March 4, 2002 - March 9, 2002
News - March 9,2002
Ireland Sees First Broadband Push
By:mark.j @ 9:29:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Mary O' Rourke, the Minister for Public Enterprise, has announced a new plan to bring broadband Internet access to 67 towns around Ireland:
The Minister launched phases one and two of a regional broadband programme which will ultimately see investment of EUR160 million in delivering town fibre optic networks in locations regionally. Both phases involve investment in each of the 26 counties.
The first phase is being conducted in association with local and regional authorities which will receive 90 percent funding from the Exchequer. A total of EUR44 million is already allocated this year. Phase one should be completed in full next year at a cost of EUR60 million.
Phase two, to be completed in three years, will witness the expansion of broadband networks in an additional 48 towns. This will be completed through a public private partnership and involve a total investment of another EUR100 million.
More @ ElectricNews. |
BTO SurfTime Customers Face Boot
By:mark.j @ 9:23:AM - Comments (16) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] BTOpenworld could find itself having to kick hundreds of people from its aging unmetered SurfTime dialup package because of heavy usage come the end of March 2002:
Several hundred subscribers of BTopenworld SurfTime face eviction at the end of the month unless they curb their usage of the unmetered Internet access service.
Punters were contacted a month ago and told that SurfTime is not intended as a "always on" service and that they were in breach of T&Cs.
And they were warned that unless they behaved they’d be booted off the service.
The Register's item reminds us that BTO has a poor history with being unable to deal with heavy users. They either kick them off the service or force them onto another dialup that doesn't even seem to work (intentional?). |
News - March 8,2002
Has ISP SniffOut Bitten The Bullet?
By:mark.j @ 3:42:PM - Comments (10) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Believe it or not the once successful unmetered dialup ISP SniffOut is STILL OFFLINE! It's now very close to breaking the four (ish) weeks of downtime set by 0800OnlineServe last year.
Three weeks since the problems first started and most customers seem to have moved on, yet some remain, waiting and hoping for things to improve.
Unfortunately when we asked if anybody had been given an update the the following messages were quoted, nothing really new from what was being said at the start:
We are continuing to work towards restoration of a stable connection. However, as indicated in our last mail, we are unable to give you a firm completion date at this stage.
Or..
Staff still working towards restoration of unmetered access via the 0808 connection (and suppose they've also got the option of the 0800 connections, which are operational, if wanted).
This begs the question, could they return and if so then how many will still be around to see it? |
BTOpenworld Start Marketing Push
By:mark.j @ 3:18:PM - Comments (7) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] BTOpenworld has today released a new press release showing just how it intends to kick off its brand new broadband marketing campaign:
BTOPENWORLD KICK-STARTS BROADBAND DRIVE WITH MULTI-MILLION POUND MARKETING CAMPAIGN
BTopenworld today announced it is launching a multi-million pound ambitious integrated marketing programme over the next three months to drive broadband take-up among UK businesses and consumers.
The campaign will build on this week's successful launch of BTopenworld's first self-install broadband product, Plug & Go, which is available with a free line activation offer. On one day alone orders for the new product were double the normal weekly take-up of broadband. The campaign will include the company's first ever consumer TV advert for broadband, which will be aired in April. A series of national press adverts will target businesses, with other adverts appearing in special interest consumer press. There will also be an extensive online campaign with banners, pop-ups, editorials, newsletters and emails on consumer and business sites.
The marketing drive also sees BTopenworld rolling out the following initiatives to ensure that broadband is easily available to consumer and business customers.
Starting next week:
* The first two million BTopenworld broadband discs will be distributed in selected high street stores. These discs give consumers everything they need to register for broadband quickly and easily.
* BTopenworld has signed agreements with several computer and peripheral manufacturers that will put BTopenworld broadband registration software on 6.5 million hardware products.
* Up to 12,000 online affiliate websites will carry a BTopenworld broadband access button, which will allow people to link directly to the BTopenworld registration page.
Alison Ritchie, BTopenworld's CEO said: "We are promoting broadband for the home and also showing that it is an important business tool for small and medium enterprises. This marketing drive will help educate and excite the market by showing the real benefits broadband can bring. Launching our lower priced, self-install product 'Plug & Go' was the first step to achieving this goal - and the results so far are fantastic. Promoting broadband aggressively, via increased marketing and distribution deals that bring broadband to the streets, is the next step."
The more broadband connections the better because demand will be pushed and coverage should follow close behind. |
Bridge Broadband Seeks Partners
By:mark.j @ 3:11:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Bridge Broadband, the hi-speed Satellite ISP mentioned in our broadband listings (Two-Way - £159 PM), is on the hunt for extra partners to help resell its service.
This follows the recent signing of Sussex-based Isonetric to help in its expansion push:
Bridge Broadband - which uses the satellite service of Hughes Network Systems Europe - believes there is demand for its service especially in the vast tracts of the country not served by DSL or cable.
And while the company only launched its service last November, it claims it is well on the way to having around 1,000 subscribers by the end of May.
Said Steve Smith, co-founder and managing partner of Bridge Broadband: "We are determined to create a powerful reseller network with the right support, the right service and the right level of reward to ensure that satellite broadband will fully reach all those parts of the country outside of the reach of an ADSL connectivity solution."
It's easy to see from the price that Bridge and any potential resellers are primarily aimed at small and medium sized businesses (SMEs), more @ The Register. |
Brief Thedotservice ISP Update
By:mark.j @ 9:27:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] The unmetered dialup ISP Thedotservice.net has let us know that their website is now updated with the proper contention ratio for the FRIACO service @ 7:1.
They also mentioned that the demand for the new offer has been so high that a capacity upgrade was needed and is now complete. |
BT's Domain & Website Back Offline
By:mark.j @ 9:16:AM - Comments (4) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] | After being offline for three whole days the BT.com website and domain are finally back online and with a slight layout change. The new layout and networking changes were reported to be the reason for the outage, although it took longer than expected to fix/finish. |
Vizzavi ISP Suspend New Signup's
By:mark.j @ 9:12:AM - Comments (6) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] One of our readers (Maurice) let us know that the unmetered dialup ISP Vizzavi has now stopped taking on new subscriptions. The registration page reads:
Sorry, Vizzavi is no longer accepting new ISP registrations. Thank you for your interest in Vizzavi's ISP service.
Well at least they know when to stop =). |
News - March 7,2002
Commercial 802.11b (Wi-Fi) Use
By:mark.j @ 3:34:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] The 2.4Ghz (802.11b) Broadband Wireless (Wi-Fi) standard has so far been for private home use, yet all that could soon change if the government were to end the restrictions as one report has suggested they do:
If implemented, this would allow British companies to operate "Wi-Fi hotspots" in areas such as airports and cafes. Laptop and PDA users who own a 802.11b card would be able to get high-speed Internet access whenever they entered a building that operated a public wireless local area network (LAN).
Such access could be charged by the minute, or could even be free as an added incentive when goods are purchased. Currently, such public access services are not allowed in the UK -- unlike in America where companies such as Starbucks are able to sell wireless Web access to customers within their stores.
A government-commissioned review of radio spectrum management, published on Wednesday, has recommended a more liberal approach to the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands. "The current constraint on the use of licence-exempt bands for the provision of public access communications services should be removed as soon as possible," advises the report, which was prepared by a team led by Professor Martin Cave of Brunel University.
We'd certainly welcome what's said in ZDNet's item, the ability to walk into a shop and use your PDA or Laptop to surf the web and pickup new E-Mails should not be overlooked. Typically this isn't a Tele2 style service, more for short-range WAN use. |
BTOpenworld Purchase Music Site
By:mark.j @ 3:06:PM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] BTOpenworld has acquired the assets of 'dotmusic', which is apparently one of Europe's top music sites. The UK unmetered and broadband ISP will use it as a launch pad to expand its music services:
BTopenworld Purchases Europe's Number One Music Site
BTopenworld has today announced that it has agreed to purchase the assets of Europe's most popular music site, dotmusic.com from United Business Media. The deal highlights BTopenworld's commitment to creating the best destination site for music in the UK and follows the successful launch of its classical music subscription service, BTopenworld Classical in January 2002.
Following last week's across the board price reductions and the launch of BTopenworld's self-install broadband access product Plug and & Go, this latest move highlights BTopenworld's commitment to play its part in providing unrivalled entertainment content via the broadband and narrowband platforms. Combined with its earlier acquisition of UK's number one games site, Games Domain, in November 2001, the deal makes BTopenworld the UK market leader in online music and games services. Dotmusic.com will continue as a stand-alone website and will be enhanced with broadband content and services.
The deal follows recent developments in BTopenworld's music services including an ongoing trial of a mass market music subscription service with OD2, the development of a customised BTopenworld media player with Microsoft and the launch of Europe's first classical music download subscription service, BTopenworld Classical.
Founded in 1995, dotmusic is already Europe's most popular music site with 1.76 million unique users a month (qualify) and 1656 million page impressions a month (both February 2002). The site features many thousands of pages of content across popular music genres including news, reviews, charts, webcasts, a gig guide and more than 200 video interviews. In addition there is a comprehensive shop where users can buy CDs, DVDs, videos, tickets and ring tones and a community section with webchats, forums and an extensive array of email newsletters.
Announcing the deal, BTopenworld's CEO Alison Ritchie said: "Adding dotmusic's exclusive content, extensive user base and strong online music brand name to our already successful music site will ensure we continue to be one of the leading players in online music service provision. Last week BTopenworld announced major price cuts for our broadband services and with the launch of our easy to use self install product Plug & Go, this deal reiterates our intention to drive and innovate cutting edge content solutions for both the narrowband and broadband platforms."
Prior to the acquisition dotmusic and BTopenworld had an association commercial relationship that saw dotmusic providing its music news for the BTopenworld Music site.
Mark O'Donoghue, previously dotmusic's managing director and now responsible for all of United Business Media's music and entertainment titles in the UK said "This is great news for the future of dotmusic and its staff, all of whom will transfer. We brought dotmusic back in-house at the Music Group to enhance it as a site and to develop musicweek.com alongside it. Successfully selling a dotcom in the current environment might seem unlikely, but dotmusic has built up a great franchise with 1.7 million consumers and music fans. We are now 100% focused on delivering business information to the UK and international music industry."
The deal is due to be completed on April 2, 2002. |
498,000,000 People Online - WORLD
By:mark.j @ 3:00:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] According to the latest research from Nielsen/NetRatings 498,000,000 Million (Half a Billion) people were online (home) by the end of last year (2001), which is a 5.1% jump over July - September of the same year.
People in Asia continued to hook up faster than anywhere else, with home web access growing 5.6% in the last three months of the year from the previous quarter.
Europeans were next, with connections up 4.9%, followed by computer users in Latin America and the United States, which had respective growth rates of 3.3 and 3.5%.
North America continued to have the largest share of the global Internet audience at 40%. Europe, Middle East and Africa accounted for 27% and Asia 22%.
Of the eight countries the company monitors in Asia, Singapore had the highest access rate. Some 60% of households in the island-state of four million people could log on to the Net. South Korea and Hong Kong ranked second and third at 58 and 56% respectively.
India ranked last with only seven percent of households enjoying Internet access. India's Internet subscriber base is not growing quickly because relatively few people can afford personal computers and access costs can be high. |
Clara.net Comments On ADSL & ISPA
By:mark.j @ 9:42:AM - Comments (4) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Clara.net is one of many ISPs yet to announce how BTs recent price cut to wholesale R/ADSL (broadband) products will affect it.
However latest news letter mentions both broadband and their recent ISPA award:
1. award.winning
We are pleased to announce that after being short-listed for 4 awards in this year's Internet Service Provider Awards, Claranet has been voted Best National Business ISP 2002 at the prestigious ISPA awards. The award was presented at a ceremony in the Olympia Conference Centre, London on 13th February 2002. This is the second year that Claranet has been short-listed for an ISPA award.
The award was given to Claranet for its presence nationally, performance, customer care, value for money, innovation and vision. The ISPA commented that: "Claranet was seen to be cost centric, agile and flexible enough to meet varied and changing business needs. Its customer service is excellent, in particular the personable, human-face nature of the service."
Claranet is delighted to receive this award, would like to thank all our customers for their continued support, and look forward to a successful 2002.
More details on the award can be found at:
http://www.clara.net/awards.phtml
2. adsl.price reduction
BT has recently announced that it is to make reductions to its broadband monthly line rental charge to ISPs - as a result of an Oftel ruling. Reductions will take place from April 1st 2002.
We welcome the news that BT has announced these price cuts, and we're pleased that this provides an opportunity to pass on the saving to our customers - enabling us to provide a DSL service at a lower price. We are reviewing the pricing structure of our broadband services, and will be announcing changes in future newsletters and on the Claranet
website. |
Energis Safe From Takeover - For Now
By:mark.j @ 9:36:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Thanks to a new funding deal by a consortium of bankers, Energis, UK telecoms and networking group, has been saved from a possible take over:
The loan extension will allow the troubled telecoms carrier's to free up more cash to keep its European operations afloat.
According to the Financial Times, rival operator Colt has expressed an interest in Energis's Dutch operations.
So it looks like the group behind several UK ISPs will be here to stay a little longer, more @ Silicon. |
New 1Mbps NTL Broadband Clarification
By:mark.j @ 9:31:AM - Comments (10) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] DigitalSpy has posted up some more detailed information to clarify how the new 1Mbps speed broadband cable modem service from ntl:home will be circulated:
Firstly, the price of the 1Mbps service will be a uniform £49.99 for existing and new customers who also take the ntl:home digital television service, according to the latest information we have. The ntl:home broadband team explained: "We are delighted at the amount of interest Stephen Carter's announcement of the 1mbps service. The price will be £49.99 for both existing and new customers alike. The 11 Mar launch is for STB Broadband areas. The launch is for all franchises that already have STB Broadband. 1 Meg via a Cable Modem will be rolling out over the next 3 months starting in April in those franchises that are already served by Cable Modem Broadband." |
News - March 6,2002
Those Dirty Office E-Mails
By:mark.j @ 3:23:PM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] New research from the 'NOP email ethics survey' has found that one third of office staff in the UK use E-Mail to send sexist, racist, pornographic or politically sensitive information:
"Email can be a real and substantial liability for business," explained Stephen Ollerenshaw, an IT lawyer at Wragge & Co. "It is a form of communication that seems to tempt people into making informal and unguarded statements that they would not write in hard copy."
NOP interviewed 800 white collar workers in London, Leeds, Manchester, Cardiff, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Birmingham and Liverpool.
Workers in London and Manchester sent the most offensive and politically fuelled emails, with 36 per cent admitting to sending racist, sexist or pornographic material. While just 18 per cent of staff in Liverpool admitted to improper use of email systems.
More @ VNUNet. |
Klez-E Internet Worm To Strike
By:mark.j @ 3:14:PM - Comments (3) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] The latest virus warning from AV (Anti-Virus) firms concerns 'Klez-E', which is a destructive virus set to active today and that has a habit of deleting vital system files and personal data:
The worm - which has been in circulation since late last year - is programmed to overwrite several file types, including Word and Excel documents and pictures and videos.
Central Command's Steven Sundermeier said the worm poses a significant problem because infections have been reported in 97 different countries.
More @ Ananova. |
BTOpenworld Slapped By ASA
By:mark.j @ 3:11:PM - Comments (6) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] The broadband and unmetered dialup ISP BTOpenworld has been slapped by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for the SEVENTH! time in a period of 12 months.
Entertainingly the advertising watchdog found that BTOpenworld's promotion for its broadband service, that of being better than a 56Kbps modem for multiplayer gaming, was wrong =):
Six public complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority said they had experienced problems with internet gaming and had achieved a better service for online games with a 56k modem. The ad claimed “you could enjoy gaming with less jittering thanks to a reduction in lag and ping time.”
The ASA agreed with the complaints, ruling the advert was misleading and warning BT it must be amended in future. “The advertisers said the complainants problem with the source could be due to several reasons: personal computer capability, destination servers or network congestion,” said the ASA.
“They submitted performance reports that showed the service had operated as expected for several months, offering significantly faster data transfer speeds than a standard modem. The authority noted that performance tests carried out by one complainant contradicted the information submitted by the advertisers, and that the complaints came from throughout the United Kingdom.”
The netimperative.com item will no doubt ring a familiar tune in the heads of BTOpenworlds many customers; many of our own readers have reported poor multiplayer performance on BTO.
Of course the number of times the ASA has slapped BT is starting to get ridiculous, it's a pity there's nothing stronger they can do to repeat offenders. It'd be humorously entertaining if the next ISP to be hit by the ASA was Freeserve, again =). |
BBA Highlights Digital Privacy Threats
By:mark.j @ 9:10:AM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Last night the 'Big Brother Awards' highlighted one of the most serious threats to online/digital privacy by displaying the governments plan to store all Internet traffic in a single warehouse:
A proposal by the National Criminal Intelligence Service to store all UK Internet traffic for seven years in a single data warehouse won the Big Brother Award for Most Appalling Project on Monday night.
Interception of communications was high on the agenda at the event, which has hosted by comic and investigative journalist Mark Thomas, and Simon Davies of Privacy International.
Noting that this year's awards, represented by a boot stamping on a decapitated head, were slightly smaller than in previous years, Thomas said: "Yes, we've gone from the jack boot of tyranny to more of a Chris Smith New Labour rambling look."
If you couldn't guess then the Big Brother Awards are given annually to the companies and individuals that do the most to erode privacy, namely OURS! More @ ZDNet. |
BT's Domain Suffers "teething troubles"
By:mark.j @ 9:00:AM - Comments (7) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Some stability issues with BT's popular www.bt.com domain have led to speculation that they may have been hacked, however BT quickly denied this and put the problems down to "teething troubles".:
BT has admitted there is a problem and claims that BT.com has recently been upgraded, but that this has not been without incident.
We're assured engineers are working their little socks off to ensure the site is up an running. In the meantime, BT has apologised for the downtime.
More @ The Register. |
Small Thedotservice ISP Update
By:mark.j @ 8:55:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] We had a brief update from Thedotservice.net (Ex-0800.OnlineServe) this morning in which they stated the following:
All access usernames will now be followed by '@tdc'.
This will take full effect from the start of next week as we try to streamline all of our services.
The special offer that has been advertised will be for a limited time only, anyone wishing to sign-up should do as soon as possible.
On a related note and we were indeed correct about the contention ratio being stated incorrectly on their website and in updates, the ISP promised (on Monday) to update the details.
Unfortunately we looked at it again today and it STILL states 3:1, in reality it should be 6 or 7:1 and this will no doubt mislead a lot of potential customers. Hopefully they’ll change it by the end of the week before the ASA gets a few E-Mails on the subject. |
Broadband Overtakes Narrowband - USA
By:mark.j @ 8:50:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] North America has had affordable broadband technologies for a lot longer than the UK and is often regarded as a 'design' for the UKs own ISP marketplace, so today’s news should be of some interest.
Apparently for the first time ever in the USA, broadband Internet technologies outpaced narrowband (56Kbps modems) during January 2002!:
Nielsen NetRatings say broadband users accounted for 53% of the 2.3 billion hours Americans spent online.
The figures confirm the rapid take-up of high-speed connections both at home and at work.
The monthly figure shows a 64% increase from a year ago. "Broadband has hit the mainstream, with time spent online by broadband surfers surpassing the critical 50% benchmark," said Netratings analyst Jarvis Mak.
Is this where the UK could be by 2005/6? Probably not, but then without knowing exactly what direction things will take it's hard to say, we should have a better idea by the end of the year. More @ Anaova. |
Freeserve Increase Unmetered Price
By:mark.j @ 8:38:AM - Comments (4) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] It's official, following three weeks of rumours the Wanadoo owned UK Freeserve ISP has confirm the £1 increase from £12.99 to £13.99 per month on their unmetered package from 1st April 2002:
"With effect from 5th April 2002, Freeserve is raising the price of its AnyTime unmetered access product from £12.99 to £13.99 per month. This is the first price change to AnyTime since it was launched more than a year ago in January 2001."
Freeserve's ‘AnyTime page’ also mentions that the free trial offer will also soon come to an end:
"Until the 31st March 2002, new customers to AnyTime will get the first month free! Subscribe today to take advantage of this special offer."
The popular (only in size) ISP still proclaims to be the best value of all the 'larger' players, which is probably true since it’s hard to know whom are the biggest when so few inform us of their subscriber numbers. Then again none of the major players are ‘all that’ in terms of quality and we’re sure Telewest’s SurfUnlimited could best a few of them. |
News - March 5,2002
PlusNet Calls For Cheaper Unmetered
By:mark.j @ 3:38:PM - Comments (9) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Well timed to coincide with the Oftels (telecom regulator) review of a possible 7% cut in the cost of wholesale unmetered FRIACO access from BT, today the popular UK ISP PlusNet has added its weight to the argument:
ADSL sorted! Now for Unmetered?
PlusNet call for Wholesale Unmetered Price Drop from BT
Following the announcements made last week, in response to the change in strategy by BT on its wholesale ADSL pricing, which recognised that mass market take up was the only way to pay for it's investment in ADSL, PlusNet today called for the same strategy to be adopted towards Unmetered Internet Access.
Currently, over 60% of the UK's Internet users are still using 0845 access. This form of access costs the users on a per-minute, metered basis. According to the latest OFTEL report, the majority of these users are spending around £5 (Inc VAT) per month, a cost that is significantly lower that the current £12-15 (Inc VAT) price point for Unmetered Access.
This report indicates that a price nearer to £10 for standard users and £6 for off peak or low use accounts is required to benefit the majority of Internet users through Unmetered Internet Access.
Alistair Wyse, Technical Director for PlusNet, said "Clearly Unmetered is pricing the majority of the users, most of which have been using the Internet for less than a year, out of the market. We are certain that, if BT applies the same cost analysis as it did to ADSL, to Unmetered, the cost of Unmetered Access to ISPs would come down by as much as 50%."
Unmetered access is vital to the upgrade path to ADSL, given that over the next few years there will still be a lack of ADSL availability, and that proper subscription relationships between end-users and ISPS are required.
Wyse continued "As of April 1st, the cost per user of ADSL will be £14.75 per month to ISPs. In comparison, ISPs are currently charged around £90 per month for an Unmetered port. With most ISPs serving around 10 customers through each Unmetered port, this gives a cost per user of £9 per month. The cost per user needs to equate to something more like £5 per month thus allowing a standard account to be charged at £10 inclusive of VAT."
PlusNet call for BT to carry on from the positive announcement of last week, by taking the necessary steps with Wholesale Unmetered Internet access pricing in the UK.
All prices quoted are excluding VAT, unless stated otherwise.
To be honest it’s unrealistic to expect BT to cut the cost of wholesale by an average of £5 per month to £10 for an ISP normally costing £14.99 (note: ISPs set the end-user prices), unmetered dialup is based on a very different network to broadband – not comparable.
Having said that we’d love to see more providers able to offer cheaper packages, although the reality is that it’d be a BIG achievement to see the proposed 7% cut go through. We’ll cover this more in our future article on unmetered usage. |
Telewest Sidelines Possible NTL Merger
By:mark.j @ 3:20:PM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Telewest's Chief Executive, Adam Singer, has today refuted rumours of a merger between NTL and itself as happening anytime soon. Mr.Singer rightly believes that a merger with rival NTL wouldn't make much sense because of their mutual debt concerns.
"In the long term, of course there has to be scale advantages. Does it make sense at the moment with both companies' balance sheets as they currently are? Probably not," Singer told reporters while at the FT New Media and Broadcasting conference in London today.
NTL, with equity worth just £31 Million, is currently examining restructuring options for its $17 Billion in debt. Telewest shares have plunged on investors' concerns that it might follow suit to refinance its own £5.1 Billion debt pile.
The two firms have been hitting operational performance targets, but investors are increasingly wary of their debt levels as many telecommunications companies have gone bankrupt.
Analysts had speculated that Liberty Media, a U.S. cable group with big European ambitions and a 25% stake in Telewest, may be looking at the possibility of buying an NTL stake as a prelude to merging Britain's two cable companies.
Telewest Finance Director Charles Burdick told Reuters last Friday NTL and Telewest were not in merger talks at the moment. |
BT Gains Broadcasting License
By:mark.j @ 3:12:PM - Comments (2) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Two months ago BT was quick to stamp on the idea of offering broadcast (TV etc.) based services to compete with the likes of 'Sky' by saying they had, "no immediate plans to become a broadcaster."
Despite this the Independent Television Commission (ITC) has today awarded the debt laden operator with a non-exclusive delivery licence, yet BT insists its concentration is with broadband (for now):
BT applied for the licence in November 2001, and heard from the ITC on Tuesday that it had been successful. The licence will allow the firm to provide a full range television and related services over telephone networks and broadband cable. BT insists, though, that it isn't planning to become a fully fledged broadcaster in the near future.
"As Sir Christopher Bland [BT's chairman] has already said, our priorities lie elsewhere at the moment -- with broadband, for example," a BT spokesman told ZDNet. "Broadcasting is something we're interested in from a more medium-term perspective," he added.
According to the ITC, BT is planning a broadcasting trial involving 3,000 homes. BT explained that it hasn't yet decided when or where this trial will take place, but insisted there was no truth in suggestions that there is confusion between itself and the ITC over this issue.
No doubt ZDNet's item will once again spark up the debate about just what BT could be planning and for when.
It certainly appears as if they have some R/ADSL based broadcast services under development, although we won't be hearing much about it anytime soon, unless of course the media digs deeper. |
NTL Officially Announce 1Mbps Service
By:mark.j @ 2:53:PM - Comments (17) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] No doubt the following information will come as little surprise to NTL users and ISP Review readers because the details have been unofficially circulated for long enough =).
That said and DigitalSpy is reporting that Stephen Carter, Managing Director of ntl:home, has officially announced the new 1Mbps speed broadband cable modem service:
A press release out today from the company revealed that the service will be priced at £49.99 per month for digital cable subscribers, and £59.99 per month for new subscribers.
Carter explained: "This is the Ferrari of fast internet access. It is simply the best internet service now available to homes in the UK."
The service goes live on Monday, March 11. Existing customers wishing to register in advance should call 0800 052 2000.
Indeed, just when you thought BT was starting to look competitive, NTL all but slaps them in the face. Of course NTLs future is still somewhat up in the air and so you can never tell how things will be come 2003. |
Broadband R/ADSL Petition - Norfolk
By:mark.j @ 9:39:AM - Comments (13) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Live in Norfolk and outside of areas such as Kings Lynn, Middleton, Thetford, Norwich, Norwich West and Norwich North? If so then you might find this new broadband petition by Nicholas Carter to be of some use..:
..at the time of writing only 6 exchanges in Norfolk have been upgraded (Kings Lynn, Middleton, Thetford, Norwich, Norwich West and Norwich North) this leaves many people in Norfolk unable to purchase ADSL even if they wanted to.
Signing this petition will alert BT to the potential demand in Norfolk for ADSL and allow them to upgrade Norfolk’s telephone exchanges. Also local government and businesses will be alerted to the potential and hopefully join funding the ADSL rollout in Norfolk.
If this applies to you then feel free to add your name to the weight of this petition by clicking HERE. |
WanWall's Solution - ISP DDoS Attacks
By:mark.j @ 9:32:AM - Comments (4) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Regular readers should now be familiar with Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, which hit several ISPs in the first quarter of this year and managed kill one (Cloud-Nine).
Today a company calling itself WanWall has informed us of their solution to protecting against DDoS and it's something ISPs might find of use:
THE CRIPPLING DDoS THREAT
Considering there are over 4,000 DDoS attacks per week wrecking havoc on business continuity, governmental functions, and global communication, DDoS is understood to be a mission-critical threat to Internet users everywhere. Recent headlines concerning the shut down of the U.K.'s Cloud9 and attacks on ISP Tiscali UK and Lufthansa underscore this brutal cyber reality.
WanWall's unique approach to protecting networks against DDoS attacks has recently been showcased at notable industry conferences, such as NANOG, RIPE, and COMNET.
WANWALL'S ADVANCED SECURITY SOLUTION
WanWall's network security solution stands out because, unlike competing networking security providers, WanWall:
-- CLEANS TRAFFIC
WanWall actively REMOVES malicious traffic during a DDoS attack , while allowing all legitimate traffic through.
-- OFF THE CRITICAL PATH
WanWall's system does not reside on the critical path of the network and does not intervene with the network's normal operation. Once an attack has been launched, only the victim's traffic is off-loaded from the network, cleaned, and returned to the network.
Additional information about WanWall is available at: http://www.wanwall.com |
Thus Closes In2Home ISP
By:mark.j @ 9:15:AM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] The pay-as-you-go (0845/Local Call Rate) ISP In2Home is to be closed by its owners, Thus Telecom, at the end of the month because of a change in the operators overall market strategy.
The Telco is trying to shift more into providing business services rather than residential offers:
The service - launched in April 1999 - will no longer be available from 23:59 on the 31st of March 2002.
Anyone who still uses In2Home for email is advised to find a new service provider within the next couple of weeks.
The Register's item looks like another case of an operator pulling the rug from under the feet of its ISP customers and not even doing a deal for an alternative provider. |
Tiscali UK's Missing E-Mails
By:mark.j @ 9:11:AM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] It looks as if a large number of E-Mails have gone missing from Tiscali UKs ISP network following a serious and "unprecedented hardware failure" during last Friday 1st March 2002:
The company claimed that affected customers had now had their email access restored but that saved messages and address book details of the users that access their emails via the Tiscali website have been lost.
It added that customers also using a mail application such as Outlook Express to pick up emails will also not be able to access messages that were sent since the last time they checked.
The netimperative.com item reports that Tiscali is supposedly trying everything it can to locate and restore the missing messages. This is only the latest in a long line of problems the ISP has experienced over the past few months. |
British Broadband Digital Divide Widens
By:mark.j @ 9:06:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] New research from the Local Futures Group and IBM has shown that the gap between Britain’s technological 'haves' and 'have-nots' could be widening, with rural areas being the worst hit thanks to a lack of broadband etc.:
It says the prediction of people abandoning cities to telework from rural areas doesn't appear to be happening.
Fixed broadband and mobile phone networks were supposed to allow more people to escape to the country to work from home.
The report suggests the infrastructure is not being put in place quickly enough to make this possible.
No doubt this is one tune that'll be playing in the heads of many people right now, not least our own. Unfortunately while the rollout of broadband will continue, it's unlikely to be too fast enough to make any significant impact for such areas. More @ Ananova. |
News - March 4,2002
Telewest Sees Value Fall
By:mark.j @ 3:52:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Today the UK cable operator behind blueyonder, Telewest, has seen the target value of its shares fall by a further 10% thanks to the Schroder Salomon Smith Barney (SSSB) investment bank:
"We believe that the risks of a balance sheet restructuring have increased. Given the high debt levels, Telewest's relative valuation remains unjustifiably high."
Moody's Investors Services chimed in by placing Telewest debt ratings on review for possible downgrade, reflecting concerns at the credit rating agency about the group's ability to cover interest payments on its £4.5 Billion debt burden.
Telewest has built up bulging debts acquiring smaller cable firms and expanding its infrastructure. Its woes have been exacerbated by accounting concerns with investors exiting the sector in droves until future earnings and restructuring become clearer.
Telewest's 9.875% sterling bond due 2010 was trading at 51% of face value, down from around 55% before the results on Friday but up from 48% touched on speculation ahead of the Moody's statement, traders said.
After the statement, Telewest shares dropped to a new low of 12 pence, down 25% on the day and valuing Telewest at £345 Million. The stock has underperformed European rivals by 75% since the start of 2002. |
BTOpenworld = Most Popular ISP (Prodata)
By:mark.j @ 3:38:PM - Comments (6) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Prodata Partners Ltd. has today sent us their latest press release, which among other things shows that BTOpenworld is, "the most popular choice of Internet service provider (ISP) among small to medium sized businesses.":
BT MOST POPULAR CHOICE OF INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDER AMONG SMALLER BUSINESSES, REVEALS PRODATA SURVEY
New report shows SMEs are moving away from free access to higher quality services
BT is the most popular choice of Internet service provider (ISP) among small to medium sized businesses, according to a new survey by market research consultancy Prodata.
In its newly published report "the UK Small and Medium Businesses Strategic Research and Decision Tool Kit 2002*", Prodata reveals that market shares of Internet service providers have changed dramatically over the last two years in the small and medium business marketplace.
According to its latest survey, 37% of internet SME subscribers now use BT - including BT Internet, BT OpenWorld and Connect - as their ISP. This is over twice the share revealed for BT in Prodata's 2000 study. In contrast, Freeserve's position has reduced from around 17% in 2000 to as low as 2% in the latest report.
"The 2002* picture is in sharp contrast to our surveys in 1999 and 2000 when the ISP with the highest market share among small-medium businesses was Freeserve," says Sarah Ball, director of Prodata, which regularly carries out research into the comms and IT needs of smaller businesses.
"In both 1999 and 2000, Freeserve was in first place with approximately 17% of SoHo business subscribers."
Sarah Ball adds: "Many small-medium businesses have been - and are still - using residential ISPs, but this picture is likely to change as business suppliers offer more attractive tariff packages with guaranteed performance and a wide variety of access options."
The Prodata report also reveals that the number of businesses using AOL has halved - from 12% in 2000 to 6% in 2002. "One of the most interesting factors to emerge from this study is the degree of diversity that exists in terms of market share at this end of the market, ie among small and medium businesses," says Sarah Ball.
"Whereas the gap between the market leaders - namely the top 3-4 players - was very narrow in 1999 and 2000, we are now seeing suppliers like BT pulling out ahead," adds Sarah Ball, who says over 20 suppliers now have shares of less than 5% each.
"Free access services have not succeeded in the long run, but the service tariffs - where SMEs pay a fixed monthly charge for access and calls – is becoming increasingly popular."
Prodata, which polled hundreds of SME decision makers for its report, also reveals that quality of service is increasingly playing a large role in customer churn.
"Although some 59% of businesses questioned said they would change supplier because of price, 49% said that quality of service was a key factor and this has risen compared to previous years," adds Sarah Ball. "What customers want is reliability and consistency of service."
The report also reveals that larger SMEs with 20-50 staff are most sensitive to service quality issues. Companies in the transport, travel, health and hotel sectors were among those putting the most importance on service quality.
It’s worth noting that the reference to ‘free access’ probably means 0845 (Local Call Rate) ISP services without a set subscription, while ‘a fixed monthly charge for access and calls’ means unmetered services.
While this report is good for BT, we can’t help but feel that it’s bad for the industry because fewer people seem to realise that the main ISP players aren’t the only choices! |
One.Tel Introduce Early ADSL Discounts
By:mark.j @ 3:28:PM - Comments (2) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Centrica/One.Tel have already announced their broadband R/ADSL price cuts (see listings), yet apparently they're keen to be 'one of the first' to introduce the reductions as their latest PR states:
DON’T WAIT ANOTHER DAY FOR CHEAPER BROADBAND
One.Tel has today become the first big name to offer broadband for under £30 by announcing new broadband prices for all products including £27.99 per month Plug and Play, effective from Monday 4 March for existing customers.
New customers will be able to pre-register for the prices and only have to wait a week until March 11 for broadband that costs less than BT Openworld and Freeserve. In addition, the first 1000 customers will pay only £99 for the hardware and connection fee, a saving of at least £60 compared to most competitors.
“Even though BT’s new wholesale price does not take effect until April 1st, we have been overwhelmed by customers who are keen to get broadband for less,” said Ian El-Mokadem, Managing Director of Centrica’s telecommunications arm. “Thousands of people have contacted us since we said that One.Tel would offer broadband because they know we have a history of delivering great prices and good customer service.”
The 40% price reduction comes after BT announced last week that it was lowering the price of wholesale broadband enabling One.Tel to pass the savings on to its customers.
One.Tel has been calling for lower broadband prices for some time, after recognising that although customers were keen to have improved and faster internet access, they were not prepared to pay the high cost.
“There are a lot of people who feel frustrated with the internet. It can be slow and as websites get more and more complicated, so the speed decreases further. Broadband will change that, but the average man in the street could not justify costs in excess of £40 per month. We firmly believe that these new prices will kick start a much wider use of broadband in the UK”, added Ian El-Mokadem
“We are in a very strong position because people know and trust our name. Broadband is a new technology and many of our new customers will have never used the internet before. They want to know that the company who’s providing their broadband connection is approachable and reliable as well as offering a great price. One.Tel has all these qualities”
One.Tel’s new broadband prices could also save money for small businesses. Even a small business with only a handful of computers could be paying out hundreds of pounds per year for a dial up connection, whereas with broadband, the cost would be reduced by up to 40% and they would have internet access which was 40 times faster.
Although there’s much excitement about broadband, few people really know what’s out there in cyberspace for them to explore. With current internet access, the web has been all about information and much less about entertainment.
Imagine being able to listen to any song, watch any film, and email your home movies to friends and family. Broadband makes all this possible and £x per month from One.Tel makes it a reality for many more people. |
Media Exec's & Online Piracy Crackdown
By:mark.j @ 3:19:PM - Comments (13) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] The often casual trading of online music and video files has become one of the Internets most popular activities and a big booster for UK broadband, however all this could soon change.
The problem is that not all Music and Video files are legal, with 1,000,000 movie files being ‘illegally’ downloaded each day and many users doing this without realising the implications.
Today Peter Chernin, president and chief operating officer of News Corporation, proposed a crackdown: "Our content must be protected from unencrypted, illegal file sharing. We're in the process of raising a generation to think that stealing is okay."
Chernin said the media industry must play a more active role in educating youths about the legal implications of using peer-to-peer, or P2P, networks such as Grokster and Morpheus Music City to trade music and movie files via the click of a mouse.
He said there were technological stop-gaps available to protect digital television and satellite broadcasts from online pirate broadcasters. But the so-called P2P services were more difficult to stop, he said.
Unfortunately media companies have fought a losing battle in their attempts to block unauthorised copying and distribution of copyrighted material over the Internet.
It's not unlike recording a movie from the TV and keeping it on-tape longer than 24 hours, it's illegal and most of us have done it without realising. We doubt this is an issue that'll be 'SOLVED' anytime soon. |
|
