Welcome to our News Archives page

April 4, 2001 - April 10, 2001

News - April 10,2001

SkyStorm & StarSpeeder Satellite Update

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

A few small bits of news filtering out from the new range of UK digital satellite ISPs today. Firstly the SkyStorm site is backup after a long period of downtime and they've also re-added the forum again.

Secondly StarSpeeder has made an announcement regarding the hardware package and service status:

Starspeeder STARTER PACK :-

Pent@NET DVB Card http://www.pentamedia.com/english/products/penta-net.htm
60cm Channel Master Dish
MTI 0.6dB Universal LNB
Satellite Installation Kit (cable, connectors etc)

£129.99 (Including VAT)

This price does not include a subscription.

We have online ordering facilities ready, we are just waiting for an official start date before we start selling hardware.

Small delays and undisclosed issues with CBL seem to be holding things up, although both ISPs are expected to be online fairly soon. To recap, SkyStorm is actually a reseller for StarSpeeder, although they hope to make Satellite ISPs more accessible.

European Broadband Coverage To Slow

By:mark.j @ 11:12:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The ever-popular research group, Jupiter MMXI, has today released new findings that show adoption of high-speed, or broadband Internet in Europe will be slower than most current projections. Barely 10 million are expected to be using any such technology by 2003.

The rollout of broadband Internet is hampered by lack of competition among operators, low customer demand and the high price of technology, Jupiter said on Tuesday.

Broadband Internet is normally defined as high-speed Internet access that is always on. It is normally delivered through the TV cable network or using DSL (digital subscriber line) technology over the telephone network.

Such services in Europe cost the consumer 200 euros (£124) to install and about 50 euros (£31) per month, Jupiter said. It added there are currently around 3.5 million broadband subscribers in Europe.

Customers are often unaware of the benefits of broadband, Jupiter added.

"The high prices currently being charged for broadband access means that the majority of consumers are discouraged from the technology. To attract these people, companies need to improve their marketing message to ensure that Europeans understand the added value of broadband," Jupiter said.

Nordic countries will grow broadband penetration the fasted with 30 percent of households in Sweden, Finland and Norway using broadband by 2005.

BTs Debt Restructuring Plan Continues

By:mark.j @ 9:45:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

In an effort to further alleviate some of their debt, British Telecom says it has selected a joint venture between Land Securities Trillium and William Pears Group as its preferred bidder to sell its property portfolio.

The company said on Tuesday the transaction, aimed at easing its 30 billion pound debt burden, is expected to be completed during the summer.

The property estate totals six million square metres (64 million square feet) and its divestment would represent a key step in enabling the company to focus on its core business.

Marconi Next To Be Hit By Telecom Downturn

By:mark.j @ 9:43:AM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The downturn in the market, especially towards Telecom companies, has today taken its latest victim, Marconi. The company intends to slash a whopping 6% off its workforce and being the UK's largest telecom manufacturer means that equates to roughly 3,000 jobs!:

The move follows recent job cuts and/or profit warnings at Motorola, Lucent, Cisco and Ericsson and others in the telecoms and mobile space, which have all been blamed on the US market slowdown. In line with other companies, Marconi is likely to package the job cuts as part of a restructuring programme, necessitated by market slowdown and increased competition.

The company employs about half its 55,000 global workforce in the UK.

The netimperative.com article highlights an ongoing issue with the global market that’s taking a bite out of Telco's around the world.

U Genie To Close & Take E-Mails Away

By:mark.j @ 9:35:AM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

As spotted on Net4Nowt this morning, the service provider U.Genie are to close and merge into BT Cellnet backed, Genie Internet. The following announcement can be seen upon loading their page:

Important Notice

We are sorry to announce that www.u.genie.co.uk will be closing down on 10th May, 2001. However, the good news is that you can continue to enjoy similar services like free text messaging (SMS), free webspace or free internet access if you join our sister site www.genie.co.uk. All you have to do is register now for free with Genie by clicking here.

For more information on what this means to you, click here.

We thank you for using U.Genie but hope you will stay with us by joining Genie.

From all of the U.Genie team.

Despite this customers have been angry that U.Genie will not be transferring their E-Mail addresses over as well. Sadly the provider is unlikely to listen unless a sufficiently large group petition it, although it's probably already too late.

News - April 9,2001

Who Will Regulate The Regulators?-EC

By:mark.j @ 3:32:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Moves that started to destroy the European Commission’s power over external regulators (Oftel) have today been slammed by The European Competitive Telecommunications Association (ECTA):

ECTA, whose members include WorldCom, Ebone and Level 3, said that if national regulatory authorities (NRAs) like Oftel are allowed to make autonomous decisions and are not answerable to the European Commission, it will hurt European e-commerce.

Phil Evins, managing director of ECTA said: “This is contrary to everything we have lobbied for in recent weeks and months. It is short-sighted and flies in the face of moves to enable the best e-commerce, broadband access for all our citizens [in Europe].”

ECTA argues that if the European Commission is not allowed to overrule decisions made by regulators, telecoms companies wanting to roll out pan-European services will be forced to negotiate with 15 different authorities.

The netimperative.com article mentions that 15 telecom ministers representing the member stats voted unanimously that the EC shouldn't have the right to amend or change NRA regulations. Typically Oftel/DTI are opposed to ECTA's statement, while pan-European providers are in favour.

Oftel will no doubt be happy that they have one less tune to make for every action they take.

UKs 3G Broadband Wireless Still On Track

By:mark.j @ 9:55:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

According to the Global Mobile Suppliers Association (GSA), 3G mobile phones and technology are still on track to reach the UK within the proper time scale. The GSA president, Alan Hadden, had some information to share on the subject:

However, considering that three (Orange, One2One and Hutchison 3G) of the UK’s 3G licence holders are using Nokia as a major network infrastructure supplier, and have committed to commercial rollouts mid-2002, it seems likely that the timing may slip a little.

However, Hadden dismisses this: “We are seeing GPRS, the forerunner of 3G rolling out commercially now, and in my opinion the learning curve before next year should be sufficient for viable 3G rollout.”

He continued: “However, it must be remembered that this market is not black and white – the operators have to create the market for non-voice (data) services over the coming months. Users have to be conditioned as to what they can expect with GPRS, then a process of migration and evolution can take place towards 3G. There will not be a sudden 3G explosion.”

Despite all this it must be remembered that the UK won't physically see 3G mobiles and services for sometime yet, we've barely even begun to ship GPRS (2.5G) technology and phones.

V21 Unmetered ISP To Launch 7th May 2001

By:mark.j @ 9:48:AM - Comments (3) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The 'Family Friendly ISP', V21, that was originally due to go live on 3rd May, will now launch on the 7th instead. Thanks to Keith for pointing out the most recent update on their site:

http://www.V21.co.uk is launching on May 7th 2001 as the World's 1st Dedicated Family Friendly ISP in the UK. We will be providing Unlimited Internet access for a fixed one off cost of £12.99 per month.( NO CALL CHARGES) This package will include

* The V21 unique Family Friendly Browser
* One of the web's shortest email address's
* Protection From Newsgroups and Chat Rooms
* Language Controlled Email System
And Loads More..............

We have compiled a multimedia presentation to show the capabilities and services available form V21. Click Here To See Movie

Alternatively you can go directly to the interest sign up where you will be entered into our prize draw for a £21,000 family car. Click here to continue

Being one of the cheaper unmetered ISPs means it should have a strong interest base, not to mention that many parents will welcome their ‘filtering’ techniques. However as we mentioned the first time this ISP was reported on, it remains to be seen just how strong the filtering system is.

TheDogmaGroup Relaunch OnlineServe

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

TheDogmaGroup have sent us their latest press release in which the ISP/Network provider heralds the relaunch of OnlineServe business access:

THEDOGMAGROUP.COM

The Group has invested heavily in a Network infrastructure that can provide both first time connection and quality of speed. With a fresh hold of nearly 10,000 cusomers, thedogmagroup.com (www.thedogmagroup.co.uk) is well on the way of beating its first quater estimations and for this reason, the company has decided to have a complete face lift - with the new brand of 'thedotcompletesolution' set of services, thedogmagroup.com can now provide excellent after sales care with a 100% free technical support via a 0800 freephone number as well as onsite technical enginners now sitauted at the new Datacntre based at the Manchester Campus.

RELAUNCH OF ONLINESERVE - BUSINESS ACCESS.

OnlineServe.co.uk is the leading Business access provider - it has been recently relaunched with the idea of providing businesses around the UK with the means to get connected and stay connected.

OnlineServe Provides:

-FREE 0845 Dial-Up
-FREECALL Access
-ADSL : 512k up to 2Mbps
-Leased Line Technology

it also provides:

-FREE 0800 Technical support
-Free unlimited email addresses
-Free 25 MB non-commercial webspace
-Uncensored News group access

Visit http://www.onlineserve.co.uk

EZACCESS INTERNET - thedotcompletehomeisp

We would like to remind the public, that thedogmagroup.com still operates ezaccess Internet - which provides FREE INTERNET ACCESS and excellent technical support!

Visit http://www.ezaccess.co.uk for more info!

THE ACQUISITION OF FIREDOTHOST.COM

All customers of FIREDOTHOST.COM and FIREHOST.CO.UK have now been transferred to thedogmagroup.com - we welcome them with open arms and hope they enjoy the services we provide.

TheDogmaGroup group has so far managed to stand the test of time quite well and have an interesting 0845/0800 dial-up combo access service.

News - April 8,2001

ISP Review Weekly Update

By:mark.j @ 10:35:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The smell of spring is in the air, buds on the trees starting to sprout and cows are burning on the horizon. Well not really, the rest is true, but the whole cow thing, that's false because Foot & Mouth hasn't reach this far yet - phew.

The south of England is notoriously attractive this time of year, but then so is the ISP industry, especially with the new breed of cheaper providers starting to surface. This last week has seen less overall news, although a lot more in the way of unmetered ISP changes and announcements.

ISP Review has also seen its fare share of changes, as well as updating many of the sections we also managed to get the new/additional ISP Specific Forums online. This is a kind of 'Public Beta Test' so we can see how it copes and what more to add or remove.

We still have a lot to do and as before it should be made clear that many things will change and be introduced over the coming weeks. Hopefully all should be completed by Mid-May, when I'll be vacating this damp green isle for a short holiday with friends.

We have some new ISP reviews and an article or two coming soon as well, plus we should be able to FINALLY finish the 0845 listings next week. It takes a long time to check and add in every ISP to the automated system, but will ultimately be better for it in the future.

So have a nice weekend and enjoy the sunshine that's about to engulf (I hope) our country for the next few days.

Updated BTIgnite RADSL Information

By:mark.j @ 10:05:AM - Comments (8) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Some late news; the ever popular site for users of ADSL ISPs, ADSLguide, has made an update regarding the status of BTs RADSL (Rate Adaptive / Extended Reach Digital Subscriber Line) broadband services:

What is new is that we have received indication of the installation test limits

Reach of 5km.
dbLoss of 55dB

RADSL is a technology not unlike ADSL, except it will allow BT to reach those customers outside of the normal 3.5KM range of ADSL. This will also mean they can cover more of the country without having to upgrade so many exchanges, something that many believe to be cheating.

The disadvantage is that distance can affect speeds, although the test reach of 5KM is not as much as the 6-8KM many had been hoping for. Our guess is that BT realised the longer you stretch things the weaker the speeds and the more difficult it is to offer a 'SET' package because of that.

HomeChoice ADSL Petition

By:mark.j @ 9:55:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

As posted on our forum yesterday, one of the users from the HomeChoice ADSL service has started a petition:

http://www.petitiononline.com/HCserv/

I am a Homechoice customer, and I assume that all of the people who are signing this petition are Homechoice customers too.

The aim of this petition is to show Homechoice how fed up their customers are of receiving substandard service, being fobbed off with excuses and generally mislead.

Please sign this petition to demand a fair service from Homechoice.

Homechoice need to let us know whether they ever intend upgrading to 512, they need to sort out the email problems and they need to stop holding people to ransom with the contract when the service they have provided is unacceptable.

Anybody using the service or linked with it should already be aware that the special £20 Per Month 115Kbps solution has its fair share of problems. The ISP has suffered from extremely slow speeds and support issues since its very inception.

Ex-CWC Cable Modem Details

By:rich.p @ 9:37:AM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Cablenews:uk has obtained some official information from NTL about the rollout of a cable modem service in ex-CWC franchise areas. The service will launch in mid-may in Manchester, with other areas following. There are two speed options 128kbps and 512kbps, costing £14.99 and £24.99. For more information:

Cablenews:uk Article

News - April 7,2001

LogicSurf ISP LIVE!

By:mark.j @ 2:02:PM - Comments (2) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Yet another of the newer generation of unmetered ISPs, LogicSurf Internet, has today finally launched their first set of services. Sadly it's only the FREE (Local Call Rate [0845]) option, although the unmetered one is expected soon. To recap:

0800 Access Coming Soon

At long last its arrived. Coming very soon your phone bill will become non existent to internet calls when you signup with LogicSurf Internet. We are offering 0800 access to all users off peak access and 24/7 for a small monthly fee.
0800 will be offered for all users on cable or BT but will only be up to speed of 64k at the moment.

0800 access on logicsurf Internet will only be offered to existing 0845 users only. When we have launched the service you will be required to come to the website, click sign up to logicsurf and select existing customer wishing to upgrade to call 0800 service. Then enter your 0845 username and follow the steps to set it up. Please note that you will require a credit or debit card.

Prices For Call 0800 on LogicSurf Internet:

Off-Peak - £9.99 per month.
24/7 - £15.00 per month.
(prices are yet to be finalised)

So if you fancy giving them a try then make sure to signup to the 0845 system before the 0800 one launches. As a side note we also notice they managed to have a slight design change, yet some of the more important pages seem unlinked.

News - April 6,2001

Claranet 24-7 in June

By:rich.p @ 10:58:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Thanks to Ian for sending us this from the latest Claranet newsletter. It clearly indicates that they are to launch the product in June:

FreeTime.AnyTime
We know that many of you have been waiting for news of our 24/7
unmetered product - FreeTime AnyTime. We are pleased to announce that we have made significant progress in our plans to offer a 24/7 unmetered Internet access product.

We are now hoping to launch a range of 24/7 packages in June 2001, the full details of which will be posted on the web site in due course. In the meantime, thank you for patience and continuing support.

Claranet seem to be playing it sensible. Although this kind of delaying could mean that many customers get fed up with them and choose another ISP who does offer 24-7. After all a lot can happen in two months.

CloudNine Add Unmetered TimeBanding

By:mark.j @ 4:41:PM - Comments (17) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Within recent weeks ISPs have been taking some long sought after advise and started to make their once private restrictions and service scales public. Today CloudNine have become the next ISP to implement a similar open ended policy – full press release follows:

CLOUD NINE COMMUNICATIONS LTD PRESS RELEASE

Date: 6th April 2001

Cloud Nine introduce "time-banding" for Surftime based unmetered Internet Services

Nobody can fail to be aware that many ISP's have been grappling with the issue of how to price unmetered services fairly and still provide customers with an unmetered service that is appropriate to their requirements as well as proper detailed and transparent policies for dealing with so called "abusers".

The confusion has been bad for customers and bad for the industry since many providers have had to produce unseemly changes to terms and conditions and have acted in an "emergency" manner to restore their service provision to profitable levels without definition of their criteria.

Cloud Nine have been carefully monitoring our services since we launched our unmetered services in October 2000 and following the release of our Network
Connect Unlimited product earlier in the month we have found that there is significant demand for a well priced service that provide true 24/7 unlimited unmetered access but by definition this has meant that existing services cannot be classed as unlimited. The jump between a "normal" package and an unlimited one is too steep, so as a result Cloud Nine have today announced a 3-point plan to deal with this issue:

1) We have introduced a banding system based on Standard (120 hours of online time), Premium (260 hours of online time) and Unlimited - meaning just that.

2) We have produced a detailed document (http://www.mysurftime.com/controls.asp) on how to control access times and clearly explain the difference between "active" online time and "passive or idle" online time. This document details measures that customers using manual dial-up or routers can implement to bring their "active" time and "idle" time into sync so as to obtain best value from their Internet time.

3) Cloud Nine have furthermore introduced a detailed procedure for dealing with situations where customers exceed their usage band so that customers are clear what will happen in these situations. This procedure is as follows:

* Cloud Nine will issue a notice when a band time has been exceeded.
* The customer receiving such a notice will be given three options - upgrade, reduce online time to within their band, or cancel their service.
* They will have 7 days to respond to this notice.
* Failure to respond will be treated as a cancellation and the service will be suspended. This can be re-activated at customer request. The 0845 number that all users receive will continue to function for 30 days. Only the unmetered number will be disabled.
* If we have to issue 2 notices within a 6 month period then the option to reduce online time will no-longer apply, they will have to upgrade or cancel.
* From May 1st users will be able to monitor their online time via a web based interface we are developing.

We have thought very carefully about these issues and being a responsible company we have every intention of handling this in a fair and equitable manner. It cannot be right that customers using a low-end package paying £11.50 a month should be getting as much online time as someone on a high-end package paying up to £95.

Irrespective of how unmetered Internet services are delivered now or in the future, we believe that banding will become much more common. Whilst this present model applies to our Surftime delivery even when/if we move to a FRIACO based dial-up system in the future the banding system will be here to stay.

Cloud Nine now has 6 months experience of the unmetered marketplace and have established a reputation for reliable dial-up service delivery as well as fast connections. This banding system is essential if we are to maintain this for our customers in the future. The price and banding model is designed to be both competitive and sustainable (i.e. profitable). It builds on the attempts already being made by other ISP's to clarify what unmetered dial-up actually delivers but we believe that it has the great benefit of clarity and transparency. We sincerely hope that others will follow this transparent banding model.

It should be pointed out that 120 hours a month access at 100% 0845 local call rates (even if ALL weekend time) would cost £72. 260 call hours (split 130/130 between peak and off peak) would cost over £450!! This makes our time band packages exceptionally good value when assessed against the traditional yardsticks.

Of course none of these prices or bands are set in stone. We will be reviewing the operation of these between now and the end of May and since we have been fairly conservative we believe that there may be scope for price cuts/timeband increases if our assumptions are borne out and we get most of our customers into their correct bands.

There is no need to update our Terms & Conditions since these are procedural and pricing matters and are adequately catered for in Section 5.x of our Acceptable Use Policy. Contention levels are already specified in the AUP and the time bands are merely a more clear reflection of those existing contention levels.

This policy is effective immediately and will apply to all unmetered dial-up customers.

Full details of the new banding system and price structure are available at http://www.mysurftime.com/prices.asp.

It’s good to see another ISP adopting this approach, although many users are typically wary of such changes because we’ve seen some ISPs use it simply as a way to further restrict existing services. Whether this is the case with CloudNine remains to be seen, especially being an ISP typically associated with some of the highest prices for the best service.

Yet as more ISPs become increasingly transparent with their usage beliefs people are now more likely to be able to choose the best ISP for what they need. Equally so they may soon find that paying through the roof for real 24/7 unmetered is now a very real possibility.

This has the advantage of making broadband a better choice (as it has always been), yet also manages to stone in the cold fact that broadband simply doesn’t cover most of the UK yet. If you’re worried about usage and use the net a lot then try splitting the costs between two ISPs, ironically it’s often the cheapest way.

For example, two SurfPort24 based ISPs (roughly £15 each – 24/7) would probably set you back just under £30, yet you’ll then get better usage out of them than some of the more expensive ISPs so long as you split the usage.

Final 3G Broadband Wireless Standard

By:mark.j @ 4:20:PM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

It looks as if a European network standard for 3G (WCDMA) has finally been agreed by 3GPP (3G Partnership Project). This is the standard all future systems (UTMS) will be compatible with:

A spokesperson for Nokia Networks, 3G supplier to Orange, Hutchison and One2One, said: “This is the first end-to-end 3G standard – previously there were open areas not defined by the standard, which forced companies to write proprietary solutions.”

The first functioning version of Release 1999 WCDMA standard made it out in December 2000, but according to Nokia Networks this will only be used to develop equipment internally. This is due to the fact that the December release is not future or backwards compatible.

More @ netimperative.com .

AOL Suffers HUGE Service Outage

By:mark.j @ 4:10:PM - Comments (3) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

While many in the UK may have escaped it, almost all of AOLs worldwide networks suffered a serious service outage last night that left millions unable to access the Internet:

The monster Internet company blamed the incident on a major power failure which hit Northern Virginia (where its operation is based) at around 7.30pm (GMT).

According to first-hand reports, some AOL users were unable to sign on to the service. When they did, they were unable to send or receive emails, enter chat rooms or use the AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) service.

In a statement, the company said: "Due to a major regional power failure across the Northern Virginia area, some members or users may have been unable to use some certain applications for a brief period of time. We recovered quickly and restored the use of the applications."

The Register doesn't make clear exactly how many were affected, although it's believed the outage may have hit a great majority of the ISPs users. We wouldn't be surprised if quite a few E-Mails and messages were lost, so it'd be worth re-sending any you sent yesterday just to be safe.

Cable Operators Given Free Reign

By:mark.j @ 4:00:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

If you were planning to offer services using infrastructure owned by cable operators including NTL and Telewest, then Oftel has just gone and stuck a big nail in your coffin. Apparently such companies will no longer be able to complain to Oftel about anti-competitive practices for such Cable Co's:

The document, published today, states that Oftel will only assess operators with significant market power, in order to determine whether they will be required to open their infrastructure to other companies for competition reasons.

As a result, cable companies such as ntl and Telewest, have been deemed too small for these rules to apply. This ruling would apply to companies wanting to, for instance, broadcast services to customers, using infrastructure owned by ntl and Telewest.

According to a spokesperson from Oftel, the ruling came about to encourage competition, or prevent companies from being discouraged from building their own networks.

The netimperative.com article is somewhat confusing, although that does appear to be the nature of anything related to cable operators. Certainly the cable market is very different and separate from those lovely copper wires many of us have linking our homes and businesses. However since NTL is in many ways the biggest operator in the UK, just what are Oftel basing their exclusions on?

CloudNine On ADSL, Surftime & Hosting

By:mark.j @ 3:48:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

CloudNine have been kind enough to send us along a little pre-press release information on some of the things they're working on:

ADSL
====
Cloud Nine have now placed our order for BT's ADSL service and expect to launch our ADSL service towards the end of the summer. ADSL will form a logical upgrade path for many of our business customers currently on higher-end Network Connect package. Whilst we expect slow to moderate initial demand this is an investment for the future. Cloud Nine will only be offering a business version of the service since we believe that 50:1 contention will not provide the performance required by our customers who typically use Cloud Nine as a premium performance provider.

We expect to announce pricing packages about mid-summer and are performing upgrades to our bandwidth capacity through the summer to ensure that we continue to provide the highest possible service quality to our customers.

FRIACO/SURFTIME
===============
Cloud Nine are now actively examining alternatives from other providers to BT's Surfport24 that allow for the delivery of FRIACO data traffic direct to our door so that we can maintain control over the performance criteria.

We believe that a well managed Surftime based service still provides far greater benefits to our profile of customer than any "aggregated" solutions based on FRIACO. Any cost advantages (and on low contention ratio's such cost advantages are still small if non-existent) are more than mitigated by the potential performance degradation that could result. We will only swap to a FRIACO based system when we are sure that we can deliver the same quality of performance combined with lower prices for our customers.

Surftime has provided a very stable platform for our customers and combined with our management of backend resources means that we can provide higher Internet performance standards (with many added features) than many of our competitors at what are still very competitive prices.

HOSTED SERVICES
===============
Cloud Nine already provide support for things like Microsoft SQL on a shared basis platform so that smaller businesses can benefit from utilising these kind of technologies without necessary moving up to expensive co-location. We are looking to increase these kind of "value-add" services by introducing MS Exchange 2000. We are currently evaluating this and expect to make pricing announcements shortly. Basically the objective is to offer organisations an Exchange 2000 platform for email accounts in addition to the POP3/IMAP4 that we currently offer. Many of the benefits of Exchange 2000 can then be had by small distributed companies who can make use of the features provided by Exchange 2000 without the associated cost of ownership.

It'll be interesting to see how CloudNine will charge for the ADSL services given their current pricing structure. It's also no surprise they're investigating FRIACO, outside of SurfPort24 (doesn't seem to be an option if you remember the Oftel ruling [articles]), BTSurftime and FRIACO are just about the only options open to SME ISPs.

They could always opt for a V.I.P (Virtual Internet Provider) solution from a reseller such as BTO or Affinity, although that wouldn't allow C9 the flexibility it requires.

ISP Review Site Update

By:mark.j @ 1:01:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Just a quick update to let everybody know that the Worst ISP page has now been removed since we think our Complaints page covers for both. Accordingly the Complaints page has also been updated.

The Unmetered ISPs list has also been updated with some newer ISPs and we've removed a couple of defunct ones along with a small layout change or two.

Our ISP Top 10 list has also had a slight update and of course the new and existing forums have been going through a ton of changes these last few days. The Broadband section is another part of ISPr going through some changes right now, although we're not quite done yet.

BTs GPRS Handheld Computer

By:mark.j @ 10:17:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

British Telecom has signed a deal to begin selling a rather expensive Canadian handheld computer, called Blackberry, in the UK from July, newspapers reported. The Blackberry allows users to send and receive e-mails on the move.

At four-and-a-half inches by three, two-thirds taken up by the screen and one-third the keypad, it is easy to carry and fairly simple to type into, said the Daily Telegraph.

Jim Balsillie, chairman and co-chief executive of Blackberry's Toronto-based manufacturer, Research in Motion, was quoted by the Telegraph as saying: "We are making 175,000 units for BT to sell this summer."

The gadget's users are mainly company executives.

BT's domestic wireless arm, Cellnet, will start by selling Blackberries to business customers in the summer.

It will be one of the first combined mobile phone and computer devices to take advantage of the faster mobile Internet speeds promised by the introduction of General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), said the paper.

The device will cost around £400 with line rental charges expected to be about £40 a month. But companies will also have to pay to install Blackberry support software which costs 2,000 to 3,000 pounds per user, said the Daily Telegraph.

It all seems a little ridiculous to us since you can quite easily get 14Kbps out of a dual band GSM phone when connected to a PocketPC. Where the staggering cost of £40 per month comes from for a GPRS system that isn't yet much faster is not known, but it's certainly overpriced.

NTL Launch Broadband Business Packages

By:mark.j @ 10:11:AM - Comments (4) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

NTL has today started on a road that's directly competitive with BT by offering their broadband services to businesses instead of just consumers:

Its £3m campaign is designed to attract small, medium and large businesses across the UK to the services it offers via its business arm ntl Business. Ntl claims it is the second biggest business-to-business communications company in the UK after BT. It has over 76,000 business customers including the Royal Bank of Scotland, Comet, AT&T and Orange.

Better known for its consumer Internet and TV services, ntl is keen to break farther into the lucrative business market. Initially planning to offer businesses ADSL via local loop unbundling, the firm became frustrated by the pace of local loop unbundling and withdrew. The cable firm was planning to launch its own ADSL service in February of this year but that timetable has slipped.

"We are making a big announcement about business broadband in the next couple of weeks," says a ntl spokesman. "It is a lot more advanced that the ADSL we were originally planning."

Full price and package details have yet to be made completely public and were not mentioned in the ZDNet item. Certainly the extra competition for BT wouldn't hurt.

Channel4 Exposes NTL Call Centres

By:mark.j @ 9:38:AM - Comments (3) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Apparently staff working in NTLs call centres aren't exactly pleased with their job or environment. One such member of staff is quoted below from the Channel4 news item:

"I came home from work in the call centre about half an hour ago - and I just feel drained, I'm shattered, I feel as if I could just curl up on the sofa and go to sleep."

This woman "blames her job at NTL for creating so much stress that she's been off sick for weeks and been prescribed anti depressants by her doctor." (C4 News):

"You feel as if you're being watched, you feel like a robot, I feel like it's a regime more than a job, I feel as if I'm a prisoner there for the time I am there - you feel as if you can't move, you can't leave that telephone and it's extremely stressful."

CableNews also pointed out NTLs response, in which they claim how hard they work to get the atmosphere right.

News - April 5,2001

BT To Have Credit Ratings Cut Further

By:mark.j @ 3:39:PM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Operators such as BT that don't stick to their debt-cutting pledges could soon see their credit ratings cut. Such a move would delve a serious blow to any operator, yet it looks increasingly likely to happen.

Despite a spate of downgrades in recent months as debt has ballooned, the need for more borrowing to fund new mobile technology and pressure on voice revenues from new competition means the credit outlook for telecom operators is still rocky, S&P told an investor presentation on Thursday.

"We have set objectives for 2002 as we don't want to take too short-term a view, but we have very precise expectations and we will not wait until 2002 to adjust ratings if we judge that necessary," said S&P associate director Guy Deslondres.

"From the moment we think debt-cutting objectives cannot be achieved, we will not hesitate to downgrade ratings," he said, adding that British Telecom and Deutsche Telekom were most likely to be cut in the short-term.

Intent on minimising crippling financing costs, telecoms operators have embarked on debt-cutting drives that centre on selling non-core assets and floating mobile units to raise cash.

But rock-bottom valuations in the sector as investors worry about the nebulous returns promised by much-hyped UMTS mobile services are spoiling the returns from the equity market.

Connect25 Ditch Dialup Software

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

Up until recently (today?) the inexpensive unmetered ISP, Connect25, has required customers to use their connection manager software when connecting.

Much to the apparent applause of our forum goers, the ISP has now chosen to ditch the software and allow the standard method of manual connection. Connect25 state: "The software has been thrown away and customers can keep using the old number to dial up with until further notice.".

Whether this means they'll introduce new software or just leave as-is we simply don't know, however it does mean that clever users of other operating systems may now be able to use the ISP.

SniffOuts Service (ISP) Suspension Update

By:mark.j @ 1:41:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

On March 26th last month the dial-up and unmetered ISP, SniffOut, suspended their unmetered services because of the following dispute with BT:

The Company has been in dispute with British Telecom as a result of the latter's failure to meet the contracted delivery date for SurfTime last summer. Unfortunately, BT has consistently refused to acknowledge any liability arising from its written commitment. It has also been insisting that rent is due from the time the service was finally supplied in late October.

Sniff Out's shareholders were, in effect, being asked to pay for BT's own mistakes and failures - something that they have quite rightly refused to sanction.

Today we noticed the following update on the site regarding the current situation, although it feels eerily different to the original reasons for the suspension stated above:

Thursday, 5th April 2001 10:00
Unfortunately we have now encountered technical delivery problems in connecting new ports (modems) to resume a full service. Despite all efforts, it may be several weeks before the suspended parts of the service are fully restored.

Meanwhile, all internal services remain fully operational. Members with accounts opened in the years prior to the introduction of SurfTime are able to use their accounts as normal. Email and web space access will be available to SurfTime linked members via any other dial-in.

For further information please email support@sniffout.co.uk

The update doesn't make clear whether SniffOut are working to restore the SurfTime based packages, or just trying to get their standard 0845 one back online. Either way it's good news to see them taking action to resolve the situation.

EuroGamer Investigates NGUK 0800 Collapse

By:mark.j @ 9:52:AM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The popular gaming and computer technology site, EuroGamer, has done some further investigation into yesterdays suspension of the NetGamesUK 0800 service:

You can read what NGUK users think of that in a fruity discussion on their forums. Speaking in that thread are numerous employees as well as a slew of disgruntled users. One person, confirmed as an employee, said that the management asked customers "not take the [mickey] and just leave the connection on 24/7". Continuing, I won't bother to correct the spelling, he told users that NGUK had "about 45% of the users clocking up 20hours or more a day on the dialup".

"As a side note, more info about where NGUKs going will appear soon, and yes we are looking into evenings/weekend freecall, however im afriad ... no prommises . And as a point, pay per play (mentioned in the news update -Ed) is NOT based round an 0845 dialup."

"This is a NON CORE business for nguk anyhow. We tryed to offer an 0800 dialup for gamers.. and in the current climate its not suceeded .. hence rather than carrying on and lossing millions of pounds.. were stopping the service."

It's also known that NetGamesUK based their service on one of the older unmetered systems that took a metered charge from the calls. Such systems have proved to be poor when used in conjunction with an ISP that tries not to restrict usage.

The loss of NetGamesUK is not something many had expected and at the very least not this soon. Hopefully similar economic models from the likes of Madasafish etc. will manage to stay above the surface.

Tiny Online Gives Out Free Software

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

Tiny Online has today announced plans to introduce free software to all its active subscribers every month through a scheme called Tiny SurfXtra. The launch comes as Tiny Online steps up its campaign to offer customers added value to their existing Internet service. Full press release follows:

Tiny Online launches Britain’s 1st ISP loyalty scheme with Free Monthly Software

Every new and existing customers using Tiny Online’s Internet service will be rewarded for using the Tiny SurfXtra service, initially by giving them software worth around £30.

Tiny Online has recently celebrated its 2nd birthday and during the last 2 years has established itself as one of the UK’s fastest growing ISPs with almost 700,000 subscribers. The company is constantly looking at pioneering new and innovative ways to enhance its Internet service and, as the new scheme grows, a portfolio will be unveiled, offering customers other products such as free music CDs and DVDs, as part of the loyalty scheme.

Tiny Online’s Managing Director, Colin Greene, said: “We will soon have one million customers at Tiny Online and we are determined to ensure they remain loyal. We have taken a significant step forward as an ISP business by introducing Tiny SurfXtra and we believe this development will further enhance the overall service Tiny Online offers.”

In addition to the new loyalty scheme, Tiny Online also currently offers deals to Internet users including an unlimited access package through FRIACO for £14.99 per month.

-Ends-

Certainly the cheap unmetered package combined with the loyalty scheme is always a nice thing, especially if you've already signed up and weren't expecting it. We'll have to wait and see just how successful it is before judging, although it should be enough to attract a few new customers.

News - April 4,2001

ISPs To Suffer From Tech/Stock Downturn

By:mark.j @ 3:47:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

While many analysts predict the ISP industry will grow significantly this year, most also understand that a vast amount of less sustainable ones will vanish:

Even during the height of investor confidence and dot-com supremacy last summer, ISPs were having a hard time in the rush to adopt unmetered access models that were not yet fit for purpose. Many collapsed as they rolled out free or nearly free services in the rush to gain eyeballs, but found the telecoms costs they were shelling out to BT meant the model was not sustainable for more than a couple of months.

Since then the ISP market has adopted a little more gravitas with Oftel forcing BT to roll out a viable and usable wholesale unmetered model -- dubbed Friaco. Freeserve, World Online and AOL are all now offering Friaco-based services.

Without solid business models there is little chance of survival in today's tough tech climate, according to Durlacher analyst Nick Gibson. "ISPs will have to make sure business models are sustainable because raising more money is not going to be an option for the vast majority of them," he said.

So if ISPs are to survive through the 2001 downturn then despite having a better climate to offer services, they'll need a strong business model and revenue outside of the income from the service itself.

Much as some ISPs have recently claimed; if you can't keep up with modern unmetered or broadband then your business is likely to fail. Sadly with smaller ISPs being given far fewer opportunities, many, including popular ones, are likely to be gone. More @ ZDNet.

New Wireless Regulation Could Hamper Growth

By:mark.j @ 3:40:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Mobile phone operators fear a meeting of European Union telecommunications ministers could pave the way to cumbersome regulations for Europe's already debt-laden wireless industry.

The ministers were set to discuss on Wednesday an ambitious package of new EU-wide telecom regulations aimed at updating existing legislation and harmonising the regulatory environment for all communications services and networks in the 15-nation bloc.

Mobile phone operators, which are investing large sums to develop new 'third' generation (3G) wireless services, said they were concerned the upcoming EU rules could result in burdensome obligations being imposed on previously little-regulated market sectors, such as the 3G industry.

"In order to create a suitable environment for investment, it is necessary to impose clear limits on regulatory intervention and to increase reliance on competition law," leading operators such as Orange, T-Mobil, TIM and others said in a letter sent to the EU telecoms ministers on Tuesday.

"We fear that proposals scheduled for debate at this week's Council meeting will take EU communications market regulation in the opposite direction."

A key concern for mobile firms is the definition of "significant market power", a pre- requisite for obligations such as access, price-capping or transparency requirements.

Under current legislation an operator is dominant if it controls 25 percent of the market.

The Commission has proposed to move from the current quantitative definition to a qualitative definition based on the EU competition law concept of dominance. It also wants to introduce the concept of "joint dominance", which several observers feel is controversial, for markets which are controlled by few operators in an oligopolistic way.

Quite what the outcome of this will be remains to be seen, although with operators already having lost out to broadband wireless 3G licenses then an increase in regulation could make things worse.

HighwayOne ISP Up For Sale

By:mark.j @ 3:36:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Today seems to be a day just as good for new ISPs as it is for those going out of the market, as HighwayOne will now help to prove. The ISP has called in the administrators and put itself up for sale:

Joint administrator William Tacon from Ernst & Young said: "HighwayOne's difficulties have been caused by the need for heavy and continuing capital expenditure while the business has been established."

"This is a high technology infrastructure business with a quality client base and a niche in the market. We are advertising the business for sale and we expect there to be a high level of interest."

"It's nothing like a dotcom and the changed attitudes to this kind of business in recent months are not the problem in this case".

Not knowing much about the ISP means we can't really comment on The Register‘s item, although if ISPs keep getting brought and sold like this then it won't be long before they become the next Poekmon (spelling?) clone =).

Shock Announcement As NGUK Closes 0800

By:mark.j @ 3:06:PM - Comments (12) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

In a shock announcement by NetGamesUK, the once hotly tipped unmetered gaming ISP has finally chosen to close their 0800 offer. It seems as if previous service problems and economical issues have forced the service to be suspended:

0800 DIAL SERVICE TO END
Posted by TopBanana on Wednesday 4th April @ 11:22 BST

It is with regret that we are announcing the end of our 0800 dialup access accounts, with complete suspension of the service within the next two weeks.

NetGames UK Managing Director Andy Jones said: “Whilst the 0800 has proved popular, our statistics prove the vast majority of our subscribers are not in fact on-line gamers using the NGUK gaming service. We receive little revenue directly related to the 20,000 gamers playing on our network, and are prevented from making long term investment in developing the service as a result.”

“We have therefore decided to withdraw our 0800 service before it grows too large and provide a low cost pay-per-play option in the next few months. This will allow us to directly re-invest revenues from the actual user base back into the service that they want to use, rather than have a gaming service subsidised by our dial-up service that many of our customers, who have ADSL or are not in the UK, cannot use.”

Our existing 0800 subscribers will not be re-billed at the end of their paid up period, and will be able to take advantage of our 0845 service which will be live within the next two weeks. Existing 0800 customers will be disconnected from the service individually as their monthly accounts expire and it is our intention to allow them to use the service until this happens.

Whilst our 0800 dialup delivered on what it promised and benefited both NetGames UK and its subscribers, the changing marketplace has “moved the goalposts” and we have decided to act earlier rather than later. We now intend to move forward, improving our core technologies and putting into place our new models to take Worldwide online gaming into its next stage.

It's sad when such a promising ISP fails to succeed, although it does prove that older unmetered systems seem no match for the new generation of SurfPort24 using ISPs.

SurfAnyTime Unmetered Goes Live

By:mark.j @ 10:00:AM - Comments (16) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Initially due to go live on Monday, the new unmetered ISP SurfAnyTime have finally launched their services today. Priced in between the likes of BTInternet AnyTime and Freeserve AnyTime, the ISP hopes to secure a strong market for itself and claims to have the capacity to keep up - time will tell:

Press Release

SurfAnytime Ltd is pleased to announce the launch of their 24/7 unmetered Internet access packages. With Internet access costing the earth, SurfAnytime can offer a quality product at very realistic prices.

“In an age of Internet Service Providers coming and going, SurfAnytime would like to assure our customers that we are here to stay and that we are fully committed to customer satisfaction.”

“We also believe that there are different levels of Internet access required by consumers and business users alike and have catered for this accordingly.”

“Our packages start from £4.99 for home-time domestic users and £11.99 for business users. Our 24/7 unmetered silver package starts at £12.99 per month with a high quality gold package for £15.49 per month. Standard 0845 access is also available.”

“We would like to apologise for the delayed launch of SurfAnytime, this was due to an issue with the registration process. A very dedicated technical team has now resolved this. Thank you for your patience in awaiting what we hope will change the way you surf the Net, for the better!”

To register for any of the SurfAnytime packages, please visit http://www.surfanytime.co.uk

LogicSurf Preps For Weekend Launch

By:mark.j @ 9:16:AM - Comments (3) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The Vispa backed unmetered ISP LogicSurf was due to launch on the 1st April 2001, however much like two other ISPs it failed to make the deadline.

The good news is that they intend to go live this weekend, however judging from the wording in the E-Mail this will only be for the 0845 options:

0800 is still yet to be launched as we await telco's to sort them self out and make a move as Oftel's latest ruling has confused them.

We're not sure exactly what Oftel rulings they mean and assume they're referring to the recent price changes by BT for SurfPort24, which seems to have every ISP using the technology a little miffed. This will no doubt cascade for other ISPs using the same technology and due to launch soon.