March 28, 2002 - April 4, 2002
News - April 4,2002
AOL ISP Wins In Porn SPAM Case
By:mark.j @ 3:12:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Good news for ISPs, AOL has won its legal case against a company responsible for spamming its users with pornographic images:
AOL described it as a benchmark case for internet service providers irritated by lewd spam.
The company brought the case against Florida-based Cyber Entertainment Network, otherwise known as Netvision Audiotext, in December 2000, alleging that the adult network had been mass-mailing pornographic images to AOL subscribers.
AOL, which has 34 million subscribers worldwide, described the result as "ground breaking litigation" and said that other companies could use the case as a precedent with which to launch their own campaigns against the menace of spam.
This is indeed good news, although it's difficult to say whether such a thing would work in the UK and under what circumstances.
AOL is a very different service to others, which normally just offer basic dialup connections. More @ VNUNet. |
Telewest ISP Storms Web-User Awards
By:mark.j @ 3:05:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] In among Web-User's latest awards for various Internet related sites and services, ISPs also got a mention with Telewest taking top honours:
Our top scorer was Blueyonder, which achieved a Mean Score of 4.3 (nearly all those who voted for it said it was either Excellent or Good). Virgin.net also scored well as runner-up. The full list was:
Service Provider Satisfaction Rating
Blueyonder 4.3
Virgin 4.1
NTL World 3.9
Tiscali 3.8
AOL 3.7
Line One 3.7
Freeserve 3.6
BT 3.2
Every one of the ISPs listed here had a final performance rating that is above average - even BT, which came bottom of the list, had more voters saying it was Excellent or Good than Poor or Exceptionally Poor.
Another notable performer was Line One, which did almost as well as Tiscali, the company that acquired it last year.
Cough.., Tiscali did well? It's important to remember that Web-User only allowed an ISP to be listed if it had been "nominated by five per cent or more of the survey sample" (only 8 qualified). It’s hardly very representative of the industry. |
That BTOpenworld Advert..
By:mark.j @ 2:54:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Possibly the first part of BTOpenworld's £10 Million broadband marketing campaign has been spotted at work inside Stanstead airport:
But his kip on an airport bench was interrupted by flash bulbs and a film crew trying to set up a shot for one of BTo's billboard campaigns.
Said our red-eyed traveller: "The advert involves a picture of a large area of airport floor covered in standard modem cables. In the centre is a man in a blue boiler suit with a large broom."
No doubt this has something to do with broadband "sweeping" away slow Net access, or a new broom gathering no moss, or some such other nonsense.
It sounds as if BT is adopting a similar style of marketing to Telewest (remember the speed limit poster?), more @ The Register. |
Most Popular Search Engine = Yahoo!
By:mark.j @ 2:49:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] We've always found Yahoo! to be rather poor, yet new research from Nielsen/NetRatings has shown that Yahoo! attracted more than 35 million visitors during February:
MSN claims second place with 32 million and Google third with 27 million.
Chief analyst Lisa Strand says the results show search engines are still "the go-to destination" on the web.
She says she expects competition among the major players to intensify with the gradual emergence of fee-based services.
There's that word again, 'fee-based', god help the Internet if the major search engines start charging just to look for sites of interest. More @ Ananova. |
Solved? - Last-Mile Broadband Bottleneck
By:mark.j @ 2:44:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] SwitchPoint, a new start-up, is claiming it can solve the last-mile bottleneck for next-generation broadband Internet technologies:
The Digital Switched Data Network (DSDN) broadband access technology, developed by privately held SwitchPoint Networks, allows download and upload speeds of up to 100Mbps.
DSDN has been designed to help service providers meet the worldwide demand for broadband internet access and communications services such as IP telephony, interactive gaming, video-on-demand and virtual private networks.
Bill Beans, chief executive at SwitchPoint, explained that DSDN reduces construction costs so dramatically that it brings the promise of 100Mbps broadband access to service providers and their customers.
Unfortunately the technology has so far only made it to the USA; although there's hope that it’ll reach the UK in the future. More @ VNUNet. |
Quick ISP Review Site Update
By:mark.j @ 12:19:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] It should be obvious by now that we've made a few small changes to the front page and changed the survey. We also reset the Reader Top ISPs system (every two months as normal) + added some extra ISPs and removed a few older ones. Note that the results for the old survey are as follows:
Max monthly surfing hours expected from unmetered ISP costing £14.99 PM?
50 - 2.7%
75 - 2.9%
100 - 7.8%
150 - 10.0%
200 - 14.3%
275 - 5.3%
300+ - 57.0%
Total votes: 1713
Those wanting to know more about the results might find reading our Unmetered Usage - Expectations article of some relevance since it borrowed the data from an earlier version of the same survey.
The new survey asks, "Can you get ADSL or Cable Modem access in your area?" (broadband). |
e-Government Extension Needed
By:mark.j @ 9:28:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] While the current government still hopes to have 100% of services available online by December 31st 2005, a new report suggests that more still needs to be done:
Tasks like applying for a driving licence or claiming and receiving benefits still cannot be done online, the National Audit Office's report "Better Public Service Through e-Government" found.
More than half of the 524 services routinely provided by departments have an online presence, most offer information only. Just seven services provide grants and benefits online and none collect revenue, the report found.
The report recommended an extension in the number of routine contacts with Government departments which can be carried out via the internet and more active marketing to alert the public to their existence.
More @ Ananova. |
New Broadband Committee Required
By:mark.j @ 9:19:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Derek Wyatt, a Labour MP, has called on Robin Cook (Leader of the House of Commons) to battle for a much needed and special select committee on broadband:
Wyatt, who sits on the Culture, Media and Sports Committee and the All-Party Internet Committee, said, "A special select committee is needed to cut across several departments because at present they all exist in their own silos.
Broadband needs a different kind of approach so that departments such as health, education, the Home Office, work and pensions, transport and the Treasury can determine their needs collectively and figure out ways of pooling demand."
It certainly sounds like a good idea to us, you can read more @ CW360. |
Should BT Sell ISP Arm - BTOpenworld?
By:mark.j @ 9:14:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Silicon has a very interesting 'Analysis' article on why BT should consider selling its Openworld ISP arm. Typically this relates to all the recent problems and accusations from Freeserve (see yesterday’s news):
As BT points out with a shrug of the shoulders: "First we're criticised for dragging our heels, then we're criticised for marketing it too hard."
Yup, that's the press for you. But there's a legitimate point here - we need broadband to be widely available and cheap but it won't stay cheap if one company has a virtual monopoly. It's all a question of balance.
The question this does raise is why, if BTopenworld really doesn't talk to BT Wholesale, it should still be in BT Group. It may not be a great time to sell it but BT has happily flogged off everything from its property portfolio to its mobile arm in recent years.
It’s a point that's been echoed around the Internet since BTOpenworld first launched and positioned itself as a supposedly separate entity, despite having 'BT' at the front of its name =). |
News - April 3,2002
Freeserve vs BTOpenworld - Broadband
By:mark.j @ 3:09:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Yes that's right, for the third time in so many days one out of the UKs three major ISP players (AOL, BT and Freeserve) has struck out at its rival. It's beginning to feel a bit like the three stooges.
This time the MediaGuardian is reporting that Freeserve has accused BT of pursuing an orchestrated campaign of anti-competitive behaviour. FS has now reported BT to the telecoms watchdog Oftel over its £10m broadband campaign:
BT is already involved in a spat with rival service provider AOL over the payment of VAT, and BT has now been accused of exploiting the links between its retail an wholesale arms to steal a march on the competition.
Freeserve, which relies on BT to deliver its internet service to 2.4m users and is battling to attract new business with its high-speed broadband service, believes BT is trying to take unfair advantage because it is the owner of the national telecoms network.
"The Chinese walls that are supposed to exist between BT Openworld and BT Wholesale may be fooling Oftel," said Mr Pluthero. "But to the rest of us who understand the lead times needed to bring a new product to market it's obvious those walls are paper thin."
There may be some good points in the various disputes between AOL, Freeserve and BT, yet we wish they'd do it in private and save us the agony of having to listen to them bickering like children.
Perhaps if they were to all be locked up in a Taliban style jail for a week or two then things might improve? We can only hope. |
LINX Upgrades To 10Gigabit Ethernet
By:mark.j @ 2:50:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] The London Internet Exchange (LINX) is reported to have become the first European organization to implement standards-based 10Gigabit Ethernet technology using Foundry Networks' switches:
Foundry Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: FDRY), a leading provider of high-performance enterprise and service provider switching, routing and Layer 4 - 7 traffic management solutions, announced today that Europe's largest Internet Exchange point, The London Internet Exchange (LINX), has upgraded its network backbone from Gigabit to 10-Gigabit Ethernet using Foundry's high-performance BigIron Layer 3 switches.
The London Internet Exchange is the first European organization to install high-performance, standards-based 10-Gigabit Ethernet technology from Foundry in a mission-critical live network. The project was completed by LINX and Foundry, with equipment supplied by the Service Provider Division of Total Network Solutions (TNS), a Foundry reseller partner based in Shropshire.
LINX is the leading European Internet exchange point, handling up to 96-percent of UK Internet traffic. Owned by more than 120 Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and content delivery service providers collectively, LINX has grown exponentially and recently announced that it had switched its 250 trillionth packet of data since its foundation in 1994. Indeed, in the year 2001 alone, LINX handled 50 trillion packets, up 7800% on the year before. Peak daily traffic flows at the exchange now top 14-Gigabits per second. The new Foundry 10-Gigabit Ethernet solution will connect LINX's two main UK sites at Telehouse with three additional locations coming online in the next calendar quarter.
The performance and reliability of LINX technology underpinning is paramount. "Because of the nature of our operation, where service reliability and availability is crucial, the decision was made at the end of last year to move to 10-Gigabit Ethernet technology using Foundry's BigIron Layer 3 switches," said Mike Hughes, head of network architecture at LINX. "Upgrading was easy - literally we swapped the blades in our existing BigIron chassis and that was it - down time to LINX members was no more than three minutes," continued Hughes.
Foundry has been shipping its standards-based 10-Gigabit Ethernet solution since December 2001. "Due to our price/performance, reliability, and easy upgradeability, Foundry has become the 10-Gigabit Ethernet vendor of choice in this fast emerging market," said Bobby Johnson, president and CEO of Foundry Networks. "Foundry's 10-Gigabit Ethernet technology offers a very powerful and compelling solution for the construction of next-generation, high-performance networking infrastructures. By choosing Foundry, LINX is able to reap the benefits of industry-leading performance, reliability, and scalability of our products," continued Johnson. |
BTIgnite Change Broadband Strategy
By:mark.j @ 2:42:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] BTIgnite has announced a new broadband strategy to generate extra cash; the group hopes to achieve this by concentrating on fewer customers. Unfortunately BT only wants the big names:
Chief executive Andy Green told the Financial Times that the company would be focusing on just 10,000 of its large corporate clients in Europe.
He said that BT Ignite had been dissipating its energies with too many smaller businesses.
Green explained that BT Ignite was now restricting the number of clients it approached as it was important that the company made a profit.
Sadly the VNUNet item doesn't go into more detail and so it's very difficult to know exactly who this will apply to and how. |
Belgians Get It Right - Broadband ADSL
By:mark.j @ 9:26:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Belgian consumers may have just set a new record for the take up of broadband ADSL connections, the countries operator (Belgacom) has reported a rise of 36% in just 3 months!:
The overall number of ADSL connections provided by the main Belgian telecoms operator Belgacom has increased to 312,000 from 230,000 – or 36 per cent.
The company said it also plans to start offering SDSL subscriptions April 15. Belgacom’s goal for the end of 2002 is to have 400,000 ADSL clients, a number that looks reachable given the present figures. Last year, Belgacom added five times the number of ADSL lines.
Unfortunately the Europemedia item contains very little detail, which is a pity because it'd be interesting to compare with the UK. |
ASA Slaps BT - Unlimited Free Calls?
By:mark.j @ 9:20:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] The Advertising Standards Authority has once again slapped BT, this time it's over the operators BT Together unmetered local voice calls service for evenings and weekends:
Objections to a direct mailing, which contained a letter and a brochure, for British Telecom. The front of the brochure was headlined "Now you can enjoy unlimited free calls to anywhere in this area". Overleaf, the brochure stated "... Now BT Together with unlimited calls means you can enjoy free local and national calls every evening and all weekend ...".
The complainants objected that the brochure headline "... unlimited free calls ..." was misleading because the BT Together scheme applied to evening and weekend calls only.
The ASA upheld the complaint and had this to say:
The advertisers asserted that the brochure headline was not misleading but they nevertheless gave their assurance that they would place more emphasis on the evening and weekend restriction in future mailings.
The Authority noted the advertisers had stated the time restriction in the mailing but considered that, because it was fundamental to customers' understanding of the package, the restriction should be made clear in the brochure headline. The Authority concluded that, because the BT Together scheme applied to evening and weekend calls only, the brochure headline was misleading. |
BTOpenword vs AOL UK - Broadband
By:mark.j @ 9:04:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] BTOpenworld has set itself up for more problems by attacking AOL UK and saying that they've "done the least of all the major players in the UK market to advance Broadband Britain".
Not unsurprisingly AOL UK isn't too happy with the comments made by BTOpenworld's CEO Alison Ritchie, which came from a letter destined for the MP Paul Boateng.
Typically it was related to the VAT issue (see yesterday’s news), however this item also covers the comments on their broadband progress:
However, the attack has angered AOL UK which has hit back claiming that the remarks are "laughable".
A senior spokesman for AOL UK told The Register: "The apparent claim that AOL has not played a part in the creation of Broadband Britain would be laughable were it not seemingly made by a serious company in correspondence with the UK Government.
These apparent claims are even less warranted given that AOL has worked very closely with BT in recent weeks to help refine the development of mass-market broadband provisioning systems," he said.
If it's not Freeserve having a go then it's BTOpenworld, poor old AOL UK can't seem to cut a break. To be honest AOL UK has never really been very open with their broadband options, yet should this warrant an attack from BTO? More @ The Register. |
News - April 2,2002
BTO May Move Servers Outside UK
By:mark.j @ 3:24:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Many will be familiar with the spat between AOL UK and Freeserve in which the later ISP claimed that AOL had been unlawfully avoiding VAT payments because of their classification (company outside the UK).
Thankfully this has now been resolved, yet it'll still take awhile before the changes are enforced (must pay VAT), thus AOL continues to gain. However another major player, BT, has noted the general loophole and is threatening to use it:
The company's internet arm BTopenworld said it would consider moving its business to Madeira where VAT levels are lower than those in the UK.
Under existing law, AOL is exempt from having to pay VAT in the UK because it is an American company and classified as a content provider, not a telecoms business. However, recent European Union and UK government rulings mean it will have to register its business in an EU state by July of next year and start paying VAT.
"Should AOL seek to register for VAT in a comparatively favourable jurisdiction such as Madeira then clearly other UK ISPs would have to look at their own arrangements to see if such imbalance could be redressed by similar treatment," said Alison Ritchie, the chief executive of BTopenworld.
The 'Independents' news item goes into a lot of detail and can be read in full HERE. Paul Boateng, financial secretary to the Treasury, has demanded a better explanation of the law and so we'll probably be hearing more about this in the future. Thanks to Andy for the heads-up. |
New Virus Warning - MyLife Variants
By:mark.j @ 2:55:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] The original author of the MyLife E-Mail virus (worm) is reported to have used the Easter period to release four new versions:
Of the four, only one appears to be spreading widely. Email outsourcing company MessageLabs said it had stopped over 140 copies of MyLife.f on Tuesday morning -- about half of these appeared to originate from Australia, and many of the rest were from the UK. A small number were from Hong Kong, the company said.
All four new variants of MyLife share the same mass-mailing characteristics of the original, and email themselves itself to all email addresses in the Microsoft Outlook address book and the MSN Messenger contact list.
According to Symantec, MyLife.c arrives as the attachment List.TXT.scr, and is likely to activate itself when the system time minutes variable is greater than or equal to 50 and the worm has been run on the system at least once already. If it does activate, it is likely to try to format drives D, E, F, G, H and I, as well as deleting all files on the C: drive.
There's more information @ ZDNet, although now's a good time to update that virus checker. This should really be done on a daily basis or at least once a week, just to be safe. |
Oftels Internet Calls Guidance
By:mark.j @ 2:50:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Oftel has today published a new press release on their positive with operators and ISPs planning to offer their customers the ability to make voice calls using Internet technology (VoIP etc.):
Oftel is receiving an increasing number of enquiries from service providers about voice services based on Internet technology as it offers significant cost savings and the ability to provide new services.
The new guidance covers licensing, interconnection and other regulatory issues.
David Edmonds, Director General of Telecommunications said today: "Services based on Internet technology are growing in popularity as they allow cheaper calls and innovative features such as video conferencing. For example, it is possible to make international calls for the price of a local phone call over the Internet using personal computers."
"Oftel is receiving an increasing number of enquiries from service providers interested in providing Internet services. Oftel has today published advice to operators and service providers on a range of important issues that should encourage greater availability of Internet telephony services."
"The advice covers licensing requirements and interconnection arrangements. Oftel is also considering introducing a new telephone number range so that calls that are carried using Internet technology can easily be identified." |
Unmetered Price Rises - AOL & BTOpenworld
By:mark.j @ 2:46:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Some shock, yet not unexpected, news today as both AOL UK and BTOpenworld have confirmed an increase in their unmetered dialup ISP prices from £14.99 to £15.99 (+£1 per month).
BTO is set to make the change on 1st May, while AOL should follow a day later on the 2nd. BTOpenworld had the following to say: "We want to ensure that our long term commitments remain in place, by investing in customer services and offering new products and services in the future."
Indeed AOL UK had similar sentiments; their full customer update is as follows:
As a result of growing investments to enhance the AOL service and build out our network, the AOL FLAT RATE price plan will increase from £14.99 a month to £15.99 a month. This modest increase – the first since we introduced AOL FLAT RATE in September 2000 – will take effect upon your next billing date on or after 2nd May 2002. If you are currently using AOL in your free trial period and decide to continue your membership you will be charged this amount at your next billing date on or after 2nd May 2002. For more information please visit AOL Keyword: Pricing.
All of our price plans continue to include our award-winning unlimited freephone member support. Help is always available when you need it – at no extra cost!
You can find more details about AOL’s pricing online at AOL Keyword: Pricing. To check the status of your current price plan, go to AOL Keyword: Billing.
Price Change Reflects Investments in Improved Service and Network Capacity
AOL pioneered UK-wide flat-rate access in September 2000 with the first truly affordable unmetered pricing plan for UK families, building on the success of the AOL ‘Off-Peak All the Time’ price plan we introduced the previous year. Over the last 18 months we have continued to invest heavily in the AOL service in the UK:
We remain committed to giving all our members the best possible online experience long into the future. Thank you for choosing AOL, and have fun online!
We don’t believe that there’s anything wrong with a price point of £14.99 PM, most ISPs seem to be working at that level or slightly under without any real problems. However the issue isn’t price, it’s how clear these particular ISPs are being with their usage policy’s, or lack of, which is often very different to others.
Indeed it’s important that ISPs such as BTO, AOL and Freeserve stop talking in general industry terms, all ISPs are NOT alike and many differ in their allowances. The price for one may not work for another etc. There’s a fear that some ISPs, the ones who really don’t need an increase, could take this as a signal to follow suit and overcharge.
Unfortunately and unlike Freeserve, the usage policies for BTO and AOL aren’t quite as clear and so it’s very hard to know whether either ISP is justified or not. It’s also worth remembering that Oftel is pushing BT for a 7% cut in the price of wholesale FRIACO, thus making this a questionable time to increase prices without looking suspicious. |
Brief ISPr Site Update - Sickness
By:mark.j @ 8:49:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Unfortunately I've come down with one of those annoying 7-Day colds, the kind that takes several days to start and several to end - most unpleasant.
So do please excuse me if I can't always reply to E-Mails and post shorter news items this week, it's because I'm feeling very unwell and don't expect to be fully functional again until Thursday or Friday.
It started last Thursday and so I've spent Easter in bed, which isn't necessarily a bad thing because it allowed me to avoid the relatives =). I'll post what I can. |
PlusNet DSL Traffic Management Update
By:mark.j @ 8:41:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Many of you will have already noted the previous post concerning PlusNet's new measures for broadband ADSL Traffic Management, which has already caused a fair bit of controversy.
It had been hoped that this might only be a temporary measure; sadly PlusNet's Alistair Wyse (support) has some bad news:
This is not correct, traffic management is now a permanent feature on our DSL central pipes. The reason for traffic shaping is to prioritise latency dependant traffic during in peak traffic times. To outline its need, even with traffic shaping, warez and pornographic type downloads still take up around 50-60% of the available bandwidth.
Traffic shaping is a QoS tool, it enables every user on our central pipe to get a fair share of the bandwidth. It is not our policy to run our central pipes at their design capacity because we realise that this will not delivery the QoS required on DSL products, but careful capacity management is the key to delivering a sustainable, low cost and reliable DSL service. |
Broadband Wireless Burger Stands?
By:mark.j @ 8:26:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] The wireless technology specialist Avaya is testing a service that allows staff on the move to stay in touch with the office via web-enabled burger stands:
The service is made possible by positioning wireless access points on the procession of snack trucks which line the popular A3 commuter route between London and Portsmouth.
Burger vans along the busy stretch of the road will be able to provide customers with a snack and a networking card that will give them access to secure broadband internet and email from the comfort of their own car, providing they have a suitable laptop.
Plans are already in place to extend the trial nationally.
More @ Silicon. |
News - March 29,2002
ISPr Weekly Update - HAPPY EASTER!
By:mark.j @ 3:00:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] You're correct, it's not Sunday and yet we're doing a weekly update, but why? Well it has something to do with eggs and religious symbolism (Easter), although in not being religious I only tend to focus on the egg aspect =).
Typically there's often next to no news over this period, yet overall we'll be taking more of our spare time to be with friends and family. Expect business as usual come Tuesday, although we've often found that it gets back to normal on Monday - no I don't know either.
Note that you may see the odd news update and some mods will continue to lurk in the forums, although overall we'd suggest making use of the wonderful weather while it lasts, it really is wonderful.
Quite how the Easter bunny intends to get his stash of eggs to people in such heat remains a mystery, yet we're hoping to jump him before he even gets the chance - bahahahaha! No really.
PS "Watch out for April Fools day (1st April), if you don’t know why then we can’t help you ;=). You’d be surprised how many people fall for some of the things that happen on the day." |
Gio Introduce 128Kbps ISDN Unmetered
By:mark.j @ 2:39:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Following on from Vispa and before the rumoured Fast24 launch, Gio Internet has become the second unmetered ISP in so many days to launch a 128Kbps ISDN Dual Channel package.
Net4Nowt reports that the offer comes under the Gio Universal Plus 24/7 package and is to cost £19.95 per month, which is roughly £10 cheaper than Vispa's alternative.
If you've read our new article on 'Unmetered Usage' then you'll no doubt understand some of the concerns surrounding Gio's claims of having 'no restrictions'. Despite this the new offer should work so long as it's not filled with heavy users, which is so often a reality for all ISPs, be cautious. |
PlusNet On ADSL & Business Features
By:mark.j @ 9:04:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Not unsurprisingly the popular broadband and unmetered ISP PlusNet has taken Oftel's recent statement as a queue to issue yet another press release.
This time the provider has chosen to confirm the pricing and features of their business ADSL range:
PlusNet are pleased to confirm the pricing and features of their
business ADSL range
From just £29.99 [£35.24 Inc VAT] per month, businesses can utilise the entry level solution "Netstart".
The Netstart package is suitable for small networks and single computer connections. Based around a 50:1 contention ratio at the exchange, Netstart provides the ideal stepping stone to ADSL for small businesses and remote workers.
Your business may need to support a larger network, or have access to more bandwidth. Available for connection at speeds up to 2mbit/s, and at a lower contention ratio of 20:1, PlusNet ADSL Office costs as little as £55 [£64.63 Inc VAT] per month. Business Support is provided 24*7, 365 days per year, and all solutions come with Static IP addresses, hosting for 5 domains and also included Domains to be registered free of charge. All of this, and the advanced services you have come to expect as standard from PlusNet are included in the solutions.
Self-Install ADSL Office 500, 1000, and 2000 are priced at £55 [£64.63 Inc VAT], £90 [£105.75 Inc VAT] and £110 [£129.25 Inc VAT], respectively. The activation fee for all PlusNet Self-Install Business ADSL is £50 [£58.75 Inc VAT].
All PlusNet Business ADSL solutions are based on an optional 1 month evaluation period, followed by a 12 month contract.
PlusNet's business ADSL service, reinforced with the automation and accountability of provisioning and support, along with their commitment to quality of service, means that PlusNet is the best choice for business ADSL in the UK.
To find out more about PlusNet's great value ADSL deals for business, visit: http://portal.plus.net/info2/adsl_pricedrop_bus.html |
Ireland Seeks Planning Office (Broadband)
By:mark.j @ 8:58:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Forfas, a technology development agency, is calling for a planning office to be established in order to help co-ordinate the roll-out of Ireland's 300Million (Euros) broadband plan:
"Given the fact that Ireland lags behind leading countries in the general deployment and use of broadband telecommunications infrastructure, there is a strong case to establish a specialist broadband planning office to drive the Government's new initiatives as quickly and as efficiently as possible," said Forfas' chief executive officer, John Travers, in a statement.
He added that the proposed office would ensure consistency in approach and planning, achieve economies of scale in the contracting of civil engineering works, and provide access at the highest levels of service to operators wishing to provide competitive broadband services.
The Government's broadband plan, which was announced in early March, will see 50,000 km of fibre broadband Internet networks brought to 19 towns by the end of next year and to a total of 123 towns within five years.
More @ ElectricNews.Net. |
One In Three Use MS Internet Explorer
By:mark.j @ 8:52:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] According to research conducted by StatMarket.com, the latest revision of Microsoft's popular web browsing software (IE 6) is now being used by 1 in 3 Internet users (30.5% - worldwide). This is in stark contrast to Netscape's 7%:
Since the arrival of IE6 seven months ago, Netscape's market share has decreased from 12 per cent, a level it had held steady for some time, according to the researcher.
Netscape, owned by AOL, was once the dominant web browser but suffered as IE's popularity rose, helped by its inclusion on all new Windows PCs.
"It's do or die time now for Netscape," according to Geoff Johnston, vice president of marketing at StatMarket, who has not written Netscape off.
It’s a pity the market still focuses on the big players, almost completely ignoring the smaller and sometimes better technology from the likes of Opera, among others. More @ Web-User. |
Oftel On LLU & BTs ADSL Prices
By:mark.j @ 8:44:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] While everybody will already be aware of yesterdays statement by Oftel regarding their approval of BTs ADSL price cuts, you can also view the official press release on their website - HERE.
The telecoms regulator has even found time to issue a new publication entitle the 'Direction on Local Loop Unbundling'. This apparently sets out the charges that LLU operators have to pay for metallic path facilities (loops) and internal tie circuits.
You can read the full publication HERE, although one point of note regarding the recent ADSL reductions deserves a quote:
Impact of BT’s wholesale price reductions
Bulldog and 51° stated that as MPF rental charges include cost components that BT has stated have decreased on basis of their ADSL experience (i.e. fault incidence and fault repair time) this should mean that MPF rental charges should be reduced
2.13 As discussed above, Oftel does not propose to reassess BT’s charges on a piecemeal basis, but will reconsider LLU charges when more complete information on costs of LLU (including the costs of those network elements shared with other services) is available. While it is recognised that there are certain elements of ADSL provision that are similar to LLU, there are also a number of differences (in particular those relating to network costs that do not have an impact on LLU). The issue of a possible reduction of certain cost elements, which are common to both processes, will be considered when the pricing of MPFs and internal tie circuits is reassessed. |
News - March 28,2002
Powerline Broadband Suffers Setback
By:mark.j @ 3:20:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] One of the lesser known broadband technologies that's designed to offer high-speed Internet via a power cable, Powerline, has suffered a setback.
Inari, one of three companies helping to develop a Powerline standard, has been forced to scale back and is now running on a skeleton level of staff:
Alan Walbeck, of Inari, told us: "During the re-structuring there is a skeleton crew here at Inari to provide support. The company continues to operate."
"Inari still has every intention and reason to continue supporting the CEA initiative and providing support for its silicon solutions."
Digital power line technology offers the potential to deliver high-speed Internet access to the home, typically at up to 2Mbps, over mains tables. However the technology has encountered a number of financial and commercial roadblocks.
We seriously doubt that Powerline would be able to survive in any mass-market unless the numerous regulation hurdles and technical difficulties can be solved; none of the above has helped. More @ The Register. |
Wholesale ADSL Sales Surge
By:mark.j @ 3:00:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] BTWholesale is reporting that sales of broadband R/ADSL lines have surged from 3,000 a week to 8,000, which obviously follows recent price reductions:
Rebecca Webster, head of broadband marketing at BT Wholesale, said the increase in sales put the telco on course of meeting its aim to put in one million broadband connections in the UK over the next year. She wasn't prepared to detail the split in sales between different ISPs.
Reduced prices are the chief reason behind the surge in demand, but the introduction of a self-install version of BTopenworld DSL product, called Plug & Go, also help by reducing set-up charges.
BT has embarked on a multi-million pound advertising campaign to further boost broadband demand, targeting the consumer and small business markets.
This can only be good news and should also help to push coverage in the coming months; of course it'll be interesting to see if all the ISPs can cope, some such as Pipex have already had problems. More @ The Register. |
Bulldog Threaten BT - ADSL Price Cuts
By:mark.j @ 2:55:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Despite Oftels decision, Bulldog Communications has lived up its name by threatening to sue BT over its ADSL price reductions by claiming that it’s an anti-competitive move:
Now that BT has cut wholesale broadband prices to below £14.75 from 1 April, it will become increasingly difficult to compete with BT Wholesale and the ADSL services it supplies to around 200 ISPs such as BTopenworld, Freeserve, Pipex and Zen.
Bulldog said in a statement: "Bulldog fundamentally disagrees with Oftel's findings and has obtained independent legal advice that unequivocally supports Bulldog's position that BT has acted anti-competitively.
Although Bulldog firmly believes that it has extremely strong grounds on which to challenge Oftel's findings and BT's behaviour, Bulldog is not pursuing such a course of action at this time. This is because Bulldog is currently engaged in a constructive bilateral dialogue with BT with a view to reaching an alternative workable solution."
It's very hard to comment on Bulldog's situation without having full details on LLU costing etc., although nothing they say will turn things around now (not for us anyway). More @ Silicon. |
Oftel Clear BTs ADSL Price Cuts
By:mark.j @ 2:45:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Oftel, the UK Telecoms regulator, has today said that BT Group's decision to halve its wholesale broadband prices is not anti-competitive, thus approving the reductions.
Following a complaint from another operator (Bulldog), Oftel had investigated the price reductions and found that they had been achieved through cost cuts, and were therefore competitive.
Britain has severely lagged other countries in broadband take-up, but Verwaayen aims to have a million customers taking broadband access through asymmetrical digital subscriber lines (ADSL) on the BT network by mid-2003.
Last month BT said it would cut monthly charges to Internet service providers (ISPs) for a broadband connection to £14.75 from £30 (£25 Wires-Only), starting 1st April 2002. ISPs then cut retail monthly prices to below £30 from roughly £40 to £50 before.
"Oftel's closure of its investigation means they can now confirm their price reductions to their customers," said David Edmonds, director general of telecommunications. The confirmation nudged BT shares one penny higher to 285p in midday trade. |
Vispa Introduce 128Kbps Unmetered!
By:mark.j @ 10:00:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Vispa Internet has today become the latest ISP able to offer 128Kbps (Dual-Channel) ISDN in an unmetered form under FRIACO (their current 128Kbps offer uses BTSurftime). Full press release follows:
Vispa is pleased to officially launch Connect Anytime Plus (128k) allowing users to connect to the Internet at 128k for the groundbreaking monthly price of just £29.95pm This package is built using FRIACO and operated via the Energis network and not BTnet unlike so many average performing ISP's in the market place. Transit connectivity is provided by NTL via 2 x 34Mbps primary circuits and 1 x 34Mbps backup circuit into the heart of LINX, which gives us some of the finest performance for 'fixed rate' freecall services.
Connect Anytime Plus from Vispa finally brings 128k connections at consumer prices for the first time, something we know that both consumer and business markets will welcome with open arms. The uptake for ISDN services has grown greatly in recent months, especially for people outside DSL enabled areas, until now access via 'fixed rate' freecall has been limited to 64k, Vispa's Connect Anytime Plus is going to change all this and set the standard for others to follow.
Connect Anytime Plus is being operated at lower contentions than the vast majority of freecall services and this will very much remain with a fantastic 10:1 contention along with 2 hour cut offs to control network levels and service.
Users are also provided with unlimited email addresses, 15Mb free personal webspace, (which can host unlimited domain names if required) pre-installed CGI Scripts, Vispa Web Site checker, active community services, 14 channels of content, comprehensive webmail system and usenet access and a host of other features and options such as our Tucows mirror.
For further detailed information about Connect Anytime Plus click http://www.vispa.com/products-anytimeplus.php or email your questions to sales@vispa.net
No doubt many of our readers with ISDN will be pleased to see this considering that BTSurftime isn't favoured and other FRIACO based 128Kbps solutions (Pipex) can be quite expensive.
We'd expect any usage restrictions to follow the same patter as Vispa's £14.99 service considering that 128Kbps requires two 64Kbps channels and is thus twice the price at the same usage levels.
Rumours are also abundant that Fast24 will soon introduce a similar offer, we'll keep you posted. |
PlusNet Add DSL Traffic Management
By:mark.j @ 9:46:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Some of our readers have begun expressing concern following the publication of PlusNet’s latest service announcement, which is taken from the official PlusNet forum. Could this be the start of port throttling, often seen as a ‘stealth’ restriction?:
PlusNet Implement DSL Traffic Management
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Following the announcements made in recent Press Releases regarding our Network Management Strategy, and commitment to quality, we have implemented traffic management on our ADSL network.
This measure has been taken to preserve the quality of service for "priority traffic" during peak hours, which means that web browsing, email, IRC and Games performance will be maximised throughout.
Traffic prioritisation is designed so that latency dependant applications, such as IRC and games, get the highest priority, while file sharing applications, such as Morpheous and Edonkey get a lower priority.
Users may find that file sharing applications perform best during the hours of 2am - 8am, when all traffic has equal priority.
As soon as BT announced the price drops for Self-Install, we ordered an increase in our ADSL supply capacity from BT, even though our current usage of the ADSL service is well within BT's design. More details about our improved ADSL supply will be announced soon.
Regards,
PlusNet Customer Support.
Is it really so unrealistic to expect such a move given the often tediously low price point some ISPs are placing their residential broadband services at? |
Tiscali Reports Sharp Losses
By:mark.j @ 9:28:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] The latest major ISP to report serious financial problems is Tiscali, a name many will no doubt loathe due to their continuing service problems:
Tiscali's board characterises 2001 as a crucial year for the company, which saw it integrate its acquisitions, increase market share and consolidate its client base. The introduction of centralised management and a single network infrastructure has generated "considerable synergies and economies of scale", the company says.
Tiscalis claims it is the market leader for Internet acccess in Europe, with a "considerable" presence in all major markets and 16 per cent of retail users - 7.3m - on its books. This aggregates to 10.4bn minutes of Internet traffic in Q4, 2001. Which is nice. It sounds like an awful lot of minutes too, but it kinda needs some comparison with - say - Wanadoo and AOL Europe - to make this meaningful.
The Register's item could bring hope to those still stuck with an often diabolically bad ISP service, of course that's only if they finally do make a profit during 2002 and then go on to invest in improvements. |
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