Welcome to our News Archives page

June 26, 2002 - July 1, 2002

News - July 1,2002

UK Broadband Still Falls Short

By:mark.j @ 3:33:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Despite the fast and growing uptake of various broadband services, new research by NetValue has found that the UK is still trailing most of its EU neighbours.

The nation ranks sixth among seven Western European countries in terms of household broadband penetration, after Denmark, Germany, France, Spain, and Norway, with Italy in last place, NetValue said on Monday.

According to NetValue, 6.1% of households have broadband connections. The leader, Denmark, measures 24.5% penetration, while Germany clocks in at 15.4%.

The country is beginning to show signs of catching up though. In April, telecoms giant BT instituted reduced wholesale broadband rates, enabling ISPs Freeserve and AOL to drop the retail price by as much as 25%.

As a result, consumer uptake for broadband services more than doubled from 2.6% to 6.1% between December and the end of May, NetValue said. The report added France, Germany and Spain still have more than twice as many households with broadband connections.

Has Wanadoo Bid For Tiscali?

By:mark.j @ 3:31:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The France based company behind UK ISP Freeserve, Wanadoo, has been reported to be interested in making a bid for pan-European and Italy based ISP Tiscali. However today Tiscali has denied having any links with the French group:

Wanadoo, which owns Freeserve, has considerably broadened its scope since its IPO in 2000, with its business now encompassing portals, e-commerce and directories. In two years it has achieved five-fold growth in page impressions. Its main website will reopen for business on Wednesday.

Seperately, Wanadoo has been linked with a potential bid for rival Tiscali, according to the Financial Times. The Italian ISP, which is aiming for profitability by the year-end despite rumours of a cash crunch, said it had no contacts with Wanadoo regarding a prospective sale.


The netimperative.info item reports that this comes at a time when Wanadoo has just launched a major effort to advertise and raise brand awareness.

UK Online Shopping Grows - May

By:mark.j @ 3:31:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Yet another survey has concluded that there has been a strong rise in online UK retail sales since last month:

Industry body the Interactive Media in Retail Group say May was the best month since December.

It says member sales leapt 10% last month. It estimates total market value at £507 million.

Majestic Wines was one of the survey participants to record a successful month online. Managing director Jeremy Palmer noted "a dramatic uplift" in orders, contributing to on-year growth of 92%.


More @ Ananova.

ISPr Server Back To Normal

By:mark.j @ 2:05:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Our 'Reader Top ISPs' system has been reset and the server-side E-Mail fixed, so you should now be able to cast and have your votes counted once again.

We've also fixed HTML compression on the same system (Top ISPs), the forums and the view individual news item features. In other words ISP Review should be almost 100% back to normal and we can now carry on with normal work.

Thanks again for being so patient.

SAT ISP Launches Unmetered 128 ISDN

By:mark.j @ 8:52:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

UPDATE: One of our readers (Simon) spotted the usage limit for the DIAMON PLUS package, which is a cool 400Hours per month and seems excessive given the comparatively small fee for two 64Kbps channels.

SurfAnyTime, the popular UK ISP, has today informed us of their newly launched unmetered 128Kbps ISDN dialup packages:

SurfAnytime Ltd., one of the UK's fastest growing ISP's, is proud to announce the launch of their new range of flat-rate digital ISDN 128k packages. This long awaited premium range has now been made available to the general public.

Until recently, demanding users who were unable to access a broadband connection had to struggle with a 64k ISDN connection. Our new range of ISDN packages is tailored to suit most users and unlike broadband, should be available to around 95% of the UK population and will enable 24/7 access to the internet for a flat monthly fee. All the ISDN packages have fantastic newsfeed, unlimited POP3 addresses, webmail and free email support with an online Helpdesk tracking system

DIAMOND PLUS - our premium 24/7 package which at £34.99 offers 75MB of webspace, a 10:1 contention ratio, a 4 hour cut-off and a 20 minute inactivity cut-off, should be popular amongst the serious gamer.
DIAMOND - available at £29.99 this 24/7 package also has 10:1 contention ratio, but differs from Diamond Plus in that the webspace available is 50MB and that the cut-off is after 2 hours with a 10 minute inactivity cut-off
BUSINESS - priced at £34.99, this package is available between the hours of 08:00 - 18:00 and offers 100MB webspace, a four-hour cut-off (20 minute inactivity cut-off) with a contention ratio of 8:1.

SurfAnytime has come a long way in a short period of time and represents one of the few success stories of the UK Internet market. We have done so, not by heavy advertising campaigns, but simply by the support of a loyal customer base. Individuals or companies who have recognised that we do try to provide much more than just the ability to browse the Internet - that's something that makes SurfAnytime so different. We readily acknowledge this loyalty.

. Our vision has always been, and will remain so, to provide a full range of services at affordable and fair prices, where our customers are allowed to maintain their own individual identity. We clearly have no wish to be the largest, but would like be regarded as one of the best

Our ISDN packages will be offered strictly on a first come, first served basis. To register for any of our packages, please visit our website at www.surfanytime.net


Unfortunately there’s no mention of usage limits, although economics dictate that it’d stand up to average daily usage, although may suffer under heavier kinds.

One Billion PCs Sold World-Wide

By:mark.j @ 8:44:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

A new study by analyst group Gartner has found that the one billionth PC (Personal Computer) has just been sold. Apparently 75% have gone to the workplace and 25% to homes, all in the last 25 years:

Gartner predicts it will take a fraction of the time to reach the next billion, estimating that PC shipments will double as early as 2007.

The commercial PC dates back to the introduction of the Altair 8800 in 1975. It wasn't until the introduction of the IBM PC - and its copycats - running Microsoft's disk operating system (MS-DOS) in the early 1980s, however, that sales of personal computers began to grow significantly.

The Gartner report reveals that the US is the biggest consumer of PC technology, accounting for 38.8 per cent of all machines sold. Europe accounts for around 25 per cent with just fewer than 12 per cent going to Asia-Pacific.


The Silicon item notes that the one billionth PC was sold during April of this year.

News - June 30,2002

ISP Review Weekly Update

By:mark.j @ 9:47:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

We've had to deal with a lot of problems following our switch to the new server through Wednesday and Thursday of last week. Unfortunately many of these may still exist until the end of next week, such things take time.

Firstly we're still picking up E-Mail based on the old servers relay as the new one hasn't yet propagated with the domain, this is mainly due to playing things safe and don't worry, we still get your messages.

This could also be the reason why automated server-side outbound messages from our 'Forum' or 'Reader Top ISPs' systems aren't getting sent and thus rendering some features and services unworkable, for now. A few perl/cgi modules are also still missing, although most are now accounted for.

Thankfully there's also some good news, we got our article on BT 'No Frills' Broadband online and also got the near final beta code for 'Reader ISP Reviews' installed on the server. Unfortunately it's hard to test until server-side E-Mail is working.

Finally I'll be off on vacation from the week after next, although I'm not physically going away until 14th July, so no changes to ISPr until then. We should have everything running as normal again before that time, fingers crossed.

BT Launch New ADSL Demand Checker

By:mark.j @ 9:26:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

A day ahead of its official launch and ADSLGuide has kindly informed us that the general public can now access BTs new broadband ADSL checker, which shows demand for specific exchanges.

The trigger level of enabling an exchange would require between 200 and 500 pre-orders as per the original announcement. More details can be found HERE, or go directly to BTs broadband page HERE and use the checker.

Not surprisingly we chose to run a check on our local exchange, sadly the result wasn't good and indeed we felt it did little to improve over the old system. Seems too much like window dressing for a more political agenda designed to deflect criticism:

The checker indicates that Broadband is not currently available in your area.

Your exchange is either one where a review is ongoing or is one of 400 new sites that are also now being reviewed. From the detailed review completed so far, BT has concluded that enabling your exchange would not seem viable without further knowledge of possible demand.

We have now introduced a pre-registration scheme to enable potential customers to register their interest, through their Service Provider. In this way the local demand will become clear and will influence our roll-out programme. The review on your exchange will result in an end user trigger level being set, based on a certain number of people in your area placing an advance order. The trigger level of your exchange will be published when it is available, and will be before the end of September 2002. When this trigger level of advance orders is achieved the exchange will be enabled.

For more information regarding pre-registration and to monitor progress please click here

If Broadband were available in your area, a preliminary check on your line suggests you should be able to place an order for Broadband services.

Thank you for your interest.


We do like the way the second paragraph suggests that a 'detailed review' has been conducted, only to contradict itself by sighting a lack of knowledge. Yes very helpful - not.

News - June 29,2002

Reader Top ISPs System Not Working

By:mark.j @ 10:07:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Just to let you know that the 'Reader Top ISPs' system hasn't been working for the past few days and we've only just noticed. It appears to be because the server’s sendmail service hasn't been properly installed, we’ve notified the host admin.

Don't bother trying to vote again until we say it's working, thanks for your patience.

Opera Web Browser v6.04 Final

By:mark.j @ 9:47:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The popular commercial web browser alternative to Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE), Opera, has issued the final version of its latest minor update - v6.04.

Download non-Java Release

Download Java Release

Note that this isn't officially up on Opera's website yet since it's only just out of beta.

Barclay Knapp Still To Head NTL

By:mark.j @ 9:28:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Many had thought that NTL's CEO, Barclay Knapp, would soon be replaced following all the recent problems, however it was not to be.

Instead Mr Knapp will be heading the restructured company once it emerges from Chapter 11:

In a statement Brad Eric Scheler, of NTL's creditors' committee said: During this process we have been working closely with Barclay Knapp and know him well.

His determination to ensure that NTL continues to prosper and grow is evident in everything he does and we are confident that he is the right man to lead the company going forward.

NTL's management team has performed admirably throughout this difficult process, and we believe they will deliver great things for NTL's future.
"


Some shareholders and customers may lack the same level of compassion shown above, more @ The Register.

ex-CWC Areas Get Broadband Without TV

By:mark.j @ 9:24:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

A new standalone broadband cable modem product is to be trialled by ntl:home in ex-CWC franchises. DigitalSpy has the following news:

The broadband team sent us the following statement: "Some of our customers have asked that we sell our award winning Internet product to them without the need to subscribe to our other services. As part of our ongoing commitment to give all out customers the service that they want, at the best price, we hope to make this service available from the autumn. In X-CWC areas, this means that we will be introducing our Standalone Cable Modem Product - giving the customers the choice of taking ntl:home's High Speed Broadband Internet without our Digital TV.

Anybody interested in taking part in the Trial can email trials@ntlworld.com. The trials team will then contact them. Please note people who already have STB Broadband will not be eligible for the Cable Modem trial.
"

News - June 28,2002

BBC Unimpressed With BTOs ADSL

By:mark.j @ 3:11:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Mike Smartt, a BBC Online news editor, has today written of his less than colourful experiences with getting ADSL by subscribing to BTOpenworld.

Unfortunately he found that BTO didn't live up to the advertising hype, which suggests.., "an exhilarating new world of connectivity.". Instead Mr Smartt refers to his experience as being more like, "a horse and cart going uphill backwards.":

A couple of weeks later my plug-and-go kit arrived. But nothing happened at the exchange.

The order had been cancelled, explained BT. Not by me, I told them. A new date was arranged. It too came and went and still no broadband. The order had been cancelled, they said. Not by me, I told them again.

"Ah, sorry," said the nice Scottish call-centre lady. "Our computer keeps doing that, cancelling orders for no apparent reason. I'll give you a ring every day until we have a new date." No call ever came.


The article itself is too long to easily summarise, instead you should read it HERE.

Nominet & ISPs To Clean Up Domains

By:mark.j @ 2:54:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The national UK domain name Registry, Nominet UK, is to ask all UK ISPs and hosting providers to update their records for registrations made before 1 August 1996 and notify it of any changes. Remaining press release follows:

This is the first stage of a project to clean up the .uk register database, with a view to moving all registrants on to Nominet's standard terms and conditions. There are currently around 26,000 domain names that were registered before Nominet came into existence, but their registrants have not paid a registration fee and therefore do not have the protection of a contract with Nominet. In addition, the details do not appear on the Nominet WHOIS.

"We suspect that many of these domain names are not being used and may well no longer be required," explained Lesley Cowley, Nominet UK's managing director. "However, for those that are, we need ISPs to help ensure that all the details are correct so that we can clean up the register database at the same time as giving those who want to retain their domain names equality with other .uk registrants."

Once the information has been updated, Nominet will contact all those affected. Those who confirm that they wish to retain the domain name will receive the standard Nominet contract and certificate but, as a goodwill gesture, they will not be asked to pay the Nominet registration fee for the first two years of the contract. Any unclaimed pre-Nominet domain names will be withdrawn from service and - unless a registrant emerges within three months - eventually cancelled.

For more information, see the web site at www.nominet.org.uk/ref/prenominet.html

BT Trials Mesh Broadband V-o-D

By:mark.j @ 2:49:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Yes Television (YT) has teamed up with BT to trial broadband video-on-demand services at their employees' homes in South Wales:

Under a scheme announced today, BT's Wholesale arm will use mesh radio technology - which works by installing small antennae on houses and office buildings and running transmissions between them, rather than through a typical point-to-multipoint system - to trial a video-on-demand service to around 100 households near Pontypridd.

To support the trial, Yes Television, which has already partnered with the telco for broadband projects in its hometown of Cardiff and South West London, will deploy its video-on-demand software engine, and music and video content from its Yes Media division.

Video-on-demand, which allows users to view, fast forward and rewind programmes as they wish, was chosen as the core content in order to test the network to the full, but Yes said that high-speed internet services were likely to be added as the trial progresses.


The netimperative.info item reports that the project will cover some 80 square kms around Pontypridd, Llantrisant, Beddau, Newtown Llantwit and villages in the surrounding area.

MSN Launch Music Channel

By:mark.j @ 2:44:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

MSN UK, Microsoft’s unmetered dialup ISP and portal, has today announced the introduction of a new music channel:

The MSN Music Channel offers webchats, streamed music videos and internet radio and reviews.

The Ananova item reports that the free trial will last three months, at the end of which you'll be charged the standard £4.99 per month rate to access 25 tracks. Additional songs will be priced at 99p a time.

Your Rights As A Telephone Customer

By:mark.j @ 2:41:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Oftel has uploaded an interesting new publication HERE, which covers the consumers various rights as a telephone customer:

The leaflet explains:

* your rights as a telephone customer;
* what you should do if you have a complaint; and
* where you can find information to help you choose a telephone company.

Freedom2Surf Explains ADSL Delays

By:mark.j @ 9:02:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The Freedom2Support website has let us know of an update from Freedom2Surf. The ISP had been having some problems with delays related to the installation of their new ADSL Central pipe:

As you may be aware freedom2surf has been experiencing some difficulties while it waits for a major upgrade of its capacity with the installation of a STM4 pipe. On 28 February 2002, freedom2surf placed an order with BT for the installation of the new pipe. freedom2surf signed a contract with BT which required us to provide funds for the new pipe in advance at a cost of many tens of thousands of pounds. freedom2surf has been placing pressure on BT on a daily basis and has pursued all avenues open to it to secure a date from BT for the new pipe to be installed. We have received repeated assurances that the installation is imminent, but these assurances have not been met.

Earlier this week I contacted BT again and have been promised that the new pipe will be installed by the end of day this Friday (28th June). When the installation does take place all customers will be automatically transferred. Users will experience a disconnect followed by a reconnect onto the new pipe. There may be a few teething problems during this process which we are confident will be resolved quickly.

We will be posting regular updates on the situation on the members area of the freedom2surf site, so I would ask customers to visit this section for the latest updates. We hope this problem will be solved very soon.

I understand your frustration and nobody has been more frustrated at this situation than freedom2surf.

LINX Outage Update

By:mark.j @ 8:54:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

By way of a small update to yesterday’s item, The London Internet Exchange (LINX) has now resolved the problem, which had affected all its members, some of which included ISPs, and caused a varying degree of connectivity problems.

Unfortunately some ISPs that were slower to react may still have a few niggles to deal with this morning, although we'd expect that to be cleared up quickly.

TW Blueyonder Offers Free Installs

By:mark.j @ 8:50:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Telewests broadband and unmetered dialup ISP wing, blueyonder, is to end its special free cable modem service installation campaign today.

The offer had been for any new subscribers joining between June 25th and 28th and will be over by midnight tonight. This combines with their first three months @ £13.48 per month promotion.

So if you fancy subscribing then head over blueyonder.co.uk/publish/fixedpackage.html">HERE before it's too late.

News - June 27,2002

SniffOut ISP Launches ADSL Service

By:mark.j @ 3:47:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Net4Nowt has spotted the introduction of a residential ADSL service to SniffOuts ISP product line.

Aside from some unremarkable services and a 12 Month contract, the Wires-Only ADSL service costs a pleasant £23.49 per month (inc.VAT) and £58.75 for the activation fee.

OnlineServe ISP Launches New Offers

By:mark.j @ 3:36:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Despite their website appearing to have vanished (could be because of LINX), the UK ISP OnlineServe has still found the time to furnish us with their latest PR announcing three new unmetered dialup packages!:

Our Anytime Service has been engineered to provide a total Internet package for businesses that are serious about accessing the Internet: it has been engineered with a low contention ratio of 10:1, and a recommended usage of 6 hours. We promise you will never experience a engaged during the working day. Our AnyTime platform has been engineered to provide fast access to the Internet as well as content services from MSN.

0808 FRIACO Internet access
Support for ISDN 64k , V90, K56Flex and 56K
10:1 CONTENTION RATIO
2 hour cut-off
Unlimited email addresses
News Group access with over 40,000 + news groups
Free .co.uk Domain name (* 3 month subscription req.d)
Unix based access hosting: 50Mb
email routing
Personal FTP Server
£14.99

Our AllTime Service is our high-end Internet service providing unlimited Internet access to businesses that require an 'all-in-one' Dial-up solution. It provides selective services such as Hosting and a superior Mail system. With this service, you can be assured the service you receive will be exactly what you paid for.

With the service, you will receive

0808 FRIACO Internet access
Support for ISDN 64k , V90, K56Flex and 56K
10:1 CONTENTION RATIO
2 hour cut-off
Unlimited email addresses
News Group access with over 40,000 + news groups
Free .co.uk Domain name
100Mb Webhosting with CGI
eMail routing
Control Panel
High usage (>12)
Personal FTP Server
£19.99

Our AllTime Plus service has been engineered with speed in mind, it incorporates the features and the resilience of the other packages as well as a boost in speed with the introduction of 128K ISDN access. This service IS in its infancy and still under development but has under gone successful trials.

0808 FRIACO Internet access
Support for V90, K56Flex, ISDN 64K and 128K ISDN
10:1 CONTENTION RATIO
2 hour cut-off
Unlimited email addresses
News Group access with over 40,000 + news groups
Free .co.uk Domain name (* 3 month subscription req.d)
Enterprise hosting
email routing
Personal FTP Server
Streaming services
SMTP access
£24.99


Despite the 128Kbps ISDN package seeming a little too cheap, most of the offers are fairly standard and appear to be economically sound. All three should be available from next Monday.

Major LINX Outage Hits UK ISPs

By:mark.j @ 3:15:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

If in the past hour or so you've been experiencing serious problems with the Internet then you're not the only one.

ISPs connected to The London Internet Exchange (LINX) appear to be experiencing loss of connectivity, which is the result of some LINX based routing problems.

ISPs choosing to temporarily disconnect themselves from LINX have improved, however many others are still seeing problems. A good deal of UK ISPs rout via LINX; it’s a fair bet the problem is now quite widespread.

Telewests ISP Streamlines Support

By:mark.j @ 3:07:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The UKs second largest cable operator, Telewest, is to streamline support for subscribers to its 'blueyonder' broadband cable modem ISP service:

The contract, signed last month, will see Motive deploying technology allowing Telewest broadband subscribers to sidestep call centres and register problems from their desktops, while the company's software 'harvests' user information in an attempt to find solutions.

While Telewest now claims to have around 170,000 high-speed internet customers, including 5,000 that have signed up to its recently launched 1Mpbs service, the company is also expected by analysts to be forced into a restructure of its massive debt in the next six months.

Gavin Patterson, the commercial director of Telewest, said that the move was being made in order to maintain performance in an expanding UK broadband market, and would result in "minimal disruption" to customer service.


Motive also won a similar deal with BTOpenworld, although it remains to be seen whether either deal can physically improve the quality of support. More @ netimperative.info.

BTs New SME Broadband Initiatives

By:mark.j @ 2:56:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

BT is to give SME businesses a broadband boost with three new initiatives, including a plan to extend services to rural areas and trials of new technology for high-bandwidth customers (SDSL) etc.:

The third initiative for so-called SMEs follows the signing of a five-year deal with Computacenter.Its computer subscription service promises to extend outsourced internet management and support services to SMEs nationwide.

The rural scheme builds on a pilot, launched in Cornwall in April, aimed at forging ways to install ADSL technology in areas where it had previously been uneconomic.

BT says it's working with partners to upgrade 90 exchanges across Scotland, Cardiff, Swindon and Wiltshire, Devon, Hastings and West Sussex.


Typically BT hasn't announced the exact details of the 90 exchanges, although no doubt we'll hear more on this soon.

There's also precious little information on their SDSL trials, which are to be conducted with the aid of Bulldog, one of BTs most outspoken rivals. More @ Ananova.

Firenets New Business ADSL Offer

By:mark.j @ 2:41:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The broadband and unmetered dialup ISP, Firenet, has today issued a new press release announcing their special deal for new business ADSL subscribers:

Firenet the award winning ISP have now just given another great offer for all business customers requiring the new ADSL service. If you sign up between the dates of 1st July 2002 and the 1st of august 2002 all Registered Businesses will get;

1 x Free ‘yourcompany.co.uk’ domain for 1 year
1 x Free Years hosting for the above domain
1 x Free years unlimited email service for the above domain as many emails as you require

And the contract is only for 3 months, but the offer is a year long

Which also includes Virus Protection and anti-Spam protection this offer costs just over £70.00 per Business user with every ADSL subscription of only £22.55 Ex VAT per Month and along with this full free tech support with this domain for the whole year, and no 50p per minute calls

Typical savings on the amount has been worked out here are the figures

Total Cost of Contract is £67.65 ex vat
Total Cost of the Firenet ADSL Offer For free £60.99 ex vat

Work out how much you are saving for only 3 months with Firenet ADSL services.

No hidden costs and no hidden extras needed, all you do is have your service for 3 months and you get the Free offer for a year from the date of contract.

ISP Review E-Mail BACK Online

By:mark.j @ 2:08:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

We can now recive E-Mail on our normal addresses again, so no need to send anymore to the default one. The final issues with missing perl modules and so forth are now being resolved.

TheFreeInternet ISP Suspends Service

By:mark.j @ 10:33:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The Free Internet (TFI / Excite 0800) ISP, which quietly stopped offering an unmetered dialup sometime ago, is now reported to have completely suspended its service.

One newspaper has already mentioned it, although any details appear to be elusive. That said and TFI are telling customers that the suspension is the result of a dispute between them and their telecoms carrier.

Unfortunately customers are in the dark and TFI have made no attempt to clarify or clear up the situation, it looks as if the suspension could be permanent. For those still waiting, now may be a good time to consider other options.

New Article @ ISPr - BT Broadband

By:mark.j @ 10:25:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

As promised we've put online the new article / investigation into the value of BTs new BT 'No Frills' Broadband direct access ADSL service. Included are a number of quotes from ISPs and our overall analysis of the pros and cons.

This should tide you over until we can resolve the lingering server faults following last nights move, which appear to be quite serious. Enjoy:

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/articles/btb

Gov Spending On Rural Broadband?

By:mark.j @ 8:49:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Could it be? Has the government finally come to its senses and opted to help subsidies the rollout of broadband services in rural areas? Not likely.

Stephen Timms, the new e-commerce minister, has announced several initiatives using public sector demand to improve the take-up and rollout of broadband, especially in more remote areas:

The scheme will mean the creation of a network of broadband advisors, who will try to increase the take-up of broadband in rural areas. According to the DTI, these advisors will attempt to use public sector broadband spending as a lever to help "regional economic development and private sector investment." A second team, based within the Office of Government Commerce (OGC), will offer support and advice to the public sector on how best to buy broadband services.

A "Broadband Unit" will coordinate the activities of these two groups. The OGC is also drawing up some framework agreements for public sector organisations -- which could include council offices, libraries or training centres -- to use when signing up for broadband.

Opening the Broadband Britain Conference in London on Wednesday, Timms said he was confident that the new policy would help those people who still cannot get access to affordable broadband.


Unfortunately the ZDNet item merely highlights the introduction of a more political and useless system, no doubt there to help act as a wall against future criticism.

Never the less we're sure it'll help improve broadband knowledge and show people some more affordable options, although it's unlikely to physically improve the rollout of ADSL services. By all means, prove us wrong.

Online Shopping Grows By 3%

By:mark.j @ 8:39:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

New research by Taylor Nelson Sofres shows that 9% of the population shopped online in the last four weeks, which compares to 6% in the same period of 2001 (3% increase):

Almost a quarter of internet users have shopped online and 15% plan to during the next six months. The researchers say this shows potential for further growth in ecommerce by the end of the year.

TNS attributes the growth to an increase in the overall number of web users.But the report concludes with the warning that security remains a stumbling block.


The Ananova item notes that 28% still feel that it's more secure to buy goods in a real shop, so long as that shop isn’t called WorldCom or Enron =).

News - June 26,2002

Server Move

By:Dan.b @ 10:33:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

Update: Most systems now back online, although some things like compression are missing and we've yet to restore those.

It seems the server change has gone ahead and www.ispreview.co.uk is not forwarding you to index.shtml, but if you can see this you have obviously guessed to try http://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.shtml . The forums are also down but hopefully they will come back up when the upgrade is finished. Sorry for any inconvenience caused and if its not sorted by tomorrow Mark will update you all. Please do not email us regarding this issue as we already know about it

FSB Disappointed By BTs ADSL

By:mark.j @ 3:15:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has today spoken of their fears regarding BTs broadband (general ADSL) services and how they may never reach smaller rural businesses:

The FSB was reacting to BT’s decision to refuse to upgrade rural telephone exchanges unless a certain number of customers pre-order the service. The number of customers depends in each case on the size of the telephone exchange and cost of upgrading it, but could be between 200 and 500 users.

BT maintains that it is giving the customer power over broadband rollout but the FSB is concerned that this will mean small businesses in remote rural areas may never get the service.

Peter Scargill, FSB IT chairman, said, “We understand that BT is working to remove the barriers rural businesses face with broadband connectivity particularly in the Highlands and islands of Scotland. But there will not be large numbers of people pre-ordering what they see as a lost cause."


The Startups item notes how the FSB finishes off by suggesting that the government help to 'subsidies' the rollout, which is unlikely to happen.

ASA Slaps NTL Over ISP Advert

By:mark.j @ 3:11:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has slapped NTLs advertising of its broadband Internet service because of contradictive wording:

Complaint:
Objections to a regional press advertisement for a broadband Internet service. The advertisement was headlined "Twice as fast Broadband Internet Just £14.99 a month" and stated "128K Broadband Internet is now available in your area for just £14.99 a month. To get our 128K Broadband Internet service you must subscribe to our other services - which start from £27.99 a month. 128K Broadband Internet from ntl:home is now available in your area*. * Services not available in all areas and subject to capacity". The complainants objected that the advertisement was misleading, because:

1. the headline claim "Just £14.99 a month" was contradicted by the copy "you must subscribe to our other services - which start from £27.99 a month" and

2. the claim "now available in your area" was contradicted by the smallprint statement "Services not available in all areas and subject to capacity."


NTL has agreed to change the adverts.

BTO Improve Broadband Knowledge

By:mark.j @ 2:54:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE]

As we've said a number of times before, there's a large majority of people who simply don't know what broadband is.

Today BTOpenworld has announced its intention to tackle this problem, which they refer to as the "BIGGEST BARRIER TO BROADBAND BRITAIN.":

BT OPENWORLD ATTACKS BIGGEST BARRIER TO BROADBAND BRITAIN
Summit reveals SMEs are missing out on benefits of high-speed Internet due to knowledge gap

Most dial-up business Internet users don't know enough about broadband to make the leap to an always-on connection.

This is one key finding of research undertaken at BT Openworld's series of broadband summits, held throughout May in London, Manchester, Glasgow and Bristol. Of over 400 delegates, comprising industry thought leaders, 45 per cent said that education and understanding was the prime catalyst to accelerate broadband uptake in Britain. This came well ahead of other perceived barriers, such as cost and availability.

Tony Harris, president Business Internet Services at BT Openworld said: "Whilst broadband take-up is increasing at a rate of knots, there are still a large percentage of businesses in the UK failing to understand and take advantage of benefits which have the potential to improve performance significantly for minimum investment. Broadband delivers benefits that have immediate impact on the bottom line and business performance. This lack of understanding is a worrying indicator."

BT's mass-market ISP has launched a campaign aimed at mobilising the industry to explain the business benefits of a high-speed Internet connection. The first stage of this initiative is a 'Superhighway Guide', available from the company and at www.btopenworld.com. Based around a familiar theme, The Highway Code, the guide aims to cut through the hype and speculation and state explicitly how broadband access can impact the SME sector.

The summits and guide are only the beginning of BT Openworld's campaign to play a leading role in the promotion of Broadband Britain to businesses, trade bodies and government. "The four summits we organised across the country were designed to judge the state of the nation with regard to Internet access," said Harris. "Interestingly, most delegates said the obvious factors like availability and price weren't the biggest barriers to mass businesses uptake - most just didn't know enough about the technology and the benefits."

"All companies and influencers in this space have a responsibility to demonstrate how broadband can make a difference to both business and lifestyle. This guide marks the first stage of our campaign, and conforms to our aim of giving SMEs an easily digestible, business-focused overview of what broadband can do for them," added Harris.


Unfortunately this somewhat ignores the larger populous of residential users and or potential users.

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