Welcome to our News Archives page

May 11, 2001 - May 19, 2001

News - May 19,2001

Back From CYPRUS Vacation

By:mark.j @ 8:49:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Yes that's right, after a week in the hot 26Degree sun of Cyprus I now look more like a well cooked piece of meat than a member of the human race. Having only just arrived back this second my eyes have yet to adjust to the monitor and feel of a keyboard.

I won't be back in 'FULL' active operation until Monday and I don't wish to bore you with any of my holiday ramblings. Already I can see few have chosen to save any E-mail until my complete return, so thanks to all 473 of you for that!

It'll take me three or so days to catch up and please excuse me if I end up repeating any news items; I'm only human. During the holiday I had time to reflect on ISPreview and will soon be announcing some changes.

Expect a LATE update on Sunday since I'll be in work most of the morning catching up there, staff will cover as usual.

News - May 18,2001

Telewest To Axe 170 Staff

By:Ross14 @ 4:32:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The Register is reporting this afternoon that the Cable Telecoms company Telewest are to axe 170 jobs in its call centre operations in the U.K.

Staff were told of the job cuts late yesterday but it's taken until lunchtime today to get a response from the cableco.

As part of the reorganisation two call centres will shut bringing the total number of call centres in the UK to seven.

It's not known if any more centres will be cut in the future.

Telewest issued a statement saying, "These changes in our contact centres and credit services could result in net job savings of around 170, however our objective is to redeploy many people either to jobs at the new centres or in other departments at their local Telewest site."

The news follows yesterday's announcement by Tiscali that they were to axe 300 staff throughout their UK Operations.

Minority of Net Users Account For Most Time Online

By:Ross14 @ 4:26:PM - Comments (7) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

New research into Internet usage in the UK has shown that of the 14 million people who access the Net from home, just one-fifth of these account for over 70 percent of all the time spent online.

The findings by market researchers Jupiter MMXI also show that users are spending much more time online -- an average of seven hours for the month of April 2001, compared with just four hours in October 1999.

"This is very healthy for the industry, as the longer people spend at a website the more likely they are to buy something, and the more pages they will download from the site," said a Jupiter spokesman. He said the longer users had been using the Internet, the more time they tended to stay online.

He also added that UK users still lagged behind other countries such as Canada, where the average user surfs the Net for about 16 hours a month, or Germany, where the figure is 13 hours.

BT Launches Speedy Mobile Phones

By:Ross14 @ 4:22:PM - Comments (2) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

BT Cellnet, Britain's second biggest mobile phone group, has brought the country's first mobiles with permanent Internet access into 200 high-street stores.

In a move the industry hopes will help restore shaken investor confidence in potentially lucrative mobile Internet services, the British Telecommunications Plc subsidiary is selling the delayed GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) phones to the mass market for 199 pounds ($284.3) each. The company declined to divulge how many it hoped to sell.

Customers who want "always-on" access to e-mail and connect to Internet sites at around three times current mobile speeds can opt for a monthly 7.99 pound subscription, which BT says gives effectively unlimited Web access. A light user can pay a monthly 3.99 pounds plus 2.0p for each Web page they download.

BT Cellnet, which launched a corporate GPRS trial last June, says the T-260 GPRS phone -- which is manufactured by U.S. supplier Motorola Inc -- connects to the Internet at 30 kilobits-per-second; around three times current mobile speeds.

BT Cellnet, which along with around 30 other European operators is now offering some form of GPRS services, charges customers according to the volume of data they download, rather than the length of the call.

The phones maintain a constant connection to the Internet, which means users will be notified when e-mails arrive, but only use network capacity when they are downloading.

The phones are available from most 'Carphone Warehouse', 'The Link' and 'The BT Shop' stores as well as other majour outlets.

Vispa Makes Search Safe For Children

By:rich.p @ 7:54:AM - Comments (9) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Vispa has announced a partnership with Mirago to provide safe searching from their portal:

Vispa Partners with Mirago to provide Family Safe Searching

Vispa Internet is pleased to announce the integration of Mirago filtering technology to reduce the risk of children coming into contact with sites containing offensive or adult material. These filters are permanently engaged to provide a family friendly, safe searching service from Vispa’s Portal www.vispa.com

The filtering is done on a three tiered basis: automatically by Mirago’s Integrated robots, which correctly classify more than 96% of adult content; manually by Mirago’s researchers who discover sites containing adult content; and manually through sites reported by parents, teachers, schools and Vispa’s users.

Our continued goal at Vispa is to help provide you the family unit with information in a friendlier environment. We strongly feel that working with Mirago is a big step towards ensuring parents that the Internet can be safe to use. As a parent, only you can judge what constitutes a positive and educational online experience for your children. We're trying to provide the material for you to make educated decisions for your child, safely.

Good news for parents with children using VISPA Internet. The question is what kind of filtering is best for children on the internet. Comments...

Correction - LogicSurf

By:rich.p @ 7:42:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

In an earlier story we reported that LogicSurf was a VISP of Vispa Internet. LogicSurf would like to make it clear that they are not a VISP of Vispa Internet they just have their Servers on a co-location package with them.

News - May 17,2001

Tiscali Announce Job Cuts

By:Ross14 @ 7:20:PM - Comments (3) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The Register is this evening reporting that the Italian Telco Tiscali is to axe 300 British jobs within the next fortnight.

The Register understands that the scale of the job cuts in the UK is down to an ultimatum delivered by the Italian telco in which it said it would close down any part of the company that wasn't profitable by Q4 2001.

The threat of closure applies to all of Tiscali's country businesses throughout Europe.

According to documents seen by The Register, becoming EBITDA positive by the end of the year is a top priority for the operation in the UK.

British ISPs such as WorldOnline UK and LibertySurf UK have already secured resignations of around 90 staff, but Tiscali need to shed another 200, so no doubt some more people will lose their jobs at WorldOnline and LibertySurf as well as maybe Lineone which was recently bought by Tiscali.

The job cuts are due to finalised by June 1st.

Telewest Clinch Playstation Deal

By:Ross14 @ 4:04:PM - Comments (2) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Cable operator Telewest has clinched a deal with Sony to combine its high-speed Internet network with Sony's PlayStation 2 games system.

The alliance is the latest in a string of tie-ups this week by Sony as it tries to transform the game console into a home entertainment hub with capacity to handle Internet access, telecoms, broadcasts, movies, music and games.

The collaboration will enable consumers to sample a broad range of services, from games to applications such as lifestyle and gaming editorial content.

All forms of on-line game activity will be explored including pay per play and multi-player on-line gaming. Players will need Sony's PS2 player and PS2 DVD-ROM disk to play.

Technical trials should start by the end of the year.

Earlier in the week, Sony and AOL Time Warner unveiled an alliance that will let users of PlayStation 2 access the Web, chat and e-mail using the AOL service.

BT To Develop Wireless Systems With Intel

By:Ross14 @ 4:02:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

BT said today it would work with U.S. chip maker Intel to develop new mobile networking services that can be used on a range of mobile devices.

"We'll develop systems which allow things on mobile phones that are not currently possible," a BT spokesman said.

Two such applications are wireless electronic working groups and sending email attachments to mobile phones.

"It will make it possible to give a computer presentation to be displayed on people's handheld computers which may be in different countries," the BT spokesman said.

The first trials could be held as early as late 2001 and will involve manufacturers of mobile phones and handheld computers, although no names of those have yet been mentioned.

New Broadband Firm for Scotland

By:Ross14 @ 4:00:PM - Comments (9) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Private equity firms TD Capital Communications and Madison Dearborn Partners announced on Thursday the creation of a company to provide broadband communications in south west Scotland and north west England.

The firm, EON Communications, secured 265 million pounds of financing and will provide services such as digital interactive television, fixed-line voice telephony, Internet access and high-speed data services in the region.

Madison and TD Capital co-led the 110 million pounds equity financing with 57 million and 30 million pounds respectively. Incepta Partners is investing 13 million while GE Capital Telecom committed 10 million pounds.

The balance, 155 million pounds, came in the form of debt arranged by TD Securities and Bank of Scotland.

EON will build the first phase of the digital network which should be ready in six months. It hopes to serve 325,000 residential customers and 25,000 business customers. It will also create around 200 jobs.

BTopenworld Price Increase Possible

By:rich.p @ 7:23:AM - Comments (8) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The FT has reported that BTopenworld are considering a price increase:

BTopenworld, the Internet service provider owned by BT, is considering increasing its price for high-speed web access.

No changes were imminent, but internal discussions were understood to have started in the last few weeks.

Chief Executive Andy Green said: "We are looking very seriously at the appropriate prices and products for different segments of the market. It is an urgent issue I am expecting to decide on in the next eight weeks or so."

If BTO are charged £35 exec VAT by BT Ignite for providing the ADSL. BTO then have to pay for all the other costs associated with ADSL and make a profit with just £4.99. This is why Freeserve couldn't sustain a £39.99 price. The basic price of ADSL now seems to be rising to £50.

News - May 16,2001

NTL Cable Modems Get Faster

By:Rob.W @ 7:59:PM - Comments (5) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Here is some information on higher speed cable modem access from NTL.

NTL Business, the cable company’s B2B arm, has launched a broadband service for small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs), offering UK firms access packages of 0.5mbps and 1mbps via cable modems, with a 2mbps service promised later this year.

NTL is charging £220 installation fee and £90 and £125 per month respectively for the two smaller bandwidth options. According to NTL, a single engineer can install the Cisco UBR 924 broadband modem and get the service running in less than a day. The 0.5mbps and 1mbps services will be commercially available from June 1.

Read the full article at netimperative.com.

We had news some time ago that a gold service of cable access would be 1mbps and available soon. Now it is about to arrive, aimed at SME's. With a lower contention ratio of 1:15 it will no doubt prove to be an attractive alternative to ADSL especially in the areas that ADSL still is not available, but where cable is.

BT Hits Back At Freeserve!

By:Ross14 @ 5:43:PM - Comments (9) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

And the slagging match continues.... BT has hit back at claims that Britain's biggest 'French' ISP has been forced to increase the cost of its ADSL service because the wholesale price is too expensive.

Rebecca Webster, of BT's wholesale broadband division, dismissed Le Freeswerve's claims saying: "We think [our wholesale price] represents good value for money - that's what our customers have told us as well.

"Depending on how you use it, it can cost less than ISDN," she said.

Asked whether she thought BT was charging too much for wholesale ADSL she said: "We think we are broadly in line with a proportion of the market. We are certainly not the most expensive."

Concerning allegations that BT's restrictive allocation process for ADSL installations had made it "virtually impossible to plan an effective marketing strategy to create consumer demand" she said the telecom giant had made "dramatic improvements" over the last months.

But, we don't agree on her comment about how ADSL can be cheaper than ISDN "depending on how you use it". Comments...

Source: The Register

BT & NEC Dispute Over 3G Delay

By:Ross14 @ 5:35:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

British Telecommunications and Japan's NEC Corp are disagreeing over who is to blame for delays to advanced mobile phone trials that were due to start on the Isle of Man this month.

BT said on Monday it was delaying the launch of third-generation (3G) services on the island off north-west England by at least three months because of software problems in NEC handsets.

But NEC President Koji Nishigaki countered on Wednesday that BT must share the blame, saying the communications sector generally lacked computer makers' understanding of bugs in complex software systems.

"The (3G) handset itself is like a computer," he told journalists in Tokyo. "Even at NEC, our network communications company people have no experience with such a big software development."

BT is using the Isle of Man as a test bed for 3G technology it will roll out in the UK and continental Europe from next year after spending billions of pounds on licences.

Telnet Residential to End

By:rich.p @ 5:22:PM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Thanks to Peter for informing us that Telnet Residential, one of the last remaining Call and Access providers is to close on June 25th. The site currently has an FAQ of what is happening on the front page:

Q. What happens on 25th June?

A. Your telephone service will cease and you should take positive steps now to ensure that your new telephone company is able to start your service from then.

Q. How do i get a new service?

A. If you wish to transfer to BT, you must contact them on 0800 085 2475.They will arrange for your telephone service to be transferred to them. Alternatively, You can make arrangements with one of the other telephone companies operating in the UK residential market.

To read the full FAQ go HERE

It seems that the Call and Access model is dead. The main reason being that the price BT was charging was too high to run a sustainable business model.

Zen Reply To Recent Freeserve Increase

By:rich.p @ 5:11:PM - Comments (9) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Zen Internet have now issued a press release in reply to the recent Freeserve price increases:

Openworld and Freeserve u-turns on ADSL down to unrealistic pricing strategy say ISP Zen Internet

Broadband ISP Zen Internet believes that recent changes in ADSL pricing and strategy by BT Openworld and Freeserve have been brought about as a result of an unrealistic and unworkable pricing strategy for ADSL.

In a recent interview with Kim Gilmour of Internet Magazine, BT Openworld recently announced that it is to target the SME market as it is "obviously more profitable". Charles Household, BT Openworld Communications Manager stated that the reason the company was moving to this market was because "nobody can run a small broadband business due to the economics of it. You have to get a groundswell of customers". This has led to an increase in prices by £10 on their 512Kbps USB service.

Freeserve have today announced that they are to increase the price of their broadband service, stating "This [price rise] has been forced upon Freeserve because we have no confidence in BT, or the regulator, in driving down the wholesale price to a level which will facilitate large-scale take-up of broadband in the UK." They also refer to the allocation process as a reason, however this has recently been removed for all ISPs.

ISP Zen Internet believe that the reasons for these changes in strategy are for a completely different reason all together.

BT Ignite, the wholesale supplier of ADSL to all ADSL ISPs in the UK, charge the ISP £41.12 incl. VAT for the basic 512Kbps USB ADSL service.

Every ISP supplying ADSL in the UK has to provide several things to the end user including sales, support, the Internet backbone and other related services. This brings about the question of what an ISP should charge in order that it can provide a decent service, whilst still making a modest profit so that it can employ its staff?

A price of £39.99 inclusive of VAT, is clearly not the answer. Even if you ignore all the overheads, the ISP would still be making a loss each and every month on all their sales!

Zen's Operations Director, Ross McWilliam comments,

"What did Freeserve and BT Openworld expect? Set a stupid price, lose lots of money and then what? It seems obvious that they would have to do a u-turn and increase all their prices. I can't imagine it inspires much confidence within their customer base?"

"I hope ADSL users can now see why ISPs concentrating on a long term future, like Zen Internet and Nildram, charge a small premium for their services over the newer 'fizz-bang' ISPs - we haven't been in this business for six years without learning a few things about how to survive in a competitive market."

Zen Internet have signed up a number of customers who have been left high and dry by other ADSL suppliers ceasing their service. ADSL being sold at a loss has been a large contributing factor in these instances.

McWilliam continues,

"Zen's single user ADSL account costs £50.00 plus VAT. We DON'T make a huge profit, but we DO make enough to provide an excellent service whilst staying in business. We expect many more ISPs to reconsider their pricing models following these recent developments - it's nice to see OpenWorld and Freeserve copying our success and choosing to operate a sensible business model for once!"

Maybe its time Oftel stepped in a put the price of ADSL down. Does it really cost £41.12 for BT Ignite to provide ADSL? Comments...

Freeserve Broadband - Price Increase

By:rich.p @ 7:45:AM - Comments (16) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The FT has reported that Freeserve are to raise the cost of the £39.99 broadband package by £10 to £49.99:

"Internet service provider Freeserve is to raise its price for high-speed Internet access by 120 pounds per year.

Freeserve plans to up its price for broadband access from 39.99 pounds per month to 49.99 pounds, pushing customers' annual bill up to 600 pounds.

This isn't good news for people looking for broadband price reduction. If Freeserve is to up the price this could see other ISP's do the same.

UPDATE
Freeserve have now issued a press release confirming the price increase and the increasing of the initial installation fee to £170.

Ex-CWC Broadband Trials

By:rich.p @ 7:16:AM - Comments (5) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Cablenews:uk have some information on the ex-CWC franchise area broadband trails that NTL are due to start in the Greater Manchester area. They have a copy of a memo to NTL's Customer Service Representatives. You can read it HERE

Thanks to Catrina for pointing out that NTL have updated their site with the following:

NTL Broadband Internet - Coming Soon
Following a successful technical trial of broadband internet access through the digital set top box, in the Greater Manchester area, we are now moving ahead to the final stage before commercial launch with a customer trial (in the same area). We are inviting a small number of existing digital customers who have already signed up on the broadband waiting list to join this final stage. Their feedback will be vital to ensure the commercial service is of the highest standard. We'll also be testing a variety of product concepts during this time. Subject to the success of this final stage we'll be in a position soon to announce the commercial launch date. As soon as this is confirmed, this site will be updated with full details both about and how to order ntl broadband internet.

In the meantime please do not call us, instead please we ask that you register your interest to be kept informed of when ntl broadband internet comes to your area.

News - May 15,2001

BTI 0800 Ends - Now 0808 Only

By:rich.p @ 6:08:PM - Comments (23) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

BT Internet has today stopped customers from accessing the old BTI 0800 numbers that were running concurrently with the new 0808 FRIACO dialup number:

"15th May 13:00

The evening and weekend 0800 access to BTinternet has now been switched off. In order to access BTinternet to change your account and to obtain new dial in software, please use the Pay-as-you-go internet access number 0845 7560000. Please note calls to this number cost 1p per minute from 6pm to 8am weekdays and all weekend, and only 2p at other times. Caller line identification must be enabled - if this is currently disabled, BT telephone customers should ring 0800 800 150.

We have had some reports of some ISDN user having trouble accessing the new 0808 number, it seems specific exchanges might have problems accessing it through ISDN. We contacted BTI and they are looking into it. The introduction of the new 0808 number also means anyone not on BT phone line is unable access the service. Is the 0808 service better than the old 0800 number? Comments...

AOL In Console Deal With Sony

By:Ross14 @ 3:49:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The Sony Corporations' game-making unit and AOL Time Warner have unveiled an alliance that will let users of its PlayStation 2 game console access the Web, chat and e-mail using the AOL service.

Kaz Hirai, president and chief operating officer of Sony's Computer Entertainment, said, "As part of the pact, AOL features, such as real-time chat and e-mail, will be incorporated into the PlayStation 2 software development kits that content developers use to create new games. Sony aims to offer content providers the ability to incorporate AOL features into their new games by the winter of this year, with new games incorporating the features appearing in the second-half to late 2002."

"There will be a whole new generation of games that will take advantage of these features, which are unique. It's not just adding a commodity connection to a game. (This) deal takes it beyond that," said Peter Ashkin, AOL president of product strategy, in an interview.

The AOL experience on the game console and Netscape browser capability is targeted to be available this winter, Hirai added.

To use the more advanced interactive features, PlayStation 2 users will have to buy additional hardware including a hard disk drive, a keyboard and mouse and an LCD display with higher resolution than a television.

It's just one step after another for AOL to become the world's dominant online ISP who have over 29 million members.

Sweden = No.1 in Web Dominance

By:Ross14 @ 11:50:AM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Europe is gaining on the US in terms of web usage, and Sweden has surpassed the US with the highest proportionate number of internet users in the world, according to a survey published today.

The study, published by International research firm Ipsos-Reid, found that Sweden topped the survey with 65% of the population using the web, followed closely by Canada with 60% and the U.S.A with 59%. Britain was placed way behind at 35%.

Europe has the size, interest and openness to next-generation applications that will help it match, if not overtake, America's dominance of the world wide web, the study said.

"Europe is poised to become the leader of the next internet generation. With southern Europe finally catching up with northern Europe in terms of web usage, and Europe's greater acceptance of wireless applications, you have a potential internet market that promises to be as, if not more, important than America's," said Gus Schattenberg, one of the authors of the report.

Source: vnunet.com

Opera 5.0 For Linux Launched

By:Ross14 @ 11:42:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Users of the Operating System Linux will be pleased to hear that yet another browser is available for your surfing pleasure.

Opera Software is rolling out Opera 5.0 for Linux, but this is not necessarily another "we've done a Windows version and a Mac version, so we might as well add Linux" launch.

In addition to the usual Opera virtues of speed and stability, Linux users will be pleased to find that this product launch includes features that are not yet available in the Windows version of Opera. At the moment, some customisation options for user settings, additional drag-and-drop features and the Hotlist search function are only available in the Linux version. Opera 5 for Linux can be downloaded for free at the Opera website.

The software is available to download by going to the Linux section @ the Opera website HERE.

Source: uk.internet.com

Texting From Phone Boxes

By:Ross14 @ 11:33:AM - Comments (12) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

BT are to "re-invent" the phonebox by building special textphones that enable users to send text messages to any mobile phone in the country.

After a successful trial in Brighton last summer, BT decided to go ahead with the concept, and has already built 2,700 Textphones around the country - including 598 in London, 48 in Manchester and 32 in Birmingham.

Malcolm Newing, director of BT Payphones, said BT was "reinventing the phone box as an indispensable multimedia kiosk for the 21st century".

He said: "Rapid developments in mobile and computer communications have made access to e-mail and text messaging essential for business people and consumers alike. However, not everybody has the use of a mobile phone or computer when they most need it."

It will cost 10p to send a text message.

Freechariot Reduce Prices

By:Ross14 @ 11:24:AM - Comments (10) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Freechariot have sent us a press release today on new services and price reductions for their FRIACO Internet Services. We have had to edit it a little because it was so large:

FREECHARIOT ANNOUNCES GENERAL REDUCTION IN PRICES.

We are pleased to inform you and your readers of a general reduction in prices of our unmetered internet offers - starting from the 21st May, 2001. Freechariot also takes this opportunity to announce 2 new unmetered services in addition to the 3 already in operation. The reduction in these prices is meant to help users increase their utilisation of the internet, especially for students in large families returning from school with homework.

Our company is also particularly proud of the 2 services directed at the small business end of the market such as the FC business unlimited and the FC Universal 24/7. We are sure that these 2 services will help reduce the overall costs of communications for the target businesses.

SERVICES:

FCHome Lite - Good quality subscription package for afternoon users. Unmetered access between 12 noon and 5pm seven days a week. £5.75 (incl. VAT) per month.

FCHome Off-Peak - A good quality evening & Weekend subscription package, especially suitable for those with school children. 4pm-8am weekdays plus all weekend. £9.99 (incl. VAT) per month.

FC Business Unlimited - A quality internet access package for the business user who predominantly require daytime access from 6am to 6pm Monday to Friday. £12.99 (incl. VAT) per month.

FC Unlimited - A quality Internet access service for the frequent user. 2 Hr cut-off and low contention ratio (8:1). £13.99 (incl. VAT) per month

FC Universal 24/7 - A premium quality Internet access service for the home or business user. 4 Hr cut-off and very low contention ratio (5:1). £16.49 (incl. VAT) per month.

There are some good packages there and almost an option for every kind of internet user at good prices. Its worth noting though that all their unmetered plans come with a 12 month minimum contract.

News - May 14,2001

HH/ISDN2E to ADSL Conversion

By:rich.p @ 7:47:PM - Comments (20) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

BT Openworld are now offering ISDN to ADSL conversions. The information we have from them is:

- The conversion charge is £250 unless you pre-registered with BT Openworld before June last year in this case it is free. With other ISPs it must be the full £250.

- The charge consists of £99 ISDN --> PTSN and a £150 PTSN --> ADSL.

- If you are in a 12 month contract for ISDN you may still have to pay the remaining months charges.

- If the ADSL doesn't work BT will leave you with your ISDN.

What seems a little odd about this is if you have pre-registered before June last year you don't have to pay a penny for the installation.

Connect 25 & Glen World

By:rich.p @ 7:05:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

We have deleted this news until we can find some official information.

ISPr Counter Rolls Over 3 Million

By:Ross14 @ 4:47:PM - Comments (2) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Well, earlier today our website counter rolled over the 3 Million Unique Visitors figure - which in any websites lifetime is quite an acheivement.

To celebrate this, ISPr will be holding a competition in the next few weeks. The prize(s) will be mentioned then. But its worth noting that entry to the competition this time will be much harder than sending your name and address to an email address =)

Until then we thank all our visitors for making ISPr such a great success and we hope to continue our success with all of you into the future...

Broadband An Election Issue?

By:Ross14 @ 4:40:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The Register is reporting that the e-business advisor to the Mayor of London has called on all the major political parties to make broadband an election issue.

Speaking to The Register Colin Jenkins, who is on secondment to the Mayor's office from Energis, said that the future of broadband in Britain was in a parlous state.

"We're in dire trouble," he said. "We're falling behind and we need a miracle.

"If 'e' is the next industrial revolution then this should be an election issue," he said.

He believes money raised from the 3G licence auction should be used to fund roll-out broadband throughout the country.

It is certainly a good idea to put all the 3G license money into broadband roll-out but as ever, manifestos normally take a good year or so to make any effect, so it would most probably be 2003 before we ever get broadband roll-out throughout most of the U.K.

It is also worth remembering that last month Colin Jenkins published a report in which he warned that at the current rate of DSL deployment it would take more than 900 years to connect every home in Britain - which is surely shocking.

Orange And NTL Team-Up

By:Ross14 @ 4:21:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Mobile phone operator Orange has teamed up with cable group NTL Inc. in an attempt by common shareholder France Telecom to foster cooperation between its British interests.

Orange will gain access to a fixed-line customer base, while Britain's biggest cable TV and telephone group will finally realise its ambition to break into the mobile phone market and offer its three million customers a fixed and mobile communications package.

"Working with Orange as our mobile partner means that we will be able to offer our customers a very convenient one-stop shop solution for all their communications needs," Stephen Carter, managing director of NTL UK and Ireland, said.

Orange, which has about 28 percent of the UK mobile market, is expected to route calls through NTL's extensive cable network at low rates -- much as it already does with corporate fixed-line operator Energis Plc.

NTL would be able to add mobile to its current package of television, fixed line telephony and Internet and enable its customers to receive a single bill for all their mobile and fixed-line telephone calls.

Details of the NTL and Orange commercial services will be finalised over the next few months, prior to a probable launch in the autumn.

BT Delay 3G Launch

By:Ross14 @ 4:17:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

BT have decided to delay the launch of the new 3G network on the Isle Of Man because of malfunctioning handsets.

BT said today that its Manx Telecom subsidiary on the tiny British island off north-west England was postponing its launch of the high-speed mobile Internet technology by at least three months because of a software problem in phones supplied by NEC Corp.

The service had been due to start at the end of this month and would have been the world's first after Japan's NTT DoCoMo delayed its launch from May until October. BT said it will now start 3G at the end of summer or early autumn.

The NEC handsets lose their connection when the caller moves into a new mobile "cell", a BT spokesman said. A software problem in the phone prevents the network seamlessly passing the call to the radio mast in the new cell. The problem is the same one that forced DoCoMo to delay, the spokesman said.

But there is another twist to the tale according to the Daily Telegraph who say that NEC refused to fix the software bug in time for the 3G launch. It also said BT sources linked NEC's refusal to co-operate to pressure on NEC from DoCoMo. DoCoMo and BT have been vying to launch the world's first commercial service, although Lonergan said BT would still be first.

Well, lets hope that BT are the first to launch the worlds first commercial 3G service as it would certainly be a proud moment for British Telecommunications as a whole.

Zen Internet Revamp ADSL Orders

By:Ross14 @ 4:08:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Zen Internet have kindly sent us a press release on their new online ADSL Ordering System. In true ISPr style, here is the full press release:

A new easier way to order ADSL.

15 Clicks - That's all it takes to order ADSL from Zen Internet.

Zen Internet, the first and still one of very few ADSL providers offering online ADSL ordering have revamped the way in which these orders are now processed. Over the past few weeks Zen have been working to further develop what was already considered to be the leading order process for ADSL in the UK. The process has been streamlined and simplified to make things easier for customers wanting to get their ADSL through Zen.

To summarise:
Payment options are now far more flexible allowing customers to opt for monthly payment.
Free .co.uk domain name registration and first year hosting with
Single-user USB 512Kbps service when paying yearly.

To speed up the process all forms are pre-completed and can be printed from the site or e-mailed to the customer directly to print later.

The entire order process has been simplified so that only essential
information is requested. A breakdown of the cost of the order is provided so that new customers are completely aware of how much the service will cost.

Revisions to Zen's credit procedure have enabled monthly billing to be
possible. The company is hoping that in providing more flexible payment options they will attract further interest from people seeking to join the broadband revolution.

Yearly payments on the single-user 512Kbps USB service are rewarded with the option of a free .co.uk domain name registration and first year hosting.

Customers no longer need to be worried about filling out masses of forms. Once they have looked at the breakdown of cost and placed their order they will come to a screen with the order confirmation which they can print-off immediately or e-mail to fill out later. All that is required is their signature. Once they have faxed this back to Zen, all they need to do is sit back, relax and wait (usually 5 working days) for ADSL to be installed. So why not make use of it at www.zenadsl.com.

Ian Buckley
Marketing Manager
Zen Internet Ltd

Its good to hear of simplified ordering services online, considering that most of what we order online takes us through huge stringent security, address and shipping processes.

News - May 13,2001

Quick ISP News

By:Ross14 @ 9:36:PM - Comments (2) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Here is some quick ISP news kindly forwarded by email from James:

Freeserve's 'Hometime' Off-Peak service no longer has a cut-off period. It originally was set at 2 hours.

SurfAnytime has made some changes to their website as well as to their DNS servers, this has resulted in a much faster website. They have also introduced discussion boards with boards for all their products/services and for general support, system status, etc. The boards are available @ http://www.surfanytime.co.uk/html/webboard.htm.

Visual Depth Email

By:Daniel @ 2:47:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Yesterday we received an email about Visual Depth:

"They use a company called Donhost for web hosting, as they simply act as a reseller. We VD for web hosting, or at least we used to. After a number of months of not being able to contact anyone from them, I decided to contact Donhost directly. Here is the e-mail that I received from Donhost just a few moments ago:

"We cannot contact them. They owe us a lot of money. Their account is
scheduled for deletion, so if you have any sites hosted with them I would advise you to move them quickly. We offer professional hosting and will not disappear with your money.

Kind Regards,
Donhost Ltd.

It would appear that they really are fraudsters! They have got away with around £4,500 from our company, and I am sure that they must have had many more customers, who are going to lose out similarly. Please could you try to find out if anyone else is affected, and as I say remove them from your unmetered forum – especially as every time I see their name I recall how they may actually have cost us our entire company, at current I have no idea of where we can find that sort of money to refinance things – I don’t want this to happen to anyone else!"

This has been edited slightly so no mention of his company is in it. This of course could be a rumour and we are trying to confirm it now.

News - May 12,2001

Latest 08002Go Update

By:rich.p @ 11:20:AM - Comments (19) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

08002Go have the latest update on their site. It gives information about upgrades and why they are suspending user accounts. Here it is:

"We are just 20 days old today and even though we have constantly added extra lines the system still seems to be occasionally engaged so here is what we are going to do next:

On Tuesday 15th May 2001 in the evening, we are adding an unprecedented amount of lines for you to enable a quick response connect ability. We have been adding lines on a daily basis since we started 20 days ago but because of your support it was obviously not enough so we are addressing that issue by Tuesday 15th May 2001.
Thank you all for your patience it will be rewarded, as you will see after Tuesday next week. Some rather nice comments you have been advising us of in particular the speeds you are all getting modem speeds of up to 49000. These speeds are due to the work that we have been doing and this is something that you do not see. Never the less this work is as important as all other work such as adding more lines because we want you to have the most enviable ISP service in the UK.

Unfortunately. Now, for the bad news!

We have been astonished at the amount of people who have in just twenty days abused your service. We have found people who have handed out their user ID and passwords to others so as to give free connections, also people channel bonding ISDN 128k access without any intentions of ever wanting to pay for the second line.
Now the point is this, these offenders are stopping you the honest user from connecting to your service as these people seem quite content at stealing air time and this will not be tolerated.

Unknown to these offenders we have some sophisticated hardware and software which will search for the concurrent users and it will automatically cut them off and not reconnect them again. So if you are out there, reading this, you will be caught! This is to protect all our honest members and lets face it, at a cost of £9.98 per month for 24/7 (we don't even insist on you paying us for a years subscription as quite a lot of other ISPs do.) it's not much to ask for. So if you are thinking of defrauding us and our honest members don't even think about it, we will disconnect you for good!

We feel we must be fair with everyone (and we are) we do not accept that all the suspended users abused our service intentionally.
We feel that some people may have not fully understood the rules.
These rules are this simple; when you joined us you paid for one connection to your P.C. only.

In some cases we feel that inadvertently some of you may have installed our service to one or more PC's, used it concurrently on one or more lines so the solution to this is simple. If you want, for example three connections from us that is you need to subscribe for three accounts at £9.98 each, totalling £29.94.

It's that simple, however if you find that you have been suspended for this reason just call us on 0161-707-8474."

The solutions they are taking to the abuse problem seems simple and effective. Obviously if your password is stolen without your knowledge then they should reinstate your account.

News - May 11,2001

LibertySurf To Acquire Intercall

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

Tiscali owned ISP, LibertySurf, has today announced its intention to secure 100% of troubled French telecoms group Intercall. The ISP presently owns a 66% stake and would like to have the whole lot.

Liberty Surf Director of Strategy Christophe Pacaud said the ISP had paid 8.4Million euros (£5.19Million) for new shares representing two-thirds of Intercall, currently under legal protection from creditors.

Liberty will launch a bid for the rest at the end of next week when Intercall shares are expected to resume trading.

Intercall Chief Executive Claude Benchetrit told reporters after a news conference that the offer should be made at the same price -- 1.58 euros per share -- as the capital increase, which allowed Liberty Surf to obtain the initial 66%.

With the backing of Liberty Surf, Intercall is now expected to post positive earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) in the final quarter of 2001, Benchetrit said.