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May 20, 2001 - May 24, 2001

News - May 24,2001

Alcatel/Lucent Merger Update

By:mark.j @ 9:29:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The BIG merger between Telecom and networking giants Alcatel and Lucent has crept forward once again after yesterdays meeting approved to have further talks. Such a thing usually means a deal has been agreed in principal, yet problems remain:

The merger, which would create a $77bn giant with a market share of over 50 per cent, is almost certain to attract attention from the US Monopolies Commission.

There are also security considerations, and concerns over US job cuts following reports that the combined company would look to make savings of up to $4bn a year.

The proposed merger took a political turn earlier this week when US Senator Robert Torricelli, a democrat from New Jersey, said that he was concerned about a "foreign takeover" of Lucent, given its position as a developer of security and encryption products for the US Government.

The VNUNet item highlights what could soon be an uphill struggle, not least with seniors in the USAs government suggesting that Lucent would do better merging with a native company.

AOL Not To Increase UK Price

By:mark.j @ 9:24:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Since we've had a few E-Mails about yesterdays announcement that AOL USA were to put up the price of their service, we can safely say that this will not effect the UK.

In general price changes to ISPs across the seas rarely come over because we have different economics here. AOL themselves issued the following notice in a recent statement:

"We launched to our members in September 2000 at £14.99 and non-members in November 2000 at £14.99. That's proved a very successful price point for us and we don't plan to change it"

So no need to worry, all is fine and dandy this side of the ocean.

News - May 23,2001

BTs 250 ADSL Exchange Outage

By:mark.j @ 4:15:PM - Comments (2) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Hundreds, potentially thousands, of users across the UK felt the bite yesterday when 250 of BTs High-Speed ADSL enabled exchanges decided to stop working.

Out of 840 total exchanges the 250 represents quite a large majority of customers, although it's not yet known exactly how many were hit. 99% of the exchanges should now be functioning normally, although nobody yet knows exactly what happened and why.

According to ADSLGuide BTIgnite have been investigating the problem since mid-day today, the best information anybody could find is that it was some sort of software fault.

Students Addicted To The Internet

By:mark.j @ 4:08:PM - Comments (2) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

According to a survey carried out at Rutgers University in New Jersey, 15% of students have found Internet addiction is hurting their studies:

Of the 570 students quizzed, between ten and fifteen per cent reported feeling that they were "not in complete control of their Internet use" and felt it had affected their studies.

"Many students are away from home for the first extended period in their lives and adjustment to college life is often a struggle, particularly making new friends," said Robert Kubey, a developmental psychologist involved in the study. "First-year students are particularly likely to use the Internet to remain in contact with their high school friends."

The report, published in the June issue of the Journal of Communication, also found that students who claimed Net use damaged their work spent around five times more hours surfing than other students.

Of all the things you could possibly get addicted to, why did they choose the Internet? A Class-A drug perhaps, maybe beer or even women would probably be normal, but the Internet? The Register presents a picture of people who become so attached to constant information that they simply can't get enough of it.

Next we'll be seeing 'Internet Anonymous' clinics set-up to help the worse cases. What's the world coming to when you can't have a good old fashion addiction to things like beer, sex and drugs? Eh? Yes we’re joking.

BTOpenworlds Transparent Cache Issues

By:mark.j @ 10:31:AM - Comments (2) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

If you're using one of BTOpenworlds ADSL services and find dynamic HTML, ASP and or PHP pages (Forums and Data Includes etc.) have trouble updating to the latest info. then you're not alone.

On Monday BTO confirmed there was a problem with Transparent Cache through the support lines, as some forum users pointed out. We gave them a call today and apparently the problem is still there, but is unlikely to affect most sites and should be gone by the end of the week.

On a related note the BTOpenWoe site also suggested an alternative server to use if you still have problems:

webcache.bt.net on port 8080

This can be set under Internet Explorer as follows:

USB: Tools > Internet Options
Connections > *find your BT Openworld DUN entry* > Settings > Enter Proxy in the box.

ETHERNET: Tools > Internet Options
Connections > LAN Settings > Proxy

MAJOR! BigBlueSky Unmetered Update

By:mark.j @ 10:11:AM - Comments (8) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Much as we stated yesterday in our update to the unmetered ISPs status, BigBlueSky, they did finally update their site. We'll post only the most relevant information because there's quite a lot to sift through:

Update on recent events
For all the comments people have been making about BT, they are to be applauded in their handling of the recent past and downtime we experienced. We had an internal clerical error...BT helped sort it! I would dearly like to name some of the people at BT who were very good to get things sorted out with us, but I am told by them that I cannot name them...Hmmm am I allowed to say “BT”?

Full details to follow later on the changes happening to the ‘The People’s ISP’. Mostly good, others better! Have we got some offers for you in the pipeline (pardon the pun!).

Prices going up 1st June 2001.
Many of our existing customers have said to increase the registration price up to £80, and they will gladly pay the difference, other have said to raise it to £60 a year and will gladly pay an additional £25. Some have said to put it up to £50 for those coming on board now (selfish...but we don’t mind ;).

What ever it goes up to, it’s not going to be at £25 in June. Though there has been talk of having a period of grace of about 10 days after the announcement. This will mean that the new price may take affect as late as 4th of June 2001, and not on 1st June. We may put the various prices up on the website and let existing customers vote.

Temporary 2-hour Cut-off period.
OK, here’s the lowdown. During the recent re-organising, various internal process have been updated, and others require a little more time. Recently, in one of those ‘process runs’ we have discovered that there has been a little over hundred customers who decided, that, it was more fun to simply stay connected to the 0800 number...and then boast about it. One ‘clever’ person was boasting about being connected for 3 continuous weeks.

I thought about the time when, as a child, I used to read all my books sitting in the toilet. My mother warned me of the consequences of doing that all day, she said that ‘I would need to continuously find more books’. I never understood what that really meant until recently, and it has nothing to do about the books.

Well the two hour cut-off period is here. Read on to see when it is lifted....and who may be exempt from it sooner.

Existing Customers Provide Initiative for Cut-Off Period.
So, in order to shake things up and immediately bring it to the attention of the other rational customers that we have, we decided to implement the 2 hour cut-off period and then update the website to let our customers know why. Sorry for the delay.

Aside from all of the above, BBS also describe some new registration and support system/issues, as well as trying to justify many of the changes.

Overall ISPs like BigBlueSky are all well and good, but they’re either economically dumb to the pinnacle of being in a mental hospital, or they have a clever plan. Offer cheap and unbelievable services, then cut those and up the price later on with some excuses. Seems to be a popular trend with customers being the losers.

Certainly if the 2 hour cut off can improve things (according to readers, it hasn't) and upping the price gets you better services, then good for BBS. Otherwise we fear that in a few months time BBS could have a lot of angry customers on their hands.

As usual we'll keep an eye on BBS to see how things improve or whether they just go in the opposite direction. Certainly a lot is likely to hinge on their impending price hike. Perhaps separating the service out into several packages would be an intelligent thing to do?

Ex-KGB & CIA Create Unbreakable Security

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

In what's proclaimed to be a dynamic IP cloaking system, Ex-KGB and CIA agents have joined forces in order to present what they state as being, "the next generation of network security". Apparently the system has unbreakable intrusion protection and real-time attempt detection:

It may sound ambitious, but Invicta's Variable Cyber Co-ordinate technology was developed by Victor Sheymov, an ex-chief director and head code cracker of the KGB, and ex-CIA directors David Rolph and R. James Woolsey.

The Invicta system works by continuously cycling network objects through a change of IP addresses at speeds of more than one change per second. This effectively disguises the addresses of servers, client machines and other objects from prying eyes, theoretically making the lives of would-be hackers very difficult.

The company also claims that the system makes it nearly impossible to perform a denial of service attack on a network. Apparently, the tool will also feature intrusion detection and the "detection and disabling of instructive viruses".

The VNUNet item is interesting, especially when you consider that it's always bad to proclaim something to be unbreakable. Essentially all this does is make life very hard for hackers, but that doesn't mean to say it's 'IMPOSSIBLE' to break.

Having said that it's always nice to see heavier security being developed to improve our safety online.

BT Connect Drops Surftime Package

By:mark.j @ 9:40:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

As spotted on Net4Nowt this morning, BTConnect has chosen to drop its Off-Peak Surftime based offer and replace it with a BTSurfport24 24/7 package. The full E-Mail sent to customers and business clients reguarding this change is as follows:

I am writing to inform you about changes to your BT Connect Lite account. Currently BT Connect Lite has a subscription of £4 per month. This subscription charge is to be removed, and from 31st July 2001 you will no longer be invoiced the monthly subscription.

As part of this change, you will no longer be able to purchase a domain name or NetStore online backup on this account. If you would like to purchase a domain name or the online backup facility, please go to the URL at the bottom of the page where you can view full details of the products offering these facilities.

We will continue to support BT SurfTime Evenings & Weekends for current customers until 31st October 2001; after this date, you will no longer be able to use the BT SurfTime products with BT Connect Lite.

If you currently use BT SurfTime Evenings & Weekends and would like to continue using an unmetered product, we are launching one in early summer 2001 and full details will be available on http://www.ignite.com/sbs along with information on the full BT Connect portfolio of products.

If you would like to discuss any of these services to find out which is the best service for your business, please e-mail ebusiness@bt.com.

Credit to the ISP because it's at least informing people long ahead of time, unlike some other ISPs that inform you the day after changes have occurred or moments before.

It's also prudent to mention that Net4Nowt are now doing something we did last year and have joined the battle for an UK Internet Service Provider Ombudsman. OFTELs future replacement, Ofcom, will have such a service, although it's not yet known exactly what the ISP part of things will cover.

By launching this campaign N4N hope to influence the outcome before its even been completely announced, a clever tactic. You can help the cause by visiting the following location on N4N:

http://www.net4nowt.com/ispo

OFTELs conclusion to their Dial-Up review in which we also mentioned an ISP Ombudsman again will be out soon, it'll be interesting to see whether that helps things along further.

News - May 22,2001

Home Office Denies 7 Year Net Storage Plan

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

Yesterday we reported on how the EU was considering a controversial new plan that could see it logging ALL Internet traffic for up to seven years. Thankfully the UKs E-Minister wasn't so pleased with the idea, yet no firm response was given.

Today the Home Office has taken steps to deny it has any plans to agree to such a system:

The statement came in response to a wave of speculation that Home Secretary Jack Straw will recommend a seven-year mandatory retention period for ISPs at next week’s EU Council of Ministers meeting to discuss cross-border co-operation on crime. “The general policy of the UK government is that there are no plans to do so at this stage. Serious consideration would have to be given to such a move, taking into account not only law enforcement, but also the needs of ISPs and civil liberties issues,” said a Home Office spokesman.

On 29 May, a meeting is scheduled for the EU Justice and Home Affairs Council to address a number of issues, including money-laundering, human trafficking and drug smuggling. It is understood that data traffic will be discussed as a means to combat crime, but will not be the central focus of the discussion.

The netimperative.com article helps to ease the pressure, although their use of language is still cause for concern, "there are no plans to do so at this stage". What stage? Could this mean it will happen in the future? Typical governments, you’re never sure exactly what they mean.

Freeserve Plays Host To BigBrother 2

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

If you like nothing better than to be a fly on the wall while watching peoples lives, then you'll be happy to know that Freeserve will be playing host to this summers BigBrother 2 event.

Yes that's right, Channel4 have once again got the most annoying people from society and will soon force us to watch them being complete idiots - hurrah!:

Freeserve has been picked by Big Brother producer Endemol UK and Channel 4 to provide the Big Brother webcast, as well as chat and community functionality available from the official Big Brother site.

The Big Brother house will be wired for over 30 cameras, each available live on the web, while new this year is a 360° panning camera, which allows users to choose what they watch.

Freeserve managing director of portals Jon Gisby said: "Unlike the TV programme, the Big Brother webcast is always on. Freeserve will be Big Brother’s eyes and ears on the Internet community, offering our 4.1 million unique visitors an opportunity to participate in online voting, competitions, chat, auctions and other events which make up the Big Brother experience."

The netimperative.com article mentions that the new series is due to start this Friday 25th May and should be even better than the first. In other words channel 4 have somehow found a worse bunch than the first lot and probably forced them all to wear no clothes.

If only there was a BigBrother 'Gun-Cam', so we could systematically execute those we didn't like. Mind you some people might go over the top and wipe out the whole house, now wouldn't that be awful.

Tory's Pledge Telecom Market Review

By:mark.j @ 3:18:PM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

In further efforts to try and get elected, today the Tory's have lashed out at the Telecom industry and said that they would conduct a full review if brought to power. Apparently the party is unhappy with the status of broadband Britain and thinks Oftel needs a good kicking:

"The next Conservative government will initiate a review of the telecoms market structure to ensure fair and open access to local networks."

Trade and Industry spokesman, Alan Duncan told The Register that any review would be "just the beginning" and that "rapid and definitive action would be taken" to rescue Britain from a broadband black hole.

He described the current development of broadband in Britain as "haphazard" and said telecoms regulator, Oftel - responsible for overseeing Local Loop Unbundling (LLU) - needed "a good kick".

The Register's item is interesting, but it's probably best to just ignore any pre-election banter since none of the groups are really managing to focus on the core issues of price, service quality and regulation for the consumer end of services.

BigBlueSky Problems & Update

By:mark.j @ 9:40:AM - Comments (6) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The cheapest unmetered ISP in existence, BigBlueSky, hasn't been having the best run of things recently. They often fail to contact new subscribers with their account details, usually leaving them to phone BBS; but that's just the start.

We've seen countless complaints regarding re-dials and engage tones, especially at peak hours and the weekend. Not only that but they recently introduced a 'TEMPORARY CUT-OFF' of 2 hours, likely to see if that would improve the situation. Ironically many found it actually made things worse, although we're not sure why.

Despite all this many of their customers remain very tolerant and often hold the ISP in high regard, ignoring the problems as best they can. This is primarily because it's still the cheapest (unmatchable) provider and is trying to do the unthinkable with such low funding.

According to those who've managed to contact the ISP directly, today could well be a day of improvements and or change. Apparently they plan to make an important update to their website (possibly a new design as well) regarding services.

Quite whether BBS will finally offer a 'Service Status' page is not yet known, although they really should start informing customers more. Apparently the temporary cut off will also be removed, although we wait on the update to see exactly what changes may arise.

C&W To Accelerate Global IP Startegy

By:mark.j @ 9:17:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Back in 2000 Cable & Wireless announced its intentions to build a global IP network that could go so far as making phone calls and devices based purely on VoIP (Voice Over IP). Today the company has announced its intentions to accelerate that plan with their latest acquisition:

UK telecoms group Cable & Wireless (quote: CW) has agreed to buy troubled Internet services company Digital Island for $340m, in a move analysts said should benefit clients of both companies.

Graham Wallace, chief executive of C&W, said the acquisition would accelerate the implementation of the company's global IP and data strategy. "The combined company will be able to offer a comprehensive range of IP/data transport, hosting, content delivery and other value-added services to business customers in Europe, the US and Japan," said Wallace.

C&W hopes to provide customers with tailored Web services, including managed hosting, virtual private networks (VPNs) and application services. The deal also provides C&W with approximately one million square feet of Web hosting centre space across Europe, Asia and North America.

The ZDNet item also goes on to detail Digital Islands clients and strengths around the globe, by quite how much this will push things forward remains to be seen.

Government U-Turn On Internet Grooming

By:mark.j @ 9:06:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Internet Grooming is what people refer to as the technique paedophiles use on the Internet to entice children into sexual activity. In what's likely to be seen as an electoral U-Turn on the part of the present government, they've now offered a proposal to stop the practice.

All fair and good, yet they blocked the Lib Dems from implementing the same thing several weeks ago:

Two months after the government blocked a Liberal Democrat proposal to criminalise the online "grooming" of children, the home secretary has announced a paedophile protection order intended to criminalise the online solicitation of children in Internet chatrooms.

Liberal Democrat MP Paul Burstow is accusing the Home Office of U-turning on its decision to block his "grooming" proposal originally tabled for inclusion in the Criminal Justice and Police Bill. Jack Straw's "anti-grooming" order -- announced yesterday -- contradicts previous government claims that British legislation is technology-neutral, with existing laws being sufficient to deal with the online enticement of children.

"Eight weeks ago, Home Office ministers said existing laws were satisfactory to deal with Internet paedophiles," said Burstow. "It obviously takes the heat of a general election for the government to admit that existing criminal law is inadequate -- they had the legislative opportunity to correct this with the Criminal Justice and Police Bill."

While from a political point of view this ZDNet item could highlight some sort of plagiarism, for Internet users, especially parents and their children, it's good news.

Alcatel/Lucent Face Regulatory Hurdles

By:mark.j @ 8:57:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Yesterday we reported on how the two giant Telco and networking operators, Alcatel and Lucent, were planning to merge. However fears have begun to grow that the $40Billion merge could be in trouble due to regulatory concerns over its new powers:

There is also a fear that the Alcatel takeover of Lucent, which combined would employ 250,000 people, could lead to massive job cuts of up to 50,000 staff.

The possible merger would make Alcatel the dominant player in the broadband equipment market. Senior analyst at Bloor Research, Graham Fisher, said that the combined Lucent and Alcatel would create a $77bn company with 57 per cent market share - a move that would definitely attract interest from the monopolies commission, he said.

Fisher also pointed out that the US National Security Agency (NSA) would have concerns over the deal as Lucent is a developer of security and encryption products for the Government. "There would be a national security issue here," he said, pointing out that the US Government would not want a French company so closely involved in national security.

The VNUNet item also highlights several other concerns with the deal, although we'll have to wait a little while longer to find out if it goes ahead or not.

AOLs Credit Card Fraud E-Mailers

By:mark.j @ 8:52:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

This seems to be a regular thing for AOL ever since the ISP first started its existence in the USA. Net4Nowt have highlighted an E-Mail from the usual fakers that's essentially asking you for your credit card details:

AOL Billing Error

Dear Member,

We at America Online are sorry to inform you that your account information is now invalid. We need you to visit our Secure SSL© Billing Department and fill out all the information needed. It is very important that you fill out everything. If you do not fill out the information it could lead to the termination of your account. You need to verify the credit card number used to make the account. And a new one so that we can transfer your account to that credit card. Please do this now because when you sign off you will not be able to sign back on. We need your new information now!

Now this isn't actually as bad as some we've seen over the past few years, although it does highlight a constant and on-going issue that's relevant to all ISPs. No trustworthy provider will ever ask you for passwords or financial details over E-Mail, remember that.

News - May 21,2001

Telewest Back PlayStation2 Broadband

By:mark.j @ 4:09:PM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

This may be older news, however it was missed out while I was away on vacation and so I'm covering it now. As mentioned before the gaming and technology giant, Sony, was investigating several ways to give broadband multiplayer to owners of its PlayStation2 console.

The good news is that they've finally picked Telewest to offer such a service through:

Technical trials should commence by the end of the year, according to Telewest, and rollout should then follow around the end of 2002. Telewest’s Blue Yonder broadband package is available to homes in small areas of the UK, including Edinburgh, Newcastle, Liverpool and North London.

The netimperative.com article is interesting and shows that the PS2 really does have a future in the UK, but by how much? ADSL will ultimately cover the majority of the UK and including those with cable, so in the long run Cable Modems may not be the best choice.

Having said that we'll just have to wait and see how the Cable Modem vs RA/ADSL race goes, to be honest we'd like to see C-Modems come out on top because it's good for competition against BT.

BTs Slow 3G Networks & Free Voice Calls

By:mark.j @ 4:02:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

With GPRS turning out to be just as slow as many feared it would, today more bad news has crept out of BT regarding similar problems with 3G. Apparently 3G could potentially launch without an 'Always-On' network and with speeds no greater than 64Kbps.

BT, Europe's fifth-largest mobile operator, plans to launch a 3G network on the Isle of Man to get a first-mover advantage over competitors. It has already delayed the launch until at least late summer.

The company said its current plan is to start service without always-on Internet connections, which enable high-speed Web surfing and music and video downloads and help boost videoconferencing services.

The latest setback to 3G could affect not only BT but other mobile operators as well. These companies paid about 100 billion euros (61 billion pounds) to win European 3G licences and now must make money from that investment by building high-speed networks that offer huge improvements in performance and win customers.

But some analysts say technical obstacles may delay the large-scale deployment of 3G services for as long as five years. BT is using the island as a test bed for the technology. It says it will offer the 75,000 inhabitants a real 3G service.

The speed of the Internet connection will be only 64 kilobytes per second at first, however. That is about six times faster than the current WAP phones, but falls far short of the 384 kb/s that the technology is supposed to be capable of handling.

However with three-four years left before the service first starts to hit the mainstream market, there's a lot of time for changes and enhancements. Not only that but BT has other plans to make 3G more attractive.

Offering free voice calls to encourage take-up of 3G would be "a good idea", said Ralf Ohlhasen, a British Telecommunications executive working on Europe's first 3G network, on the Isle of Man. Free calls may be conditional on users agreeing to receive advertisements on their handsets and allowing the operator to track their position via the phones.

Certainly this technology looks as if it's going to have a long and bumpy ride before finally making it into the consumer’s hand.

ISP Review Site Updates

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

I'm not actually due back in the office until Tuesday and have thus been taking advantage of that extra time to get ISP Review up to speed with things. As you can no doubt see by the amount of news I've been working my arms off =).

I've finished for the day now (not news though) having not had any breakfast or lunch, so I'm kind of starved. Yet I thought it best to inform you all of some changes and updates.

Firstly the unmetered list has been update with some changes, additions, fixes and I've finally linked ALL the individual ISPs into their related section(s) on the specific ISP forum (lots of work).

The Specific ISP Forum itself has also been updated, as well as the addition of some unmetered ISPs that were missing; I've also split the Unmetered area into two parts. This will make the pages somewhat faster to load and is done due to reader requests.

The Readers Top 50 has also seen an update, we removed BTInternet and KeMe for having inflated (cheated) results and replaced them with One-Tel and Net In A Nutshell. At the same time we updated the layout and have enabled a new security system for TESTING purposes only.

We've also re-built, updated and re-compiled all the pages, member files and stats in both of our forums in order to load faster and be as up-to-date as possible. We then proceeded to prune some 400-500 messages older than 300 days in order to save space.

Aside from that the rest of the changes are minor updates to bring older code up to speed. I'd also like to state that we're going to take action in order to stop those damn annoying Pop-Up Ad's. Following that I'm now off to have some food and bathe in the sun, enjoy the changes.

FAST24 Unmetered Announce Final Details

By:mark.j @ 2:29:PM - Comments (8) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Fast24 is one of several unmetered ISPs who've been in limbo for some months while trying to fix up their services, costs and launch details. Today Fast24 have finally launched their new site, package details and announced a launch date of June 2001.

Thanks to Keith for helping to summarise the packages, which are as follows:

alltime - £155 Per Annum
Alltime is an unmetered internet package designed for businesses what want to be able to use the internet at any time of the day for as long as they want, without the worry of phone charges. What's more, in monthly terms, it's cheaper than AOL and BT, and even Freeserves home user package. Here are the highlights of what you get:

- 24*7 unmetered access to the internet.
- 10 Megabytes of webspace (with upto 200 Megabytes of traffic per month).
- A .co.uk or .org.uk domain name to use with your webspace and in your email address.
- An email control panel that will allow you to create upto 20 email accounts on your domain name (i.e. sales@yourdomain.co.uk), autoresponders, maillists, and forwardings.
- 64k ISDN or upto 56k v.90 modem access.
- Access to over 30,000 newsgroups.
- Full ports access - no ‘blocked’ ports.
- 50p per minute technical helpline

anytime - £88 Per Annum
Anytime is an unmetered internet package designed for home users that want to be able to use the internet at any time of the day without the worry of phone charges. What's more, in monthly terms, it's about 50% cheaper than AOL and BT, and even 40% cheaper than Freeserves anytime package. Here are the highlights of what you get:

- 24*7 access to the internet.
- No call charges for at least the first 250 hours per month (we reserve the right to charge you 1p per minute thereafter).
- 10 Megabytes of webspace (with upto 200 Megabytes of traffic per month) and a web address of the form www.yourdomain.co.uk
- A .co.uk or .org.uk domain name to use with your webspace and in your email address.
- An email control panel that will allow you to create upto 20 email accounts on your domain name (i.e. sales@yourdomain.co.uk), autoresponders, maillists, and forwardings.
- 64k ISDN or upto 56k v.90 modem access.
- Access to over 30,000 newsgroups.
- 50p per minute technical helpline

off-peak - £66 Per Annum
Fast24 OFF-PEAK is an unmetered internet package designed for home users that want to be able to access the internet at weekends and from 6pm until 6am Weekdays without without the worry of call charges. Outside of those hours the service is available at lo-call rates (same as a standard local call at present).

- 24*7 access to the internet
- Unmetered internet access (no call charges) during the hours of 6pm until 6am from Monday until Friday, and all day Saturday and Sunday.
- lo-call rate internet access during all other hours
- a .co.uk or .org.uk domain name
- an email control panel allowing you to have upto 20 email addresses of the form yourname@yourdomain.org.uk
- 10 Megabytes of webspace (with upto 100 Megabytes of traffic per month) and a web address of the form www.yourdomain.co.uk.
- 128k ISDN, 64k ISDN or upto 56k v.90 modem access.
- Access to over 30,000 newsgroups.
- 50p per minute technical helpline.

up 2 you
Local Call Rate 0845 Number - Standard

There doesn't seem to be much in the way of a cut-off and when you break the prices down then they're quite acceptable. However despite this the bandwidth limits are a SERIOUS drawback, one that's even more prominent then the much criticised Plus.NET!

If you never download large files then this could well be a good ISP, sadly most do and for them it's best avoided.

Vispa's MD Clears Up Confusion

By:mark.j @ 12:39:PM - Comments (4) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Earlier today we posted a press release relating to Vispa's VispaCall Telco service in which we highlighted some misleading price information. One of the biggest blunders was Vispa claiming a weekend rate of 1.9ppm to be better than BTs own 1ppm =).

We quickly contacted Martin, Vispa's MD, asking him to clarify the prices. Thankfully it does now seem as if Vispa made a serious mistake, as he was quick to outline the correct prices:

Vispa Call | BT | Savings
peak 3p 4p 25%
evening 1.3p 1.5p 17%
weekend 0.75p 1p 25%

Martin also stated that he will investigate the source of the error and we wouldn't be surprised if a re-done press release was issued soon.

IC24 Extent 0800 By One Week

By:mark.j @ 11:31:AM - Comments (3) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Thanks to the masses of you for showing us the following update on IC24's website:

*Offer closes Sunday May 27 2001 - outside promotional hours calls will be charged at local rate.

To use the free time online you must switch your dial up number from the usual 0845 number to the free phone 0800. Calls made on the 0845 number during promotional hours (8pm to midnight every night) will be charged at local rate. Instructions of how to do this are in the get online now for FREE section. UK only. Offer subject to availability

Interestingly the offer extension has now only been pushed up by another week, it was originally extended every month and then every two weeks, now it's just one. This raises the possibility that IC24's 0800 may not last much beyond June, as originally expected.

Glenworld Ltd. = Connect25?

By:mark.j @ 11:24:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The new unmetered ISP Glenworld Ltd., which will be added to our forums and unmetered list today, has recently been seeing a lot of controversy. Due to launch on 1st JUNE 2001 the ISP is offering a special deal for Ex-Connect25 subscribers:

All ex-Connect25 subscribers can receive
upto 3 months free with GlenWorld from
1st June 2001 til 31st August 2001 within a
12 month contract.

As some of our readers have been kind enough to point out, this is an extremely generous offer from an ISP nobody knows anything about, yet. However several of our readers (Keith included) have been keen to point out that the offer may be more than just what it claims to be:

Domain Name: GLEN-WORLD.CO.UK
Registered For: Glenworld Limited
Domain Registered By: NWNET
Registered on 08-May-2001.
Domain servers listed in order:
NS0.TELINCO.NET 212.1.128.40
NS2.TELINCO.NET 212.1.128.42
------------------------------------------
Domain Name: C25WEB.CO.UK
Registered For: Cash4links.Net Ltd
Domain Registered By: NWNET
Registered on 19-Mar-2001.
Domain servers listed in order:
NS0.TELINCO.NET 212.1.128.40
NS2.TELINCO.NET 212.1.128.42

The c25web.co.uk domain was the last one Connect25 set-up before they died and yet they both use Telinco and accordingly registered by NWNET. Apparently companies house has no name for the director or directors of this new Limited company, raising further questions.

Geographically the company is also registered in Leicester (according to post code), while their address is based in Kettering. It certainly seems like there're one too many similarities between Connect25 and Glenworld, although we'll keep investigating. If they’re a C25 offspring then they’ll have to be better at communication and support than the last lot.

Update :
In addition the ISP also carries a one hour cut off and has very similar FAQs – hmmmm. It’s more expensive and with less features than the opposition.

SkyStorm Launch & StarSpeeder Update

By:mark.j @ 11:10:AM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Following the launch of StarSpeeders so far successful broadband satellite service early this month, today SkyStorm have issued us with a fairly exclusive press release on their launch as well.

Please remember that SkyStorm are resellers for the same group as StarSpeeder, albeit with a slightly different offer:

The starspeeder satellite internet service is now available!

Going live on Tuesday, the 1st of May, the service has already been hugely successful and is maintaining a speed of 400kbit/s.

Also accompanying the launch is a great offer that we are pleased to be able to present to you. With thanks to Trac Communications & Pentamedia, we are able to bring you all of the required hardware at the incredibly low price of £129.99.

In the package is a state-of-the-art Pentamedia Pent@net DVB data card, complete with a 60cm Channel Master Dish and a MTI 0.6dB Universal LNB, plus the appropriate installation kit, although we do recommend you hire a professional installer as the job is not as simple as aligning a Sky dish. Please note that this price does NOT include subscription. If you already own the appropriate dish and LNB, but you need the Pent@net DVB card then it is available at the low price of £109.99.

Please also be aware that this is a limited time offer only, and prices will resume to their standard £159.99 on the 30th of May.

Before you buy any hardware, please ascertain the cost of dish installation with your nearest installation professional. A list of certified installers is available in two formats at the following location:

http://www.skystorm.net/guides/installers.htm (HTML)
http://www.skystorm.net/guides/installers.xls (Excel)

Please make sure that your installer also possesses a Spectrum Analyser - the essential tool needed to align your dish to the Europe*Star 1 satellite.

If you would like to subscribe, then please visit:
http://www.skystorm.net/subscribe.htm

Subscription is £15 per month, payable quarterly in advance - £52.88 inc VAT in total.

Any ex-Europe Online customers are welcome! Those that already own all of the necessary hardware can also subscribe without the need of purchasing new kit. In that case, please visit:

http://www.skystorm.net/subscribe/cont.htm

Enjoy the service!

Well be taking a look at both of the SkyStorm and StarSpeeder ISPs in the coming month as we attempt to have a dish installed ourselves. On the flip side, StarSpeeder have issued another update:

As most of us at Starspeeder will be attending the Mediacast Exhibition from Monday 21st to Wednesday 23rd May, we may not be able to maintain the quick response times you have become used to for questions to help@starspeeder.co.uk or info@starspeeder.co.uk Many questions now have detailed answers within the forum and we would request that you check this out as your first line of enquiry. All will be back to normal by Thursday 24th May.

So expect some service disruption for the support responses this month until Thursday. We had hoped to have an interview with the controversial MD of SkyStorm, although we’re still awaiting a full reply.

Vispa To Save You Up To 82% On Calls

By:mark.j @ 10:53:AM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Vispa have today issued us a special press release regarding their VispaCall services, which could save you money if you're a BT or Cable customer:

PRESS RELEASE : VispaCall v's Quip

If you are a BT or Cable Customer, we have good news for you. We can now save you up to 82% on your phone bills.

Using our new service is simplicity itself. We send you a small box that you plug in between your phone and wall socket and it will divert calls automatically across our network, saving you money every time you make a call.

Local calls start as low as 2.8p daytime and just 1.9p at weekends, both lower than BT standard rates. We also can save you up to a massive 82% on international calls, along with over 50% savings to mobiles, but best of all we can save you a massive 40% when calling 192 Directory Enquiries, even from a mobile.

You are also safe in the knowledge that we charge by the second billing, and don't round figures up to the nearest minute.

VispaCall v's Quip:

Quip only offers two rates for its UK National and Mobile calls - Peak and Weekend - with NO UK Local rates. VispaCall offers its customers three different rates: STD, ECN and WKD, as well as UK Local calls up to 25% cheaper than BT. VispaCall's Mobile weekend rates are all cheaper than those of Quip's. Additionally up to 75% of VispaCall's Post Paid Local and National rates are cheaper than Quip's.

Quip's prepaid service is only 5% below post paid. VispaCall's prepaid is in average 20% below post paid.

VispaCall offers FREE access from Orange & One2One mobiles. Quip has an 0845-access number from mobiles, where the customer can end up paying a regular rate or more to their mobile operator.

VispaCall's International Residential Rates apply for both landlines and Mobiles, whereas Quip split their International Mobile rates and charge upto 69p per minute extra for International calls to mobiles. VispaCall are cheaper than Quip on over 50% of their International Mobile rates.

For further information visit http://www.vispacall.co.uk

We do have a couple of gripes with their figures, which seem a little poorly placed. While 2.8 pence per minute (PPM) during daytime for BT isn't do bad (although you can have roughly that anyway), certainly 1.9ppm during the weekends is madness.

Even with bog standard BT discounts a local weekend call is only 1ppm, less if you include some of the discounts. So why on earth Vispa are miss-claiming 1.9ppm to be lower than BT standard rates is beyond us. It's certainly not legal advertising.

You can check such prices HERE with BTs own cost checker. The result of our 5minute local call check came up with the usual £0.05 with no discount. answer.

Cisco To Complete IPv6 Introduction

By:mark.j @ 10:37:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

One of the worlds biggest network providers, Cisco, is set to finally complete the introduction of the new IPv6 protocol (we use IPv4 now) into its routers this month:

Cisco has announced that it will build support for Internet Protocol version 6.0 (IPv6) into version 12.2(1)T of the IOS software in its routers by the end of May. The move should allow IT managers to upgrade their existing Cisco routers, via firmware, and could make routing and network configuration tasks simpler to perform and manage.

First specified by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) in 1995, IPv6 was first deployed on the Internet in July 1999 but is not yet widely used. Cisco has tested the technology since 1998, and its adoption of the standard could help encourage mainstream use, at least in large organisations. The specification must still be deployed by service providers, such as BT, and implemented in programs before the full benefits of IPv6 can be realised.

The ZDNet item goes on to highlight why IPv6 is so important and how it will allow networks to be more able to cope with the ever increasing bandwidth speeds and demand.

BTCellnets GPRS Fails On Speed

By:mark.j @ 10:30:AM - Comments (2) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

As had been predicted long before the new Internet and data system, GPRS (General Packet Radio Service), came into operation last week, the services are just as slow as expected:

BT Cellnet is only offering the Motorola Timeport 260 handset initially --- making it a strong candidate for the "mystery buyer" of 500,000 Timeport 260's announced by Motorola at the CeBIT trade show in March. The Timeport 260 will cost £200.

There are two different pricing structures. People can choose to either pay £3.99 per month plus a further £20 for every kilobyte of data downloaded, or £7.99 per month (including one megabyte of downloaded data) plus £3.99 for every additional megabyte

However, with download speeds of between 20kbps and 30kbps, BT Cellnet's new service falls short of what the mobile operators and manufacturers were promising until recently. Last summer there was talk of "maximum download rates in excess of 170kbps", and the first GPRS phones were expected to have 52.2kbit/s download speeds. It is hoped that other technological breakthroughs, such as Edge, will boost GPRS speeds in the future.

The ZDNet item also points out that the likes of Vodafone and Orange etc. will soon be launching their GPRS services as well. All in all it's pretty much as predicted, although we'll be interested to see just how well GPRS picks up in the future. Perhaps not so well if the, "plus a further £20 for every kilobyte of data downloaded" is true.

£20 for every single 1K of data, huh? You might as well go back to using the more cost effective GSM devices.

ISPA Calls For 'Publisher' Bill Changes

By:mark.j @ 10:21:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The ISPA (Internet Service Provider Association) continues to call on the Government to remove the reference to an ISP as a publisher from the Tobacco Advertising and Promotion Bill. They have issued the following update to their site:

On behalf of its members, ISPA has vigorously lobbied the UK Government to make changes to the Tobacco Advertising and Promotion Bill. We are now awaiting news on whether the Department of Health has been persuaded to avoid bringing legal confusion to the question of liability of ISPs for Internet content.

This Bill carries additional importance as it will no doubt set a precedent for the treatment of Internet Service Providers by future UK legislation - such as the imminent draft Adoption Bill.

Summary of Bill problems

In line with a Labour Government manifesto promise, the Tobacco Advertising and Promotion Bill proposes banning all advertising and promotion (including sponsorship) of tobacco products in the UK, with certain limited exceptions.

The Bill covers all forms of advertising and promotion, including direct advertising, direct marketing and brand-sharing, and all media, including paper, video, and most importantly for ISPA, electronic communications.

Currently the Bill includes a defence for ISPs if they can prove that they were not aware of an illegal tobacco advertisement before they "published" it. ISPA believes that describing ISPs as "publishers" in the Bill is dangerous, incorrect, and not in line with the description of ISPs as "mere conduits" as established under the E-Commerce Directive (due to be implemented in the UK by January 2002).

ISPA believes that ISPs are in fact already both covered by, and provided with sufficient defence, by other clauses in the Bill. It will be an offence to transmit a Tobacco advertisement "in electronic form, participating in doing so, and providing the means of transmission". However it will be a defence to prove "that [the ISP}… was not able to prevent the distribution of the tobacco advertisement" or to prove that "[the ISP] did not know, and had no reason to suspect, that the publication contained a tobacco advertisement".

Once the Service Provider becomes "aware" of the illegal content, he will be obliged to remove access to that material if he is able to do so. This is in line with how ISPs currently deal with illegal content. The debate on the method by which that "notice" is given, and who decides on the legality of the content, is one which ISPA is currently consulting with it's members in preparation for discussions with the DTI on the implementation of the E-Commerce Directive.

The Tobacco Bill does not claim to have any jurisdiction over "foreign" websites, and the DTI has acknowledged that UK ISPs will not be liable for content they cannot remove, ie that they do not host.

How the Bill will apply to new online broadband media when used for broadcasting is not at all clear. The Bill specifically states that such material will be subject to its provisions, but that it does not cover "the BBC and all broadcasting media covered by Codes of Practice issues by the Independent Television Commission and the Radio Authority under the Broadcasting Acts". It remains to be seen how this will fit in with the results of current debate on the convergence of the regulation of communications & broadcasting industries.

ISPA's lobbying on this issue to date has included meetings with the Bill team in the Department of Health and the DTI, as well as contact with the relevant Ministers and the MPs involved in the Committee debates in the Commons. More recently ISPA has earned the support of the Office of the E-Envoy.

ISPA continues to call on the Government to remove the reference to an ISP as a publisher from this Bill. Until that time, we will continue to lobby the House of Lords as the Bill enters into this stage of debate.

Alcatel To Acquire Lucent Technologies

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

The French telecommunications equipment maker, Alcatel, could soon be acquiring their American rivals Lucent Technologies Inc. Apparently negotiations are likely to heat up during this week with the potential for a final deal coming as early as June.

Lucent have also been talking with other potential suitors, although neither company would comment on the news. If the two companies agree on a deal, Alcatel would pay little, if any, premium over Lucent's current stock price, the sources said.

The New York Times newspaper reported that Alcatel may pay a 20% premium for Lucent, but sources say the value was incorrect. Lucent has a market capitalisation of about $34 billion, while Alcatel's is about $38.3 billion.

Yet again the large market players are finding that consolidation could be the way forward in an increasingly unstable market.

Intel 'Thinks' About 4G Broadband Wireless

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

Never let it be said that technology research and development stands still just because a new product has finally been completed. With 2.5G mobile Internet and data services finally creeping into the market this month and 3G still two at least years away, 4G is already in mind for Intel:

Though years away, Intel is already putting thought into what may feature in 4G telecommunications devices. Persson, who readily agreed the industry was still very much grappling with 3G (which after all hasn't arrived yet), did have a couple of interesting ideas about the features of 4G devices (though he hates the term).

These include the ability to automatically move from a wireless Lan to a public network in order to access the Internet, and embedded Bluetooth support.

The Register's news item certainly sounds interesting enough, although don't expect to see 4G for another 10-15 years yet. By then 3G will probably be giving us StarTrek style video communications and panels.

Europe To Log ALL Net Traffic For 7 Years!

By:mark.j @ 9:56:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

If you thought the R.I.P act in the UK was scary, or that perhaps the USA's Carnivore system was shocking then the EU's new directive will probably kill you. Under a draft proposal from the European Commission, backed by police, all emails and other Internet traffic would be logged and kept for up to seven years:

Under the proposals the police would be able to demand the recording and storage of all telecommunications data -- including emails and Internet usage -- for up to seven years.

Since 1998 the European working group ENFOPOL, focused specifically on law enforcement issues, has been trying to extend standards for interception by European law enforcement agencies to cover Internet and wireless communications. In the UK, the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act was enacted to give law enforcement agencies the power to intercept data communications. However, the new proposals go much further and would require changes to the data protection and privacy directives, as well as demanding massive amendments to the telecommunications directive currently being reviewed by the European Parliament.

"It seems police officers are overturning the data protection directive, turning the Internet into their spy system, and bizarrely claiming that privacy protection decreases consumer confidence in using the system," said David Banisar, deputy director of Privacy International. "Europe has been at the forefront of protecting individual privacy -- it would be tragic to turn it into a law enforcement directive."

The ZDNet item is truly shocking and is privacy invasion taken to the extreme, how any government could condone such a thing is beyond us. Thankfully and unlike R.I.P, the opposition to the plan is far greater, even our own e-Minister (Patricia Hewitt) disagrees:

"I do not agree with the proposals. I saw them in the press, I think, ten days ago. I have not had formal communications with the Home Office, I have discussed it informally with Charles Clarke and I understand it is his view as well that that proposal should not be implemented,"

It'll be awhile yet before we know how things are going, but hopefully this will be shot down before it's even begun.

Buzzline Credit Card Fraud Update

By:mark.j @ 9:44:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Net4Nowt made an update on Friday regarding the issue with people who previously pre-subscribed for the Buzzline unmetered ISP before it died nearly a year ago. The update is truly shocking in its scale of potential fraud:

Within just one week of publishing our story "Net4Nowt Readers Victim Of Credit Card Fraud" we have received notification from 30 people who allege to have applied for Buzzline and subsequently had between £400 and £500 debited from their accounts in error - totalling over £13,500. The alleged transactions show as being from 'Share Manager' based in Cowbridge.

As before N4N is asking that any such people contact them and also their credit card company in order to help investigate and resolve the issue. Let this be a warning to everybody, unless it's a well known brand of ISP then you should never give CC details in a pre-subscription, just to be safe.

What Is The X Internet?

By:mark.j @ 9:35:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

A popular research company, Forrester, hit out against the Internet last week by claiming it to be no more than a dumb, dull and dusty collection of pages. However their reasons soon became clear as they highlighted the next generation Internet, which they call X Internet?:

This next-generation internet would offer all the interaction that was promised last time round. This would be done through disposable code, executables or programs that would be used once and then deleted.

The X Internet explosion would encompass everything, said Forrester, stretching out across the available bandwidth offered by both wired and wireless networks, exploiting the development of broadband and cheaper chips.

The analyst reckons that the X Internet would boost the number of internet enabled devices from today's figures of 100 million to a staggering 14 billion. Mothing would be safe: from toasters to cars, everything would be wired.

The VNUNet item is very worrying and will probably damage Forrester’s credibility somewhat since the above is nothing drastically new. The group claims that wandering through a shopping maul would soon be a bit like a game of Quake (popular 3D FPS shooter - OLD) - uh oh!

Taking a moment to check we hadn't passed back in time to April 1st or that somehow our bodies had become injected with copious amounts of crack, we soon realised Forrester had lost the plot. The Internet simply doesn't have 'Generations', it evolves as is and where that leads nobody knows.

3D and fully interactive environments have been tried and tested before with most finding a friend in failure. We hate to break it to Forrester, but everything they've suggested is old news, it's been done and either failed or is already in use. Perhaps the biggest reason for failure was that we, the users, actually quite like the Internet the way it is. In that it manages to succeed through simplicity and there’s easily enough interactivity.

Perhaps a fully interactive world is the way the Internet will go, but then it’s been done and nobody liked it, maybe in another 20 years when technology has expanded?

News - May 20,2001

Latest 08002go Update

By:Ross14 @ 11:55:AM - Comments (3) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

08002go have updated their website again with more news on their planned improvements and their "abuser" policy:

Looking to the future!

Here we are again with the latest news "UPDATE".

You will have noticed that connections to our service are getting better and better that's because we are constantly upgrading until you all have, as we promised "the most enviable service in the world".

We are still less than one month old and with the many improvements that we are making (your words not ours for which we thank you) we still can assure you there is more to come.

We will have over this weekend a downtime while we improve the service. For your convenience, we have chosen to do this in the early morning.

We will all be very interested in what the critics have to say.

We needed this first month to have a settling in period and to clear out most of the problems we have faced. You will then have, what we always promised you would receive, the "most enviable ISP service in the world", for just £9.98 24/7 per month.

NB: Watch for more news on Monday 21st May, about the results of checking last week's abusers. We will clarify, once and for all, what we mean by the term "Abuser".

It will take a long time for 08002go to make their service "the most enviable service in the world" because already many people are fuming over being thrown off for 'abusing'. And, lets face it, good connections, speeds and prices aren't everything (chuckle!).

We will await with pleasure to their response to the term "abuser".

Important ISP Review Weekly Update

By:mark.j @ 9:07:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Clearly I'm far too accustomed to a +2 hour time zone since this morning I awoke at 6am instead of 8 and found myself unable to get back to sleep. As such I'll be posted this important update now rather than later tonight.

Before we get started I'd like to foremost congratulate Ross for his top work on the news given the current work situation. A big thanks to the other staff who also attempted to step, I'll do my utmost to post a packet of Polo's to all of you later =).

So here I am, back in the UK and with a lot of work and catching up to do, perhaps somewhat more than expected. The good news is that during my relaxing week in the sun I had time to reflect and am now going to announce some plans for the site.

The following are in a VERY rough order:

PHASE 1 - Clean Sweep & Updates:
The colossal number of new readers means I'll need to clean up our much cluttered FTP (web space), update all old pages and re-build the various forum pages to improve things + some other changes. It may sound simple, but make no mistake, this is a BIG task.

PHASE 2 - New Readers Top 50:
While we've enjoyed the current Readers Top 50 for sometime, our ever increasing readership means we need to keep quality up. As such we've chosen to start work on our own system, which we will contract out a person to code for us.

The issues to be addressed in the new code are as follows:
-More statistical output (possible use of graphs).
-Ability to vote on individual areas (speed, cost etc.).
-Cleaner Layout.
-Top 100 ISPs and not 50.
-Hugely advanced security to stop multiple votes.
-SSI output for the Top10 of the 100 on the main page, to also include more detailed summary for the No.1 ISP.
-Type based, so we can have Top ISP lists for ADSL as well as unmetered ISPs etc.

Despite what you may think, such lists aren't actually that hard to code as it's mostly down to mathematical multiples. As soon as we've found an experienced and well priced Perl/CGI coder then it shouldn't take long to complete.

PHASE 3 - Forum Migration & Merger:
When we first introduced the new 'Specific ISP' forums it was made clear that they were essentially a beta test of new technology. In the coming month or two we've decided that having learnt the technology, it's now time to finish the project.

Ultimately this will involve the consolidation of BOTH existing forums into one with a vast amount of features, yet simple to understand. So please excuse any obvious 'weirdness' with the 'Specific ISP' forums over the next few weeks, in order to upgrade we'll have to remove ALL the features we added ourselves. From there we can upgrade and update again.

Following that we'll begin merging the forums into one, it'll be a gradual process and one that requires patience. So sorry up front if anything goes wrong.

PHASE 4 - Reader ISP Reviews:
Due to the feedback from readers we've had to push the issues with our Top 50 and Forums ahead of the pack. As a result of this the Reader ISP Reviews system is now officially delayed until after the summer.

Our core concern is to resolve the forum issues (Phase 3) and the Top 50 (Phase 2), thus making ISP Review a better site in the process.

PHASE 5 - Site Re-Design:
The final phase is quite simply the launch of a new ISPreview site design. While I dare note reveal the full details, we will have a more unisex colour scheme.

Primarily the new design will focus on simplicity and more use of 'summaries' rather than full views. Not to worry though as we'll still have a 'Full Main Page' view not unlike this one for those that prefer it, thus catering for all likes and dislikes.

So there you have it, the above represents the pinnacle of what ISPreview first set out to achieve two years ago. There will be other page introductions and sections to join us in due course, although the plan is now nearing completion.

There comes a time in the life of every site where you have to say STOP, a time when you've done what you set out to achieve and will only concentrate on keeping it as up-to-date as ever. Once we've completed the above then that time will have come and we can finally concentrate completely on content.

Since it's a Sunday I'll leave catching up with news and events until Monday, so please excuse any repetitive items as I could get things wrong. Expect a lot of changes over the coming months and all I ask is this, you remain patient and vigilant of what's happening.

Don't throw change to one side until it’s had a chance to settle and be tested, otherwise we wouldn't exist today. All of the above is in response to you; our readers and we'll continue to do that for as long as we can sustain such a large site.

UPDATE:
Sorry forgot; we’ll also be expanding into Europe as the UK merges closer into the EU and EC. In essence this means we’ll also have multiple language options, forums for overseas ISPs and more, core focus remains the UK market.