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March 26, 2001 - March 30, 2001

News - March 30,2001

NTL Revise Acceptable Use Policy

By:mark.j @ 9:15:AM - Comments (2) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Just as NTL said they would yesterday, those using the Cable Modem service will now be pleased to learn that NTL have revised their Acceptable Use Policy (AUP):

ntl has responsibly revised its policy towards the running of servers over its internet access service. The new Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) ensures that those who truly abuse the service are restricted, while being fair to ordinary paying customers.

The previous AUP banned nearly all types of server, and provoked a distinctly negative response from many ntl customers. This revision would appear to be in response to the customer reaction; and already customers are commenting on the "common sense" of the new policy in ntl.support.cablemodems.


The new AUP as mentioned on CableNews this morning is far too big to publish, however some relivant changes are:

(vi) Other: You may run other servers but be aware that ntl: reserve the right to restrict access to them should they cause network problems or should we receive complaints.

and...

If you are running a webserver on your own PC you are solely responsible for the security and setup for that server. You are also responsible for all traffic through your server even if you personally did not originate it.

The new AUP is more descriptive and a lot less restrictive than the last one, although some customers are still wary. Despite the problems we must give credit to NTL for doing what so few ISPs do, listening to their customers. They acted quickly and this should be used as an example to other ISPs who no longer put customers at the top of their lists.

News - March 29,2001

ISPreview Live Chats

By:Ross14 @ 6:45:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

We have now finally got over the technical hurdles, and are in a position to start our scheduled 'ISPreview Chats.'

If you visit your 'Chat' page (link on nav bar) then you can see when the next scheduled Chat is. But, don't worry if you miss it because we will be logging each and every chat and uploading them to the site for you to download.

The topics of each chat will change randomly over time with the current situation of the UK ISP Industry.

Anyway, we hope you will all try and participate as much as you can in our Chats as they will be fun, informative and will allow you to ask as many questions as you like - in a certain span of time of course :)

Iridium Global Internet Access Back Online

By:mark.j @ 4:14:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Much as we've reported over the past few months, the once defunct Iridium Satellite network has finally been saved and re-launched at a MIR [Pun intended - mere] fraction of the original cost:

Although the company will initially only be providing telephony services, data services such as dial-up access and internet connectivity, should be available in June 2001. Services will be provided via data-ready Motorola Satellite Series 9500 handsets, costing around $1000 (£695), while the flat-rate airtime should be less than $1.50 (£1) per minute.

Handsets will be available in the UK from 1 April, through AST Airtime, one of 13 Iridium service providers globally. According to AST, UK demand has been high so far, due to the lack of competitor services - only Inmarsat offers comparable coverage.

Data and internet services are to be offered through an Iridium data kit - a cable, connector, handset stand, and computer software. The company claims that data rates will be, “slightly higher than 2.4Kbps,” but using protocol optimisation and data compression this will apparently be boosted to 10Kbps - roughly the same as GSM.


The netimperative.com article seems to show the Iridium network is slower than even the worst consumer satellites and we're not quite sure why. Most business and consumer satellites aren't this slow at even the worst of times and if true then there are better options. Does anybody know why the network is so slow? Please contact us if you do.

T-Online Aims For 10 Million Customers!

By:mark.j @ 4:05:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Despite the current economic climate and increased competition in the Telecom and ISP Sector, Europe's largest ISP, T-Online AG, said it currently had 8.5 million customers and aimed to have more than 10 million by the end of the year.

"We continue to anticipate strong customer growth," Chief Financial Officer Rainer Beaujean told a news conference on Thursday.

At the end of 2000, T-Online had a total of 7.9 million customers from its operations in Germany, France, Austria, Spain and Portugal. T-Online may be the largest, although increasingly competitive competition from the likes of ‘Tiscali’ isn’t likely to dwindle far behind. Let the battle of Super ISPs begin.

Energis Welcomes Oftels Leased Line Ruling

By:mark.j @ 4:01:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Energis, typically a big network and ISP supplier in the UK, has today welcomed a recent ruling by Oftel to force BT to sell wholesale leased line products. Something that will help relieve many of the cost burdens on them and their clients, which include many top British ISPs:

Oftel published its final determination saying that BT would no longer be able to sell leased line products at retail prices to other operators, while offering its own services based on a cheaper wholesale pricing.

Andrea Dworak, regulatory manager at Energis, said: “We are very pleased about this. It was impossible to compete. [BT] always had a major advantage.

The complaint was lodged last year by Energis, and supported by other operators including Cable & Wireless, Worldcom, Thus and Fibernet. BT now has two months to negotiate the terms and conditions for providing wholesales leased lines pricing with these operators as well as Thus Global Crossing (UK) Telecommunications, GTS Network (Ireland), Colt Telecommunications, NeosCorp and MML Telecommunications. Commercial products from these operators will be available a month-and-a-half later.


It's unlikely that the cheaper line costs will filter down to consumers due to being such a small part of a big operation. More @ netimperative.com.

One In Four Homes Have Net Access

By:mark.j @ 3:54:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The end of the first quarter in any year is typically a time when the first set of research statistics for the previous year gets published by a multitude of groups using different methods. Following on from Jupiter's MMXI report, today it's the turn of Durlacher’s quarterly Internet survey:

While just 17% of homes had internet access in 1999, this is expected to rise to 35% by the end of 2001.

Internet usage has also shown strong growth. Nearly half of all residential internet users have now shopped online and the average spend has risen by more than 76%.

Online shopping satisfaction levels continue to remain high, with only 4% of online shoppers indicating any level of dissatisfaction with their most recent online purchase, contrasting with the 83% that expressed complete satisfaction.


In short the report shows that one in every four people now has an active Internet connection. Other reports have also noted that nearly 60% of people in the UK have physically accessed the Internet at one time or another. More interesting stats @ netimperative.com.

AOLs New Netscape/CompuServe Director

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

In an effort to partially replace Richard Bressler, Ex-head of investments, AOL UK have today appointed Shaun Johnson as the newly created director for Netscape and CompuServe.

He will apparently be responsible for the growth and development of the Netscape Online, Netscape.co.uk and CompuServe brands - all now part of AOL TimeWarner.

FreeChariot Problems Update

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

It seems like at least one of our readers (Philip) has actually managed to get through to the much troubled ISP and Telco provider FreeChariot:

Following difficulties connecting via FC, I eventually managed to speak to their support desk. It is claimed that they are suffering technical problems, albeit major ones. The "Our engineers are working on it" line was trotted out.

FreeChariot have been suffering a growing rate of problems for sometime now and rumours are already flying around the Internet of the providers imminent demise. For now all we know for certain is that the 'technical problems' have managed to take out most of their services for several days!

Thus/Demon Confuse Child Porn Laws

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

The first time you read the following two paragraphs it probably won't make much 'logical' sense, but then that's why Thus Telecom (Demon Internet) are being hammered by legal experts. Despite making a pledge in February to actively remove such unlawful content, the ISP continues to 'bend' the laws and avoid the required actions:

The owner of ISP Demon Internet is using the Indecency with Children Act that criminalises the possession or distribution of child pornography, to justify its claim that it is illegal for an Internet Service Provider (ISP) to download indecent images from its servers for the purpose of checking for illegal content.

"I'm limited by simple legislation that prevents me from looking at child pornography -- how do you decide that something is paedophilic when it's illegal for me to look at it?" said Keith Monserrat, director of legal and regulation at Thus.

There is however a working code of practice within the Internet industry that allows police, the Internet Watch foundation and content providers to check for illegal content on the Web. Hermod Stener, lawyer at city firm Charles Russell, confirmed there is nothing within UK legislation to prevent an ISP from checking articles that it is hosting.


The ZDNet article works as an excellent representation of how laws can be viewed from two different angles. It's a bit like trying to arrest somebody if you didn't see them commit a crime, yet everybody (witnesses) is shouting they did.

It looks like the angry exchange will continue for a little while longer, although hopefully Demon and Thus will eventually realise the error of their ways.

NTLs Broadband T&C Changes Cause Trouble

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

It would seem as though the changes in NTLs broadband Internet use Terms & Conditions mentioned earlier in the week have started to effect users in rather disruptive ways:

Cable modem customer Zane Wilson claims he was informed he was breaking ntl's terms and conditions when he accessed his business from his home service. "Your ntlworld account should not be used to forward, route or transfer any material/data related to your business or commerical information," he was told in an email.

Wilson does not believe this is fair. "Ntl wonders why consumers are losing confidence in broadband technology but its own advertising promotes some of the uses it has just banned," he told ZDNet. "The new bans make ntl's broadband offering more of a fast web/email service akin to TV Internet than an Internet service."


The ZDNet item highlights the fact that NTLs latest T&C changes are not clear enough for users to understand and that they're also overly restrictive. However the good news is that NTL plan to issue a re-written version, the bad is this probably won't mean a change to the effect they're already having.

Older Generation Of ISPs See Closure

By:mark.j @ 9:39:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Much as we highlighted well over a year ago, unmetered and broadband ISPs would eventually crush the older generation and push them almost entirely out of the market. This has actually been going on for some time, although today some more publicised ISPs have seen the gates of death.

The New Scientist, Computer Weekly and a range of other magazines published by Reed Business Information are to close down their ISP services from 23 April. Most of the services are virtual ISPs run as "stickiness applications" to promote the respective websites of the magazines and keep customers coming back.

However, many didn't attract large numbers of customers, and Reed Business Information (RBI) is now closing them down. Fifteen other respected trade titles, including Flight International and Travel Weekly, are also losing their ISP services.

Users of Newscientist.com and the other ISPs facing the chop will have to change email addresses.

A handful of more popular services, including the ISPs for Estates Gazette and Farmers Weekly, will escape the cull.

Most users will be migrated to Powergen's virtual ISP service, which is run by Affinity Internet. Computer Weekly's users will migrate to Reed's new online brand, CW360.com.

An email from Richard Hollis, alliances director at RBI, explains the decision: "In recent weeks RBI has been conducting an extensive review of its own-brand ISPs. Following this review, RBI has taken the decision to return its focus and resources to its core business of publishing magazines and websites. It is therefore with regret that this email is to announce the forthcoming closure of your current RBI ISP."

More ISPs will continue to follow; we've already seen roughly 100 vanish while updating ISPs to our new automated listings.

Madasafish On FAIR USAGE

By:mark.j @ 9:11:AM - Comments (4) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Thanks to Aidan for showing us the latest 'Madasafish' abuser kick E-Mail, which now states what they consider to be fair usage:

As a company, we aim to provide a quality of service to our customers that can be rivaled by none and that is accessible to all those who subscribe to the services offered. As a Madasafish TimeZone or Jings Unmetered user you will be aware that we have for many months now offered unmatched levels of connectivity (i.e. very few engaged tones), speeds of connection and general service.

However we are sad to report that, due to the excessively long time some of our users spend on-line, our ability to continue offering this level of service to all our members is under threat.

Having spoken with many of you about this, we believe it is the opinion of 95% of our members that we should strive to maintain these levels of service for the majority of our users and should not accommodate the excessive use which threatens this.

To this effect, we have chosen to establish a regular program to terminate users accounts where their usage is believed to be detrimental to the service as a whole.

In order to ensure that we are able to maintain this level of service, we ask that all members try to maintain their usage below 8 hours per day on average. This will ensure that all others are able to maintain the service they currently receive from us.

We will monitor all usage on a regular basis and users who choose not to observe this request may have their service terminated. Obviously this will not be relevant to most of you and while we very much regret having to take this action, we are sure that most of you are in support of this.

If you have any comments on this action, please feel free to feed them to us by responding to this email address tzaccounts@madasafish.com

Cheers

The Madasafish Team


The appropriate paragraph has been highlighted, where they now clearly state that below 8 hours is ‘average’ usage and thus going above would be risky. This isn’t actually so bad considering most are unaware that the majority of ISP still look upon 6/7+ hours (per day) as unfavourable, yet don’t tell their customers that.

Perhaps if Madasafish were to make use of the more modern unmetered systems then this limit could be upped a little, at least now you know.

C.U.T Explain Who They Are

By:mark.j @ 9:02:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

As if you didn't already know who the C.U.T (Campaign for Unmetered Telecommunications) are then they've recently had to write an article explaining just that:

We were asked by the Estates Gazette, a trade publication for estate agents, to write six hundred and fifty words on 'your campaign, the unmetered Internet and what it means to small businesses'. We did so, and the piece appeared in the 10 March edition; it is a terse summary of who and what we are and we repeat it here with permission.

For just under three years - our birthday is on 1 March - the Campaign for Unmetered Telecommunications has pushed for unmetered Internet access to be available to everyone in the United Kingdom. We have won the argument as such unmetered access is becoming widely available, in sustainable terms, through Internet Service Providers such as AOL UK, BT Internet and Freeserve with other ISPs joining in in the next few months.

Despite recent exaggerations in the media about 'the demise of the Internet', if you are a small business you can, in principle, reach anyone in the world who is interested if you have something worth selling, produce a good Web site to help promote it and make sure search engines and Web directories know you exist so that people can find you. That is why the Internet matters, and will always matter, to you.
..... More @ C.U.T .

News - March 28,2001

IC24 Extend 0800 - 11th April

By:mark.j @ 6:15:PM - Comments (3) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Net4Nowt are reporting that IC24 have once again extended their Off-Peak (between 8pm and midnight) 0800 offer for another two weeks until 11th April 2001. Since you're all no doubt familiar with IC24's continued extensions then we won't explain it.

Europe Spending More Time Online

By:mark.j @ 12:37:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Following on from yesterday’s survey, Jupiter MMXI have today released their own account of Europe’s online usage, which seems the UK falling behind the pack:

Jupiter MMXI's figures for June 2000 and February 2001 point to large increases in the amount of time spent online by Europeans. In the UK, France and Germany - the largest Internet markets on the continent - total time spent online per month has increased by 94%, 225% and 226% respectively.

Although UK home surfers now spend an average of almost seven hours online a month, this pales in comparison to the 13 hours for Germany. Surfers in Italy, Spain and Norway all also spend longer online than the British, although the UK is a much larger market. Recent research has also pointed to the UK lagging behind other European countries in the uptake of broadband connections.


Certainly the slow process of LLU, broadband coverage and various unmetered hassles has helped to keep online time down, although we expect that to change during this year. More @ UK.Internet.

GUS Respond To Breathe Closure Claims

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

First the Sunday Telegraph printed that GUS were to sell Breathe, then Breathe denied this and now GUS are refusing to comment on either side of the story - it doesn't look good.

"All that we are saying is that the technology and assets were the main reason for the acquisition," says a spokeswoman for GUS. "It has been very pioneering in the multi device access and there is a growing market for mobile shopping that is interesting for GUS."

If the ISP were to close, it would be a serious blow for the UK's new media industry, which has suffered closures and layoffs in recent weeks. Breathe's management team was in a meeting this morning and unavailable for comment.

Breathe is the UK's sixth largest ISP with an estimated 400,000 users. It was purchased by Great Universal in January for £1.4m after it amassed debts of £50m. We can’t help but wonder what the next twist in this story could be.

Examination Of VoDSL Technology

By:mark.j @ 10:07:AM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The Register has put up an interesting report on VoDSL (Voice Over DSL) technology and how it's slowly penetrating the European market:

VoDSL (voice over DSL) technology, which was displayed by a number of firms at the CeBIT show in Hangover, Germany, is being targeted at small businesses who are likely to be interested in the savings in call charges the technology can bring. By contrast VoIP has been heavily promoted by firms like Cisco as a means for larger firms to integrate their voice and data networks.

Eric Warren, of VoDSL equipment manufacturer Jetstream, said that the technology allows telecoms resellers and alternative carriers to offer bundled services including voice, fax and data that cost customers up to 20 per cent less than paying for them individually.

For alternative carriers, the technology offers a way to improve customer loyalty by tying them into value-added services and encourages individual users to spend more.

BT Plans To Cut The Cost Of FRIACO!

By:mark.j @ 9:54:AM - Comments (4) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

In a shock move, BT is understood to be collaborating with Oftel on the potential for cutting the price of their wholesale FRIACO products (not BTSurfPort24). What's really interesting is the way this information has affected some ISPs:

As a result of the impending price change, ISP PlusNet, which had announced that it would roll out unmetered access by the beginning of April, is now to delay its launch until 31st May 2001. ISP Sniff Out has also delayed its impending unmetered access service.

Richard Skeels CEO at Sniff Out said: “We were advised that the pricing was being looked at. We would be foolish to launch it with a big fanfare. We are adopting a relaxed attitude.

In a letter sent to its customers, PlusNet said: “However, recent developments regarding wholesale FRIACO pricing at BT have meant that we can now expect to be able to add even greater value to our forthcoming range.


Unlike what some of PlusNETs customer support agents said to customers, they're not delaying due to customer feedback. Typically the truth only comes out when the story is related to another aspect of the service.

Either way the netimperative.com article shows that BT could be trying to make FRIACO a product more competitive with SurfPort24. Perhaps bowing to pressure from Oftel (yeah sure), or more likely to help solve some of the congestion problems on their own network by making alternative offers more attractive. No details are known on what the new prices will be.

NTL Ban Napster Usage

By:mark.j @ 9:41:AM - Comments (21) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Illegal or not, NTL yesterday chose to ban the use of Napster on any of their servers because its usage is 'server like':

I can confirm, that under the current User Policy, section 16. SERVERS.

The running of servers via your dial-up or broadband connection is not permitted. If ntl become aware that servers are being run via the connection supplied by ntl the account may be subject to immediate suspension or termination

As Napster is a server, the use of Napster is not permitted.

Yours Sincerely,

Colin Grigson
Acceptable Use Policy Team

ntl: Technology. Tamed.
http://www.ntlworld.com


CableNews was quick to point out that this is in stark contrast to what the advertising campaign states:

"ntl broadband internet is the gateway to a world of inspiration giving you access to a world of music at a fraction of the download times of the dial-up internet...". It even quotes a customer as saying:

"WOW the cable modem is FANTASTIC!! Napster downloads are amazingly fast. (The number of uploads from my PC is mind boggling!)".


It seems more likely that NTL are simply trying to conserve bandwidth, something that's presently quite low due to increased take up of the Cable Modem services.

News - March 27,2001

Select Committee Slam Digital Divide Plans

By:mark.j @ 4:07:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The governments plans to bridge the 'Digital Divide' in the UK today took a turn for the worse after a damning reported by the Trade and Industry select committee:

The report accuses government of having no coherent strategy to combat the digital divide and describes various projects intended to give equal access to the Internet as "futile gestures".

"The initiative centres and development programmes do not amount to a strategy to overcome the digital divide between old and young, rich and poor, urban and rural," the report concludes. "In the context of the scale of the digital divide, they look like woefully inadequate gestures. Millions of people are excluded, not the thousands reached so far by these initiatives."

The MPs are equally damning of the job being done by e-envoy Andrew Pinder, who is charged with promoting e-business, combatting the digital divide and getting all government services online by 2005. Instead, Pinder has become embroiled in red tape, the report finds. "The e-envoy has been absorbed into the machinery of Whitehall and is now an adjunct of the e-Minister," the report concludes. "We are concerned at this mini-empire growing up in the shadow of the e-envoy. We greatly fear that the original concept of the e-envoy has been captured, tamed and bureaucratised into an e-official planted in an e-office, no doubt full of activity but caught between being an agency of implementation and powerhouse of ideas."


The ZDNet item points out the report as being hugely damaging this close to the election, not that any of the mass media will even spare a second to cover technology related news. They didn’t cover R.I.P or other more serious online privacy issues, so we don’t expect them to care much about this either. In reality we doubt it’ll harm the current government because of this.

IC24 Deny Claims Of A Tiscali Acquisition

By:mark.j @ 4:00:PM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Following on from this morning’s news item on how several groups and papers reported Tiscali was set to acquire the IC24 ISP, such claims have now been shot down:

A spokesman for ic24 said that as far as he was concerned, ic24 was still negotiating a sale with so far un-named operators.

He declined to name those currently in the frame.

Anyhow, the whisper is that Cable and Wireless - which provided the network infrastructure for ic24 - is currently favourite for the acquisition...but keep it under your hat, OK?


Either way it'd be in the customer’s best interests to see IC24 purchased by a large and quality group, whether C&W or Tiscali makes that grade is hard to judge. The Register doesn't go into much detail, although does give hope that IC24 could soon have a buyer.

50% Of Britain Now Online

By:mark.j @ 3:55:PM - Comments (3) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Continuing the trend of growing online usage, more people are now using the Internet than ever before. The number of Britons accessing the Internet has passed the 50% mark, while more than a third now have access to cyberspace from home, official data showed.

The figures will cheer the government, which has pledged to create universal access to the Internet by 2005 and which has launched a number of policies aimed at coaxing Britons into the world of the web.

National Statistics said 51% of the adult population, equivalent to 23 million people, said in a survey in January that they had used the Internet, up from 45% in October. That usage breaks down into 57% of men and 45% of women.

"We suspect Christmas was the main reason behind the strong rise as people bought the hardware needed for access," said NS statistician Chris Randall.

He said he saw no reason why the number of Britons going online should not continue to rise but declined to give a forecast.

Cabinet Office minister Ian McCartney welcomed the news. "The government welcomes the figures but there is still work to do in this area. We do not want a society of have-nets and have-nots."

Internet usage is by far the highest among the 16-24 age group, at 85%, a figure which falls to 39% for the 55-64 year olds and only 6% for the over 75s. Access was also highest in families headed by a professional, at 78%, and lowest among families headed by a non-skilled worker, at just 27%.

NS said an average of 8.6 millions households in Britain had access to the web from home in the fourth quarter, equivalent to 35% and a number that is four times higher than two years earlier.

Breathe Denies Closure Claims

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

Breathe has today denied reports placed in last weekends Sunday Newspapers that their new owners, GUS (Great Universal Stores), were to close the ISP:

Indeed, when GUS bought breathe earlier this year for £1.4 million it said it wanted to get its hands on breathe's technology.

However, only last month it was reported that breathe intended to start offering flat-fee unmetered Net access breathe.

A spokeswoman for breathe said: "We know nothing about this or where the story has come from. As far as we're concerned it's business as usual."


Certainly had the story been true you wouldn't have expected Breathe to be going ahead with their unmetered ISP plans. We'll have to wait and see what happens in the coming weeks, More @ the Register.

Men & Women Online - The Surfers Difference

By:mark.j @ 11:01:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Ever think about the differences between what Men view online and what Women do? No? Well surprise because neither do we. That hasn't stopped new search revealing that the gender differences inherent in daily life also exist online.

The favourite male sites involved cars, sports and pornography, while females flocked to sites for women, fashion, beauty and electronic greeting cards.

The survey, by Internet measurement company NetValue, found that Denmark was the world's most wired nation, with 54% of its households connected to the Internet.

The United States came in second with 50.9% percent of its homes wired, trailed by Singapore (47.4%), Taiwan (40%) and South Korea (37.3%), NetValue's January 2001 global Internet usage report showed.

China and Spain lagged behind with less than 18% of households connected to the Internet, NetValue said.

The gender difference was most glaring in Mexico, where men make up almost 66% of the country's Internet users. The United States boasted the greatest online equality with men making up 52% of surfers.

Of course the survey is typically void because women rarely share their more 'secretive' surfs with anybody else, just like in real life, while men blurt it out.

IC24 To Be Saved By Tiscali

By:mark.j @ 10:41:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

It had looked as though IC24s ISP services would come to a complete end in the coming months due to a recent buyout, which would be a pity because the ISP is very big. However that could now change as yet another buyer is interested, but this time in the ISP and not just the technology or reader base for the site.

Italy's Tiscali is looking to buy Internet service provider ic24 from media group Trinity Mirror as part of its expansion in UK Internet service provision. Analysts expect ic24, with 244,000 active users (more inactive), to fetch around £25,000,000 for Trinity, Britain's largest newspaper publisher.

Consolidation among European Internet companies in recent months has been rife as valuations dropped from last year's stratospheric levels and larger players seek out footholds in foreign markets.

One source said Tiscali was among several parties interested in buying ic24, put on the auction block by Trinity Mirror earlier this month as a non-core asset for disposal.

Tiscali is already looking at Britain's LineOne, and another source said it had eyes on other UK players including Excite UK, 42 percent-owned by British Telecommunications Plc and a potential non-core disposal option.

LineOne went on sale by joint owners BT and United Business Media late last year, and industry sources told Reuters in December Tiscali was in early talks about buying it.

Tiscali has looked at other European Internet companies as well, but it is eager first to close a deal in Britain, which is high on its list of expansion plans.

"Tiscali confirms that it is interested in investing in Britain and Germany. But we cannot comment on individual stories," a Tiscali spokeswoman said. Trinity Mirror declined to comment.

In January, Tiscali bought French ISP Liberty Surf, one month after acquiring World Online. Through these it gained some Internet and telecom activities in Britain, but it is looking for a quick way to gain a substantial UK foothold.

It had tried to take Freeserve, Britain's largest ISP, but the Italian company was beaten by France Telecom's Wanadoo. If it manages to get many more ISPs then Tiscali could well be in a position to dominate the whole European Internet market. Got to love those Mafioso men, if it’s not Casino’s then it’s ISPs =).

Madasafish Kick ANOTHER 200 Users!

By:mark.j @ 10:29:AM - Comments (8) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The unmetered gaming ISP, Madasafish, has reportedly kicked yet another 200 'abusers' from the service, following on from the 100 kicked earlier in the month.

As with the first time around (news archives) the ISP has sent out an almost identical E-Mail. They claim the associated customers had been overusing the service and causing problems for others by doing so.

Clearly the ISP has not learned its lesson and instead of giving a warning has simply chosen to take immediate and direct action. Existing customers have been unsettled by this move and are demanding Madasafish reveal EXACTLY what they believe to be excessive use.

We learned from the ISP last time that Freeserve like hours (11+ hours per day) were generally in the right area for excessive use with Madasafish. However this doesn't explain why Madasafish chose to kick another 200 now and not do it all at once (300) several weeks ago.

Affinity Sees Slow Broadband Take Up

By:mark.j @ 10:18:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Yesterday Affinity Internet/VIP announced some rather nasty financial losses, this has now been compounded by their announcement that the broadband services have been slower than expected in take up:

The news comes after Affinity launched its Fastlink service in October, to be offered to its customer as white-label service. In a statement, Wayne Lochner, CEO of Affinity Internet Holdings, said: “However, take-up has been slow due to the lack of availability of services.

The Fastlink service offers a 500Kbps downstream service for £99.99 per month, 1Mbps for £130.00 per month and 2Mbps for £160.00 per month for business customers. This is a similar pricing model to BT Openworld.

Affinity is also restructuring, and will move its ADSL services to its leased line and hosting services business, brought in as the result of the acquisition of Sonet Internet in July last year. The plan is to pool all SME activities into one business.


The netimperative.com article doesn't go in to much detail, although everybody already knew the broadband market still required time to mature. Most ISPs offering such services won't see profit until 2002, this is not so unusual.

New C.U.T Updates

By:mark.j @ 10:04:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The C.U.T (Campaign for Unmetered Telecommunications) have posted several new updates today, the first discussing Telco's in other countries having problems similar to ours:

Many people believe that the problems of local loop unbundling, with former monopolies such as BT and Deutsche Telekom not budging unless forced to, are unique to Europe. They are not; many American states are refereeing battles between ILECs (incumbent local exchange carriers, equivalent to BT for local calls) and CLECs (competitive local exchange carriers, with no real United Kingdom equivalent) which have dragged on since the last fundamental structural reform of the US telecommunications system in 1996.

Events in Pennsylvania, where Verizon is the ILEC and AT&T one of the CLECs - a battle of behemoths - have finally come to a head and something has been done, with Verizon being ordered to restructure by the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission.


The article again shows that things in the UK could be worse, but it we're not far off ourselves. The next C.U.T item discusses what they had to say at the ISP Interconnect conference:

Last week was one of our busiest so far, with us present at the ISP Interconnect conference and the 8th OFTEL Internet Forum, making three presentations at those events, and also meeting BT.

The conference had about 30 attendees from various fields, and Erol presented a review of current and future interconnect products and our position on those.

At the OIF Erol and Iain presented; the first on the past, present and future of the Campaign and how companies, whether they like it or not, can no longer ignore their subscribers and contributors who have a fund of good ideas and expertise to be harnessed, the second on his decidedly chequered Internet Service Provision experiences over the past few years.


All interesting reads as usual, although most of it isn't really important to the more residential consumers.

News - March 26,2001

Sniff Out Stops Surftime

By:rich.p @ 5:49:PM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Sniff Out has stopped surftime accounts with immediate effect because of a dispute with BT:

"SURFTIME
We regret that Sniff Out has ceased providing SurfTime linked Internet access, with immediate effect.

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.

Accordingly, the Company has ceased support for SurfTime access, with immediate effect. This has naturally been an extremely difficult decision in the light of directors' commitment to provide an Internet access service which has been consistently praised for it's reliability and customer support.

Members with accounts opened in the years prior to the introduction of SurfTime will be able to use their accounts as normal. Email and web space access will be available to SurfTime linked members via any other dial-in. The directors will be working to arrange refunds to recently subscribed SurfTime linked members.

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


It seems Sniffout are claiming BT have broken their contract for providing the Surftime access. If this is the case then Sniff Out appear to have a case to go to court.

BT Fault Takes Down C9s Unmetered

By:mark.j @ 3:58:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

If you're one of those using the popular UK unmetered ISP CloudNine then you will have noticed that ALL their unmetered systems have just died. The site has an update on the situation:

Date: 26th March Time: 14:00.
BT Surftime Down


BT Surftime failure at 13:54 effecting all dial-up customers

Cloud Nine and BT are working on the problem more information will be posted shortly.

Update: BT have acknowledged the fault and it is currently with BT third line engineers.

Second Update: There has been a circuit failure and the backup circuit is now live. The system is now operational.


Having just tried the service ourselves we know it is STILL not working and only gets as far as the authentication dialogue. Hopefully BT and C9 will have the problem resolved very soon, we'll try again in a moment.

Update: Seems to work now.

PC + Net Access For £29.99 Per Month

By:mark.j @ 3:46:PM - Comments (7) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

It may not be 1st April yet, but already we're seeing some weird and wacky ideas in the news today, such as this one from Internet and Media Company - Net in a Nutshell.

Apparently if you pay them £29.99 per month they'll send you a top of the range PC (From HP) AND give you 24/7 unmetered Internet access! Too good to be true? Think again - full and !EXCLUSIVE! press release follows:

NUTSHELL CRACKS THE INTERNET & PC MARKET

Universal Internet access moves a step closer today with a revolutionary package that unites PC, Internet costs and call charges in an affordable single flat fee. ‘Net in a Nutshell’ will provide a “no strings” offer that will open the Internet to people who do not even own a personal computer.

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 single monthly payment of £29.99 will cover all of the Internet connection charges, call charges and the cost of the PC. It is the first time that an all-in-one deal has been available to the UK consumer.

Consumers want something that is simple, affordable, and with no strings attached” says Nutshell Chief Executive Scott Ide “We have created an entirely new concept that will provide a complete package, including a PC and Internet access, at a price everyone can afford


A quick visit to Net In a Nutshell confirms the offer and gives you the option to pay more for a better system. By way of an example the initial package lists itself as:

For £29.99 a month (36 months), the Personal Package is our most affordable package available. It includes unlimited, unmetered Internet access, 24 hours a day and a 633 MHz Intel Celeron E-PC computer from Hewlett Packard. It has everything you need to get started: memory, speed, software, Internet connection and a 15" Hewlett Packard monitor.

If we assume they're using BTSurfPort24 to deliver the 24/7 unmetered option then that'd leave roughly £15 per month for the PC contract. After 36 months the PC would officially be yours, a short mathematical stint suggests 36 * 15 = £540, which is about right for the above system - not too shabby.

Considering some unmetered ISPs charge almost as much then this really isn't a bad offer, it's actually quite impressive and worth a look.

UPDATE:
Just like to mention that in focusing on the core 'ISP' issue as we do, we failed to notice it's only a Celery (Celeron) based PC. Unlike what the site may say, we do not consider this to be TOP OF THE RANGE. After 36 months it'd most certainly be dust, but then not everybody can afford such things.

AOL UK Staff Banned From Time

By:mark.j @ 3:33:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Initially sounding strange, AOL (AOL Time Warner) UK has taken the elaborate step of banning its employees from checking the time. Whether it's watches, clocks or the lunch bell, today all AOL UK employees will instead find themselves without any guidance for time:

The event is supposed to see whether the pressure of time is responsible for stress in the workplace and help employees "experience the value of time without limits".

AOL UK has even drafted in a psychotherapist to monitor the response of staff working in a timeless environment.

However, in truth it's nothing short of a gimmick to promote AOL UK's "Stop the Clock" campaign for unmetered Net access, one which we thought had come to an end now that the ISP is offering unmetered access on its own terms.


Of course even if it were an official event and not one promoting their unmetered services, most people are known to get more stressed when they don't know the time is then when they do. Unless you can stop the days natural cycle people will always have a good judgment of real world time - thus any such experiment is void.

That said an AOL could have just wanted to keep the staff at work longer and not tell them =). More @ the Register.

Granada To Close G-Wizz ISP

By:mark.j @ 3:22:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The long standing 0845 ISP, G-Wizz, owned by Granada is set to close this Wednesday, mainly due to market changes and a small subscriber base:

The portal had this statement on the site: “G-Whizz will be closing down on 28 March 2001, from that date it will no longer operate as an Internet Service Provider and portal. You will still be able to visit Granada’s most popular websites.

There's a little more over @ netimperative.com, although very people know this small ISP in the first place.

WorldOnline’s (Now 'Tiscali') New Unmetered

By:mark.j @ 3:18:PM - Comments (2) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

WorldOnline, now owned by Italian group 'Tiscali', have today sent us a full press release on their new unmetered packages that we rumoured several months ago:

26 March 2001
INTERNET ACCESS GETS FLEXIBLE WITH NEW OFFERING FROM TISCALI UK

New product offering to have sliding price scales and web based billing


Tiscali UK, formerly known as World Online UK, today announced the launch of a new and adaptable internet access model. The launch of this new product is in response to changing market conditions and aims to provide customers with better value for money.

According to recent research conducted by MORI, on behalf of OFTEL , a typical British household connected to the net will spend an average of 40 hours a month online. This research means that the new Tiscali offering will be more cost effective than products offered by other leading ISPs and will confirm Tiscali's reputation as 'best performing UK ISP ' in terms of quality, speed of service and now value for money as well.

Tiscali UK's new internet access offering allows users to choose from a range of access products and, in addition, lets them move from one product to another. To complement this new flexible payment system, Tiscali will introduce a web-based billing service to the World Online UK website (www.worldonline.co.uk), enabling users to monitor the amount of time they spend online as well as the costs.

The new Tiscali portfolio available as of 26th March '01:
 Tiscali Classic 0845 local tariff rate applies. No monthly charges
 Tiscali 50 50hrs for £5.99 per month,1p a min thereafter
 Tiscali 100 100hrs for £9.99 per month,1p a min thereafter
 Tiscali Unlimited Unmetered use for £14.99, 24 hours/day

Another advantage of Tiscali's new offering is that subscribers to the service will not have to change telephone provider, as long as they are already with BT or a BT Calls and Access service provider.

Andy Frost, consumer director, Tiscali UK, said: "The beauty of the new Tiscali internet products is in the adaptability. Take a typical home internet customer who signs up for the Tiscali 50 package. On checking the new web-based billing service, they might notice that they are spending more time online than their allocated 50 hours, so, with a couple of mouse clicks, they can change to the Tiscali 100 product instead. Should their number of hours online then reduce to below 50, the customer can revert back to the Tiscali 50 package. It's as simple as that."

Frost added: "We believe that by introducing these flexible services we are offering consumers great value for money and a unique competitive advantage over other ISPs."

About Tiscali

UK:
World Online, a Tiscali S.p.A. company (Nuovo Mercato: TIS), is the number one ISP in the UK*. It provides a consumer and business offering to both its visitors and subscribers. All users have access to a wealth of great information on music, sport, travel, news, finance, entertainment, and health.

Find out more at http://www.worldonline.co.uk

* Internet Magazine, ISP Review, February 2001


We're very pleased with Tiscali’s ability to offer a flexible and well-priced set of packages to the public. The 24/7 unlimited option is nicely in line with their competitions prices and services, while the others would be excellent for those wanting cheaper access for fewer hours and at a reduced cost.

With the exception of a few niggles, WOL have generally maintained a very stable service, existing customers will no doubt be pleased with the new offer. The fact that you don't have to change Telco from BT also means WOL could soon be getting a much larger subscriber base.

SkyStorm/StarSpeeder Satellite Prep Launch

By:mark.j @ 10:52:AM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The first two broadband digital satellite ISPs (linked) to launch in the UK are presently preparing to launch sometime this week or next week. Both will bring dedicated Satellite (one-way [downstream]) Internet access to residential customers in the UK and we intend to be among the first to try the services.

Expect more news soon – check the broadband section for more.

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