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September 3, 2001 - September 6, 2001

News - September 6,2001

EU Delay E-Mail SPAM Decision

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

The European Union has been forced to delay their final decision on regulation of E-Mail SPAM for a second time:

The Parliament voted in favour of the opt-in system of preventing unwanted emails – where the user has to mark a check-box if they do wish to receive mail – by a majority of just 49 votes.

However, the decision – which goes against the previous vote – has been negated by the decision to send the report on privacy protection in electronic communications back to the committees for citizen’s freedom and rights, justice and home affairs.

The MEPs were unhappy with the overall number of individual changes that had been made and approved on the draft directive, and decided that the document – with its many amendments – should be sent back for further debate. A spokeswoman for the Parliament said today: “Parliament voted by 204 to 129 with 155 abstentions to refer the draft directive on privacy protection in electronic communication back to its Committee on Citizens' Freedoms and Rights, Justice and Home Affairs for further debate on a compromise".


More @ netimperative.com.

NTL Calls 64Kbps A Broadband Service

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

It's something we've been wondering for a while ourselves, why does NTLs 64Kbps cable modem service get labelled as a broadband connection?

According to ntl, the fact that it's an "always on" "flat fee" service is enough to give it the handle of "broadband". The fact that this "entry-level" broadband service only delivers speeds of up to 64 Kbps is neither here nor there.

Enterprising cynics argue that ntl may have just hit upon something here. If the Government, through its telecoms mouthpiece Oftel, were to change the definition of broadband to include all unmetered Net access, the country's broadband problem would be solved at a stroke.

By simply moving the goal posts there'd be millions of "broadband" users and the Government could puff out its chest with pride saying that its policy to make Broadband Britain a centre of excellence had been achieved.


In reality The Register is somewhat off the mark because broadband has always been technically defined by the technology used and not the speed, even if it does sound like a measurement of bandwidth.

Another thing The Register fails to point out is that a 64Kbps modem standard doesn't exist and in fact you can technically consider ISDN to be a broadband connection (64Kbps & 128Kbps).

It's all a matter of cultural adoption and labelling something in a way that 'normal' folk can understand. For example, ISDN is technically a lesser part of the xDSL family (through description), yet it's very different by design.

Ultimately, you can't question NTL because the technology used is still a broadband medium, whether it goes at defined broadband speeds (384Kbps+ if you listen to the government) is another matter entirely.

WonkyPig Offer 24Hour Free Trial

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

The recently re-launched (yes, again) unmetered dialup ISP, WonkyPig, has become the second ISP (today) to offer a special Free Trial account:

We are confident that during your free 24 hour trial you'll be impressed with our service so much that you'll signup as a full user to our system. If not then you can simply walk away with no charges.

The trial period will end 24 hours after you have joined and you will receive an email asking if you'd like to become a full user.

To get your free trial account please call us on: 0870 740 6651


Hopefully WonkyPig will now finally try and settle on a package and service, it's good to change things now and then, but not continually while you're running a service with customers.

Leased Lines Strangling EU

By:mark.j @ 9:40:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

It looks as if long the delivery times and high prices charged for Leased Line connections around Europe is having a strangle hold affect on the market.

Apparently a Yankee Group report claimed that lead times up to 14 weeks are common and that European businesses pay up to 75 times more for leased lines as for international broadband connections:

The report, commissioned by Ebone, claims that leased lines remain the core broadband technology for larger businesses, but that high costs and slow delivery times make it difficult for companies to open new offices in Europe.

The Yankee Group also claimed that European telco regulators and governments have focused on local loop unbundling and effectively overlooked problems with leased line provision. “For the majority of companies, leased lines are the only viable option and most of the new entrant telcos, like Colt, for example, don’t touch the majority of UK businesses,” said Glenn Manoff, Ebone VP corporate affairs. “DSL is really a consumer or complementary technology – it will only deliver up to 2Mb bandwidth and doesn’t reach that in practice. For reasons that aren’t clear to me broadband wireless hasn’t really taken off as expected,” he added.


The netimperative.com article also reminds us of Oftels March 2001 directive for BT to agree a new wholesale leased line product with other operators, apparently this still hasn't improved the prices or rollout much. Although why it can still cost between £3,000 and £6,000 PA for a 64Kbps ISDN leased line we’ll never know.

V21 Service Update & ISP Review Offer

By:mark.j @ 9:32:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

UPDATE: Steve has informed us that: "the offer can be obtained by signing up with the promo code ISPR ."

The Dialup and 'child-friendly' unmetered ISP, V21, has this morning issued us with their latest service update and also been kind enough to give ISP Review readers a special offer:

V21 are pleased to announce their latest service update.

BT have finally opened all of our firewall ports. We can now supply our service successfully to all online gamers, chatters and file swapping users. To celebrate this eventful turn in our business we would like to offer a FREE 1 week trial of our service to all ISPr readers.


Those whom took the time to read our recent review of the service will know that most multiplayer servers had been blocked with the firewall; this is no longer the case.

There's no mention of how they'll work the special offer to you, our readers, we'd guess it's best to pop along to their site and see. Either that or send them a quick E-Mail/phone call.

Is The Internet Funny?

By:mark.j @ 9:25:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

An American humorist and author Henry Alford, whom had been embarking on a quest to find the funniest person net, has begun to try and explain what he found along the way.

A cyberspace free-for-all once dubbed the information superhighway and now the world's biggest and zaniest Open Mike Night. It's the home of just about any kind of person you could possibly imagine; the sheer diversity is amazing.

Apparently anyone who knows a mouse from a modem also knows the Internet is chock-full of eccentrics and exhibitionists who spend their waking hours communing with like-minded souls.

Mr.Alford went on to state, "I was amazed at the diversity. There is stuff that is scholarly, some that is totally adolescent, some informational, some purely conjectural. It runs the gamut. In the heat of the search, I truly did feel that I had leased my eyeballs to the comedy gods. It was exhausting."

Sadly if you want to know what else he found then you'll have to buy his book, 'Out There'', published by AtRandom, the e-books division of Random House.

Wanadoo (Freeserve) Losses Widen

By:mark.j @ 9:13:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The French ISP behind Freeserve, Wanadoo, has reported a widening of their net losses to £61.9Million. The troubled ISP claims this to be the fault of acquisitions and the absence of capital gains seen in 2000.

Net loss before goodwill writedowns was 77 million euros versus 54 million as sales rose 51 percent to 689 million euros and as revenues from access, portals, e-business and services rose to 45% of sales from 28%.

Wanadoo, France's largest ISP and the EUs third largest, said the main reason for the decline was the integration of ISP Freeserve in March and Indice Multimedia in April. It also said the first half in 2000 had been helped by capital gains from the sale of shares.

Wanadoo confirmed its medium-term targets and said it hoped to be EBITDA positive in the fourth quarter of 2002. Shares were up 2.32% in early trading to 4.86 euros as the broader market gained around half a percent.

The ISP was spun off from its parent, France Telecom, and given a separate listing in July 2000, reaffirmed its medium-term goal to reach 10 million subscribers in Europe in 2003 and remain one of Europe's top three ISPs.

News - September 5,2001

THUS Helps Demon Launch SME RADSL

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

Thus Telecom backed ISP, Demon Internet, has issued a new press release regarding their new RADSL broadband services for small businesses:

DEMON COMPLETES DSL PORTFOLIO TAKING BROADBAND TO SMALL BUSINESSES

Small Businesses To Benefit From New ADSL Capability


Leading UK telecoms and Internet Service Provider THUS is launching the Demon Express portfolio of ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) Internet access services. These are specifically tailored to the needs of small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) and small office/home office (SOHO) businesses.

ADSL technology delivers a 24 hours per day, 'always on' high speed digital connection over the existing analogue copper telephone wires, with simultaneous use of the ordinary telephone. Demon's ADSL service also offers an IP address, instant access to e-mail and no-dial up charges.

Bill Allan, Thus Chief Executive, said: "We are committed to providing straightforward solutions for our customers and with Demon Express, all smaller businesses can benefit from permanent access to the Internet using an alternative to leased lines which is for more dedicated applications. Instant access to always on capability, e-mail, and shorter download times, all make for improved efficiency, increased efficiency and greater cost-savings. With a web presence, companies can compete in global e-commerce marketplace that never closes."

The basic version of the Demon Express service provides un-metered Internet access to a PC at up to 512 kb/s in the exchange-to-customer direction, and up to 256 kbps in the opposite direction. Downloading a 2 Mbyte file, which would have taken around 10 minutes on an ordinary dial-up line and around 5 minutes on an ISDN line, could now take as little as 4 seconds with ADSL technology. At the top end of the portfolio, the Demon Gold offers download times of up to 2 Mbps.

In addition the new Express service is "rate adaptive", which means it is potentially available to people previously unable to have DSL service because of their distance from their telephone exchange.

"Users will also benefit from more resilient and more reliable access given the state-of-the-art fibre optic national network that has been rolled out by THUS," adds Allan. This national network is being expanded to more than 5,779km and encompasses 106 points of presence (POPs) and 15 Metropolitan Area Networks (MANs).


As usual anybody interested can find full details here:
http://www.demon.net

UK Leads Internet Banking Race

By:mark.j @ 3:31:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

According to NetValue's latest report the UK, France and Sweden are helping to lead Europe with online (Internet) banking. Despite Germany's recent problems with Internet banking [Ed - cough.. and football] we're still ahead.

Online banking, often a hard sell to savers more comfortable with high-street banks, gained clients in the UK, France and Scandinavia for the first half of the year.

British banking websites attracted more than 5 million home users in July, a hefty gain from the 3.8 million who visited banking sites in January. Women formed the lion's share of the increase in the UK, making up 53% of new users of online banks in the year.

The online arms of bricks-and-mortar banks Lloyd's TSB and Barclay's and Europe's largest pure Internet bank, Egg, were Britain's most visited banking sites.

Behind Britain was France with 3.3 million users, Germany with 3.2 million and Sweden with 1.9 million users in July. Sweden ruled the table with 54% of its Internet users visiting banking sites in the month. In Britain the number was only 37%.

The French online banking audience grew by a third in the first half of the year, but Germany recorded a slight decline since January.

ASA Cautions ISP Over Abuse Warnings

By:mark.j @ 3:21:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

It certainly looks as if this week is turning out to have quite a few surprises, first reduced ADSL prices then a rumour from inside BT of cheaper ISDN. Thankfully things continue to get interesting, especially with this bit on LineOne that'll interest any unmetered ISP user.

Apparently the ASA (Advertising Standards Authority) has upheld a customers complaint after he wrote off about the ISPs unmetered advertising following an 'abuse warning' by the ISP:

LineOne, since bought by Tiscali, had offered unlimited off-peak internet calls in a direct mailing ad campaign, promising customers as much off-peak surfing as they wanted for a £9.99 per month subscription.

Today the Advertising Standards Authority upheld a complaint from one of the company’s customers – one of 100 that were written to by LineOne as the firm’s heaviest users and told to cut back online time during off-peak hours or face having their account terminated.

The advertisers said they had sent warning letters to the 100 heaviest users encouraging them to use their service less and to disconnect when not actively using the Internet,” explained the ASA. “They argued that that approach was in line with their terms and conditions and their competitors practice.


The netimperative.com article is the second (first = freeserve) of its kind to show the ASA acting in such a way, although we could have done with seeing this earlier. Hopefully it should help send a clear message to ANY unmetered ISP still advertising their services with the word 'unlimited', about time too.

WonkyPig ISP Merger & Site Update

By:mark.j @ 9:59:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Customers to the unmetered ISP, WinkyPig, have recently been experiencing some service problems, although it looks like these could now be solved.

Apparently WP was out of the game for a short period while they merged with a company called RoutUnix.

Wonkypig.com is owned and operated by Route Unix Limited. © Route Unix 2001 - All Rights reserved

The result is that several things have happened, including yet another change of web design (gets annoying). Firstly the monthly price has moved from £9.50 to a firm £10 and they've also removed their temporary 1hour cut-off:

Temporary 1 Hour Cut Off
We have now removed the temporary cut off period and a new 4 hour cut off in now in place, please not it may take upto 48 hours to fully complete across the network, please do not call to inform us you are being cut off during this time.


Will WP ever run their updates through a word processor? Either way they've also introduced an official 'company address' to the website, which was previously missing.

Finally it's worth pointing out that ‘Rout Unix’ has also introduced a similar unmetered package, although it only includes a 2hour cut off and yet costs the same. Why it does this we don't know, although it's perhaps a little unfair considering they're the same company? Hopefully WPs service will now return to normal.

UPDATE: Sorry, we neglected to mention that the dual channel ISDN (128Kbps) £18 per month package seems to have vanished.

Telewest Undercuts BTs DSL Price Drop

By:mark.j @ 9:42:AM - Comments (2) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

There's nothing like a healthy dose of competition in an increasingly volatile market to force prices down, at least that's what Telewest seem to be doing.

In response to BTs latest reduction in the installation charge for broadband R/ADSL connections, Telewest have followed with similar cuts to their Cable Modem services:

During September, customers signing up for Telewest's "blueyonder" broadband service will only be charged a £25 installation fee, rather than the usual £50. The company claims that this deal represents the best value access to high-speed Internet access in the UK, even though customers will have to subscribe to another of Telewest's services, such as interactive digital TV or telephone service.

Telewest's announcement came a day after BT Wholesale said it was halving the installation cost of ADSL from £150 to £75 for three months in a bid to boost demand. Several ISPs, including PlusNet and Zen Internet, have already announced that they will pass the BT price cuts on to their customers.


Sadly the ZDNet item suggests that Telewests offering is ONLY for September and not the three months BT has outlined with theirs, although having said that it's still extremely cheap @ £25.

It's a pity BTs offer couldn't have been done at a time when the whole country could access DSL connections =(. Hopefully the 'overall' installation charges will drop in time.

Barrysworld First With V.92 Support

By:rich.p @ 9:39:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

We haven't yet found any ISP offering V.92 (fully supported) until 'Tim' informed us that BarrysWorld had a note on their website:

We are on the move towards the end of September as we leave our long-time hosts Level3 to move into the Harbour Exchange in London's Docklands area. This move will give us more room to expand our services and also allow us more control over peering to both UK and non-UK ISPs, meaning even better connections for all to our servers.

We will also be upgrading the dial-up as part of this move, allowing those people with V.92 modems to take advantage of their extra features. The move will mean 1 day of downtime for all our services, when we get an exact date it will be posted here.


As BarrysWorld is still an 0845 (Local Call Rate) only provider, few gamers will see the benefits. Since many ISPs use BT or C&W to provide their unmetered dialup it might be along time until we see V.92 in unmetered.

DTV & Mobiles Open Up Net Access

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

The Research and analyst group, MORI, have today published their latest report into the 'spread' of Internet access around the UK. The report comes to several interesting conclusions, the first related to Digital TV.

Apparently the use of such DTV technologies has been a helpful hand in exposing an increasing amount of people to Interactive services and later the Internet. Where once people have only considered personal computers as the way to view web content, now these new mediums are opening the technology to more users than ever before.

Use of such technologies has increased by just over 50% in the last year alone and is expected to continue increasing.

Users/consumers are also increasingly accessing the Internet from areas outside the home or workplace. As above the number of adults using palmtops (PDA's, PocketPC's etc.) and laptops has more than doubled in the last 6 months.

According to the results, four-fifths of those surveyed accessed the Internet from home and 1 in 7 use mobile phones for WAP related Internet access. This equates to roughly 5,000,000 WAP Internet users, although we doubt this is a 'consistent' figure.

Use of other popular mobile related technologies (SMS etc.) also grew, with over a million people aged 55+ now sending text messages to each other. The growth continues..

News - September 4,2001

Firstnet Reduce R/ADSL Install Charge

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

The next ISP in line to reduce the installation charge for R/ADSL services is Firstnet, although they seem to have avoided going as low as almost every other ISP and kept some money for themselves. As before we'll only quote the relevant parts of the press release:

Firstnet is introducing a 50% reduction in installation charges to its USB ADSL package making it even more cost effective for businesses to connect their remote workers to the Internet.

This special offer will be running for 3 months from 1st October to the 31st of December 2001 and will apply to the installation charges which will be halved to just £85 during this period. The monthly charge for this service remains at just £45 per month.


More information can be found @ the following site:
http://www.firstnet.net.uk

BTOpenworld Launch Games-On-Demand

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

Ever ready to increase the size of their popular portal services, the broadband and Dialup ISP provider, BTOpenworld, have now introduced the UKs first Games-On-Demand service:

BTopenworld Joins Forces with Leading Games and Software Publishers For First UK Games on Demand Trial

BTopenworld today announces a roster of leading global games and software publishers which have agreed to provide games software content for BTopenworld's games on demand' trial called Software To Go. These companies include a number of the biggest players in the games and software publishing industry such as BBC Worldwide, Eidos Interactive, eJay, GSP, Guildhall Leisure, Infogrames, MGI Software, Midas Interactive and Ubi Soft® Entertainment. The active participation of these publishers in Software To Go highlights BTopenworld's commitment to developing the most effective and dynamic solutions for online games delivery in the UK.

BTopenworld, in conjunction with BT Retail, is continuing to negotiate with a number of other key games publishers to extend the basis of the Software To Go trial. Details of further deals and service launches are expected to be announced later this year.

Software To Go (http://www.btopenworld.com/stg) is an initiative which, for the first time, enables UK broadband users to rent quality games over their broadband Internet connection. The progressive streaming technology solution behind the Software To Go offering has been developed with Exent Technologies, the leading developer of Applications-on-Demand (AoD) technology for telecoms and broadband services.

The trial is available to all UK broadband users, including Btopenworld broadband customers. To take part in the trial or get more details, visit:
http://www.btopenworld.com/stg.

John Raczka, Senior Vice President of Content, BTopenworld said: "BTopenworld is pleased to have attracted a number of leading publishers to this new area of games on demand services in the UK. BTopenworld is committed to providing the best possible broadband experience for our customers making online games a pivotal part of our overall consumer proposition. This is only the first of a number of exciting games initiatives we have in development for this year."


While the services seems to hold some promise, we can’t help but wonder how long it’d be before somebody cracks the system. Such things have been tried many times before in the USA and failed.

Does AOL UK Know Its Own Browser?

By:mark.j @ 3:51:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

By now every man and his dog knows that AOL TimeWarner also owns the Netscape brand, which will slowly be dissolved into AOL.

Despite that it would appear as if AOL UK's poor customer support doesn't know what it's doing, as one woman found out with a call to their support department:

In the course of the call she happened to mention that she used the Internet Explorer browser over her AOL connection. And was suddenly told by the phone operator: "I'm sorry, Madam, I will have to put a note to that effect against your file; by using Explorer you have forfeited your right to technical support from us in the future."

So, naturally, the lady in question promised that from now on she would only use the god-awful AOL browser. That didn't cut the mustard. "I'm afraid it's too late - we've only got your word for it after all," was the reply. Even the threat to move to another ISP made no difference.


The Register presents a very unusual situation, more so because AOL already has a cut-down version of Internet Explorer built into its software. The Netscape v6 side of things has yet to be added in a newer upgrade.

According to TR the conversation 'DID' happen (proof anybody?) and AOL have since said that they fully support IE and other browsers such as Opera over the phone. Sound like a frustrated technical support assistant gone mad?

Schools Flock To Use Internet

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

Despite renewed fears for the safety of children while surfing the Internet, a new government reports shows schools are still flocking towards the technology in their droves.

The report said 96% of primary schools were now connected to the net, up from just 17% in 1998. At the same time the number of computers per pupil has also climbed sharply.

In primary schools there has been an improvement to 1 computer for every 11.8 children from 1 in 17.6 in 1998, while in secondary schools there is now 1 computer for every 7.1 pupils compared with 8.7% in 1998.

The figures are just short of the National Grid for Learning baseline to be achieved by 2002:

"We are equipping our future generations for the challenges of the new century", said Schools Minister Catherine Ashton in a statement on Tuesday. "We must ensure that all schools are connected soon and we want to help any of those who are not there yet."

With a further £245Million yet to be invested, it looks as if the government will finally be able to meet one of their technology targets, amazing.

Kingston Impose ADSL Bandwidth Limit

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

The East Yorkshire Telecom Company, Kingston Telecommunications, has opened up a nasty can of worms with its subscribers after introducing a daily bandwidth limit for its broadband ADSL customers.

The bandwidth limit, which has been abolished with nearly all other ADSL ISPs, applies to their Karoo RapidTime service and caps downloads @ 700MB per day:

Net users in Kingston are outraged by the move arguing that the cap will impede their use of the always-on service.

At this stage it's not known how Kingston intends to enforce the restrictions. However, some customers are attempting to meet representatives from the company for an explanation.

El Reg hopes they have more luck than us. No one from Kingston was available to comment on the matter by press time.


To be honest 700MB per day isn't all that bad when you consider some ISPs previously restricted users with 500MB per month!

You could argue that the increase in Video-On-Demand and other broadband services might potentially exceed 700MB, but only if you were an EXTREME user. More @ The Register.

BT To Cut ISDN Home Highway Costs!

By:mark.j @ 3:21:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

It's not as if ISP Review hasn't continually issued reader backed reports and complaints to Oftel regarding the high price of ISDN from BT, yet thankfully something has finally had an impact.

That's correct, whether it's anything to do with us we don't know, yet BT are set to reduce the cost of ISDN Home Highway services!:

By cutting the cost of Home Highway, BT hopes to tempt more people to experience faster Net access bridging the gap between narrowband and broadband services.

Standard rental for Home Highway is currently £27 a month. But, according to documents seen by The Register, this is expected to fall by a quarter to around £20 a month.

It's not known if BT intends to cut other costs associated with the service.


The Register states that the intended cuts are currently NOT yet official and as such no dates or comments have been given by BT. We'd like to think all our pushing had some impact, although the fact is we simply don't know. Either way it's good news for all those, us included, still stuck with ISDN outside of broadband areas.

We’ll continue to issue one final mini-report and survey to Oftel just to help push things along, hopefully BT will make the news official before the month is out.

Heat Takes UK e-Government Offline

By:mark.j @ 9:51:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

If you can't stand the heat, don't get into e-government, which seems to be one thought that comes to mind after the government’s latest spate of 'e' problems.

Apparently the 'Government Gateway', designed to help citizens get to grips with issues such as paying taxes - online, was down for maintenance yesterday. At least that's what people thought:

But on closer inspection it appeared that the glitch, which kicked off mid-morning, centred around a mystery 'heat problem' with a power supply.

"There was overheating with a power supply at the data centre," said the representative. "As a precaution, the gateway was taken offline temporarily".


The Register reports that neither the government nor their network backers, Cable&Wireless, would comment on the incident.

24-7FreeCall Unmetered Update

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

According to our readers, the unmetered ISP 24-7FreeCall has finally turned the switch 'On' for their ISP. The new package, which was revealed roughly two months ago, costs £14.99 per month for the usual 24/7 accesses.

A post by 'Logica' in our 24-7FreeCall forum made on 31st August suggests that the service has already been live for over a week.

However not everybody seems to be covered, as is often the case with FRIACO, which has yet to reach ALL of the UK. For the record the package comes with the following:

7 Email Addresses
An email address for everyone in the family.

10Mb Webspace
Put yourself on the WWW and let the world know who you are.

85,000 Newsgroups
There is a newsgroup featuring every subject on this planet.

Technical Support
First class support from people who know. Calls charged at National Rate. Email support is always free.

The Helpdesk is available from 8am to 10pm every day and can be reached on: 0870 0400 200


Typically the service hasn't changed from the original announcement and is supported by a 2hourly cut off and 10minute inactivity cut. 24-7FreeCall also has the ability to kick people for abuse if needed (not uncommon):

We continuously monitor our networks to ensure that congestion is not occurring. If usage is such that it is significantly affecting service to other users we will instigate congestion control measures. This is necessary to allow all subscribers access to the service.

Hopefully they'll finally be able to provide a fully functional and 'lasting' service, unlike last time.

COLT Telecom Bounces Back

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

The Telco behind 'some' services from ISPs such as Madasafish (not now?) and Clara.net yesterday become the latest provider to see a slight improvement:

Shares in alternative telecoms company, Colt Telecom Group PLC, bounced sharply this morning, partly on weekend press speculation that the company, standing at a 3 year low of 155p, was ripe for acquisition and partly on news that the company had bought back £115m of its own high-yield debt wiping out £27m of interest payments.

Commenting on the bond purchases COLT Telecom Group plc Chairman Jim Curvey said, “we have purchased £115 million of bonds for a cash outlay of £68 million resulting in a reduction of our net debt of £47 million and cumulative savings in cash interest payments of £27 million."

The purchases were undertaken by COLT Telecom Finance Limited, which plans to cancel the notes. The company also disclosed that it might purchase additional bonds in the future.


COLT is one of a few UK/EU based Telco's that seem to be seeing a slight improvement over previous months and expectations. More @ netimperative.com.

Analysing BTs Name Change

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

No sooner than BTWireless had announced their name change, a rash of people began making comparisons. Apparently BT has employed a familiar branding trick by renaming its wireless unit "O2", joining the list of Telco's trying to stand out in a homogenous industry.

BT is poised to spin off the mobile division in November with a name not unlike two now-defunct brands operated by British bank Barclays Plc and drinks group Bacardi-Martini.

Barclays' "b2" was a phone and Internet banking brand which wound down this summer after three years, while Barcardi's "V2" is a four-year-old pre-packaged vodka martini and soda drink set to be dropped later this year, the respective companies said.

Some market players feel "O2", or "mmO2" as the company is known, might prove to have an even shorter life-span, as Wireless is widely expected to be sold, although BT Wireless declined to comment.

Either way, the new name represents another attempt by telecommunications companies to set themselves apart from rivals using something besides prices and customer service.

To be honest BT were already doing quite will with the recognised, BTCellnet and 'o2' doesn't exactly say 'Wireless Mobile Phones'. Not so say BT..

"O2" - the chemical symbol for oxygen, is a "modern and universal" brand that "symbolises commitment", while the "mm" in the group name did not stand for anything specific, but could be taken to mean multimedia or Millennium.

Question, since when did 'Oxygen' stand for a 'a modern and universal brand that symbolises commitment'? We could have sworn it meant some kind of common life giving gas, which is exactly the first thing customers might think.

News - September 3,2001

BT Internet Restrictions

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

Thanks to Mike for informing us about the restrictions BTI have imposed on usage of the Anytime service:

BTinternet Service Restrictions

To ensure we offer all our customers the best possible service, we apply the following restrictions.

The BTinternet Anytime service is not intended to be used as an always on service. Customers are therefore not permitted under the terms and conditions to leave their Internet connection online whilst unattended. We consider unattended use to be any account that maintains an online connection for 16 hours or more in any 24 hour period.

There is an email box size limit of 50Mb, if your mailbox is over this, your oldest emails will be automatically removed until your mailbox is below the 50Mb limit.


BTinternet for BT Surf Packages and BTinternet Anytime support unmetered connections up to 64k (single channel ISDN), customers requiring 128k channel bonded connections (e.g. home highway) will be charged at local call rates.

Continuous connections are limited to 2hrs in length, connections over this length will be terminated. Customers can re-connect immediately.

Modem idle time-outs are set to 15 minutes, if your modem fails to send data for a period of 15 minutes your connection will be terminated. You can re-connect should you need to.

To view descriptions of our Broadband products click here.


This can be found on the BTI Website.

The limit is more than most ISP's have. Which ISP's can a heavy user go to without the fear of being labeled an abuser? Comments...

Pig Brother Unmetered ISP

By:mark.j @ 3:56:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

If you've been watching the news channels recently then you'll already know about 'Pig Brother', the 'Big Brother' rip/spin off with 'pigs' and designed to raise money for troubled farmers:

Welcome to Pig Brother the worlds most popular online game show! In the next 4 weeks, millions of you will be able to see live footage of our 5 famous pigs battling it out to stay in the Pig Brother House.

This is the game where you are in control. You decide who stays and who goes, so make sure you vote for your favourite pig of the week. Eviction night is each Friday with the final decision to be made on the 28th September.

I hope you enjoy the game and lets hope we can raise as much money as possible.


Strange as it may seem the group have also decided to cash in on the Internet market as well, as the site states:

Special Offer - Limited to the duration of Pig Brother!!

If you already have a PC you can take advantage of our amazing ISP deal. Just £11.99 /month - Flat rate. Absolutely no call charges or hidden costs! £1 per Month goes directly to the Charities.


Typically if you could actually stand to sign-up to something so off putting then click HERE for the required download. We won't be adding this ISP to our unmetered listings since it won't be around very long.

Unions Last Try @ Stopping BT Demerger

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

Clearly outraged by today's BTWireless name change, a poignant reminder that BT intends to push forward with their demerger, unions have taken their concerns to the government:

According to union officials, a meeting between the CWU and Patricia Hewitt -- the secretary of state of the DTI -- will take place within the next two weeks, thanks to the intervention of chancellor of the exchequer Gordon Brown.

"We wrote to Gordon Brown with our concerns, and he replied saying he was very interested and asking us to meet with Patricia Hewitt," a CWU spokesman told ZDNet. The DTI was unable to give a precise date for this meeting, explaining that it is departmental policy never to confirm what meetings a secretary of state was planning to attend.

The CWU believes that jobs are likely to be lost if BT continues with its plans to spin off its mobile division, which the company has just announced will be renamed "MMO2". Reports last week suggested that the unions is prepared to bring its 80,000 BT members out on strike if the telco doesn't agree to reconsider plans. The CWU is insisting that industrial action would be a last resort, and that it is concentrating on persuading BT's investors that the demerger is a mistake.


Whether what the ZDNet item reports will stop BTs plans or not remains to be seen, however it's unlikely. Typically BT has given no estimates for potential job losses (not publicly), which is unusual for a process supposed to be so 'far advanced'.

Internet Mobiles To See Slow X-Mas

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

Unlike the previous two years when Christmas was the time to gift-wrap a mobile phone into the present line up, apparently this years BIG DAY could be very different. Not even the new GPRS wireless Internet standard can save mobiles from such a saturated market.

The scrooge comes from Carphone Warehouse, who kindly poured cold water on the wireless industry's hopes that faster Internet handsets will fuel a market recovery this Christmas.

Jonathan Hook, UK sales and marketing director, said he did not expect sales of GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) handsets offering faster, always-on access to the Internet to take off until the second quarter of next year.

Mobile phone makers have been hoping GPRS will help revive growth in the market, but delays in launching handsets and continued consumer indifference to the mobile Internet have dampened expectations that the service will take off soon.

Hook said the design of current GPRS handsets did not appeal to the high-end users at whom they were targeted. So far only a few GRPS handsets are available, many of them quite limited and poor.

The lack of services taking advantage of GPRS's increased bandwidth was another dampener on the market, he said. Currently the phones do little other than provide slightly quicker access to WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) Internet sites.

Yet again nobody has mentioned the costs involved, which is a very obvious and confusing matter for GPRS systems.

Nildram & PlusNet etc. Reduce Install Charge

By:mark.j @ 3:26:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Just as many other sites like ours will be finding out, there's a whole host of press releases from R/ADSL providers coming in; too many to report on individually. Typically this relates to BTs earlier drop in R/ADSL installation charges.

Following on from Zen Internet, now PlusNet, Eclipse, Griffin and Nildram have also introduced changes to their installation charge. We'll only quote a tiny bit from each, first PlusNet:

Both the ADSL Home and ADSL NetStart options now benefit from the new low cost install fee of only £75 ex VAT from 1st October.

Next up there's Nildram:

The install fee of £60 introduced by Nildram with the recent launch of its popular MoveDSL offer, will be reduced to zero for all customer installations during this three month special offer period. The monthly fee for this service is £45 plus VAT.

Additionally, MoveDSL has been opened out to include new ADSL customers and not just those transferring to Nildram from other ISPs.

The Standard Nildram USB 500 service is also available at a monthly fee of £42.50, but with the installation fee reduced to £75 during the offer period, again subject to VAT.

Nildram are taking orders now, but the offer will only apply to USB 500 ADSL lines installed between October 1st and December 31st 2001.


Since we can’t quote anymore text we’ll just say that Eclipse have a special £25 installation fee offer and Griffin follow the same £75 trend as others, although you can get a special £50 deal if changing from another ISP.

Quick ISP Review Site Update

By:mark.j @ 1:18:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The unmetered ISP list and forums were just updated with the two new additions and some other updates/changes. We've also removed last months poll; results were as follows:

What's the biggest problem with broadband?
Broadband? 1.6%
Too Slow 3.2%
Coverage 38.9%
Cost 54.4%
Services 1.9%
Total votes: 954


From what we could see the survey consisted of nearly 80% unique votes and should be fairly accurate of peoples opinions. As expected very few people reading THIS SITE don't know what broadband is and the majority are happy with speed and services.

Typically most people find cost is still a serious problem, although coverage remains high on the list. This month’s new survey asks the question:

Realistically, how much would you pay BT for ISDN HH?

Please try to be honest with your answers (£10 to £25 per month in £5 increments), the results may have an impact on our future petition. We’d ask that ONLY ISDN users take part in this survey.

BT Wireless Changes Name - o2

By:mark.j @ 10:43:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

BT Wholesale aren't the only wing of BT in the news today with their xDSL Installation price reductions (£75 - USB 500), BTWireless has also been mentioned in the last few hours following a name change.

In a break from tradition the new name won't even have BT in it, in fact BT Wireless will just be called 'o2':

The holding company is to be called mmO2 plc with the consumer brand contracted to just O2.

The makeover is expected to be fully adopted for both products and services by next spring, the company said.

It seems the new brand embodies the company's ambition to provide "essential, lifestyle-enabling mobile services to its customers". And here's us just thinking it was a phone company.


The Register also points out how this latest announcement is likely to cause some upset with those in the company whom had hoped to stop the de-merger.

Zen Further Reduce Cost Of Broadband

By:mark.j @ 10:25:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Apparently BT Wholesale have recently reduced the set-up charge for R/ADSL services and as a consequence Zen Internet have opted to become the first mainstream ISP to take advantage of the savings and pass them on to customers – full PR follows:

Press Release date: 3rd September 2001.

Zen Internet further reduce the cost of Broadband


Zen Internet, one of the UK's leading providers of Broadband connectivity, have today announced that as from the beginning of October the installation charge for its single-user USB ADSL service will be halved. This will mean that Zen customers will be charged a £75 set-up fee as opposed to the current £150 from 1st October.

BT Wholesale's reduction in the set-up charge has allowed the ISP to again pass this saving onto their customers. The reduction in the set-up charge comes after Zen recently announced that it would pass on the reductions in the £5 monthly rental charge on both the USB and ethernet services to its customers. This equates to a £135 saving for new Zen customers from the start of October.

In the lead-up to Christmas it is hoped that this price cut together with a national advertising campaign will further boost the sales of ADSL across the UK. With rollout of Broadband continuing and the increased coverage brought about by a relaxation of the requirements for BT lines to support ADSL, the amount of people able to receive service has dramatically increased. BT Wholesale quote that 13 million homes are now connected to an ADSL enabled exchange.

Zen's commitment to reduce the cost of Broadband in Britain remains.

Ian Buckley, Marketing Manager at Zen, said: "The recent price-cuts announced by BT Wholesale have been a definite move in the right direction. What we need now is for there to be a bigger initiative in attracting businesses to the service. I believe the Service Level Guarantees to be introduced at the end of this year and rate adaption of the ethernet service will help this, but I think that improved press coverage of providers other than BT Openworld would also be a driving force."

Zen Internet provides a range of ADSL services. For further information, please visit our Web site at http://www.zenadsl.com .


As usual expect some of the other mainstream R/ADSL providers to follow suit in a similar fashion.

New GRPS Services/Handsets Sighted

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

While not quite 3G Broadband Wireless, 2.5G GPRS data services look set to get another boost this week with some new handsets. It's hoped the forthcoming 'flood' will help spur demand for always-on wireless Internet phones:

Siemens will this week release its S45 phone with a seven-line-high wide-screen and speakerphone function. Next month will see Orange add its consumer GPRS network to those of BT Cellnet and Vodafone. At the same time, Nokia will release its first GPRS handset, the 8310. Motorola is expected to deliver three new GPRS models this year: the Timeport T80 business model, V66 mid-range flip-phone, and Accompli 008 PDA/ phone. GPRS handsets already available in the UK include Ericsson's T39 and R520, Motorola's Timeport 260 and Mitsubishi division Trium's Mondo smartphone.

Until recently, individual GPRS buyers in the UK were confined to Motorola's Timeport T260 phone on the BT Cellnet GPRS network. In May, IT Week Labs reported that the T260's small monochrome screen made it unsatisfactory for GPRS usage.

"Consumer uptake has been relatively modest because people have been waiting for a wider range of handsets," said Peter Lisle, BT Cellnet GPRS programme manager. "The Timeport 260 wasn't ever going to make the transition."


The ZDNet item also points out that some much more attractive and modern colour GPRS handsets will slowly make their way on to the market early next year before the first public 3G services arrive. Bad Timing?

However we disagree with BT Cellnet's (soon to be called 'o2'?) reasons for a slow uptake, it's not due to a lack of handsets, it's due to the ridiculous prices being asked for them.

Thus Telecom Secure Future

By:mark.j @ 9:27:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The popular Telco and backers for Demon Internet (ISP), Thus Telecom, is close to an agreement on a £160Million fundraising deal that'll secure the company's future until 2004.

The article found in The Independent newspaper claims that discussions were in advanced stages and that the chief executive, William Allan, hoped to be able to announce the finance package in November; five months before its March deadline.

Scottish Power, which owns 50.1% of Thus, is among those seen ready to inject further cash in addition to external sources. Shares in Thus surged to a high of 844-1/2p at the peak of the Internet boom, but uncertainty over the financing gap has helped knock them down to a closing price of 39p on Friday.

NetGamesUK ISP Closes

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

We hadn't expected this to happen quite so soon given the previous news, although according to the good people @ Barrysworld the once popular gaming ISP (gISP), NetGamesUK (NGUK), will close TODAY! (Posted yesterday):

NGUK are to shut down, probably tomorrow.

Despite any bad feelings that may have arisen between Barrysworld and NGUK it is always sad to see a fellow company go out of business. NGUK have had troubles for a while but it has only reached the public eye recently. The latest news post seems to suggest that everything will be shut down shortly. Farewell to another decent GSP and good luck to all those that participated in it’s running.


At present the NGUK server seems to be down and so reading the official NEWS POST is next to impossible.

NetGamesUK were famous for offering an unmetered service that only lasted a very short time and then blamed others when it failed. Never the less they will be missed.

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