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August 19, 2002 - August 23, 2002

News - August 23,2002

Poptels 25 User Only xDSL - Update

By:mark.j @ 8:50:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
We've managed to gather some more information regarding Poptels special broadband xDSL offer, which only required 25 users per exchange and was reported on yesterday.

Firstly the good news is that the service and offer does exist and is based off Local Loop Unbundling (LLU) as previously stated. Sadly it's not an ADSL service; it actually uses the more expensive SDSL standard, which is better suited for businesses.

Price wise and you'd be expected to pay between £75 and £80 per month for a 512Kbps (both ways) SDSL broadband connection, yet you do only need 25-50 interested clients (some confusion on this point).

Note that Poptel does offer cheaper residential ADSL packages, although unfortunately those do not relate to the above offer and are based off BT. No doubt BT themselves could even offer something similar to Poptels should they choose to price at a similar level.

So the question is really, would you pay through the roof to get broadband ADSL or SDSL in your area? For once Satellite access looks more attractive, but only just.

News - August 22,2002

V21 ISP Launches Business ADSL

By:mark.j @ 2:48:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
Having already launched a cheap residential broadband ADSL service, UK ISP V21 has now also introduced three new business level packages:

V21 offer businesses a selection of ADSL packages

All packages come inclusive of 4 FIXED IP addresses (Perfect for home users, logging into the office network), National Rate (0870) technical support, a FREE .co.uk domain name which incorporates UNLIMITED web space and email addresses.

The three packages offered are:

Business 500 - 512 Kbps Download, 256Kbps Upload - £55 + VAT
Business 1000 - 1 Mbps Download, 256Kbps Upload - £90 + VAT
Business 2000 - 2 Mbps Download, 256Kbps Upload - £110 + VAT

V21 ADSL uses RADSL technology - making ADSL available up to 5.5km from your local exchange.

Contention ratios of up to 20:1 are expected on the service (you share the available bandwidth with up to 20 users), although it is generally agreed that rarely would all users be transferring data at full speed simultaneously.


You can find more details HERE, although we’ve yet to see an official press release. Spotted by Net4Nowt.

Get ADSL With Just 25 Users!?

By:mark.j @ 2:33:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
This seems too good to be true and we're currently trying to confirm it, although don't hold your breath. One of our readers (Danboy) noted a post by an unverified member of Poptel's staff, which states:

Using Local Loop Unbundling Poptel can give you adsl if you have only 25 or more people interested.

Please contact sales@poptel.coop

http://www.poptel.coop


25 users under LLU for ADSL is ambitious at best and the full details of exactly what package such customers would be required to purchase remain a mystery. A number of readers are investigating this information and no doubt we'll have an update soon.

Check out our Broadband Coverage forum or the Broadband4Britain campaign site for more (forums).

Telewest - Debt-For-Equity Swap Cleared

By:mark.j @ 2:21:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
DigitalSpy is reporting that Telewest has obtained the necessary permission from its banks to proceed with a debt-for-equity swap, which represents the possible start of restructuring:

In a statement, the company announced: "Telewest Communications plc announces that it has secured the necessary waivers and consents from its bank group to permit it to enter into discussions with, among others, its bondholders concerning a possible reconstruction of its balance sheet."

It is expected that during any restructuring, Telewest will maintain the same "business as usual" approach employed by Britain's largest cable operator, ntl:home, which is currently in Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection while it moves through its own refinancing process.


We wouldn't be surprised if Liberty Media made another play for them.

Museum Gains Wireless Internet (Wi-Fi)

By:mark.j @ 2:08:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
Urbis, Manchester's new £30m museum, will now allow any visiting clients equipped with a Laptop or PDA etc. to connect to their localised broadband wireless network for Internet surfing:

Under the move, Netario, the Manchester-based wireless LAN and Bluetooth outfit, has implemented the broadband network in the all-glass building's Conservatory Café, Le Mont restaurant, corporate meeting rooms and outside areas.

Visitors to the museum, which explores life in different cities of the world, can pay for internet access by purchasing tokens from reception, and can use their wireless LAN-enabled PDAs or laptops or borrow a plug-in card to get online.

The move comes as Netario's urban wireless network, Speedwave, is being rolled out across Manchester and other cities in the UK. The company recently launched a similar network at the Bridgwater Hall concert venue, and plans to have 500 locations up and running by the end of this year.


More @ netimperative.info.

3G Operators Need A Reality Check?

By:mark.j @ 1:55:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
UK and EU 3G (UTMS) broadband wireless mobile phone operators need a reality check, at least according to Forrester Research, which is the second such analyst group to say such a thing.

It would seem that said operators have very unrealistic expectations about service launch dates and have overestimated their customer base for 3G services over the next 5 years by a factor of four:

According to report author Michelle de Lussanet, a number of European operators expect to launch commercially available services next spring. "Even today it is scary how unrealistic their launch dates are," said de Lussanet, who studied 25 mobile operators across Europe.

The 3G launches of the UK's five mobile operators range from the end of this year for Hutchison, to early 2004 for Orange, and dates have already slipped. The reason Hutchison is launching its services before the rest of the field is because it is the only company without a money-making 2G network in the UK.


So what does the future hold for 3G broadband wireless services and operators? Well we simply don't know anymore, although one thing is certain, without a workable way out most operators must continue to back their hefty investment or die trying. More @ VNUNet.

Tiscali Preps Broadband Satellite ISP

By:mark.j @ 1:39:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
Tiscali has been testing its future broadband Satellite ISP service for awhile now and today the group announced that it should come online sometime this autumn.

Sadly Tiscali has declined to issue any futher details, although the growing number of Satellite ISPs in the UK could help force overall prices down:

Chief operating officer Stephane Huet said the company has been running broadband satellite trials for some time now, but these had not been "overtly successful". Denying that Tiscali would suffer from launching a year behind BT's satellite broadband service, Huet said, "We have waited -- we wanted to make sure we have a scalable, robust product."

New technology due to be introduced this autumn would help improve satellite broadband connections, he said. Tiscali would become only the second company, alongside BT, to offer consumer and small business satellite broadband services, and such a move could help drive competition.

BT's service, which was launched nationwide in March, costs £899 for installation and £60 a month rental, for the consumer version. It is considerably more expensive than BT's ADSL offering.


For the record there are a number of Satellite ISPs offering consumer and small business broadband Satellite services, thus Tiscali’s market assessment isn’t entirely true. That said and we'll need to see their offer before being able to judge, more @ ZDNet.

Interestingly Tiscali's UK Satellite ISP and trial page now appears to have vanished, check our listings for the last known service details:

http://www.tiscali.co.uk/products/tiscalisat/

AOL UK Blames BT - Slow Broadband

By:mark.j @ 1:27:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
Last week ISP AOL UK was slapped for its slower than dialup (in some cases) broadband ADSL service, however a new update shows that BT may have been the ones to blame and not AOL:

But the latest statement from AOL UK seems to suggest it might not have been to blame.

"BT has confirmed that they have been experiencing problems with their network and in some cases, this has resulted in decreased throughput performance. Consequently, this has resulted in lower than expected downstream bandwidth for broadband users.

BT is currently testing possible solutions to this problem and we hope to have further updates for you over the next few days. Please be assured that we will continue to work with BT round-the-clock until AOL Broadband is back at optimum service levels.
"


Problems with BTs end of the service could mean that other ISPs have been unknowingly affected, although The Register doesn't go into any further detail and thus it's hard to speculate further.

The Internet = Moral-Free Zone

By:mark.j @ 8:53:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
The president of media giant News Corp. sees the future of the Internet as being threatened by pornography, spam and rampant piracy; nothing new here then:

Speaking on Tuesday at an annual conference organised by the Progress & Freedom Foundation, Peter Chernin decried the "enormous amount" of worthless content online. He also predicted that without new laws to stave off illicit copying, News Corp.'s vast library of movies may never be made available in digital form.

"The vast potential of broadband has so far benefited nobody as clearly as it's benefited downloaders of pornography and pirates of digital content," Chernin told an audience of about 200. News Corp. owns 20th Century Fox and Fox Television.

Chernin called for a broader understanding that unapproved copying is morally wrong, while admitting that his own children sometimes wavered. He said that the federal government must support technological and legal methods to thwart Internet piracy.


It's a fair point and perhaps an even sadder fact that so many of us have now evolved to accept such things as common place. More @ ZDNet.

BT Continues Broadband Progress

By:mark.j @ 8:41:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
BTWholesale has stated that they're still receiving strong demand for broadband ADSL services and continue to connect more than 11,000 new customers a week:

It says it's aiming for one million connections by the middle of 2003, and five million by 2006.

A BT Wholesale spokesperson said: "We're on track with our targets and we're absolutely fully committed to those targets."


The Ananova item piggy backs yesterdays news about how trigger levels have now been set for a further 169 exchanges.

Starbucks Launch Broadband Wireless

By:mark.j @ 8:35:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
The UK wing of Starbucks, a popular USA coffee shop chain, is to go head to head with BT in London when it introduces a trial of its own broadband wireless (Wi-Fi) hot spots:

The hot spots will be at two Starbucks stores in London -- on Fleet St and Broad St. The 802.11b pilot programme will be run in partnership with T-Mobile and HP and will be called T-Mobile Hotspot. Another trial is being conducted at Starbucks stores in Germany.

During the trial period, laptop and PDA users will be able to get free high-speed Internet access, but it's not yet clear how much the service will cost when it launches commercially.


ZDNet notes that Starbucks will now join both BT and Megabeam in having set up such services, one wonders whether more could follow.

Gio's Unmetered Dialup & Static IP

By:mark.j @ 8:24:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
Unmetered dialup ISP Gio Internet has announced the launch of two new business packages with support for static IPs:

Gio launches Unmetered Business Internet Access with static IP address.

Gio Internet has introduced two new packages for organisations requiring static IP address for VPN applications and Gio's own RDP remote networking application.

Business 24/7 - static IP @ £28.95
Anytime access for business with 5:1 contention for 56K dial up or 64K ISDN

Business 247 - static IP - 128K @ £44.95
Anytime access for business with 5:1 contention for 128K ISDN

Customers can sign upto the services online, with immediate activation.


Unfortunately there's no mention of any cut-off periods, although it's probably 2hourly like the other options. Hopefully Gio launches their new site soon as the current one is confusing to navigate.

News - August 21,2002

Opera Prepares v7 Web Browser

By:mark.j @ 2:35:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
One of the closest web browser rivals to Microsoft's dominant Internet Explorer (IE) software, Opera, is preparing to introduce the 7th revision of its browser.

Apparently the first beta release is to do away with some of the browsers legacy code in favour of greater speed, although the move has some developers worried:

The rendering engine -- the heart of the browser which interprets code pulled down from Web servers -- has been rewritten from the ground up over the past 18 months.

Dubbed Project Presto, after the musical tempo-character marking indicating speed and lightness, the rewritten browser was designed to make Opera both faster and more compatible with the Document Object Model (DOM), an emerging standard technology that lets scripts, like JavaScript, act on individual elements of a Web page.

[Ed - Skips ahead a few paragraphs]

"What these other browser makers should do is stop complaining about what Microsoft is doing and start supporting what Microsoft is supporting," Hurd said. "People out there aren't reading these specs; they're using IE."


The ZDNet item goes into a lot of detailed and no doubt enough to make Opera fans want to read it in its entirety. Sadly Opera remains a commercial project and other free browsers such as Mozilla are already starting the close in.

Thankfully this is all good news for we the consumers, there’s now more choice than ever before and those choices just keep getting better.

UK Gov & Broadband Aggregation

By:mark.j @ 2:22:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
The UK Governments Office of Government Commerce (OGC) has apparently begun searching for broadband providers prepared to supply services to the public sector:

The OGC claims this "signals the first step in the letting of framework agreements, which will enable buyers to obtain the best value for money when purchasing Broadband Internet services". Indeed, the idea of aggregating public sector demand for broadband is something the Government has been keen to promote for some time.

The theory behind it is simple enough; the public sector could provide a massive market for broadband providers prepared to supply schools, hospitals, local government offices and agencies etc.

Of course, not all its schools, GP surgeries, etc are within cable and ADSL-enabled areas. So, if enough demand is whipped up for broadband - especially in these areas currently not served by cable or ADSL - then this aggregated demand might just be enough to entice providers to invest in the roll-out of this technology.


More @ The Register.

Half Price BT ‘No Frills’ Broadband

By:mark.j @ 1:29:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
ADSLGuide is reporting that BT Retails BT 'No Frills' Broadband ADSL service has had its activation fee cut in half.

The package now costs just £30.00 (inc. VAT) to activate rather than £60, although you have to choose your own hardware.

PlusNET Offers ISDN To ADSL Upgrade

By:mark.j @ 1:26:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
Popular UK unmetered dialup and broadband ADSL offering ISP PlusNET has today issued a new press release designed to remind any potential or existing customers of their ISDN to ADSL upgrade service:

ISDN upgrade to broadband made easy with PlusNet

PlusNet offer Home and Office Highway users the benefits of broadband

PlusNet, the first choice for low-cost and high-value Internet connections have today reminded ISDN users that a simple, hassle-free upgrade to high-speed, always-on broadband is now available.

The new simplified and automated ordering system means that a single order is placed with PlusNet, with the entire conversion process and subsequent activation of the customer's ADSL service being carried out by them.

If for any technical reason the conversion fails, BT will now convert the line back to the original ISDN service at no cost to the end user. Only upon successful line conversion is the customer charged BT's £27.99 inc VAT administrative cost.

"Line conversions have been made so much simpler with PlusNet's new ordering system," explained Alistair Wyse, Technical Director of PlusNet. "Those currently using ISDN can now order ADSL with confidence, understanding that should the conversion not go ahead they will not be out of pocket."

The simple upgrade process applies to both Home and Office Highway versions of ISDN, as well as ISDN2. This comes as great news to users of these services who want to take advantage of PlusNet's lowest-cost 'Starter Packs' that were introduced last week.

Everything you need to get started with ADSL is included in your Broadband Starter Pack - line activation, choice of internal modem, external modem or router, 2 splitters, an easy-to-follow setup guide and delivery. With prices starting from only £85.10 for your Starter Pack and £17.86 per month for your subscription (prices exclude VAT), you simply can't get better value.

Come and see us at http://www.plus.net and join the broadband revolution today!

BTs New ADSL Demand Levels

By:mark.j @ 1:21:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
BTWholesale has today issued a new press release announcing the demand (pre-registration / trigger) levels needed to bring broadband ADSL to 169 more exchanges!:

BT ANNOUNCES DEMAND LEVELS NEEDED TO BRING ADSL BROADBAND TO 169 MORE EXCHANGES

BT Wholesale today announced broadband registration trigger levels for a further 169 exchanges, setting demand levels at which ADSL would be provided.

The cost-based demand levels have been set at between 200 and 500 customer registrations. The ADSL broadband availability checker on the http://www.bt.com/broadband website will be updated to show the new trigger levels this Saturday, August 24, as part of the regular website update.

BT Wholesale director broadband, Bruce Stanford, said: "The launch of our broadband registration scheme in July gave people a direct influence on our rollout programme by registering demand against their local exchange. We're looking forward to seeing the first exchanges reach their trigger levels so we can provide ADSL services where true demand has been identified through this scheme."

Since the beginning of July more than 47,000 individual lines have been registered via service providers, showing the strength of the scheme which is helping BT Wholesale to roll out ADSL on a demand-led commercial basis.

For a further 74 exchanges the detailed review of costs has concluded that demand trigger levels based on current costs would not realistically be met given the number of lines served. BT Wholesale is not setting trigger levels at this time but is investigating how to reduce the cost of enabling these exchanges and is looking at different methods of delivering broadband to these areas.

BT is pursuing alternative technical and commercial solutions for areas where demand for Broadband ADSL does not balance with the cost of upgrading the exchange. These include trials of satellite and wireless services and a number of joint public and private sector funding initiatives.

Demand at these and all other exchanges where ADSL is not currently available will continue to be tracked through the broadband registration scheme.

BT Wholesale has now reviewed costs at 669 exchanges, setting trigger levels for 595 exchanges. Work continues to identify the individual costs of providing ADSL broadband service at a further 231 exchanges. The results of this review are due to be announced by the end of September 2002.

As registrations progress, as well as being able to check if their exchange has been enabled for ADSL, customers can use the bt.com/broadband website to see if a trigger level has been set and the level of demand currently registered against that exchange.

Anybody wanting to sign up for ADSL broadband services should register through a service provider who will in turn feed numbers into a central BT Wholesale database. Details of all ADSL service providers and a list of those taking part in the registration scheme are available at www.bt.com/broadband which has links to the service providers' web-sites.


Let’s hope that the latest batch of reviewed exchanges don't suffer from BTs famed 'ridiculously-high-trigger-level-itus'.

Labour Demands E-Mail Porn Action

By:mark.j @ 9:35:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
If you're done miss-reading the title (tehehe) then you might like to know that Labour MP Derek Wyatt has called for stricter controls on UK ISPs to help prevent the flow of unsolicited pornographic emails.

Mr.Wyatt has a rather narrow belief that ISPs should be made responsible for any unsolicited emails received by their subscribers from pornography sites, which is almost impossible to prevent:

"The amount of porn I get on a daily basis and the amount my children get is outrageous. It's so explicit and has put my children off using the internet" said Mr Wyatt, who also sits on the select committee for culture, media and sport.

His efforts to have the issue debated in parliament had been hampered up to now, added Mr Wyatt, meaning it was impossible to move things forward.

While it may not prove practical to fine ISPs, they should at the very least be forced to sign up to a charter of best practice, Mr Wyatt believes. "At the moment, they're getting away with it and there's not the will to change," he said.


The MediaGuardian highlights a perfect example of just how poorly informed some MPs can be about technology. To date the only 100% effective way of preventing SPAM is by not having an E-Mail address.

Certainly more needs to be done, although we'd challenge Mr.Wyatt to elaborate on how he believes ISPs could realistically be made to block all such material.

Internet Servers Not Secure

By:mark.j @ 8:44:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
A new survey by UK research firm Netcraft has found that system admins for ISPs and web hosts are quick to upgrade their web servers to fix new vulnerabilities.

Unfortunately they've been far too slow to do the same with those used for e-commerce and encryption:

The survey found that almost half of the 22 million monitored sites using Apache software for serving Web pages had been upgraded to version 1.3.26, which fixes a recently publicised vulnerability. But only one quarter of Apache sites using Secure Socket Layer (SSL), which creates the encrypted communications channel typically used for e-commerce, have been updated to this version.

The situation should cause concern, Netcraft said, in light of the discovery of several vulnerabilities in OpenSSL, which can allow an attacker to execute code on a server. "Most sites using Apache for encrypted transactions and e-commerce will be vulnerable to the attack," said Netcraft director Mike Prettejohn in a statement.

Last month, a series of bugs in Microsoft Internet Information Server, Microsoft Commerce Server and Apache led Prettejohn to remark that the Web was more open to attack than ever before. While he called the situation more an incident than a trend, sluggishness to patch the affected servers along with new bugs has kept the window of danger open, Prettejohn said.


We've seen some complaints about such things ourselves and not upgrading to patch such vulnerabilities is close to extreme negligence. More @ ZDNet.

KPN Writes Off Hutchison 3G UK Stake

By:mark.j @ 8:38:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
Hutchison3G UK appears to have avoided a possible write-down after Royal KPN NV's 1.2Billion Euro second quarter write-off on its 15% stake in the operator:

Yesterday, KPN CEO Ad Scheepbouwer added that the company is not ruling out disposing of the Hutchison 3G stake. "We are deeply disappointed" that KPN "no longer considers its investment in Hutchison 3G UK to be a strategic participation," Hutchison said.

"We can only conclude that the decision reflects a reversal in strategy by their new management team," Hutchison said.

Hutchison said KPN's decision to write down its investment in the 3G business does not reflect "in any way on the appropriate valuation of the business as a going concern under our group's management and sponsorship."


More @ Ananova.

European Internet Use Falls - June 2002

By:mark.j @ 8:34:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
Internet use within Europe fell during June 2002 according to the latest statistics from research group NetValue:

During June, 8.45m people in Italy went online, up from 8.03 million in May. Approximately 18m people in Germany went online in June, up slightly from 17.7m from the previous month. In the UK, 15.7m people went online, down from 16m in May, while the number of internet users in France dropped from 12.2m in May to 11.8m in June. Meanwhile the number of internet users online in Spain, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway remained the same as the previous month .

MSN was the most popular domain in Spain, the UK and Sweden during June. Denmark's jubii.dk attracted 50.7 per cent of users and in Germany t-online.de attracted 58.1 per cent of users. The most popular domains in Italy and France were iot.it and wanadoo.fr with 58.5 per cent and 58.1 per cent respectively. Starsiden.no was Norway's most popular domian, drawing in 48.5 per cent of users in June.


Strange, not least because of the growing number of UK broadband connections actually causing people to spend longer online rather than less. More @ Europemedia.

Gov Won't Relax 3G Licence Conditions

By:mark.j @ 8:26:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
Despite the growing number of problems being experienced by 3G (UTMS) broadband wireless mobile phone operators, the UK government has still refused to relax the licence conditions:

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) still believes there is no need to change the terms of the five UK 3G licences that were auctioned off in April 2000. Contrary to some observers, the DTI thinks that 3G will be a success.

"All of the UK operators are proceeding with rollout of their 3G networks and we expect that UK consumers will be among first in the world to benefit from 3G services. The auction process brought a new entrant into the market, which will bring benefits to customers through increased competition and innovative services," a DTI spokesman told ZDNet UK.

Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile, mmO2 and Hutchison 3G all own UK 3G licences that last until 2021, having spent a total of £22.5bn in the April 200 auction. The conditions of these licences dictate that each operator must have built a 3G network covering 80 percent of the UK population by 31 December, 2007.


Apparently some operators have been lobbying for the DTI to either return some of their investment, extend the licenses lifetime or relax rollout conditions.

Unfortunately the government could face legal action from those that failed to win a license should it relax any aspect of the conditions. More @ ZDNet.

First Direct Offers Cheap BTO ADSL

By:mark.j @ 8:19:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
We've already reported on how First Direct is offering its banking customers a cheaper version of BTOpenworlds broadband ADSL service, some weeks on and we've finally been sent an official press release:

FIRST DIRECT OFFERS CUSTOMERS DISCOUNT ON BT OPENWORLD BROADBAND

first direct, the telephone and internet bank, is offering its 1 million customers discount broadband access, provided by BT Openworld at £27.49 per user, per month. This special rate offered by first direct represents a £2.50 discount per month. The initiative is expected to generate 25,000 users within 12 months.

The offer is part of first direct’s ‘advanced internet banking’ campaign. This will initially target 100,000 customers who have been identified as keen adopters of new technology and who live in broadband-enabled areas.

first direct regards broadband access for customers as central to the future development of internet banking for its customers. The agreement with BT Openworld gives first direct account holders access to one of the most advanced and comprehensive range of internet services available, via its broadband network.

A national marketing campaign from BT Openworld and first direct includes a competition for 100 people to win free broadband access for a year.

Duncan Ingram, senior vice-president at BT Openworld, said: “This strategic partnership with first direct is a great way to maximise the potential of the internet for online banking customers. The broadband deal will bring ongoing benefits to first direct’s customers. Faster account access is only the tip of the iceberg.

Alan Hughes, Chief Executive at first direct, said: “first direct customers, by definition, seek convenience. They know what they want and they want it fast. Broadband access can help them find what they need quicker than ever – and thanks to our deal with BT Openworld they can save money at the same time.

NTL Protest Site & Libel Allegations

By:mark.j @ 8:15:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
Apparently NTLs newly acquired consumer portal nthellworld is at odds with a rival site, ntlhell, over some supposedly libellous comments concerning those behind its nthellworld site:

Last month, one of those behind the NTL-owned nthellworld.com site wrote to the host of ntlhell.co.uk's forums alleging that they contained "libelous comments" about two people and the nthellworld Web site.

The complainant called on the forum host to "review [its] T&Cs as to whether the person who owns this account is breaching them, and decide whether [it is] going to do something about the content of the site."

The forum host replied asking for "specific links to posts which you consider are libelous towards yourself, so that I can request that such posts are removed from the site." However, despite an extended exchange of emails it seems the host of the ntlhell.co.uk forums remains unconvinced that the site contains anything that is defamatory.


For those with a short memory, ntlhell was setup after NTL purchased nthellworld because it was feared that the cable company would try to gap the site. More @ The Register.

News - August 20,2002

SurfAnyTime ISP Updates Usage Policy

By:mark.j @ 2:26:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
The unmetered dialup and broadband ADSL offering UK ISP SurfAnyTime (SAT), has apparently been forced into updating its fair usage policy due to abuse, which has resulted in the ISP limiting surfing hours:

Important changes to your 24/7 package.

Please take this as notice of the change in terms and conditions applicable to your service.

As a Company, we aim to provide a quality of service to our customers that can be rivaled by none and that is accessible to all those who subscribe to the services offered. As a SurfAnytime user you will be aware that since June, we have offered unmatched levels of connectivity, speeds of connection and general service.

We pride ourselves in our both our unrivalled Customer Services team and the fact that we do actually listen to our customers – a point we believe was demonstrated when we agreed to increase our upper usage guideline to 400 hours.

However we are sorry to report that, due to the excessively long time some of our users spend on-line, our ability to continue offering this level of service to all our members is under threat.

What we offer is a contended or shared service. Unfortunately it appears that a small number of users do not respect this, and are regularly using their connection equivalent to an always-on solution. This is not an always-on product; it is a contended, ‘dial-up’ product, which is currently running at around 6:1, not the advertised
10:1

Having spoken with some of you about this, we believe it is the opinion of 95% of our members that we should strive to maintain a high level of service for the majority of our users and should not accommodate the excessive use which threatens this.

To this effect, we have been forced to adopt a more realistic Fair Usage Policy, which we believe, will benefit the majority of our users. Whilst we have no wish to lose any of our valued customers, we cannot possibly continue to cater for those whose usage we believe to be detrimental to the service as a whole.

In order to ensure that we are able to maintain this level of service, from 01st September 2002, the following Fair Usage Policy will be implemented to existing Customers:

Diamond 24/7
Upper Usage Guideline: 200 hours /month

Diamond Plus: 24/7
Upper Usage Guideline: 250 hours /month

Business: 06:00 – 19:00 (7 days)
Upper Usage Guideline: 400 hours /month

With immediate effect, all new customers will have an AUP as above. We also ask that all members try to maintain their usage below 10 hours per day on average. This will ensure that all others are able to maintain the service they currently receive from us.

We will monitor all usage on a regular basis and users who choose not to observe this request may be offered a package which will be more suited to their requirements.

Obviously this will not be relevant to most of you and while we very much regret having to take this action, we are sure that most of you are in support of this.

If you have any comments on this action, please feel free to feed them to us by emailing customer.services@surfanytime.net


Not surprisingly a number of customers are less than pleased that SurfAnyTime has chosen to alter the whole service rather than boot those causing the problems.

Unfortunately this area is often very difficult to manage, yet potential customers often shy away from ISPs that change their services in such a way. Sadly too few services seem get it right from day one.

EcosseTel ISP Suffers E-Mail Outage

By:mark.j @ 2:16:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
The UK ISP and Telco EcosseTel Internet Ltd. has just informed us of a serious E-Mail service outage on their servers:

EcosseTel Internet are experiencing an email outage on their main ecossetel.com email server. The fault occurred late yesterday afternoon (19th) and it is hoped to have everything back on line today.

The fault was caused by our email server being physically moved at the hosting company we use and the DNS and IP addresses being changed. We were told the procedure would only take a couple of hours and the services would be unaffected (!!!)

Even our main admin address is down. If you need to contact EcosseTel urgently - not just to complain about the email - we know about that, use admin@ecossetel.co.uk

Energis Wins New IP & VPN Deals

By:mark.j @ 2:11:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
Energis, a recovering UK network and ISP supplier, has announced confirmation of three new lucrative contracts.

The group will now be supplying WH Smith News, DHL and the Crown Prosecution Service with Internet Protocol (IP) and Virtual Private Network (VPN) services, all of which is worth a cool £16Million:

The company has signed a £12m deal with Logica to provide an IP VPN that will link up the Crown Prosecution Service's main sites onto one secure network.

The network will underpin a new case management system, which will allow employees to share documents electronically.

For WH Smith News, Energis will link 53 UK distribution centres, its head office and other sites onto one secure network via an IP VPN.


More @ VNUNet.

BTClick Changes E-Mail - No Warning

By:mark.j @ 2:08:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
Several of our readers have reported that BT neglected to inform them of a major domain change to their BTClick E-Mail addresses, which have now become @btconnect.com instead:

BT have changed mail servers and have changed my address without warning to @btconnect.com.

Not a major problem you may think, but they have changed it without telling me, so now I have to let every one know the address has changed and any mail sent to the old address will be returned to the sender, any stationery, business cards can now go in the bin and have to be reprinted all at my own expense as BT say that are not liable for any cost's.


We had reported on a possible change several months ago, although clearly BT didn't get the message to everybody in time.

EU To Log All Internet Activity For 2 Years

By:mark.j @ 2:02:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
Having previously rejected plans to force ISPs into logging Internet activity for a period of seven years, today the European Union (EU) has today taken a step back to the same template.

Statewatch, a UK civil liberties group, reports to have seen leaked documents that highlight the EUs plans to log an individuals Internet use, e-mails and phone call activity for up to 2 years!:

Statewatch, though, says it has seen a copy of a binding "Framework Decision" that is currently being worked on by some EU governments. The framework decision, which could be voted into law next month, would force all governments to bring in laws that would compel communications firms to retain all traffic data for between 12 and 24 months.

As ZDNet UK reported earlier this year, it has been rumoured for some time that EU governments were secretly working on such changes.

"EU governments claimed that changes to the 1997 EC Directive on privacy in telecommunications to allow for data retention and access by the law enforcement agencies would not be binding on Member States -- each national parliament would have to decide. Now we know that all along they were intending to make it binding, 'compulsory', across Europe," said Tony Bunyan, editor of Statewatch, in a statement.


The good news is that police would still need to obtain a judicial order before gaining access to the data, yet ZDNet notes that this has been sidestepped before (*cough* early UK RIP Law *cough*).

Top 10 Fastest ADSL ISPs - July 2002

By:mark.j @ 9:13:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
ADSLGuide has done it again, this time they've released the Top 10 ISP results from their online Speed Tester system for July 2002 and it looks as if Clara.net topped the lot:

Rank - ISP
1 - Clara.net
2 - Zen Internet
3 - One.Tel
4 - Nildram
5 - Andrews & Arnold
5 - Demon
5 - Freeserve
8 - Eclipse Internet
9 - BTOpenworld
10 - Mailbox Internet

Gov Stalls Wireless Broadband Plans

By:mark.j @ 8:50:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
Apparently certain regulatory rules imposed by the government are making it difficult for an innovative broadband wireless LAN service to be launched in rural areas.

Ray Bellis, technical director of ISP Community Internet, is investigating setting up broadband access in the rural Oxfordshire village he lives in using wireless LANS.

While the technology is straightforward, and Bellis reckons the service could be profitable with just 50 users - far less than the 100s commonly quoted by BT before it will outfit rural exchange with DSL - he is struggling to overcome what he sees as a major regulatory hurdle.

In letterGuy Kewney's Mobile Campaign, Bellis explains: "As an ISP we operate under the Telecommunications Services Licence which is a class licence that applies to everybody. However, under the current legislation it appears that to provide services to more than 20 end-users using "self-provided links" we must apply for an individual Public Telecommunications Operators (PTO) Licence."


The Register goes on to quote Bellis as stating that the process would take months to resolve and cost at least £40,000 in legal fees!

Thankfully the current regulations will be abolished next July thanks to the new EU directive 2002/20/EC, yet until then there's little that can be done.

Freecom ISP Gains Tele.com Users

By:mark.j @ 8:39:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
Owned by Intelliplus and understood to be one of the UKs largest dedicated SME ISPs, Freecom.net has just acquired the ISP customer base of PNC-owned Tele.com for an undisclosed sum:

The deal will enable Intelliplus to transfer the division's 400 clients to its business ISP Freecom.net, which will exceed 8,000 SME accounts following the deal. PNC's clients are all on rolling contracts for web hosting and related services.

Intelliplus executive chairman Mike Neville said: "The acquisition of PNC's internet customers marks a major step in the expansion of our presence in the web-hosting arena. All of these new customers will be immediately integrated into Freecom's nation-wide customer base."


More @ netimperative.info .

News - August 19,2002

EasyInternetCafe Still Refusing To Pay

By:mark.j @ 2:57:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
The EasyInternetCafe chain is still refusing to pay the British Music Industry (BMI) £100,000 for any damages caused by music piracy in their Internet Cafes:

EasyInternetCafe has offered the recording industry £50,000 in compensation for allowing customers to illegally burn music onto CDs in its stores.

The offer was made to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) last week, and comes after the Internet café chain refused to pay a £100,000 fine to the British Phonographic Industry (BPI).

As ZDNet UK reported earlier this month, EasyInternetCafe had been set a deadline of 14 August to pay £100,000 to the BPI or risk being taken to court. This deadline has now passed without settlement.


ZDNet notes that the offer by EasyInternetCafe of £50,000 is up from their previous suggestion of £26,000, yet nobody seems to care about apprehending those that actually did the copying.

F2S ISP Boosts Broadband Infrastructure

By:mark.j @ 2:17:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
Freedom2Surf (F2S), which is currently one of the cheaper broadband ADSL offering UK ISPs, has today announced a boost to its infrastructure for 20,000 new broadband subscribers:

Freedom2Surf boosts infrastructure for 20,000 new broadband subscribers

Freedom2Surf Plc, the UK's leading independent ISP, has today announced that it has completed a major upgrade of its broadband network, which will allow it to take on up to 20,000 new ADSL subscribers.

In February 2002, Freedom2Surf was one of the first ISPs to reduce the cost of ADSL broadband access to just £22.50 a month. Freedom2Surf has since witnessed a huge increase in demand for broadband from both home and business users, especially for its 'Pure Broadband' Self-Install ADSL package.

Chris Panayis, Managing Director of Freedom2Surf commented, "ADSL Broadband has finally become a mainstream consumer product and we predict increasing demand for high-speed, always-on connections in the coming months. The investment Freedom2Surf has made in additional broadband capacity, will allow us to increase our subscriber base, while at the same time maintaining the high levels of performance, reliability and service our customers expect from their broadband connection."

The upgrade will also allow Freedom2Surf to maintain its high response or 'ping rates' when used by real time applications, in activities like online gaming and trading. Freedom2Surf broadband customers will also be able to use their connection for high-speed Peer-to-Peer (P2P) networking.

Freedom2Surf's Self-Install ADSL service is available in the following packages:

- 512K, 50:1, Pay As You Go Monthly package: £59.99 setup, £22.50 per month including VAT for home users. (£22.50 + VAT for business customers)
- 512K, 20:1, £59.99 setup, £180 per quarter (+ VAT)
- 1Mb, 20:1, £59.99 setup, £285 per quarter (+ VAT)
- 2Mb, 20:1, £59.99 setup, £420 per quarter (+ VAT)

The Pure Broadband package has been designed to give ADSL users the control and the freedom to get the most out of their broadband connection. The service features a static IP address without any port blocking or transparent cache software, giving users an unrestricted Internet experience. The Freedom2Surf package includes telephone and email support as standard, as well as 20Mb of webspace, 5Mb of database space and up to 20 email addresses.

Customers can subscribe to Pure Broadband by visiting http://www.freedom2surf.net

PlusNET Upgrades Customer Support

By:mark.j @ 2:10:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]
Popular UK dialup and broadband offering ISP PlusNET has today announced some improvements to their customer support department. Full press release follows:

Customer Care always the focus at PlusNet

PlusNet, the first choice for low-cost and high-value Internet connections, have this week restructured their Customer Support Centre operation with the sole aim being to improve still further the levels of quality service that PlusNet are well known for.

Management and quality of service monitoring systems have been upgraded and further evolved within PlusNet's support centre, to both facilitate improved efficiency and increase the focus in key areas of Customer Care enquiries and Technical Support.

"Through establishing a new dedicated team whose personal skills lie in customer care, we are now better able to handle concurrent technical and customer service issues," explained Alistair Wyse, Technical Director for PlusNet Technologies Ltd.

Referring to the recent change in 'mix' of support demanded by PlusNet's outstanding success with broadband access he said, "We are pleased to say the results have been immediately noticeable, getting us back to the levels of service our customers have come to expect of PlusNet. The new operating structure ensures that we can maintain a high level of technical support at all times."

PlusNet's new Customer Care team are focused on dealing with customer account related issues such as billing, administrative discrepancies and product and service information handling. The addition of highly-focussed resources enables customers who require technical support to speak to the right person first time.

Through delivering high levels of customer self-service and control, backed up with industry leading quality of customer support, PlusNet now deliver the lowest level of ADSL faults of any major ISP in the UK. * source BT Ignite

If you haven't yet joined the broadband revolution you can do so now at http://www.plus.net

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