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May 7, 2001 - May 11, 2001

News - May 11,2001

Cable Modems -vs- ADSL Broadband

By:mark.j @ 3:57:PM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Following the recent changes in price, packages and the first quarterly results from top Cable Co's such as NTL and Telewest, some analysts have been comparing Cable Modem broadband to ADSL:

The more widely available and heavily promoted BT Asymmetric DSL service is still the most popular broadband system with 54,000 subscribers, but analysts remain unconvinced about its suitability for business.

"ADSL still strikes me as a very consumer oriented product compared with cable. But it will come down to the cost and the availability of cable in business areas," said Mat Hanrahan, an analyst at Bloor Research. "If NTL can be competitive on price, get the network out there and provide the applications to make it appeal to business, then it stands a chance."

NTL's rival Telewest has reported a 14 per cent increase in users with 66,500 customers and 365,000 lines, further strengthening the cable challenge to DSL.


Of course the VNUNet item fails to take into account that ADSL and RADSL are primarily designed as consumer products, where as SDSL and VDSL etc. are more for the business market (Large businesses).

It's not really fair to compare C-Modems to ADSL since they're quite different technologies, although from a consumer point of view, we just want what we can get for the best quality and price. Ultimately most businesses may decide to stick with the reliability of a leased line, especially with prices coming down.

NTL Take Steps To Prevent Static IPs

By:mark.j @ 3:46:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

It would seem NTL are in the process of upgrading their Universal Broadband Routers (UBRs) for the Cable Modem services. Apparently this is needed in order to prevent customers assigning themselves a Static IP, the following was sent to us by an NTL customer:

Upgrades have started taking place to prevent customers assigning static ISP [sic]. This upgrade should be a transparent operation for the majority of customers although some CMX owners may be affected if their CM has been left disconnected over the last 2 weeks.

The symptoms that we have seen on the Newport East UBR, which has already been upgraded, are that the CMX status light flashes permanently orange/green.

Madasafish Update

By:mark.j @ 3:41:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Just to let you know that the senior from Madasafish sent us the following related to their ISPs sale:

Madasafish and Jings have been snapped up by Brightview Limited. The same company that bought Totalise dial up rights at the end of April.

So now you know.

ISP Review Site Update - Vacation

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

This will be the final 'Site Update' for just under two weeks because I'm off on vacation. Yes the thought of leaving you all alone in the ISP industry isn't a welcome one, but then I think about the sun and simply laugh =).

While you’re trying to fight the odds and choose an ISP, I'll be doing a similar thing, only by attempting to select the closest beer to my sun bed without causing unnecessary strain - oh the pain. Of course it won't all be harsh labour.

Thankfully I'm not an evil person when it comes to my own relaxation, no wait - I am, it's just that when you help others for so long it gets to a point where you just need a break to be selfish. In true ISPreview fashion you won't be left alone for the duration I'm away.

Two or three of our four other staff, Richard, Ross (if he has any spare time) and Rob will be doing their best to cover my absence with news and helping out on the forums, much as they usually do. On top of that I've also updated the unmetered ISP listings and complaints page to keep things fresh.

Finally the survey concluded with the following results:

[How long do you spend online per 'session' (not day)?]
1Hour 18.7% 167
2Hours 25.0% 223
3Hours 16.8% 150
4Hours 7.3% 65
5Hours+ 32.2% 287

Total votes: 892


Clearly -2Hours is the most popular usage time for low use users, although further up the scale @ 5Hours+ you suddenly see a jump. As usual we've now added a new survey that begs the question, What's your closest connection speed to those listed?

We preferred to ask that since it avoids having to mention all the various technologies. So if you're using single channel ISDN or the light Cable Modem package from NTL then you'd choose 64Kbps etc.

Aside from that and you can expect me to be covering the updates today until around 4pm, after that I'll be off. If the staff get a bit lax then don’t be afraid to give them a kick from me =). This does not mean for you to visit their individual homes and do that physically.

Iomart Sells Jings! & Madasafish ISPs

By:mark.j @ 12:07:PM - Comments (3) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Thanks to one of Madasafish's senior staff for sending this to us, but the popular gaming ISP, Madasafish, has been sold by Iomart, this also includes the Scottish ISP Jings!. Full press release follows:

iomart sells Madasafish ISP Business

iomart Group plc ("iomart"), the Glasgow based internet services company, announces that it has completed the sale of its Madasafish internet service provider business for a cash consideration of £3.0 million.

The business sold incorporates the dial up internet access services provided with either "0845" or "unmetered" products and marketed under the brand names Madasafish and Jings. These services generated revenues of £2 million during the year ended 31 December 2000 and gross profits after marketing costs (but before allocation of any staff, network, support or overhead expenses) of £0.4 million. The value of the net assets sold is minimal as the transaction effectively represents a payment for goodwill created by iomart.

The purchaser paid the entire consideration of £3.0 million cash on completion. Under transitional arrangements, iomart will continue to operate the service for up to four months on normal commercial terms.

Angus MacSween, Chief Executive of iomart, commented: -

"Over the past nine months we have been developing and implementing a strategy to move iomart into business services and away from consumer related activities. Our intention is for iomart to become a world class ASP messaging business, building on the success of our recently launched Thinkmail product for outsourced e-mail management. The sale of Madasafish will make us more focused and provide additional funding for the implementation of our revised strategy."


There's no mention of the new owners, although we know the reason for the sale was 'partly' due to their newly published financial results. It doesn't look as if this will affect services, although we'll be interested to see who now owns the ISPs.

NTLs Official Results & Ex-C&W Coverage

By:mark.j @ 10:14:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

As usual we've been hearing a lot this past week on NTL's unofficial first quarter 2001 results, although today CableNews has managed to publish the official draft. We've included the bit most relevant to our readers about residential services:

ntl ended the first quarter with 757,300 digital subscribers and 26,300 cable modem subscribers. 46,400 Revenue Generating Units (RGUs) and 7,400 new customers were added in the period. Average monthly churn across all of ntl's UK properties was 1.5%. CEO Barclay Knapp said these figures contributed to a higher level of revenue growth and a higher EBITDA than was expected. Targets set for year-end 2001 are 1.25m digital subscribers and 100,000 cable modem subscribers.

Regarding the recent price "changes", ntl stated that revenue per customer had increased from around £35.65 in Q4 2000 to £37.00 in Q1 2001. This upward trend is expected to continue through the next quarter. The full extent of the price changes will affect the entire customer base by the start of 2002, according to the press release put out by ntl today.

Broadband availability in ex-CWC areas was mentioned, although no dates were discussed. The company says that "...ultimately, both stand-alone and embedded cable modems will be available in all of our franchise areas."


As we've mentioned before in the last few days, all Ex-C&W customers will eventually get unmetered broadband access, but it'll take time.

Quality Of Life Boosted By Internet

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

AOL Europe has conducted a study of how the Internet has affected people’s lives in Europe and come up with some interesting results. Apparently most believe that the Internet has helped improve their quality of life:

The study reveals that the longer people have been going online, the greater the favourable impact it has on their lives. Seventy percent of those who have been connected for more than three years say their lives have been improved by the Internet, compared with 52 percent of those who have come online in the last 12 months.

While Internet penetration is greater in the US, European users are ten percent more likely than their American counterparts to consider the online experience a necessity in their lives. One in seven Europeans who have been online for three years or longer admit the Internet is now a necessity to them, whilst 41 percent of newcomers have become equally dependent on the Net.


The ZDNet item goes on to explain how people are increasingly arranging their lifestyles around computers with Internet access. Certainly the longer you spend online the more time you have to refine your daily dose of websites and understand the technology better.

How do you feel about the Internet, has it enriched your life or does it just provide another costly and slow burden of no real depth or use?

Buzzline Still Active With Credit Card Fraud?

By:mark.j @ 10:03:AM - Comments (2) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Many of our older readers may remember the so-called unmetered ISP, Buzzline, whom never manage to start in the first place and simply vanished. However today it looks as if Net4Nowt could have uncovered a potentially serious case of fraud related to the long dead ISP:

Within 7 hours of publishing our earlier story "Net4Nowt Readers Victim Of Credit Card Fraud" we have received notification from 11 people who allege to have applied for Buzzline and subsequently had between £400 and £500 debited from their accounts in error. The alleged transactions show as being from 'Share Manager' based in Cowbridge.

We'd like to stress that this is simply a common link and there's not quite enough evidence to back up the claims. Despite this we'd urge anybody who has recently seen similar sums vanish to the same company to contact Peter @ N4N now.

Hmm, why is it ISPs starting around the same time as Visual Depth (Our Investigation Exposed Them) all seem to be somewhat questionable? While most are now dead, it seems like a black spot for ISPs, possibly a curse.

News - May 10,2001

Confusion Over Broadband DSL

By:mark.j @ 3:58:PM - Comments (2) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

A new quarterly report published by Oftel into DSL (Digital Subscriber Line [ADSL etc.]) claims that lack of awareness with the technology is partly to blame for poor interest and take-up:

It claims that half of all businesses interviewed as part of the report had not heard of DSL and that SMEs already using the Net were equally unaware of the benefits of DSL as those companies that are not online.

It also reports that DSL usage by SMEs increased during the last quarter from less than one per cent to five per cent.

The report's authors, though, concede that figure might be a little high and instead estimate that DSL penetration is probably nearer three per cent. It seems some of the 700 businesses contacted as part of the survey suffered some "confusion as to what DSL actually is".


The Register's item isn't all that worrying when you consider DSL is still fairly new in terms of mass-market acceptance. Most businesses won't understand a technology until they find a requirement for something similar and go hunting.

BT Claims 3G To Be Stealth Tax

By:mark.j @ 3:52:PM - Comments (2) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

BT Ignites chief executive, Alfred Mockett, has today attacked the government for using the high cost of 3G Licenses as just another way of taxing the consumers (Stealth Tax):

The 3G auction in the UK raised £22bn for government coffers which chancellor Gordon Brown intends to use to pay off some of the national debt. According to Mockett, the huge price paid by telcos in order to get their hands on spectrum has had an impact on the current slump in the telecoms market.

Mockett believes the auction was little more than an excuse for government to impose a backdoor tax. "It amounted to a pre-paid tax on consumers," he said at a keynote speech delivered at the annual Economist Telecommunications Conference in London.

"The auction was played in an artificial market and operators paid twice as much for licences than they would for building the networks. We were obliged to bid or face becoming a bit player in our own market. The cost of the licence was the cost of staying in business," Mockett said.


The ZDNet item is clever because it takes a much longer term and realistic view of the market and who stands to benefit, something many of us never bother with when it comes to politics etc. Despite this the most important thing to remember is that 3G will be HUGELY profitable in the long term.

Redstone Extending SDSL Coverage

By:mark.j @ 3:42:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Provided Redstone Telecom can come up with the funds, SDSL services should soon be able to extend further than Portsmouth, its first fully operational centre:

According to a Redstone spokesman, the £3m spent in April is exceptional, due to the cost of completing the build-out of its Metropolitan Area Networks (MAN), the infrastructure needed to provide broadband ADSL and SDSL services.

Media attention on boardroom shakeups and bean counting comes at a particularly awkward time for the telco – it recently unveiled its first fully operating MAN in Portsmouth, offering SDSL services to business customers. The service provides broadband access up and downstream, and leapfrogs the tiresome fight for space in BT local exchanges by linking to exchanges remotely.

According to Redstone, MANs have also been deployed in Southampton, Fareham, Newbury, Nottingham and Cambridge, but further funding is needed to bring these networks to operational readiness.


The netimperative.com item spells good news for businesses looking for a little more choice, but isn't relevant to residential customers.

NTL Still On 100,000 Broadband Target

By:mark.j @ 3:38:PM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Along with its pre-announced Q1 financial results, NTL has let slip about the status of their Cable Modem based broadband services. At present the Cable Co has a fairly square 27,000 customers online, but claims to be signing up 1,500 new customers each WEEK!

NTL have already set a 100,000 target for the end of this year and so the results are promising. Having said that, it doesn't take a financial genius to see that the sums don't quite add up. NTL will need to pickup the pace if they stand any chance of succeeding with such a goal.

The good news is that the same documentation claims the company plans to improve customer services, upgrade and fix networks, improve overall performance and up the installation times. Most of the money for this will come from the near £500 Million set aside from a failed entry into the ADSL market.

Telewest On Unmetered Voice Calls

By:mark.j @ 12:01:PM - Comments (11) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

CableNews has posted word of Telewests latest addition, an unmetered voice and TV package deal (Sorry we've posted this before, just didn't notice it):

Telewest has unveiled a new telephony package, which analysts say is "the most radical of its kind". It is believed to be an attempt to attract heavy residential telephone users away from BT, and the Financial Times reports that it "...represents an escalation in competition in the fixed-line telephony market."

The package, for £25 per month, includes Telewest's basic digital cable television lineup and telephone line rental - but what makes this package special is that it provides unmetered local and national calls. International and mobile calls are still metered.

Philip Jansen, MD of Telewest's cable division, commented: "Our research shows that 94 per cent of people are worried about their phone bill because it's difficult to gauge how much you're spending on a daily basis. This deal will remove that fear."


Only a day ago Telewest also 'officially' announced its new broadband pricing of £25 per month, down from £33. Clearly the provider has been feeling the heat from a growing RA/ADSL market and NTLs cheaper competition.

As yet we don’t know the full details about the unmetered voice calls offer and how it compares to BTs Off-Peak one, although we should do soon.

BigBlueSky Back Online

By:mark.j @ 10:39:AM - Comments (10) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

A day earlier than BigBlueSky predicted when we asked them yesterday, the service has today resumed for the majority of customers, although some are still finding problems.

We'd like to think this was because they realised customers were seriously unhappy with the situation, although they haven't said so. Despite this there remains a strong rumour of internal problems with the company, we'll just have to wait and see how things develop.

News - May 9,2001

EU To Force Low-Cost Broadband

By:mark.j @ 4:24:PM - Comments (3) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The European government alongside various Telecom regulators are discussing the possibility of forcing Telco's to offer lower cost broadband solutions. Cost is widely believed to be the most restrictive factor of modern broadband technologies such as ADSL:

In an address to an industry conference last week, Duncan Lewis, president of Ebone ­- the broadband arm of Global TeleSystems ­- called for European governments and regulators to make Europe more competitive in e-business.

"Some observers have lost sight of the essential fact that broadband and Internet technologies will bring huge business and social benefits to Europe," said Lewis. "But unless governments and regulators take urgent action to unblock the broadband bottleneck by implementing legislation that bans overpricing and discrimination, many of those benefits will be realised too late or not at all."


Sadly the ZDNet item makes no mention of residential broadband, which is a pity because the residential pull also helps improve coverage and thus makes the technologies more accessible to businesses.

New Virus Alert - READ

By:mark.j @ 4:19:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

We don't usually report on Viruses unless they appear to be especially virulent and today is one of those days:

A new email worm, known to virus experts as VBS.VBSWG2 and dubbed Homepage, is reported to infected scores of companies today, and anti-virus experts say that there may be more infections in the first 24 hours than was seen with the Lovebug virus -- widely regarded as the most profilic virus of all time.

The new virus is reported to be spreading faster than any known virus before it, although full details are not yet known. You can recognise it as follows:

The email spreading the worm claims to contain a page that is guaranteed to become the next Internet craze. It has the subject line "Homepage", and the message, "Hi! You've got to see this page. It's really cool ;o)".

The attached file -- homepage.html.vbs -- is not an html document, but a malicious Visual Basic script. Once executed, the script will forward the same email on to all the people in a victim's address book and automatically open one of four pornographic Web pages on the user's computer.


Thankfully the virus itself, like so many 'WORMS', doesn't actually do serious damage to your system. Having said that you should be on your guard, if one gets in then another can the same. More @ ZDNet.

One In Five Would Vote Online

By:mark.j @ 4:14:PM - Comments (3) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

According to the latest survey by Forrester Research, one in five of you would agree to use the Internet as a method for voting in the election.

While the numbers may be small, if you put that against the number of homes with FULL Internet access then it's more like one in two. As the recent 'Red Nose Day Online Donation' system proved, the improved access and ease of use is more likely to attract an active response.

Why loose expensive petrol getting to the polling booth when you can logon and place your vote in a matter of moments. Of course online security is likely to scare the most people, nothing's 100% secure. We'd probably consider voting if it was easier to do, especially through the Internet, would you?

AOL UK To Refund Disgruntled Trialists

By:mark.j @ 4:06:PM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Good news for all those who complained last week that AOL UK wouldn't allow them to cancel their free trial, such users will now be getting a refund. The popular British ISP will also issue a formal apology.

According to an AOL spokesman the ISP has been working through the weekend in an attempt to rectify the problem and has now written to every one of the complainants offering an apology and a refund. "We have also changed the way we do things. Some people were phoning the freephone number to cancel and having horrendous waiting times," admitted the spokesman.

With more people on the phones, AOL is confident the waiting time will now be no more than two minutes. So if you have had a similar problem and not yet made an official complaint to AOL, do so NOW.

BigBlueSky Downtime NOT BTs Fault

By:mark.j @ 3:57:PM - Comments (20) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Thanks to our resident ISP informant, Keith, we've been able to establish that the BigBlueSky fault is actually nothing to do with BT, but BBS themselves. Keith was able to ask BBS some questions and we're afraid the bad news kind of out ways the good, kind of:

What is happening with BBS?:
"The server ports are all disconnected at present since we are upgrading the service to cope with demand."

When i asked waws it a BT fault, they answered:
"No, it is not a fault we are just upgrading the servers to cope in future"

I then asked why they had not updated their webpage and why no notice was given to the service being suspended until the upgrade is finished?:
"I will pass the details on for the website to be updated"

The last question i asked was when will the service be available?:
"All should be back online In about 3 days and will not work before then"


Three days! You read that correctly. BigBlueSky have opted for a serious upgrade that will ultimately see them down for several days and yet didn't even inform their customers. We find this deplorable and a very serious lack of respect towards customers. We simply can't fathom why they didn't tell people about such a serious change.

So what’s the good news you ask? They’ll be back online, just in a few days and not ‘hours’ as many had hoped.

Connect25 Refund & Closure Update

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

Net4Nowt have today published details of last weeks Connect25's creditors meeting. Apparently 5,500 subscribers are to be classed as unsecured creditors (used cheques to pay etc.) and will not get a refund.

Since there's no mention of Connect25's total subscriber base then we have no idea exactly how many will get a refund, although for a small ISP that's far too high of a number. Here are some details about their closure:

Then in March Connect25 launched its advertisement software which was dogged with problems right from the beginning. Customers then cancelled their accounts and contacted WorldPay for a refund who in turn froze Connect25’s account and refused to release funds. The software was then cancelled and the yearly fee was changed to £8.95 per month.

The final straw that broke the camels back was when there was a slump in sales during April. Also the freefone Internet minutes arrived from BT which was way over the budgeted cost. WorldPay were still refusing to release funds which left the company with no further option but to close down to prevent further costs from incurring.


As expected the 'metered minutes' bill (comes from using an outdated system) was too much of an economic stress on the ISP and will have been significant in their closure. However the next paragraph really goes to prove why those who don't understand ISPs should never start one in the first place:

They were advised by BT that it would be sufficient for ten subscribers to use one modem port, but did not clearly that that only one port could be used at any one time by only one customer. This meant that the customers experienced engaged tomes during busy periods and annoyed customers.

Most of our own readers understand that one person can only use one port at a time, more questions surfaced from this because they advertised an even lower port ratio on the site. It's no secret that Connect25 started out being run by just two people (father and daughter), clearly lacking in experience.

We'll bring you more details and information on refunds when we have it.

Who Will Local Loop Unbundling Reach?

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

Local Loop Unbundling (LLU) has been one of the most interesting sagas for the past year. By allowing operators to 'have a slice' of BTs market and set their own prices (within BTs reason), the project was to allow greater freedom and choice for consumers while encouraging competition.

However it has emerged today that a good portion of the operators still left in the process may not introduce residential services at all, targeting businesses instead:

ZDNet's own quick survey of a few of the companies still involved in rolling out services via broadband reveals that there is unlikely to be a product for the consumer mass market. Atlantic Telecom is planning to launch business services in Manchester but is hedging its bets on farther outlay. "No-one knows what will happen when local loop unbundling is finished," said an Atlantic Telecom spokeswoman. "We have a finite amount of cash and will wait and see how we get on in Manchester."

Fibernet is planning to develop a nationwide service but it will again have a specific niche -- for ISPs and SMEs (Small and Medium-sized Enterprise). According to Fibernet's Nigel Pitcher the firm only needs to take services from around 220 of the planned 5,000 unbundled exchanges, starting with Leeds, Bristol and Warrington in the next four months.


Admittedly the ZDNet item has only questioned less than half those believed to be left in the process and from a quality standpoint, less can be more (quality AND cost).

Having said that, it does now appear as if the market won't be as 'open ended' for residential customers as had once been hoped. It looks as if business will get the competitive choice and consumers will be back to the old BT vs Cable Co's debate.

BigBlueSky Downtime Update

By:mark.j @ 9:34:AM - Comments (7) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Although it's already been mentioned in our forums since yesterday evening, we now have some new information about BigBlueSky. Thanks to Keith we called the BT service problems information line and heard something along these lines (slightly different now):

Tuesday 8th May 7pm, Anytime Dialup Access Platform - Connection Fault. We are dealing with the problem.

This is a semi-global problem and is causing problems for more ISPs than just BigBlueSky, although to what extent other ISPs have been affected is as yet unknown.

We can also tell you that BBS are NOT using a BTSurfTime system (laughable), they appear to be using one of BTs newer WebPort24 or SurfPort24 products, as does 08002Go. The latest information we have is that the problem is serious, but should be resolved during the day - no time given.

BigBlueSky are NOT going to close, this is just a major outage due to BTs own failings.

News - May 8,2001

Telewest launches blockbuster broadband bundle

By:Daniel @ 7:11:PM - Comments (14) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Here is a press release that we received today from Telewest about their new offer 'Talk Unlimited'

"Telewest, the broadband communications group, today launches a revolutionary new package that gives customers digital television, a phone line and unlimited local and national calls, any time of day seven days a week, for just £25 a month. This follows last week’s initiative, enabling customers wanting to combine hi-speed internet with either digital tv or a phone line, to pay a discounted price of £25 a month for blueyonder, the company’s broadband product. Today’s announcement once again demonstrates Telewest’s commitment to leading the way in making Broadband Britain a reality.

Talk Unlimited provides residential customers with a worry-free phone service, as customers pay a flat rate of £25 a month. Customers can call all local and national rate phone numbers at any time of the day for as long as they wish for one monthly charge of £25, which includes the line rental plus a subscription to digital television. The only additional call charges are for international calls, calls to mobile phones, premium rate numbers or internet calls all at competitive rates.

Customers will feel happier using Talk Unlimited because they will know how much they will be charged ahead of time. It will also attract customers who previously may not have considered cable for either phone or digital television. Bundling phone line and digital television, and giving it a fixed cost, will increase average revenue per customer and reduce Telewest's churn.

It is now easier and better value than ever before to have an always-on broadband home. Helping its customers achieve cost effective, high speed and always-on Internet access, Telewest is making broadband a mass market proposition for the first time.

Commenting on today's initiatives, Philip Jansen, managing director of Telewest's cable division, said:

"Telewest is leading the way in increasing access to broadband services in Britain. Our
Talk Unlimited package, launched today, offers our customers greater freedom using the phone. Combining this with our broadband blueyonder service is a great example of the power that cable has to bundle products across telephone, television and internet at unbeatable prices.”

OneTel.Net Preparing Unmetered Plan

By:Ross14 @ 6:44:PM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The ISP OneTel.Net is preparing to launch, in the near future, an unmetered internet plan to sit alongside aside their 1p per min 24/7 service.

You can pre-register for the offer @ http://www.onetel.net.uk/unlim/index.html.

You will receive 3 email address, 10mb of webspace and flat rate internet access 24/7. And also, you have the option to choose other services that you are interested in such as:

  • Internet Call Waiting
  • Real-Time Chat
  • 128K ISDN Access
  • Online Games
  • and more....

    So hopefully if enough people pre-register and choose the 128K ISDN Access option, OneTel.Net may offer this service to customers =)
  • Exclusive: BigBlueSky Dial-Up Disconnected

    By:Ross14 @ 5:49:PM - Comments (29) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

    We are getting reports in that the BigBlueSky dial-up number (0800 169 5801) is dead. We dialled the number ourselves and got the unobtainable tone (dead tone).

    We called the operator to see if they could give us any more information and we were forwarded through the company that owns the number. There we heard a recorded message:

    "The number you have dialled has been disconnected from the Surftime service. Please do not forward any customers to this number. Thank you."

    We are not sure yet if this affects all of the BigBlueSky numbers, as we know there are quite a few, so if customers of the service could try to logon on different numbers to see if they are still operational.

    We are, though, a little stumped as to why the recorded message mentions surftime. Maybe BigBlueSky were on a Surftime service (ie, the 0800 number was forwarding to an 0844 number...?).

    We shall await more information from members of BBS.

    Update

    We have been informed by users of BBS that all the dial-up numbers are reporting a dead tone. But, we were called up by BT after reporting a fault on the lines and were told that the numbers are "temporarily out of order and will be functional in a few hours". Only time will tell though.

    Freeserve & Others Suffer E-Mail Outage

    By:mark.j @ 4:12:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

    Several popular British ISPs, including Freeserve, have recently suffered a serious E-Mail outage. The problem was apparently due to a fault with some of the servers @ Energis (backbone network), although this has now been resolved.

    It may take several hours for those affected to clear any backlog of information, yet no data was physically lost.

    One Of The Five 3G License Holders To Fail

    By:mark.j @ 4:05:PM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

    Unless the government can resolve the current dispute over finances and costs related to 3G licenses and network building, new research claims one of the five primary operators will fold:

    This is the conclusion of Northstream, an analyst firm which has just published the results of an investigation into the business case for 3G -- the mobile phone technology that will offer a constant high-speed connection to the Internet and should roll out across Europe over the next three years.

    Northstream found that an operator who tries to set up a 3G network in a country where it does not already operate a mobile phone network -- known as a "green field" operator -- will struggle to succeed. It also calculated that the high licence fees paid in some countries -- such as the UK -- will have a detrimental effect on users as it will make it significantly harder for operators to break even.

    The implication is that at least one of the five companies who successfully bid between £4bn and £6bn for a 3G licence in the UK could fail. "I doubt that all five companies will be successful, given the high licence fees. It will be particularly difficult for Hutchinson, the green field operator," said Johan Ragnevad, strategic advisor at Northstream. Ragnevad thinks that the UK has a high enough population density to support four rival 3G networks, though.


    The ZDNet item only serves to help clear up much of what we already knew, that somewhere along the line there would be a casualty. The good news is that Orange, Vodafone and BTCellNet still seem to be hanging in there for the future.

    Exclusive:Net In A Nutshell's New Unmetered

    By:mark.j @ 3:43:PM - Comments (2) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

    Many of you may remember how the ISP group, Net In A Nutshell, launched a special unmetered ISP & FREE (kind of) PC package just over a month ago. Today that same ISP has given us an exclusive on the launch of their 'separate' unmetered offer:

    NET IN A NUTSHELL ANNOUNCES 24/7 UNMETERED INTERNET ACCESS


    For the first time in the United Kingdom, Net In a Nutshell offers unlimited Internet access. “Net experts, as well as new users, will find Nutshells speed and reliability second to none.” Says CEO Scott Ide. A tier 1 provider with 12:1 contention ratios makes Net in a Nutshell confident in the quality of their service. “The frustrations experienced by UK users prompted us to launch a service that compares favourably to any other ISP on the market today.” added IT Director Ron Allsopp.

    Even more compelling, the price starts at just £9.99 per month for a three month membership, or £12.99 monthly with no additional commitment. “This is a great deal for those who wish to use the Internet anytime of the day with no restrictions and at an affordable price” says Nutshell Director Jonathan Watts-Lay “Nutshell offers high quality internet connection designed to keep all customers online

    Additionally, Net In a Nutshell offers universal Internet access through a revolutionary package that unites PC, Internet costs and call charges in an affordable single flat fee. The company has completed deals with Hewlett Packard and Cable & Wireless that allow them to provide high specification machines at a cost that challenges both the Retailers and Internet Service Providers. The customer will own the PC and have the chance to upgrade every two years. A monthly payment of £29.99 will cover all of the Internet connection charges; call charges and the cost of the PC. This all in one package is available to all UK residents with a phone connection. http://www.nutshell.co.uk, http://www.nutshell.net.


    Thanks to the Chief Internet Technologist @ Net in a Nutshell for giving us this exclusive press release before anybody else. Full package information is not yet clear, although it's worth pointing out that a contention of 12:1 isn't so shocking given the current market spread.

    As usual we will be keeping our eyes on this provider as we do with all new ISPs, although they've already proved successful with the PC+Unmetered deal. The new service stands out from the crowd with a rare £9.99 three-month introduction price and no mention of any nasty 12month contracts.

    Question To the Readers

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

    Typically the holiday weekend was slow on news (strangely active on Saturday), yet we haven't had such a 'DRY' news day as this for sometime. Perhaps because we've already covered everything, which all the others are doing now =).

    As such it seems like now would be the best time to put a big question to all of you and it's something we're often asked, yet find hard to answer.

    Exactly which of the 66 unmetered ISPs we know to exist will allow you to use all their unmetered (freecall) services from a third party Telco?

    With the constantly changing unmetered systems (BTSurfPort24 etc.) and their many varied implementations, we've completely lost track of who allows what and from where. That combined with the fact that ISPs simply don't mention such information makes life hard.

    So quite simply, if you use an unmetered ISP, but from a Telco other than BT, then let us know which through the comments for this news item. Clearly don't include accessing Telewests ISP from a Telewest line; we're talking about global freecall here.

    ADSLGuide Talks With BTIgnite

    By:mark.j @ 9:24:AM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

    We completely missed this one last week due to preparing for a short vacation away from ISP news, but the popular ADSLGuide site finally had their chat session with BTIgnite. You can read it here in full, although here's a few of the more interesting responses:

    Question [JEM Marketing]: ADSL looks like a good idea.. but how will it be supported with low subscription rates? look at all the 0800 services!

    BTignite says:
    We have no immediate plans to reduce our pricing. We believe that it's good value for money for an always on, high bandwidth, new servic

    Question[tarasd2]: how many exchanges are gonna enabled (in % terms) and in what time frame?

    BTignite says:
    We plan to extend coverage to 60% by end of Sept


    It's a pity BTIgnite didn't give more detail in their answers, although since most questions seem to refer to BTOpenworld (not directly linked, if you believe BT) then that's not so surprising. There’s a ton of information to go through, so set aside an hour or two if you really want to read that far.

    News - May 7,2001

    WOL Telephone Service Update

    By:Ross14 @ 5:46:PM - Comments (2) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

    As most WOL (World Online) customers will know, WOL are ceasing their telephone service to concentrate on internet services. Well, we were given a quick update on the progress of the situation from Brian via email (thanks!):

    Today I received a call from WOL notifying me that they are to terminate voice calls in July of this year.

    They will continue to provide internet access in their role of one of Europe's major ISP's.

    A company called Servista will be taking over the telco role and the initial agreement will be for 90 days, all the transfers will be handled between WOL and Servista.

    WOL will confirm todays telephone conversation in a written letter in a couple of weeks time and customers have 7 days (from the date of the letter )to either transfer to Servista or make alternative arrangements.


    If WOL customers would like to know more about the Servista telephone service, then visit the company website @ www.servista.com.

    Broadband Internet On-The-Fly

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

    Hopefully you're all enjoying today’s national bank holiday and some of you may have even taken a plane abroad, if so then this might be of interest to you. The Internet content and technology provider ScreamingMedia has made a deal with Boeing to provide in-flight broadband Internet access.

    The new service will be available for commercial airlines in late 2001 or early 2002, Clark said, although a service is already running in prototype in some business jets. Passengers will pay a fee for the service but the amount was not detailed.

    The first 10 destinations that will feature ScreamingMedia's services while on board Boeing-made aircraft are San Francisco, Detroit, Chicago, New York, Dallas, Houston, Denver, Atlanta, Los Angeles and Seattle.

    "For example, when a passenger gets on a plane from Los Angeles to New York, he'll get all the information about the weather, where to go, concerts," he said. Clark said no comparable service exists.

    Family Friendly Unmetered ISP V21 - Live

    By:mark.j @ 3:40:PM - Comments (4) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

    In case you missed the update and reminder last week, the controversial unmetered ISP, V21, which filters improper material away from the eyes of children, has today gone live (thanks Keith):

    We are pleased announce that we officially launched at 9.00 a.m. this morning.

    You can now go to our homepage at www.v21.co.uk to download your copy of our software and sign up.

    By signing up for this ISP you will also be entitled to unmetered Internet access 24/7 for £12.99 per month.

    If you experience any problems please email install@v21.co.uk. or telephone the V21 technical helpline on 09067 365 521. Calls charged at £1 per minute.


    The ISP has been under scrutiny since it was first announced when we questioned their guarantees of being able to keep 100% of unsuitable material away from children. More recently they've found much heavier controversy from the general media. We'll be reviewing the ISP once it’s had a chance to settle and will let any parents know just how strong their software really is, or isn’t.

    EU Anti-SPAM Law Could Harm Businesses

    By:mark.j @ 10:20:AM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

    The EU Parliament is only moments away from supporting a law that could require companies to include anti-SPAM and privacy-protection technology in their products. Companies carrying out legitimate online marketing are now worried the laws could harm them:

    The European Information and Communications Technology Industry Association (EICTA) said the provision would not stop the abuse of personal data, but would harm innovation and competitiveness.

    Among the proposed changes to the law is a requirement that all EU member states should adopt an opt-in scheme ­- requiring prior consent to send unsolicited email. Supporters of the measure said this would tackle the growing spam problem and reduce costs for corporates. But direct marketers said the proposal does not allow legitimate marketing.


    We think it's fair to say that the ZDNet item highlights an issue close to many of our hearts. At one time or another we will all received 'unsolicited email marketing', which is extremely annoying. We'd personally be glad to see it put on death row, if just to make our Inboxes a little less cluttered.

    Energis Broadband Still Unhappy With BT

    By:mark.j @ 10:14:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

    Many of you may remember that last month Oftel finally issued a mandatory rule that BT MUST come to an agreement over sharing exchanges so as to provide high-speed Internet connections. Sadly BT has once again chosen to stand in defiance of the ruling after talks broke down yet again.

    Telecom firm, Energis, has said it is seeking "urgent action" from Oftel after talks with British Telecom failed. The two sides failed to agree terms for Energis to provide a range of DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) interconnection products that would have increased competition in the broadband market, the company said.

    "We are disappointed at the reluctance of BT to enter into genuine negotiation on this issue, and will now have to wait for Oftel to conduct a market review, before they can make a further determination on whether BT's prices should be cost-oriented," Energis Chief Operating Officer David Wickham said in a statement on Sunday.

    Oftel asked BT to agree charges with Energis and Thus, another telecom operator, after the two companies complained last year. Talks are thought to have broken down, however, because of disagreements over costs and flexibility.

    In January, Thus joined a stream of other companies that have abandoned plans to install broadband DSL equipment in the exchanges, which are being opened up to BT's rivals. The regulator aims to end BT's monopoly over the wires linking homes to local exchanges, also known as the local loop.

    According to some newspapers and sites, BT wanted charge £340 per customer each year, which is roughly three times what companies believe fair.

    Quite how the situation will now resolve is not yet clear; once again Oftel is drafted in to investigate and more time is lost.

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