September 25, 2002 - September 29, 2002
News - September 29,2002
CE Encourages Online Linguistic Diversity
By:mark.j @ 9:30:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] The Secretary General to the Council of Europe (CE), Mr Walter Schwimmer, has attempted to promote the benefits of online linguistic diversity while speaking at this year's 'European Day of Languages':
Mr Walter Schwimmer stated that "to speak another person's language is to move towards him, to remove barriers and fears. Language-learning and communicating in different languages help us to promote the concept of cultural diversity and mutual understanding on our continent".
The Association des Etats Généraux des Etudiants de l'Europe (AEGEE) celebrated the European Language Day by involving thousands of young people from all over Europe and targeting a broad variety of languages spoken inside and outside the EU, to make the linguistic and cultural diversity of Europe visible to the European citizens. They state Building Language Bridges encourages them to focus on the advantages of language learning.
More @ EurActive.com. |
News - September 28,2002
Women Alter Web Habits After Birth
By:mark.j @ 9:05:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] New research from ComScore Networks has found that women are more likely to change their online (Internet) surfing habits than men once they become a parent:
ComScore spokesman Max Kalehoff said gaming, porn and sports sites have always been popular among young men. That trend doesn't seem to change much immediately before or after they have children.
"It's kind of business as usual for the men, except for buying toys," Kalehoff said.
New and expectant mums, however, are more likely to visit child-related sites, including Babiesrus.com, ParentsPlace.com and BabyCenter.com. Sites that offer fragrances and coupons also remain popular among women who are pregnant or new mums.
Well it's certainly good to see young fathers setting a good future example for their children =). More @ ZDNet. |
BT Sets More ADSL Trigger Levels (58)
By:mark.j @ 9:00:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] BT has set the broadband ADSL pre-registration trigger level for 58 additional exchanges, bringing the total to 653:
BT SETS ADSL BROADBAND DEMAND TRIGGERS FOR 58 MORE EXCHANGES
BT Wholesale today increased to 653 the number of exchanges where demand levels for broadband upgrade have been set with the announcement of trigger levels for a further 58 exchanges.
The cost-based demand levels have been set at between 300 and 550 customer registrations and the ADSL broadband availability checker on the http://www.bt.com/broadband website will be updated to show the new trigger levels this Saturday, September 28, as part of the regular website update.
Since the broadband registration scheme was launched at the beginning of July more than 100,000 individual lines have been registered via service providers. Demand at exchanges at Todmorden in West Yorkshire, Penn in Buckinghamshire, Knaresborough in North Yorkshire and Irby on the Wirral, has topped the trigger levels set and service providers are validating demand so broadband can be provided.
BT Wholesale director broadband, Bruce Stanford, said:
"Over the last two weeks we have seen demand levels hit triggers at exchanges in Yorkshire, Buckinghamshire and on Merseyside.
In other areas the level of interest is growing rapidly and we expect demand to hit target levels for providing ADSL broadband in many locations including the north of Scotland and the Welsh valleys in the coming weeks as awareness of the benefits of broadband grows."
We opted to cut the press release off there so as to save you the pain of BT once again promoting the same old expensive Satellite services, which is not a good alternative to ADSL. |
News - September 27,2002
Zipcom Drives Broadband With Acquisition
By:mark.j @ 1:23:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Zipcom is hoping to turn itself into one of the UK's largest business-focused telecoms companies and thus improve broadband thanks to its acquisition of Transigent, the holding company for GX Networks:
Zipcom Drives the Broadband Revolution Proposing Multi Million Pound Acquisition to create one of the UK's largest business-focused telecoms companies.
Zipcom, the independent UK telecoms operator, has today announced its intention to acquire Transigent, the holding company for GX Networks (formerly the UK operation of XO). The deal, worth approximately £10 million, will establish Zipcom as a major player in the UK's business-to-business telecommunications market.
With over 60 POPs in the UK, Zipcom independently owns and operates one of the most extensive, secure and resilient national networks. The acquisition will increase the number of POPs to over 100 including new areas for Zipcom such as East Anglia, North East England and the South Coast.
Commenting on the announcement, Grahame Purvis, Chairman of Zipcom, said: "This acquisition represents a further quantum leap for our business and demonstrates our commitment to delivering a comprehensive range of broadband services to the local loop across the length and breadth of the UK. The tremendous synergies between the two companies are expected to deliver excellent benefits to our existing and future customers through the expansion of our network as well as adding to our product portfolio."
GX Networks provides Internet security, consultancy, hosting and access and controls a 2.4 Gbps networks with 43 POPs around the country.
Mike Read, President and Managing Director of GX Networks, said: "We are excited about this deal with Zipcom, particularly because of the added benefits it will bring to our customers. By giving them access to a wider range of services, including voice, it will allow them to meet all their communications needs through one well-established, independent provider."
Zipcom's service is backed by a comprehensive Service Level Agreement (SLA) guaranteeing 99.92% uptime. Zipcom also offers all its customers a dedicated account manager, providing a single point of contact for all enquiries.
A dynamic, leading-edge provider of competitive high performance voice, data, Internet and E-commerce connectivity solutions, Zipcom is committed to next generation technological advances. |
COLT Telecom To Shed 800 Jobs
By:mark.j @ 1:18:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] COLT Telecom, the operator behind several UK ISPs, has today confirmed its intention to cut 800 jobs over the next year in an attempt to save £40 Million:
Although the job cuts are a massive blow for those who work at the company, it's not as bad as first thought. Insiders had claimed that as many as 1,000 jobs were facing the chop as Colt tries to gets to grips with its finances.
In a statement today Colt wittered on about moving to a "pan-European organisational structure" which will lead to "improved pan-European sales and operating efficiencies".
Colt said that it expects EBITDA (earnings before interest, etc) for the quarter ending 30 September to improve to around £17m, compared with £14.7m for the previous quarter. Turnover for Q2 is expected to remain flat at around £258.3m.
More @ The Register. |
E-Mail Overuse To Flood Inbox's
By:mark.j @ 1:14:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] The predicted increase in E-Mail advertising (SPAM / Junk E-Mail) combined with an overall rise in e-mail use could soon produce more messages than we can cope with.
New research from the International Data Corporation predicts 60 Billion e-mails will be sent every day by 2006, that's nearly 50% more than the 31 Billion we see today!:
Its author suggests firms need to do more to address the continued upsurge, particularly in the volume of spam.
Mark Levitt said: "Email has the potential to fill our workdays, overwhelming our abilities to navigate through the growing currents of content." He says technology that streamlines customers' access to important and time-sensitive email is urgently needed.
Mr.Levitt notes that improved SPAM (Junk E-Mail) filtering would also help, although that’s always easier said than done. More @ Ananova. |
Gio Internet & Fast24 ISP Complaints
By:mark.j @ 10:24:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] While PIPEX and Firenet have finally managed to escape our ISP Complaints page, the same can not be said for Gio Internet, SurfAnyTime and Fast24, all of which appear to be seeing problems.
However it's Gio Internet (10 complaints) and Fast24 (24 complaints - an ironic number) that seem to be causing people the most problems. Certainly it's rare for any ISP to get 24 complaints in just one week, thus we'll quote a few Fast24 customers first:
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Authentication Problems. Engaged Tones. Total lack of communication with customers/users. Every so called upgrade takes longer than stated and results in weeks of problems for users.
E-Mail By - David
Terrible support - I've sent numerous e-mails to their support and received no answers.. rang their expensive help line to be put on hold and told that things would improve.
Engaged tones - can often take up to half an hour to connect and then get a slow speed or get cut off.
E-Mail By - George
This ISP has gone from providing a great service to a poor service in a few days. Fast24 moved their radius server with a warning that there may be 1 hour of disruption to normal service. This disruption has now lasted just under a week with no information from Fast24 to tell users what is going on. I now have very poor access to the service with login problems due to the server constantly asking me to confirm my username and password.
E-Mail By - Iain
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Perhaps worse still is that Fast24 continues to display an image on the front of their site stating that readers on ISP Review have rated them as a top ISP, which is extremely out of date.
Then, of course, there's Gio Internet, which saw a torrid of 10 angry complaints directed toward our inbox this last week. Once again we'll summarise the three most recent complaints:
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Imposssible to connect at peak times: no explanation or reply to e-mails.
E-Mail By - Mike
It has become really difficult to connect over the last week. There is a problem with the server, whereby it just disconnects randomly when trying to authenticate the password. Yesterday, from 4pm, I could not log on at all through the evening. In my opinion, gio's internet service has really deteriorated recently.
E-Mail By - David
Generally unable to connect at peak times. I'm on the 128k package, but my connection is generally only at 64k. Haven't been able to connect all day today.
E-Mail By - Kevin
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While Gio Internet and SurfAnyTime have only made it into the complaints section recently, Fast24 has been in and out like a rabbit. Perhaps it's about time they suspended new registrations until any existing problems have been resolved.
Those wishing to take things further with any ISP might like to try contacting Trading Standards, whom can investigate such complaints directly. |
netAxis ISP Changes Name - Albion.net
By:mark.j @ 9:36:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] The UK ISP netAxis has informed us of their intent to rename the company Albion.net:
In October netAxis name will change to that of our parent company Albion, and therefore will be called Albion.net.
I don't know whether you are also aware, Albion won first prize of 200K in a marketing competition set by BT. This was on the submission of a proposal marketing broadband over the next 4 months. |
AOL Scraps Cheap Eurobell Unmetered
By:mark.j @ 9:32:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Several readers on our AOL Forum have pointed out that the ISP has scrapped its current unmetered dialup service for Eurobell customers and replaced it with something more restrictive:
Important Announcement
As you are probably aware AOL pioneered flat-rate Internet access in the UK introducing the service to AOL members two years ago. Since then we have been working with telecom providers on the continual improvement and expansion of our network. AOL is committed to giving our members the best online experience and customer care.
In the near future we will only be able to offer our AOL FLAT RATE price plan to members who access the AOL service using a line provided by BT, NTL or Telewest (excluding Telewest Eurobell customers). This is necessary because we require an underlying unmetered connection from your telephone company in order to offer you a service on a flat-rate basis.
Unlike telephone companies serving the vast majority of our members, and despite continued lobbying, the unmetered connection currently offered to us by the telephone provider you have selected to access AOL is not sustainable.
What this means for you
Your price plan will shortly be changed to a new plan, called AOL 30 HOUR, that we hope will meet your needs. Using our specified access number, this will allow you to connect to AOL and the Internet for up to 30 hours each monthly billing cycle for a monthly flat fee of £15.99.* That’s about an hour a day!
30 Hours for £15.99 per month is less than attractive, however to be fair, it's based off a 'metered' system (not unmetered, like BTs FRIACO) and so can't avoid charging so high.
Using over the 30hour limit incurs an additional charge of 1pence per minute and all this is effective from your first billing date on or after 9th November 2002. Unfortunately problems like this aren't uncommon for those living outside of BTs reach. |
Fibernet Brings SDSL To Scotland
By:mark.j @ 9:10:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Scotland OnLine and Fibernet have teamed up with a view to offering businesses in Glasgow the ability to get online with a super fast broadband 2Mbit-ps SDSL line (that rimes!):
Businesses should be able to get connected to the new service within one month, and the company also plans to offer SDSL in Edinburgh in the future.
"The launch of this new SDSL service has the potential to deliver enormous benefits to businesses in Glasgow and, ultimately, across the whole of the Scottish business community," said Dr Richard Callison, chief executive of Scotland On Line, in a statement.
"We have heard a great deal in recent months about the advantages on offer via different broadband services -- now is the time for the vision to become reality," Callison added.
Not surprisingly the ZDNet item reports that this is all thanks to local loop unbundling (LLU), which allowed Fibernet to open up some of the city's local telephone exchanges and install its own equipment. |
Tiscali ISP Signs Dud Kazaa Deal
By:mark.j @ 9:04:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] European ISP Tiscali has signed a deal with Kazaa, an online music swapping service, which analysts predict is unlikely to help increase its customer base:
Under the deal, Kazaa's owner, Sharman Networks, will advertise high-speed internet access provided by Tiscali to its tens of millions of users.
Tiscali will pay a 'bounty' to Sharman for every Europe-based Kazaa user who signs up for Tiscali's broadband services, which currently stands at just 100,000 users across Europe.
But Dario Betti, an IT analyst with Ovum, maintained that the Kazaa move was probably not well thought out, and that Tiscali should pull out of countries such as the UK. "Users of file sharing sites usually have broadband connections, so why should they move to Tiscali?" he asked.
The VNUNet item notes similar comments from Forrester Research, which believes that Tiscali lacks (long-term) the resources to remain independent. |
EasyInternetCafe Gagging Order Delayed
By:mark.j @ 8:56:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] EasyInternetCafe, which is accused of allowing its visitors to openly pirate music files from the Internet, has won a brief breath of air.
The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) had attempted to gag EasyInternetCafe from the media yesterday, yet the court adjourned the motion until next week:
A BPI spokeswoman told ZDNet UK that the injunction is being sought because the BPI is unhappy that EasyInternetCafe has repeatedly disclosed details of negotiations between the two sides to journalists.
EasyInternetCafe is expected to fight the case, and as ZDNet reported last week staff from the company are planning to protest outside the High Court wearing orange boiler suits.
The BPI and EasyInternetCafe are currently negotiating over the level of damages that EasyInternetCafe should pay after it allowed its customers to download copyright music from the Internet and burn them to CD.
More @ ZDNet. |
Europe - xDSL Overtakes Cable Modems
By:mark.j @ 8:49:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] It was bound to happen sooner or later, not least because it's much easier to install/expand coverage on an ADSL line than it is to dig up a road for fibre optic cable access.
New research from Forrester shows that European use of xDSL broadband services has finally overtaken cable with a 56% lead. It's worth noting that Satellite and Wireless technologies were left out of the survey:
In total, analysts found that almost six per cent of people in Europe have broadband - up from four per cent six months ago.
Forrester estimates that the number of broadband users in the UK is more than two million.
Said Forrester analyst Paul Jackson: "With 56 percent of subscriptions, xDSL technologies have become the lead access mechanism for the first time. After a very slow start last year, we have seen a faster-than-expected ramp-up of high-speed services in the UK."
Strangely The Register's item finishes by stating that the UK is now the second largest broadband community in Europe, which is exactly the opposite of what all the other research has been saying.
Indeed we’re not sure where Forrester got its 2,000,000 figure from either, especially if it’s only combining ADSL and Cable Modem access. |
News - September 26,2002
Oftel Scraps 12 Month ADSL Contracts
By:mark.j @ 2:40:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Oftel has finally issued their monthly broadband ADSL Factsheet HERE, which has some very interesting news in it.
While only one additional exchange was upgraded between May and August 2002, there are now 357,000 BT ADSL lines + 10,000 via Kingston (367,000).
BT has also scrapped the 12 month minimum contract term on the engineer installed ADSL IPstream500/S variants. It remains to be seen whether ISPs will pass this less obvious benefit on to their customers:
Community Broadband trial: BT is to trial a new ‘community’ broadband concept at sites in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The trial makes use of smaller exchange equipment (known as mini DSLAMs) and the existing copper links between smaller exchanges and BT’s backbone network to offer ADSL services to as few as 16 subscribers.
ADSL Registration scheme: Todmorden in West Yorkshire has become the first exchange to reach its target level for enabling. 200 consumers have registered interest with ISPs and BT is now awaiting confirmation that 75% of these registrations have been turned into firm orders for ADSL services. BT has also announced target levels for a further 257 exchanges during August, bringing the total to 595 exchanges that now have target levels. A further 74 exchanges were surveyed but BT has concluded that the costs were such that it was not realistic to set trigger levels, given the number of lines served.
Bulk Telephone Number checker launched: BT has launched a bulk number checking facility to enable ISPs to pre-check potential customers ahead of targeted marketing campaigns. The service allows lists of numbers to be submitted for qualification against line length and exchange status. The service is charged at £750 (ex VAT) per CD, with up to four million numbers per CD.
BT IPStream minimum term: BT has reduced the minimum term for its IPStream S and IPStream 500 products from 12 months to 90 days. This change applies to all new and existing IPStream S and IPStream 500 lines.
One-to-Many Domain name option: BT has launched a One-to-Many Domain name option for its IPStream service. The option allows one Domain name to be mapped to a group of BT Central links, allowing for greater resilience.
BT DataStream restructure: BT has announced plans to introduce a range of Virtual Path (VP) bandwidths on its DataStream Home and Office services from 12 October 2002. In addition to the 4Mbit/s VP currently on offer, service providers will be able to order 256kbit/s, 512kbit/s and all 1Mbit/s intervals between 1Mbit/s and 10Mbit/s. BT will also introduce two additional VP ATM service classes that will enable service providers to offered combined voice and data over ADSL.
BT IPStream 500 withdrawal – update: BT previously announced plans to withdraw its IPStream 500 product from new supply in August 2002. In light of continuing demand, BT has now decided to delay this withdrawal from new supply until Q3 of 2002/03. BT plans to support existing IPStream 500 users for at least a year, though plans to migrate them to IPStream Home thereafter.
TotalCare/CustomCare trial: BT has begun the trial of a chargeable enhanced maintenance option for end users, offering extended working hours and committed fault response timescales. Phase one of the trial will cover CustomCare, offering repair visits between 8:00-20:00 (Mon-Sat). Phase two will cover TotalCare, offering 24 hour coverage, seven days a week. The care options will be available on BT IPStream S and Office and BT DataStream Home and Office for a charge of £10 per end user per month. There will be no charge during the first month of the trial. The trial is due to last for six months, with the service due for full launch early next year.
Satellite trial: BT is currently trialing a one-to-many high-speed Internet satellite service that allows Service Providers to reach customers who are out of range of normal ADSL services. The service provides download speeds of up to 256kbits/s via a satellite dish, with higher speeds of up to 4Mbit/s available on demand. |
IAP Broadband Wireless ISP Expands
By:mark.j @ 2:10:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] The webmaster of a Magor (South Wales) site, Magor & Undy Community Council, kindly let us know of an update he received from the broadband wireless ISP, IAP Broadband:
They will be testing in our locality in the next few weeks with a view to expand their wireless broadband services into South Wales.
He promised to update his site with more information in due course. |
ADSL - Favourite With Mac Users
By:mark.j @ 1:58:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Readers of the popular Macworld UK website for Mac computer users recently voted in a survey asking, "which Internet access do you use?".
Despite the UKs national broadband ADSL coverage being tiny, the results of the survey still found that 41% of voters used ADSL, above the 39% still on dial-up connections:
Remaining votes were shared between Internet access options ISDN, satellite broadband and leased line, scoring five per cent, four per cent and 11 per cent respectively.
So it looks as if ADSL has overtaken dialup on Mac computer systems, or at least with those that read Macworld. |
9% Of Businesses Use Broadband
By:mark.j @ 1:50:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] New statistics from the UK telecoms regulator, Oftel, show that just 9% of UK businesses are using broadband technology, despite lower costs and improved availability.
Just 30% of the UKs near 400,000 broadband ADSL lines belong to commercial organisations:
Politicans, experts and business leaders say the main problem for Broadband Britain now is selling the benefits of high-speed connectivity.
Nationally only 2.3 per cent of BT's DSL lines are used, which means 97.7 per cent of available broadband is not taken.
Small businesses are paticularly slow to take up the technology with only 3.6 per cent having high-speed internet connections.
The government’s e-commerce minister, Stephen Timms, believes that a better understanding of the technology combined with more attractive content could improve the technologies uptake.
To be honest we don't find the new set of adverts from BT to be all that helpful either, most of the people we know state that it doesn’t really tell you what broadband is.
It's similar to those annoying car adverts where they show more of two people kissing than they do of the car itself – very helpful – NOT. More @ VNUNet. |
ADSL Migration Trial & Registration Abuse
By:mark.j @ 1:39:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] ADSLGuide has today posted a couple of new updates, one on the ADSL ISP migration trial (allows swapping between ISPs) and another looking at how other exchanges may have suffered pre-registration abuse.
Firstly the site reminds us that the broadband ADSL migration trial is due to officially end on 28th October 2002. This will finally turn the service into an official product, although you can expect to be charged at least £35 by BT Wholesale for the privilege.
Unfortunately the service still requires that both ISPs support the process, otherwise your old ISP can simply say 'no' and thus you'll be stuck. Do please ask your various ISPs whether they'll support this, no doubt some won't.
Finally ADSLGuide notes that the St Budeaux exchange has hit its trigger point of 300 pre-registrations, this despite the fact that only a few days ago it was on 70!
If it’s due to false voting and the problem continues then it could be just the excuse BT needs to halt the roll-out of ADSL services for another six months! Typically registrations have to be verified before an exchange is enabled, thus this helps no one. |
Freeserve Takes AOL To Court - VAT
By:mark.j @ 1:26:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Freeserve has finally won an important court decision in its year-long campaign to get rival ISP, AOL UK, to pay millions in value added tax (V.A.T).
By way of a recap, AOL has been exempt from charging its UK Internet customers VAT due to being 'based' outside of the UK, a loophole that Freeserve claims could save AOL as much as £100Million.
On Wednesday, a High Court judge ruled that AOL's tax exemption would face a judicial review hearing, the next step in getting Customs and Excise officials to review their stance on non-European ISPs as VAT-exempt companies. A date for the review has not been set.
Freeserve, a division of France's Wanadoo, has been petitioning UK Customs and Excise to close this loophole since last year, saying that because both companies provide the same service they should be subjected to the same level of taxation.
In the spring, Freeserve gained some important ammunition in its campaign. The European Commission passed a directive requiring all non-EU companies to charge customers VAT for "digital sales".
Sadly for Freeserve the directive isn't to be fully imposed until as late as mid-2003, hence their pleasure at seeing a judicial review hearing. |
UK Virgin.net ISP Launches Broadband
By:mark.j @ 1:20:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] The latest UK ISP to enter into the broadband ADSL market is Virgin.net, which will offer its package for £24.99 per month.
The one-off activation fee is expected to set customers back an attractive £39.99; however this is only for a limited time and the price will soon increase again to £59:
AOL Broadband costs £34.99 a month, BT Broadband costs £27 a month, Freeserve charges £29.99 a month and Tiscali charges £27.99 a month.
Virgin will charge £84.99 for equipment, including an Alcatel Speedtouch modem - although you can buy equipment from other suppliers. The first 1,000 subscribers will also receive three bottles of champagne and be entered into a luxury holiday draw.
The service follows a 10-week trial with around 300 Virgin.net customers. Virgin.net claims a further 30,000 people have already registered an interest in the new service.
Virgin.net appears to have set its service price at the more realistic middle ground; hopefully this will pay off with affordability vs good service quality. More @ Web-User. |
Cable & Wireless Preps Huge Job Cuts
By:mark.j @ 1:14:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Cable & Wireless (C&W) is rumoured by analysts to be planning the chop of between 2,000 and 3,000 jobs around its UK operations.
Further information is expected to follow after the UK based carrier has seen trade unions for a meeting sometime within the next three weeks.
C&W's poor financial state dictates that job cuts could be one of the few cost-cutting measures the company has left open to improved its performance. |
Online Gambling Requires EU Clarity
By:mark.j @ 9:03:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Clearly not content with attempting to imprison UK plane spotters (it's a hobby for both sides =]), the Greek government yesterday clarified a ridiculous new law for online gambling that had also banned all electronic games (on mobile phones, PCs etc.).
Quite why this wasn't covered much on UK TV we don't know, however it has also raised a number of new concerns, or so says the following press release:
Online gambling legal fiasco needs EU action
The dramatic climb down by the Greeks over a hasty ban on all computer games in a bid to stem online gambling fraud opens serious questions about how the problem is to be tackled, a leading lawyer said today.
The Greek Government rushed in legislation in July that failed to distinguish between electronic gambling and computer games, leaving tourists liable to prosecution and threatening ruin to thousands of Internet cafes. It clarified the matter yesterday saying only gambling activities would be prosecuted.
Steven Phillipsohn, senior partner in the specialist fraud law firm Philippsohn Crawfords Berwald, said: “The Greeks are to be congratulated for recognising that on-line fraudsters are setting up gaming sites that take your money but never pay out. It is the simplest scam in the world and accounts for 20 pc of all internet fraud, taking millions of pounds from innocent dupes.
There needs to be co-ordinated action and the EU should take a lead to draw up a Community wide approach. By going alone Greece has made a mess of things and we can only tackle the problem by co-ordinated international action. It must be properly thought through and not mean you can’t even play Resident Evil or Tomb Raider.”
The legislation in Greece was approved unanimously by both major Parties in the Greek parliament and will have to be formally amended by the Supreme Court or European Union. A Greek court ruled the law unconstitutional when throwing out a case against two internet café owners earlier this month.
It should be pointed out that another court later threw out the 'unconstitutional' verdict, so it's a good thing the Greeks finally saw some sense. Some people were actually arrested for playing games on their mobile phones, very democratic! |
More Slapper E-Mail Worm (Virus) Variants
By:mark.j @ 8:53:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Despite the initial Slapper E-Mail worm slowing down, several new variants have now been reported and are proving to be more difficult to combat.
The worm itself is designed to infect computers so that they may be hijacked later and used for a denial of service (D/DoS) attack on others:
Several virus vendors reported variants of the original Slapper.worm.A, called Slapper.worm.B, or "Cinik", and Slapper.worm.C, or "Unlock", appearing this week. The variants have slight differences to the original worm, but all use basically the same method of propagation.
Earlier reports had indicated that authorities were on the trail of a suspect in the Ukraine, but security firms and authorities now say that this is not the case. Two industry journals quoted consultants from Internet Security Systems saying that a Ukrainian suspect had been arrested, but this appears to have been a false lead.
Slapper attacks Apache SSL servers running on Red Hat, SuSE, Mandrake, Slackware and Debian Linux. Antivirus firm F-Secure, based in Helsinki, estimates that there are more than one million Apache servers running SSL, many of which have not been patched.
Well clearly you just can't keep a good Slapper down =), although for once users of a consumer Microsoft operating system need not worry too much. More @ ZDNet. |
MS & BT Secure Web Services Deal
By:mark.j @ 8:45:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Microsoft's X-Box Live online gaming service deal with BTOpenworld aside and the software giant has today struck a second deal with BT.
BT claims to have brought in the world software leader, Microsoft, as its first partner for the Web services it plans to offer companies. It will offer a range of online services that work together regardless of their platform, although it's not clear what these are.
BT Group is under pressure to deliver new revenue streams that will help it achieve its targeted revenue growth of between six and eight percent. Web services are among many new initiatives the former monopoly has announced in the past five months. |
IMRG Promotes UK Internet Shopping
By:mark.j @ 8:41:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] The Interactive Media in Retail Group (IMRG) is attempting to promote the Internet as a 'safe' tool for online shopping, no doubt linked in with the forthcoming Christmas rush:
The campaign, labelled ISIS (Internet Shopping is Safe) is backed by a number of large etailers, including Littlewoods, Argos and BT, and features a top ten tips list for internet buyers, plus a list of more than 260 recommended UK retailers on the web.
IMRG etail MD Jo Tucker said: "Internet shopping is now at least as safe as shopping in a store or by phone, so there is no need for anyone to miss out on the benefits it can provide."
The netimperative.info item reminds us that online sales have risen again during the summer, outstripping the growth of high street sales. |
News - September 25,2002
Opera Browser v6 Beta 1 (Mac) Released
By:mark.j @ 2:58:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Users of the Opera web browser may like to know that the first beta of version 6 has been released for the Mac:
In this release, the address entry and search fields are complemented with a zoom bar to increase or decrease the size of the viewing area. Professional features have also been added, such as OperaShow which allows for desktop presentations in full-screen mode. Most importantly, the long-awaited tabbed browsing mode makes its first appearance for Mac, allowing for multiple windows to be opened within the Opera browser.
Other new features added to this version include:
- Personal bar, an addition to the bookmarks feature for quicker access to the user's most accessed links.
- Skinning, which allows the user to fully customize the look and feel of their Opera browser.
- Inline searching, which accelerates searching in documents.
Unicode support has been added in this version in order to support all major non-Latin-derived languages. Language support for Asian languages such as Chinese, Japanese and Korean is present and highly functional. In this release, Opera has taken the first step towards filling our promise to Arabic and Hebrew users by adding support for bidirectional (BIDI) languages. Great progress is being made to allow Hebrew and Arabic to display correctly. Most pages are already readable and render properly.
http://www.opera.com |
The Invisible AlphaPhe ISP Refunds
By:mark.j @ 2:53:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] AlphaPhe, the UK ISP that was forced to suspend its unmetered dialup service in August after investors withdrew their financial support, seems to be having some problems offering the promised refunds.
A number of ex-customers and ISPr readers have pointed out that despite it being well over a month since refunds were promised, they've still not seen a single pence. One such reader, Christopher Maxwell, highlights just how obvious the problem is:
I would like to know when AlphaPhe were considering paying back the refunds they promised as I’ve been waiting for weeks now & still nothing.
As I understand it, was definitely entitled to a refund because I only sent my payment the day before it was up on there home page that they were closing down there Internet access.
AlphaPhe had claimed that refunds would be processed within the next 2-3 weeks and that was some six to seven weeks ago, yet clearly some users have been left out.
So far we've had five readers highlighting similar situations to the one described above by Mr.Maxwell. A new complaints topic has also been started on the subject HERE in our forum. |
Hutchison3G Announces Service Launch
By:mark.j @ 2:37:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] It looks as if Hutchison 3G will indeed be the first broadband wireless mobile phone operator to officially launch 3G (UTMS) services before the end of the year.
The operator will launch its services on 2nd October 2002, but only to a select group of 1,000 users:
Hutchison 3G, which will offer services under the brand name '3', has said it will give 1,000 3G handsets to 'friendly' users as part of its phased services roll-out. The company aims to receive important feedback from the users.
There's not much else in the Europemedia item, although hopefully we'll know more on the launch date itself. |
UK ISP izR Purchases Adeptweb
By:mark.j @ 2:32:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] UK ISP izR Solutions has acquired the client base of a second ISP, Adeptweb, for an undisclosed sum of money:
izR SOLUTIONS MAKES SECOND ISP ACQUISITION IN GROWTH STRATEGY
UK internet service provider izR Solutions Limited today made its second ISP acquisition in just over 12 months with the purchase of Adeptweb Ltd’s client base for an undisclosed sum, in a move which broadens its geographic market and expands its customer base. It follows the purchase of ISP 4th Wave Technologies in June 2001.
Sam Scoggins, Managing Director of izR solutions said Adeptweb customers will experience seamless transfer to izR, no service disruption and no change to terms or prices previously contracted with Adeptweb. “This is a very exciting opportunity for izR, and we want to assure all previous Adeptweb customers moving over to our service that connectivity will not be disrupted in the process, nor will prices change,” he said.
“New customers will benefit from a high speed network, with increased bandwidth and better resilience. We have a highly skilled team of technicians on hand to provide support both during and after the transition period, and each customer will have its own contact for technical problems should they arise, and for account management and billing queries,” he said.
Customers moving to izR will have access to additional services not available from Adeptweb. They may wish to take advantage of izR’s surf-time account, which allows home users to use the Internet as they wish via a dial up modem on a cheap monthly BT rate. Larger business could benefit from izR’s 34Mbs connection to BT’s IPClear network, which runs throughout the UK and enables cost effective Leased Line connectivity and the provision of secure Virtual Private Networks.
izR has recently upgraded its network infrastructure including:
• 34 Mbps backbone for leased line clients.
• 10 Mbps uplink from izR’s Network Operations Centre.
• 10 Mbps ADSL central pipe.
• Twin redundant uplinks to the rest of the Internet from its racks in Telehouse Europe, burstable to any capacity required.
“The acquisition of Adeptweb is of benefit to both its customers and izR,” said Mr Scoggins. “izR benefits through gaining an already established customer base, with the hope for fast growth in the future, while we can promise our new customers a better service at the same cost,” he said. |
Satellite ISP SatDrive Touts Services
By:mark.j @ 1:36:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] The broadband Satellite ISP SatDrive has issued a new press release touting its various packages, although there doesn't appear to be anything we haven't already reported on:
SATDRIVE LAUNCHES NEW BROADBAND ERA
SatDriveTM – the UK’s low-cost satellite Internet service – has launched a radical, flexible and affordable approach to high-speed information delivery to locations in any part of the UK.
SatDrive customers now have high-speed Internet on-tap with full control over the amount they spend and the speed of download information together with the lowest fixed monthly rental of any UK service delivering True Broadband *.
Announcing this innovation, Eoin Lambkin, the founder of SatDrive, described the new design as “the single most significant break-through in user-controlled flexible bandwidth management anywhere in the world”.
The innovation, by SatDrive’s design team in Germany, has completely revised the algorithms used to share or allocate satellite transponder capacity for any user. The classic economic challenge for Satellite Internet services lies in the allocation of limited transponder capacity for users with fluctuating information downloading requirements.
‘We looked’, said Eoin Lambkin, ‘at every possible way of giving users the service performance they need at the time that they need it most. This lateral-thinking process has given SatDrive a new affordability and a unique flexibility with control placed in the hands of the customers.’
SatDrive now offers:
* Download bandwidth of up to 4Mb/s included in the monthly fixed service charge of £14.95 (+VAT)
* A choice of four additional priority levels that can be requested by users ‘on the fly’ during any Internet session where enhanced download performance is required – up to a maximum of 4Mb/s.
* Full visibility of download performance via an on-screen speedometer.
* Full flexibility in the use of different upload technologies – from mobile phones to higher-speed ISDN or (for multi-user businesses) leased lines connected directly to the Internet.
* ‘Always on’ delivery of emails (single client users only) and pre-requested Internet downloads plus TV channels at no extra charge.
* Immediate availability in all parts of the UK.
SatDrive’s immediate priority is the connection of users who have pre-registered during the recent service beta-test process. These pre-registered users have been given installation priority over all new customer enquiries and the normal 2-week delivery pipeline has been temporarily extended to 15 working days.
Technical Notes:
The affordability of SatDrive is rooted in three key design principles that directly impact on the underlying business model
Firstly we do not attempt or claim to provide broadband capacity all of the time, 24 hours a day regardless of whether users want it. We believe that users – particularly those in business – can select their own priorities to match their business needs. This control is provided by an on-screen icon in the form of a cockpit with speedometer showing download performance and a gear shift to change the priority up or down as required during any Internet session. Typically a user will switch to a higher less-contended priority at the commencement of large download task – thus saving a great deal of time. Progressively higher priorities cost more but this model provides a fair method of allocating bandwidth for users with different needs.
Secondly we reasoned that users requirements are often far more asymmetric (biased in the download direction) than is allowed in conventional ADSL design – and for these users with light upload requirements there is no need to burden them with the design costs of higher capacity.
Finally we looked at the ‘Always On’ service components and realised that ‘always on’ for downloaded information did not mean that most incoming information was needed at high speed – thus eliminating the cost overhead of trying to be impressive for relatively mundane tasks such as the receipt of email. This ‘push’ traffic is, in SatDrive’s design, used to in-fill momentary gaps in fluctuating and often haphazard IP packet arrival patterns – further enhancing transponder utilisation.
Each of these design approaches has contributed to the delivery of an affordable and flexible service – particularly for business users in rural areas beyond the availability of wide-band ADSL services.
Full service details and order process can be seen at
http://www.satdrive.com |
Mozilla Browser Releases Phoenix v0.1?
By:mark.j @ 1:27:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] The popular open source Netscape (AOL) sponsored web browser project, Mozilla, which is currently up to v1.1, has released a new off-shoot called Phoenix.
Phoenix is a redesign of the Mozilla v1.1 (latest) browser component, similar to Galeon, K-Meleon and Chimera, but written using the XUL user interface language and designed to be cross-platform.
While it does appear to be quite a bit quicker and has a new design etc., some of the old bugs still remain. Those wishing to give it a whirl simply need to pop along here:
http://www.mozilla.org |
Oftels Director To Join Ofcom
By:mark.j @ 1:18:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Oftels (telecoms regulator) future replacement, Ofcom, will apparently see David Edmonds joining three others on the board of the new super-regulator. Mr.Edmonds is currently Oftels director-general:
The posting means that Edmonds, who has ruled Oftel since 1998, should continue to play a part overseeing the UK's telecommunications market until at least 2005. However, he has already warned that the creation of Ofcom will do little to solve the UK's rural broadband crisis.
The Department of Trade and Industry announced the make-up of the Ofcom board on Wednesday morning. Edmonds will join Urmila Banerjee -- who plans to give up her current position on the Channel 4 board -- and Sara Nathan. Nathan's current work includes membership of the Radio Authority, and she has previously worked as an editor at Channel 4 News, and at BBC Radio.
Richard Hooper, chair of the Radio Authority, will be deputy chairman of Ofcom. The government also plan to appoint Ian Hargreaves -- director of the centre for journalism studies at Cardiff University, and formerly the editor of The Independent -- to the board at a later date.
Well it's certainly nice (we call it sarcasm) to see that Ofcom will have as bigger impact on broadband as Oftel, take that however you will =). More @ ZDNet. |
UK Internet Digital Divide Widens
By:mark.j @ 1:13:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] NetShift, which specialises in public access technology (Internet kiosks etc.), has compared the recently announced Internet access figures from the Office of National Statistics with similar values from six months ago.
Unfortunately the results show that the demographic imbalance between access among the rich and poor is still growing:
According to the ONS figures, 1.3m new households and 700,000 individuals within internet households gained access to the web in the period between April and September 2002.
However, the number of adults who said they were 'very unlikely' to access the internet in the future was unchanged at 32%, while the number without access to the internet actually increased, from 25% to 26%.
The figures, taken in league with research that shows 80% of individuals in the highest income bracket have access compared with 11% in the lowest bracket, are worrying for the government's aim to have the internet help break down demographic barriers by providing access to all; a major objective of the UK Online project.
More @ netimperative.info . |
MS X-Box Live Partners With NTL
By:mark.j @ 1:07:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Following on from Telewest and BTOpenworld, NTL has now announced itself as the third partner for Microsoft's online broadband gaming service, X-Box Live, which is obviously for owners of the console.
As with Telewest, NTLs service will run off their 600Kbps broadband Cable Modem system. |
BTO ISP Secures X-Box Live ADSL
By:mark.j @ 8:33:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Telewest's broadband cable modem ISP, blueyonder, has already secured one half of Microsoft's online console gaming service - X-Box Live, now UK ISP BTOpenworld has managed to cover the other angle, ADSL.
BTOpenworld says it will provide broadband access for Microsoft's highly touted online gaming service Xbox Live, due for pilot release in Europe at the end of November.
The deal between the U.S. software giant and BTGroup is an attempt by the former telecoms monopoly to tap into the lucrative video games market as it tries to sell broadband Internet access to the mass market.
Microsoft has said online gaming is a major part of its strategy to make money out of its loss-making games arm. The Xbox Live service will be available in a test phase from November 30, with a full retail launch due on March 14, 2003.
Xbox Live will allow gamers with a broadband connection to play against others online, talk to the players through a headset, and download statistics and gaming upgrades to their Xbox hard disc.
Sony Corp and Nintendo are also planning major online gaming initiatives, but the design of the broadband-compatible Xbox gives Microsoft an early leg-up.
"This is the first time that console gamers in the UK have been able to have this broadband multi-player experience," Duncan Ingram, Openworld consumer senior vice-president, said.
It's still not clear whether people connecting to other UK broadband Cable Modem and ADSL ISPs will be allowed to connect or not. |
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