November 20, 2001 - November 26, 2001
News - November 26,2001
Oftel To Face Broadband Blame
By:mark.j @ 3:35:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] A letter from Ebone's CEO, Duncan Lewis, to Oftels David Edmonds said that the regulator should act quickly to resolve a dispute over the local leased market before it's too late:
Failure to do so will result in Broadband Britain going the way of Railtrack - "a project full of great rhetoric but ultimately an embarrassing disaster with very significant economic and social consequences".
The broadside from Ebone, the pan-European broadband operator, comes as the industry awaits a ruling from Oftel about the provision of wholesale local leased lines.
While The Register states that Oftel has yet to receive the letter and thus won't make a comment until it does, it's worth remembering that leased lines connect the ISPs and ISPs then connect the customers. Resolving any price problems in this area would ultimately be a benefit to any ISP. |
BTs R/ADSL Service Agreements
By:mark.j @ 3:28:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Last weeks three (short one on Friday) serious broadband R/ADSL outages on BTs network has once again put Service Level Agreements (SLA) back into the public eye:
Rick Hudson, chief operating officer at ISP Netscalibur, said there is a need for SLAs. "For server uptime, recovery speed, and connectivity performance, SLAs are becoming customary in the industry," he added.
Phil Worms, director of broadband security firm Iomart, added, "BT's argument is that there is nothing to stop ISPs giving compensation to customers, but we get nothing back from BT."
While it's not stated in ZDNet's item, Oftel has set about work to introduce such essential agreements, although it'll typically take time. In related news ADSLGuide has posted some information of what actually happened when BTs network collapsed last week:
The problem was a software bug that caused the core network interface cards to reset preventing data traffic slowing smoothly or in some cases no traffic at all. Part of the work to get the network back up involved an upgrade on the network cards, which while fully tested previously didn’t do what was expected hence the later outage at 12:25 on Tuesday, i.e. when some people who'd made it back online got knocked off again.
The network was restored at 18:35 with a stable network been reached by about 22:00. BT considers that the network was functioning again as soon as reasonably practical.
Apparently some more upgrades are to come in order to squash this problem once and for all, we can only hope. |
NTL Upgrade & Bromley Issues
By:mark.j @ 3:17:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] DigitalSpy has some word about the delayed broadband cable modem service rollout in the Bromley area and some general Universal Broadband Routers (UBRs) upgrades from tomorrow(27th) in the following regions:
* Cambridge, Papworth, Bishop's Stortford: resegmentation of hybrid fibre-coax (HFC) network
* Cardiff, Ely: resegementation of HFC network, upgrading UBR hardware
* Hitchin, Stevenage, Hatfield: resegmentation of HFC network
As for Bromley, NTL issued the following statement:
We have experienced a technical issue in the Bromley Franchise that we have not encountered before. The team is still conducting root cause analysis. We are making every effort to get this released as soon as possible, but will not do so until it is ready. We hope that the positive experience of our existing STB Broadband users highlight that the service is worth waiting for. The STB Broadband team have particularly high standards which are to everybody's benefit to be maintained. We are conducting our next readiness review within 10 days and hope to be able to deliver this service in Bromley then. |
Internet Users NOT Loners – Shock!
By:mark.j @ 9:36:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] There was a time between the early 90's and the end of 1998 where Internet users were seen as loners, people that apparently never left their bedrooms and surfed around the clock.
While already highly inaccurate because nobody could have afforded that kind of usage, apparently the Internet is now socially acceptable.
New research by the University of Warwick proves that Net surfers are just as likely to belong to voluntary organisations and even show a greater tendency to trust others. In short, while most Internet surfers still seem to be young men, they're very social.
The study showed that nearly 30% of Internet users belonged to a community group, compared with under a quarter for non-users. They were 50% more likely to be regular churchgoers and generally watched less television than those without internet access.
Professor Oswald said: "They don't leave out their friends and family because they spend time hunched over their computer - they simply watch less television."
The study also found that poorer people were less likely to go online and men are the heaviest users. While interesting, it's nothing we didn't already know. The Internet started becoming popular in 1999, which is exactly the same time as it became affordable and WAP phones flushed into the market - coincidence?
In our view the Internet is only the popular success it is today because people can afford it and computers as a whole are now cheaper. |
Companies Loose Out In 3G Wait
By:mark.j @ 9:16:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] With nearly half of future 3G broadband wireless operating groups putting their launch back until 2003, concerns have begun to spread that businesses waiting for the technology could be loosing out.
The analyst firm Ovum believes that instead of waiting for (3G) mobile phone networks to speed access to corporate applications, companies should be experimenting with other options:
Neil Ward-Dutton, research director at Ovum, warned firms waiting for 3G that they could be missing out. He added that companies should already be experimenting with current technologies. "In the short term you will be able to do things equally well on GPRS," he said. "And by the time 3G services are ready to launch, GPRS will enable downloads of about 28 kilobits per second."
Ward-Dutton added that the much-maligned Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) was also worth consideration. "Companies that ignore WAP as a business tool are missing the point," he argued. "You can now access many corporate applications using WAP." He suggested that one reason that companies were reluctant to use the protocol was the fact that it had received such bad publicity. "WAP will play a strong role, but it will happen by stealth," he added.
While the ZDNet item seems to tout it, we've never found WAP to be of much use due to the limitations of the technology and the time it takes to load on slower 2G networks. Even GPRS has problems, there's still not much to choose from, it's slow (should be 50 - 64Kbps, not - yuk - 28Kbps) and VERY expensive. |
News - November 25,2001
ISP Review Weekly Update
By:mark.j @ 11:32:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Since today I've set myself the task of clearing out the home of old junk and also re-building my PC with a new Asus DDR (266-E) motherboard and AMD XP1900+ CPU, I'll just get right to it..
One of the nastier bugs in our new 'Reader Top ISPs' system has finally been crushed (we think), enabling us to launch the first public beta test. To start with we'll only issue this for users of broadband Cable Modem ISPs, NTL & Telewest reside there.
This is done because we need to have the method for storing files revised in order to cope with bigger lists such as for xDSL and Unmetered dialup ISPs.
Please note that because this is a public beta we haven't sorted the layout or implementation properly yet, not to mention that some features still need to be added - this is a test, report any bugs.
Broadband Cable Modem ISP Ranking List - TEST
It should work fine and we ask that ONLY bugs are reported, later we'll test direct SSI, Stats and 'Top ISP of the List' implementation. |
BTOpenworld E-Mail Virus
By:mark.j @ 9:56:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] It's not the first time this has happened, although ADSLGuide is reporting that BTOpenworld appear to have been E-Mailing a virus to some of its customers.
BTO has confirmed this, although whether it was down to a hack of the E-Mail system or a general infection is unclear. Apparently most virus scanners seem to have a problem detecting it:
Users are seeing an attachment called fun.mp3.pif and if it is run a new kernel32.exe is written into windows/system directory, which is similar to the backdoor.G-Door virus. McAfee.com has a page here which is thought to be the virus involved, i.e. W32/Badtrans@MM.
Also here's a little tip of our own if you're worried about E-Mail viruses spreading off your computer via the address book inside your software.
Place an entry in the contacts/address list with a name and no E-Mail and try to put this as near to the top as possible. When the virus tries to send it'll come up with an error, thus allowing you to put a halt to things before it's too late. |
News - November 24,2001
V21 Service Update & Newsgroups
By:mark.j @ 9:58:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] The 'child-friendly' unmetered dial-up ISP, V21, has today sent us a service update in which they address one of the providers longest standing problems, lack of a quality newsgroup feed:
V21.co.uk is now pleased to announce some major changes in their service and some major differences to their customer support functionality.
Steve Kaye Managing Director of V21 said 'After several weeks of testing we are now pleased to release our new News Server feeds to our customers. These are a huge improvement to the previous feeds and I think that the users will enjoy them now.' The news server is now 'news.v21.co.uk'
'Also due to the understandable unhappiness of our customers, we today have launched a members area, within this private domain our subscribers will be able to change and update all aspects of their account details as well as cancel their account online. The changes have also brought us to change our terms and conditions to only have 1 months cancellation period rather that the previous 2'
'We do take our customers thoughts and suggestions very seriously at V21 and are continuing to strive for a happy base of customers.' |
BT Admit Poor R/ADSL Services
By:mark.j @ 9:54:AM - Comments (14) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] SHOCK, BT Retails chief, Pierre Danon, has admitted that his company's R/ADSL service is "mediocre" and that its subscriber totals were "disappointing". Speaking at Internet 2001 in Montpellier, he went on to say..:
Danon told 700 European delegates that BT accepted that its service level for ADSL was mediocre, and that it was disappointed with its ADSL subcriber total - 62,000 compared with NTL's 80,000.
"NTL and Telewest are doing very well - the bundling of telphony, internet and pay TV is a strong offering with a strong appeal," he said.
He admitted that as well as falling behind cable in the UK, BT trailed Europe badly. Danon said this was because the UK had cheap unmetered narrowband access and because there was a tough regulator in the UK.
While we're not quite sure who the 'tough regulator' is, although it does seem as if the Telco is trying to blame Oftel again. Thankfully the VNUNet item goes on to show how he proclaims these to be 'excuses'.
It's refreshing to see BT apologise for once and talking about improving the situation, although whether they do remains to be seen. |
Tiscali Blame BT - Broadband Farce
By:mark.j @ 9:48:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Currently the most complained about ISP, Tiscali, has attacked BT because it doesn't see a business case for rolling out xDSL:
Tiscali chairman and chief executive Soru told silicon.com that incumbent telcos, such as BT, were deliberately making it difficult for rivals who were trying to roll-out broadband services.
He said: "The incumbent telecoms companies across Europe are putting up barriers to prevent new entrants into the DSL marketplace."
He added: "They're not only making it difficult for rivals to roll out, they are selling their DSL at prices which are so low that we can't compete. They're effectively dumping their product on the marketplace."
So despite the UK being one of the most expensive countries in the world for broadband R/ADSL services, it's now, apparently, 'too cheap'? In a twist of irony the Silicon item actually makes Tiscali look potentially worse than BT. |
News - November 23,2001
Vispa ISP - Gaming Feedback
By:mark.j @ 4:01:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Vispa Internet has this afternoon issued us a new and brief press release in which they ask for feedback on their new gaming servers:
Vispa would welcome some feedback from gamers out there about our new Unreal Toururment servers we have setup. We have setup based on current feedback two different versions of Unreal, which include:
Unreal Deathmatch unreal.vispa.com:7770
Unreal CTF unreal.vispa.com:7780
These are public servers at the moment, though understandable connection via our 0845 would be quicker. (Tel: 0845 0500 166, Username: guest@vispa.com and Password: guest) incase people would like to compare
Ideas, reports and advise should be reported to support@vispa.net |
ISPs Hit By SECOND R/ADSL Outage
By:mark.j @ 3:57:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Clara.net along with several other ISPs have started informing us of another major outage for customers of broadband R/ADSL services based on BTs network, which is just about everybody:
BT have informed us of another major outage on their IP backbone, which is affecting all broadband customers. Claranet ADSL customers will be affected.
BT have given us no ETA for when the problem will be resolved. |
Date For BTs Hyperlink Patent Case
By:mark.j @ 3:53:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Those of you with longer memories may remember some news items from earlier in the year when BT began stating that it was the true inventor of hyperlinks (web addresses / URLs).
Despite evidence showing the technology long before BT had it, the Telco continued and began legal proceedings. This has people worried because BT could easily start charging companies to use URLs! Now a date for the case has finally been set:
BT's court case against ISP Prodigy Communications over the hyperlink patent will begin on 11 February 2002 in New York. BT is claiming unspecified damages for alleged infringement of its patent, which covers the basic navigation method on which the Web is built.
The patent, number 4,873,662, was issued to BT in America in 1989 and expires in 2006. The company said it only discovered the patent in a routine trawl through its own patents four years ago. But the priority date for the patent is July 1976, which means that for the patent to be successfully challenged a company must show prior art before that date, according to Gregory Aharonian, editor of the Internet Patent News Service and a vocal critic of what he calls poor-quality patents.
Ahoronian believes that several papers relating to hyperlinks, published in the 1960s, will "come back to haunt BT's efforts". One of these papers was on a hypertext editing system for the IBM 360, delivered at the Illinois Conference on Computer Graphics in 1968, which showed how "any text structures may be (linked) in arbitrary ways, and the user may jump along connections in this linkage structure."
This is another interesting thing to watch out for in the New Year, more @ ZDNet. |
Oftel To Cause New LLU Anger
By:mark.j @ 3:45:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Next month Oftel is set to make one of its most difficult decisions regarding Local Loop Unbundling (LLU), whether or not rival operators should have unescorted access to BT's local exchanges:
The issue is crucial to the issue of LLU -- and could determine whether other companies can afford to compete with BT by selling wholesale ADSL packages. BT has already claimed that Oftel's consultation process is "flawed", and accuses the regulator of proposing measures that would seriously threaten the security of BT's network.
But rival operators have said Oftel is acting correctly, and in a way that will ensure more competition in the UK's telecommunications market. They want unescorted access because it is cheaper.
BT is adamant that it is unacceptable for LLU operators, and the contractors they would employ, to be able to enter a local exchange whenever they want without being accompanied by BT's own staff.
The ZDNet item highlights what's seen as an extremely controversial and difficult area, it'll be interesting to see what happens during December. |
Irish 'Buyandsell' ISP To Close
By:mark.j @ 3:33:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] The Irish ISP, Buyandsell.net, has been forced to close after majority shareholder Scoot.com pulled out because it was no longer 'part of their corporate strategy'.
Buyandsell.net said that it had made arrangements with the ISP UTVInternet to ensure that customers continue to have Internet access and e-mail use.
According to Buyandsell.net's Web site, customers can transfer to UTV Internet by logging on to this Web page: http://www.buyandsell.utvinternet.com, entering their details and following the instructions. It also said that e-mail accounts will be active for the next three months, but will be disabled on 28 February 2002.
This is likely to come as yet another blow to Ireland’s already troubled ISP market. |
WonkyPig Increase Prices - Again
By:mark.j @ 3:19:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] We've lost track of how many times WonkyPig has changed the prices for its unmetered service, although some will be disappointed to learn that they've once again increased from £12.99 to £14.99 per month.
However it's worth noting that this is for both BT and non-BT lines and they've just introduced a £6.99 per month package, which seems to be the crazy this month. In short:
0808
£6.99 per month >>>>>> To Order Click Here
With this service, there is a subscription charge of £6.99 per month. All your calls to the Internet are free of charge. Please note you must have a BT telephone line to use this service.
0800
£14.99 per month >>>>> To Order Click Here
With this service, there is a subscription charge of £14.99 per month. All your calls to the Internet are free of charge. This service works on any UK landline. |
ISP Review Site Update - BTO Interview
By:mark.j @ 11:47:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Since it doesn't look as if we can crack the bug that's stopping us launch the new 'Reader Top ISPs' system before the weekend, instead we'll give you the first part (second next week) of our latest article.
It's the initial 3 pages of our interview with UK R/ADSL broadband and unmetered narrowband ISP, BTOpenworld:
http://ispreview.co.uk/articles/btp1/01.shtml
QUOTE:
5) We would like to know your opinions on when you think the UK is likely to catch up with countries such as the USA in terms of xDSL speed and pricing?
With regards to speed, this depends on technological advancements such as VDSL. However, 2mb is possible in the UK here, so we're not really behind the USA.
Regarding price, everyone has an interest in this falling - this includes ISPs, government and wholesalers. BTopenworld has contributed to this through its half price installation offer (BTopenworld being the only UK ISP to do this). It is also the cheapest consumer 500k product in the UK at £39.99 per month.
New products such as G.DMT (wires only) should see prices fall in the near future. Furthermore, while basic entry prices in the US appear to be lower users tend to get less for their money.
On a separate note, the weekly update of our 'ISP Complaints' page has also been uploaded, 'Tiscali' and associated ISPs still lead with the most complaints week-on-week. |
1stNet Fully Support v.92 Standard
By:mark.j @ 10:10:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Most ESTABLISHED ISPs in the UK see no reason to spend huge amounts of cash moving from v.90 modems to the newer v.92 standard, which is fair enough.
If you haven't already read our item on v.92, two of the primary reasons why it has such promise come from faster uploads and dialling, the first being able to make multiplayer gaming faster.
Thankfully one of our forum members (Kalnet4u) has pointed toward an ISP that does support it - 1stNet:
Internet Access
1stNet also offers Fixed or Dynamic IP local call Internet access to its customers. 1stNet is the first UK Internet Service Provider to support the V.92 standards. We are currently finalising details of our SurfTime package for unmetered Internet access.
Sadly the fact that the site doesn't seem to have ANY details on the ISP packages or even a signup form is depressing, not to mention their future use of Surftime isn't likely to attract. It appears to be a 'business ISP', so you can probably expect to pay for things that others might provide free (no subscription).
It's important to note that any ISP can 'support' v.92 (compatible with existing technology); however the provider needs to physically use the technology in its terminals to FULLY support its FEATURES. |
PlusNETs Special xDSL Offer To End
By:mark.j @ 9:41:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] PlusNET has today issued a new press release reminding everybody that the half-price R/ADSL installation offer, granted to ALL such broadband ISPs, is to end in 5 weeks time.
They also take the opportunity to make mention of their own plans for R/ADSL Wires-Only installation offers. Typically we've had to cut a lot of propaganda from this release:
Cut-price install offer must end soon say PlusNet
PlusNet's offer of half-price broadband installation ends 31st December
PlusNet, the popular UK Internet Service Provider, issued a reminder today about their half-price broadband Internet installation offer, due to end on 31st December. Applying to their ADSL Home and ADSL NetStart products for residential and business users respectively, the standard £150 install fee has been reduced to just £75 for this limited period only.
With this 'extended reach' already available on PlusNet's USB-modem ADSL Home and ADSL NetStart services, and the installation fee halved, now could be the right time to change the way you use the Internet.
"We think it more than likely that BT will put the installation price back up to its previous level on 1st January," stated Alistair Wyse, Product and Services Director for PlusNet Technologies Ltd. "We do feel that our current offer of USB-modem installation for only £75 gives exceptional value to the customer. We'd strongly encourage anybody thinking of upgrading to the always-on, lightning fast speeds of broadband ADSL take advantage of this offer while it lasts."
PlusNet are currently investigating how BT's new 'wires-only' ADSL service (about to be trialled by a handful of UK ISPs) will be able to provide as much value for their customers as their current broadband range. The self-install option requires that the customer purchase their own modem or router and complete the installation of ADSL equipment themselves; something that is carried out by a BT engineer at present. There is also the additional cost of 'microfilters' (required equipment that splits voice traffic from broadband data) and a BT 'activation' charge to consider.
"We will certainly offer the self-install option to our customers, and anticipate a fair amount of interest, particularly amongst our more technically-minded business users," commented Mr. Wyse. "Whilst at this moment in time we don't foresee any major cost-savings by going down the 'wires-only' route, it would be fair to say that as the market develops and the price of DSL modems fall, this will become a more attractive proposition."
PlusNet will be launching the self-install version of broadband ADSL as soon as it becomes available in the New Year.
To learn more about how PlusNet can transform the way you use the Internet, just visit http://www.plus.net/broadband/ or call today on 0845 1400200. |
Fasthosts E-Mail System Falls
By:mark.j @ 9:27:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] The not-so-popular UK hosting and unmetered ISP dialup provider, Fasthosts, has become the second such group today to see problems with its E-Mail services.
Apparently for almost a week people have been able to send E-Mails, yet can't receive any, typically this has caused a surge of anger against the provider:
Fasthosts suffered a similar meltdown in May. Then, all email was put out for 36 hours and at a cost of £400,000, according to Mr Michael. With email down for at least four days this time, the cost could be much higher.
In May, Fasthosts put the blame on BT, saying a routing software bug or a denial of service attack at BT's Reading exchange may be to blame. BT denied any responsibility.
When we spoke to BT this morning, a spokesman told us that the company had heard nothing about Fasthosts current problem.
The Register reminds us of the primary reason why we chose not to be hosted with Fasthosts, they seem to have some rather dire customer service problems and network stability is always questionable. |
SPAM Slows blueyonder
By:mark.j @ 9:17:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] DigitalSpy reports that Telewest's unmetered and broadband cable modem Internet wing, blueyonder, has been experiencing slow E-Mail due to a large amount of SPAM (rubbish E-Mail) passing through the network:
Telewest's ISP said in a statement to subscribers that it has identified the originating sources of the spam messages and successfully updated its spam filter to prevent the unwanted messages clogging up the mail system any further.
However, a further problem has manifested, due to the amount of open SMTP relays on the Blueyonder system; the ISP has been blacklisted by ORBS-style systems including ORBZ, ORDB, SpamCop and Dorkslayers. This blacklisting causes mail delivery to be queued as messages are bounced.
That's evidence for one of the reasons why the government should have been stricter on SPAM and tried to stop it BEFORE it's sent, not after. |
News - November 22,2001
BTOpenworld Interview - Update
By:mark.j @ 3:45:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Well after weeks of waiting we're happy to say that BTOpenworld have finally returned the questions we asked them in our interview, since there's so much it's likely we'll post it in two parts (one tomorrow and one the following week).
The interview was conducted with Duncan Ingram, Senior Vice President @ BTopenworld, responsible for Consumer Internet Services. Here's a quick sample:
13) We’ve always considered the word ‘broadband’ to be a definition of technology and not a specific measurement of speed as the government might have us believe, what’s your opinion on its definition?
The Term “broadband” tends to be used to describe local connection speeds greater than 128kbps, which are permanently open, and can deliver interactive services, usually for a flat fee.
Note that we may or may not manage to get the first part online for tomorrow, time is short and this has only just arrived. We'll do our best.
On another note, we're going to try and launch our new 'Reader Top ISPs' system for public testing tomorrow, pending bug testing of the latest code revision. |
Gov To Improve e-Commerce Security
By:mark.j @ 3:29:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] The government’s e-Minister, Douglas Alexander, has today announced four new projects in both England and Scotland to help improve e-Commerce security and reduce Internet fraud:
The projects, at UMIST, Manchester, Paisley and York universities, will share a £3m cash pot to develop new online security methods and develop security solutions to put at ease consumer fears over e-commerce. Alexander said the projects mark the start of a concerted effort to ensure consumers are confident about using the internet as a shopping medium.
"These projects will provide tools for business to combat fraud and increase confidence in e-business."
More @ netimperative.com . |
Nildram Work To Improve R/ADSL
By:mark.j @ 3:17:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Some customers to Nildrams broadband R/ADSL services have been seeing an increased amount of congestion as the network fills up and subsequently slows down.
The planned upgrade to install their new 155Mbps pipe (network link) is still several weeks away on 12th December, Nildram had this to say:
Firstly, BT have given us a provisional install date of 12th December. I would emphasise that this is provisional, and BT are pulling out all the stops to make this date, but it is by no means guaranteed.
In the meantime, in order to try and reduce congestion on the existing pipe, we have done a deal with another ISP to 'borrow' some of their pipe while we await the upgrade.
Full details @ ADSLGuide, seems a good move if you're a heavy user and can't wait until 12th December next month. |
Tech Industry To Push Broadband
By:mark.j @ 9:58:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Broadband ISP services look set to get an additional boost from the 'Idate Broadband Conference'. Apparently telecoms firms could kick-start their languishing business by getting high-speed Internet into homes and small offices.
Executives will examine how broadband could be rolled out to a mass audience, despite the current economic slowdown and obvious financial woes of telecoms operators.
It's hoped that fast Internet access to homes and small offices could start to generate the data traffic for which the global Internet backbone has been design.
"Most technology executives see (broadband) as the most important issue to get the ball rolling again," said Steven Milunovich, Merrill Lynch's technology strategist.
It's an interesting viewpoint of the possible future for such technologies, although if they're going to be realistic then services such as BTs RADSL still need to be cheaper for residential consumers. Not to mention that most don’t even know what it is. |
Bridge Launch BT R/ADSL Competition
By:mark.j @ 9:42:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Bridge Broadband has begun launching its UK-wide broadband Satellite based ISP service that's supposedly designed to rival BTs R/ADSL and Satellite offerings with its 512Kbps (downstream) and 128Kbps (upstream) speeds:
The service, which launches today, aims to compete aggressively for customers considering BT’s rival ADSL or satellite service. Unlike BT, which charges around £1,300 for installation, Bridge will not charge an initial fee, recouping the cost of hardware and installation through a fixed monthly rental over a contact period of three years, during which time customers can upgrade their service. The basic packages offer 512Kbps downstream and 128Kbps upstream priced at £159 for a normally contended service and £269 for guaranteed bandwidth.
In practice, normally contended services can dip below their advertised bandwidth at peak times but exceed it at times of low demand, with service levels being averaged over the peaks and troughs. Although Bridge Broadband is primarily pitching the service at SMEs, the company claims to be able to provide connectivity from 2Mbps up to 8Mbps.
According to Steve Smith Bridge Broadband CEO, the company considered using Gilat, also BT’s supplier of satellite services. Hughes – a descendant of Hughes Aircraft – won out because of its lengthy experience providing private network services in Europe and the US, and more importantly, its 250-strong UK sales and service operation. Hughes also has an established relationship with Packeteer, a provider of enterprise-strength bandwidth management software that controls access requirements, bandwidth provisioning and service levels for the Bridge service. The company is also in discussions with Network Associates to provide a managed virus protection service.
While the service is likely to be out of 'affordable' reach for most residential consumers, it could indeed pose a tempting offer for small and SME businesses. Not least if R/ADSL doesn't cover the area and or BTs own Satellite service is still in trial, although neither of these may last.
Ultimately BTs own Satellite and R/ADSL services could be worth waiting for due to the obvious savings and so Bridge's offer may not look so competitive for long. You can visit the service HERE or read netimperative.com 's full item. |
Boltblue Rescue Ex-C&W ISP Subscribers
By:mark.j @ 9:32:AM - Comments (3) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Boltblue, a company specialising in mobile Internet services, is to take on the clients of Cable&Wireless's (C&W) Ex-ISP subscribers that NTL (new owners) have been unable to transfer:
Customers were facing an uncertain future as the period for which Cable and Wireless had agreed to manage their internet accounts is due to expire shortly, and due to geographical location problems the customers were unable to transfer to NTL’s own ISP service.
Bill Goodland, NTL Home's director of internet said: "Unfortunately our current ntlworld offer cannot be accessed by non-cable customers in ex-Cable and Wireless Communications areas so these customers are better served by a non-cable ISP."
The netimperative.com item is also good news for those worried that they'd loose their E-Mail details since the service will apparently keep this intact. It all sounds very good, although we'll have to wait and see what customers say first. |
Dogmagroup Launch News Server
By:mark.j @ 9:12:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Thedogmagroup has today issued us a small service update regarding the beta test their running of a new Usenet (Newsgroups) server, many will know this as the company behind unmetered ISP 0800OnlineServe:
A new Open house news server has been brought online for all UK IP addresses. This server can be accessed at news.thedotcomplete.net and provides over 90,000+ News groups.
This is, however a beta server, and will be taken off-line in the future.
We would appreciate any comments which can be sent to technical@thedogmagroup.co.uk. |
News - November 21,2001
Broadband Future Questioned
By:mark.j @ 3:30:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Once again the future of broadband technologies around the world and in the UK has been brought into question with 'strategic incompetence' being the phrase of the moment for some such as BT:
Executives from some of world's most powerful telcos - including Bernard Ebbers, CEO of Worldcom and David Wickham, head of Energis - have presented an open letter to EU competition commissioner Mario Monti warning that dominant incumbents like BT are hobbling competition by their "strategic incompetence" in giving access to local access leased lines.
This part of the network forms the last 50km of line between the customer and the competitors' infrastructure. The petitioners argue that this is the new battleground for broadband access, now that local loop unbundling has virtually ground to a halt.
Local regulators, such as Oftel in the UK, have also come under fire in the letter for being ineffective.
High prices (cough.. BTs R/ADSL) were also highlighted, although it's nothing we haven't heard a thousand times before.
However the official nature of this letter and the number of those involved could force the EU to be more direct with incumbents such as BT, which to be realistic, isn’t likely to happen. More @ Silicon. |
Quick ISP Review Site Update
By:mark.j @ 10:17:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] It looks as if one of those famous 'show stopper' bugs has managed to sneak into our new 'Reader Top ISPs' system and thus delayed the public testing another day or two (could be less).
We found that when the E-Mail 'vote verify' message arrived you could click it multiple times to keep tallying votes, this is now being fixed. |
Quick CloudNine Update
By:mark.j @ 9:28:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] As they had been asked to do, CloudNine have begun implementing ways to make it easier for unhappy customers to cancel their accounts or transfer domains, which had been causing more trouble than it was worth:
If you have a look at our web site then you will see that 2 new buttons have appeared (top). These are transfer and cancel.
The cancellation is now free and online and reiterates the 7 day cancel & refund if account not used policy. We are just fine-tuning it and expect the process to work from tomorrow.
Also at http://www2.cloud-nine.com/support.asp we have now enabled some new formats for many documents, these include HTML, PDF and an RTF file in ZIP format. |
Major Internet Outages Until 2006
By:mark.j @ 9:22:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Gartner analysts have warned that the Internet could start to see major outages up until the year 2006, when they hope the DNS capabilities are better secured:
John Pescatore, Gartner analyst on information security strategies, said that until the internet's DNS capabilities are better secured, users should not expect the internet to reach the same low failure levels of private networks. He also said they should plan for periodic outages until 2006.
The comments follow last week's Icann meeting in California which heard that it would be easy for a hacker to shut down the internet by flooding the web's master directory servers with traffic. Analysts and experts pinpointed the 13 root DNS servers as the weakest link in the web.
Technically speaking this is old news and perhaps one partial solution is simply to make peoples computers more secure so they can't be manipulated in such a way (easier said than done).
Whether or not things will end up being this serious remains to be seen, Gartner seems to think the Internet is more globally connected and similar than it actually is. More @ VNUNet. |
Tiscali UKs Voice Portal
By:mark.j @ 9:14:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Hands up if you'd like to have content on the web speak to you or perhaps even control it with your own voice? If you would then Tiscali UKs new voice portal technology, Voceviva, could be for you:
The portal, not dissimilar to 365’s Eckoh service, was launched in Italy earlier this year, where it has developed a steady user base based on news and email services through a voice-based platform.
Now the company is preparing to roll the service out in the UK as part of the Italian firm’s wider UK expansion, which has included the merger of its various ISP buys under the Tiscali brand and the launch of an ADSL business and consumer service.
Voceviva offers customers news and financial information, weather forecasts, horoscopes and the latest sports scores via their mobile, but also offers them the chance to check their emails – which are translated from text to speech – and respond via the voice recognition service.
More @ netimperative.com . |
News - November 20,2001
AOL UK Abandons Mac Users
By:mark.j @ 4:03:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] If you're one of those people who own a funnily coloured box for a computer then it's probably a Mac and not PC compatible. Either that or you've somehow mistaken a Cat for the same device.
Note that fluffy animals can't play CDs! and No! Not even if you push them in really hard. Sadly those with such machines won't find much support from AOL, the ISP has opted to abandon its plans for an Apple OS X (Mac) compatible version of its web browser:
To build an OS X 10.1 compatible browser, AOL claims it would have to start from scratch, and the company is currently "evaluating" whether it is worth spending money on this project.
The prospects, however, do not look good. An email from Dominic Wells, editor-in-chief of AOL UK, to all the beta testers said: "It is an unavoidable fact that Mac members make up an extremely small percentage of our members. We're a mass-market company and the mass-market computer of choice is the PC - so our priority has to be to develop new software for this audience."
More @ Silicon . |
Equiinet Slap R/ADSL 'Whingers'
By:mark.j @ 3:54:PM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] The MD of Internet server appliance manufacturer Equiinet, Bob Jones, has today slapped businesses for constantly complaining about BTs R/ADSL prices and instead asked that they push for a faster roll-out:
"For small business, ADSL is a good deal, so there should be less whingeing about the price and people should just go for it," Jones said.
BT has ADSL installed in about 1,000 exchanges out of the 8,000 it owns. He said that there is still some way to go before it catches up with its European neighbours.
"There needs to be pressure exerted, not just from Oftel but also from consumers and businesses. They need to make a noise and a fuss all the time, it does work."
In others words we're to stop being "Whingers" about one aspect of BTs R/ADSL broadband and start doing it for another? Good plan.. GOOD PLAN.
While we have to agree that R/ADSL is a good deal for businesses, most ‘residential’ consumers would still find the prospect of paying £40 per month for any type of connection a bit STEEP. More @ VNUNet. |
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