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January 10, 2001 - January 15, 2001

News - January 15,2001

EU Pledges $9,3 Million For Next Gen Internet

By:mark.j @ 11:31:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The Internet is very much networking on a global scale, although times change and as broadband propagates the requirements for its current infrastructure grow to breaking point. CERN (European Laboratory for Particle Physics), who developed the original Internet, are already hard at work on its sequel.

The new Internet, which some call Internet2, has now been given an official project name - The DataGrid Project. The DataGrid will link supercomputers, processor farms, disks, major databases, information systems, collaborative tools and people in a high-speed network.

"As the World Wide Web is exploited by more and more people, its limitations in dealing with the huge amounts of data involved become more apparent," CERN, which developed the World Wide Web, said.

The project isn't just one thing, but many; it will combine all the emerging technologies (new networks, IP systems etc.) into one. Already funded by American research, the new system has been given an extra boost thanks to $9.3 Million in funding from the European Union.

Although don't expect to see the changes anytime soon, DataGrid (Internet2) is a long-term progression plan that will see improvements on a stage-by-stage basis. Slowly starting out life in a confined environment, it will eventually filter down to people such as you an I.

The new funding provided by the EU and five of its member countries is likely to give a significant boost to the project.

Safer Web Not Supported By The UK

By:mark.j @ 11:13:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

It's a well-known fact that most parental software to filter their children’s computer activity (porn etc.) simply isn't effective. On the 1st January 2001 this year the World Wide Web Safe Surfing Service (3W3S) launched the start of a EU funded project to put right what others can't.

The new system is set-up in a manor such that European countries can co-develop the filtering system and then use it across the EU. However the UK seems to be one of the only countries not putting its weight behind it:

So far, the World Wide Web Safe Surfing Service (3W3S) has attracted members from Greece, Spain, Belgium, France and Germany, but no interest from the UK. Interested technology companies from each country are invited to sign up and offer their services to develop the filtering service.

As yet nobody has given a reason as to why this might be, especially since the matter is one of great public sensitivity. It's certainly not like any government to avoid jumping on the bandwagon of such thing. More @ UK.Internet.

Abel Launches Anticipated Unmetered Offers

By:mark.j @ 11:03:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Several readers today informed us that Abel Internet have finally launched their two new unmetered offers, along with a complete page re-design:

DIAL Leisuretime
Unmetered Off Peak only
Credit Card
11.99 (Per Month)

DIAL Anytime
Unmetered at any time
Credit Card
27.99 (Per Month)

The packages come with some fairly bog standard features and for that price you'd expect a lot of flexibility, although loyal Abel customers (at least those that contacted us) are clearly not happy. While a 3hour cut off is generous and most welcome, what the Terms & Conditions state are not:

The 0800 & 0845 Service: In the event of you choosing an 0800 package you understand that the 0800 package to which you are subscribing offers unmetered access, not unlimited access. You understand that unmetered access means dialling an 0800 phone number for which no telephone calls charges will be made by your telephone company. You understand that 0800 Internet connections will be limited to 3 hours per session; after which time the Internet connection will be terminated.

You understand that our 0800 packages have a maximum number of hours online permitted per month: Upon exceeding 50 hours per month on the Leisuretime package or 100 hours per month on the Anytime package an 0800 connection will no longer be allowed. Choosing an 0800 package also allows you unlimited access dialling an 0845 local call rate number. We reserve the right, legal or otherwise, to restrict, suspend, or terminate your access to our service for any reason, including in particular if your use of our service causes or is likely to cause the whole or part of our service to be interrupted, damaged, rendered less efficient or in any way impaired or in any way detrimental to other users

For the price your paying a 100Hour limit on the 24/7 (£27.99) package is completely unfair. The ISP may only be trying to make a profit, although almost all the competition can offer a better deal than this - best avoided.

They seem to state a near Zero-Tolerance on the above principals, meaning you cannot have free calls after the hours expire.

XO and BTIgnite Seek SDSL - Again

By:mark.j @ 10:45:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

XO Communications, popular for broadband, has once again started discussions with BT Ignite related to bringing forward trials of SDSL services that were previously put on hold due to component shortages:

The trials - designed to test delivery of 500 Kbps 1Mbps and 1.9Mbps bandwidths up and downstream - were originally timetabled to start in January, until hardware supplier Fujitsu reputedly ran into problems sourcing router components.

“We had resigned ourselves to a start date in the summer, but there is a good chance that can be improved,” said Axel Lagerborg, XO’s UK director of product marketing. “It will be a relaxed discussion,” he emphasised.

The newer SDSL service is regarded by many as the next step in UK broadband xDSL technology, it's also cheaper to integrate due to its design. However it doesn't come in a consumer friendly form and as such is being targeted at SMEs that don't fancy spending £5000 per year on a slower leased line. More @ netimperative.com.

EXCLUSIVE-ConnectFREE Withdraws Unmetered

By:mark.j @ 10:32:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

This was hinted to us some time ago, although today ConnectFREE have issued a very interesting E-Mail that states they are going to close their unmetered products down. Following on from IGClick a large portion of the problems have typically been put down to BT:

Dear ConnectFree Customer

It is with great regret that we have to announce that ConnectFree is withdrawing from provision of the BT SurfTime and FreeCall products. This service will cease as of 9th February 2001.

Our reason for this is that despite constant liason with BT, we have not received a satisfactory level of service provision from BT. We do not believe that circumstance is likely to change. As with many other ISPs in this situation, we have been forced to refer the matter to OFTEL.

Some of you may have been inaccurately billed by BT. We are vigorously pushing BT to come to a satisfactory resolution on this and we will continue to do so. We have been informed by BT that we will not be able to progress individual cases with them. They will only accept queries from the individual who holds the bill. We will update you as we know more from BT

We have cancelled your payments via WoldPay. If you paid by yearly subscription, please contact us and we will arrange for a pro rata refund.

We will be maintaining our 0845 local rate dial up access which has proved so successful. You will be able to access your e-mail via this dial up.We will also be providing broad band services via ADSL in the near future.

If you have any queries regarding your account, please contact us via our Technical Support Line on : 0870 742 1111 or e-mail us at : info@ConnectFree.net

We apologise for the inconvenience that this may cause but hope you will understand that we have been left with no other option.

Regards

ConnectFree

We continually hear of similar stories from other ISPs involved with the use of a BTSurftime system. Not only are customers from the BT end (Surftime) still being billed incorrectly (this is a bigger problem then most can see), but also BT is failing to provide the Telco to ISP support required.

It's worth pointing out that ConnectFREE has not withdrawn due to the service being unprofitable, on the contrary they had one of the most expensive Surftime options around, but because of BTs unsatisfactory level of service provision. This is another matter entirely and not one to be confused with the usual economic wrangles of unmetered access. At present we hear the same thing from several other ISPs.

News - January 14,2001

PlanetInferno Relaunch

By:mark.j @ 5:02:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Since it's a Sunday we can get away with this, but Ben sent a note to say that PlanetInferno has had a re-launch. It's not really ISP related anymore and most will remember it from the days of EzeSurf.

ISP Review Site Update

By:mark.j @ 10:15:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

In a week when the plan emerged of how a large group of international teenage hackers plotted to show how clever they were (yeah right) by Bringing down the Internet on New Years day, ISPr continued on with its own improvements plan. If that joke just completely flew over your head then don't bother trying to catch it again =).

We decided to forgo some of our usual content inclusion until next week and fix up some age old problems as requested by the readership. We changed to a brand new/more effective main page survey system, archived up all the old news more effectively and changed the headline layout.

We did a lot of smaller things as well and just yesterday began beta testing version 1.9 (to match the main site) of our portable AvantGO channel. AvantGO is a system design for personal organisers (WinCE 2.11, PocketPC, PalmPilot, Visors etc.) and much more advanced mobile phones. You can help beta test it by visiting this forum post:

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/ubb/Forum4/HTML/000106.html

Aside from that we'd like to do a WAP (Headlines only) version for mobile phones with that facility. If you'd like to help out then just make a post in the same forum topic above.

The automated listings have also seen yet another delay, although this was more to do with server issues then actual code. As far as I'm aware it's now done and so we just need to test the code and get it onto ISPr.

Next week concentration will likely be on listings and content, we hope to have our first Satellite ISP review as well.

UUNet Taken Out By SPAM

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

Of all the things that could take down a whole section of the UKs networking, SPAM is not one that springs to mind. UUNets E-Mail servers were the unfortunate target when concerted commercial SPAM attacks (huge amounts of bulk E-Mail, usually rubbish) went through the network:

Michael Stone, IT director at online aerospace and defence journal Defence Data, complained after Pipex Dial could not tell him when his email services would be restored.

"I have been on the phone to Uunet four or five times to get my rag off," Stone said. "This is completely unacceptable, as we rely on our email. I was told that someone had intruded into their systems. It must go beyond queueing problems, because we would have had the backlog by now."

UUNet, who also serve as a major network hub for many of the UKs ISPs, was quick to explain exactly what had happened:

"There are hundreds of thousands of customers affected," Woods admitted. "We were hit by a very big commercial mailing that clogged up our mail servers on Thursday. We identified the source, as it came in several times from a series of dynamic IP addresses in Canada."

The problem is currently being fixed by a whole group of engineers and should be done by now, although it may require a little longer to finish properly. You can find more over @ UK.Internet, this problem doesn't seem to have effected any linked ISPs; we don't think.

Mobile Congestion On The Increase

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

Even before Christmas many networks such as BTCellnet and Orange had serious problems with congestion, although many won't have noticed because of the way it affects the service. Sometimes if you can't reach another phone it's not because the other is off or busy, but the network is simply overloaded.

Of course problems can be more serious than that:

Today's rant about the inability to use my Orange mobile phone because of persistent "no network coverage" appears to have struck a chord with some of our readers.

Jonathan held up his hands to say he wasn't responsible for the network congestion: "In reference to your article asking Orange users to get off the phone, it can't be me who's clogging up the network because Orange seem to delight in cutting me off half way through my conversation with the excuse 'Network Busy'. I know [it was busy] - I was using it, but obviously some other customer is more important to Orange than I am."

At least Jonathan can get on. I haven't been able to use the phone all day and it's now 3.30pm (GMT) and still no joy. Still, it appears we are not alone.

Nope The Register and its readers aren't alone, even some of the better networks have started to show problems. Strangely it doesn't seem to effect WAP services as much, but then perhaps that's due to a different infrastructure.

News - January 13,2001

ADSLguide Meets BTOpenworld

By:rich.p @ 4:17:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

A bit of news from ADSLguide:

"On Tuesday 9th January ADSLguide attended a meeting with Marc Deschamps from BTopenworld along with other members from his management team.

The meeting was to discuss issues raised by users of the service and to outline ways in which the service can be improved.

The notes from their meeting can be found HERE

Cable & Wireless Signs Apollo

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

No it's not another remake of the Apollo 13 mission and no Tom Hanks isn't in it. Instead the name Apollo is being associated with a brand new transatlantic telecom cable being set down by C&W and Alcatel, the total cost of which raises to near £800,000,000.

Cable & Wirelesses last transatlantic telecom cable (Gemini) went into service during 1998 and is already full. Much like that one the Apollo carries 25% more data and Internet traffic, specifically designed for broadband technologies. The cable is 8,078 miles long and should help both companies into the 21st Century.

The company said it had already sold a quarter of the cable's capacity to a large U.S. carrier, which will use one of the cable's four fibre pairs. The cable is due to begin service in the summer of 2002.

Although wholesale prices for cable bandwidth fell about 30 percent last year because of rising capacity, Cable & Wireless said demand was set to boom.

"We have to have our own high quality, reliable network and we're expecting high growth"

With bandwidth requirements from ISPs growing by the day and on a global scale, we doubt this will be the last new cable finding its way to the bottom of the ocean.

Zooms E-Mail Security

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

The latest ISP to be hit by a security scare is Zoom Internet, who reportedly has a vulnerability that allowed some users to see the E-Mail accounts of others:

Zoom said Thursday that it could not confirm whether there was a security problem with its email service, but company director Jo Mosaku said that the claims are being investigated.

"Until we have looked into it we just don't know," he says. "There could have been a multitude of reasons. We take these things very seriously," he said.

Gabi Matthews, a customer with Zoom's free online email service, contacted ZDNet Friday claiming she was shocked to be given access to another user's account when trying to log in on Tuesday 2 January. She says she was accidentally allowed access to accounts belonging to four different customers.

The problem had supposedly been fixed, although Gabi told ZDNet exactly the opposite and that she can still see other users E-Mails. At present the problem continues and so if you're a Zoom customer then try to be vigilant with your E-Mails.

BTCellnets 2.4Million WAP Users

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

Despite WAP being just another 'one of those things', which most will eventually forget, that doesn't stop people buying into it thanks to glossy ads and marketing campaigns.

BTCellnets ever growing Mobile empire was keen to impress people today by announcing, as others have done, an increase in subscription numbers - specifically WAP based:

BT (BT/A), anxious to impress the market with progress at its mobile phone division, said today it has added an extra 5.5 million new customers in the final quarter of 2000, driven mainly by unexpected enthusiasm for Internet-enabled WAP phones.

The division, which is due to be floated off later this year, had a total of 20.7 million customers around the world at the end of last year, compared to 12 million at the end of 1999. Some 2.4 million of the new customers bought WAP phones.

The growth in its customer base was "a telling result to add to our pioneering market development, through innovation with Genie and the mobile Internet," according to Peter Erskine, BT Wireless's chief executive.

It's a shame most of those new mobile phones didn't work over Christmas due to congestion and thus the networks being unable to cope, a problem, which still exists. So despite the golden announcement, mass media coverage of the problems has helped keep shares down. Checkout UK.Invest for more.

News - January 12,2001

ISP Review Site Update

By:mark.j @ 4:56:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Just a quick note to say thanks to those who pointed out that our new main page survey system wasn't working properly, we've now fixed it and you should be able to vote again. As requested we have also placed a new 'Date above the days headlines' feature onto the main page.

On top of that the complaints page has been given an update with GreatXscape and FreeDotNet finding their way into peoples anger.

ConnectFREE Domain Names

By:mark.j @ 4:37:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Some readers asked us to warn anybody who signs up to ConnectFREE's ISP and actually expects to get a free domain name added to their web space, that all is not what it seems. One person (Mark) writes:

I signed up for a Connect Free account approx 3 months ago through their Freedomainnames offer. This enables you to register a free .co.uk domain name and have it hosted on one of their servers. It stated on the signup terms (of which I have a printed copy) that full FrontPage extensions could be catered for by calling them and requesting a transfer to a different server.

I arranged to be transferred to this server and everything seemed okay until now. I have just received an invoice for £235 from a company that I had never heard of (Elite Internet Services Ltd), to have my site hosted on this server for the next year. As this is my own personal website it is out of the question paying this amount to have the site hosted.

The whole point of registering the domain name through Freedomainnames was that it was a free registration and free hosting. How can a service that calls itself free (FREEdomainnames) suddenly introduce a charge of that scale? I am now going to have to pay to have my domain name transferred to another ISP. This just about sums up the unprofessionalism of all concerned at ConnectFree.

Some good general advise there, in the world of ISPs FREE rarely means FREE, much like real life. Most ISPs seem to make a habit of disguising hidden costs and limits in grammatically abnormal sentences and fine print.

RedHotAnts 90Min Cut Off

By:mark.j @ 4:23:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

While most people are happy with the way RHA are going about clearing up the old and 'POSSIBLY' starting a new, quite a few remain un-impressed, especially with the latest problem. It would seem that RHA's 3 hour cut off has now turned into a 90minutes cut (half what it used to be).

RHA's response to some customers on this issue almost mirrors exactly what they said about ISDN 128Kbps, which as you may know, has failed to re-materialise:

Thank you for your email concerning the 3 hour cut-off time. Our engineers are currently looking into this problem, and are hoping to have it resolved ASAP.

Regards
RedHotAnt

Most people associate the use of 'ASAP' (As Soon As Possible) with people putting something as a high priority. Well it’s been several days and there's no update to the site, could RHA be about to do a runner with those nice 3hour cut offs just as they did with ISDN?

If they are then you have to admit it's a clever way of avoiding Trading Standards, say you're working to fix it and then on purpose not do anything about it.

We give credit to RHA for turning the service around and into a speedy and affordable unmetered ISP. However if they plan to re-launch themselves then perhaps better customer relations should be considered - honesty for one.

08002go (Final?) Update

By:Ross14 @ 4:08:PM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Well, the saga of whether this ISP is ever going to launch continues, but things do seem to be improving.

The helpline that was set-up (0161 707 8474) seems to be taking calls again and we called up today to ask what is going on. We were answered by a woman and during a short discussion we asked when the service was launching. We were told:

"I can promise you that the service will be launching at the end of January"

The website also reflects this @ www.08002go.com. They also seem to have updated their pre-signup page and their T&C's. Here is a snippet from their website that confirms our answer above:

Q. Why will the 08002GO service not be live until end January 2001?

A. We have had to change our launch date for several reasons now, however by the end of January 2001 we aim to have our pre-registrants signed up for the service. We don't expect the service to be perfect from the start but we are doing our best to make it work effectively and efficiently.

We have a close relationship with 08002go ourselves, so you can be sure that if there are any changes or updates to 08002go we will inform you immediately.

IGClick Sues Former Customer - HRA Breach

By:mark.j @ 3:16:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Mike Ashworth is a name that might seem familiar to readers because he's a man who isn't afraid to make his feelings known. No more so than when IGClicks unmetered offer collapsed and he decided to do something rather rash, although they probably did deserve it:

He was even more incensed when the company stopped taking phone calls and didn't reply to emails. So our enterprising Mr Ashworth found out who the sole director of the company was - one Mr Horgan - then he found out his home address (has to be given by law if you start up a company) and used an online telephone directory to find his home telephone number.

Mike then posted this information to a news group concerning IG Click's collapse, so other concerned customers could find out first-hand what was going on. This useful service however soon degenerated into out-of-pocket customers making their views known to Mr Horgan while he was at home. Shocking.

Mr Horgan was not impressed and would dearly like his former customers to stop reminding him of the ISP's collapse. To this end his solicitors have sent Mr Ashworth a threatening letter, explaining that he breaching the Human Rights Act - a piece of legislation intended to protect the little man. The letter advises that Mr Horgan will pursue for damages and an injunction against Mr Ashworth publishing details of his home address unless he takes them down pronto.

The Register has also highlighted the letter sent from IGClick to Mike and it's certainly worth a look for those Ex-IGC customers out there. However we cannot condone the public publishing of a persons private details. Not just because it's against the Human Rights Act, but it also means those who try to contact the owner may be charged with malicious calls offences.

That said and some good has come out of this, all those Ex-IGC customers will have briefly seen a smile =), thank Mike for it.

NTL World For C&W Customers

By:mark.j @ 3:01:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

One of our regular readers and also a senior (we think) with the UK Business Internet (check listings) ISP has informed me of the following:

Just been told by NTL that NTLWorld will be available to C&W customers from around about beginning of March.

Until this is confirmed it should be considered a rumour, although we did just contact them and while they couldn't be precise, the general consensus was that a March/April date is likely.

As many will know and remember, C&W was taken over by NTL during the end of the summer last year, yet the ISPs customers were angry because NTL wouldn't let them on their unmetered ISP option.

AOL & Time Warner Merger Is GO

By:mark.j @ 11:48:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

We haven't been covering much of the AOL and Time Warner merger because it wasn't really relevant unless it went ahead. According to Reuters AOL has now been given the go ahead to create one of the worlds biggest media empires, and they say Microsoft is anti-competitive:

Exactly a year and a day after the companies announced their historic marriage of old and new media, the five-member FCC (Federal Communications Commission) unanimously agreed to let AOL and Time Warner go forward despite a dispute over what conditions to put on the companies.

However, the commissioners voted 3-2 to place restrictions on the new company's advanced instant messaging system when it runs over Time Warner's cable lines. They also voted to force further access to the cable pipeline by competing Internet services.

"These conditions are designed to protect the open competitive nature of the Internet," FCC Chairman William Kennard said. "They protect consumers and avoid heavy-handed regulation by using a narrowly-tailored market opening approach."

Quite what effect this will have back in the UK is by no means clear, although we doubt you'll see any dramatic changes next to related share price increases.

NTL Outsource Staff To IBM For Savings

By:mark.j @ 11:42:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

NTL, the UK cable operator very much in the news of late, has announced its intention to outsource 600 of its I.T staff to IBM. The deal is expected to save millions over the next eight years, savings NTL hope to pass on by speeding up services:

The agreement, to be signed in April, is an extension of a 10-year contract that IBM signed with Cable & Wireless Communications (CWC) in September 1998. NTL completed its acquisition of CWC in May last year.

Under the terms of the deal, the value of which has yet to be disclosed, Big Blue will provide IT services for NTL's operations in the UK and Ireland until 2008. NTL's 600 IT staff will be offered jobs at IBM.

Peter Black, chief technology officer at NTL, said: "We anticipate that this alliance will deliver significant cash savings of approximately £300m over the life of the contract and improve service levels."

Despite this new deal and further plans to put yet more money through the company, prices are still on the rise for their services. This is all caused by the ever-growing investment into the public company through shares, which continue to rise. More @ VNUNet.

NTL Coverage For New Prices

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

We've all heard by now that NTL plan to increase their basic TV, phone and net access package to £11.99 and £19.99 for the two-phone lines version. This morning CableNews sends word (rumour) of exactly when these new prices will take effect, based on coverage:

All regions, except Coventry
New customers - Analogue, telco & digital.
1 February 2001

Region 1 - Cambridge
Existing customers - Line rental increases analogue & telco.

Call connect all customers, increases to 4.9p
1 February 2001

Region 2 – Glasgow, Wales, N.Ireland, Kirklees, Luton, Surrey, Hants & Ex-CWC
Existing customers - Line rental increases analogue & telco.

Call connect all customers, increases to 4.9p.
1 March 2001

Region 3 – Nottingham, Teesside, Coventry, & Winnersh
Existing customers - Line rental increases analogue & telco.

Call connect all customers, increases to 4.9p.
1 April 2001

All regions
New customers - digital TV

1 April 2001

All regions
Existing customers - Digital TV line rental
1 May 2001

News - January 11,2001

Colts New CEO Steps Forward

By:mark.j @ 4:32:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

A quick nibble of news from netimperative.com shows that Colt Telecom has formally announced their new CEO:

Bandwidth and IP services provider Colt Telecom Group has today formally named its new president and CEO, Peter Manning, who will replace Paul Chisholm after he announced that he would step down last year.

Manning, whose new post is effective from today and who was COO of the company from April 1999, was also a member of the Colt Group Executive Committee, as well as overseeing the operations for Colt's inter-city network, global sales and marketing strategy and the IT strategy. In addition, he currently heads up the company’s programme for building city networks and businesses.

NTL Challenges BT & Telewest

By:mark.j @ 1:47:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

NTL has stepped up into a more competitive mode today by attacking Telewest and BT over broadband. They claim to not only have the cheapest, but best quality services out of all:

Britain's largest cable operator is preparing to take on British Telecommunications (quote: BT) and Telewest Communications (quote: TWT) by making a greater push for customers for its cable modem service, which had 12,800 users at the end of 2000.

"We're about to embark on a proactive marketing campaign," spokeswoman Alison Kirkwood told Reuters on Thursday. "Cable modem is the product that represents all the advantages of our network."

Kirkwood said ntl received 250 unsolicited calls a week about the service. An announcement on the new campaign will be made in the next two weeks. She said ntl had been upgrading its network to accelerate the rate at which it can connect broadband Internet customers. BT and Telewest have been struggling to keep up with demand.

NTL may be good, but ISPreview does tend to receive a lot of service related complaints about them in comparison to Telewest. That said and Cable Modems are very much a service that tends to vary in quality by location and thus network infrastructure by design.

You can't deny that they're competitive and we know Telewest are already joining in the fight, but will BT lower ADSL prices to compete - we doubt it! More @ ZDNet.

UKRTC Unmetered Update

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

UK Round The Clock unmetered access have issued a service update for their ISP, which was supposed to go live last September at a cost of £19.99 per month:

We have and have had for a fair few months SurfTime access, this we have been selling off as virtual leased lines, a dial-up connection and a static IP.

We have not launched UKRTC yet as this relies on the FRIACO system due to be completed end of Feb beginning of March.

Prices remain the same.

Main problem is we have to make a profit, unlike so many "free" ISPs who seem to work under selling their products at a loss making level, in the hope that the future will bring a new revenue stream to make a profit. We are very careful as to what level we will expose ourselves to the "unmetered market" to ensure that we will be here in six months time.

UKRTC are not the only unmetered ISP to remain in a semi-dormant state; there are some that have been in such a state for well over a year. More @ Net4Nowt.

New Corporate ISP For 'Munster'

By:mark.j @ 10:31:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

No it's not a rehash of that terrible Adams Family clone, The Munsters, but a location called Munster. One that is a growth area for business and yet they only have a single corporate ISP to serve their needs, but this is all about to change.

A new independent ISP has been set up to serve the Internet requirements of corporate clients in Munster. Cork-based Strencom offers a range of services including Leased Lines, Webfarms, ISDN, Web server requirements, firewalls, and VPNs (Virtual Private Networks).

Strencom founder, Tim Murphy, formerly of Esat, says he believes that businesses in the South have been suffering because of the lack of dedicated ISP services outside Dublin.

"Twelve months ago, there were four or five ISPs in Cork. Now, since IOL and PostGEM have been swallowed up by Esat and Indigo has been swallowed by Eircom, there are far fewer ISPs, but there's more business there than ever before," said Murphy.

He said businesses outside Dublin should not be at a competitive disadvantage due to a lack of technical services in their region. He said that there is only one ISP offering direct leased lines to the Internet in Cork, while 12 provide the same service in Dublin.

There are a lot of places around the UK much like Munster, where industry grows and yet there is nobody to help competitively serve them.

Bluetooth Congestion

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

Much as with ADSL not long ago, a report by Aegis Systems claims that the frequency Bluetooth operates on could cause congestion. This in turn might cause other devices using similar frequencies to have a lot of problems:

The report, published by Aegis Systems, looked into the usage of the 2.4GHz ISM (Industrial, Scientific and Medical) band and stated that the use of the band by ‘three different types of outdoor system’ would probably cause localised congestion. As a solution, it recommended broadcasters encourage the Ministry of Defence to vacate their sector of the band, while warning broadcasters that they should “in future operate much of their electronic news gathering and outside broadcast equipment in other available bands.”

The Radiocommunications Agency has previously identified more than the three different possible causes for congestion. According to the spokesperson, the 2.4Ghz band is already used by outdoor systems including: ISM devices (such as microwave ovens), ENGO links (directional point2point links for broadcast journalists) radio LANs (Home RF and 802.11), low power CCTV, Railway applications, the military, point2point data connections and Atlantic Telecoms’ UK wireless voice/data service. “We do see hotspots occurring, especially in areas like London, where the demand for business LAN technologies (such as 802.11) and Bluetooth will be very high,” she said.

A spokesperson for the Radio communications Agency claimed the report was only supposed to examine the core impact of Bluetooth and not make suggestions about existing technologies. While that's understandable, you have to wonder where the Agency even knows what a 'Report' is supposed to be =). More @ netimperative.com.

News - January 10,2001

ISPreview Site Update 2

By:mark.j @ 6:46:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Sorry to anybody who may have lost comments from yesterdays news items and the last three below this one. As the first update of today stated, we have swapped to some new file archives giving the system a fresh start. We also updated ALL the automated systems around the site with the latest code changes, this ended up corrupting the news comments file.

We've just fixed it now and so all should be well once more, as a side note the main 'Archives' link at the top of the site now goes to a new page to ALL past news archives and not just the current set. We've also changed the main page survey system to one that uses cookies, has fewer bugs, is faster and works better overall.

On top of that we continue to fiddle and improve the ISPreview layout, sorry again to anybody who loaded or posted while we were update, things would have looked corrupted/messy.

You Can Have ADSL - No You Can't - You Can..

By:mark.j @ 6:39:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

In the latest set of problems for BT, ISPreview has managed to uncover a nasty problem with their coverage and related systems. There hasn't been much in the way of an update to ADSL coverage for some time, despite the fact that it continues to be rolled out.

Imagine our surprise when we rang the local BT offices to find our exchange was indeed ADSL enabled. Interesting because we had been told by BTOpenworld that they'd contact us the moment it was available. We decided to call the head branch and it ended up being confirmed, with a smile on our faces we headed for the BTOpenworld site.

As usual a coverage check is required before you can proceed with the signup and so we input all the usual details and allowed the system to process. Surprised were we to find the system came back telling us that ADSL was not enabled on our exchange, a quick call to BTO confirmed this.

Several calls later and with a static face of anger, we finally learned that the software on most ADSL supporting ISP sites was out of date. Or to be more precise, the database that monitors what postcodes & STD areas covered can be months out of date!

Yes that's right, so if you consider that almost all ADSL providing ISPs use the same postcode/database check then a problem arises. More people have reported this to us just recently and one thing is clear, the information simply doesn't tally.

Whether this is a genuine mistake or one designed by BT to keep a lid on the physical roll out is not known. However the fact remains that one in three of you should be able to get ADSL, where as the database itself looks more like 1 in 6.

We think it's about time BT updated the coverage plan to tally with the factual data, perhaps on a more regular basis as well.

Nortel Builds 186Ks Network

By:mark.j @ 6:38:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Nortel Networks has today been contracted out by 186K, the Telco that's part of Lattice group, to build its broadband network:

186k, the telecoms network subsidiary of Lattice Group, has contracted Nortel Networks to build its proposed IP backbone network across the UK. The deal is said to be worth $100m over two years.

Due to go live by the end of this year, 186k intends laying a 2000km fibre optic cable network to provide broadband data and voice services, including hosting. Andy Lockwood, VP sales and marketing, said: “Wherever possible, we are using Transco’s gas pipeline network and expertise to lay the fibre alongside.”

Full details of exactly what services are intended for supply have so far not been revealed, although you can find more @ netimperative.com.

BTOpenworlds Calendar

By:mark.j @ 6:37:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Today BT stepped up their efforts to promote BTOpenworld as the worlds biggest and best integrated personalised portal by adding a Calendar system. We weren't going to report this but since the full press release was sent specially we'll post it:

BTOPENWORLD LAUNCHES ONLINE DIARY COMMUNITY

BTopenworld, BT's international mass market Internet business, today announced that it has teamed up with the eCal Corporation to provide an online calendar application for its My BTopenworld personal portal. This will allow BTopenworld's broadband and narrowband Internet users access to market-leading calendar applications over a range of devices - initially PC and mobile phone, and later PDA and TV.

The vision for My BTopenworld is to create the world's most complete, easy-to-use and best integrated personalised portal, containing a customer's favourite content, weblinks, diary features, email, chat and many other applications - in fact everything needed to organise his or her life 24 hours a day from anywhere in the world, and via the device of their choosing.

Marc Deschamps, Chief Operating Officer for BTopenworld Broadband said, "The incorporation of the eCal calendar feature into My BTopenworld is critical, as it allows customers to hold their diary on the Internet rather than on their PC or palmtop device, so it's just as easy to check your appointments when in New York as when in London. Also a secretary can update appointments from the office on her PC whilst the customer can view them and receive appointment alerts via his or her WAP phone when out and about.

It also makes the organising of meetings of friends or colleagues easy when they're all on My BTopenworld. To organise a meeting, simply go to the diary feature, input the appointment time and place, select the invitees from the personal address list, press 'send', and each invited person receives an alert which they can accept or reject via their PC or WAP phone."

To register for BTopenworld broadband, visit www.btopenworld.com. BTopenworld broadband requires the customer to have a normal (PSTN) phone line which is connected to an ADSL-enabled exchange, and the customer must live within approx. 4kms of that exchange. Customers can check the eligibility of their phone line by using the Number Checker available at http://www.btopenworld.com.

ENDS

UK Becomes More Confident Online

By:mark.j @ 12:35:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Heads up because it's contradictive research time again, you know what we mean, the time when research comes out to completely contradict the last lot. You may remember before Christmas that reports were coming out front, left, right and centre related to online confidence and usage.

They found people were afraid to make transactions online, had lost overall confidence in the Internet and some even claimed that online E-Tailers were a total failure through the Christmas period:

More than 5 million UK Internet users made a secure connection to an online retailer in November, an increase of more than 3.25 million on 12 months ago. According to the research by NetValue, the most dramatic increase tracked was with female users, with almost two million women making a secure connection to an etailer. Secure connections are considered an indicator of possible e-commerce transactions because online shopping and banking are done over secure connections.

In the pre-Christmas rush, nearly 11 million Internet users in the UK visited web-based sellers, an increase of 600,000 over October, leading to Amazon.co.uk’s best month’s figures yet.

According to NetValue, the most visited secure website in the UK in November was Barclays.co.uk. Nearly 80 percent of all visitors to Barclays made a secure connection to the site, staying for an average of 22.9 minutes. Of the top 10 secure websites in the UK, six are financial, evidence that Internet users are becoming increasingly confident with carrying out financial truncations online.

Proof that you can't trust any research these days? Perhaps not, but certainly proof that you can't believe everything you hear from the mass media - as if you didn't know. More @ NetGains.

Callserve Partners With Freeserve

By:mark.j @ 12:24:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Callserve, one of the UKs biggest VoIP/IP Telephony providers, has partnered with the largest UK ISP - Freeserve. This will apparently allow Freeserve users to call anywhere in the world from their PC and receive large discounts, the full press release sent to ISPr follows:

Issued: 10 January, 2001

TALK IS CHEAP? ACCORDING TO FREESERVE IT IS...

More talk for less money is the latest scheme from Freeserve, the UK's No. 1 Internet portal. It has partnered up with Europe's first Internet telephony provider, Callserve, to offer its 3.8 million unique users low cost calls to any telephone in the world from their PCs. To help promote the new Webphone, Freeserve is co-launching with Callserve a new lower £10 starting cost, half the previously required pre-payment level.

Freeserve users can save pounds, with calls up to 75% below BT rates, by simply downloading Freeserve's 'Webphone' internet protocol phone from its web site. Phone balances can be checked at anytime, including the cost of a user's last ten calls.

Subscribers can make national and international calls from their PC to anywhere in the world. Calling a long lost relative in the States, for example, only costs 3p per minute, compared with BT's 21p. For that important business call to New Zealand, Callserve will only set you back 3p per minute, and even to a NZ mobile the cost is limited to an amazing 11p per minute.

Callserve is providing the complete software and telecommunications infrastructure enabling the Freeserve-branded service. Members just need to download the Freeserve Webphone from www.freeserve.com which can be found by following the Webphone or "cheap phone calls" hotlinks on the Freeserve homepage. Once installed, users simply dial the numbers and press the call button in exactly the same way as when using a mobile phone. In fact, registration and installation is far easier than filling in a mobile phone form.

Users of the Callserve powered Freeserve Webphone can surf and talk at the same time using a single telephone line, so there is no need to unplug your PC when making a call. The only requirements for making Internet phone calls are a credit card to prepay for call time and a multimedia PC with, as a minimum spec, 266 MHz processor, duplex sound card, microphone speakers (or headset), 32MB of RAM and a 56K modem.

CDs with the Callserve developed Freeserve Webphone will also be distributed through the Dixons Group Stores during late January and early February. In addition, all Freeserve's existing more than 2 million active registered users are being emailed to tell them personally of the call cost savings on offer.

-end-

It certainly sounds like an interesting venture and ISPr will cover VoIP in the near future. Whether anybody will actually make use of it is another thing entirely, although we suspect a large amount will.

UK Internet Rage On The Rise

By:mark.j @ 10:37:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

You've heard of Road Rage and perhaps even witnessed it first hand, but have you ever heard of Internet Rage. According to a new report from Eseeworld, even if you haven't heard of it, you've probably done it at least once by now:

A study from web portal Eseeworld.com found that UK web users are becoming increasingly annoyed at long searches to find information using search engines. The results of the survey found that it takes an average time of about ten minutes to pinpoint the desired site using search engines. The frustration and anger that builds up as a result has been tagged as 'internet rage,' where users may experience similar symptoms to road rage, but instead take out their anger on their PC.

According to the research, over 90 per cent of UK users have experienced internet rage in some form. Eseeworld said that because more people are on the net and more information is available, more delays are occurring, but people's expectations about how long it should take to find information or make a purchase have already been shortened.

All we can do is think of those poor PC's, Mac's and even Game Consoles, some of which get beaten on a day-to-day basis. ISPreview proposes a protection ring for such PC's, a place they can go if masters get too mad or abusive =). More @ UK.Internet.

The Nuclear Hackers

By:mark.j @ 10:32:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Hacking nuclear silos and power plants seems to be an ever more commonplace event, yet the only people who ever manage it are those living in the same country. Today’s nuclear hack was of the Bradwell nuclear reactor in Essex, worrying times:

According to documents leaked to the press, the incident, which was never voluntarily disclosed to the public by state-owned operator BNFL, occurred in 1999 and resulted in a lockdown of the entire plant to accommodate a security audit, the paper says.

Security at the plant was extremely lax according to the report. An un-named union official told the paper that "lunatics, industrial spies or terrorists could have walked through the gates with a badge that almost anyone could get."

As a result new security measures are being put in place, but it does go to highlight how inadequate some of our most important security measures can be. Personally I could never understand why power plants or major systems such as this are connected to a public network in the first place. More @ The Register.