how about a 40Gbps one? Deutsche Telekom have been testing just that with Lucent Technologies latest optical networking triumph:

Lucent's 40Gbps system, which was tested over a distance of 72 miles (116 km), is based on time division multiplexing technology. This can transmit multimedia traffic using a single laser over a single wavelength of light.

For service providers the technology would enable carriers to maximise fibre usage and save space in telecommunications centres.

As bandwidth needs increase, even higher transmission speeds can be achieved by combining 40Gbps technology with DWDM (Dense Wave Division Multiplexing) systems. DWDM increases capacity by allowing the transmission of multiple wavelengths of light over the same fibre.

Currently the fastest such networks you'd be likely to find are rated as 10Gbps, so 40 is quite some improvement. The Register doesn't go into much detail, although certainly we'd like to be the first to try a 200 player game of Tribes2 over the network =).

LibDems Attack Labour's Broadband Britain

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

Surprise, another potential government party has attacked Labour over its problematic Broadband Britain pledges and plans, which have so far failed to inspire:

Speaking to ZDNet UK, Liberal Democrat IT spokesman Richard Allan criticised the government for not moving faster in creating new legislation to regulate the communications industry -- a mistake which he believes is partially responsible for the problems that have hit local loop unbundling and broadband Internet services.

Allan said he would also like to see a government-run Web site that tells consumers exactly what high-tech services are available to their homes. "I'm not surprised that ZDNet's Broadband access guide has been successful, but what's really required is a regulatory body that tells people what cable, Internet and broadband services they can get at their address," he said.

The ZDNet item goes into a lot more detail, yet we highlighted the above area because we think they have a good idea. It'd be nice to have an overall database covering Satellite broadband, Fixed Wireless, ADSL and Cable Modems etc.

Investors Cautious Over Euro ISPs

By:mark.j @ 9:41:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

It's worth remembering that the world isn't exactly brimming with the Dot.Com boom of two years ago anymore. America, UK and Europe have all been hit by the downturn and recent online business failures.

Shorn of their former sky-high stock ratings, chief executives of Europe's major ISPs were shunned by investors and journalists alike at a technology conference here this week. Only handfuls of fund managers showed up for presentations by CEOs, and conference organisers CSFB had trouble filling spacious ballrooms.

While the bank stirred the boom-time memories with sailing trips on the Mediterranean and Flamenco dancers at a dinner show in a champagne cellar, investors remained cautious. "Everyone is just more realistic now. No one wants to put their head out on the chopping block," said one fund manager.

He and other burned believers were flocking en masse to hear not Terra Lycos executive chairman Joaquim Agut or Renato Soru, executive chairman of Tiscali, but rather executives whose firms succeed in doing something European ISP's do not - - make a profit.

One fund manager slept through a speech by Agut as he ploughed through slides prepared for him by his bankers.

This scene was no different for chief executives of other top ISPs, who had entered the ring of CSFB's three-day tech conference as the sobered, bruised bygones of an era rich in promise and poor in profits.

The chief executive of Lycos Europe drank alone at an evening cocktail party, the magicians, half-naked fire-eaters and sushi bar courtesy of CSFB stealing all the attention.

Ireland Struggles With Unmetered

By:mark.j @ 9:34:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

While the UK may be starting to settle down on the unmetered access front it's easy to forget that we're ahead of the EU on such services.

A country very close to the UK, Ireland, has now started to feel the pinch as Esat (Irish ISP) withdrew their unmetered package. Thankfully a new organisation known as Irelandoffline (Not unlike C.U.T) has emerged to help put the countries ISP problems forward.

The Irish Times reports that Irelandoffline, a new organisation set up in response to Esat's withdrawal of unmetered Internet access, has warned that the lack of affordable Internet services will hamper Ireland's professional growth and culture.

Esat blames excessive use by some subscribers for its decision to cut the service and will formally cut off more than 2,000 of its SurfNoLimits customers next week.

Irelandoffline, which comprises individuals and some businesses, will campaign for affordable Internet access for homes and small businesses.

Traditionally Ireland may be close to the UK, although their unmetered services are closer to what we had during late 1999 than what's on offer now.

News - May 24,2001

New Survey Shows No Digital Divide

By:mark.j @ 4:12:PM - Comments (7) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The latest research from NetValue shows that the much touted Digital Divide between rich and poor Internet users may not exist after all. Apparently 26.9% of UK surfers earn less than £600 per month compared to 8.3% earning more than £4,000 per month.

NetValue’s Alki Manias claims that, "The Internet is not reserved for a rich elite. These figures show that the web is being welcomed by low-income earners. Online businesses have to recognise that the Internet market is every bit as diverse as the high street market, and not limited to big earners"

With 18 Million people in the UK now online and 46% of them being connected from home, it's about time companies recognised that it's not just the rich who use the Internet anymore. 18% remain connected from both home and work, with 13% of users being restricted to access from work.

Certainly this latest research throws some doubt over the governments previous surveys and resulting beliefs, although we don't have full details and thus can't judge.

WAP Still CR*P

By:mark.j @ 4:02:PM - Comments (3) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

It's been quite sometime since WAP first entered the 2G markets as a means of accessing the Internet, albeit at the most bog standard level. Many people had already realised it was a pile of junk by last Summer, now after being in the market the latest research proves it really is:

Apparently, 80 to 90% of WAP phone owners only ever use the phone for voice calls. Why? Because the few services which do exist for WAP phones are difficult to use, taken ages to work through and are generally more trouble than they're worth.

The Meta Group says "limited content, slow networks, high latency times, and generally poor user ergonomics have not met the high user expectations and hype that accompanied WAP-enabled devices when they were first introduced". Basically: it doesn't live up to the hype.

Also, 75% of respondents said they had tried to use the WAP facility when they first bought the phone but subsequently abandoned it when it proved impractical and time-consuming.

The Register goes into quite a lot of detail, although owning WAP phones ourselves we know just how useless it can be. The only reason many of us own one is because WAP often comes with a useful Internal modem for GSM ISP connections.

Kingston Voices Broadband Concerns

By:mark.j @ 3:54:PM - Comments (2) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Today is truly turning out to be the time when almost all the major players in Broadband and LLU have begun to voice their concerns. This time Kingston Communications has chosen to join the fray:

Kingston has been at the forefront of ADSL developments in the UK. As an independent telco for the Hull region it pioneered an interactive TV service delivered via ADSL. In Hull the service has been a success, but the telco admits that more work needs to be done before it can be expanded beyond the city.

"We have to enhance the consumer experience and add more services to up the money they are spending," said a Kingston spokesman. This reflects a wider worry that interactive TV is not appealing to consumers in the way originally hoped for.

Outside of Hull, Kingston is, like the rest of the industry, reliant on BT to reach consumers' homes. It has become increasingly disillusioned with local loop unbundling -- the process by which other operators take control of the network away from BT. "The process has been very difficult and flawed," said the spokesman.

There's really not much we can add to the ZDNet item that hasn't been said a thousand times before, perhaps Oftel may finally take notice now? Unlikely, they’ll probably just set-up another six month review, which they’ll keep doing until everybody is out of business.

Net Access Grows - Broadband Slows

By:mark.j @ 3:48:PM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

New research from IDC is claiming that the Internet is set to grow by 30% year-on-year until 2005 at least, although Broadband is expected to play no big part in that:

However, according to the report, dial-up will continue to be the dominant access mode, with broadband rollout held up by delays in local loop unbundling and slow DSL development in some countries. Unmetered dial-up services will continue to expand while leased line services fall in price, IDC said.

IDC expects low investor confidence and the struggle for profitability to accelerate consolidation in the IP services sector, with T-Online, Tiscali, AOL, Terra Lycos and Wanadoo emerging as the leading players.

The netimperative.com article doesn't go into much detail and merely helps to confirm what we keep hearing from industry sources, broadband just isn't going the way governments would like.

NTLs Broadband Business Packages

By:mark.j @ 3:38:PM - Comments (2) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Now many of you have already heard of this, although today DigitalSpy (CableNews) have published NTLs 'OFFICIAL' announcement on their business broadband services available from 1st June:

The service, available as an alternative to the dial-up internet access service currently available on its "Business Essentials" package, is believed to be available at a 1Mbps down/256kbps up "Gold" service for £125/month or a lower-priced "Silver" 512kbps down/128kbps up service at £90/month. Installation will cost £220, and ntl will apparently provide a service guarantee of a fix within six hours.

The equipment used for the service is reported to be the Cisco uBR924 Cable Access Router, the specifications of which are outlined below:

-Integrated DOCSIS 1.0 cable modem
-Integrated Cisco IOS router
-Two RJ-11 telephony jacks
-DOCSIS QoS Extensions
-Telco Lifeline Port
-Integrated IPsec VPN software
-Firewall software
-Network Address Translation and Port Address Translation
-4-port 10Base-T Ethernet hub with support for up to 100 PCs/other IP devices via additional hub connections
-RJ-45 console port and built-in remote diagnostics

The packages may not be as competitive as some of the ADSL services offered through various providers, although the 1Mbps price isn't too bad. More detailed specs can be found HERE, although the site mentions that these services will not initially be available to Ex-C&W members.

Tiny Launches New Unmetered Package

By:mark.j @ 10:16:AM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Following the introduction of Tiny Online’s new unmetered packages, they have today sent us details of yet another freecall package on offer to be targeted at families and students:

TINY ONLINE LAUNCHES NEW PRICING PACKAGE

The new pricing deal T:Surf Value is aimed at working families, students and school children, and will allow Tiny Online customers Unlimited Internet Access between 4pm and 8am everyday and all weekend for just £8.99 a month. The scheme follows the recently launched FRIACO scheme T:Surf Plus.

The ISP, Portal and e-tailing arm of the UK’s largest PC manufacturer – Tiny Computers, has confirmed the offer, which will give its existing 700,000 and all new subscribers, access to the Internet at anytime between 4pm and 8am and weekends for £8.99 per month inclusive of subscription and telephone call charges.

Commenting on the scheme, Colin Greene, Managing Director of Tiny Online, said: “This is great news for all of our subscribers. At Tiny Online we continually monitor the needs of our users and are constantly looking at new ways of improving our service offerings."

"Feedback we have received suggests that the public want a variety of connection plans in order to match their personal or families needs. T:Surf Value does just that, it ensures families, students and school children can really surf the Web without the worry of huge telephone bills.”

The 4pm - 8am weekday unmetered is one of the best we've seen to date, most usually start at 5pm or even 6pm, which is traditionally the beginning of the Off-Peak period. For £8.99 per month this represents some good value, so long as the rest of the packs services pan out that is.

Pre-Subscribers Loose Free ADSL Installation

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

We've been investigating this for the last few weeks following BTs statement earlier this month that there were barely 2,000 people left who needed ADSL installed. This didn't seem to fit with the demand, current usage and earlier figures.

Thankfully and due primarily to reader feedback we now know exactly why this is the case. Apparently some ISPs, specifically including BTs own Openworld provider, claim they no longer keep records of earlier pre-subscriptions.

This spells very bad news for those who pre-subscribed last May/June to BTOpenworld when they offered such individuals a chance for Free Installations, ourselves included.

A quick call to BTOpenworld confirmed this and unless you're able to produce the confirmation E-Mail they sent one year ago then you're pretty much lost. When asked why they were unable to view the database the support person claimed he simply didn't know.

As such there could potentially be thousands of you waiting on that 'YOU HAVE ADSL IN YOUR EXCHANGE' E-Mail in vain. We'd suggest contacting your various ISPs to see if they still have records and checking for the original confirmation E-Mails.

It's unforgivable to think BTOpenworld or any of the other providers involved didn't even post so much as an update about this. Of course it's their loss since we'll simply go with another provider.

ISPs Question Broadband Britain Rollout

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

It would seem that the slow rollout of broadband services in the UK (ADSL, Cable Modems etc.) has once again caused concern for ISPs by loosing them the chance of dramatically increased revenues. Many are now starting to question the integrity and speed of the whole process:

According to research published today, UK ISPs believe they are missing out on 50 percent revenue increases because of the problems and frustrations of opening up BT's network. A quarter have lost faith in the process altogether and don't believe high-speed broadband will be a reality for several years -- if ever.

A hundred ISPs were interviewed for the survey, which was commissioned by telco Bulldog -- one of the few remaining players left in the local loop unbundling process.

Bulldog is the only telco in the unbundling process that intends to offer wholesale services to ISPs and telcos, putting it in direct competition with BT. While some operators have blamed the current slump in the telecoms sector for their withdrawal from local loop unbundling, Bulldog has devised a new funding plan. Rather than asking investors to stump up cash in a sector it currently has little faith in, Bulldog is turning to the telcos and ISPs which it will offer services to in order to get the investment it needs to put its equipment in BT's exchanges.

The ZDNet article gives no real surprises, we've known for sometime now that ISPs are beginning to seriously doubt the process. Not only that but BTs radical restructuring doesn't help communication with the Telco either.

Chances are that unless things change soon more ADSL providers could start to raise prices further.

BT Scraps Cellnet Brand

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

In the latest SHOCK move by BT of recent weeks they've chosen to scrap the BTCellnet brand name in favour of a new international identity to break with a disappointing past performance.

According to the Financial Times the company, in the middle of a major restructuring, hoped to use the de-merger of BT Wireless (overall mobile phone division) as an opportunity to re-brand local operations in the UK, Germany, Ireland and the Netherlands.

When BT Wireless is separately listed this autumn, it will use the same new name for both the parent group and the UK retail operations. Less established networks such as Viag Interkom in Germany would be re-branded soon after.

The paper claims the move was the latest in a series of changes designed to convince investors that BT is learning from past mistakes as it raises £5.9Billion through a rights issue to reduce £30Billion of debt.

The FT said BT had confirmed it had decided to adopt a new name for the BT Wireless group, but that the brand used for its operating companies was "under review.". Considering any of BTs recent changes has resulted in falling shares then we doubt this will improve things.

Bill Gates Slates Broadband Rollout

By:mark.j @ 9:41:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Unless you truly follow the technology world through various other news sources and sites each day then .NET probably won't mean anything to you. .NET is what Microsoft has set out as being the future of all their operating systems and applications.

In essence it's a technology that means all those important applications (Microsoft Word etc.) would be run and operated on through the Internet directly using an XML base (HTML derivative).

Many have been extremely critical of Bill Gates and his company for proposing the introduction of such a technology at this stage. The world simply isn't ready and at a recent conference it seems Bill Gates might finally be realising that.

Gates said the only weak link in deploying new technology was high-speed Internet access, which was proving too costly to roll out quickly. "There is no hardware limitation that will affect what you want to do, but there is one exception and that is the cost of broadband communication, primarily to the home," Gates said.

It was optimistic to think 20% of U.S. homes would have a fast Internet link within four years, Gates said. "That is an area where progress continues to be very slow," Gates said.

This year's gathering included old Microsoft friends like Michael Capellas of Compaq, new partners like Meg Whitman of online auction house eBay Inc., and non-tech attendees like lifestyle guru Martha Stewart.

Typically this isn't just an American issue, but one just as relevant in Europe and the UK as well. Thankfully this could be good news, to be honest we never wanted to pay a month subscription or have less privacy, which is what .NET seems to be all about - YUK.