Welcome to our News Archives page

July 31, 2001 - August 6, 2001

News - August 6,2001

BT Offered £18Billion For Local Loop

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

While BTs last offer for 'part' of their fixed line local loop was for £8Billion and by Earthlease, yesterday the Sunday Times newspaper reported on a new £18 Billion! offer by the German investment bank, West LB:

The newspaper said West LB approached BT two months ago, and quoted an insider as saying: "We have laid down our marker with BT."

"At the moment the fixed-line business is not clearly defined in terms of value, but we have sought to have first refusal on a deal."

Robin Pauley, BT's director of communications, told the newspaper: "We get approaches all the time. Some are good, some are loopy."

The BBCNews item has some better coverage, although BTs response only shows further evidence that they're unwilling to give up such a core part of their business.

Server Problems

By:mark.j @ 9:23:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Seem to be suffering a few server problems, which as usual are affecting all sites on DNet and not just our V-Server. Thankfully it's a typical Monday morning and as such there's no news yet, expect to be running smooth again by midday.

News - August 5,2001

ISP Review Weekly Update

By:mark.j @ 10:19:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Looks as if the network went down this morning, although unlike last time it was a complete shutdown. If you’re reading this then it’s probably safe to assume things are back to normal, on the other hand, if you’re reading this and the year is roughly 2065, then something went terribly wrong and your toaster probably doesn’t work anymore – Jesus no!!

In such an event we’d assume ‘Terminators’ are roaming the earth in vengeful pursuit of the last ‘pesky’ humans. If this is the case then see – ‘DUMMIES GUIDE: To surviving on an earth run by evil Terminator (Copyright©) machines.’. Equally possible is that the Earth could now be run by Hippies and Anti-Capitalists, in short, there’d be no unemployment because everybody would be unemployed – genius.

Back to normality (what’s that then?) and I spent an interesting Saturday falling off a ladder and through a bush in a vein attempt to curb the growth of the local hedge, the hedge won. On the other hand we have ISP Review, which seems to have done rather better, if you forgo the earlier downtime that is.

Yep, we managed to move the old broadband forums to the new forum and update the broadband info. page accordingly. We also changed the front page and integrated the “Who’s Online” system from the new forums over the one we used in the old, thus allowing members to be identified from the main page.

Overall there were so many ‘smaller’ changes that we’ve managed to completely loose track of exactly what happened. Still, it does at least mean the next move from old to new forums should be the final one. When this will happen remains to be seen, although it should be sometime in the next two weeks.

Expect some more content and smaller ISP reviews next week as well as further updates to our various listings, we may finalise the forum move as well, you never know.

News - August 4,2001

0800OnlineServe Update & More..

By:mark.j @ 9:26:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Once again TheDogmaGroup have sent us a general service and package update for ALL their various services.

What's most interesting is the update for their unmetered ISP, 0800OnlineServe (0800Online), which gives some brief information regarding a new unmetered 'business' package:

Service update -

All services are now fully available. A new and improved DNS Server has been installed, running on Windows2000 Advanced\DataCentre server. News Server and Mail servers are available 24-7. Network Load balancing has also been implemented.

http://www.thedogmagroup.com

0800.OnlineServe -

We have stopped taking subscriptions for the service for the time being. We are extending our capacity, and installing new modem racks. The service is now fully operational although some ISDN users may be experiencing unresolved problems, but we are underway in dealing with the highlighted problems which are isolated.

We will also be unveiling the Businessplus+ package which will include Business services such as Hosting and dedicated servers coupled with 128K ISDN.

http://www.0800.onlineserve.co.uk

EzAccess Internet -

The portal, which includes an MSN console is under-going slight changes, to allow smoother operation and broadband entertainment.

http://www.ezacces.co.uk

Dedicated Servers -

We have decided to extend our portfolio of services with the implementation of dedicated servers: based on Windows 2000 and Linux. Both will be competitively priced.

http://www.thedogmagroup.com

OnlineServe -

Certain services associated with OnlineServe will be transferred to the Dedicated Server section of the website that will appear in around a week.

http://www.onlineserve.co.uk

DNS Problems -

DNS problems associated with the corporate servers have been fully resolved.

http://status.thedogmagroup.co.uk

Regional Disruption -

Regional disruption is still occurring around the country. We are investigating the problem and will post information on our status page available at http://status.thedogmagroup.co.uk .

As usual you can comment on this ISP listed as ‘0800Online’ in our Specific ISP Forums Unmetered ISP list.

MS Internet Explorer 6 Release Date

By:mark.j @ 9:20:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Hot on the heels of MS's IE5.5 Service Pack 2, released yesterday, Micrsoft have now announced August 15th 2001 to be the launch date for Internet Explorer6 (IE6).

As usual it looks as if Microsoft have extended the functionality and features of the browser without actually managing to improve its often-criticised method of rendering HTML (Speed wise).

Tiscali Confirms Tiny Online Deal

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

Following on from yesterdays news item regarding how Tiscali was set to buy the ISP wing of 'Tiny Online', this has now been confirmed. Apparently the deal cost £8 Million pounds, it's the latest in a flurry of acquisitions announced by Tiscali over the last week across Europe.

Tiscali said the deal consolidated its position as Britain's fourth-largest ISP. Tiscali also bought Spain's Inicia and Yucom of Belgium earlier this week. As part of the deal, Tiny agreed to make Tiscali an exclusive ISP for its PCs and the shops where they're sold.

EC Claims UK 3G Plans To Be Anti-Competitive

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

Just when you thought 3G broadband wireless network sharing would have a 'go' signal from the EC given some of their 'regulation ministers' comments, once again things take a turn for the worst:

But EC Competition Commissioner Mario Monti is likely to prove more resistant. He is working on legislation that would regulate the telecoms industry up until 2010, blocking collaborative monopoly power and preventing sharing.

The proposed laws examine companies that join forces to collectively dominate a market, and there is no doubt that site-sharing gives the participants cost advantages over their competitors.

Competition officials seem unwilling to make exceptions for certain sectors. "The notion of dominance, be it single or collective, is not a specific sector notion; it applies to all markets without distinction," said Monti.

The VNUNet item reminds us that 3G sharing is technically safe under the license conditions, although various competition acts and laws could now prevent it. Fun.

News - August 3,2001

Clara.net Solves Congestion Problems

By:mark.j @ 3:50:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Steve from clara.net shot us off an E-Mail regarding the recent congestion problems with the service, which they now believe has been solved by the use of a new number:

Owing to the fault on the original FreeTime Anytime Number, which was causing busy tones, we have made available a new number which does not appear to suffer from the problem.

The new number is 1664 0845 *** ****. Please report any feedback on this issue to the newsgroup claranet.systems and not by email.

If you're a subscriber then make sure to get the new number HERE.

Blueyonder To Target SME Businesses

By:mark.j @ 3:45:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Following on from NTLs business cable modem packages, Telewest (blueyonder) have announced further details regarding their plans for bringing high-speed Internet to the UK's small businesses:

Blueyonder Workwise yesterday revealed its plans for bringing high-speed Internet ASP to the UK's 1.2 million small businesses by offering hosted Microsoft Exchange with Outlook over a broadband connection for £10 a month.

Blueyonder, the broadband business arm of London-based cable company Telewest Communications, said that SMEs will now have access to Microsoft Outlook over an always-on connection and Blueyonder will manage applications such as email, contacts and diary.

The ZDNet item shows Telewests package to be very competitive with NTLs, much as you might expect it to be. Full pricing and information are available from blueyonder.

Tiscali To Purchase Tiny Online

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

Only days after Tiscali purchased its last ISP, today the 'super provider' (size) has begun setting its sights on UK based 'Tiny Online'.

Although it's only an unconfirmed rumour, such a purchase would make Tiscali the UKs largest ISP:

The Italian ISP is said to be about to announce that it has bought the ISP for 20 billion lire (£6.4 million), the AFX newswire service reported citing an unsourced story in an Italian newspaper.

If true, it would catapult Tiscali UK ahead of Freeserve making it the UK's largest ISP with an estimated 2.5 million users.

Freeserve currently has around two million users.

The Register's item is thin on information and neither Tiscali nor Tiny have issued any statements or comment, we'll just have to wait and see.

Nationwide xDSL Packet Loss

By:mark.j @ 3:28:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

If you've been experiencing lag or slow connections then this is most likely because of a nationwide packet loss through BTs networks. ADSLGuide was quick to pick up on the following update:

BTwholesale have now issued a national Broadband Incident Report - it notes that the fault began at 1:15pm, and has an anticipated clear time of 3:15pm. It is been described as a loss of service to a number of HomeGateway routers.

Important ISP Review Site Update

By:mark.j @ 12:44:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

We've just finished moving the 'General Broadband Discussion' groups (xDSL, Satellite etc.) from the old (General Discussion) forum to the new (Specific ISP Discussion) forum.

As such the previously closed 'General Broadband Discussion' section in our new forums is now open. We were even able to copy up to 8 of the latest topics into the new forums to give them some substance; this took a lot of time and work.

Thus the older forums have been closed, although like the others we've moved, you can still 'VIEW' their content. As yet the special 'Broadband Information' page hasn't been updated with integration from the new forums, we'll do this later in the evening, as it requires a different system/layout.

MS Releases Internet Explorer SP2

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

Since over 90% of you reading this site use some version or derivative of Microsoft’s 'Internet Explorer' web browser, then you'll be pleased to learn that Service Pack 2 (SP2) has just been released:

The newest version of Internet Explorer includes improved support for DHTML and CSS, which gives Web architects greater control over browser appearance and behaviour. Enjoy the ability to preview Web pages exactly as they appear when printed.

Internet Explorer 5.5 Service Pack 2 (SP2) makes it easier than ever to connect to the Internet and find the information you need. With Internet Explorer 5.5 SP2, you can use Connection Manager as your default dialler when Dial-Up Networking is already installed.

You can download it HERE for all Microsoft operating systems.

Force9 Follows PlusNet - Referral Scheme

By:mark.j @ 9:44:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Earlier in the week we issued a press release from PlusNet regarding their updated referral scheme, today PlusNet have issued us a send press release regarding Force9’s use of a similar scheme.

Just in case you’re wondering, PlusNet is Force9’s parent company - full press release follows:

More than your usual referral scheme, now it’s payback time at Force9.

Force9 Internet launch a customer referral reward scheme with a difference.

Force9 Internet, the popular UK Internet Service Provider has today announced the launch of My Referrals, a customer referral scheme with a real difference. In a move designed to generate new business based upon word-of-mouth recommendation, this new addition to the Force9 web site represents significant benefit to their customers, by offering free Internet access and even cash returns!

Most companies running referral schemes will provide a one-off payment of some kind as a ‘thank you‘ for bringing a new customer to a new product by recommending their services. More often than not, it is the case that this payment would be a one-off discount or ‘prize’, unlikely to be, or even wished to be, repeated.

Unlike most referral schemes, My Referrals provides customers with a genuine impetus to keep on recommending. Applying to a range of Force9’s unmetered ‘Connect’ and broadband ADSL products, a discount is offered against a customer’s subscription for every signup generated upon referral, enabling a customer to effectively get free Internet access when they recommend enough people.

“Unusually for such a scheme, our discount is no ‘one-off’ payment but continues for as long as the referred individual remains a paying customer”, explained Alistair Wyse, Force9’s Product and Service Development Director. “So, rather than just getting a free month’s subscription for example, with My Referral you have the opportunity for long-term, sustainable free Internet access."

Force9 are making great play of the revenue generating aspect of the scheme, which whilst unlikely to make you seriously rich, promises a healthy revenue stream in return for customer referrals, something not to be sniffed at.

“We think that our customers will regard this as an unusual opportunity but it’s something we simply regard as being fair to our customers. Once the total amount of discount generated through referrals becomes greater than the cost of your subscription, the difference is credited to you”, Wyse added.

By logging in to their state-of-the-art web site portal, Force9’s customers are able to make referrals with the aid of a simple form, and check on the results of their previous endeavours. They can see, at a glance, which of their referrals have signed up, how much discount this gives them and how much money in total they are making from the scheme.

http://www.force9.net

Oftel Respond To Earthlease Rumours

By:mark.j @ 9:37:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Following on from yesterdays news item regarding how Earthlease was reported to have engaged in discussions with Oftel regarding the £8 Billion purchase of BTs local loop, today Oftel have responded:

Oftel refused to confirm that it had been in talks with Earthlease on Thursday, as has been widely reported, and would not comment directly on the proposed deal. It seems, though, that if BT decides to accept the £8bn offer for its local loop -- the part of its network between local exchanges and individual homes and offices -- then Earthlease could get the nod from Oftel

"We'd be looking for benefit for consumers in any deal," an Oftel spokeswoman told ZDNet News on Thursday.

She added that Oftel's priority would be to examine whether such a deal would receive regulatory approval. "We would consider such a deal in the same way that we're looking at BT's restructuring. I can't say whether we'd be in favour of this specific deal or not," she said.

As the ZDNet item states, Oftel may be refusing to comment at such an early stage, but they'd support Earthlease's attempts to buy BT's local loop if it were in the best interests of the consumer.

It's early days yet and many groups have yet to comment, we should know more next week.

Initial 3G Network Sharing Approved

By:mark.j @ 9:29:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

While many operators planning to launch future 3G broadband wireless technologies have already signed deals to share infrastructure, the governments of various countries have yet to 'officially' approve.

Yesterday the European regulators Telecom commissioner, Erkki Liikanen, said he was open to the idea of 3G/UMTS sharing:

This would make the rollout of 3G cheaper for operators and reduce concerns about environmental impact.

Liikanen was referring to plans under discussion with operators in Germany and The Netherlands. UK regulator Oftel said it has yet to receive any plans from UK licence holders.

Fears had been raised that site sharing would impact on competition but, with the telecoms infrastructure market in turmoil and operators across Europe facing a $120bn bill for licences, there is pressure on regulators to view cost-cutting moves sympathetically.

According to the VNUNet item, Oftel have confirmed sharing sites was not against 3G/UMTS licence conditions. Provided operators can maintain individual services and quality then it looks like the way forward has been paved, even if it isn't quite set yet.

Blueyonder To Support MultiplayUK Event

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

It looks like the broadband buffs behind Telewests blueyonder hi-speed cable modem service are set to back Multiplay UK's i8 gaming event at Newbury Racecourse.

The DigitalSpy news item mentions that over 800 hard-core gamers and their PCs will be united in a high-speed battle for multiplayer gaming supremacy:

Throughout an action-packed weekend, enthusiasts will be able to eat, sleep and breathe their favourite games, such as Counter Strike and Quake. The speedy reaction times of the best players will be matched with ultra low ping rates of the LAN. Competitors will take part in intensive rounds of tournaments, with the major finals being shown on a large video projection screen.

Multiplay UK spokesperson Craig Fletcher, managing director of Multiplay said: “Support for this party has been unbelievable. It’s set to be our biggest ever. This popularity reflects the real surge of interest in online over the past two years which is largely down to broadband."

“Services such as blueyonder have transformed the way people play remote multiplayer games. With broadband, gamers say goodbye to the latency which ruins the online experience and replace it one which is super-fast and permanently connected.“

The event is to take place at Newbury Racecourse from 10am Friday 24th August, until 6pm Monday 27th August - that's a whole lotta CounterStrike. It's a pity the event won't be hosting the new 'Operation Flashpoint', but then we kind of like that one ourselves.

News - August 2,2001

Earthlease To Discuss LLU With Oftel

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

Despite BT flatly refusing to engage with Earthlease over their proposal to buy out part of BTs local loop with a massive £8Billion bid, Oftel is now set to meet the consortium today:

The consortium, headed by US finance house Babcock & Brown, will show Oftel the documents it sent British Telecommunications in May offering £8bn to buy the company's "local loop", the wires linking local exchanges to homes and offices, the source said late on Wednesday.

BT has dismissed the bid as absurd, according to one source close to the company, but another said on Wednesday it had not closed the door to further talks with Earthlease. Earthlease has said it hopes to resume discussions with BT.

The meeting with Oftel will be its first, and could help it smooth the way to any potential deal.

As the ZDNet item states, BT is clearly very keen on standing by its ownership of the local loop, especially when it's such a fundamental part of the business.

Recent pressure by some of BTs own top-level investors, and now Oftels interest, could further push the two into some kind of agreement. However there's someway to go yet, certainly any deal that gets consumers cheaper R/ADSL is welcome with us.

Worst Over For Dotcom/Tech Industry?

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

While it's still bad news, a drop in dotcom casualties (closures) last month proved to be less than previous months, prompting renewed hopes that the industry is about to level off:

Researcher Webmergers.com said that 32 dotcoms closed in July, down from 58 in June, and that the worst was probably now over.

The report said: "The somewhat dramatic decline in shutdowns in July is consistent with our observation last month that internet rationalisation has reached a plateau and may have run most of its course ... we have seen the worst of the internet shakeout."

"More specifically, our data suggests that the tail-end of the business-to-consumer (B2C) shakeout is overlapping with the early to middle stages of the shakeout in such business-to-business sectors as infrastructure and professional services."

The VNUNet item emphasises a hope that dotcom shutdowns will continue to slow and hopefully start to strengthen, although time will be the judge.

TFI (Excite 0800) Eases Connection Fears

By:mark.j @ 3:30:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The Free Internet (Excite 0800) have today tried to ease customer concerns over the future of its ISP service.

This comes after the ISP issued a service update E-Mail stating, "major disruption to [the] Internet service throughout August":

They believed the email was effectively saying that FIG was shutting down for the month.

Not so, FIG MD, Lister Park, told The Register.

FIG is migrating its service to a new telecoms carrier as it adopts a flat-rate wholesale tariff, explained Park.

More @ The Register.

Blueyonder To Double Customer Base

By:mark.j @ 9:26:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Telewests broadband Cable Modem service, blueyonder, looks set to more than double subscribers to its high-speed Internet service by the end of the year.

TW's Finance Director, Charles Burdick, made the forecast in a conference call after announcing 38,000 subscribers to the blueyonder service as of today.

The service, which costs Telewest customers £25 per month, is a key part of the company's plan to boost revenue. Telewest's "triple play" customers taking the Internet service along with television and telephone spend an average of £66 a month each, Burdick claimed.

No doubt much of this will be helped by the new 'Ntl: Telewest Broadband' campaign that's now starting to propagate our TV sets.

Early Wires-Only/Self Install xDSL Prices

By:mark.j @ 9:20:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

ADSLGuide's latest news item highlights some early information being passed out of BTWholesale regarding Wires-Only and Self Installable R/ADSL prices for residential consumers.

Typically this isn't official news and we won't know exactly what BT have settled on until a little later into the year:

In relation the wires-only component they are envisaging that ISP's will supply these, or ISP's will allow end-users a free choice - this raises the idea of 'broadband-in-a-box' from retailers, with BT only been involved at the exchange end.

Figures on the cost savings of these plans are vague but reductions upwards of £25 in the install fee and £5-£10 off the monthly cost are been mentioned. These figures are very much ball park figures but with last weeks reduction we could be looking at DSL for £25/month in 2002 and £75-£99 installation fees.

The data doesn't seem to include the cost of the modem adaptor itself, so take that into consideration. We can't help but think £25 Per Month is wishful thinking at best, although there's no harm in preying for it to come true =). As usual none of this will solve the coverage problem.

Tiscali Snaps Up Another ISP

By:mark.j @ 9:08:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Lookout the 'super ISP' (size) is on the rampage again, not content with its British acquisitions of LineOne, LibertySurf and WorldOnline, Tiscali is now set to grab a popular Spanish ISP (Inicia) for 8Million Euros.

The move demonstrates the firm's continuing belief that now is a time for action, not talk, and comes on the back of acquisitions in France, Germany and the UK.

Tiscali is clearly doing its best to grab a bite out of the 'whole' market, whether this pays off remains to be seen. The smart money says it will.

News - August 1,2001

Clara.net Respond To Congestion Problems

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

For the past few days clara.net's new 'AnyTime 24/7' unmetered service has been suffering serious congestion problems. Following a number of complaints received by readers and experienced by ourselves, we decided to get in touch with one of their seniors.

Mr.Wells promptly passed us on to the ever-famous 'Steve Rawlinson' (ClaraNet Systems) whom was quick to respond:

Yes, there's a telco fault, it was announced to customers last night - the announcement can be viewed at:

READ FULL ANNOUNCEMENT

I am calling them several times a day on this, it's pretty serious. It looks to me like network congestion at Worldcom but there's more to it than that because it happened suddenly sometime after wednesday night.

Once this fault is cleared we'll reassess the situation.

If you can't be bothered to click on the small blue link above then here's the sum of that announcement:

Due to a network fault at Worldcom, customers on FT Anytime are currently hearing more busy tones than they should.

The fault has been reported and Worldcom are investigating. It has taken longer than usual to spot this problem but we now believe that the fault occured on Thursday.

My apologies to customers who cannot currently get through. Updates on this problem will be posted to the newsgroup claranet.systems.

Full BBS Re-Launch Press Release

By:rich.p @ 4:14:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

We have just received the full release from BBS. See the other news titled "BBS To Re-Launch Unmetered Service" below for the initial news:

Just a note to say that Bigbluesky are back, the service has re-launched as an 0845 but will reintroduce the 0800 service before 11 September 2001.

During this down time we are upgrading our infrastructure. Our new system will guarantee a first time connection, with 24/7 0800 access. The new service will be much better as we have outsourced customer services to a very large customer services organization which will guarantee on the spot technical support and attention for our customers.

The service will be made available to all existing BBS customers. New customers coming to the service will be offered 0800 access at £12.95 per month.

The company also has plans to launch a new ISP for businesses only offering an 0800 service, Free Web Hosting and several e-commerce solutions as well as other business helps. To launch as Keyscope.net in early September. Keyscpoe telecom will offer voice services as well as 0800 access for business.

BT Shareholders Push For LLU Sell Off

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

Despite BTs dramatic refusal earlier in the week to engage in discussions regarding the sale of their local loop for £8 Billion. Two key shareholders (out of 10) in the company have now opted to back the idea:

The shareholders point out that BT makes virtually nothing from its local loop, and that £8bn would wipe out almost half of its remaining debts. They want the company to negotiate further with Earth Lease, a consortium of private investors backed by a syndicate of blue chip banks.

Earth Lease would reportedly commit £500m a year to improving line quality and reducing the wholesale charge of broadband ADSL technology. It apparently believes that, within 18 months, its lower wholesale prices could make ADSL packages cheap enough to attract two million users.

But BT has reiterated its view of the deal as unattractive. Commentators think it unlikely that the telco would sell off the heart of the UK's phone network to a third party, and thus encourage ADSL competition for its retail business.

Sadly we'd have to agree with the 'commentators' view on VNUNets news item, especially when they've already approved a major plan to split that side of business into a separate operation.

Having said that this could spark some sort of shareholder revolt, although we'll have to wait and see. Clearly BT wants to hang onto their fixed line and local loop network for the future.

BBS To Re-Launch Unmetered Service

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

On July 26th of last month the suspended unmetered ISP, BigBlueSky, sent out the following message to 'SOME' subscribers (sorry we missed this one):

Dear Customer:

Let me first thank you for your patience during this time of trouble at bigbluesky. Contrary to the rhetoric in the chat rooms, this company is far from dead. I am pleased to announce that the service will be live again on Saturday 28 July 2001.

Initially the service will only offer 0845 access, with 0800 access to return in September (subject to certain conditions to be announced). Further updates will be available from Monday 30 July with regard to the 0800 access.

Please reconfigure your dial-up with the following 0845 number - 0845 *** ****. You will receive a form via e-mail in the next few weeks, in order to reconnect using the 0800 access it is imperative that you complete the form and return it as soon as possible.

Today Net4Nowt have reported that a more accurate date for the 0800 service return is BEFORE 11th September 2001. Unlike the last attempt they promise a better service for £12.95 per month and a crack technical support team, not a technical support team on crack.

BBS also plans to launch 'Keyscope.net' for businesses, offering voice & unmetered Internet packages. However BBS's first major problem will be to entice those it lost through the last attempt back online.

With the new pricing structure putting them into a much wider marketplace then they'll have to be pretty impressive with service quality and PR in order to pull it off.

Nildram Drops ADSL Prices

By:mark.j @ 3:50:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The 700 ADSL (customers) strong residential and business ISP, Nildram, has today announced a cut of £7.50 per month from their home user broadband service. Happy with their current income, the ISP was pleased to drop by £7.50 instead of the standard £5, which we can expect to see from most ISPs.

This brings the price of their standard home 500 services to £42.50 plus VAT per month. Nildram also took the opportunity to hit back at BT, blaming poor SLAs (Service Level Agreements) for some of their troubles with introducing businesses to broadband.

European ISPs To Push Prices Higher

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

A study by the investment bank (Merrill Lynch) of European ISPs has concluded that prices could be set to rise by roughly 10%+/- due to their being no downward pressure on Net access costs:

For example, a 10 per cent rise (£1.50 a month) in the UK for unmetered Net access would have little impact on demand but would contribute handsomely to revenue levels for ISPs which have in excess of a million paying customers.

Indeed, Merrill Lynch believes there is scope for price rises for at least the next three to five years concluding that "we may be entering an economic 'sweet-spot' for European ISPs".

It adds: "Consumers, who have become used to eating a free lunch at the ISP's expense, will inevitably end up paying more (which we believe is right)."

The Register's item is unusual because the rest of Europe is still following the UK on unmetered net access, with most countries remaining behind our new FRIACO etc. levels and playing catch-up.

Despite this we wouldn't be surprised if some of the cheaper UK providers increased unmetered prices by a small margin, although anymore would be to give ground to the competition. Not to mention the recent drop in broadband prices, which we doubt the study was quick enough to include.

Either way the market is swelling with competition, if price increases were on the way then you’d hardly notice them, it's a volatile marketplace.

PlusNET Introduce Local Rate Support

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

Although it may seem trivial, an increasing number of unmetered and broadband ISPs have adopted the use of premium rate support lines for their services.

Today PlusNET have denounced such things and introduced a 'Local Call Rate' system, which is about time for this ISP:

Local rate access to Support? All part of the service says PlusNet

(1st August 2001, Sheffield, UK) PlusNet have always been customer-focussed. The popular ISP, whose other brands Force9 and Free-Online are equally well known for their ease-of-use and friendly environment, today announced that telephone help for their complete range of products, including unmetered access and broadband ADSL services, would be made available at local-rate telephone charges.

Unlike many ISP’s these days, PlusNet have today made a commitment to bring even more value to their customers’ Internet experience by lowering the cost of telephone support to local rates. Some of their competition advertise telephone support at 50p per minute. With the average support call running at 5 minutes, that’s a whopping £2.50 every time you want some help with your Internet connection!

Prior to today’s announcement, customers were able to contact PlusNet’s award-winning customer support team via an 0870-prefixed number, offering help at national call rate. The local-rate access now available offers PlusNet, Force9 and Free-Online customers the facility to talk to experienced, helpful staff, for only 4p per minute during the day, 1.5p per minute during the evening and 1p per minute at the weekends.

“We’re now offering telephone support via local-rate as part of our continuing commitment to our customers, further lowering the cost of Internet access,” said Matt Grest, Product and Services Manager for PlusNet. “We are very pleased to be able to offer this facility as an extra benefit to our 24-hour, 7-days a week coverage, from today onwards.”

PlusNet have become market leaders in the field of ‘automation’ of customer support, with their state-of-the-art web Portals. By ‘logging in’ to their appropriate Portal, a customer can directly administer many separate parts of their Internet account, including setting up mailboxes for e-mail, registering and administering domain names and changing passwords.

As Practical Internet magazine wrote only last month of Force9, “The portal is packed with more tools than Bob the Builder’s Transit van.” “..one of the smartest looking portals we’ve clapped eyes on..” “..it delivers a blend of practical Web utilities packaged into a plush, easy to navigate home page.”

“Whilst we have a huge resource available online for our customers, we know that some issues need the human touch,” continued Grest, “Now we’ve made that even cheaper.”

http://www.plus.net

UK Children More Aware Of Net Dangers

By:mark.j @ 9:57:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

According to a new survey by pollster NOP, British children are becoming increasingly streetwise on the Internet. However child protection experts warned that kids are still unaware of the sophisticated tactics paedophiles use to get personal details:

The survey found that 60% of seven to 16 year olds would not give out their email address or home address on the Internet, which is a 20% increase since November. Nigel Williams, director of Childnet International, agrees that an increase in publicity about the dangers of Internet chat has made children more reluctant to give out their personal information over the Web, but said that this is not an excuse to become complacent about the issue.

"Kids may believe that they will play safe on the Internet and not give out information about themselves to someone that they don't know, but a paedophile will deliberately lead a child through a careful set of steps that gradually lures them into giving out their personal details," Williams said.

Of those who claimed that they would not divulge their contact details, 42% said it was because their parents had told them not to do so.

Despite the good news, ZDNet's item warns that the true challenge is understanding where children draw the line at deciding what activities are safe online. If you speak with somebody long enough, you could easily be fooled into letting your guard down.

Sadly this issue isn't going to go away, hopefully better use of special software, education and media alertness will help prevent problems further. It might even stop politics over-regulating the Internet by using such things as an excuse to do so.

PlusNET Update On R/ADSL Price Drop

By:mark.j @ 9:47:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Yesterday we published an announcement from PlusNET regarding how they'd chosen to drop the price on their residential R/ADSL services; today they've issued us with an updated press release for 'EXISTING Customers':

PlusNet announce that Price Drop for Home ADSL will apply to their existing customers.

In a further announcement regarding the substantial drop in price of their Home ADSL product, PlusNet, the popular UK ISP, announced today that the reduction of monthly subscription by more than £5 will apply to existing customers as well as new subscribers.

"All our monthly and quarterly subscribers will benefit from the price reduction from their next billing date," stated Matt Grest, Product and Services Manager for PlusNet. "Our annual subscribers will get an even better deal; they will receive a credit of £5+VAT for each complete month remaining until their next billing date."

Sure to come as popular news, this makes PlusNet one of the better value providers of ADSL services in the UK market. "Besides the high-speed access that you get with broadband," continued Grest, "with ADSL Home you get a whole load of great services, including a free .co.uk domain name, 250MB of web space, CGI/PHP and MySQL facilities, just to name a few."

PlusNet's ADSL Home package is available with installation at cost price of only £176.25 inc VAT and is priced at only £46.99 inc VAT per month from 1st August.

While we had expected this would apply to existing customers because it (price drop) instantly affects the whole network, we weren’t sure how ISPs would deal with those whom had made annual payments. PlusNET have been the first to answer this with one solution (above).

UK Leads in Online Trade

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

While we may not be the fastest at getting broadband installed, new research conducted by IDC analysts shows the UK as being Europe's fastest growing marketplace for web related products (online trade):

The report stated that over $5tn (£3.5tn) will be spent on the development of ebusiness strategies by companies worldwide over the next four years. The number of SMEs using the internet to drive their businesses in the UK has increased by half in the past year.

Richard Bradley, operations director for SME channels, Europe, Middle East & Africa, at Cisco, said it was encouraging news for the channel. "We are finding that most SMEs are buying from a local reseller and being advised by a local consultant. These are often one and the same."

He added that there is an increasing amount of business for resellers because of the diversity of the SME market which allows them to be more selective of the customers they target.

As the VNUNet item shows, it's always good to have some pleasant e-news when so much of it is bad.

Hutchison & Orange Get 3G Handsets/Networks

By:mark.j @ 9:37:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Two of the UKs biggest 'future' operators for 3G broadband wireless mobile technologies have finally managed to sort out their issues with handset supply and network building respectively.

Hutchison 3G UK says it’s named Japan's NEC Corp as a preferred supplier of third-generation mobile handsets. Delivery is set to begin in the third quarter of 2002 to Hutchison's 3G operations in Italy, Australia, Austria, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Combined with their Motorola deal it should prevent any issues with supply that other operators have highlighted.

On the other side of the fence and Orange has announced a new deal with Nokia for the supply and expansion of GSM and third generation (3G) mobile networks and infrastructure in the UK. Worth roughly £490 Million, the deal will last for three years and improve the company’s cooperation.

News - July 31,2001

Further Details On AOLs Tax Loophole

By:mark.j @ 3:50:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

As the day has progressed we've seen an increasing amount of information surface regarding AOLs exploitation of a tax loophole, which allows them to avoid charging customers VAT on broadband Internet access products.

The investment bank & Freeserve claimed AOL has been taking advantage of a loophole which states that VAT is not payable on internet content services, as opposed to telecom services, provided by companies based outside the UK.

According to the report, for every 100,000 flat rate customers, AOL earns an extra £2.6m by not charging VAT. For comparison, Freeserve's charge of £12.99 includes VAT of 17.5%. Freeserve CEO John Pluthero said this meant the US ISP has a tax advantage of "at least £26m a year" over its UK rivals.

He added that as AOL is clearly providing a telecom service it should be liable to pay the tax. The Freeserve chief sent Chancellor Gordon Brown and HM Custom & Excise letters last week urging them to close the loophole.

Freeserve is now considering moving the company outside of the UK so as to avoid paying 17.5% extra in tax, although it hopes this isn't necessary.

A spokeswoman for AOL denied the company was breaking any law and claimed it was classified as a provider of information services from outside the EU. She added it was "a status available to any other similarly positioned provider".

We can’t wait to see how the government respond =).