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February 13, 2001 - February 16, 2001

News - February 16,2001

Barrysworld Liquidation Update - Fate Nears

By:mark.j @ 4:11:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

It looks as if we shall soon know the fate of Barrysworld, one of the most popular and respected multiplayer gaming and LAN network server providers around, as Ted puts it:

I believe that the liquidator is closing bidding today. Therefore, I might find out our future, or at least planned future, sometime soon.

Internal rumours seem to be pointing in a more positive direction and it's likely that the elements, specifically those that make BW what it is, could well remain intact. We should know next week, fingers crossed. Good luck TedNoJob, sorry, TedTheDog =).

blueyonder Southeast Problems

By:Daniel @ 3:45:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

All blueyonder customers living in the southeast will probably be without Internet access for the next few days due to blueyonder's southeast HQ (Basildon) being broken into and one of their main servers getting trashed.

We have heard that it may be backup for Monday.

Telewest PR Executive, John Moorwood, said, "There’s a major conference call going on right now," and when more is known then he'll give us some more details.

Update

The following was posted to blueyonder status page

"Dear blueyonder customers:
In the early hours of Friday morning our network
centre in Basildon was broken into and important
equipment was stolen.

This equipment supported our high speed internet and
interactive element of our digital television service
in the South East region.

We will be working through the weekend and bringing in
equipment from other areas to restore service as soon
as possible which we expect will take approximately 48
hours.

We apologise for this inconvenience, and appreciate
how frustrating loss of service is. Please bear with
us in these exceptional circumstances as we focus our
efforts on restoring service.

EXCLUSIVE-CloudNine Respond To BTs WebPort

By:mark.j @ 1:45:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

In an exclusive sent specifically to us only moments ago, CloudNine have issued a response to BT's new SME ISP alternative to BTSurfPort24, the one that they had originally deemed too expensive for SME ISPs:

Is BT Ignite really serious about Webport being a product for smaller ISPs?
============================================

They fail to grasp the single concept that large and small ISPs compete together - the only thing that distinguishes ISPs from each other is the quality of service which in many cases means performance and that means bandwidth control. This is just a way of getting everyone using BT's shared bandwidth - again on a "one size fits all" basis! That is essentially the problem we have with aggregation options!

How on earth can ISPs offer business customers choice where the ISP does not have control over contention, bandwidth allocation and local backbone connection. To a national business ISP that does not address a captured market place such as VISP's, control over bandwidth and contention is everything. Cloud Nine like many other ISPs uses sophisticated bandwidth management tools to give priority to higher paying subscription customers and WebPort eliminates that. WebPort is not SurfPort or SurfPort24 so nothing has changed has it from our original Oftel complaint?

For a company like Cloud Nine a move to WebPort would be a retrograde step. We have experience of the ISP Standard Access product that WebPort is modelled on. It never really worked properly! BT could not properly fix problem after problem and we still have an open tech support ticket that BT couldn't fix between August and the end of October. They were saved from actually having to fix the problems by the delivery of our Surfports, which have been a much more stable product.

On the positive side though, at last BT Ignite might actually be starting to act like a commercial company and realising that to provide better support to their customers they might have to charge for it. However, they can't have it both ways - they will have to provide SLAs with penalties to matches if they are serious about charging over and above current premium prices. I have personally being campaigning for BT Ignite to provide value added services for sometime now to improve installation and support project management for ISP's.

I look forward to a favourable Oftel ruling on SurfPort24 which will increase ISP choice and competition in the market place. I will need to see that any support costs are not another way of achieving the same goal which prompted our Oftel complaint.

Anyway the fact BT Ignite are even talking to customers and considering ways of addressing the issues must be a step in the right direction, as one day they might not have the parent or it's brand to hide behind.

Ultimately they will have to face the fact that ISP's want the telephone call delivered straight to their door (on payment of an appropriate fixed rate transit charge). We are quite capable of providing our own equipment and handling these calls straight onto whatever appropriate bandwidth we choose to put it on. This way true ISP accountability for service delivery can be achieved!

J*** P***
Operation Directors
Cloud Nine Communciations Ltd


In short CloudNine are pleased to see BT trying to adjust, yet annoyed because without more flexible control over their services then the ISP cannot make use of the new offer. It’s not just about port costs, it’s about being able to control the bandwidth and contention of your ISP, which invariable means the overall quality when used correctly.

We’ve seen what happens when ISPs like PlusNET follow the BT guides, suddenly services become very limited and in the end customers are blamed alongside BT themselves. Consumers are flexible and so ISPs need a product that’s flexible to go with that, yet quite simply, BT seems unable to provide this service. We await Oftels ruling on CloudNines original complaint.

E-Minister Patricia Hewitt Defends BT

By:mark.j @ 11:19:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

From time to time we all forget that while BT may not be doing as much as we might like, they're still making a tremendous effort towards broadband in the UK and there's no doubting that. It may not be perfect, but then so very little ever is.

As more transcripts emerge from Wednesdays Select Committee meeting with E-Minister Patricia Hewitt, The Register has highlighted the following:

"In other words, they are not allowed to discriminate between their own retail arm and other operators. They have to charge the same wholesale price for network connections to their own retail arm and other operators."

"That is extremely important in getting these services rolled out."

"They are also making very substantial investments, probably totalling about four or five billion pounds over some years, in the ADSL upgrading of those exchanges. They have a very clear incentive to get a return on that investment both by maximising the success of their own retail operation and by ensuring that they have as many other customers, basically wholesalers and resellers, connected to those networks as well. I think that through tough regulatory action we have given BT the right set of incentives," she said.


BT are indeed making substantial investments in the long-term future of UK Telecommunications, nobody's really questioning that. What most question is the fact their no longer managed as a public company by the government and are in a very powerful market position.

Many of their actions, however well intended, often end up being cited as anti-competitive because of all this. It reminds us of the now privatised rail system, not that we're making any comparisons, you understand.

At the same meeting Patricia Hewitt also chose to define just what broadband is:

"We would define higher bandwidth networks as more than 384 kilobits per second, current generation broadband as two megabytes and above, and next generation broadband as ten megabytes and above. Generically we incorporate the whole as being broadband and higher bandwidth"

It's probably best to just say, ‘high-speed consumer/commercial networking’, since you can't really give broadband a more specific meaning. People have been calling 128Kbps ISDN broadband (it's actually iDSL) for a long time now, time to adjust that to 384Kbps.

BTIgnite To Miss ADSL Rollout Target

By:mark.j @ 10:54:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

During the end of November last year BTIgnite promised to ramp up ADSL installations in order to appease the growing displeasure with them from ISPs. However yesterday it emerged that BTIgnite would most likely end up missing their set targets by quite a margin.

The original promise was to deliver 70,000 - 80,000 installations by March 2001, it now looks more likely to be 50,000. So far BT have supplied roughly 38,000 and Steve Andrews, BT's president of broadband, claims, "I think we'll go past 50,000 but it's unlikely we'll go past 70,000".

More than 100,000 households have ordered ADSL, an "always-on" technology that operates at about 10 times the speed of dial-up Internet connections. Andrews said at that time Ignite would triple its installation rate to 15,000 lines a month by March, the current figure is only 10,000.

"Our throughput initially was not quite as fast as we would have hoped," he said in an interview.

He rejected claims by Freeserve and AOL that Ignite was supplying Openworld with the lion's share of connections, in contravention of rules that require BT to treat all ISPs on an equal footing. "We've been as open as possible with all ISPs about the allocation process," he said. "It's a very, very fair system."

All ISPs had their orders scaled back by the same proportion when demand was exceeding supply, he said. Freeserve and AOL are still threatening legal action over the issue.

WorldCom Set To Take Up ST FRIACO

By:mark.j @ 10:24:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Good news this morning, following Oftels late ST-FRIACO announcement yesterday, today the WorldCom Telco/Network suppliers have announced their intention to support the final FRIACO revision:

WorldCom, which claims to have requested the move some 18 months ago, stated that it would be offering a wholesale package to ISPs in the near future. Phil Reynolds, UK director of regulatory affairs at WorldCom, said: “We welcome the final resolution. The UK now has the prospect of sustainable competition in unmetered access.

But whether today’s determination will allow UK ISPs to offer unmetered access to users will largely depend on which operators decide to offer wholesale unmetered access packages to them. There is no doubt that many operators are happier with today’s announcement than any other proposal put forward in the past. But apart from WorldCom, most other UK operators are busy studying the document and have yet to come to a decision, or have decided not to offer their own wholesale products to ISPs.

Energis, which already offers an unnamed wholesale unmetered package to Freeserve, said it will revise the details of the determination, but is unlikely to fully embrace the new option. In a statement it said: “We welcome Oftel’s confirmation of ST FRIACO as it will complement the existing [local exchange] FRIACO product, enabling Energis to carry unmetered traffic to a wider audience. However we expect to use [the local exchange] more heavily than [the regional exchange], picking up 80% of unmetered traffic at the [local exchange].


The netimperative.com article also mentions COLT Telecom and Cable&Wirless as being interested, yet still going through the documentation. COLT backs ISPs such as ClaraNET and Madasafish, so an ST FRIACO option could help them. While WorldCom backs yet more ISPs, such as the troubled FreeChariot.

Whether the new option is actually any good remains to be seen and we'll probably start seeing the initial feedback early next week.

Fontino Ad-Serving Technology - Illegal?

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

A few days ago we reported on a new technology created for use by ISPs that would allow them to overlay third party sites advertising with their own. There were questions about the legality of doing this and today experts have begun saying the same thing, we agree:

Alex Chapman, a lawyer with IT specialist firm Briffa, said: “What this technology does is effectively reverse framing - so for an ISP to overlay the banner adverts of a third party with its own is potentially passing off and copyright infringement."

[Potential claimants] are likely to claim that by changing what is actually seen by the browser so that it is not what the owner of the original website intended, an ISP may be making and issuing copies without consent, and without what may usually be deemed an implied licence.

He added that an ISP using Fotino may also risk prosecution for defamation: “Copyright owners also have the right to object to derogatory treatment of their works, and will claim that the ISP or its advertiser is passing off goods and services as connected to or endorsed by the website being viewed.


The netimperative.com article presents yet another perspective on the issue and one that all webmasters giving out technically free information, ISPReview included, would certainly get behind. However the real problem is that the Internet remains very thin on laws designed to prevent such things.

Nobody is certain how real world practices can migrate on to the freedom of the online world; clearly Fontino could prove to be evil side of this freedom if allowed through.

News - February 15,2001

Quick Site Update - Browser Compatibility

By:mark.j @ 4:03:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

We were planning to take it easy for the rest of the week following the launch of our new broadband section; instead we ended up working on ISPr again. You should now notice that the main page under Opera5 and Netscape v6 looks 'almost' identical to how it is under IE5.5, which is what ISPr is designed for.

We've also fixed a JavaScript bug in the forms that often prevented users from logging in or completing the 'post reply/new topic' routines. Enjoy.

The Family Friendly Unmetered ISP - v21

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

As you may have noticed in one of our BTSurfPort24 related posts of late, another unmetered ISP called V21 is due to go live on the 3rd May 2001. You can see the following press release on their site, although we've pasted it here for you:

WORLD'S FIRST 'FAMILY FRIENDLY' ISP TO BE LAUNCHED

3rd May 2001 sees the launch of the world's first family-safe Internet Service Provider, www.V21.co.uk. V21 is unique in that it does not allow access to any adult material and therefore makes it the perfect ISP for families. V21's team of 'cyber nannies' constantly monitor the ISP for adult material, guaranteeing peace of mind for parents who cannot keep an eye on their children's internet activities all of the time.

Unlike search engines that have family-friendly switches that only work when searching through that engine, V21 overwrites Internet Explorer to omit all adult material at all times and from all sources.

The family-safe V21 browser includes the V21 search engine, Vmail - a free email service accessible from any computer - and chat rooms. As one would expect, V21 monitors all input and output on these systems to ensure that adult material remains inaccessible.

Steve Kaye, Director of V21, said: 'In an age when the internet is being bombarded with more and more adult material, V21 makes the Internet safe for families again. We are the first of our kind and will make the net a safer place for families and schools alike'

The v21 package costs just £14.99 a month and includes free unmetered access 24 hours a day. To sign up, visit www.v21.co.uk or call 0870 442 9600.


It all sounds very good, but there's more to computers and the word 'family' than just filtering out adult content. What about those who prefer to use Netscape or Opera? Or how about the ISPs ease of use? We'll have to wait a little longer to find out just how flexible it is.

If installing a copy of Netscape is all it takes to get around the protection then the system has failed, any child could do that and kids can be clever.

ClaraNET Calls For R.I.P Clarification

By:mark.j @ 2:22:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

By protecting its clients against attack from the Kournikova virus, the company may well have breached the controversial RIP Act, and is calling for clarification to ensure that ISPs acting in their customers' best interests aren't breaking the law. As such they've issued the following press release:

Issued: 15th February 2001

Claranet calls for clarification of the RIP Act to ensure that ISPs acting in their customers’ best interests aren’t breaking the law.


By protecting its clients against attack from the latest email virus - the Kournikova virus - Claranet, the UK’s largest independent ISP, may well be in breach of the controversial RIP Act.

The company introduced a mail filter to ensure that the virus did not reach its 450,000 users, and by doing so, it may have fallen foul of the new laws on intercepting emails.

Steve Rawlinson, chief technical officer at Claranet said, “As an ISP we are in a privileged position in that we are able to help limit the damage caused to our customers’ systems by virus attacks. Our own servers were immune to the attack, and we acted quickly to put in place measures on our servers to protect our customers from becoming infected with the extremely prolific Anna Kournikova virus."

But after obtaining legal advice, we are concerned that our action has meant that we have breached the RIP Act.” The Act states that it is an offence to “intentionally and without lawful authority” intercept any communication in the course of its transmission.

We need clarification as to whether the measures that we introduced are considered to be interception,” added Mr Rawlinson.

The company developed software that would examine an email and reject it from the server if it contained the Anna Kournikova virus, thereby protecting Claranet’s customers from the harmful virus. The mail filter was designed to examine the email header for the specific virus filename attachment.

If the virus was detected, the infected email would be automatically removed from the mail server and sent back to the sender with a note informing the sender that they were infected by a virus.

Steve Rawlinson explained, “There are provisions under the RIP Act that allow interception in order to ensure system integrity or to prevent crime, our actions could be covered by either of these conditions, but it is unclear."

"We have seen the damage that viruses such as the Love Bug can do, causing millions of pounds worth of delays and damage to relationships and data across the world. And, virus attacks are likely to become increasingly common, the Kournikova virus is unlikely to be the last. In fact, a more potent virus capable of halting e-commerce could easily threaten the growth of the Internet and E-economy in the UK."

"If growth in the use of the Internet by businesses for internal, business to business and business to consumer applications is to continue, people need to feel that ISPs are doing all they can to protect their customers from potentially harmful virus attacks."

"With this in mind, the law needs to be clarified to ensure that Claranet and other ISPs, who are likely to put in place similar virus protection measures, can protect their customers without fear of prosecution."

ENDS


You may remember that we highlighted this exact same issue during posts we made regarding other ISPs implementation of similar software. It looks as if we were correct in pointing such an issue out as ClaraNET, a big UK ISP, have found the new law confusing as well.

Quick Site Update

By:mark.j @ 11:00:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

By popular request we've today removed the LineOne forum and replaced it with a Connect25 one. So any discussion about Connect25 can now be carried out in that specific section of our forums 'Unmetered List Comments'.

Vispas New WebStart Package

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

Do one and find another, at least that seems to be Vispas policy for the day as they've gone and sent us a second press release:

February 15th 2001

The Vispa WebStart package is the ideal solution for net users who want to get more from their web site. Starting with a healthy 30Mb of WAP enabled webspace and complete support for Microsoft Frontpage extensions you have plenty of freedom to develop a web site. You also get "Vispa WebStats" so you know how many visitors you have had to your site.

WebStart does not stop there, as every account is provided with it's own CGI-Bin allowing you to create and run your own perl scripts, and with complete PHP3 and 4 support your site can be more interactive than ever.

With Vispa WebStart you get the following:

· Unlimited Internet access charged at a local rate and upgradeable to our unmetered packages.
· Unlimited Email addresses (anything@username.vispa.com)
· 30Mb WAP enabled Webspace
· CGI-Bin allowing you to create and run your own scripts
· Webstats updated weekly
· PHP 3/4 Support
· Free 0870 Number
· Voice and Fax to email services (provided by Yac.com)
· Microsoft Frontpage Extensions
· Full Newsfeed with over 51,000 newsgroups
· IRC Servers
· Support for V.90, X2, Standard modems and ISDN up to 128k
· Full 24 Hour Monitoring and Backup Generators
· Contention Ratio of 10:1

All this is available for £4.50 (inc vat) a month.

For more information on the Connect WebStart package:
http://www.vispa.net

Vispas WebPlus Upgrade

By:mark.j @ 9:50:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Vispa Internet have today sent along another Press Release about some upgrade they've made to their existing WebPlus hosting package:

Press Release : VISPA UPGRADES WEBPLUS PACKAGE

February 15th 2001


Vispa Web Plus is the ideal package for small businesses, sole traders; professionals who want to get more from their web site, but don't want to make a huge investment. The Web Plus package is a low cost, but packed full of superb features to take your web site to the next phase.

Signup to WebPlus and we will provide you with a free .co.uk domain name with unlimited email addresses, and thanks to Yac.com you can receive both Voice and Fax to email via your own personal number.

WebPlus don't stop there, as every account is provided with they're own CGI-Bin allowing you to create and run your own perl scripts, and with PHP support your site can be more interactive than ever.

With Vispa WebPlus you get the following:

· Unlimited Internet access charged at a local rate.
· 1 FREE co.uk Domain Name Registration.*
· Unlimited Email addresses (anything@yourfreedomain.co.uk)
· 1 Dedicated POP mailbox. (Upgradable with ease)
· 50Mb WAP enabled Webspace - (New - Increased Amount)
· CGI-Bin allowing you to create and run your own scripts
· Webstats updated daily - (New)
· PHP 3/4 Support
· Free 0870 Number - (New)
· Voice and Fax to email services (provided by Yac.com)
· Microsoft Frontpage Extensions
· Full Newsfeed with over 51,000 newsgroups
· Pre-Installed CGI Scripts
· IRC Servers
· Support for V.90, X2, Standard modems and ISDN up to 128k
· Full 24 Hour Monitoring and Backup Generators
· Contention Ratio of 6:1

All this is available for £7.50 (inc vat) a month.

For more information on the Connect WebStart package:
http://www.vispa.net

Googles Deja Buyout Hack

By:mark.j @ 9:46:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Deja, the public 'newsgroup reading' source based off a website was recently brought out by Google (search engine giant). However thanks to Chris for pointing out that the DNS information shows some people might not have been too happy about it:

Found these host names in the DNS entry for Deja.com:

As of now the IP addy reports destination unreachable!
(http://www.demon.net/cgi-bin/demon/external/dig?deja.com.)

The-King-Of-France-Has-Left-The-Building.deja.com.
And-All-I-Got-Was-This-Lousy-T-Shirt.deja.com.
Goodbye-To-All-The-Cracksmokers.deja.com.
Goodbye-Krewel-Worrold-Bang-Bang-Bang.deja.com.
Deja-Is-Frickin-Dead-As-Disco.deja.com.

Just about sums up the situation really, and it really doesn't sound like the original tech team of deja were too fond of the google buyout!

BT Ignite Tries To Calm ADSL Rollout Fears

By:mark.j @ 9:31:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

In yet another backlash at the recent industry flogging, BT Ignite have done an interview with online news site, The Register, in which they try to allay fears that the rollout might be going too slow. Most of it contains things we've all heard before, but there were three very interesting paragraphs:

When BTIgnite first started it was managing 200 installations a day. Today that figure stands at 500, subject to demand, although Andrews' goal is 700 a day.

But he conceded that BTIgnite would fall short of a target set at the end of last year to install around 70,000 - 80,000 customers by the beginning of April.

Commenting on the tortuous upgrade path that existing BT ISDN users have to face if they want to move up to ADSL Andrews said that he had a "hit team working on it" and that it was "working on ways to get round the problems".


So there you have it, conclusive proof BT are trying to 'assassinate' those wanting to upgrade from ISDN to ADSL=). We always knew they had a way around it, but killing is taking it one step too far.

We are, of course, joking our merry little heads off. Although we know BT have been working on the ISDN to ADSL issue for sometime, we don't know exactly what 'style' of upgrade they have planned. If it's the same as is under trial (remove ISDN - Install ADSL) then does that really require a hit team?

Single Tandem FRIACO Completed By 2003

By:mark.j @ 9:19:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

BTSurfport24 is not the same as FRIACO2 was supposed to be and the lack of any news surrounding FRIACO2 is about to become clear with today’s Oftel announcement. They say British Telecom will have to offer rival operators a new wholesale unmetered Internet access product known as ST (Single Tandem) FRIACO (Flat Rate Internet Access Call Origination).

BT is currently obliged to carry other operators' traffic from customers' homes to BT's local exchanges, which it does via its FRIACO product. The new OFTEL directive requires BT to carry other operators' traffic beyond local exchanges, all the way to the other operators' own networks.

OFTEL said the introduction of ST FRIACO should boost competition in the provision of unmetered Internet access.

BT's network will have to meet all reasonable demand for ST FRIACO, without limitation, from February 2003. In the short term, BT will be allowed to take measures to avoid overloading its main regional exchanges.

We're not entirely sure what this means for the coverage of ST FRIACO itself, especially if it'll take until 2003 to be perfected. We're also uncertain about what exactly BT is allowed to do to avoid overloading its regional exchanges. While it's all perfectly fair, from experience we know BT don't tend to stick to the rules as honestly as people might think. Good news, kind of.

Tiny (Online) Computers Go FRIACO For April

By:mark.j @ 9:10:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Tiny have had a more expensive unmetered option for some time, although very little is known about it. Today they've announced their intention to re-visit that area by producing a FRIACO based unmetered offer:

A spokesperson at Tiny said: “Tiny Online will be launching a new competitive access deal in April. Users will be able to pre-register an interest in the service through our website as of next week”.

Further details regarding the new service have not yet been disclosed but the announcement follows news today that Affinity Internet Holdings will provide its clients, which includes Tiny, with a wholesale package based on BT’s FRIACO-based SurfPort24 product.

It is not known if Affinity, which is buying SurfPort24 for resale to smaller ISPs, is providing the infrastructure for the new Tiny service. However, Affinity has confirmed it will offer the new product to its existing 150 ISP customers and said it had received considerable interest.


In typical 'Tiny' style they're giving very little away and not even netimperative.com was able to get more information. We should know nearer the launch just what they have planned.

C.U.Ts Predictions For 2001

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

The C.U.T (http://www.unmetered.org.uk/news/news150201.htm) have done another update this morning that was first published in the Daily Telegraph, however they've now been allowed to shift it online:

Well, for one I believe that both Internet use and the percentage of the population accessing it will continue to increase (naturally!). It is even possible, for a period of time, that the figures for the UK will temporarily surpass those of the USA. Growth will be encouraged by ISPs (such as BT Internet and Freeserve) finally offering FRIACO-based unmetered products - that sounds very technical but really just means that these products are sustainable, unlike those offered previously – and by the cost of computer hardware continuing to fall.

As part of this trend, you should expect to see a few large ISPs dominate the market: even these will not own their own modems but instead rely on companies such as BT, Energis and Level 3 to run the service. The role of mass market ISPs in future will be little more than to deal with customer billing and technical support issues, competing much less on price and much more on content and quality of service

In addition, during 2001, high-speed broadband connections such as ADSL and cable modems will finally begin to appear in selected areas. However, don’t expect widespread usage of these technologies this year unless prices are lowered. The ISP market will gradually return to the 'pre-Freeserve' days where paying a monthly subscription fee was normal.


Don't expect this one to be as technical as the usual C.U.T updates because it was designed for a more varied audience.

News - February 14,2001

StarSpeeder Satellite Signup Page - Live

By:mark.j @ 4:28:PM - Comments (7) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

It's now fast approaching the date when StarSpeeders Satellite Internet access ISP goes live, March 1st 2001. Today they've made another site update and for those who already have the needed technology, you can now make use of the service through a live signup page!:

If you already possess suitable equipment for the Starspeeder service and wish to register before the service start (scheduled for March 1st), the secure registration page is now available here Signup. Please ensure your DVB card Mac address is filled in correctly on the signup form. Providing the service starts on schedule Credit/Switch card payments will be for the period 1st March - 31st May. If the service starts before the scheduled date any service use up to this date will be free. Payments are not taken until the service is running and your DVB Mac address is enabled for use on the Starspeeder service.

Of course unless you know what you’re doing from experience with other/similar Satellite ISPs, then we suggest you wait the two weeks and buy the complete kit, having a satellite TV (Sky) connection is NOT the same. Alternatively you could wait for SkyStorm (reseller) to go live and do the same.

By way of a reminder:

Q. What is Starspeeder?
A. A very fast Internet connection via Satellite. Starspeeder connects you to the Internet at speeds of up to 400Kbits/sec. Monthly cost is £15.00 plus UK VAT - (£52.88 Quarterly) For more detailed information go to our about page.

Q. What’s needed?
PC - Win98 / ME / NT / 2000, Linux, 64Mb RAM, 100Mb free disc space.
Modem or ISDN connection, DVB Card eg. or
60cm Dish / Digital LNB aligned on Europe*Star 45 degrees East.


We'll have a full review and updated 'Broadband Section' installation guide specifically for StarSpeeder/SkyStorm mid-March.

IC24 Extend 0800 - YES - AGAIN!

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

The UKs only true free 0800 offering ISP, IC24, have today made the surprise announcement to Net4Nowt that they intend to extend the trial by another two weeks. People had originally expected the offer to finally end today due to the short extension given last time. The offer will now last up until the end of the month, much to the pleased smiles of many subscribers.

SniffOut Delays FRIACO Product

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

Thanks to John for letting us know of THIS update @ the SniffOut site concerning their FRIACO/SurfPort24 product and a small delay:

Thank you for your interest in our new SmartTime unmetered package, designed to offer high quality Internet access with no lengthy contracts and no hidden charges.

SmartTime is using BT's new FRIACO (Flat Rate Internet Access Call Origination) service that is currently being rolled out around the UK and will be available nationally from April 2001.

By now, we had hoped to have begun issuing registration invitations to those who had pre-registered for SmartTime, based on current availability at local telephone exchanges. Unfortunately we have not yet received sufficient data to enable us to accurately determine which local exchanges have been enabled, and therefore who we can invite to join the service.

We hope to have this information shortly and to start the rollout of registration invitations to everyone who has expressed an interest in the new SmartTime package.


The Private launch had been due to occur today for those pre-registered or already on one of their other services. It's now expected to go live during early March.

BTIgnite Offer Surfport24 To SME ISPs

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

BTIgnite have responded to the concerns of ISPs such as CloudNine, FastNET and Totalise by producing a LIGHT Surfport24 variant called Webport:

The unmetered version of an existing product, WebPort, will be released in the near future, and according to BT, will allow these ISPs to buy a minimum of 10 ports in order to provide their services.

WebPort differs from SurfPort24 in that BT takes the ISP’s traffic from the user, via the local exchange, onto BT’s Colossus IP network and then directly to the internet rather than from Colossus to the ISP’s point of presence using expensive high speed SDH connections, which is the basis of SurfPort24. WebPort will become unmetered when BT enables the FRIACO connection from the user to the local exchange.

The move comes as BT discusses with customers its next move regarding the status of SurfPort24. David Hughes, president of BT Ignite internet services, re-iterated BT’s argument that it is unlikely that the overall costs of the product will change because of the cost of infrastructure. He said: “The cost of supplying smaller ISPs is the same as supporting larger ISPs. If we do lower the [port] limit, we may have to reflect the cost in support costs. WebPort is more suitable for smaller ISPs.


We'll have to wait and see what the ISPs say before we know exactly how welcome the new service will be. Questions over how the billing will work have already started to surface and we've been talking with CloudNine about it today. We should have some feedback soon, more @ netimperative.com.

Tax Payer To Fund Broadband Britain

By:mark.j @ 12:36:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The government is apparently assessing whether or not to use the Tax Payers (that’s all of us) money to help fund their Broadband Britain plans. Don't start to worry just yet because it doesn't look as if they're too keen:

However, while the Government is happy to commission research to clarify the "need and economic justification" for intervention, it has, effectively, already ruled it out.

According to a Government report issued yesterday - UK online: the broadband future - it would cost £1 billion to upgrade all of BT's exchanges so that they become ADSL-enabled by the end of 2002.

While such a move might appeal to those who have lost faith in the current pot-holed path to broadband, Government intervention would also throw up a number of difficulties.


Some of the problems that could crop up relate to the worry that other broadband technologies would be left by the wayside or that ADSL might end up flopping and thus a huge investment would be lost. Whatever the thinking behind it, something has to be done, more @ The Register.

Broadband Wireless Auction - Back To Life

By:mark.j @ 12:29:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Last years November 2000 auction of the highly overpriced 28GHz broadband wireless product band was fraught with chaos, no doubt about that. Although E-Minister Patricia Hewitt now has plans to clear up the mess and left over licenses:

The plan is to allow companies to buy the unsold licences for the current reserve price, unless more than one company is interested, which would result in an auction for the individual licence. This process is due to begin this summer, according to Ms Hewitt, and will involve: “an encouraging number of companies.

The prime minister's office said it has chosen to set up a £30m fund to help businesses deliver high-speed internet services across the country. The fund, around 0.1% of the amount already paid by business to the government for 3G licences, is thought to include wireless as well as fixed broadband services.


Despite the news being a welcome change to the current downturn in broadband wireless interest, it's unlikely to cause any great ripples. More @ netimperative.com.

ISP Review Launches Broadband Section!

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

We're very proud to finally announce the launch of our new Broadband Section, it may not be perfect; although we do plan to improve it as time goes by. The new section includes the following:

-Individual News Items Section By Type (ADSL, Wireless etc.)
-Simple Installation Guides (More/Less complex depending on medium, ADSL etc.).
-Simple Information Guides (background information about the related technology).
-ISP Reviews Index for each.
-Detailed ISP Listings for each.
-Top ISPs by type.
-Latest 'Type Related' forum posts and sample output (all integrated and automated).
-General Survey.


The new section covers xDSL (ADSL, SDSL etc.), Cable Modems, Satellite and Broadband Wirless/Other Technologies. The page updates itself with news items, forum posts, survey results and information every few moments (when we or somebody else adds something remotely), so it's constantly changing.

It's designed primarily as a guide and information page that should help anybody understand a little about the specific broadband technology their interested in. There could be mistakes and it's not perfect, but it'll do for now.

There are roughly 35 new unique pages of content involved in total, closer to 50 if you include the sectioned news. We plan to add more features and content in the near future. You may also notice we've made some small changes to ISP Review itself.

UK Government Backs Broadband - Surprise!

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

Despite yesterdays news that most people weren't expecting the government to get behind their Broadband Britain Pledge for the election, in a surprise twist they've ended up doing just that, backing what many believe to be ‘difficult ground’:

Today, Ms Hewitt said she intends to spend £30 million to help address the problem of an urban/rural digital divide, where areas outside major cities are not included in the broadband map.

"We do not want a nation of have-nets and have-nots," she said. "We are therefore announcing a new £30 million fund to ensure that a digital divide in high speed Internet access does not open up between urban and rural communities."

She also said that Government intended to help stimulate demand for, and interest in, broadband. Government also intends to use its massive buying power to in the regions to help stimulate demand for broadband services.


It's certainly good news and would be amazing to think that by 2005 everybody might be using broadband, of course realistically that's just not possible. Even if they could cover 100% of the UK by then, that doesn't mean people would use it, most of Northern America still use modems. More @ The Register.

BTOpenworld Classified 'Unusable'

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

Despite BTOpenworlds weekend problems, it now looks as if the troubled ADSL ISP has been having more serious problems during Monday and Tuesday of this week. So much so that it has caused many of their customers to classify the ISP as Unusable:

Openworld admitted Tuesday customers have had "problems connecting and downloading Web pages" over the last week due to incorrect software on a server. The problems meant that users paying £39.99 a month for an always-on, high-speed ADSL (asymmetric digital subscriber line) connection had to make up to 40 attempts to connect to openworld's network.

"Everybody has had intermittent problems from day one, but we could live with it," broadband user Darren Collins told ZDNet UK. "But for the last week it's been just terrible. It's been unuseable, if you want to use it for what it's supposed to be there for. If you can get a connection, it works, but God help you if you turn your PC off."

Openworld says it has put a fix in place, but users said problems persisted Tuesday.


The ZDNet article highlights yet another problem in what could now be enough to fill a well sized skip. Users are becoming increasingly dissatisfied with BTO's continued problems and it doesn't look as if a more stable service is likely to emerge for sometime yet.

Affinity To Provide Wholesale BTSurfPort24!

By:mark.j @ 9:30:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Affinity seems to make a habit of doing this, they provided a wholesale version of BTSurftime (supply 85% of ISPs still using it) and now they plan to do the same for BT's Surfport24! The packages are pre-designed and aimed at all of their 150 strong client base:

As a result, Affinity will be able to buy the SurfPort24 package from BT Ignite and offer unmetered packages that are better aimed at its ISP customers. AffinityBusiness Unlimited One, aimed at SMEs, will be available at £10 per month and valid between 8am and 6pm, five days per week. AffinityBusiness One, also aimed at SMEs for the same period is available at 1p per minute peak period and 2p per minute at all other times.

Affinity’s consumer products include AffinitySurf Unlimited, available at silver and gold service levels and Affinity HomeTime is available between midday to 5pm, seven days a week. Prices were not revealed. VIP’s existing Hometime 600 packages, based on BT Surftime will be still be available. According to Affinity, no ISPs have yet signed up for the service but Peter Collins, MD of VIP said there has been considerable interest.


This is excellent news for smaller ISPs unable to cope with the high price tag from initial investment in order to take advantage of the services. However the fact that the packages are pre-designed will likely put some ISPs off. Yet there's good news for ISPs like CloudNine, FastNet and Totalise as well:

However, BT has already come under fire from ISPs that have accused BT of making SurfPort24 too expensive for smaller ISPs. Affinity, in response to complaints by these ISPs – including CloudNine, FastNet Communications and Totalise, has offered to provide BT SurfPort24 as an aggregated service to smaller ISPs, offering small numbers of ports. He said: “We are not advertising this but it is possible.

This may be exactly the solution CloudNine are looking for, although we'll be talking with these ISPs to find out just what they think. The move represents the next step in having a cheaper unmetered Internet, more @ netimperative.com.

Telewest Gets Recommending Friends

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

If you're using Telewests BlueYonder broadband service then you might like to know that recommending friends to the service could result in you having one months free access:

Under the new scheme existing customers fill in a form on the blueyonder website, and forward a message outling the offer to as many friends as they wish. When the new customers signs up they must specify the original subscriber as their referer.

The new customer will receive £25 off their installation charge, while the existing customer will receive one months credit worth £33 once their friend has been subscribing to the service for eight weeks.


CableNews don't go into much detail, although this offer has actually been around for a couple of weeks and isn't hugely new. The real advantage is that the more you refer, the more months you get free, it's clear Telewest are now really trying to catch up with NTLs lead.

News - February 13,2001

ISDN to ADSL

By:rich.p @ 9:02:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

BT has launched the second phase of trials that should enable ISDN users to go straight to ADSL. Thanks to Mark for sending us this information:

2nd phase of BT ISDN2/2e & Home/Business Highway Conversion to Broadband enabled PSTN
Briefing - February 12, 2001

Following the success of the initial market trial that started in September 2000, we are running a 2nd phase. The trial is available to customers nationally within existing Broadband enabled exchange areas and will operate within the existing allocations process. It applies to launched Broadband products only.

Timescales

Orders will be accepted from 19th February to 12th April 2001 and the trial will end on 18th April. Subject to the success of the trial, based upon your feedback and our internal success criteria, we hope to launch the service in May 2001.

New Customer Requirements Form

Effective from the start of this trial, we are introducing new Customer Requirements Forms. These forms are available at http://www.bt.com/broadband They will include a new section relating to Third Party Payment Options* (see below).
These forms must be used for all order types from 19th February.

Amendments to Customer Handbook

We are in the process of updating our customer handbooks. In the interim, the amended sections are available at http://www.bt.com/broadband for your reference.

*Third Party Payment Options (TPPO)

Should you opt to cover part, or all of your end user’s ISDN conversion charges, BT Retail have designed processes to enable this. For further information about TPPO, please contact your BT Account Manager.


Hopefully good news for ISDN users looking to switch to ADSL without the worry of getting the PTSN line and failing the tests.

BTOpenworlds USB Mac Support

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

Not unlike the earlier post regarding Linux drivers for Alcatel USB Modems, a new post from The Register shows that if you really want, MacOS support is also available; even if it is difficult to find the drivers:

One Register reader told us: "BT told me last week that the ADSL drivers for residential Macs would be finished during February. They advised me to call back the following week to see how things were going. So I called them yesterday and they casually told me its been delayed to 'late summer'. Late summer - can you believe it! This will translate to physical installation in November, if we're lucky."

This despite the fact that Alcatel maintains the drivers are done, and BT has a trial version available. It certainly sounds like BTOpenworld is winging it a bit here.

So we asked BT. Yes, we were told, the drivers are done, but BT is still providing them on a trial basis until it's sure they're ready for mass distribution. Trialists were chosen on a first come, first served basis, which is why more recent callers have been told to come back later. The company expects to make the drivers widely available "later this month", though that assumes the drivers work as well as BT wants them to, although Alcatel is clearly satisfied with them.


Again this comes down to what 'Support' means from an ISPs perspective, staff need to be trained in all these technologies and training costs money. In other words they'd obviously rather wait to make something 'Officially Supported' until the drivers are completely finalised.

If not then you'd end up with more support calls, requiring more staff and costing more money, whatever the phone rates may be. Just remember what we always say, just because it isn't supported doesn't mean to say it doesn't exist.

AOL Speaks Out Against BT

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

Just when everybody thought AOL and Freeserve might have made a terrible off-the-wall threat against BT that backfired, today AOL has chosen to speak out once more and is sticking to their guns:

Speaking at the Culture, Media and Sport select committee concerning the Communications White Paper, AOL UK said that in the current climate, no ISP could deliver a marketable ADSL proposal because BT can't say when ADSL will be available, where it will be available and how much it will cost.

AOL UK MD, Karen Thomson, told the select committee: "The industry has been held back by BT. We are stuck. The only player in broadband is BT. As it is, the product is unmarketable."

Although AOL UK voiced its concerns about BT's dominance in the broadband marketplace, it added little that has already been said and simply showed that the spat between AOL UK and BT/Oftel is still rumbling on.


Apparently AOL barely touched on the subject and spent most of the time discussing content and related issues rather than broadband. So far BT has refused to budge on last weeks outburst, although we're sure it won't be long before somebody else takes a shot. More @ The Register.

BTInternet Announce 100MB Bandwidth Increase

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

Thanks to K-Boxer for informing us that BTInternet has updated their web page with news that they plan to introduce a massive extra 100MBytesPS of bandwidth to the network by March 2001:

12/02/01 Service Statement

BT Internet has just ordered an additional 100 MByte/s of bandwidth to
ensure that our web throughput to the global internet remains good. That should be delivered sometime in March.

After an extended trial with transparent web caches, we have decided not to run our service with any caching, so they have been turned off. You should not see any performance reduction as we have increased our capacity to the global internet to compensate. We are looking at adding HTTP acceleration for www.btinternet.com, but that is still under review.

Our average PSTN web browsing speed is currently 4.21 Kbyte/s against an average connection speed of 44.3 Kbit/s. This compares to the industry benchmark of 4.21 Kbyte/s (identical to BT Internet). We have measured the availability of the core mail service (mail.btinternet.com) during January as being 98.5%.

Our newsgroup service continues to be problematic, mainly in the area of dropped binary postings. We acknowledge that the quality of the newsfeed is not consistent and we will continue to provide the best service that we can by closely managing the existing servers. We are planning a completely new news service for early summer, probably based on INN 2.3. We have recently removed a "top shelf" filtering policy on the newsfeed, which means we now carry every news group except those that are acknowledged to be illegal.

To ensure an efficient service for all our customers, we will soon be imposing a maximum mailbox size of 50MBytes. This will help us tremendously in our capacity planning activities, and will only affect less than 1% of customers - the vast majority of people already being comfortably within that limit.


The news is likely to be welcomed with open arms by unhappy BTInternet users who've had to put up with an On-Off service for many months now. It's nice to see BTInternet speaking in an honest and positive tone about their problems and finally doing something to solve them.

BTOpenworld To Cut 200 JOBS!

By:mark.j @ 12:27:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

According to the lovely ADSLGuide, an article in todays Guardian Newspaper is reporting that one in five jobs are to be cut from BTOpenworlds staff resulting in a total of 200 lost jobs.

These jobs cuts are in the face of figures showing a turnover of £68m in the third quarter resulting in a loss of £107m during that period.

The news couldn't come at a worse time for an already troubled broadband industry.

Alcatel Adds Linux USB ADSL Adaptor Support

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

Alcatel, the French group behind much of the UKs SpeedTouch USB ADSL modems, is finally ready to launch their Linux support into the open arms of tech crazy broadband consumers:

That's good news for UK-based Linux users. British Telecom's domestic ADSL service bundles the SpeedTouch, forcing Linux home users to opt for a more expensive Ethernet-connected service.

Last month, British Linux buffs began an online petition to demand Alcatel get its derriere in gear and ship Linux drivers, something the company promised some time back, but has thus far failed to deliver. The petition drew over 800 signatures.

The driver will be ready next month, Alcatel said, along with full source code and the modem's firmware as a binary. The release will allow Linux to join MacOS 8.6 and 9.0, and Windows 9x, NT and 2000 as OS' capable of making ADSL connections via the SpeedTouch, the company added.


Some excellent news from The Register then and information that's likely to make a lot of people happy. Lets just hope the Linux drivers don't suffer the same serious problems that plagued early 'Windows' ones.

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