September 17, 2002 - September 20, 2002
News - September 20,2002
ISP SPTen (10) Suffers Security Breach
By:mark.j @ 2:15:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] UPDATE: SPTen(10) has kindly responded to apologise for their mistake and assure everybody that it's being investigate and will not happen again. Apparently the database is cleared on the hour and thus the damage should be minimal.
Yesterday one of our readers (Matt) reported, via our forum, that the online pre-registration form on SPTen's website allowed anybody to gain access to the personal details of pre-registrants without too much effort.
Upon finding this forum post we noted that the URL to the file no longer existed and removed the link, just in case. When asked, SPTen's reaction to this serious fault was to put a 'Smiley' face icon on the following post, very professional =).
Unfortunately several other readers have now reported that the file is back again (open to all), this despite the fault having been reported and confirmed over a day ago!:
Matt was kind enough to explain just how easy it is for ANYBODY to find: The link was found when looking at the source of the "I’m interested give me more info" form. Due to the fact that spten have used Frontpage to design their site, the source contained a path parameter to tell the Frontpage bot where to write results to.
The data contained names, email addresses, web site and the users postcode.
We will not show its location directly (obvious reasons), yet any of those reading this and possessing at least a minor understanding of HTML will be able to find it. In short, SPTen has allowed the personal details of pre-registrants to remain public.
It’s certainly not the first time an ISP has made this mistake, but it’s never pleasant, especially when it still exists after having been openly reported a day before. Hopefully SPTen will now treat this seriously and fix it before the information is abused. |
e-Government Funding = Wasted?
By:mark.j @ 1:36:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] It's today been warned that the investment of £671 Million by the government into UK e-Government (online) projects could be wasted as a result of ineffective systems:
Jim Haslem, president of local authority user group the Society of IT Management, said that targets had encouraged local authorities to get services online, but did not ensure that they would actually be used by the public.
"I'm confident that the targets will be met, but the strategy has to be far more ambitious to deliver real benefits to users," he said. But a Cabinet Office spokesman confirmed that the government is sticking to its original targets.
The VNUNet item notes a fear that some councils may fail to use the money invested to improve services. |
Gio ISP Revises Unmetered Terms
By:mark.j @ 1:31:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] UK ISP Gio Internet has today announced its intention to revise the terms for its two most popular unmetered dialup packages:
Gio Internet is revising the terms of its two most popular packages with effect from Monday 23rd September.
Gio Universal: £7.99
Usage Guide: 100hrs/month
Contention: 10:1
Cut-Off: 1hr
Gio Ignite 128K: £19.95
Usage Guide: 100hrs/month
Contention: 10:1
Cut-Off: 1 hr
In addition to the above changes Gio Internet is introducing an additional service Gio Anytime with low contention
Gio Anytime: £11.99
Usage Guide: 200hrs/month
Contention 10:1
Cut-Off: 2 hr
The changes and additional service offering maintains our aim of being the best value ISP.
A 10:1 contention seems standard these days (not low), yet 200 hours per month for £12 is quite an attractive offer. On the down side and Gio Internet has just entered our ISP Complaints page. |
Alcatel Preps Massive Job Cut
By:mark.j @ 1:22:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] A colossal 23,000 people look set to lose their jobs with the French telecoms equipment maker, Alcatel, by the end of next year (2003):
This massive round of jobs cuts comes on top of the 10,000 or so announced in June and will bring Alcatel's headcount down to 60,000 by the end of 2003. At the end of last year the workforce stood at 99,000.
This latest blow for employees comes as the French telco equipment company warned that revenues were on the floor and heading towards the basement.
It expects revenues to continue to dive, down 10 per cent for the second part of the year compared to H1, as a result of the ongoing slump in the telcoms market.
The Register notes that this latest move, which is part of a 500 Million Euros restructuring plan, should help restore the company to profit. |
PlusNET Backs New BT ADSL Campaign
By:mark.j @ 8:50:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] UK ISP PlusNET, which has long stood by BT, has added its backing and support to the operators recently announced broadband ADSL advertising campaign:
"We are nothing but delighted with the news of BT's advertising plans," Peter Jackson of PlusNet told ZDNet UK News.
Jackson believes that PlusNet will benefit if BT Retail makes a success of its "no-frills" product, called BT Broadband. Unlike other broadband services, BT Broadband only gives a high-speed connection and does not include services such as email or Web space -- and this is where PlusNet can look to win more business.
"PlusNet already offers a range of Web-based services that will appeal to BT Broadband users, such as Web hosting, email services and antivirus products. Users can log on to our site from whatever ISP they use and run our services," Jackson explained.
This is a near identical speech from the one we heard during the early inception days of BTB. The ZDNet item notes that PlusNET is keen to have a link to its services placed on the BTB portal page. |
Three New ADSL Enabled Exchanges
By:mark.j @ 8:41:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] ADSLGuide reports that under the rural broadband project in Cornwall, ACTNOW, BT exchanges in Falmouth, Bodmin and Launceston are now ADSL enabled.
The exchanges had formed part of ACTNOWs phase two, although no official announcement has been made, yet BTs checker shows them to have been enabled. |
Internet Filtering Damages Education
By:mark.j @ 8:38:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] The problem with software designed to filter out the junk of the Internet (porn, spam mails etc.) is that it can sometimes also remove legitimate content and sites.
Now the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Online Policy Group believe that, after testing two software packages, N2H2's Bess and SurfControl; schools using such software could be missing out as too much legitimate content is filtered:
Schools that implement Internet blocking software with the least restrictive settings will block tens of thousands of web pages inappropriately, either because the web pages are miscategorized or because the web pages, while correctly categorized, do not merit blocking.
A large proportion of blocked sites are miscategorized-- probably about half of the sites blocked.
Although curriculum topic categories more often blocked by N2H2's Bess product in an East Coast high school include such topics as the Klan (36% blocked), firearms (50%), drunk driving, slavery, genocide, and perjury (33%), they also contain topics such as pogo-stick (46%), comedy (42%), personal care (32%), likes and dislikes (32%), blend sounds to make words (24%), write or dictate short poems (32%), and "examine the effect of political programs and activities of Populists" (100%).
The Register notes that schools using the most restrictive settings can often block up to 70% of sites. |
ISPA Launches New Website
By:mark.j @ 8:15:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] The UK Internet Service Providers Associating (ISPA), which represents a handful of UK ISPs, has finally completed the upload of their new web design:
http://www.ispa.org.uk |
News - September 19,2002
UK Workers Take E-Mail On Holiday
By:mark.j @ 2:56:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] According to a survey conducted by the organisers of Enterprise Wireless Technology 2002, 73% of business people access their work based E-Mail account while on holiday:
Of those people, 60 percent had checked their work email two or three times during their holiday and 11 percent said they logged on every day.
The study, aiming to understand how wireless technologies affect lifestyles, was based on responses from 281 UK business employees, principally from large corporates.
The ZDNet item points out that 60% of the sample admitted that they would access their email on the beach if they could. Perhaps the whole point of going on holiday has now been lost? |
UK Surfers Obsessed With Sex?
By:mark.j @ 2:48:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] The latest search trends from AltaVista's (AV) search engine sites show that British surfers are obsessed with sex; the Germans are a nation of gamblers, while the French want to go out on the town:
With Autumn weather firmly upon us, it's no surprise that cheap flights, holidays and maps also feature highly in the UK's most searched for terms.
The French are more preoccupied about finding a place to go out, while the top three searched for items in Germany are online gambling sites.
The results, as highlighted by a Web-User item, appear to be near identical to the same batch of figures from last year. |
SPTen ISP Expands Wireless Service
By:mark.j @ 2:44:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] The recently launched Andover based broadband wireless ISP SPTen (SP10) has long had ambitions to cover more of the UK, today some further expansion plans have been rumoured.
Apparently the service is to expand further into Hampshire and Sussex, although they still need approval before beginning to install the half a dozen base stations required to do it.
It’s hoped that SPTen will also expand even further during 2003. |
THUS & BTs New ADSL Campaign
By:mark.j @ 2:32:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] THUS Telecom, the backers of UK ISP Demon Internet, has responded to the announcement this morning from BT that it's planning to spend £33 million in an advertising campaign to promote broadband services:
THUS urges INTERNET USERS TO SHOP AROUND
THUS plc (THUS) one of the UK's leading providers of voice, data, Internet and contact centre services, today urged consumers to shop around for ADSL broadband services.
Commenting on today's announcement from BT of a major advertising campaign to promote broadband services, THUS chief executive, Bill Allan, commented:
"A £33 million campaign designed to kick start the broadband market is likely to benefit all operators offering ADSL services, but it's important that consumers ensure they are getting value for money. BT is promoting a no frills service providing little more than access to web pages for £27 per month.
Consumers might be interested to know that THUS, under its Demon brand, will provide that same web access, as well as web space for customer home pages, unlimited email addresses, a static IP address, an electronic fax service and comprehensive online and telephone support. All of this comes for £24.99 which we believe represents significantly better value for money.
No frills might be OK for some, but sooner or later all Internet users are going to want to send an email. I can't see any reason to pay more for less." |
DMC Launch Unmetered Dialup ISP
By:mark.j @ 1:39:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] The little known DMC Group has today announced the launch of dmc:dial, which it heralds as a genuinely unmetered dialup Internet access service:
The DMC Group today announced its intention to offer business and residential customers a genuinely, unmetered Internet access throughout the UK - via PC and Mac.
Called dmc:dial, the new Internet subscription service will go live on
Thursday 19th Sept 2002 at 12.00pm for PC and Mac users - dmc:dial features include; Access to Game Servers and provides 7 email accounts and 10MB Web Space per account with NO Internet Call Charges, with prices starting at an incredible £7.99 per month for standard home users.
The service currently open to any user with a BT line, and will be available to all Telewest and NTL customers in the very near future.
Internet call charges have been one of the biggest stumbling blocks for the growth of Internet usage at home and the development of e-commerce in the UK.
ICOMM Director Carl Churchill said: -
"DMC has a vision that in the future all UK homes will have affordable internet access. dmc:dial has the facilities in place to ensure that this vision becomes a reality. We're able to announce this today because we run a high-quality, reliable national network. DMC has always fought to provide the customer with the best products at the most competitive prices - And you don't get much better than £7.99 a month for internet access!"
Signup: http://www.dmcdial.com
Portal: http://www.dmcdial.net
The services look somewhat familiar and pan out as follows:
surf:life - £7.99 PM (20:1 Contention)
surf:access - £13.99 PM (10:1 Contention)
surf:isdn - £33.99 PM (7:1 Contention / 128Kbps ISDN)
surf:biz - £23.99 PM (7:1 Contention)
The site notes that, "Ideally the surf:access user will be spending between 80 and 160 hours online per month." Their "surf:lite package is tailored for familys and individuals who spend less than 80 hours online per month."
They also intend to support both NTL and Telewest customers. |
MS Moves To Prevent Hotmail SPAM
By:mark.j @ 1:28:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] It's hardly surprising that Microsoft has teamed up with Brightmail to better combat SPAM (junk mail) on their free e-mail service, Hotmail; it does after all account for the vast major of the networks bandwidth consumption:
Under the deal, Brightmail will filter spam before it is delivered to the Hotmail users' inbox. It has a list of more than 200 million decoy e-mail addresses, set up just to attract spam. As soon as a piece of junk e-mail is received the source can be added to a list of banned addresses.
Keeping the spammers at bay is a costly business for Hotmail, which is now encouraging users to transfer to paid-for services or set up a list of pre-approved addresses.
Spammers jump from address to address to avoid being stopped and have so far managed to find ways around all the anti-spam filters put in their way.
The BBCNews item also notes that current EU anti-SPAM legislation is all well and good, however if it doesn't have teeth to take action against those responsible then what's the point? |
Internet Surveillance Centre - Delayed
By:mark.j @ 1:22:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] The governments new national Internet surveillance centre, which forms an important part of their anti-privacy (snooping) policy, has been delayed and will not be operational until next year!:
It had been planned to add the capability to intercept internet traffic and emails this month, but a Home Office spokeswoman confirmed that "the go-live date has been pushed back to early 2003". No reason was given for the delay.
The centre was set up as part of the controversial Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act last year. It acts as an intermediary between internet service providers (ISPs) and law enforcement agencies for intercepting and reading emails and web traffic.
Until NTAC is operational, police forces will have to tap communications lines themselves.
The VNUNet item notes that the delays are most likely because most UK ISPs are still opposed to the system and there have been a number of disagreements about how best to proceed.
The ISPA believes that the group assigned to the new centre isn't competent enough to handle it. |
BT Preps ADSL Advertising Campaign
By:mark.j @ 1:16:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] BT has announced a major new £33 Million advertising campaign for broadband ADSL services, which it predicts could double connections:
UK'S MOST INTENSIVE TV CAMPAIGN TO HELP DOUBLE BROADBAND CONNECTIONS
* £10m to be spent on UK's most intensive TV advertising campaign
* Aim to double weekly broadband connections
* BT Broadband set for early October take-off with £23 million campaign
* Average of 90 per cent of BT Broadband's first customers satisfied with product
* Carphone Warehouse becomes first High Street partner to sell BT Broadband
BT will spend £1 million a day on the most intensive TV advertising campaign ever seen in the UK as part of its drive to double the weekly take-up of broadband.
A total of £10 million will be spent in 10 days between September 22 and October 2 to advertise the potential of broadband. The campaign, called broadband has landed, will also include a specially created on-line game, using characters from the advertising, which is expected to involve a record six million people over a three-day period.
The 10 days of blanket TV advertising is a key part of BT's drive to get one million ADSL broadband connections by summer 2003 and increase the weekly average from 12,000 to 24,000. It immediately precedes a separate £23m push to sell BT Broadband, BT Retail's new high-speed, direct-access internet product, which has recorded satisfaction levels of around 90 per cent since it was made available in early June. BT Retail aims to have 500,000 customers for the new service by summer 2003.
Pierre Danon, chief executive officer of BT Retail, said: "BT's intensive TV campaign is further evidence that broadband is clearly at the top of our agenda.
The sheer scale of what we are doing should leave no one in any doubt of the seriousness of our intent to put broadband at the heart of BT and be the flag-bearer for the industry in the government's drive to make Broadband Britain a reality. Developing awareness through marketing is a very important component of BT Group's broadband strategy and, such will be the intensity of this campaign, that it will be virtually impossible to miss the messages it gives about the potential of this exciting technology and the benefits it brings.
This campaign, on top of the other initiatives BT Group has introduced in recent months to kick-start the market, should help provide all operators supplying broadband in the UK with the launch pad they need to sell their products and services in unprecedented numbers," added Danon.
Following on from the 10-day campaign, which seeks to generate awareness of the general benefits of broadband, BT Retail will formally launch BT Broadband, its new high-speed, access-only product.
Although available since early June, BT Broadband will be launched with full fanfare at the beginning of October with a £23m marketing campaign.
Angus Porter, managing director of BT Retail's consumer division, said: "When you consider we have not yet done a scrap of advertising for BT Broadband, the number of customers already signing-up is excellent, giving us solid confidence that we will reach the target we have set for next year. Last week alone, we took 1,700 orders. Previous experience tells us that when the marketing campaign kicks in, the number of connections will increase significantly.
Feedback from early customers has also helped us refine BT Broadband, in our bid to provide customers with exceptional service.
Satisfaction with various aspects of BT Broadband has been running at an average of 90 per cent, with customers being particularly happy about the speed of the product (98 per cent satisfied), as well as the one-stop service in the form of our dedicated contact centre in Newcastle and the consolidated bill. We are now working to ensure that we improve the service even further."
Partners will play a key role in helping BT Retail reach its milestone of half a million BT Broadband connections by next summer. Today, Carphone Warehouse became BT Retail's first high-street partner in selling BT Broadband.
Angus Porter said: "In all elements of our broadband strategy, which aims to raise new revenue of £681 million a year by 2004/05, partnerships play a prominent role. We now have 70 content partners for BT Broadband, 40 signed-up for BT clickandbuy and leading companies like HP and Toshiba for our BT Home Computing offering, which will be launched formally later this year," added Porter. |
AOLs New European ISP Boss
By:mark.j @ 9:01:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] AOL Time Warner has named Philip Rowley, the former AOL Europe chief financial officer, to the new position of a London based president and chief operating officer. The move should give AOLs loss-making European Internet unit more control over itself.
He will oversee all corporate and operational functions of AOL's UK, German and French businesses, plus its call centre operations.
Rowley will report to Michael Lynton, president of AOL Time Warner International and chief executive officer of AOL Europe. Lynton, who is based in New York, oversees the media giant's loss-making international business units in Europe, Asia and Latin America.
Lynton's oversight of AOL Europe has come under intense scrutiny recently. The European unit has embarked on an ambitious cost-cutting programme at a time when Lynton has been occupied with the ailing AOL Latin America, the younger Asian division and AOL publishing group IPC.
In the UK, AOL is expected to notch its first core profit as it nears the 2 million subscriber plateau. Its younger German and French businesses have been growing at a slower pace as the incumbent Telco’s ISPs have dominated the domestic markets. |
SAT Launch New ISP - Firefly (surfADSL)
By:mark.j @ 8:54:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] UK unmetered dialup and ADSL offering ISP SurfAnyTime (SAT) has decided to launch a second partner ISP under the new brand name of Firefly.
Unlike SAT, the service is independent of Affinity Internet, which is at present rumoured to be causing a few performance problems for some ISPs. The first service to be offered is that of a broadband ADSL package, surfADSL:
Firefly Enterprises Ltd. the UK's newest ISP is delighted to announce the launch of the first in a new range of internet access solutions, http://www.surfadsl.com
Who and what is Firefly?
Firefly is an ISP that has been formed on the back of the success of its sister company SurfAnytime Ltd. While SurfAnytime Ltd. continues to partner Affinity Internet Holdings Ltd. to provide standard dial up, Firefly is a fully independent ISP with the power to offer customers what they need.
The last two years have seen SurfAnytime grow from strength to strength - a growth that has been somewhat restricted by powers outwith our control. Firefly will have no such restrictions, and the same award winning team who brought you SurfAnytime aim to use this new found independence to offer an improved level of service.
The first service out of this new stable is none less than our thoroughbred, surfADSL.
surfADSL can provide permanent, high speed ADSL Internet connection from only £28.99 per month. (inc. VAT).
The ADSL Internet link may be self-installed either on an existing modem/router or we can supply you with an ADSL USB Modem or ADSL Router with the availability of up to 10 static IP addresses via our very simple online order process.
surfADSL comes with the following features:
"Always on" - Permanent Connection
Unlimited number of network users
No dial-up phone costs on ADSL
56/64/128K dial-up account as back-up for all users
FREE e-mail addresses for each ADSL connection
Webmail
To register and for more details, please see http://www.surfadsl.com
It’s certainly a welcome change to finally see an ISP pricing their broadband package at a more realistic level; hopefully surfADSL will be better for it. |
Community ADSL, SDSL Pricing & Coverage
By:mark.j @ 8:45:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] According to ADSLGuide the pricing for BTs recently announced business SDSL broadband trials are likely to be £450 for the connection and between £70 and £200 per month for the rental (speed dependant).
They also report that the.. Penryhndeudraeth and Corwen exchanges in Wales should be ready for service around 11th September using Alcatel hardware. The two Scottish trial sites using Fujitsu hardware at Drumnadrotchit and Muir of Ord are due to come online around the 20th of September.
The remaining five or so exchanges are apparently pencilled in for activation in November and are likely to be using kit other than Fujitsu or Alcatel.
Finally it looks as if two more exchanges are about to reach their trigger level for a broadband ADSL upgrade:
Penn 197 (98%)
Knaresborough 389 (97%) |
UK Internet Access Still Rising - Slowly
By:mark.j @ 8:39:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] The governments Office for National Statistics has issued its July 2002 Internet Connectivity Report, which shows a small increase (1.2% increase from June to July) in Internet access.
Overall the figures appear to confirm what others have been saying, that uptake is slowing, yet continues to rise (slowly), largely thanks to a fall in the price of broadband (referred to in the report as 'Permanent Connections') services.
Broadband connections made up 6.5% of total subscriptions in July, up from 5.9% in the previous month (roughly a 10/11% increase). Free 0845 (Local Call Rate) services also saw a drop in June from 29% to July with 28%! On the flip side and unmetered dialup Internet access rose from a consistent 35% to 36% for the same period. |
FreeDial ISP Stops Taking CC Details
By:mark.j @ 8:22:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] In an effort to stave off some of the growing criticism against them, recently announced unmetered dialup and broadband ADSL offering ISP FreeDial.biz will stop taking credit card details on pre-registration:
We have reconsidered our position on the taking of credit card details at pre-registration. We have decided to show good faith and not have this as a requirement any longer.
There has been some talk on certain forums as to our validity so I hope this will convince our doubters of our genuine intent.
Ultimately a quality service sustained over a long period of time is what’s most likely to convince people. |
News - September 18,2002
UK Gov SHOULD Subsidise Broadband
By:mark.j @ 2:33:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] The ex-chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (Ofcom’s USA equivalent), Reed Hundt, has suggested that the UK government SHOULD subsidise the rollout of broadband, especially to rural areas:
In it, Hundt says that the true value of ubiquitous broadband networks will only be realised once they're in place - and that the private sector is unlikely to take the risk of building them without knowing what they will end up being used for and how much demand there will be.
While acknowledging that governments have more pressing priorities for their budgets, such as the war on terror, he said: "In many national economies it does seem that such a plan [government subsidy of broadband] is superior to a pure market-based approach to providing the physical link for communications."
Unfortunately no amount of comments, such as those highlighted above, are likely to make the UK government listen, more @ Silicon. |
BT Defends Its Broadband Progress
By:mark.j @ 1:36:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] BT has reacted angrily toward criticism that the UKs broadband ADSL progress remains behind the rest of Europe and that despite plenty of interest, only a few will receive it before Christmas:
"We want to make sure we are investing in the right area with the highest demand," said Francis King at BT Wholesale, adding that the firm works closely with its channel partners to drive demand.
BT has 5,000 exchanges in the UK, but only around 1,000 of them are ADSL-enabled. Just five more look likely to get broadband before Christmas.
King added that in certain areas the number of users made it "uneconomical" to provide broadband by traditional means. BT, along with its partners, is working on cheaper ways to get around the problem, such as broadband via satellite links.
We fail to see how a Satellite service costing nearly £1000 to install and £60 per month to run is a 'cheaper way’ than ADSL.
The VNUNet item notes that BT still expects to have one million users by 2003 and is "doing more than any other company [to encourage] broadband ." |
Tiscali UK ISP NOT Slapped By ASA
By:mark.j @ 1:26:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] The latest UK ISP to 'almost' fall foul of the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is the UK wing of Tiscali. Thankfully for Tiscali, none of the complaints were upheld:
Objections to national press and magazine advertisements for an Internet service. The national press advertisement was headlined "Unlimited access to the world" and both advertisements stated "Tiscali 10.0 is the brand new internet service from Tiscali. It's fast and reliable and really easy to use ...". The complainants challenged the claims:
1. "fast", one complainant, because he believed the advertisers' service was slower than the Internet access provided by broadband suppliers; the other complainant, because he had found connecting to the service slow;
2. "reliable", one complainant, because the advertisers stated in their terms and conditions that they could not guarantee that the service would be fault free; the other complainant, because he had found the service unreliable and
3. "unlimited access to the world", because the advertisers stated in their terms and conditions that they could, at their discretion, implement an automatic cut-off to interrupt the user's Internet session. |
Hutchison & Location Based 3G Services
By:mark.j @ 1:21:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Hutchison3G UK plans to provide 'location-based' broadband wireless mobile phone services alongside the launch of its next generation network, '3', later this year:
The operator today said it has struck content deals with the Ordnance Survey and Tele Atlas to offer mapping and guidance data under the 3 brand. The service allows subscribers to pinpoint their position on a digital map delivered to their 3G handsets, and source directions to nearby services such as hotels, restaurants, shops and businesses.
The agreement with Ordnance Survey gives Hutchison access to the firm's intelligent digital map data and products including OS Mastermap, its digital database showing over 400m features of the UK landscape. The deal with Tele Atlas will provide mapping data for the UK and Europe, including street plans of around 30,000 cities.
The netimperative.info item isn't clear whether the system being suggested is GPS based or simply using mobile triangulation technology, a sort of poor mans GPS. |
ET Global Solutions Service Update
By:mark.j @ 1:16:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] ADSLGuide reports that troubled UK ADSL ISP ET Global Solutions is having to, "re-think its approach to the Internet Consumer & Business Market, and is now allowing individuals and businesses to sign up for the service on a monthly basis with a non-contractual agreement on the Internet Subscribers behalf."
Customers that signed up between 25th July 2002 and 31st August 2002 will be offered a full refund, although it'll take up to 21 days to action. ETGS is linked with the slightly more successful UK ISP Gio Internet. |
Clara.net ISP Grabs German Netscalibur
By:mark.j @ 1:09:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] UK ISP Clara.net has acquired the German based wing of Netscalibur; Clara.net hopes the move will help to bolster its European presence:
The acquisition gives Claranet additional operations in Berlin and Munich as it continues to provide Net access, hosting and IP security solutions to its European customers.
Claranet launched its first centre in Frankfurt in 2000. With the acquisition of Netscalibur's German business it becomes Claranet's second largest operation outside of the UK. Claranet also has offices in France and Spain.
The Register reports that Netscalibur will now focus its resources on further investment in the UK and Italy. |
Tesco – Online Shopping Still Profitable
By:mark.j @ 9:11:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Tesco has announced a 27% year-on-year increase in its half-year sales, with the e-tailor’s sales reaching £186 million, up from £146m in the same period last year. Online shopping also showed an improvement:
Profits for the online shopping operation hit £1.9m, excluding the start-up costs of GroceryWorks. Tesco.com paid £15.7m for a 35 per cent stake in US Safeway’s online grocery channel last June.
However, a spokesman for Tesco.com said this was a “small start-up charge” and that the online shopping service remained in profit when this was taken into account.
According to the retailer, more than 85,000 orders are taken per week on Tesco.com, which now covers 95 per cent of the population.
Few other stores have been able to match Tesco's success, more @ Revolution. |
Clara.net To Fix Unmetered Problems
By:mark.j @ 8:58:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] UK ISP Clara.net looks set to upgrade their unmetered dialup services today in order to address the degraded performance being experienced by users on their FreeTime packages:
In order address degraded performance experienced by dial-up customers on the 0808 990 907x Freetime Anytime numbers, the CPU on terminating router will be upgraded on Wednesday 18 September between 11.30 and 12:30.
The following services will be affected:
- Freetime Anytime Business 0808 9909070 access number
- Freetime Anytime 0808 9909071 access number
- Customers with leased lines terminated in Telehouse East either over BT E3 bearers or via Energis Framed relay over ATM service.
Please contact support if you wish to enquire whether your leased line service falls into the above category. The work is expected to last no longer than 5 minutes. No other services will be affected. |
ADSL Access For 80 Pre-Registrations
By:mark.j @ 8:45:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] The second ISP to offer a low trigger level for the installation of broadband ADSL Internet access has popped up (highlighted to us by Web Buddy), CDV-Technologies:
Registration Statistics are shown below for each exchange area
We have a threshold of 80 in each exchange area which means once we have reached this target we will begin to install ADSL broadband in that area.
If you have not registered with us, you will need to register on the residential or business broadband pages as we are an independent private company (even if you have registered with BT) so that we have a record of interested subscribers for your area.
Download speeds of 500Kbps to 6 Mb with monthly fees starting from £27.99 (ex VAT)
• Introductory offer from £79.90 (ex VAT)* - save £75 on set-up costs
• Monthly rental from £27.99 (ex VAT)*
• Greater flexibility - use your ADSL connection for Internet access and telephone voice traffic simultaneously.
Very little is known about this group and we'd assume that the services are based on some form of Local Loop Unbundling (LLU).
Typically this would also explain their limited coverage, either way it beats a trigger level of 400! Note that the threshold of 40 in the graph should be 80, it's their mistake. |
News - September 17,2002
Forrester Backs Call For BTs Break-Up
By:mark.j @ 3:13:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Now Forrester, the analyst group, has added its weight to the debate on BT's future and whether or not the operator should be broken up:
In a report published on Tuesday, Forrester recommended that BT should split its retail business, its network operations and its research side in four years time. A three-way separation could yield up to £11bn extra value for shareholders, said Forrester.
According to senior analyst Lars Godell, the newly independent business units created by a break-up would be able to achieve higher revenues while running up lower costs, and would also be able to give more attention to innovation.
Should such a split go wrong, though, Forrester has calculated that it would cost the company £5bn.
The ZDNet item notes Forrester as suggesting that 2006 would be a good year for such a move, describing it as a natural evolution. |
UK FreeDial ISP Responds - Too Cheap?
By:mark.j @ 2:49:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Shortly after Keith posted his news item regarding the launch of what is undoubtedly the UKs cheapest ADSL ISP, costing just £12.95 per month for a residential package, we immediately moved to contact the service.
Thankfully the MD of WorldDomain (FreeDial.biz), John Nicholas, responded faster than a speeding bullet to our concerns and had this to say:
The Budget DSL plan that you talk of will initially be subsidised by our other premium plans of which we have had an incredible response to. The idea is that by selling a subsidised product we will attract a broader customer base and subsequently improve sales in our other premium products.
Even selling the plan at "below cost" it can cover it's cost for the initial 12 month contract because of the modest profit from the activation fee and connection equipment (the Budget DSL user must purchase this equipment from us) thanks to an exceptional deal with the manufacturers. The availability of this plan is obviously limited but not to the extent where it becomes obsolete or where it detracts from it's subsidised purpose.
I mentioned above that the plan will "initially" be subsidised. We have the funding in place to guarantee our commitment to the Budget DSL plans for a least the contract term of 1 year. We also have information, call it "inside" if you will, of moves afoot in the industry that will enable us not only to guarantee the Budget DSL plan's future but will also ensure our capability and profitability from our existing customer base for the future.
If our information is not correct we will make neither profit nor loss on the budget plans and we will only have benefited from the extra/subsidiary interest generated, on the other hand if our information is correct then not only will we be able to turn a profit at the latter stages of the contract term but it will ensure we have a relatively large, existing customer base already under contract on a more profitable product.
Although we are a small concern in terms of overheads, we do not rent office space as our offices are freehold, we have only 10 permanent staff and we do not rely on bank funding, overdrafts, loans and such like, we are a relatively "cash rich" company with more than "one egg in our basket".
I hope this answers your concerns, and assure you of our sincerity and commitment to this field. If I can be of further assistance please do not hesitate to contact me.
We can't help but admire their confidence, even if some might say it's miss-placed, not least because things can change quickly once subscribers start using up the networks bandwidth.
Thousands of potential customer’s vs limited staff (we doubt they’re all on support) could also be a recipe for PIPEX style trouble. No doubt we’ll be hearing more of FreeDial as the weeks and months roll by, we’ve also added a special forum for them under the appropriate unmetered section. |
UK Gov Suffers Snooping Bill Blow
By:mark.j @ 2:34:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Government plans to force Telco’s and ISPs to store communications traffic data has hit a nail after data protection commissioners from various European countries moved to oppose the proposals:
The UK government is proposing that ISPs and phone companies retain their customers' telecoms traffic data for up to two years and give law enforcement agencies access to that data -- if needed -- in a criminal investigation. This data would include catalogues of websites visited, records of email recipients, lists of telephone numbers dialled, and the geographical location of mobile phones.
But following a meeting in Cardiff last week, the data protection commissioners from various European countries largely opposed such sweeping proposals.
They said they have "grave doubt as to the legitimacy and legality of such broad measures" and are worried about the financial burden they will place on telcos and ISPs. The commissioners also said that "such retention would be an improper invasion of the fundamental rights guaranteed to individuals".
Whether or not this latest setback will have any impact on government plans remains to be seen, more @ ZDNet. |
3G Broadband = Not Good Enough
By:mark.j @ 2:28:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] The technology behind future 3G (UTMS) broadband wireless mobile phones has been struck a blow today after the founder and director of the Media lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) claimed it wasn't good enough:
Universal Mobile Telecoms Service (UMTS), 3G's underpinning technology, provides simply "too little, too soon", according to Professor Nicholas Negroponte of MIT.
"There are not enough features to make the change from GSM worthwhile for consumers," he said. "UMTS will exist but it will not be a success," he added.
A long-time critic of the amount operators pay for 3G licences, Negroponte said that he wished the industry "could just skip 3G". "I wish we could just give the money back, but given the amounts involved it's just not possible to persuade governments to do that," he said.
It looks as if there's no satisfying anybody in the 3G mobile industry, apart from the operators =). More @ VNUNet. |
AOL ISP To Focus On Broadband
By:mark.j @ 1:28:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] The future introduction of AOLs latest software client looks set to return the ISP back to its community-oriented roots by improving features such as chat rooms and letting members share music and photos.
The ISP is struggling with a slowdown in its core dial-up business and hopes that the new software will convince its members to switch to faster and more expensive broadband Internet connections.
Last week the new AOL head, Jon Miller, announced an overhaul of the division; making broadband a major priority and giving AOL's broadband head Lisa Hook more prominence.
After initially viewing broadband as only a distribution vehicle, AOL now sees it as an opportunity to improve its core strengths of community and communications, Hook said.
"We have realised broadband can be a differentiated product and we can exploit the technology by looking at it as a different medium (than TV)," Hook said in an interview on Monday. "What we are going to be launching with version 8.0 is really just the beginning of the day of a longer-term plan." |
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