February 15, 2002 - February 21, 2002
News - February 21,2002
Cable & Wireless Slash Cash Pile
By:mark.j @ 9:29:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Cable & Wireless (C&W) is hoping to slash its cash pile of £6.6 Billion by a third through a new share buyback scheme and a £350m redistribution of cash to shareholders (special dividend):
The company has been under pressure to reduce its capital after building up large cash reserves from a number of major disposals. C&W has been in the limelight recently following worries over its accounting practices in light of the Enron scandal, as well as market concerns relating to the savage share price falls of rivals Energis and Fibrenet.
In a trading update released today, the company warned that its biggest division – C&W Global – is expected to report a 10% decline in sales for the full-year to March, in line with previous guidance.
The netimperative.com item stats that C&W is hoping to end up with just £2.4 Billion of debt by the end of March. |
BSG Head Touts Broadband Importance
By:mark.j @ 9:17:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] The new head of the Broadband Stakeholders Group (BSG), Keith Todd, has today stepped up the pressure by stating that broadband is just as important as our rail network:
Todd, ex-ICL boss and now chair of the government advisory committee, is set to promote broadband in the UK as the infrastructure for a new way of working globally.
Todd told silicon.com: "It's clear to me there's a new economy that exists that can change the way things happen socially and economically. The fundamental underpinning of that is broadband. Broadband is the number one catalyst for this change and I see it as at least as important as the UK rail infrastructure," he added.
The timing of Mr Todd's comments shouldn't be a surprise since we're now exactly two weeks on from BTs previous announcement. If the operator keeps to its timetable (uh oh =]) then we might see some word on R/ADSL price cuts today. More @ Silicon. |
Energis Retreats Into The UK
By:mark.j @ 9:12:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] The debt laden telcoms carrier Energis, which also helps supply several UK ISPs, is to retreat from its overseas operations in order to gain support from bankers:
A shock profits warning last month forced the company into a strategic review of its operations. The outcome will be revealed today as the company announces plans to sell-off its loss-making businesses outside of the UK.
Three warnings in a row, coupled with news that the company could breach agreements with its banks almost immediately after it secured a £725m facility, had a devastating effect on its share value.
The Silicon item also reports that the UK won't escape problems, 500 local staff are expected to lose their jobs. |
News - February 20,2002
PlusNet Call For xDSL Price Cuts
By:mark.j @ 3:53:PM - Comments (6) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] PlusNet has today issued their response to the recent speculation surrounding BT's suggested xDSL price cuts and also called for Oftel to review its Local Loop Unbundling (LLU) strategies in favour of the Internet consumer:
PlusNet Urge Oftel to "Think Again"
PlusNet calls for "Mass Market DSL Pricing"
The whole ISP industry and community are waiting for BT to confirm "significant" wholesale price cuts for consumer aDSL.
Sheffield based ISP, PlusNet are of the opinion that in addition to reducing the wholesale cost of aDSL by at least £8 per month, from the current level of £25 (excl. VAT), BT should also reduce the activation fee, which is currently £50 (excl. VAT) (It's worth noting that activating an aDSL service involves similar work to that which needs carrying out to activate a standard phone line, for which BT charges no fee).
PlusNet, like most ISPs, are very keen to see wholesale price cuts to BTs ADSL service. Alistair Wyse, Technical Director for PlusNet said, "Meeting the mass-market consumer price point of £25 per month (incl.VAT) will undoubtedly create significant demand for Broadband ADSL services," he continued, "We want to see BT stimulate the market by cutting the monthly rental by at least £8 to £10, and lowering the activation fee to below the £25 mark."
PlusNet would also like to confirm that they will indeed be passing on cost saving benefits when BT announce and get approval on the impending wholesale price changes. "Anybody thinking of getting Broadband now does not need to wait. If they signup with PlusNet, the applicable monthly bill will be adjusted when the BT prices are confirmed," Wyse commented.
As well as the main issue, above, PlusNet would also like to see a change in strategy from Oftel.
During the evolution of Internet Service Provision in the UK, over the last five years, Oftel have operated a strategy which assumes that a competitive market (and therefore consumer benefit) exists if BT are regulated in such a way as to protect the interests of the Other Licensed Operators (or 'OLO's', such as: Energis, Colt, NTL and Telewest). It was thought, given the growth potential of Internet services, that the OLO's would have the necessary incentive to work with ISPs and deliver the services the market demanded. The reality, especially over the last three years, has been somewhat different.
"Since demand was initially created for Unmetered access and subsequently Broadband, we have seen little or no wholesale Unmetered or Broadband Internet services from the OLO's." Wyse continued, "The situation is so bad, that we have ended up being dependant purely on BT to build Unmetered and Broadband networks. Things could have been very different if Oftel had a realistic strategy for the wholesale of BTs network, instead of the folly of Local Loop Unbundling."
Another symptom of the situation is that even today, ISPs are still being prevented from reselling NTL's & Telewest's networks to each of these cable companies' customers, be it for Unmetered or Broadband Internet access.
"It would seem that, consistent with what most people outside, and also inside BT, have thought for a long time, BT are finally going to take the appropriate action on wholesale aDSL pricing. We only hope that Oftel comes to its senses and establishes formal dialogue directly with the ISPs in parallel to the Other Licensed Operators and BT."
PlusNet makes some good points and there’s no escaping the obvious timing of the press release given that BTs expected to announce something within the next few days, possibly tomorrow, possibly.
Another ISP, Pipex, has already found that extremely low pricing attracts a large amount of interest and extra subscriptions, here’s hoping for the best. |
Internet Uptake Slowing? Jupiter MMXI
By:mark.j @ 3:44:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Somewhat contradicting recent reports from Nielsen/Netratings and NetValue, which respectively noted a 22 and 14% increase in the total number of UK Internet users between December and January, Jupiter MMXI tells a very different story.
The Internet research firm found that the increase was closer to 1.1%, making for a total of 18.5 Million users. In short, 200,000 more people used the Internet in January compared with December.
The firm diagnosed the increase as being of a, "slow but steady growth in Internet use among the population". So who's correct?
Paul Milsom, the senior associate director for British Market Research Bureau (BMRB), believes that the, "The correct figure is probably somewhere in between". Typically this has rekindled a mild debate that the methodology for counting web surfers is still in need of reform. |
ASA Slaps Freeserve ISP - Again!
By:mark.j @ 3:30:PM - Comments (6) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Some ISPs never learn, Freeserve, following on from BTOpenworld, has become the second ISP to be slapped twice by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for misleading adverts on their unmetered AnyTime service:
The promotion, featuring a rambler walking across a field naked except for a text box covering his genitals claiming “complete freedom for a tiny outlay” was to push the company’s AnyTime service, and offered subscription for £12.99 per month with a month’s free trial.
However, disgruntled customers found when they tried to sign up that the offer was only available to BT subscribers, something omitted from the adverts.
“The advertisers acknowledged that some advertisements did not state that the offer was available only to BT customers,” the ASA said.
It's interesting to note that the ASA only ever seems to come down hard on the bigger players, yet we've seen a fair few smaller ISPs slip under the radar. Having said that it's good to see they're not missing everything, more @ netimperative.com . |
Freeserve Takes AOL To Court - Tax
By:mark.j @ 3:22:PM - Comments (5) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] If you thought we'd heard the last of Freeserve's dispute with AOL UK over how the North American based ISP uses a loophole in UK taxation to save money - THINK AGAIN!
Freeserves CEO John Pluthero claims he is taking his taxation crusade to court in order to get his biggest rival, AOL UK, to pay millions in value added tax (VAT).
As a North American 'based' company, AOL has been exempted from charging its customers VAT, a tax loophole that saving it £30 Million per year. Pluthero said the company is now preparing a case for judicial review in the UK that would seek to close this loophole.
Freeserve, a division of France's Wanadoo, has been petitioning the government for months without success. "Frankly, this makes my blood boil that this should go on this long," Pluthero said.
Freeserve appears to have strong ammunition after the European Commission last week passed a directive requiring all non-EU companies to charge customers VAT for "digital sales".
The law could add a 15 to 25% tax on a variety of online transactions with non-EU companies, including ISP subscriptions. Right now we’d just be glad of a decision that’d shut them up, not that their wrong, just because it’s gone on long enough and they sound like bickering children. |
Wanadoo Extend Full-Year Loss
By:mark.j @ 3:13:PM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] The France Telecom-owned ISP Wanadoo, which also brought the UKs Freeserve ISP, has today extended its full-year loss after making acquisitions to fuel its expansion plans in Europe:
The company reported a loss of EU193m for 2001 compared with EU102m for the preceding year. Operating losses increased to EU153m against EU129m and Wanadoo posted a EU63m write-down on the value of its assets.
It generated a 41% improvement in sales to EU1.56m and said sales derived from outside of France trebled to EU234m. Two-thirds of the company’s revenues are generated by its internet access division, a quarter of which are from non-French subscribers.
Average revenue per user rose to EU13.8 per month while network costs continued to decline, helping boost profitability.
The netimperative.com item reports that Wanadoo is hoping to go head-to-head with both T-Online and Tiscali and will focus more on broadband development. |
EU To Combat Online Racism
By:mark.j @ 3:09:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] The European Union's Council of Europe has issued draft plans to help combat online racism:
The draft protocol is aimed at criminalising the dissemination of racist or xenophobic material via computer networks.
The document will complement the Council's Cybercrime Convention, which was opened for signature last November.
Typically as the Internet population grows then so do the elements people find less tolerable, more @ Ananova. |
New German E-Mail Virus Scare
By:mark.j @ 9:36:AM - Comments (2) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] The latest E-Mail worm (virus) to cause a scare comes from Germany and goes by the name of Yarner:
The 'Yarner' virus disguises itself as the AV program YAW, arriving as an attachment to an official looking message purporting to be from AV website Trojaner-info.de. The email contains the subject line: 'Trojaner-Info Newsletter [infected computer's current date]'.
If the attached Yawsetup.exe file is opened, the worm creates a file in the Windows directory with a random name up to 100 characters long and registers the file in the registry as an auto run key. This means that the worm is run every time Windows boots up.
Yarner spreads as a mass mailing virus, accessing the Microsoft Outlook address book to retrieve addresses as well as scanning all .php, .htm, .shtm, .cgi and .pl files for addresses.
So what's so unusual about it then? Once it's forwarded itself on to all the E-Mail addresses it can find then it'll also do its best to wipe out your computer system - nice. More @ VNUNet. |
AltaVista End Free E-Mail Service
By:mark.j @ 9:29:AM - Comments (4) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] | 400,000 users of AltaVista's Free E-Mail service will loose their accounts on 31st March 2002 when the Internet media group change focus to making money with their online search engine. Only half of the accounts are actively used, although 200,000 isn't a number you can easily brush aside! |
BT = EUs Biggest Broadband Rip-Off
By:mark.j @ 9:23:AM - Comments (3) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] BT has been slated yet again for their expensive broadband following new independent analysis from Point Topic, although it's nothing we didn't already know:
The research firm found BT's monthly charge of E49 (£30) was more than twice the wholesale price offered by Belgacom in Belgium (£12 per month) and Spain's Telefonica (£14 per month). France Telecom and Telecom Italia offered mid-range prices of E30 (£18) and E36 (£22), respectively.
Of the European telcos surveyed, only one - France Telecom - offered a cheaper home connection than wholesale. In the UK, Belgium and Italy, the incumbent telco's retail prices are higher than the wholesale price, but only by between 12 per cent and 17 per cent.
One interesting point from Silicon's item is that the research showed most EU countries had priced xDSL services too low and this was making competition nearly impossible. Echo's of Bulldog in the UK? Yes.
Typically BT is still expected to make the big announcement about price cuts to their wholesale R/ADSL services sometime this week. Perhaps the debt laden operator could learn something from the above and try to find a middle ground for competition. |
UPDATE: Oftel To Force Unmetered Price CUT!
By:mark.j @ 9:13:AM - Comments (3) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] UPDATE: Several other sites have now started reporting this and it looks as if BT will oppose the reduction because, it says, "The data that Oftel has used in its calculations is from late autumn last year, and we believe this information is quite out of date".
To be honest nothing has really changed since then so we'd beg to differ with BTs opinion, but then we would since price cuts are welcome here =).
We've recently been talking to ISPs about unmetered usage and one thing that came up was that Oftel could do more to reduce the wholesale cost of FRIACO.
Ironically this now seems to be on the agenda as Oftel has just proposed a 7% price cut on BTs unmetered wholesale services (FRIACO)!
Oftel said in a statement yesterday that until now BT's charges for wholesale unmetered Internet access had been based upon estimates, yet they now had sufficient data to make an accurate calculation of BT's costs and the appropriate wholesale price.
"Operators should ultimately be able to pass some or all of this saving on to their customers," Oftel said.
While we've yet to see a press release this should still be taken as big news and will no doubt we welcomed by unmetered ISPs around the UK. Some may implement slightly cheaper packages; however most will probably use the decrease to boy-up existing offers. |
News - February 19,2002
Internet Users Beware - "Web Rage"
By:mark.j @ 3:25:PM - Comments (5) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] If a new survey is to be believed then the last thing a business should do is neglect the networks used by office workers, especially Internet connections.
Apparently some people have been driven to violence by slow or faulty Internet connections - we feel your pain!:
Of the 1,000 people questioned, more than half said they experience internet frustration at least once a week. Many people said they thump their computer or desk in anger when the internet crashes but 2% said they actually hit the person sitting next to them.
The poll, carried out by Mori to mark the relaunch of the Abbey National website, showed one in ten people lose their rag with the net on a daily basis. One IT manager admitted smashing up a £2,500 laptop when a web page failed to recognise his personal details after six attempts.
Top of the list of internet irritations are sites that take a long time to load, help buttons which do not help and excessive requests for personal details.
I guess we took the right road by concentrating on improving ISP Review's loading times and the overall speed of the site - few! Nobody appears to have died from 'web rage', although it's only a matter of time; unmetered ISPS beware =). More @ Ananova. |
Telia Expand UK Networks
By:mark.j @ 3:15:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] The UK wing of Telia, a Nordic telecommunications company, is to significantly extend its UK network following the acquisition of assets from 360 UK networks, all of which were in administration:
The company said the acquisition forms the basis of further expansion plans in the UK. Telia will link 360’s 1,500-kilometre network to its 40,000 kilometre Viking Network and claims to now be “one of the major players on the UK market in terms of market share and network presence”.
Telia’s newly-acquired dark fibre network will provide the basis for the roll-out of Telia’s SDH and IP network, so the company can offer more sophisticated services to clients, such as IP VPN.
Telia is known to have links with several UK ISPs, you can read more @ netimperative.com . |
Telewest ISP Price Increases - Update
By:mark.j @ 3:10:PM - Comments (5) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Yesterday we reported that the price of Telewest's unmetered ISP under their blueyonder wing, Surfunlimited, was to rise by £2 to £12 per month and that support calls would now cost 50pence per minute (ppm).
Today we can bring you some extra information on this, firstly stating that the changes won't be active until 1st April 2002. The pay-as-you-go service will also increase from 1p a minute to 1.5p; however broadband prices remain unaffected (thank god!).
Apparently all this is part of a wider shake-up, which shouldn't be a surprise given the operators debt problems. Telewest's sales and marketing director, David Hobday, simply said: "We've made some price changes but on the whole our services still blow the competition away. Our best selling digital TV and phone package is £6 cheaper than the equivalent package with Sky and BT"
To be fair most BT customers would die for a service costing £12 per month without any cut-off and of the stability (so our readers tell us) offered by Surfunlimited. It could always be worse =). |
Irish Telecom Group Prep Unmetered
By:mark.j @ 10:07:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] The Dublin-based Skynet Telecom (no they don't make T800's) is apparently hoping to develop some form of unmetered Internet access for the country after applying to the ODTR for a telecommunications licence:
According to John O'Hare co-managing director of Skynet, if granted a licence, the company will attempt to offer a bundled voice and Internet package to small business whereby users would have access to flat-rate Internet services, which are currently unavailable in Ireland. "Eircom and Esat aren't providing the service and there are a lot of customers out there demanding it. So it has been left up to smaller telecoms like us to try to offer flat-rate and we are not the only people trying to do it," O'Hare told ElectricNews.Net.
O'Hare did not offer a specific time frame for when the company would introduce such a facility, but did say that Skynet expected a significant demand for flat-rate if it could roll out a product soon.
Of course it goes without saying that any form of unmetered in Ireland would be a welcome move, however in not understanding the Irish network it's very difficult to say just how viable such a move would be. More @ ElectricNews. |
NTL Begs For Extra Cash
By:mark.j @ 10:00:AM - Comments (7) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] The cable operator NTL, which is currently in the middle of trying to save itself from billions of pounds worth of debt, has now begun asking banks for an extra $545 Million:
The company needs the cash to help reassure suppliers that it can pay them while it restructures its existing debt.
The Wall Street Journal quoted a source close to the situation as saying: "The credit gives NTL greater flexibility in the negotiations."
Of course you could also say that it adds yet more debt to the pile, perhaps tipping the balance too far in the wrong direction. The vultures in the form of AOL and or Liberty Media are already circling for any potential buy-out. More @ Silicon . |
DPA Hinders e-Government
By:mark.j @ 9:55:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Plans to 'join-up' e-Government could be held back because of an issue with the Data Protection Act (DPA) and sharing personal data, in this case between separate government agencies:
Having to deal with the legal requirements surrounding data sharing would be a significant task, said Robert Bell, head of innovation and technology at law firm Hobson Audley:
"Local government and other government agencies will face a difficult task when trying to simultaneously reassure the public, comply with the law and meet the 2005 target set by the Government."
A spokesman for the Information Commission said that they were unaware of any plans to amend the Data Protection Act. But there are instances where data protection is permitted, such as when consent has been given, he said.
More @ VNUNet. |
Fasthosts ISP Face Trading Standards
By:mark.j @ 9:49:AM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] The UK unmetered ISP and hosting provider Fasthosts isn't alien to be finding itself in trouble with a large number of customers, yet this time the group may have bitten off more than they could chew.
Following a flood of complaints the group could now be facing an investigation by trading standards officers:
According to a source close to the situation, a meeting between the two was due to take place last week, but did not materialise. The source said that trading standards officers are now reviewing the complaints it has received with a view to deciding what further action will take place.
Michael (FS MD) also confirmed that the company was written to "six months ago" by another trading standards officer, and agreed to a meeting on condition that the company's lawyer could be present.
He said: "It was something to do with terms and conditions, and a few specific incidents with a few specific customers." It did not result in any action being taken, he claimed. He categorically denied, however, that he had been approached for a meeting by Trading Standards in the past month.
The Silicon item seems to highlight a number of contradicting reports, which is usually a good sign that there's more to this than meets the eye. It's a long item and well worth the read if you're a Fasthosts customer. |
New Alcatel R/ADSL USB Drivers
By:mark.j @ 9:33:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] There's a brief piece up @ ADSLGuide stating that some new drivers (v1.6) for Alcatel's Speed Touch USB R/ADSL modem have been released. Unfortunately you'll need to be a member of ADSLGuide's forum in order to have a username to enter the beta.
Of course unless you're having problems with the current set of drivers then it's really not worth it in the first place - betas aren't supported. Typically if you wait long enough then somebody somewhere will release them into the wild.
Note: Drivers are for MS Windows only - not Mac (yet). |
News - February 18,2002
Vispa Re-Launch Connect Anytime
By:mark.j @ 3:33:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Perhaps not so much a re-launch as a re-open because Vispa's Connect AnyTime package has been working, yet issues with BTnet previously forced them to suspend taking on new registrations.
However today Vispa has re-opened the offer and is now attempting to make use of Energis instead of BT:
VISPA RELAUNCH CONNECT ANYTIME
February 18th 2002
Vispa Internet Limited is delighted at the news that we have relaunched our Connect Anytime package after a 3-month break in been able to offer new places. Connect Anytime is a fixed rate access service priced at £14.95pm using FRIACO.
After operating Fixed Rate services for nearly 9 months and fully aware of the technology, it became apparent 3 months ago that ongoing issues we had with our BTnet backed network setup, localized exchanges problems and failure to deliver orders for extra ports on time was going to hold Vispa back during 2002. Therefore we asked a number of companies to tender for our current and future business.
The most proactive company was Energis who came out top, met all our requirements and demands, and promised to deliver equipment in 4 weeks. In reality 2 weeks later they had delivered as promised, remarkable considering what we asked them to do!
So where to we stand now? We are now back in the position to handle new customers, 40,000 to be exact, and we can get extra places on top of this with just 3 days notice.
Customers will as always be able to take advantage of Fixed Rate access for a monthly fee, unlimited email address, 15Mb of webspace, Newsgroups, Webmail, Vispa Tucows Mirror and more. Importantly we operate our services at a 10:1 contention with a fair 2 hour cut off in place.
We would love you to join the Vispa community as it's becoming, users helping other users, and Vispa working around the clock to ensure a good stable service
For further detailed information and Connect Anytime's terms and conditions visit http://www.vispa.com/products-anytime.php or email your questions to sales@vispa.net |
Ex-BT Boss Joins Ericsson
By:mark.j @ 3:25:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] It looks as if the much disliked (at least while he was at BT) chief executive of BT, Sir Peter Bonfield, is to jump from one loss making company to the next - Ericsson:
Ericsson shareholders will vote on Bonfield and Lena Torell, a professor at the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences, after three of the firm’s directors said that they would not seek re-election.
These include Unilever chief executive Niall Fitzgerald, former chief executive of Industrivarden Claes Reuterskiold and former ABB chief executive Goran Lindhal, who has recently courted controversy after his previous company requested return of part of his 85m Swiss francs pension.
The reshuffle, which also includes the departure of chairman Lars Ramqvist, will see the number of elected members on Ericsson’s board reduced from nine to eight.
More @ netimperative.com . |
BT In Danger Of Bankruptcy?
By:mark.j @ 3:21:PM - Comments (10) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Analysts from the French bank BNP Paribas have predicted that BT could be in danger of becoming bankrupt sometime within the next two years:
The bank has applied two formulae to Euorpe's leading firms to assess the possibility that some of them could go out of business. The first measure is a gearing ratio which looks at a company's assets relative to their debt levels.
The second measure is based on an equation known as Altman Z, designed for US markets. Altman Z looks at debt, profits, sales and share price.
In both cases BT scores poorly. Its Altman Z score of 0.98 is well below the 1.8 score seen as borderline for troubled companies.
It's an interesting thought, what would it be like without BT? Would they ever truly succumb to bankruptcy? It’s unlikely, but never the less possible. More @ Silicon. |
Internet Subscriptions Rise - 11.5%
By:mark.j @ 2:59:PM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] The latest report into UK Internet subscriptions, this time by our own government, has shown an 11.5% rise in the total number of net subscribers during the last year (2001):
The Office of National Statistics research shows steady growth for both dial-up and broadband access.
But it illustrates that dial-up retains the lion's share of the market.
Only 3% of all British internet subscribers had invested in a broadband connection by the end of last year.
The Ananova item is very brief, although interestingly some other reports have shown the total number to be even higher. |
SurfUnlimited ISP Price Hike
By:mark.j @ 9:15:AM - Comments (33) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] UPDATE: Thanks to several people for pointing us to THIS page, where it also shows that the overall package will now cost £12 per month (use to be £10).
One of our readers has sent the following concerning message along this morning regarding Telewest's popular unmetered dialup package Surfunlimited:
Telewest Blueyonder are planning to drop free TS on SurfUnlimited and introduce a 50p/min phone line instead. This has been published on the TW website, and the discussion groups have gone mad with the predictable "lead balloon" response.
This has got to be one of the daftest decisions ever made by Telewest.
We've not been able to find the URL to the websites news post, although it wouldn't be the first unmetered ISP to offer 'questionable' premium rate support - something we bitterly oppose.
If somebody can E-Mail us the correct URL to the announcement then please do so, thanks. |
AOL Preps NTL Takeover Plan?
By:mark.j @ 8:54:AM - Comments (11) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] We've known for over a week that the media giant John Malone is investigating the possibility of pulling the cable operator NTL from the abyss, however now AOL has joined the party:
According to reports over the weekend AOL's CEO-elect, Richard Parsons, has already held extensive talks with Knapp. Parsons takes over from current AOL chief, Gerald Levin, in May.
Malone, whose Liberty Media owns a 25 per cent in Telewest, has been in talks with NTL since January. An NTL-Telewest merger - long forecast - could be the result of Malone winning a head-to-head battle with AOL.
Of course all of this is somewhat up in the air because nothing is confirmed and it's not even clear whether or not either side is pursuing the matter further than simple talks. More @ Silicon. |
News - February 17,2002
ISP Review Weekly Update
By:mark.j @ 10:52:AM - - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] We'll skip the usual weekly intro since I’m quite busy and the weather seems to be rather poor outside, here’s hoping yesterday’s sunshine returns.
On the other hand ISP Review has fared somewhat better, we completely revamped the Top 10 page, re-did the Satellite ISP listings, cleaned up the awards page (again), finished testing the five ISPs for our ISP Of The Year Award and stuck a small article up from Ross.
We even managed to launch a private section in our forums where ISP officials can discuss matters of interest with us and among themselves. This will also be a help when we come to writing our next article, which looks at unmetered usage and expectations.
Next week we're planning to re-do the R/ADSL listings with all the latest prices, yet it'll only be covering residential services since that's our focus and we can't keep up with all the other changes.
We'll also write up the reviews for our ISP Of The Year 2001 award, however this probably won't be formally announced until a week later due to the time it'll take to complete.
Further down the line (March) we'll also update the forum software, however there's currently no point in doing this now because our version still has more features than the primary source and no issues with speed thanks to compression. |
Unmetered SniffOut ISP Offline
By:mark.j @ 10:21:AM - Comments (11) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] The latest ISP to lapse into a serious state of uncertainty appears to be the unmetered dialup ISP SniffOut, which is normally very good. Problems started on Friday when a number of reports arrived suggesting that customers were unable to connect via the dialup number.
On Saturday the following statement emerged, hopefully showing that SniffOut weren't about to pull the service as suddenly as they did with the BTSurftime offer before:
Current System Status
Saturday, 16th February 2002 19:30
We are currently experiencing a system problem, affecting all dial-in access packages.
Email, member's web space and the Sniff Out web site are working, but may still be subject to periodic interruption. The news server is currently off-line.
As the majority of customers have no other means of Internet access and, in response to feed-back received, we have prioritised sustainable access to email.
Engineers have now restored the Classic local call rate access number, and have temporarily enabled it as an alternative dial-in number for all packages to allow customers to send/receive mail. Customers requiring email access should alter their current dial-in number to the Classic package number - 0845 3600100. This facility will be withdrawn as the correct access number each other package is restored, to prevent accidental use by customers.
Further information and updates will be posted here, as available.
We apologise to customers for this loss of service and the inconvenience caused.
Unfortunately the ISPs unmetered services are still offline and this ‘appears’ to be affecting all of their customers; the ISP's services have now been down for nearly two full days.
Some subscribers have also begun receiving payment cancellation E-Mails from the group responsible for dealing with SniffOut's billing. Obviously this has raised the level of concern and the usual rumours are already beginning to circulate. Others have suggested that SniffOut may have been hit by DDoS, although there's no proof or evidence to support anything yet. |
News - February 16,2002
More Problems - BTs Hyperlink Case
By:mark.j @ 9:42:AM - Comments (0) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Bob Bemer, an 82-year-old programmer and former chief of programming @ IBM, has stepped in to add further disruption to BTs claim of owning the Hyperlink patent:
He invented the escape sequence, which is accessed through the ESC key. It allows the user to shift through files, networks or programs.
The escape technology is also used in every hyperlink - it is represented by the slash symbol (as in ) and in essence allows browsers to move from page to page or system to system.
Bemer told wired.com: "I was amazed when I read that BT claims to own hyperlinks, It's sad. Technology develops through decades of work by many people. That's why I put my work into the public domain whenever possible."
More @ Silicon. |
Telewest Market blueyonder Service
By:mark.j @ 9:26:AM - Comments (2) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] According to DigitalSpy the cable operator Telewest has set about on a new marketing campaign for the broadband (cable modem) side of its ISP blueyonder:
David Hobday, sales and marketing director at the cable operator explained: "We secured immense success with our first national marketing campaign for blueyonder broadband last summer. This new campaign reflects the attitude of the blueyonder brand as a challenging, innovative service that revitalises your internet experience, meaning an end to unreliable and slow internet connections."
The £3m campaign will run through February and March. |
News - February 15,2002
WonkyPig Scrap External NTL Unmetered
By:mark.j @ 3:36:PM - Comments (5) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Several readers have pointed us to the following announcement by the troubled unmetered dialup ISP WonkyPig, which can now be found HERE on their own site:
NTL 0800 Service:
As of 9:00am we have decided to remove the 0800 service from operation. With the ever increasing number of customers returning to NTL and taking their broadband service for £14.99 for a 256k connection which is 10 times faster than an average modem, the service is simply not viable to operate. Since June 2000 we have provided a service for NTL users wishing to get connected to the internet for a flat rate monthly fee, We can only apologise for letting our NTL users down and would like thank them for their great support and understanding.
Unfortunately this leaves AOL UK as the only 'stable' NTL unmetered offering option outside of the cable operators own ISP, which for some is akin to no option at all.
It's important to note that this DOES NOT affect WonkyPig's BT based 0845 (LCR) and 0808 unmetered ISP packages, only their special NTL offer, which has had a turbulent time since it first started. |
Poor Broadband Threatens e-Learning
By:mark.j @ 3:27:PM - Comments (2) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Online e-Learning and the future competitiveness of UK plc's could be in danger if broadband access isn't improved, so says one of the governments own think tanks:
Conventional systems for delivering education and training will not have the capacity to meet the demands of millions of learners, and e-learning is not yet a viable option because broadband access is too low.
"Broadband access will be an essential part of increasing international economic competitiveness, and is central to meeting the demands and needs of learners in the knowledge economy," the report says.
"Government should recognise the economic and educational priority of investing in access to broadband technology for all learning environments in the UK."
The VNUNet item highlights a very serious point and one that crosses with the governments own education policy, however even this is unlikely to make them think again about funding the rollout. |
PIPEX Respond - ISPA 2002 Award
By:mark.j @ 9:36:AM - Comments (1) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] It didn't take long for PIPEX to issue its formal response to winning the Internet Service Provider Associations (ISPA) "Best Small Business ISP" award, which is as follows:
PIPEX is Best for Small Businesses
Last night, at The 2002 Internet Industry Awards - ISPAs @ ISPCON, held at Olympia, London and attended by hundreds of representatives from the major UK ISPs, when PIPEX was presented with the "Best Small Business ISP" award, beating off stiff competition from Claranet, Easynet, Intellispace and Star.
The panel of six Judges, selected from a broad array of organisations with interests in business and the Internet, commented "We felt PIPEX was financially stable, consistent and dependable. We recognised that PIPEX has focused solely on the SME market, with a targeted ambition to provide services to this sector, resulting in excellent service."
In his acceptance speech, David Rickards, Managing Director of PIPEX, said "I am delighted to accept this award on behalf of everyone at PIPEX. Our stated business strategy has always been to promote the benefits of the Internet to the UK's 2.5 million SMEs and to be recognised by our peers as achieving this aim is the best accolade we could have."
Working closely with SMEs over the past 10 years, PIPEX has grown to understand their specific needs, introducing new technologies to meet their increasing requirements and providing jargon-free technical support. With the arrival of Broadband, small and medium-sized businesses can now take advantage of all the benefits this technology has to offer - high speed, always on Internet access previously only available to large corporates - and all at an affordable price.
PIPEX, Pioneer of Dial-Up Internet services a decade ago, is now concentrating its efforts on kick-starting 'Broadband Britain'. Rickards continued "We firmly believe that with Broadband the Internet can now come of age. PIPEX is the fastest growing provider for Broadband services in the UK and we will continue to actively promote its benefits to businesses and professional users alike." |
NTL Spends £500K To Clean Porn
By:mark.j @ 9:29:AM - Comments (11) - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Question, how much does it cost a major operator to filter porn and associated material from its website? Roughly £500,000 if you're NTL.
The cable operator has recruited Tumbleweed Communications to filter pornography, violence and other inappropriate material from the company’s web services for schools:
Tumbleweed said that it had signed a three-year deal with NTL to support its provision of connectivity, domain registration, web publishing, virtual hosting and email solutions to schools across the UK, as well as what it calls a ‘community intranet’ to offer controlled access for pupils working at home.
Dubbed Secure Mail, Tumbleweed’s system sits in NTL’s servers, weeding out inbound and outbound emails by scanning for offensive keywords, preventing schoolchildren from accessing unsuitable websites through URL filtering, protecting the school against virus attacks and auditing pupils’ web and email usage to see if they are breaking school rules.
That's right, there's nothing quite like getting a new generation use to privacy invasion at school and thus helping to prepare them for future life in the real world =). More @ netimperative.com. |
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