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March 14, 2002 - March 19, 2002

News - March 19,2002

BTO & BP Join Forces - Broadband CDs

By:mark.j @ 3:32:PM - Comments (3) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

BTOpenworld has joined forces with the popular petrol supplier BP to help make broadband ISP registration CDs available from 450 service stations nationwide. The unremarkable press release is as follows:

BTOPENWORLD AND BP JOIN TO DRIVE BROADBAND TO CONSUMERS
- ISP adds ADSL to retail distribution CDs, now available in all BP forecourt retail outlets -

BTopenworld has teamed up with BP to make broadband registration CDs available from 450 BP service stations nationwide. The agreement will make high speed Internet access even easier to buy and install.

From next week, the CDs will be available from BP retail sites across the UK. The deal builds on an existing, highly successful relationship between the two companies - BP is already one of BTopenworld's best distribution channels for narrowband access.

The CDs will contain all the software and instructions needed to register for BTopenworld's Home 500 Plug & Go broadband product. Once customers have registered (and providing they meet all the criteria for receiving broadband) they will be sent the relevant hardware and a simple step-by-step guide to install the product themselves. Their broadband connection will go live 10 days after purchase.

Alison Ritchie, CEO of BTopenworld said: "This is the first in a series of announcements on companies we will be working with to drive broadband take-up. Last week we revealed a multi-million pound marketing and advertising plan to support our Plug & Go service and lower monthly broadband rental and we will be announcing details of other partners in the near future."

"Offering CDs at petrol stations has proved a great success in attracting narrowband customers," she continued. "Huge numbers of people pass through forecourts every day, and it's easy for them to pick up Internet access along with their newspaper and a sandwich. It's a strategy that works so I am confident that we will repeat this success with broadband."

BTopenworld's distribution network for its narrowband products includes 3,000 retail outlets and 12,000 affiliate sites across the UK. BP has been an affiliate partner for BTopenworld's Anytime unmetered narrowband product for nine months.

Gillian Meek, E-Services Category Manager at BP said: "Distributing the new CD means that we are now able to offer our customers a wider choice of Internet-based services with no extra complexity. The fact that BP is the first retailer to distribute this new CD is a reflection of our commitment to the customer."

Updated Surfmore ISP Details

By:mark.j @ 3:27:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

One of our resident forum moderators, Keith, was able to get some more details from Surfmore regarding their unmetered service. In their own words:

1. We currently have a 2 hour cutoff for the Surfmore Service

2. The idle timeout is currently set to 10 minutes

3. Customer service for Surfmore is handled via a web based form and emailed to support@surfmore.co.uk

4. We use the BT FRIACO backbone

5. We are not a reseller. We lease our own ports.

6. The URL printed on the flyer is incorrect and is being addressed

7. Our target contention ratio is 20:1

8. We do not impose any limits to usage

9. Surfmore is designed to be accessed via the Surfmore Dialler installed from the CD accompanying the product

10. Yes, we support ISDN at 64Kb. Every access port is given the full 64Kb of bandwidth


The only thing that really sticks out is the 20:1 contention ratio, which is far from impressive given that most ISPs of a similar price point tend to operate between 9:1 and 15:1 at most.

Affinity Sees Losses & Revenues Rise

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

Affinity Internet Holdings, the group helping to supply several UK ISPs with unmetered (Powergen etc.), has today seen its shares slip after the company reported increased turnover and widening losses:

Publishing its prelims for the year to December 31 Affinity said that turnover for the year was up 366 per cent to £52.8 million. Pre-tax losses increased by £4 million to £30 million.

Terry Plummer, Affinity's chairman, said that he "continues to view the future with enthusiasm and confidence" and that his operation is "now directed to growing revenues, increasing profitability [and] strict cost control".

Despite this bullish outlook Affinity's share price dipped 18.5p (6 per cent) to 282.5p by mid morning. Elsewhere, Affinity claims that its ISP business will become profitable later this year even though the number of small companies looking to run branded ISPs continues to fall.


The Register's item notes that despite the last paragraph, Affinity is compensated by the fact that established brands are still looking for ISP services.

UK Gov Spends £30M On Broadband

By:mark.j @ 3:03:PM - Comments (5) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The Governments e-Minister, Douglas Alexander, has today announced how he intends to spend the £30 Million earmarked to help improve the coverage of broadband technologies in areas currently not commercially viable (rural towns etc.):

These include: wiring up business parks in Yorkshire and Humberside with broadband links; and a trial of satellite and wireless broadband links in the east Midlands.

In a statement Douglas Alexander said: "With the help of this £30 million fund, Regional Development Agencies across the country are embarking on innovative and exciting projects that could have a real impact on the roll-out of broadband infrastructure, especially in rural areas where access is currently limited."

However, critics claims that this initiative is little more than tinkering around at the edges and fails to address the real issue of broadband availability. Currently, four out of ten people in the UK are outside the reach of a DSL-enabled exchange.


Of course it's not the first time the government has "re-announced" this initiative and the money that goes with it, yet it is the first time we've been able to see any specifics. Sadly it's unlikely to have a real impact on the rollout, more @ The Register.

Japan Tests 4G Broadband Networks

By:mark.j @ 2:56:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

3G has only just launched in Japan and won't truly be available in Europe until the end of this year/mid 2003, despite this the popular Japanese operator NTT DoCoMo Inc is pressing ahead with 4G tests already!:

Its experimental 4G system will test base station and mobile equipment which could be in public use by 2010.

DoCoMo says the experiment is far ahead of any research being done by rival companies. The tests will get under way within months.

Handsets using 4G technology will transmit video pictures at twice the quality of traditional TV and will download data 260 times faster than DoCoMo's existing 3G mobile service.


It's hard for us to get excited about the Ananova item because most people haven't even seen enough good 2.5G (GPRS) handset options on the market yet, let alone 3G.

Quick ISP Review Site Update

By:mark.j @ 10:20:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Just a brief note to say that two new unmetered ISP forums for Click0808 and Surfmore have been added. We also placed a new one under General ISP Discussion for Firewalls, Security & Anti-Virus Discussion as requested by some readers.

Thedotcomplete/service Hit By Problems

By:mark.j @ 9:34:AM - Comments (8) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Thedotcomplete, otherwise known as Thedotservice.net (among other names), has today issued a service update explaining their latest batch of problems:

THEDOTCOMPLETE.NET SERVICE UPDTE

We are currently experiecing major network problems which are the result of an upgrade which took place on saturday. All users are asked to sit tight as we iron out the remainder of the problems with the service.

The problem will affect the following services on the network:
WENHOSTING
INTERNET ACCES THROUGH DIAL-UP
ADSL
STREAMING


In true Thedotcomplete style, no details are given about the problem and no ETA as to when they could be fixed. Unfortunately this provider doesn't have the most stable of histories and still can't seem to use a word processor before sending out updates =).

LogicSurf ISP Discontinue 0845

By:mark.j @ 9:27:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

UPDATE: Yes the 0845 Dialup is to close in a few weeks, they corrected the update to us.

It's been awhile since we heard anything from LogicSurf, which is a standard 0845 (Local Call Rate offering ISP. Unfortunately their latest press release contains echoes of a tone that we're becoming increasingly familiar with:

Due to the unsuccessful year, the progress of logicsurf's 0845 service has slowly grinded to a halt, as more and more unmetered isp's hit the market. Therefore after meeting upon meeting with the management staff we have chosen to discontinue with logicsurf 0845.

We notice that more and more people want broadband in some way either DSL, Cable or Satellite and with only BT and NTL as the main sources we have chosen to look in that direction. As this is only an idea we are unsure of any details at the moment.

So what now???

Our servers will stay open for use and you will not be effected. The only difference is that there will be no 0845 tech support either by phone or by email.

Thanks for a good year

Steve Hubbard
Managing Director
Logicsurf Internet


We're somewhat confused by how the update states a discontinuation of the 0845 dialup at the top and then completely contradicts that at the bottom.

Perhaps they’re just referring to technical support? However the language doesn’t serve to make either very clear.

NTLs 256kbps Upstream Trial - Update

By:mark.j @ 9:12:AM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

DigitalSpy is reporting that ntl:home's special 256Kbps broadband cable modem upstream tests (normally 128Kbps) will take place today:

The modifications will be made to the Melton UBR (not-cam2b-ubr2) between 1am and 5am. Approximately 100 customers are on the "silver" tier of service, which currently offers a 512kbps downstream and 128kbps upstream service. However, as we first reported last week, the cable operator plans to conduct viability tests of offering all "silver" tier customers a 256kbps upstream - a so-called "silver plus" tier of service.

No doubt we'll be hearing more on this very soon.

News - March 18,2002

New Pre-Paid Unmetered ISP - Surfmore

By:mark.j @ 4:08:PM - Comments (8) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The latest unmetered dialup ISP to appear comes in the form of a Pre-Paid style service from Surfmore, as uncovered by one of our forum moderators (Keith) - he states:

Surfmore is part of the more chain of newsagents which includes more, Mc Coll's, Martin's and Forbuoys. The service is basically paid for with a topup card that you pick up with your cd from your local shop. Upon loading the cd you then need to top-up the prepay card at your local shop each month if you wish to access the service.

Set at £14.99 which is the average for unmetered ISP's you do not require a credit or debit card and the service will be disconnected at the end of the month unless you top-up again. Hence there’s no contract and it’s ideal for those who do not like using cards on the Internet and also those who don't have one.

The website is very basic, although all the information required is on the cd and flyer. They also offer a money back guarantee, although the url which is given for info on this has been printed incorrectly on the flyer.

Taken from their website, this is the info available:

The Surfmore Service

The Surfmore Product is an un-metered Internet access product.

The product retails for £14.99 and can be purchased from any McCalls, More, Martins or Forbuoys store in the UK.

A web based email service is also provided free of charge. This is limited to 3 mail IDs per account.

This service will only work from BT connected telephone lines and supports modem speeds up to 56kb/s.


Also worth noting is they currently have a special offer:

Recharge your Surfmore card for your second month and receive your third month absolutely free


Note that we say this ISP is new, however that’s only because ‘we’ haven’t heard of it before and it may have been around for awhile.

Click0808 Unmetered ISP Update

By:mark.j @ 3:42:PM - Comments (7) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Some good news, we finally got a reply from the unmetered ISP Click0808 (as reported on Sunday), although it doesn't really help to solve the bigger concerns:

We do not provide web space but we do give out 5mb worth of web mail space.

Once the customer signup for our service, they will receive a confirmation order with username & password. Also, they would receive our contact telephone number and our address.

At this moment we do not have cut-off time and our customer can access anything they like. I hope this will answer your questions.


The address was also included in the footer of the E-Mail and as many will have already realised from a check-up of the company, they're based in LEBANON =):

Netcom Intel Limited
702, Block B
Gefinor Centre
Clemenceau Street,
Hamra, Beirut
LEBANON


We'll now try to find out how they can operate a UK unmetered ISP from Beirut, which could make them a reseller for another company, but who?

We’d love to know of any ISP able offer near limitless 24/7 unmetered access in the UK for such a low price without going tits-up over the long-term. Not to mention how difficult it must be to deal with local UK support issues, especially when lacking a phone number.

Clamping Down On Work Surfers

By:mark.j @ 3:29:PM - Comments (4) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

If you're one of the many who occasionally manages to sneak in some online shopping, browsing or personal emails while at work, then beware, for it may not last much longer.

Businesses are increasingly classifying employee email and Internet privileges as potential security hazards, distractions or worse, costly legal dangers in the making.

Such companies are considering dramatically curtailing, or even completely abolishing, the freedom employees have grown increasingly reliant over the past few years.

The days of sneaking in some online shopping on company time, mass-emailing your pals a Flash-powered shoot-'em-up game or even downloading screensavers could be a thing of the past.

"It is drastic and painful," Raimund Genes, European president of anti-virus software manufacturer Trend Micro, said. "But I think it is necessary for the future."

A healthy dose of IT prevention can eradicate debilitating email-borne worms and limit the likeliness of employees using their speedy desktop Net connection to download copyright-protected tunes, thus triggering a lawsuit.

Dear of dear.., downloading music files, surfing the Internet and sending personal E-Mails while at work, now who would do such a thing =)? [Many hands rise]

What's This Internet Thing Then?

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

Many IT users are reported to still be confused about web services; many don’t even understand what the term means:

The research, conducted among 203 readers of VNU publications, discovered a massive ignorance of web services, with 43 per cent of respondents saying they were either completely unfamiliar or not very familiar with the concept of web services.

When it came to defining what level of understanding participants had, 28 per cent cited services accessed via the internet, 15 per cent believed the term refers to web hosting, while 3 per cent described web services as software provision via the web, and 2 per cent believed email provision constituted web services.


The VNUNet item is interesting, although you'd need to survey more than 203 people for proper results.

AOL UK Forced To Pay V.A.T (17.5%)

By:mark.j @ 3:07:PM - Comments (7) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

No doubt Freeserve will be happy with the news that a policy review conducted by HM Customs & Excise (responsible for VAT ruling and collection) has found that AOL must start charging UK customers VAT (Value Added Tax) from 1st July 2003:

Currently, AOL UK is treated as a content provider domiciled outside the European Union, and therefore not subject to VAT, unlike UK competitors, which are treated as telecoms providers (and therefore subject to VAT). This ruling is estimated by Freeserve, the UK's biggest ISP, to save AOL £30m a year, and gives its rival a huge unfair competitive advantage.

In a Business Brief, published on March 14, HM Customs largely appears to endorse this viewpoint. But the authority argues that "differences in the current VAT treatment of such packages are a direct function of existing EC provisions, which fail specifically to cover packages of Internet service and content.

A lasting, fair and clear approach, whereby all Internet service packages supplied by UK and non-EC ISPs are taxed in a similar way can only, in Customs' view, be successfully achieved through material
changes to the relevant EC VAT rules.
"


Despite the above, The Register reports that AOL UK will still have to follow suit and pay, although the change may not be enough to fend off Freeserve's legal action due to the time it'll take to implement.

In that period AOL is estimated to save £40 Million, much to the dissatisfaction of Freeserve.

Energis Spreads The Debt

By:mark.j @ 2:59:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The troubled telecoms and networking group behind several UK ISPs (Energis), among many other interests, has landed its parent company (National Grid) with a £350 Million write off thanks to its poor share price.

Computer Games Help Logical Thinking

By:mark.j @ 9:34:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Since it's a typical Monday morning, devoid of all news, here's an interesting item we picked up about the 'positive' effects of playing computer/video games.

New research conducted with 700 children aged 7 to 16 has shown that playing video games could seriously improve their logical thinking skills:

They found that their communication and problem-solving skills were developed because children liked to play in pairs and small groups.

Researchers from Teachers Investigating Educational Multimedia say even the children's mathematics, spelling and reading improved.

Anne Sparrowhawk, director of the researchers, said the Government was examining ways to integrate the games into the curriculum, adding: "These games can prove valuable in terms of strategic planning and logical thinking. They taught children to reach decisions about the best course of action in a situation."


So there you have it, now both children and adults have the perfect excuse for playing games =). You can read the full item @ Ananova.

ISP Review Forum Back Online

By:mark.j @ 9:17:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Sorry to all those early morning users who just found our forum out of action for 15 minutes, we needed to update the members database and this has now been done - thanks for waiting =).

News - March 17,2002

ISP Review Weekly Update

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

Finally got an X-Box and while I hate the weight, design and controller, the games are glorious (highlighting Halo, Wreckless, RalliSport and Amped). It's a good thing there's still room for my PS2 as I couldn't go without playing MGS2 at least once a week.

Thankfully ISP Review hasn't been neglected and we finally finished our revamp of all the primary sub-sections, not to mention the smaller forum changes.

Sadly the forum update we've been waiting for wasn't release, although it should arrive soon, yet we'd now expect our side of the upgrade to come during early April. We've a lot of our own features to code into the software, which is something that takes time.

This will also push the new 'Reader ISP Reviews' system back by a couple of week since the timescales clash.

Next week we'll be working on some new content (unmetered usage article) and may get the chance to start testing a few other ISPs for future reviews.

New Unmetered ISP? - Click0808

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

Some readers have pointed us in the direction of a previously unheard of unmetered dialup ISP Click0808. However we have some concerns about this ISP, not least because of the price and required annual payment, but due to the lack of address and full contact details.

Typically any such company must provide an address and this one doesn't, in fact aside from a bare T&C and the Signup form there's almost no information; hence our caution:

Click0808 is your one source for always-on Internet access with no extra call charges - at just £6.49 a month including VAT (*payable annually in advance, a total annual cost of just £77.88 inclusive of all Internet access AND your telephone call charges - there really is nothing else to pay other than your normal telephone line rental charges to British Telecom).

Access the Internet anytime, for as long as you like, every day throughout the year, for just £6.49 a month including all call charges.

Our service uses BT's latest infrastructure to provide you with quality, high-speed, low cost access to the internet whenever you want it.

Fixed price means no nasty surprises regardless of how much time you spend online - stay on line all day long in your business, and don't worry about the kids surfing the Internet all night as well! It will cost you just the same - £6.49 a month including your telephone call charges - however long you connect to the Internet.

PLUS all subscribers receive their own email address with web mail access so that you can check your emails and send messages from any Internet café, home or office anywhere around the world.


You'll note that we've highlighted the second paragraph, which if you do subscribe, should be recorded with a screenshot because they're essentially preaching the impossible.

We have managed to find an E-Mail contact and will try to verify more details before adding them to our listings, until then we'd advise caution.

News - March 16,2002

New FREE Personal Firewall - Outpost

By:mark.j @ 9:50:AM - Comments (12) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

One of our readers (Alex) let us know that agnitum has launched a new free personal firewall (Outpost), which should make for a useful alternative to ZoneAlarm:

Agnitum Outpost is the first personal firewall for Windows developed with Open Architecture. The Open Development Process proved its efficiency with the development of the Internet and with Linux. No company can be as fast, flexible and innovative at enhancing a closed product as thousands of developers from different countries all working on an open one.

Agnitum Outpost is the first personal firewall that supports plug-ins. Sample plug-ins are included to show how this revolutionary technology can easily be employed for such tasks as Intrusion Detection, Advertisement Blocking, Content Filtering, E-mail Guard and Privacy Control.

Agnitum Outpost is equipped with every feature a personal firewall should have. It is the most functional firewall in the world. Outpost supports all the latest security techniques and features such as: Full Stealth Mode, Anti-Leak, and MD5 Authentication.

Although Agnitum Outpost is setting new standards in the firewall market, it looks like any Office application! It needs no configuration before using-it starts protecting your system as soon as it's installed.

Compatibility is no problem. Agnitum Outpost brings you peace of mind in any environment no matter what:

* Connection type you are using (dial-up, DSL, ISDN, Cable, T1 or Satellite).

* MS Windows version (95,98, 98SE, ME, NT, 2000, XP).

* Network (standalone PC, office network, home network, VPN or Microsoft Internet Connection Sharing).

* Application you are using (every browser and e-mail client, Web or FTP server, ICQ, IRC, Online Gaming and every other application imaginable) .

There are two versions of Outpost: FREE and PRO.


Typically this kind of software is ideal for lengthy unmetered or always-on broadband connections and should be used by anybody whom fits that description. We've yet to test the software, although are hoping to try it this weekend.

EzAccess Launch Unmetered Service

By:mark.j @ 9:41:AM - Comments (4) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Not a day after Thedotservice.net finally put an end to its 'business' unmetered FRIACO offering, offshoot residential ISP EzAccess has emerged with an almost identical package, bar the hosting:

EzAccess Internet has finally launched a truly inspirational Internet Service with the bells and whistles you have come to expect from Local rate ISP's, but without the Local Rate bit.

The service has been engineered by dedicated staff to provide a truly enjoyable Internet experience. The current deal will be available until June, so take your time before choosing us as your ISP.

*0808 FRIACO access
*Unlimited eMail addresses
*100 MB fast Unix Web space
*CGI access
*40,000 + News Groups
*Access to the EzAccess Portal
*Free Technical Support
*Free domain name (subject to a years subscription)
*Fast dedicated servers
*Game Servers
*All for £14.99 a month.

The service has a specific contention of 7:1 and offers a 2 hour absolute cut-off as well as a 15 minute 'idle' cut-off. The service is also not engineered to be an 'always-on' service, and usage in excess of 15 hours a day is deemed as inappropiate.


Interestingly 15 hours per day is more than even the most flexible standard unmetered ISP (£14.99) can afford and still expect to make a profit. Not to mention that the 7:1 ratio is still there (very good for the usage limit), although we've not a clue how they're managing to work the economics and would advise caution.

It's worth noting that at the time of writing their website seems to be down / unreachable, which doesn't speak too highly.

BTs Anti-Spam Measures Cause Trouble

By:mark.j @ 9:34:AM - Comments (3) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

BT recently introduced new measures to combat SPAM (junk E-Mail) passing through their mail servers, unfortunately the changes appear to be responsible for trapping and deleting legitimate emails from BT's ADSL customers:

UK software developer Barwick Systems, which uses a BT ADSL account for email and Web connectivity, was one company affected. However, said network manager Paul Stockton, the company did not discover the emails were going missing until Wednesday, when customers rang to say that emails they were expecting had not arrived.

BT was able to tell him what had happened. "It turned out that in BT's attempt to combat junk email, they had added a rule to their SMTP server to check the headers in all emails," said Stockton. "If the received-from part of the header says unspecified.host then it treats them as spam and deletes them."

While Stockton said he appreciates the need to combat spam, he said believes this is the wrong way to go about it, and is particularly annoyed that BT did not inform its customers first. "To put a filter like this on your main SMTP server is mad," he said. "How many other companies have lost all their emails because of this?"


It's not clear whether the item refers to BTOpenworld or BTs network in general, although we'd guess it's the former. Either way ZDNet reports that BT was unable to comment and that the new Anti-SPAM changes came into effect last Tuesday.

Broadbands Killer App = TV?

By:mark.j @ 9:25:AM - Comments (3) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Broadband could well find its killer application in the form of TV (Television), or to be more accurate - DigitalTV:

Michel Rahier, president of Alcatel's Broadband Networking division, said that around 70 million people in Europe will be digital TV subscribers by 2006, 240 million worldwide.

Video compression technologies, such as MPEG-4, would allow broadcast quality pictures to be carried to the home via Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) technologies.

MPEG-4 compresses a television signal into 2.5Mbps, which makes broadband entertainment commercially viable. Digital TV currently uses a compression technology called MPEG-2 that crams a broadcast quality picture into a 7Mbps stream. At Cebit, Rahier told vnunet.com that 70 per cent of Europe's installed DSL base could carry 3-4Mbps streams.


Interestingly the VNUNet item highlights something that BT is also interested in; at least that's what they said when recently awarded a broadcasting license. Something like this isn't likely to be viable in the UK until around 2006, when more have DSL installed.

News - March 15,2002

Zen Internet Confirm R/ADSL Price Cuts

By:mark.j @ 3:50:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Zen Internet has today become the latest broadband offering ISP to take advantage of BT Wholesale's recently announced price reductions on ADSL. Press release follows. Note that we removed the comments from Zen's Marketing Manager to save space:

Zen makes sweeping changes to its ADSL product portfolio

Zen Internet, one of the UK's leading Broadband providers, has today announced a number of sweeping changes to its ADSL product portfolio in response to the recently announced BT Wholesale price reductions on ADSL.

The company has made radical changes across its broadband product portfolio with the reduction of its ZenADSL Home service price to £29.99 per month inc. VAT and its Office services starting at £60 plus VAT per month. The new prices will be available to customers ordering from 22nd March, and the reductions will be passed on to existing customers from 1st April.

ZenADSL Home and office pricing:
Product Name / Setup Price / Monthly Rental
ZenADSL Home - £50.00 - £25.52
ZenADSL Office 500 - £50.00 - £60.00
ZenADSL Office 1000 - £50.00 - £95.00
ZenADSL Office 2000 - £50.00 - £140.00
NB: All prices exclude VAT.

Zen has also decided that it will concentrate on its Home and Office self-install services and no longer supply the BT installed single and multi-user services. Zen has taken the decision to supply only ZenADSL Home and Office self-install services based on the many advantages over the BT installed range from both a sales and support perspective. By supplying the ZenADSL Home and Office services, the company will be able to provide a higher level of service and support to its customers – an integral part of Zen’s company philosophy.

Existing (BT installed) single and multi-user customers will continue to be fully supported and will also benefit from revised pricing, equating to annual savings of up to £540 !

Existing engineer installed service pricing:
Product Name / New Monthly Rental
ZenADSL Single-user 512Kbps - £25.52
ZenADSL Multi-user 512Kbps - £65.00
ZenADSL Multi-user 1Mbps - £100.00
ZenADSL Multi-user 2Mbps - £145.00
NB: All prices exclude VAT.

Zen has improved the features of its Home and Office range with the inclusion of single or multiple (up to 256) static IP addresses with all services. With Zen’s vast experience in fully managed VPN solutions over ADSL, the company offers customers greater scope for the service potential, which, combined with a three month minimum contract has to be one of the leading ADSL services in the UK.

Zen are also pleased to announce that, from March 22nd, it will be providing customers with the option of purchasing an Alcatel Speed Touch USB modem or Speed Touch 510 router for £99 or £199 plus VAT (including delivery and two micro-filters) respectively. Zen have full confidence in offering this equipment to customers, having found it to be both reliable, effective and affordably priced.

Customers can also supply their own equipment - a feature not permitted with some ISPs. Zen also offer the option of purchasing from its range of WatchGuard firewalls, giving customers a complete ‘one-stop shop’ for high-speed, reliable and secure broadband Internet access.

Quick ISP Review Site Update

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

You might notice that the number of members on our forum has diminished by roughly 700, that's because we removed any accounts that were a year or more old and whom had never made a single post.

We also added a few extra requested forums as follows (per category):

CATEGORY: General Discussion:-
Computer & Console Gaming (PS2, PC etc.)

CATEGORY: General ISP Discussion:-
ISPs & Operating Systems (Mac, PCs etc.)
Video Game Consoles (PS2 etc.) & ISPs
Internet Friendly TV & Home Phones

CATEGORY: General Broadband Discussion:-
Broadband Coverage Petitions

Note that we also added some extra Broadband Satellite and xDSL specifics ISP forums into the usual categories; these were missing due to being new or not previously requested.

Bu-Ya-Ka-Sha.. BTOpenworld

By:mark.j @ 3:10:PM - Comments (2) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

It appears as if a poor Ali.G impersonator, and there are many.., somehow managed to replace one of the recorded messages left on BTOpenworlds telephone help line:

The message, a poor imitation of the cult comedic figure, appeared around midnight 12th/13th March and was removed after about 15 minutes.

According to one reader, who asked to remain anonymous, the message said: "Aiii. D to the I to the O... BT are **** ... You want to eat now? You want to eat the ***** now? Do not go with the BT."

At this stage it's not known whether the prank was an inside job or, more seriously, done by someone from outside the company.


The Register's entertaining item notes that BTOpenworld has launched an investigation, although we doubt the real Ali and his west-end MASSIVE posy is truly involved =), Aiiii.

Affinity Internet Holdings Down Under

By:mark.j @ 3:02:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The group that supplies unmetered dialup services to several UK ISPs, Affinity, looks to be going down under and into the Australian ISP market by acquiring 'Phoneware Online Pty Limited' for £221,000:

Phoneware has around 8,000 ISP customers who generate around A$3 million (£1.1 million) a year in turnover.

Execs at Affinity reckon they can save around A$250,000 (£92,000) a year in overheads and increase turnover to A$5 million (£1.8 million).

In November last year Affinity reported that its Australian operations - which are based around telecoms - were edging towards profit.


The Register reports that Affinity's shares have been up on the news by 15.5pence, a 6% rise to total 269p.

Gio Internet ISP Update Pricing

By:mark.j @ 10:07:AM - Comments (11) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Net4Nowt is reporting that Gio Internet, which was only recently matching FreeChariot's offer, has updated its pricing.

However what's interesting is that Gio now claim to offer "the UK's first unmetered Internet packages with no restrictions" (they do not restrict the number of hours you can surf or data downloaded!). The front page also states them as being: The UK's Cheapest 0800 Unmetered ISP 2002.

If the above is to be believed then we don't doubt that they’re the cheapest, however we don't know of any FRIACO or other unmetered system that could realistically support such an offer without running into problems. The packages are as follows:

Gio Universal 24/7 - £7.99 Per Month (inc. VAT)
Cut-Off = 2 Hourly
Type = 24/7 Unmetered

Gio Unlimited 24/7 - £14.99 Per Month (inc. VAT)
Cut-Off = 2 Hourly
Type = 24/7 Unmetered (Lower Contention)

Gio Business - £16.50 Per Month (inc. VAT)
Cut-Off = 2 Hourly
Type = Unmetered 8am to 6pm Monday to Friday (0845 Outside Hours)

NOTE:Unlike other ISP's, Gio Internet, does NOT bind you to a years contract when you sign up. You pay monthly and you may stop using our services whenever you prefer and cancel your subscription without having to pay for the whole years access.


If you're thinking of subscribing then make sure to take a few screenshots of all the 'no restriction' mentions and ‘Best ISP’ stuff, just in case they should run into problems.

PIPEX Blame BT - DSL Bandwidth Woe

By:mark.j @ 9:48:AM - Comments (19) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

One of the UKs cheapest broadband and unmetered providing ISPs, PIPEX, has today denied that its R/ADSL service is oversubscribed (one of the fears given their excellent price point) despite complaints that speeds have been dropping.

Instead PIPEX has placed the blame firmly before BT, claiming that the operator’s technical limitations and reluctance to help ISPs cope with the extra demand (following price cuts) is to blame:

Pipex says there are two factors at work. It points out that because ADSL is a 'contended' service, users share a finite amount of bandwidth. The more DSL customers that sign up, the worse the performance is likely to be, especially at peak times.

Secondly, it believes BT has failed to do all it can to balance the extra demand now being placed on the pipes linking ISPs' servers to BT's infrastructure.

David Rickard, managing director of Pipex, said BT was simply shoving as much data as possible down Pipex's single 155 Mbps pipe. This compounds the problems of users experiencing a reduced level in their expected 512 Kbps connection speeds, as ADSL is a shared-capacity medium.


To be honest it was only a matter of time before people saw the reason why 50:1 contention ratios can mean trouble in areas of dense usage. The same problems have been known to seriously affect North American (USA) providers as well, although it's certainly NOT all BTs fault.

Indeed the ISP is already aware of the limits and should have tried to balance the service; it can't cry foul and blame BT for something it should take into account by default. Pipex have now split the bandwidth between two pipes to ease the load, although it's not clear whether this can be maintained.

We'd expect this to hit more and more ISPs as time goes on, although it's worth nothing that 20:1 contended Ethernet R/ADSL @ 512Kbps is now more affordable and probably a good alternative if this occurs. More @ Silicon.

30% Of Hyperlinks Don't Work

By:mark.j @ 9:12:AM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Not completely unrelated to BTs item below, yet it's now believed that up to 30% of hyperlinks around the Internet don't work:

Everyone has experienced linkrot: clicking on a promising hyperlink only to be confronted by 'this page has been moved' or 'that page no longer exists' or the frustrating '404 error'.

And the problem is growing. The last proper survey on linkrot, carried out in 1997 by the University of Georgia, revealed that around six per cent of all links are bad.

This figure was up 50 per cent from the year before and, although there isn't the research to confirm it, if that rate continued then around 25 to 30 per cent of all links on the internet could suffer.


The VNUNet item is very interesting and suggests ways that the situation could be improved, although to be honest it's nothing unusual. The more people that go online, the more websites and thus the more archives and off-site links that aren’t easily updated.

BTs Hyperlink Case Suffers Blow

By:mark.j @ 9:05:AM - Comments (2) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Good news (we hope), a U.S. judge (Colleen McMahon) involved with BTs controversial hyperlink patent case has narrowed what the operator can say to prove its claim to have invented the technology.

McMahon issued an opinion from her White Plains, New York court late on Wednesday that only partially accepted the wording of BT arguments that its 1970's patent should cover modern Internet linking methods.

BT believes it holds the patent covering "hypertext links", the illuminated text on a Web page that enables users to surf from page to page with the click of a mouse.

While neither side was ready to declare outright victory on the strength of the judge's comments, the momentum appears to have swung to the defendants, who said they were now considering filing a motion for dismissal.

The judge cast doubt on the relevance of some of the patent's concepts to the decentralised network of computers now called the Internet, in an interpretation of arcane computing concepts that could be decisive in a jury trial.

BT's first target is Prodigy, the oldest online access service, which dates back to 1984 and is now a unit of SBC Communications, the second largest U.S. local telephone company. If successful, BT has said it is ready to try to force other U.S. Internet access providers to pay royalties on behalf of millions of subscribers.

News - March 14,2002

V21 ISP Explains Poor Service

By:mark.j @ 3:24:PM - Comments (13) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The unmetered dialup ISP V21 (FREE24/7) has today sent us another press release, yet this time they attempt to explain why their services have been so troubled for the past 3 months:

Explanation for V21 / Free24-7 's Bad Service For Past 3 Months

Unfortunately V21 was hit by a major fault which could not be located for about 8 weeks!

We will be publishing a full explanation to our customer base soon but in short, BT supply V21 all the hardware used to transport our users to the internet, there was a failure of hardware which affected the availability of ports for internet usage by about 50%.

This obviously gave our subscribers terrible connection problems, this has now been rectified and is being monitored 24 hours a day.

V21 apologise for any subscriber that has found access very hard and promise that we are doing everything possible to remove the chance of this happening ever again.


It's nice to see an ISP apologise and we have noticed a drop in the number of complaints about V21 / FREE24/7 over the past few days, although it's too early to tell if things have really improved.

No doubt the mathematical ones will be trying to work out how 8 weeks can go into three months, but that's another story =). So have things improved? Let us know.

Irish Consumers To Gain Broadband

By:mark.j @ 3:17:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

ElectricNews.Net is reporting that a key six-month dispute between the ODTR and Eircom, which is somewhat responsible for holding back DSL services, could be resolved soon:

On Wednesday, the telecommunications regulator, Etain Doyle, said that the conflict should be resolved shortly, though she declined to expand on the meaning of those comments. Doyle made the statement at a US-Ireland e-Logistics forum held at Farmleigh House in Dublin.

More evidence that the dispute may soon be resolved came from the Irish Times who cites unnamed industry sources on Thursday, claiming that the ODTR and Eircom were close to a resolution of their dispute.

At the heart of the conflict is the wholesale price Eircom wants to charge other telecommunications providers for DSL. Originally, Eircom planned to charge other operators EUR75 per month, per customer, to connect to its DSL network. But Doyle insisted that this figure was much too high and blocked Eircom from rolling out both its consumer and its wholesale DSL service.

Eircom has said that any other price would not be cost effective. But now it is thought that the company is willing to agree to a wholesale price of around EUR50 per month.


It certainly looks as if at least some of Ireland’s towns are now one step closer to seeing broadband ADSL from ISPs, although we can't help but note how similar this is to when the UK first saw DSL in 2000.

Cisco Slams UK Broadband Policy

By:mark.j @ 3:10:PM - Comments (3) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Cisco's European vice president, Chris Dedicoat, has attacked the UK’s policy toward broadband by claiming that deregulation had "done nothing for broadband delivery in the UK.":

"The key thing to drive broadband is technology that can deliver fast internet, TV and telephone services," said Dedicoat, arguing that broadband was "not just about DSL, but alternative technologies like Ethernet".

He explained that 60 per cent of people in Europe live in blocks of flats and other multi-dwelling units that can take advantage of cabling infrastructure.


The VNUNet item also subconsciously notes a change in tone, where once the UK was being highlighted for overly expensive broadband, now we're on to arguing the final blocking point of coverage, which is good.

NHS Plan National Broadband Network

By:mark.j @ 3:03:PM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

In what's likely to be seen as a positive push for UK broadband technologies, the National Health Service (NHS) seems to be planning the first truly high-speed national network.

The current 'NHSnet' network, which is designed to connect all hospitals, health authorities and GPs, ends in 2004 and the NHS are considering replacing it with a high-speed replacement.

The existing narrowband network is used for emails and simple applications such as referrals and test results, but the future must be broadband, says NHS Information Authority (NHSIA) head of access to information Carrie Armitage.

She says connections will need to run at speeds of at least 2Mbps to cope with the latest clinical software. 'Everyone is crying out for more bandwidth just to support everyday applications. The next network for the NHS really has to be broadband,' she said.

Bandwidth-hungry applications such as the electronic patient records scheme, pathology messaging and radiology imaging would make specialist information and expertise available to everyone, regardless of location.

But patchy availability will be a problem. 'The problem is that the more remote areas are the ones who need it the most,' she said.

The government's strategy, led by eCommerce minister Douglas Alexander, plans to use the combined weight of public sector broadband requirements as an incentive for commercial telecoms suppliers to invest in a national infrastructure. NHSnet is a perfect opportunity to test the policy.

A spokesman for the DTI said: 'The Office of Government Commerce (OGC) is exploring the most effective way of buying broadband for the public sector.'

It's not yet clear exactly which broadband technologies the NHS could make use of, although supporting xDSL would certainly aid residential consumers outside of normal coverage. Right now Satellite is the only truly national broadband service, although it’s restrictive.

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